8-13-2024 WCSD Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees

all right everyone thanks so much for being here it is 2 207 p.m. and I'd like to call to order this waso County School District Board of Trustees regular meeting on August 13 2024 clerk Rodriguez can you please do roll call yes mam president uh vice president Mayberry I'm here trusty nicholet good afternoon I am here president Smith here trusty Westlake here trusty Woodley here and I believe trusty church is abs and our new student representative Annie mam President we got War thank you and welcome to Annie bavia our new student trustee representing um all of our student voice participants uh she's a senior at McQueen high school and more on Annie in the future and then as she's willing to share all right everyone that closes item 1.02 and brings us now to item 1.03 so this person who will be leading Us in the pledge in a moment is our new Deputy superent which is a role that we're very excited uh to have with us she is a lifelong resident of waso County and she's been an educator in our district for over 25 years she began as a teacher at Pine Middle School and then moved up to being an assistant principal a dean and a principal at westergard elementary school trainer middle school and a act high school before becoming an area is superintendent um also now known as associate Chief she loves spending time at Lake Almanor she cares so much about this community she's a very optimistic person and she absolutely represents the bright light of leadership here in the Washo County School District so it is a great honor to welcome recognize and celebrate our new Deputy superintendent Tiffany McMaster America to the for it stands indivisible andice for all thank you so much and I'd also like to just share a a small story about um Deputy superintendent McMaster it was recently the very first day of school and one of the spotlight schools was trainer middle school and you may have just heard in the overview that um Deputy superintendent McMaster was the principal at trainer Middle School well we were welcoming one of our new principles there that day Lucy Dugan and you should know full circle that Lucy was a middle school student of Deputy superintendent McMaster and she is now the principal of that same school I share that story as a way to close out out and to honor Deputy superintendent McMaster and to also show the value of growing our own and the depth that you have provided to our district to this point so thank you so much all right that closes item 1.03 and brings us now to 1.04 our land acknowledgement every Community owes its existence and vitality to Generations from around the world who contributed their hopes dreams and energy to making the history that led to this moment some were brought here against their will some were drawn to leave their distant homes in the hope of a better life and some have lived on this land for more Generations than can be counted truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of Heritage and difference We Begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth we acknowledge that some of our educational structures are situated in the traditional homelands of the wasu Washo NMU Northern pyute niwi Western shishoni and new Wu Southern pyute peoples we pay respect to their Elders past and present these lands continue to be a Gathering Place for indigenous peoples and we recognize their deep connections to these places we extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn in their territory thank you so that closes item 1.04 and section two in its entirety and brings us now to section two our consent agenda items and today we have items 2.02 to 2.17 um I am not aware of any trustee looking to pull any items nor do I see any lights on at the moment so JJ do we have any public comment for items 2.02 to 2.17 Valerie f a for items 2.08 and 2.15 thank you very much and welcome Miss fanaka thank you it's been a long time um on 2.08 I feel like this room is wholly inadequate U many times to meet the needs of the public but I'm sure that is the intent as is the timing of this meeting um I was not present but watched Pastor Amon chuku's podcast where he was featured where he featured what went on at that meeting and and he did not paint a pretty picture I'm hoping you all go online and watch yourselves and um it wasn't great um I've been coming here for years when at times we had to place speakers out on the front lawn so the public could hear what was going on in this room because even the Overflow didn't handle the capacity and many of you were here for that so you can't say you don't know what what didn't happen in the past um I would beseech you to reconsider the decision or perhaps find a permanent alternate location and time for this meeting it might encourage more parents to come and tell you what they're thinking uh on 2.15 as I've said before this is your responsibility and gives you plausible deniability if you pass it off to employees of the district all all you are necessary for all you're necessary for anymore is a rubber stamp on spending and I mean that sincerely if you pass off the responsibility of of writing policy for this District all it does is give you plausible deniability and that's bad well I didn't write that I didn't write that that policy and that's bad we're in times where that's bad you all need to take responsibility for those those rules and regulations that are written and those policies thank you thank you very much Miss fanaka um I do want to clarify for the record that only a majority vote of the board can actually pass any policies that's all I have all right well thank you so much so I'll bring it back to this body uh seeing no lights on I'll be looking for a motion to approve consent agenda items 2.02 to 2.17 uh thank you madam president Alice will for the record I move that the Board of Trustees approves consent agenda items 2.02 through 2.17 yeah I'll second it that all right seeing Oh I do see a light on yeah I just want to kind of a comment so um it's not abnormal because I know maining law enforcement and other agencies um actually do resource out um policy writing U from a standpoint it does need to be V in review by the agency so this is nothing that is uncommon is a very common practice all right thank you for that seeing no lights on I have a motion by trusty Woodley seconded by vice president Mayberry all those in favor please say I I all those oppose nay all right motion carry 6 to zero thank you very much colleagues that now closes section two in its enre priority and moves us on now to section three these are our items for presentation discussion information and or action and we open now with item 3.1 uh I'm sorry 3. yeah 01 presentation discussion and possible action to approve the waso County School District's Bill draft request for the 2025 Nevada legislative session as Allowed by Nevada revised Statute 218d .205 to amend Nevada revised statutes chapter 391 related to improving access to qualified Personnel for school districts this is an item for possible action and we welcome in front of us principal at pinion public affairs Dylan shaver and I also believe somewhere potentially as backup oh yes I see him right back there our Chief Human Resources officer Doug Owen all right thank you so much Mr shaver take it away thank you so much Madame President members of the board uh Dylan shaver for your record uh pleased to be here today to present to you uh what I am calling the Excellence in every hire act uh so just as a a quick uh uh recap uh today we're going to talk about the direction you gave us previously recommendations that came out of interactions with staff we'll preview sort of what your options are today and then I'll give you sort of a sense of what will happen after this meeting uh as we termed it and and I'm the first to admit my mistakes you know we we phrased this going into your last meeting as improving access to qualified personnel and in my conversations with your excellent HR Team part of the uh pleasure of putting this together with you is I got to uh interface with Mr Owen for the first time and he and I can sit around and talk about strategic planning for a couple of hours uh uh and uh uh I think I overstayed my my time in his office by about 45 minutes but between him and his team it became clear we're not looking for access to qualified Personnel what we want is to make it easier for excellent Personnel to come work here and so I uh we're going to talk about this as hiring Excellence uh and to achieve that we're looking for barriers that exist in NRS to that process we want to make it as flexible as possible for for those excellent Personnel uh who might need an extra credential or license to come in and work to to start work while they pursue that and to put Faith in the HR structures that you have built as a district uh to make sure that we're getting the very best people uh you just approved in your consent agenda I believe declaring or purs a number of critical positions as sort of emergency vacancies we know that this is an issue and it's something that most school districts have to do every once in a while uh and so we believe that a measure like this should it pass uh will sort of help keep us out of that position now the hiring rules in Nevada uh r large may not change but as it relates to certain critical openings that we'll talk about here uh uh we want to make sure that that there's as much flexibility as as possible and that that dives into a lot of little tiny pieces of NRS primarily uh as it relates to uh uh the uh NRS chapter 391 which dictates sort of the rules for hiring people into schools there are a lot of technical POS positions for example like uh a school nurse or a school social worker where you can be licensed in your trade to work with children and have cleared all of the necessary background checks but you have to go to nde and get additional certification before you can start work at the school district you know this uh request says to the legislature hey let's examine if that's absolutely necessary is there another way to do it uh the proposal on the table is perhaps we would allow them to start work concurrently give them a certain amount of time to complete their uh uh lure with nde and meanwhile they are getting the experience they need to work with us uh it talks uh we discuss creating a system of reciprocal lure between the states there's a handful of States right now that offer reciprocal lure and I uh uh this is something that we we've seen across trades in the states uh where we give other states credits for their uh for their internal lure process so long as it meets standards that are still established by the Department of Education or whatever relevant department whether it's the State Board of Nursing or somebody else long as it meets those standards you may come here and work we will grant you a provisional license and then let's examine what your uh you know if there's deficiencies under the Nevada law and how how to bridge those gaps Little Things to make it easier for the team to make sure that every position that we have is filled not because we found a good retiree we liked and we were able to entice them out of purs but instead because they are the right person with the right skills and the right fit for that classroom the same goes uh true for Mobility between K8 and secondary lur uh just making it a little easier for for teachers to flow through um uh this is sort of a fascinating area and and we touch on the the sub to certified process if you become a certified substitute uh you have to pay a a package of fees for that process if you then be want to become a a permanent teacher you have to go back and repay the fee uh there's got to be a differential window in there there will be fiscal impact to the state let's not be naive those bills always make things a little bit harder but for our purposes what we are trying to do is position the school district to not to be a leader on this discussion and to put as much into this one request as we can uh uh to really solve the whole problem rather than just part of it this is similar to sort of the work we did on wc1 some of you may recall my involvement with that we uh had several budget options several holes that could be filled but they decided let's propose to the voters that we solve the whole thing and we're sort of taking a similar approach here uh there is a a question as well around regulatory certainty for the way we certify C Educators Career and Technical Educators uh that is currently in the middle of a regulatory process uh that uh frankly my staff and I are really trying to get to the bottom of and and draw a picture of where that might go so we're not as specific around that but we believe with your motion and action today that that we can sort of make that proposal to LCB and then work it out in the drafting process uh the proposal uh uh before you uh is really the law requires for you to hear the concept of the bill the district would would introduce in a public forum uh we have requested sort of direction that the El that the superintendent direct me to fill out some paperwork and send it in uh and uh that is of course a a an option before you right staff recommendation like anything else the uh another option might be maybe I didn't cover something in here that you specifically would like included you think that that we're not going to get to it sort of in our normal course of doing business you can add that maybe there's something in here you didn't like you can say hey I didn't like that CTE thing don't worry about that uh that is of course your option in a a motion uh you can reject this and ask for something else entirely I'm not recommending this but it is an option you have today and I wanted to preview for you that should that be your action we have to submit everything on our end to the legislative lawyers by September 1 so you've got sort of very tight time frame that we're left with here um and then of course you can uh not submit a bill draft at all so what happens next well there's a form we fill out some paperwork uh and it's pretty it allows us to be pretty Broad in uh in discussing uh uh the topic is outlined for you today uh once that is submitted and actually really since your last Direction we've reached out to uh the the stakeholders who are at this particular table in particular um you know the the uh Department of Education the your your bargaining units on the labor side of things just to make sure that we have as broad a picture of of the problem and potential solutions to that problem as is possible and to make sure that we are uh uh approaching this sort of effort with with our whole selves from there we would once everything's submitted we would work with the legislative attorneys to craft language I want to be very clear uh there are a lot of outside entities situated the same as we are every uh Incorporated municipality every County every school district submits uh a one or even more than one bill draft to the legislative Council Bureau uh and they do that on the first and and those all those bills must be filed sort of they call it pre-filing uh with the clerks of the appropriate house by November 20th that does not leave the legislative attorneys uh a ton of time so when I say work with lcb2 craft language there will be a couple of emails maybe one phone call but in my experience with uh introducing these sorts of bills in the past uh we do not get a a very long Runway between seeing their proposed language for what we want to do and having to introduce that bill uh and I I include that sort of as a note here uh you know I've been in the position where literally 3 days prior to that pre-filing deadline we've had the opportunity to review a bill uh and I just have had to make the determination so what would happen is I get the language back sh it by the superintendent and some folks on the leadership team uh if there is time uh in an Ideal World we would make sure that it fulfilled your intent but more realistically uh you would it's unlikely you'd even have a board meeting from the time we got the language back and the time we had to submit it and I just want to be very open uh with you all about that uh but a bill as you know is introduced is not chiseled into stone and must pass in that form we have the opportunity to draft amendments coming from our own uh uh legal team and our experts in case they didn't get some wording just right or based on feedback that we get from some of these other stakeholders um the uh we we could address those sort of via Amendment or frankly via the legislative process generally we are not acting in a vacuum here right we are not the only I did a quick perusal of bills that have been requested nothing touches this so far but we are uh we have the opportunity to sort of look at the totality of all measures that are introduced to the legislature and and make a determination from there uh with that uh I am happy to answer any questions you may have take take your feedback uh tell a couple of uh mediocre jokes though Mr Church isn't here to to praise me for them so I might hold off this time I appreciate that um one thing and then I'm going to go to trusty Woodley and then vice president Mayberry just as a reminder to my colleagues and to the public this is a completely separate process compared to our legislative platform so the bill draft request is a completely separate vehicle to see change happen on a state level and uh it doesn't preclude us from having any other number of additional topics in our legislative platform we will begin that process very very soon but this is separate from it um I will say personally I think that this is a meaty and important topic it looks like there's already a lot here um but now I'll go to trusty Woodley and then vice president Mayberry uh thank you madam president uh thank you Mr shabber for for this um um presentation I have a question um excellence in every hire act um how' you come up with that title uh I appreciate the question Mr Woodley again Dylan shaver for the the the record I I think I mentioned spending time with your team and thinking about the way we uh the way we recruit people into this organization and our goals for both uh the culture in the organization and in the classroom and I think that uh adding a little bit of excitement and focusing on those goals when we start talking about bills like this we know it's not access to qualified Personnel uh what we want is to make sure that that our team as they can to bring excellent people in and that's sort of the language I I I settled on uh I wanted to make sure that we centered on that focus of Excellence though because frankly I know you would not accept anything less well I really appreciate and I know we all do and and thank you for that because what I really like is that it sends the message that we're not seeking to lower any standards that's right we want Excellence we're just asking to remove barriers so um thank you very much this was a great presentation and I like all these the provisional lure the the reciprocal lure that's important that's very important and you're right they do have them in other states um and we have done it here before with nursing uh during covid there was uh some changes that were made so that we can actually get nurses in this state so thank you very much this is uh really good thank you thank you thank you madam president thank you thank you for your comments I I agree we this is really all about removing barriers thank you for your work one thing I didn't see in the PowerPoint although we've talked about it multiple times so I just don't want to um assume that it's not in there and that is sort of the focus on the the special ed piece and ensuring that you know generally that teachers uh that may want to become special ed teachers that those barriers are removed uh I was at the uh back to school Expo on Saturday was talking with uh our our staff at the HR table telling me that uh one of the challenges they have in hiring um special uh assistance and AIDS uh was that for that pay uh they have to jump through a lot of Hoops they have to take a test uh and so it's those kinds of barriers that I I hope we can we can address I'm talking a very high level here I'm not going to be I'm not going to pretend to be an expert but I would hope that that language can address this the special education um uh profession as well because that is we just approved a uh a critical needs item you know the special ed piece is is a real challenge for us in terms of of hiring and retaining staff and I I just want to hear from you that that that this does and will address uh special education Educators uh thank you for the question Mr Mayberry and for for pointing out my oversight I sometimes I'm over broad when I present to you and I I want to be a little more respectful for your time uh but but what I've done here is uh I've I've pulled up the the uh language from the request that we've been drafting for LCB and uh uh we have sections on social workers and counselors School nurses and then a very broad section on licensed educational Personnel that does include special education lure uh modify several sections of NRS 391 to all allow candidates pursue multiple specialty credentials simultaneously and allow for provisional licensure of personnel under the appropriate circumstances so we want to make sure that that we are casting as wide a net especially on that critical critical issue I think in the the staff report that we submitted to you I think that's our our second largest area of of vacancy right now uh Mr owens's behind me and can nod or shake his head one way or the other but it was a a huge area and we just know that's so so important good enough for me I just want to make get that on the record and we're on the same page thank you for your work yes sir thank you president Smith I don't really have anything else to add because our ESPN must be working trusty Mayberry because I was going to ask about the special ed to make sure that we get some help in that area to get make an easier path for personnel to be hired for those kiddos so thank thank you trusty Mayberry for getting to it thank you thank you good okay thank you welcome and uh you used the phrase casting a wide net which kind of led me to my question in and it might be premature I understand we're talking about us right now but we have 16 sister school districts in Nevada who have this same challenge it's a Statewide challenge what kind of process might you tomorrow or in the future uh pursue to get some some collective voice from other districts on on this very important um I guess issue well first bless you to Mr romardo uh and second uh uh with the new superintendent in place uh our relationship with wcsd has changed a little bit and superintendent erst has actually requested that that me and my team be more visible with with Nas and the other school districts in that in that way uh I uh the there's been a shakeup down at Clark County but I I've sent sort of the parameters of our proposal down uh down to them and we'll send it along to Mary and her team at at Nas and we'll send it over to uh uh I think Tom Clark is doing the work for at the school boards now and and so we can connect with him to to really go as broad as possible uh additionally like I mentioned there's you have collect collective bargaining units that are up there as well as frankly a handful of certified educational Personnel that that serve in the legislature and so the uh the best odds of success are going to be trying to get all those people on the same page it will be difficult but uh that is the the work we're here to do I I I think it can be difficult I also think with uh the superintendents alongside this challenge throughout the state it's very doable and yes it will be a lot of work but I I think this has a Statewide implication that's very strong thank you trustee nicholet um just to respond to the work that has been done through Nas and with our other superintendant I think there's a lot of momentum and ition around this topic and Universal agreement around the importance and so I do see a lot of our school districts all banding together in recognition of how this meets a Statewide concern thank you madam president one thing too I I've been on the fence of U sharing because I I just don't know if it's a big enough uplift and that's that's probably a poor decision on my part uh teacher interns you know those that are entering the field they have to teach for what a period of six months before they're even paid is that is that right superintendent so I'm I'm just wondering if this bill draft request can address that eliminate that barrier and provide some funding or is that do you think maybe a bridge too far uh given the the revenue piece because it I got to believe there's a lot of folks that don't that don't want to sacrifice six months of their of their time on this Earth working for free somebody has arrived to bail me out I will say before Katie Louise speak I'm Sorry Miss Weir speaks uh uh that yeah I was with you up until the funding part uh but but she can speak from here that's okay I think we have a phone of friend happening here it's uh Dr Weir yes welcome Dr Weir appearing before this body and our community in her new position um within our HR department and then also as a doctor having recently received her PhD yes thank you president Smith thank you uh good afternoon uh vice president Mayberry uh Katie Louise we for the record we do have paid internship opportunities right now but it's not available to every single student teacher um so certainly something we can talk about if there are changes and other expectations as far as bringing people in there are identified funding sources right now for paid internships it's just not every single student teaching experience some universities don't allow for the paid uh internship opportunity that's a part of their um process as a as an accredited uh University but many do and many more are starting to encourage that opportunity if school districts are able to uh allocate resources and funding for that so to answer your question that that opportunity already exists to some degree within our district um but not for every single student teacher is is UNR do if you're going through their program do do uh do they pay you for your teacher internship only if they're filling a vacancy for us okay so uh they're paid for their internship if they're filling a teaching vacancy as a paid intern I think this is a fascinating topic probably not for this so uh we're we're within the the agenda item but I want to make sure that we don't go outside of it but I'm very intrigued by this um and something that um Dylan has brought up to us before is that if there are NRS changes we need outside of the wonderful ideas we've had so far we know that there are other legislators who are reserving bills for Education needs and so there's also other vehicles for this but I'm very very interested in this topic and then also curious