and we don't vote on this right we just say what he did right okay so the superintendent received a mets as opposed to did not meet a satisfactory evaluation [Music] all right so here i am i believe the next thing we would like to do place down for the pledge salute i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america continuing for which it stands one nation america indivisible with the origin i just in recognition of this free speech board business agenda item welcoming all and noting that saying the pledge of allegiance is not a requirement to participate in the business of this board if you do not say the pledge for religious political social or personal reasons you are most welcome here as an equal participant in the business of this public school board um announcement of action taking the closed session and i apologize i did those backwards [Music] thank you dr lee hi mrs anderson hi this is paul hi and this is mr bruno hi this is bruce i'm the chair of outside sorry loosen my voice tonight okay um organizational reports do we have anyone here from kyogre or cfca so uh marie huggins is here with us tonight but uh miss vanessa would not be with us tonight okay take your wings for me huggins thank you marie huggins classified union president first i'd like to say kudos to the admin school board and employees for working together to navigate the obstacles of the pandemic and embrace the new opportunities to safely serve our families and community i would like to welcome all the new employees and congratulate those who have taken on new positions or promotions welcome to richard as our new director of maintenance and operations and kevin the maintenance and operations supervisor and thank you so much craig for your many years of service to the center family wishing you all the very best as you begin your next adventure we have been enriched by having the opportunity to work with you and have a great summer everyone thank you you do the same miss marie thank you okay uh i'm 10 facilities update and we have a mr visa here i'm just saying this is so a couple things on the um full day kindergarten um just a few things to finish the wrong iron fencing you may notice when you drive by oak hill um it is not quite complete we have a lot of trouble with the holes in the holes there's a lot of utilities under there so we had to come up with a new way to bolt the wrought iron fence to the retaining wall and we have to get that approved by um dsa so it took a little bit a little while but it should be done this week i'm happy to report that um and then they'll also be installing in two weeks they'll be installing the guardrails that are on the east side and the north side of the sidewalks that kind of have the drop off and a guard rail is different than a hand railing because the guardrail has some stuff in between so the little kindergartners can't fall between the top and bottom rail and fall out so they will be safe and then we are going to be um putting together a photo shoot for that project because basically because the architect and the contractors are so proud that they will use it for advertising purposes but we'll also be able to use it as promoting some of our 21st century classrooms and our productivity garden program so that'll happen i think on june 28th i believe for the rex fortune site uh there's a 17-week turnaround there's two phases that went into dsa so that we could get the civil engineering piece the grading piece back sooner than later because they're hoping to start the grading of the property in early september so that we can get ahead of the weather and when it does rain we'll have it all set so the water all doesn't puddle up and then get it as wet so we can jump in and start construction from spring of 2022.
those would be the intended three three openings the fourth opening is an egress path that goes to the right that allows access into the alley which will take them to the public right way the intended idea there is that they'll get approvals from 603 east liberty or which is the michigan theater for access and no build of that location entering into the alley staff would neither support nor deny or recommend denial we will stand mute on this um so with that uh that staff report okay thank you glenn can the applicant uh with a brief summary of their requests for the uh uh variants yeah um brad moore here um it's good to see everybody again um the last time i was before you was for a similar condition um over on can't hear you brad for some reason everything just reset can you hear me now we can hear you now all right um brad moore here i don't know where it cut me off when i decided to reset my screen but um i was saying the last time i was before the board was for a property uh down on south university again connecting two properties um in a similar manner so we've we've used what what worked there in terms of the minds of the board members to provide adequate separation between adjacent buildings while still permitting an internal connection to inform our approach in in this situation um i've got um other team members here with me today um scott bowers and uh and laura uh edder with esg architects who are all part of the team working to make this uh happen um i've also submitted today and i know that deborah said she received it a letter of support from the michigan theater who is urging an approval of this requested variance the requested variance is both enhance an existing condition as well as uh create a new condition affording the michigan theater the ability to have fully modern upgraded restrooms an improvement over the situation that they have now scott has uh worked with the building department to arrive at an enhancement of the current cross property connection and i'll let scott jump in and start there and then he can um hand it off to laura to describe uh or maybe they're going to go the opposite direction i'll let them decide who wants to go first i'll let you go first but i was going to ask deborah if it was possible for me to share my screen unfortunately it's not um because it's a city zoom account if you want to send something to me real quickly i can open it up okay great thank you i'll do that scott do you want to start while i send this it's got you there maybe his screen reset too yeah mine reset sorry um currently there's an existing opening between the uh the lobby of the michigan theater and the screening room um we've it is across property line um we're intending to build a firewall against the michigan theater but in the what was a pedestrian hallway by the screening room um a true firewall separating the two buildings a three-hour with a fire shutter on the screening room side and uh two 90-minute doors on the lobby side with a deluge system we feel that that is more than more than safe compared to what it is there right now it was originally approved as a pedestrian walkway the building does have a three-hour firewall between the or three-hour wall between the hallway and the screening room as it exists right now um and that was approved back in 1998 so it's been in use since then we're just enhancing it now and making it a better situation the other door we're discussing is one from the lobby to the new proposed bathrooms [Music] a similar situation we'll have a 90-minute door in the wall um to the michigan theater lobby on the other side there will be a shutter and laura can explain more what she's going to do on that side because that's 212 and 616 are esg's projects so the reason why we've moved these is one for to build the 616 project and to enhance the the toilet facilities that we have in the michigan theater it's either quite far away down the long hallway and we're bringing them closer to the lobby is is newly constructed bathrooms ada issues family bathroom and increasing fixture counts um it would have worked better with a drying top but that's fine it's also on page 24 in the packet for today so if you go to page 24 there's a detail on the plan um that kind of describes these different conditions so the two that scott just described as door number one and door number three um and hopefully um you'll get to see a screen soon scott do you have anything else or did you want me to jump in on that no you might as well jump in because uh it's difficult without the uh lines yes no problem um so i'm laura eder with esg architects and um we are the architects for the new 616 and 212 building um which 616 is on the property to the north of the michigan theater which includes the screening room and then the 212 state street is actually on the sava property so it is an additional building on that property there is a property line between the michigan theater 212 and 616.
in this spotlight learn what critical race theory is what it isn't how it's a practice not a curriculum and just that makes me support everything dr stewart put in her letter if we're practicing racism we're going to have racist outcomes if we're using it as a curriculum and now we're having to shy away and put a chill on teachers that may be able to put things in context and tell a child we can't discuss that it might make joey in the corner feel uncomfortable then we're not able to educate them we're not able to instill critical thinking skills because they don't have the tools they need to formulate a full picture they will be indoctrinated and then they'll have a culture shock when they enter higher learning or move to another area abroad somewhere a little bit more liberal bastiony and they'll have that culture shocked because they've been indoctrinated by things that a small sect of people believe to be the truth and it's a political rhetoric as hildy said it is a culture war and unfortunately the schools get stuck with culture wars all the time and racism is just one of those recently to be attributed to the schools um i did want to bring up things like if a child asks for more context in a history or civics class where they might be talking about um japanese internments during world war ii would that even be taught to them would a teacher feel uncomfortable teaching it to him these are things we have to talk about because it's a process it's not a curriculum it's not like reading writing arithmetic oh critical racial theory it is a way of teaching it so an english teacher may want to give maya angelou as a signed reading but that could hold her back and that would hinder a child from broadening their perspective and understanding of the world outside of this little bubble that has been created so that to me seems like it just leads to anti-intellectualism hiding information sheltering the individuals doesn't teach anybody resiliency it doesn't teach them critical thinking um it just leaves them ignorant of facts and prone to conspiracy theories thank you after she goes we have about 25 minutes left in our meeting in our workshop sorry okay hi i'm nikki mccusker my kids go to diamondback and to bullhead city junior high and i've never been to one of these but i read a a paper on a bullhead city elementary school district letterhead from carolyn stewart that voiced her own personal opinion on a on a letterhead with bullhead so i was thinking that bullhead's going to change into this critical race theory stuff that is uh exactly opposite of what we should be doing in arizona it actually infuriates me to the point that my kids will be pulled out of the school and home taught which i do not have time for but i will do if this is implemented into our into our education with the kids here because this is not teaching them reading writing arithmetic this is teaching them about racism by being uh by being racist you know what i mean that's exactly it doesn't it it doesn't make sense to me at all it's it's uh it infuriates me i had so much to say until i got up here but i agree with you know i just it's uh it's something that should be left to the homes people need to be able to parent their own children school is for school you don't need to emotionally support or teach my children that because that's what they get at home with love and discipline you know um uh i guess i i made my point in what i wanted to say but there's a lot more to say and we don't have that much time so i'm not going to that's it okay barbara one second we got a gentleman you'll be after him well we got one in front of you then you come up good afternoon my name is eric peterson my wife and i live here in the city in regards to the critical race theory uh the acceptance of one another's race the ability to get along one another can't be taught in a class it has to be taught at home when i was growing up i lived in southeast san diego from 66 to 86 i was one of two white kids in an all black neighborhood the place was a real dive it was bad once a week at least i had to fight my way to school fight my way home whatever so i didn't live through a critical race theory i lived through a critical race reality okay everybody there we all grew up we had the same opportunities might not have the same level of support but we didn't get support from school we got support from home some people's idea of support as i guarantee different than mine so who's to say that a school's idea or a different individual's idea of emotional support for my child is going to be the same point of view as me and my wife i don't think any responsible parent would agree with somebody telling their child oh it's okay it's okay well i assure you it isn't okay there were no school programs to say okay eric it's okay you're gonna be all right no it isn't this guy is going to kill me when i leave the classroom we had to do for ourselves we had to figure things out and to this day i don't have a prejudiced bone in my body like this woman over here said i don't i am grateful i live through that because i don't have people to fill my head with a bunch of bs people need to live life and figure things out this isn't a perfect world not a perfect society [Applause] you can't teach children every single thing and it sure isn't going to happen in a classroom and as far as censorship when it comes to education you guys don't teach astrophysics either do you here no is that censorship i don't think so there's a time and place for everything and like this gentleman said reading writing arithmetics that's what school's about you know let's not be psychiatrists or psychologists that's not school i don't know what that is you know i really don't and we need to get back to the basics people thinking too too much too much too much we need to intervene in this and that no you don't no you don't that's what growing up is all about you'll figure it out they'll figure it out right thanks for your time thank you [Applause] hello my name is barbara pape i was a remediation special aide teaching teacher's aide and i wanted to go to i wanted to go to i tried to go to finish up my college for to be a teacher but i kept seeing this programming of these children's and and of indoctrination in the schools i did not like it that was one issue the other issue our government has put in too many special interest issues into our school school is not to be applied to with the special interest people we need to get these kids in the right direction and the direction is reading writing and math special classes for learning how to do a checkbook and make it and and accounting bookkeeping learning how to cook learning how to um do um mechanical things on their car they need just basic living properties and learning know how to survive because this world is not easy and if you guys want to continue to program these kids in a different and awkward and very strange way it is not it is not permissible in my mind you are injuring our children you better believe it you are injuring the children with these particular things and that's this should never be in elementary levels this should be in the primary levels sec the sexual issues should be in and then and the racial issues would be part of introducing it but we also like the gentleman said before we can learn it as we go we have to learn how to get the challenges the solutions and also know when we're wrong and new eyes are wrong in adopting this thank you [Applause] hi my name is mary rutz i've been in the community for 33 years i'm a local real estate broker and i just have a question for the board or for dr stewart you said that your letter was taken out of context or that it wasn't i assume we all took it out of context then because i read the same thing that you were teaching going to teach critical race theory along with male preference which i find amusing actually but if you if that isn't true if that's not what you meant then are you willing to write another letter explaining to the community on bullhead city paper like you did the first time telling us exactly what you did mean because am i the only one here that misunderstood and that letter is circulating throughout the county so i'd like to know if we can get a correction exactly what you did mean so that we know with the permission of the board i would do that yes that's one of the reasons i place that on the agenda also so we can address that situation when we get there great thank you yes sir my name is william hart i live in palo verde meadows my wife nancy excuse me and i moved here in 2006 and we opened the sylvan learning center tutoring and for three years we taught primarily elementary and secondary students although we did do up to adults my wife was a career teacher k through eight i was not but i taught the math and she taught the reading and the writing in all of the years we were married we never ever once heard any discussion in any school at any level of wokism critical race theory principles of marxism socialism communism at the elementary and junior high levels and this is the way it needs to be at the elementary school and middle school level we're teaching reading writing and arithmetic and we need to teach love responsibility truth telling we need to make them excuse me good citizens i am also running for state representative for legislative district five and i want you to know that these are the primary bulwarks pieces of my campaign and i will talk about all of these issues in my campaign and i don't want bullhead city elementary schools to be my prime example of what's wrong with our education system in this country thank you hello my name is melissa pacias and um i hope i don't start to cry because i always cry when i speak i am a new resident two-year resident my husband and i moved our family here so excited when school we were in school school closed in march my senior didn't get her senior prom she didn't get her graduation she missed out on everything that she was looking forward to my fifth grader didn't get any of her fifth grade events coming from l.a county so when we just said okay let's go pack them up they moved here in march my two older girls before my husband and i and my younger one they got jobs right away with the city in the kennel they're working here they love it here as a 19 year old and a 21 year old we get go back to la and they're just like we get off the 605 freeway and they don't want to be there they want to be here our excitement was my daughter got to go to school she started school here we didn't we're all about not going to public because i've always tried to get them in a what i assumed was a better school didn't always work out that better school wasn't always a better school but here she had a great time at the middle school she learned a lot she was able to get the music program in that she was missing out on back in l.a that was the big thing over there i'm talking to all my friends who are still teachers because i was an instructional aide at our school district for years with special ed and so i know a lot of the different things that people did and how you teach i have my old girls had special needs as well in certain um in certain elements so to come here and learn that we are able to go to school at home they're not at school she's here making new friends at home they're all i keep staying home because i haven't got it out of my head yet that um they're on the computer they're still doing things you know everything everybody said here if we went to this whole critical race theory i agree with the other parent i would be pulling my daughter out of school my husband called me from la today to tell me you need to go to this meeting you need to be there you need to hear what's going on see what they're meaning what's happening because to be here and be able to go to school and be taught as opposed to being back in l.a where you're not allowed to stand outside the vet's office without a mask on is ridiculous that's what i had to do this weekend so please be open to allowing parents to teach their kids at home what it is to be a good person you you i my 12 year old when i told her what they might be teaching she says no mom i might get in trouble if i say a bad word but i'm going to say a bad word if i'm being forced to talk to learn something that i don't think is right she says you know things that come up have been that way forever and ever and ever um and that's what life is life is you deal with it and i was always taught with my dad you deal with it you make what life is everyone's life is harder than yours you learn how to deal with that at home and school is again learning at school my daughter graduated and did not know how to complete an envelope to mail it out she went and said mom when we moved here she had to go on an appointment mom my letter came back what letter my unappointment letter why i don't know what says it i go send me a picture she addressed the envelope to herself okay she graduated she had ropes and whatever she graduated and could not and did not know how to fill out or to address an envelope that is ridiculous that is embarrassing that that is how she was taught my other one she did they they just don't know that that's it's ridiculous to go all through high school and not know how to do that they can't read cursive cannot read cursive my 19 year old went to a tutor who still to this day after being her tutor six years ago still sends her a letter and cards and does it purposely in cursive my mom writes purposely in cursive so my daughter can learn we started this in summer literally printed a whole bunch of paperwork and cursive so they can learn it because they don't know how to do that they don't know how to go to a library and look for a book and i'm an avid reader they don't know that my daughter didn't even read until kovitz started in march she would not pick up a book now i can't get her to put she was made fun of and teased by her teachers because she was always getting in trouble for reading her book so i want to thank you so far our first school year here has been great but if these things come into play and i feel that what's being taught in the classroom and i would hope we'd be made aware because we're not we're not allowed in the classrooms anymore and being a pta mom and working in the schools the hardest thing i went through withdrawals this year is not being able to step on campus and participate in events that we would be made aware of what is going on with our students thank you thank you we have 10 minutes left yes hello community members of the board um i'm anna boyd i'm a teacher at mojave high school i also have two kids in the elementary district here and um i was kind of going to come today but i forgot and then i was watching online and there were a few things said that kind of disturbed me so i had to come and i wanted to talk about a couple of things the first thing is uh in regards to what critical race theory is for the record i am not a supporter of critical race theory so before you jump on me all right um there's a couple things to know i am puerto rican and cuban my father comes directly from cuba he came here to america in 1959.
so even whenever act one starts act two will start at 6 30. that's wonderful thank you so so before we get started i thought the three of us could just say that this talent show really says something about our community wouldn't you say yeah it says that we have not only have amazing talent of all kinds but it says that we welcome people to be who they are yeah and we are also honoring that moment where you decide to try something in front of people right and take a risk yep because that's what life is taking a chance and all 51 of these students were brave enough to do this to make a video of themselves right catherine yeah and send it to you and say to us put it out there and so we're going to be supporting you out there in the audience your job is to support your brave classmates so what would that look like well i'll tell you right now jacomo and clements they're going to be saying great job they're going to be saying things like oh nice job singing oh what an amazing talent i know kailyn is going to be supportive i know she's going to be out there telling people what a great job that they're doing so you can be specific let them know what you're loving so you can put it into the chat and put out those encouraging words to your classmates thank you everyone who's gathered it will be recorded so everyone can see it all over the world so what do you think should we get started i think we should i think we should and we have a very special first act our first act is coming from lev in grade two he graced us last year in the talent show with a cello song and he's back better than ever and with some hand-drawn animations as well so without further ado our first act level [Music] my oh good oh my goodness he was tickling the strings and the animation and the background wow and of course we had to see kermit at the end too always has to be a special special guest appearance from kermit a special friend of mine in wildwood yes all right here we go so we got number two who's that one two number two we are going to be seeing ella in grade one playing the piano tinkling the ivories for us here we go ella my name is ella thompson and i'm gonna be playing the piano and this is um [Music] and so [Music] that was wonderful did you hear how she went soft and then loud again yeah the dynamics were really really good fantastic in grade one grade one yeah that's a great start of the piano yeah next up we have michaela coming to us from grade three she is going to be singing a song called me myself and time by demi lovato and this song i want to share that i talked with michaela in person we talked about how it can be scary to sing in front of people and a quote that she shared with me was fake it until you feel it and this video she's super confident and she sounds amazing so here we go michaela i can make feelings stop him from that just for my attitude i can take my laptop record a snapshot and change your point of view i just entered this brand new world and i'm so open hearted i know i've got a long way to go but i'm i'm just getting started i'm over my head and i know it [Music] it makes me wanna change my direction sometimes it gets lonely but i know that it's only a matter of my perception i just entered this brand new world and i'm so open-hearted [Music] myself and time shout out to brooke that was so awesome kayla beautiful i like the shout out to your friend at the end you got that brook and i'm noticing too like to just do that without accompaniment right without an instrument that's not easy to stay in tune and to memorize all those words i was going to say she memorized all of it that's hard that was awesome thanks michaela thank you next week we're going to see some ballet dancing maya in grade one who is very multi-talented it took her a while to figure out if she was going to sing a song or ballet dance she settled on ballet dancing and it is amazing so maya grade one and her ballet dancing here we go [Music] wow oh maya oh so beautiful when i'm at the ballet i do a little polite applause not too loud nice job maya beautiful so graceful transported from another place in my mind and the smile happy yeah exactly so beautiful all right what do we have next catherine we've got another piano song and this one's coming from a kindergartener which is very exciting we've got gabe playing a song and doing some improvisation as well a lot of creativity in this one here we go [Music] so [Music] awesome job [Laughter] yeah okay yeah i liked the the sneak peek that we got of his face too i i wasn't going through it so that was gabe right that was game yeah watching himself play the piano yeah a little inspiration yeah yeah awesome dave nice touch yeah so the next one is some stop-motion animation and this one doesn't have sound so i'm wondering if our audience can maybe make up a story of what's happening in this stop motion animation this was made by selena in grade three and it's wonderful here we go there you go lena i know that miss cara taught lots of kids stop motion animation and created like youtube videos actually where you can learn how to do it on her page selena that was fabulous pixar here we come and it takes a lot of time to put that into effect that is patience and time selena i am impressed yeah i think that that doll maybe was looking at maya for some inspiration i saw some dance moves and that all that was pretty good okay keeping them keeping the talent coming what do we have next oh next up we have sebastian also in grade three and he is doing a combination of a puppet show and a song he has a uh he has a friend named dormilones um who he loves to tell stories about and sing songs about and so this is this is an exploration of dormillones and sebastian's wonderful wonderful creativity here we go [Music] on [Music] yes is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] i didn't know how that puppet got there i remember the longest time i'm like how did i get there and then it was nice to see the person at the bottom did you see the person with the yeah there it looked like the relative was holding it and you saw the head and it was like oh pretty cool very gonna be singing that for the rest of the night it's a great song gets very stuck in your head thank you sebastian for sharing that unique combination of a song and a puppet show next up we have a talent that i certainly will never be able to do we have some break dancing coming from vivian in grade one [Music] follow up [Applause] [Music] is ah oh god oh vivian was inspiring me i was dancing over here me too oh yes when i was watching you liv i was thinking she's in first grade now she's that good what's that going to look like if she keeps adding it by sixth grade yeah wow great song choice too yeah always a favorite all right next up we have janna who is also going to be singing us a song she's going to be singing us take on the world which is from girl meets world this song also has been stuck in my head and i think it probably will in yours too it's a great one here we go i've been waiting for a daily discussion of that lightning my heart beating like a drum on the edge of something wonderful face to face with changes what's it all about life is crazy but i know i can work it out cause i got you to live it with me i feel alright i'm gonna take on the world light up the stars i've got some pages to turn i'm singing [Music] take on the world take on the world take on the world think of the world take on the world peace puzzle pieces throw them up until they are taking chances moments happen everywhere i want you to live them with me i feel all right [Music] get to the top of the sky [Music] let my fears pop to the ground [Music] i feel alright i'm gonna take on the world light up the stars i've got some pages to turn [Music] take on the world take on the world take on the world take on the world take on the oh i'm so good so good shawna oh jonna way to go as nick as uh as michaela says your friend michaela says way to go john you know can we invite people i don't know about you but i had to dance so if you're at home watching and that song is moving you stand up dance have a family dance party mm-hmm did you notice her unicorn t-shirt i loved it take on the world go for a ride of your life on a unicorn i love the whole thing thank you jonah yeah hey catherine i couldn't help but notice that the next act brings me back a year ago we were talking about how kids when they were learning at home during the pandemic were learning something new they were starting to learn something new something they had and drew showed me how he learned juggling yeah pandemic and he became quite good at it and then he he did it for the talent show but now there's something different he's added to his act right yeah yeah our next act is drew derrick and ji hey all in grade five showing how all of them can juggle and do different things with different sports equipment it's very impressive also they did the editing uh together it's pretty awesome i think you're gonna like it here we go [Music] oh cause we are the champions of the world yes so good coordination collaboration teamwork oh man you guys yeah that was impressive yeah i like also the different definitions of juggling how juggling a soccer ball and juggling balls in your hand is completely different but both juggling fabulous work guys yeah and i'm a basketball fan so very impressive basketball tricks too all right next up we have a sister brother duo we have solani in grade three doing a dance with her brother i will tell you the the audio on this is loud so you might want to turn down your audio a little bit but it's awesome here we go lonnie and her brother yellow [Music] yeah i need that split at the end and for those people that do not know her brother cielo is a wildwood graduate right now going into 10th grade yellow leaving ninth grade for 10th grade with miss allison's son orion yeah they're buddies way to go solani and yellow nice job all right next up we have some more sports skills a lot of one thing i really like about this online format is that there are some things that you can't really do in an in-person talent show so for example rollerblading when you have a talent show uh stage that's pretty small but when you have a talent show that's online we get to see ramona in grade four rollerblading in the park so here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] is thumbs up thumbs up i was a little worried she was gonna fall thank you oh just looking terrified ramona you've got skills girl yeah and as kalyn is saying in the chat you are fearless yeah fearless going down those hills whoo that was good it was good not for me but i i might be inspired to buy some roller blades on a flat surface after watching her you laughing at me nick i'm just thinking not in my dream so i'll appreciate it from afar all right well next up we have got a dynamic duo sean and jonah in grade three they are extremely creative individuals and both of them are extremely good at freestyle rapping and so this is a really really cool video where they combined wraps that they knew with raps that they created and songs that they knew with songs that they created it's just a melding of creativity it's amazing wow here we go sean and jonah another day leads into and you're not here to get me through it all i let my god down and you pulled the rug i was getting kinda used to being someone you loved [Music] he knows the code it's not about reality about making the noise making them hurdle when he puts it down boy picking it up monster you get in my way imma feed you to the monster no more than the day but tonight i turn a monster when the moon shines like ice for no trucker i feel like everyone that is known as blockbuster godzilla fire spit a monster blood on the dance floor louisville car fire godzilla fire blood on the dance floor louisville carpet why he was so bad he kept fighting kept crying he was one day at the top like nothing could sign him but the scouts thought he was that i don't know why it was look so mad he was so great i don't even know how or why he's up there and maybe he's the best of time he threw dimes to the best the best right now he's on the top boy that's how you show them how they go yeah they do wow really the camera angle i mean that camera angle that was so cool yeah and the way they played off each other you know that type of collaboration was seen in the talent show it's pretty extraordinary yeah thank you soda thank you sean pretty amazing yeah putting yourself out there all right next up we have got anna in grade two who i have to shout her out made me this beautiful watermelon necklace and it is going to be my favorite piece of jewelry um but anyway for the talent show she is playing a jazzy piano piece and it's pretty awesome so here we go anna [Music] do [Music] oh it's so good that's so good that was awesome now for a completely different talent we go to sixth grader quinn who is showing us some figure skating right which i think is a first for a wild wildwood talent show no there are many things that i don't think we've seen before but how fabulous and i think quinn's been studying for a while practicing yeah for quite a few years so let's hear it let's see it i mean here we go [Music] so beautiful oh quinn i'm gonna call you and i'm gonna have you teach me something [Music] that was so beautiful and elegant yeah it was like dancing on ice to me it just took me to that different place of quiet and yeah i used to want to be a figure skater so when it's literally my dream right there wow juliana said so majestic it looks like you're doing ballet yeah and in our next video i didn't even plan this but i just realized in our next video we're going to see a different kind of skating on ice not the ballet figure skating kind but the ice hockey kind and a ton of other things we're going to be seeing theo's best sport skills which there's a lot of from first grade so here we go theo awesome let's hi my name is theo and my talent is my best sport moves i'm good at baseball straight there we go [Music] and basketball okay he's a multi-sport phenom he's invented his own kind of what's called a decathlon you have 10 different things you do in a sport yeah that was amazing to you yeah that was amazing i realized i messed up i said he was in grade two on the program he's not i mean we have one week of school left he's basically in grade two he's basically there don't don't be still still a great one thanks theo thank you now this next one principal nick would you like to introduce talia's act because i know that talia has talked to you a lot about this app you know wildwood we love it when students follow their own interests and talia and her sister naomi in grade two talia's in grade three have been helping out volunteering at a nearby goat farm in shootsbury and they've learned so much about goats and how to take care of goats and watch goats being born and gone through so much of learning about farming and how to take care of goats and that's what she wants to do for the talent show that is a talent right yeah and i'm afraid of goats so this is something i'm fascinated by oh learning new things yeah so all right here we go how to pick up a goat i think it's cool oh maybe those must be moved to the palace [Music] those are wonderful they're babies yes yes they have actually seen some of these babies being born or seen them when they're brand new um isn't that amazing that's another that is a first for a talent show we've never had uh picking up ghosts before thank you natalia and naomi yeah and we'll see naomi later in the talent show as well so next up is brooke who's going to be playing us a piano piece called morning that same brook who got the shout out from michaela and saying first last year in the talent show here is brooke on the piano [Music] so beautiful did you see her look over her shoulder at the camera just showing that she didn't need to see her fingers look at what i can do that was really amazing very very elegant what a stage presence yeah yeah and clearly she's practiced a lot yes next up we have omar in grade two with showing us his skills with a rubik's cube here we go i think i've seen something like this here we go omar um hi guys so i am omar said to me and i'm a second grader in washington elementary school and today i'm going to be solving this 2x2 rubik's cube and i'm gonna start in three two one done i hope you like this video and i practice a lot so bye and that i have had a fourth grader trying to teach me that and it's so hard many of these things are very hard for adults yeah and you got a little of that classic omar humor at the end as well yeah way to go you have practice a lot important methods yes if you practice you to do it too you're muted i'm trying to have a growth mindset so i don't i don't know how to do a rubik's cube yet yet all right next up from the same class a very talented second grade class we have amalia singing and playing an original song called i am life i have to share one highlight of our remote spooling was amalia taught one of her songs to her whole class and we sang it together this is a different song so it's a new one for me um she's amazing so here we go amalia where do you [Music] me go to you when the wizard of the night comes up i am life i am not i am warmness and welcoming [Music] where do you go i am life i am life i am where do you go when the sky goes dark and the moon shines bright where do you go i am live i am i am not i am i am not i am nice i am not where's the youtube station oh my goodness so katherine let's be clear when you said original song you mean that she she wrote the words she wrote the melody she figured out the chords everything that is something next up we have got a gymnastics routine okay [Applause] nice wow amazing flexibility yeah when we do um when we do freeze dance in first grade often yadda likes to do back bends as her dance move and then freezes there beautiful one thing if we were in person i'd be asking people how long have you been practicing this when did you learn how to do it something i always been interested in yeah yeah if any of our talented wildwood superstars are watching maybe you could comment how long you've been doing what you did in the talent show because it helps us beginners think okay you know i'm a beginner but maybe i'll get there yeah i've been people have been trying to teach me a cartwheel at wildwood for 10 years you need you need another year i guess never give up never give up i think emma who is up next could teach you a little bit about her talent which is ribbon dancing it's beautiful she's had a lot of dancers so emma she also choreographed this choreographic is like like writing a song but with a dance she made up the dance moves worked really really really hard on this the video was supposed to be longer but it wouldn't upload so we had to cut it down sadly so you can imagine this dance going on and on and on and she's dancing or elise by beethoven here comes emma [Music] so beautiful i love rhythmic dancing yeah rhythmic gymnastics right is that it's a competition in the olympics and i think it's rhythmic gymnastics and they use those those um [Laughter] again dancing just takes you to a place i it's great that we have so many different kinds of dancing represented yeah okay and next up we have regina in grade three she will be singing country roads but with a twist she's thinking the new version that you know but then she's also singing in japanese i also know that she can play this on the violin and on the piano and on our online music tools that we've been using for the past year very multi-talented so here comes regina grade 3 yes take me home to the place i belong west virginia mountain mama take me home [Music] country road almost heaven west virginia blue ridge mountains shenandoah river life is old they're older than the trees younger than the mountains growing like a breeze control take me home to the place i belong west virginia mountain mama takes me home country road all my memories gather round her miners ladies stranger to the water dark and dusty painted on the sky misty taste of moonshine teardrop in my eye controls take me home to the place i belong west virginia mountain [Music] m take me home to the place i belong west virginia mama take me home can't you run take me home country rock take me home country road regina nice job i love the two languages that's bilingual bilingual and at wildwood we have many students who are bilingual some even trilingual yeah we have so many languages i was singing along until it got to the japanese part yeah yeah then i just listened all right we are almost at the end of act one we have a couple left next up is naomi who got a sneak peek of in her boat video and now she is going to introduce herself playing the piano here we go naomi hello my name is [Music] so [Music] hmm [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so wow wasn't that beautiful beautiful so much emotion in her playing i could tell by the way she was moving and the dynamics oh it was beautiful thank you i love the outdoor setting that's added to it the noises well we are continuing with music into our next act naomi is a first grader next up we're going to sixth grade to jayden who has been working really really second grader yes thank you second graders next up we are going to sixth grade jaden has been working so hard remotely and in person playing the flute with miss lafond um and together they found roxa's theme which is a song in one of jayden's favorite video games and so he learned how to play that on the flute and it is beautiful so here we go give it up for [Music] jaden [Music] i'm [Music] oh [Music] um [Music] [Applause] so that's a song that he knows from his favorite game and then this lapham taught him jaden in sixth grade jaden we hope you're going to carry that music with you to seventh grade in middle school keep it up fabulous all right next up we have ivy who is in kindergarten doing the twister loop and that's all i'm going to tell you about that here we go let's see so oh my god wow dismount and my heart stopped for a minute my heart's literally like no that's very impressive kindergarten kindergarten again what concentration and focus is required in all these really yeah yeah and strength lots of upper body strength in that yeah okay we have two more in act one next up we're staying in kindergarten we're gonna see jeanette who is only a kindergartner but she already knows her multiplication tables so she's going to show us her math skills in this next video you hear that miss patel we got math from the talent show here we go jeanette hi my name's jenna and and i'm in a wild wood school kindergarten and today i'm gonna do times you hi i mean bye [Music] that's so impressive she did a nice job on that that was very cool so neat i just texted miss patel our math coach to let her know that the kindergartner was doing math during the talent show and very impressive handwriting too oh yeah thank you jeanette thank you whoa we have one more this is the the closing of act one right catherine it is indeed and you know principal nick you said we were gonna talk longer than an hour and i said no we can do it so maybe do you think we should start act 2 at 6 45 i think i think maybe cut it back to like a five-minute intermission okay sounds good well let's just say 6 40 because right now right because the this action is going to take three minutes 6 40.
