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[1:48] good evening and welcome to the candidate forum for candidates running for school board and Independent School District 622 North St Paul Maplewood my

[1:57] name is Linda mclone and I'm a member of the Roseville area League of Women Voters and a Roseville resident I will

[2:03] be the moderator tonight for this evening of Meet the candidates I uh on behalf of the League

[2:09] of Women Voters I'd like to thank the candidates who have agreed to participate in our candidate Forum this evening the league is a non-partisan

[2:16] volunteer political organization for both women and men organized at the local state and National level to

[2:23] encourage and formed and active participation in government this form is part of our ongoing voter education

[2:29] effort to help voters make informed decisions at the upcoming elections this allows you an opportunity to hear the

[2:36] candidates discuss issues that are important to you and your community there is never enough time to cover all

[2:42] the issues uh because we just have a limited amount of time and so if the questions if you have questions that are

[2:49] not addressed we encourage you to contact the candidates directly and we hope that over the course of this program you learn more about the

[2:55] candidates and what they hope to do if elected to serve on the school board of District 622

[3:00] the views expressed in this forum are those of the candidates and not those of the League of Women Voters and

[3:06] sponsorship of the Forum is not an endorsement by the league for any candidate all candidates who filed for

[3:12] this office were invited and are participating in this forum so thank you again this year the citizens of school

[3:17] district 622 are electing four individuals to serve on the school board and all of the candidates that were

[3:23] listed on the Minnesota Secretary of State website as registered candidates are participating this evening we'll use

[3:29] uh questions submitted prior to today's form as well as those submitted in person tonight we only use questions

[3:35] addressed to all candidates and no personal or attacking questions are allowed and all questions become the

[3:41] property of the League of Women Voters similarly answers to the questions need to focus on the questions themselves

[3:47] while you can talk about a candidate's record uh we will not tolerate personal attacks but of course you're ready for

[3:53] school board so you would to do that anyway right okay so let me introduce the candidates for a school board in

[3:59] District 622 there are six candidates rning to fill those four full-term seats ke Yang Katie swore Charlotte

[4:08] Nardi Justin midar Nancy Livingston and Miriam

[4:14] janich so the order of the form will be as follows all candidates will have two minutes to give an opening statement I

[4:20] will then ask questions two minutes per response and I have this wonderful grid that mixed you all up randomly by a

[4:27] computer and you will have two minutes to respond to each of the questions as well and I will obviously move uh the

[4:35] order around you but randomly uh and I this allows you to not always follow the

[4:40] same person which is kind of a nice thing um I I might change the time but right now we're going to keep it a two

[4:46] minutes a question sometimes it's nice to just break it up a little bit but something more fun so at the end of the

[4:51] question period you'll have two minutes for your closing statements which will be given in reverse order from the opening statements our timers right here

[4:59] here have a yellow sign that will indicate that you have 30 seconds left and will'll hold up a red sign to

[5:07] indicate stop when your two minutes have elapsed we will enforce this to ensure equal time for all candidates of course

[5:13] you can finish your sentence right so but the and and and is not you know you

[5:19] get you guys get it okay so we'll now begin with the opening statements and again you have two minutes per response

[5:24] and we'll start with Kitty Yang thank you so much l

[5:30] so I am so excited to be back here um at this form speaking to the constituents

[5:37] of our community I want to thank the League of Women Voters for this opportunity and I want to thank my

[5:42] fellow candidates for joining me up here today uh my name is k Yang and I am

[5:49] running for reelection um during my time on the school board I maintained my

[5:54] commitment to serving other people through collaboration with my fellow directors and with the superintendent

[6:00] and District uh Minnesota law states that the Care Management and control of

[6:06] independent districts shall be vested in a board of directors and for the past two years I've been involved in

[6:12] decisions that reflected the best interest of all the students and members of our community this is why I want to run

[6:18] again for school board I have found value in seeing the different facets of our district and Community I've found

[6:24] value in talking to so many different individuals um and I found value in

[6:30] gaining a better understanding of our district and what it takes to run a large organization that serves such

[6:35] diverse needs and populations my priorities um have always remained the

[6:41] same which is school safety building relationships and academic achievement

[6:46] these priorities are all key to building a stronger community and they address all the things that we're seeing right

[6:51] now which is chronic absenteeism academic performance the Mental Health crisis for our young folks violence in

[6:58] our schools and Staffing shortages um I'm the right candidate for this role because I have extensive

[7:04] experience in Conflict Management workforce planning budgeting and strategic planning I'm a relationship

[7:12] Builder a listener I'm also a proud Citizen and a child of refugees who

[7:17] prioritize education even when they could not afford it so thank you again and I look forward to tonight thank you

[7:25] next opening statement Katie swore hi everyone I also o want to thank

[7:30] the League of Women Voters for putting this on and my fellow candidates it's nice to have us all here um and everyone

[7:35] here in the room and who submitted questions and who's watching later uh it's really great that people are

[7:40] interested and and want to be informed um uh I'm running for school board because I sincerely want all students to

[7:47] succeed and to have the opportunities to succeed um I grew up in sou St Paul I'm a proud product of a public school in

[7:54] the public education system it allowed me to go to Dartmouth for my college and

[8:00] then I came back to Minnesota um I was working in New Jersey and I said I think I belong in Minnesota so I moved back

[8:07] here to continue my education um and I'm really excited to be here tonight um

[8:12] I've been on other community boards I'm the treasur of environmental initiatives so I also have experience with strategic

[8:19] planning looking at budgets and really trying to maximize the resources for the benefit of the students um I look

[8:27] forward to working for all the students in the district and making sure that everyone has uh

[8:32] opportunities that they need the resources that they need I um also Echo the need for mental health um services

[8:39] for students making them feel safe and supported in their school so that they can bring their full authentic selves

[8:46] really contribute learn get engaged and find that fun um and excitement in learning so thank you all for your time

[8:53] and thanks to everyone I look forward to the rest of the questions thank you next opening statement Charlotte Nardi

[9:01] thank you uh good evening I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters for um

[9:08] uh coordinating this forum uh and hosting us uh and thank you to my fellow

[9:13] colleagues who are also here uh my name is Charlotte Nardi and I am a longtime

[9:19] resident of uh isd622 I've been here for 30 years I've lived in Maplewood North

[9:25] St Paul and North Woodberry depart that's in I 62 my all my three children

[9:31] were born here and did all okay 12 years so um after uh watching them grow and

[9:40] engaging in the schools and and then graduating and then going on to get college degrees I thought I would come

[9:48] back and uh contribute to this uh great school district and the

[9:54] community um in addition I have K12 uh teaching experience

[9:59] I I'm a former uh school public school teacher I also have a PhD in education

[10:06] and teach educational psychology at a local University to aspiring uh teachers

[10:13] I just completed my first term uh a Schoolboard member and I was elected

[10:19] during the pandemic as we were talking earlier and it was one of the most

[10:25] difficult time to join the school board because not only was I learning but was also challenging because things were

[10:31] moving around but uh we persisted and uh

[10:37] we persisted and then uh we made through it um if I'm elected my uh my priorities

[10:46] are going to be a academic achievement as it's always been uh hopefully we'll

[10:52] be able to close the learning losses that were um acquired during the

[10:57] pandemic uh the University Equity inclusion has always been my priority

[11:03] and then uh also school safety and teacher pipeline thank you

[11:11] very much uh opening statement Justin

[11:16] midah thank you hi my name is Justin Mida I've been very blessed to have an

[11:21] amazing beautiful wife and uh three amazing daughters we've been residents of Maplewood for 17 years now and uh we

[11:28] own a small contracting business here as well um I'm running for Schoolboard because I've seen a change uh and

[11:35] decline over the last decade of grades State proficiency standards students

[11:41] behaviors student disciplines and students mental health we are raising a

[11:46] second generation that is confused depressed unmotivated and becoming

[11:51] dependent on the government for all their needs we need to install measurements um to on all the programs

[11:59] and agreements that have really been put in place since 2012 uh grades and proficiency have been

[12:04] on a decline for the last 10 straight years which leads to these tough questions is the curriculum that have

[12:10] been installed since 2012 working is it too confusing for our

[12:16] students is closing the achievement Gap working is the focus on Dei taking away