about um a difference in partnership with looking at things because I personally wish that they wouldn't have to be filling a role like them learning is filling a role but we can definitely explore that and I'm really glad you brought that up I'm going to go to trusty weslake and then we're going to go to public comment since this is an item for uh potential action thank you so much Dr Weir thank you president Smith oh Miss Katie Lise maybe you can well no that's okay no that cuz I was actually I was just going to say you know if we can't do this through the legisl process maybe just as a board we can keep this at the top of our you know vision for future budgets so that we could make that lift to gain these employees into our district especially for the critically needed areas like our sped our special ed and things like that maybe I mean it's got to fall under one of our pillars of Excellence for our um what we're trying to achieve here yeah and it seems like there's I'm seeing a lot of interest in this um although it sounds like from what Dr we said that there um there may need to be some understandings with the educational institutions and the rules they have around it but I like the fact that this was raised and very much appreciate that and it I can already see the wheels turn um on that note JJ do we have any public comment on this item I have no cards for this item all right I will bring it back here if anyone would like to share anything else on this um just want to thank you m pres um just kind of Piggyback in more on the casting a wi net on reciprocity uh one thing that um I know you're seeing or think about a lot of other positions working closely with our staff but I also do we like to see about exploring U reciprocity or some sort of provisional license which I know would take an act of legislature to do is to look at uh easing on the restrictions for law enforcement officers that may want to come to Nevada uh especially with with our school police um Clark County School police which it's one of our largest law enforcement agencies in Nevada or actually in our country um so something to look at as well especially it's becoming harder and harder to recruit officers so maybe those coming out of another state retired one maybe another the retirement might be an option as well as as presented today I think I would be comfortable talking to Chief Moore and uh seeing what that could look like and if there's a way to make it fit in I think with the motion in front or that is not yet in front of you I I I think we could probably include that uh depending on how broad it went of course I was just going to make a motion okay then I will in one moment uh what I do want to add is that I like the work that's happened here I'm very very grateful we started with a lot of great ideas I love where we landed and so my validation for that is that no one so far that we know of has brought this up um we feel confident that there could be interest and ideally support from a lot of different districts and entities within the state and I know that we wanted to use this one shot as well as we could and hopefully enact change that benefits public education in our entire State this meets it for um all of those areas for me so I want to say thank you for that if I may um I well I'd like to say thank you as well the the I've been in this business for a while and I long enough to say with certainty that uh a the most difficult client is a client that does not know what they want uh out of the legislative process that that's a very challenging uh uh situation uh uh Mr Woodley and I have worked on that previously in a separate capacity but I uh from the uh the moment he took the Reigns super the superintendent had a sort of Clear Vision of uh where he thought our options were where he could drive that the the process the the team over an HR uh from from Mr Owen all all and down uh have been fantastically supportive and so I'm hearing a lot of thank yous up here uh and I what I did was put together a staff report and sit here today and so uh I just wanted to make sure that that credit uh went where where it belongs and I wanted to say thank you as a client for being sort of so clear and easy to work with on this issue on the motion do I need to include what trustee Rodriguez said about the reciprocity we're good there okay I move that the Board of Trustees approves the proposed Bill draft request for the wasel county school district for the 2025 Nevada legislative session to amend Nevada revised statutes chapter 391 related related to providing improve sorry related to improving access to qualified Personnel for school districts in Nevada second all right I have a motion by trusty Westlake seconded by Tristy nicholet um trusty Woodley you were quite the gentleman there because I saw your lights on before um but very excited about this um seeing no lights on that I think are not around discussion for this item um all those in favor please say I all those oppose nay all right motion carries six to zero great teamwork everyone I am really excited to see where this goes thank you so much for the work pinion has done Mr shaver and superintendent Ernst and the whole team behind it so hopefully we can drive some positive change in Nevada thank you all right so that closes item 3.01 and we will move on now to an exciting item um 3.02 this is the presentation of New School principles for the 20242 school year to the Board of Trustees and Community this is an item for presentation only and we have a rockstar lineup do I do I get to welcome everybody all right I'm going to go for it we have our chief Communications and Community engagement officer Michelle Anderson we have our lead associate chief of secondary education Lauren Ford our lead associate chief for elementary education Dr Mike Paul we have our associate chief for elementary education Don ignot we have our associate chief for secondary education Melinda Baker maybe no oh she's in okay so she's in the building and we have our associate chief for elementary education Sarah Cunningham our associate chief for elementary education Denise trrain welcome and our new associate chief for secondary education new to this role for the first time in front of this board Chris hack Bush all right take it away thank you all right good afternoon president Smith superintendent Ern and Ernst and Board of Trustees I am Mike Paul um Elementary associate Chief I am very happy to be able to introduce this item um today 3.02 introduction of new principles and our our amazing team of associate Chiefs are going to help with this item it for sure um it is introducing our new and new to building principles that we have on this list so it is 10 of 10 new and new to building principles this year and we have them in a presentation that you're going to be able to see their pictures and their pictures of their schools today so um and then we have uh Michelle Anderson with us as well that she's going to have a piece at the end also after we get done introducing our 10 new principles to you this year so with that we will go ahead and we are each of are going to take turns introducing the principles that we supervise in our areas oh I guess I get to control the presentation so okay so we're going to start with our elementary schools good afternoon I'm excited and very very thrilled to announce John Stern new principal at George westergard Elementary School I'm excited to introduce Gina Miller the new principal at Alice Smith Elementary School next we have Joe pizar who is returning to wasel County School District and now is serving the principal at Roger corvit Elementary at Alice Maxwell Elementary School we have Colleen winter and a familiar face we have Gina Curtis who has served as Prin principal in various roles actually in wasel County um is back with us as the principal incleine Elementary School on to our middle schools okay we've got Kevin Arnold at billinghurst middle school and also mine Lucy Dugan at trainer middle school and we have Ian Gilbert the new principal of Swope Middle School to our high schools and we have Mr Jason maddo who'll be new to um a act this school year and last but not least and we have Mr Mike Nakashima principal of Reno High School okay and so there are our 10 new and new to building administrators principles for us this year hello trustees and superintendent erns so we decided to do something a little bit different this year instead of bringing in all the students and staff we know that's a lot especially on the second day uh we have a nice video um and it was highlighting what everybody is excited for we met with students family staff and principles to highlight what they're uh excited for for the upcoming school [Music] year I think for the new girl I'm uh looking forward to like new friends new experiences lots of new things my new teacher I like how she teaches us because she's like saying it nicely I really like my friends and teachers I'm excited to see her grow and this new environment she started Middle School I'm excited for Michelle's class so we're looking forward to welcoming in our brand new students especially our incoming sixth graders it's always just a brand new opportunity for students coming into a really new school from elementary to Middle School having fun and like helping other people learning more math spending time with my friends and stuff the most exciting thing for me is this amazing opportunity to create a truly loving supportive place for our students who need it most I'm excited that I'm going to get more students this year trying new things like getting harder classes and like meeting new people knowing that I pushed myself hard during the summer to be able to enjoy my school year I just got a new basketball shoe so can't wear the wor I'm looking for him to have a bigger community of friends and teachers more than one teacher he's going to do a for band we both in band I think I want to play a trombone I'm going to do trumpet seeing them grow and progress in their education I don't know what to expect it's a new year and I'm heading to middle school now I hope that everything goes well and I'm going to try my best yes new field trips and I really want new decimals excited to go back to school and like do everything I feel like it's going to be a good year it's going to be fun I am looking forward to first and foremost having our students back I know our staff has been preparing all summer long I think we've got a lot of positive momentum that we can build on and just capitalizing on that momentum and making sure that we're helping meet the needs of every one of our students [Music] such an exciting time and I think our students really captured um the opportunities for this school year so we look forward to welcoming our incline students next week and our new kindergarteners so thank you this is so wonderful I love this and I I was the kind of kid that got excited about decimals too so um this definitely speaks to my heart so congratulations to our 10 new and new to building principles what I love about this process is also getting to see the grow your own approach with so many of our leaders coming in coming back and then also of course people that are new to our district because we always need those new ideas and that new experience as well so super excited for them and really love the video I think that this is really heartwarming and very exciting and so thank you there's a lot to be excited about this year and great things that have already happened even through today too um did you have well I was just going to say one closing comment was that I wanted to say is it's been such a great smooth start to the year that I have heard from multiple principles that it would it has been such a smooth start it feels like we never left from last year so that has been a great Testament to all the teamwork that everybody in our district has put in to make it a great opening of the school year so thank you everyone well and I think my kids can agree that it seems like summer was just a snap anyways so I think a lot of people would agree with that superintendent Ernst thank you president Smith uh I wanted to say thanks to the associate Chiefs to Chief Communications officer Anderson uh the whole team in terms of all of us preparing for for our school year uh it's exciting to see our new principles we had a chance to visit some of them yesterday and you can just see and feel the energy and momentum that we have in the school district I think there's a lot of excitement right now and I just wanted to say thanks to the team I can tell you as a former principal to have the gift of being able to stay at your building on the second day of school there's really a lot of advantage to that in terms of all the things that you can accomplish for for the year ahead and so we appreciate the the video it was nice to see the kids and just uh excited about what's in front of us for this year great all right well thank you so much for this we appreciate it and I love this approach personally going forward thank you so much all right that closes item 3.02 and now we will move on to item 3.03 this is the presentation discussion and possible action to approve the recommendation of the group Insurance committee for a 1.30% increase for health insurance rates and an increase to the qualified High deductible Health Plan individual deductible from $3,200 to $3,300 for the 2025 plan year this is an item for possible action and we have for the first time in her new role formally our benefits manager McKenzie Howen from our HR department good afternoon McKenzie Howen for the record we're going to shift gears I know you all have to wear lots of different hats but I think with whatever hat we put on we can all ground ourselves in our wcsd promise so we will know every student by name strength and need so they graduate prepared for the future they choose and we will deliver on this promise in partnership with our families and Community I feel grateful to be able to focus on the first word of our promise the Wii in HR we have the opportunity to focus on our employees so they are prepared to carry out this promise so as a quick snapshot to what our health insurance program looks like right now we have just under 6,400 total active employees on our plan we have 745 retirees of that total of active employees and retirees we have 2,221 of them with dependents which means we have a total of 4,376 total dependence all of that adds up to 11517 lives covered on our wcsd health insurance plan I want to jump in I love the way you framed that because it's so important to consider benefits and insurance as lives that we are protecting and covering so I love that perspective every year I think it's important for us to revisit the idea of what it means to be self-insured or self-funded you can use those terms interchangeably and so every month our district and our member paid premiums are deposited into our health insurance fund and so remember I like to think of our health insurance fund as our savings account and so every every month are contributions that are given by wcsd because we pay for our employees in full and then any deduction that we take from our employees paychecks for their dependence are also added to that Health Insurance Fund that savings account once that money is uh deposited into that Health Insurance Fund anytime any of our members or their dependants go out and utilize their health insurance the claims that they use we pay for out of that Health Insurance Fund right we pay for those claims until we reach that 425,000 Mark if a claim reaches that uh that cost that's when our stoploss insurance kicks in and a different vendor will pay out past that but it's important to remember that we pay out of that Health Insurance Fund any claim up to $425,000 so every year it's important for us to work in partnership with our broker and consultant and our business department to look at how much resp spending out of that Health Insurance Fund and what the revenue going into that Health Insurance Fund looks like when we look at that we have to discuss discuss if it's important or necessary for us to make a rate increase so we can increase the revenue into that fund or if we need to make a benefit change which would decrease the spend out of that fund right so in those conversations it was determined that this upcoming year starting January 1st to 2 we would need a 2.57 premium rate increase to cover the costs coming out of our health insurance fund we brought this recommendation to our group Insurance committee we brought this in May and July and our I commend our group Insurance committee for the thorough discussion that they have every time we bring a rate increase to them based on their discussion they've concluded that they would propose a 1.3% rate increase and um McKenzie can we stay on that go back to that so um just to clarify if I'm doing my math overall we're going to need 2.57 the committee recommended um that we increase so in other words pass along um 1.3% of that cost which means that the district will be funding 1.27% of that cost no so they're actually recommending that we don't go with 2.5 that we only go with 1.3% okay so that would be the increase for both the district and the member very good and can you also remind the board and the public who sits on this group Insurance committee um and who are they the role they play and um I think it's very important for everyone to know that a lot of voices have already been heard before this comes to our body yeah so our group Insurance committee is an is an advisory committee that follows all open meeting laws and it's made up of all of our unions so there is a union representation on our group and insurance committee from all of the unions that we work with and I think it's important to note too we have representation from our retirees as well so we get voices from everyone in our district okay and so with that we have decided to move forward with the group Insurance committee's recommendation of a 1.3% premium rate increase and in add addition to keep us in compliance with the IRS we are recommending that we increase our individual deductible from 3200 to 3300 well I certainly do not want to anger the IRS yeah yeah we recommend that one uh seeing no lights on for questions JJ do we have public comment on this item I have no cards for this item all right I'll bring it back here for questions or potentially for the motion as laid out for item 3.03 thank you manam president Alex Woodley I move that the Board of Trustees approves the recommendation of the group Insurance Committee of a 1.30 increase for health insurance rates and an increase to the qualified High deductible Health Plan individual deductible from $3200 to $3,300 for the 2025 plan year I will second all right we have a motion by trusty Woodley seconded by trusty nicholet and seeing no lights on for discussion on the motion all those in favor please say I I all those oppose nay all right motion C is 6 to zero great job McKenzie and congratulations on your promotion all right team that closes item 3.03 and we move on now to item 3.04 this is the presentation discussion and possible action to approve the 2024 20225 a major projects for design phase funding for the rebuild of echol loader Elementary School construction phase funding for a new Elementary School in the silver dollar area of stead and construction phase funding for phase three of ghetto Transportation yard rebuild for a total amount of 6,358 259 as recommended by the capital funding protection committee this is an item for possible action and we have in front of us our chief Facilities Management officer Tammy Zimmerman thank you president Smith I'm happy to be here to present the 2024 2025 a major projects program so we'll first start off with the stad area elementary school construction or design phase funding was approved for this this is construction phase funding it is going to model our elementary school prototypes which is similar to pulas but we're going to add two additional classrooms to help take on the projected enrollment that we have out there at this in the stad area this will go to zoning in the fall so we will see possibly some zoning changes with that um but we're adding a couple classrooms on just to make sure we have enough capacity it is a side adapt for the property that we own out there in what we'd call the silver dollar development so this is a rendering of what colors we've chosen for the exterior so it'll look very very similar to this the fun request I want to show you some past projects we do a thirdparty estimate with Cummings group for this so we have a pretty good idea with some contingencies built on there if you'll see the last one we bid was jwood raw which was in 2021 so it's 2024 so it's going to be a little bit more expensive we have added some contingencies on there but those are our typical buckets of construction Professional Services and FF for 53.2 or 52.3 million the schedule we're anticipating putting that out to bid in September awarding in October of this year and construction starting in November so we can get ahead of of the winter in that we anticipate substantial completion completion in May of 2026 with an opening in August of 2026 for that school the next one I want to talk about is echol loader Elementary School it's an on-site construction this is for design funding for this we did a conceptual design funding approval in February we did conceptual design on that soccer field that's to the east of the existing school we know it fits with the conceptual design that we have this is a adaption of our elementary design as well but we're going to add an additional four classrooms to this one to help make sure that we have enough capacity when we do some consolidations in that in that area this is a design funding request here are design funds that we we use that funding for services on the side which are architectural geotechnical roofing consultant Etc we also have historical design fees that you can see we typically give money back but this because it is larger we want to make sure that we have enough design phase funding to do all of that so that request is for $4 million we'll do design September 2024 through June we hard bid from June until August in 2025 and start construction in September we anticipate completion in May of 2027 with the building we'll open the school in August of 2027 and then we'll go back and we'll demolish the existing e echol loader and do the fields and be completed by December of 2027 Central Transportation is the next one this is construction funding request number two we've been to you guys and capital funding and we have received funding request number one of approval um we did put that out to bid we had some issues with the bid we determined it was in our best interest to cancel that so we canceled it and we're back to putting it back together as one project which is really nice to have one contractor on sign du and all of that so on the right hand side you'll see phase one and two which is fully funded in that initial request that we you guys have already approved phase three is on the left hand side that is where we would be putting the additional parking and demolish ing the existing building so this is kind of a tally for you phase one and two that's those are our estimates based off of what we know now and then phase three is an estimate from our third party consultant for the construction of that with Professional Services and FF so we've tallied all of that in the total right come up with a subtotal we put a contingency on there because we're going to be bidding it again and then we subtract the funding that you guys have already approved a 45.5 million to come up with $4 million request for that so we'd like to bid this in September after we get stad out of the way so we're not competing with ourselves construct construction starting in January by the time we we award that contract because we'll have to be back to the board to award that contract new building complete in April of 2026 and then phase three which is the bus parking would be October of 2026 with this new schedule we've been working with Transportation we've been doing Logistics so that's all planned so we'll be back to you guys for hopefully the Construction contract approval and December of 2024 this is our historic tally sheet for all of our major projects in the green is what we're asking for for today it's got all the totals on there um it's got all the check marks with what's completed and and total total committed and total used so for the 2024 2025 a major project program we're asking 6,350 8,259 be approved I think this is fantastic just as a point of clarification these are all funds uh through the wc1 ballot initiative is that correct there wc1 Bond programs Bond proceeds as well but they're all in the the CIP that was approved in April I think this is wonderful I mean this is exactly what the community asked for when they passed wc1 back in 2016 and personally um as the trustee overseeing echol loader and I'd love to hear from our board members that also oversee the stad area the fact that we're now moving into a chapter where we're focusing on established schools and neighborhoods that exist in elevating their learning environment is absolutely fantastic I'm so glad to see that and really really excited for all of these um groundbreakings and ribbon cuting to come uh trusty Westlake thank you president Smith I might be getting too nitty-gritty here Tammy but so we're adding to class rooms for the stad and for for the other school are those rooms taking into account prek classrooms because I know we're trying to build our prek program and um if so that should probably be enough if they're already in the tally but if not and we're thinking the area is going to grow that's going to mean maybe hopefully more little kiddos that if we do a pre there we would need the rooms all of our enrollment projections and what we thought about through this include prek awesome thank you I love it all right oh I will I will go to vice president Mayberry and trusty Woodley and then we'll go to public comment thank you madam president yeah I mean it it really can not um turn down new schools um so this is good stuff I'm curious about this this stat if you can just bring some clarity to the silver dollar area um and even that the Leo the echol loader redesign um all consistent with the recent facility modernization plan can you just bring some clarity on how that fits into that puzzle so that's correct those are brinked in that facility modernization plan stead is the number one Elementary School out of that and then Echo echol loader is the next one so we're following the plan that we have set up the team has that road map and is is sticking to it and that's a great point because when we did the facilities modernization plan and the facilities team recommended that we do such a thorough approach we always told this board and the community we will come back with every single project to make sure that it's done and this is exactly