i myself have not been but we at riverside trauma center.org have been so you might ask yourself is there a need for postvention in a community after there's been a traumatic and sudden loss we believe that there is our role is to assist the community in coping so they're able to continue the important tasks such as education we also know that it increases the likelihood of early intervention for individuals who may be experiencing an acute trauma response it also helps to reduce negative coping mechanisms such as alcohol use or substance misuse and in cases of violence we believe that postpension can reduce the likelihood of retaliation and in cases of suicide we know that it reduces the risk for contagion so you might say to yourself my child wasn't necessarily a very close friend or didn't even know the person who has passed away but we know when there's been a sudden loss that the ripple effect can be very very wide the people we look at most closely of course are those folks in the inner circle friends uh family especially immediate family siblings then we get out to that a little bit further and we're looking at friends um you know teammates or co-workers but also we're looking at other vulnerable students maybe it's people who have had recent losses themselves or have been impacted by trauma in their lifetime and then that outer circle that we're looking at is people who may identify with the person who's passed away it could be folks who are friends with that person on social media or in the same grade but don't know the individual so what's important about this is it's not about what we believe is a close relationship with someone it's about how that person uh or that student feels about their connection to the individual who has been lost so some of the domains you know people know that folks are impacted emotionally by sudden loss and acute grief but there's lots of ways actually that folks can be impacted and especially when we talk about young people so it's the emotional peace of course the shock the sorrow the anger sometimes feelings of guilt i wish i had reached out to my friend more often or i wish i had spent more time with them we also see that irritability just overall grouchiness frustration but we can see that people are impacted not only emotionally but also in their cognitive abilities they may be feeling confused having a lot of intrusive thoughts they may be having difficulty concentrating with students we sometimes see a decline in their academic performance maybe they're not keeping their room as clean as they normally do so so oftentimes their brain can get overwhelmed um by all of the distress they're experiencing and then social and behavioral we could see things like a withdrawal crying or fighting and then one of the most important things especially with young people is to be looking at the physical impact that they may be experiencing it's really common for younger folks to have difficulty and let's be honest sometimes even adults have difficulty putting their feelings into words but oftentimes it actually plays out for them physically so they may be feeling really tired having stomach aches or headaches muscle tension overall aches and pains or an increased startle response and then we have the ways in which trauma and acute grief can affect relationships we can see that withdrawal fighting with each other a fear of being alone especially when we're talking about little people sometimes we see over dependence where they become really afraid of being away from their parents or other safe people in their life and then there's the spiritual and meaning making sometimes we see that people feel like nothing matters or why would god do this to us sometimes they start to question why they do the work that they do or why they try so hard to be a good friend all of these things should be taken at at face value on one hand but also to understand that you know there's a very good chance that what's underlying that is this trauma response and or the acute grief that the person is experiencing and we know that grief following a sudden death can be more complicated you know in many cases in our lives most of us have had experiences with loss in many cases though we've had the opportunity to anticipate it we've had time to prepare for losing that person but when we have a situation where death was sudden and unpredictable we see that people can experience shock and also there can be that intense search for the reasons why sometimes we see that there's police investigations and media involvement which can increase people's distress there's that question of could this death have been prevented sometimes even could i have prevented that death in many cases with sudden death we see that there's an element of violence or trauma in that death which can also really heighten the amount of distress people experience sometimes that can lead to people feeling fearful of their own self-destructive impulses and fear of behavior of other people so they start to worry a lot more for example some parents may say you know i wasn't worried about my child a week ago but now i'm thinking about it all the time and i'm feeling a lot of anxiety about it we also know in some cases there can be long delays in receiving information about what happened and not listed here but a really common thing that we see is that oftentimes many different narratives or stories start to form about what happened and you know in many of the cases a lot of that information is not correct you all remember that old game of telephone where the story started off with one thing at the beginning and then it shifted and it changed and was entirely different by the time we get to the end it's really important in situations like this especially involving young people that we recognize that just because our child heard something at school or on the bus or on social media doesn't mean that that's the truth and helping kids to to be able to parse some of that out and sometimes we see people respond with anger at the person who died uh and scapegoating or blaming people for what's happened so it's really important to recognize these reactions as part of a trauma reaction or a brief reaction and just to challenge some of the griefs uh the myths excuse me about grief you know there used to be this idea that grief happens in stages and so you know today you cry and then tomorrow you're angry and then in three weeks things are better but we actually think of grief as being more like waves at the beach so sometimes those waves are little ripples and then sometimes they're big huge waves that knock us over and of course right now being in the early stage most people are in those big wave stages but as time goes on that really changes different people have different waves so recognizing that people respond very differently you know and also oftentimes families get distressed because sometimes with children they may feel really distressed right now and then in a couple of hours they might be out playing on the playground it's important to understand that for children that play time can be really important and so we don't want to force kids into our idea of grieving we want to allow them to go through their process you know and this idea that time heals all wounds most people will say that that's not true that it there's no time frame that we can put on on the pain that we feel and also this idea that grief involves saying goodbye sure for some people it does and for some people it doesn't so we want to really respect that different people whether it's staff or its children or it's ourselves are going to have different reactions and different needs one thing i do want to just identify is that sometimes what we see is this acute grief wears off and we may see that some people start to experience some depression so i want to just talk quickly about what that could look like it doesn't mean that everyone will or that your child will it just means it's something for us to stay aware of what that could look like is frequent sadness or crying a decreased interest and this is one i really do want to watch if you have a child who is really involved in sports or really involved in um playing games with friends and all of a sudden you find that they're not really wanting to do any of those things anymore that's definitely something we would want to pay attention to and then that persistent boredom and low energy and of course for all of you who have parents of teenagers you know that sounds like many of them and also that's something we would want to watch out for we also want to pay attention to that low self-esteem and guilt if our children are saying things like i'm just not good at anything or nobody really likes me you know that does give us insight that this is a kiddo who might be might be really having a hard time or in fact probably is again i want to just circle back to that frequent complaints of physical illnesses if we have a child who's going to the nurse's office often and there but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong it doesn't mean that they're faking what it means is that they may be carrying their stress and or their depression in their bodies so we want to make sure that we really pay attention to that couple other things extreme sensitivity to rejection or failure let's be honest nobody likes being rejected or feeling they failed well what i'm talking about is somebody who's going to respond in a really kind of extreme way from what they normally would or what you think is appropriate to that situation also having difficulty with relationships difficulty with friends difficulty with siblings those are things we would want to look for again back to that cognitive impact that poor concentration and we definitely want to change take notice of any major change in eating behaviors or sleeping patterns so if you have a child who used to eat well at meals and now they're not eating at all or they appear to barely be picking or a child who is not sleeping well or appears to be sleeping too much we definitely want to be paying attention to those those signs and again this is not common but it is our experience that it's really important to just you know educate people on what to look for for youth who may be facing some sort of crisis feelings of hopelessness anxiety agitation again that trouble sleeping or sleeping all the time if we hear feelings of being trapped saying things like there's no way out increased substance use or misuse or concerns about it a withdrawal from friends or family or their community you're certainly going to be looking at that rage or uncontrolled anger expressions of wanting to seek revenge on other people and then reckless behavior or risky activities uh we want to pay attention to and definitely the somatic mood change so if some of these things is something that's not been uncommon we should still pay attention to it but where we're really um going to take notice is if it appears that there's a change uh in in mood and certainly if we hear a child making suicidal statements uh we want to inquire about that uh and not be dismissive and so here's the advice that we have for you as families taking care of these young people if you think something's wrong the only way to find out is to ask them it's really important that we open up these these pathways of conversation with these young people and that we teach them that it's okay for them to identify if they're sad or they're angry or they're even feeling hopeless that we're people that they can trust that we're gonna listen to them we're gonna try to help them um find whatever supports that they need we also want to make sure that they know that we're going to be trustworthy and and supportive people who are going to help them get to whatever help they may need we're not going to blow off what they tell us in some cases we may want to seek counseling for young people if you're really concerned i would not hesitate to contact your local crisis team and we always want to notify the school of concerns you have about a young person um schools spend or our kids spend a lot of time at school and i know people are really worried but i can tell you from my own experiences working in many schools that these schools are not just there to make sure your kids pass the grades but they also want to make sure that they're healthy and safe and so they can't do that if they're not made aware if there's concerns about a young person also want you to know that if you're really concerned the national suicide prevention lifeline is always available 24 hours a day seven days a week and just so you know you don't have to be worried about suicide to call the national suicide prevention lifeline i understand the name gives that impression but the truth is if you're really worried about a young person you can always call them and they will offer you um support and guidance through the counselors who are available and obviously if you're very worried about a child's safety we're not going to leave them alone we're going to make sure that we get the help that they need in these moments so what can you do as a family member who says you know i'm not worried that things are at this this level which will be true for most of you but i'm still worried because this is my young person and they've just experienced a really significant loss and a traumatic and unexpected one for some kids so what do we want to do we want to encourage an atmosphere that allows them to express all of their reactions it's okay for them to be mad it's okay for them to be sad we want to let them them talk about that and try for us to stay a really calming presence with them so that we're not going to feed their anger but we're going to respect it um and try to help them be able to to recognize that that anger is often a reaction to their bereavement we want to communicate facts clearly it's really important for all of us to feel like we understand the information as best as possible so we want to be as honest as and transparent as we can be with information we also want to initiate conversations about the person who's lost we hear from lost survivors all the time how important it is that we say their loved one or their friend's name so it's okay to talk to them about me and to use nate's name when you talk to them and also to help support them in creating artwork or collages or writing in their journal another thing we know can be really helpful for anybody kids or adults is physical activity in fact there's some amazing research about the power of cardiovascular exercise as a natural antidepressant it does not take away the need sometimes for medication but it does prove to be really effective in helping to increase and improve people's moods and we want to encourage peer activities oftentimes people including us as adults we are reluctant or resistant to spending time because it requires energy we might feel we don't have but the truth is once we get out there and we get around people oftentimes being around our peers is the greatest support that we can have we also want to resume routines sometimes people want to have everything stop and you know it's okay to have moments of letting things stop but it's also important to resume routines first of all not everybody responds the same way so what could be really helpful for one person might actually be harmful to another so we want to try to have as much flexibility as we can but we do want to have routines resumed back we also want to support an opportunity for rituals for the person that's been lost if there's an opportunity to go to the services but for some people it's about being able to have some sort of event at their home with their family or a prayer at the dinner table so engaging our young people and asking them what type of rituals would be helpful and meaningful to them we also want to make sure that there's uh opportunity to leave our staff members and even our parents because all of this it's not just impacting the young people it's also impacting the grown people um both who perhaps knew nate and also those who care about the kids who they now see struggling so we want to make sure that we give people that opportunity some tips and for families in schools try to be aware please of how much time our students are spending on social media sites we know that they're drawn to it especially when they're not at school because it can feel like a social connection but we also know that there's often pretty concerning material that can be there on social media that we really don't want kids spending lots and lots of time in we want to make sure that that our students aren't isolating and that they're continuing to be involved in school activities and interacting with others or other types of activities and we want to encourage and support other ways for them to grieve we also want to remind them that it's okay and it's important for them to talk with others and let them know how they're doing please keep in mind sometimes people find it helpful to conduct different types of prevention workshops sometimes we respond at riverside trauma center to gang violence or to suicide deaths and sometimes for survivors getting involved in prevention can be really meaningful and help them feel empowered in a moment where they feel really out of control we also want to make sure that students and families know about outside resources such as helplines or online chat services that are available and please keep in mind you might need to have support yourself so we want to encourage people to talk with peers find outside help and also to call that local helpline for yourself if you're feeling overwhelmed and i am going to focus on this because for so many of us especially i think people who work in the mental health field or as nurses we're really good at taking care of everybody else and we're not always really good at taking care of ourselves and it's important that when we're supporting the kids that we do the very best we can to take good care of ourselves because otherwise we're going to have some of those signs and symptoms of depression and exhaustion and frustration we may end up being more reactive towards our young people than we mean to be so we have to really think about what self-care do we need and educate ourselves educate ourselves on the experiences and the grief of our children but also how to help support them and try to find people who get it and understand you and what you've been going through and it's okay to experiment with healing it's okay if you go to a service and it doesn't feel like it was enough and you want to do something else like make a donation um so it's okay to try to find ways for you and um your children to heal and try to engage in activities that honor your loved one please be patient with yourself understand that healing takes time for you and for our little people and have faith in our own resilience one of the things that i really like people ask me all the time how do you do this work and yes it is difficult of course but how i do it is because while i do have to see all the sad things that happen i also get to see the incredible resilience of human beings the ways in which they can come together as a community and choose to take good care of each other the ways that they can support one another and come together to take good care of their young people so with that said i have a slide here for questions i'm going to skip right over that although i do really like this little guy uh and i'm gonna go to just reminding you my name is sarah gare i am with riverside trauma center uh and i am going to turn this over back to superintendent north all right see there we go so thank you so much and thanks for presenting those slides um one of the things i'm going to put in the chat just for people who weren't able to come tonight we know it's a busy time of year it's just the link this is a self-recording video so if people do want to share this with others they think it might be valuable or useful for others the same link you're on but i'll just put in the chat will work indefinitely because i think there's a lot of incredibly valuable pieces to what sarah shared so at this point really um it is open for feedback comments questions you can type them in the chat a couple people couldn't come tonight but they sent me questions in advance so i thought i'd start with them the first is uh from a family who said my child i expected my child to be much more deeply affected right now they're not looking any different than they did last week at this time and it was concerning to the family that they're not seeing more of a reaction uh from their middle school student based on the tragedy that happened and it's open to anyone sorry don't feel like you're the only person who who can answer this but uh you're certainly welcome to but just any thought you'd have for our family who expected to see and the student doesn't really want to talk about it but you know it is not exhibiting sort of any differences behavior not really the desire to talk about it with the family so i don't know if any advice that anyone on the call would be able to give to to that family yeah fake go ahead yes so i'm happy to jump in there and then you know would welcome other people's thoughts so um i think that um what we know about our um young people and it applies to adults as well is that different experiences impact us at different times and so it may be that somebody is just taking a longer time to really process and have this what what has happened in the loss of um their classmate impact them and right now they may seem fine they're coping very well and that something may trigger that at another time they may read something they may watch something somebody else may say something and they respond in a kind of a much sharper way so it could be a delayed response and it is also okay that the trauma from this and the tragedy of this doesn't it's not a bad thing that it's not having a big impact on everybody um everybody um has different things that go on their life in their lives that trigger them in different ways and this may not be something that is profoundly impactful for every young person thank you face anyone else want to jump in to add to what faye shared you know i would just offer that that being in the middle school this week i've had the opportunity to see students all over the spectrum in terms of their responses to this and i and you know and one of the things i've learned is that everything is normal you know when you're dealing in a community like that and i think what's been uh noteworthy is just that within all those responses that people have been having in the building there's been a general support and respect for everyone in their process they're going through individually and i think that's to the credit of the community thank you i note that uh debus moreland is in the chat putting a number of resources um both in our area and on the national hotlines and things like that for families another parent another family member emailed me and they said that they know their child's being affected they know they're texting about it with their friends but they do not want to talk to the family in this case the parents at all about it so they know what's on the student's mind they know it's affecting uh their child but they feel very boxed out or locked out of any discussion about that um you know and so just any thoughts again any of our panelists would have on um the parental response to that um that scenario i think uh yeah i think that one of the things that we could do is acknowledge uh the the student that he doesn't want to talk to the parents you know say you know i understand you don't want to talk to us but i think it's important that you talk to somebody you know some adults you know you could talk to your teachers in school you can talk to your counselor or school and and if you need any help you know we will here to help you but i think it's important that you process this because maybe you don't think but it's affecting you and consciously thank you hector any other thoughts people would like to share or add on to what hector said i think yes i agree with everything hector said uh you know the one thing that i might add to it is that it's okay to keep asking um you know we don't wanna you all know how preteens and teens are so we don't wanna hover over them and uh make them dislike us even more than they might at that age but it's okay to keep going back and saying you know i just i just want to check in with you i know that this happened and i want you to know you can talk to me about it too sometimes sometimes they have to be asked a bunch of times right in some ways you know my own thought and i'm less skilled and versed than everyone else in this panel is that for middle school student for the pre-adolescent i'm not going to put in middle school for pre-adolescent adolescent students they may be sort of managing this the way they manage lots and lots of things which is not running to tell their parents at the first glance and while continuing to ask as you suggest sarah is is undoubtedly the right thing there may not always merit a wonderful response but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep doing it so i think that's really helpful um another one another family member contacted me and they said you know with school lasting only one more week they're concerned about just um the lack of structure for summer uh given that um you know uh seven days from now uh less than seven days from now at this point uh students will be headed off for uh less in this case anyway uh less structure in their summer experience and there's a little concern about how do they kind of understand and know how their child's doing if if there's not counselors like hector and and other folks in their lives on a daily basis so i don't know if anyone had thoughts on that that concern that was expressed so i'm happy to jump in again on that and then hear what other people have to say so um i think it is um a a summer that is a big change for for many of our our youth who have been socially isolated for about a year and a half and are really um we see this in school every day now kids are so happy to be with each other right now so i think there is you know that has a kind of a big part of the experience in in the context of um this tragic loss as well so kids are going to want to be with each other they want to play they want to have fun um and as a as a parent or as an adult in their lives i think watching and listening and really trying to kind of stay tuned in to anything that seems unexpected anything that seems atypical for your child um you know if you're driving your child someplace and they have their friends in the car that is always a great time to listen kids seem to sometimes forget that the adults in the car can hear what they're they're saying and so really listening and paying attention to that and trying to plan sometimes that you are in close proximity maybe doing a family activity but if not just in close proximity so you can do that routine check-in and just say just want to check in how's it going you know how's summer going how's it feel being out of school um and just keeping kind of yourself tuned in to your child and what they're experiencing and certainly if anything seems you have a question a concern just a wondering all those resources that are in the chat those are the places to call and say i just not sure can you help me think through this thank you faye diego and i also just wanted to offer that uh the summer school is going to have a summer vela program uh that could support families who are looking for a place to have the kids and it's going to be from uh july 6 through the 24th uh and there's going to be lots of really engaging activities opportunities for students to hang out together and it's been a lot of students have communicated to me that they've really felt met by the return to in-person learning and i think a lot of them have also expressed that there's some disappointment that the school year was so abridged this year in terms of the in-person opportunities and so i would encourage uh you to look into that program if you're looking for some structure for your uh students in the summer and also just endorse that i know the people who are involved in making that program work and i'm really impressed by by the you know the work they do great thank you faith thank you diego um i'm not seeing natural questions come up through the chat but i'm glad people emailed me and and again a number of people it's a busy time of year and i know some people can make it tonight um but i think i'll just close by saying you know appreciate you coming to the farm tonight again my appreciation for middle school staff sarah and faye for uh your work uh at a more global level and then some on the ground as well as the week played out and that we're looking at this is not uh something in terms of supporting families that ends with the end of the school year that we are looking at both short-term what we're implementing now but also medium and long-term plan we know this year has been a challenge as it relates to mental health and support for our students whether they ended up coming in where they ended up staying remote and we are really actively talking fan i spent a couple about an hour this afternoon talking about uh not just at the middle school but across all of our schools how do we continue to offer social emotional and well-being support for all students uh given the year they've had the year and a half they've had and the unknowns about the future while things are tracking very well right now um you know it's you know i can't say quite we'll be back to normal i can't guarantee we'll be back to whatever normal is and and for many ways we don't want to be there we've learned a lot this year about supporting the wellness of students and we want to implement that uh as we go more towards a full return in the fall so we appreciate everyone for being here and please do share this resource thanks for the kind comment in the chat and we hope you have a lovely three day weekend and celebration of juneteenth this weekend and we'll be planning for a great last week of school um and trying to make sure that we mix in the celebrations that come at the end of the school year along with recollection acknowledgement and supporting the students needs as we head as this tragedy goes into week two of supporting students and families so we'll try to get that balance right we appreciate all you do and your support of the school system and again i hope you enjoy the the sun and the not hot just pleasant weather that we're finally having in in this uh odd new england spring uh have a good night everyone thank you
i do not share with this with you to wave around credentials rather to bring to light that i have multiple perspectives and i truly understand what it is like to be both an educator and a parent during the last two years i do not know of many other professions that have had a complete upheaval of how they do their job with no warning and little training than education before i speak to some of my concerns i wanted to highlight an email that i wrote to the board of education dr barrel and dr ruby in april i wanted to express my gratitude to be part of a district that places emphasis into social emotional learning and the whole child my two daughters were fortunate enough to have phenomenal teachers the last two years to help them navigate the roller coaster of emotions that are natural repercussions of these circumstances thank you to ms calucci mrs moore mrs sandu mrs johnson and all the teachers for being absolute rock stars i hope you are watching this from a beach somewhere last march when the two went two weeks into the pandemic we found our youngest child who was in kindergarten at the time locked inside her bathroom closet taking her temperature to make sure she didn't have covet she then admitted to be having done that five times a day since school closed and had worked herself in such a panic trying to get her emotions out i was able to tap into some of the strategies taught through social emotional learning like butterfly breasts roller coaster breasts and identifying her emotions to target how she was feeling for the last 16 months we have all heard about the most vulnerable population referring to those age 70 or older i challenge you to explore a different perspective to me the most vulnerable population are our children they have watched their parents struggle and juggle working helping them learn from home social isolation missing four months of formal school last year not seeing family for holidays pivoted from hybrid to virtual to full in person perhaps even a mandated quarantine trauma faced at this developmental stage can continue to affect them across their lifespan and we truly do not understand the potential residual effects of this on our youth i wanted to share two more anecdotes quickly um that have my spirit my daughters have experienced two weeks ago when it became very hot my youngest um said that she was having trouble breathing on the bus and she felt like she felt like she was drowning and she said i was afraid to take my mask under my nose because i didn't want to get kicked out of school i want to be very clear nobody has ever said that to her her bus driver is a wonderful wonderful lady but these are the kind of thoughts that for the last two years our children have been indoctrinated to think by society during eve's second quarantine when she desperately wanted to stay in school we got the phone call at when i was at work at two o'clock her last date of contact was already on friday yet they were all ushered into the gym they weren't allowed to stay in their classroom and all the parents had to come get them immediately with all of their stuff my daughter who does have some anxiety was then panic strict mrs diamond had to pull her into her office because i was in new york she was why why isn't my mom here do i have covet did i am i going to get someone sick why do i have to be at the gym so these kind of practices and again we as adults understand the necessary for them um i'll try to talk faster which is why it is crucial that any reopening plan for the next school year has supports in place for this but also allow for best practice and education when designing a program for a student who has an iep or 504 we always try to place them in the least restrictive environment to the maximum extent appropriate all students should have the least restrictive environment in my own district the desk shields were removed seven weeks ago we can have student desks and collaborative groups no masks outside we only quarantine that when they were in six feet of each other for more than ten minutes not everyone in the class we were open in person for every day and students six k to six we have randomly tested 800 staff and students over the last four months yielding only one possible result from an asymptomatic individual with no community spread i am hopeful that when brookfield reopens we can say the same along with masks being optional no desk shields collaborative groups a mix of technology with hands-on kinesthetic learning authentic assessments no hybrid learning for anyone continuing to implement best practice in social emotional learning well i know all of this is a moving target school districts do have some agency and autonomy over these decisions mrs stratino please just wrap it up okay um to quote the late maya angelou do the best you can until you know better then when you know better do better we know better now than we did at the beginning of the pandemic and in august and we can do better for the next reopening our children are counting on it thank you for your time the next person please step up is anybody else here for a public comment please just name an address for the record i'm on south mountain road i don't have a plan to come tonight so i don't have anything really prepared we have three girls that we put into the school system we had to enroll them into private school because their schools were shut down locked down um one of my daughters got really depressed from you know being in the fact that she was getting an ipad and getting directives what to do each day sitting there you know in her room crying trying to figure stuff out she didn't have a face to face like some people have so we ended up putting them all into private school so they could at least attend school secondly we have seen it i think it was vermont today just released their mass mandate for school so we're hoping that this state will follow suit we saw a guy like cuomo just came out and said new york is getting rid of their mass mandate we saw how you know unsuccessful he was with the nursing home scandals however it seems like he's finally trying to get back on the right track with uh the school system so that's it i really just came to say that i'm hoping that you know the board of education i think that we need you guys to fight for our kids i realize that the state you know defers to nih cdc there's a lot of politics behind it unfortunately i don't like to see that that's the fact but uh that's how we feel so we feel like coming here we're going to rely on some of you guys to advocate for our children to not have math for the fall so that's that's really all i like i apologize i didn't really come prepared but that's all i have thank you hi my name is lina lopez and i live at 9 summer pasture lane in brookfield i am a parent of three children who will all be attending brookfield public schools next fall and i'm speaking today to stress the importance of learning to live with kovid while still providing a free and appropriate public education we have entered a new phase of this pandemic this virus is no longer novel vaccination of high-risk populations and advances in treatment means that new cases will not lead to a high surge of covet-related deaths as opposed to what we experienced a year ago vaccinated staff members can rest assured that their chances of being hospitalized or dying after exposure to a covet positive student are almost non-existent furthermore the mortality rate amongst children is minimal 3.994 million children have tested positive for covet in the u.s since the start of the pandemic practically speaking millions more have had asymptomatics that went undiagnosed from these nearly 4 million cases there were 327 pediatric death deaths that data was taken from the american academy of pediatrics that means the percent of child cases resulting in deaths was rounded up to 0.01 percent and this number includes earlier data from the pandemic before recent advances in treatment meanwhile newest language language from those who wish to incite fear is that we should be terrified of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children also known as misc however from may 2020 to june 2nd 2021 there have been only 4018 cases and 36 missc deaths nationwide surely any loss of young life is tragic no matter the reason but to con to further contextualize these numbers here is some data from previous flu seasons during the 2009 h1n1 pandemic from april april 09 to september 2010 there were 358 pediatric deaths reported to the cdc the 2017-2018 flu season caused 188 pediatric deaths with the cdc stating that that number was under reported and probably closer to 600.