[12:23] from the basics of teaching is all the focus we've been putting into this closing the

[12:30] Gap is the agreement between 622 and Minnesota Department of Human Rights to lower the suspension Gap working are we

[12:39] actually removing and helping these children in this agreement are we hiring more teachers of color and Indigenous

[12:45] teachers are we doing that is that working these are the issues that Minnesota and the state of Minnesota and

[12:52] the District 62 have been working hard at for the last 10 years and my biggest question has been is this working I

[12:59] think not North High in 2024 at a whopping 16.1 Proficiency in math and

[13:05] 29% Proficiency in science Tartan had a 36% Proficiency in math and 31% in

[13:11] science Sky View had a whopping 14.7% Proficiency in science so we must

[13:17] do better and I have some great ideas and a better way to move this generation into the future and I'm asking for your

[13:22] vote because we need change thank you thank you opening statement Nancy Livingston

[13:30] good evening uh thank you to the League of Women Voters uh for once again hosting I uh appreciate you doing that

[13:37] so much it it is uh important that we um uh engage our residents our voters and

[13:45] any way we can and this is very helpful um uh I am Nancy Livingston I've uh been

[13:51] on the board for a while um I um I have to say I've I'm celebrating my 50th

[13:58] wedding anniversary this Saturday so I'm I'm a person who um I guess I like

[14:05] tradition and and I I and I go with what works so I I have really enjoyed my time

[14:13] on the board I want to keep doing it I I think we have a great School District

[14:19] can we do better yes absolutely and I feel like I am I have the skill set to

[14:26] help as much as um as much as I can uh so I'll go into my past jobs which

[14:33] prepare me for for this um for this role um most recently I was the committee

[14:39] administrator for the Senate uh education committee it was a it was a

[14:44] very eye openening job as we uh because this is the major part of the state

[14:49] budget um the um before that I was an administrator at centry College in White

[14:55] Bear Lake for 13 years and really enjoyed that and working with with

[15:01] especially enjoyed the working with students who um um are going into um the

[15:06] Trad and many other things uh so I loved my work in Century and then finally uh I

[15:12] started my career as a newspaper reporter covering education so all of that I includes um public education as a

[15:21] thread and I think that probably has prepared me for this role thank you

[15:27] thank you and statement Miriam

[15:34] janich hi I'm Miriam Jan I want to start by thanking the league for hosting this

[15:39] and for everybody who's in attendance watching uh live or watching the recap

[15:46] thank you so much for being involved in our community um I am somebody who has a

[15:51] background in teaching I spent a number of years teaching young college students

[15:57] which was the most eye- opening experience one could have to see people who have just come out of their High

[16:04] School experience um and either flourish or struggle to flourish as new adults in

[16:10] the world and the broad spectrum of students I saw um come across my

[16:17] classroom sit in my office hours and hear them talk about what high school was like what they struggled with what

[16:22] they understood about um their preparation for college whether they felt prepared for college really sparked

[16:29] an interest in me in engaging the very systems that were supposed to be

[16:34] preparing people it's only one sliver of the people who left high school but it

[16:39] was an eye openening experience for me and so um after teaching for eight years

[16:45] I spent time at the Minnesota Department of Education actually in the Statewide assessments Division I learned so much

[16:52] about data about Education data about what we collect why we collect it what the state tells us we have to do

[16:59] my role was engaging with districts in their data collection I talked to quite

[17:04] literally at least one person from every District in the state of Minnesota and

[17:10] through these experiences I learned that we need children to play more and touch

[17:15] technology less we need our school districts to have a Civic engagement

[17:21] minded um approach to school activities and to parents and for safety we we need

[17:29] Excellence achieved through a balance between what the state tells us we have to do and the federal government tells

[17:35] us we have to do and what our Educators know we need to support teachers in practical implemental implementable ways

[17:44] and we need to exp Choice thank you thank you so we're ready to start our first questions and uh we will start

[17:52] with Charlotte Nardi so you're all prepared um and we're going to start with kind of a hard one I think school

[17:59] safety is a nationwide issue what approach do you favor resource officers

[18:05] dist districted access drills it's that you know the list is long

[18:13] so so at um for those of you that watched this uh last uh school board

[18:19] meeting that we had uh last week uh superintendent uh Tui Osorio uh outlined

[18:28] the school uh safety in our district um I personally prefer having

[18:36] uh the uh the the double doors that we have and if we could someday also afford

[18:45] uh having metal detector I'll be for that uh because I believe that one of my

[18:53] goal is for every student that comes in in our school buildings to go home home

[18:59] safely and also feel safe when they're in our buildings

[19:04] so school resource offices are okay but I also prefer having uh social workers

[19:12] instead of people that will deescalate any conflict that happens in the

[19:18] building um yeah and school psychologist I

[19:25] mean I don't I like like police officers but I personally don't think that they

[19:32] belong in the building we need more uh social workers and so forth and if we

[19:38] have uh officers they should they should not be wearing uniforms and carrying

[19:44] guns around thank you thank you Justin mid off thank you um I I feel the opposite

[19:52] um I don't believe that resource officers should have to have police officer uniforms but um I do believe

[19:59] that they should be the only way to stop an active shooter situation um it happens so fast the only way to stop is

[20:05] to have somebody with a gun there at that moment um we've been it's been proven over and over again if you look

[20:11] at all the different um incidents that have happened um the cops are always five minutes late so in five minutes

[20:17] somebody can do a lot of damage that wants to do damage in the school um I actually want to take more of a um an

[20:23] approach of when I grew up we had uh like our football coach was uh our hallm

[20:28] monor he was a mentor you know these guys aren't just scary people or gals these are mentors these are people that

[20:34] are Walking The Halls they're saying why aren't you in class is there something wrong can I help you can I ask you is

[20:41] there you're crying is there something um to really become mentors to these kids and the kids can look to them there

[20:48] was an incident in um I think it was yaldi where um or Sandy Hook I think it

[20:54] was where one of the teachers it was a a football coach jumped in front of the shooter and saved like four or five kids

[20:59] and took all kinds of bullets and I thought to myself at that moment if that I bet that coach wish he had a handgun

[21:06] so I believe that teachers should be able to volunteer to safely train to

[21:13] conceal and to have a weapon on them it does not to be need to be shown it needs to stay on the teacher because it can't

[21:19] be in the desk it can't be accessible to anyone else and this teacher has to be highly highly trained to have concealed

[21:25] carry and that's uh pretty much how I feel about it because that's the only only way we're going to stop it metal

[21:30] detectors in my opinion would actually be more intrusive I I hear that the the school officer idea or the um maybe

[21:38] veteran idea um people get scared oh we shouldn't have to put guards at our doors and have children run through you

[21:44] know soldiers well I would feel the same about Metal Detectors is kind of intrusive and um I just I think we need

[21:50] to Resource officers so thank you thank you Katie swore yes thank you for this question I

[21:57] know it's really important on everyone's mind as we keep hearing about tragedy after tragedy um for me I think school

[22:03] of safety the best approach is to build relationships so that people know um

[22:08] who's in the building they know who a safe adult that they can talk to um I agree with having Mental Health Services

[22:15] with having social workers and with involving the whole family I think sometimes we need to take a holistic

[22:20] approach to this that um sometimes things are happening in kids' lives that are really affecting them it makes them

[22:27] makes it hard for them to learn and they need somebody safe they can talk things out with that they can try and then

[22:32] Focus um on learning and on the school um I I think the only way to stop and

[22:38] prevent these things from happening is to prevent people from starting it in the first place I don't even want to

[22:44] bring a gun and do that kind of violence in school I graduated in 1999 that was the year of Coline before that this

[22:50] wasn't even an issue school shootings really didn't happen um and since then I

[22:55] think um I it's just it's a tragedy and it really gets me um because I know how

[23:01] traumatizing even the drills are for students and how um after the last one

[23:07] teacher said that she lied to her kids to say it was just a drill because it was so scary and they needed to um

[23:13] prepare for all these things I'm sorry I'm getting a little worked up here um but yes I think um there needs to be uh

[23:21] a a full holistic uh way to bring people together to have support and that can look differently for different students

