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so if there was one person in the ballot but that might disarray you know you know i can see your point but this is a family so we're not naming it arthur gould elementary it's gold ranch or yeah gold ranch elementary and let me clarify those so the ghouls before pfp was even there maybe google's owned the property as well as oj googled aj rule that arthur google let's just say pmp was not there so it went from placer county where i mentioned where jb gould is all the way to past um up to redwater to alerica to folks and there was many families that own that property so as you can think when you settle into an area in the land somebody buys the land and they sell it after family members well that's what happened to the little family there was a gold on the board for over a hundred 1858 and then again at um 1881 and 1906.

come out thank you this is dr lee and mrs anderson well didn't hear each other so big one for the motion second and we are adjourned all right good night everyone thank you

so it wasn't consecrated there was a detection okay um but dieters did but diets have nothing to do with this property right so steve to answer your question we're not naming it after a person no it's a family and i was just going to say you know things like that might occasionally happen and if something like that was to happen and the whole family name became you know taboo and we would rename the school and that would be and that's happening you know you know that it could happen as long as it's not let's see they had gone to the mail district forever and then we finally got it back i thought that was neat yeah okay do you have any more discussion on this public comment please this one is from a center parent that says please don't name the school now allow the families and staff of that school to choose the name the board has done it both ways uh they the board policy recommends a committee it gets together and goes to that process it does not require it um however like when rex fortune was made next door and then moved it was not a committee the board took that action and there were some repercussions because of that that's probably why yeah so anyway sorry about that so the idea was the poor policy does call for that it does not require it but any naming of facilities would be uh accepted to you guys support you could delegate it to that you could the policy though was brand new donald didn't feel like the policy was has been in place similar to that for years uh it didn't get modified a little bit and then it has come back but most swords do at this point the choice is do we name it now or do we appoint a committee or do we just table it until it gets closer to the time this will be open do we have any opinions about that from any other board members i think uh forming a committee in my opinion would be the best drop to go any other does this be considered one of the only benefits not to tell you that it used to be considered one of the only real benefits that we have is to be able to i i would suggest and maybe trust the uh would like to be on that committee because usually we would have some more representation on that um the only thing i would say and i did share this with with some of you is that usually you start that process when the school gets going like the sierra vista school the one that's right for the board of me that actually made the switch and have become the thing so you would have two options you can say let's get a committee going let's do it in that case the committee might be a little bit premature because i mean we don't have preparers sometimes there's things now if the if the committee goes to recommending and surveying hey is the full branch does that make sense so there's a couple different avenues you could go to on that or you know the board would have the authority also to to name that property and then the only but the only thing i say is if you do name it and then before it's there it does make it hard because on future boards you need to unravel things that boards have done and that was the problem we ran into when we moved it because well that was one of the reasons why i wanted to name it so it doesn't get changed what if we were to make a recommendation at this point um for the future committee there you go i didn't want this to be a long drawn out thing can we just um table it for now okay and uh your question which was to change this well i didn't know i actually wanted to discuss yeah i'm sorry so and i don't think there was an item to name it tonight i think that the board had that authority my recommendation would be if you did agree i would come back and say let's bring it back with a formal recommendation to name the school gold ranch elementary but at this point i think the public would deserve that a little bit and provide feedback i really think the historical aspect we provided i i think there is something that's very neat about that our district is rich in history 1858 i think by honoring our community and having a plan as we go forward is is very important um and i think it's something that shouldn't be taken lightly either and i think this post has done a great job of researching why i know you personally knew some of the family thank you um and have that so i think those things in a committee format are gonna kind of hold the day um and you also gotta remember the houses behind the side of rios and north of it was google property i live on google property do we need to vote to table an item or do we just table into no because there's really no action to it so to my understanding we're going to table it or we're going to table it and form a committee um and then bring it back later what whatever the will of you guys is i i would suggest um forming a committee and then tabling it after the committee has met and then they can determine which of the committees of the board right do we need to make uh and i have a question about um just the including of the community members and something that was mentioned um how will we be ensuring that um and you know site staff representation with this committee i mean it'd be one thing to form a committee now and there's no parents that are there yet there's no staff that's there yet um so if we're really wanting it to be inclusive of the community um when would this committee be forming what's the timeline for that and so that it does include the public and that's an excellent i mean that is a very good question so what i what we could do and mr putnam and i can do is take the direction from the board unfortunately it might be long direction because you know i i don't know if it's five years i don't know it's eight years i don't think it's gonna be fifteen there's too much building i i think that could be one of our next schools i think our next one will be up at sierra vista again and then if placer vineyards and real evidence finishes out that could be sooner um i just i i mean you just don't know how about if we table it for one year and then look at this situation as far as building and decide at that point if we want to establish the committee it will push out again that sounds reasonable or do you want to get it done no no one year i think is a good idea okay so we'll re so just the direction i'm getting is we'll revisit a year we are going to look at the committee uh aspect of it and china's like and try to involve community at which would be at that school okay any concerns questions further comments from the board or anyone else okay thank you for the opportunity let's move on to island item h is regarding our meeting format trustee bruno asked that this be brought to the board do we have a motion to bring it forward for discussion okay um interestingly this is something that came up earlier in the meeting currently the way that our board meetings are progressing we do the pledge of allegiance and then dr lee uh makes the statement about how you don't need to um to participate you're still welcome and everything and i think that it would be a better message if that's coming from a unified board position and so what i would like to do is amend um our standard agenda protocol so that we make that statement as a board before we do the pledge of allegiance to let people know there's no expectation to participate you're welcome to not participate you're still welcome to participate in the rest of the meeting if you choose not to participate in this um i mean frankly i think dr lee's uh statement is very well written and if we could just put that in um i think that would be absolutely wonderful so are you suggesting i'm copying what dr lee states and put it on the board agenda as opposed to saying it out loud i think well i don't think he needed something i'd like to make a friendly amendment to amendments to make it both um because then it's stated in the writing and it's verbally stated into the space where we all are i agree the only concern i would have with that is that um the board president would be the one reading it which i have no problem reading it i i believe this statement is really valid but i wouldn't want to take that away from you who who are the person you know even the person that really brought it forward and wants to make that statement so as long as someone would have any objection to dr lee reading it prior to the pledge of allegiance and having it on the agenda i think that would be a great format i think i'm i'm just hearing what trustee bruno said it seems like it's an individual thing right now and what i heard him say is it would be better if it was something that was just embedded in the process so it's not like oh one person's speaking you know after everything whoever's introducing that item would say who's so good with that i'm i'm happy with that decision as well i think that it seems to unify the voice it seems that it'd be best coming because the board president asked for it the board president made the statement and then people participate or they make their option but i think to trustee bruno's comment it does seem if dr lee is the only one saying it then it's it it it seems like it's not a unified thing would be my only observation of what you guys are discussing okay so do we have a motion i'm um which one we're talking about um the pledge um i don't have it open it's like a one sentence uh statement i don't know how we how we'd shorten it let me um i don't have a present in my mind what we could do like dr lee's looking there we could i could get a copy of that and we could bring it back and have a or i could send it offline to each of you and get feedback or however you want to do it yeah please thank you i mean if that works for you we could take that and then we could just circulate that around and then we can start playing with it on the agenda i think the big thing would be is a first question is who would state it or president i think you guys determined b would be putting it on the agenda we would just carol we just put a part of our template and then it's it's there board member president reads pledge allegiance makes the statement and then it's a unified thing for the community okay in the interest of expediting the process um can we go ahead and make a motion to approve including a statement uh in the uh board agenda which will be read by the board president prior to the uh reciting of the budget of allegiance and the exact wording to be determined and approved by the board uh honestly is that your emotion second is everybody okay with that let's take a vote we'll call dr lee aye mr bruno aye mr and mrs anderson that's twice tonight i don't think it's necessary at all but i'll say yes i think it's a nice so dr lee if you don't mind when you get a chance just email me your statement then we'll we'll work it from there thanks scott can i suggest you serve it to me since that's not true something else i'd like to bring up under the board agenda all right well we're still on that item so please for over on uh meeting foreign i think we should move forward comments to the end of the agenda which is where they were before um i said i'm not married to any particular location in the agenda is anything else any feelings about that one um it's always nice to hear the reports towards the top of the meeting after the comments and before we get into our actual agenda um that way uh they're really not about the agendized items uh i noticed that in a lot of the board structures like in the agendas that i reviewed um where we have it it's commonly placed is where it's commonly placed um placing it at the end might get really into longer comments um running out of time for comments um you know and just people being exhausted and not as attentive uh even um you know towards the end i always like to hear our superintendent report at the top of our before we get into agendas items what we found is that it kept people from grandstanding constantly because we had meetings that went till after midnight and it was not that like what we found is that it kept people from brand grandstanding constantly because we were having meetings that would go until after midnight and it was because people would get that microphone and they would go on and on and on and on with stuff that wasn't even about the meeting it was their own stuff so that's that's right the idea was that if you move it to the back they're not going to go on and on all night long the other point would be is we could we have not adhered to the minutes on there we can always make sure that the board has a collective commitment to stick with the time frame that they're given i know it's been always a agreement that if someone a little bit over you kind of you know jokingly you know succeeded your time for the other person but that's another mechanism to stop when nobody minds that if you're talking about something that's an active situation in the district or you know it has to do with district business but when a board member picks something that is just their issue and goes on and on and on about that it's just sort of wasting time you know they're up all night because they have to go to school in the morning and i mean it just doesn't work so i i'm making sure i understand what trustee anderson is mentioning here she's talking to me what i've heard about the past and how folks went on and on and how the agenda was arranged previously um are we making a motion to change it back to the past because in the present um i haven't uh seen us going into midnight and and all of those other things that happened when the board reports were moved later in the agenda and honestly you know i really enjoyed hearing like when mrs pope talks and has all she's a lot of stuff to share a lot of times and i think each of us brings a different perspective and i don't know i don't feel like anybody grandstanding it was just a suggestion that's all right mr real do you have any thoughts um i do and i apologize my sound keeps cutting in now because my internet is fuzzy at the moment so i hope i can get through this um so my thought is um if we move it to the end i'm afraid that what that might turn into is a chance for people to throw in one more comment about something that happened earlier in the meeting and i'm afraid it would actually lead to increased arguing in fighting okay it was just a suggestion that's always one way of handling it yeah it gives us something to think about yeah yeah so do we have a motion on this item hearing them we're going to go ahead and move on to item i any other i'm sorry any other discussion for meeting format i'm related to the to the board reports okay moving on to the business side of i monthly recognitions and resources trustee lee asked that we agenda is an action around formally recognizing and providing resources about pride month and other months the california department of education recommends we have a motion to bring this to the floor all motion thank you mr bruno for a second i'll second dr lee thank you i believe this was your item so would you like to speak first yes um so this um item came about um and i want to thank um superintendent lair and the curriculum staff they are they've noted the um months from the california department of education um on our calendar uh previously there was no notation even there um and as far as um you know the motion goes um as far as formally recognizing it um in discussions with uh superintendent lair uh he did note that there were like several months and some months and so forth and um i am totally fine with um with the curriculum you know committee and staff deciding which ones of those um to recognize but just so that we are you know recognizing pride month at least um and all and the other months that are recommended by the california department of education formally um and uh these are months that you know for are from marginalized and minoritized communities uh largely many of them and so that's why i felt it was so important for us as a district to to you know formally recognize them um in some fashion yeah i agree um they are national holidays so since they are a national holiday to automatically come on the board calendar so they're there just because they're a national holiday yeah um actually what was added were these ones that were talking about um previously they were not there so like pride month um and so forth um so if you i'm not sure but when i go to the board calendar and if you look at the calendar itself it doesn't state what the national holiday is until you click on it and then the national holiday shows on the calendar but if you're looking at a calendar at a hole it doesn't show what the national holiday is or what even is scheduled for that day until you click on the actual day yeah previously pride month and other months that i'm discussing um that are recognized by the california department of ed were not noted on our calendar they've only recently been added um and show up now as visible public-facing so that's a national holiday i'm going to do two completely opposing opinions here and somehow come to the middle so my concern of course is that once you start celebrating one group another group is like what about us um that always you know seems to seems to be a trap you're walking into on the other hand if the california department of education is recognizing them but i feel very fairly secure that we can then reiterate that that you know statement based on their recommendation i don't know if they do like you know one a month or 10 a month i don't know and so um i would be a little concerned about overdoing it and we already our meetings are dragging on much later than they normally are so i guess i would be concerned that number one which ones are we choosing number two who's choosing them and number three how are we recognizing them um in the most expeditious and um easy manner all day is that saying that this disability there is that the city does recommend multiple so i just pull up june there's four different months uh four different uh fireworks safety month lesbian gay bisexual transgender pride month national fresh fruit vegetable month national safety month and that's all in june so the hard thing is i i these are important because that's why they're months so i i would have a hard time asking i want some criteria to before went to cni and created a group and say choose ones so i i would want some direction on that and then i think the other critical piece sorry kelly on now is is how you know is it like a resolution is it an item is it an item that says hey the board you know votes to to recognize these months so that there's some things that need to play out or does it just go out in the superintendent's report to families it could i just don't know what the attendant or to want to as a yes these are important which i know you all think they are um we just need some some clarity around that and perhaps it's a we can kind of think through i could look some other districts how they do it i can talk with other folks to see uh how they do it um i mean i'm happy to do a little research whether it's you know related to marginalized um sorry i was mostly trying to fix my wi-fi i am now connected to awes but hopefully that will help um i just wanted to clarify what we were going to do here and um i think uh superintendent where was kind of going down the same road what do we do we want to do to uh you know as the agendized action i would um move that the uh so we have a curriculum committee uh take a look at the recommended um dates from our california department of education and decide which items will be highlighted and bring it to us for for approval i know you know for example there's things that aren't national holidays but you know they are in our constitution and you know constitution and citizenship day uh big one constitution week we should be talking about that in our schools during that week so we should be seeing it on the calendar i should be seeing it and you know in the curriculum website somewhere recognized not just silence on the matter um so i i'm making a motion that the curriculum committee um you know convene and look at these different um celebrations that are recommended by the california department of ed and bring that bring those items to us making the decision they they know our school sites and you know the needs that are there the best i agree they would be the best department to to do this i do agree with you um but curriculum instruction are so busy that i would hate to throw something else to them right now um especially since we're still in a pandemic and they have a lot of things to deal with in regards to that so would you be uh opposed to postponing or tabling this until later on when they have a few more minutes in their day to be able to accurately look at this and give it some some thought as opposed to pushing it on them right now and i'm not going to say they have heart at least like half-heartedly because they don't have time yeah maybe we could set a timeline um for them to bring this back to us uh because i i think that not acting on inclusiveness and diversity is not okay and that's kind of the position where we've been for a long time in our district uh i think we need to act and waiting another day or another year to act on inclusiveness and diversity um is is something that um i have a lot of questions about um there's always going to be something that's taking up our time um and you know that we need to attend to so maybe setting up a timeline um you know for for that committee to get back to us obviously this isn't a top priority item but it is a very important item that i that i don't think that we need to just uh be uh driving and neutral as we have been about no i agree it is very important but as ms kelly had stated um which ones do we pick because if we pick some and we don't hit the other then you know we get into a little bit of you know trouble um would you be opposed to postponing it um and i know you're not gonna like this but i'm gonna ask anyway to the end of the year and then as you normally do in your order report you say what's on the monthly calendar would you be opposed to that because they are so bogged down right now with other things that they have and not saying that these are not a priority but the students in our district and their quality of education are exactly and this is directly related to that being more inclusive in recognizing um marginalized and minoritized groups that's what this item's about um so i would be comfortable um you know um scott how often does the curriculum committee meet i'm just curious on that is it monthly uh usually a couple weeks or a couple times a month yeah so i'm sorry let's move on just just a little bit okay uh mrs anderson has a question and then i was hoping that maybe mr jordan might have some thoughts on this as well since we are asking him since we're asking him uh 10 and 24 holidays a month to your schedule would you have time to celebrate all of those i'd rather not comment right now no but if there are specifics particularly he recommends maybe we can honor them yes my biggest can do it you can't recognize my biggest concern is when we make a statement like that we exclude a lot of people when we celebrate one organization or one gender or one race you're not going to recognize the homeless kid that you're leaving out because you're recognizing everybody else so i support one of the defaults and mr carter says we certainly could take this up find out from our counterparts and other districts how they deal with it the simplest thing would be each month to bring back all of the cde recommended ones show that there's no way that the teachers are going to be able to teach each of these but i think if it's brought to the forefront is what's being asked we love everybody we always have in this district because it was a military district the kids got along with everybody they learned that early okay mr jordan do you have any thoughts on this committees we don't have one curriculum committee that does everything each adoption comes up with a different curriculum for that so i want to make sure that that's clear there isn't one that continues on we do have curriculum instruction meetings you know twice a week uh with curriculum instruction staff that right now does not include teaching staff or classified staff on there uh that's more of our internal uh mechanism for media you know as long as we have clear recommendation or clear guidance what exactly you're looking for what that would mean uh in terms of the recognition i don't think there's time in the teachers uh schedules to do five or six different uh recognitions in a month and try and do lessons around that i don't think that's realistic that's right that's what we're after if we're saying there's gonna be a board uh resolution that we're recognizing that i think that's people i think it's duel to put it on the calendars i think it's doable but in the newsletters those kind of things and do it to just say hey these are the items that the cde is recommending this week if you'd like to absolutely do something around this but again we're saying we want to do you know a week of the month of each one of these things that we're recognizing i don't know i don't think that's true you know that does make sense and if the superintendent um he did offer earlier to look at what other districts are doing uh because this isn't a novel suggestion um this takes place in districts throughout our our you know um state um that's you know why this list is established by the cde so if if you could look into what are other local districts doing um you know to recognize um these these recommended um you know activities what do they do what's the extent of the activity that would be very informative for us as a board um so that we're not dealing with hypotheticals and oh that would be too much and this and that we don't even know what we're talking about because we don't have a baseline um uh to see what others are doing and if you if we provide options because i know certain districts don't do anything certain districts every board meeting they'll do resolutions for for different months i don't know how they pick the months there are other ones that will recognize you know there's nurses day there's all these things so we we would want to bring that group back because obviously the cni group's not going to want to create a recommendation and the board's like no we don't know so so i think one of the things is what we can do is a little research around it come back and then figure give you guys a little more guidance on how we have it i know miss jordan i can i don't want to put on his plate he and i can figure it out we can make contact and just see how it is i do know a lot of awards do do do resolutions for it they don't do all of them but they do they do do them wait so the direction that we're gonna win in this freedom so i i have a few more thoughts on this first of all um as far as doing something curriculum wise where teachers are going to be teaching things in the classroom that goes beyond my comfort level of trying to tell the teachers how to teach you know i don't want to shake things up on them on short notice but doing things like putting it on a calendar putting it in bulletin things like that to make sure they're aware so that they can think of how that they might tie it into their lesson plans i think that costs us almost nothing and by using the list from the cde um we're not really putting ourselves on the hook for well why didn't you include us because we're using the official list from the cde and as far as um when you include some people you're excluding other people i noticed this back in the 90s when i was in high school we tend to celebrate european history i took an art history class where we spent 90 of the class talking about european art spent about two weeks talking about asian art and literally skipped the chapters on african art so already we are celebrating some and excluding others and this is an attempt to course correct it's not going to be perfect but we can do a lot better than what what our society has been doing and i honestly i mean i i saw this on the agenda and i i think it's a wonderful idea i'm not sure exactly how to implement it but i am excited about the concept so at this point i think what we want to do is provide direction to the superintendent and mr jordan uh that we would like them to check and see what other districts are doing and provide us some options is everyone good with that great i think that's great moving on before we start our advanced planning i just wanted to say thank you to our guests who have really stuck it out with us tonight it's been a rather long winter meeting and we appreciate you listen and participate in the meeting um we're moving on to item number 16 advanced planning our future meeting dates the regular board meeting has mentioned previously has been moved to wednesday september 22nd here in this room and do you have any suggested agenda items hearing none the only thing that i'm concerned with right now is that we take our next step as far as um new beginnings we were going to talk about building our uh board report booklet what happened so you're talking about the christmas meeting could that be that on the agenda i'm not um are we going to be gone at the christmas meeting or something but remember we're meeting once a month now so that the csba is actually december 2nd i believe so we won't it won't conflict okay how about the trip if they're gonna be stepped in the csba is remember we used to rotate this would be the first and third wednesdays of the month but now we need just the third wednesday the csba conference is always the first part of december um so there is no conflict for that time frame that people would be attending is there anything we're going to need to put on the agenda for the trip oh no i don't think so yeah yeah there's no it's not it's not a formal living it's a it's a it's a learning experience okay um i'm not sure it's gonna happen to be quite honest with how things moving on to item number 17 continuation of clone session the board will not continue into the sessions we have a motion for item number 18.