okay let me see here okay do i have a motion to adopt the amended agenda okay all right and a second i have a motion and a second all in favor aye aye okay any opposed all right public comments this is closed session items is there anyone that wishes to address the board of trustees regarding closed session items only at this time okay seeing none the board of trustees will now hold a closed session to discuss items 4.1 through 4.8 on the agenda it is now 3 37 p.m and we will move to closed session
i guess as a parent i'm i'm still very very nervous about what that means you know do can we still run all of our sports programs can the middle school children the 7th and eighth graders joined the marching band i don't i don't even know if that's allowed there's just um so much i am i'm fearful of with model 4 just because it's not what i'm familiar with um i don't know what that means for ap classes it's a much smaller cohort and i prefer the larger high school cohort so i didn't know if there was some data that could be presented before parents are asked to vote where we could get someone helping us kind of figuring that out a little bit yeah i want to triangulate and just make sure that we're speaking the same same language because of course these are all projections right but if we look into 2223 which is when anything would begin right and it's a it's a phase so it's not like a band-aid just comes off and oh my gosh in 22-23 everything happens but just so we're we're we're calibrating our numbers to make sure that we're talking the same thing because my numbers would be a little bit different but let's let's make sure we're on the same page if we went with model 3 which is one high school we are projecting that in 2223 that high school would have 2022 kids okay now in the same vein we are projecting that that continues to decline but in 2223 we are think we are we are we are projecting that there would be 2022 kids in that school now let's go to your other one that you asked about the 712 if we went the 712 model in the same exact year we are predicting that each 712 would have 1527 students again declining enrollment and they would go down now of course 1527 students because it's a 7 12 right so now you're taking the 9th 10th 11th 12th graders and on that campus now you're also putting 7th and 8th graders on that campus as well um so those numbers are a little different uh does that square away and calibrate does that make sense so i'm looking at the completion after the three years so i'm looking at 24 25 when there's about 948 kids at one campus in the in the high school cohort and the other high school cohort has 920 versus combining those two numbers and giving us you know almost 2 000 kids at one campus for high school programs the thing i don't understand is what what programs can seventh and eighth graders join at the high school level what does that mean for sports what does that mean for ap classes that seventh and eighth graders can't participate in versus us running one campus with both those four hearts yeah and anything and anything that that we can wrap our heads around again these are these are these are possible drawbacks or right possible uh uh benefits so just like right now right with the with with our with our high schools um we know that programs have to be separated out um to offer at different at different locations um but having 7 12 kids students i'm sorry 7th and 8th grade students can definitely help uh with uh electives uh you know offering uh a robust set of electives because now seventh and eighth graders can kind of jump in on that uh and and provide for that um but but but again ultimately um there are pros and cons but we we can we can kind of share some of those things uh but they are they are possibilities because we we don't know right somebody in this room or somebody outside might challenge the district and say wait a minute time out how could you say for model 3 that in year one there would be 2022 kids don't you know that if you close one high school for sure you're going to lose 400 kids so that should be 1600 not 2022.
and then partner sullivan is our um obesity staff contractor doing the um the rex foreign elementary school and they are going to be bidding out their subs so they own all the stuff when you do at least lease that so they're digging out all of their subs their electrical economy everyone who's actually rebuilding the school on june 28th as well so we'll know who all the players will be together so we can start looking over the plans and let them kind of tear them apart and decide if the plumbing looks and all that stuff so we have very few change orders along the way and then like i told you last week the grades maximum price of the construction contract will come to you guys um the first quarter meeting of august and then after that board meeting clark and sullivan and uh similar folks are going to start great on the career technical ed program um we're getting a little bit closer to removing those working portables some of which are in the way and some of which are just going to create some space for future high school classrooms that will be built i'm still hoping that they're going before i end um and then we did work on we had a meeting with the low voltage folks for that program because we're getting so down into the detail right now we need to know where we need the hdmi outlets where we need the power for the tvs and all that stuff so we're just finalizing that last little piece of cameras and this and that for our july 2nd submittable to dsl so those plans are really good as well and then on the replacement of hvac that i talked to you about last time we did have a meeting with cpm and capital engineering and we started looking through our hvac units and figuring out which ones would be the lowest pain for you to replace to improve the indoor air quality for students and also save us money based on maintenance and or electrical usage so we're hoping to have that plan put together so that richard can take it and run and get a bunch of air conditioners in place next summer do you know how many not as many as i thought um it's about we're looking at um hvac right now at north country and the high school and they're the they're called mini splits it's kind of like the one you see in a hotel you have a piece of inside the classroom that shoots out the cold air and then you have a piece hanging out on the wall outside that's the condenser and those are about 3000 bucks installed on the side they're about 30 grand installed um yeah and the problem is those type of air conditioner units don't bring in enough outside air which is one of the reasons that we brought them up first um so we have to get a different kind of unit to put in those rails and that's why they're more expensive so we're taking out that that type of split unit and then we're putting in a regular air conditioning unit where you put the the furnace piece on the inside and then in an enclosed closet and then the air conditioner piece goes on the luckily copper prices are down right now um but yeah we're not we're not we're still in the in the planning stages but you know you can put couple cages around them um different things to help to protect it but nothing is 100 right so luckily with those units we i don't think we've lost a single one of those but i'll probably just jinx this but it's not those units that we were the easiest to get at but there is no perfect solution if people want to copper prices are up they will get them i don't know 50 years ago they were still about the walls and houses so it's definitely worth starting there and then moving forward from there so that's all i have if you have any questions you're gonna be a mess that's not a question i know statement thank you thank you so much yeah you can ask a question so some of the elementary schools have classrooms that are just atrocious i volunteer i volunteered regularly at oak hill and the first graders classrooms are awful have those been fixed as far as everyone yeah there was yeah when i was volunteering in the class in the first grade classrooms consistently um the teachers had reoccurring problems that lasted the entire year um my i'm curious where to have all of the ones that were broken being replaced or fixed a work order process for that yeah i know they told me that all year that year and we do we do uh prioritize and plug away and classrooms are a priority there are a lot of um there are a lot of cogs that move to determine how quickly we can replace something sometimes what happens is something is replaced and fixed and then something else goes wrong isn't it we didn't replace or fix the ones that were already in the classrooms that we're maintaining and before we put new ones in we we go through a process as far as how many how much we have to put into the unit um sometimes if a coil goes out which is the copper part that the prior goes to cool things down a lot of times if it's an older unit it's it's better to replace it than to spend the money to replace the coil i think the question you're asking is we're put we're putting in new ones and your question is did we fix the ones that were broken first so that what's he's referring to have not been replaced yet that that's a plan we're working on but would you say craig that we have a process to fix the ones that are currently i'm not aware of any aren't working now or ones that are more troubled yeah you have to visit the classroom again it's been a couple of years but i know that you had a recurring problem in a court in a core of uh rooms where one was receiving extra air and the students were freezing all day and you have some where they weren't getting any air at all so just you know before you open new facilities or your old facilities working appropriately would be a huge concern for a person like me or you know parents maybe i'm not asking the right person i don't know but correct the idea was ones that are most problematic are going to also get on that list before we replace there's a hierarchy of it so the process that we use we'll be looking at the ones that are chronically broken and things like that correct correct but we also replace units when they're chronically broken so that's actually that didn't occur that year that that this was a problem so i'm you know i'm just right financing my old um experiences at the schools and making sure that the students who are already attending those classes you know because this is such a a concern the hga system is for the students coming back that the ones that are currently in there and the teachers the teachers um need to be comfortable when they're teaching it's a huge concern can i can i just say so so the process that gets in place right now is that they have you know a duration and then they also have the maintenance schedule and like like mr leo was saying they're replaced on a recurring basis right but the ones that they're talking about replacing right now are part of those that are currently in use and are on the rotation to be replaced due to their chronic issues so and agent has been a huge issue for a number of us on the board and so we're really pushing hard to make sure that those those are taken care of with as much of the funding as we can spare and we do have maintenance money to do that so you know we have money that we can do it when we need to so sometimes there's a tricky one or a tricky two but on the 614 that we have um three times that year and it still wasn't fixed by the end of the year and those are frustrating ones for for us too you know and especially for my folks that are fixing them and replacing them because you could you um happen to take a look at eight oak hills first grade quad and see if they have been fixed or looked at your paperwork yeah no i can i can look at them at what we have in the work order system and i can also you know i find out what room it is moving on to uh item number 11 comments from the audience regarding items not on the agenda and i apologize in advance i'm probably going to murder your name that's okay i'm used to that marilyn truex that is correct you got it yes okay well i've introduced myself by marilyn truex i am a mother of two boys that attend oak hill currently um i've been a volunteer since 2015 and i love the school i have loved every experience that i've had there mine is the small hvac problem which was not attributed to anyone here um i am here today um first to thank you for having me in front of you i've been looking forward to this um for a few meetings now um i was the person that emailed in last week i was unaware that the meetings were open to the public and i just want to make you aware that it still shows on your agenda that the public isn't allowed in here so you may want to make an adjustment to that at least the one that i pulled off the web doesn't say that we're allowed to be here so that might part you know might have a little bit to do with the lack of participation i think we're still getting public comments via emails we're doing both but i think we put the address on but we can make a little note on there that public is welcome because they they certainly are yeah that probably in the past it was that the public obviously was welcome and was included and we never just there was no specific language because there was no alternative so yeah i i don't know when you guys opened up but i would have loved the opportunity to come and speak with you and also meet the principal for oakville last week i didn't even realize that they're here i realized now it's the nice principal so that's not a big deal but i just would have appreciated the opportunity to be here um in front of you um i'm here today um to speak about masks um our children in masks is my i i don't want to say complaint but it is my issue i did call oak hill today to try to find out if the policy was changing or what was going to occur with that in the future and i was was not able to get a hold of anyone um i did attend the board of supervisors meeting um yesterday and i received some information from the california department of health i'd like to share with you um i have a printout here of the cases the debts and the rates showing that our children do not belong in mass the orange county um school board did uh make the decision this week to unmask their children and i would love to employ you all to do the same for our children um they are suffering in these masks because you know we're in heat heatwave this week and um it's very discomforting for those kids to be in these masks washington post also released a set of the set of criteria that the orange county board used to open that that up for people to have that option um three of those things that i found were good to present to you were that k through 12 present the lowest risk of infection and dead social distancing and reduced class sizes were not necessary these were the board's findings um the second thing i thought was important where mask requirements make it difficult if not impossible to implement in the schools and they are not based on science they're harmful and not recommended for children in k through 12.
and as glenn described door number one two and three which connects between the michigan theater uh you can just go back to that plan that's fine thanks thanks debra i appreciate it um those those openings are across property lines as scott described opening number one is an existing opening between the michigan theater and the screening room that is currently across a property line we are proposing to add a three-hour fire shutter and a three-hour wall along the that um that northern side of the property line um with that deluge water curtain sprinkler in between the door and the fire shutter door number two which is kind of um in the top we'll call it the top left corner of the light blue shaded area that gets you into the restroom lobby area has two fire shutters the northern property on 616 would be a 90 minute rated fire shutter and that two-hour wall and then the southern one would be a three-hour fire rated shutter shutter in that three-hour wall and then that would also have that fire sprinkler curtain deluge system between those two doors as well and then door number three is between the restrooms and the michigan theater on the um western property lines that would have a 90-minute door in the two-hour existing michigan theater wall and then it would have a three-hour fire shutter in the 2-1-2 building with that deluge sprinkler system head in between those two that head allows us to um have kind of a redundant system in case one of the fire shutters didn't work or something happened you now have that third level of protection at that opening so we feel that that's an extra level of protection at those openings since openings are not allowed on within three feet of the property line so those three door openings are similar where we're trying to keep the fire rating of the wall with a door in each wall and then the southern one which is door number four is the egress for the restrooms so the restrooms in the lobby to the residential building this five-story 212 building that we have here there is no connection between the residential portion and these restrooms for the michigan theater that this first floor restaurant is solely for the michigan theater so we are not crossing back into any buildings going north or west but we are going to need to um exit the restrooms if for some reason the fire alarm was to go off while somebody was in those restrooms so we are taking that door to the south and swinging across the property line which that property is owned by the michigan theater and would be a no-build easement and they also have a private alley egress easement as well for their three doors that come out on the eastern facade there but we and and one of the things what i wanted to point out as well is that um these three proposed openings do not involve any of the egress paths for any of the properties so if if these doors and fire shutters were all the deploy all the other adjacent spaces have adequate egress paths that don't involve needing to go through those openings right that's correct um that's everything that i had to describe those openings and the um [Music] and the appeal that we're we're here to present today let me know if you have any questions okay thank you is there anybody else on your team scott did you have any other comment or are you no laura did a great job okay great thank you so now open it up to members from the board to see if they have any questions for the applicant i have a couple of questions um if i understand this correctly i see door number four actually exits from the building to an exterior condition and two and three basically are interior to the structure um when i think about this i realize the ownership there's there's different ownership for the properties but i guess my question is from a uh code standpoint if these let's say this entire building was all under single ownership there were no property lines there are the means of protection that you're providing over and above what would be considered for normal fire separation between these spaces yes if there was no if there were no property lines there would be a one-hour occupancy separation and that would be it so i guess my question is from a practical standpoint even though there's separate ownership this is all one building why does this three foot property line rule come into play i can see where if it were door number four um which goes to the exterior where there might be some issue there but i personally don't see an issue when you're all in in effect all within the same building let me add just a nuance uh jeff i don't know that i can answer that question but i can add a little bit of nuance to the the the picture that may or may not help you um we have uh three uh tax parcels like tax ids you know one is the michigan theater 603 the other is the 212 south state and then the third one is the 616th east washington and even though those will be three separate tax ids both 616 and 212 212 will be a condominium form of ownership so the michigan theater will own the condo unit that represents those bathrooms that sit on two and two and they will also own the condominium unit on 616 that represents the screening room so there's a there's a subtlety there that is uh maybe it's just legalese um but the there will be property lines there because there will be separate tax id numbers but michigan theater will have ownership of the screening room and they will have ownership of that bathroom component of two and two so it is probably an animal that isn't completely anticipated by the code but shares aspects with both sides of the code you know the side that says well it's all under one ownership why do you need it but also it has a foot in the side of the code it says they cross property lines so um i think that we're just taking this approach out of an abundance of caution i i appreciate that and i understand it and respect it i just feel from a practical standpoint forcing uh building owners to spend this kind of money to solve a problem that wouldn't be there when it's all under one roof i think is unfortunate and i appreciate that the building owners and architects have come up with solutions that address an aspect of the code that i don't think the code was ever able to anticipate so i just i guess that's the clarification i needed if if if these were all under the same ownership on the same parcel of property what you're doing here would be totally unnecessary i just want that to be on the table right yeah hold that thought for the next item on the agenda after this one so i think another another another piece of this too is these are three buildings because they have different heights and area requirements so that may drive some fire separations between them too i think one's five stories i'm not sure what the 616 is that's multiple stories where michigan theater is a different construction type in much you know a smaller area but uh yeah so the so the first level of the 212 building is going to be type 1a it's going to be a podium style with a three hour horizontal separation at the ceiling so at level two and then the 616 building is also a type 1a building and it'll be 19 stories so type of construction unlimited area between those two is um is the same but the existing um michigan theater screening room is a type 3b so that one does have area limitations it's well under its area limitation as as it stands today and then um the michigan theater is um we'll call it from the previous code before we were in the types one through five all buildings are all buildings are fully sprinkled uh your fire shutter doors are gonna be all tied to the michigan theater's fire alarm system um our plan is to tie them to both so regardless of which building has a fire alarm trigger or activate we will um we will close both doors so if i'm in the bathroom and the alarm goes off and the fire shutter door shuts uh am i gonna panic because i think i can't get out um that will be egress sign but yes you will you will not be able to go back into the building you'll have to go out that exit door on the south okay so that'll shut regardless at some point of whether the theater alarm goes off or the other building's alarm goes off right yeah okay correct i'm just concerned or the thought i had was just people not knowing what to do once the fire the door shuts because uh and they feel they're trapped or something well one communication system that's going to be put in there that would instruct people how to get out if they're on the bathroom side when that shutter comes down or sign besides signage or um yeah there's the there's the ability to have the communication system tell you which direction to go but yes they'll they'll be the required signage as well that says not an exit above those bathroom doors and i believe the computer needs to be paging system and then the other with fire shutter doors is obviously if somebody sticks something there and the door can't shut all the way i'm making sure that there's clearance for the shutter door to shut i've always struggled with that in my previous life well and that's part of the reason we have a belt and suspenders approach in that the water curtain would activate if there actually was a fire um and and so even if there was some deployment issue with with either of the fire shutters we know we've got the ability to prevent the communication of that smoking flame is door number three between the lobby and the restroom area is that a door that's gonna hold open or is that gonna be a closer on that door what's the position of that doors in most in most cases because you have the 90 minutes or one side and the shutter on the other side right it builds that assembly my understanding is that and laura you could correct me and scott my understanding is they would have uh magnetic hold opens that would be also uh you know integrated with the alarm yes that's my understanding as well okay that is correct and the deluge system would be activated based on heat to trigger the sprinkler to go off yeah yes so basically if the fire alarm gets to the point where if the fire gets to a point where the sprinklers go off in any building then that daily system will also activate i think in the next appeals a similar kind of question is are the bathrooms in a different building than the then the use and how do we address that can you have bathrooms in an adjacent building plumbing cost wise i guess they're under the same ownership but they're technically different buildings and maybe that was the case even when it was in the screening room it is most of this is very similar to what we have right now at the michigan theater except of course we get a fully modern fully ada compliant uh bathroom facilities with more fixtures which i don't know how often you go to the michigan theater but my wife would greatly appreciate more fixtures i did the count and i see there's a lot more facilities for the women than there are for the men so my wife would agree with you as well i guess that's what happens when your architect is a woman right thank you laura so are the are the rated doors that are going into the michigan theater lobby are they are they on magnetic hold opens yes they are okay that's both sets that the pair doors into the screening room and the the one that goes into the bathrooms both sets okay and if the sprinkler system gets triggered in either building will that also activate the shutters coming down yes is that true for six one six so they each want to be tied to the adjacent building it won't be all three together it'll be basically to the adjacent building let's share the wall so you want you will be tied to that shutter i would think the alarm sets off the shutter not the fact that there's a fire near the shuttle the alarm would the alarm would set the activate the shutter and the fire would activate the deluge system yeah and i don't know from a practical standpoint are we not imposing well i shouldn't say we're imposing because frankly i'm going to go out a limb on a limb and tell you that if this proposal came back to us treating these openings as though they were all in the same building without the shutters and deluge system i would support it and glenn will probably kick me off the board for putting that out there but i just from a practical standpoint i think we're making this situation less safe if i'm in that bathroom and the door that i came through uh gets shuttered and barred and another door within 10 feet of it is shuttered and barred and i don't know that door number four is there i'm gonna feel trapped so i think if anything we've made this building less safe from a user standpoint panic is i can just see it as a real issue i am not opposed to what you're doing here i'm just sorry that you're having to do it one suggestion we could do is follow the new firewall rules where you can actually put one opening within two walls of a firewall so in the 2015 code um there is now the ability i think it's nfpa 221 allows you to do one door and a double firewall so what we could do is put three man doors at these locations that would close at the point of a fire alarm keep the daily system so you still have that redundant system but lose the fire shutters so that you still have that three hour rating and you still have the fire daily system but um you're no longer preventing egress from happening if somebody were to get into a point and if you open the door you might see a fire i guess you'd close it and run the other way um laura you said 2015 code did you mean no it's the 2015 um ibc that that allows the um nfpa 2 i think it's 221 that does the double um double firewall with a single um rated opening so you don't have to do two doors in a firewall glenn do we know if if that uh telegraphs into the 2015 nbc i don't think that exceptions in there was probably written out but uh [Music] take a look here one section are you talking about uh what section was it nfpa 221 i think she said no i don't have that accessibility without a little bit of time of getting online then yeah i mean we could we could say that something in a you know more recent version of the code is we could apply that as a as a you know justification that would be allowed in a more current code so that's good to know if i might add um the michigan building code may not direct you to that nfpa or the mechanical code may not direct you to the nfpa so it may direct you to the ifc which may be different that's something that wasn't looked at i don't know if you anticipate a lot of false alarms in this building too being a residential there too is that having that shutter come down with a lot of false alarms it'd be troubling i mean if it was a real event uh um but you wouldn't want anything dropping once a week once every every two weeks well once that shutter goes down usually it takes somebody of a little expertise like maintenance to be able to get the thing to go back up i mean if your second means regress right it was out of the same space you could see the other door like we went through the north wall there i think that would be an option people would see the accident but the fact that they would have to travel back through the restroom to get to the other doors is a you know difficulty that's my problem is um the net your natural instinct when the alarm goes off is to go back out the way you came in and um if it's during intermission and those bathrooms are full i i it scares me yeah it's not a clear eager path through there man it could be tight there's probably might yeah if i might add uh and i can't i don't see where i can raise my hand i'm sorry for that um keep in mind that while the instinct is noted in the code that you do travel back through the same way you came if you are unable to it should be well lit up with signage and exiting you know exiting signage to get you out and i don't think the distances are that far i'd refer that back to either scott or brad or you know whatever to to give us a dimension but i i think it should be pretty visible that there is another round out so we would have we would have exit signs over both of the bathroom doors the men's and women's door would have exit signs and we'd have exit signs at the south part of those rooms as well that would be illuminated um so that'd be an emergency accident people don't use those on a common basis and they get back to the lobby that way then i i don't think the i'm sorry but i don't think the exit uh was going back into the lobby that's two others if you put exercise there people might think that maybe that's another way they can get from the restroom back to the lobby and it's really an emergency exit only it sounds like you wouldn't be exiting that way maybe you could actually do that after a show you could actually that way too or you want to prevent people from acting that way on a normal basis it's going to be an emergency exit yeah so that that door going out to the uh to the alley would have an alarm a localized alarm on it well to jeff's point though imposing the shutters um makes you go through a much more convoluted egress path for the uh the screening room i mean that is a that that's a that corridor just winds around forever through multiple doors to get out um so i could i could easily i could also support not putting the shutters in which begs the question what would be the rating for the doors if you had just doors they'd be 90 minutes we could do 90 minute or 180 and 80 minute doors either way right now the doors that are shown are in 90 minute doors because they're in the existing michigan theater walls which are two-hour rated exterior wall so with all this conversation i'd like to jump in one more time here keep in mind that this is not a preference but how you feel if it's equivalent or better and that's what they're that's what they're seeking the variance on for the exception well personally i think an equivalent thing would be to provide doors that meet the uh fire code re separation requirements based on the different building types and occupant load for the spaces that that to me would be an equivalent solution to the problem deluge systems and fire shutters and all of that stuff to me is overkill and it's it's an expense on the building owner that hopefully they're never needed but uh when they are needed they might actually be a less safe situation so well the problem with fire doors though is that with a panic bar it's typically a one-way movement so if that door shuts because the alarm goes off you're in the bathroom you still come can't go back through that door like it was a shutter because they'd be pushing everybody the other way you don't want people running back into the fire i just want i just want to clarify something uh with laura um it's it's my understanding that there are potentially three different scenarios that would activate the shutters laura one is if we if there was a fire in the theater as i understand that would close the door to the screening room and its attendance shutter and also the door to the bathroom in its attendance shutter but wouldn't that wouldn't the opening between 616 and 212 remain open in that scenario since there's no fire in 616 yes so i think we're in a scenario that the only time when you would have both of those doors uh that that are doors you would have come through potentially to get to the bathroom the only time that both of those would deploy simultaneously would be if the fire was actually in the bathrooms or in the building above right it could be in the building above as well so in the apartment unit could could be that horizontal assembly a different building or is that just a separation between uses that three hour horizontal that's a building separation or is that a it's a building type construction separation um so it'll be a type 5a building above the type 1a building but because we're exiting through this level that it's part of the same building [Music] for fire alarm system if i heard that correctly then if the fire is in the bathroom uh and that's the only time that those uh egress points aren't going to be valid that's when the shutters drop so if i'm in the bathroom and the fire breaks out i can't get out what if what if the fire is down by door number four then what do i do well based on the occupancy you're only required one means of egress if there's less than 50 occupants and we have a total of 47 but i do i do realize your um your normal thought through a michigan theater bathroom break during a show and you might really have 50 people or so packed in there so you're waiting as well as people using it mm-hmm right but if a fire breaks out by door number four and that's and the shutters drop that door number four is now my only way out of the bathroom and it's the fire is there i can't go that way i'd love for this to be cut and dried for the petitioner but i'm not going to oppose what you're doing here i just don't think it is equivalent to or creates a safer condition maybe actually you could suggest maybe if laura can submit that additional information about the nfpa 221 and you can look at putting a single door that swung the right direction in back into the live like they're showing it there now the people could still egress that so even you don't have a shirt that closes people could still exit through that back in the lobby with a single door that was you know 180 minutes that may i mean still have the second means of egos out of that out of that space but it's not the primary way out would that be for only for that door or would you be looking at that as doors towards the screen i mean i guess you could look at it it would replied anytime they have a whatever there's a firewall or a extra wall an opening in it you could have a good look at that applying toward that if it was applicable to what we're doing here but that would give us a equivalency potentially what does not having this resolve today do for you as far as your critical path for construction and so forth uh i mean could you take a second look at this and bring something back to us that um i mean if you want to go ahead with this like i said i i'm not going to oppose it but i i would be certainly willing to entertain some safer alternatives jeff what i think it is is that we knew that we could put the openings whether it's this way or the the proposed alternate we could continue on moving forward while we come back with that improvement for these doors so this does so if you come back to us this that would not hold up the rest of your timeline for your project uh as long as we can keep it moving pretty quickly i i can't speak for terry um but i would assume that if we knew the openings are there we wouldn't uh cause a redesign for the whole structure to figure out how to make this work i don't have a problem with the location of the openings i don't know how the rest of the board feels the locations to me are fine they make sense i just don't like the treatment of of having to shutter off exit points and so forth so yeah this is terry with esg architects um would we be talking about roughly a month in in time if we came back with a better solution that's typically [Music] so i i guess jeff i'm trying to uh wrap my head around what what the thought is are you thinking we would are you thinking that the bba would table it today and then we would submit supplemental and information and potentially revised approach and be on the next month's agenda yeah i don't know what the i don't know what the deadlines are deborah can speak to that but i'd like to see you get rid of the shutters um well so why can't we why don't we float a motion in that regard yeah could it be approved with conditions today i can make a motion and see if it flies that's your specialty bob thank you bob so i i do have one small thing that about the bathroom egret even though the the um occupancy doesn't require the door to swing in the direction of travel but it does i just wonder whether those two other doors that are leading into that little vestibule could also be reconfigured so that everything flows in the same direction that would be 27 and 19.