what we're doing so I appreciate that promise is made promise is kept trusty Woodley uh thank you madam president um I just want to state I'm really happy to see uh echol loader um in my daytime job we identify certain neighborhoods and we put a lot of resources there we do actual walks in the neighborhood in Yori Park and Yori uh that street that area we were there recently and um I was very excited to share with my colleagues that the school will be rebuilt so um I'm happy to see us make that investment in that neighborhood and in the demic for the demographics that live in that neighborhood and for the kids so um this is a really good thing I really feel excited and very positive and happy to vote on this thank you thank you very much all right JJ do we have any public comment on this item I have no cards for this item all right I'll bring it back to this body for additional questions or a motion clerk Rodriguez oh thank you mam president um I do want to make EST St that I'm very happy to see how far we've come and all the work that was taking place in the community involvment and especially for the stad area I know that's a community that often feels under heard and underrepresented um and I see that we're committed in that area especially the new O'Brien Middle School the Michael L keep and these schools um coming as well so uh with that I am happy to make a motion I move that the Board of Trustees approves the 2024 2025 a major project projects program in the amount of 6,358 259 for the projects throughout the district as recommended by the capital funding protection committee second that all right we have a motion by clerk Rodriguez and a second by vice president Maybury seeing no lights on all those in favor please say I I all those oppose nay all right motion carries six to zero thank you so much colleagues we're doing great all right team so we are down to one additional item here in section three and I do expect that this will be a substantive conversation so I am going to go ahead now at 3:13 p.m. I will call a recess and we will rejoin around 3:30 p.m. thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right everyone all right let's get ready to go it is 3:35 p.m. on Tuesday August 13th 2024 and I would like to call back to order this regular meeting of the waso County School District Board of Trustees we just closed item 3.04 prior to the recess and now we will open item 3.05 this is a presentation and discussion on current practices and programs for managing personal electronic devices in schools and classrooms in the wasow county school district a review of national Trends and perspectives related to personal electronic devices in schools and establishing clear districtwide expectations regarding personal electronic devices in schools this is an item for presentation and discussion only and we have presenting with us today our Deputy superintendent Tiffany McMaster and our associate Chief Chris hack Bush and I would also like to recognize and welcome that we have trusty Church Church joining us uh 3:36 p.m. we welcome you to the meeting and trusty church I will make sure to keep an eye out for any hands raised because this is going to be round robin style dialogue so on that note um as we go ahead and pull up the item for my colleagues this is a discussion uh one of the reasons why this is not for Action at the moment is because we need to start this discussion and we don't want to give the presumption um that we're ready to make decisions before we've had these conversations in public and also talked through all the ways that we want to make sure that we're pulling in all the voices from our communities our students and our staff I have noticed rightfully so that when things are immediately put on an agenda for Action the first question is but who have you talk to are you ready to make those decisions and on something as substantive as this we're going to make sure that we take a very thoughtful process with it um so for all my colleagues this is going to be an open dialogue doesn't mean we can't go back to SL doesn't mean we can't go back to something you've seen but we're going to be having a conversation as we go so I will actively be looking for lights let's get points of clarification let's share thoughts let's engage and let's show this community all the listening we've done and where it is we'd like it to go because this will continue to come back in Future items potentially for Action so I just want everybody to know that this is not the type of presentation where we wait all the way to the end I'm really looking for uh lights in dialogue as we go and so on that note our Deputy superintendent good afternoon Tiffany McMaster Deputy superintendent for the record thank you um superintendent Ernst president Smith members of the board of testies for having me today um before I begin um to uh talk about the management of person electronic devices I just want to take a moment to um recognize the collaborative effort that went into the presentation before for you today um as you can see Dr Paula Mara Chief student family supports Dr Trey Parks Chief academic officer Tracy Moore chief of police Michelle Anderson Chief Communications and Community engagement officer Adam cersi Chief Operating Officer and Dr Chris Turner Chief Information officer all weighed in on this presentation um put a lot of thought into um giving you a robust presentation as I know I know this is a topic that has um a lot of interest you'll have a lot of questions along the way um but we hope um that we've spent a lot of time anticipating some questions that you may have um so as questions come up if you um feel like there are things that might be addressed later on I encourage you to to jot down those those questions so we make sure that um no matter what point in the presentation that we can have a a thoughtful discussion with those at the end um and then we will have all of these Chiefs um available at the end of the presentation to answer questions that may be more in their whe house to to answer so with that we will begin um I just uh wanted to also acknowledge that um associate Chief hack Bush will be joining me a little bit later at the front as well as um some students and even a parents so we have that to look forward to so to begin um we want to just paint a picture of where we are as a nation and some um National perspective um obviously in the news and um throughout our nation there's been an increased focus on cell phone use by children um we know that misuse of devices could have a negative impact on student Behavior student learning um as well as some mental health impacts we're seeing this um emphasis in States Across the Nation districts across the state Nation schools Across the Nation and even at the national level um I wanted to just kind of highlight very broadly um some different perspectives that are taken throughout the nation some have moved forward with restrictions for all students some have moved forward with restrictions for only certain grade levels whether that be just for elementary middle high or a combination therein um some have moved forward with restrictions in the classroom the locker room and the bathrooms only some have done restrictions solely in the classroom some leave restrictions up to each individual school and there are many um districts that have chosen to have no restrictions for very thoughtful reasons as well um I will say that even when we say the word restrictions and as you'll see throughout this presentation um I have a quote there that talks a lot about nuances even in districts where there is a quote unquote ban there's a lot of nuance in terms of that word and what that means and how schools are addressing that so I'm going to be keep referring back to that term Nuance throughout this presentation because you'll see that there's a lot of nuance and and some terminology in the way things are implemented so to give us a frame of reference um some people are are um unaware that we do have an administrative regulation in place that's been in place since 2015 um it's administrative regulation 5810 about the use of personal electronic devices by students and prohibited conduct I'm just going to pause there for a minute because even though this was written back in 2015 and if we we think back that was when cell phone use was about 2third of the people in our nation had cell phones and now I would been sure to say it's 100% 90 99% quite a few so cell phone use throughout our nation has increased and become common place since this regulation was written and technology has advanced a lot since then so I think it was very forward thinking that when this regulation was written the term personal electronic devices was used rather than celf phones because it is a little bit broader than just cell phones um so I just wanted to highlight that um for example like we have smart watches now I don't think smart watches existed back when this regulation was written and there are other um forms of technology so there are a few things in the current regulation that I just wanted to highlight so that you made sure that you are all aware of what is currently our language um first electronic devices can be disruptive and interfere with student learning we called that out the regulation we knew this was a concern back in 2015 um also devices should not interfere with the instructional process so there was a big emphasis on the impact on instruction and throughout this presentation today I think you'll hear a lot of emphasis on the impact on student learning and instruction um the regulation outlines that teachers and administrators reserve the right to confiscate a student's electronic device if if it's interfering with curriculum instruction devices shall not be brought into the classroom during assessments that's always been really standard PR practice in terms of test security um during the school day and inside the classroom devices should be in the off position unless the devices are being used for instructional purposes and then lastly um I didn't detail it here but sanctions at various levels of offense are outlined within the regulation um one thing I want want to point out before I move on um although this was a very forward thinking regulation at the time there are some things that we've learned that I'll highlight later in the presentation that are possibly missing from this um some examples would be we um we didn't allow for some special circumstances um we don't mention anything about um use during emergency situations that's not mentioned in the regulation um so it it doesn't um doesn't h highlight everything that we found in practice since 2015 um so I'll be talking about that just a little bit later in the presentation thank you and uh Deputy superintendent I'd like to welcome our chief legal councel Neil romardo to join the conversation so that we can share with everyone and the public the role that admin regulations have how they're formed and at whose Direction they're created thank you president Smith so all administrative regulations are attached to a board policy this one is attached to student Behavior Uh was attached to student discipline but the regulation is the how it's How the superintendent is going to carry out the policies of the Board of Trustees and so this again is the how are we going to address personal electronic devices by our students and how they're going to be used um so it comes from the superintendent it does not go to the board but it does go through a 13-day review process process which we're not required to do by law but we've we've always done that we adopted it by policy so we do have a 13-day review process for the community to weigh in um the one thing I would just like to add before I move on um in light of some of those little um aspects that are not included in this regulation I think it um stands to reason that some um updating and possibly some training and refreshing um on the administrative regulation and is an order and some of that's already occurred which I'll be discussing later in the presentation so here's some current realities um people talk about well how does this impact student Behavior so just a couple of um talking points then I'll explain a little bit F further because I'm already aware of some questions that you may have so last school year 2324 there were 18 incidence of cyber bullying so cyber bullying is specific bullying that meets the NRS criteria that is attached to it being pretty much generated from um some type of Technology platform um to note um majority of those occur off campus or in other locations we find that that um that occurs at all three levels elementary middle and high school um with a larger majority happening at the middle school level and if you look back a year it's about the same number of incidents and I I know you're going to have some questions about um that in a minute but give me just a minute to finish the slide because I think I might clarify some things um this data can be a little bit limiting and not afford a full picture of our current realities um when you start looking at technology violations with 249 last year 424 the prior year so when we look at last year a majority of those technology violations occurred in the classroom a few in the hallways and some common areas um and the problem with technology violation occurred mostly between grades seven and 10 so I'm going to pause there and just um digest this a little bit I'm I'm sure you're thinking that seems like some pretty low numbers and and I think you're probably right and I think there's some possible reasons for that first of all this is Major behavior um data not minor behavior so when a teacher sees a cell phone in a classroom say hey not appropriate put that away that's a minor behavior that doesn't get documented as a major behavior um in fact I think sometimes that happens so just nonchalantly that the teacher may not even be recording it as a minor behavior it's just happening in the moment we got the um focus back on learning and by the time the teacher's back to their desk they forgot that it even happened um so there's lots of minor behaviors that may not even be recorded but this is only major um Behavior data I also um want to um talk about the coding now when a cell phone is used um in a way to instigate a fight perhaps and you've got people back and forth that are texting and and getting people angry at each other um an administrator would likely code that as instigating a fight um it may have started with some technology but really instigating a fight is the major discipline so that's how it would be coded um so it doesn't catch some of those nuances some other examples of how things that may be directly in directly related to cell phone use might be coded is insubordination hey you're not supposed to have your phone in this class CL room give me your phone and then the student and the teacher get into a power struggle and the phone gets taken away that that might be coded as insubordination because yes it was a technology violation but it it resulted in some insubordination um disrespect is another possibility it could be recoded as disregard of school rules um and then I already U mentioned it could be considered threats depending on what kinds of context was in those um text messages um another thing I want to just mention um that technology violations could also include the use of social media so that's not necessarily the technology itself but it's the internet platform and and how that's being used um but we did notice a decrease um in those technology violations by about 40% from the prior year which is had me a little bit curious so um I think later on in this presentation when we get to some school level um information we might be able to answer some of that for you um but definitely had me curious so yes this is the data I'm bringing forward to you but I fully acknowledge it may not paint the full picture because it's complex and multi-layered thank you president Smith um thank you Deputy superintendent um McMasters that you answered what I was going to say well what do you give us some examples of the technology violations but I just since you you said it I just want to make sure that kind of hangs in the air and everybody's thinking about this when we open the discussion up you said confrontation in the classroom you know give me your phone you know you have your phone out give me your phone this is taking up valuable instruction time it also probably will draw other students in witnessing this Behavior so I just want us to think about that the the phones are actually still in the students possession there's going to be these confrontations and I mean it does it it chews up valuable valuable time for instruction and it just it causes a lot of friction and I just I just want us all to be thinking about that when we're thinking how we're going to plan this out um I I think what we optimally would like to do is just have the focus on learning and try and avoid any need for those kinds of confrontations because it's very disruptive thank you um I'm going to jump in here and then I'll have uh vice president Mayberry go after me so cyber bullying off-campus on campus what is the district's responsibility with that so we've got two classmates there is texting there could be social media there could be things happening offsite yes both the students are our students what role does the district have in offsite cyber bullying and how does that play a part in our responsibility the coding of this if anyone could kind of explain that is a very common question that we get a lot of this is happening offsite what role do we play what role do other agencies play if anyone could jump in and clarify that I'll give you a 30,000 foot answer to that and then um maybe if some question questions still remain at the end we can dive a little bit deeper but in general um when it happens off campus as soon as whatever has happened off campus is brought on to campus and it's disrupting the learning environment and it's got students talking and then there's spillover that's happening that's when it becomes the school's responsibility it's disrupting what's happening in the the school environment so that's when schools step in and um I'm so glad you brought up that um stakeholder um engagement in that because it takes parents working together with administrators and teachers and Community agencies sometimes even law enforcement gets involved so it um it becomes very complex and and it really does take everybody working together and I will tell you the man hours involved in investigating something like that are substantial substantial and we can't always collect enough evidence to code it as cyber bullying but we can always collect enough evidence to know it's disrup the learning and so we may not be coding it as cyber bullying in alignment with our NRS but we certainly um can collect enough evidence to say this is something we need to address this isn't okay in our schools thank you for that so just if I have this right and I'm hearing you correctly Sally and Annie are having a disagreement and that disagreement or the bullying is happening over social media or through a piece of technology offsite then it comes to school and and now Sally and Annie are having issues in the classroom or in the hallways or other students are getting involved and it's starting to create a ripple effect that's when the school district gets involved and then works with the students and the parents to understand what's happening and whether or not it needs to be coded as cyber bullying or some sort of other interpersonal issue that we have and then that's when the district gets involved is that accurate absolutely okay and it's I I will also say that and youve already covered this but it seems low now I know cyber bullying has a very specific definition and so I'm sure that the 18 incidents is accurate based on that definition um but I believe we've all likely heard of the challenges that are happening between our students through social media and through technology outside of school and within school it's just that cyber bullying has a very specific definition Associated to it is that correct correct okay thank you um and then um Tristy Wes like just to address a little bit of what you were saying when you're talking about the confrontation I hope later on in the presentation when we have um a school come up and and share their example they're going to talk about the process that they engaged in that to address that so I yeah I it'll give us an example to to lend to the discussion all right um so one of the biggest reasons that this is of a concern to us as a community as as parents as as District employees um and to students themselves is based on review of literature findings indicate that there's a connection between technology and at times more specifically social media use and negative mental health impacts um relationships with self-injured behavior indicated in that research and findings effects on self-concept self View including normalization of self harm and suicidal ideation um there can be impacts on sleep cognitive processing and social emotional processing and some Research indicates that those effects may have a greater impact on girls um I do want to just mention here that um because of this awareness and it's um this is acutely in the Forefront of our mind as Educators we um do have many proactive measures in in uh place already to address these things um some examples would be um through our Title 9 office we have civil rights and me we're we're actually working to update that this year um but that um really helps with maybe that cyber bullying aspect in particular we have social emotional learning curriculum that has lessons um about limiting screen time and responsible use of technology and helping educate students about how it's impacting their Mental Health um we also have Common Sense Media which is through our academic Department part of 21st Century Learning how do we be critical consumers of um information we are getting from the internet so we have a lot of proactive measures in place um that have been in place for many years with our district um to help address some of these concerns um Deputy superintendent and this is unusual usually there's more lights on um I don't know where the conversation is going to lead us or what actions might come at a point in the future but I would like to recommend that however we move forward that this be built into uh back to school messaging um I know that my younger son's Elementary School participates in screen free week which is not just television but it's also um devices as so no matter where this conversation goes I think it would be great to move forward with back to school activi things like that with messaging coming out from the schools um it sounds like we have a lot of great programming um even potential parent universities but as we all know and I'm going to State probably the most obvious thing that is said tonight we don't buy cell phones for our students which means we need to make parents our partners in a lot of these actions um and so no again no matter where this goes I'd really like to see this built into back to school and regular programming so that there's not a very variation um again we might decide to focus on one aspect of Education or ages but overall I would like to see that built in going forward and that's just a suggestion as one trustee great thank you I appreciate you emphasizing that this is our community and our shared responsibility to collectively engage in this process um so uh at the beginning of the presentation I showed you a quote that talked about nuances so here's where I start to get in into some of these nuances um the next several slides I'll be highlighting several nuances um as I mentioned our administrative regulation didn't call out um safety measures and I don't think that we necessarily knew at the time the potential impacts and we didn't have the kind of data that we have now um but student misuse of devices have um resulted in students making either individual threats to other students or whole school threats that have def really impacted the learning environment and schools um sometimes those threats can take an extended amount of time to investigate um and often involve um school police engaging in that work um it can take a lot of time to get down to the bottom of things to ensure safety so that's um just something to highlight and then when we start thinking about um emergency response to schools and emergency situations lockdowns things like that um Chief more definitely can can talk to you about some of of these um details however like these are the nuances that we need to just be really thoughtful about when we develop practices so devices that can interfere with emergency response so examples would be um they can interfere with directions so if School staff is trying to give students directions about what to do in an emergency situation or an emergency drill um if there they're using their electronic device and that's giving different information it can cause confusion and um possibly um delay the process there's a risk of overloading the cell phone system this has occurred in some emergency situations if we have lots of people on site trying to call we also have um other people calling an emergency Personnel is trying to communicate through cell phone technology um it can overload our system um it can impede Public Safety response so to further clarify by that um so it can accelerate parent um and Community arrival on the scene of a potential emergency so they could be um coming into an emergency situation and putting themselves in an unsafe um situation or um the school could be attempting to evacuate students and get them out as they have parents arriving and it just causes a lot of confusion and slows down the process um and then lastly it could accelerate a spread of Mis information we've had many times when we've had like a code red drill happening and we've had students text out we're in a code red to their parents and then parents are afraid that their child's in a code red and it was a drill to begin with so that misinformation um has been led to um you know a lot of emergency response that was for a drill so those are just a couple of examples and I would encourage you if you have a lot of um specific questions on this at the end Chief Moore will certainly be um more more uh more knowledgeable about answering them than I will but um that's kind of just an overview of why safety concerns need to be thought through and addressed in um policies all right if we can go back to that one um I'll wait for chief Mo for more specific things but one example of this that we saw just last school year who remembers the incident that I believe originated out of Florida found its way across the entire nation and resulted in potentially the single day with the most nonattendance outside of contingency days potentially um and and again that was that was an example of that and so um a