[23:28] they all have different needs um I think we need conflict resolution I think we need a strong no bullying policy um to

[23:35] make sure that there's not kids being picked on who then think that they need to come back with a weapon and show who's really boss or something like that

[23:42] that we need kindness we need conflict resolution nip things in the bud try and build those relationships between the

[23:48] students between the parents and the and the the students and the teachers everyone working together trying to do

[23:54] what's best for all of the kids together um and I do appre appreciate the the thoughtful discussion that we have on

[24:01] this thank you thank you kitty Yang um I also agree this is a very

[24:07] important question I think as as a parent of students in the district it's something that I think about often you

[24:14] know making sure my kids um will be able to return home but you know we you know so as a schoolb member um my Approach is

[24:22] um I feel like a two-prong um approach so it's uh we have to be both proactive

[24:28] and um also reactive so the proactive piece is addressing the mental health piece for our our students um we have to

[24:36] um provide opportunities so they feel like they belong in the schools so um

[24:42] you know uh Athletics after school activities um we have to make sure

[24:47] curriculum um they after school any of those things have to also um have

[24:53] opportunities for them to see feel like they belong um at the school um we um I

[24:59] would also say having school social workers available so they can help address um any mental health um issues

[25:05] that may be happening at the school um and then also restorative um conversations um for students and um

[25:14] that that might be having um conflict um issues at school um I feel like

[25:20] addressing the the building physical safety is also something that um we as a district have done uh really well at and

[25:27] then we can continue to do do um the double vestibules that Charlotte had talked about um you know doesn't fully

[25:34] stop a shooter but it it slows it down so that um students can get to safety um

[25:39] creating strong and healthy relationships with our community as well as our um city police departments um and

[25:46] the school resource officers I believe um have a place in our school district but um should not be the central um

[25:53] person to be addressing these types of things so um thank you thank you excuse

[25:58] me Nancy Livingston um thank you uh so I think it

[26:06] was two weeks ago my three little grandsons who attend an elementary school in our district um their mom

[26:13] received a a text message that their school was on a list of schools that

[26:20] were targeted um by someone who was threatening uh to shoot up the school

[26:28] and uh not only our school but schools in St Paul well um the our district took

[26:34] this very seriously and I'm grateful that we do take these threats very

[26:39] seriously it turned out that it was a 12-year-old uh hacker uh but you know it

[26:46] it might not have been right it it so at any rate I was I in our district we do

[26:53] take these threats very seriously and um we've done a number of things to promote

[26:58] school safety the um uh we have great relationships with our uh local police

[27:05] um Department in North St Paul mwood and Oakdale and um and I applaud the

[27:11] superintendent for taking the time to to work and keep those relationships up to

[27:16] dat um and they have very good communication back and forth I think that's really important um we have spent

[27:24] a lot of money improving all of our schools in the district and and with a focus on school safety and we've um we

[27:31] have those double doors in place and um uh and I think that was that was key um

[27:39] also I I agree um that relationships are so important because prevention is uh

[27:46] the way to go with this um and um you know when students uh have a trusted

[27:53] individual maybe it's the the lunch person the lady or gentleman maybe it's

[27:58] the school bus driver the teacher whoever uh I think those they can um

[28:06] keep our schools uh safe by building strong relationships with our students thank you Miriam

[28:15] janich I was 14 years old when the Coline shooting happened and so I felt

[28:21] um I feel that that has impacted all of my high school college and adult life

[28:27] those students who felt that way were my age that really struck me when I was a teenager about how uh much emotional and

[28:36] mental distress a child had to get into to be in that position and so um

[28:42] spending you know many many decades all of us thinking about this problem um

[28:48] here is what I believe first of all school safety begins in our homes if a

[28:53] student has brought a gun to school there were 150 steps before that gun

[28:59] entered a school or a knife entered a school that parents myself included need

[29:05] to take responsibility for teachers are not parents teachers are professionals

[29:10] trained to teach and expecting the school district to hold up um parental

[29:17] relationships with our kids is not a relationship that is going to have sustainable employment for our teachers

[29:25] or our administrators we as a community need to take responsibility for gun

[29:31] safety uh if we have a child in school we need to make a commitment to the school district that we will keep our

[29:38] Firearms secured our ammunition separate we need to be responsible gun owners so

[29:44] that our children are not in kindergarten bringing a loaded handgun to school and passing it around whether

[29:50] we want to own guns or don't want anything to do with guns I believe that we should have firearm safety classes I

[29:57] believe that our c civic's engagement should have police officers coming to schools often to talk about what police

[30:03] do what EMTs do what safety in the community means and any systemic change

[30:09] needs to happen at the legislature and so if we as a community want more safety

[30:15] I don't think it's the responsibility of the school district to foot the bill we should be working together to advocate

[30:20] for that funding thank you so we're now ready for question two and with this one we're going to start with k Yang so uh

[30:28] we see lots of pictures of athletes but we don't do much to recognize academic

[30:36] Excellence or academic achievement so what do you see as what's your philosophy about how one might go about

[30:42] recognizing and a rewarding academic

[30:48] achievement um I think in our district we actually do a really good job of uh recognizing both Athletics and

[30:55] activities and academics um we do that a lot of recogn recognition at our uh Schoolboard meetings um for you know

[31:02] just usually towards the end of the year we do a lot of the um the language certifications so any of our students

[31:09] that have taken uh language courses and are certified um so we do recognition for that so we do do quite a bit of that

[31:16] um I feel um you know Athletics is is such a money maker for colleges and so I

[31:24] think um you know as a school district as a Community as a family if we can

[31:29] start um also um rewarding academic performance um for our students as well

[31:35] whether that be through scholarships which are already happening as well um we can also continue

[31:41] to um stress that for our students how important it is um also providing

[31:48] curriculum that students are interested about so that they can excel in schools um would be also something that um you

[31:55] know I wish all students love stem but you know it's not always going to be the case and so if we could provide you know

[32:01] the Arts or other additional academics that they can also excel in so thank you

[32:07] Nancy Livingston uh thank you we were just uh

[32:14] ke and and Michelle yenner and I and and Charlotte were just at the urban debate

[32:22] league was that what it's called yeah um and it was an event um at um it happened

[32:29] to be held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts but it rewarded student debaters

[32:35] and that was so inspiring to have a ballroom full of community leaders from

[32:41] St Paul in Minneapolis and the suburbs um just giving at a boy at a girls to uh

[32:49] debaters and um actually our Tartan student uh prevailed she she was one of

[32:55] the winners and we were so proud so um I I do think that we um uh could do more

[33:03] with with academic uh Awards we have the you know the National Honor Society of

[33:09] course we have Deca we have this I'm so proud of this district for being very committed to having

[33:17] extracurricular activities that can appeal a whole variety of them that can appeal to each and every student and um

[33:26] uh debate of course being one of them um so I I think too I think about the AVID

[33:33] program the advancement via individual determination program it It prepares

[33:38] students to um sort of demystify college and we're um and we're really uh big

[33:47] into that program we've gotten um recognition nationally uh for our Avid

[33:54] programs and um so on the board I would consider I would keep supporting um

[34:00] funding for those for those uh programs thank you thank you Miriam

[34:07] jenich I know that our school district is full of students that are doing excellent things in art and academics

[34:15] and my question to everybody paying attention is are you paying

[34:20] attention and the reason I asked that is because um as much as we want to

[34:26] recognize is as much as we should be asking those questions and paying attention from our positions out in the

[34:33] community and so I know from reading the regularly published newsletters from our

[34:38] district that the district does tell us about those arts and academic achievements as well as the athletic

[34:45] achievements the ways that our students are engaging in in the community but the

[34:50] question itself tells me that our School Board needs to have a robust public

[34:55] engagement plan that put pushes even more awareness not just of student academic achievement art achievement

[35:02] Athletics but also of what the board is doing what the issues are at hand we should be um celebrating attendance at

[35:11] board meetings we should be uh publishing regular updates in our community newsletters we should have an

[35:18] engagement plan that not only celebrates the Arts and academic achievements of our students that are definitely

[35:25] happening but also brings the opportunity to be engaged in what is going on in our school Community because

[35:31] good things are happening and um I very much believe that much of the consensus