um i've experienced unlike miss stewart i have experienced racism especially because i grew up in miami and i had a tendency to get very dark that people would call me racially charged names not only of the latino variety but also of the black variety i have been sexually uh assaulted and i have been sexually discriminated unfortunately most of my sexual discrimination have has come from females okay and the vast majority of the racial tensions that i've experienced in my life have very rarely come from white people i have experienced it from white people but very rarely it's usually people of other races okay i went to high school here at mojave high school i absolutely loved my experience even though the fact that my parents forgive me dad for spilling a little tea here my parents were drug addicts my mom was more aggressive of a drug addict and i was homeless throughout high school and i lived in a hotel or other people's houses during my entire high school experience a lot of people do not know that about me because i kept it pretty close to the chest and usually when someone found out they were no longer my friend so i didn't talk about it okay um what is crt crt was developed in the 1970s for those who don't know what critical race theory actually is and it was developed because they uh saw that the civil rights movement was stalling in regards to the benefits that were coming from that and so a bunch of scholars and uh lawyers and people came together and created critical race theory at its base when it was first created it was created to figure out why the civil rights movement wasn't progressing as far as it was okay but it later changed and for the record i have attended a professional development on critical race theory i have read the writings by delgado who was one of the original founders of critical race theory so i actually am very familiar what critical race theory is and what it stands for okay um so over time though it became to become something else as people began to build upon what critical race theory is the five tenets of critical race theory according to the founders of critical race theory is the notion that racism is ordinary and not aberrational okay and the outlier of that is that people are by nature racist okay so you're taking something that is different if you take a baby i think everybody knows babies respond more positively to people that look like them okay we are comfortable by nature our biology you want to talk about evolution or anything like that we are more comfortable with people that look like us because nature evolution the history of our people have shown us that often people who look different to us are going to cause violence to us and we are afraid of them okay but through time we have gone to learn right that that's not that's not happening in children in general as they grow up right and as they get older they see people as people they don't see them as this violence or whatever this changes as we get older okay and we begin to experience things so for example if you've ever been to miami there is a strong line drawn between the cuban population and the black population okay even though there are afro cubans the afro-cubans have a tendency to lean into the cuban population okay there's a strong line why is that strong line there it's because there is violence perpetuated often on both sides against each other so when i grew up black people were often the enemy even though i have afro-cuban roots but the other side the people in miami were often the enemy not because they were black but because they often hurt us my grandmother was murdered by a black man so that's how i was raised to see that and it wasn't until later that i began to realize that that was the community that i was growing up in but that wasn't the norm does that make sense it was the community it was not the norm okay but i was afraid as a child a lot of times for people of color because that is what i saw all the time it was not kindness it was not love and it wasn't until we left miami that i began to see a different side to people i grew i lived two years in cherokee north carolina where i was practically adopted into the cherokee nation by the people there okay they were loving they were kind and they showed me a whole different side to different races and different people right they completely opened my eyes to who people are and one of the things that i learned from them is that we are not inherently bad we are not we are taught that okay we are taught to be bad we are not inherently bad all people white black whatever color you want to be what other color you are you're not inherently bad or racist you do not want to attack other people you want to love you want empathy you want all that stuff that is something that is developed and grown into us through time based upon our life and our experiences a child who is attacked by a dog will grow up afraid of dogs are dogs bad no that is her experience or that child's experience people women who are attacked by men will often go years and years and years being afraid of men are all men bad no it is life experiences that changes how we interact with the world around us but we are not inherently racist the idea of interest convergence is the second tenet of crt and it has to do with people coming together who have like interests the social construction of race that race is beyond just the color of your sin that is skin that is a social construction that can actually be broken or brought together the idea of storytelling and counter storytelling similar to what i've just done to you now that people's stories have power they get into people's hearts and into their empathy and because of that you can convince people whatever you want to convince them with a good story and then if a person has a counter story they can actually war against the thought that you thought was correct because they now have a counter story the what ifs that i'm going to change that this is different blah blah blah right and the finally the thing that has kind of been at the core of a lot of this is the notion that whites have actually been the recipients of civil rights legislation okay so one of the core tenants of the civil rights era of the civil rights movement and of crt in response to that was a lot of the rumors that lyndon b johnson was a racist and in fact he was he was quite the racist right if you read about the reports and stuff like that he was quite the racist okay there are two notions to the thought of president johnson's racism the first is that uh one he was a racist but two a lot of his quotes in regards to how the civil rights uh legislation came to pass and the black person's right to vote came to pass was that he did it to get their vote okay and then of course you have the opposite side where he was just playing the long game in order to get people to support that legislation so in the crt belief is everything that was done was done to help white people it wasn't actually done to help black people there is evidence of this let's be honest we can look at the red line districts that would have been uh were marked off because they were low-income districts and stuff like that which were mostly black communities that were uh were not able to get bank loans because uh they were such a low income or a high crime area so there are instances in our history where we can see evidence where crt was actually kind of correct okay and so this is not a denial of what is the good parts of the critical race theory because there are parts that are accurate but the biggest thing the thing that i have actually a long list trust me i've you know and there's no way that i'm going to get through all of this in 10 minutes but the biggest the biggest thing you know yeah i'm going down i'm probably already at the time limit but i'm gonna i'm gonna keep this pretty quick here in the last part here the biggest thing is what is considered white privilege and institutional racism okay um white privilege is the belief that you are privileged because of the color of your skin that you're not going to be followed in the grocery store um when you look a little sneaky because you're white versus the person who is a latin or a black person person of color of some sort um and also it's the belief and it's kind of interesting the way it was actually worded by a couple of the writers of critical race theory was it's like as property whereby whiteness is the ultimate property that whites alone can possess valuable valuables just like property or they're valuable just like a property and then everybody else is renters right and we all know the difference between renting and owning a house right and so white people by the nature of their skin are the owners and everybody else is the renters okay so the american dream is more likely and more attainable for the whites i'm not white and i have gone and done exactly what i said i was going to do in my life so far of course it's not over hopefully right i got time and then of course you have institutional racism that racism is actually institutionalized it's in all of the places we work and everything like that okay there is evidence of this but not to the degree that they look at now my biggest thing is the fact that i am married to a white man and my children are white okay they look white right my daughter has blonde hair and blue eyes and white skin right but and yet she's half hispanic right but people are gonna see her for the whiteness of her skin and nothing else right and then she's going to be told that because of her skin and this is a proponent of it that she has a privilege and i'm going to tell you right now as a latina woman as a hispanic woman that there is nothing more offensive to me than telling me that the only way i can reach a bar is if you lowered it for me [Applause] i worked hard to get to where i'm at my husband's disabled he was bedridden for two years and i finished my math degree while i was taking care of my three kids working and did that there is no bar that you can give me that i can't reach and it has nothing to do with the color of my skin and any anything that says otherwise is offense to me and to a lot of people of color there are people of color who do of course believe in the critical race theory that's no denying that but i am a part of a large group of people of color that do not we do not want you to tell us that we cannot reach where you can go because of the color of our skin there is nothing more racist than that [Applause] okay that's the last one we can take for a workshop we have to get into our regular meeting uh so with that i need a motion to adjourn our workshop i'll make a motion and we adjourn the workshop second all in favor aye corey burgess aye jeanne borland aye charlene diaz saw moved being that we are just past six now we are going to move directly into our regular meeting so at this time i would like to call to order uh the regular meeting of the bullhead city elementary school board on wednesday june 16th 2021 at 6 00 p.m um roll call corey burgess here jeanne borland here charlene d is here citizens present if you'd please sign the sheet in the back uh and if you guys would join me for a pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united one states under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you item 2.6 oh i'm sorry 2.5 call to the public we have a few that were mailed in that i would read do we have any others that were not addressed earlier that would like to now do you have a did you fill out a form that's right let me read the ones that i have first and then we'll come to to you in just a minute while we're waiting if you could put a form so we have it in our record i had three mixed up all my papers i only see two now oh i rub on it okay all right i do have uh three calls of the public that were sent to us by mail i'm gonna read those to you so you can hear those this time our first one is from our representative leo biazucci okay i was worried i was gonna get that right uh dear bullhead city school board parents and members of the community on may 21st i received a letter from bullhead city of bullhead city school district letterhead from superintendent stewart i'm always grateful to hear from members of our community especially when it involves certain legislation that we are running on a state level in this letter superintendent stewart expressed her concern for senate bill sb-1532 a bill that would have banned critical race theory being taught in arizona's public schools this letter concerned me because i didn't think i had to worry about critical race theory being implemented or supported in my district and i was under the impression that the entire school board was supportive of this letter with school board members being an elected position i want to know if this letter came from the entire board or just superintendent stewart it is important that the parents understand where the school board and superintendent stand regarding to what is being taught in our schools if the bullhead city school board implements critical race theory the parents deserve to know more importantly the superintendent or school board intend to implement this type of curriculum the parents need to be informed i want to make some i want to make something crystal clear to everybody here today critical race theory has no place in our public schools period it is it is identity-based marxism and does not belong anywhere near our children i support banning critical race theory in our schools and i will do everything in my power to make sure we pass legislation that does just that i want to give all of you some examples of what happens with this propagand when this propaganda enters our school one superintendent of california and elementary school force first graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities and rank themselves according to power and privilege in springfield missouri a middle school forced teachers to locate themselves on an impression matrix based on the idea that straight white english-speaking christian males are members of the oppressor class and must atone for that privilege and convert and convert rights and cover white supremacy in philadelphia an elementary school forced fifth graders to celebrate black communism and simulate black power rallies to free 1960s radical angela davis from prison where she had once been held on charges of murder in seattle the school district told white teachers that they are guilty of spirit murder against black children and must bankrupt their privilege in acknowledgment of their thieved inheritance this is what you want to be you want to be taught to your children this type of racism decisive divisive hateful garbage does not belong anywhere near our children especially in our public schools if you want to teach this ideology at home so be it but if our schools are going to try to indoctrinate our children with marxist propaganda i will fight back against the happenings for as long as i am your state representative thank you and god bless leo biasuchi arizona house major whip arizona representative district five uh the next one is from cindy crawford um in response to your letter urging politicians to vote no on sb1532 i strongly oppose your position yours is yet another attended college and became woke up to this matter of racism male privilege and white supremacy crt is a political ideology and social justice movement rooted in marxism and straight out of the communist manifesto political movements and ideology opposed on young students is a form of abuse crt starts out standing innocent sounding innocent but teaches young children they are bad oppressors or oppressed based on nothing more than the color of their skin which is racist in itself it teaches cap it teaches capitalism individualism etc are all bad anti-american ideologies often educators use the excuse banning crt will inhibit teaching history this is nothing more than an inaccurate excuse working in the school system myself for 26 years i know this there are there is nothing you can say to debate me or change my mind i have seen much firsthand don't go down this path please stick to the teaching of the subjects objectively honestly and without trying to influence or impose personal political positions or ideologies this is not the function of education the crt is dangerous mentally unhealthy not needed to teach good citizenship or history every taxpayer citiz every tax paying citizen has a vested interest in our children they are our future say no to crt in any form this is not the answer sincerely cindy crawford bullhead city resident mother and grandmother [Applause] this one does not have a name hello board members thank you for taking the time to read and listen to my opinion i'm a teacher in the school district currently teaching the middle school level i'm writing to ask the board to consider revising the staff dress code for the upcoming school year specifically as it pertains to visible tattoos i understand that this dress code was last revised 11 years ago and since then many schools in our community have adopted a less restrictive dress code i personally feel that the requirement for staff to cover any visible tattoos should be removed with the exception of vulgar or profane words or images i do have three tattoos all flowers which i got when i was 21 years old and did not become a certified teacher until i was 40.
sounds good here we go we're closing out strong right closing out strong our final act is isidore and solomon singing i'm still standing by elton john john and it's not just singing but i'll leave it as a surprise this one you should get up and dance get up here we go [Music] you can never know [Music] win well look at me i'm coming back again in a simple way and if you need to know us then just fade away don't you know i'm still standing better looking like a true survivor feeling like a little kid and i'm still standing after all this time picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind i'm still standing yeah yeah yeah i'm still standing yeah yeah yeah [Music] you'd be a clown by now [Music] and i'm still standing [Music] yeah yeah yeah [Music] looking like a true survivor feeling like a little kid and i'm still standing after all this time picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind i'm still standing [Music] yeah yeah yeah i'm still standing yeah yeah yeah i'm still standing yeah yeah yeah i'm still standing yeah yeah [Music] oh man whoa yep yep the cuteness factor of this talent show is off the charts sure it's amazing so many cute kids yeah can't wait brac two says kate oh my gosh yes i think it's time for me to tell text elton john to make sure he watches that absolutely amazing absolutely and don't go away friends act two is starting with a comedy skit and then there's so much more excitement coming your way we do want people to use the restroom take a break get up stretch about six minutes all right see you then all right we are back we are back for act two fabulous act two act one was amazing miss allison you're muted and then act two is also going to be amazing you didn't miss much hey before we can begin begin act two katherine and alison can we do a shout out to our audience i mean the audience the encouraging cheering words i can feel it through your comments i can feel it through the air that i know you're cheering people on and people are feeling good and when you come back to school on monday i know that will continue up to people and say hey i saw you at the talent show you were awesome yeah yeah and keep it up keep it up we've got 23 more incredible incredible acts so keep the comments positive comments yeah time's gonna fly by so let's go we're starting out with comedy we all love to laugh right yes indeed we are starting out with esme and juliana who have been very supportive in the chat i have noticed so that's wonderful esme and giuliana are in grade two and kindergarten and they wrote this comedy skit themselves and it's amazing sisters again like the sibling thing is awesome okay so here we go my bunny my bunny my magical bunny that makes the crops grow it's been stolen what will i do i know i'll call the warrior princesses warrior princesses [Music] it must be a bell from the village i bet they need our help we better turn into warrior princesses let's go [Music] come on wally let's go go get the bad guys [Music] oh [Applause] it's the bunny snowflake let's rescue him [Music] ah it's me angry underpants what are you doing here i stole the bunny so that i could have the most beautiful garden and no one else could fine we'll challenge you to a fight it's on oh what should we use to fight the angry underwear uh how about uh no boring totally not worth it you gotta be kidding me what else um [Music] yes uh [Applause] [Music] and he's armed not gonna win this battle oh yes we will let's see if we can start that start i should never have stolen the bunny you and again warrior princesses annie is safe again the end oh my goodness wow oh it's so good my stomach hurts from laughing the trees it's the hat the props i and did you notice on the credits they said that the grandparents inspired them i i want to find out how they did start i think it's a starch oh man what a way to start act two yes and we are continuing strong we're going to carlos in grade four who's going to be singing watermelon sugar by harry styles and they are also playing the ukulele carlos is another very multi-talented musician um and they're gonna blow us away with their singing and playing so here we go [Music] sugar [Music] sugar [Music] tastes like strawberry [Music] i don't know if i could ever i just wanna taste it [Music] so good carlos whoa so good and playing the ukulele while you're singing like that knowing all the words that's not easy they got skills amazing job i love that song too fabulous carlos yeah all right next up we've got more rollerblading i think rollerblading must have been another quarantine uh talent that people people you know as a way to get outside yeah we've got jonah and susie grades three and five showing us their skills whoa okay very impressive here we go hello my name is jonah and this is susie today we are going to be teaching you how to rollerblade and we are going to be practicing ourselves so we're going to do normal braiding fast celebrating and weaving in and out you want to start let us and that was it for our normal rollerblader onto bathrooms ready are you ready let's go go and that was it signing out jonah spitzer and susie arthur roosevelt bye bye so impressive i didn't know rollerblading was so popular yeah yeah i'm impressed that they can stop that's the thing like i think i could do the the going straight maybe even going fast but stopping very cool nice job jonah and susie yeah so next up we have a special song really that was written in a collaboration with aspen and will and then katie also did the editing so it was really a team effort and you know when i was thinking about their efforts um i was just thinking about how special our wildwood culture is you know and the talent show shows that that we're a school where people can be who they are and i remember back i feel like i'm learning a lot from our students i remember back miss allison um i think it was five years ago we had some third graders who later became your students and they said nick we have to do an assembly and i said on what they said on being who you are and they acted out these skits and they focused on gender and they focused on gender identity and expression to open up the box for everybody a wildwood to say you know your identity is what you feel on the inside it could be boy girl both or neither you that's up to you you get to decide that and we're going to respect that and your expression can be like whatever you wanted it to be there's no such thing as a boy way of expressing yourself for a girl or you know you can wear the clothes and love things so that's what this talent show is all about yeah and this next song was written in collaboration will and aspen it was aspen's idea and then will and aspen both went for it and worked really really really hard to make this video unfortunately aspen wasn't feeling well when it was time to make the video yeah well will's the only one singing in it but he sounds amazing and he wanted to know wanted to let aspen know that his support was really really really important and we'll see aspen later in another clip and katie with the fit with the editing she was she was right there with them yeah all right let's hear it hi i'm will and me and my friend aspen made a song about lgbtqiap plus and katie is going to help us edit she's behind the camera and miss wells helped us do this too also um the amazing catherine and also this was amazing too hi it's me will and here is our song three two one walking around and seeing i'll see feeling like no one knows me going in circles around my house i feel like i'm not hurt so i speak up feeling the power inside me then i speak the truth and say is how you say yo i'm transgender you mind fighting for lgbtq plus and i will rise up if i will rise up sitting in a chair in my house feeling like i don't belong protests all over the world should i help or should i share in the shell i'm in oh so i decide to speak up feeling the power inside me then i speak the truth and say is that you say you i'm transgender you i'm fighting for lgbtq plus and i will rise up yes i will rise up wow [Music] i chose to speak up i felt the power inside me and i spoke the truth and said yes i said you i weren't transgender you i'm fighting for lgbtq plus and i did rise up yes i did rise up [Music] nice job aspen will and katie ask ben katie what a team fabulous what great words rise enough feeling the power inside us inside you great message for us all yeah okay i love the switch from i will rise up i will rise up too i did rise up did you notice that at the end oh i didn't thank you yeah amazing we have amazing students at our school we do okay what do we have next katherine next up we have taurange who is in kindergarten and is an amazing rock climber so you've got a video yeah we've got a video we're doing an entire rock climbing course it's incredible so here we go terrance [Music] do [Music] hey [Laughter] [Applause] oh my gosh some of it was sped up she didn't actually okay in real life isn't that amazing tarange you got skills girl yeah and guts to be up that high julianna your classmate and k2 says you made it to the top to raj oh yeah pretty awesome well we're continuing with this with the athletic ability in our next we've got more siblings the kane brothers harrison and jasper kindergarten and third grade while the other way third grade and kindergarten yeah their roller hockey tricks ruler hockey though yeah here we go hockey fabulous i'm harrison i'm jasper and we're the key breakers [Music] coming from [Music] that's so impressive i i think certainly during pandemic people learned about editing you know working on and adding music to their films our other ice skater from earlier i think there should be some type of coordination here i think yeah yeah we've got a few ice skaters coming in here rollerbladers that's cool yeah mr b you gotta watch this we're gonna let mr b know there's a lot of athletics in this yes yeah absolutely next up we have an art gallery janiece in grade four is going to show us some of the art that she has made she has been doing so much work with ms cara but also on her own and she's going to show us some of her favorite pieces fabulous here we go denise hi so this is going to be a short video and it's just gonna be the ones i'm gonna show the sunset this one this one was by hand not tracing really this one was by hand let me give you a few more seconds to look at it okay next i have this this character's name this character is from sanjay and craig a tv show and this one's craig i like how i drew him this is it okay this is andre and craig from the tv show this one's sanjay and this one's craig they are best buds best friends hope you liked the video bye hey nice job denise fabulous and great narration of showing the art this this online format allows so many different talents to be shown yeah and she's such an amazing artist in so many different ways painting and drawing and also creating little sculptures out of paper pretty amazing keep it up denise follow your passions and the arts next up more artists yes we do yes we do um next up i don't even think we'll have time to remove ourselves from the screen this is our shortest act i'm getting out of here it comes from uri in grade five doing a basketball trick shot okay i'll remove myself and then i'll play it oh man you did it you did it at the umass games if you do something like that you get a prize i think yeah yeah i don't know how many takes it took and we only got to see that one but that's the one that came out i don't know how he could do that fabulously yeah okay so much different kinds of talent what's next next up we have yuri ella in grade one um playing the piano for us this also is an original song so she made this up um muriella is quite the piano player here we go yuri ella hi everyone my name is yariela and for my talent i will be playing the piano i made a tune by myself [Music] wow beautiful boy i think there are elements of john coltrane in there and other jazz greats we did a lot of work with with jazz um okay in first grade yeah we did a lot of improvisation vocally and with the piano and uriella always had amazing ideas of other improvisation things we could do with the whole class very very very creative loving this catherine really i'm loving how people are have that liberty feeling that freedom here at wildwood to express themselves to create their own tunes in their own way dances yeah why and next up we have um another talent from someone in the same class as uriella our remote first grade class this is levi he's going to be singing believer by imagine dragons levi is a singer he's a super celtics fan like i am and he is a v excuse me very very very positive and happy person so enjoy levi hi everyone i i'm leave my channel and i will be presenting um believer by the imagine dragons forced to dance first i'ma say all the wars inside my [Music] don't you tell me what [Music] there are things [Music] you're the face of the future the blood and my veins thank you for watching yay levi oh that was so wonderful that was so cool i keep removing and adding there we go i'm hearing about that awesome wasn't that awesome i love the rhythm at the beginning yeah he was using body percussion yeah yeah he inspired me to play on my desk here yeah and those are a lot of words that's a lot of words to remember yeah first grade first first grade yeah what these first graders are blowing my mind nick they're so big and just think we're gonna have them for six weeks five more years yeah five more years fabulous well next we are going down to kindergarten we're gonna see more rollerblading it is it's a theme it's a theme of this talent show um from mallory in kindergarten yeah so here we go mallory [Music] my tricks [Music] so [Music] oh that's amazing wow they have roller skating rinks around here that was so cool it's really it's inspiring me to get some some roller skates and and try this out i did it when i was mallory's age but i haven't done it since then i think i should try again get some knee pads and i don't know if it's like riding a bike when you just get back on and like you're you're good again i don't know we'll find out all right next up we have francesca in grade two playing piano for us let's go francesca [Music] me what that was a surprise ending she looked all proper and then [Laughter] playing that's really hard that was a fast piece and with two hands so it was cool to be able to see what her fingers were doing right right yeah you don't normally see that but it takes a lot of practice again to do that right yeah very much practice very i feel like i'm not speaking english anymore i'm getting college we have got what do we got nina up next oh nina is one of our wonderful singers singing is one of her biggest passions she's also a comedian she's she's just amazing all around nina in fifth grade and she's gonna be singing warrior by demi lovato who take it away nina [Music] this is the story that i've never told i could get this off for just [Music] i was broken and now i'm a warrior now i've got bigger skills i'm a warrior [Music] and you [Music] i'm a warrior [Music] you can is hurt me there's a part of me i can't care about a little girl grew up too fast all it took was once [Music] oh [Music] and you can never hurt me again [Music] you can never hurt me again [Applause] is really got some great songs huh yeah yeah i know i love the words of that song and nina sings it with so much emotion really beautiful thank you thank you nina now to completely flip the switch from emotional and strong to completely ridiculous and i can say that because i helped write this we go to gigi in third grade who is wrapping the third grade it's mr k and courtney's class the class rap their food wrap that they did this is a little sneak peek into music uh we learned about rhymes and wrapping rhythm by wrapping about our favorite foods and i said it can be anything that rhymes with your favorite food it doesn't have to make sense doesn't have to be a real word it just has to fit into the rhyme structure and it has to has to flow and gigi is going to show you how that flow goes so here we go okay we're ready for it hi my name is gigi i am going to be rapping today um this is not just from me my class made it too um it's the third bird food brought by mr k's class um see at the end cheese pasta i like it with kale pasta french fries and chicken chicken and friction chicken pot pie i love it all the time same crust pizza with melting hot cheese hamburgers and rice it feels so nice pizza pie so good i could die swerve ice cream such a powerful game ice cream that teams up with me i like animal style chicken pizza and chicken i like tea blah blah blah chicken chips and hamburgers potatoes and burgers i like hot dogs eat it with the corn with corn on the cob nutella pizza is the best i like to eat it while i rest lemon meringue pie while i eat it i feel like i can fly to the casserole eat it in my favorite bowl i love cakes chocolate cream and shakes but my favorite is spaghetti meatballs and pepsi i like coffee it makes me want to watch i like coffee it makes me want to watch hockey i love ice cream sundaes it makes me love mondays chicken making looking cooking hamburgers coming in fur eat it so fast on the blur i need freezers the rest are girl then i eat the hamburger yeah so that was the classroom oh wow covered in fur yeah and it's i know and such good rhythm mm-hmm yeah yeah gg from will thank you keep it up in the chat lots of encouraging fabulous words to everyone who's brave enough to do this what have we got next so we've gone from the moving the emotion sublime to the ridiculous what do we have next we're going back to the creative emotional side we're going to first grade conor reese who has been doing a lot of improvisation and music therapy um with his mom on the piano and so this is an exploration of conor's exploration of the piano so here we go [Music] do [Music] whoa connor wreath nice job connor yeah so many different sounds so many different feelings from that piano piece wow yeah yeah conor the freedom and expression it's fabulous thank you yeah all right next up we have willa in kindergarten who made a spontaneous song so much creativity and inspiration in this talent show really yeah so this was made up by willa here we go [Music] i um oh willa it's so beautiful oh my goodness when my feelings say i want to cry i'll cry oh yes this is sweet and her feelings say to be kind to everyone and i want to play all day long i love that and the movement to go with it and the setting it was so gorgeous thank you really really beautiful next up we have hayden hayden in grade one is reading an excerpt from diary of a wimpy kid so we can sit there maybe get a glass of tea yeah relax and enjoy reading thank hello i'm hayden and my challenge is reading books to my little brother or sometimes i read them to myself well today i'm going to review daughter of a wimpy kid a novel and carry over 200 million before jeff tuesday first of all let me get something straight this is a journal not a diary and i know what it is but when my mom went out to buy this thing i was told her to get something that didn't say die all right great all i need for some to kiss me killing this book around and get the wrong idea the other thing i want to get clear up wait is that mom's idea not mine but if she thinks i'm going to write down my feelings in here or whether she's crazy so don't escape me to be all dear darling this into your childhood the reason i agreed to do this at all is because i figure later on when i am rich and famous i i'll have better things to do than others people stupid questions all done day long so this book is going to come in handy gregory tell us all about your new childhood where you are always smart and handsome here's my channel now to see like i said i'll be famous one day but now i'm stuck in the middle too it's a bunch of movers let me just say one record i think middle school is the dumbest i ever ever invested you got cool kids like you haven't hit the gross you mixed with those gorillas you need to have shave twice a day out of my race mountain and then i wonder why bullying is such a big in middle school it wasn't up to me grade levels but be based in the highest not eight but then again i guess to be mean kids like who would still be in first grade so this is the this is where i'm going to pause so see you later bye uh you know reading aloud is a great skill you know big practice like anything else and especially to read to a younger sibling what a good older brother you are here it's really fun to watch yourself read sometimes yeah and like so every once in a while hayden would laugh at the jokes that were in there so he was enjoying it yeah all right so that's variety what do we have next catherine next up we get to meet aspen who was absent in will's video he him now doing some horseback riding yeah so here's aspen i've never seen before to talented definitely not an in-person talent show nice that's amazing that was so cool oh my goodness i know the jumps yeah yes it is i i think i'm up to 10 things that i've never done in my life and so we're adding horseback riding rock climbing that's been so little on top of that huge animal like oh my god whoa amazing yeah that's a lot of great great to ride there yeah jump yeah absolutely um speaking of bravery we have a circus act next um lira in grade four has been doing the trapeze and so that is the act we are seeing next okay here we go this is lira doing trapeze at circus me mermaid sienna star and rose arabesque me hanging books sit one leg spinny wiggles angel bird's nest wow spinny wiggles is awesome i love hearing the names of the different poses that was so cool that was a great thing so much so many strengths yes incredible oh lyra wow very cool yeah catherine i don't know how we did it that you did it and the wildwood students but so many different kinds of talent i'm going to keep saying that this whole show yeah i had never seen you know trapeze work like that before yeah way to go lyra nice okay i think we're on the home stretch right we are we are yes because i re i found out that i showed the wrong video for how to hold a goat and so it's in my email and i think at the end i can share my screen and share the actual video of how to hold a goat thank you thank you we'll get well yeah another video was awesome we can't wait to see the actual instructional video yeah i'd be happy to watch little baby goats play [Laughter] all right well next up we have wahey in first grade who is a very very creative very artistic person who made up a dance and a song for us so here we go wahey in first grade hi i'm lorie and my talent is singing and dancing i'll show you what i mean once upon a time there lived a single hmm once was a beast he was once a prince but then he got turned into a beast fighting a witch and and yeah so uh that was it wasn't that great that was fabulous i could listen to tell stories all right next up we are going to fifth grade with nora who is singing us a song from the greatest showman one of my favorite movies this is never enough here we go nora i'll be singing never enough um from a great show i'm trying to hold my breath can it stay this way can't let this moment pass you set off a dream in me getting loud right now can't you hear it echoing take my hand leave shallows with me cause darling without you all the shrine near the thousand spotlights all the stars we steal from the night sky will never be in the half never be in the half towers of gold are still too little these heads could hold the world but it'll never be enough never be in the heart oh isn't that beautiful oh my goodness norah oh such a gorgeous song and if i'm being honest i didn't love the lady in the movie but your voice nora sounds incredibly sweet very sweet voice yeah yeah those are some high notes that's hard sometimes i just after a song or a dance or a performance like that i just want to sit with that feeling i got you know beautiful yeah catherine oh i know going out strong we are next up we've got another reprise from last year you might recognize you saw last year cassie and sarah did a gymnastics routine well they're back and better than ever [Music] so let's at least agree [Music] i know i love cathy at the end that was perfect was that great and did you see what she did with that um big ball the going over it yeah yeah that was so cool i was loving all all of that and to get all of those moves together and then like the frisbee in the thing coordinated coordinated i love it all right our last official act before i try the other video of how to pick up a goat our last official act comes from daniel in grade two another extraordinary piano player um and he's gonna he's gonna play us out ruth this is your brother here we go daniel [Music] [Applause] bravo wow i thought that was just such a good ending song you know some fingers were moving so good so much talent yeah yes more what do we call that encore again encore i would that's a perfect word for anyone and this is going to be a little bit of a uh a test because i don't have the video loaded my headphones out and then share my screen we'll have to make sure that this works let's see share a tab get myself a video all right can you see this yes okay okay okay i will try playing if you can't hear it unmute and let me know and i'll try to fix it here we go so this is pete's here and i'm going to teach you guys how to pick up a baby joke first you have to catch them then pretend like you're hugging them okay that's the next bat you said you were in this thing remember sorry like i'm like you're hugging them okay then you pick them up and then you can sort of put this hand sort of like under this hand and then you just sort of make them comfy which sometimes means like putting an arm or two over your arm and then that's how you pick up the baby goat oh my goodness did you see that scary big goat did you see that scared though you miss allison sorry nick what a great how-to you know did you notice how she did step one step two you know she really caught up yeah yeah and talia i'm so glad the actual video thank you for sending that in and i'm glad it worked i'm glad we were able to see that that was fantastic interactive yeah yeah yeah wow what a night what a nice once again i want to thank all to our audience for being so supportive just shows what a community we have thank you to all the performers we ended up with 53 right yeah wow a world record and you know at wildwood we also want to make sure that we thank people who helped make this possible this would not have happened without one person who's right here with us catherine it's an incredible smile oh my god this would not have happened so let's all do a shout out those of you that are watching right now you're gonna watch later thank you catherine can we give everybody firework claps have you ever done firework claps no you ready ready wow wow that's so cool i love they that a great job they did a great job thank you for all of your hard work thank you for your bravery thank you for the vulnerability thank you for your risk taking thank you for being interested in life thank you for having hobbies you are all people that i want to be when i grow up and i just i'm so inspired right now and it was really fun to put together thank you also sending in videos when you said you were going to and and sometimes we go back and forth about how to send a video and it wouldn't work the first time and we get it and you all were working just as hard as i was if not more to get those talents all together and it worked this was awesome yes even the clapping is talented wildwood wildwood rocks i'm already looking forward to next year's talent show me too me all right so we are tomorrow happy juneteenth everybody a national holiday now to celebrate the end of slavery black culture the arts so i'm looking forward to that on saturday too right happy pride month celebrating our lesbian gay bisexual transgender families and family members we love it and we're going to come together again on tuesday for our goodbye assembly at 10 10 and we'll be saying goodbye to our shooting stars staff and children and families on that day i'll send you out the link this weekend and then sixth graders graduations thursday sending you off in style at 10 30 out the world yeah it will be a a 10 tissue event both the goodbye assembly and the and the graduation the tears will flow all right thank you again have a good weekend have fun celebrating yes end the broadcast and we're going to say goodbye together bye bye everybody