in the absence of vaccines our choices are limited or non-existent masks only work if everyone is wearing them the choice is therefore between all kids at school and all staff wearing masks to protect one another and and the community at large or a very real possibility of schools going back to virtual which would not be acceptable to to to my household to my family therefore until vaccines are available i fully support mask mandate as the only logical choice thank you very much thank you do we have anyone else wishing to speak to the board bernie yes uh next we have uh james carr good evening james excuse me can you hear me yes we can okay hopefully i can make this quick here um so on august 14th superintendent valeski sent out an email or sent out a message as we said regardless of your beliefs by last year in the rapid decline of positive codes and coping 19 cases in our schools it's a direct result of masking and baskination vaccinations was deniable so first of all uh superintendent velasque i find that kind of condescending kind of insulting the superintendent in essence is looking at each parent and students of the district in the eye and basically saying i don't care in your beliefs carrying your evidence what your doctors have to say i don't care what your scientists have to say you don't matter the only belief that the superintendent seems to think that matters is his and those are the governor the superintendent provides zero data to back up his undeniable beliefs on masking governor exec the governor's executive order also provides zero data no state agency agency to it has provided data i have data as a matter of fact i'm going to be sending uh to the board 23 studies are you harms of extended max mask use i'll also be sending the board 29 studies that suggest massive surgical and cloth are effective in reducing transmission i urge the board and the superintendent to read at least a handful of these basically what this really boils down to is a deportatorial imposition of a medical device on our children without our informed consent i think the burden of proof that full day masking poses no danger to the kids of east brunswick now lies with the superintendent and the board superintendent on the board also bear the responsibility also bear the liabilities should any harm befall any student as a result of the mass mandate and as reminded to everybody the superintendent is an elected non-voting member of the board the community's expectations of you the board the representatives is not just the rubber stamp the beliefs of an unelected superintendent but to the board i'd like to read a section there's three of the fundamentals of school board membership and it basically states the board members who are community representatives means representing the entire community not just the area in which they live their particular supporters board members have a responsibility to listen to all citizens explain to those of the particular point of view the needs of the school system as a whole so the community strongly urges the board to hold a vote decide to ask the governor to rescind his punitive mandate the wall school district has courage howell school district has courage they ask the governor to rescind for those of you with courage to stand with our children we will support you because you who lack courage we will vote you out what are you guys going to do when my children start getting sick from wearing these masks what is the plan you guys always have a choice accepting the consequences of your choices is going to tell the community where your obedience lies with the state or with our kids thanks for your time guys i'm sorry sir were you done he was finished mrs becker okay thank you very much and the next person wishing to speak to the board uh yes we have arlene shoemaker hello early mr shoemaker uh you will need to um there you go i'd like to address the board in favor of the mask mandate it is the only proven device we have for children under 12 that will allow them to go to school safely so that they themselves don't get sick and they don't bring this illness home to their family members there are many children in our community including the child in my own home who will go to first grade this year who live in a multi-generational household so this is not just parents and children this is also grandparents as well we can see with clear evidence the result of choice for masks around the country in states such as florida and texas and arizona mississippi arkansas where the governor himself has expressed regret in signing a mass mandate ban he is trying to get the legislation there to reverse that decision so i am again in support of the mask mandate i request that any child who shows up to a bus stop without a mask not be admitted onto the bus any child who shows up to a building without a mask not be admitted into the building and any child who takes off their mask in a school building please be have their parents pulled to have them picked up immediately thank you and have a great day thank you and who is next please uh next we have uh ryan mangles hello ryan hello how are you sorry about that um okay i i'm not here i'm just going to read what i wrote um okay so i'm disappointed at the events that unfolded on august 5th here at one of our elementary schools a school where our youngest most vulnerable students come to receive their public education a school where the children are least affected by covet and most affected by masks i think the east brunswick community is owed an apology we all make mistakes but can anyone explain why and for what purpose has served for murphy to choose our elementary school did he let you address him or did he just showboat his political agenda he endangered the police officers the community as well as the public elementary school itself murphy is a very divisive politician he has divided the people of east brunswick in new jersey with his rhetoric and name calling he's gotten one side to live in fear and believe that they are right and righteous and that the other side is endangering people for being hesitant to take an emergency vaccine or to have mass on their children in school we have to make sure the teachers don't instill fear in our children by disciplining them over improper mess wearing forcing them to wear masks when they're not required by order or sending parents inappropriate emails we need to spend more time teaching standard education and not grooming our children towards certain ideologies ideology should be taught in homes and in places of worship my children have not been taught to write script or type um sydney sugarman a discord just a court judge in new york once said teach the children how to think not what to think teach them how to think not what to think we cannot let somebody like our governor who shows fear and division mandate what is necessary for our children murphy does not follow the science he demonstrated that last year when he said i'm just not ready yet he is inconsistent in his policies on masking you yourself and the other superintendents of middlesex county pointed it out and the letter addressed to him at the end of last school year yet you still follow his mandates i can't even imagine what the contract tracing or quarantine policies will be this year i'm urging the school board at the very least just the very least to oppose his mandates and restore the decision-making to you the board of educators dr velesky if you and the board decide that you want to have mass on the children in school let it be your decision alone do not take the easy way out and stand behind someone else's decision there's plenty of support for you in east brunswick you have a bunch of good doctors that work here the mayor is a doctor you can tap them for any kind of decision and science that you need made i think the board of education with dr bless you should make that decision on what you feel is right for east brunswick students and not be held under blanket mandates for all the school in new jersey by you accepting this murphy has laid down the foundation for other mandates to follow do not yourselves climb your own political ladder on the backs of our community and children stand up against murphy please or any elected official that would take the decisions away from this board you say you swore an oath to the government plea governor police were an oath to our children that you are charged to they say you want the community to work together then allow our board of elected officials to make the decision not just one power hungry politician and i i do believe that if the board comes together i think it will bring the community together instead of allowing murphy with more mandates honestly the goodness mr mangles your time is up [Music] thank you and who is next please next we have alexander spielman hello alexander good evening board and superintendent my name is alexander skillman uh the six douglas rhodes brunswick i am an alumni from the class of 2011.

so within the first month of school we have already experienced about half the number that we had the entire year so hence there are a lot of people in a concentrated part of time who have heard from received notices as our protocol in our mitigation plan outlines i want i want us to share we have heard adamant and we have heard passionate voices on all sides we've heard from stories we are hearing people would they have shared their thoughts with us part of it having time to announce that we were having this meeting is it's part of also hearing from our community and we've heard from them so with the reason we are here tonight is obviously for the governing board to have the opportunity to discuss all of these pieces obviously we have current factors we have developing information and we we are turning to you as the um elected policy makers of this district to help us determine what do you want us to do at this point so thank you thank you dr foley like you said that just looking at the number of our cases um so far four weeks into school we needed to at least have the conversation and that's what we're doing tonight i also wanted to point out mr moore mentioned that part of this grant requirements is that we stay in person for the school year that's not always our choice we quarantine and if if need be close a school based on the direction of maricopa county public health they are the ones we have to follow what they tell us when we've had to quarantine freshman jv and varsity football teams from higley high school so far this year all three levels have had to quarantine so our cases don't even represent the number of kids quarantined it's just positive cases that is at the direction of maricopa county public health that we don't have that option if our cases continue to rise and the maricopa county public health determines that we have to close a school to move back to a remote environment that is not our option um unlikely that we would have to do that district-wide unless we see something different but that too could at that point make us ineligible for that grant with out of our control because we do have to follow what maricopa county public health tells us at this time yeah or legal counsel is saying it's going to put us at risk um like i said this this grant just came out two days ago um and so litigation or anything has not taken place regarding this requirement so um at this point yeah anything not meeting those requirements would just put our district at risk thank you anyone have questions regarding the information presented dr foley i know we sent you questions but i want you to be able to answer some of them that we've already sent we will be having another meeting next week will you be going over the mitigation strategies that we currently already do and what we're looking to do besides mass um as we've been talking about we have a mitigation plan up there but we've been working on progressive mitigation plans what are the types of strategies temporary things that the district could do for in the event of rising numbers as we shared with our community there were some minimal ones that we started doing being that our numbers as yours as you've heard are arising and again some campuses not as much as others some of these were proactive measures put in place because administrations were saying we've seen we don't we've seen there's issues that have happened at other sites let's not have those come here we're wanting to keep the numbers low uh uh honestly the one of the most important mitigation strategies we have found is to please not come to school sick we've had multiple times where students are called out of the room in their teacher's classroom when they've been at school and they're not well and they've tested positive which causes additional frustration and concerns so we're going to talk through potential additional mitigation strategies yes and you've seen drafts of those documents that we're working on with our and general administrator team and our teachers union group i think it's important to say here even if your child's tested negative keep them home if they're sick it's a really good practice any other questions regarding the information item um can you help me to understand or better clarify what is the criteria that the county is using to make terminations about okay president reece board member anderson there are several components to this obviously every single positive case we have jillian and kelly are working hand in hand with the maricopa county department of health there's a lot of factors involved in that from the date that it tested positive to symptoms to last time on campus to when the case is identified to when other cases are identified so there isn't a rule of thumb that always says well when there are two or when there's three then that then triggers it depends on how the cases happen and we work with them on that now you'll notice remember that the term for an outbreak we had several schools have an outbreak now in some cases they had more than two you know they technically say two cases and then there's a an outbreak we might have had more cases on that campus but they're they're looking for the epidemiologically linked and so every scenario is unique um every situation depending upon the date of when the student was sick when when the they were tested when the results came back the number of cases how did they come are there ways that they would have been in similar classes on the same team not and then they work with us to help determine when and where that is the challenge is is that they are cracking down on quarantining i have been in conversation with multiple are multiple superintendents and they are receiving calls from dr sun and jine herself when there is issues and concerns when when school districts do not respond or follow through on the quarantining expectations of this and and they're quoting there's four laws that are connected with quarantining in one administrative code so in other words we do not quarantine until we're given the directive to do so but we work with them on a case-by-case basis so there's not a rule of thumb it's a it's not one one case fits all scenario obviously the goal would be to minimize the potential for having to quarantine the hope would be if it could be minimally if there has to be a class rather than or a whole grade level before there'd be a whole school so the goal would be to try and keep keep the the numbers down if they're going to have to quarantine a substantial number of students based upon a certain scenario or case then sometimes it's led to entire schools and and again watching the news you you see over the last year there have been several who've had that ex experience and obviously we're following and working closely with them on each scenario that happens and following the guidance we are we are doing it when we have a directive in order to do so and if i remember correctly i believe it was scottsdale unified that ended up having to quarantine over 600 students last week i believe is when it was if i remember correctly at the direction of maricopa county public health any other questions how does this affect sports if we put a mass mandate if we don't do a mass mandate probably more if we put a mass mandate in tonight how does this affect our sports teams especially probably the big one is football but we have some others out there as well um how does this affect them what does that look like what does it look like for spectators who are maybe going to those games at our middle schools as well we have lots of stuff going on so how does this affect it if we do put a mass mandate in this evening so i'm going to ask uh mr ladson how's there to talk about that a little bit but remember this one this policy at this point has been ingested for just indoor only so outdoor event an outdoor event outdoor activities do not would not have the policy does not require a mask mr lutz president reece vice president wilson members of the board if you remember last year we followed a lot of aia direction that came out and talked specifically about spectators and about the number of attendees and different things that we had to do it evolved from the football season into the winter season in the spring this year the aia has come out and they've given us some guidelines to look at but nothing definitive like like they did last year now are we looking at doing possible reductions of the number of people's attending games to make sure that we have that yes and that's following along with conversations that we're having with the other districts however we have not made those decisions yet but from the aia's perspective and looking at the guidelines that they're putting out for us there is not the specific guidelines that we had last year whether it's people on the bench having to wear masks or at one point while even they competing now there are some districts already phoenix union particularly that's come out and said when you travel to phoenix union and you compete against us we're expecting everyone to wear masks indoors and outdoors and when you're on the bench except when you're competing athletically however they're the ones that have put that in specifically for them but in terms of the east valley and about where we're at we there none of those things have been decided yet i'm concerned about that a little bit because i know last year we had an issue at one of our campuses uh where school didn't want to pit um didn't want to follow our rules so i am a little concerned about making our admin have to make those tough calls just putting that out there i feel for our admin who have to make those very difficult decisions and have to ask for backup to make those decisions so thank you to all the admin who had to do that last year it was not fun we got emails about it i felt for them thank you and i believe aia also kind of jumped in a little bit there too so to try and help but we're especially when we're visiting a school it's their school their rules we're expected to follow them out of respect for for them any other questions sorry you know you're going to talk about mitigation more in depth at the next meeting just to clarify everything that you're doing right now whether we vote yes or no on it would still continue in place and you'd still continue to evolve those um just to clarify and you've always been doing these even when we voted uh to rescind the mask mandate last year yes yep these are those additional strategies that are temporary they are you know simple things that can happen additional lunch spaces or schedules um all of those things those are temporary things that happen that are not permanent nor nor a policy issue mask the face covering because you have you we were required to have a policy for enforcing we removed it this is a policy issue and currently you're making decisions on a school-by-school basis correct yes and currently there are some similarities because we're just starting with proactive trying to to stop the extreme number that we're having compared to relatively to what we had had historically all right hi mrs kaler we've just finished going over the information item i know you've had the information ahead and was able to review it there okay so you're up to speed all right mr president or just mrs caleb board member kayla have any questions sorry i slipped up with president perfect all right if we don't have any other questions for dr foley we'll go ahead and we will go on to our public comment portion of the meeting we value input from our constituents this time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this is not an appropriate venue to evaluate discuss or criticize district personnel policy keb provides a process for complaints about personnel speakers should be aware that fault statements about individuals may result in civil liability members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ars 38-431.01h action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date only those persons who have completed the request to speak form and given it to the board secretary prior to the start of this meeting will be allowed to speak please limit your remarks to three minutes if there is a large number of individuals requesting to speak a time a time allotment for public comments may be utilized abusive language or personal attacks on staff or board members will not be tolerated individuals displaying this behavior will be ruled as out of order and asked to relinquish the floor and may be removed from the meeting thank you for your participation and for helping us con to conduct an open and orderly meeting and before we get started i just want to remind the speakers that we um we're all here for one purpose we ask that everyone be respectful even with differing opinions we can not have the same opinion but we do need to be respectful everyone sitting in this room outside all of our staff members they all deserve that respect none of us want to be back in this position we were here in april but we're here and out of respect for our community we're allowing this time for a public comment there are districts that are not so we do ask that you please keep your comments professional and respectful we will try and get through as many requests to speak as possible we will be calling people in the order we received them and i when i call somebody up i will let then i will announce the next person to speak we do have people in the lobby who have requests to speak so that will also allow us the ability to allow them to come in as well so our first speaker is going to be barbara summers and our second speaker will be mindy brocker is barbara summers or mindy brocker in here she may be out in okay just want me to get started all right i know there's a lot of anxiety today about making the right decision here one thing we can all agree on is that no one really likes wearing masks another item we can all agree on is that in-person learning is beneficial for our learners and being in person is ultimately the best place for our children that is truly our overall goal it should be our priority unfortunately in our current climate the issue is how do we do this safely pediatric coveted cases and hospitalizations are on the rise everywhere including in arizona hospitals are reporting coveted missions among children at an all-time high locally the number of admissions for pediatrics at banner has doubled monthly since june in june the number was 35 in july it was 71 and in just the first two weeks of august they had admitted 70 children for covet while these numbers seem relatively low we are talking about hospitalizations and illnesses and in some cases even death that can be prevented when you look at the big picture the number of known pediatric coveted cases overall in maricopa county is rapidly outpacing adults by nearly double i know there is a lot of talk about how we still had cases last year while masked but as our district mentioned contact tracing with the county showed that the spread wasn't happening in our schools at that time this was because universal masking does work this is evident by the numbers on our dashboards overall last school year we had 574 known cases the entire year and this year we already have 252 known cases at our dashboard in less than a month and it is spreading at schools this time children under 12 aren't currently eligible for vaccination and with an over 200 percent increase in pediatric cases in the u.s since june we should be doing more to protect them where we can while numbers seem low coveted deaths among children this year have topped 350 in the united states with 35 of those deaths being reported in arizona i know it's not what we want but mass will help stop the spread in our schools mass will mean that there is room for treatment at local hospitals if one of our children is injured and needs care more importantly to everyone here according to the maricopa county health department if a student is in close contact with an infected student and both are wearing masks the student won't be considered a close contact and subject to quarantine ultimately this means less disruption to our students we can all present data from whatever sources we want to believe and we can all argue about how we personally feel about mass but in the end it comes down to taking care of others while the idea of the grant funding sounds exciting are we willing to sell our kids out for that we need to bring back the mass to keep our children in school and work together as a community because we are in this together thank you guys thank you so our next speaker is going to be okay can you try and take a look at that our next speaker is going to be mindy brocker followed by megan jones is megan jones in the room okay to be honest guys thank you for your time i'm so put around right out there this is like my worst nightmare i hate this so much but i need to thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak with you i recognize that our state government has been actively working against all the district boards leaving you guys torn between science and politics my goal for my family is the same as yours to keep my three children in school we keep schools open by protecting the health of our children our state is trying to punish school boards for keeping local control in the community that they know best i vote i volunteer and i donate to support schools and their funding this is how we should improve our school budgets don't let doug ducey put a price on the heads of our children the feds states courts they'll be battling this out in the coming weeks let them fight while we focus on our students i'm not going to give you statistics about how maths work or best ways to quarantine because i'm not an expert and neither any of you i have to trust that you will rely on your medical and public health professionals unfortunately case count and husd is substantial with over 250 higley children now identified as coveted positives in less than four weeks of this year's start it's very clear changes need to be made we should also consider the current rise in rsv cases another respiratory illness causing many absences thank you so much for the common sense modifications you've already made i may not love every choice but i acknowledge and respect the impossible situation you find yourselves in right now today our community needs to stand up in unity i'm sorry that i even have to ask for a mass mandate a request to higly parents should be enough but as we all can see a request to our masks isn't effective when it's voluntary i admit mass aren't perfect a risk will always exist but we know it's an important tool to reduce our kova transmission at the source please institute a temporary mass mandate to be re-evaluated at fall break this would greatly reduce the need for quarantines and reduce all respiratory illnesses further keeping our kids in school please follow the maricopa county quarantine rules the best source control is keeping children who are actively sick and those at high risk to develop covid at home for short periods finally please increase transparency sharing on your dashboard more information like the count of children in quarantine on campus transmissions plus grade level case notices for each school people will tell me you are doing your best i want to remind you your best requires risk just like me standing here it's bad but your best is not to pray hope and wish we depend on you in this time and need to make hard choices and be proactive in helping our kids so thank you thank you our next speaker is megan jones followed by eric real if that's the correct pronunciation okay thank you hi my name is megan jones i'm a mom and stepmom to five kids all either currently or previously enrolled in husd i know you you've heard so much from both sides i'm sure you've been inundated with laws science data and opinions i appreciate you listening to them all i almost did not attend this meeting tonight because my youngest son a student in the district tested positive for covet a few weeks back after being back in in person school for just a week and a half don't worry i've already tested and i've done my quarantine and he's allowed to be back in school he's not been able to attend for 11 days now likely won't be back for the foreseeable future he still can hardly speak without coughing i'm sure if you ask him he would say he'd rather wear a mask forever than to ever feel like this again i mentioned this to bring me to my first point when i called to notify the school of his positive test results i was told that his siblings who he is with 24 7 shares a bedroom and bathroom with are not considered close contacts and need not quarantine or test unless showing symptoms yes i'm here to ask you to reinstate masks at least until kids under 12 can be vaccinated but i'm also here to ask you to please do more the recently released released mitigation strategies are a step in the right direction but not enough why are we no longer following exclusion guidelines i've received nine coveted notifications already for saseman how has none of these been a close contact when according to my children there's almost no one masking in their classes if we can bring our positive case levels down wouldn't that be the best for all involved so that we can keep these kids in school safely and have less disruptions for teachers than them i guarantee my son will be behind for months as a few assignments posted on canvas are just that assignments he won't be learning anything he's missed that brings me to masks i don't want to ask forever no one really likes wearing them i understand that eventually we need to get back to normal i know that one day hopefully soon this will have to be treated like the flu strep or common cold governor ducey states that public health officials in arizona and across the country have made it clear that the best protection against covet 19 is the vaccine however that's not yet available for our under 12 kiddos in the meantime the cdc aap and ih and many others recommend masks as the next best protection i get the argument about making decisions for our own children but really do we actually get to do that anyway we can't drive them with drive with them in a car without a seat belt for a proper restraining device if needed based on age and weight they can't ride the school bus unless they and their parents agree to the best safety rules dress codes regulate what they can and cannot wear and even stick with us into our jobs in adulthood they can't play sports without a physical and proper equipment people can't smoke on campuses heck dcs has a ton of things you can and cannot do with your kids there are many things in place already for both public health and safety that regulate our choices why is this any different we trust you to keep our kids safe every day they walk through the doors in any of our husd schools i'm asking you to please take those necessary steps in order to do so thank you all right eric real and then our next speaker will be kelly stromello and kelly did i she may kelly may be in the lobby not inside okay thank you thank you good evening and um thank you for calling this meeting and allowing me the opportunity to address the board directly a mass mandate is an important topic i'm glad we again have the opportunity to share collective views about it don't want to be here but thank you for having us i despise masks my young kids do as well it breaks my heart every day to kiss them goodbye through their masks and send them off to their classrooms wearing them but we do it because it helps keep them safe it helps keep their classmates safe there's no arguing that it's the best defense that my five and eight-year-old and their classmates have against covet right now it's their only defense it's why you should vote this evening to reinstate a face covering policy in husd until there are other two other tools available for us to keep our kids safe from this some are saying this is a medical matter which only parents should decide believe me the last thing i want is the government meddling in my kids health care this is not a medical matter it's a public health and safety matter it will be a medical decision once a vaccine for young kids is approved and parents can decide for themselves whether or not their kid should be vaccinated but until that time this is not a personal medical decision it's about the safety of our kids in the school community there's a lot of numbers being thrown around that about this but there's only one that matters to me in less than four full weeks of school four confirmed covet cases at my daughter's school in her grade level that's not acceptable we need to slow that down and your best option for doing so is to reinstate masks these are your choices tonight reinstate a face covering policy to help keep our kids safe or risk a hospital bed or worse for my kids for all our kids it's pretty simple choice please make the right decision tonight for our kids thank you all right we have kelly stromilo sorry and our next speaker julia ridden okay i apologize for anyone i butcher their names i'm trying my best okay well good evening to all my name is kelly stromiello so you're close i'm a mother of two students in the higley district and it's clear to me that everyone is very passionate about the topic of their children's safety and health no matter where you stand i have tried to be a good advocate for my children's health and the health of our entire family i've tried to read up on as many studies regarding the efficacy of masks and other mitigation tools at our disposal i seek out neutral and well-informed evidence-based sources science supports the use of masking as just one of many layers of protection the research that i was able to find from studies around the globe show it the research points to the data that it cuts down on both the chances of transmitting and catching the coronavirus they are effective in both in protecting against coughs sneezes and talking that spray aerosols that carry the virus that's it they are there are no credible studies that suggest that a simple clean cloth mask lowers your oxygen level increases carbon dioxide in lungs or weakens the immune system they are no more danger to school-aged children than a kid who sleeps with a sheet or a blanket these studies are found to be credible by many recognized and respectable organizations around the world such as the cdc the nih the american academy of pediatrics the america the pediatric infectious disease society the american lung association and the list goes on but the evidence i find most compelling comes from our very own district last year i was impressed with the mitigation protocols we had and as a result of those efforts we ended the year with 574 cases for the entirety of the year as of today we have hit almost half that number in week four with little to no mitigation our total numbers of resolved and active cases are at 252.

