e e e Tom e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e ran e e all right everybody it is 2:09 p.m. on this Tuesday July 23rd 20124 and this is the regular meeting of the waso County School District Board of Trustees clerk Rodriguez can you please do a roll call yes ma'am trusty church here vice president Mayberry here trusty nette good afternoon I'm here president Smith here trusty weslake here trusty Woodley here Madam President we have corn fantastic all right so that brings us now to item 1.03 and we have a a very special first and a very special person who will be doing this pledge he is a veteran of the waso county school district oh hold on we haven't we haven't stood up yet I'll call for it in a minute um he has been with this district for over 25 years he has worked and dedicated his life to Donner Springs Elementary van Gord Elementary Roy gum Alice Smith Alice Taylor and Anderson six schools in our district he has been in the office of school leadership as a co-lead area superintendent he was our chief continuous Improvement officer he's been a basketball and softball coach in the waso county school district he's received State and National recognition for his work he has been the Principal of the year he was also the new teacher of the year when he first started he loves his family he cheers for the Detroit Lions and he has committed his professional life to waso County please superintendent Joe Ernst will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the for it stands na andice for thank you so much superintendent Ernst and welcome thank you president Smith now we'll move on to item 1.04 our Landing 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 Liv this land for more Generations than can be counted truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mut ual 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 Wu Washo n mu 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 the connections they have to these places we extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn in their territory thank you now that closes item 1.04 and section one in its entirety and we will move on now to section two our consent agenda items so today we are looking for um consideration on items 2.02 all the way to 2.34 uh prior to this meeting I do have noticed that we will be pulling several of the items um so JJ I say that we're pulling consent agenda item 2.14 correct yep correct very good and that information is already included as part of consent agenda item 2 .12 so as a notice to trustees in whatever potential future motion we're just going to pull that number out and then um I do know that we have the request for 2.33 to be pulled by trusty church and trusty church can you remind me maybe where you landed on the other items that you were considering yeah and I'll try to be quick on each of them but 2.19 on nasby 2.34 safe and healthy schools commission 2.31 on a resolution uh so on the resolution is it possible that you make a statement during the open discussion period on that or does it fully need to be pulled I can do that good idea excellent all right I very much appreciate your um compromise on that just to make sure I've got those numbers I've got 2.19 which is the nasby issue uh I have of course 2.33 and 2.34 did I miss another one in there or were those the three I um so on on 2.31 uh trusty church has agreed in the open discussion period to make a statement of his interest on that item rather than fully pulling it so okay so just to make sure that everyone's following along uh 2.14 is completely removed from the consent agenda item because that is already represented in 2.12 and then we will prepare staff and individual discussion question on items 2.19 2.33 and 2.34 so colleagues that leaves us with an open discussion period for 2.02 to 2.13 2.15 to 2.18 and 2.20 to 2.32 so are there any general statements that anyone would like to make on those items trustey church just a question do we need to approve the consent agenda we will later but now is the open comment period and you had mentioned perhaps wanting to do that for one of the items now would be a great time thank you so 2.31 adoption of was County School District board resolution a resolution to in support of invest uh Nevada Association of school superintendent document supporting public education in Nevada for possible action the reason I wanted to comment on that is when I read it and some of my constituents said well is this an anti- school choice agenda item and I read it three different times and I spoke to staff and it's not it doesn't say we do or do not support school choice so with that in mind to make clear that it is not anti-school choice I I will support that thank you very much all right seeing no other lights on uh JJ do we have any public comment on items 2.0 2 to 2.13 2.15 to 2.18 2.20 to 2.32 we do not okay excellent so I will bring that back to this board and I will look for a motion to approve consent agenda items 2.02 to 2.13 2.15 to 2.18 and 2.20 to 2.32 so moved second all right so we have a motion by TR Woodley seconded by Tristy nicholet I see no lights on for discussion on the motion all those in favor please say I I I all those oppose nay all right motion carries thank you so much colleagues and now we will go ahead and we'll move to the first of the three pulled items beginning with item 2.19 and this is approval of payment of annual membership dues to the Nevada Association of school boards for the 20 2425 in the amount of $24,999 182 again this is now a separate item for possible action and I will uh yield to you trusty church as the person who pulled thank you very much and again I'll try to be brief there's no sense in beating a a dead horse but uh I've spoken out on nby before I was on their board previously uh I think they've lost their Direction I'm concerned with some of our money goes to them then gets funneled to National organizations whose uh ideas I do not agree with in fact the was County School District voted to not belong to that National Organization so to me supporting the local state organization that supports National is counterintuitive but I just have real concerns and we had a presentation on nby a few weeks ago maybe a month or two ago I I understand they're listening but they haven't made me happy that they're actually acting and dealing with the issue of quality of Education I think again they've lost their focus and gone off in different directions a little too much lobbying a little less attention to quality of education so I'm prepared to vote no and I appreciate you letting me put that on the record thank you very much trusty Church JJ do we have any public comment on this one item we do not all right seeing as we have no public comment I will entertain a motion on item 2.19 I move to approve item 2.19 second all right we have a motion by trusty nlet seconded by vice president Mayberry seeing no lights on and no discussion on the motion all those in favor please say I I I I all those oppose nay nay all right motion carries 6 to1 thank you very much colleagues and now we'll move on to the next item which I believe is 2.33 and let me get this read correctly so this is the approval to direct superintendent and the office of general counsel pursuant to board policy 9165 to perform pre-litigation due diligence into the state public charter school Authority's decision to approve matter Academy of Northern Nevada and or matter Academy of Northern Nevada's operation in north valy and approval to file litigation against either the state public charter school Authority Andor matter Academy of Northern Nevada at the discretion of the superintendent and the office of the general counsel again this is now an individual item for possible action and as the trustee who pulled I will defer to you trustee church thank you very much and I will be extremely careful I will not discuss any attorney client information I just want to discuss some of the many emails we've had and everything here therein would be public information uh number one the Optics of this could be perceived as anti-school Choice whether it's true or not the Optics could be perceived that way I am pro-school choice although that's not not specifically the issue here uh number one I understand there are other administrative actions being taken on this matter of the maer academy and so I think it would be premature to uh use taxpayer dollars for that purpose and there are other administrative actions still pending additionally uh it was pointed out in an email again doesn't mean it's true that uh we engaged we the school somebody in the school district the school district whatever Eng engaged opinion our lobbyist group to uh reach out and get some information on this that concerns me as a truste I think it's inappropriate since we as a board never approved that use of opinion to do those purposes if true if true big emphasis there but if true I am not at all happy that uh pinion would get involved in this particular legal matter and uh finally um I just don't believe that the costs involved are Justified I just don't want to use taxpayer money uh for this matter I think that money is much better spent elsewhere so with all those things in mind unless somebody changes my mind I will probably be voting no thank you all right JJ do we have public comment on item 2.33 Sandy tibbit wonderful welcome Miss tibit um something new that I'd also like to point out is that we do have our board policies and expectations up here in a PowerPoint and that's for all members of our public who are joining us and participating in this process Sandy timet for the record so I find it very interesting the board president chose to include agenda item 2.33 in the 34 consent items as if trying to sneak it through without an open discussion which which is not uh really surprising so thank you trusty church for pulling it so per the emails I obtained from a records request uh president Smith strongly opposes this particular charter school so I would have thought she would have wanted the board to openly discuss pre-litigation and filing litigation against either the state public charter school Authority and or matter Mater Academy of Northern Nevada so November 18th Smith she reached out to valued colleagues and fellow trucky Meadows Regional planning governing board members vice mayor Naomi der and council member Devon Reese to voice her concerns about the use permit filed for matter Mater Academy citing a serious increase in traffic and other community impacts so rich Naomi derer signed on to this ridiculous argument and emailed a handful of Reno City officials including Hillary shibi citing negative traffic impacts because parents would come twice a day to drop off and pick up their kids so where is their opposition to the hundreds of thousands of Apartments being constructed across the valley that are causing major traffic issues and negatively impacting the lives of wasel County residents they don't care because the apartments don't negatively impact they're funding like a new expanded charter school would a charter school operating outside of wasel County School District's oversight and they are doing it successfully so Kudos Tom Mater Academy we definitely need more of them wasel County and the other Reno officials that are in opposition to Mater need to retreat from this fight the parents and the students of this community want school choice which is evidenced by the expansion of Mater Academy to a k through 12 Charter in the North Valleys so don't be selfish and take away the opportunities and dreams of the 1600 students who are looking to make Academy for their education you need to re-evaluate the negative impact your decisions are making on the parents of these Mater students and the staff who employs them thank you and I have those emails if you would like me to share them with you thank you Miss tiet that's all I have for this item thank you so much all right so I'll bring it back to this board uh my president I I move that the Board of Trustees approve cons agenda item 2.33 a second all right so I have a motion by clerk Rodriguez seconded by trusty Woodley uh I do see a light on for trusty nicholet and also vice president Mayberry on the motion final statement um I I've said it before me many times and I've said it to Mater When I visit I say it to all of our was County School District sponsored Charter Schools I've said it in the news his paper I've said it because I believe it and I know it's right I believe in the right and responsibility for parents to be able to choose those educational decisions that are best for their children and their family um my concern in this particular instance is that we dot all the eyes and cross all the teas zoning and discussion about traffic um those are not my areas of expertise this is going to become coming before the Reno city council um and I look forward to their discussion and their decision and learning more about how we move forward to make things right and good for everyone in our community and as you can see this really is an agenda item to direct the superintendent and his team based on their experience education and their research to make the decisions that that are best for Washo County school district and the surrounding communities and I trust their judgment thank you thank you very much Tristy nlet vice president Mayberry uh thank you madam president I I appreciate that yeah you know I um well said uh trusty Nicollet you know this this is uh one item I've lost a little sleepover because it's I've I've been conflicted and I've gone back and forth even at this moment I I you know before I hit the microphone button I may have voted differently than I do now that's just how difficult it is for me I mean overall I think fundamentally you know having uh a private Enterprise come in like this uh and open up a charter school um for uh private gain is a poor and I I really do I uh there clearly needs to be some significant fixes at the legislative level um there are a lot of shady uh things in my view and I'll say that on the record I'm not afraid to that are wrong with this uh at the same time pursuing litigation when it just in my view seems like there's already been precedents that uh have allowed for this uh kind of behavior through our throughout our state um has already been established so I mean honestly I can go either way um and I I appreciate the passion of many of my colleagues you know uh it is um uh it it's it it's it's a very difficult issue for me for sure because I think all as clearly The Narrative is going to be that uh the school district is afraid of competition and that we don't support choice so I would respectfully ask the superintendent to do all he can uh you know to counterbalance that and to make sure that we control the narrative uh in this case um again there's a lot wrong I think there's um I'm not convinced that moving forward with litigation is the right answer either uh and I'll just I'll reluctantly uh plan to support the item thank you thank you very much vice president mayber okay thank you president Smith um I feel very strong wrly um for school of choice I think it's important I think it raises a competitive level that brings about the best in everyone but one thing I will not support is anyone coming into the state of Nevada and basically strip mining us of our resources because that is where the money goes off of what they make on our children it goes to Florida Nevada does not have unlimited resources and I encourage everyone to do their homework and look at where that money is going it's going not to Nevada this is where we live folks we live in Nevada we don't have unlimited money for our communities and the money needs to stay in Nevada but I am for school of choice but Nevada has to come first here thank you thank you very much trusty weslake trusty Woodley uh thank you madam president um I too am for school choice especially um as a Christian as a Catholic I really support Catholic schools a lot I donate to Catholic schools um so I do believe in Choice um what I don't appreciate in this particular situation with this particular item is um similar to what my fellow trustee said there was a lot of shady approaches in trying to get this approved and they did get it approved I also don't appreciate the cheap shot of trying to make it a racial issue or a Prejudice issue I think this is my own personal opinion there's no other agency I've been in this community over 25 years and there is no other agency in this region that does as much or Advocates as much for all of our demographics within the region as the wasel County School District does so I appreciate I appreciate that I've been on the receiving end of that compassion and empathy and and and acceptance as I was appointed here unanimous decision and I appreciate that and I don't appreciate people trying to use and I'll say it the race card especially on this this is cheap shot uh the way they went about doing this was um I have a lot of issues with it I'm not going to go into the details but it was definitely shady and I will be voting for this item thank you thank you m president um also this on put on record too for the community uh we've done a lot of work in North Valleys uh we got the new O'Brien Middle School uh we've got Michael's inke keep that was just open not too long ago and we're actually U I'm just talking with superintendent erns uh over the next two years have a new dead elementary school and we're going to be uh building an addition on to North Valley's High School that'll be servicing the high school uh out there so um by no means as North Valley is being overlooked or underserved I do believe this current board has done a lot been very Progressive out there so I just want to put that on a record as well and just Echo what a lot of my colleagues are saying the manner which this was carried out thank you very much colleagues so we have a motion to approve item 2.33 made by clerk Rodriguez and seconded by trusty Woodley all those in favor please say I I I all those oppose nay nay motion carries 6 to one thank you very much colleagues and now we will move on on to item 2.34 this is the possible action to approve the following to the safe and healthy schools commission the reappointment of Jessica guak kachia parice a government official agency representative for an additional two-year term ending June 30th 2026 and the appointment of Dr Ashley Daffy the at llarge member for a two-year term also ending June 30th 2026 this is a item for possible action in an indiv ual capacity and again I will defer to truste church as the trustee who pulled thank you very much again I for those that watch our meetings it's a broken record so I'll try to be brief but I've consistently been concerned about reappointing individuals without opening it up to the general public uh and that's exactly what it is in this case on the first issue the individual I no question as far as their qualifications it's not a personal attack it's simply that I believe that we should open these up for anybody that wants to apply and that individual can still apply but let's open it up for the community there may be another better candidate out there or somebody with a different point of view on the individual that's being appointed because no one else applied I I've read the policy over and over it says that they didn't apply during the two-e app they were the only applicant during the two-e application period well that's not what the website says the website it says the application period will remain open until the seats are filled so the policy is that we go out far and wide we make extensive efforts to recruit people not just posting it for the bare minimum of two weeks I don't think we've complied and I read the the staff report or the memos that came back and they were worded very carefully but I don't believe that we have done that and I believe this is an important position last time it was open I'm told we had four highly qualified candidates so this time they open it for two weeks and we get one um I I just would like to see this go back to the drawing board make sure we advertise it well in the community set a definitive date when it ends not the application will until the seats are filled what does that mean so people might have applied a day later I'm hearing rumors that there were other applicants but they weren't in that two-e period so uh again I would ask my colleagues to consider sending this back back to the drawing board and opening it up for the general public thank you thank you JJ do we have any public comment on this item we do not all right I will bring it back to this board uh for a possible action on item 2.34 move to approve second second all right we have a motion to approve item 2.34 by trusty Woodley seconded by trusty Westlake seeing no lights on for further discussion on the motion all those in favor please say I I I I all those oppose nay nay motion carries 6 to one thank you so much colleagues and thank you staff