[35:38] that things are getting worse has a lot to do with how hard it is to find out just what is happening in the first

[35:44] place thank you Katie swore thank you and thank you um for

[35:50] this question it feels a little personal to me because when I was in high school I was really excited to get my letter

[35:55] jacket for debate and math team um and I was also really excited when my

[36:02] name would show up in the newsletter and so things like publicizing in the newsletter and the local newspapers on

[36:07] social media all of the cool um non-athletic achievements in art in drama in all of these academic

[36:14] activities um celebrate The Debaters who make it to the state tournament and the people who are on their team helping

[36:20] them get there um let's have school board members show up I was so excited

[36:25] to hear that you were there at the Awards because that kind of shows to the students who are working hard that the

[36:31] community does support them is excited for them is proud of them um and I would be excited to do that as a school board

[36:37] member as well um again partly because I remember how cool it was when uh I I noticed that other that adults were like

[36:44] seeing what I was doing and thought it was cool I think it's amazing how many opportunities there are um even like

[36:50] within Athletics outside of Athletics um I participated in a language olympiada when I was in high school I didn't you

[36:56] know before I was invited to participate didn't know that was a thing I saw that the bilingual seals that are given out

[37:03] to students it's such a such an amazing opportunity for people to sort of find their find their passion find their um

[37:09] find what they're really good at what they want to devote the hours that it takes to get good at something um just

[37:16] again like like the kids and Athletics do how many hours go into these drama presentations um like the School Musical

[37:22] that's coming up those kids are working hard on stage behind the stage the ones on um and tech crew and the band all of

[37:29] these things are just really wonderful and it is really nice to see them publicize to see these kids get the

[37:35] recognition um that they deserve um just as much as as it's exciting to go and

[37:40] see an athletic event and watch the team win win the game it's excited to see the kids win their debate or to see the

[37:45] musical be such a success so um I'm definitely a fan of of supporting that

[37:50] continuing to recognize it and and to show excellence and the full broad diverse spectrum of students that are

[37:56] here in all the things that they do thank you Charlotte

[38:08] nardy thank you for the question um yeah so I agree with most of

[38:14] the points that have been made that uh here at ISD 62 we celebrate every

[38:20] achievement not just uh athletic um I as I said earlier I raised three

[38:29] children here in the district um they were very different from one

[38:35] another uh one of them was uh very high

[38:40] achieving academically would literally cry if she had a b and then I had another one who

[38:48] was who literally only came to school because of the Athletics that uh uh she

[38:55] had to do and uh so she played Sports uh fall winter and spring and so I was

[39:03] always here uh watching sports and then I have another child who was um who has

[39:11] a developmental disability and was in special at uh their whole entire time

[39:19] here uh in uh istd 62 so I got varied experiences of uh uh supporting children

[39:27] through here but I as a result I was able to see my child that succeeded

[39:34] academically was recognized because I I attended several academic achievement

[39:40] event where uh she received Awards and then of course my athletic child also

[39:47] got you know was always all conference and you could see her picture if it was

[39:52] still here in uh Tartan High School you would have seen it and then uh my

[39:58] the one that did not perform well perform in other things even though they

[40:04] were in special at they still got uh recognition and so I think that uh we do

[40:10] recognize students here including here in this board meeting thank you very much and J Justin

[40:19] midah thank you yeah this is a great um great ideas everybody I agree with everybody here too we got to keep the um

[40:25] academic Awards they have now but but Awards might not be enough to reach some of the norm some of the regular kids

[40:31] that might not achieve at a high level those kids can be left out in a lot of ways and I'd like to bring in more for

[40:39] those children as well like we could do stuff um like I think the home room we could actually start doing more like

[40:45] goal setting exercises I think we don't teach enough about that we do it in college but by the time you're in

[40:50] college you're already not really a goal Setter um I think you know and we could even with at elementary age if these

[40:56] kids with set small goals every day and they achieve them they could have an award every day maybe an extra recess

[41:02] period um we could even break it down to have like a fun day if they do really good in the semester they could have a

[41:09] Valley Fair day um I remember when I was a kid we used to actually have these days we'd have to work really hard to

[41:14] get our academics to a level and then we'd all get rewarded by going to you know Valley Fair it was kind of sad for

[41:20] the kids that didn't make it but they learn their lesson it's consequences kids have to learn lessons so I just

[41:25] think we can break it down to do some daily goal setting daily rewards I'm a real adab boy kind of person as a

[41:31] company owner I understand that my workers want to be proud of what they do they want me to be proud of them so I'm

[41:37] constantly saying thank you great job I'm always at the job at the end of the day to tell everybody how great they did

[41:43] so definitely needs to be that needs to start in the schools most importantly of anything so I love the rewards I think

[41:49] we could do Val Fair fun days trips there could be camping Retreats for some of these children that just achieve a

[41:56] certain standard they don't have to be the high Achievers because the high Achievers get the rewards and that's awesome but I think every kid needs some

[42:03] sort of a um a goal or some sort of um a reward for all their hard work so I'm

[42:09] really um into that so thank you thank you so now I'm going to look at our

[42:14] timers I'm going to do a whole series of one minute questions Okay one minute means

[42:20] you know you got to really say what you want fast okay so and we're going to start the first one minute question with

[42:26] Mariam Janet check uh should students we every District needs a cell

[42:33] phone policy what do you think about cell phones in the

[42:38] classroom I am anti- cell phones in classrooms my own children will not be getting a cell phone until they can

[42:44] drive they're only uh six and eight and if you ask them right now they will tell you that um I think that endless access

[42:52] to social media um and different um game applications

[42:57] are not necessary and actually detract from our children's ability to focus and

[43:03] pay attention I also think it has a serious detrimental effect on uh

[43:08] socializing and engaging with students I think if we take phones away from students until they're in later grades

[43:15] 11th 12th grade till they can drive um we are going to see kids interacting with each other being more engaged with

[43:22] their teachers less distracted and we will naturally take away many many hours of the day where they are on platforms

[43:29] that are not safe thank you Charlotte Nardi cell

[43:35] phones yeah I for the most part I agree uh with um um uh the previous uh

[43:43] respondent I think that uh but for me I

[43:48] I would do I I'll do a a modified version kids can bring cell phone to

[43:54] schools but they can give put them somewhere where it's stored until uh

[43:59] they're done with school because I believe that students need to communicate with the parents at home for

[44:05] rides especially for me who had children that were in athletics they always

[44:10] communicated with me during the day and say Mom I'm going to stay after school and do this I'm going to do this and so

[44:17] we always adjusted our schedule based on what they're telling me and if they

[44:23] didn't have cell phones they will not have any way to communicate with me so I

[44:29] do cell phones in schools but limited uh

[44:34] accessibility thank you Nancy Livingston uh I agree with Charlotte I

[44:42] mean the practice in our district is that you don't have cell phones in the classroom that you turned it off and put

[44:48] it in your backpack um so I think that's the the healthy thing to do I understand

[44:55] about parents um concern about being able to reach their students but um I I

[45:01] still think the uh you know the practice of cell phones uh distracting students

[45:06] during classroom uh takes a precedence so that's my position on it thank you

[45:12] Justin mid yeah I agree with everybody here actually it's part of my closing statement I believe we should um have

[45:18] the home teacher actually um they should turn the the cell phones into the home teacher at school and I think they

[45:24] should get their phones back at the end of the day I think would um really really keep the focus on academics as

[45:31] well as as Miriam said some of the most important things is that'll really strengthen offline social skills you

[45:38] know we need these kids to really be kids again play together um you know do

[45:43] things together experiment together with bugs you know just things like kids used to be really fun and do things together

[45:50] and I think um I'm in agreement I think cell phones are a real real big problem in our in our schools

[45:57] Kitty Yang thank you for this question uh as a parent of teens I'm very familiar with

[46:04] this um I the district well so the state legislature passed that school districts

[46:10] have to have a cell phone policy and here at 622 um some of our schools have had the

[46:17] phone away for a day um policy and so um that's been implemented um across our district um and so luckily my kids have

[46:25] been at the schools that have had the phone away for a day uh policy and so they're very used to it um I feel like