thanks Jared [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Nicholas Halford oh hello my name is Nicholas hoffridge I've grown up here from kindergarten all the way to high school graduated in 1999 and love this community and thank you so much for having us all here and hearing us I I have 16 years of flexible material and adhesive experience and I I work with 3m I work with all the different adhesive manufacturers and I do a lot of different work with venting as well as um different I also I've been working with n95 mass for a very long time that mask has not been designed for what we're what we are um up against right now and it is when you know understand mask understand particles that you understand the blocking anyone wearing a reusable cotton mask is just not following any type of science guidelines whatsoever um the the and also unless you're going to completely regulate and micromanage every kid's mask as they walk into the door make sure they have a clean mask you are you are posing so many health risks to our children it is it is the bacteria that gets collected it's called blocking um and as air comes in um and dust particles come in bacteria comes in Paris their parasites and all these things get trapped into the filtration material and it is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine what we are doing to our kids by making them wear masks and and no one in the political world seems to understand anything about filtration does not understand how the weaves work does not understand and the idea that they are mandating a a cotton homemade mask um and they've had a year and a half to come up with some type of government spec and government standard I've worked with a lot of different Labs I look at lab reports I have different types of adhesives tested to military specs I know what a pass and fail is and we have not come up with any type of standard it is completely Rogue on what kids are wearing and what they can buy off of Amazon and unless we're going to really look at this and micromanage uh come up with a spec that is going to to allow the correct amount of oxygen in collect the right amount of dust and gets rotated in a proper schedule um and unless that's managed and regulated properly you're going to to be causing tremendous harm to our kids long term and I have 16 years of experience telling you that this is the wrong type of filtration medical masks do not provide filtration and unless we have kids spitting on each other this is doing no good whatsoever all right thank you very much [Applause] Noreen Frederick foreign Frederick I don't know if you guys can see me I might need a chair to stand on I'm a little short um honestly I was not prepared at all to speak tonight but I want to thank you all for your time and more importantly I want to thank everybody whatever side you're on for speaking tonight because it takes a lot of Bravery to stand up here and to fight for what's right I came from a father who was a politician he came into his position at a time when his County was in moral corruption and he did something that changed the face of that and it wasn't easy all I want to say is that sometimes what is right doesn't mean that it's easy I am here to teach my kids to do the same thing I can sit here and I can say I'm only one person I'm only a mom my child's only a child who are they who what kind of voice do they have but a fire starts with a spark that's all it takes is one spark if I can't stand up for my children for what's right how can I try to teach them to do the same thing we live in a world right now where they're constantly trying to tell our children what to think how to believe but only if it's on their terms and only if it's what they agree with I'm not going to sit here and look at my son who's over there right now and tell him not to fight and not to do what's right when I don't want to do the same thing so all I ask of you guys I know it's really really hard and I know you're in a position I know it's hard to not be defensive toward what the government wants and Twitter what your guidelines are but what I'm asking of you is to take some time to think about it to pray on it to do what you have to do whatever that means to really reflect on what's right what is best it doesn't have to be it's because the authorities tell us that it is all of these people have given you all the facts they've spoken to you from the heart I'm not a doctor I can't give you all the statistics and all the numbers but what I can do is I can sit here and I can ask you to sometimes do and do what's right not just because it's easy you guys were elected this position nobody said it was going to be an easy position I think you hoped that it would have been that you wouldn't have had to deal with all this but now you are in a position where you can say where do I stand personally where do I stand do I stand for what's right even if it's hard or am I going to do just the easy thing because that's what I'm being told to do and like everybody else has said where does if it starts here where does it end what's the next thing that we have to be vaccinated that my if I don't decide to vaccinate my child they have to have a letter A all over them or they can't get educated so if it starts if we don't do something right now where is it going to go from here and the last thing that I want to say is the oath you guys when you came into this you took an oath and the oath says I'm not going to read the whole thing obviously I don't have time but the one thing I want to say is that it says I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the schools of the school district's assets and that's all that all of us are asking you to do this evening thank you for your time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Grace Wilkowski foreign ER at the school and I have been in the Columbia School District my entire life and I was not going to speak tonight if I'm being completely honest but I feel like I had something wash over me that I should voice my opinion because that's my right and I think that mass should be completely optional I firsthand have seen the hallways in the high school and quite honestly it's a joke it they they air off the hallways and that's doing nothing but more harm than good because we are now crowded to go down one hallway from each from the top hallway we have to go down one little staircase crowding us together which no one is social distancing and quite honestly it feels like the school picks and chooses when they want to social distance us just like in the morning before the Bell Rings they pack us all in the lunchroom and we have to set up lunch tables but why is it at lunchtime we have to social distance so [Applause] personally I think that the main reason why we are still having issues with mass and covet is because of fear we need to stop living in fear doesn't matter what you believe in or your religion or anything fear is awful and fear will take over your life and will make you do awful things things that you don't want to do things that you don't think is right and we need to stop letting fear control us because we're obviously getting nowhere and I just want to say thank you to all of you for letting me speak since I'm only a junior and I'm and I'm obviously not 100 educated on everything with all the facts and the numbers and the data and the statistics with everything but I know I'm 16 years old and I have formed my own opinion based off of things that I have seen and I think that my opinion matters and it should so [Applause] Taylor Etheridge [Applause] good evening my name is Taylor Etheridge and I'm a junior at Columbia High School my friends and quite frankly um the only the best way that I can put the what we want is we want a normal school year back the last time us junior class had a normal full school year was eighth grade year that was Middle School we walk in our freshman doors like oh man homecoming well prom not until Junior and Senior year of course and every event and every sport event like Friday Night Lights and that is the only thing that we could ask for back I've talked to many people about homecoming situations and how they want them and no matter what whether it's with school and whether or not it's going what's going to happen whether it's personally or with the school um we have uh we have been in trouble for masks trying to get them together which quite frankly really isn't fair but I understand and and no way that I want a teacher's opinion to change on me because my opinion is different than theirs um we we walk into school we're all friends and everything but we still are right next to each other in the hallways like Grace said like shoulders shoulder closer than we are right now and um it really doesn't make any sense but that's okay because if you guys are trying your best and that's all I can ask for you guys and um so we asked for our homecomings back because that's what high school is about and that's the memories that we want back we don't we don't want to put on a mess to cover our face because like everyone else has said it it doesn't really do much no matter what like I use the same mask maybe once like the same week and then I'll change it because I watched that one but it's not a clean mask so it's still getting me sick last year I had allergies and I understand the cautions that we took last year but it took away from the education of me and my younger sibling my younger sibling didn't do as well in school as I did because you know I'm just better than him like that um but that does not matter um but I've asked students and like on one of my social media platforms of what they wanted so it doesn't just come from me and my friends because that's not fair and it came to a 75 75 kids know and four people yes I would like to wear a mask so that's why we just asked for it to be optional it's not we're telling you not to wear a mask or not have students wear a mask because that's not on that's not fair on their part either um we all hang out this summer no mask none of us got covered we're all good um but we just asked for a Friday night life back um we uh we just want our high school like High School classes back and but I want to thank you guys for your time and thank you for everything you have done for us because it has been a lot and um thank you to the teachers that I've gone with this because the Google Classroom stuff is not easy because I'm struggling with it too but um we just asked that masks are optional just because it'll respect our opinions and everyone else's opinion and if the student wants to wear a mask that's completely fine too but thank you foreign I'm speaking off the cuff here so bear with me my name's Alyssa eynen now when covet first started my dad showed me a video of a scientist who had was was trying to explain that mass did not work he had a vape inhaled put the mask on and then exhaled smoke everywhere I think that just proves that masks don't work within itself so what I'm trying to say is we should make masks optional if you are so scared of coronavirus covid whatever you want to call it you can wear a mask but don't make everyone else here who doesn't like them and who doesn't believe in Mass wear them it's kind of ridiculous also we've never been scared of the flu we've never been scared of anything other than coronavirus so are we just going to be scared of the flu and all these sicknesses for the rest of our lives are we going to wear masks for the rest of our lives we have to get back to normal I think we can all agree on that [Music] also I'm a junior in high school now the only normal part of my high school career has been the first half of freshman year everything was normal then covet hit okay we had one homecoming we've had nothing else we've had prom who knows a prom is going to happen I know the seniors last year in the Juniors last year didn't get a prom coming or was that even going to happen this year none of us know I mean we've had normal high school events be taken away from us and it sucks and I think that we all agree that it's time to get back to normal thank you for your time [Applause] thank you anyone else anybody want three minutes of fame feel free to jump up there well thank you all for the comments [Applause] hello my name is Debbie allendorf and I have grandchildren that go to the Columbia School District I'm up here because I love my grandchildren and I'm going to ask the audience if you're a parent or a grandparent do you love your children you as school board do you have children grandchildren just none you love them right and when you took your oath that you would uphold the assets of the school I believe in my opinion that the most important asset we have is the children we love [Music] now we are America we heard our freedoms tonight and last I heard and I've witnessed as as living in the United States of America we have a flag that represents our freedom so we are a Land of the Free because of the Brave and before this meeting tonight I kind of wondered why we didn't say the Pledge of Allegiance but we do have freedom and we do speak the Pledge of Allegiance I ask the crowd that as we say that we will stand for our freedom we will stand for our children and will stand for the people we love as these are all wonderful virtues but love is not up there but that is the main reason I believe we are all here tonight so when we can we all stand for our freedom right now and say together the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] and I know they've thrown maybe some monetary funding for us but last I saw on my dollar bill it still says In God We Trust I School Board I thank you this has been a wonderful school that is why I'm here tonight my grandchildren have enjoyed coming to the school and I just want to give you support in us all in unity we can stand for our freedom together thank you all right thank you anyone else foreign all right I appreciate all the comments and you guys taking the time to come out here tonight I know there's a lot of emotions on both sides I think we're a little overwhelmed on one side than the other but that's fine too um the uh we also received an email from a group of parents and asking us to address some questions and normally we don't address questions and the reason is this is not a debate we would be here all night and none of us get paid so we wouldn't get overtime or anything so we want to go home eventually but also we're aboard so none of none of us have any Authority individually so I have very strong opinions myself as do many of the board members but until we actually reach a consensus we don't have any board action so we can't I can't speak for the board um you know board policy 8010 says the board presidents the official spokesperson for the for the school board uh the superintendent is official spokesperson for the for the district so we have both of us up here I'm going to make some comments tonight but the comments that I'm going to make are not as school board president I'm not speaking for the board I'm speaking for my personal opinions and Views so please understand that again I don't have the the permission I've I've spoke with a lot of the board members individually we have not come to a consensus we've as far as what I'm going to say so a lot of these is my opinions I spent like you guys I spent a tremendous amount of time on this and to some of the comments I I have read the reports on Mass so I guess we want to start let's go ahead and uh and start with the questions yeah why don't you read them because I can't see my phone very well I was trying to pull it up during I was trying to pay attention to you guys and see my questions at the same time prepare so apologize for wasting your time a little bit here so is that good can you hear me okay first question have you as a school board looked at what happens if you do not follow pritzker's mandates on masking and quarantines what would happen yeah can you guys hear me better [Applause] and again I'm I'll start right off the bat I'm not a big mass square I this thing has been wide enough in my pocket forever but I'm wearing it tonight because we're asking the kids to wear masks so far that's the official position of the school board and so I'm I'm trying to set an example so that's that's why I'm wearing this it is hard to hear so I'm socially distant so I think we're all all good with this so far so the question was have you as a school board looked into what happens if you do not follow up with Chris mandates and masking core unmasking and quarantines what would happen exactly so a lot of people pointed out so basically what would happen if the school board goes against the governor's mandate which I personally don't think he has the power to do it either but it's what fight are we willing to fight how much money or of your money are we willing to spend I hate spending other people's money I and and I despise wasting people's money especially that's not mine you put us up here to and somebody made the comment that you know we took an oath to to protect your asset and that's one of my views is what we're doing but so basically the governor and the state of Illinois have threatened to obviously take away our accreditation which honestly we'd have 60 days to they would probably just like water or I'm sorry Redbud went through they would send us a letter saying you have 60 days to correct we can fight it we can do all that kind of stuff it is going to take some time for that to really happen so we would have time to fight if we went that route but one of the things that no one's really thinking about is sports so the state can take our Sports weight instantly and that's something that we we would be really hard-pressed to get back in would cost a lot of your money to do it you know I always say don't fight a fight somebody else is willing to fight and we have two school districts currently that have already filed suit against the state let them spend their money let's ride on their coattails and see what happens again in my opinion guys this is just I'm not speaking for the board um the third thing is the uh you know again there's so much fear and and they're you know I've already well you're going to get threatened sued personally and honestly I'm not just I'm not afraid of a fight and if if I have something that I truly believe in or willing to stand up for I'm more than happy to do it um and I I don't back down easy but then I get I have to make a business decision based on what's best for the school board and you know emotions are high and and I understand and I agree with most of you but at the same time again we have to look out what's best for the school um I don't see her I agree and which brings me to I say The Best For Last again sorry this isn't the debate guys okay we're we're not we're not going to back and forth sir sir come on please and just be respectful I I we've sat and watched everybody and listened and gave you guys time and now it's our turn we've asked us to answer questions and I'm here to answer them and again I'm kind of I'm kind of bucking the system because this isn't typical for us to do and again that's why because we have to act as a board we can't act individually so I'm trying to address some questions and we're trying to go that extra mile and and help you guys out but the the number one thing in my mind is why I'm leaning towards and for enhancing the mask is the quarantine so basically we've added two teachers and one for kindergarten one for first grade so we're going to have a little bit smaller class size and so I think we can I'm pretty sure in fact I know we can we can attain the three feet separation so with a mask and three feet separation we don't have to quarantine virtually be be gone so all the ideas about sending a packet home and sending by getting ahead of myself but okay sorry question two all right if children are masked and it is the most powerful protection against getting coveted according to the CDC website why are they quarantined if exposed where in the school setting do you think they will be exposed within three feet we request the administration to provide a seating chart for each classroom showing the distance between the desks and the students please um do you want me to answer yes okay we are with the masks it is down to three feet in most cases um no one's going to get quarantined with this now we do have buses I do want to point out that our buses are extremely full this year compared to last year and quarantines will occur on the buses and so if you can go back to transporting your own children that would reduce their chance of being quarantined from a bus connection I'm just saying that in the buildings there's going to be some classrooms that there is going to be maybe one or two children quarantined last year it was a six foot radius who came up with three foot or six foot I don't know who came up with the 15 minutes I get it it's it's it's numbers there um but they do need to be the rules are that they have to be warned or not quarantined excluded from school if they're within a closed contact and that's going to be minimized a lot this year uh Mr Wagner do you want to talk about the if it's the mass star so important why are they quarantined pH and going on CTC recommendations this year it is down to three feet if both students are masked and it only applies to indoors there's no quarantining on anybody that is outdoors um the quarantining is under this communicable disease code local Health departments we have no say in that that is law that is under the communicable disease code the school board cannot override the quarantine the only people that have the authority to quarantine or isolate an individual is the health department and the crowd is correct the speaker was correct it would take if we cannot get voluntary compliance it does take a court order to quarantine or or isolate an individual isolation is when your positive quarantine is when you're close contact and obviously this past year we've had overwhelming support for voluntary quarantine we have not taken anybody to court we have not had to to force you know police officers outside a house or anything like that so but in the school setting three feet uh the the trick is and water was already been in school we are seeing a number of cases already with some close contacts buses and the Lunch Period are the difficult ones that the board if you can address those the seating in a classroom can usually meet that three foot separation and then we would not have to quarantine anybody if you can meet that three feet on the Lunch Period what we've been pushing is keep the kids seated at the tables for under 15 minutes and then we can take the Lunch Period out of that if they're only at the table for 10 minutes and then they get more than three feet apart after that you don't even have to go back and look at your videos or anything to see who is at the lunch because they're under 15 minutes so obviously the goal is to keep as many kids in school as we can last year we quarantined a whole lot of kids a whole lot of kids one percent of those children that we quarantine came back positive only i i i and all I'm here is to give you guys the numbers I I'm not taking your opinion on the mask I I agree with a lot of what you're saying on the mask obviously you can see when I'm standing here talking to you the front of the Mask is not going in and out I can feel it on my face all the air is coming in and around but that doesn't change the fact that it's a mandate from the the governor now that's up to the school board whether or not they want to somebody wants to challenge that in court but as as a mandate what's happened so far the letters have come down to the to Red Bud they were sent them already they're on probation they have 60 days to come issue a corrective action plan and then I don't know what the state's going to do after that you know and I don't believe anybody really knows whether or not they're going to go ahead and proceed with a penalty phase basically uh whether that be Sports looking at accreditation funding whatever this this mandate that he put out this time he's not I don't my personal opinion he's not going to back down from now legally if it's challenged Will he win I have no idea that's more above than what I I know that much about the law so um to keep the kids in school masking is necessary you can't meet the six feet that would be required if you're not a mess and like I said I have no control or very little control we can do some leeway and stuff like that as far as how close a close contact is but six feet three feet uh it's under the communicable disease code we have to quarantine them and then if they don't we don't get voluntary quarantine we have to turn it over to the state's attorney now will that be prosecuted and will that be taken to court you know I I have no idea Mr White yes I'm sorry I'm going to jump forward to um because there's another question on here that relates to you if the CDC according to their own website recognizes positive antibodies as protection from covid why can't students who have antibodies return to school in addition why can't students who test negative for covid return to school and I that's a legitimate question and the uh there is an option for antibody testing what the state has come down with is if you are a high probability of being a child's a high probability of being positive but was never tested say they weren't when we've already had this come up actually in Waterloo I had it come up today a whole family was positive mom dad and a child one of the children tested negative initially on when they were sick the parent and the other children got really sick then the fourth child did get sick but the parents were too sick to get him didn't want to take them out and get them tested so a story like that we as the health department this is where I do have some leeway on the quarantine we can say yes we will accept an antibody test on that person as a proof that they're positive and that is in the guidance from the school and from idph this year who pays for the test s right I'm just like wow whoever wants to test would have to pay for it I would imagine so so there is an option for anybody to test but no why is it not why and that that goes higher even than the state why are antibodies not observed that goes up to the federal level they're they're not observing them in any situation other than for 90 days why I have no idea that you know it it's it's not something I can say we're going to observe okay thank you sir John I have a question from a board member yeah so we have a workaround on the lunch is there a workaround that you can think of for the buses like windows down that's kind of like being out because it falls under the mass transportation law and that's why even if you do away with optional man if even if the school board or whatever was to do optional masking in school the buses would still be required that is actually Federal on mass transportation that's why you have to wear a mask on an airplane a bus a train anything like that that is not up to local uh or even State control that's actually Federal requiring and and they're looking at buses as mass transportation I'm not worried about like wearing the mask but the quarantine for it because our kids are so close together right and they're no there's really you know if if the bus ride is more than 15 minutes you know um the the work around right put these for the kids to move seats every 10 minutes to keep them from the total of 15 minutes next it's 15 minutes next to a child in a 24-hour period so if if they're only sitting next to a child for 10 minutes and they're not around them for the rest of time because it's a different grade or whatever if they were to move to a different seat at a 10 minute they would never hit that 15-minute threshold it'd be difficult it could be done I guess that I mean that's that's really pushing outside the box but it would hold true it would meet the regulations and obviously I am just so I'm looking looking at schools or will be looking at schools as we get back comparing the masking schools to the unmasking schools now I may have to go outside the state if you know to look at unmasking schools personal opinion not Health Department not Public Health personal opinion I don't think we're going to see much difference on the masking he didn't see it this is the same talk I gave to Waterloo to Monday night we didn't see much difference in the states unmasking versus unmasking if you look California had some of the strictest masking rules in the nation Florida had some of the weakest they both we have about the same amount you and I had this conversation so I'm going to ask you a question because um we had this conversation in the beginning when it was mask option one was strongly recommended by the CDC we were of the mind okay then we'll just strongly recommend it and that maintenance masks are optional when the governor then mandated it we mandated it when they make masks strongly recommended again when will they do the quarantining and the distances as strongly recommended because that to me and I saw some of your faces with the moving on the Bus 15 minutes the frustration and the anti-logic in your eyes as a superintendent I deal with the state a lot and so I'm kind of numb to it but yeah it's if you can think of a logical way to do something sometimes the state goes the other way it just it is what it is it's a mandate when are they gonna or excluding I have no idea I you know there's been no talk of reduction on any of that stuff from the state at this point um who would we need to talk to like would that just be the IDP age I don't think they've discussed it I don't think you're going to find an answer they're they're tend not to look too far in advance on on issues um you know it's it's going to be difficult for uh to find out to do a long-range plan no I'd like to see it done as soon as possible I'd like it to be done as soon as we can you know as soon as we can compare non-masking schools to masking schools now we could do that from last year we had schools that masked and didn't mask last year maybe not not Monroe County but in other states and we could compare transmission rates in those two schools the difference this year and this is where I'm a little worried about the spread of the virus is the Delta variant it is true it is more contagious you do have more the Delta variant has a higher viral load meaning when you're sick when you breathe out more of the virus goes in the air because it's heavier in your system doesn't mean it's making you more sick or anything like that just means it's heavier in your system and that's why it is more contagious now there's is it more deadly no it's not and there's even some studies that show that it's less and a lot of people like to talk about studies while we're on the mass I did a whole lot of research last week before uh I knew I was going to the Waterloo board meeting on masking the only legitimate study that I can find that is not a third world country was one out of Denmark where they did what's called a basically it's called a double-blind study it's a randomized study they're they're the scientific basically from the medical field they're the gold standard in science it's basically where you have a number of people that are masked a number of people that are say that they religiously don't mask so you have the two groups then you might they go out and these these were large groups you know of people these were hundreds of people they go out and then they a certain amount of time whatever the study length was for then they bring them back and they see how many people of this group were ended up catching covet how many of this group ended up catching covet what they found in that study was that two percent of each group ended up catching covet so virtually the same now that's not to say more studies need to be done but I still haven't figured out why I can't find any U.S studies there are none you can't find it the what what the studies have been done in the U.S are called observational studies is with this mask on if I cough or breathe out it stops large particles from going out so with that being said if I was sick you would assume that the mask would stop spreading of the virus you would assume that and that's where they're coming up with their assumptions but there have not been randomized stuck that's just an observational study and they're very inaccurate they're they're they're they're you know you can talk to anybody and and there's other observational studies you know we had a group here that was masking a group here that wasn't masked and this group got you know sick well that's an observational study you don't know why that's the case you know uh that's called an observational study the randomized study the gold standard the only one I could find was one out of Denmark there are some out of China but I would you know I wouldn't read too much into those so um and China and India were the other other randomized studies that I could find but there's no good studies I mean you can everybody wearing the mask right now can can feel when you breathe you can feel it on your eyelashes you can feel it coming out of here I don't want to say mask do no good because they do if I was to cough or sneeze this mask would do prevent a large plume from going out but if you're coughing and sneezing in a school situation you're not supposed to be in school anyway so is you're in a classroom for six hours sitting next to an individual that is positive is this Mass going to protect you my opinion is no it's not But there again more studies need to be done I don't know why we we still don't know how long this virus lives on a surface you know at first if everybody thinks back to the very beginning of this it was two weeks on a cruise ship remember that when the news came out two weeks on a cruise ship then it was two hours on a hard surface it was longer on stainless steel and less on something else and now it's oh it hardly lives at all on a heart more studies need to be done in the U.S so that people like you can make legitimate decisions on it um the you know same talk I gave to water the school board unfortunately school boards your hands are really tight unless you want you know unless you sink a lot of money into an underprepared to take a legal stand against not the mass mandate but the authority of the governor you know it's it's not whether or not he he made the mass mandate or not it's against whether he has the authority to to pass these things um this he's not going to back down you will probably lose your sports very quickly um that's the first one that's going to do and then they're going to go after the funding and then they're going to go after the accreditation it's not going to be here's a warning letter and he's going to kind of let it slide that's not the impression I'm getting this year he's not going to let this slide he's going to take it to the fullest extent now that's up for the your school board to decide how far they want to go with that but this is not one that he's going to last year there were certain things that he passed everybody knows I fought the restaurants forever keep trying to