the status shows that certain seasons of the flu are just as deadly if not more deadly than covet to children while we took an ultra-cautious approach last year consequently how have these measures impacted the student population for my family one of my children who was performing at or above grade level at the middle of last year dropped to the 22nd percentile in math nationwide this child has also suffered from anxiety and fears about going on play dates due to constant lockdowns one day that in anxiety caused a stomach ache which sent her excuse me which sent her home from school and barred her return without a doctor's note or a negative code vid test and while there were only two possible cases of in-school transmission in our district last year the current protocols mean children with headaches motion sickness from the bus stomach aches and allergies to name a few illnesses we're over three minutes so just wrap it up i'm almost done thanks get sent home until the parents can arrange for a covet test moving forward we must look for ways to minimize this whether it be rapid testing in the nurse's office or refining of the supposed covet symptoms that send a child home or a combination of both the point i'm trying to make is that sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease and these mitigation strategies have become a larger threat to the mental well-being and the academic performance of our children than the threat of the virus itself in conclusion we should consider the low pediatric mortality rate from covid along with low mortality rate the vaccinated adults can now enjoy in our risk benefit calculations involving in-person learning and covid mitigation strategies moving into the 21-22 school year we must prioritize full five-day a week in-person learning with educators present in the classroom a decrease in screen time along with a large effort for a return to normal allow students to learn on paper and allow teachers to touch that paper allow group activities and shared use of manipulatives allow a class to continue learning while quarantining only the covet positive person and when the virus returns in the fall cases cannot be the driving measure for closure it's time we follow the science and not the fear it's time we remove the barriers that have caused our children to miss out on a free and appropriate public education thank you hello my name is adam juliano i live at 16th run i'm a retired new york city detective i'm disabled i moved to this town because of the schools the last year you know things have been out of hand there was nothing we could do we've done the best we could but i think this year shows it doesn't work it doesn't work my child has add he was at or slightly above grade level before this happened and he is in the negative percentiles the computer learning he's playing he's smarter on that computer than any of you me or anyone else they playing video games in class they're listening to music with their headphones on right in front of the teacher all these things are going on and the teachers are completely oblivious because hey they they can't keep up they're not as smart as the students with the computers and the kids are just getting over left and right my son is so attached to his mask that i have to tell him take your mask off we're outside there's no reason to wear your mask outside not there's there's no reason as far as this this year coming up you guys have stated that there is no remote learning we have no choice there's no remote learning okay then give us the choice and allow our children not to wear masks if you're going to tell us a then you have to allow us some allotment this is a free country it's all right as a parent to make the decision for our child there are children not here i just want to make the decision the science shows i don't have to beat you over there with it you see it you know the children are they're an emotional wreck this kid comes home at the end of the school day and like i i barely raise my voice and he starts crying hysterically they cannot handle the lack of socialization the the impersonalness of it all just the teachers it's like robotic there's no touching there's no there's no learning you like a child needs to learn by putting something on paper take a pencil write it down and you're visualizing and you're physically writing and you're hearing it and it's multiple layers of learning learning on a computer is one way and they're not learning anything these kids are going to be so behind that i i'm worried for my kid i'm paying out of pocket which money i don't have because again i'm retired and disabled so i'm paying out of pocket to make sure my kid stays at least even where he's supposed to be it's your job to represent us that's your job do your job that's all i ask do your job you you want the kids to go no remote you want to go to school fine give us the option there are children not yours if someone wants their kid to wear a mask then let them wear their mask if you don't want to do that then put remote is optional and let the people who want their kids to wear masks to leave their kids home because it's time the country opened up enough is enough the science shows and the stats of the children of how miserable they're doing in school is showing it's not working so let's go back to the way it was before all this nonsense happened and just take a step back stop fighting over nonsense just take care of the kids i don't care about everybody's personal feelings i care about the kids and the kids are emotionally a wreck a wreck and it's pissing me off good evening my name is kimberly abreu i'm at 50 secor road i'm a mother of four four daughters three of which will be here i'm sorry three of which will be in brookfield school districts in the fall i will have two here at the high school and i will have my little one who will be starting um kindergarten at central school i must start off by saying thank you to the teachers and staff the board of education our superintendent of our school district for the hard work and dedication that was evident in ensuring a safe and educational school year i'm here tonight as a concerned parent for our children that are part of the brookfield school district i'm here to be their voice on june 1st the opening plan for the upcoming upcoming school year document was sent to district families which consisted of 41 pages of detailed plans on how our school district would open in the fall i appreciate the detailed plan the advanced notice and the offer for feedback however a few bolded statements that were included in the email did not sit well with me quote it is important to note that at this time at this time of communication there are many recommendations guidelines and requirements yet to be determined by the cdc dph csde and the brookfield health department for example we are awaiting updated guidance regarding mass wearing physical distancing and quarantine protocols beginning in the fall of 2021 therefore please know that as new information is released and updated this will change according over the course of the summer end quote as we all know anyone 12 years and older is eligible to be vaccinated therefore our teachers and staff had all had the opportunity to be vaccinated as well as our high school and some whiskey near students whether they have chosen to do so or not is their choice i understand our elementary school children have not yet had the opportunity to be vaccinated however what more needs to be reduced in order to eliminate these mass requirements now is the time to make it optional why are we not pressing the brookfield health department and csde governor whomever it may be to allow mass to be optional for this upcoming school year for governor governor lamont the most current daily positivity rate for our state is less than one percent how much lower does it have to go in order to remove the mass requirement enough is enough allow those that do not feel comfortably massless inside to wear them and allow those that feel comfortable the choice not to wear them you allowed students to learn remote this year so now allow those who want to be in school mask list to do so mandating all children to wear them and at times even outside from what i've heard and seen can have negative effects on our children oxygen restrictions bacteria build up not to mention the mental and emotional toll these may have serious long-term physical mental health issues that we cannot immediately determine it breaks my heart that our children cannot see their teachers faces and equally the teachers cannot see the beautiful faces of their students the full facial interaction is an important developmental aspect for our children's education why are we continuing to do this to our children my older daughters who is uh 16 by the way came home and told me the best days that she had this year in school were those where she could see their classmates full faces outside of course and interact with each other masculine imagine that this is not how things should be and this is not the new normal for our children every day should be the best day for our children in brookfield public schools that's why i moved here during the last few days of school when the weather were scorching hot and brookfield public schools made the decision to open i informed my daughters to remove their mask if they felt hot they refused because of the potential consequences we're at three minutes i'm sorry we're at three minutes okay thanks the fear that has been instilled in our children has become more of threat than the virus itself and will require time to overcome so i'm asking you the board of education the superintendent to do the right thing for our children start the conversations now to remove the mass mandate be the voice for our children our most vulnerable population has had the opportunity to be vaccinated which according to science will reduce the transmission of the virus you made the right choice in eliminating the remote learning option for the upcoming school year but please don't stop there please make the choice in eliminating please make the right choice and eliminate the mass mandy as well thank you for your time attention and consideration hi i am sarah emerald i live at 34a old bridge road i have two children in the district my older son lucas is going into 10th grade and then my younger son owen is going into seventh i've lived in brookfield for 10 years as an adult but i also grew up in brookfield i'm a graduate from bsbhs and i can attend to what a wonderful district this is i'm here today to address my concerns over the current plans for the fall nothing has changed with the exception of the removal of the remote learning option due to the limited time i will make this brief i can tell you this has been a very difficult year for all of us but what i can report on is what i've seen with my children i have seen them struggling socially and academically i've worried greatly for them over the course of this past year plus i've worried about the impacts of the isolation uh the uncertainty and just everything and not knowing how what i can do as a parent having things out of your control is the worst feeling in the world i've worried about the health implications of them wearing a mask for six to eight hours a day but had no choice because it was either wear the mask or stay at home and it was some two pretty horrible choices i've heard them complain of headaches feeling tired all the time and just done with everything my high schooler told me he avoided using the bathroom because he wanted to limit his contacts because he did not want to get traced back to someone that had corn that had covet and end up in quarantine my middle schooler complained that they were constantly being yelled at for one thing or another to the degree that he felt he could no longer he could do nothing without getting into trouble there was a zero tolerance policy and the state guidelines were followed and forced to the nth degree and once again as some of the other parents have said this may or may not have been an actual um you know something that was said to the kids that they had to follow these these rules to this degree however this is how they felt um and you know my my son my younger son did address this at one point he sat down with the principal to talk about this and his feelings were brushed off as well are you really feeling this way or is somebody telling you this you know it sounds like maybe this is all just in your head so once again children's feelings just being pushed to the side these are the rules and you have to follow them if you don't want to follow them well then you can stay at home and you can learn remote throughout the year i have tried to be reassuring telling them that this is only temporary we needed time to learn more about this virus develop effective treatments make sure the hospitals don't get overwhelmed vaccines should be distributed and the numbers to go down once we achieved all that i told them things would get back to normal and things are slowly getting back to normal for us adults but not for the kids we are telling them they need to continue to wear a mask and follow all the guidelines even in the fall here in state we vaccinated 95 percent of our most mrs of the general adult population and our positivity rate has continued to decline we've essentially achieved her immunity especially manufacturing natural immunity which nobody wants to discuss because i'm running out of time i want to just say quickly i would encourage everyone to read an article from may 25th in the connecticut mirror that talks about what i would say is the new health crisis here in state the article was entitled children with psychiatric needs overwhelming hospital emergency rooms in connecticut this once again is what we are doing to these kids we are driving them to the point of complete insanity and we continue and continue and continue to push this on them and when are we going to say this is no longer their burden to bear so i have so many other things i'd like to say but i will basically end it by saying we have questions and we'd like to know where are we with this who who's making the calls here at what point are like what are we trying to achieve here because everyone's getting up here we're all saying we have crush code that was what we set out to do we've done everything we have been asked to do but here we are a year and a half later still begging for our children to have a normal life and no answers pointing of the fingers we deserve to know what the criteria is that the state the town whoever it is that's making these decisions is basing these restrictions off of and i feel like we deserve to have an answer now and not wait until july or august when it's too late i mean the kids have been as we're seeing the kids are anxious they're stressed and they don't know what's going to happen in the fall and sure maybe some parents have the option to say well we've got christian life academy here in town which is opening up with no restrictions we could go here we really need to wrap it up he has that option to do that and so are we going to continue to string them along endlessly i feel like we have elected all of you to be our voice okay towns across the state are stepping up school boards across the state are stepping up they're speaking out against us and they're saying in the fall we will not do this okay i realize there's money at stake at state from the state from the state but i really do not feel that there is any way that the state would ever hold funding from a school district for standing up for what is right so once again i beg all of you to please fight for our children they have been through so much we have learned so much thank you thank you for your time i just want to make sure everybody else gets a chance to speak thank you thank you hi my name is sarah coffey i live at one sea is this thing ion yep okay i live at 116a tower road um two years ago my husband and i decided to move to brookfield from danbury specifically for the school system last year we enrolled our daughter in kindergarten at center school she had a great teacher by the end of november we had to pull her from center and enroll her at a private school back in danbury she needed a consistent in-person and undisruptive learning environment that brookfield could not provide at the time i look forward to the day where i can send both my children back to brookfield schools but i want to know if the administration and staff will advocate for the rights of our children and what's best for each individual child so i'm here today asking that in the next school year mass be made optional and if the board of ed and administration lacked the power to make this possible i ask that you at least advocate for us at a state level connecticut is one of 20 states and i think said vermont this morning today so one of 19 states now left that have not dropped the mass mandate in schools for the 201-2022 year some states are even ruling the mandates unconstitutional but connecticut seems to be failing our children and contributing to the rapid erosion of parental rights in this country my son had an end of the year project where he went to school not in brookfield he had to write a poem about himself it was very typical something you'd expect from a six-year-old boy very cute until i got to the line where he had to describe his biggest fear and he wrote coronavirus and i brought it just in case you thought i was lying but it's on there um and i i was blown away by this because he never expressed his fear to me and it just goes to show that we're unknowingly and knowingly helping create a generation of nervous fearful and hyper aware children the effects of this will last a lifetime probably and throughout the pandemic we've heard that children are resilient they're fine they can deal with it go the flow but what i've come to find is that children in general are just quiet about the issues that affect them they've been bearing this heavy burden of taking measures to protect everyone they love from getting coveted especially the elderly population and their teachers but now that we know what we know and now that the population most affected by the virus is vaccinated or has had the opportunity to be vaccinated adults need to start acting like adults and start protecting children from fearing a virus that is highly unlikely to make them seriously ill and .01 percent likely to kill them it is much more rational to fear the continuous use of masks which can lead to metabolic changes and proper neuron functioning which a key symptom of that is headaches and my son and daughter had both come home a lot this year complaining of headaches after school but the choice i have as a parent doesn't really seem fair right now i can either send my children to school in an environment that i believe is and has been proven to be socially emotionally educationally disruptive as well as physically harmful or i can homeschool we're at three minutes okay last thing i just asked that you consider my comments and studies that have been done in other countries and on children in our country i ask that you follow the decisions made in 30 now 31 other states and that you stand up for our children and for the parents here today they deserve to be in classrooms where proper mask wearing is not a priority and they deserve to see the reassuring smile of their teachers and we as parents deserve to have a choice thank you good evening my name is tanya stanley i'm at 31 laurel drive thank you for allowing me this time to address the board i come forward this evening as a concerned parent of four children two of whom attend brookfield schools one who is an incoming freshman and another entering sixth grade at wms due to the mass mandates i decided not to enroll my present kindergartner i did homeschool him i also come forward as an experienced educator of 14 years with a master's in middle level education needless to say i have a solid understanding of the emotional and social impact this last 15 months has had on children i've heard the term resilient tossed around like a badge of honor when it comes to children and the adult expectations that have been placed on them throughout this imp this pandemic in reality the term resilient permits adults to dismiss the social and emotional needs of children it has come to my attention that this board of education as well as sports across the state have been deferring to politicians and others in decision making positions when it comes to whether or not masks as well as other mitigation strategies will be required in the fall so my question is simple who at the district level here in the town of brookfield is stepping up to protect the social emotional needs of students disengagement fear and lack of connection all which these parents have talked about today are all problems that have come straight out of trying to solve the problem of pandemic safety through mitigation such as mask wearing i strongly encourage the board of education dr barrell principals and teachers to stand with parents in ensuring these social and emotional needs of children are met as we move into this next academic year best practices for social emotional learning comes first and foremost with connection i think we can all agree this year was a big challenge when it comes to making connections for many reasons from kids on zoom to masks all day to teachers and principals acting as if they have to police mask wearing to lack of in-person extracurricular activities for our kids what makes school a unique enviro enviro excuse me unique and vibrant environment was lost continuing to enforce the same or similar mitigation strategies as outlined in the reopening draft for the 2021-22 school year is disappointing at best and completely irresponsible at worst our kids deserve better than the same old from this school year if adults are permitted to sit in a restaurant a movie theater and church massless so too should our children in school i implore you to consider the negative social emotional impact the mask requirement has had on students this year and please represent our children at the state level and help make masks optional or non-existent for this upcoming school year thank you for your time hi i'm mickey durkin 7th summer pasture lane here in brookfield um i'm coming as a parent today i think you all are here for the right reasons i want to believe that you are i'm here to speak for my family and my children the most precious and valued thing in my life i'm urging you not to include the math requirement for kids in brookfield's reopening plan as a parent alongside my husband we make the decisions we feel are best for our children it's our job to make sure that they are loved cared for and grow to be good human beings i'm an informed parent i'm also the type of person who wants to know the whys regarding rules and regulations when it comes to anything why do my children need to eat healthy foods why do my children need to have regular exercise why do they need to have time outdoors left less time on devices why do they need to learn to be responsible for themselves why they need to be kind to others respectful and apologize when it's necessary these are the things that i do as a parent of my children i went to years of counseling for boundary issues that my parents had with my siblings and i and i feel that right now there are boundary issues again happening in my life but this time from the state and local levels i don't feel that i have that i need to have somebody else tell me what is best for my children or what i need to do for them without a good enough why at least right now as it stands and this is really the only reason that i'm here my children are afraid they're afraid of others perceptions of them if they do not wear their mask just the other day we were out and i told them i had to physically tell them to please take your masks off we're outside and they were like that i just blew my mind i'm telling you that it's okay to do that and they were afraid of what i was telling them i don't think that's right if i tell my kids that it's okay to do something then it should be okay it shouldn't matter to someone else how i parent my kid that's a boundary issue i don't tell others how to parent their children i don't pretend to know what is best for them that should be up to the parent again i'm only here to urge that you do the right thing for our kids and my kids and let us parents have a choice that want it heck i'll even send a waiver to opt out if i need to but if i'm not given the option to wear the mask or if we're not at least given the option to wear the mass i'm not sure what i will be doing with my children next year and if they do not come here i'll make sure to not vote in future budget votes i think it's not too much to ask or to fight for thank you hi my name is cherise payne and i live at 7th juniper lane i come to you not only as a brookfield parent but as a neighbor i have two kids in the elementary schools here won in first grade and one in third this year um my first grader had a very disruptive kindergarten um as most of all the kindergarteners had and first grade you know turned out at the end better once we were back in school full-time he struggled a lot at home it was a challenge for us at home and i was very thankful and grateful that we finally were in person full-time in january what i'd like to share with you is about my daughter who is a very successful third grader she's on student council she does girl scouts she's a member of our local chapter of the children of the american revolution she does well she never had a problem with asthma or allergies and this past year we got to know the huckleberry school nurse very well because she had to wear the mask constantly and developed asthma seasonal allergy induced asthma to the point where she's now on two inhalers and has to take a pill every night this is not okay this mask wearing well at first we all had to do it we all agreed we all you know understood that we needed to do this to protect everyone is no longer necessary people who wanted the vaccination got the vaccination we are healthy again covet is on its way out and even if it's not on its own way out fully we still have to live we have to live with this and understand that our children also have to live with this and we've all heard the science we've all heard the stats we should not be forcing our kids to wear masks every day case in point the asthma this is not helpful and another side note quickly when we had to make an appointment with the asthma doctor they said they've never been so busy than they have been this year because of all the issues that they're seeing thank you good evening my name is deborah case i live at 21 meadowview drive and i have two children in the district um i didn't prepare anything tonight i'm not going to go over stats and statistics and any of that but i feel like i'm angry that i have to share this because i always felt that my children's journey is their journey and there's to tell but i feel if i don't speak up for what's been happening in my home i'm not speaking up for all the children so my son who is in middle school going on to high school plays with his mask all day they play with their mask all day they're actually bringing more germs to their face than if they didn't have a have a mask on at all so that's what i find with the middle schoolers and the high schoolers my daughter if you look at her record she missed more school than the law labs this year she was half remote because she went to school in the beginning with all the masks wearing she just couldn't handle it so when we went remote she didn't go back i made the date to go back because we had to follow the guidelines we had to give so much notice ahead of time and i had to cancel it and pull that date back twice i believe because as we were approaching going back to school she was fearful again finally when i brought her in for her assessments um in school because we were remote we had to bring her in for her assessments to school i asked the school psychologist please talk with my makes me emotional please talk with my daughter because i'm like losing her here she's in the beginning of the year she was doing so well if anybody knows my daughter she's very smart she's a third grader she served on student council she's a role model she's a darling child she's the child you want your child to be friends with she is the sweetest thing she is so agreeable that's what everyone's always said about her my daughter was also diagnosed with oral apraxia when she was two years old she had medical intervention because she needed oral manipulation in her mouth it is imperative that she sees faces that she sees as effects on people's faces children need to see that it's imperative for them especially at the young school age children so as i come here you know i think about in the years prior when you know we were sending out surveys because we wanted latest later start dates for our kids because they needed more sleep well i want surveys to go out because our kids need more oxygen they really do we need to remove the masks at the end of the school year when i was cleaning out my daughter's backpack because when she finally went back to school out a little bit around march she kept complaining that her masks were wet and i kept saying to her you can change your mask i gave her extra mask every day so the end of the school year when it got really hot and the masks were getting really wet i said to her go ahead go ahead put some extra masks in your backpack one or two should do so when i opened up her backpack and i saw that she was packing six and seven and eight masks a day i was so angry i feel like i'm failing her and by not speaking up today i i just have to i you we all trusted you last year to make the decisions for our kids and we followed them and we did them and our children followed them like little sheep they really did but now i'm asking you to trust us you know trust us to make the decisions for our children let us decide if we want to have masks on our children or not it's imperative it's crucial my daughter is suffering her mental health is suffering and she's not that kid she's just not we're over three minutes ma'am consider that when you you know when we start this the new school year because i think the trend is is that you're finding more and more children it's affecting them so anyway that's just what i wanted to say and i really hope that you consider letting it if other children want to wear their mask let them if parents don't want their children to wear a mask because you know what they wear their mask and they're still not allowed to toss a ball to each other anyway why i don't get that okay thank you thank you i'm sorry we can't it's three minutes at the podium we can't have a dialogue we actually everybody went over three minutes but please if anybody else has a comment please step up to the podium thank you so i don't have speech prepared or anything like that but with those people speaking i i feel that i have to put my could you just state your name and address for the record for the contrast from 13 south mountain so my husband spoke here before and he uh spoke about how it impacts our family and i'm sorry if i'm going to start crying but it is what it is we have three girls so you have two in middle school we have one preschooler one of my uh girls is doing just fine with masks she's a unique exception okay she falls all the rules it is what it is my second one got pretty uh pulled out of middle school this year it was emergency situation we pulled you out we had to put you in private school the reason for that is because psychological impact that isolation had on here which ended up in ultimately an emergency room visit with medication and visits to psychologists that's continue to this point my youngest who is a preschooler was supposed to go to preschool full time vivian we had to pull you out from full-time preschool and put your part-time because it started impacting your speech development and i want to advocate here for our youngest and i want to advocate here for esl students brookfield and i compare with danbury i moved from denver here for for your school system i think your school system is outstanding so we moved um brookfield does not have as much diversity as danbury has but you do have asl students i'm asl myself and i can tell you that i have been struggling this year myself i have been a united states i have been citizen here i have been here for 20 years if you have your mask on i will hard time understanding you i need to see your faces i will not understand sometimes what you tell me i sometimes will not understand what emotion you try to convey to me with what you're saying i will not understand sarcasm so people think that i'm done because i will not laugh at your jokes it has been sometimes so painful i will start crying because i do not understand what people say to me and with my youngest who is going to be four she had hard time developing her speech because she cannot see what your teacher is trying to explain to her right before coming here to the meeting and that's one of the things that made me speak right now i spoke to a kindergarten teacher she said this year we all adapted because of circumstances we did what we had to do but she told me it has been painful she said sometimes those children kindergarteners you're trying to explain to them how to pronounce the sounds how to properly read the word um i'm rushing myself to the way you write that the way you read here in english english is like rocket science really yes you probably don't realize that because you grew up with that but really it's it's not a simple language it's not that simple for children to understand combination of letters and put it together with the sounds if they cannot see teacher's mouth how it's moving what it's saying it's extremely difficult she said we have to pull down the masks so a child can understand us and another had three minutes almost done once thank you and another thing she said she saw children in kindergarten even outside on playground trying to give each other a hug and another child starts crying saying they're too close to me they don't hug each other it's not normal it really is not normal we need to advocate for our children i know some of you say well that state of connect because there's department of health yada yada all that stuff that's who is trying to dictate those rules i hear where you coming from but passing back is passing the back you need to step you know you need to stand up for our children you really need to advocate for our children you point at the parents who stand over there and you say contact department of health contact of our department of education we do we do we really do reach out to them but we also hope that you would also stand up together with us i know if you hear you obviously care so if you did go for board of education you care so that's the time to actually start the accident thank you thank you and sir