for coming up all right everyone well thank you all so much for that uh that now concludes item 2.34 and closes section two our consent agenda items in their entirety we will move on now to section three our items for discussion in information Andor action and we will open first with item 3.01 this is the presentation discussion and possible action to consider and approve the performance targets for the annual contractual requirement for the performance evaluation of the waso county school district superintendent of schools for the 2024 25 school year this is an item for possible action and we welcome Dr Thomas Alsbury of balanced governance Solutions and the inventor of balanced governance and Dr Steve Joel from mcferson and Jacobson who many in our community will remember as half of our Dream Team along with Dr Walt Cooper through the superintendent search so welcome gentlemen and we look forward to experiencing this with the public now president Smith members of the trustees it's great to see everybody again um as I made my way to Reno last night uh successfully navigating some of the airline challenges I uh I really thought about this search and how successful it has been from the moment we started working together um I found we found Dr Cooper and I found uh the Board of Trustees and president Smith to be wonderful to work with and we didn't have any doubts in our mind that there would be a successful outcome and so from the beginning when you we decided how we were going to gather stakeholder feedback and engaging people in the process I want to congratulate you on your transparency your forthrightness and your willingness really to uh to put forward the best foot you could during that interview process it was very comprehensive um it was very inclusive and you ended up with a wonderful outcome and so we are so excited for the future of Washo County and all of your students 64,000 of them um but you know the honeymoon doesn't last very long Mr Ernst is you probably are well aware and I'm sure the uh with with Ms mcneel here that the training wheels are going to be coming off pretty quickly and so our work really in this Final Phase is is about um establishing performance objectives for the first year superintendent as you know we guarantee this process for a period of two years and uh we don't pay off on on it U primarily because we know that the model that that we subscribe to really works well but the work ahead really is now the board and the excuse me the trustees and the superintendent in sync on the most important work that's going to take place and we like doing this work in the summer because it's a little bit more laid-back but uh once school starts you know of course things begin to uh to occur and so it's very important that there be a road map and um I know that's going to be the work that Dr Alsbury is going to be working you through I also want to say what a pleasure it has been for me and for our company to work with Dr Alsbury I've read about him I've actually seen his name published um many times in the literature regarding board governance and superintendent success and um we've had the opportunity to work together bringing uh the best of what what he offers and hopefully the best of what we offer but um I'll close by saying congratulations congratulations on a successful search congratulations on a bright future and know that Dr Cooper and I both uh will cherish the the search and the memories that we've had and we'll use you as a role model as uh as we continue to go forward and you know the nice the nice thing and the not so nice thing about this world is there's always going to be opportunities to do superintendent searches so uh let's keep let's keep this going for a period of years you heard me say on the very very front end takes five years to move the needle I think we have the process in place to be able to get that congratulations Mr Ernst and uh Mrs Smith for your tremendous leadership and to the Board of Trustees and I don't want to uh I also want to call out Mr romardo too he's been absolutely wonderful for us to work with uh through this process as well so with that I'm going to turn over to my colleague thank you very much and thank you Bor for inviting me to be with you tonight and we have we have a little bit of work to do before we start with the activity for this evening um I wanted to review for the sake of the viewing public some of the processes that the board has been through in in this uh search process and then moving forward into the evaluation process of our new superintendent and so just a reminder that the board has adopted a a governance model that's called balanced governance um this particular model just as a reminder is is about balance um I can educate the public just a little bit that most traditional board models uh that train boards will focus on um the superintendent being a sort of the CEO of the board and and in that respect the board is relatively disengaged if you look at the slide that's on the screen right now most traditional uh boards are taught that they should stay out of things they shouldn't micromanage they should keep their hands off and and basically play a PR role in the community but not not much else what we found in our research was that that we didn't see boards doing that as be being very effective and we saw districts that we're having greater success playing a little bit different role than what has been traditional and that role has been a partnership with the superintendent um that's a board that's informed um by the superintendent about what's happening that um the superintendent is keeping the board up to speed on how the progress is being made on goals and the board is involved in the setting of those goals and as well as the oversight and monitoring of those goals and so um the board has um uh wanted to follow this model this governance model and and so in keeping with that they involved early on a a very novel idea which I don't think has been done in most other places and that is to make sure that the selection of their uh company that is going to do their superintend tenant search be familiar with their governing approach um before the this process started to find a new superintendent and that seems to make good sense good practice um have a leader come in understanding what the board how the board governs and what they would like to see for the district moving forward and so we partnered um just to provide training to the company to uh that did the search here and um appreciated their participation and cooperation with that and was very interested in that um in addition to that in we want to make sure that and and Steve's company wants to make sure of course that the superintendent the new superintendent is successful and so in order to do that we want to be sure that there are are strategic goals that there are targets performance targets that are are clear that uh there's an understanding of those performance targets by all of the board that they approve those and also by the superintendent going into a new year so that everybody understands where we're headed what we want to try to accomplish and um how we're going to get there so that's part of why we're here tonight so in addition to sharing some of those preliminary processes we're going to go through a phase of the evaluation the superintendent evaluation that has been adopted by the board so one of the one of the preliminaries um was my working with each of the board members with the interim superintendent and uh with uh superintendent Ern coming in prior to his uh coming into uh the position um and ensuring that we had a clear understanding of what are the district strategic goals that they had been established prior and that we had a good understanding of what was happening in the district um in terms of the procedures and protocols and processes so that again there was transparency and Clarity for everybody involved to provide for the most smooth transition uh by superintendent SS into the district that was our goal so in keeping with that one of the important parts of that with the balance governance approach is has to do directly with the superintendent's evaluation that is it's a specific way to evaluate a superintendent and the balance governance approach to uh evaluating a superintendent first of all is the importance of focusing laser likee by the board on how we're doing how the district is doing and making progress towards its strategic goals so we want the entire evaluation to be really focused on those strategic goals again and the progress now I'll just uh rabbit walk a little bit and say that most you would find most superintendent evaluations are relatively generic in form they'll ask a board to rate you know how's the leadership of the superintendent good medium bad again balanced governance approach is let's look again laser likee at the goals that we have set as a district that are important to us and ask the question has the superintendent uh in ensured that the district has moved forward adequately on those goals and so that's what this evaluation is about it's also focused on growth that idea that we want the superintendent to improve over time we know from our research that if you have frequent turnover of the superintendency that that is linked very tightly to districts that don't have very successful performance and so we want the superintendent uh to be effective uh to be accountable and we also want them to stay for a while so that they can we can realize some of the success you want to speak to that at all Steve I think I have you you mentioned it I think I have yes we know how important that is yeah so in keeping with that there's a pro a process that we also want to use with any kind of evaluation at least in the balanced governance model and that is to make sure that we have a very clear understanding that is we meaning the Board of Trustees and the superintendent has a clear understanding of of what strategic goals and performance targets are going to be focused on in that coming year now I can tell you that in the existing strategic plan um here in in Washo uh County school district there are 5 uh three or excuse me there are 32 let's flip those numbers there are 32 performance targets okay listed well that's more than anyone could handle um and so the board we recommend that the board try to focus in on a few critical and strategically important performance targets for a superintendent's first year now um in order to ensure that this process was um clearly followed and understood and um and that the board reviewed it I met with almost all of the board members individually to review these ideas about balanced governance to remind them that this is about performance and monitoring performance um and uh all but U one of the trustees um trustee Church um chose not to participate in that training um or in the procedures tonight uh that will going to be engaging in but everyone else was has uh reviewed the process that I'm reviewing with you tonight part of that process is um indicated in this uh timeliner cycle and that is that we start first with having a having a process in place that's clear and um detailed on how we go about evaluations and the board has done that if you didn't if you were not aware the board has adopted an implementation guide which is quite detailed and it's available to anyone in the district to review um and it in it details step by step how the board is going to go about the evaluation of the superintendent the step that we're on tonight is where the red arrow is pointing on this slide is to make a decision to narrow those 32 performance targets down to a manageable six performance targets it's my recommendation for this year now part of this discussion and you'll find this in the document in the evaluation document that the board has adopted it talks about what you focus on in an evaluation and of course a a superintendent will engage in trying to make progress on all of the 32 targets I'm sure um but we want to make it meaningful and we want to make it focused so that it's manageable but those items that you focus on in any given year does have a little bit to do it has a lot to do actually with where the superintendent is and where the district is and so with a brand new superintendent those of us who have been in this seat before and has have led organizations School organizations I can tell you that when you first come in there's going to be some structural organizational changes that need to take place you you've going to have to move some people around possibly you're going to have to change some procedures and protocols in your organization and you're going to want to work on the culture of your organization um it's then if we see real and sustainable change we're going to see it come down the road after those organizations shifts have occurred and when we go about it that way we see those changes or those improvements have lasting effect they stay around they have sticking power and so what I would recommend or what the board might recommend for strategic performance goals for a superintendent in their first year on the job is going to be understandably a little bit different than a superintendent that's been around for a number of years so one of the goals tonight is we have these 32 targets they're all important but which of those targets make sense are the most strategically uh viable for this new superintendent erns to be uh putting the majority of their attention on for the year the other thing we want to do with this evaluation process is in making it about growth what I call growth and consultancy and the idea there is that we want this superintendent to succeed we want to hold the superintendent accountable but we want to hold them accountable in a way that gives them a fighting chance to be successful and that means that we're going to have a midyear review how are things going are there midyear adjustments that need to occur we're going to ensure that progress on strategic goals that the superintendent is working on for the valuation is visited to the board at every one of their meetings the board should not be receiving the how are we doing or how did we do this year at the end of the year okay that's called been known in the trade as the autopsy method of evaluation we wait till the patient is gone and then we we find out what what happened and so in this case we want to be a formative process we call it where we're getting the board is getting data all throughout the process and then we make our evaluations at the end of course naturally um and I would like to jump in with that um those of our community and our board that have been doing this for a few years and have seen different reviews done for superintendents including our most recent one we'll note that there are steps and parts of this process that are different than the last time we did this we're always evolving based on community input trusty input and also from staff and that's why you're seeing an evolved process because it matches that feedback because we always want to be agile and responsive thank you very much uh president Smith there is a timeline uh with the evaluation and that is listed here on this slide and we just wanted to make sure the board is of course aware of this and it's in their um evaluation document for the super intenna but we wanted to share this in a open meeting so that the public was aware um it's a very involved process again I mentioned that you see in number three the midyear performance review what we're doing tonight um hopefully we take some action in terms of uh coming to an a consensus on the goals that we're going to focus on um there is then in September the beginning of the final evaluation process and in September that's an opportunity for superintendent erns to present any uh additional data or evidence that indicates progress on the Strategic goals it also um is an opportunity for him to summarize uh what has occurred and maybe what has not occurred some of the challenges behind uh if if progress for example was not made that's a very real realistic possibility and it normal in any District but important that the superintendent have a chance to address so what are we going to do about that if we haven't made adequate progress that's part of it too so in September we start that that information is provided to the board so they have hopefully all the information they they need and all of the reports over the course of the year that they need to answer the question how is the superintendent done in moving us forward on these goals at that point the the board individually will be given rating form it's a rubric on each of these strategic goals and performance targets asking them to rate how has the superintendent done in addition to that the board is individually given an opportunity to write commendations or what we call recommendations for growth that is how can the superintendent improve um moving forward those uh evaluation forms are sent in um in this case I'm acting as the third party consultant to uh compile uh to uh calculate how the scoring came out from all of the seven trustees um in addition I'm gathering all of the recommendations for growth in the last time that we went through this iteration just to as an example and this is pretty standard um there were I believe 63 recommendations for growth that were presented by this board okay and I would suspect that might be similar this next year well that's too many you can't ask somebody to do 63 different things to improve and in some cases the recommendations of improvement might even differ from each other somewhat that is board members one board member may feel an area needs to be improved another one may not think so it needs to be improved upon so we have a process where the board then goes through a rating those um we I we put those comments uh recommendations for growth we do not indicate which board member made that recommendation I think that's important so that it's not a matter of personal personalities it's the board members look at the suggestions for growth on their Merit to be included in the superintendent's final evaluation report um through that rating process then we get down to around six recommendations for growth which is a reasonable amount um that are included in the and in the final report evaluation report um that report is then brought before the board of course for discussion and possible action in open public meeting so that's how the process is uh will play out the one one thing that is different and I should note this that the step and I'm going to back this up um just a little bit this step that we're on tonight um the red arrow is on this identification of what should be the specific areas of focus for this year's evaluation is typically done earlier in the year and the board adopted a cycle where this was we planed to do this in February of this year 2024 um so that again there was an early decision in terms of what are we focusing on in the coming year what kind of data needs to be collected what kind of targets are we trying to hit that provides for better planning for the superintendent better Clarity for the board as well because they know what to put in their agendas uh once they select the items they're focusing on that part partially dictates what they agendize in their meetings well because of the turnover of a superintendent the change in the superintendent that was not possible to do that activity in February and so we had to wait until we had our new superintendant in place and so that's why we're doing this step now okay so the the process that I've um already described just a moment ago is just laid out in this slide I won't go through it the process again but it shows you the dates and the timeline suffice to say we go through the process of coalescing seven different evaluations if you will or rating sheets into one single consensus evaluation for the superintendent um and that occurs between SE starting in September and then culminates in the presentation of the final report at the end of October trusty Nicolet thank you so um that is is there at some point an alignment between the collective trustees evaluation of the superintendent and employees and community yeah it's a great question and one of the things that is included in the um with the targets with the performance targets is an indicator and this would come from the superintendent um an indicator of the data that's going to be collected in order to inform uh how the how the district has done or how the superintendent has done that would be the place where the that data would come in so you if you are giving say community surveys or staff surveys that data will be given to the school board um they will have that information um along with all of the other data that they've been received in order to make their decisions in terms of how the superintendent has done so yeah okay so also wanted to show everyone in the public meeting that this is the rating um numbers