keep them open that was one that he he did the same thing did he have the authority to close the restaurants Washi stayed open you know they got a ticket and everything like that he wasn't going to put the political Capital into fighting that any more than sending State Police down to try to intimidate him this is not that case he's not going to just say threaten you he is going to follow it to the fullest extent that he possibly can I'm not saying he's going to win if you go the other way because I don't know that's above mine yeah but this is not one he's going to back down from at least that's the impression this this kind of feeds into the next thank you sir this feeds into the um [Music] [Applause] I'm jumping around in the email I have another question for John I thought that question was for Johnson oh okay John I'm sorry okay you're not gonna like me for this question but um okay so since one percent of the kids who were quarantined last year actually got coveted that tells us we're quarantining all these kids for no reason basically last year speaking of washies the state's attorney did not go after washi's for being open so what are the chances has have you had a conversation with the county on the kind of resources they would want to put into going after kids who or families who choose not to allow the voluntary quarantine I had a few conversations with the state's past States Attorney I have not talked with the current one and across the state what I'm hearing is the voluntary quarantine on a close contact can be challenging to prosecute a a isolation that's a positive case that's easy to prosecute and get I don't I use prosecute but it's not you're not thrown in jail it's to get a ruling that basically it's forcible isolation meaning there's police officers stationed outside your house and everything like that it can be difficult on a close contact the reason being is the three foot the six foot where did the can you imagine those of you who have some you know uh have been around Court can you imagine trying to fight that where'd the three foot come from and saying somebody thought that was a good distance where'd the six feet come from how come your eyes quarantined three how come we're not doing one so that's why from what I hear it would be difficult there are right now I just heard today from other health departments up north and I guess some Northern schools start sooner than we do down here um there are kids showing up at school breaking quarantine and the schools don't know what to do about it and the health departments are the least of the county that this came out of the administrative the health department said her State's Attorney would not take a case for a quarantine do you know what county that was no is that quarantined because they have coveted or no it's because they're a close contact the ones that have coveted all states attorneys that I've heard of will go after that and make you isolated if you're sick obviously we can't have you running around the school being sick it's the close contacts that are going to be the issue and it's already starting up like I said it's I heard of a administrator today on a call Clay County maybe one of those up north of Springfield uh she was telling us a story about that the the school called her that they had kids showing up that were supposed to be under quarantine from the health department we you and I have talked about this because I mean and masks or no masks is not to me the real evil the real evil is sending home the healthy kids because you and I have seen it last year they weren't getting sick so why not just leave them here it's the only thing you and I start having uh the more Flex like when I called you today and asked about the testing right you know I would love that if they would just take a home test and they prove Negative they can come back but they've got to get an alternate doctors if someone goes home with the symptoms so let's say I get sick I have covid I go home I I don't know if it's covered or not I'm sick and I take a uh I go to CVS and I take a rapid test and that turns out negative I'm still gonna have to go to a doctor to get an alternate diagnosis in order to come back to school without being out those seven days and that to me is wrong but those are the rules that we don't follow then they that's something right that's under the ISB that's that isolation tree that graph that we all have where you where you saw it from last year where if you're a close kind you know positive in this positive in that that's under that yeah and you don't have any play with that I mean they will you know um so yeah it's it's it's it's going to be a difficult year the only but what I'm hearing you say is that if we accept those tests no one would prosecute us to accept what tests the if I if I do the if I if I if someone comes to me and says that they've got a CVS test that says they're negative could they come back to school not on not under the you would be in trouble with ISP if you let them back into school without a doctor's note an alternative diagnosis is what it's called is what it says in that decision tree because you would not be following their decision tree that they said that you have to abide by um so it's yeah it's it you know the only difference this year and that's why I'm not saying you know last year we had one percent the difference this year is the Delta variant I'm not 100 sure that it and this is you got to remember I'm on Zoom calls all the calls every and even I don't know if felt the variant is really that much more contagious than the regular one because I don't know who to believe anymore it's you know um [Music] the the point I guess the point is though we can debate it all we want the fact of the matter is is the state has a mandate for excluding kids for close contact and for wearing masks and we don't like it and so the board has to decide if that's what we're if we're going to follow those rules or not it sounds like you've got the the if they're Mass you've got the quarantine stuff pretty much under control as much as possible you know you might tweak some things to do it but as far as unmasking everybody I wouldn't even say your decision is really whether or not you want to unmask everybody it's your decision is more or less do you want to get legal help to try to fight the State look you know that that that's more the decision because you know that that's what it's what that's what your decision is going to mean if you just elect to say Mass optional right now that's that's not where it's going to end yeah you know so this this gets in go ahead but if we go Mass if we say Mass optional now we're at a six-speak quarantine and we're gonna have a lot more kids yes right that's right yes and that is the carrot basically that the state is trying to push to get everybody to mask is if you do mask you know that that was their initial if you remember when this mask uh when the mass recommendation came out from CDC the state had there were no schools back in you know so the state came out and said we're going to follow cdc's recommendation that was all fine until the state started getting word that a lot of schools were going on the word for word recommendation word and that's when the governor came out and said mandate so you know it it we can work with the school either way you know obviously there is going to be more quarantine if it's six feet uh you know but it's it is what it is I don't know how fast it's moving through Waterloo already pretty quickly um we have quite we we have over I think when I left the office we have 16 we have 24 school age kids better positive we have a whole lot more than a close content now Waterloo apparently cannot I separate their kids quite as well as you guys can I don't know if it's because the school size or building size or what it is but we have certain students that come up we had one today that had 16 close contacts he came up positive 16 other kids are going to be out of school for 10 days can I uh jump in real quick because I was on my phone and I apologize for that that's extremely rude but one of the questions is is could Mr Grody talk about the other districts and what they're doing and Mr Tallman who is the superintendent at Redbud just texted all of us and said we're no longer on the naughty list they have voted to do masks and um I said can I announce this and he said yes they agree that I love my high school kids that came here and talked thank you [Applause] I don't have to mask is off I can talk normal the best thing I heard tonight was when they said they just want a normal year they want their homecoming they want their prom if we try to fight this fight they won't have Athletics and whoever graduates at the end of this year while we're fighting this fight won't have a certified diploma and so when they go off to college they're going to wait now lawyers move slow State bureaucrats and lawyers are like sludge it's it's it's you know I mean when I'm sitting here we're talking about the rules I can see on your face just this I can't believe you're dealing with this like the movement on the buses and whatnot it's a crazy world we work in I hate it I love it because of these kids that you get to see but the bottom line is is that for them to have the most normal year what we need to do is put on our masks go to school and try and get the state to realize we don't need to quarantine the healthy kids that's the first fight the second fight being let's not wear the masks or do it optionally I get that it's um the next question next question yeah next question please I'm being told to move on I'm sorry we can't take questions at this point it's just we're making an exception doing this kind of answering the questions that are pre-formed and everything I know there's a lot that goes on and we'd be here all night I'm sorry all right next question what is the what is the school's remote learning policy with kids who are quarantined how will children get help they need when they are home without instruction from the teachers I know that the um the plan frustrated a lot of people because it said the bare minimum which is a packet being sent home the stats with the states that is the bare minimum that you have to do for these kids that are sick there's a few things that I want to make sure we're clear on one we don't do the bare minimum last year we did remote learning and we did it very very well but it didn't work for everyone and the complexity of trying to come up with one plan that works for everyone is impossible and so what we did was we just made a very clean statement not a list of what could be done because we didn't want it to be considered a menu but there is going to be the turning on of videos and people watching it there's going to be synchronous there's going to be asynchronous and and I brought this up before you know if in a science class if they're dissecting a pig this week while somebody's quarantined they might just they're not going to follow along and and watch the class but they could get a link that would be a online dissection process if you're dealing with a lecture you know they might get the worksheets through classroom and they listen to the lecture and they do the worksheets if that's what the class is doing but even for like kindergarten students um we have kindergarten students that could go asynchronous where we do videos that didn't work for every kindergarten student some kindergarten students last year were quite successful with packets and so what we wanted to do was to make sure that we meet every kid's needs and we know that we can individualize it as long as we're not quarantining too many now that said the state superintendent today just started to bring back remote learning days and this is going to get into a rabbit hole of nightmares just understand that when we take attendance we have to code it a certain way and the remote learning days coming back is now where they can learn at home and I'm scared that it might be because they think we're going to have to go hybrid or we're going to have to go to real learning because of the Delta variant I want you to understand our goal is to keep kids in all day every day as much as humanly possible but the remote learning is going to be individualized you want anything there to say Mrs Smith I was just this is what I was going to talk about in my assistant superintendent report but yes in speaking with several of the teachers they discussed a lot of the strengths that came from last year with the remote learning and they also mentioned some of the more difficult things that they experienced and so the teachers want to be able to include what is absolutely best for students and so a lot of that will be turning on and doing the Google Classroom links and the videos like they've done in the past um but there are like Mr Brody was saying there are occasions when it would be better for a foreign language teacher to be able to record their lesson and then post it so that there's no glitching if you're trying to learn a new language same with our kindergartners if you're trying to learn to read or to speak correctly it becomes a little more difficult if your internet is glitching in and out or if there's some kind of static going on in trying to listen so the teachers wanted that flexibility but overwhelmingly it will be done synchronously very similar to the way things were done last year with just that opportunity to have some things go along the teachers all in the return to learn plan if you go towards the end of that paragraph it talks about the methods of learning will be communicated by each teacher and so the teachers will be sharing with the families if that is going to be you know what parts we will need to get on and join in on the Google Classroom what will be videos what will be expected to be there and then also though how they can be reached to be helped because no teacher in this district is willing to send a student home for 10 days and just tell them to go learn on their own that's not why they got into this profession and there's not a single one of them that is willing to just let them do that that was an overwhelming conversation that I've had with not only our return to learn committee but also in being out in the buildings and talking to teachers and they've also gone as far as to say it's no different than in the past pre-all of this when a student was out because of the flu or chickenpox or whatever it might be as a teacher when a student returns from being gone if they don't understand they do everything they can to catch that student up no different in this situation all right thank you um yeah I uh regarding the municipality says otherwise we're mandated by the State Board of Education and so the um it's the state board that we have to answer to they're the ones that uh have the stick so to speak and so uh we're hoping for the the one of these days soon for the local health department and the administration to work together on doing what's best for our kids given our numbers and look at the um the quarantining rules and the masking rules at that time the packets we talked about that oh the last one it's our understanding that Mr Brody's making an executive decision regarding Mass mandates and quarantines is this true and if this isn't true we would like a transparent vote from the entire board tonight to know where the board members stand please show us how you voted um Mr Grody is making an executive recommendation uh the the fact of the matter is is that every district is doing that and the ones that aren't are going through the process of changing their mind at the next board meeting um as we just saw Redbud did there's going to be more that are doing that because again those sanctions come and they ruin it for the kids and we're here for those kids said tonight they will be voting on The reopening plan which is with masks being mandated for the Governor's order I can tell you that when it comes down to it's no longer a mandate and it is strongly recommended we would go back to the strongly recommended language which is not a mandate um for me again it's that quarantine that's the one that I'm going to be working on more with but the remote learning plan will be voted on tonight so do we have anything to add on that one nope I'm getting back to also what else would happen if we don't go with the Mandate is our third round of Covina covid relief is up and which equates about 558 thousand dollars so if we don't approve the mass mandate we're ineligible for those funds which is putting more burden on the taxpayers as well so again we want to be good we want to be good stewards of your money it's it's not money that we've received or spent or anything else but it definitely does hit the bottom line you know thing too though guys what you got to understand is we represent the entire Community not just who's in this room so we have people at home without kids and you know we would have to if we win against this mandate is going to cost a lot of money and are we willing to knock on their door and say I need a check for x amount of dollars because we want to fight this Mass mandate when two other school districts are doing the same thing so we want to keep your property taxes down as much as we can we all pay them too and that's you're you're talking about two different things so it's we're gonna keep property taxes down or we're going to increase them and find a mass mandate against the governor with unlimited funds so again um that was all the questions sir okay I think that does address all the questions we had and again I'd really like to do more of a town hall meeting but this isn't the setting for it and this again we're kind of bucking the rules a little bit we want to communicate with you we want to be transparent I definitely want to show you where I'm coming from and you know there's two sides of her story and you know as the physics teachers will tell you for every action there's an opposite equal reaction and this is no different so no matter what we do and yes we have the authority we could say there's going to be no Mass mandate we're going to let them all all be and we understand you know we see the kids together and outside of the school and we know they're not wearing masks we're not stupid but again it comes down to what is best for the district at this time so again everybody again my personal opinions we're going to have a vote so you guys will see exactly how we come down but uh I want to share with you a little bit about my insight and and what's on the other side of the equation so sorry but I appreciate everybody's input you guys definitely made an impression I think on all of us again I can't speak for the board but definitely on me so all right we'll proceed with our business meeting item number four is our consent agenda and throw you the new to the school board meetings this is just a an efficient way to take care of the mundane items on our agenda there's only one change for the consent agenda okay um Mrs uh beckerer asked if they could have a lunchroom monitor as a vacancy that would be one more position into the lunchroom but that's to help us do the supervision and keep them more separated so that would be the only addition to the luxury monitor Administration recommends that we pass this as presented perfect any questions from the board comments would that entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as amended Scott I have a second thank Tyson we have a motion in a second Kimberly can you roll call please yes yes all right item proved unanimously on to item four is our Personnel items that sounds considering nope we're on communication reports and presentations sorry all right perfect thank you and Prophet otwell is here with Mr Eckerman wonderful welcome all right we'll start with our administrative reports let's start with our building report well why are you up here I am the seventh and 8th grade Spanish teacher at Columbia Middle School I also teach at Columbia High School and I am the cea vice president so the cea came to the administration Mr Brody and asked if they could have a representative during this report so we're kind of uh we're treading new grounds here so we're going to see how this goes um we have had an amazing two days of cool it has been the longest and the shortest two days I've ever had in my life if that even makes sense um the the atmosphere and the vibe in the building it is amazing there's a vibe there that that I personally haven't felt for an entire year it feels like the quote-unquote non-covet normal year talking with students for the past two days their biggest concerns that they've expressed to me is not being able to open their lockers with the locks because we have two whole grade levels that didn't try didn't get lost so that's been that's been a nice change um our baseball and softball team started I think last week they're both having so far winning season so that's amazing too um I would like to thank Kurtz and his great crew for the summer the building looks absolutely amazing it's nice to see the middle school all white and not that all that gray black mustard stuff over there on it um to Monday we had a parent open house and I heard a parent come in and say oh my God these floors are so clean I can eat off of them I offered she denied but but that was a great thing to hear our gym floor has been totally expanded it actually looks like a brand new floor was laid it's been totally planted they've repainted we got rid of our old kind of jaundice yellow looking eagle and we have a nice New Bright White Eagle so that looks amazing um the past two days we have Miss heels and I have kind of reworked our schedule so our students went through all eight of their hours but we created a big block in the middle of the day to do a like a kind of a reboot kickoff session and over the course of the past two days our students um have been reintroduced to life at the middle school there has been different different quote-unquote sessions we've worked on relearning all of the different programs they need to log in we've talked about appropriate social media usage we've talked about lots of different servers service our three Behavior expectations all the different things that we kind of need to reboot and restart the school year and I'm going to hand it off to profail yeah so we had those kickoff sessions and I think it's been really good for the kids I think they brought a lot to the table um with what they were able to contribute to those sessions and one of the things we did today was an author um an author we met an author today of this book The insignificant events in the life of a cactus it's really good actually I read it and my daughter who's a fifth grader this year read it and she was gracious enough to come on a Google meet with us and I think the kids really loved it they had great questions um they really enjoyed it she showed us her pet bird that was really cool um the kids enjoyed that but it was just a nice way to to get to see everybody again um you know despite all of the changes in protocol and mitigations and everything else I've just been so proud of the way the students have reintroduced themselves to school life they've jumped right in they've had lots of it's been high energy positive energy I've just loved having them in class and one of our fifth grade teachers and I think this is kind of across the board said that our fifth graders are transitioning really well and I would have to agree as a parent of a new fifth grader at CMS um she loves it and so I think the past two days and what's going on at CMS have just been um really fantastic and I'm looking forward to 174 more yeah it'd be great not today but he's counting though no no it's a lot easier if you just do the weeks though then it's like almost 39 weeks thank you thank you thank you let's start our assistant superintendent report um so we've been working on several things one of the things that I've been working with the para committee our evaluation committee there was two changes that came down from the state one was on if so teachers can receive one of four ratings in their evaluation cycle it's excellent proficient needs Improvement or unsatisfactory and so one of them is if you receive an unsatisfactory there's now an appeals process so our para committee met together we came up with the process that would go through that that teachers would go through we are hoping that we never have to use it but it was mandated that that be in our pair of plan so we now have that in there and the other thing was currently teachers are on a two-year cycle when they're evaluated so they get an evaluation every other year this new ruling that came down is based on if you receive an excellent or a proficient evaluation and you're a tenured teacher that instead of being evaluated every other year you would go on a three-year cycle but you would still have an informal evaluation within those first two years and so that was something we weren't mandated to start that until next year but the committee agreed that it was something that those teachers work really hard to achieve those excellent and proficient evaluation levels and so that was something that we felt was very easy for the district to do and get into that plan so those two changes were made with the committee and we've been sharing that new information with the teachers during the opening day meetings um I've been meeting with the teachers a lot of things that they were asking for was more professional development on how they can do things um just a little bit better or just have a little bit more support and how to continue to grow and become better for all the students in the district and so I've kind of been presenting different options that can meet the needs of all of the staff on a broad spectrum but also in a more specific way and then the other thing I was going to talk to you about was the return to learn the quarantining plan so I don't know if there's any questions still about the the quarantine learning plan or if we kind of talked about that before okay that's all I have perfect thank you and the big guy all right there were no foyas this month um summer projects are pretty much done we have one more project that's kind of a summer project it got added on mid-summer I'm not sure if you're aware but behind the visitor um football field visitor bleachers there's a land bridge that connects the middle school and the high school and it has um it's about this wide right now and I would not walk on it we're going to Grub the bushes back in a way and we've got a metal Bridge that's coming in and they're going to have concrete bunkers and so it's going to be a lot more space there and a bigger bridge is going to be put into over that over that Ravine we're working with the Architects on that we did go through the Roe we will get a builder's permit all of those other things that you need for Bridges of such significance um our first day of school came back we're hoping that that bridge is there for football season but it doesn't look like it's going to be um there's an issue with supply chain lines here in America the beginning of the school year went well our mode today is reboot refocus get the whole year started to get Get Back to Basics and really start looking at the curriculum and uh Ms Smith is leading that charge and I'm excited to see where that's going we have taken a pause in our do this again in our strategic planning process you'll be getting an email from me tomorrow regarding the um the the values that we have and then writing those statements that some of you have forgotten to send me I got one so I appreciate the one I won't Point anybody out gold star is in my office and I'll give it to you later but that's it all right thank you all right we'll move on to item seven there are items for action the first one is a approved the reopening plan for the 21-22 school year yeah and we discussed almost every aspect of that tonight Administration recommends the board approved a reopening plan for the 21-22 school year as presented all right open up two discussion the important thing is you know last year it was we couldn't have kids in school all day every day and that was so important and I think that's part of the mental health issue having kids in school every day all day is so important and if we go ahead and continue following the order then that allows us to only quarantine at three foot which means we're going to be quarantining very very few kids and after listening to John Wagner then those parents have a choice to make if they're going to sign off on us excluding them and if they don't sign off on it then they take the chance of what could happen right I understood that correctly so um I would I'd like to continue with the mask just to be able to keep those all the kids in school as much as we can I think that's so important and I I agree with Tammy I think keep getting the kids in school and keeping the kids in school and as you said I mean we were we were in a little bit and backed off and then a little bit more and all that last year and I think keeping the kids in school it should be our number one priority I believe personally um that we should probably get options for the homecoming Proms and stuff like that to be possibly held Outdoors so that the kids don't have to wear masks and they don't have to social distance and we can get them back to a more normal year I would hate for a senior this year to graduate and not get any accreditation um if we chose to go against this mandate that was set by the governor I mean I'm a mask optional person until the Mandate came down but with reading everything that goes along with the Mandate I'm not willing to put all these kids our staff and that stuff at a Jeopardy um I would much rather see the kids stay in school every day all day with the mask on and try to return back to as much normalcy as possible I do want the seniors to graduate with a diploma that means something anyone else so I'll share my thoughts too so I can tell you that me personally not you know just as Greg did earlier as as a parent and a member of the community I am not a master um you know I work for the federal government I you know understand how compliance works so from my school board position you know I'm going to do what it takes to keep the kids in my daughter that's in the middle school you know it hadn't it had a toll on her the emotional piece of it I saw how it affected her mentally being out of school not being with other kids not getting to learn firsthand everything being remote that was just not the best option for her so as a parent and a school board member my my first priority is keeping them in the classroom if that means that she has to wear a mask I'm going to give her a new one every day of the Disposable masks that are in my opinion less restrictive um and and that's my that's my choice as a parent I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna do is give her a new one every day so that she doesn't carry those you know pathogens are viruses or whatever gets on the master in the day from day to day but um you know it's really that if following the rules means we wear a mask and they get three feet and we can do three feet with the classrooms and that's where I that's where I stand everyone else um I'm going to speak up a little bit so personally speaking as an individual I don't agree with the governor's mask mandate and the quarantine protocols being put in place by the Illinois Department of Public Health I believe the best decisions are made locally and by individual parents blanket decisions across the state just don't make any sense um until there is a court order and validating the executive order and there are two suits pending one in Clinton County and one in McKendree County I don't think we have any local control we could we could vote against it tonight but I don't think it amounts to anything I don't even think we have the option um we're backed into a corner uh we're being bullied and uh to defy the executive order it hurts the students I was most moved by the kids that were brave enough to come and speak tonight and you know so how do I justify to tailor Etheridge that and her parents that her diploma that she has worked 12 years for is unaccredited how does that affect how she applies to college what she does I I don't have the answer and to say that the Illinois State Board of Education is just bluffing uh they're not bluffing they're actually doubling down and digging their heels in um and do I think they have authority to do it no I don't but they are doing it and so who gets hurt the kids get hurt again and the kids have been hurt enough the you know I've lived through it I'm still living through it with my children it's been a nightmare and the kids are getting hurt I you know not to pick on Taylor she's probably gone but Taylor's an athlete Taylor she you know so do we really want to after all the time she practices and plays games to take away her ability to participate in ihsa activities no that's not just Athletics it's gullible it's the band are we going to take that away from the kids again I mean I read the letter that the isbe sent to Timothy Christian High School who said they were not going to file the Mandate and the thing that really stuck out to me was that you know seniors who graduate from a non-recognized school or receive a diploma that's not recognized by isbe this action is irreversible should the school later regain its recognition status and these students will forever have a degree from a non-recognized school I mean it's unbelievable but that that is what they're doing so you know I've I've told many people I would never vote for masks because I I just I believe the science I believe Mr Wagner tonight um but if the masks keep us in school keep them playing keep them doing what they have to do then I think that is the bitter pill that we have to swallow so you know that's that's my position I couldn't agree with you more so I just have one more time yeah please I don't normally talk right but um what you what you said before is I totally agree I'm not I'm not willing to to spend District dollars to fight this we have a couple other school districts that that are leading the charge for that and that's that's great uh the other thing is I think you know I know it's a very passionately by parents tonight um I hope they realize and look back to it was just last month when when we voted to to um go mask optional right so um I think from that they understand where where we stand and I should say for myself or how I voted last time um but the in Andrew's point it's we're backed into a corner there is they gave us no option and and by Design and isbe is is not the most responsive body in the past but they have turned these things around for these schools that have voted against uh the mask mandate they turned around it so so quickly and coming down hard on them um and honestly it's I wouldn't say they were totally unresponsive before but you know it's hard to get things out of them before this is something that they're very fervent about to Mr Wagner's point I mean it's not they're not backing down so I want to see kids play play sports I want to be able to to follow