lot of people lived through that a lot of community members remember the fear from that and that's just an illustration of what you're pointing out right now well I'll I'll let me just pile on that and bring it bring it home um had a lockdown last year maybe the year before time it's flown so fast uh but this this is my own shoulder um code red uh image of a uh law enforcement officer with a automatic weapon in front of the school and that was circulated I got it but it was a hoax so that ties directly into you know accelerating the spread of misinformation rumors and fears so it's real thank you thank you I would like us at this point to kind of shift our thinking just a little bit if we can um we see students a lot I would like us to frame this in adults I do not believe that this is a student problem I believe that this is a a group of individuals in our schools and around our schools and even think of the workplace how how often have you gone to a workplace and waited for the person who's going to help you to get off their cell phone so I would really like us to focus on this as being a human situation that we all need to work on yes we're here to educate our students we're here to support them but we need to to uh concentrate on adults as well thank you so diving I'll oh I apologize no thank you my president sorry I actually got to I'm going to be honest I'm really on the fence with all this I've been pretty vocal with uh my friends and colleagues here um I'm not 100% stld on this uh so with that I do have a few questions up to this point because I've been just you know what questions do I really would have I want to push out I got a lot of them it sounds like some of the things that you're pointing out is things that we as a district can be doing better such as the code red drills we need to let our parents and their Guardians know that this is what's happening so that you know when little Timmy says hey there's a code red parents know that this is a drill you know like yeah we know about it we just got a notification about it 5 minutes ago you know so there is no you know you know real risk there um holding students accountable I mean we could go back several slides and talk about the distractions The Bullying the fighting that is stuff that we as a district should be taking accountable and hold our students accountable as so I see all the stuff not is it really the cell phone is really the student into action so I do have those questions and and again these rumors I mean this is not stuff that just takes place in school as we're talking about this is bullying and stuff that happens outside of school so we're trying to create this I feel like paint a picture of this will fix all our problems that's why I'm feeling from this presentation so I'll be honest and I don't know that's the case um and so I mean the fact of the matter is you know um trusty NAD I mean I think I'm sorry I think cell phones are here I going to go anywhere you know so can we like promote this healthy environment on how and when it's appropriate to use cell phones which I will agree with that there are plenty of adults that don't know that but again I also think that's a parenting issue Society issue and that something that we could teach our students personally um and really it's you know I've sat here and said we're technology is here we got space force you know we got so much technology going on and we need to teach our kids to embrace it rather than try to ban it or restrict it so I don't know where we're trying to go at with all this so I'm want to wait a little bit more on that um but I will ask you a question have the parents weighed in have you done a districtwide survey with our parents what are their thoughts on it because it sounds like we're doing a lot of talking amongst staff and amongst what's everyone else doing but what do our parents want have you done anything about that thank you clerk Rodriguez so just a little bit later in the presentation you'll see more information in terms of a really good example where parents were absolutely Ely embraced wholeheartedly front and center as a part of the process and in fact provided such meaningful information that the school used it to develop how they were using and going about addressing cell phones so right now uh there's examples of how different schools have embraced our parents and I think as with all things related to The District it's really important that we seek our parents feedback and and looking through the PowerPoint I see some future steps and that was one thing that didn't so um if this is proposed to staff again or proposed to board again I just as one truste would definitely want to see that tangible survey that's done by our community and not just parents but staff and our students as well I know we've done that in the pass so um any feedback on that absolutely so when um you see the presentation a little bit later we actually do have a parent that's going to be speaking about that um but you're right it is very compx Lex and it's very nuanced and things evolve quicker than we can even think um and so I I I hope that as things progress you start to understand that where we're successful is when we engage in a process and essential to that process is stakeholder input which of course parents are essential but also students are essential to have their voice in this um when we talk about things like students being insubordinate and refusing um when we start peeling back the layers and finding out why and listening to students um we learn a lot so um yeah we we definitely need to make sure that we are talking and at the schools that have very successful implementation it's when they engage their stakeholders and their parents in that thoughtful discussion um I have a couple of examples later on that I'll share with you um and then I'm also going to share with you some missteps that have happened along the way um Across the Nation and you'll also many of those missteps occur when you don't take the time to get input so thank you all right really quick before we continue since we can't see him on screen I just want to make sure that we take a brief pause to make sure that trusty Church doesn't want to join or doesn't have any questions up to this point I do actually thank you very much um basically the slide on the mental health was telling that's what Mr EPO Jo and his organization's been talking to about for a long long time however as you mentioned Madam President we can't control what the kids look at or do on their cell phones when they're regulation or anything like that um the uh issue that Mr Robo brought up was the policy versus regulation and as I see the Way Forward uh my big concern is what's happens in the classroom in other words some places have gone to pouches where you put the cell phone in you get it when you leave that means it's accessible in an emergency but it's not available during the class for kids to be texting kind of like that idea I think that's the focus of what we need to look at is the actual classroom in terms of the comments about the time it takes to take away the phone from the kid and deal with the disciplinary actions I get it I get it I know they're going to happen but it seems like it's still we can't ignore it we can't excuse bad behavior we can't leave the kids with cell phones because there might be a confrontation um and that kind of bad behavior needs to be dealt with so I just wanted to throw that on the table that I think taking the phones away from the students during classroom uh is probably a viable alternative and again I I I would think that we could have a policy or re redo our policy to include some reference to that or we could simply provide general direction to the superintendent to include it in regulation those are my thoughts so thank you for uh remembering me thanks absolutely and you're exactly right so all options are on the table and that's exactly why we're starting with a dialogue and getting all of our ideas out there but you're exactly right um Tristy weslake thank you president Smith so I I just my personal feeling is that there will be less confrontation the more consistency there is at least consistency within an individual building I understand that schools and grade levels might have different nuances and ways of doing this but I think teacher to teacher inside of a building if there is a lack of consistency I think that opens the door for more confrontation because especially when students have multiple teachers if Mr Johnson is allowing this with cell phones and then the next class period they go to Mrs Jones allows doesn't allow that it's very confusing for a student to weigh in what should I be doing what shouldn't I be doing well I can get it I can do it in Mr Johnson's class I should be able to do it here I just think that leaves a really gray area I think whatever we do we have to do it with consistency and everybody needs to get behind that or we we might as well just not even have a plan thank you I think um you hit on a key Point consistency is very important and staff Buy in is very important consistency happens when there's staff Buy in consistency doesn't happen when there's confusion amongst the staff or not everyone's on the same page so I hope in the sample that you um see some of the um some of the things to celebrate with um some steps forward that were very positive and also some challenges with that because it goes back to that continual process um but thank you for the comment continuing on um another Nuance that is not um outlined in our current regulation that has um been something that has really um come to the Forefront of our practice is um special circumstances so we have hundreds of students who are currently receiving accommodations through either an individual education plan or Section 504 plan um that affords them the opportunity to leverage their smartphone their smart watches or other electronic devices for either health or educational purposes so a prime example of this is um a student with diabetes may be monitoring their blood sugar through an app on their phone and when their blood sugar gets dangerously low their parents get an alert and sometimes those parents will then be calling their their child and say you need to report to the clinic immediately and have somebody walk with you student would not necessarily be aware that their blood sugar was getting so dangerously low if it wasn't for that app so in that case it's it's a life-saving measure um we have a lot of variety in terms of the types of accommodations that are afforded to students um and they're very individualized but that would be just one example um we also have students benefiting from Services through our English language Department um some of those students are new to Country and often rely on translation devices we have a lot of different languages and um so they've leveraged them to assist with that translation to help with um the transition into our public school system and then lastly um there are other individual and family circumstances that um require consideration of special circumstances uh for example and some of these can be very extreme like court orders and um restraining orders and things like that where we've got some serious safety concerns um just down to maybe some parents that are saying no it's necessary for me to track my child at all times I need to know where they're at um so listening taking the time to listen to these special circumstances and not having a regulation that dismisses the voice of these really um really important um nuances that are specific to Children's medical needs education needs and safety needs yeah that that this was a real aha moment for me because I mean the reality is and I don't want to presuppose you know uh the direction that we'll go right now um but with IEPs with these nuances as you said I mean you you can't restrict uh these points I mean these are IEPs these are 504 plans I mean by federal law this is what their team decides that they need a device for you know these purposes that's that's in a fixed plan right I mean you can't ban that you can't restrict it correct yeah thank you and I'd like to piggy back off that because clerk Rodriguez brought up a really big point which is um parent voice and all of this in addition to the students as well um anybody can go onto social media right now as adults and see how parents respond to this and they have all these what if what if what if so any plan that comes out of this board in this District would be wise to pull in parents to make sure that whatever it is we bring forward has these caveats clearly spelled out so we can preemptively say ah well Susie has diabetes and she has an app in that case case this will be the situation the only thing I will add to this is that I do think it needs to be formal so what I mean is that just because a parent says their child needs this is not in my mind enough okay we're talking about IEPs we're talking about 504s we're talking about very specific things and there would need to be that level of requirement in that decision so that this does not no matter where we go turn into parents can just opt their kids out so that's just kind of some some thoughts ahead that I'll just share that there has to really be specific documented needs and not just necessarily an opt out in general because parents want the ability to text their kids a change and pickup time or something like that okay very good point thank you um much like uh immunization exemptions which of course is backed up by NRS but in this case to your point to have some kind of process whereby um I mean I will give you an example when I was the director of The Early Learning Center up at TMCC there seemed like there was a fad where you don't want your kids to have whole milk or cow's milk you know and it was so parents would come to you and say I don't want my kid to have that kind my child to have that kind of milk um they need something special so then there was an expectation because we were on the special milk program that we would purchase that special milk for them well yeah no that didn't work real well there was a lot of waste so we very simply just said okay Diane if you want your child to have this this special accommodation we will comply you have to provide us with whatever it is you want us to exchange it with so to your point I think we do have to have something very clear that adults can and see the intentionality and have some level of responsibility thank you madam president um and actually kind of pigy back off of mam president so you know depending how the surveys and all that stuff and all the materials come together when it is presented again um maybe there's more information I'll learn um but I do like what president Smith is saying um does if it does come to that you know the cell phone 504 IEP something I know that will part of be logistical nightmare is that you got to get that done with a certain amount of time correct so if there are students that need a device part of their program or their is that something that we w't be able to accommodate I I'm not sure I understand your question U from the time like uh when a student needs to or like from the time we have a meeting where it's an identified need correct um you know for the most part um when things are written into the IEP they pretty much have things in place um we do have an assist of technology department that will sometimes Need You Know download some software that's necessary and we have a whole process in place for that but yes it is a very timely response okay so like I guess hypothetically speaking if fact you know someone has a child that has diabetes they need to keep this device on them or there's a cal or something like that um or a language barrier how long from the time of applying that this child needs to have this need to the time that's implemented these special circumstances are not currently outlined in our administrative regulation so that's part of those nuances that were not considered back in 2015 okay that certainly need to be updated and considered moving forward thank you I appreciate that yeah absolutely I feel like we're piggybacking on top of our piggybacking because what I think of with that is really of there's always unique situations that come up but really if we do at some point in the future move forward with a change it would be surprising to all of a sudden see a huge interest in IEPs where a child specifically needs to have a cell phone so um I would like to think that a lot of the children who may be dealing with anxiety um diabetes those things are a fairly consistent level and it would be interesting to see after the fact if anything does happen in the future if all of a sudden there's a rush of of requests for IEPs things like that so um but but I see where you're you're going with that okay and and I guess I would just go back to the word process if we don't engage in a process where people feel like they have a voice then um you do try to look for workarounds or loopholes in in whatever system is in place so if something like that were to happen I think that would be a signal that we made a misstep and didn't engage them in the valuable stakeholder input thank you president Smith I honestly I don't see a lot of people rushing to do the IEPs I mean it's a lot of time on the parents part there's having a child that had an IEP I mean there are meetings there's follow-up meetings there's Ting paperwork uh to process and to sit through and talk about and go over so I I just I don't see that happening and maybe we could I I got out of what trusty Rodriguez was saying was so if a child really has the I needs the IEP and so therefore it's mandated that they have a cell phone how long can we get that process done so that they can have the cell phone maybe we just have something in in the policy that if a child is even identified that they might need a possibility of an IEP or a 504 allow the cell phone until the process is completed and then if it's deemed that well this child really doesn't need a 504 and IEP well then if the policy is no cell phones then then there would be no cell phone but that way we're not doing anything against any federal regulations and parents that really feel that their child needs an IEP would have the phone right away I mean I don't know I think that's an easy get around but I just don't see a parent I mean opting in just to have an IEP for a cell phone I mean I'm sure there's going to be a few but I think it's I think it would be a few okay so now we're going to shift gears just a little bit um we've been talking about our district and and our regulation and and our practices we're going to shift to some national Trends um obviously I've talked about um some national trends that have been occurring and this is not an exhaustive list but just here's some recent things that have happened in the news that we're um all aware of so in May of 2024 Clark County School District announced that students in middle and high school were going to be placing their cell phones in non-locking Signal blocking pouches and as we're following the news um there's currently petitions that are being signed by stakeholders that do not support this decision so again just kind of looking about some things that are happening nationally and um keeping our eye on those Trends so in June of 2024 um the Surgeon General called for notice it's not cell phone but social media warning labels due to Links between social media use and possible links with Children's Mental Health um so again it kind of goes back to that um engagement and social media that may be a part of what they're using their phone for during the school day but a lot of that happens outside of the school and so just thinking really thoughtfully about what the Surgeon General is saying I think it goes back to some of the conversations we've been having about how we have a a community and this is a community issue and having everybody working together um then that later on that very same month June 2024 Los Angeles Unified School District announced a movement towards the nation's largest districtwide cell phone ban um but the it's quite interesting when you hear that word ban um that these Trends and regulations again have lots of nuances and so I'm going to refer you back to that um before I talk about these um these nuances um I just want to um emphasize that these are a couple of topics in the news but we are seeing things at the national state district and local level throughout our nation and it's all due to misuse of the um technology interfering with instruction that's really what the root of this is and the mental health impacts so when we say things like bands it's um very interesting people's interpretation of that um there's some things like cell phone hotels you may have heard them called like the picture in the bottom right corner a cad that we have students put their cell phones and when they walk Lo walk into the classroom there's more um more refined versions of that there's locking cabinets a whole variety we have the pouches like I mentioned that Clark County School District is going toward there's a picture of one in the um top corner there the level of Regulation we find um varies some some districts have some regulations that only apply to high school some have regulations that only apply to Middle School um so that's that's been an interesting Trend and then those nuances about is it okay in the lunchroom um in the classroom is it okay if the teacher says it's okay what is what is the the guidelines for that what about passing time what about recess and there's a lot of variability um when you get into those areas sorry sorry sorry thank you president Smith I'm sorry no no don't be sorry this is exactly what we're here to do so I just want to bring up some things that has been mentioned to me by some of um my principls and teachers and schools and um um my gosh letting a child have their phone to go if they're going to the restroom that's just asking for them to be Dilly ding why do you need your phone in the bathroom number one but um in p and and the other thing is is pretty much administrators and teachers are all in their their areas once instruction starts and so there's not going to be really any when observing that child going to the restroom and if the child's taking a long time coming back now what is this teacher do have to break away from the class to go round up that student or take time to call someone to round up the student and when they're passing in the hallways so they they do say it's it's a problem with the cell phones in the bathroom kids congregate they're D D D D D on the phone and getting late to class but when they're in passing they we have Hall monitors uh most of the principls are out and their staff is out what you know let's get to class come on you guys so there's not going to be really that Dilly ding you know leaning against the wall and texting I mean they're moving traffic along the lunchroom I'm just going to say we our kids don't know how to socially interact I mean when you're having a meal with people that's when they should be talking and conversing an eye to eye conversation and getting the Nuance of facial expression and gestures and not some just oneline things that can be misinterpreted um misinterpreted I just think we really need to be thinking about all every little tiny thing when we think of what we're doing here because some of these things are definitely con be hindering our kids to develop socially like I said at at lunch and when they're going to class they're being monitored but the bathrooms are a definite problem every principal I've talked to every teacher the bathrooms are a definite definite problem so I just I keep throwing these things out so I know we're not deciding anything right now but just so everyone has this kind of in their mind when they're thinking this through so thank you um I appreciate that because one thing that I don't think we would able we would be able to properly quantify is I believe the EP epidemic of lost instructional time so fundamentally our job as a school district is to educate kids period and to prepare them for the real world so when you imagine the number of minutes being lost due to inattention or student incidents among other things and you add that up our goal that we've made very clear in our strategic plan and in the community is to improve academic outcomes and so we have to start looking at all of these opportunities that are inadvertently pulling us away from our goal which is educating kids and preparing them for the real world and so on on that note I'll pause because I know the ne very next slide is some additional National Trends we've been seeing about this Madam president I just may I please I just have to just want to say ditto thank you ditto so um before I move on to the next slide um I just want to um reiterate the word process because when a process is in place and we're engaging our community it really helps from making mistakes and this next slide is going to um kind of highlight some mistakes that some people have made along the way um and in moving a little bit too quickly towards decisions um that didn't weren't necessarily vetted all the way so I cannot emphasize enough that stakeholder input and Collective buyin is essential if people don't understand the why why we're doing this why it's important why we value it they're not going to evalue Value it they're not going to buy into it and then we're just doing something to people not with people and we want to be a district that does this with people whatever decisions we make we're going to to do it together um we've learned a lot about honoring student voice students haven't always had a voice we've done these policies to students and then we wonder why students don't um want to follow the policy and don't want to do it students need to understand the why and then when we listen to them they give us a lot of perspective because they've grown up in a world where this is all they know we may have been children in school where cell phones weren't a thing they are so we need to listen to them Annie not to put you on the spot but do you want to jump in on this yeah um I think a lot of what's being said is coming from the perspective that we're going to ban phones in schools which is why the concerns come up about like oh well all the you know special circumstances and I think that's important to remember that we like schools can deal with things with each circumstance so we can't go into it thinking like oh well we're just going to ban them because I don't think that's what will probably end up happening because it's unrealistic with the amount that we rely on them and with the lack of resources our schools have we do need phones in our schools but we don't necessarily need them out all the time they don't need to be on our desks and the bathrooms it's a huge problem I mean I don't even use our school bathrooms cuz it's just gross and you just never know what's going to happen in there and phones