9/13/22 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Consent Agenda
There were 30 consent agenda items and all but one was passed without discussion 2.14.
2.14 Approval of the Service Agreement with Paper Education Company for 40,000 online tutoring licenses using ESSER Funds (Federal Covid Relief Funds) for $2.3 million.
The following issues regarding the agreement were discussed:
Tutoring will be available in both English and Spanish.
Implementation and onboarding of students can happen as soon as the roster is uploaded..
Online tutors will be available 24/7 - but it cannot be 100% guaranteed.
The program will be available for all WCSD students 6-12; Including RISE Academy.
All transactions in the platform are recorded for dates, log in/out times and in case of inappropriate behavior.
All student data will be deleted at the end of the contract with Paper.
Listen as Trustee Nicolet raised a serious concern as a red flag that is shared by BBME. She wanted to know why the language in the contract between WCSD and Paper Education Co. states that the District could act as a parent's agent to consent to collect students’ personal information on the parent’s behalf? Per Andrea Sullivan, Director of Procurement and Contracts with WCSD, responded that it is standard language that has been drafted by the office of General Counsel and used with all contracts dealing with software and online tools. The District can act on behalf of the students in a school setting. As our driving tenet, Parental Rights, we at BBME are concerned about this contract language and many other situations that we do not know about where the District substitutes itself for the parent. Parents, are you comfortable with the District acting on your behalf for decisions regarding collection of your child/children’s data? As the District moves to more digital platforms, we need to be aware of when and how they are inserting themselves on behalf of the parent.
The board approved the service agreement with Paper Education Co. unanimously.
Items for Presentation, Discussion and/or Action:
3.01 An update on the critical labor shortage in transportation by Adam Searcy, COO. Retention and new hires have been very positive so that the Area Rotation Plan will be replaced with the Hub System beginning October 10th, after Fall Break.
Superintendent Report:
Superintendent Enfield said she had met with the Executive Team to come up with a plan to address the disparities between students (we assume she meant academically).
They also discussed coming up with a useful assessment system for a way of measuring the growth of each student during one school year.
Dr. Enfield said: “The one piece of information that those in the community point to is the end of the year assessment. That is an important data point. It is one data point. A snapshot of a moment in time of what the student can do that day. I also, in addition to that, want to tell a story around where our students entered at this stage at the beginning of the year and ended here. So that our students that come to us are not quite at grade level…but thanks to our teaching staff, counselors and community they would make up 2 years of growth. We need to acknowledge that, build upon that, celebrate that because that is how we will eliminate those disparities between students.”
The next Town Hall with Dr. Enfield will be at Desert Skies Middle School Thursday, September 22 at 5:30 pm.
She will be having a Coffee Chat at Greenbrae Elementary School Tuesday, September 20th, from 7:30-8:30 am.
Here is the link for the Superintendent’s community engagements:
https://www.washoeschools.net/Page/18255