[46:31] you know I've had conversations with them um and part of the conversation is

[46:37] about responsible usage um and so I find that as a parent as an adult both um at

[46:43] home and in the um workplace or the school Place uh we also have to model

[46:48] responsible behavior um which will then encourage our students to be okay with putting their phone away for the day so

[46:56] thank you and Katie War yes thank you this is a super interesting question and um I really appreciated Miriam how you

[47:03] said that this has been an ongoing conversation that you're having with your kids I think that's part of the part of the answer to responsible use

[47:10] and making sure that especially that harmful social media is not a part of these kids days um I also agree with

[47:16] Charlotte that there is a time and a place for a cell phone and for having that ability to communicate so I would

[47:21] really look to listen listen to the teachers who are saying um well to see what they're saying

[47:27] about how much of a distraction is in their classroom how much they like to put your phone away for a day um whether

[47:33] that's that's helpful um I I did see an article that when the students didn't

[47:38] have their cell phones that was the first time the teacher had to tell the kids to stop talking to each other when they were talking because it wasn't part

[47:45] of their experience because the kids were on their phone so um I think a lot of data is coming out there have been a lot of studies and a lot of programs

[47:51] that we can look to other districts other schools even other states to see what works how to balance things out the

[47:58] best and so I'd really look forward to kind of listening and finding that balance between responsible use thank

[48:03] you thank you so we're sticking with the one minute we're going to start with Katie swore and Define equity Define

[48:12] equity great um Equity to me is uh people getting what they need um and

[48:19] providing what is an equitable outcome and so I always visualize the the people

[48:24] in the fence in the baseball game and you have a tall kid and a middle kid and a short kid and um equality is giving

[48:32] them all the same size stool which doesn't help the short could see over the fence and the tall person doesn't really need it um I think Equity is

[48:38] making sure that everyone can see over the fence and so I think in schools that means what do you need to succeed what

[48:44] resources need to be provided what kind of classes what kind of challenges um does every student need in order to have

[48:51] their best opportunity to achieve uh reach their potential um and don't

[48:57] overlook groups don't put everyone in the same sort of bucket um and and

[49:02] really try and individualize that to have a positive outcome for everyone

[49:08] thank you Nancy Livingston toine Equity Equity is different than equality

[49:16] Equity is understanding where a student is and then taking that student um to a place

[49:24] of success uh and students come are in very different places I remember um you

[49:32] at when I was at centry College the the president did a little uh skit where he came up with a bag of shoes and said

[49:40] okay so there there's and and he put them on and they had all different sizes

[49:45] uh in other words you can't expect every student to be the same size shoe every

[49:51] student to be in the same place and you have to recognize uh where they are and

[49:57] given the resources and the support they need to um to get to success thank you

[50:03] kitty Yang um Equity is really acknowledging

[50:09] that there's different diverse needs um I think from a school board like answer

[50:16] um that there's diverse needs in our district um and being able to provide the resources to them regardless of

[50:22] their situation um so that we can achieve the ecademic outcomes that were we're hoping to to work

[50:29] for thank you Miriam janich for me Equity is providing what's

[50:36] needed for that student so that you can also provide what is wanted for that

[50:43] student um students are going to be in this district for high achieving reasons

[50:49] for special education reasons for athletic reasons for uh the colleges

[50:55] they want to go to for the trades that they want to go to and that diversity of needs Equity means that each student's

[51:04] needs are met so that those children can grow into adults that have paths that

[51:12] match what they want and that takes expertise from our teachers and

[51:18] administrators our um program staff that takes communication and transparency

[51:24] with families and that also Al the difficult part is that it also requires

[51:29] transparency with our community so that when those programs and needs can be met

[51:35] they also can be paid for thank you Justin

[51:40] Mida I believe equity and school is really important um it really to me it believe it means really that every

[51:47] student has the same opportunity and tools to succeed so to me I mean there's different I look at it more as a an

[51:54] income class like there's you know poor folks and then middle income and higher income so some some parents can afford

[52:00] to get their kids into every there is to get them into and then some parents might not be able to afford that

[52:06] football jersey or the football helmet or get them into the football program and I think that's where the school

[52:11] district really needs to focus in like Miriam said on each individual kind of child's needs if a child isn't able to

[52:17] play football because they can't afford it the school needs to find a way to step in and uh and fund those types of

[52:22] things so in in school I think Equity is important um especially for for children

[52:28] of um you know poverty thank you Charlotte Nardi yeah I agree with uh uh everything

[52:36] that uh everybody said that Equity is not the same as uh equality we need to

[52:43] look at every student and uh provide them with the needs that they need to be

[52:49] able to succeed uh so the the resources that they need some some kids might need need

[52:56] uh financial assistance uh thank goodness we have free meals right now for everybody but

[53:03] Equity uh as far as school lunch is meant that uh the poor kids who could

[53:08] afford it can have it and uh so I agree that uh in order to do that we need

[53:15] individuals that are paying attention to the needs of our children and uh

[53:20] realizing and us at the community need to realize that we all do better when

[53:26] each child does better it's not about uh equality thank you thank you another one

[53:34] minute round I love these one minute questions uh this is a toughy I think

[53:40] should the administration be able to monitor student social media or should

[53:45] the administration have the right to I guess you could put it either way and we'll start with Miriam

[53:54] janich I am not a big believer believer in monitoring I uh think that even as

[54:00] parents we do too much monitoring that isn't to say that things that are

[54:06] happening on social media shouldn't be paid attention to but I think that there is an important line between um watching

[54:15] too closely tracking too closely so that students are our children feel the need

[54:22] to hide more and more be sneakier get around things um and I don't think it's

[54:27] appropriate for public education time and dollars to spent on that monitoring

[54:34] I think the question really comes down to again what are we as parents doing

[54:40] how are we parenting our children responsibly that's all of our own individual choices to make but um I do

[54:48] not think it's appropriate to ask uh our teachers and administrators to take on

[54:54] the role of monitoring our children Children online thank you Charlotte

[55:02] Nardi yeah um so I agree that uh we should not be uh monitoring um uh social

[55:12] media because if we did that then that'll literally be a full-time more

[55:17] than one full-time job and I agree that uh our resources need to be spent wisely

[55:24] by uh uh uh focusing on academic achievement and and mental health and so

[55:30] forth and so forth but on School Technology I agree that uh uh School

[55:37] officers can monitor uh the technology um and then leave the rest of

[55:45] the technology s such as uh uh cell phones and everything that the kids are

[55:50] bringing that should be the parental responsibility to monitor what the kids are doing on social media

[55:57] thank you Justin midah yeah I agree uh it's not the

[56:04] school districts to really monitor everybody's lives out there um I think

[56:10] if they do use the school computers and school internet um I think that they

[56:15] should be open to monitorization If and I think that we could maybe set up a program that has an algorithm that might

[56:21] pick up just keywords that might just flag something um you know fight um shoot uh these types of keywords I'm

[56:28] sure there's some sort of an algorithm that could be set up and maybe have some sort of an automatic checking system and

[56:33] that way it might not be so burdensome where somebody could just all there's a few keywords that came up and they can

[56:39] actually look at the post and see if it's something that needs to be addressed but otherwise I am a no on that pretty much other than um if it's a

[56:45] school computer I think it's it's open for for looking into so thank you thank

[56:51] you Nancy Livingston um it's my

[56:57] understanding that we are monitoring their social media in some respects we do have a program that uh Flags certain

[57:05] um um uh hate speech and so on and I think that's important because uh we

[57:12] have to keep students safe in school parents have to be able to trust our schools and and trust that their

[57:18] students will be safe so that's um that's my position on that that we

[57:23] continue to do that uh work that we are already doing thank you Katie

[57:32] swore uh yeah I it's interesting the way that the question was worded I wrote it down as should the administration have

[57:38] the right to monitor social media and I'm like of course because it's it's public it's social media right that um

[57:46] you can look at it I also agree that we don't need to spend resources on it that it's more of a sort of family parental

[57:53] um responsibility to be teaching um their kids appropriate use

[58:00] and the dangers of social media um I also note that and almost every time that there's a tragedy a lot of times

[58:06] people will go to social media and say what was being said who knew about it I absolutely think that it should be