and the performance indicators so in this case for each of these performance targets the board is asked to select one of these items on a liyer scale has the superintendent been highly effective effective developing or ineffective those rating scores are averaged together and there needs to be a final performance designation for each of the categ atories each of the performance targets and so uh these are the scale this is a scale that will be used the board has adopted this scale um in uh 2022 I believe and um just a note that this is the scale in terms of if the rating 3.6 to 4.0 for example um for highly effective is the same rating scale and performance terminology that's used in the evaluation of all Personnel at least the administration and teaching Personnel in the Washo uh County School District so the superintendent being evaluated on the same level same basis same criteria same categories um and rating scales as everyone else in the district there's an evaluation tool that I mentioned that goes out to each of the individual board members and I've already described it um rubric and then areas for Commendation and areas recommending growth so what we have um left to do tonight and this is where we get to the Activity part of this is as I mentioned we have a number of performance targets um and it's too many and you see on the slide um I'm I will correct the slide there was uh should say 32 targets um so there are 32 performance targets uh these targets the way that they established the board um through a very involved uh process have developed strategic goals those goals were formally approved in a board meeting prior and um the superintendent then has the opportunity to recommend performance targets that is how am I going to reach that goal um and so there were a series of performance targets that the previous outgoing superintendent had included um in addition to that uh and we did this again together in consultation uh superintendent erns in consultation with myself um Mr Joel also um with the board in indicating uh any additional performance targets once again um wisdom and experience tells us that with a new superintendent coming in there were going to be some performance activities some performance targets that a new superintendent would really be interested in like the development of organizational culture um and uh organizational structural changes that needed to be included or added to the existing performance Target so your new superintendent actually added performance targets to their uh to their list of things to do okay which I thought was very commendable of uh superintendent Ernst that left left leaves us with 32 performance targets I then in in consultation with that same group with all of us we went back to superintendent Ernst and said take a look at these 32 targets and tell us what is going to be the best for the Washo County School District which of these targets are best suited if we're if we need to reduce these targets down to six for my evaluation what's going to be the best to move the needle forward for the waso county school district and students of the district and parents of the district and so superintendent Ern presented and I'll correct the slide again 14 not 13 but 14 of those 32 performance targets as the most critical firststep targets for his first year as a superintendent here at waso he felt that those would be the most prudent ones to go after first so our our goal tonight is to take um all of these targets the 32 targets and Whittle it down to the six manageable targets and so let me move now to the last part of this I appreciate everyone's patience with this process it's a little detailed I know but um the way that we're going to do this is there is a document that I put together which is basically a rating form form and has does the board have this document uh yes so the board's been given this document and basically the document has a cover sheet which um indicates what I've discussed tonight that there are um these 32 targets that the superintendent has presented 14 um and that we have to rate them we have to try to get this down to uh six and what the um the board is uh directed to do um and I'm about to let you loose on your task for tonight yeah okay go ahead almost almost we're not going to quite get set loose yet okay okay so you give me the you give me the the Thumbs Up When It's Time um so the board is going to be asked to look at each of these perform 32 performance targets and to individually uh make a rating and what they're indicating on this document is that this is a target that they feel is absolutely critical and must be included and that's given a rating it's a it's a rating scale a numerical scale that's a rating of four must be included is a four um may be included it's a it's a good goal it's an important goal but maybe not my number one most important goal for the district for this year but it may be the uh that'd be a three a two would be I'm neutral I one way or the other I'm kind of neutral on this and then one is I really don't think this is a goal that should be the focus for the first year of the superintendent so each board member will individually and independently be able to make their rating after the board is done with making those ratings um I'll collect those and then there'll be a brief break in the meeting and that's to allow us to um basically take an average of these ratings of the seven board members and what we'll do is we will look for the goals that have been rated at o0 3.0 that is that they've been rated between uh may include and must include so over the may include but uh just over the may include so three to four uh over three to four we'll see how many of those we have and then we'll report that back to the board tonight um we'll indicate that in a form we'll that we'll put together very quickly tonight we're prepared to do that and um we'll see how many we have if uh the ratings uh bring us down to the six that we're looking for great then we'll effectively be done with that selection um if there are more than six then we're going to be doing another round of ratings on those uh so that we can reduce those down and there will also be an opportunity if we go to that second round of uh whittling down those uh goals there'll be an opportunity for individual board members to speak on the final goals that are before them before they make their final ratings for any kind of clarification or any just general comments they'd like to make before the final ratings are done have I left anything out president Smith no just a couple things I want to mention and then we're actually going to do public comment and I'll explain why um so just as a reminder to all the colleagues and to anybody who's following along um while superintendent Ernst has made some designations about areas that he is most interested in uh we can certainly Focus among those know but I do want to make sure that the public knows and the board knows that we do not have to okay that's just one layer of insight that superintendent earnst has offered to our board and to the public um after public comment I am going to invite superintendent erns to share some thoughts on what led him to some of these items before we actually move forward with any uh selections and so on that note I believe before we can have any substantive conversation about this or certainly make any decisions we have members of the public with us and I believe it is very important for us to hear from those members of the public about the things that we should be considering and focusing on as we consider what these goals may be so on that note I will go ahead and ask JJ to prepare our public comment for this section and then um as she begins to do that I also want to bring everyone's attentions to the screen we will be transitioning over to some of our rues RS uh and board policies and expectations for public comment so just as a reminder to everyone so that everybody has these available to them easily and JJ who do we have first Cliff Nellis welcome Mr nalis well you can get so complicated that you're you w't accomplish anything I um my opinion just listening to this is that uh if you got 31 goals let's achieve them all not just six and is it going to take you five years five years oh my gosh guys it's like uh I don't know I think you can make changes very quick if you listen to the public we have some ideas um I can just throw some right out there now I know you I know you weren't talking about details uh these details can be implemented but um the evaluation thing I think is a good idea we should evaluate but we need to fix our our education system it it's pretty much a failure I mean when you only have 22% of uh students of graduation able to do basic math and then 45% you know just reading and writing I mean I mean the kids are dumb they cannot function in society I was running around talking to businesses about supporting a uh homeschool Co-op and they said you know I just trying to get contributions from them and they said oh man I tell you we cannot find anyone coming out of the public school system that can even fill out an application or do an interview yeah so I don't know I you got a big job in your hand Mr er uh but you know I wish you the best of luck but I I advise you to listen to the public there a lot of us that have ideas and I can just throw a couple out of there number one discipline anyone caught selling drugs on the campus kick them out of school expel them you won't have to expel very many before you solve a lot of problems because when you get rid of the trouble makers then everything becomes a lot better in a much better environment for the students to learn cuz everything's dumbed down to the level of the disruptors you know and it's much easier for the teachers to teach I mean have you ever taught a class any of you guys where you got 40 students all it takes is one disruptor and that messes up everything you know and if you have a policy that says we all know you by the name but you don't you don't know their names um we all got to keep you in the system so we can say we succeeded in graduating everybody and you know there's just some people you can't you can't they're disruptors you got to get rid of them and so that's the first thing discipline and there's just a whole bunch of other suggestions too so thank you guys thank you very much Mr NS Roger Edwards welcome Mr Edwards good afternoon Roger Edwards for the record uh I'm excited to hear the upcoming uh items on the scorecard but you know uh we hired this guy because he's been in the district forever and ever he should know what the district needs without any of these scorecards but also uh president Smith uh you know you deviated from your longtime practice of being sure that the speakers identified themselves I don't know these two guys I mean I've seen them both a million times but I don't know them so help the public if you be sure that they identified themselves before they went on with us having to assume who they are and what their credentials are but like my buddy Cliff said there's a bunch of things we want to see done and uh I'll be excited to see them show up on the scorecard uh I think uh superintendent uh knows what the county needs thank you thank you very much Mr Edwards that's all I have for this item all right so thank you so much Dr Alsbury this is a very exciting part of the process um before we start talking about anything or maybe jump into the evaluation because uh most of us have gone through extensive training up till this point I did want to make sure that I have an opportunity to invite superintendent Ernst into this conversation because again we do have a large body of goals uh he did do the work of narrowing down some of the options and so I wanted to give him the opportunity to be heard on some that rise to the top for him why he chose some of these um of course we'll be making the decision through this rating process but I want his voice represented prior to us moving to this next step thank you president Smith so in looking at the 32 targets you know I think one of the things that we wanted do as a school district is work to create strong alignment and with that alignment we can get to what we're identifying as priorities and so it's probably important to note that these are all related to our strategic plan either the actions uh within each of the goals or also the pillars of which are foundational to us achieving the outcomes of our strategic IC plan a couple of uh points to note is in Target 2 and three the commitment to early childhood education this this Rises to very important levels uh not only in a school district but our entire Community uh when we are able to help our students get off to a strong start provide strong early childhood education and expand Partnerships with our community to provide care before our students start school those all have longlasting benefits and outcomes and so we really look at that as an investment and so that's in the first area strong star for every child if you look down to student voice and advocacy I think a couple of targets that are worth noting I think it's been discussed uh at length chronic absenteeism within our school district and throughout the country is something that we very much want to actively address and one of those things as we all know and think back to our high school years is having places of connectivity and having opportunities to engage in extracurricular co-curricular and so by expanding in this area it helps us work to engage our students and give them further purpose to attend because our Educators and our teachers they'll tell you that when our students are there we can educate them and so this is a concerted effort in that area and kind of consistent with our efforts to improve chronic absenteeism you can also see Middle School athletics it goes along the same line we have six seventh and eighth graders uh in our middle schools and this is the expansion of sixth grade into our um student councils and you know I think it's important that uh we are continuing to actively understand our students um times change and uh we want to make sure that we know who they are while we will create the standards of which our students need to rise to based on those academic standards it's important that we also lean in and hear them and I know that our Board of Trustees is committed to that we have a student representative on our Board of Trustees who will be joining us soon and that's an important voice as we're moving forward in terms of safety and belonging um the facilities modernization plan is a significant effort that we will be moving forward with in our school district uh we are looking at how to most effectively engage our community as we look to repurpose schools as we look to perhaps bring schools together and as we look to uh maximize um our fiscal responsibilities as far as how we are looking at the various facilities and the way that we're using them this is always something that will dramatically impact our community and so it's going to be important that we are doing it in partnership with our community and I this is a longlasting effort E I know Mr cersi here has brought this forward to our Board of Trustees uh this is a um a long-term uh impact for our entire Community the more thoughtfully we can begin the implementation in this area I believe the better that we'll be able to move forward in the entirety of our facilities modernization plan as I continue to move down the list I think that that of course we want to continue to create opportunities for our families uh to be engaged in their education and look at this very much as a partnership in terms of the way we go about educating our students if you look at academic growth that's at the heart of our work and when you see the go Target Two in that area accelerating student growth uh and proficiency by ensuring a strong curriculum uh that very important and I am committed to us moving forward uh with improved academic outcomes for our students uh I have been the entirety of my career it's something that means a great deal to me and I know that our staff is very committed to that as well and since that's at the root of our work I've certainly identified that here as one of the targets as you continue to look down professional learning is something that's very important and and not only providing professional learning but providing responsive well-timed coherent professional learning that's meaningful for our Educators is important and so we want to be able to attend to that uh throughout uh the past few years uh there's been a number of challenges around professional learning and as a superintendent I'm very much committed to making sure that our Educators our staff have the professional learning that they deserve and so you can see that that's identified because that helps them do the work that they need to do more successfully uh another outstanding issue that I believe we have in education moving down the line here is strengthening our recruitment retention and advancement Pathways for our employes over the past 20 years when I came into education many years back um it was a highly highly competitive field and when jobs were posted there were many many applicants who were going for those positions over time um we have seen far less uh people coming into education we've made some strides forward on that in terms of being able to help increase pay but as a former principal I'll say that the more talented and educated adults that we have in our schools in front of our students the more growth that they're going to make and so it's important for us as a school district to make sure that we are committed and there's a number of factors and ways in which I believe we can take a continued step forward in this area but it's really about getting the the most highly qualified adults uh into our system and in in front of our our students and then going down just a little bit more safe and welcoming schools you can see um you know we want to continue and you know I think something that we have to be proud of and I think is worth folks understanding is over the past few years we're in the neighborhood of approximately 50% of our students graduating with Advanced diplomas so of those uh of those students that are graduating 50% of them are graduating with Advanced diplomas and I think that is something to be proud of and something to continue to push on because the more prepared they are when they're leaving High School the greater potential they have in front of them in regards to any of the pathways they choose forward so that's why that also is identified I also believe that we have some terrific Community Partners that um are very willing uh to lean in and support the efforts of our school district and I think as we deepen those Partnerships and we learn to bring uh alignment and integration of our efforts there can be a great deal of value in that and then finally um I think it's important to be a datadriven system and uh you know being uh formerly a chief accountability officer there's a great deal to data and and it's important as a system when we are making responsive adjust adjustments and designing strategic action going forward that it's rooted in what the data is telling us and I think that's really important attribute that is well worth deepening collectively as a system as we're moving forward so those are some of the areas that I've identified uh among the 32 targets I appreciate the opportunity to be able to expand a bit on those so thank you president Smith and of course willing to to answer any questions as well all right um seeing one later go ahead actually doesn't have much to do with this I can't let this be unsaid and not have something State um I disagree with the statement that our students are dumb that was previously mentioned it's a harmful generalization that doesn't reflect the diversity that our students have their talents their potential um all our students have their own strengths and challenges and it's our job as adults it's our responsibility to provide them support and resources they need to succeed and that's what we're doing right now I mean superintend just 50% of our students are graduate with Advanced diplomas and they're going on to do amazing things so instead of knocking down our students let's continue encourage loving environment where they want to learn I commend you for that clerk Rodriguez thank you so much trusty Church sure just number one clarification so you want us to narrow down our must include to six is that correct or can we do seven or eight or nine yeah you you could list more than six under the must include but just um keep I would say be aware that we're trying to narrow so pick the ones that you feel are the most important to be included as Focus for this evaluation thank you I would also like to mention that this was part of the hours of training that we all had beforehand that you refused to participate in I don't need a sniffy comment Madam