only you know accelerate the fear and just kind of bring more worries into it but I do think at lunch um kind of what you said it is a big thing that students are using but from what I've seen my time in the lunchroom not that many kids are actually on their phone there's a lot of social engagement which is surprising because you'd think oh this is I mean they'd rather go on their phones but the time I'd rather go on my phone is in class if I'm bored or something like that like when I'm with my friends I want to be with my friends and there are those students you know they're sitting alone and go on their phones but at that point that's kind of nice that they have something to do they're I mean that kind of sounds terrible but it's something for them so that they're not alone and like yes that is what we use because we're awkward and don't know how to you know just be alone and not need a phone but I think there's definitely pros and cons um and then at the end I have other things that I'll bring up that were on the slides and stuff but I think the biggest thing is that we have to go into it open-minded that you know we might choose an option that allows for phones but not constant like oh I can see my notifications popping up because that's the problem it is taking away from instructional time and I mean my school does it well I think also though because we we have a lot of Hall monitors during the like while class is in and so during that time where people are going to the bathroom and having their phones we're supposed to be leaving our phones but there's you know home moners going in the bathrooms and making sure that other things aren't happening including going on your phone which has been really positive and makes it feel safer and then also during you know lunchtime and stuff is when people are walking around but it does feel safer to have those adults walking around being out in the halls and things like that so yeah I think it's kind of what I got for now than I think that's great um I'd like to elevate something that uh trusty Nicollet also touched on it I in in my interpretation of it applies to Bullet four which is that the students are often one step ahead so to elevate what you said I'm not suggesting that no children that they don't to some degree buy their own technology but we have to be realistic um it's parents who are buying the additional forms of technology and anybody can watch this um Carson City just recently adopted a new approach Clark did um there was a survey or not a survey um but a petition with tens of thousands of people on there you can watch these conversations in social media groups and parents are very open about I am buying my child a fake phone to put in the pouch so that they can have another one and they will tell you this right out there I mean like anybody can go online and watch these groups so to elevate again what nicholet said this is really a family and a parent thing that we need to pull them in because we have to ideally create a solution that fits Washo County but also helps parents understand why we don't want them openly saying that they're going to be buying burner phones so that their children lock up the non phone but then they secretly have the other phone um so I just wanted to elevate that it's not in these cases I don't think kids are one step ahead head it's families are strategizing to circumvent a lot of these things too but hopefully we can minimize that with proper parental input and involvement in whatever we do great thank you and thank you Annie for your perspective greatly appreciate that um so when we start talking about taking devices away from students um there's some potential liability of taking advice away or taking their devices and storing them what happens if they're lost or or damaged we need through that um there's potential fiscal impacts of decisions such as those cell phone pouches um when I was at the previous slide right down in the bottom right corner just a rough estimate if we did a very low-level technology of just having them put their cell phones in a little pouch like that as they walked in um to put those pouches in every single middle and high school classroom in our district would be roughly $30,000 just to give you a rough estimate if we were to do something like the picture above and do cell phone pouches um for middle and high school I think it was around 820,000 I think Dr Turner could give you more details um if we were to do something like all the way K12 that would be like $1.8 million um and that's just for one what happens if it gets damaged or or lost or something then we'd have to have backups so there's definitely some fiscal impacts of decisions that would need to be thought through um then the fourth bullet we already mentioned a little bit about students being one step ahead or sometimes adults being one step ahead um when it comes to personal electronic devices um we see that with the idea of getting an extra phone to evade the restrictions use of SmartWatches you can get a plan on your Smartwatch and use your Smartwatch just like a cell phone um there's Bluetooth headphones so if you're I mean sometimes you can be uh you know engaged in listening to music and those kinds of things and if your hair is covering it up you don't even know it so there's there's lots of nuances there um there's probably things we haven't even thought about um Ai and how could that be misused I again everything evolves faster than we can probably keep up with so I just think that that's important to to be aware of um and then in some cases across the country that have moved quickly to a ban they've noticed that it actually exasperated the need to quote unquote catch up during allowable times whe whether that allowable time was before or after school or if they allowed it in the hallways or at lunch as soon as students were allowed to use them that's all they did so they would see students not engaging with each other and not spending time with each other because they had to catch up from their um access to their technology um next there's there's been some cases where there's an increased usage of bathroom passes so that they can use their phones and smart watches outside of of people's watchful eye um and then special consideration um must be anticipated and strategized that's like those special circumstances like the 505s and I APS and things like that districts that didn't think about that and moved Qui too quickly to decisions have um found themselves in a very difficult situation thank you and and I will speak for myself one thing that's extremely important for me to hold in the Forefront uh in all of this because we're really talking about student engagement and and academic performance and success and having fun in classrooms and all of that the last thing that I want to have happen is for teachers now to need to spend 15 more minutes every class period ensuring phones are in pouches and and trying to help students comply with whatever might come down the pipe that that is counterintuitive to what we're trying to do and I've had parents and community members say something that seems you know pretty obvious because you know we're a little older and we think about the past is well in my day we used to just have the parent call the front office the other thing I do not want to have happen is now all of a sudden our administrative assistants who have very important work to do every moment of their day are now answering phones from Diane because I need you to go see if Annie fed the dog so I want to keep that in the Forefront that we cannot burden our employees with whatever we decide thank you okay I'm just trying I I totally get what trusty Nicollet is saying but I think there might be a lot of that in the beginning but that we would need to make sure our communication is precise and it gets out to all the parents that those kinds of calls we're I'm going to piggy back on a piggyback from way back we're here we're supposed to be educating these children and preparing them for the future I think that's the most important thing I think the next thing is so that our children know how to interact respectfully and can communicate with others I think that's that's a huge thing but we also we have to I guess educate the parents now that we're we're not there to make sure the dog's Fed so we might get a some of that in the beginning and it might take onesies and twoes and threesies of phone calls where parents understand I'm sorry but we're not here to run messages to the child and the child I'm sorry but I don't want to sound cranky here but my God the parents would think it's okay to text the child in the middle of instruction did you feed the dog and the child I mean you guys come on where have we gotten to here seriously where have we come from and now where have we arrived and at some point us as a district is we're going to have to grab those reins and say our job is to instruct and prepare your children enough and I think it's a small handful groups of people that would think it's okay to interfere on instruction with their child and then maybe it's it's going to be our responsibility to educate those parents that this is not okay we're here to instruct your child and prepare your child and it just it's going to take some it would take some work it would take communication it would take education it's if we decide that it's important enough to put the work in for that or if we feel it's too heavy a lift and we just let things continue on but the other thing is too is what business allows their employees to sit around on their phones they don't because nothing would get done no business would get done unless it pertains to the business at hand unless you're using your phone to email other organizations that are involved with you but just to sit on a phone at your desk you know looking at your popups emailing texting all of that no business is going to get done and we're in the business to educate children do we want to be successful in that business that's what we have to ask ourselves and so yeah a lot of these things are going to pop up and they're going to be annoying and it might take a year to get everybody on board but I can guarantee you we could do it if if we decide to pull together as a team and to communicate with parents the importance it it's it's going to it would get done it would get done it's whether or not we want to grab those reins so the closing statement in the slide at the bottom says in order for a full School B to be effective you really have to have strong leadership supporting the staff in enforcing it and this came from the same article that highlighted the different um trends that we're seeing Across the Nation and I put that there to help introduce our um next slide you get a little bit of a break from me um former Areno High School principal Chris haush now associate Chief will be coming up and kind of talking about the journey that he did with his school um I'm just going to step aside because he's going to have some some guests joining him here shortly so um hopefully he'll be able to talk to you a lot about that process that he engaged in thank you Deputy uh good afternoon Board of Trustees board president Smith and superintendent Ernst uh my name is Chris haush and I am the new associate chief for secondary schools uh for the record uh joining me in a few moments uh this afternoon will be meliss kavalo and Finn Smith two student voice representatives from Reno High School along with parent and booster president Willow Kennedy um the we are present campaign is a pilot student electron iic device policy Reno High School implemented last January I want to take you through the process we took to develop the pilot policy along with the purpose and adjustments we made along the way leading into this school year in September of last year teacher leaders of Reno High School advocated for a schoolwide policy tightening up our cell phone usage for students during instructional time time as we aimed to reclaim instructional time student Focus collabor collaborative instructional techniques decreasing cyber bullying and improve the overall mental health and well-being of our students shortly after that staff meeting I had the opportunity to do a professional development up in Oregon University of Oregon uh enrollment management board which I've been a member for 10 years and in that PD I have the opportunity to collaborate with 25 other Educators all over the country what we do on the first day is we do campus updates so we listen to what's going on at their sites and their districts the first four or the first six rather Educators before my time to share all mention new cell phone policies so it it's very timely so it suffice to say I came home with a handful of policies to look through Reno High School created a draft policy that addressed cell phones earbuds during instructional time the focus was to promote student self-regulation and management of their cell phone use students had the option to have their own devices to have their own devices on them put away out of sight out of mind including their earbuds many teachers we already doing this in our classroom by the way if they chose to hand their devices to the teacher that was their choice again self-regulation self-management if they showed they needed help complying with that policy teachers would confiscate the device locating it in a box holder or caddy system of the teacher choice for the remainder of the class period to be true to our strategic plan we shared and vetted this draft policy with family both families staff and our student voice Forum that any student could attend out of discussions we fine-tuned the draft policy then shared it with our school Community for four weeks leading up to winter break this was through newsletters social media alerts and Word of Mouth from the teachers in the classroom upon return from winter break staff received whatever holders they wanted for their classrooms they collaborated during their plc's what that they want to use it was kind of Department specific then we had the professional development day the return day before second semester started with staff and they worked on best practices so I had veteran staff who had already been doing the work in the building discuss and and we got a lot of great dialogue because you have varied um levels of comfort with adults when dealing with technology with students and so they really uh had some rich discussions shared best practices um showed examples it was it was a good discussion during the third quarter we had minimal issues with students not complying and overall parents were supportive fourth quarter however you know we surveyed the staff you know when we did our classroom walkthroughs we saw some slippage obviously some idle time use of cell phones and the loosening of enforcement to Fidelity in our building so the takeaways from the pilot that our team took to revise the policy for this year staff had varying degrees when it comes to technology use and varying tolerances as classroom managers for cell phone use from the pandemic the pendulum has swung to students typing papers my own son typed papers on his phone I don't know how he did it uh taking formative assessments using QR codes to access articles on the wall safe voice texting system school safety measures research checking their Infinite Campus for grade reports utilizing teams and now canvas some staff wanted the professional discretion and courtesy to use devices for instructional purposes in their in their lessons hall passes were being used as we've mentioned earlier for students to get on their cell phones so we know that happened in the bathrooms and and was often we even heard some students bringing two phones to circumvent the policy earbuds and smart watches are also something to be uh considered when revising any policies or regs students shared and we do have some students coming up to to discuss this but students shared they wanted to make sure adults follow the policy as well during instructional time they also wanted to know about laptops and Technology what was available during the classroom so they could do their papers and their research many schools have enough laptops to support students instructionally because I talk to a lot of my colleagues and a lot of my colleagues are or engaged in this work and have been for at least two years that I'm aware of upper classmen reported understanding the why we were putting this policy in place however felt Middle School level this makes onboard so basically with the Middle Schools they're a lot doing a little bit tougher policies at the middle school level that we we found through this research and and going through this policy which helps the onboarding of graders so when you have the on ninth graders rolling up there's always there was already an expectation which I was um happy to find out um underclassman May test the policy more just that's your general growing up right it should be noted that many of our middle schools and high schools have been engaged in the in these uh new policies and Pilots for a couple years the we our present campaign was intentionally named versus going with a ban approach emphasis on WE and present the focus the interaction in the conversations with students we emphasized wanting students to understand we are not doing this to them we are doing it for and with them with students understanding and working with us they become powerful stewards in finding success with with this challenge they run the school from my experience data must be taken at the administrative level in walkthroughs if we're going to hone in on what's going on in the classroom we need more data we need to assess the Fidelity of the enforcement happening in the classroom we added a walkthrough look for for this school year easily something easy to notice is it instructional in nature can can the students is there Clarity around what the students are telling you what they're using it for what they're learning and can the teachers it's a very so you can you can find that out three to five minutes okay versus idle time scrolling notifications other data discipline data are we logging are we seeing any decreases in certain behaviors student achievement data is there increased Focus happening and learning in the classroom as we exponentially focus on what's happening during instructional time um some of the nuances that we changed to our pilot heading into this year were the hall passes no phones during hall passes so you have to surrender that's that's your collateral for going on a pass then also if you are tardy and on your phone that's instructional time a tardy is instructional time loss of instructional time so that is being addressed in a tougher way as well um you have to think about substitutes in your buildings you have to consider all the uh scenarios that were um provided to you about health plans accommodation plans emergencies um parents we many of us do track your kids on live 360 right so if that blip goes away anxiety for parents and then I thought in my new role as associate Chief I'm going to be in classrooms this year I already have two phones okay I have an iPad which I'm going to be taking um lots of artifacts in buildings this year you know the parents or the uh adults we need to walk the walk as well so we need to have an awareness of how we're perceived when it comes to technology um we learned many important lessons and in in this important work it is it is about reclaiming instructional time Focus positive peer interactions and the mental health and well-being of our students um we must support our students in becoming strong self-managers because what are the outcomes we're trying to get with our students while creating a culture through our strategic plan and valuing all members of our community student staff and our families following that continual cycle of improvement in this process so with that I first want to introduce meliss to come up and share her um perspective on this topic hi meliss welcome it's m sorry that's okay It's Tricky it's hey how' I do with your last name though Italian we practiced a few times at it's okay it's okay okay let me get a little organized herey doie so guess I was going to start off with like kind of explaining our policy what I've got that don't I I can handle that thank you so much so just so you understand um our it's okay you're doing fine don't worry we appreciate you being here and our audience should not be instructing you this is being recorded and we also have community members that are listening a so the closer you sit the louder we're able to hear that's it but don't worry I'm going to help you every step of the way we're here to support you and I'll just have a general reminder to everyone that I got this okay thank you okay so I was going to start off by saying like about our policy like um but Mr haish kind of covered that it was really up to the teachers like I know a lot of teachers they use the caddies a lot of teachers they had a little box where if you were on your phone it'd go in the Box for either the the rest of the day or the rest of the class and then I really didn't have any teachers who changed except saying keep it in your backpack um but I was in like a lot of higher level AP classes and most of the students in those higher level classes are a little bit better um so after the policy was implemented I did kind of see a little shift in the um students at least the ones I was around everyone seemed to feel more guilty of were on their phone everyone was like definitely keeping it in their backpack more or at least trying to hide it a little more um so yeah but um I think I definitely saw a decrease in usage especially like Mr haish said in that third quarter things went a little worse in the fourth quarter um but that's just why we need like constant like implementation um but like if there was any like downtime in class uh students would just immediately go to their phones which is not what we want um everyone was quite annoyed everyone was like why are we doing this what's the point of this so that's why I think we should really emphasize like why this is I was saying um before I spoke at another place like we need to emphasize that um phones and social media are like bad for mental health like you're here to learn not here to snap your friends and AP psych or whatever um but yeah that's why I was like the people were annoyed but some people I think definitely grew from it they were like okay they kind of checked themselves I think I definitely did um another big Point students see their phones like a personal right they're super protective of it that the things kids hated the most was it getting taken away especially if it was taken away for the whole day like I know one of my close friends her phone was locked in my math teacher box and then he got mad at her at the end of the day because it was buzzing so much and then she's like then why did you take it so it's just it's really tricky cuz like you don't want them to be on their phones you don't think they can keep it in their backpack but also when you take it away they're like you're taking away so something that I own that my parents paid for or I paid for and it's my belonging not yours so this is why I kind of like to keep it in your backpack mindset like out of sight out of mind so if there's an emergency you can still access it I know my dad had a heart transplant he has all these medical stuff going on I like to know like one day in seventh grade I came home and everyone was gone and that was rough on me so having your phone kind of helps but also like uh I think trusty Nicollet touched on like or like sorry I'm strug to remember like bombarding admin will just cause more problems with running the school in general so that's why having it in case of emergencies is pretty good um okay let me okay okay so one of my things is that I think students have kind of just like lost wanting to learn like there's just no culture of like desire to learn anymore with a big portion of the student population like I know a lot of students they're just there to get their credits and graduate but they don't really care about anything they're learning they'll just do anything to get an easy a like I've even people I've heard people say that in their AP classes and I'm like well what's the point of this so just some way to rebuild the culture of Education to just um have students have the desire to be off their phones because they're actually intrigued in learning they're intrigued in what they're doing not if this guy they like is snapping them um oh one thing that I really liked that one of my teachers did last year he was telling me on the first day of school or he told the whole class like I'm here to teach you and I can't do that unless you put the phones away I don't want cell phone usage in this class unless I explicitly state it please respect me and I'll respect your belongings and that was definitely the class I used my phone in the least because like here's this teacher who's empathizing with me and saying like I understand you want to be on your phone but this is my job I'm here to teach you and you signed up for this class you're here to learn and I think that's um important for teachers to do because there's definitely like students they don't respect their teachers that's what I've learned I've literally heard this person that I used to be friends with say well I don't care about my teachers they don't care about me and I'm like I don't think that's true I think our teachers care about us a lot especially the ones I've had here at Reno um okay touched on that phones are bad for mental health um definitely just like kind of getting that out there like phones social media bad for mental health especially for girls because it's that whole self-image thing all that so really getting that out there using posters or even even posting it on social media which sounds counterintuitive but that's how you get to students and then going back to like getting your possessions taken away maybe instead of like getting it taken away kids have the choice to put it away at the start of class or keep it in their backpack packs I really like that because you can either have it away or the teacher has it new box that's also a away or trading it in for like a fidget toy or like a piece of coloring paper CU I know I really like doodling when my teachers lecture even if I'm like taking notes and then doodling and whatnot I think it keeps me focused and I know a lot of students like twiddling with pens or something like that maybe trading their phone in so it's not like so it's a fair trade instead of your teacher taking it away and did I write anything else yeah I think that's it thanks Melissa was it Melissa or M meliss okay thank you so much that way we can address you directly so thank you so much for those insights I really appreciate it um trusty was like thank you president Smith honey thank you for being you are soep prepared mise I mean so much information and I