[58:12] reportable um that whenever there is a a threat a perceived threat when that

[58:17] safety is being threatened that you can go and use that social media to ask the questions to kind of investigate but um

[58:24] no I don't think there needs to be some resources and a person dedicated to to monitoring this thank you and G

[58:33] Yang thank you um so I work in human resources and this is one of the things I tell my employees is I don't spend my

[58:40] time monitoring your social media but if you identify yourself as a member of my

[58:45] organization um or you're creating a hostile environment or something that's potentially dangerous I will be looking

[58:52] um I feel like that same policy should also be extended to students um but like Justin said if they're using

[58:59] you know our our district computers definitely will be watching that but you know we have to be on the lookout for

[59:05] anything that's um creating a hostile environment for uh for themselves for

[59:10] their fellow students for our teachers anything that could be potentially dangerous should be um you know flagged

[59:16] and monitored as well as um if they identify themselves as speaking for our

[59:22] district or uh you know that they're a member of our district and doing something that could um create some sort of situation um we

[59:29] should be looking so thank you so I'm going to one last quick question and it wasn't here but I always ask this so you

[59:37] know I can't help myself so uh we'll start with Charlotte Nardi um can you recommend a book that you think

[59:43] everybody should read [Music]

[59:48] h and a minute I don't think you need more than that it's been a long time

[59:53] since I read for pleasure because uh I I I work in the Academia I'm always reading textbooks

[1:00:00] so uh what book to read believe it or not I'm I'm in a book club but um you

[1:00:08] know um I I'm just going to go out I I I

[1:00:13] I'm a Christian I read the Bible so why not the Bible uh because it never gets

[1:00:21] old and and I'm not I'm not trying to uh ask anyone to convert to reading the

[1:00:28] Bible but for me I I like reading the Bible thank you just

[1:00:35] Aid I I'm gon to second that Charlotte I like the Bible too that's actually a really good book to bring up thank you

[1:00:41] um I'm bring up I'm a seller a Salesman marketing kind of business guy so I read

[1:00:47] a book that blew my mind it really changed my life it was called spin selling by Neil rackman it's an older

[1:00:53] book but something to look into if you're into marketing or into uh being self-employed so thank you Miriam

[1:01:06] janich having a PhD in English literature means I could recommend thousands of books to you um and my

[1:01:14] favorite are all fiction but the one that I actually think everybody should read is a non-fiction book called

[1:01:19] parenting from the inside out it's a book that really emphasizes some of the

[1:01:25] core points that I have made tonight which is that we raise the children that we send

[1:01:30] to our schools and the children that we raise our reflection of the people that

[1:01:36] we are thank you Katie swore yeah this is a hard one too um I

[1:01:44] would recommend um Anton troyer's everything you want to know about Indians but we're afraid to ask um of my

[1:01:51] other one my son is three is of the little blue truck it's really good um but back to Anton troyer's book it's um

[1:01:59] Native Americans in society today are often um caricatured and or assign

[1:02:05] stereotypes and that's just not accurate and um I think it's really interesting to kind of put

[1:02:12] together what's actually um occurring in the Native American Community with those

[1:02:17] stereotypes things you may have heard things that you may have seen um and I'll also give a plug for the really great American Indian education program

[1:02:24] here in the district thank you KY Yang so I'm currently reading radical

[1:02:31] cander by Kim Scott I would recommend everybody read that um it really is

[1:02:37] about how to balance effective communication with empathy as well as honest feedback um it's something we all

[1:02:45] as a society and as a community could could learn from so thank you and Nancy

[1:02:52] Livingston um I spent uh I had major surgery July 17th spent a

[1:02:59] lot of time recuperating and I um plowed through a 900 page book called The

[1:03:05] Covenant of water which oh see um it was just wonderful I mean generations of of

[1:03:13] Indian it was said in India gener it written by a surgeon I forget his name do you remember his name I forgot the

[1:03:19] author's name um but that was that was fabulous also I would like to say that I am a total freak about Oz books and I I

[1:03:29] have a collection of Oz books because the wizard of oz of course is the you know the beginning but then there's like

[1:03:36] 32 sequels to The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy has a lot of Adventures and I

[1:03:42] have all those antique o books yeah yeah I do thank you very much

[1:03:49] I I I didn't have time to write them down I'll ask you afterwards so uh we'll now go back to our two-minute questions

[1:03:55] as we have to get serious after that so so uh mental health um what does the

[1:04:03] district have uh an issue related to mental health how is mental health being monitored in students and teachers and

[1:04:09] administrators and what should the district's responsibility be so it's kind of a big broad what it to do about

[1:04:15] mental health and we'll start with Nancy Livingston um well I read in uh a

[1:04:23] publication that's put out by the Minnesota Schoolboard Association that uh in a recent survey

[1:04:29] principles uh in a in a survey identified mental health as their number

[1:04:35] one concern student mental health as their number one concern so um we are at

[1:04:42] um and I think Justin got into that a little bit in your opening statement um

[1:04:47] you know Co was such um a horrific thing for our for kids and

[1:04:55] I don't think we can forget that um we had a school board meeting in which our board Michelle was board chair at the

[1:05:01] time and spent an two hours reading the most heartbreaking um letters from

[1:05:08] parents about it so what are we going to do about mental health I think clearly we need you know to uh raise awareness

[1:05:17] we need to have me you know improve our counselors we need to have

[1:05:24] more um student stent um support groups

[1:05:29] uh and extra extracurricular activities you have another whole minute oh pe oh

[1:05:34] okay I wasn't clear enough go back to O books no maybe okay um uh no I think

[1:05:40] that you know when students feel um you know part of a community and connected

[1:05:45] and they're you know it's they're in such a journey to figure out who they are and

[1:05:52] the more we can um give them the opportunity to um be in in groups or be

[1:06:00] in the math team uh uh with Katie um um

[1:06:06] you know the the better the better their mental health will be so thank you thank

[1:06:12] you Miriam janich did I mention that everybody should read parenting from the inside

[1:06:19] out um because uh mental health in children starts with how their parents

[1:06:26] Ed um and uh we can't change that for our students people have to change that

[1:06:32] for themselves but mental health in all of our school Community is incredibly

[1:06:37] important my uh dear older sister taught for 20 years and finally hit burnout and

[1:06:43] quit her job even before the end of the school year which broke her heart um because she loved her students but her

[1:06:48] mental health could not take it anymore so we need to make sure that robust mental health is part of the insurance

[1:06:55] plan for the employees in our district that we are doing everything we can to

[1:07:00] destigmatize the adults that take care of our students um taking care of their

[1:07:05] own mental health we need to make sure that there's an identification pipeline to professionals um again we have

[1:07:13] limited resources as a school district I absolutely believe that we need counselors and um Professionals in our

[1:07:21] school buildings but we need as many ways to encourage parents to lead their

[1:07:27] kids to opportunities to work on their mental health we also need to balance

[1:07:32] what kind of mental health we're talking about therapy can cause um young kids to

[1:07:38] sort of learn how to mle over bad things that happen so there's a lot of

[1:07:43] different strategies to mental health in kids that we need to bring in a full

[1:07:48] scope of what does it mean to have mental Wellness not just a triage

[1:07:54] problems um we also need to get kids playing talking to each other and

[1:07:59] socializing one of the hardest parts of covid was that they didn't have that opportunity that's another hard part

[1:08:05] about social media and how it creates these dangerous pockets of uh social

[1:08:11] interaction we need kids to look at each other to talk to each other to play on the playground to be the appropriate age

[1:08:19] group interactions thank you kitty yang

[1:08:27] um so mental health is um our district is you know the way we're currently

[1:08:32] monitoring that I feel I stand behind is um addressing belonging um and and

[1:08:39] making sure that students have access to caring adults um so the district

[1:08:44] currently has uh School social workers at um every site as well as um full-time

[1:08:49] nurses um to help um identify anything um we also have access to health mental

[1:08:56] health professionals so that students can um have access to that during the school day um providing extracurricular

[1:09:03] activities um career prep classes Athletics any of those things that

[1:09:08] provide some sort of affinity for our students um also um you know it increases their endorphins increases

[1:09:15] their their reason and why they want to be at school more often Andre and increases their confidence and their um