president you you don't know where I was you don't know what I was doing I don't I don't appreciate that and it's uncalled for I have attended previous meetings I've been doing this for three and a half years so I don't need to go to one more meeting on how to do this I'm on my third superintendent so I'm not going to put up with that I want to make that extremely clear I have another question or comment and you also did not participate in the training that took place weeks earlier because you did not want to which could have been scheduled at any point your point is well taken and nonetheless the public should know that you declined all of the previous training prior to this moment I'm not going to I'm not going to get into a pissing match with you I've attended so many of this training for Mr Alsbury I didn't need to attend one more I know what I'm doing I know what's on here and the fact that I asked one little question about whether we can do six or nine does not it Just reflects on you so poorly it is just so uncalled for I'm tired of being snipped at I'm not going to put up with it and I'm going to ask my questions now may make some comments I'm not fighting with you trusty church this is not the WWE this is the wcsd and the only fighting I will do at this day is for kids feel free to ask your next question I'll let the public decide that after watching this Fiasco my concern that's one reason I didn't attend is because I think we're missing the mark and again I've attended I've been through three superintendents I believe that we need to concentrate on achievable documentable things which is not in here essentially ACT scores are going to be out any day we're going to know how we're doing I think we're going to be down aside from the one comment the other the two speakers were right on this doesn't require 32 or even six Mr erns had my support and he still does he's been doing this for years at the school district this was his job prior to being the superintendent so he knows what needs to be done I would like to see as I've said previously in other evaluations something more specific which is not on here I want to see give me a 1% Improvement in ACT scores give me a 1% Improvement in esac scores give me uh five out of all our one star failing schools give me a five one improvement over that I want to see documentable I don't want to see stuff like this I actually think some of this is micromanaging when we get down into the Weeds about whether he does An Early Intervention Program or an early school program that's that's not our job that's his job so I I think it's micromanaging to do it the way that we're doing it um I will state plainly that I think until we deal with restorative justice is a failure and Credit Recovery is a failure where students literally can attend one day of school and graduate chronic absenteeism is never going to be achieved we're at 31 1% and again the new ones are going to come out any day 31% chronic absenteeism because the kids know they don't have to attend so that's my statement that's my concerns I I'll fill out the form just as I've done previously with the other superintendents but um I just think we're missing the mark and uh this is going to get filled out we're going to spend all this time it's never going to see the light of day until the next evaluation when he'll be given a going evaluation and and then we're going to move on to real real issues I'm not sure there was a question there um but what I will say is that um and I because I wasn't intimately involved in the development of the Strategic goals um this was a process I believe that was quite involved um it was vetted discussed and the board approved um these goals and these targets um I would also say and I think this is a fair statement that I think there is some um probably there would probably be some agreement I don't want to speak for the trustees that there might be some of these performance targets that that they might not opt to have in here I think it's probably a fair statement to say there's some of these performance targets that uh superintendent ER would say I don't think they should be in there um and maybe for some of the reasons that you stated um trusty church that they're not directly measuring performance Improvement um but for the sake of this being fair a fair process I think it is it it would not have been appropriate um to just sarily remove those performance targets that the board had approved had seen and had vetted prior and so the option was we're going to include all the performance targets that were in included by the previous superintendent that the board approved we're also going to allow the incoming superintendent to add additional targets if they felt uh that there were some things missing and which superintendent erns did he added additional targets and many of those included some of the items that you mention like with student performance and the like so if I might ask a question then along those lines consistent with our strategic plan that we voted for would it be wrong in an evaluation to have something specific whether it be a 1% in act a 1% nestack uh reduce chronic absenteeism by 5% I mean something very achievable would would that be [Music] appropriate well what I would would say is that there was opportunity for those performance targets to be put in place that the that's a board decision to make the board can have that discussion and put those Targets in place I I have I have my own opinions and that's it's not just my personal opinion but it's based on Research that has been done in this field um and my generally my advice is that a school a district should do uh should try make Improvement in a particular area that they've identified as much improvement as possible but most districts who have um insisted upon placing spe particular numbers um have found that often that those numbers are not particularly helpful we recently saw this most dramatic with the whole covid coming in we see changes in uh in migration out migration economic shifts in communities things that come up that really impact whether those numbers go up or go down and targets for student Improvement um oftentimes are specific to particular groups of students even in particular schools and so I'm I'm I generally advise boards to not include specific numbers because not only does it put um un Fair expectations that can never be achieved like the recent process we went through nationally where we said 100% of students are going to achieve that was probably an unrealistic thing um then on the other hand it also diminishes your ability you can say well we made our 1% so we can stop now and so I say do the as best as as good as you can push as hard as you can and I think the language in these um for the public that's not seeing them we have language in here that indicates that there will be improvements in student performance in a variety of areas academic areas on that note the public does actually have these These are part of the publicly posted material so whatever we have in front of us um is actually available to anyone with this and so we'll go to trusty Westlake followed by trusty nicholet and then trusty Woodley thank you president Smith um I think it needs to be said that there is a level of frustration I I don't think anyone in this room is going to disag agree that we need to see Improvement on what we have in place to basically rate students where where they're at I mean we know that so we all want to see Improvement but how do we get there it's not just going to happen it's not going to be all of a sudden our students are we're going to be graduating at 90% our students um test scores are going to prove one improve 1% 2% 3% how do we get there there are things in this list that have been proven to work to attain Improvement and I'm I'm not saying these things to try and get people to rate some of the things I'm going to say as a four but it has to be said if children are absent they're not learning test scores will not improve how do we get children to want to go to school by giving things to them that they're passionate about clubs Sports and then they'll be going to classes they won't be absent also we need to make sure that our children feel safe wanted and valued and that goes along with cutting down on the violence which is in here if children feel safe and wanted and encouraged they're going to go to school they're not going to be absent they're going to learn the test scores are going to go up one of the most important things is we can't do this alone we need families there's quite a number of things on here to get family involvement so we can't just say we want a 1% to 2% give us a 3% how do we get that you have to have a plan you have to have things in place to achieve that and they're on here does it mean it's going to happen just because we're like oh yeah let's do this no we're going to have to work really hard but we also need to have positive support excuse me we also need to have positive support in these areas bring ideas to us on hey you want to get Family Support maybe try this or have you thought about you know expanding these clubs and middle schools or talk going into grade schools and talking to them about the extracurricular things they can have in Middle School start getting them excited let's have some positive input but let's also realize we need a plan test scores don't just Pro improve because we say we want an improvement there has to be things in place to get that Improvement thank you thank you um I hope that this will close it so that we can move on uh I would like to say and I'm addressing my colleagues and our superintendent and of course the community but I'm really really looking at us just today a public commenter said something that I totally agree with and it was very eloquent and I'm going to read it and I quote I think the superintendent knows what the district needs and I agree the superintendent knows this process in this document and subsequent information is a conduit for our sound decision making and as we move forward I do want you to know super tendent Ernst and my colleagues and our professionals I trust this process because I agree with the public commenter you know what you're doing thank you uh thank you madam president I just have one question so when we fill this out do we pass it to JJ or do we give it to the president yeah well you'll want to pass it to JJ and then she'll Pro give it to me we'll run the calculations during a short break right here at the table those documents and you'll want to put your name on the document as well as the ratings um once those calculations are done of course I'll we'll let you know what those are and move to a second round of rating if we need to um but then those documents of course are part of the public record uh they'll stay here with the school district uh for anyone who wants look at them fantastic so we will stay in active session while we complete these and then as we complete them one by one as we finish them we'll turn them into JJ following the last completion I will take a recess um from 5 to 10 minutes while we do the tabulation and then we'll come back but the recess does not start now we will stay in active session while we complete e e e e e e e e e e all right everyone so uh JJ has shared that we do have all the rating sheets so it's now 349 900 p.m. so let's go ahead and reconvene at 400 p.m. we're in recess 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 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right are we just about ready to get going okay all right it is 4:17 p.m. and I'm going to call back to order this July 23rd 2024 meeting of the waso County School District Board of Trustees uh we are still in agenda item 3.01 setting the annual goals for our superintendent of schools and and what we just completed was an individual selection um of the first round of those targets what the community will hear now is uh JJ and Dr Alsbury will be reading the targets selected by each trusty that were rated a four and we will also be going over the overall averages for each of the gos and then from there we will continue on with our discussion I we'll turn this over now to uh JJ or Dr Alsbury so I'll be reading each trustee rating of four on the items trusty Nicolet strong start for every child Target 2 4 Target three four student voice and advocacy Target 1 4 Target 2 4 Target 3 4 safety and belonging Target 2 4 Target 3 4 Target 7 4 and Target 9 four achievement and academic growth Target 2 4 Target 5 4 Target 7 4 Target 8 4 Target 94 safe and welcoming schools Target 1 4 four Target three four trusty Mayberry strong start for every child Target 2 four Target three four student voice and advocacy Target 1 4 safety and belonging Target one 4 Target 74 Target 94 academic growth and achievement Target 3 4 Target 8 4 safe and welcoming schools Target one 4 Target 4 4 president Smith strong start for every child Target two four student voice and advocacy Target one 4 safety and belonging Target 2 4 Target 7 4 Target 94 academic growth and achievement Target 34 Target 84 safe and welcoming schools Target one four trusty Rodriguez strong start for every child Target two four Target 54 student voice and advocacy Target 14 safety and belonging Target 7 4 Target 9 four academic growth and achievement Target 84 safe and welcoming schools Target 4 trusty Church strong start for every child no targets ranked as four student voice and advocacy no targets ranked as 4 safety and belonging Target 74 Target 94 academic growth and achievement Target 1 4 Target 4 four safe and welcoming schools Target 3 4 Target 5 4 trusty Woodley strong start for every child Target two four student voice and advocacy no targets ranked four safety and belonging Target 2 four Target 7 four Target 9 four academic growth and achievement Target 84 safe and welcoming schools Target 54 trusty Westlake strong start for every child no targets ranked as four student voice and advocacy Target one four Target 2 4 safety and belonging Target 7 4 Target 94 academic growth and achievement Target 34 safe and welcoming schools Target 1 4 Target 3 4 all right so as you can see if you scan through those uh ratings um there were eight performance targets of focus I I think it's important and fair to remind everyone that because there are targets of focus does not mean that the superintendent will not be working on the other of the 32 targets superintendent will be working on all of the 32 targets but um in order to focus um specifically his evaluation on some key topics of growth that the board is sending a message these are the ones that we want you to um be the be sure to make the most achievement on or put the most resources into Etc this is why we narrow it down so it's it's manageable and reasonable the uh averages went like this and you can see this uh on your this new sheet that JJ just passed out um the shorter sheet here um please take a look at that that just has included or Not Included uh we have eight selected remember our Target is to get to six um the um you can again pick however you would like but one thing that you might look at are the averages so if we look at the first one there strong start for every child that had an average of 3.57 out of a four possible four so I've I've jotted these down on my sheet so start strong start for every child Target two had an average of 3.57 the student voice and advocacy Target one had an overall average of 3.71 and you can see that on your sheet if you're looking at your big sheet under safety and belonging Target two had an yes can you go back to that CU I I think some at least on my photo copy there's some cut off so I only see 3.7 on student voice and advocacy Target one so that's really 3.71 3.71 yes student voice and advocacy Target one is 3.71 safety and belonging Target Two the overall average 3.14 Target seven under safety and belonging 4.0 Target nine under safety and belonging [Music] 4.0 under academic growth and achievement Target 8 had an average of 3.71 safe and welcoming schools Target one had an average of 3.57 and Target three had an average of 3 .42 and so these are the eight that you have to choose from um the next step of the process is we're going to try to whittle it down to six um and you could the board is open to do this in whatever way they want I'm going to open it up for anyone who wants to speak to any of these in particular um certainly it might make some sense to look at the overall ratings the targets that that receive 4.0 you all every one of you gave it a four I'm assuming that those you want to include those because you have um you have full agreement on those you could look at the averages and go with the top six averages that's a an option too but we didn't want to restrict you so we wanted to leave the process uh as open as we could uh for this last step so with that I'll I'll open the uh I'll ask ask president Smith rather to open the floor for any remarks that you would like to make or any clarifications you need just a couple clarifications so that we can all keep track and then also for the public who's following along because you don't have all these sheets right in front of you um all trustees all seven trustees unanimously marked as a four safety and belonging Target seven and safety and belonging Target n and all trusted es I'm sorry five of the seven trustees marked as a four but they had the same 3.71 average student voice Target one and academic growth and achievement Target eight so of all of these those four um based on a first round seem to have a very clear consistent consensus around those four that's right um okay I just wanted to make sure that everyone one that was following had that and then even us to as we're reviewing these numbers and we're going through to a second round are there any questions on those I saw um your light on Tristy Woodley did you I just had a comment um U mathematically this is pretty simple for me because I saw the the two lowest so I immediately just canceled those out not to mention the fact that the two lowest also had other targets within the same category so I don't feel like any categories being missed so okay thank you and just a question for perhaps the board president or the board fellow members do we have to do six as opposed to seven or eight or um or five yeah my recommendation with a incoming new superintendent is six is a reasonable number to focus on again though remembering that the superintendent has this information I'm sure he's going to take this into account when he's focusing his efforts for this year obviously you also have a strong interest in two additional items that he's probably going to be paying attention to all that superintendent Ern speak to that if he wants to um but we think in terms of the formal evaluation itself uh six is a fair number is my recommendation all right so in this round um we are choosing on this form uh ideally six or no more than six again this is based on recommendation but we all can take individual actions um but six on the new sheet um and then the the outside of those six would be not included and then uh we will take a a very brief recess or maybe we'll tab you those very quickly so we'll just take a brief break but we'll go ahead and make those markings now we will stay in live session while we do this next round yeah it should be it shouldn't take long to tally those e e e e all right everyone so we finished the second round of tabulations it is 4:33 p.m. I will call another recess while we do the calcul ulations e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yeah all right everyone we're going to go ahead and get started again here it is 4:43 p.m. and it is Tuesday July 23rd 2024 and this is the regular meeting of the was County School District Board of Trustees we are still in item 3.01 the selection of the annual goals for our superintendent and I will now turn this over to uh JJ and Dr Alsbury who will read uh the trust these ratings on the included column for this current rating sheet and then we may move forward with uh decision or decisions after that trustee West Lake strong start for every child include Target Two student voice and advocacy include Target one safety and belonging include Target s include Target nine academic growth and achievement include none safe and welcoming schools include Target one include Target three trusty Woodley strong start for every child include Target Two student voice and advocacy include Target one safety and belonging include Target 7 include Target nine academic growth and achievement include Target 8 safe and welcoming schools include Target one trustee Church strong start for every child nothing to be included student voice and advocacy include Target one safety and belonging include Target 2 include Target 7 include Target n academic growth and achievement include Target 8 safe and welcoming SCH schools include Target three trustee Rodriguez strong start for every child include Target Two student voice and advocacy