our quarantine guidelines follow the processes and keep those kids in school perfect thank you anyone else I mean I talk way too much tonight and you all kind of know how I feel I mean I I Echo everyone's sentiment that spoke tonight and I he just goes against my grain to require these mass and you know when the governor came down to it I was one of the first ones going oh heck no they're not going to happen in Columbia we're going to fight this and everything else and you know what though when you take the emotions out and you get down to the business side of it or backed into a corner I mean it's we can't waste your money and and the other people that don't have kids in school we can't just throw these dollars especially when someone else is willing to fight and we have two school districts that are in the fight let them spend their money I'm happy to run on their coattails and uh but it drives me crazy it's it's a this is a painful vote for me personally but uh you got to go with the greater good again in my opinion so any other discussion all right who's going to be brave enough to make a motion to approve you Scott that was easy all right got a motion on the table a second Timmy all right Motion in a second can be a roll call please unfortunately yes all right all right motion carries so anyway we do appreciate the input and it's not going on deaf ears I mean I I you can tell by the comments everyone's made if we thought we had a choice or any way out of it I think we would definitely go for it so and I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed and I do apologize for disappointing that's not why any of us ran for school boards so all right next one next one good don't leave yet Mr Wagner please with compromised immune system severely they need to really talk to their doctors these are not mass or not making everybody that much more safer than you can have and compromise child in the classroom now because I've heard that I heard that in order I heard that here tonight too that they the parents want to ask us their child that's some underlying conditions these are not going to protect them okay thank you all right and line of action B is our approval resolution to work with the regional board at Regional Office of Education for voluntary covet testing and this is actually something we probably should have brought up during the question it's a work in progress is really what it is originally I was not a fan of the on-site testing of covid for schools and the reason was originally it cost us money you needed at least 100 kids to volunteer to get tested they'd be sent home if there was false positives it just didn't seem to make sense to me um since then they started to change some of the rules it is now no cost to us the Roe is looking to get a group together and so the 100 would not be there and if we do get people that voluntarily test they test every week if someone then gets excluded for a close contact we could test them every it would be test on day one so like if I if we are here today Mr Meyer gets sick I'm going to be quarantined for a close contact because of that today that we're together zero I'd come to school tomorrow on day one and I would take a test it would come back negative I could stay day three I could take the test and stay day five I could you know and so I I basically test my way through the the exclusion so I don't get quarantined the problem with this is I want to just be above board with the board is um if we do this that's all well and good I think it's a great option for the um for those that aren't vaccinated yet and can't be uncoordinated or excluded but it also then gives other people the option if I don't want to get vaccinated and I get excluded it would allow me to be able to stay in school which again my number one goal is to keep everybody in school I want to work with the re and have your permission to do that it might cost um because if it doesn't fall through if it falls through with the Roe we might have to have somebody drive up to Springfield every week to drop off the tests there's some details that are still needing to be worked out um the other thing is and Mr Wagner you can correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is once we go to mask optional the the testing for staying is no longer on the table right so the carrot that there or the little carrot that they're hanging out in front of us is only good when we're masks mandated once they're optional and we go to a six foot thing I no longer contest to keep them in and so I've when I found that out just the day before yesterday I kind of went that doesn't help me at all because I was really excited about the once we get to six foot this testing would really help um I'm hoping that they change that rule have you heard anything like that not yet no no foreign how can you say that an asking is doing it you think so how people say that I'm asked s360 so they're going for this is a constantly emotional so I'm hoping things will change as we go along um there is some leeway in some of the wording as far as quarantine now it's necessarily as high as speed or in the state that the local Health Department can but for me to go against a state guideline I have to have hard evidence to justify meaning a school that schools that are automatically schools that are masked have the same infection rate that would be a justification so we would say that's pretty good nice way even with myself does us being a part of this testing assist you in getting that information is there in your mind any reason we should or should not participate in the state's voluntary testing not right now and the benefit I would say proceed with trying it it's nothing to stop it it's more to get it going you know try it no right now no I because it hasn't been done long enough yet for me to see the problems if we start seeing false positives pop up and we start quarantining kids that are close contacts to false positives or hope the big issue is this whole family you have a positive child that all the siblings can pull out too yeah I guess so what I'm asking the board is to give me permission to work with the Roe to do what seems to be reasonable um because if if we do this I want to get on as quickly as possible because again the state moves like sludge and so getting onto that list you know this testing won't happen for a little bit um so I guess the recommendation is is to allow me what is there a downside the downside would be that [Music] um there might be some kids with false positives right right but again those are parents that would make that choice with that knowledge so if they are you can stop the program in school s I just want to be very clear when we do this test to stay it's only while we're all masked and that's that's the part that that frustrated me because it seems to me that if you've got a system where you can test to stay you should be able to do that with six feet or three feet or whatever it's just I mean if you're testing negative and you can stay why wouldn't you yeah we're in Illinois and we can come up with guidelines like I said it is ultimately the local Health Department's authority to quarantine or isolated individuals but if for us to go against a state guideline on the important we have to have something good to back it up which we quite possibly would I want to say one way or the other right now we can address that once the mass can come up we don't know who yet on that so that's kind of why you know you guys are you know last minute or now who knows what's going to happen a month from now you know and maybe Delta will start to Wing will start to go back downhill we'll start seeing that mask and unmasked schools have the same infection rate you know things may change can change pretty rapidly so I don't you know you're Mass mandatory now that may not be that you know it may not it may be long it may not be that long before you can look at making a change we just don't know right now okay so what's the logistics if somebody does test positive in this do they go get a formal professional test no no the the test that they're using is the University of Illinois test um it's a mouth swab saliva test it seemed to be accurate enough for that now they can go get other tests if they'd like to and then we have to look at each you know each one obviously the PCR is still the gold standard test so each case has to be looked at if there are conflicting tests we have to look at each one to determine was there an exposure you know and one was negative one was positive you know you can test too soon you know it's more likely to get false negatives than it is to get false positives but there can be false positives okay and then is again logistic wise is it do we get the results instantly because we said talk about running tests to Springfield is that is not instant but along with that you can be using what's called biomex now if people have probably even seen them in Walgreens and stuff those are the one tests that are using for tests to stay so you basically have two testing things you'd have the random testing that students maybe want to sign up for weekly testing that's the U of I test but then you would do the one three five and seven would be 5x9 which is a rapid test so how long would this study need to go on before a decision could be made because the today as far as schools masking and everything well before you consider it enough data to actually make a decision based on because right now we're 18 plus months into covet and nothing seems to ever have a final a date of closure of you know if we do this for 60 days or you know we would need at least you know I I need to see schools at least for a month before there'd be enough data you know depending on how many schools I could look at if in within a month I have 30 schools that are unmasked in 30 schools that are masked and they all are coming back about the same that may be enough if I only have one school that's unmasked and one school that's Mass to compare that data to decide on close contact quarantines you know that's a little bit questionable you know and it depends on the number of cases if you're talking to school that you're talking two cases in a math school in two cases that's not enough cases so I'm just going to be looking at all the information I can you know and as soon as I can to give guidance on that do we have any Baseline data from 2020 yeah yeah so how is that being used and it it didn't show much difference in the schools the problem that we had with black the past years was the schools were not in full capacity they have ABDC you know ABCD days we had social distancing that was greater back then this is a whole new school year a whole different variant whole new school year classrooms are full different school year you know we can't but it's not but they're not different schools they're not different environments it's different capacities you have a bunch of tiger kids this year you have a different Fair a completely different bearing that you had last year that has much higher viral loads so we don't know how that's going to spread we don't know if the mass are going to show protection so has any virus in history gotten stronger as it progressed stronger over time yeah but the ideal virus the muted people like to think about mutations oh it's trying to mutate into something it's not trying to mutate into anything it's just random there's millions of mutations the ones that stick are the ones that are more contagious the ones that are less contagious die out because they just don't get spread to another person so the predominant variant is more contagious the ideal virus is one that's highly contagious but not deadly a deadly virus is not ideal because it dies out once it kills its hose it can't spread you can have a highly contagious virus that does that does the hose that's that's the best virus of it it could help hope to mutate them and yeah they can get stronger than get weaker typically they don't get weaker because the variant that's around will continue to be around a weaker one will not if one virus doesn't spread as easy the one that spreads the easiest is the one that's going to be the dominant virus so it can't go down it can't go together it's hard work to go the other way now it can be more contagious but less severe now that would be a good thing to happen but it can't be the more the contagious the viruses the more predominant that virus is going to be in the setting less contagious virus is not going to overtake a more contagious virus is stronger foreign because it does add another level of complexity another whole set of rules we got to keep in track of and it it it not being able to test to stay with six feet once we go mask optional I find it less some advantageous but I still think that that it wouldn't be bad to try it and then we can drop out at any time so my recommendation would still be to to work with the Roe and see if we can get in on this Mr Grote can I ask you a question certainly in in the materials it talks about Mass breaks and we haven't talked about that at all it says it'll be included as needed for students throughout the day the duration and timing of breaks is determined by the individual School leadership team can somebody elaborate on that um yeah the first thing that I want to say is that last year Mass breaks were more difficult because you had to keep them within the six feet one of the things about this year is is that once outside you can take off your masks and then you don't have to quarantine for close contact so I could literally have my class go underneath a tree outside take off their masks and be outside and so we're going to see more breaks for that does it because there'll be more chances to take kids outside and so what we're going to need to do is come up with a plan and a schedule so that everybody gets those Mass breaks but I think that once winter comes it'll be harder because it's colder but uh until then yeah do you have you talked to any of them so PE will be outside as much you know weather permitting so they'll be able to take their masks off for PE um recess they'll be outside and then the teachers will still utilize the outside space um when the weather is nice last year you guys ate outside didn't you or do you plan to reinstitute that or no schedule a break schedule last break we also teaches we will go out and actually so close do we have any outside seating like for kids to sit anywhere other than on a curb stop or on the grass because the classes are 40 minutes right I don't know um is there any reason they couldn't sit on the ground yeah yeah just have class outside we do have also have random uh so I'm just still kind of trying to figure out if we're serious about being outside why we're there's no accommodations at all other than the grass because you know there's this is a long-term thing hopefully for at least a few months till the weather's good as long as the weather's good and the more comfortable kids are the more they're going to pay attention if they're not so I'm just I'm just curious of what's being done or if there's anything because I think we may be able to do more to make them excuse me Mr I'm a more comfortable learning environment yeah are you I saw you like thinking about an outside classroom where we have a big gazebo and and picnic benches underneath it that the whole class can gather or what do you what are you doing just chairs you know I mean we've chairs are not hard to do even just having chairs for them to sit to where they can comfortably sit and so like the folding chairs out by the door and the Tacoma class can take it out because there is concrete for them to sit on right they could sit there okay well we looked into tents originally but there was a problem with permitting or structure to put up a semi-permanent structure you need architectural drawings and um engine and Structural Engineering so we looked at the trophy tents and um it just became cost prohibitive even to rent them we would have to get architectural specs and and an architect to get through the Roe that's that's the Roe that's not yeah that's not you know for building for building permits we need uh yeah it's an Roe permit we have to get stuff that's really yeah Mr Ackman um last year the CMS added an additional lunch did you decide to stay with that this year um I would say the high school has added an additional Lunch Period initially they took it back but with all of this going on they went ahead and added that third Bunch period back at the high school so not to be particular yeah we're kind of getting off subjects a little bit so yeah so the recommendation is for the board to approve a resolution um for me to work with the Roe on um voluntary testing again I'm not sure I was I got my answer or I understood the answer anyway so why do we go into Springfield once a week you have to drop off the test it's the results or the tests the results the um the actual well you have a rep like sample so yeah I think what he says we have a rapid test and then you have that second time and right now the Roe is looking at hiring someone to do that because for every test that you drop off at the state they give you eight dollars it's it's uh you know but you need to it these are again these things that they're trying to do to encourage and it gets to the point where I'm thinking for me I'm looking at it as if I can keep kids in school with this testing process then I'd like to try to do it right but it does add a level of complexity and a level of frustration because you're dealing with another state program okay so to keep it simple for my thing so I'm asking permission too I understand that I understand that what I'm I'm stuck on the Springfield thing and the results so are we are we sending this to Springfield to get the results or are we giving Springfield the tally of the results once a week no I think the actual tests go to Springfield okay I think and so that's what I understand so if there was there was there was a there was a rapid test so you know the results right here and then there was some some other tests that do you have my test Mr Wagner yes goes up hey John John that's right here yeah that testing going to to Springfield it's kind of a package deal what is actually going to Springfield a Suave of the swab all right so we do on day one we're gonna do a rapid test and we're gonna get the results instantly from the test to stay you're using what's called bionics now okay but to do the test to stay program you need the shield testing which is the weekly testing oh that's a week okay that's that's what the difference is so the voluntary we're just taking a random sampling to send that to Springfield once a week where the return to stay we're doing testing house all right cool all right oh and they wanted tools to start to use it they first started out that tier one and two schools were going to get a three three four were working at the table I'll let nobody sign up for it so then they made it free to everybody yeah well when still nobody has signed up for it yesterday but is it good for customers so you could just go perfect field so to test to stay you must do the shield to get the violence okay gotcha gotcha I was wondering how we were gonna know foreign [Applause] would be to proceed finding out about setting it up and everything and then after the problem we pull out yep yes all right I know we beat this dead horse so we'll just be added to the monthly agenda the results are the ongoing progress of the test so we can gauge that as we go I could I couldn't I could collect the data and share it with you and put on your superintendent report yeah all right any other discussion a motion to approve Mr Grote to work with the Roe to implement the testing I'll make it okay Adam made a motion Lisa seconded I can really roll call please hi yes yes okay motion passes unanimously on to C which is a privilege purchase of a 2022 Bluebird 71 passenger bus from Central States Bus Sales and a 2020 Chevy minibus 18 pasture with one wheelchair lit from Southern bus and Mobility we sent out our our bid specs to all of the companies we normally send those out to when we do these bids we try and get two buses a year in our transportation fund this is um the lowest responsive bidders for these two buses and the recommendation is that we award it as presented foreign discussion so you said we sent it to the ones we normally send it to how many companies did we send the requesting um I believe the three I also saw it posted in the legal notices of the Republic times I believe yeah but no one ever there's no bus companies that have really ever so we don't get those in so we get them from the three that we've always worked with before and what about Midwest Transit did they bid on it do they respond Midwest Transit and yeah I can look into that all right oh yeah all right another discussion it is in the budget that we're putting on display so perfect is that an entertainment a motion to buy a couple buses I'll make the motion Thank you Lisa 20 or a second thanks Scott Kimberly roll call please yes yes hi [Applause] motion passes on to D which is their approve the 2021 to 2022 budget display yes the budget is on display you all have a copy at your table as I always point out if you go to page two I believe line number 22 is a key line page two the budget summary page will tell you your estimated beginning fund balance online on on Row three uh then you'll get your total receipts of revenues which is 15 million and your expenditures of 15.7 and so if you look on that road 22 you'll see that in the education fund we're projecting a 728 thousand dollar deficit um last year we projected a 700 000 deficit we ended up two hundred thousand dollars in the black so that's a nine hundred thousand dollar difference there the year before that we projected a zero and we were seven hundred thousand dollars in the black so um I was hoping that I'd have more time over the summer to really dig into the budget and try and find out why we have such variants I did not get a chance to do that this summer um I trust that I'm going to be watching this very closely we do have the fund balances to absorb that seven hundred thousand dollar deficit um but this is on display and so if you look at it if you have any questions please call me I'd be happy to sit down with you and talk about it any questions regarding the budget right and we just approved the display of the budget correct yeah we just okay entertain a motion to approve the 2021-2022 budget display I'll make a motion thank you Adam I'll second it and your second thank you Kimberly roll call please yes yes hi yes yes yes motion carries a letter e is established the date and time for our 2021-22 budget hearing and we've historically done that at 7 pm on the regularly scheduled meeting which actually is actually on the fourth Thursday because the budget has to be on display for 30 days and so um I recommend that we do it at 7 p.m on September 23rd and the regular meeting would occur directly after Thank you Lisa have a motion on the Florida second thank you Tammy Kimberly roll call please hi yes yes yes all right perfect pressure curious all right letter F is the approval and accept of the second reading of the board policies the pressure issue number 107.

okay okay 392. right you talk about privacy a lot and in this age of wokeness and cancer culture some of us might be worried to get our names and addresses out there because we don't know who's watching this and may decide to visit our homes so um you know you talk about privacy for our kids you know these are our classes we're paying for them we're paying for the teachers to be there and we're sending our kids there um the question of privacy is one that i think is is uh disingenuous we should know what's going on and we need to have i mean if we can have police officers with body cams there's no reason why we can't make up the teachers and if nothing else just simply have an audio of what's going on in the class and if the picture and the camera is only trained on her desk that'd be fine too or his desk for that matter um there's um there's a question of how dangerous covet is for kids there's i was told there's about 9 000 people 9 000 students going to our schools here statistically speaking if every single one got covered every single one would survive um i didn't really prepare my statements as well as some of the other people here i just came came in here with some ideas um as for sel and crt we really need to worry about what's important to teach our kids and that's math reading science i mean real science not the woke stuff [Music] we need we need to really focus in on making sure our kids know how to think and not what to think there was a teacher in utah this past week i hear some laughter i guess you guys know about this did you hear that person got fired um that happened just a matter of a couple days she was teaching or promoting some very leftist views and we're told here in center grove we can't fire someone just as quickly we're doing something similar and we're not allowed to even discuss it because those matters are private well these are these are our public buildings these are our public schools we should be able to know what's happening we should also demand that our kids are being taught you know how to think not what to think and we need to also make sure that we don't indoctrinate them into certain ideologies that the parents would never even dream of trying to teach them we need to make sure our kids are learning to love our country and not hate our neighbors and that's all i got really so 30 seconds left [Applause] thank you all our next order of business is the consent items do i have any questions on them from the board members do i have a motion mr president and i move that we approve the consent agenda as presented thank you do i have a second second thank you mr daniels all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed motion passes 5-0 we move on to our action items luckily tonight we only have one but it does involve a hearing so dr arkanov thank you mr russell um this evening is a hearing to prior to selling bonds uh for the financing of middle school building projects and i'm going to turn this uh hearing over to mr russell to run so i'm sorry i now open this public hearing i would like to turn it back over to dr arkanov to introduce the presentation about the project the financing of the project and the actions we are taking this evening thank you i appreciate that uh mr russell i know it's kind of funny the way we do this but we have to do it by law um so with that before we get started on this um i think mrs hoover or dr hoover was going to introduce somebody after the personnel report and i didn't want steel or thunder so if you don't mind well one quick introduction then we'll do this while she's coming up uh i neglected to to tell you that we recessed the exec meeting we will be reconvening our executive meeting after this board meeting thank you um i am so proud to be here tonight to be able to introduce two additions to our center grove administrative team um our director of special ed ali chance let us know she'd be leaving at the end of july and this is one of the hardest positions to find in the state of indiana and so we were very lucky when we opened this search we actually ended up restructuring because we have two amazing people and so we will now have a director of elementary special ed who gets to really focus on the elementary um the work that we need to do and then a director of secondary and so kaylee brown miss hayley she's worked here since 2018 and she'll be continuing her work with the elementary in the director position and for our secondary dr renee staley comes to us from martinsburg where she's been already serving as their director of special ed and we're very lucky that she has wanted to transition to work with us so i'm really looking forward to work they're going to do and strengthen not only the special education program but just what we do for all kids thank you so much welcome [Applause] all right now now we'll go thank you so tonight's our first uh uh 10 28 hearing uh we're going to have two we'll have a second one at the next board meeting i want to talk a little bit about our project at both middle schools we're looking at 2296 new homes planned in in white river township right now we had been discussing what to do at the middle schools whether to build a third middle school or to expand our two the two existing middle schools financially it's it's better for the corporation better for the taxpayers to expand those two buildings so we've engaged the architects cso to help us with that that's all right that's my hand to go faster wasn't it that's right go ahead and go um so at middle school north uh what a couple of things that we want to do is replace the temperature controls add security cameras uh but but specifically the the big addition is adding a band room renovate the orchestra room renovate the music areas expand the cafeteria and then get new furniture if you remember we bought new furniture for all of the elementaries we've and as we've done the high school project we bought furniture for the high school now we're going to try to replace the furniture at the two middle schools this prepares us to um to be able to hold this is the first project of a two-part project that will allow us to house the the middle school enrollment growth that we see the nice thing and i think dr gabriel is going to talk about it is we can do the the additions to both of our middle schools with uh while maintaining the current tax rate so middle school central a little bit different we're going to add 12 classrooms two science rooms and two art rooms and then buy the furniture we'll also renovate and expand the cafeteria and kitchen again like i said we'll be able to do both of these projects without raising are with by maintaining the current tax rate just uh to give you an idea the addition at middle school central is there on the top of the screen with the red arrow pointing to the blue right now that's just half of what we need but it's it's in line with what our enrollment projections are so we'll do we'll do that there on the north end of the building and then on the south east corner is where we'll expand the cafeteria and expand the uh the kitchen area so that's what it looks like at the top that's just a little more of a kind of a block plan of what it looks like um and then at middle school north uh again the red arrows there at the top of the screen is where the new music room will go and the the at the bottom of the screen is the expansion of the cafeteria in kitchen here's just a little bit closer floor plan look at that when we built the middle school about 18 years ago we didn't have an orchestra room and we've added an orchestra room and we don't have the space to to grow the program so our we've had an orchestra program and we don't have the room to add that the cafeteria there is there at the bottom of the screen just to give you an idea of where that will go and what that does for the size of both the kitchen and the cafeteria then dr gabriel will talk about the financing but before i go on jim goalie from hunt construction is here if this broke if this project is approved we'll use hunt construction as our construction manager to help with the project so hard questions again go to mr goalie okay okay so i want to talk a little bit about the finance of the project middle school central um working with the architect and the construction manager we've developed a budget for this project it's um about 16.8 million dollars in construction costs and an additional 5.4 million dollars in the all various fees and the furnishings that go with a project of this size uh one of the reasons that this is as large as it is is because we are adding all the classrooms that that are included in this project that are really not included in the middle school north project at this time so and we of course i think most people are aware we have portables now out in front of middle school central and when we get these classrooms added it'll it will eliminate the need for those portables but we've got enrollment projections that continue to show the size of both middle schools gradually getting a little bit larger each year so that's middle school central middle school north same thing applies these have been developed by the architect and construction manager 5.8 million in in hard construction costs and 2.6 million and all the other associated costs that go with it for a total of 8.5 million dollars at that project this is the the required information that we need to present if when we have a hearing like this it's a lot of fine print i think i just want to highlight a couple of things first of all we will sell bonds to pay these projects back total cost there as you see is 30.8 million dollars for these two projects combined we'll sell the bonds over over a 20-year period if we did this all by itself with nothing else going on in the community or anything else it would have a tax rate of about about 13.68 but the important thing here is that because we have other projects coming off the books and an increased assessed value we predict that the debt service fund rate is going to continue for the next 10 years or so as a result of these projects that should not increase and again we're we've done a lot of work modeling what the future will look like uh and and we're confident that as a result of these projects we're talking about today the tax rate will not increase um yeah next uh just um okay this is just a picture of of uh what the tax rate looks like right now and what it shows for next year i didn't think we were going to talk about this slide but it's okay uh and he talks about it yeah right because we've got more current information this is for for actually for 2021 payable in 2021 but it's when we look at this slide and compare ourselves our total tax rate to other districts in the county we've continued to be in the middle of the pack for the last decade and and kind of expect that to continue that way so okay next steps tonight this is the public hearing and that's all it is which means there'll be no official action taken by the board um at the next meeting there will be a next school board meeting in september there will be a second hearing and at that meeting the board will be asked to approve resolutions to officially authorize these projects following that approval of those resolutions we publish notice that begins a 30-day waiting period after that then the architects will finalize the projects and all of the plans we hope to have bids for these projects ready to come back to for the board to approve next spring and then work on these projects uh was expected to be completed middle school's much smaller project it should be done by the summer of 2003 middle school central uh much larger project will be done by the summer of 2004 and then um the first payment on these bonds will begin we expect in 2014 and i know we've had this question i'm sorry 20 20 and we've had this question before why isn't this in the budget you're going to approve next next month well because the payments don't come until 20 20 24.