can tell that you really took this to heart and wanted to communicate and pass along information um to help us and I really I really appreciate that um it just shows it shows your integrity and I think I want to ask you something and you know this would be just your opinion but when you said um kids have really become disinterested they're not excited about learning do you think that could be because they're bombarded so much with outside things I mean the cell phone like the the notifications just they're just bombarded bombarded and their head just can't get around and they can't jump into what's right in front of them and like you were very prepared but be prepared and be in the moment of what's being taught them I mean what what do you think about that I think that's definitely part of it because like I mean if you were scrolling through Instagram and then you're suddenly learning about World War II your your mind might be focused on the Instagram re you just watched and those I mean like um me and my boyfriend we call them the dopamine depleters because like when you're scrolling through your phone you're just like you're becoming this zombie because you're just like going through that and whatnot so like I feel like that gets you in such a different mindset than what you should have in an educational space like a classroom of course and and also participating with within the conversation that's going on I mean if you if you are if you're just scrolling you're you're not hearing what's going on around you and you can't really be an active participant and so I just I mean the teachers we have are amazing they're just amazing and they they want to pass on they want to pass on this information and knowledge they want the kids you know to to be excited about it and and to grow but I just I really think that distraction in the classroom I mean our our teachers they've already lost they've already lost the the battle you know um of of gaining active participants in what's going on in that classroom so that's another thing I think we all really need to be thinking about here I mean we we want our kids to be active participants we want our kids to be engaged I mean it's great that they're learning something but just to be actively engaged and to be contributors I mean you can't be a contributor if you're scrolling on your phone no you just can't and and it's it's not fair to our kids you guys it's not fair yeah thank you again and I believe we have another student that's coming up um although I think that the the point is well taken we're educating kids and we shouldn't be expected to compete with Tik Tok videos um because you really can't do it and that's why you shouldn't have both at the same time um but I want to make sure that we also have an opportunity to bring up but um I believe Finn who's also here too quick housekeeping note that trusty church had to leave um and so he left us like right around 5:00 so I just want our members following along and in the audience to know when I don't go to him or invite his voice in it's because he's not there so I don't want anybody to think um that we're not including him in the conversation and I also want to have a time stamp for his attendance but this was extremely helpful it good it was great I just want to give one last thank you you again did a wonderful job she presented mie presented at the administrator welcome back day the the room was filled at TMCC in the student center you did a marvelous job what do you think 400 people there was a lot of people there was a lot of people thank you for being so sweet though oh you're welcome you did a wonderful job again thank you okay should I stay questions or no I think it's time to probably welcome our next student okay I just I need someone and then while we welcome up our next student I'd love to hear from Annie um just touching on what mie said about just because it pertains to what she said about kids being stingy about it being their property because it's their phone something to think about is this is public school and so it's kind of hard to Define like yes it's your property but like you're here for free and obviously there's you know costs other people are paying but I think it's just kind of a tough argument to make that it's your property in the scenario they're in also I think it was really smart that teachers need to be thinking about and students I'm not just saying like it is a two-way street and we've talked about this at my school but when teachers come across without hostility and they just you know they respect you it immediately students want to respect them more and I've seen that in my classroom so just something to put out there hi my name is Finn Smith um so real quick touching off of what we finished with maliss again with like if you're scrolling through instructional time I think it's a common misunderstanding that we as humans can multitask we can't multitask you can switch task though and so especially when you are competing with the social media you're not listening to whatever the teacher's saying um so again going off of mise I strongly believe and agree that whatever plan we Implement should be strictly implemented from day one um but I also I've also noticed how when there's the possible consequence of your phone being taken away kids often take that a little bit more seriously so I think that as long as that consequence is there this policy would be monit monitored more more strictly and it would I think it gives the students much more of a real like a real world situation where if you're on your phone at a job you get fired or written up and that's that's not something like it's not a life skill you should be developing in high school we should be developing life skills and um sorry good work habits and also social skills like was also mentioned because the lack of that and the usage of Technology during that decreases the social skills and so while the confiscation of the phone is also a debatable consequence for something so seemingly simple enforcing policies like that will restore cultural and hopefully ensure the the success and prosperity of future years because their focus and attention not only on High School but also on years forward will be present and I think enforcing more of a policy where you have to put your phone in a pocket every day when you come into class is better than keeping it in your backpack because there are there are studies that even if the phone is on the table next to you your anxiety goes up because it's not in your physical possession so even with the backpack the student's anxiety is probably even I don't know more elevated because it's right there they can probably feel it vibrating through their desk whatever um and so I think when it's on the pocket you can't feel the vibrations you can't see the screen light up it's it's much more like removed from your view so thank you so much fin that was I I tend to agree with you as a human and we need to keep moving okay so we we have more I'm truly we have I just know no no no no no that's that's okay because we have a lot more to to talk about but on a human level I can relate to that when your phone buzzes you look most people do that trusty West Lake and then we're going to keep going I just want to say I am so impressed with maliss and Finn I mean I am just wow that that's all thank you great job respect honor that's what we see with these students which by the way is the is the motto is that the right way yes of Reno high school and now we have a parent perspective hello um my name is Willow Kennedy I'm a parent at Reno high school and I'm also the president of the parent booster club so thank you for having me here um here to discuss the imple implementation of the new cell phone policy we are present that we put into place this past school year at Reno High School which no longer allows phone usage inside classrooms while still allowing students to utilize their phones during passing periods Reno high was successful in implementing this policy because from the beginning they communicated their expectations to the parents and the students before Christmas break they sent home a a newsletter sharing the new policy going into effect after the break this allowed the students and parents to have discussions at home before rning to school the new policy's Effectiveness was dependent on clear communication between the parents students and the teachers coincidentally many classroom rules would already be in line with the expectations of the no phones unless it was to be used for a learning purpose or in aiding with their lesson plans this policy has had a positive impact on the academic success and overall well-being of our students and I believe it's worth considering for implementation countywide when former princip Chris hack Bush presented the idea the parent booster club was very supportive and we began sharing expectations immediately with our leadership students as a parent I have seen firsthand the benefits of this policy on both of my students who have attended and currently attend Reno High one being outgoing and the other being an introverted student they have expressed how much easier it is for them to focus in class without the distraction of their phones and the social pressure that comes along with constant connectivity enforcing this policy is a process that requires the collaboration of the staff families and students during the transition period it was very important to communicate to parents to have discussions with their students supporting the policy making it clear that it was no longer acceptable to use their cell phones during class so that it could be successful teachers needed to clearly communicate the expectations around the cell phone usage in their classrooms and students must understand the importance of limiting limiting their cell phone usage during the instructional time this policy is already creating a more conductive learning environment for our students by working together we can make a positive impact on the academic success and overall well-being of our students thank you for your time and looking at how cell phones have time have a time and a place in our student school days that's incredible Willow thank you so much and so the takeaways from that is involve your parents absolutely get the families on board so they understand both the implementation and the consequences and then make sure that there's a consistent approach absolutely but that is incredibly incredibly helpful and thank you for the boosters for being supportive because it sounds like and maybe you mentioned this did you also help financially with purchasing some of the items or how did the school acquire the caddies and the things um we we were able to use our own budget for that it was it wasn't as um it was pretty pretty minimal yeah thank you I think you may have just succinctly given us a road map you're welcome thank you for having me thank you so um trusty nicholette had mentioned at the beginning of August we had a principal meeting or our princip Deans and assistant principles came together to kick off the year and the wonderful mise that just presented to you was part of a presentation to our principles very similar um to the one given to you tonight um that just highlighted the admin regg that we already have in place and highlighted the process that was used at Reno high school and we were curious to collect feedback from them um so we conducted a survey and collected feedback from them um reflecting on last year and as you can see um 69% of our elementary schools um stated that they did have a policy in place last year 100% of our middle schools and 75% of our high schools so we dug a little bit deeper on that and of the schools that stated that they had a policy in place we were wondering have you had to update that or modify it post pandemic because um it's it's been a different world since then so um in elementary 54% said yes and of the 54 or um of that group 33% said that they updated within the last year for middle schools 71% said yes we've had to update it post pandemic and 50% of the the middle schools um did that within the last year um and then our high schools 88% said yes we had to update that and 75% engaged in that process within the last year um many of those schools that said yes we engaged in it last year said that they engage in the process every year because um I hope that you've you've kind of um been exposed to the importance of that process and revisiting it and continuing to get voice and and buy in um so just wanted to highlight that um stakeholder input and consistency seem to be the driving force for these updates when the stakeholders change from year to year to year you think of a middle school they're only there for three years so after three years none of the students and families were involved in the process of adopting whatever policies in place and so it does require that constant refresh so that people continue to understand the why um I also want to go back to the uh students parents sometimes one step ahead of us so things change over time like I said we haven't really talked about Ai and how that might impact things we probably don't even know yet but we're going to probably have to think about that in the future um so this is sort of some 30,000 foot like big data um but just a sampling of a couple of um specific schools um so elementary schools it's it's a very different process at elementary but not so formalized often times as our middle and high schools but two examples for you is um stud Elementary School revised their policy last year um they said that they didn't have the support of all the staff members and people were not on the same page so when they engaged in the process they found that one of the root causes was because um the community really wanted them to have access at least some time during the day for check-ins and so by allowing the um cell phone use at recess time it um in increased engage or increased compliance and got everyone on the same page I me interrupt you in element School yep yep um at Donner Springs Elementary School um they were noticing some Trends where smart watches were becoming an issue and it had never been an issue before they didn't know how to handle it and their policy didn't address that so they had to go through this process to say okay now what do we do about the smart watches um when we get to Middle School um it's interesting the two middle schools that I think um are highlighted for me happen to be middle schools that feed into Reno high school so where it's really powerful is when you have that vertical alignment the same Reno High School parents and families also are swo Middle School families and Clayton Middle School families and those two schools engaged in a process really um in alignment with the we are present challenge um so Swope for example um said that we're committed now to refreshing this every year um and we need to make some minor adjustments based on how things are going from year to year um one of the resistant resisting factors was that parents were really concerned that they weren't going to have access to their children and staff wasn't um in full agreement so by going through this process and listening to parents and um listening to staff and getting everyone on the same page they were able to make some positive steps forward um Clayton would be the other school that I mentioned um they really focused in on clear communication that was a misstep that had happened and um they figured out that was the root cause of the lack of consistency is just not a clearly articulated plan um so they got the stakeholder um buy in and um discussed options for where this the phones go that seemed to be kind of a topic where people wanted to have some say in that and really talk about that um and then Clayton did some a poster campaign they put posters up around their school that um didn't necessarily focus on no you can't use your cell phone um it focused on we're committed to increasing instructional time and here's how we're going to do it um there was some um let's see oh um Damonte Ranch High School would be another example of another high school I I know you mentioned McQueen has a policy in place as well um but dman is another example um they worked to make sure um that they had laptop access some some of our high school students had talked about well we use the cell phones for the QR codes or we type our papers or we do this or we do some research so before they could tackle the cell phone topic they needed to make sure the students had the access to the laptops during the day so they had to get really strategic about where they were putting their carts and making sure that um all students had access throughout the day um and once that was done then they were able to really refresh their policy and get that buy in so in each of those examples it's about process process process input from people and really listening to the root causes of why what's been in place is maybe not working so well now thank you um access is so important and I was recently at a a building Futures conference set next to a principal from Lion County and I asked about the safe voice because you made a really good point about that and what they have done course they're much smaller School District um they have on their their laptops on the opening screen the safe Voice Link so at any time on any screen students can access it yeah I'll also add that as I hear all these examples I do believe that there are distinct pilot programs that have also happened in the same vein as Reno High um at billinghurst and also Marcy hers but for me my takeaway um and my feedback is is that this is also why there needs to be a districtwide approach we've got a lot of schools feeding into a lot of different areas and I don't think that there should be variation um in the way that different feeder systems really behave in this if we're going to provide a consistent educational experience and to prioritize those instructional minutes I think that this is something that we need to be doing districtwide now that may or may not include Elementary School immediately I think that there's some Focus that can be done on middle school and high schools first but remember we can always evolve and grow and what it is that we do uh vice president Mayberry question I I'll save some some comments for a little bit later uh Elementary School I mean are we seeing a lot of cell phones and smartphones at the elementary school level and and at what grade I just I don't have small children anymore so I I was kind of shocked that that must be a growing TR yeah I I think um a lot of that might and it come from you know the apps where I want to track my child if my my child walks home from school I want to make sure that they're safe if they ride the bus those kinds of things um I think that's where we see the cell phones in in elementary school the most um to you know so parents are keeping track of where their kids are and making sure that they are safe yeah I mean as far as the grade level I I could give you a guess but that would be it okay um all right so let's look at the work that we've done as a district today so in September of 2023 a superintendent met with the student advisory Council and had some informal conversation with student Representatives regarding the issue of cell phones and what they believe should be part of some type of policies or regulations um students did say that they acknowledge that there's concerns with disruption and how it disrupts their learning um there was a lot of discussion about um regulation they I think United in saying that there should be some type of Regulation um what exactly that looks like is where there's a a level of disagreement um next uh on there is we as a district have reviewed sample School Technology plans as um associate Chief hack Bush mentioned we got some from um not only our schools but throughout the country and kind of looked about you know what is what we've had in place still working do we need to review those and and kind of what's the common um things that we're seeing um we also reviewed the student Behavior data that I shared with you today we reviewed some research literature and news that I've shared in this PowerPoint with you today um we did some research on those Nationwide policies and then we did some research on our own um policies so the our admin reg that we currently have in place and um that it's currently attached to our um board policy on student discipline so we acknowledge that there is a concern with the use of cell phones interfering with instruction and potentially having a negative impact on student mental health further we acknowledge and respect the complexity of this issue and the value of stakeholder input in bringing about awareness support and buyin for our administrative regulation 5810 therefore um we are coming forward with um a plan of action and some um things to consider moving forward um so we reviewed um or we believe that we need to review the expectations and administrative regulation 5810 I've highlighted a couple of places where um there are some things missing and how that should be tightened up um for this school year we need to include our cross Department Al collaboration on the updating of that um that is why so many chiefs from various departments have engaged in the process of putting this presentation together today um we believe the voice of our safe and healthy schools commission would be valuable on this topic so bringing that forward to them in their meeting this fall um and then we believe that in terms of timeline by the spring of 2025 we could have enough information to inform the update to our administrative regulation 5810 um and include our associations in that discussion as well as our District staff and I think it's important to note that when we do um update administrative regulations it does go out for a 13 day review for public comment so it would provide um opportunities for people to weigh in on that um and working with our Board of Trustees to update our existing and or develop new board policies around person electronic devices and continue to communicate with our student advisory Council and other key stakeholders um throughout this process thank you um want to make sure everybody gets the opportunity to weigh in um a few things and I I need to say this uh directly I am not in support of us taking an entire school year to figure this out not um my individual thought is I don't mind doing this in a two-step process because the whole reason why folks we're not just making a decision tonight is that the waso county school district will not engage in ready shoot aim with something like this My Hope and I am full confidence that we will arrive at a solution that matches our staff our students and our families and our community leaders who are expecting our students to join their work force after this but I don't believe that that's going to take a year now what could very well happen is that we implement we bring this back for future discussion I don't mind or I would be open to implementing something in the second semester but withholding final decisions until the end of the school year I don't mind if perhaps we go through all of this feedback process that we've discussed we Implement something for the second semester but perhaps we reserve final board policy revisions until we see how the second semester goes so we can learn and evolve but I will tell you as just one individual trustee and an item not for Action I believe we should be implementing a pilot program as a district for the second semester um I will also say that I have a leaning um again we haven't talked about all the different options I like the cell phone hotels the caddies for a few different reasons one is is cost but two they like a pouch they can't be left somewhere um we wouldn't be chasing after parents for replacement cost things like that but I also want to touch on something that associate Chief um heck Bush brought up and that's come up multiple times again it is our responsibility to prepare our students for the real world no surgeon is going to have their chief medical officer say hey Dr Jones you need to put your phone in this pouch before you go in for surgery and so it is an unreasonable expectation that our children will not learn self-re ulation and management we would be doing them a disservice so things like the cell phone to our students points don't allow for that variation of you can keep it in your backpack but that student says it goes here but it would also allow for easy access for medical needs or emergency needs um and for if someone was using it in instruction so again this is just me talking out loud but when I think about what it is we're trying to accomplish which is to restore instructional time um find a way to live with the technology that our world has but also help students with self-regulation that's kind of where I'm leaning obviously other decisions would happen and I know that we would have a robust feedback process I would also add to this list of people to engage we have a parent action committee which is a committee of the superintendent and I absolutely believe we would need very specific Outreach with all of our student facing labor associations um trusty Wesley I am going to go to trusty Wiley first yeah thank you mam president um thank you for the presentation really appreciate it um I did hear um about getting input from the students of course stakeholders um parents need to be involved um but what I would like to see in the front end is also input from the teachers because the teachers are the ones that we hold accountable help us to reach our strategic goals our mission our desire to um increase the numbers that need to be increased decrease the numbers that need to be decreased and it's a known fact it's not surprising it's a distraction I deal with it with regular adults at work I'm trying to communicate with them and if they're scrolling I got to pull them aside you know sometimes I got to go handson just to get their attention because if not you know they won't listen I can only imagine what it looks like for a teenager and a teacher who's trying to give them the education that need I feel I feel sorry for the teachers man I feel like they got to be entertainers because they're competing with Tik Tok you know and they're trying to teach our kids and they and I see them they're up there and they're telling jokes and they're performing and they're trying to keep their attention make it exciting it's like Dam that's a hard job so I would like to see that and and I agree with Madam president um I definitely don't want to wait a year um implementing marijuana rate for the state in a year here so I think we can do that we can do this in less than a year so but thank you thank you for the information okay thank you um I just jotted down three quick little things here if we could just remember the the three c's for this to be successful and and this is after we get all the input I mean