This month, the Board of Education met on October 25th and November 15th. BoE meetings begin with a public comment session, where any community member can speak, followed by the Representatives to the BoE from IHS and LACS, and subsequently, the consent agenda, where the Board creates resolutions in Executive Session (a private session that the public is not allowed to attend) and passes them by vote during the meeting.
At the October 25th meeting, updates on bathrooms at IHS were discussed, with Mr. Breiman, the facilities director of ICSD, informing the board and the student representatives of efforts to reduce vandalism and destruction in bathrooms. The bathrooms had a “baseline clean” earlier this year with Servo Pro to eliminate the smell of urine and other unsavory aspects, but renovations will begin in February and April of this school year. Bathrooms in G and H will be completely redone as gender-neutral bathrooms. Mental health day updates were also discussed, as the student representatives to the BoE have been working to make the district’s language and policy surrounding mental health days clearer. The policy will likely be reviewed and rewritten, and the BoE plans to meet with students to understand what the student body proposes for mental health days. The student representatives also spoke to Ms. Grover, the inclusion officer at ICSD, who is working to implement these changes.
Electric buses were also brought up at the meeting, and at least two will be purchased by ICSD. The district is also hoping for grants to help buy these buses. The BoE also discussed a land easement that will expand the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) onto some land formerly possessed by the City of Ithaca.
At the November 15th meeting, the representative to the Board of Education from LACS discussed their system of school democracy, and a recent vote at LACS as to whether to continue that system of school democracy, which failed to pass. The representatives to the BoE from IHS discussed some updates at IHS, including winter sports starting, the Morocco Trip, and plans for the tennis court fence to be repaired, and brought up their continued discussion of Mental Health days in ICSD. This meeting also featured a presentation by Ms. Grover and Ms. Talcott, the deputy superintendent, who discussed Learning Forward ICSD, a plan for professional development that has four key pillars: Students as partners and leaders, educator identity work, anti-racist curriculum for all, and structures of support. Parts of this plan being implemented include anti-marginalization curriculum advisors, therapeutic crisis intervention for schools (TCIS)—ICSD hopes to have at least one TCIS trainer in each building, and year-to-year learning maps. The BoE discussed pushback from educators, interrupting oppressive school practices, and other ways to improve this plan. The BoE also discussed plans to move forward on retiree healthcare plan issues (see the previous month’s article).
Budget and voting meetings of the BoE are open to the public, and those who wish to attend monthly voting meetings should arrive at the Board building around 7 pm, as the Board will likely be in executive session until that time. Additional information including the BoE’s agenda, times of meetings, and more can be found at https://go.boarddocs.com/ny/icsd/Board.nsf/Public#.