include Target one safety and belonging include Target s include Target nine academic growth and achievement include Target 8 safe and welcoming schools include Target one president Smith strong start for every child include Target 2 student voice and advocacy include Target one safety and belonging include Target s include Target nine academic growth and achievement include Target 8 safe and welcoming schools include Target one truste Mayberry strong start for every child include Target Two student voice and advocacy nothing to include safety and belonging include Target 2 include Target 7 include Target 9 academic growth and achievement include Target 8 safe and welcoming schools include Target one trusty Nicollet strong start for every child include Target Two student voice and advocacy include Target one safety and belonging include Target 2 include Target 7 include Target nine academic growth and achievement nothing to include safe and welcoming schools includ Target one all right so Dr Alsbury if I'm not mistaken here six kind of rise to the top um which are the ratings that we see in the right hand column is that correct we've got two sixes two sevens a five and a six yeah that's right and um they match the average rating that you did in your first round so it's the top six items of the eight were the ones you selected um apologize for any confusion with the process it um but I'm looking at really exclusively the included column because that tells me which ones you selected and so as I look at that um um in Target two six of you said that should be included six of the seven um in student voice advocacy Target one six out of the seven of you said that should be included under safety and belonging Target s it was all of you said that should be included Target nine all of you said that should be included um Target and under academic growth and achievement Target eight five of the seven trust said that should be included and then safe and welcoming schools um Target one six of the seven trustees said that should be included the the two remaining ones um safety and belonging Target Two um three of the seven trustees said that should be included and safe and welcoming schools Target three two of the seven trustees said that should be included so it seems like there is a clear set of six items so if our colleagues agree with the six um using that multi-step process um we could certainly have a discussion or I would entertain a motion to adopt the six that we've brought through to this point in the process just a quick comment well I'd like to see more specifics like I mentioned I still think it's putting a percent on things is is not a bad thing and it's commonly done but with that said I can support that uh thank you madam president I move to approve the six items that we've identified here the top scoring items second um I see no lights on um Chief legal council Lombardo do we need to read which of those targets they are do you think that the record clearly shows clear enough well honestly I missed the last little bit of conversation so but I understand the process and I think the record's probably clear enough given the documents and everything else I don't think there's any confusion very good well then we have a motion to adopt these six targets by trusty Woodley seconded by trusty nicholet seeing no lights on for discussion all those in favor please say I I I all those oppose name all right motion carries 7 to zero thank you so much this was absolutely fantastic thank you so much Dr Joel Dr Albury we appreciate you so much so glad both of you made it here with your plain travel and you brought us through a fantastic process so thank you excited for what we have in the future ahead superintendent Ernst Dr Ellsbury Dr Joel I'd just like to say thank you as well appreciate all of your uh work in this area to to set meaningful goals help support us and our work together going forward and just appreciate all the work that you've put in so wanted to offer my very sincere thank you we wish you thank you so much all right team well that closes item 3.01 and brings us now to item 3.02 presentation discussion and possible action by the Board of Trustees to provide direction to the superintendent on a possible proposal such as improving access to qualified Personnel restoring lost educational time creating time efficiency for instructors and administrators or access to early childhood education for the waso County School District's Bill draft request as Allowed by Nevada revised statute 218d d205 for the 2025 Nevada legislative session this is an item for possible action and in front of us we have both from pinion public affairs Dylan shaver and Tess opman welcome thank you so much president Smith members of the board uh I will say for Tessa's benefit that I've got a lot of new ideas for how pinion will be conducting employee evaluations going forward um but I suppose I'm not here to talk about that today I am here to talk about uh your uh Duty or really role as trustees to stand by there we are uh to submit optionally one bill draft request for the 2025 session of the Nevada legislature uh folks are not required to submit Bild drafts but pursuant to the law the president just read out uh uh we have the opportunity to submit one if you so choose uh that submission must be filed by the 1st of September of this year so we are here today to get a little preliminary direction from you that we would then return uh to you sometime in August for your final vote and approval uh you do have the option not to submit a a bill draft request if you so choose uh we have sort of seen many of your fellow school districts often do that many of the municipalities do that uh but as you will see through the the course of the presentation day there are a handful of of needs that we've heard from you and from your leadership team that might uh be valuable uh just a quick rundown there's going we're going to talk a little bit today about routes to improve access to qualified educational Personnel um perhaps restoring some lost educational time could be a theme of your build draft both of these things are uh in your platform as it stands and we would intend to bring back uh re-examining current and lapsed sort of strategies it feels like every legislative session and then every interim there are new regulations and new ideas that we have to incon into law or take out of law or put into or take out of Regulation and there uh is often kind of a lack of cohesion over time on on those things so we'll get into that a little bit and then there's just some other major topics uh that you might be interested in and we'll talk to sort of the pros and cons of uh of taking big swings like that so first and foremost improving access to qualified Personnel uh uh we shared uh copies of these slides with your bargaining units so that nobody would be blindsided by uh uh by this or think that anybody was being disparaged by its presentation but the reality is uh the last legislature we were very successful in getting new resources to changing the pay schedule for qualified instructors uh uh but uh I spent uh 50 cents on a degree from UNR and I slept at a holiday and express last night that pay today is not going to immediately increase sort of the applicant pool right we have to look at the entire Pipeline and see where there's other areas that can bring people in there are still shortages in classrooms as we sit here talking about this right now that the pay will help with and it will help keep people but there are likely other routes that we can go we've been in convers ations about staff there's a lot of kind of 30,000 foot ideas around you know how can we ensure that there's uh great Personnel that are still qualified that don't have to maybe jump through as many Hoops or maybe we can sort of speed up their uh uh ability to walk into a classroom and be ready to teach on on day one uh a lot of interest in that it's a solves and it sort of a law like this would be targeted at solving a specific and acute problem that uh we are experiencing right now uh so it has kind of political appeal it has solvability uh what you're always looking for you want kind of a problem you can solve with a bill right so we call that solvability and it also has uh uh an area where the expertise of the wasel County School District could be put to Bear you have a lot of of institutional knowledge around these topics and I think you as a board have been very interested in it so uh that would be sort of bucket a uh that we proposed to to highlight for you another potential uh topic to consider is boy there are a lot of State mandated observations assessments reports that have to be filed by people at all level of the district that ultimately whether you are uh a student studying and sitting for a test whether you're an instructor who is engageed in a certain type of observation or a certain type of reporting or an administrator who is putting together you know a several reams of reports that go to the State Department of Education and just sort of end up on a shelf somewhere uh uh that is time that could be better spent focused on the the core missions frankly better spent on the things that you were just deciding whether or not to evaluate your superintendent on and uh so we we get a lot of uh frustration I would say when we were talking to Personnel about things that would fall into this category uh as problems to be solved so uh you if you sort of choose this topic for your Bild draft what we do we go back we sort of make a list of the most pressing issues and we present them back to you as like the uh recommendations for sort of the things we are would have the most impact as well as the most likelihood to pass uh if you go down this road reexamining current and and lapsed strategies uh we sort of highlighted this at the uh uh at the the front end as well as in the last legislative session there are a lot of I would say it's kind of a mishmash of policies between State uh and District levels between the legislator education sort of role and and and the work they're doing and andde uh and the regulations they're promulgating as well as NRS itself uh there is a need to sort of align these strategies all along sort of a a central theme make sure they're still working make sure they're all rowing in the same direction this is very similar to where your previous Bill draft request ended up uh sort of reviewing uh all at the time the goal was to review all of NRS and NAC for for cohesion in the 21st century educational environment uh it was not very well received by the legislature in 20123 doesn't mean it was a bad idea uh but and I it is remains a current theme in the feedback we are getting from from your leadership team as we look at the the legislature and and and align these things thank you just a quick clarification I absolutely agree with us having some FOC on focus on this when you use the term lapsed does that mean we just don't do it anymore or we do it and nobody else cares or what does lapsed mean so there are strategies I apologize Dylan shaver for the record uh there are strategies that nde has embraced in the past that sort of have I don't even know that they remain on the books maybe they were good ideas at the time and they were abandoned for some sort of implementation reason or policy reason or frankly political reason uh and so those sort of get get set aside there are indeed reports that are sort of on the books that school districts have to file and things like that that have been preempted by other laws and so it's really a section over in this report that we file but those original laws still in there so it's it's a little bit of both of what you mentioned I would say uh absent some deep dive research on this particular topic I can't sit here with sort of a graphic showing what all of these are and my recommendation previously and really what we got out of the last legislature was it this would be an excellent place for Nas to engage and sort of goes along the lines of I I think at my last presentation here trusty Woodley asking about sort of the other uh uh school districts in their bill drafts right Esmeralda County I don't think is going to submit a bill this year just for example but over time this this sort of thing would take a lot of effort but over time Nas and the various districts could commit a little bit of resources from each one and make a lot more cover a lot more ground I think on a bill like this than we did in uh 2023 that said this issue does come up a lot when we talk to your staff and I want to make sure we included it today to to to respect that there are of course other major topics things that come up between you and your constituents every day things we see in the newspaper every day they are very tantalizing they are uh very exciting and the question that I ask myself when reviewing those sorts of things I ask will the Washo County School District introducing a bill on this topic be the thing that gets this done so just for example a lot of the feedback that that that we are hearing from the world is there's a there's an open question about Senate Bill 231 and the funds that it provided the that you received to provide teacher uh pay enhancements just for example uh that was one Senate bill in one session there is a need for that funding to continue our contracts rely on it uh and frankly a lot of the the promises we've made coming out of the last session rely on that funding wcsd supporting like like introducing the bill to do that is not going to be the thing that gets that done if I'm if I'm being clear right everybody in the pipeline knows that that's an issue it's a priority on a lot of different political levels our introducing that bill your introducing that bill I apologize is not going to be uh the the the thing that makes the difference uh but it is very splashy it's very showy there are any number of things we talk about uh uh expanding access to to prek here as an example that would perhaps be more Monumental than any other bill I would stand here and and present to you and if if it is your interest to sort of plant that flag in the ground uh then by all means do so but we have to uh assess both you know is this going to be the thing that that makes the difference for us and also is it really achievable right uh we can show up we can be the group that shows up with a build draft that it makes a very good point uh but I try and call that sort of press release via legislation we have a platform where we can sort of put things like that to demonstrate those values without sort of sacrificing the practicality of the bill in front of us again as a professional in this space that is my recommendation it is still a choice you can make if you say no opinion we want some research around the prek thing we'll come back with that bill jacket for you um but uh right now from our perspective the best use of your resources is to focus on something where the unique expertise and experience of this school district will be of benefit to both the problem we are trying to solve as well as to the legislators we're talking to so today we have presented to you a a handful of topic areas that sort of rose to the top as we were talking to the superintendent and his team uh you uh we are looking for direction for to bring back one if you really ambitious two of those topic areas uh bring back recommendations for Bild drafts to your next meeting where you will choose uh uh from from what you've got our work in the meantime would be then to sort of research and compile those packages together with the greatest degree of fidelity possible um based on your wishes uh just as a reminder the deadline to submit that uh Bild draft request to the legislative Council Bureau is the 1st of September 2024 that's just a about five weeks away uh but uh there's there's opportunities that I won't get into after that deadline passed as well um I'm going to invite uh superintendent Ernst to be the first one to chime in here um but I do also want to clarify for everyone that um if we do choose one of these categories uh staff may come back with a couple different options within that group you know it depends on what can be accomplished and then we'll still will make those those decisions as we go unless they have clear consensus and they'll also do this based on our feedback in today's meeting and for those that are wondering about our legislative platform that'll come after this this has a different deadline Associated to it but the conversations we've already had publicly and the conversation we will have today will all be built into the draft of that that will again come back be iterated on by this group and then ultimately adopted and so that's the order of how we'll be doing that and I will defer to superintendent Ernst thank you president Smith thank you Dylan thank you Tess appreciate the information that you've shared with us today um you know I think when we look at our efforts to improve learning outcomes for students we recognize that our teachers and our principles are the cornerstones of that Improvement further we recognize the importance of our the entirety of our staff and I've said it a bit earlier in regards to when we have talented well-qualified staff in front of our students we can make the progress that we desire I also think about the process that just occurred uh relative to my evaluation one of the targets here and you know I think it makes a lot of sense and the other thing that you've pointed out Dylan is tapping into expertise School District can provide and right now this does this when we look at expanding access to qualified Personnel it is important to note that this this expansion Goes to School nurses it goes to counselors to social workers and there are a number of areas right now that I think we have opportunity as a state to work together to remove perhaps some unnecessary barriers and be able to attract so we've worked on raising uh uh the overall pay for our staff and that's a great step in the right direction it's a competitive market we've talked about the people coming into education not being as robust as in previous years and to attract Talent in the uh in this area we've got to really look at reciprocal lure from state to state and we've got to be thinking about that we've got to be thinking about um the ability to process applications in quick and meaningful ways so that we're not providing unnecessary delays and not having a counselor say start on the first day of school but end up starting a month into the school school year because of various areas that could be refined and improved I guess that's a long way of saying I really myself am supportive of improving access to qualified Personnel we talked about the oh Dylan I can't remember the term that you used but the the probability of making an impact in going forward and this not only benefits wasel County School District it benefits the entire State and and as we're able to attract highly qualified Personnel that's a that's a significant factor in the work that we have to going forward so as I look at the choices and you know how they are tangible this is one area that I believe we have opportunity to leave to lean in uh tap in to the expertise we have here in wasel County School District and hopefully make a difference on this with this bill draft resolution um before trustee Church goes just a couple thoughts um I very much am interested in what superintendent Ernst feels on this I will say in general um last time we did something more esoteric um for me personally I would be very interested in us choosing a bdr that can actually be implemented clearly and affect education across the entire state so that other districts go heck yeah we want that because we're going to need support remember we don't have somebody championing this for us so I would love that and I will also throw out to any of the other counties that are not doing a bdr that maybe if we have multiple good ideas they could change their mind um but I will uh defer to trustey church next perfect timing perfect I I hit my light quickly because I wanted a piggyback and I agree exactly with what you said so let me set the stage here a little bit I taught recruiting Nationwide uh I was basically recruited to come to ropd from San Diego where I was a cop why not just the money but because of various aspects of quality of of life and Etc up here so how do we recruit as I've taught in my class and I'm retired so I'm not plugging that higher me this is this is free and by the way your comedy is free too so I appreciate that um you do get what you pay for how much was that holiday in express so uh if we do some kind of a bdr that says we want money so wasel County can recruit it's it's probably DOA picture if you will the bdr that's very specific like the board president mentioned that says the state of Nevada will establish a government employee recruiting section to task force not a not a committee but actual recruiters the state of Nevada will establish