if you'd like to after everybody is gone if you'd like to come up again and speak that's fine i'm jennifer ramos i'm from 27 berkshire drive i have two children in the district i have one that's not going to be coming in because of the mass mandate she's been home and we don't intend to to bring her in however i just wanted to ask to bring the light to back to why we're keeping the mass maybe in the state and other states are lifting it i just wanted to point out something i'm in agreeance with everyone i'm an educator also i came from new york with a teacher in new york we've been here for two years so i agree with olya and everything she's saying in regards to teaching i taught first grade you know for many years um but my issue has been my son has been complacent he's come in he doesn't like wearing it but he wears it all day doesn't take it at all goes for his mask race my older one that's a freshman here in the high school would ask me mom i really don't want to go today i have anxiety i don't feel like she's been going back and forth with the counselor talking to them because she just doesn't like it my issue has been that it's been pushing other kids like i've her friends got in trouble they were smoking weed in the bathroom you know it's pushing them to do other things and it's concerning to me you know um just alone my we're a family of five here we have two other children that are older that are out of the nest already they never moved up here to connecticut in january we were exposed to covid only two of us tested positive in the house and we weren't isolated in our home we were very light the department of health said 10 days you could go back to school i didn't feel better and also my mother-in-law didn't test positive until a month later so it's like the science is saying keep the mask here but the truth is that even the department of health i would speak to them every day so would call and check in on us and they would say listen it's bewildering it's it's mind-boggling it's this it's that there's families that where one child is not getting sick and everybody else is getting sick and it's the same thing that's been happening in the school in in even in my neighborhood there's been families that chose to be pods together and nobody got sick or somebody gets sick or all of them get sick and the point is you know i just wanted to be able for us to say you can take off your mask and not go to school in a mask if that doesn't make you feel comfortable you want to be able to see people because even with me i went back to work finally after convincing my husband i can go back part-time i work as a bookkeeper in this city and he was very fearful of it because i have underlying health conditions and he says no i said i need to go back because i'm going to lose my sanity if i if we're not bringing a certain income in so i'm back to work and i don't recognize people because they have their mask on and then when they walk by me they're like hi jennifer who the heck are you and it's the same thing that's happening in the school you know the kids aren't seeing each other they're not making connections with each other it's like they're completely disconnected and i just want that connection back for them because we're human beings and we need that it's overwhelming to feel that they don't have that connection and they can't make associations with people and they can't really trust their teachers because their teachers they don't even know their faces most of the time because they've never seen them without a mask on unless the teacher accompanies them to a mass break and that's the only time that they'll recognize but even so i asked my daughter do you know what your teachers look like she's known the only one i really know is the counselor because i've seen her when she walks out you know for whatever reason so that's it i didn't want to take any more of your time thank you thank you anyone else yeah you're welcome though sorry that's okay adam juliano 16 will run again um depression suicide this is something that wasn't mentioned once it's all over the place i'm sitting in my house and my kid's depressed and i'm worried about my 11 year old committing suicide you see it on tv this there was a 10 year old a couple of months ago that killed himself this the kids can't live like this it's got to end you know it's hard enough getting these kids to be social with the cell phones and the computers and the video games and the the butchering of the english language with the lol and all this other nonsense and now you put mass on them so to get a kid out to be social to begin with already now you're adding on masks and they're not seeing each other's faces you know they forget what their friends look like my son saw one of his friends from a while ago and even recognize him i'm like dude you're on his baseball team like 40 years in a row it's just enough you know i know you you have a lot of barriers and a lot of things going against you but all these people came here because you represent us we represent our children and we want to make sure that you understand yes there are some people that still want the mass mandates that's fine but the the rule of law the cdc everybody's saying you don't need masses if you're vaccinated the kids it's not really going to affect them it's not an issue that the odds are incredibly ridiculous that they're going to get it or that they're even going to die from it they've got a better chance of getting the flu and diet from that we've lived with the flu how long enough is enough that's all thanks for my extra thank him sure yes go ahead it's just that you know we're being videoed so i wanted to make sure that the camera only sees this area so i didn't want to make sure that your anything that you said over there wasn't captured okay ryan rodinis one dark angelo drive again um so i was talking about sweden but i'm going to go on to yankee stadium on friday yankee stadium is opening at full capacity with no mass requirements for anybody how can that be allowed while we require our students and faculty to where to continue to wear masks the town is pointed to the state's guidance which points to the cdc it's all politics during the pandemic the cdc has been very slow at changing policy the policy has slowly been driven by infection disease specialists but with coveted record numbers our state needs to consider other factors this should come down to parents choice give parents a choice be courageous and join the other districts that say they will make masks optional in the fall this is a very popular topic with parents as you can see and as elected officials i call on each of you to consider making the mass states mask mandates optional for 20 21 2022 school year i'm sure this will spill over to the election cycle and this needs to be considered thank you would anyone else like to speak all right well thank you all for coming and i applaud your passion and you've certainly given us a lot to think about so thank you for being here um let's move on to written correspondence okay dan fulchetti wrote regarding curriculum joyce pacino rachel alagna jennifer agusto and lori parisi wrote regarding reopening guidelines for fall okay uh approval of board minutes i move that the board approved the minutes from the regular meeting on june 2nd second thanks joy all in favor aye okay the superintendent's update all right thanks rosa so um i i have a covered update so it's it's aligned with uh the parent a lot of the parent public comment tonight so i'll get to that in just a second um but first i wanted to acknowledge the bhs faculty staff and administration for putting on a magnificent in the grandparents as well putting on a magnificent graduation ceremony on saturday and the same to the to joy as one of the parents from the middle school and jen um for the uh incredible uh step up ceremony for grade eight uh outside over at town hall it was uh just wonderful absolutely wonderful um i also have a kindergarten enrollment update we're keeping a very close eye on things our current what mrs diamond refers to it registered is 165 students and we had projected 171 so we're we're in a good place there um we don't know what will happen over the summer in terms of move-ins and move outs but we're keeping a close eye on that we'll continue to update the board uh as we go in terms of uh the covet update wanted to let everybody know that the dashboard was updated with no positive cases last week for the last time we won't do it over the summer but i wanted everybody to know that that's there and if there's a need to continue the dashboard and put that data out there in the fall obviously we'll we'll continue that in terms of summer planning and thinking about the the fall opening plan and mitigation um i actually had in my notes here i want to make sure we're very crystal clear the opening uh draft very clearly stated that it was a draft open plan was based on the current june 2021 guidelines that have not changed in all the discussion tonight about the mask wearing we continue to have the universal mask policy that came from the state department of education in may that said we will continue that for the remainder of the year as well as for the governor's executive order so that is all in place in addition to that in working with dr sullivan he reminded us today that when the children are not in the building um and we can either we know we're vaccinated or we can keep our distance we don't have to wear a mask in a school building but through july 19th the executive order is in place and when children are in school buildings everyone is to be masked he just sent me that email today so i wanted everybody to know that um it is my sincerest hope that we can get to a point where we are not wearing masks we've talked already about a enormous number of our faculty and staff being vaccinated so that's a great thing we've uh partnered with the danbury health clinic with our brookfield health clinic for our 12 year olds and above to have opportunities for those children to be vaccinated so we are working like the dickens to make sure this happens um um just a quick comment on i think it was stated that two districts um have said that masks will be optional i only know of one the one district that i know of i know the superintendent well he actually said that masks will be optional in that particular district and then if you followed it it said unless mandated by the state department of education so so we we need to be careful and not rush to judgment on who's the hero and who's a villain we need to be thinking about that there are a lot of things that i know myself and our western connecticut superintendents group has been advocating for reducing the quarantine time we were successful in that also pushing dph who hasn't seemed to want to listen to us about quarantine and the fact the facts i've talked to a number of you individually and i've talked to several of the parents that spoke tonight about the quarantine results of all the students over a thousand students as of march that we quarantined when we sent the data to the department of public health just in our district we tallied it around the region there was we could prove that maybe two students had a transmission possible in our schools so of all the students that were supposedly exposed and we quarantined we don't have any proof that any of them actually contracted code so quarantine contact tracing mask wearing um in in social distancing and transportation how everything is connected in terms of decisions that need to be made isolation rooms the way we uh monitor and have our lunches all of those different pieces the sharing of equipment all those things that were talked about tonight um we we really are looking to get back to as close to normal as possible um the department of public health it's a weekly meeting with school nurses and superintendents uh there was one held it's every tuesday um and so yesterday there was a meeting mrs laforge our nurse coordinator attended it and they reiterated which is what they said last week the the state department of ed in concert with dph will not be giving updates on what the guidance will look like for fall in connecticut for schools until mid july and so we are working with caps we are doing everything we can to push them to move that up it's very frustrating for us because we want to get working on our plans but without that guidance everything is just a guess and we need to have that guidance it's very important so i just want everybody to know that it's critically important we are advocating for the students and there are many points that the parents may that we understand we as administrators and as the board have children ourselves in the schools and are going through we all went through a difficult year so we want to get to the other side of this as fast as possible as well and i really think this is probably in my six years the best board meeting we had because of all the parent support we have so we know we have parents out there they're advocating for their kids they're passionate and they're supporting us to do the right thing as they said but to do the best we can with that so we i will continue to push and we'll continue to advocate and get this plan out there in its next iteration as soon as possible but we need that guidance um and so that's what we're waiting on um we're waiting with baited breath frankly so that's the piece on cobot i wanted to share i wanted to stop there for a second is there any questions before we move on sure bob please so do we have a point of view as an administration on masks or are you just waiting for guidance we we have a review from dr sullivan we have a point of view from the guidance from the state department of education asking about the state i'm asking about you i'm asking about you your staff and dr sullivan yeah well i can't speak for my staff personally but what i will tell you is if we have the option to not have to wear masks i do not want to have our staff and our students wearing masks however if there is a mandate for those who aren't vaccinated or can't prove they're vaccinated i mean i could imagine the state making some decisions like that so i just don't know at this point but i do not want to see us having to wear masks if it's not necessary we will have to wait for the guidance on that and and certainly our local public health will have a big part in that but again mid-july is where we'll wait for it um so the reason i ask that question sure is an advocacy question right it's um as a as a district and as a board what the what i heard mostly from the parents is stand up and advocate yes right and when i heard you and your report sayings we're sitting down and waiting right we're waiting for guidance from up on high i think we need to advocate i mean it's just and i don't know what our opinion is as a board but i think it's time for us to take a position and go tell the state board what we think right and if uh i'd like to have that discussion as a board i really would like to have that discussion and get everybody's opinion out on the table get your opinion uh you get any staff that's here's opinion and decide are we gonna advocate right i mean if the answer is we're going to advocate let's go advocate hard right as a as a as a district we ought to do it from the administration we ought to do it from the board um we might want to do it from the town so so that was kind of my first question um when they said the second question i have is when they said that they were going to update the guidance i mean part of the issue we had tonight is timing right the state is being too slow in giving updated guidance in your interaction with the state members are they do you sense that they want to raise lift the mass guidance um and are just not there yet or do you sense that they really want to hold to the mass guidance i don't have a sense either way on that bob to be honest with you i know the one thing that they talked about on the dph call is that they do not new york made a decision i guess a couple of weeks ago and they uh and maybe joy could speak to this as an educator in new york um that they took away the mask mandate in schools and then had to put it back in place and so what we we don't want to do and that's that's one thing again i want to make sure people understand um we're not going to rush to make decisions we're going to be thoughtful in our decisions and i you know agree with you we can certainly take a stance and go advocate we did that on quarantine and we were able to get some decisions from 14 down to 10 and seven days so that was you know we tried and we continue to try on that quarantine protocol but they do not want to make a mistake and put guidance out and then have to pull it back and change it so that's why they're waiting a little bit it's my understanding yeah the problem is their waiting is um going to put us in a position where we're coming up on the opening of school before they go ill-informed waiting right right you can tell them i told them that i told you that we're saying all these things the uh um i mean so i'm sorry i think i think i agree with you i think there's as a parent i would love for my daughter to not go to school wearing a mask i do see that this the state seems to be dragging their feet on this like everything else they did when coveted first happened and they put the burden on administration and boards of ed and that's the only part that i i really have an issue with um is that they're doing that again and so now we're getting pressure from you know from parents rightfully so i get it but at the same time you know we're not public health officials correct like i don't i don't know if that's a call we're qualified to make so we're sort of stuck in this rock and a hard place but yeah but that said i i'd be i as a board member would go buck the system yeah there's valid points for sure that really would the system but i would want to do it in a very informed way right right i certainly wouldn't want to do it without you know dr sullivan here giving us direct input for example but if the state's not going to make a decision and we ought to advocate for the state to make the decision then was all good right we can all line up behind it and that's all good but if the state's not i want to use our july meeting to make a decision on our own even in the state what's uh dr sullivan's point of view on this as you know there's been some difficulty with uh communication in dr sullivan's situation right um so we haven't had a direct discussion about that at this point yeah and he'd be willing i guess dr sullivan you know reverts back to the executive orders and and again waiting for dph guidance and things like that okay all right i just uh i you know there's a point where you sense all of the momentum is going there but our friends in the state are making a decision right right and and it frustrates our parents but it frustrates me as a board member yeah you know we're we're it it feels like we're going to end up there right but the angst level is going to be exciting and why wait another month right if we have a set if we have a sense at the state where we're going to go why wait another month to let everybody know so this is a process thing from my perspective it's the decision needs to be well informed no matter what i sense that i sense the masks are not going to be there in the in the fall by the time we're done um i just we got to push the decision process and i the only thing i can say is people aren't there in my office or on the phone or on the zoom meetings or anywhere else when i'm pushing and there's a extreme level of frustration uh at the pace in which things are moving so it's not an agenda item but it's could we agree as a board to write a letter of advocacy to make a decision fast right as a as a board again update the guidance because and and maybe i mean if we're all willing advocate for a lifting of the mass mandate i mean um and but it's about advocacy yeah hey you know so and uh and if it were all okay and i'm seeing a lot of nodding heads how do you guys feel jen and debbie down there i haven't seen your heads nod i'm not trying to dictate the answer just so yeah i'm just trying to say make a decision i'm in favor of making a decision quickly i don't feel like i'm in a position right now to say that the mask mandate should be lifted i think again i think we need guidance from dr sullivan and the department of health so yes i agree we should make a decision but you know we still have a large population of kids under 12 who are not eligible for a vaccine so i'm not ready to say lift the mask mandate as you see i'm still wearing a mask but yeah a decision one way or the other is important and and just so you know in i know doc sullivan said in school buildings when no children are present you could wear a mask the direction from the town was at least for public buildings and including the library is masks are still required really so the town is giving different guidance than the guidance to the district we are wearing masks all day 100 at the library because we serve a large population of kids who are not vaccinated well there's another point of advocacy we ought to be consistent with how we're doing it now the point of serving the public in in a uh it's like being in a store right you see the clerks in stores still wearing masks but the customers are not right so i think it's a little different than that's meaning right but we ought to have clarity from our health director well you said only when there's no children around right that was important correct yeah mike i think you wanted to ask a question yeah i got a couple questions bob i want to echo everything you said i i totally agree i think we should uh advocate we should i think there should be a discussion among this board and hopefully we can come to some some sort of a group decision on what that letter should say but i do have a lot of pubmed british journal medical information on mask wearing especially when it comes to cloth masks it's not good it's not good uh it doesn't really protect you much so i would like to make some of that research data part of that letter if you guys want to discuss that on it i've shared this with doc sullivan that we got in bed but uh just just as far as we want to stay consistent has been lacking consistently there's a lot of parents here today uh i learned a lot uh you know we kind of see the sunny side of you know what we accomplished but man that was there's some dark stuff mentioned today and uh yeah i think that's i think that needs to be discussed on some of the the health impacts on these children uh john more specifically so s so old line and southernington were mentioned as saying they're not going to do masks or make them optional i forgot the exact word yeah yeah you said you mentioned you had one um no i know that if you go get some mandates that's a funding thing uh dude no liability as well right so do you you don't think you said you knew one did the state reach out to him yet say hey no because is it okay no because the statement is being misconstrued the statement was we're not going to have mass next year unless it was qualified unless it's mandated by the state department of education so the first half of the statement was taken and and now that is being used as this rogue superintendent who's the greatest thing since sliced bread to those who don't want to wear masks has there been a reaction um i have no idea what i do know is that the superintendent finished the statement by saying unless mandated by the state department of education so it's the exact same thing we are saying here in the other 167 superintendents are waiting for in terms of right these two superintendents that have made apparently made these statements i know one i know one for sure i don't know the other one it's an interesting way to put it i mean it's like you advocate without the advocacy exactly so so that that's the thing i mean i'm trying to be straight honest and and uh not not play with words with people and be as candid as possible and i think i've been that way for 15 straight months about this so we can't have a statement like that correct i think that's a position not to a statement we want to avoid you know what i just found the because new york state was mentioned i just want to kind of get specific so this was yesterday the governor stated covet 19 restrictions including mass wearing are no longer required as new york state now has 70 percent of individuals vaccinated however our schools have not received an executive order or guidance from the new york state department of health permitting any changes in schools right now so um mass we're still mandated in new york state schools so just to clarify that yeah there is a lot of misinformation and and word misconstrueing going around for sure yes doctor i want to go back doc you're going to need a microphone sorry i just want to go back to what bob said because i think that that was that's a really important point that we don't want to lose when he was talking about advocacy he wants once he's like you i don't i didn't write it down bob but you said something like doing the research and having all the facts and i think that that's really what's important when we advocate for anything that we have as you said all the facts behind us because all these people were very well meaning and very passionate but when people throw out statistics and research and you know we we really where is it coming from because just like the statement that you talked about mike um that was made up here it wasn't the the full statement and i think that you know it's very easy and it's not it's it's well-meaning but cherry-picking facts and data is is very dangerous and so no matter what was presented here orally if we don't have the documentation and know where that data those data are coming from are they coming from some online article are they coming from recollection of something that somebody heard you know on television where is it coming from so i agree with you wholeheartedly yeah but you know i'm just going to react we've been done a good job in this district of staying aligned with the state right the state last year drove us crazy on how slow they were in giving out guidance right and we managed our way through that we'll manage our way through this one as well it's a question of how we push this right in my mind and how to push it in a way that because they have more resources than we do right what we have is knowledge of what's going on in brookfield right so and none of this board has had a chance to talk to the um the health director and i'd like that to suggest that we put that on the agenda for our next meeting just hear from them hear what his recommendations to us are and in the meantime we draft a letter that's focused not on a bunch of facts and figures but on speed right uh and urge the state to act fast right because it's putting all of the districts in a very difficult point they have a lot of they have a lot of depth of resource and that's what i just want to build on what dr ruby said is they have a lot of information they have a lot of facts that's what they do for a living right and it's and and they give us a good umbrella but we've got to push right and uh and like i said i think it's going to get there eventually i just think it's we are maybe not the most equipped to make that decision but we can advocate for the decision and and if new york state does remove the mass made they i'm sure connecticut and the neighboring districts will as well so it's a little bit of who's going to do it first well it may be that they're talking to each other and doing it in coordination with one another that's what happened last year because there's a lot of coordination so it's it may be that there's stuff that none of the people here or us are really aware of and the way the discussions are going and that's okay that's their job we know what our job is right but man yeah i mean they should have made that decision already right else for us to be able to communicate well with parents and you're going to get to late july and if they're not going to make a decision until mid-july and you're going to have parents already making decisions about what's going to happen to their children less than a month later right and and that to me that's irresponsible of the state to leave us hanging that wall the one thing that gives me that i can hearken to last summer to give us a little uh optimism with the process and perhaps the speed is we were told we would get the guidance for what the 2020 fall opening plan needed to look like um we were told we would get it july 7th after the holiday weekend we actually got it the second or the third it was before the holiday weekend so while you know this is also i mean there's bureaucracy there's politics there's diplomacy there's all kinds of things that go on that we might not be aware of to your point bob um perhaps this is managing expectations right now and in a week or two we'll actually have this information doesn't mean we don't advocate or anything like they're not making a decision based on any politics i hope it's all health based no of course but right dissemination of information timing well at our next meeting joy and i will both not be here so it'll only be five board members that's a quorum though right yeah okay um let's let's schedule uh dr sullivan see if i can get dr and um if you guys are okay i'll take a first draft of an advocacy letter would that be okay with everybody and uh and we'll have to figure out how we can review that and send it but i think we need to within days go to the go to the state and tell them this is creating a emotional roller coaster for our residents in town because that's what it is okay thank you okay sorry good thank you i didn't want to do raila your republic no no i still have a little bit to go in the superintendent report with any other questions specifically on on the topic of covet and certainly public comment this evening so there's another piece that has to do with medical it's actually at the bottom of the report before we i want to turn it over to dr ruby on summer school update is we're going to have a new medical advisor and we're actually really excited about this although we love dr davis and dr ferreira um they they dr davis and dr ferrell worked for nubonze nuvonz came to us the cfo came to me a couple of months ago to mr poston myself and then we tried to work with him because we enjoyed both doctors so much and they they've been so dedicated to us and they instead of charging us the eight thousand dollar fee that we've been charged for the last several years that we had in our budget they upped it to fifty thousand dollars and so um that just isn't something we can work with and we tried to work with the cfo who wasn't as flexible as we had hoped for so we decided it was time to part ways and look for another medical advisor and we're fortunate enough we are um we've worked out an agreement with dr garcia from brookfield pediatrics and he will be starting with us as of july 1.
so yes that that challenge can come but but that is those are possibilities we can build a high school right if i somebody else can say but wait a minute timeout you're not going to lose 400 kids because we're going to build the best high school in the san gabriel valley with top-notch top-notch programs and top-notch facilities and we're actually going to do the opposite we're going to be attracting students that is a possibility no one can say for certain that things are going to happen or things are not going to happen these would be just conjectures right these are possibilities yes that's all possible we've talked about today about i'm not today but in the course of this of these meetings um what can we do to help mitigate some of these things and some of the things that you guys have talked about not us but you guys have talked about is maybe offering a robust transportation system so that families and students find it easier to move around and get around to the to the sites or the sites that they want to attend so so those would be possibilities again if i'm going to pro and con this again on the on the pro side you keep if you do the 712s you keep both high schools open again i'm just this is these are not my opinions okay i'm just trying to think of like the things that i've heard you keep two high schools open you spend all this money on the new field so that's not money done wasted uh you keep tradition alive and the gladiators uh continue to be gladiators and the aztecs continue to be aztecs uh you have a a school in the north and the south to make it easy easy easier and accessible um if i'm going to play the other side uh again these are things that i have heard or people have emailed me or you have you guys have said in this room uh if you have one high school just imagine the football team just imagine the the band just imagine when you're pulling all the students together right to have to have one place and now kids don't have to choose between programs i can now be in ib and in the medical pathway i don't have to i don't have to choose anymore um electives grow uh plcs grow all of that so i mean we can we can pro it but all of these things would be again uh conjectures and opinions and we as staff facilitating this particular part of of the school reorganization uh we're only facilitating uh again we can definitely have a conversation if we just let people unmute themselves i'm sure that uh many of us in this room uh would have pros and cons depending on what i feel or what i think um and and again people might get passionate about about those things so so yes there would still have to be a separation of program um i i can't imagine having two 712s and having you know an early college program on both sides an ib program at both sides the same pathways at both sides i think there would be some similarities in terms of some of the um some of the electives that might be offered so adding 712 would would add a relief uh for sure i think in electives without a relief in terms of the facilities um but but some of the things that that we currently have as a two high school district uh would still would still exist um and miss patricia and then mr anthony yes all right so um off of uh mr wilson perkins um i i believe it may be my interpretation because there was discussion you know um earlier today um with my team and it was very similar to your concern and i mean a lot of this when we started it a lot of it was um already created for us and what we've done is we worked at it to bring it to where it's at now but you know it is the ideas of the district that created these and this is what we're working with i mean we have done adjustments but not truly because we have to stay within you know uh what we've been given so um when it does come to no matter what we end up in the end we're all not going to be a hundred percent going yep that's what we want we're just trying to get to something that's feasible to present to the board um but the one thing i believe that i don't know if that at least for me i can speak of is the assurity of how this is going to play and like you said eventually we'll get there but i think we need to have a discussion of it because you know the board is we're helping the board in a lot of ways we're asking the hard questions that maybe they haven't thought of or or or never looked at it in that perspective so when it comes to 712 we have parents are already that are fearful of sending their child to just a general middle school because they know how drastically it changed from elementary to there and that's our weakest point in our district is losing our students in middle school how do we reassure that when they if it goes this way if the district the board decides to choose this how do we does the district already have a plan that they can share with us that explains are we going to have a seventh eighth grade academy and they're going to have their own world they're just sharing the campus of the high school or are they going to be implemented with the upper grades and how are we going to prevent because one of the biggest issues we have throughout our country is anti-bullying how do we make sure that we have a 7th grader that is alongside a 12th grader how do we make sure that that that that's workable feasible that the student feels comfortable ha you know those little things i and we're here to ask the hard questions that that's basically what our job is here is ask the hard questions but we i think our community i think like i said my team and i were discussing that these are questions and concerns that our community our parents our our co-workers are are asking is how is this going to how is it going to live out with assuring parents the community that that it's going to work and you know and also in the other way you know if we do have a middle school and we don't have them in high school you know how do we i mean there's a there's still a lot of discussion i guess i could say you know and and we're looking for you as our administrators to discuss that with us because also at the same time with all the big and creative ideas that dr mitchell presented to us you know we're also looking at this is a great opportunity to have more electives for our high school to bring back all those things that a lot of us here probably participated in that no longer exist and that's what we lack as a as a district if we compare ourselves you know a lot we lose some because down the street they offer agriculture down that street they offer culinary you know what do we offer to it also encourage the trade for our students not just the college bound college pathways that we offer every variety so i think if i'm not mistaken this will wilson perkins that is it something similar to that that you were inquiring on at least the first part of it well i wrote it in the chat i meant more like legally like i don't even understand if those seventh and eighth graders can fill those spots and round out the numbers with electives i don't know if they're allowed to do competitive dance would would a high school team be accepted with seventh and eighth graders on it like these are things i don't know let me let me so some of those things no right so they they cannot be on the sports teams right so that doesn't help that now again if i'm again if i'm gonna if i'm gonna be on the other side well no it doesn't help it but they're on our campus and we can start uh a little league with the other with the other school and we can start training and we can start doing skills right to start to to promote and to recruit and to get ready uh but but i mean no they cannot participate uh in that um i wanna i wanna touch on on a couple things that that miss patricia said uh because i just wanna be uber clear about this um i i'm not 100 sure that i understand uh the comments that um you know we're just working with what the district gave us um from my perspective and again if i am wrong please call me out on this i really do want to be called out on this but but from my perspective we brought four models to the team and we said hey these are four there could be six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve but we're we're starting with these four if you guys have other ideas go for it this team decided that we were going to focus on model three and four and then this team changed model three and four so we're allowed to change but not really there there's adjustments there were some things that you still had to say within the model um because i think there are some individuals that again like i said i'm talking within my team that if they could they would had would have taken a model three and a model four made a model uh hybrid from that those two models so i i agree and disagree at the same time i agree that once this team not the district once this team decided that this was going to be model 3 and model 4 then yes for for for the integrity of this team we could not have people creating a model five now or a model six because we were beyond that now right we had miss we we were beyond that and so yes once this team decided this is what model three is and this is what model four is then yes you cannot deviate from the models because this team had decided that that's what those models were going to be and again we were not point we were not at a point where again we can now be allowed to create a model 5 or a model 6 or a model 7.