then i think we're going to start the meeting i'd like to call this meeting to order due to the covet 19 health emergency and in order for the board of education to conduct its business this board meeting is being held via video conference and stream live on youtube on the district website at www.ebnet.org in addition members of the public may provide comment at this meeting through zoom by entering the url meeting id and password you see before you on the screen upon joining the meeting your participation will be muted to ensure that there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the board of education will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo here mrs chu here mr sismar here mr hong here mrs lax here mrs guass mrs reese here mr winston i see mr winston yes and president becker here we have a quorum please rise to salute the plan i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states and to the republic for which it will stand one nation nation under god indivisible indivisible with liberty and justice for all the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of it to attend the meetings of public bodies in accordance with the provisions of this act the east brunswick board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published at the board of education office written notice was also provided to the sentinel the newark star ledger the home news interview and the municipal clerk of the sponsor all board of education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions or videotape for later broadcasts it is the policy of the board of education that videotaped meetings are not edited for any purpose so individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening we're going to start off this evening as we always do with the superintendent's report dr moleski thank you president becker and good evening to everyone but tonight i want to reassure the east brunswick school community that in addition to returning to full days of instruction we will be integrating all the activities and student experiences that were enjoyed before the onset of the covid pandemic we will accomplish this methodically using data like we did last school year to make adjustments along the way that protect our school community populations but still with a focus on safely returning students to school and once again giving them and their families the full east brunswick public schools experience congratulations tonight to mr joseph crotchfield director of financial services mrs tara roseving senior manager in the entire finance department the district has been awarded the asbo international certificate of excellence and financial reporting award for the eighth the eighth consecutive year this is a testament to the diligence and high quality work the financial services department team puts forth every single day and i want to thank mr bernardo juliana who is the business administrator for the district and for having the vision and foresight to create a financial services department structure that supports excellence and recruits the best talent it should be a comfort to the east brunswick community that our finance department represents the highest caliber of fiscal transparency and accountability of taxpayer resources congratulations to them thank you dr valeski well deserved as the summer winds down i'd like to remind everyone of some important dates student information forums will be available through parent access tomorrow friday august 20th beginning at 3 p.m please take a few minutes to fill out these important annual forums tomorrow i will also send school opening guidance along with answers to the questions we have received by email as part of my routine east brunswick public schools update student schedules and teacher assignments will be available through parent access on friday august 27th at 3 pm an orientation for all schools will be held the week of august 30th bus passes will be available through parent access on monday august 30th after 3 pm if you do not have internet access please contact the school's main office to obtain copies of these important documents and forms and finally we knew it was coming thursday september 9th is the first day of school for all students thank you dr valesky and i'd like to echo congratulations on our finance team with an outstanding accomplishment to be recognized eight years in a row for fiscal exclu excellence thank you to all of you and now it's time for the good of the cause for the public members of the public may provide comment at this meeting the resume by entering the url meeting id and password you see before you on the screen in order to be recognized use the chat feature select the zoom meeting host then enter and send your name to the host you will be recognized to speak when your name is called and individuals will be invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request i'm going to repeat that understand if you raise your hand or make any motion we don't see everyone on screen you won't be recognized in order to be recognized use the chat feature select the zoom meeting host then enter and send your name to the host i'd also like to remind the public at the board of ed recognizes that this is a time for the poor for the public to come speak to the board please don't mistake our silence for anything other than respectful listening this is your time to come talk to us not to get into a dialogue with the board this isn't a town meeting all questions that anyone asked at the good of the cause dr velesky will make sure your questions are addressed by the relevant administrator as soon as possible again we're here to listen to you the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff participants will be limited to three minutes speaking duration is there anyone wishing to speak to the board yes mrs becker um first we have um oleg dulin good evening hi um uh hi dr velazquez we exchanged emails um hi my name is oleg doon and i live at 13 lycoming lane east brunswick new jersey um i don't want to get into a debate over vaccine efficacy or masks with other families i don't i i don't even want to debate freedoms or responsibilities either i'm just going i'm here to stay for the record that i'm here to support the mask mandate and i also want the board to know that many of my friends neighbors and family agree with me as well my reasoning is simple and logical yes we all want choices everybody who opposes masks says they want choices we want we want choices also not sending my kids to in person school is not a choice schools closing because of a quoted outbreak is not a valid option to us either everyone wants choices vaccinating your child is a choice as any other as some parents say in in fact it is but that choice is not available to me or to other families of kids under 12.

um hearing what the governor has stated about our children when it comes to the mass mandates and seeing that it is now at the decision of the board to do such things from the next school year i am concerned for the students uh physical and mental capabilities and safety due to the fact that we'll be doing a blanket mandate on all children irregardless of informed consent to the parents and on top of that also making it so that they we're basically mandating it to the children without even considering their own medical histories and other forms of health doing this is going to be extremely dangerous because what may be beneficial for one child may be detrimental to another and the last thing we need is an issue where we're having a negative reaction to these things until such time as we have proper science and data which has never been promoted are presented by us locally statewide federally or by any health provider that has suggested these things this decision should be coming from a parent and their medical professionals who are dealing with that child and should not be coming from government officials or board members who may be doing these things either out of fear or through compliance by some other special offering have a good evening thank you and who is next to speak to the board please next we have shannon christie good evening shannon hi good evening um i would like to just address my concerns um so my daughter is going to be three in october and she has um a speech delay and she would be entering the program for children with learning disabilities and when i speak to the district they talked to me about um her speech therapy now with the mask mandates coming up they talk about how during those sessions she will be as a three-year-old who was not vaccinated during those sessions her mask will be off now um and her speech pathologist will also have her mask off um and then also with these mask mandates it uh states for lunch and music my daughter is three um i'm immune compromised and we live in a generational home my daughter is now going to be exposed so with her learning disabilities with other children who are in the school with no remote you know learning option this year i'm now put in a position where my daughter's um learning you know is gonna be put on i mean i have other options for her speech um but you know her health is at risk because i have to make the choice because there is no model or anything that i'm being told other than that mask will be off for an hour in the in that building where you're saying it's mandated that mask needs to be put on so it's a little misunderstanding for me because she's three years old and i am petrified for her life because you guys are saying this is running rapid it's mandated and i need to put you know she ness is going into school and it's mandated but it's going to be off for an hour for these sessions that she is going into school for this um this um support for her learning and then i'm also concerned for those speech pathologists who are there to help me and to help her aid in that learning so i'm also scared about this spread in that um so i'm just a little confused on that because my daughter then will be coming home potentially spreading to i don't know who if that's the issue um so i just wanted to to have that be addressed and you know more information on that because when i asked the child study team they just let me know that the mask will be off for those sessions mrs christie i'm sorry your time is up now thank you bernie who is next speak to the board please we now have uh wendy siegel hello wendy hi guys uh while i sat before you a year ago pleading with you to help for the teachers and the students i've been dealing with a severe immunocompromised diagnosis for my youngest child i am here today to thank you for following a state mandate i don't know why we're even arguing this tonight i had hoped i was coming here to find out what the day now looks like because i now have to figure out my kid can't be around other kids if their masks aren't on so i'm trying to figure out what the day looks like and i don't know why we're even discussing a point that we're following what our governor has said um and i'm kind of terrified because we're all acting like it's just business as usual and covet wasn't that bad for kids last year um and delta looks like it's going to be a nightmare um so i'm hoping at some point in this meeting we hear about what the day is going to look like i thank you uh actually in my circle of life i talk about how i stood before you last year begging and cleaning and the kids were safe and at the end of the day i can say my superintendent my board of ed did what was right and the students were safe and the teachers were safe please good lord i understand you can't just make a virtual option appear without the governor's approval there are immuno-compromised children that we don't have any choices now you want to talk about sides and discussions there is no family choice if i want my child to have an education i just have to be terrified that the heavy medication she has to be on she's not gonna get sick um so thank you for doing what's right and doing what a state mandate and the state we live in please um please don't let anybody sway you either way i need to know that my children are going to be safe this year thank you very much thank you and again anyone with concerns about a specific child or staff member can absolutely get in touch with dr valesky's office tomorrow whenever you'd like and he will make sure that you get answers to your questions mrs becker we have no one else in the queue we have no one else in the queue correct and seeing none i closed the public portion oh i'm sorry can i i'm sorry i stepped away for a second i was wondering if i could please this this is uh not how we conduct uh the meeting so uh mrs becker okay i'm sorry this individual is um saying that they had stepped away they had not uh texted to speak until after you closed the public portion it's your call i understand that sometimes we get called away from things and we're all people and parents so um was that lisa lisa gurvich that's okay i understand and again um for future meetings i want to encourage you please make sure you get in the queue yes yes um we certainly will give have three minutes for you but then the public portion is closed okay thank you very much i really appreciate it um i just like to say that i'm gonna as i'm coming to this um first i again i don't understand why this is even subject to a debate given the fact that there is a state mandate where the governor of our state has taken information from medical professionals to implement the mass mandate um i have personal experience i teach in a neighboring district that was open for full days last year and we wore our masks for full days our students were our masks for full days and we had there there were and i teach till i have a child with special needs who's able to wear one i teach children with special needs and even the children in the autism program in my school district were able to keep their masks on for the day without any issues um you know learn the school day felt very normal um you know our students were really just i mean the number one comment i heard from the students when we returned to school was just i'm so happy to be back you know that was really you know the number one priority really was you know we need to just you know to get our students back to school and we need to get our students back to school in a safe manner um you know we spent our summer we just returned we've been in canada for the summer because um our family lives there my teen daughter worked as a camp counselor they have they still have much stricter masking rules there she worked as a camp counselor where she was as you know as she's 17 as and she was required to wear a surgical mask for the full day because that's the provincial rule in ontario and she said they didn't you know they didn't even notice it and they were very physically active you know she was clocking you know walking about five miles a day you know at her job wearing a mask um they're going back to school um you know the same week that we are there and there is absolutely no public debate about the mass mandate that they're going to be implementing in their schools um and you know people that you know we talk to there think it's crazy um but we really i i don't want to be in and out of school this year as a teacher it was very disruptive um you know it's incredibly disruptive to our children especially those children who need you know who you know who really need to be there the most and you know i implore you to follow the state mandate so that we can open up and so that our children can attend school safely this year thank you thank you and thank you again to everyone who came and spoke to the board tonight moving on with our agenda first we have our board of education items before i ask to combine items one through six is there anything that anyone would like separated out seeing none can i please have a motion for items one through six on our board of education moved by laurie second by jeff is there any discretion see nuns will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar yes mrs gloss yes mr hong yes mrs lax this is reese yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries moving on to our curriculum agenda before i ask for a motion to combine items one and two is there anything anyone would like separated out seeing nuns can i please have a motion for items one and two on our curriculum agenda moved by jeff ii by laurie is there any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed sane motion carries moving on to our facilities no i'm so sorry facilities correct misread my own handwriting very sad moving on to our facilities agenda we have one item on the agenda tonight can i please have a motion for item number one move by laurie second by leewoo is there any discussion all those in favor aye opposed obscene motion carries for our financial services agenda before i ask for a motion to combine items one through nine is there anything anyone would like separated out seeing none can i please have a motion for items one through nine on the financial services agenda moved by lori second by mark grangelo um board members again please make sure you have your um microphone on if you want to uh move a second um is there any discussion seeing them with the secretary please call the roll mr carangelo yes this is true yes mr sismar yes mrs guass yes mr hong yes this is lex this is rhys yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries moving on to our human resources agenda before i asked to combine items one and two is there anything anyone would like separated out say none can i please have a motion for items one and two on our hr agenda is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar mrs gloss yes sister hong kong yes this is lex this is reese yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries moving on to our staff development agenda before i ask for a motion to combine items one and two is there anything anyone would like separated out thing none can i please have a motion for items one and two second by laurie is there any discussion all those in favor opposed obscene motion carries moving on to our student services agenda before i ask for a motion to combine items one two three is there anything anyone would like separated out seeing them can i please have a motion for items one through three move by laurie second by mark ii yep is there any discussion now will the secretary please pull the rule mr corrangelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar yes mrs gloss yes mr hong yes this is lex this is um mrs reese yes mr winston yes and president pecker yes motion carries we have one item on our transportation agenda tonight can i please have a motion for that one item move by laurie second by i'm sorry i didn't hear was that leewoo yes second by lego is there any discussion all those in favor aye all right opposed abstain motion carries i believe we have nora our student rep with us tonight lou is that correct nora uh mrs becker i do not believe nora is here today oh okay i'm sorry i thought i received an email saying she was coming um no worries um nor we look forward to seeing to the next court meeting time for committee reports information items and for the good of the cause for the board any board members have anything they wish to bring up mark sismar today we had our security committee meeting i don't give details but we discussed the school opening i just wanted to start by thanking all of our ssos the entire security team they do a fantastic job every day protecting our children parents and visitors special thanks to our superintendent dr valesky our assistant superintendent dr figueroa our director of security is paul natalicchio and our newest member is our coordinator of school safety operations kevin zebro and i would be remiss i know he got some accolades earlier but he deserves special accolades today if people knew the job mr juliana did to insecure our our schools and get the equipment we need and the research he does is he's definitely an integral part of the team and i wanted to separate him out because he doesn't look for accolades he just gets the job done so thank you to the entire team and i hope we have a great school year thank you very much thank you mr sismar thank you mark and again echoing your words we do have a fantastic group of people keeping our children staff visitors safe and yes mr juliana you do a tremendous job so that's two compliments in one meeting actually three i'm i'm putting them all in the bag here yes treasure it it may not happen again i'm waiting for the downside now um any other board members um mark carangelo i want to ask a question regarding masks in terms of some masks work better than others is there any way that we can secure the type of mask that the students wear or give out the n95s the ones that are better you know so some parents will bring them you know have the children come with some mess that don't work well so to ensure their safety would it be an idea to have the students in a uniform type of mass that actually works well i don't know it's a you know costly thing but just wanted to throw that out there president becker um if you don't mind okay um mr angelo the uh the district has uh quite a vast array and supply of masks uh and they are distinctive based on uh the use so our nurses have a specific mask they use we have replacement masks for students should they get on the bus or try to get on the bus without a mask or come into school without a mask we'll have a mask a replacement mask for them they they tend to be the the more disposable mask for the students so what we saw last year is most parents would send their students to school with a specific mask that they had research that was best fit for their child i know some of them even have pockets inside for disposable filters so that's a parent choice there are guards that go behind the mask that some students and staff prefer that allows them to speak more freely but i want to make a comment too about our special education population uh we do have um face shields for our staff and we have barriers for our staff when they're working with students in situations like speech pathology and speech therapy uh to be able to actually visualize what a student's doing and so student can see them as well so we do have protective barriers in place and i did hear that that concern expressed tonight uh and i'll have the special education to barbara reach out to that parent specifically i appreciate that thanks and you said something important about uh the children being able to speak is there any way we can make a recommendation to the parents to say hey guys this is the better mask that the children could wear to school and maybe research that before we actually actually uh mr angelo we found the parents actually did did the research on their own and and the students themselves came to school with with mass their parents had vetted for them what was the best fit what that was more comfortable for them uh so we really didn't get any complaints from students about uh you know the mask was uncomfortable didn't work right parents took great care to make sure the mask was fitted right that the students were comfortable that it was clean uh and you know it was disposable mask that it was replaced you know on a routine basis so i i think that the parents were great partners with us last year and i i suspect the same insurance thank you doc yeah any other board members committee reports information items for the good of the cause for the board is anyone raising their hand and i don't see you susanna was that a stretch okay that was a stretch okay we do have a need to go into closed session whereas the board of education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and the board of education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed in tonight's agenda blame for the closed session is estimated to be one hour after which a public meeting of the board shall reconvene in action may be taken can i please have a motion to go into closed sessions removed is there any discussion all those in favor aye opposed obscene motion carries board members please log out and log into the closed session for those of you who are joining us tonight thank you so much and have a good evening thank you

good evening we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order dr foley roll call president reese members of the board please write the record show that at this moment there are four members present our understanding is this mrs kaler will be joining us shortly she'll be just running a little late this evening thank you we will be having a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance all right i move that we approve the agenda as it's presented second any questions or comments regarding the agenda all those in favor aye aye that motion carries 4-0 dr foley our information item regarding our mitigation strategies thank you president reese members of the board i will allow curtis to pull up the presentation thank you next slide as you know we have been talking an awful lot about mitigation plans we've been talking an awful lot about mitigation strategies we discussed this at our meeting last week and we will be discussing this even more detail at our meeting next week when we talk about progressive mitigation strategies there was a lot of confusion and questions we received from our community after our last meeting which in the questions came well what does dr foley have responsibility for and what does the governing board do what did you give authority to her to do and to not to do and so i wanted to provide a clarifying um piece up here for us tonight so we understand why we're here tonight what are we talking about um the distinction between a strategy and and board policy as you know our mitigation plan has strategies in them and sometimes we've had policies that are part of those mitigation plans mitigation strategies are simple things that are not permanent they are not they are not intended for a policy that governs how to do this they're meant to be temporary fixes for situations we have them for like heat index for example rainy day when when there are situations for temporary recently we added the the component of suspending of visitors why we had some of our rising cases included individuals coming on campus that was one of the ways we could mitigate numbers on campus so these again are simple things that are day-to-day they are not permanent on the contrast when we have policy policy is is one of the main responsibilities of the governing board you you you approve and adopt policy when you approve and adopt a policy it is up to your administrative team to execute it it is enforceable it is kind of the laws that govern our work that are enforceable they are adopted they chart the course sometimes state and federal laws dictate to us what we must put in policy and consequently we cannot have a policy that would violate a law correct so that's kind of a little distinction on those pieces along that line when we look at our district we were required last year we were required by executive order 2020-51 to have a face covering policy so on august 12th um in compliance with this order we adopted our face covering policy that we enforced um again on april 19th governor ducey uh canceled the mandate in his executive order 2110 that said we no longer need it or were required to have one um hinckley had a meeting on september or sorry april april 26th in which we made a decision at that time the governing board rescinded the face covering policy at this time higley does not have a face covering policy then this summer we received additional guidance next slide this summer june 30th the state legislature passes house bill that essentially states basically two points school district governing boards cannot have anything that required the use of face covering policies for students or staff during the school day and that obviously students or teachers we could not require anyone to receive the vaccination for in-person attendance in any time [Music] one of the things that's important to know is that our our our administrative team works all the time every day we get paulette we have policy advisors and legislative updates through those who represent us informing us this is what this means this is what you can do this is what you can't do we can ask questions we we literally work with these individuals all the time in july our legal counsel said listen it's important for you all for for all educators this was to all of our colleagues this was shared that that um this bill doesn't take effect um and while this bill did not take effect until september 29th there was components of this that's a retroactive so you you don't consider having this um it was also interesting because this summer some other interesting things happened currently we don't enforce there is a federal law this summer and that law actually had been in place since january but this summer the cdc restructured that law to say that in any kind of bus or transportation was required conveyance was required to have mass mandate in working with our legal counsel we determined that while they may have restructured that law we are not enforcing that law on our on our on our our buses because obviously it could be connected to that retroactive clause and it would not we're looking at our school buses not as convenient systems but an extension of the school day in alignment with that so hence we did not make any conversation about requiring any masks even on the buses as per federal guidance to do so dr foley we also get that through our asba as well so we all get the emails from arizona's school board association to tell us what we can and cannot do and that was also part of that as well we were told then that was what was happening just to clarify for the community so one of the things that we have learned an awful lot this last in navigating the whole pandemic one of the things that we have learned is that things change on a dime and information that was true one day is not true the next and then we we respond accordingly um one of the things that happened this week was that there had been obviously every there had been in the news an awful lot about the phoenix union requiring mass there was a lawsuit in which a teacher sued the district because of its unlawfulness and there was case law that was decided upon on monday in which the case law basically indicated the judge clarified that the provisions of a statewide ban don't go in effect until september 29th at that point i reached out to president reece and said okay we have additional information um this is she she's also receiving the information at the very same time going what do we need to do or the uh the discussion was we need to put a meeting on our calendar to schedule it for the governing board to be able to discuss because you cannot discuss these things without a meaning so at the time we scheduled a meeting for tonight for you to discuss the the compounding factors so here we are that was monday and tuesday things continue to evolve next slide so tuesday additional information comes out now we were aware of this information because this was part of the passing of the bill however additional information came out yesterday that clarifies how this additional money will be allocated and there are rules for this um i will ask i'm going to ask our cfo to just kind of clarify a few little pieces that he's learned because he's been working with our policy advisors our legislators to understand and interpret this as emails came in all day and we've been in consultation with that since tuesday good evening president reese and members of the board as dr foley mentioned this news came out after we elected to have this meeting today so in um collaboration with our district policy advisors and legal counsel we have reviewed the governor's recent announcement regarding the education plus up grant program the education plus up grant offers non-competitive grants to school districts and charters who receive less than eighteen hundred per pupil funding under the federal covered grant uh ester one sr2 and esther iii higley is eligible for this grant in an estimated amount of 8.4 million dollars and the application requires a district to provide the following one current mitigation plan in there it says having a mask policy can put us at risk for being eligible for this funding number two agreement that it will follow all state and federal laws specifically including eo2110 which was the law removing face macro face mass requirements last spring and hp 2898 which is the education budget bill containing prohibitions requiring mass mandate and vaccine as a condition of in-person instruction and number three agreement that it will remain open for in-person learning as of august 27th and through the entire 21-22 school year in addition any district eligible for this grant and not compliant with aforementioned application requirements puts himself at risk for not receiving these funds i also want to clarify the ruling by the superior court judge and the matter involving phoenix union high school district the mandate of the trial court in the phoenix union decision applies only to the matter of phoenix union but it's unlikely that another judicial body will decide differently for any other matter presented now that the the decision has been issued finally also news today the president's office responded to this grant program and other similar ones across the country by directing the us department of justice civil rights division to investigate and determine whether these grants result in discrimination so as you can tell this this is an ongoing process in terms of determining the eligibility and the requirements of this grant but as of today that is the information that we have regarding this program so and then as you can tell we have we scheduled obviously we're here tonight to have some conversation one of the things that we felt was very important was the minute we decided that we were going to have a meeting to bring this conversation we communicated with the community so that they knew that this meeting was scheduled for this purpose one of the things that's important is that we have been hearing from community members all year long as you know part of our our part of our mitigation is when there's positive cases on campus notifications go out um when we look at today today and we are now completing almost our fourth week tomorrow will be our fourth week in school um that currently right now in our current cases that we have between the resolved and current cases we are about 258 cases that have happened in the last four weeks of school those are a lot of letters that have gone out to family members and every time they receive those letters obviously there's great concern and question what are we doing how are we doing this what are the mitigation just for comparison when we looked at the entirety of all last year the cases that we had on our dashboard from october to may was 567.