[1:09:21] the way they feel about themselves um for our teachers I feel um it was a little bit harder during Co

[1:09:28] but I feel like it's coming back around now where we need to also provide um through our benefits plan making sure

[1:09:34] that we have the the right mental health supports for our our staff um providing

[1:09:40] Affinity groups so that they can connect with individuals that um they identify uh with um providing professional

[1:09:47] development and also personal um development for areas that they're interested in um allows uh teachers to

[1:09:53] feel invested um in the work that they're doing so thank you Charlotte

[1:10:00] Nardi yeah so I was uh very happy to see that uh um the legislature and the

[1:10:08] governor are recognizing that uh our students have mental health uh

[1:10:14] challenges that need to be addressed and uh the governor ended up uh giving uh

[1:10:20] schools extra money to uh work on um uh improving the mental health issues like

[1:10:27] K had said in our school district uh we also take uh mental health uh seriously

[1:10:34] too and uh we've been implementing where K has said uh that every child in our

[1:10:41] school needs to have a trusted adult that they can talk to and also belong to

[1:10:49] a club or something so that they can feel like they belong I I also think that we need when our children are

[1:10:56] younger we need to do uh uh a lot of social emotional learning uh uh teaching them how to uh

[1:11:05] take care of uh the the uh self-regulation so that they can be able

[1:11:10] to co uh to uh to deal with uh any uh mental health issues that might arise

[1:11:18] and uh we also need to have um um counselors uh social workers and

[1:11:26] and uh psychologist in the building too to help uh the children with um uh their

[1:11:33] that might be experiencing uh uh mental health um issues in in in our buildings

[1:11:41] and uh we talked about earlier about uh social media limiting social media uh

[1:11:47] while we're in in uh school because we know that some of some of it some of the

[1:11:52] bullying uh that happened in social media also Alo contributes to the mental health decline of some of our students

[1:11:59] so we need to pay uh attention to that thank you Katie

[1:12:05] swore yes thank you and thank you for um including not just the students but also the staff and the administrators um I

[1:12:12] guess I'll start with the staff and the administrators and I really think retention and celebration and benefits

[1:12:18] for teachers to make them want to continue to teach and to understand the challenges that they are going through is really important making sure that

[1:12:25] again but mental health benefits are part of the package um providing things like an employee assistance program um a

[1:12:31] hotline that they can call will they be connected directly to um a psychologist or a therapist that can either help them

[1:12:38] find resources for ongoing support or sort of in the- moment kind of Crisis Support um at the same time um for the

[1:12:46] students I think that it needs to be a wide range including teaching resiliency teaching different um mechanisms giving

[1:12:53] them opportunities to to play get vitamin D get their endorphins going um

[1:12:58] making a um uh providing support group so that it's not necessarily just

[1:13:04] one-on-one with the counselor the social worker although that is also important but also giving them a chance to talk

[1:13:09] amongst themselves help them problem solved together um and for all of for

[1:13:15] everyone is to destigmatize um mental health um and Mental Health crisis I

[1:13:20] also think it's really important that while there's a pathway to that sort of ongoing support in those ongoing touches

[1:13:26] with the um a social worker a psychologist a nurse someone in the building that there's also a really

[1:13:32] rapid response available when kids are in um sort of an immediate Mental Health crisis that they're not given a phone

[1:13:39] number to call because that next step can be really hard for someone to take when they're having um problems at that

[1:13:45] time make it as easy as possible and as fast as possible to at least get um

[1:13:51] intervention going um and just remember that it's okay not to be okay let's build relationships with each other help

[1:13:58] everybody through it um teach resiliency and make sure that there's response when needed in crisis thank you and Jus ad

[1:14:06] mid yes I've actually got some ideas on this um I've been talking to a lot of teachers um been meeting teachers

[1:14:13] calling teachers and I want to talk to them exactly what's going on like what what are you experiencing why are our

[1:14:18] kids not learning as much as they used to or why aren't they excelling it seems to be like they're not like they used to

[1:14:25] and um I hear a lot of disruption in class um one teacher told me 90% of what

[1:14:31] she does is control and 10% is teaching and that's really ear opening to me I

[1:14:37] was like are are you kidding me like that was her experience I don't know if that's every teacher's experience I sure hope not but that was in

[1:14:44] 622 um and what I want to do is I want to bring back what we call an emotional

[1:14:50] behavior disorder class um I have kind of a mental health background because my mother is like a PhD basically in mental

[1:14:59] health and she's worked her whole life so I've really tapped into her and a lot of things that I've done with mental

[1:15:04] health but we have a lot of different things um from addictions to abuse to um

[1:15:10] just not attenda to parents um neglect so we've got all these children that

[1:15:15] have different needs and I think what happens is they become troubled kids and if we have a class of 30 and eight of

[1:15:21] them are kind of troubled kids and causing havoc and and kind of ruining it for you know the teacher and the rest of the class we need to remove those

[1:15:28] identify those children remove them but we need to give them help so I want to set up a classroom it's called the

[1:15:35] emotional behavior disorder class we used to do these back in the 70s and 80s and 90s I guess and it would be a class

[1:15:41] where these kids could go there it would be actually uh Ran by A very well-skilled mental health provider who

[1:15:48] could also be a teacher she could work with these students one onone and uh some of the students might need more

[1:15:54] help and you'll be able to actually get resources outside of the school district to continue their help from there some

[1:16:00] kids just need to have a behavior modification they just need to have Behavior assignments um different things

[1:16:06] just be taught to be kind treat people with respect have respect for authority um those types of things so I think that

[1:16:12] class is really important and we really have to put a lot of money into mental health thank you thank you very much so

[1:16:18] just so you know I can do math and so I figured out with my little pen uh that

[1:16:23] if we don't start closing CL in statement soon we'll go over in time and that's never polite to do so uh again

[1:16:30] there's some really good questions and even with doing the one minute ones I didn't get to ask some of my more favorite ones but we'll just have to say

[1:16:37] that for individuals to ask you afterwards so we are now ready for our closing statements and we're going to uh

[1:16:45] again you have two minutes for your closing statements and we'll start with Miriam

[1:16:53] janich thank thank you very much um to wrap up the overarching theme of why I

[1:16:59] am running for school board and interested in your vote I'm focused on running the district with policies and

[1:17:05] procedures that reflect Child Development needs research backed academic models and good business

[1:17:13] practices I believe that our school district should be actively engaged in our community I know that our school

[1:17:20] district currently does but a program of civics engagement from K through 12th

[1:17:26] grades um building classrooms around learning about career paths in our

[1:17:33] communities um about how to become a citizen in this community and asking the

[1:17:39] community to participate more actively in our school is essential to building

[1:17:44] more safe School practices um families that feel supported by their neighbors

[1:17:51] and the school district that they send their kids to and kids who to spend time

[1:17:56] uh playing with and engaging with their peers I believe that um children should

[1:18:02] be uh running around as much as they are sitting in a classroom we need more

[1:18:07] recess we need children that have enough time to eat lunch um we need policies

[1:18:13] that reflect what our kids need and how to support our teachers in very

[1:18:19] practical ways thank you thank you ancy Livingston

[1:18:28] um what the school board does is very important we create the conditions for

[1:18:36] success for our students and I take that very seriously which is why I have been

[1:18:42] here so long but there's more to do I mean it's interesting to go to these

[1:18:48] forums because everyone is very eloquent but you know as Schoolboard members we don't often do a lot of public speaking

[1:18:55] what we do is we listen we listen a lot and I think that's that's important and

[1:19:01] um and I and it's one of my skills I think um uh I do think as Schoolboard

[1:19:07] members uh we need to do our homework we need to attend meetings we need to

[1:19:12] attend community events we need to engage with the community um and I and

[1:19:20] we need to take advantage of all the professional development opportunities that that we we uh get through the uh

[1:19:27] Minnesota Schoolboard Association um I think in this District

[1:19:32] we uh have a strong teaching and learning team and I think that's key um

[1:19:39] the longer I do this work the more I realize that how important principles are for example um they really evaluate

[1:19:47] they hire they um um coach they do uh

[1:19:53] you know many things they set the tone of of the school and I think I'm a big one about school culture and I think