they also cause bacterial infections pneumonia stop infections these are all things i have teenagers also in san juan unified school district and they the difference in their skin is is really bad i have to remind them every single day to wash their faces extra because they're coming home with acne and things that they did not have before and the last thing i thought it was important to present is that reopening of public education should be voluntary the guidelines set forth are not lost their guidelines the parents um not the government are in the best position to decide what's best for our kids that's all thank you and i i hope that you all would advocate for our kids and miss and um i have a printout it's a little bit fuzzy but it's the numbers from the health department that they put out just yesterday and just just to note that because this was not a jedis the board is not allowed to discuss it but thank you for the comments is there a way that i can reach out to you for some type of resolution to this in those i've emailed in the past and i haven't gotten a response so i'm trying to find you next week through your public comment section so online also is all of the boards emails so you can reach them through that to advocate to them uh i believe my direct email is on there too so if you want to communicate with me i can forward it to them but if you want to share information you can certainly go one-to-one with them and i will say so thank you for coming thank you there's also um if if you would be so inclined to do so there's an article from america's front line doctors that they put out regarding the k through 12 in masks and vaccines which will be coming up shortly i know i i think you all should read it dave they sent it to the administration and i think you also read it thank you very much when you email us please be aware that we all can't email you back because it would be a violation of brown act but the president can email you back thank you thank you very much okay um having no further public comments we'll move on to item number 12 boarding superintendent reports let's start with dr lee okay um all right welcome everybody um i would like to devote my board report this month um to recognizing that june is lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer or lgbtq plus pride month i'm so happy to be here as we strive to become a more inclusive district not just in our legally mandated adopted policies but also in our daily interactions with students and communities in 1969 in new york at the stonewall inn lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer and questioning people rose up to resist the persecution terror and harassment that they were commonly subjected to in their daily lives and to demand full equality a struggle that continues today the first gay pride parade was held in new york june 28 1970 one year after the stonewall uprisings in manhattan progress around civic equity moved slowly and so it wasn't until 30 years later in when president clinton declared june as national pride month as president clinton noted then in his proclamation for gay and lesbian pride month we cannot achieve to true tolerance merely through legislation we must change hearts and minds as well our greatest hope for a just society is to teach our children to respect one another to apprecia differences and to recognize the fundamental values that we hold in common in 2011 president barack obama expanded pride month to lesbian gay bisexual and transgender pride month and just this year in 2021 president joe biden recognized june as lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer pride month also in this year in 2021 nearby here in the city of lodi the first pride festival ever was held for that city its first ever so we as a nation have made great strides but we also have so much further to go to accelerate acceptance and to stamp out violence and discrimination against lgbtq plus people in our communities to support equal rights by promoting a culture where lgbtq plus people are embraced and respected this is why i recognize pride month and why myself and others continue to raise awareness and to stand in opposition to the spikes in violence against transgender people of color in particular and also why we reject the exclusion bullying and harassment that our young people who are gender diverse face in our schools and that also leave our lgbtq students at disproportionate risk for self-harm and suicide this is why i recognize pride month to celebrate the contributions achievements and sacrifices that lgbtq plus people have made to enrich all of our lives and to realize the american dream of freedom and equality i appreciate our educators that are embracing representation and inclusion in our history social science and health education frameworks i applaud our teachers that work with local organizations and national organizations like the gay lesbian and straight education network to raise awareness at our local school sites creating safe spaces for all students faculty and staff in our schools by establishing safe zones gay straight alliances and student clubs for lgbtq plus youth so that they too have a place to belong free from exclusion and discrimination i truly appreciate the way our family resource center works to create welcoming and inviting resources to validate and embrace the diverse family types that are in our community your work means so much to so many marginalized and pushed out students and families be emboldened and stay the course because the work you do may be more life affirming and indeed life saving than you could ever possibly know thank you for making classrooms safer for lgbtq plus students and students with lgbtq plus parents and family members and for making our classrooms and communities safe and inclusive for all of us here in the center family systems of oppression really do negatively impact all of our lives in profound and pervasive ways when one group is not free none are truly free thank you for not stopping until there is acceptance equality liberty and justice for every single person until all really does mean all and in that spirit happy pride month to everyone and i look forward to catching up with you all at my next office hours meeting july 5th from 4 to 5 on zoom drop in any time the link's on our board page and stay safe and be well and hope to talk to you all soon thank you dr lee this is anderson i would like to just say a great big huge thank you to craig for being with the district what 26 you have been a dedicated hard-working employee that everyone could go to and everyone knew to get the job done i don't know how to tell you or the words to say what an outstanding employee you've been and we're going to miss you everybody's gonna miss you it's fun to pick on you i wish you weren't going i really do um but i understand you want some time and you know life's without getting some fun time too so i hope you enjoy your years away and do some things that you've been wanting to do for a long time you deserve them you filled in a position that we needed desperately at the time and you took over and took over several positions at the time and handled it beautifully and have done so ever since so thank you for that thank you for your dedication to your job and we're going to miss you enjoy your retirement [Music] um because i did not do this in may i would like to congratulate the seniors of mccullen high school center high school the adult ed and also the students of riley's middle school that were promoted to the ninth grade this year each site did something different mcclellan had their graduation on their school grounds fortunately the weather was gorgeous and as always that event is very emotional center high school could accommodate all 280-ish something students um in their facility where they're a student on degree on the football field and parents were in the stands um so that was very nice and then mclaughlin or excuse me uh ryles had two promotions one at nine and one at 12 to accommodate everybody there um so congratulations to all a job well done briefly i would like to make a comment about our facilities and grounds i'm happy that our community members are utilizing our facility grounds for their mental health and physical health it's it's nice to see people out and about but please be cognizant of your actions pick up your trash just please don't drop it on the ground also pick up your dog mess um because that's also a hindrance to our groundskeepers and also please keep your dogs on leashes we do have summer school right now and we do have staff on presents that work uh as a full-time employees and this is a health hazard for our um students and employees and also our groundskeepers work at each site about coverage once a week so trash and dog feces can accumulate and it's a lot of work for them please continue your mental health and physical health at our sites because they are beautiful workshop it was a newborn workshop and i was so excited to see um all of us experiencing this event it brought us together and i'm really excited that we can all be together soon i'm in person and we can work well as a team um lastly i would on that lastly but i'd also like to say um and i'm gonna read this because i actually wrote a blurb i would like you to join me in thanking those unsung heroes who linger behind the scenes these are the parents who staff our booths at back to school night who organize events or perhaps comb your your hair your child's hair right before school photos these groups are the backbone of support for our schools they are our ptas our ptos and our boosters please join me in thanking all of those who work for these organizations that parents staff and administration get involved be a member of your local parent organization they work so hard so please thanks i'm excited to work with you on the facilities committee um it's it's one of the things that i really enjoy so i'm looking forward to working with you and then congratulations to kevin who is going to be our supervisor for maintenance and operations operations lastly everybody have a great summer rejuvenate get those wiggles out have fun with your families i'll see you in august that's my parking board thank you mr bru um i actually have some thought very similar to what this book said um i got to attend the graduation ceremonies the first time as a board member and i felt it was really moving you know especially considering what all those students went through with distance learning and i was really impressed by all of them i was very moved by attending those graduations and it got me thinking it's not just the graduating uh students and the eighth graders being promoted for this it's all of the students at all great levels it's the teachers the principals all the staff everyone who worked hard and i just want to say how much i appreciate everything that everyone was doing you know custodians having to keep everything clean the creighton facilities team just doing all kinds of things that i just um i just want to take a moment to say how much i appreciate this district um i feel like you know i came into the board in september and i feel like i've been very welcomed at all levels um i feel like this district really works together quite well i think we have a great relationship between the board the administration the unions and really focus on putting the students first and it's really good to see craig i want to take a moment here i haven't known you as long as they have but you will be missed but at the same time i'm really happy for you so it's bittersweet richard welcome i'm sure you're gonna be we'll be responding to you in no time uh and i also want to take a moment to thank eugene for all the hard work that he does keeping us up and running superintendent blair is absolutely wonderful every time i have something but most of all i want to thank carol means to keep everyone else doing what they need to do and i want you to know how appreciated you are thank you thank you very much so carol very nice scott i'm going to let you collab okay all right so um um so i finished masters in governance courses uh make five uh wasn't able to report on it last time we didn't have board reports so that was fun and interesting um looking forward to implementing a lot of the things that i learned i think these guys probably uh want me to take it down a few notches because i'm like hey we should do this we should do that so there's a little bit of enthusiasm i'll try and temper it a little bit but i think it'll be really good for the board to just start you know refreshing some of the things that they've done over the years and just you know start to start them up again um so i'm looking forward to that and then i also attended the graduations all of the graduations which was fabulous i i didn't cry too terribly much but as always mcquellen enjoy that gets you it would probably really get you when they start handing off the roses out it's it's moving absolutely and then um what else did we do this month that was it right i mean just uh the the session on [Music] a lot of planning in place and then lastly um i i don't know most everybody out there probably in internet land probably doesn't know this but i worked for maintenance operations for many years not here but in another district and was the best job of my life other than what i have now and i have to say that craig decent is the the best of the best when it comes to doing facilities management we i'm sorry i know you're going to be great but man every time we turn around he's getting a free bus he's getting good grants he's getting free labor to install brand new you know minor duty efficiency stuff he's doing plans he's doing a thousand things at one time and never once seems to blood pressure never goes up i don't know i don't know i don't talk to his doctor but he just just does it and it's great that the bird maintenance plan the everything whenever i ask for anything he's got it right there the tip of his fingers uh the consultancy work that we did with the district-wide sweep where we know every piece of equipment on this district that needs to be replaced is just phenomenal i mean i could go on for days the work that he's done whoever gets to follow behind you is uh lucky lucky in the sense that everything is in such great order and unfortunate in the sense that they have big shoes to fill so um sadly i will not be able to uh i'm leaving town this evening uh so i'm saying goodbye to you now i will miss you tremendously and she's crying again you just have always been great and i just got one problem i don't want to make because you know i i appreciate my time here but without the people around you it's impossible to do so you know whether it's you know finding someone to install free lighting or you need to have a bus guide that will help you fill out the application you got to have great grounds guys and yeah great maintenance guys great warehouse guys um and great vendors that they'll bend over backwards for you so you know it's it's it's amazing the support over the years that i've gotten from many different people and you know my wife says you make your own life but um i don't think left over being great anytime so yeah thank you you may get more than one call for desperate people all right that's my report it's weird and i'm going to have a great summer sorry everybody and i did promise craig that we wouldn't talk about this he made me swearing i i know kelly emailed me but but on that same i just have to say it's prejudice said that you surround yourself with great people and that's one of the challenges i'll have is i've been surrounded by him very helpful to me uh i cannot tell i won't tell the board all the times i've gone into his office and oh my gosh how are we gonna make this one together we plan through it and we could write a book um but we won't write a book um because no one would believe our book but anyway and craig and i've worked i've known correctly for years probably the 36 years you've been with the district i've known him and every time when we worked as vice principal he was my vice principal at dudley uh we used to solve great papers with students with discipline uh when he was part-time and then to now it sorry richard probably gonna get richard to run out of here tonight we should have talked about him after you guys approved him because he may exit but i just thank craig for everything he's done not just professionally but personally uh craig's the guy that also if you mention something he'll just show up so one day i was going to prune some trees at my house next thing that he's showing up with his chainsaw one time i'm in tahoe he's in tahoe shows up with his kayaks so be careful what you ask for with craig because he will be there and usually with a nice cup of coffee um but anyway thank you craig for everything you've done for me and for the district and the students and it it's been a great uh run but i'm really happy for you you'll enjoy it i did forget also to mention our new people and i wanted to make sure i congratulated our promotions ron baioni christina de grange uh kevin coons and then new hires angelina cole morgan mcneese selena adams jennifer perry king harry kane jessica stiles suzanne mclaughlin brian gibbons and mikel jeffrey welcome you're gonna love it here i keep going well i wasn't done oh i'm sorry that's okay i also wanted to to just acknowledge y'all right you know one thing you just said and it really resonated with me is we've spent a lot of time thanking our staff our students but we have left out our parents and i think to me that is a backbone of what we do our community around us is support so thank you for bringing that up that just really resonated with me that there and and the comment about combing the kid's hair is absolutely correct 100 i get it other parents other parents take care of those that can't maybe cannot be there and so i think that we cannot be overlooking that so thank you for bringing that up because i i agree with you without that community of support we would not be the district that we are um very very important and then i just wonder summer school is going very very well appreciate all the staff and folks that are participating in that the students i've been able to get into many of the rooms it is so awesome to see the kids students interacting laughing joking enjoying each other and we missed that over the last 16 months and then um finally i just want to wish everyone a wonderful wonderful summer and take the time that you have i know july for a lot of us is going to be a nice relaxing month because last year we did not get that and so i encourage everyone to take advantage of that and even though sitting in the room to take advantage of that so anyway thank you okay uh moving on to item number 13 consent agenda we have a motion to approve to move thank you mr sanderson thank you dr lee all right um any conversation discussion on the consent agenda hearing none just acknowledge i just want to welcome uh richard gore just acted to welcome richard putnam as our next facilities director and uh comes to us from the city where he worked in the facilities department for many years also has his contracting license i think richard will be a great addition to us uh a local individual as well uh grew up in lincoln actually honor came through and then has family out in rio linda area um so it's kind of funny how someone from the outside coming in but realistically is very familiar with our area and i want to just acknowledge one thing and i probably shouldn't you know hr isn't here right now so i can say it but one of the things that i personally liked about what richard did when he interviewed was i think it was sunday went around and looked and poked around all of our facilities before his interview and it was interesting that he could tell us oh i see the project going on oak hill oh i see you just pulled a portable out so i knew at that point i'm like that's someone who wants to be with us and wants to be part of our family so i wholeheartedly welcome richard to this role and i know the district will support him any way shape and form to make him successful because your success is our success so officially welcome looking forward to working with you sorry if they scared you about the shoes [Music] we look forward to working with you as well okay moving on to item number 14 business items a comprehensive survey this is a discussion item so um for discussion no she was going to discuss this so i brought this forward simply because i want to get a a really good picture of what we are surveying people for um i know the past year there's been a lot of surveys and you know jesse pope was concerned about is over surveying the foods i'm also concerned about identifying any gaps that we might have in our surveying and just making sure that we have a really good solid plan so that we are getting good response and and not overwhelming people but yet getting the information that we need so um that said if if we can find out from mr mirror what we do already do as far as regular surveys and then recent surveys so so this year has been obviously these last 16 months we have surveyed our folks extensively and and with that i would say you know we surveyed recently for our lcap we do that every spring where we get that out this year we also had the learning elop plan we had to survey families on obviously over the course of the last 16 week we surveyed them i won't even i probably can't remember all the different surveys we did but then we also will do our california health and kids survey type we do not do the california healthy kids survey anymore we use panorama which supported approve which which addresses engagement connection with school things of that nature safety um and then in addition i know we've done things over cte what what individuals want there is a multitude of survey i would suggest is if there's something we want to get at we look at what tools we currently have and then think about that because i'll be really honest towards the end when we were surveying we did not get a lot of feedback because i think people like joseph another survey coming out so we need to be very cognizant of what we survey and when we survey and what we're looking for um moving ahead so when you say that over the past 16 weeks you've had so many surveys that you couldn't name them all what 16 months i'm sorry you know return to school what barriers things like that all stuff that was related to reopening returning things like that so when was the last time we did a barriers or church school type survey like not just saying names you want to change it but like the actual survey uh barriers would have been probably back in jordan trying to think was going to start yet remember we did the learning a lot survey where we set out asking what what should we do do you mind coming out of my store because i don't know if we can hear from that far back without the microphone sorry sorry on may 10th we did a learning law survey where we sent out to all the families what should we work on moving forward looking into next year based on the pandemic and not making it school we got about 79 responses that's it yes out of 42.45 42 and change i think oh yeah 4200 students but less with some family um and and so if we're looking at barriers to return uh that would have been one what folks wanted but we didn't you know we got we didn't get a lot of response to that plus we re-put out bell cap and that kind of overlap because we're looking for what can help improve the environment um l-cap is annually elp was a one-time one time and i have a feeling that lisa with the esser i'm sure we're gonna have to reach out and create a plan with that too so i'm sure we'll be surveying on on that as well i guess what i would ask is what what are we if we're trying to find information i'd want to know what it is and then we can utilize the tools we have to develop that if it's a barriers what's restricting or how do you feel we did survey the students at the end of the year with our what would be equivalent to the california healthy kids survey we'll be able to bring that data forward we use that our panorama for that um so again we're open we just want to know what what what we would want um and where we want to go with it because i want to make sure it's it's something that we would actually utilize uh moving forward because if we're surveying the survey i think people aren't going to feel as engaged we wouldn't be able to do something with it so on the healthy kids survey that covers like culture and site safety like substance stuff that i'm aware of trying to think of the question the healthy kids one does how these kids so they did kids that was specific and that was related because we had a two we had a 2b grant and so with that tobacco's prevention so that was one that we would hit that module we don't have that anymore because it was not worthless i don't think they're honest on that anyway so if we're looking for engagement uh all those pieces our panorama survey is the one we we can get data the problem we have too is when we put out and no problem sorry because we both did this but with google forms we get raw data panorama which you guys approve we we can we can slice it dice it anyway i know dr lee you and i spoke a little bit about the other day there if i was to encourage anything i would go that route the other piece and i'm going to give dr lee credit for this i'm not going to jump in but she had the idea what what if we had our panorama uh consultant come in give the board a little overview of what it can do and then there are and dr lady you pretty familiar with it was they do a 360 survey you can get the student voice the staff voice community voice around social emotional learning around uh safety connectedness and then we can take from that bank of questions and assign that work that that survey then once it's responded to i'm not kidding i can slice it and dice it any way you want so we can identify subgroups classifications that is our plan that we would like to utilize that more more thoroughly that's why i also am concerned about doing a different one if since we did purchase this i would like to go with that wrap um i just didn't know from this conversation what what we were trying to get at just so i could see if it actually did accomplish that or not this conversation in general is what i wanted to i mean i just want to know what we're surveying what tools we're using when we're doing those surveys and and then find out if there's anything more as a board but i like i like dr lee's idea of having a consultant come in and you know go over what the program does do or even if not the consultant even if you know mr jordan wants to come in and provide us a brief report of you know what kind of things are possible or whoever it would be and we'll be running like our lcap steps all going to be through that because the way we receive the data we have to manually adjust it through you know there are some tools it drops into spreadsheets but this creates some really cool uh informative glances to look at the data versus you know near mr jordan trying to make fancy excel spreadsheets and not that we can't but it's like it's extremely efficient so if the board wants to continue kind of i can reach out something that really needs to be brought to the board of an open session couldn't be a conversation with you mr dory mr lair and then you can figure out what you're looking for and then bring it to the board and say this is what i'm looking for this is what i want but to sit there and hash and talk about this takes a lot of time and we have to call that verbal day i've only cursorly looked at um panorama and um that like like um mr lair was mentioning um when i saw the different you know things that it the different question banks um the 360 survey is something that looks really promising and something that would be informative for me as a board member and i think for for just the community in general because it's going to take the student the teacher and staff and faculty and community around whatever topics that we're interested in like their perceptions of the implementation of mtss or equity and inclusion or sel i mean you can include elements from each part um and so that's why i was kind of mentioning that maybe we should get a rep in to speak with us um to really talk about the 360 survey and how that could be rolled out in like best practice around it because i know for one thing timing of that survey is something that's important you don't want to do it at the beginning of a year when students haven't even had time to be in a climate you know uh yet um so i i'd really like to get their guidance um on that because they are the ones who made these surveys which are nationally normed and they work with districts and schools around it all the time it looks like i mean from the cursor look i've done to it um and i'm just curious about you know how can that 360 survey uh you know be designed so that we're getting data points from all our different constituents on these different topics mtss equity inclusion sel uh specifically were ones that stood out for me and that's a thank you dr lake point the other piece that's valuable is that right it's nationally norm so those questions are given across the united states we can then compare our district you can even look at comparable districts and they'll so you can start norming where you fall within that um so and i just looked at mike we could definitely get if that's the will to board or or we can meet with a smaller group i mean kelly i'm happy to meet with you in the rep and you know whatever whatever you guys want to do i think it would be good information i think doing something right now timing would be uh we wouldn't get the results that we want i i think if we could figure out a time that we better once certainly once school gets started if we're going with the sel piece or any of the connectedness because right now i can tell you kids aren't connected because they don't feel um they've really been a part of it yeah and i think parents are burned out people are just fizzled they just want to breathe yeah that's why i think that getting someone in to speak with us like in our august or september meeting would be really informative for everyone to know what we're up to why we're doing it and what is it i mean i think it's something that if you want stakeholders to be involved you should really inform them about it that's part of the informing piece of that a lot of those survey questions too are asked in such a way that they get the answer they want they're not asked in a way that people can respond with their and that's what's nice about this using this company because they're it's research-based they put it to the test they really do uh go through so to me if that works for you i'm happy to reach out to the rep see if they can come and do a you know 10 minute overview see if you have any questions at least then you guys would be informed then we could come back and say okay now we've looked at what this can do hey scott's team what can we do with it and then get that data i mean perfect if that works for people does that work yeah mr so we'll we'll just for for my clarity we'll look at uh september class through august or september meeting to bring in right thank you all right item b uh declaration of need for fully qualified educators department of education and the community commissioner on teacher credentialing regulations for the issuance of emergency teaching credentials require that individual districts submit a declaration of need for fully qualified educators each year for any anticipated certificated positions that may need to be filled with an individual holding an emergency credential to the floor do we have any discussion just to share this is a routine uh annual document that we bring uh at this time we're not anticipating the emergency permits being needed but this document does allow us if it arises we do have some vacancies that have occurred in some hard to fill spots so this would give us flexibility after we've looked at fully credentialed interns and you go down the line so this is just the opportunity for us if we so chose down the road to be able to try and fill them soon okay there's discussion questions roll call vote miss uh dr lee sorry hi uh this is anderson hi this is coach hi mr bruno hi the chair of outside item 14c is local control and accountability plan lcap and annual update we have a motion and a second no just we we appreciated the uh the opportunity to share last time we don't have presentations because nothing had really changed significantly the one i just wanted to share is and i did share with the board individually that we will be looking at bringing in also each of our elementary school music and physical education teacher that will allow for students to participate in those activities uh throughout the school day it won't be daily but it will create schedules for that to happen the other fun thing that i like is we will also be able to hopefully with a music teacher offer some sort of banner choir before after school and based off the conversation we had about start times and things like that if we could do something before school that would give more kids an opportunity to participate and also help mom or dad or grandma grandparent and getting their kid to school a little bit earlier since our start times had adjusted i have about 100 comments questions that are none of them relevant to the approval of this lcap and i will bring them up a little bit further with mr near i did want to make a note of one i don't know just this one thing kind of stood out to me i thought it was kind of interesting um on a get the right page here aside oh my gosh i'm sorry where's the 8-bit thing okay well i'll just go by memory so basically what i noted was that on the ag a2g registration we have disaggregated data but on the energy completion we have um whatever it's called you're always in the discipline i don't need a data sorry sometimes in my words um but i also noted that in the disaggregated data that the races or the groups that are not achieving at the same percentage of the student population are white hispanic and filipino which i thought was kind of interesting and that blacks were exceeding their percentile and um some of the asian groups were way exceeding their percentiles and um you know even the smaller groups like the native americans and uh pacific islanders were also achieving above so i thought that was kind of interesting it's different than what you normally expect to see um and so i really appreciated getting the disaggregated data and i would hope i hope that we can get seeing more and more of that in the future so you will it's really useful so we want all the kids to get their agency it's nice to see where there might be gaps absolutely that's all we have a motion to approve in a second with any other discussion or questions we'll call vote dr lee aye ms motion the only discussion i'll do is this is the only time i'm happy to present the budget to you and give my presentation that is my presentation so i i think miss coronado did an outstanding job at the public hearing so i thank her for that and we don't have anything else unless there's questions um any questions comments lisa you always do a fantastic job i know in the beginning you know you were brand new to everything but you have risen to the occasion and have done a great job all the way through so thank you for that i know you put in long hard hours advanced planning future meeting dates the regular next regular meeting will be wednesday august 18th and appear in this room and we need suggested agenda items i do i would like to discuss and possibly have an action item on the mass issue the wearing of mass within the district um i heard miss truex and i think we should give some discussion to them yeah i agree um i was actually going to suggest the same thing you should be talking about i agree that's good so the idea of discussion on mask wearing update on what the current guidance is is that what you really mean yeah and if we could make it an action item but with no specific action identified then that leaves it open like we did before for the board to make a potential mission finally that would be great anything else i would like to have a discussion and also an open-ended action uh just regarding uh our meeting format no suggestion so okay any present in person just kind of thinking about we've got kids returning to school august 3rd the heat's going to be over 100 or who knows how many days and we're going to expect the more asks there's it's a more complicated issue than just yes or no tonight so and it's not something that we could discuss right i would love to because can i just see it can i go back when you say meeting format i'll just organize it as meeting format with discussion and then possible action we may end up having a special meeting to talk about that because i can see kids having health issues like heat stroke and stuff trying to wear masks in the heat do we want to have a special meeting in advance of school starting uh not july no i'm not i'm not here school starts august 3rd i'm not available in july but we could do the first week of august but our normal meeting is the third week so we could do our first week of august we need to let's see what you know happens between now and then they may do away with bestsell as we start getting closer to the new school year we'll worry about it see where we stand and i have a i just want to make sure that it's noted for future meeting to have a consultant or representative from panorama to come in and speak with us i'm just putting that in there too great thank you any other agenda items for future readings oh sorry i just want to clarify specifically regarding a 360 survey not just a general survey but a 360 survey it's a very specific format and the board will not continue closed session uh we have a motion motion to adjourn yeah at uh second is seven number one good night everybody