that evidence speaks volumes there are many other mitigations we could and should take to protect our students and the fact is we can't predict how it will affect each individual we need to work together using all the tools that we can to stem this tide coming coming up in front of us are the winter months when rsv and influenza will join covid to make our local hospitals and ers a nightmare and if we really want to protect our children and keep the stability of in-person learning they will encourage their students to follow those mitigation efforts and make the make the schools and the communities a safer a safer place clearly we we all care about kids but we must take steps to protect all kids while we can thank you very much for your consideration thank you all right julia's next and then we have daniel riddan okay hello my name is julia reardon and i am the mother of two higley students today we vote on whether to force or not force an untested for safety medical intervention on our children as a person of science i am greatly alarmed over mandatory masking policies to my knowledge not a single safety study has ever examined the safety either long-term or short-term safety of mask use in children not a single study was able to show that masking children for eight hours every day is safe the only studies that looked at safety practices that came with masking show alarming results they showed that co2 levels were exceeding those determined saved by osha within minutes so why is it concerning to me i can at least list two physiological mechanisms through which this could be greatly harmful to our kids concern number one multiple studies that i personally read show that various cancers including breast cancer thrive in low oxygen environment and grow much more aggressively in tissues where oxygen perfusion is suboptimal where is the evidence that prolonged use of masks in children does not increase the risk of pediatric cancers such evidence does not exist concern number two when co2 sensors in our brain detect increased co2 levels in the blood they deploy compensatory mechanisms one such compensatory mechanism is by making our heart beat harder and faster from what we know by studying these compensatory mechanisms in adults with heart failure is that our heart when our heart is forced to be stronger and faster over time the walls of the heart muscle become abnormally thick allowing less blood volume in each chamber of the heart the scientific term for this is compensated heart compensated heart is a stage that we observe before the heart gets too tired to compensate that way the heart gets too tired to beat harder and faster over a long period of time and then it goes into a failed decompensated mode which is weak and flubby hard that can no longer perform optimally so where is the evidence that prolongs masking children does not increase their risk of compensated heart such evidence does not exist if i had more than three minutes i could bring many more concerns that signed support there is no science however to say that musk protects from covet or flu our children chance of dying from covet is 0.00 statistically across all states bottom line this medical intervention has not been proven safe children my children are not your guinea pigs and we will not comply with mass mandates please vote no let parent decide thank you thank you [Applause] daniel [Applause] daniel radin and then travis st dennis is is he in he may be i have two kids in the higley high school there is nothing you or any policy maker can do to stop the spread of the delta variant matches the flu covet is here to stay for the rest of our lives and that's the bottom line forcing children to mask up holds as much common sense as banning the driving of kids around due to the chance of dying from a car crash actually it makes even less sense is the chance of dying from covet for kids lore yet and wearing those masks does nothing at all there's not a single data or study to show that those masks do anything beneficial the whole stormy the former head of city scene effect confirmed that fact while there is nothing beneficial or effective in forcing children to mascarp there is a lot to suggest that this is a nasty way to go through one's childhood those parents who wish to force their children with this draconian measure are already doing so as for the rest of us the vast majority of us ask you let us be thank you thank you [Applause] so we have travis st dennis and then we have hannah burgess hannah gorges all right so i got three minutes i'm going to fumble through this as fast as possible because i don't think i can get through all of this so to start parents of higley district i'm not here to address the border district i'm not concerned with their opinion or agenda i'm here to call to action the willing parents to stand for our children and to resist the tyrannical powers of these schools they think they have all executive orders giving emergency authorization to the counties towns and districts have been rescinded they no longer have the authority to even talk about this topic the enforcement of masks is a violation of current laws on the books such as parental bill of rights ars 1602 which reads all parent all parental rights are reserved to a parent of the minor child without obstruction or interference from the state or any political subdivision of the state any other governmental entity or any other institution including the right to make health care decisions for that minor child unless otherwise prohibited by law there are no more laws to it or executive orders suspend suspending state law or giving them the authority they had in 2020 there are no laws prohibiting our rights anymore the arrogance of the district to think they can dictate our lives the majority of our teachers in the two schools my children attend do not wear masks they obviously don't want to i'm talking about the super majority of teachers are not wearing masks they just want to teach and genuinely engage with our children further the overwhelming majority of parents are not sending their kids to school with masks trust me when i say us parents and teachers are fully aware of the current covet situation and we've made our voices loud and clear that is leave us alone we will not wear your mask your absolute power and reign is over and it's obvious the districts are drunk with power flexing a power play and resistance to the state of arizona the overwhelming majority and that overwhelming majority who chose not to participate in the coveted propaganda i'm calling on all parents to resist do not comply the criminal actions of this district cannot be tolerated ars 36114 titled limitation upon authority to impose treatment reads nothing in this title shall authorize the department or any of its officers or representatives to impose on any person against his will any mode of treatment provided that sanitary preventive measures and quarantine laws are complied with governor ducey just reiterated this in his executive order yesterday and reiterated that that is a class three uh misdemeanor do not allow these tyrants to criminally violate our rights and our children do not comply teachers we got red for ed we believe you're here with good intentions educate we'd like we would like to not and you would like not to be pawns in this propaganda we're asking that you get just as passionate for our children do not comply do not let them violate your rights resist do not show up monday with the mask unless you truly want to wear one that is your decision and it is respected we will resist your criminal action and take whatever steps necessary to defend our children i spent the majority of my adult life fighting overseas as a recon marine and marine raider which is the special forces units of the marine corps i've done unforgiving things for the ungrateful and is this what i came home to a population that can't stand up will not risk being uncomfortable and own what they believe are we that complacent and scared that even when there's no risk to life or body injury that we cannot stand up to and defend the future for our children we will not be we will be the death of freedom us our generation we will be responsible for the decay of american values because we're scared is that it and i don't believe so we will resist we will not comply stand up and save tomorrow for our children [Applause] again thank you i'd like to i'd also like to to clarify i know the majority of the board likely is is not for this so please don't take that personally uh this is more for the rest of the state and the parents that uh need to stand up for for what they believe and i also have i also have a because i know everybody likes to talk about science uh some cdc's thanks sir thank you if anybody else wants to read it uh okay i'll leave it up here thank you we would like to give as many people a chance to speak would you guys thank you either facts not opinions would you like to read them all right hannah and then our next speaker is adelia cinta [Music] good afternoon and thank you to members of the board and staff for listening to what i have to say my name is hannah borges and i am a registered nurse for 13 years with experience in the hospital i am here today because i do my best to live by quote which is actually an arabic proverb that says the greatest crime you can commit in a desert is to find water and remain silent about it i have found water and it's not being spouted from the dry sources like the news sometimes with water it's not at the surface and you just have to tap into it at the beginning of this pandemic that's just what i did i read countless articles research and studies to uncover the risks of covid many were afraid and i wanted to find out as much as i could as facts were not being disseminated quickly enough i found that hand washing and promotion of personal care and health was the best way to prevent the spread of covet in the community and even taught hand washing to my son's class two days before spring break of 2020 now fast forward a year and a half and the science behind hand washing continues to be effective and is the best way to spread to prevent the spread of infection as does staying at home when you are sick or you have a fever this is because when you are sick and ace and symptomatic viral loads are high this is the time when you are most able to spread an infection conversely asymptomatic people are not caused for the spread of covid those who are healthy should be free to go to school without a mask it should be a choice that each individual and their families make not the school district let's talk about the efficacy of surgical mass first you have to understand the size of the virus the virus responsible for covet is .12 microns in size the influenza virus similarly and also incredibly small is .08 to 0.12 microns in size to put that in perspective the width of a hair shaft is 150 microns in size now you can see comparatively how very small these actual viral particles are a surgical mask is not designed to block out very small particles in fact studies show it rarely blocks out any particle smaller than 100 microns or two-thirds the size of a hair shaft in other words the covet or stars cove two virus people seek to block out with the mask is nearly one thousand times smaller than the many holes invisible to the naked eye that exist in a surgical mask this truly is the equivalent of putting up a chicken wire fence to keep mosquitoes out it's not going to work even if we are all confined behind our own chicken wire fencing now cloth masks have no quality controls and vary accordingly to the materials with which they are comprised but not shockingly they fall into a category even less sufficacious and block out between 10 to 30 percent of only the large particles here are the particles that make it into your mask get tangled up into your spit for you to breathe in and out during the day and thus become a breeding ground for bacteria a lay person can see that this is not healthy and does not model the standard for healthy behaviors now that i have the science out of the way i want to talk about freedom just the other day the world witness beat people from afghanistan gripping onto any part of a moving c-17 airplane as it took off from a kabul airport we as a country witnessed the links that people would go grasping on to a freedom that they felt was still within their reach only to tragically find out that it was actually too late will this soon be a metaphor for us what are we going to do are we going to recognize this before we get to that point please not free fall to our demise because somehow we think it's easier to conform than uh to the constant moving of the goal posts thank you thank you all right adella and then the next one i have is ashley shaw is ashley's in here okay first may i address a question to you is it about a mandate till september 29th or for the whole school year she's asking because from september 29th the law says that you cannot mandate the mass what is being considered is september 29th what is being considered would in september 29th when the law becomes effective okay thank you mask mandates teach students that their environment is toxic they have toxic teachers they have toxic colleagues they breathe toxic air there are many peer-reviewed studies that show that wearing masks is harmful and none that shows they are beneficial but ncbi part of nih study from november 2020 children wearing masks made software of the following hypoxemia hypercapnia shortness of breath increased lactate concentration decline in ph levels acidosis toxicity inflammation self-contamination increasing stress hormones level adrenaline noradrenaline and cortisol increased muscle tension immunosuppression activation of fight or flight stress response chronic stress condition fear mood disturbances insomnia fatigue compromised cognitive performance legally you have no standing to mandate mask wearing because if you do so you will be in violation of federal law as face masks are under fda emergency use authorization title 21 united states code 360 bbb 3c 3e the federal food drug and cosmetic act states individuals to whom the product is administered are informed that number three of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product so on emergency youth authorization products are by definition experimental masks and thus require the right to refuse under the nuremberg code the foundation of ethical medicine no one may be coerced to participate in a medical experiment consent of the individual is absolutely essential in a letter dated april 24 2020 the food and drug administration stated that authorized face masks must be labeled accurately and may not state or imply that the product is intended for antimicrobial or antiviral protection or related uses or is for use such as infection prevention or reduction any emergency use authorization mandate requiring individuals to wear face masks conflict with section 360 bbb3 which provides that the person might be informed of the option to refuse to wear the device our students should be taught they have individual freedoms and not collective mandates thank you thank you all right we have ashley shaw and then drew young is drew young in the room okay thank you go ahead hello my name is ashley i have two elementary school kids at coronado elementary we transferred in from chandler to do the dual immersion program last year and a half has been hard for my family especially my small children um as it is for a lot of families as we try to navigate this they my children have no control over the situation and have to constantly change and adapt and our expectations of them are really high as a society we're saying hey here's this thing you have to meet in order to get this and it changes day to day hour by hour um and the kids are doing it the best they can my nine-year-old and seven-year-old asked me to come today they um i asked them if they wanted to come and they were embarrassed but they said they do not want to be forced to wear a mask again my son's words were please don't put me in a mask it's really hard for me so i'll quickly read some of their reasons my both my kids said it's hard for me to understand what my teacher's saying in class i get embarrassed having to ask her to repeat herself over and over they also are taking mandarin sometimes they don't know how to say the new mandarin words because they can't see their teacher speaking and so they have to ask privately to the side during recess to have the teacher move their mouth with the word um my seven-year-old daughter told me that it's hard for her in class because she's soft-spoken and the teacher can't hear her and she often feels invisible in class my son says he gasps for breath when he's trying to read aloud in class for the class to hear and the hardest was when we moved into the district last year they didn't know what their friends faces looked like really quick about my kids they both received speech services and there was zero improvement and actually regression this last year for them um once the mass came off in the year they jumped right back in and had huge improvement again um when their front when the mask mandate came off they were both overwhelmed with emotion to finally see their friends faces again and to see them cry about being able to see their friends faces was tough as a parent i have deep empathy for everyone including those who have been directly affected by copid i respect their individual choice everyone's individual choice whether or not they wear a mask or whatever they choose to do to keep themselves and their family healthy and i hope that i would have the same respect to choose how to protect my family we have come to an informed decision that the benefits of not wearing a mask for us far outweigh the benefits we would get from wearing a mask i just want to thank you for letting me speak thank you thank you all right we have drew young and then i have carrie ware is carrie okay perfect thank you i have uh three kids that attend the higley school district as well as i'm a spouse of a of an employee i found it interesting that the president brought up possible discrimination and reference to the grant when a medical mandate regardless of what the mandate is is in fact discrimination this should not be a political issue but i can't help but feel like this vote is taking place in order to be a cya for this board and district against those that would choose to blame them for any future positive covet diagnosis if you truly have the kids best interests at heart that sounds like the perfect time to have your legal team bow their neck in essence that's a legal issue not the opportunity to sacrifice our kids in the name of not fighting for our right to choose those in favor of a mandate seem to forget that it's not just a small sacrifice we have all had our first day of kindergarten our first crush went to prom and went to graduation the mental damage that these mandates have done and what continue to do cannot be undone it's not a small sacrifice these experiences cannot be given back to these kids it's easy to cancel and restrict when you have already enjoyed the very things that you're taking away kovit cannot be eradicated it's not going anywhere judging whether to disrupt lives and make medical decisions for people should not depend on your positive cases so how often is there going to be a vote on whether to disrupt lives and make medical decisions on the behalf of your parents this should not be an argument of whether you're pro-masking or against it this is whether you're going to infringe on people's right to choose kids and employees right now and far before covid have the ability and right to choose whether to wear a mask you're voting on whether you're going to remove the right to choose there's nothing preventing those from that feel they should wear a mask from continuing to do so if i was for wearing a mask i would be saying the exact same thing i have no right to tell anyone in this room or district how to raise their children or what is best for them medically or mentally and neither do you or the state for that matter it is in this board's best interest to put the political football back where they found it and continue to let people choose what's best for them thank you thank you i have harry ware and then deneen schmidt okay hi good evening i'm carrie ware i'm the one that says at husd all the time on facebook facebooking you guys i'm a little irritated sitting here listening to everybody thank you so much for letting me speak we have to work as a community to get this taken care of i have never in the 16 and a half years that i've been a mother solicited advice from any of you people or anybody for that matter and i do not plan to start today i cannot control what's going on in the white house but i can control what's going on in my community and i love the people in this community and i love the kids in this community but there's one thing that everybody in this room is forgetting you guys are up here acting like you're doing us a favor giving me the option of a or b that is not freedom that is coercion that is you telling me i have two options and that's not the case freedom means i bring to the table what i want to do and what hypocrites all of you are to stand here and pledge to the flag which represents freedom and then tell me i have two choices nonsense i'm over it my family is done doing what you tell me to do this is america this is gilbert the people are proud that people are here to tell you we're not gonna do it anymore there's half of the population for the schools aren't even here tonight where's the survey did you guys get a survey anybody get a survey did the teachers get a survey did the parents get a survey so don't act like you care what we think because you don't you guys are going to decide at the end of the day no matter what i say or any of them say if you really cared you would have asked and let me tell you something i have a kid at higley a kid at sofman and a kid at centennial elementary i got three different drop-off times and three different pick-up times and every day the teachers don't wear a mask the kids don't wear a mask nobody's wearing a mask but we're going to have an emergency meeting five days from now to implement a mass policy a few days from them what an emergency if you guys can't figure out by now the science is ridiculous then you're probably driving around in your car with a mask on by yourself and i can't help you at this point nor do i want to it's not my job i appreciate what you want to do for you and your family i would appreciate it if you respected what i did for me and my family because that's where we live the united states of america god bless america the end thank you [Applause] [Music] and our next speaker will be colleen is colleen inside she might be in the lobby thank you good afternoon i am here to oppose the mask mandate being considered by the higley board at this time but i have one question that i'd like to ask everyone here that is making this decision i'd like to know how many of you would have the audacity to ask someone who is in favor of wearing masks to not wear it to demand that they take it off or that they will be sent home to take it off or they can't go into a building to take it off or else i'm guessing that you all would say that science wouldn't support the forced unmasking of students and teachers well you know what science also doesn't support the force masking of students and teachers dr fauci himself said they don't work and that they provide a false sense of security he's changed his mind since then about everything from here to there and was caught lying about this subject but that's besides the point or is it what are we to believe well what i believe is what i've seen i've seen my daughter get coveted last december and was over it in two days she felt worse when she had the flu than when she had coveted i've also seen that while my daughter had coveted none of our family was infected nor were any of her friends that she spends more hours with in a day than she does us what i've also seen is a co-worker who locked down for nine months didn't go out at all and when she finally did she messed up like her life depended on it she ended up with covet pneumonia and meningitis to self-quarantining locking down and wearing masks prevent her from getting sick no it didn't in fact i would argue that doing so weakened her immunity system and made her more susceptible to it while i feel that no child should ever be forced to unmask because i'm not fearful of this virus i do not feel that others should force my child to mask because they are keep masks optional getting sick is a part of life being exposed to various germs and viruses is what strengthens our immune systems the common cold the flu and this virus are not something that can be blocked by masking that has been proven people were getting sick even when masks were mandated end this already please keep masks optional we've had enough thank you thank you colleen hernandez we didn't have one out there okay oh is that you oh sorry no go ahead come on up no that's okay the next one is sean chaban okay perfect go ahead okay the higley school district has continued to tell parents since the pandemic began that they would follow the guidance and recommendations from the arizona department of education as of today the arizona department of education is recommending universal and correct use of mass as the top mitigation strategy for safe in-person learning as recommended by the cdc the department of education strongly encourages all individuals in public schools to wear masks on campus and during school associated activities as parents we are not asking the board to mandate mass for the remainder of the year or to make it some part of school uniform this is a mitigation strategy because we are asking that while the numbers are high while there is an outbreak at higley high school which isn't those aren't my words that's the principal's words and while there is a pandemic that you consider the facts of the numbers and our children's safety when masks are worn the numbers are lower i'd rather have my kids in school with their friends than at home online thank you all right sean and then we have kari pendleton pendleton okay go ahead hi i'm shawn shahan uh i come from a teaching family my dad was a coach my uh brother is and i i taught uh high school as well i'm gonna go right into it stanford study data suggests that both medical and non-medical face masks are ineffective to block human to human transmission of viral infectious disease such as sarzikovic 19 supporting against the usage of face masks german neurologist margarita breeze brisbane who has done extensive studies on this says children have a very active immune system as well as developing brains which search for oxygen for proper development to restrict oxygen to a child is not only dangerous to them but is criminal the damage to the brain and the damage because of it cannot be reversed journal of american medical association recent out of 45 school children 6 to 17 years of age 100 percent reached at least four times the osha permissible limit of co2 exposure in nine minutes the irish health authority after looking at the mental health and the physical ailments of their children ruled basking children in classroom is not a legitimate medical option it's child abuse exasperates anxiety breathing prohibits proper development language and social skills co2 levels were felt found well above dangerous breeding ground for bacteria sickness using scientific research there's numerous scientific evidence supporting not using masks there is not one supporting the use of masks they're suggestions maybe we ought to do that as one of the people that came up here fauci on may 28 2020 said the masks are not effective the virus can enter there and actually it's prohibitive to the help of it he then changed his mind and said use 3 15 12 or whatever this is not science i can go to a restaurant take off my mask and sit down my kid can't sit in a chair for eight hours without having his on how's that science well it won't get you outside but it'll get you inside my child played basketball in middle school these kids were gasping for air gasping and refs were stopping the game and tell them to put it over their nose what are we doing follow the science they said i am what a change of pace we have study after study after study after study saying the mental the physical the emotional and the development is killing our kids there's a report that the little ones after a year of this their iq on average went from 100 to 78.