because I've been a dozens and dozens in my teaching of recruiting and recruiting where a picture of this job fair and you've got Carson City has one booth and then Reno has a booth and then waso county has a booth and the school district has a booth and poor Esmeralda that we just just uh badmouthed uh doesn't get a booth because they can't afford it and and being from Hawthorne Nevada before you know we couldn't afford it so picture if you will a bdr that respects everybody they recruit once you get that warm body up to the table or in the ads responding to the ads then you refer them or sell them to the particular School District or whatever it could even be a lawn for it could be anything any government job you know and but basically your come to Nevada and then once we get you at that table or once we get that message from you we try to plug you in and give you all the links to all the diversity of this whole state uh that that matches that person so I just exactly exactly what I think I heard there but something specific um and I know I've gone on a bit but then a question if I might if you if you just set up a committee committee doesn't do anything right there's no there's no way to implement the committee's recommendation until the next legislature with it is that correct so we don't want to do that am I right in terms of legislation that establishes a committee to do X it really depends on on what x is you know we do see a lot of very impactful boards and commissions that are given a very long leash if their role is to just propose legislation or to sort of go go back can bring back ideas to the legislature then yeah it's it's really going to be a delay that that will have very little impact on uh on the problems you're trying to solve here so what we could do is um really what staff is asking us is to choose one of these categories it could you know be restoring lost educational time that's what the motion would be and then staff would come back based on the discussion we're having and the opportunities they see and then bring that back to us so just so that every body's clear we don't have to get super specific but all of these ideas are very important right now and then they'll come back so we're just going to narrow it down to a category um vice president Mayberry clerk Rodriguez and then trusty Woodley and then we'll probably go to public comment okay thank you thank you madam president and thank you for allowing the superintendent to give his input because that's extremely valuable and and it certainly aligns with mine I I guess too I would just say as a caveat I mean there's as you know there's always the second body of the Apple so um there are issues that we may have uh a particular committee or legislator carry for us as well so we don't necessarily need a bdr per se um bdr is sort of sends this message that we have a Capstone item I agree wholeheartedly that it should be attainable and also agree that uh if it benefits the entire State then we're going to get support from our partners across the state and that's that's absolutely vital um and as I've reviewed this and have uh talked uh internally and externally my eyes do go to improving access to qualified personnel as well removing barriers to you know we have uh nearly more than half of I understand of our uh vacancies are in the special EDS uh uh side and you know it's it's difficult for um uh for General Ed teachers to transition to special ed you know why why are we making that difficult uh there are some issues with their PR practice exam if if uh if I'm saying that correctly uh you know just talking internally I know the State Department of Education uh has some you know bureaucratic uh red tape that that makes it difficult uh for us to be successful in terms of our Personnel so uh I I you know staying at a very high level I don't know what this looks like um uh but that's where my eyes go toward uh and I I I would think that that we would be very successful if we have a clear Mission and a very succinct bdr that addresses some of those finer points yeah I kind of just want to Echo um Vice various things especially getting access to qualified individuals and I know um I mean obviously with November coming we'll see but uh with legislators but I know one of Governor Lombardo's biggest things with strategic plan and one of the biggest pillars was education and he even mentions recruiting uh so like you and obviously we have a really bad shortage of teachers in Nevada and some of that has to go to our cost of living um and you know access to homes and stuff like that so which one would you guys suggest would be the best approach to that um because I'm also trying to gu my question do we have to pick one of these or what uh thank you for the question for the record Dylan shaver opinion public affairs uh yes the direction we're looking for today is for you to sort of hone in on a category uh and to me a strength and weakness of of the relationship between pinion and wcsd is that we are generalists right uh but where we Excel is finding the expertise that exists within any of our clients whether it's wcsd or another organization and putting that to the best use using what we know about the process so any recommendation I make is going to be areas where we can make that succeed and and in that regard this is listed in order okay uh so uh improving access to qualified Personnel this is an area where you have a great team uh with a lot of energy behind it uh and what we want to do and I I this is isn't necessarily germine to this topic but I'm but I have to say it every time I'm here our goal in representing you with the legislature is to portray to the lawmakers to anybody who will listen the expertise that we are bringing to this work day in and day out in partnership with them to accomplish the goal we all share of of providing the best education to to to kids as possible well and I would agree and I think that starts with know just like trusty wesle say you know how do we teach our kids get them in the classroom well that'd be great if we get our teachers into the classroom and compensate them um so I I support anything that can help you know keeping teachers and bus drivers and our police officers I am 100% behind that and I believe that should be me personally my opinion our priority thank you all right thank you madam president so during my um part of my campaigning I was out there talking to the community and I had one constituent explain to me how his daughter graduated in California as a teacher and they were trying to move her back to Reno and the qualifications were too difficult and that she couldn't get I guess she had to do some extra um work just to be able to come back home so I do know that that is something that we have to um address and that's important for us and I've heard this from uh different principles as well uh the one question I do have for um our superintendent um erns is do we have an idea any numbers of how many open positions we have within the school district uh thank you trusty Woodley we we do have an idea right now we're in the neighborhood of approximately 100 vacancies uh in the with our teachers going into the year um historically that's a fairly cons consistent number but all of us hear that and we think that's that's a that's a high number and and I wouldn't disagree and to your example around out ofate lure that's one of the specifics that I think we have opportunity to really name within a bdr I think the opportunity comes in the form of naming some of these specifics we have someone out of state wants to come over but the barriers there are too great and when that happens we're we're we're just not doing the best we can for our students so when I think about this bdr and I think about you know the more broad ranging thought around it I think perhaps our opportunity where we capitalize on wcsd expertise is naming some of the real specifics again you're talking about licensure from elementary up to high school um vice president Mayberry talked about general education to special education um our School nurses are are are highly important and we have some of the um oh I I'm not sure how to best say it but we have some some some very difficult uh circumstances to bring in highly qualified nurses um that that that perhaps a more objectionable IE would say I I think we we can get nurses in a in a bit more effectively so you know as I think about the bdr and it going forward I think our expertise to tap into wcsd expertise is the real specifics around this and and then I think you know that that translates Statewide and and as all of these barriers are being reduced not only are we doing well for our community but for the entirety of the state so long long response to the question I do have a followup question that because I know um Governor Lardo did Issue a series of executive orders and I know um one of those was to actually look at removing um those barriers can you give any insight to that like I mean it was like for cosmetologists nurses Educators and stuff like that is there has that been resolved or is that still an issue and a barrier part of the implementation of that particular order actually came through the legislature and uh consolidated many of the state's boards and commissions that that handle occupational lure uh into one office within the Department of Business and Industry that is likely to come back with a series of reforms in 2025 we haven't seen what those look like yet uh that uh the individual who took over that role is maybe three months on the job right now and is sort of drinking from a fire hose uh though I would add the caveat that does not include the State Board of Education or any of the sort of other educational panels uh in in in its occupational licensing boards but yet the cosmos The Barbers and um probably the nurses I'd have to go back and look uh all fall in there so there's definitely an area and an interest across the board uh to to speed this along it is important to the governor he's uh said that several times and he's got a a pointed interest in education something I will uh uh remind everybody is that that interest in education doesn't always align with your interests in education but where we can find commonality we definitely try to try to tap into it and pursue it so after we have uh Tristy Nicollet we will go to public comment and then it feels like we're building towards consensus so we can consider action at that time trusty Nicollet thank you president Smith um I personally in all my visits when I I go to schools I hear from administrators teachers I hear from parents about the the Lost educational time why are we not spending more money sorry more time with our students you know direct where so much paperwork etc etc having said that I also like to find alignment so that we we have a we have a discret focus that is encompassed in a in a in a macro focus and we just um decided on academic growth and achievement Target 8 which is strengthen recruitment retention and advanc Pathways and so there is definitely some alignment there and what I would say is I kind of like a cake and eat it too person if we can find a way to Jim in some of that finding more time for our teachers and taking things off of their plate within there that's retention by the way that would be really cool so I I I definitely improving access to qualified Personnel in essence doesn't speak to me but our Target does all right thank you all right JJ uh we're going to go to public comment for this item and just as a reminder to our upcoming speakers uh we'll have some guidelines um up on the screen I have no cards for this item all right then if it feels like we have have some consensus around one of these areas um I would certainly entertain a motion uh or further discussion uh vice president mayber yeah I'll um put this on the table uh I move that the Board of Trustees provide direction to the superintendent to research possible proposals to improve access and remove barriers for qualified Personnel for the was County School District's one bill draft requests for the 2025 NADA legislative session second all right so we have uh a motion by vice president Mayberry seconded by trusty Woodley um since uh we yes absolutely and and that's also good because trusty church has uh rejoined us uh so we have an active motion on the table but I will ask vice president Mayberry to just state that again so that we can all be on the same page the board I move that the Board of Trustees provides direction to the superintendent to research possible proposals to improve access and remove barriers for qualified Personnel for the was County School District's one bill draft request for the 2025 legislative session all right seeing no lights on for further discussion all those in favor please say I all all those oppose nay all right motion carries 7 to zero thank you so much and thank you very much Dylan and Tess we really appreciate your guidance and to superintendent Ernst and for all the staff that brought this forward on a on a note I would like to say that I am grateful that you brought these ideas to our labor groups beforeand so that none of this came as a surprise because we always want to be rowing in the same direction so thank you so much for that thank you so much for the clear Direction which as a public affairs firm is the very best thing a client can give us all right everyone that closes item 3.02 and moves us now to 3.03 this is the discussion and possible action to provide preliminary approval to the proposed amendments to board policy 9070 board policies administrative regulations and administrative procedur manuals remove 2year rolling calendar for automatic review of policies and allow the superintendent / responsible office to recommend additions repeals or amendments to board policies on an as needed basis and initiation of the 13-day public review and comment period this is an item for possible action and with us today uh guiding us through this conversation is our chief legal council Neil romardo thanks good afternoon president Smith super tenant erns trustees this is board policy 9070 and uh we basically long story short we basically realized that we can't keep up with the two-year ruling calendar that was required um we've had a lot of interference with trying to meet that we've had to go into different delays uh for multiple time multiple times and so what we decided to do in working with superintendent ER is to come with a more targeted approach to address policies that need to be fixed as opposed to just every 2 years you have to look at your policies and rewrite them and so if you would go down so basically what we did is on paragraph three you can see that um well what I did is I made paragraph three consistent with the other paragraph but um paragraph two but in in part the most important part is that this allows us to have the targeted approach so the responsible office for the board policy is responsible to make sure that the policy is being effective and if it's not effective then they need to come to the board and get it changed and work with our office to have it changed go down and then the rest is really just cleanup language um I wanted to make it real consistent that it's adoption repeal or Amendment and so we just went ahead and added those in go down and then um the only difference here is that um the superintendent may always adopt regulations if the board directs the superintendent to adopt regulations then they must do so basically or they must make their best efforts to do so and that's it so we're looking for approval and to move this to the 13-day uh review process thank you just as a point of clarification nothing in these changes stops the board themselves or trustees requesting I want to be really clear for that for the record oh yeah that's always been there and that's actually the first way that yeah very good all right seeing no lights on JJ do you have any oh uh trusty church I just wanted to comment basically I'm in support of this uh I I think we're just so topheavy in regulations and policies that we need we need to clean them up but yeah the two-year thing focuses attention on just its two years versus the ones that really but I just hope that the Su the new superintendent has somebody sometime go through these and say we don't even need probably a third of these anymore so thank you all right seeing no other lights on JJ do we have any public comment I have no cards for this item all right uh I will certainly entertain a motion or additional discussion move to approve second all right we have a motion to approve by vice president Mayberry seconded by trusty Woodley seeing no lights on for further discussion my guess is Trusty Woodley is on for the vote uh all all those in favor please say I I I all those oppose nay all right motion carries 7 to zero thank you so much colleagues that closes item 3.03 and now brings us to our last item in this section item 3.04 discussion and possible action to provide preliminary approval to the proposed amendment to board policy 9100 public bodies to remove the three consecutive term limit Provisions for volunteers and initi iation of the 13-day public review and comment period this is an item for possible action and again with us we have our chief legal councel Neil romardo all right if you just go down keep going there it is so as you know the board previously had changed board policy 9100 to put term limits on members who serve on our public bodies it's really inconsistent with our issues of um our inability to get folks to serve on public bodies I asked JJ yesterday for a list of uh vacancies and unfortunately I didn't print it out but there's numerous vacancies we're losing folks who volunteer on our public bodies we've lost two chairs uh we lost one chair in particular Dave solero who was excellent he served on the capital funding protection committee for years from its outset he was a great chair there was never an open meeting liw issue with him and he just got turned limited off he didn't want to leave he was forced off by us and so after having discussions I was asked to bring this back and to make change this back to remove the term limits and that's all this change is I think I caught a typo somewhere on page one but that's basically it thank you um I also want to share that I was also I mean and I'm glad that we we try different things I mean these are important discussions to have um but I have also received um communication from volunteers on committees asking us to reconsider this because we were losing tenured guidance and experience with it known that these members must be in good standing and they must be approved by this board and so I was also contacted and asked if this board would reconsider this item as well um I think I saw your light on trusty church thank you I agree and disagree I I strongly disagree in part and I understand the the concern in in part and I think it's easily fixable with a um a concession uh and essentially what we're looking at page five member terms and it does say you term out after after three consecutive terms without a onee break in service on the other hand as I've said over and over we want people to apply so this assumes that there's not a lot of people out there on a particular committee that might be interested in applying and I'm just totally opposed to autom aut atically having somebody in the bureaucracy here determining that we're not going to open it up we're going to just reappoint them and then it does go to the board but the board consistently just approves that my my compromise that I would propose is to say they um will not serve more than three consecutive terms without the op without the position being open to applicants including the current member so they can reapply but we at least open it up to the others and I will point out uh and I know everybody's tired it's late we just did this a year ago June of 2023 we went through this policy and I remember that meeting and we gave some concessions and I gave some concessions and we came up with a good policy so please I can even make a motion but please consider that we do it that way where at least we allow them to reapply but it's not determined by somebody in the bureaucracy that we're not going to take applications thank you so trusty church we did make concessions but then you voted against the policy we made almost every single concession that you had and because you didn't get the last thing you voted against it so I struggle with that um I'm glad that we implemented it and we should be having these conversations but it's really difficult for me to say to make another concession because you voted against it so personally the changes here reflect flexibility uh we absolutely review every single person that comes up for reappointment and I will also point out that most of these committees also have at large positions so anybody that's interested in applying has a multitude of different slots like for example there'll be parents