[1:20:01] that uh you can walk into a school and within I don't know 10 or 15 minutes you

[1:20:07] can you can um discover what the culture of that school is and and um when and

[1:20:14] actually when the adults in the building are happy the students are as well so um

[1:20:21] uh I think also it's important to know that as board members our most important

[1:20:26] asset is uh uh our relationship with each other um there are boards that are

[1:20:33] very dysfunctional we're not one of them and thank you just

[1:20:41] mid all right first off I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters for putting on this forum it's very awesome

[1:20:47] thank you um I I want to close by saying that I'm a Problem Solver that's one of my

[1:20:53] biggest attributes that I want want to bring to the board um I really want to do my research I want to dig into the

[1:20:59] current programs policies and procedures and then see what is working and uh maybe what is not working and if you

[1:21:05] can't fix what's not working then maybe eliminate that and put that money towards mental health um to fix all the

[1:21:13] problems we are facing as a district we need to go back to some of the old school ways of doing things um they're

[1:21:19] very common sense things like holding students accountable for their behavior their disciplines their assignments

[1:21:25] their attendance their grades and their testing most important um we do need to

[1:21:31] identify those trouble students and we need to get them help so that the rest of the class can Thrive because the

[1:21:37] teachers want to always have a positive thriving funloving environment I think

[1:21:43] that's being ruined right now by some of the agreements that are in place and I'd like to just look at those as far as the

[1:21:49] um trying to fix the suspension Gap I think if you're a troubled student and you do bad behavior you should have

[1:21:54] consequences that's how you learn um right now we don't seem to have many consequences for students and I think

[1:21:59] that that's where we're falling short um and the biggest thing that we really have to do is be there for our

[1:22:06] teachers um how are we going to recruit great outstanding teachers when we don't have their

[1:22:11] backs um when I have a teacher telling me that again what she does is 90% of controlling the class and 10% of

[1:22:18] teaching that's a really big problem we need to have our teachers backs and they need to know that they have the

[1:22:23] administration support and keeping their classrooms positive fun loving and the students are excited to learn and that's

[1:22:29] why I'm asking for your vote because I want to dig into this stuff and really do my best to help find Solutions thank

[1:22:35] you thank you Charlotte Nardi again I want to thank the League

[1:22:41] of Women Voters for hosting uh this uh Forum uh that uh gives our residents an

[1:22:49] opportunity to hear our positions on these important issues I also want to

[1:22:54] thank thank our residents who uh entrusted me and elected me last

[1:23:01] time I want to assure them that these last four years I did not squander the

[1:23:06] opportunity I attended the meetings like uh uh Nancy said those are important I

[1:23:13] listened in addition I also attended several professional development the Minesota School Board Association uh

[1:23:21] conferences uh the National School Board assoc assciation I've also been a member

[1:23:27] of the delegate assembly a group of Statewide uh school boards that get

[1:23:32] together every year and talk about uh issues and policies that need to be uh

[1:23:40] in a legislative agenda and I've been a member of uh School boards of color and

[1:23:47] uh we talk about uh you know issues that pertain School boards of color I've been

[1:23:53] um uh participated in um School Board uh

[1:23:58] uh strategic planning last year uh uh that so that was a great great uh

[1:24:05] activity to uh meet uh all the the leaders that participated and the

[1:24:11] students actually too and um now I'm a Schoolboard Clerk and also I represent

[1:24:18] istd 622 on the 916 School Board last but not least I'm running for school

[1:24:25] board because uh I want to continue doing the work that I've been doing uh I

[1:24:31] know uh I've learned a lot this last year and I'm planning on working on my

[1:24:37] priorities of academic achievement um school safety uh School shortages and uh I hope

[1:24:46] you vote for me and uh we can move for together thank you very much Katie swore

[1:24:52] thank you again um I just want to say that I sincerely want all students to be able to Delight in learning and joyfully

[1:24:59] bring their full authentic selves to school every day I want to make 622 a district that parents really want to

[1:25:05] send their kids to that teachers and administrators want to work in that really values the service staff um that

[1:25:12] really makes the days go SW go well for the kids here um I want everyone to know

[1:25:18] that they will be safe here um and that everyone is building a community building those relationships that there

[1:25:24] are safe adults that are looking out um for kids helping them along their way helping them to find their passion what

[1:25:30] they're excited about what will make them lifetime Learners um so they can tell you what their favorite book is um

[1:25:37] I want to make sure that there's um excitement and opportunity and that we're preparing Kids for post-secondary

[1:25:44] Life whatever that looks like whether they're going straight to work if they're learning a trade if they're going to college um and providing

[1:25:50] opportunities to sort of practice and model all of these skills not just the math and the algebra and how to um

[1:25:57] construct a sentence but also how to bring service to your community how to engage um and how to be a sort of a

[1:26:04] citizen of the world um I I think we need to make sure that we uh show up for

[1:26:11] our kids that we can celebrate their wins I'd be really excited as a school board member to to attend and to really

[1:26:16] show the kids that we're proud of them that we're excited for them and that we're rooted for them um again I'm I'm

[1:26:22] invested in this community I've lived in North St Paul here for 12 years my child

[1:26:28] um is going to come to this District he's an ECFE right now and really loves it and loves the opportunities that his

[1:26:33] caregivers provide for him um I'm on the American Indian parent advisory committee and so I have um another

[1:26:40] Network to kind of get information from talk to and really bring and make sure that we're providing all of the

[1:26:45] opportunities that the kids need um to live and succeed so um you can follow me

[1:26:50] on Facebook swore for Schoolboard 622 um and I'd be really honored to have your vote thank you thank you K

[1:26:59] Yang so I also want to thank the League of Women Voters uh for this opportunity and I want to thank my uh fellow

[1:27:06] candidates for the opportunity to listen uh to your voices on the issues that we all so uh deeply care about um and I

[1:27:13] want to thank the citizens and everybody that attended tonight uh for watching and submitting questions if we didn't

[1:27:19] get to your questions reach out to me I'm I'm happy to answer them um so I'm asking for your vote on November 5th um

[1:27:26] because I'm a consensus Builder um and I have the right experience so um I'm

[1:27:31] finishing up my first uh term I did a two-year term um I um am the current

[1:27:37] chair um I also sit on the amsd executive committee um as well as a few

[1:27:42] other committees that um um I've also been a part of I also work in the nonprofit uh sector uh focusing on

[1:27:50] education um I work in as an HR professional um and I'm also a parent um

[1:27:55] and Community member of this um District um I will um always Center our students

[1:28:03] um and I will also celebrate um the things that we do right and just

[1:28:09] wonderful in our district um while also continuing to work with our superintendent um to on policies and

[1:28:16] decisions that prioritizes school safety and our academic achievement um

[1:28:22] additionally um being a Asian-American I'm I'm M um I look like 30% of the

[1:28:28] students in our district um and if they happen um to have either a teacher or in

[1:28:33] this case a Schoolboard member that looks like them um and they decide to

[1:28:39] invest more in their education because of it we all succeed as a community so

[1:28:44] um thank you again for your time and um don't forget to vote on November 5th so thank you thank you I would like to

[1:28:50] remind the audience that the views expressed in this forum are those of the candidates and not those of the League of Women Voters and sponsorship of the

[1:28:58] form is not an endorsement by the league for any candidate on behalf of the League of Women Voters I would like to

[1:29:04] acknowledge and thank the candidates who are serving their Community by their willingness to participate in the

[1:29:09] Democratic process by running for office I would also like to thank the voter service committee who are all behind us

[1:29:17] and our wonderful timers for all their work putting together this candidate forum and the Forum will be aired on its

[1:29:23] entirety on the district 622 channel so and please that check that channel

[1:29:28] directly for air times so as we have learned every vote does count early

[1:29:36] voting is now open please check the Secretary of State website to get further information on early voting

[1:29:42] where you happen to live this year election day is Tuesday November 5th if

[1:29:47] you're going to vote in person the polls are open from 700 am to 8:00 pm I would

[1:29:53] suggest you get there early because there's probably going to be long lines um and again if uh uh I hope that you

[1:30:01] all stay safe and thank you and good night

[1:30:06] [Applause]