we we do definitely need input from teachers administrators parents students everybody um maybe even some businesses I mean these these students are going to be their future employees um but the 3 C's after all that's done and we get a policy in place communication consistency that's that just goes to the respect for one teacher to another teacher to respect the next teacher that's going to have that student in the day hey I did my part the student knows what the expectations are going on to the next classroom and connectivity I think Finn had a great thing if can you imagine if we were able to get students 50% connected to what's going on in the classroom as to what they have to their phone 50% connected to the classroom of what they are connected to their phone just 50% I mean I think it would be amazing so communication consistency and connectivity just some sort of rudimentary questions and then um I'll share my My Views as well but are can you can you answer this question are phones used in the classroom for instructional purposes do students use their phones for lessons maybe for their maybe they use it as a calculator so let's give you an example of a social studies class yeah I've been um in a room where there's QR codes on the walls and the students go around and they scan articles for research purposes uh for gallery walks that would be one example excellent um you know I think as I've looked to and there's you present a lot of good data a lot of data on uh you know the social and mental aspects but I think for me the bottom line is how do we reduce the distractions and increase learning that's really the bottom line so you know a lot of the data while important I think that's really the thrust of what we should focus on and I think that the the moms and dads absolutely need to be involved uh I think that um talking about the timeline I I had asked the previous superintendent not the most immediate interim superintendent the previous superintendent about uh bringing forward a um a cell phone policy fact I think Colleen and I trusty West Lake was at one point going a second until we knew we were going to have this discussion uh and that went on for a good six to eight months um it was always in the student voice aspect so I'm I'm really pleased that we're we're moving this along but I think time is of the essence I mean this is this is the issue of our time right now and you know we're we're not going backwards it's not ni 1974 1984 1994 this is 2024 and cell phones are here to stay uh I think we need to somehow keep them off the desk um I you know I I don't uh I'm not opposed to the cell phones uh having access during passing or at lunchtime I mean there's I'm not going to really get into those nuances I guess what I would say is I'm very reluctant to have a total band but they've got to stay out of the classroom to the extent they can and the policy has got to be consistent look I I live with this I have high school children and I know that uh you know Mrs Smith my students go into the class they have to put their their laptop in a pouch and they can't have it until the end of class or until their work is done that's one example another example is all the kids have their phone and they all and they have access to them I get texts from my children uh you know periodically throughout the day sometimes I'll respond and I'll say you know honey why are you paying attention what's going on in class so I mean I see it I hear it uh it's it's a problem but as a parent I like having and ensuring some access some connectivity to my child and I've talked with a few parents not a lot but a few close friends of mine that have kids in the district they agree with that I think they would be very reluctant to uh have some sort of ban where their their children can't have uh phones during um the class periods uh during passing Etc uh then then there's the the lockdown situations and that's an interesting one I mean you know there I I I can see two arguments to that I mean if you know if you get the kids the students using those during emergency and crisis situations you know that can create some significant problems contrast to letting the adults handle the situation right um and then I I lost my tra thought and I apologize but those you know that's the focus I think for me is really reducing the distractions and being very mindful that it's our staff our teachers that are going to have to implement this policy uh and that's important and finally I will say you know what and I say this respectfully um I was going to call you principal hack Bush but uh you you know what may work at Reno High may not work at another High School particularly when you you know take into account the vertical alignment so while I appreciate this self-regulation concept and I think that's wonderful it you know I I don't know if that's the answer uh districtwide um because I know there and I know there's a lot of other examples out there that we haven't heard at the middle school level and other high schools so I hope that helps thank you thank you mam president uh first and foremost thank you for this presentation I know it's been long it's been a lot of information and um I think I spoke a little bit more passionately some other topics but I do want to um Echo with trusty Woodley and um vice president Mayberry I it will be our teachers in the classroom that are obligated to enforce this really not too many other people um so I do believe staff and parents equally need to be um have their fair share of input actually probably more than their Fair they should we should really give them the floor really um and uh just like vice president Mayberry I too I got kids in our school district you know um just the other day had to respond to a fire you know hey I can't pick you up from Raider practice and the last thing I need to do is try to dial hey thank you for calling SP Springs High School blah and try to get a hold of someone you know to you know press one press town and so like you know there so it's like that insurance that you know those of us that are working families you know we like that ability I I know I do as a like hey you know I'm not messaging to make sure you fed a dog and then you know that you're going to have to take the bus home because you can't go to practice so there are going to be a lot of input and I just you know really um I don't want to be too hasty about this um with all your respect mam president so I don't know this is something that you know we can get it done I mean and to you know trust with's point and we saw how the Cannabis stuff was implemented and the lack of T you know the there's a lot of failures in that being implemented so quickly you know um you know I mean we saw it with our our state funding for Education being siphoned out of that marijuana money so um you know I don't want to I don't want to rush this I I I this is something that's going to be implement districtwide it needs to be well thought out um to your point not you know look shoot name or whatever it was we don't want to be doing that so um but I am open to idea but I definitely we definitely need to listen to our teachers staff and and our parents on this one all right so we've all had the opportunity and I think that we should give the final word to our studenty okay so I I am so sorry Annie I didn't get H trusty Nicollet I am so sorry and you're the final word because yours is extremely important and mine is adjunct to that um I would like to shorten the timeline as well I don't have a discreet time when I think that should be because I think we still need to do some research resarch we need to collect some data we need to have deep conversations and we need to include just as many people as we can because our students go out into the community and I think every voice can be important certainly students staff and parents families are the most important voices we've collected that information for years in many ways and I know we can do it again I would like to see safe and healthy schools have a deep discussion on this possibly participate in some open forms um because we find that some parents will families and students will complete um an online survey and some would rather talk in person and and we know that to be a fact so I and I don't know as I really think we need the Board needs a policy other than the polic policy should be let's do what's best I I don't think we need a discret policy by the way I think we have enough policies but I would like to get on this sooner rather than later um and on that note uh trusty Nicollet and for the public to know we may not need to adjust a policy because the admin reg is really how this goes about it so in the research that staff does and that superintendent erns does it may very well be that we don't have to address this in that way so to that point and now and again trusty Nicollet I'm so sorry for jumping over you but I would like to give the final word to Annie bavia our student representative thank you um I wrote out a list really quick so I can be thorough about this um first I think this is my opinion and from what I've seen and what stud voice has talked about I think it should be what Reno High did where personally I'd prefer to be you know in my backpack but then again I know I don't need to be checking my phone every second and so having in my backpack would work for me or the phone caddies but then you know there's cost to that but I think one of those options would be the most most viable option for kids to be like okay yeah it's reasonable but it's you know it's going to be change and not everyone's going to be happy with it no matter what we do I also think it should be a districtwide policy I think that might just be me but I think it's just so hard having every school have something different but then if we have better support for like well we don't have this kind of admin support like that school does and that school is doing it better because they have that support like then that kind of support needs to be offered rather than letting them just make their own policy I think that's kind of where we're tripping up because some schools don't take it as seriously as others but if it's you know a districtwide thing that we're just all doing it'll be more I mean well and you get feedback from other people because then you're hearing about what other schools are doing and what's working um my second point is I think it'd be good to use when needed because yes some schools have the electronics that are needed to compensate for the usage of phones but my school doesn't and not all of my classes do and I know like departments have to like wheel around the carts per class like if they ask for it then the department lead can go give the cart to them but that's just not efficient and we waste 15 minutes of class and that's just class time I don't want to be using um so I think there's definitely use for phones and there's times we don't need them but for the time being they're pretty Ed ful in my classes um which would also be good for having them in the backpack so then we're not spending time getting them out of the caddy and finding them in the caddy or someone takes someone else's phone and then the parents are worried about that and the kids are worried about that um third point so student voice we talked about this and I am the president of student voice so I'm representing them what we had talked about last year which I didn't I don't know if it was implemented fully because if it was last updated 2015 then not quite sure what happened with it um um but we discussed that it would be out of sight out of mind so we'd put it in your backpacks until teacher says otherwise which I think would be the most efficient option that we can see now um and then a lot of concerns were brought up about well what if my parent tries to contact me what if what if what if and that's when the special circumstances come into play and not every day your parent is g to have a big emergency or something crazy is happening where your parent needs to contact you and then again your kids's in school you're going to have to call the school so if that's the case if you if your child has an emergency and needs to leave school you should be I think parents should be contacting the school not their student directly and yes there's privacy reasons and stuff but if we come like come across a way to maybe you know you can keep your privacy but if there's an emergency then you can take your kid out of class that way they're not looking at their phone and telling their teacher they have to leave because then does the teacher just let them go and like that just gets all confusing so yes there's a lot of wh ifs but overall it's taking away from school time so if we're allowing kids to have it on their desk it's like okay well when do we draw the line because yes you might have an emergency but all the time taking away from class instruction is like I don't know if it's worth it but not saying that the issues are not important because I don't want it to come across that way because they are but I think there just needs to be a line drawn more clearly um and then same with like cyberbullying and all that I don't quite know the policies for checking phones because like if it's reported to Safe voice that someone was cyberbullying but it doesn't have to do with like it's not being talked about at school like then do they go through the phones and like do they have do does admin have like the ability to go through someone's phone I that was just something that I was unsure about but I don't know um fourth point I think we should definitely use parents get the information out because we're all still living with our parents for the most part and so I think parents I mean they want to know and can't hurt to tell them and get their input um just to see where that's at and make them feel more connected to what we're doing because it does pertain to them they're supporting us in our education um I would also like to see more teachers in the Halls supporting you know just making sure no fights break out and stuff like that because that's when the phones come out and that's when people want to go on their phones is to gossip and do all of that so I think having more teachers in the phones no more teachers in the Halls during passing would just make a more comfortable environment for a lot of our students um last thing is I know at my school we rely off our phones for educational uses and we rely off it I'm in leadership and so we use it for leadership because it's the only only way we really Outreach besides announcements but no one listens to announcements so it gets really hard to not need to use phones but everything we're doing we're like making kids go to their phones for so that kind of gets confusing cuz we're trying to be like don't go on your phone but everything you're going to need to know for school and extracurriculars is going to be on your phone so that gets confusing and kids can't just access School laptops to be like oh what's the theme of the football game tonight so things like that get confusing which is why why I think maybe we start with a pro like a policy that allows us to have our phones in our backpacks and until that becomes an issue then we can revise it so maybe we have like a three-year plan where it becomes maybe more intense like okay now it's in the phone caddy the second year and then the third year it's in your locker for the whole day but my school doesn't use lockers so that wouldn't work but things like that where maybe we can ease into it because I think we should start with something and then be prepared to revise it like we can't go into it thinking like oh this is going to work immediately but um like what Clark Rodriguez was saying is we can't just jump the gun on it but I think also it would be really good to maybe make a three-year plan where each year we plan to revise and know what we want to do with it further so that it becomes less of an issue but I think we should start with out of sight out of mind unless instructed otherwise by the teachers well thank you so much Annie we appreciate that and thank you so much associate Chief heck Bush and Deputy superintendent McMaster we really appreciate this conversation thank you all right folks that closes item 3.05 and section three in its entirety and we'll move on now to section four our reports starting with our student Representatives report nope NOP yep so this was yeah this this wasn't because this was a discussion and we needed to have this conversation first before we start thinking about decisions not that decisions aren't coming all right and so now we have item 4.01 our student Representatives report I'm just getting in all my talking time right now um student voice is getting started this year so we'll actually be starting this next Friday the 23rd um we have our Retreat so we'll have a lot of hopefully four or five representatives from each high school that we have active student voice committees in um and then we'll be meeting and talking about our top three issues which I'll probably report back about because we like to make a list of three things that we really want to work on and then come up with groups or something along the lines of that um and yeah I mean we haven't really started with much yet but school's starting and everyone's busy so next week we'll kind of get into to it and yeah work on making schools a better place for all of our students great thank you so much Annie and thanks for a great first meeting with us we appreciate it um I do want to add really quick before we go on to item 4.02 that um to the various points our board very much wants to hear from the community on this and so just as a general reminder to anybody who's watching you can email all seven of us at one email address and that is boardmembers wasow schools.net so if you ever want to reach our board on any topic you can email board members wasow schools.net and immediately that email goes to all seven of us all right and now we'll move on to item 4.02 our board reports and we'll go ahead and start with trusty wesle thank you president Smith um so I am very happy that school has started I was absolutely bored out of my mind um and then I just want to give a shout out to our USA men's gymnastic team I was able to watch them compete in Paris to stevenh AKA goggles Asher Paul Brody and Frederick um thank you for bringing home the bronze for our overall men's gymnastics and for goggles bringing home the bronze for his pommel horse performance I was able to watch Luke Hobson in the men's freestyle 4x200 swimming and he is a graduate of Reno high it was so dang exciting I can't even tell you but not as exciting as getting back into school so I went attended the W are my pictures there I never do pictures so so the WEA luncheon to welcome our new teachers it was amazing to see all the new faces that are ready to serve our children I am so appreciative I also um attended oh I want want to comment on this the speaker and I cannot remember his name for the life of me what is it coach Rudy but he had some just exciting things um to get the classroom in vigor ated and so that was great to see that I went to the Community Health Alliance um shout out to Oscar Delgado and Megan Dugan on Wells there's also a brand new one in Sun Valley and one on uh Sparks on Audi Boulevard they do so much for the community and this was for the um police appreciation and awards and we have some Heroes not just police officers but we actually have Heroes that are in the was County um school police this is Sergeant Diamond at the back to school Expo where hundreds of backpacks were given out to our students um I want to thank our communication team members Chad Amber and giovana what an amazing turnout we also had HR there it was amazing and uh thank you to Les Schwab Richard Harris Law Firm for donating backpacks that's Mavericks um for our new Debbie CTE program just amazing tables that's all the tables there at the uh Town Mall oh Sparks hi all right thank you man president um yes um I have similar actually updates as well um I'll start off with Clayton Middle School U Mr Martell uh the principal over there he had an open house and that was uh successful U it was nice to see him and all his staff um I purchased one of their polos and I told him I was going to wear it today so uh this will probably be the first time you'll see me not wearing a suit at one of our meetings but um I made a commitment uh I definitely want to ask uh thank the chief for inviting us to the award ceremony for um his police officers and as Colleen stated um trusty West Lake we do have some Heroes um and I mean real heroes like life-saving Heroes not catching a kid cutting class but actually save lives and we appreciate what they do every day we're very appreciative to them I also visited the uh Community Health Alliance uh that's a fqc Fally qu federally qualified Health Center that provides services um primarily to low-income uh families uh they do provide service to all income families but they do predominantly assist with low-income families and um I think that that we may have opportunities with them in the future they have a lot of interest in providing services to our students so we look forward to that opportunity if it comes um I do know that they have a very robust dental program which is primarily for children and we all know that that's very very important for our children so that's good to know and it was it was a very positive good visit and then lastly I did visit with um commissioner Mary luus Garcia at the dean future scholarship uh program um some of us were able to visit with the kids and have conversations and they shared some of their time in space with us and it was just nice to see um tomorrow's leaders and first generation college students at the University so thank you uh thank you I wish I go say I was bored this summer but I can't say that I was with a day job um I did have a series of things lined up to tent I was planning on being there yesterday for opening day of school however my duties took me elsewhere but I did meet uh Adam Mayberry out there um or pass crossed um but uh I will say I'm glad to hear and unfortunately I didn't miss the uh police officer's award ceremony um but I am happy to hear that this current Administration um and our new police Chief is making this more public more family involved so um that is something that's new and that's been implemented and I'm happy to Happ to see that our families of our awarding officers are present um I've already rescheduled my next police R along because I wasn't able to make it yesterday um so I excited for new school year and getting out there and seeing our students and our staff at work so thank you thank you very much I had a a great pleasure of visiting Dorth middle school during the registration week uh a lot of exciting families and students uh I walked in observed uh sort of was unannounced didn't really talked to too many administrators but uh I sense some real positive interactions with the staff and students and it was good to see had a opportunity to visit with the children's cabinet I want to give uh Kim Young the CEO a shout out as well as Ashley Foster children's cabinet is um just amazer with the community with this District uh provides a lot of supplemental support so I was grateful to have a tour of their of their facilities and the resources they provide also uh accompanied some my colleagues on the Community Health Alliance tour um and mentioned the wo Education Association new educator luncheon is always uh something I enjoy attending and um meeting our our new teachers uh and building up some excitement as we go forward uh i' also appreciate Chief Moore and his team and being invited to their annual Awards recognition the school police um indeed Heroes for sure and I think president Smith will be uh talking more about that in the future with some of the the Deeds that they commit that they uh that they did um also that the back to school Expo was well done thank you for um raising bringing that forward and raising awareness of all the services and activities and events that the school district has um superintendent Earth so thank you for that and uh yeah dudy called for me too on uh yesterday so I'm I'm glad to see the folks students at birdeye are back in school and everything is uh is secure on the home front in birdy um that concludes my report thank you um I want to thank Barbara I'm not going to give a last name who who uh sent this book to me the anxious generation Who provided a very solid template for me to be thinking about our personal device usage cell phone usage and I promised her that I would share it I've already shared it with my colleague trusty Mayberry and I'm going to share it with our student representative it's a it's a wonderful read and I grew up not being able to write in books I wrote all over that book there's stickies in there and please do the same do not be afraid to write in it share your thoughts um I I serve on the waso CASA Foundation board and I had the opportunity to witness 17 new new Casas court appointed special Advocates being sworn in these are very special people some of them former teachers and principals are a voice for children in foster care extremely important voices and uh it was just a pleasure to spend time with them uh I attended the Clayton and billing Hurst open houses and I'll tell you it was fun watching people try and open lockers and parents trying to help them and finding their classrooms and it reminded me of days gone by because I been there done that and it was just fun it was just fun and there was also an icy truck and everybody loved that the administrator welcome back uh session was the energy in that room um with principles other administrators was absolutely Dynamic and it told me once again that we as a was County School District are very blessed very fortunate to have people that are hardworking intelligent care and are willing to give their life to this endeavor to education it it was wonderful I attended the building Futures conference which was a conference that was put on by the Nevada Department of Education and it was an a Statewide conference and so there were a lot of colleagues there and the conversations over two days were were uh um well there's not enough time to tell you and then uh of course the was County School District police Awards uh wow they are awesome they love and care for our students as much as our teachers and our janitors and our bus drivers and again we are truly blessed attended the Bernice Matthews play structure dedication summer graduation back to school Expo and I joined our new superintendent Joe Ernst on first day school visits and we all around the town and had a wonderful time the Community Health Alliance tour and I'm the last thing I'm going to say is today my hus is my husband's birthday happy birthday Mark that's Mark with a c and out of love and respect I am not going to give your age hun I'm just going to say happy birthday all right I'll wait for