yeah again this is terry with esg i think we could easily do that bob that's a simple modification i'm paul i'm ready okay um i'm reading from the appeal granted um portion of the packet i moved that in case bba 21-003 the appeal of the building officials decision that the work to be performed at 603 east liberty was granted relief from section 705.8.1 and table 705.8 and the building board of appeal reverses the building officials decision for the reasons that the applicant is proposing an equal or better form of construction in so far as it will be using rated 180 minute fire doors in combination with a deluge system in lieu of the proposed fire shutters at double firewall conditions um and that those doors will be interconnected to the 616 212 and 603 fire alarm systems and that further that the doors from the restroom doors exiting into the bathroom vestibule by door number four swing in the direction of travel similar to the new or to the proposed egress door to the alleyway any comments on the motion on the board that's my only concern is where we're tying the alarms of three different buildings to the same doors um i think the architect should look at that and include that in their proposal as to if there's some reason why that doesn't make sense they can uh explain it john reiser has his hand a couple things uh was there a second and do you need to have that read back because that was quite a long motion uh or do you have some sense of that deborah so we know that we're talking about what we're debating i would ask a second i would ask that um bob read it back or email it to you if he's reading from something he's reading from what's in the packet okay i'm also reading from my notes right right here he supplemented it i just want to make sure you get it and they talk about it and we vote on it one way or the other so bob the way you read uh worded that is the alarm tied to the building on each side of the wall and not all three are together that's they don't need the alarm running ties to the shared wall correct there's more than one share i mean there are really one there's several ships using theater to two one two two or michigan theater to the six one six but they don't not not not two one two to six one six we don't tie together how about um adding that that they would be interconnected to the 616 212 and 603 fire alarm systems as deemed appropriate by the architect of record and the building official that works for me okay can you re-read the whole thing bob again please sorry sorry you gotta record it bob play it back um oh okay holmen [Applause] okay i move that in case bba 21-0 the appeal of the building officials decision that the work to be performed at 603 liberty is granted relief from section 705.8.1 and table 705.8 and the building board of appeals reverses the building officials decision for the reason that the applicant has proposed an equal or better form of construction in so far as it will be using rated 180 minute fire doors in combination with the deluge system in lieu of the proposed fire shutters at double firewall conditions which will be interconnected to the 616 212 and 603 fire alarm systems as deemed appropriate by the building official and architect of record further that the doors exiting into the bathroom vestibule by new door number four will swing in the direction of travel as does the new egress door to the allen second second any other further discussion next one of the big box i'm retired must be nice those in favor of the motion um as uh written or said there say aye aye those against [Music] we have no votes again so it's five nothing and it looks like it passes thank you paul thank you thank you thank you next item on the agenda is uh dba 2102 we've got a c minutes there's a bba 2104 appeal at 115 117 west liberty and over michigan the applicant tied in yet deborah yeah we should have everyone on they unmute themselves uh hello uh this is tresna taylor i'm from dfdg the architect of record deborah are people able to hear me yes we hear you fine thank you so first we'll have a uh staff report glenn um the arts center is uh proposing to put two openings in the walls of the adjoining properties at 115 and it is on the first and second floor they're asking for relief from section 705 and table 705.8 allowing the opening in the fire rated wall as i had mentioned on the first and second floor this would allow access to the different programs and functions of both buildings and provide some safety for the individuals and probably most specifically minors that may be tr transferring to and from both locations and they're proposing to have fire doors shutters and a deluge system also very similar to the last year they are proposing an equal or equal or better form of construction and that's what they're weighing in on okay thank you can the absolute bend present their appeal uh yes um so i um this is a little bit less complicated than the previous applicant um we were really proposing as glenn um summarized the two openings um i guess i wanted to add on the on the first floor um it is a six foot opening with a fire shutter um that fire shutter would be open during the business hours to connect the proposed exhibit gallery which is going to be on the 115 side with the um 117 side which is the current art center that would connect to the retail gallery and the classroom buildings um that fire shutter door would be closed every night so that the art center can secure the exhibit gallery because they do art classes at night in the evenings and so on on the second floor we are proposing a three hour metal swing door fire door um this door would have a closer um so its normal position would be closed um we as far as suppression goes uh our existing building 117 is partially suppressed um the basement and the third floor is suppressed but we have enough capacity in the system um to add additional sprinklers and so as glenn noted we will be adding the deluge system on the 117 side of each of these openings so we feel that um the combination of the three r fire doors on each of the levels plus the suppression on the 117 side um provides uh an equal um construction in terms of the fire protection the fire rating of the party wall and um i guess to some of the comments from uh that arose in the previous um previous application that that again this is a building it's it is um both buildings or both units are owned by the art center um it really it is a property line technically they are two different tax parcels we have a lot of similar issues with the um you know the ownership being condominiums that complicates um technically the legalese of combining the properties but um you know for the practice for the i guess what i'm saying is like practically speaking it's it's one owner um and so we are basically um you know seeing the fight at the party wall uh as a firewall and we're protecting it as you would any normal firewall thank you there's a board have any questions for the applicant just uh because you're doing the deluge on only one side of the um the wall uh is there a reason why it's only on one side uh yeah so currently the 115 side is not suppressed although um actually the representative from the contractor from o'neill construction who is a little bit more well-versed in the fire suppression system so if matt gudenow is able to chime in with any additional information that would be helpful but my understanding is that um it is um not suppressed on the 115 side okay is there enough water capacity or besides the line is it the issue not to suppress the 115 side for the building um i i think it i think it has to do with the size of the line um but again i would defer to matt on that one we have that currently present uh deb it looks like can you hear me okay can you hear me glenn yeah sorry about that guys all technical difficulties um yeah so that is correct we we don't have adequate uh water source on the 115 side to be able to add uh fire suppression on the 115 side we do have plenty of water source available on the 117 side that we could feed both sides of the opening but we assume that wouldn't be allowed to cross the uh the firewall and you know suppress two addresses with uh from one side of the building so if i could ask what triggers the um the fire shutter well actually let me ask this question first the door that's on the um upper floor is that on a on some kind of a magnetic hold open or is it just typically a self-closing fire door a second it would be a self-closing fire door there would be no hold open okay and it would be three hour yes okay i'm just you know on your schedule it references back to a two-hour fire door okay i will double check that i think that this might have been left over from a previous version um actually it should be it should be a three hour fire door with a closer and no but no panic pardon no without a padding bar and without a panic attack yes it's not it's not an egress door um both both the buildings egressed separately without having to go through either one of these openings okay and what triggers the fire shutter that would be triggered by the fire alarm on either side of the of the door okay so and then if somebody closes that fire shutter every night they have the wherewithal to reset it every morning um so i'm not sure uh logistically what's involved but that door would be closed every night and opened every morning well that's a kind of big logistical question i mean it's there's somebody who you know first of all they can do that and there's nothing you know more complicated than opening you know there's a fusible link in there yeah yeah um that's your intent it seems like you don't want swinging doors or some other kind of door there you have to close them open every day because right now is to have um you know a generous opening between the gallery and the uh retail space um you know it just has a way to function and a way to um provide so that the art center staff can monitor both spaces easily during the day tres might i suggest uh you know like you say i assume the the overhead cloning door would uh be triggered by either the fire alarm or a fusible link i think part of the idea of closing the gate every night is a measure of security you know maybe that could be done with you know a non-rated just basic security gate that uh you know wouldn't impede the function of the fire shutter oh it could i suppose i guess in my um you know research on the fire door system i mean this door is rated to be opened up to 10 times per day um it's so it's not like a high traffic kind of door but it definitely would support being open and closed once every day so i'm i'm used to a fire door that you can open and shut and then it has a fusible link so if the door happens to be opened it triggers the weight and then a weight drops down and the door shuts it sounds like there's something like that where it's a usable door reasonably usable door but if it's left open and the fusible link is broken then it automatically allows the door to shut that was my understanding as well but the door is connected to the fire alarm system that that triggers that triggers it closing all right can it not be can it not be uh linked to both a fusible link and a fire alarm i actually it's not my area of expertise so um i apologize for that but um i i don't know i guess from yeah from my understanding that i think that those things were possible that you could have it um operate it once a day and yet in in an open position it could be triggered to be closed if it were either by a feasible link and or a fire alarm you probably could reward the motion in a way that we just said has opening protections on there and then you could determine what kind of protection you want to put on there there's a swinging door overhead door or whatever but it's just going to have a three-hour opening for you know opening protection on there let me give you some flexibility yeah i think that would be that would be very helpful is there any other part of the athlete too uh that's just the opening is that one thing we're dealing with in this as far as the variance this is the opening are the two levels no it was just this uh issue with openings on the property line any other questions by the board somebody come up with a motion one minute okay uh this is under appeal granted language i moved it in case bba 21-004 the appeal of the building officials decision that the work to be performed at 115 and 117 west liberty is granted relief from section 705 and table 705.8 that the building board of appeal reverses the building officials decision for the reasons that the applicant is proposing an equal or better form of construction with the following stipulations that the applicant can verify the capability of the fire shutter to operate automatically and manually without jeopardizing its functionality and that two door number 230 is confirmed to be a three-hour rated self-closing non-egress door your second a second is discussion on the motion um you want to have i'm raising my hand if i might okay um was there going to be a water system on one side yeah i mean that was part of their proposal is it in the stipulation it is part of their planned proposal yeah okay so it's probably good to include that in the narrative probably would be good to some one of the fire sprinkles on the on the 117 side i guess the lucious and the 117 side you so you'd want to add that as a another part of this yeah i think we would reinforce their application then just just to be uh from the amendment to include that in there okay narrative then deborah amending the motion to read that there will be a suppression a fire suppression deluge system at each level on the uh 117 west liberty side of the opening thank you second the amendment okay any other further discussion if not uh those in favor say aye aye anyone opposed seeing none the motion passes thank you thank you everyone next item on the agenda is scroll back up there uh deborah just as a point of order when we were unanimous it's a vote of four people not five i think paul might have said he thought it was five oh for five or so before yeah got it thank you okay thank you thank you old business from the board new business so glenn you had commented that uh we have another person resigned from the board so we're looking at more people to be on the board yes we have two open positions and we are looking for applicants right now any other new business seeing not anybody want to make a motion to adjourn so moved second back to the those in favor all right we are adjourned 242.
i have worked all my adult life with at-risk children first in a residential facility 15 years and as a teacher's aide while completing my bachelor's degree and finally as a teacher this school district has been the only place where i have had to cover my tattoos on a daily basis which is really more obvious than if i just left them showing i feel that this policy is one with no real purpose i did part of my student teaching my first year as a teacher working with one of our local charter schools which does not require their teachers to cover tattoos it has been there has been no backlash from parents or students toward the teachers and they still they are still representative and seen as authority figures on campus and in class i hope the board reconsider moving the staff dress code requirement from the policy book especially in the upper grade levels fifth through eighth thank you thank you for your consideration on this topic those are our three mailed in don't forget yes i apologize um i did not read our notice this is the time where public may speak to the governing board regarding issues with the dir within the jurisdiction of the governing board and subject to reasonable time space and amount of restrictions the governing board may establish uh comments are limited to three minutes per individual unless specifically weighed by the governing board at the conclusion of the call the public individual members of the governing board may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may have staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be placed on a future agenda however the governing board cannot take action on matters that have not been noticed in advance as part of the agenda so we just have the one okay thank you eva corbett bullhead city can you hear me okay a little louder okay uh i'm just wondering why are these two board members that are not present one i know is out of town i don't know personal issue with the other how are we going to know how they how they feel about or how they um you know what their platform is about this issue if they're not here and why aren't they here this is a very important important meeting for the people also about how are we going to know what actually is going on in the school room if we can't go visit i understand parents are not our non-parents are not allowed to visit the school rooms so how are we going to know what's actually being taught thank you okay that's our last call to the public thank you all right item three the consent agenda we need a motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented no adopt the whole agenda oh adoption that's wrong consent i'm way off i apologize we're on 2.6 i just saw the black line that's threw me off 2.6 adoption of the agenda as submitted i move that we adopt the agenda aspen as second all in favor aye corey burgess aye junie borland aye charlene diaz so moved superintendent reports dr stewart you have my written reports for miscellaneous updates we did receive a check yesterday from the company that's handling our online yard sale so it's our first check 635 dollars so it's a start and then i would like to just update you that two weeks ago i met with nine stakeholder groups and three general meetings regarding needs and wish lists for our strategic plan including our use of sr-3 funding and then i also had a meeting with what amounts to the 13th stakeholder group which is a community group that is exploring our issues of housing for employees i did forget one thing i'm off kilter today i guess if i would like to go back to the adoption of the agenda if we could for a moment and ask the motion be revisited if we can scroll down to our executive session please uh our wording for our executive session is not done correctly um so i would like to ask the emotion be amended uh to withdraw our executive session for today so we can put that on the next one and word it correctly um i i apologize i missed that so we'd have to ask a withdrawal of the original motion um so then the the corrected motion would be to approve the current adoption with the exception of the executive session which is number six correct second that all in favor aye corey burgess what's not worded correctly uh the reasons that we're going into executive session we didn't put it in there correctly there's certain policies that we can go in for we're just gonna ask to move that into our july meeting so we're still gonna do it we just didn't post it correctly i'll second that we've got a motion and a second all in favor aye corey burgess hi jeannie borland hi charlene diaz so moved and we did our report thank you i appreciate that uh donations uh this list is only a very small list uh looking through our reports from our administrators amazing if the community as they always do step up and help our schools in so many different ways but from this list desert valley schools 731 brand bags brand bags from kim hanson an estimated value of 178 dollars 58 two night stays from sean hammond at the aquarius casino for employee appreciation valued at eight thousand seven hundred dollars uh the district received two flower pots from star nursery for employee appreciation a value of 172 dollars and 14 cents and one beautifully made wreath for the schoolhouse uh from jim and carrie forgin uh claire sorry and it's the yes the one we have on the wall and didn't we also get yes mr forgione made this just finished another piece of his beautiful artwork for our school also so we'd love to thank them for what they do fox creek junior high school three pieces three-piece sectional sofa with chase lounge and nine chairs from dr melissa bond bullhead middle school supplies at an estimated value of 75 dollars in coyote canyon various stickers pencils erasers from michael harnell at an estimated value of 200 and like i said before our community helps in so many different ways that we only see a small list here um thank you so much for all that you do for us any donation can be accepted at the district office or at the school site itself uh we don't turn away donations so we we we greatly appreciate all that come in our way um yes yes take it to the school or here to the district office and they will give you a receipt go through the processes there and and we do think so many people of the community help us in so many ways yes and another way on our donations is tax credits something to definitely look into that's never never can stress that enough we refer to you at um uh online yard sale what is is that a school thing is that a district thing is that i'm not sure but we can definitely um can we give information on what i'll have you doing because it's not on your agenda if i can just contact dr stewart and she can fill you in on that all right board member updates item 2.9 do we have any additional updates from board members uh now item three consent agenda if we get a motion to accept the consent agenda i move that we accept the consent agenda i'll second that all in favor aye corey burgess i have some things i want to talk about so there's items you'd like to pull 3.4 3.7 and 3.8 let's go down the list of the consent agenda then so can you scroll back up um so okay i i couldn't yeah and 3.9 was approval of consent agenda so i was super confused oh i didn't i thought i'm way off because that's what you ordinarily do is you just do the approval usually i know but it was listed at the end sorry i'm out of order again i apologize um so 3.2 administrative reports did we have any questions on that 3.3 personnel 3.4 ratification of vouchers yes i didn't see them so i don't want to prove them without seeing them kim i couldn't open any high focus on anything one of the things mr president one of the things that happened when we did not have the meeting on thursday and essentially moved the same agenda to tonight when when kim did that the all of the attachments did not move so other than the change in the one item for the workshop and the one item for the meeting in new business all of those other documents remain they just didn't move with the agenda i haven't seen the voucher for 537 thousand dollars and i'm not comfortable proving it without seeing it so you want to pull 3.4 that's okay absolutely yes sure we can do that going back um well and i couldn't see 3.7 or 3.8 either this is the other part of the vouchers right i like the breakdown okay yes so you want those cold also uh i want to see a breakdown of them um so that still leaves us three five student activity we good yep um are you i'm sorry mr president are you tabling uh i was gonna withdrawal our motion make sure we're good i don't miss any i've missed enough just so just so we're sure that we follow up how you want us to um tax credit clubs were good yep three seven and three eight okay so we will need a there's three seven did you want to see it or do you want to well we're going to pull them okay yeah okay so three seven and three eight so we need to withdraw the previous emotion yeah i would draw the previous motion and my new motion is to approve the consent agenda with the exception of three point four three point seven and 3.8 which we'll withdraw then i will second that all in favor aye corey burgess hi jeannie borland hi charlene diaz thank you thank you no problem uh item 4.1 uh old business policy gbe communication feedback this is our second reading so we do need to take action i'm sorry mr president i rather have a question usually when you pull the items you discuss them separately are you talking about not even tabling them okay but you so then you do need to table them individually you need to table those three individually all right so i'm going to make a motion to modify your preview no it's a new image it's a new motion you just you just move to table those until the next meeting that we table items 3.4 3.7 and 3.8 on the consent agenda to our next meeting yeah we'll get to our next meeting okay i'll second that all in favor aye corey burgess hi jeannie borland aye charlene dies all right now i hope we're good okay item 4.1 policy g b g e policy community feedback uh this is our second reading if we could pull that up please so there is action we do need to take on this we went over this in our last meeting no additional changes any questions then i move we approve item four point i'm gonna say it wrong so if we can put policy bge policy community feedback we get a second i second emotion all in favor aye corey burgess aye jenny borland aye charlene dies okay policy b-e-d-g minutes this is also a second reading any additional problems or changes that we've seen from last meeting okay then i move we approve item b-e-d-g uh policy b-e-d-g can i get a second i'll second that motion all in favor aye corey burgess aye jeanne borland aye charlene diaz so i moved uh policy bedf voting method this once again is a second reading and we will need to take action any changes problems then i move we approve item policy b e d f voting method i'm sick of the motion all in favor aye corey burgess aye genie borland aye charlene diaz so moved new business uh classroom site fun plan for the school year 2021 22.
uh in both dr davis i haven't had a chance to actually talk to dr ferreira but in talking with dr davis she was sad to not be working with us loved working with us as we love working with her um and just so everybody knows it's very important and this this is the the back side of administration that people don't always see with these things um mr post and i were told by the cfo of nouvents that it was the doctors that were requesting more money and certainly when i expressed that to dr davis she didn't even know anything about this so that wasn't what was going on but we certainly can't go from eight thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars for those services especially when we likely will not need the services to anywhere near the level of what we did this past year so we're excited and and uh if the opportunity comes for july um and we can get dr sullivan perhaps we could have dr garcia not only to be introduced but to weigh in on masks and things like that that would be great to have them so i have only one more piece but i'll save that for after dr ruby uh talks about summer school gives us enough sounds thanks dr ruby so we're busily working on summer school and we currently we we did some changing of location due to the number of classrooms and the the building and whatnot that's going on in the district so the k through four will be at ces and the uh five through eight will be at wiscons we're also i think you might recall trying to work with the park and rec with their programs because you know we're just really kind of cramped this summer with everything that's going on so we have a site director at each of the schools we are fortunate that the special ed summer program is also at those schools so we're able to piggyback on the nursing because as many of you know there's a nursing requirement for summer school so we don't have to duplicate those services because we have the nursing services paid for through the special education funding for esy and so what we have is the the students have been invited we've been inviting students on a rotating basis we didn't have as difficult a time hiring teachers as we anticipated so we have eight teachers for the lower grades and we have six teachers for the upper grades and we want to keep the classes quite small so that the students can get the individualized instruction from a certified teacher so in thinking about how we you know engage the children and uh you know keep keep their um like really a sense of joy up we hired the future teachers of america club students and national honor society peer helpers i don't know if that's the right term but peer counselor people these kids are really energetic really interested in tutoring of course the future teachers of america club members want to be teachers so we have hired them to work in the program and we'll have i'll call them both teachers two teachers two at the elementary to about 12 students so that's a six to one ratio which is i think quite impressive and we have pd for the the people who are participating as educators in uh late june and what will happen in the k through six there's a difference between what we're doing with k through six and seven and eight for reasons that relate to the involvement of the kids and a lot of other things during the summer k-6 will be having their individualized instruction that's based on their their documented needs and their srbi plans and other data but they're also going to be engaged in a hands-on stem curriculum that we we researched a bunch of different companies that you know provide opportunities for in a curriculum that are that address science math art technology speech and language reading and writing all into an engaging format and we got from the national inventors hall of fame which has been producing summer and after school programming for since the mid-80s so they're very successful and it's national as they found out in talking to the company once we decided to use them they actually ran a camp in brookfield before john and i got here one summer and they had contacted me because i ended up talking to the same person to see if we wanted to keep it up but we had something else going on that summer so these just to give you an idea of the how engaging this is for the younger kids there are going to be three modules and one is called castles catapults and coats of arm flight site and sos endangered earth and the one of the great things about this company is that they've been doing it for so long and they have it so down packed that you there's nothing i'm breaking something here there's nothing that needs to be purchased in addition to these kits they come all inclusive all the guides for the folks that are working they said it can be used in a camp so it can be done by camp counselors who have no educational experience and but if you have certified teachers and um other people it's like a piece of cake the way it's put together they prepared the pd with me so that's we're going to be using for the teeth with the teachers four dean is very excited about he picked out the titles for the middle school his favorite is phys ed physics and motion so that's like really a full body workout um trash island and boulder builders so give me some good stuff you have to wear a mask but if you come by i think you're going to see some really exciting things and those are going to be from 9 to 12 for those children now for seventh and eighth graders these kids are if you have seventh eighth graders or no seventh and eighth years they have a lot of stuff going on in the summer so in order to get the intervention in their sessions are not going to be three hours they're going to be an hour and a half so and they they're getting their times and they're coming in from 9 to 10 30 and 10 30 to 12.
once those two models were decided upon in this team then the district came and said okay if it was up to us this is what model 3 would look like and these are the schools this is what model 4 would look like and these are the schools again just like with the models we said this this is only our interpretation it's built a hundred percent of capacity but you are more than welcome to change it up the models that the district brought forth don't even exist anymore so i just wanted to to kind of clarify that point uh that all along this team has been the one that has been driving the decisions in terms of where we are right now um so in terms of of talking about and asking the hard questions yeah absolutely we welcome that and we want that um in terms of all the minutia and all the details um those things are going to come up when when we when we know right now we're trying to suppose right the this nebulous kind of what if this what if this what if this what if this and we can definitely keep iffing it you know all all the way all the way through but we are determined and committed to whatever the decision the board makes we are going to make it the best of that if it's model 3 we're going to make it the best model 3 ever and is it going to be tough and is it going to be hard 100 but we're going to again build those dreams and market and and and do it and have hard conversations and say okay this this is the way it's going to go and we need to rally behind behind that if it's model 4 the same thing we're going to build the yes we've all heard again the the concerns for both models there's concerns for both models there are positives for both models and so our job and our stance right now is that whatever wherever we land where we are 100 committed to make it the best of that decision um possible miss natasha who's next mr gabriel and then mr anthony i think anthony's handle up was was up longer than mine then i apologize mr anthony i did say you after patricia good then i will lower my hand good afternoon everybody i hope everybody found out ac or outside as i see a few people at least got a little bit of time here um i'm going to start off right here in terms of the losing students i'm just some of the stuff is uh as a representative as everybody else as mr ortega was mentioning sometimes people offer information to me and at that point you know they've asked me to share some information so sometimes i do because they've asked me to share this in their opinions or their concerns other times they're just thoughts from the years of experience in azusa and or as is a unified um but overall right now i just want to start with at the end of this process my overall hope and the reason i've stayed in this process for the whole entire time is i want to create the best district possible going forward and then that is i want our district to be the district other students are choosing and trying to get into they're applying for the transfers to go to to come to azusa not that we're losing students to other districts because we changed to one format or another but that we have the best and the highest quality it's apparent and everybody is trying to get it that would be that would be my my goal here in the construction and that's why i've kind of stayed aboard and try to listen and i'm hoping that that's what uh we get at the end of this process so now i'm not i'm not fearful uh i'm i'm looking forward to so just wanted to start there um to answer when uh when ms wilson perkins was talking it there is something administratively and mr fernandez kind of alluded to as well is um what does that look like when we have two we still basically have two small high schools i'll say eight nine hundred student plus um the the same with myself you know as administrator when we create master schedules it is a little difficult the smaller it is the more difficult it is to put program it is that that's just true uh any administrator will tell you the smaller your school the more difficult it is to kind of put program in and make it match up um it would be small high schools so can i can i qualify that that is also true at the elementary yes it's true at the elementary about that adding in programming something just the smaller it is the more difficult it is to to move people around adding programs for example our avid teachers of honor sections we haven't had an honor section in a while et cetera it just doesn't fit in the master schedule anymore uh we need that for just our general education and all students um it would be uh having a 712 would alleviate that with the and this is where my transparency to the community who asked me the question which is the exact same i don't know if miss sanchez's uh parents were talking to me as well but you know the same thing about on a 712 model will middle school students and high school students you know be together or be mixed i was originally told no the model could be where they're absolutely 100 separate kind of hearing a little different so i just want to make sure going forward that we're open with the public that the community that that model means that students would be going to the high school whether it's for band or art or avid or an honors class or whatever we're talking about but that they would be going back and forth for that for that matter i just want them to know that that was a yes because they did ask that actually very specifically to me um and more than one parent and i just wanted to be open about that as they asked in order to get the most out of your on staff that you have involved in there and to create those programs that's what would have to happen um so the best utilization of teachers in order to make that happen is that they were teaching so you might have a history teacher that teaches seventh grade history and tenth grade history et cetera that means there's a possibility their their credentials would allow them um all of our secondary teachers are very very very very high percentage uh have a single subject credential they can teach anywhere from six to 12 in that subject area so there wouldn't be any any issues with that um let me see my other little point right here anthony while you're thinking about your other point uh just to add a little bit to to what you're talking about right now um yes right now again anything can change right we are a year more than a year away or years away from having to actually make like you know the final decisions or whatever uh but yes um there would be right now in our thinking that this is not a closed off seventh and eighth campus um because if if part of this is to alleviate and to offer um electives and those sort of things it is not fair or or even logistically if you have a ceramics teacher as a high school who has a room right with the kill and everything we can't pick her up and then take her to the seventh and eighth for a period or whatever right so the students have to have to go there uh for the elective and so there has to be um some some some form of integration that the students would have now that being said that doesn't mean that the entire day and it's you know wide open there's still things that we can do in terms of the schedule in terms of breaks in terms of those kinds of things that may help or assist but those are again intricate details that would have to be figured out as as we move forward depending on the model that is chosen yeah and to go through a little bit more so thank you um an 800 student school is a smaller high school it is very it is it's a smaller school right i mean to be honest if you look at numbers you look wide most of the school areas in the school are somewhere between uh 1500 and a little over 2 000 about 2 200.