I'd like to make a motion to move item two, board discussion um, under six.

I think there may be people here who are interested in that conversation and putting it all the way to the end uh might have some of these folks leaving because it'll be late.

my rationale is to put all discussion items at the bottom of the report. Typically the first meeting in January is reserved for the organizational meeting and then business follows.

I'd like to make a motion to remove 3C.

I mean I think the rationale is more related to what the goals of this current meeting are in terms of um doing our board elections and also discussion of boundaries and completed the recommended actions.

What are we supposed to talk about in section C? Open conversation related to remaining agenda items. what what what are we trying to accomplish in that section?

I would appreciate um a conversation around bringing back work sessions for the first meeting of um every month starting in February. Um I kind of looked at every um school district in our conference and then many of the peers that we often talk about at this table and every single school district has a work session.

I'd be in favor of moving the December 22nd date a week earlier...It's pretty close to the holiday.

I just wanted to ask a question about the work sessions and if you wanted to do that, um, or what the process was because when we did that in the past, we had like every other week we had like two meetings a month and then the first one was a work session and then the one at the end of the month was a board meeting and they were also at different times just to allow for like more time for conversation.

I think this is our only option in the district. So I'd move to approve sun this week as our uh school district publication for 2026.

the reason we have multiple law firms um assisting us at times is due to the the nature of particular lawsuits. So some specialize in um things where others specialize in others. And so depending upon um what the what the suit against the district is, we would um utilize the particular uh law firm.

I would like us to consider approving all of the items under um all the sub items under letter E. Um and this has to do with related business function. So, this is um designating our official depository for uh the district, authorizing the executive director of business um to to use um uh signatures for checks, authorizing the superintendent or the executive director of business to make um short-term investments. um to authorize the superintendent and executive director of business to lease, purchase, and contract goods and services within the general budget and to authorize the superintendent of executive director of business utilize wire transfers of investments and payments.

We want to ensure room for long-term growth. Uh we want to mitigate uh future attendance area changes by aligning initial occupancy with the expected rate of growth.

Do we want to have folks to go to school geographically logical and and I don't know.

what confidence level do we have in in these models that they're going to last for a year, two years, three years? I mean, what peace of mind can we give parents that we're not going to jockey kids around all the time?

if the direction of the board was to just take each development and move it where it needs to go, then all the arguments about, well, I'm driving right past two elementary schools to get to a third. All those other kinds of things come into play. So that gets very difficult, especially on scale.

do I do I wish this could have been handled within our board? Yes. Um, and I think this the circumstances were really challenging.

I'm wondering if the board is interested in postponing a decision just for two weeks um so that we can have a work session to do what you're talking about Brian.

The complaint alleged, quote, that there is a sustained pattern of conduct by male members of the Lakeville School Board that has been dismissive, inconsiderate, and undermining towards female board members.

The first conclusion is that the investigator quote did not find sexism, discrimination, disregard or disrespect based upon gender and that there is quote significant evidence um that shows the contrary.

I think it's it's crucial that the public acquisition at a public meeting needs to be corrected because the investigative report said that there was no foundation in those accusations.

It's determined that much of what is occurring is a function of the dynamics of the operation of a seven member school board. There is no evidence of male board members taking actions based upon gender. Instead, the seven board members have differences of opinion regarding process, approach, and philosophy. While such differences break along along lines of gender, there's no evidence that the differences are because of gender.

It has a reputation of that. Um it it goes back long before any person on this board has been on this board. It's been a long time. Um I can say that since coming on since November um and working with each and every one of you in some capacity um I am genuinely impressed with um the quality of work you you all do.

how do we ensure that we have the right process in place so that we're not spending taxpayer dollars? We have an invoiceer 15 grant. I have no idea how much our district legal costs are that that our district legal uh has yet to invoice us. uh all of the board time uh district resource time we spent probably 20 $30,000 of direct and indirect costs on this uh issue and and so if it went to the chair I would be in favor of that's what it is and he uh he executed a an investigation all for that like that this is a serious allegation and and and it should have gone uh in this manner but it's one of those where the board was not involved and that's my biggest concern.

When concerns arise, people must be able to raise them through appropriate channels without fear that doing so will be later questioned, scrutinized, or held against them. That principle matters far beyond this moment. What concerns me most is not disagreement about outcomes, but what this experiment experience communicates to others. When the act of speaking up becomes the issue itself, people learn that silence is safer than courage and that should concern all of us.

I don't object to the findings. Um I think I think um the the recommendations that come came out of it are important for us to consider but those inaccuracies in description of the various members of the board to me were just contributing to further divide. So I think going forward what I would like to see from us is more um how can we each use our different skill sets that don't go education and business.