you to um get the photos up um so while JJ does that oh I don't think that's mine no that's okay I that's okay I can get started while those come up because it's not the first thing anyways so obviously happy back to school that was um really great um I visited as part of the first day of school activities SW Middle School Sparks high school and trainer middle school that's where I learned the fun fact about Deputy superintendent McMaster and Lucy Dugan um I also want to bring some attention and congratulations to the six Washo Olympians in this year's Olympics including our graduates from Reno high school and Reed so very very proud of them this first picture shows uh dropping off some school supplies and personal hygiene items at a local Reno fire station in support of the communities and schools annual fill the bus program it's always so important they're in our schools community and schools has also expanded to five additional schools and so that was an exciting moment and then my next picture is a really great story so the the young woman in black you'll see trusty Woodley and you'll also see assembly woman Natha Anderson who is one of our Educators here in the Washo County School District so that woman in black the young woman her name is Michelle and she is the current uh program director for the Nevada first gen Network prior to that she was a Dan's future scholar student and do you know who when she was in Middle School who inspired her was trusty Alex Woodley well before he was ever a trustee he came to Dean's future Scholars and he spoke to them and he talked about applying yourself in your future it spoke to her it changed her life and she then took off on the path that she's on and the reason why um our educator Natha Anderson is also in this photo is because when funding for the Nevada first gen Network came up in front of the legislature she was one of the Champions to fund the program where Michelle now leads and so I just just want to show that as a full picture and well before Alex Woodley was a honorable trustee at thisas he was inspiring uh local students um I had lunch with recent uh student trustees Victoria Gomez and Ivy batall they're both doing really well in college and say hello um it was an honor to speak to an entire Ballroom of new Educators at their welcome lunch I participated on behalf of the board um in a Trey Meadows Regional planning governing board meeting I witnessed my first ever but not my last waso County School District Police Department Awards which was one wonderful more in a public setting on that also the ribbon cutting of the new playground at Bernice Matthews Elementary School so thank you so much to q& D construction and education Alliance for making that happen and it was incredibly honoring to be a part of the summer graduation ceremony it was my first one and I'm really excited at a future meeting to talk about how we support students whose success maybe does not follow a traditional 4-year plan so thank you so much all right and so that closes now item 4.02 and we'll go to item 4.03 superintendent Ern report thank you president Smith uh so it's been a really uh active and enjoyable couple of weeks here prior to the start of school kind of take it back to visiting with our new teachers back at our w UEA uh back to school uh really great event and it really reminds us all uh on why we come into education such an exciting opportunity to impact our students lives and uh it was great to be able to visit with all of the new Educators and it it was a real nice event uh as a school district we've been working really hard to look at um our teacher vacancies and we as a school district really set a goal uh back in June we were looking at uh in the neighborhood of 250 teacher vacancies to start the school year and because of tremendous efforts and the leadership of many uh we were able to start the school year down uh below 10 total vacancies and uh when we look at what's at the heart of Education it's those teachers that are in front of our kids each and every day and so really proud of our team team's efforts uh I think that it has been substantial progress and uh uh as a as a new superintendent in the school district uh exceedingly pleased with the work of our team had a chance to go to graduation summer graduation many of these things have been mentioned by others uh summer graduation is a reminder of why we do the work that we do um seeing our students their families uh and the perseverance uh that they show uh through many challenging circumstances and watching them achieve uh their diploma uh just as a reminder for all of us uh about why education is so important and their a testimony uh firsthand to seeing what is capable and what can be accomplished Reno toown the back to school Expo was a tremendous event I think the uh leadership of our Communications team um you know it really was something uh many of you who were in attendance had an opportunity to see our school district and our Community Partners uh leaning in to really support our um students uh when I arrived uh had a chance to to see what the the end of the line looked like and uh that end of the line was probably about 15200 families who were coming through to get backpacks and school supplies and books and it was just a a really um tremendous uh event uh so many of our staff were on hand uh helping students get registers finding their bus stops on the first day of school uh just just again tremendous teamwork to get started that took us to yesterday the back to school and uh you know back to school events were were tremendous I think uh um the principles who took time out of their day to to welcome all of us to their schools uh and take us around and see so many of the exciting things that were happening at our school and uh then also wanted to talk about uh some of the work that occurs behind the scenes clerk rodrigus talked about some of his efforts and where they were this week and uh and uh you know those efforts are also within our school district our operations our emergency management team our Communications our associate Chiefs our principales uh all working to make sure that we are best supporting a community in crisis and uh and we're able to Rally around uh some tremendous circumstances that occurred late Sunday evening and into early Monday morning uh and it was tremendous uh team effort to make sure that we were M helping ensure the safety of all in the community and then very happy to have started school today at verd Elementary uh seeing our staff our students our families coming back uh it was a great so now uh we've got incline uh that will be starting next week and we're going to go out and see our kindergarten students uh but we uh have started our school year and I some of the earlier sentiments I do think that there's tremendous energy there's uh tremendous um positivity uh and I think that we'll continue to capitalize on that uh as we all continue to work together so it's been a real rewarding couple of weeks to start the school year I also thank the trustees for your attendance your leadership at the various events and the Deep dialogue that occurred this evening to help us continue to wrap our hand heads around uh fundamental issues that we're uh looking at going forward so that's the first couple of weeks as a superintendent Annie it's wonderful to have you that smile is always golden and your input uh you have a way of really kind of making things a bit simpler for all of us to kind of help understand some really critical uh ideas and so welcome thank you and it's really nice to have you here yeah all right well thank you so much superintendent Ernst and that closes out item 4.03 and we'll move on now to section five our closing items and we'll begin with item 5.01 our public comment and JJ who do we have um I will also mention as JJ calls up the first name just as a reminder we have our norms and our expectations up here on the screen that acts as a level set for everyone who's joining us today Valerie fanaka welcome Miss fanaka I haven't had my eye surgery yet so I can't read your Norms sorry um um on that note we will restart your time make sure let's please restart Miss Fiona's time we also have it printed on the cards and I believe we also have signs out there as well that's okay I have a First Amendment right too I would like to address the channel 2 news report I saw with h Beth and Tim Waltz our new VP candidate who has not received one delegate vote save our democracy yay um I can tell it contains disinformation and misinformation during their reporting they stated that you and Tim are both Educators if this is true I'll apologize here and now right here at this spot if you have a degree in education I'm very sorry I have devoted my time here today I have asked them to correct their mistake but perhaps you can clear it up since they don't want to on their own you have loads of Sway With The Press uh both you and Mr wals are good at lying as we now know he's also guilty of Stolen Valor I suspect neither of you would know the absolute truth if it hit you in the face thank you Miss fanaka and I can confirm I've never called myself an educator thank you JJ who do we have next Roger Edwards welcome Mr Edwards okay Joanie Hammond welcome Miss Hammond good evening superintendent president Smith and trustees I'm Joanie Hammond I want to compliment you on the discussion today on electronic devices it was the first time since I've attended school board meetings that you actually talked about education of students thank you president Smith for saying quote we want to improve academic outcomes I've never heard that before a big part of today's meeting was spending 63,5 7,782 2 cents no mention of how the money will improve education well it's nice to know every child's name it would be more impressive for you to show how the children are being Ed educated did all of you forget we're the worst school district in Nevada and Nevada is the worst schools in the nation we also have the distinction of having the most pornographic books in school libraries of any school district in the nation the research was done by capital resource in institute there's ongoing violence in schools against students and teachers do you wonder if part of the problem in hiring teachers and other workers in schools is they don't want to work here I think at the beginning of the year it's time to look at what could be done to improve education of the our students and also keeping our teachers safe and what could be done differently to improve education yes I said improve education twice thank you very much Miss Hammond Darla Lee welcome Miss Lee good afternoon uh Darla Lee for the record uh yes I'd like to uh actually um piggyback on on the former speaker to say that it was very nice to hear the very complete discussion about the devices and how in important they are for our students to uh for their education not to be so minimized and I know I have spoken with uh by email to uh my trustee Colleen Lake about this months ago and sent her I believe I sent you a study that was done and and how important so it's finally come up and that's why I haven't been here for quite a while why I wanted to attend so I was glad to see that it was a very thorough discussion um except for the fact that the uh the possibility for again uh disruptions in the class if uh a if a student doesn't want to comply with a policy what are going to be the absolute uh stringent of disciplinary uh effects of somebody being uh uh pushing back a teacher uh you know refusing to uh to give up their cell phone Etc so I know there's a lot of moving parts to this but if you do come up with a districtwide policy then you certainly have to have some uh disciplinary elements uh over and above what is on the books now with restorative justice because that is disciplines nothing in my opinion so uh again I was glad to hear this review um I and I'm I'm always Amed at uh apparently there is uh a wonderful out you know out uh growth of resources and uh community help and so it just is baffling to me that we can have so much input from the community from you folks and yet our students are so again so low in the ratings that we have not since all of you have been and I've been coming to these board meetings there has been no change in the academic level on a Statewide or a nationwide level it's time for us to uh somehow utilize more than you're using now to bring students and if it is just a fact of the moral decline of our nation that is the sad okay thank you very much Miss Lee Mario Fitzpatrick welcome Mario Mr Fritz Patrick good evening uh superintendent and president Smith and the Board of Trustees my name is Mario Fitzpatrick and I am a social studies teacher at McQueen high school first of all I want to thank you all for the hard work and dedication you have done over the last couple of years the cohesiveness between teachers uh The District staff and you all have been at a level that I have not seen in my 19 years of teaching so thank you so much for all your hard work um I do want to follow up on the conversation around cell phones I had uh spent an hour or so typing up this nice little speech that after listening to the conversation I'm just going to scrap that and go off some notes I wrote down um I I think the most important thing from a teacher lens that we need to consider is is the addictive nature of phones today five years ago I felt very strongly that I could retach and and and teach students as um associate Chief hack Bush talked about the the responsible way to use cell phones that took care of 99% of the problems but I will say that since the pandemic that is definitely shifted um students are tied to their phones in in a way that I as a non psychologist can understand um but I know that even as adults we all find ourselves guilty sometimes of probably being on our phones when we shouldn't be and I find it much much more difficult now to teach uh students the appropriateness of when you should be your phone and unfortunately our teachers are the front lines of this and I know that many of you feel very strongly about this that one of the most important things that leads to Student Success in a classroom is building relationships last year I had 36 documented instances where I had to take a phone from a student which meant they were not happy with me which meant that they were probably dis disengaged from the learning that we were doing in my classroom um in one instance a student that I had to take her phone after multiple violations at the beginning of the year her and I did not have a great relationship and that feels bad to me that that that was the result of that uh similar L um I had another student that was a great student all year last year who at the end of last year started to be on her phone more consistently um I took it I told her she could come back at the end of class and she started crying and yelling at me and this was a student that I had a good relationship with all year so there's something going on there that didn't exist previously that I do think that that we really do need to address I appreciate uh some of you commenting tonight that we need to tackle this sooner rather than later um there is no perfect policy for this we can't let perfect be the enemy of good um and I think that the sooner that we can do this the better off we're going to be and I I the last not I just want to leave you with is that think about this that tomorrow there will probably be hundreds if not thousands of students who will lose instructional minutes because they are distracted by their cell phone thank you for your time thank you very much Mr Fitzpatrick Bruce Foster welcome Mr fostor hey uh good evening and we all getting hungry uh ladies and gentlemen Bruce Foster for the record a Granddad of nine grandkids and I really appreciate you reviewing uh this thing this is a super computer it can either be used for good very good like uh Bible apps you know devotionals every morning or it can be used for evil uh my grandson was an after school program and he was shown men getting it on with men and women getting on with uh women and it just really affected him and it was we pulled him out immediately or my daughter did uh but he's still continually affected and then the other issue and I didn't didn't know that if uh we've talked about that part of the issue is uh the pinogy that is rampant that is on this thing uh we have uh an issue where I ran into a uh bestg girlfriend uh of my stepdaughter uh that teaches math at Reed high school and she says this is the main main problem that she has besides not having enough uh officers to quell the destruction of Reed high but uh she said it also affected his little guy Michael uh in an after school program uh so we need to do something about this and I think we need to do it uh ASAP but I also want to bring to mind uh something else and this is not to disparage uh president Smith in any way I just am really concerned uh as a watch County resident is that President Smith uh represents uh or is the face of wasow County School District and so I am really concerned uh based upon this picture uh the ideologies that had been gleaned from uh this president vice president-elect uh Tim Waltz and Tim Waltz what does he uh represent governor of Minnesota and I'm just hoping that uh you know she's in a position position of power and she has a position of that gavel which I'm very acquainted with uh and other issues that uh that come to mind which I hope these ideologies are not filtered into this signed a bill requiring schools provide tampons and boys bathrooms let Minnesota burn during the George Floyd R it supports pornography in schools yeah but we can uh have pornography in schools but it's horrible uh otherwise supports abortion up to birth and many others thank you very much Mr Foster kayn Evans welcome president Evans hi my name is kayln Evans president of the wo Education Association um I'm here today actually with some amazing Educators here in our district um not only do they work full-time in the classroom five six days a week um they also serve um on the WEA board um as you all know I'm I'm out at a lot of things I'm president at a lot of things there is such a tremendous amount of work that is done behind the scenes and the successes that we have been able to have as an organization and I feel that we've been able to help really Drive uh positive changes within the district none of these things happen without um some of these amazing folks here today we uh had a few of them that couldn't get child care but again you know not only are they teaching but they have families and then they do this uh uh full-time they chair committees within our organization the Committees that really drive the organization as a whole and so uh we wanted to make it a point to get out here as we're starting a fresh new year to let um let them introduce themselves real quickly uh and put the faces behind really the the the the people who were doing the work um for our organization so thank you thank you very much president Evans Gilbert lens welcome Mr lens hi I'm I'm assuming this is the one Kaylin turned in I was going to speak also later I'm Gilbert lens I teach at North valle's High School you want me to do all of it okay um I'm Gilbert lens I teach at North Valley's High School I teach agricultural mechanics um this just going to be a quick thing um I'm an educator uh I'm also a combat veteran um and I'm also a board member on the WEA I'm the treasurer for the WEA I've been teaching it uh in wash County School District since 2008 with a couple of breaks for uh deployments and other training and things like that um so I guess I'm hitting my cell phone thing also our sociey uh as a whole has become completely dependent on our phones we are familiar with a plethora of features contained in this little box um which I just altered and wrote my thing on um so uh that being said there are many workplaces where phones are not allowed phones have become a serious problem in the military for example uh allowing our children to become addicted to social media and cell phones may have an effect akin to addicting them to drugs Tik Tok challenges like destroying bathrooms or vandalizing cars have increased popularity in recent years our students are missing valuable instruction and education that that uh contributes to brain development they miss valuable time reading books and having real conversations uh if we really want to improve student outcomes we must go back to teaching in-depth critical thinking we must go back to students reading and discussing and doing things in real time and in real space kind of like in the shop where I teach uh Tik Tok and other social media is addictive I've seen my students get so hooked and I heard Mario talking about it also that they get extremely agitated when their uh phones get taken away uh when they're confiscated and they start jonesing for that next bathroom pass so they can get their phone fixed they get a little upset when I take their phone to trade it for the bathroom pass my class but after a while they kind of get used to it um if you're not familiar with how algorith Ms work they're Insidious and the platforms do specifically Target adolescence growing brains uh thereby affecting development with lifelong effects I'm not convinced that we're recognizing the gravity of this issue uh this is worth sacrificing the convenience of communication for the future brain development in our students teachers do need help though and I heard Mario say it also we need help we need that consistency we need a policy that leads the district in a unified approach to get student students off their phones as soon as possible uh we have to make that sacrifice now and save the future I just want to reemphasize that I'm speaking as Gilbert lens not as part of the wa right now in case that wasn't clear um and uh and I want to thank you all and it's a pleasure seeing you all again and meeting you and have a great evening thank you so much Mr Lind great job by the way Jenny Martinez welcome Miss Martinez hello my name is Jenny Martin I serve on the wa this is my third year I was the elementary director for 2 years I'm now transferring over um I change positions in the district I'm now an elf which is an English facilitator so I'm helping going and getting to work with lots of teachers really working on those academics working on those pushes to make our student growth go up and our teacher efficacy go up as well um I just wanted to come out and introduce myself I'm a product of wasow County School District I went to Alice Smith Donner Springs um Bon middle school and graduated from wer High School uh Mr erns was actually one of my fifth grade teachers so it's kind of cool to be back with that but um yeah thank you for all the work you do and again we're just here kind of making sure that you know who we are and um thank you for always being willing to work with us thank you very much Miss Martinez and I think you're a wonderful elf Robert mson welcome Mr menson good evening my name is Robert mson I am the vice president of the wasu Education Association I also serve on the Nevada state board of uh Nevada State Education Association board of directors as well um I've been an educator um in this district for this is going on my 27th year I was at Pine Middle School for 5 years and this is my 20 second year I don't do math thank you 22nd year at wster high school as we begin the year um I am a product of waso County I went to Glenn Duncan trainer middle school and hug High School um I went to the University of Nevada Rino I I love this District I think that it is um provides a lot of opportunities for our students do we have a lot lot of room to grow absolutely and one of the reasons I serve on this board of directors is because I feel like advocating for educators advocating for our staff advocating for the funding for our schools is advocating for our students we need to advocate for our students so that we have the best education opportunities and that we as a staff and as a district are looking out for our kids um so I believe that working at the state level at the legislature working at the local level with the school board partnering with you Educators all across the board bus drivers uh school lunch workers our counselors everybody speech pathologist everybody um working together we can provide the best opportunities for our kids thank you for the work that you do thank you for working with our associations and thank you for partnering thank you very much Mr mson Adrian Connelly welcome Miss Conelly good evening my name is aent Conley I've been a teacher in wasow county for 22 years I graduated from in Vegas sorry but my kids went to school here I'm very happy to say waso County in 202 4 was voted the fifth best District in the state so yeah yes um I joined the union because I was raised by a single mom who really believed in excused the language um put up or shut up that if you really want to see change then you need to make change happen and you can't just sit around and Grumble about what you want to see so if you want to see change and I wanted to see change I wanted to help my students I wanted to help my fellow colleagues and I wanted to see have my children see me make those changes and help those changes so that's why I did it and I'm very happy to see my children now have graduated from Reed and making those changes and seeing them making positive changes in people's lives so thank you thank you very much Miss Conley Maggie bab welcome Miss bab um good evening my name is Maggie bab I am a second grade teacher um at Desert Heights Elementary School I have taught second grade at Desert Heights for nine years this is my 10th year there was one year I went down to first grade and I was like NOP got to go back up second grade so I've been out here um for 10 years like I said since I graduated with my MERS in Colorado and transplanted out here but I just I love the community so much and I you know work very hard to make sure that we are uplifting our district um that I love uh I am serving on the WEA the was show Education Association as the elementary director currently um the reason I got involved with that is I truly believe that public education is like the Cornerstone of our democracy it is the great equalizer for our students and I want to do everything we can to empower our student Empower our students and we do that through empowering our teachers to advocate for what they need in order to have those good working conditions and good student conditions for students so I appreciate you all doing the work that you've been doing and the Partnerships that we've had in the past couple years and um as we continue forward thank you thank you very much Miss bab Kaye gr the board received emails from Kelly house and Debbie Sturgill all right well thank you all so much that closes item 5.01 and brings me now to item 5.02 our next meeting announcement which is going to be August 27th 2024 and that brings me now to item 5.03 adjournment and at 6:41 p.m. thank you