slots or Community slots or at large slots and then you also have committees like zoning where each trustee is actually allowed to take the lead on an appointment and so I do feel that there are multiple opportunities for everyone in the community to join a committee and given the number of vacancies we have right now we did try this for a year we have many vacancies and so I would love for there to be an outpouring of this but I don't think that we should keep tenear Knowledge from the Committees but based on the openings we have more than enough slots for everybody who wants to participate in the community so um so I do support this u i I see trusty nicolet's light on and we've got multiple lights so let's go ahead and address everybody now and then at some point we're going to go to public comment thank you um uh Neil yes we really are just removing the three consecutive terms and you're out yes there's still going to be a process for if Diane is on her third consecutive term and she still wants to serve there still will be a process for Diane to apply yeah yes and no so if you were to look uh above on page I think it's four let me show you here yes help me please yeah you'd fall into the reappointment process thank you JJ so if you're a member in good standing which means you've attended the appropriate amount of meetings and you uh choose to be reappoint appointed then you have that first opportunity and I'll just point out for the record JJ and I were pulling up her email from uh yesterday and it's five committees with one two three four five committees with at least one vacancy we have uh still three vacancies on the safe and healthy schools commission the audit committee has a vacancy student attendance advisory committee has a vacancy Council and Family Resources has a vacancy OPB has a vacancy and um um so we feel as staff and and our team who represents all the public bodies that we've lost a lot of good chairs that's the biggest concern to me because the open meeting law you know you lose a a a person who knows what they're doing when they're leading a meeting that's that's a big Advantage but again it's ultimately up to you we'll make it work however you decide but there's a yes and no to your question there is a process to be reappointed they have the reappointment process gives them in advantage over somebody who would be applying a new if you will does that make sense that well I wouldn't NE yes thank you I wouldn't necessarily even call it the advantage is I guess but someone else can apply well under the reappointment process um not really no so how it works is if you look at B right there do you see it members in good standing maybe thank you JJ members in good standing may be reappointed without the district opening the position for recruitment right right right thank you yeah and that was adopted because historically so David Lasik under the Davis Administration and I wrote this back then because we had this is nothing we had dozens of vacancies we could not get people to apply for these positions and they went unfilled and under the old open meeting law you had to count that as a seat so at times we couldn't even conduct business MH and now you don't have to do that anymore but I I don't think we should take advantage of that that shouldn't be our goal to have vacancies um and if I may I I believe I might be the only person I'm here at the day that has been a reappointed Committee Member and I will tell you that um I was vice chair the first year so the chair in that role and then I was chair for the next 3 years we took very seriously what the requirements were this board sets the requirements we already have that you must be a member in good standing you must be recommended for this and then this Board needs to actually um agree with that so as the chair I made those expectations very clear and that often meant really gut checking with someone um so I do want you to know that this is handled with Fidelity and those rules are generally followed and I personally believe that's in large part as to why we typically do reappoint you just don't see the volunteers that are not coming and that's because that's managed earlier in the process so I do just want to share that from personal experience and a wonderful point Thank you and and I was reappointed on several committees and I will say that my experience was that the committee itself really monitored itself and the chair a good chair will have a conversation with Diane if Diane's not showing up or pulling their weight or whatever then the chair it's incumbent upon the chair to just say hey you know we need to talk yeah I think the change that if you don't show up you don't get reappointed is a good one cuz we can't conduct business if they don't show up so and I think that was done last time yeah around awesome well it sounds like anyone who wants to apply and doesn't because of the reappointment automatic process it sounds like they have many opportunities to serve somewhere else so I can state from my experience beinga board and having to find a parent I felt the stress so there were two occasions where I felt like I couldn't find anyone and I got a job I can't be out there in the corner trying to find people to volunteer so I know what that's like and it's real and if you can't find people to fill it in then you have nothing so I do like this change thank you all right seeing no other lights on JJ do we have any public comment I have no cards for this item all right I'll bring it back to this body for potential action move to approve second all right we have a motion by trusty Woodley seconded by trusty nicholette to approve item 3.04 seeing no lights on for further discussion all those in favor please say I I I all those oppose nay nay motion carries 6 to one thank you very much colleagues and I appreciate that discussion all right that closes item 3.04 and section three and its entirety and we will move on now to section 4 item 4.01 is our student Representatives report we do not have that representative with us but we look forward to welcoming our new student representative next meeting so that will now close item 4.01 and we'll move on now to item 4.02 our board reports and we will go ahead and start with I don't know which one of the two would prefer to start trusty weslake do you want to get us started all right thank you not a lot going on because school's been out but I did have the opportunity to uh head up to UNR and meet with Quenton Manny Samy and the dean of students for the dean's future Scholars this is just another pathway for our students available to them to attain goals and also to have mentorship which is probably one of the most important things for our students to have success either a mentor from an upper classman a teacher an administrator the school nurse I mean it's just someone else in their Corner that believes in them and wants to be a part of their journey in getting to graduation and it's a very supportive um process they get to be up on the UNR campus they're in uh the College of Education they're it's a more condensed um curriculum but they're able to get um math credits and science credits and they feel like they're part of the pack up there it's a very family type community and it's just extremely extremely positive I wish we had more spots available I think it's something like 74 kids they can offer this to and they take recommendations from principals and counselors at schools for these kids to join in um when they are I believe it's um 8th grade seventh grade seventh grade 8th grade and then they go on to high school but Manny and Sammy were both and they came and spoke here too they were both products of of this um system and it's just uh it'd be awesome if we could have more of it but I'm I'm really appreciative that we do have what we have and it's fully self-funded and they get from grant money but it's what they do they do well they have great success thank you thank you manam president so as we know school is out so there really wasn't much to do but I did stay busy because um I did spend last couple of weeks visiting the nicku um with our newborn and I'm happy to say that we did bring him home over a week ago so that's uh all I have to report thank you congratulations to trusty Woodley on that new addition and I'm going to speak very briefly at public comment so I won't bother talking here uh yeah with Summer uh I kind of just enjoy some family time with uh you know with wife and kids um uh not a whole lot to report uh I can't remember if we had a board meeting after our school graduation so I did attend a series of those that was awesome to seeing our brightest going on to the big world and I just want to give a shout out to inter own chrisen Neil um thank you thank you for everything you've done um and it's was County's very lucky to have people like you so thank you and welcome our official superintendent Ern so I look forward to working with you and uh doing great amazing things uh yes same I enjoyed the summer looking forward to the school year so nothing of real substance thank you I would just simply add to Dean's future Scholars that um on my visit I was very it was very heartwarming to see that many of of the teachers are summer off waso County school district teachers so that was a wonderful connection really nice and to learn about the Partnerships within UNR that Dean's future Scholars utilize I mean the the the services the wraparound the fun it it's a wonderful wonderful program and I I think it would be wonderful if we could grow it and then I just I just have a it's a wish it's a hope that our employees our 7500 employees are finding some time to enjoy the summer to take care of themselves their families their friends their yards their Gardens so that um they can come back and we can we can continue to make great things happen all right so I hope everyone's having a great summer um I'd like to provide some um specific congratulations and recognition for trusty Woodley not just for becoming a dad again but I want this community and this de to know that he has provided really clear strong and Incredibly effective effective representation on behalf of all of Northern Nevada and the Nia and he has done some remarkable work particularly around the area of mental health awareness and understanding with our student athletes and I really hope we get the opportunity to explore that more so thank you so much I absolutely want to welcome superintendent Ernst and also Deputy superintendent Tiffany McMaster uh to our highest levels of leadership congratulations to all the students competing in National competitions over break they've been all out and about representing waso County well and I also want to bring some attention to communities and Schools they're doing a fill the bus event right now with uh school supply items and health and wellness items as well you can go to their website and see that supplies can be dropped off at multiple locations and there'll be a grand finale event this Thursday the 26th from 9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. and so that brings me to my closing and this will not be the only only thing we say about you but I'd like to close with a sincere thank you to Dr Kristen mcneel who is with us for the last time at this meeting and I really do hope it's the last time and I mean that with so much love she has nearly 30 years of honorable work in the Washo County School District she started as a third grade teacher at Smith Ridge Elementary moved through as an assistant principal and then achieved the role of principal at Lois Allen Elementary she then joined senior District leadership a dozen years after her start she has been our interim superintendent three times and our superintendent of schools during the most challenging time in modern history which is through the pandemic and still yet she answered the call to selflessly come out of retirement to lead us when we needed her so I want to publicly state that when we teach our daughters sons and children will love and serve Washo County I believe we teach our daughters sons and children to look up to the model set by Dr Kristen mcneel thank you so much and that closes item 4.02 and we'll move on now to item 4.03 which spoiler alert we'll continue on with that topic thank you president Smith um just just to provide a couple of brief updates on the work that I've begun as superintendent have been meeting with uh teacher focus groups um our associations principal groups our associations with our highered institutions TMCC UNR really working to get uh to listen to our employees to listen to our partners and work from there uh as we are devel veloping plans going forward um one thing that I have uh come to understand far better during my my time uh as Chief accountability officer and in this role is while our schools are out uh there is a great deal of work that occurs here in the school district uh our finance team our grants team uh doing just some tremendous work our accountability team and it's just important to note that sometimes uh even myself thought okay well maybe those schools are are closed down and maybe that's just a real quiet time I think a lot of folks would uh smile at that and uh recognize that uh indeed this is a very busy time and I wanted to just take a moment to thank my leadership team many of them are here tonight um for their efforts to capitalize on this in between time so that we can get off to a strong start for the upcoming school year and so I definitely want to pass along my thanks to all of you um and just wanted to share that and then you know uh president Smith I I've had the opportunity uh and trustees I've had the opportunity to work very closely uh with Dr mcneel and uh I I'll I'll say to you um it's been a gift as an incoming superintendent to work alongside and learn from someone that has the highest ethical standards um the integrity and operates from that place and that means a great deal to me uh and I've had a chance to work uh very closely with Dr Neil and see that firsthand and uh I encourage and not only that just just remember we've we've talked about an interim superintendent a time or two a superintendent comes out of retirement for the good of our school district that sense of Duty and dedication uh is really Second To None moreover than a willingness after a new superintendent comes in to spend another month working with that superintendent to ensure a strong hand off um Dr mcneel my gratitude to you um personally in this role as superintendent Your Grace um and um the just the commitment that you have had uh to our school district our entire community is better because of all you've done that's substantial and I just want you to really hear that and I speak for all of us and so I think we we wanted to share a couple of things as we're moving forward here kind of queuing some things up and uh we'll kind of take it from there I [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] looks like in Ty for you and I to go have some more Adventures sander see you all around [Music] [Applause] and so we are going to ask Dr mcneel to come up uh our board has a gift for you uh to one of your favorite gardening shops so that you can enjoy this time and we also have a bouquet of wild flowers that includes carrots for your horse Xander so we'd like to to welcome everyone up to take a photo e e all right everyone thank you so much for my that such a special moment that closes item 4.03 and section 4 in its entirety and we will move on now to section five starting with item 5.01 public comment and we welcome the members of our public as you do come up I do also want to point out that we have some guidance on our screens for participation and JJ who can we welcome as our first Speaker Roger Edwards welcome Mr Edwards thanks for joining us today uh good evening Roger Edwards for the record 50-year resident of wasow County um father of three that all went to school here grandfather of five great grandfather of two uh uh my first item is uh once again and I hope you're all tired of me saying this I'm eventually going to burn out nowhere on this agenda is there a quality of Education item to be discussed you guys don't get it huh we're the worst in the nation out of 50 states and I know it's not just was County it's the state of Nevada has a call on a lot of the curricula but um come on there's nothing stopping waso County School District from being a head of the state you can't do it unless you put it on the agenda um I'm I'm I'm just I have to believe that having a doctorate after your name or a master's or a bachelor's degree initials must not amount to anything okay because it's clear it's not important that these people are not smarter than an aircraft mechanic or a plumber or a welder back here because they would fix this problem they wouldn't let it go on and on and on and on and on and I'm amazed that you uh elected uh Dr Ernst and he was up here for years after year after year saying here's the charts and graphs we've been doing terrible for the last 10 years and it's not getting any better and nobody paid any attention to him I'm hoping that by making him superintendent this whole program will change it's we'll find out I don't know it's clear that quality of education is not important this board can't be um uh we'll find out we'll find out if electing DRS is going to change anything how does this board ever plan on changing the the disastrous direction that the school district is in uh if you keep doing the same thing over and over traditional education is the only answer no CRT no seal no Dei no short days no ESL uh you get to get back to trans traditional education like we had in the 80s long days you've shortened the days how do you expect to do anything with all the all the uh all the people young people not even being in school thank you very much Mr Edwards without changing something Marie Rodriguez welcome Miss Rodriguez I'm going to tell you a little bit about this kid I knew he had parents who were not terribly interested in their children's education Unfortunately they were loving parents provided for them but they kind of just sent the kids off to school signed their report cards and that was the end of their influence on their providing them goals in life he wound up in third grade being moved up to the fifth grade reading class because of how well he read and as he got to high school it was evident he was going to be the valedictorian of his class and his teachers talked to him so Rick what are your plans after school and he goes well I don't know probably going to work in my dad's shop his dad owned an auto repair shop they're like aren't you going to college and he goes I don't have any money for college fortunately they knew how to get him into college and talked to him and helped him and he's now a retired anesthesiologist it's my oldest brother teachers make a difference and I know each of you on this board support the teachers of wasel County you've proven it you've gone to legislature to get them the raises that they need and you've improved the security of the schools by providing additional police for getting a can9 in there you guys care and I've seen it I've been watching um one of the things that I am so happy that was brought up is getting the teachers involved trusty Westlake brought that up getting the the parents and the teachers connected because often it's not the schools that's failing unfortunately it's the parents my parents were those parents I didn't go to college until I was in my 40s so I want you guys to keep up the great work that you're doing I know you care I have seen the changes I've seen the new schools um I have been to many of your meetings I've seen the decisions that you've made that are good for the schools and while I am super happy about safety and belonging Target 7even involving the parents and Guardians I also am interested in the bdr for qualified personnel and I really hope you will make it easier for your substitute teachers to get through that process it cost them money almost their entire first paycheck or over their first entire paycheck just to go through that my husband was a substitute teacher before he retired he had a bachelor's degree great with math love the kids but it was a hassle for him to do it to get that substitute teaching permission um and I think you would might be getting more people if the process were easier if it didn't take their first paycheck but thank you for what you're doing um I'd like to welcome our new superintendent we're going to miss you um but again you guys are doing a fantastic job I want you to know that most of w County knows that thank you so much Miss Rodriguez is Bruce Foster welcome Mr Foster good evening uh trustees and welcome uh supervisor uh superintendent Ernst and uh I certainly hope that we can uh improve the academics and continue moving forward uh what were uh you know all the goals that you have placed for for yourself and uh the first request is that maybe try it and you talk about families and parents involvement uh certainly as we mentioned before uh recommend getting these meetings in the evening so we can have parental family involvement so they can express what's going on with them and their uh kids that are in the wasel county school district and then maybe even for the uh span population have an interpreter for those families but what I am keying in on once again and in the spirit of the event that we had last week or a couple weeks ago uh where uh we identified well through capital resource Institute uh through Karen England and then we had uh Turning Point action uh brought up uh Pastor amuku where we are trying to shine a light and really get public Awareness on the pornography the rampant pornography that is wish within the uh the school system and basically um wishing You' have all these different teams and perhaps you can uh develop a pornography identification team and I know Karen England has mentioned that she's uh definitely saw that was County School District and with her research uh has the uh most or is the worst offender uh in the nation of that type of issue and what I found is that a a book called perfect uh this is in a number of your high schools I picked this up at the was County Library in the teen section well what's a uh a teen well that's 13 to 18 year olds their hormones are raging and Page 155 uh beautiful I lift up my knees turned to face him kiss him as this might be our last kiss intention clear and the race of my heart and the way my tongue Tangos over his he pulls back wait are you sure in answer I squirm free of my sweater now that's beautiful his lips move over me 156 wet and rough and punctuated by sharp nips of teeth he lays me back across the seat his thumb runs along the waistband and my jeans danger scent envelopes me you are ready aren't you he fumbles at my waistband and I hurry unbuttoning desire a steady thrumming like rain upon 10 thank you very much Mr Foster Sandy tibit welcome Miss Tibet Sandy ttim for the record um so NRS 20309 basically says if someone disrupts a legal assembly or meeting without proper authorization they can be charged with a misdemeanor so I brought with me my proper authorization my Constitution yeah that's right which gives me and everybody else in this room the right to exercise their freedom of speech and the right to petition their government for a addressive grievances which is what I and a lot of other people in the community have been doing for months unfortunately our government which is this body right here continually chooses to ignore us um they ignore We the People the community here with our concerns so in response we the people assembled peacefully last month on the 25th to demand and the removal of the age inappropriate books from our school libraries and in retaliation this board threatened lawfare by weaponizing the Nevada revised statutes against We the People why we afraid what's going on well why the rhetoric October 27th long before our community book challenge was presented a wasel County School District held the Community Forum at Spanish Springs High School where a parent raised concerns about the book gender queer being in the high school libraries um the following day Enfield received an email it's right here um from a different parent who confirmed gender CER gender queer was available at uh hug High School by using Destiny the same thing that we're using to look up our books right um and Phil then forwarded that email to Michelle Anderson and Troy Parks instructing them to address how books that instructing them to respond you know how books are selected and ensured to be age appropriate so Troy parks in turn forwarded that email to Kendra Fox I have never been able to locate a copy of gender Queer on Destiny and I do I look all the time so what happened to the book was it removed from the collection because it was deemed age inappropriate so you want to Quorum during these meetings I we want our challenge books on the agenda we want a board policy for the books it's not hard and then the relationship with ala terminated thank you thank you very much Miss tibit Joanie Hammond welcome Miss Hammond thank you for being with us good evening good evening president Smith and trustees I'm Joanie Hammond much of what I'm going to talk about is taken from Steven Moors book called follow the money the first Iron rule of American politics is follow the money that explains about 80% of what goes on in Washington and probably 100% or 95 here shortly after the latest climate change report was published CNN noticed that one reason so many hundreds of scientists are persuaded that the sky is falling is that they're paid handsomely to do so in America and around the globe governments have created a multibillion dollar climate change industrial comp complex a lot of people are getting really really rich off of the climate change industry according to a re recent report by the US government accountability office Federal funding for climate change research Technology International assistance and adaptation has increased from 2.4 billion 93 l .6 billion in 14 to 26 billion in 2020 for climate change programs this doesn't prove that the planet isn't warming but the title wave of funding does reveal a powerful Financial motive for scientists to conclude that the apocalyse is upon us apparently if you take money from the private sector to fund research your work is inherently biased but if you get multi-million dollar grants from Uncle Sam you're as pure as the freshly fallen snow how big is the climate change industrial complex today surprisingly no one seems to be keeping track of all the channels of funding Forbes Magazine went through the federal budget and found about 150 billion is spent on climate change and green energy subsidies that doesn't include the tax subsidies that provide a 30% tax credit for wind and solar P power so add to those numbers about 8 billion to 10 billion a year then add billions more in costs it's attributable to the states with renewable energy mandates that require utilities to buy expensive green energy worldwide the numbers are G Gru five years ago a leftist group called The Climate policy in initiative issued a study which found that Global investment in climate change reached 559 billion that year then to give you give you a better sense of how money hungry those Planet saviors are the CPI moan that this spending falls short of what's need needed a number estimated at 5 trillion for 5 trillion we could feed everyone on the planet in malaria and provide clean water and reliable electricity to every remote Village and we would probably have enough money left over to find a cure for cancer and Alzheimer's the tsunami of government money distorts science hidden in ways that even the scientists who are corrupted often don't appreciate now here's the real Scandal of the near trillion dollars that governments have stolen from taxpayers to fund Co thank you very much Miss Hammond um and I quite like your necklace it looks like a heart it looks very nice thank you Cliff Nellis welcome Mr Nellis thank you president Smith I want to say that I resent your opening thing I don't mind uh recognizing the Paiutes and the other tribes but when you say to live and learn on their land this is not their land This Is Our Land This is the United States of America you know my my anest came came over 300 years ago to build a nation and they built a nation and they've allowed the indigenous tribes to have sovereignty over their own lands so on their own on their on their reservations yes you can say that but this land here is not their land I want to make you aware of what happened to the County Commission you're probably not aware of this uh they have to Canvas the vote which means to examine it to make sure it was correct that's what the word canvas means and three of the five Commissioners voted not to cisit because there were so many problems and I can't go into detail or I lose my time but there are so many problems what is amazing is what resulted from their their honest analysis of this there was a firestorm we can't we can't have that why not we had public rallies asking hey can you guys just verify the machine count you know by a hand count of what the paper ballots and the Machine tapes it's all you got to do they refuse to do that now doesn't that stink that that seems like they're hiding something doesn't it and they also threatened them with $50,000 fines jail and removal from office have you guys ever had that happen to you has anyone in the state ever had that happen to a elected public official well we have run mathematical uh analysis of this and found that there are are problems with the vote and somehow two of our districts won over a 52% so that they don't have to run in the general how did that happen especially one in particular didn't even have a campaign no no uh no website or anything and that person won over 52% why we know the elections are fraudulent you guys do too we want you to ask the County Commission to hand count the votes to to give us confidence in our elections that you really were elected to be than you very much Mr n we appreciate you being up here to be the school board trustees all right we know Mr NIS this is your warning please thank you for is a fraudulent Mr this is the warning thank you so much who do we have next JJ Drew rebar Wendy Hart welcome Miss heart thank you for being with us good evening um I had a thing I'm going to go into but I did want to mention after a couple cou of your comments that I heard that sorry nervous as usual that um you anybody who knows anything about goals are told set a goal right set a goal is not I want to lose weight set a goal is I want to lose five pounds by a certain date otherwise you never reach that goal so watching what was going on today yeah it's great to have those ideas but you set a goal and then you make a plan on how to get to that goal you don't make plans and then try and go well we kind of want this goal out here so just my two cents um the other thing is I did I yeah I'm going to talk about the the school books and the pornography and the school books um I'm not going to read to you I think you guys have heard enough but I am not and I'm not here to condemn you but I'm hopefully to educate you on the risk of removing these books um I'm generally talk to kindergarteners and I'm a dog trainer so dog people so H hanging in there with me but doing some research on the exposure of pornography on children according to chat GPT which is supposed to be a non-bias source here are some key findings on exposure to pornography behavioral issues number one exposure to pornography can lead to increased aggression and inappropriate sexual behavior in children and adolescen some studies suggest a correlation between early exposure and a highly likelihood of engaging and risky sexual behavior number two is mental health children exposed to pornography may experience increased levels of anxiety depression and other mental health issues this content can distort their understanding of sex sex and relationships leading to confusions and stress attitudes and belief exposure to pornography can shape children's attitudes towards sex often leading to unrealistic expectations and misconceptions about sexual relationships it can also contribute to the de development of a sexist attitude mental development prolonged exposure to pornography can interfere with normal mental development potentially academic performance and other areas of learning addiction just like adults children and adolescen can have an induction pornography so if you're not sure of the definition of pornography refers to Media images videos writings or any material created explicitly to depict sexual acts or arousal of sexual desire and if we want to protect our kids these were all the things presented why we should have pornography in our schools because though people will feel better about themselves people will not be interfered with thank you very much missart I appreciate it but thank you for that Jeff Church welcome Mr church and I do have a hand out fors so thank you my name is Jeff Church uh recently we had a failed assassination attempt as we know on former president Donald J Trump and almost immediately leaders from all sides called for calm called for toning down the rhetoric President Biden person ly came out and talked about toning down the rhetoric which probably hasn't reached down to this level unfortunately but as I contemplated on that I contemplated on my military career uh serving in South and Central America and I met with very milit very many Military Officers and high ranking officials in foreign countries down there and I was present during the rise and fall of the Chavez regime in Venezuela and I've been to Venezuela been to El Salvador so the handout I'm not going to go into detail but it's just for your reading pleasure it's one of those things essentially all I did was cut and paste uh some articles from this is Reno uh B uh BBC Wikipedia so Fairly reliable type sources that aren't considered radical far right or far left I also referenced a website Bowmont gate and that's so important because I thank so many of these public speakers they get up here they're nervous but they do their best and they come to these meetings and sit and speak publicly and that's exactly what bont gate is all about about citizens in Bowmont California that that went to meetings and stood up and gave their opinions and kind of how that played itself out so it's the kind of article here that I hand out that might be good to to look at and go where were we five years ago where were we 10 years ago where are we today where will we be in another five years and so I want you to kind of reflect on that and again I'm not trying to be super political or anything else I think they're Fair articles to look at but um based on my experience in Central America South America Venezuela Etc I'm troubled by what I saw there and I'm troubled with the some of the issues in this country today thank you very much thank you very much Mr Church Janet butcher welcome Miss butcher thank you for being with us for the record I won't ask to have it put for btim and I'll talk about that later uh welcome and good luck to superintendent Ernst hopefully you will stand above the goal to get along crowd and put the education and not indoctrination of our schools in the Forefront on a quick note Dei is now diie as large companies such as zoom snap Tesla D Dash lift Home Depot Wayfair Microsoft John Deere and Tractor Supply are now dropping the Dei programs as they are not beneficial in the business world I thought the school was against bullying yet I have listened to this body espe I'll leave that out um especially bullying trusty church for simply asking a question or bringing up a good point trustey church has brought up many good points however we in the community do notice that he is not a part of the goal to getal Breakfast Club at the last meeting on June 25th I read from Tony Morrison's book and I was not quoted verbatim as I asked and these are Tony's words about tearing off the heads of white baby dolls and something about the transference of the same impulses to do it to live people um and then I'm going to get into the um who defines a disruption disrupting the meeting by gabbling and recessing the meeting no one was disrupting the meeting before except the trustee running the meeting when they pound the gavel and run out of the meeting because they choose not to listen to what they promote and support for the seual sexualization of the youth in our community why this waso County School Board of Trustees find the need not to be concerned with protecting our children and youth against this is beyond comprehension they should be promoting a safe haven not a den of proclivity then I want to address clapping clapping seems to help energy move through the body and it helps the brain make a connection it improves Focus reduces tension and may have an effect it also has many developmental benefits for children it's an easy and fun way to take care of your brain thank you very much Miss butcher Victoria Meyer welcome Miss Meyer Victoria Meyer and uh I brought my copy of the Constitution too just so that we remember our first amendment rights to free speech and if I'm not mistaken in interpreting that it's pretty basic uh it doesn't include repetitious [Music] comments and uh irrelevant comments so I'd like to talk about my sister's blue sweater for about two and a half minutes actually no but I could if I wanted to what I would like to talk about is when are you going to put these books on the agenda I know that uh I've heard that one or two through direct communication of you are working on this we challenged these books in February I'm not quite sure what you're working on because uh it's pretty clear what's in them and that they should not be here I did want to ask uh president Beth Smith about a recent uh National ion America interview I'm not sure why they focused on Washo County except that there's a quote here what you don't expect is harassment and intimidation and attacks on you constantly screaming swearing messages that people know where you live I don't I've never heard anything like that in this meeting ever I if those threats are true we as the public would like to know where they're coming from it's a serious matter that's true uh I also want to address the fact that uh you made a statement uh president Smith that um you're going to continue your work in spite of this in uh apparent intimidation that none of us are privy to but I'd like to know what that work is what is it that people are up in arms about and uh you're feeling threatened in some way which is not okay but uh you know to go on a national news show and say it waso county is a big threat somehow to public officials here I'd like to know what it is what that work is that's so controversial and and according to um open meeting law you guys can actually discuss this when we're all done talking here it's not per it's not impermissible I'd really like to hear an answer to what your work is um that's it thank you thank you Miss Meyer Fred Meyer welcome Mr Meer so first I'd like to say thank you to Jeff church for his service over these last years I was out there looking at the wall all you guys when you came how long youve been here so you know how responsible you are I guess would be the reason I would do that you know been here four years two years one year just got here whatever it is but you've all been here long enough from what I could see and um I don't know who Joe Ernst is except from what I've heard I've heard you've been in the system a long time so we're pulling from within the system not necessarily a bad thing just because of that but um we do expect you to pay attention to us out here we really would appreciate s and not just you know the folding of the hands and giving us the I mean it's of course we want you to pay attention as we're talking but to ser iously consider our concerns out here we we don't want to you to just you know appear to pay attention and then just move on with your business as usual I concur with all these speakers out here except for maybe that one that that you know for what we've said here about the books we want the books gone somebody's an awful slow reader if you've got somebody working on it here because they aren't getting it done we need them out of the school and not all of them or appropriately placed I mean let's talk about it let's at least have a discussion a round table please give us a break here you know we aren't going to go away we are here we are part of your constituents I guess right isn't that what we are so we want your attention we demand your attention also these rules you can just forget that we can come here we have a right to speak and we will speak and we will get loud if we need to we'll do whatever whatever we need to to get this done we we care about the kids I think you guys care about the kids too I think this is about a worldview thing I think that once he's gone then everybody here is all in the same camp okay you got the new person coming in then you all you guys are all the same political persuasion and then we've got you know everybody just yucks it up together and you're all good buddies and that's fine but really a little bit of contention here somebody to stand up and say hey wait a minute these folks are really saying something you know we need to listen to them we need to read the books Joe we'd appreciate it you're new come on show us something show us some medal show us What You're Made Of we really would appreciate it thank you thank you Mr Meyer that's all I have all right thank you so much to all of our speakers so that closes item M 5.01 and we'll move on now to 5.02 our next meeting announcement that is Tuesday August 13th 2024 the day after the first day of school for us and that brings us now to item 5.03 adjournment of this meeting at 6:36 p.m. thank you all very much e