welcome everyone we're going to call the meeting to order it is 705. we waited a couple extra minutes we have some extra folks that showed up we want to make sure everybody gets in we move the line inside so they could hear us to start the meeting we don't want to exclude anybody so everybody can hear everything that's going on so uh we're gonna start off with our roll call Boat our roll call please Kimberly if you take care of that for us here Tammy High here Andrea Corey here Craig Meyer here Scott Middleton here who's the Schumacher here Tyson search here all right on to item two is our welcome and recognition of our visitors I think this is the biggest crowd I've ever seen here so thank you all for taking the time to come out participate in the process we uh welcome you every time and board meetings are always open to the public item number three we're going into public comments and I believe a lot of people have signed up to speak what we're going to do is everybody is limited to three minutes we want to be able to hear everyone in the past we have limited people and cut certain people off at the three minute time so we just have to be fair to everybody so you all will have three minutes to speak whatever you want to tell us is absolutely fine um and we're going to I think Kimberly has a color-coded chart she's getting the list okay I'm getting a list all right so basically Kimberly is going to keep our time for us so we can all listen and pay attention to what you're telling us and she's going to give you a warning I think we have a yellow card at a minute so you have a green card to start and then she'll Flash the yellow card at a minute and then she'll raise her hand when your time is finished I'm sorry red card at half a minute so so uh kind of everybody sees that so again we do welcome your comments we just have to be respectful and uh you know there's there's a multiple opinions on every subject and all we ask is a little bit of respect so with that we will call down our first person that signed up Dana McLean I'm sorry Dana McLean Dana here too okay and if you would before you start your state your name for us Dana McLean thank you so I have two students that are middle schoolers and my oldest my daughter has been vaccinated my youngest my son is not eligible to be vaccinated yet whenever he was born he was immediately taken away and he was given observation for well over an hour to listen to his breathing this was a very scary experience then before he was a year old he had colds that immediately became pneumonia and he had to get steroid injections four times before he was even a year old then he was put on a maintenance medication for 14 months to prevent him from getting um asthma are being diagnosed as asthmatic to this day he does not even remember this he does not know this he is not asthmatic however a virus that attacks the respiratory system could be detrimental to his health now people will be very emotional about the subject of whether to mask having it required or not and I'm requesting that the school board not make an emotional decision before any decision about optional masking is made please consider legitimate scientific research tonight you may be presented with the results of a Facebook poll this poll has the validity of me walking into my son's home room craft s if they agree or disagree that their homeroom teacher Mr Tullis is the best homeroom teacher how many are going to disagree might the results be skewed this poll is going to be skewed on the same Facebook page I was informed that Redbud made masks optional in order to be an example to other school districts and that because people stomp their feet rather than presented row Medical Data the decision was made to make masks optional Colombia is better than that we don't need to follow in redbud's footsteps I don't want to risk funding as well as lies over making masks optional I support parental Choice up to the point where it infringes upon other Children's Health and Welfare especially in a public school environment I support our superintendent's decision to keep masks required I support the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that all students wear masks in school schools should be a safe place for all students thank you thank you our next speaker Greg Schmidt hello y'all I'm going to try really hard to keep this sincere in three minutes is tough um if it tells your name first though please sure my name is Greg Schmidt and um I grew up here I lived almost my whole life here I graduated high school in 1993 here and my wife Nikki and I have decided to raise our family here a big part of that is because of the school district we love raising our family here um and I want to take this opportunity to recognize the tough spot you all are in this is not an easy situation to be in and I doubt any of you when you decided to run into this position thought you would be dealing with a life or death situation but you are and so we need you to know we're with you that's the biggest point of my story here I want to get into a little math though and and talk about the fact that I went out and I did all the research I did could I'm kind of a nerd as far as data if anybody knows me um and I read everything I read CDC and The Who and CNN and MSNBC and fox and I clicked on those click bait articles that said Delta is putting kids in the hospital and every one of them when you go to read it by the time you get to the bottom of the article if you really read it the experts are pulling back on that headline and they're saying kids do exceptionally well with this virus the kids that are in the hospital right now are the same number of kids that were in the hospital when there was a spike last time and the best math that I could find and it's really hard math for them to calculate is a .001 death rate of kids under 18 years old now you flip that coin over and you look at some of the math that we can look at that is real over what is almost two years now and it was a lot easier to come up with some of these stats and I'm going to share a personal story with you after I go through a little bit of stats on this but some of the numbers that jump out at you is a 50 increase in antidepressants in kids under the 18 in the year of 18 years of age and a 20 percent increase in suicide attempts in girls under 18 years of age my personal story is my wife and I sent our son off to college after graduating here in 2020 to Eastern Illinois University and we were super proud under these guidelines and he went into a depressive state so bad that we had to have the campus police basically go kick his door down to make sure that he was alive and okay and he's home with us now when we're doing a reset but so many parents that I know are experiencing that same thing right now it's very real so every night I want you to know I pray about this and in my prayer I'm thanking God for my family's health it's the number one thing and then I'm asking God to help us navigate through this epidemic that we're dealing with and what I hear back from God is I have you I got you your kids are going to be safe but you people were the ones doing this to them right now we're the ones putting them in this position wrecking their mental health and it's real and in closing the final thing I want to say to you is you all have to place a bet a tough bet like I said I don't envy you but you have to place a bet on physical health at .001 or mental health where if you don't change direction you will have suicides this year that we're going to be hit with locally so we're with you go fight for us I'll go with you [Applause] thank you guys [Applause] Mary Brooks hello my name is Mary Brooks and I just have a quick question for you guys um I am going to be a junior in high school this year and my question for tonight is what is the school's remote learning policy with the kids who are quarantined and how will the children get the help they need when they are home without instruction from their teachers now since we have started school a couple of teachers have reached out to their students offering remote learning if quarantined however I believe it should be offered to every student in this situation therefore I am nervous of being quarantined due to the exposure and not getting the help I need thank you [Applause] Chris culture a little bit taller than everybody else up here so uh most of you guys probably heard me last spring about the BLM situation we had if you were on the board you were not I graduated high school here in 1989 I served 12 years in the military moved my family back here from a pound Where I Stood on the school board for three years three and a half years so like Eric Greg and those guys are going to talk tonight we understand you're in a tough position but the realization is is that other school districts are making decisions that you guys are not and we're curious to know that the school board was given the opportunity to vote on mass or not or if this was directed unilaterally by superintendent so my question to you guys is simple have you as a school board looked into what happens if you do not file pritzker's mandate on masking and record quarantines what would happen if we didn't file that mandate and I want to remind you as a board he has no right legally to set a mandate you follow laws the laws by the ISB are already spelled out you as a board have the ability to Buck the system if you will mandates have not been voted on in the senator House in Illinois they've been voted down by Democrat and Republican Senators and congressmen so again you guys need to be the ones running this show our superintendent should not be making choices for the whole Community this we voted you guys in you have the power that's I mean I think I stand for everybody here do we agree with that I said in the spring and I'll stay in today you have a chance to divide or you have the chance to heal it is your guy's chance tonight to make that choice please do so no mask no quarantine for our kids if they get if they get sick that's on us and we'll put them in school take them out of school but if my kid's sit in six feet to three feet from some other kid it's not her fault she's just you know to get sick how many of us went to school with a kid next to us hacking snotting on his leg or whatever back in the day and all of a sudden this virus you know everybody acts like this freaking zombie apocalypse it's not happening guys the dad is out there you guys know how to find it to do the right thing don't quarantine our kids unless they are sick and let the board vote if we are going to mask and I'd like to see a hand a vote if that's not going to happen anytime soon tonight thank you very much [Applause] [Music] Christy daughtery foreign good evening my name is Christy Doherty and I have three children in the district I wanted to come to the school board tonight with some concerns as a parent these concerns include masking quarantine and remote learning I would like to understand why the change from optional masking in July to mandatory masking in August a mandate is not law given the Illinois House Bill 2789 did not proceed in the legislature local government has the autonomy to proceed with the will of the people the state board of education does not have the authority to sanction schools on this issue as we all know covet is real however according to New York Times only 0.2 percent of kids between the ages of 5 to 14 have died from covet in the United States compared to 0.5 percent from drowning and point three percent from the flu meanwhile we are seeing an increase in mental health and suicide kids need to be seen and heard and this cannot be done being a mask or being quarantined another point I want to understand is why vaccinated children do not have to be quarantined in a non-vaccinated child does according to CNBC 74 percent of people infected in the Massachusetts covet outbreak were fully vaccinated in addition on August 5th the CDC director Rochelle wolinski stated our Cova vaccines are working exceptionally well they continue to work well for the delt over the guard to the spirit illness and death they prevent but what they cannot do anymore is prevent transmission so regardless of vaccination status transmission can occur remote learning is another concern if a child is quarantined what does their learning look like a packet especially for the higher grades is not going to work some school board members might be concerned about being liable in case of a suit regarding covid according to 105 ilcs 5 school code individual school board members have Indemnity from the districts another idea would be for parents to sign a waiver that stated the school would be liable would not be liable for any covet cases I know the school board has had a difficult 18 months of navigating through all this we appreciate everything you do if we continue to follow bills that are not law what else will the school school be allowing in the later on our children are our future we want the best for them and as I know you do otherwise you would not have decided to be on the school board in the first place if we do not stand up for them now what will be risking in the future thank you [Music] thank you [Applause] Corey daughtery [Music] good evening my name is Corey Daugherty and I am a parent of three kids in Colombia um question I'd like to ask answered is Mr Grote was at the meeting with local schools and heard how other schools came to the decision regarding Mass why are other schools able to not be mandated but our school is I'd like to know if the school board has a line as far as how far do things go is it if more mandates followed does the school board plan on accepting everything is there anything we don't accept mask and quarantining may seem minimal but where does it stop unless schools start standing up it's just the beginning there's art there's already CRT and sex criteria flowing down being mandated on our children are we accepting these as well I know my family and many others have a line in the sand and if things don't change we will definitely be looking to move you know it's very sad to say that I mean our kids have been here going here for quite a few years and have loved going to this school so it's not something we want to do but everybody has to have their line so just want to let everyone know that you know the kid families here are with the board and here to help and that's all I have thank you [Applause] [Music] Ryan Hicks so first off thank you guys I think this is a testament to the community that we all came out but I'm sorry to interrupt can you start state your name for us please Ryan Hicks thanks Ryan appreciate so you guys you guys took this this position to serve our community and we thank you because this is the first time I've ever been to a board meeting I'm not active in the community other than raising my kids and you guys you guys are so thank you my biggest issue as well as I know others it's not about getting an argument around mask my preference would be that it's optional and that if you've got children that are compromised definitely if that's in their best interest but my concern is more around the the quarantining and and that's the the scary part if a kid shows up to school and they have symptoms send them back send them home quarantine them if we know they're sick quarantine them to take a gamble on someone that might have been next to that person for 15 minutes three feet apart which is difficult to document and prove to take that chance and take a perfectly healthy student out of school out of sports out of whatever activity it is that they're involved in as a precaution I think that's that's overreach I I don't I don't believe in that I think last year there was a lot of uncertainty and I think a lot of Extreme Measures were taken I think we know more now than we did last year and so I think that needs to be taken into consideration you're guessing is all you're doing by removing someone out of out of school you're you're checking a box hoping that you're covering yourself and try to protect protect more kids and I get it but the guest comes in you don't know how kids are going to respond out of school and on a personal note I've got two two students one's a junior and one's a freshman this year and I I've got my youngest here my other one had a previous commitment and so I'm not going to call him out other than if you would have told me pre-pandemic who would have responded better outside of the school my gamble would have been on my oldest and it was just the opposite my youngest did an excellent job he stood up to the adversity and he responded very well my oldest he worked and worked and worked but missing the structure that he was so used to was a detriment to him and it did affect him psychologically in a number of other ways I see the red card so I'll respect the time but if you want to if you want to go down the mask route I would recommend no mask I would recommend optional but the quarantining we have to stop that thank you thank you Stacy Waltman I'm a little shorter than everyone else good evening to all the board members we appreciate what you're doing sorry again can you text your name please Stacy haltoman thank you um I would like to speak on a personal note first we have had covet twice in 20 months so for all of you who are wondering how long it takes before you get it again it's about 20 months four of the five of my family have had it twice one just had it last year so his immunity is still working and he hasn't had it again also we go to many many specialists we have many underlying circumstances in our family and we do not want to be vaccinated for those reasons because we do not know what else is coming down our Pipeline and we have enough health issues that we don't feel that that's necessary to take that risk um for the health department unless you are a doctor or a specialist I really would prefer for you to just stick to reading the CDC I guess because if you know what we know from having it and experiencing it you have a 99 right of being okay so we were also told when my oldest who was the first one to get it and he has underlying circumstances that his date of quarantine would end on August 8th then in the phone call we are towed August 12th and then when I asked to verify the date we were told August 8th again so if they can't get the dates figured out if it's 10 days or 14 days I really don't know if I trust them saying anything else about that um next I would like to know when we are going to take herd immunity seriously the idea of wearing masks to protect against covet and neglecting the dangers that mass can cause doesn't make any sense either studies on mass have been done and they found 11 dangerous pathogens on the masks they are as follows pneumonia tuberculosis meningitis sepsis keratitis granulomatis and you make emphasitis Encephalitis food poisoning Bernadette Fria which causes Allegiant airs disease staff that causes meningitis in addition Studies have shown that the virus can goes through the mask we only want the best possible education for our children and that is what the school is supposed to provide the mass and quarantine I feel are just a distraction my question for the board is if quarantined we understand the paper packet is being sent home with the children with Advanced knowledge of how to address a quarantine why is a remote option no longer in play like last year I have two students in the district one in high school one in middle school and one that just graduated thank you for your time [Applause] [Music] thank you Jason Holtzman hello uh board I'm Jason Halterman thanks for allowing me to speak and definitely thank you for serving I appreciate what you're doing taking time out of your schedule out of your family time to represent us our community definitely appreciate that I do have a couple kids in the district and so this definitely hits home and that's why I'm here speaking and I mean as we've heard from everybody in Ditto whatever everyone's been I've been saying already so the one question I have is if children are masked and it's the most powerful protection according to CDC website why are they quarantined if exposed so where in the school do you think they'll be exposed within three feet we request the administration to provide a seating chart for each classroom showing the distance between desks and students please and so and regarding masks definitely for mask optional but there's studies out there that we can all read and research and Google that'll show that unfortunately the virus goes through any any of these masks they've even looked at the m95 mask and the virus is so small unfortunately it goes through those two and so just definitely something to think about but again I thank you all for your service and we take this very seriously so look forward to the outcome of this meeting thank you [Music] Wayne Poulter got a question starting in a comment following it on the evening of the freshman orientation it was mentioned by Mr Reeves that the students would follow the Mandate set by pritzker to wear masks until he ends until the end or until the municipality the municipality says otherwise and according to the mayor Columbia mayor Columbia Bob hill we do not have a mass mandate in place for the city of Columbia would this is this going to affect the decision you make um and common I like to make because I don't pretend to know any more than the next person I do know that everyone has the same ability to educate themselves on both sides of it and and in my mind there's two people in this in this gym that know my three children the best and knows what's best for them and will always do what's the best for them so we ask that you allow us I would take full responsibility to raise my children financially physically mentally we asked you know I put full responsibility on you to make the decisions that the community wants that the community needs everyone has different needs but we need to take into account all of them and find something that works it's not one individual's job or responsibility to make the rules that's why you're elected because we look at you as just an extension of ourselves so hopefully whatever decision you make as long as it is supported you know we'll live with it one way or the other but it's on you to make that decision whether we like it or not that's where we're at thank you [Applause] Kelly hi my name is Kelly antolik um I have two kids in the district my first question is how are we all able to be here tonight without a mask on but our kids are going to school with masks I don't understand that so the masks are annoying in my opinion and completely useless because the virus is small enough to get through the mask however that is not the real issue the real issues are the quarantine and the lack of Education offered to the students who are placed in school-issued quarantines it is my understanding that when a when a student is placed into quarantine they will not be given the option to remote learn and I don't know why the infrastructure is already in place for them to remote learn because it was there last year you cannot give a child a packet and say here you go 10 days you're on your own the child will fail they will fail miserably and when they do I ask who is failing the child or the district how can you expect a student to learn chemistry geometry algebra on their own for 10 days with a packet and a few check-ins the kids do not have education degrees they should not be self-educating the teachers who are hired in the district do have the degrees and they need to be the ones teaching not the students my daughter is a junior in high school most people would argue that junior year is the most important year to prepare for college and you're telling me that if she gets put into quarantine she has to just figure it out your number one priority should be the kids and their education handing out a packet for 10 days sends a clear and strong message that you do not care about them or their education do you understand the impact that this has on their confidence and mental well-being I come here tonight to urge you to reevaluate your quarantine plans for our students there's absolutely no reason why they cannot remote in they're already adhering to the mass mandates and on top of this you're putting healthy children into quarantine it is also my understanding that the teachers are complaining about the remote option for quarantined students because it creates more work well we're all adjusting to this time we're in we all have had to take on more work in various areas of Our Lives you know how hard it is for a young child to learn diction and how to read without being able to see a teacher's face because of a mask so my point is all the students have had to make sacrifices during the time it's not just the teachers making sacrifices so the argument to remove remote learning for quarantining kids just doesn't work for me so I ask you please do what's right and reinsert reinstate remote learning for the quarantined kids thank you foreign Berger hi my name is Caitlin bromberger thank you so much for allowing us to speak here and we really do appreciate your time that you put into serving our community and our children Thomas Jefferson once said when a long train of abuses and user patients pursuing invariably the same object invinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism it is their right it is their duty to throw off such government in layman's terms when Justice becomes law resistance becomes Duty Parents Choice matters we know our children better than our government does a government that is supposed to be for the People by the people and of the people under Illinois Law an epidemic is classified as a disaster which gives our governor a wide range of emergency powers for a limited time according to section 7 of the Emergency Management agency act it allows him to exercise the emergency Powers authorized for a period of up to 30 days Governor pritzker initially declared a Statewide disaster on March 9 2020 and has continually declared Statewide disasters every 30 days since if the governor and the isbe had the power to create mandates and revoke recognition status for Illinois schools why has House Bill 2789 been introduced into Illinois legislation HB 2789 would amend the Department of Public Health powers and Duty's law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois it would Grant the governor the power he is forcefully and unlawfully executing currently at what point do we stand up to the dictatorship of governor pritzker who repeatedly circumvents legislation Law and Order free people are never ruled by fear it's been said that children are resilient these mandates and counter measures outweigh the possible detrimental impacts including the emotional psychological and physical health on our children Dr fauci himself recently said hopefully this won't have any lasting negative impact on our kids hopefully that doesn't sound very hopeful to me the weight of the resiliency we are asking our children to bear is a load too heavy for most adults to carry we are the parents We Are The Advocates we are the community we don't need resilience we need advocacy from you the school board elected by people of the Columbia Community don't let them take away the local power lawfully granted to you we need to do better for them we need to stand up and do what we know is right unmask our children thank you all right [Applause] Angelique hey guys my name is Angelique Hicks and I do also want to say thank you for taking time to represent our community and our the parents and the students so thank you so much good evening my name is Angelique Hicks and I have two boys who attend Columbia High School as parents our children are precious to us and I'm sure you can understand the severity of our emotion in this moment I want to be clear with my intentions and what I'm trying to accomplish this evening I'll try to accomplish understanding Grace and action my intention is for things to change within the confines of the Columbia School Halls my wish is for students to feel free have positive experiences that last a lifetime and have many positive memories to look back on my objective for the school board the entire School Board is to hear me and the other parents and take action against these unfair mandates that are acting like law I wish for the kids to see the faces of their peers and teachers and not be reprimanded every time they do my purpose tonight is to help the board realize that the very danger you are trying to run from is only creating more dangers for our students inclu including a rise in mental health concerns developmental delays and a drop in educational fortitude my intention is for the health and well-being for both student and teacher as they both have enough burdens to carry in a normal world my objective is to help the board see where they can be brave like us and stand up to Authority that is not well-meaning for our children to gather information from multiple credible sources to show the state educational system that their information is not the only information and that a global pandemic needs the voices of Top Doctors everywhere helping the public and the world to save lives my hope is the group of parents here tonight give you the strength to be the first to take a hard stand against coercion and tyranny that is dictating that we at the local level are demanding that are demanded to follow or else my intention is for the board to actually read the 47 studies that talk about the dangers of breathing in your own bacteria-filled CO2 for the late for lengthened period of time my intention is to find out where are you the board and getting your guidance and be transparent with that information and my intention is to see if you've actually read the studies that you are basing your decisions on my intention is to help the board understand that we the public live in a country where we vote for laws and fight for our rights my goal is to reinstate that as a free Nation we voted for our Representatives including you the board and we the people want our voices heard and finally my last intention is to join forces with the school board and make this the best year yet for all students I hope when this meeting ends this evening you as an individual look within yourselves to find what your intentions are for our children the future of our schools and your position here on the board I implore you to pray for guidance and listen your intentions can change the world and our school district thank you so much for this opportunity to speak this evening thank you Lacy rap all right good evening everyone I have four children three of them are School aged I'm sorry can you state your name for you please hi my name is Lacey Rabb thank you yes I have four children uh three of them are School aged only one attends Public School her name is Isabella Watkins and she's in the seventh grade um a lot of parents here have touched on a lot of things and the first thing I wanted to ask is please don't embarrass yourself by insinuating that this well-educated room of parents is getting all their facts on Facebook my stepfather has been an attorney in the area for 43 years so I'm going to touch slightly on the not legalities that are going on here and also I would like to let you know that my husband designs military and Leo apparel he travels the country to make sure that they have the top of the line material he frequents testing labs in St Louis these studies all say these masks do not work and he has seen it with his own eyes and has been at the testing facility he cannot be here tonight because he is on a work trip up before I get into the legality I just wanted to let you guys know I have a child who is diagnosed with pandas what pandas is is her body cannot fight off the strep bacteria it attacks her brain for years and years and years she was diagnosed as ADHD anxiety odd everything off the wall we tried different therapists different sleep studies trying to figure out what was going on with her it is not very well known that children can have these bacterial infections that actually cause their brain to collapse and this is what we're going to start seeing more of and a lot of parents aren't going to have the resources to get their child the child the help that they need not many people in the community are well versed in it okay as far as legality goes first of all the health department cannot mandate that you quarantine your child without a court order so it has to be a voluntary it has to be voluntary so therefore you as a school telling denying our child an education that we don't co-parent with you and I'm sorry and I'm sure most of you are amazing parents however that is not voluntary if you are telling us that we have to and the health department hasn't um second communal communicable diseases are not covered through Insurance liability please reach out to your broker and ask them to send you where it states that you will be liable if somebody sues you for their child getting covet and either sick or dying I promise you they will not have the jargon to send you because it does not exist I've heard different school board members State they fear losing recognition from isbe as Dr Ayala has threatened referencing 105 ilc S5 1a-4 she does not have the authority nor does the school board give her the authority nor can they Grant her the authority to withhold payments our unrecognized school districts or make final decisions under the contested case provisions of Illinois administrators good procedure act unless otherwise provided by law and there is no other law pertaining to that um a lot of people are brought up Bill to build isbe is acting like it is already law and overreaching lastly you as school board members cannot be held viable under 105 ilcs 5 10-20 you cannot be sued and it is laid out right there that you guys have amenity from being sued if something were to happen thank you guys foreign [Applause] my name is Jared dinkelman and I did not just come here to address the board or the committee I came here to address everyone I have two things I want to say the first of which or before I State my first uh I want to say that fear is a very dangerous phenomenon in the mind and fear fear is what stops cognitive and logical thinking dead in his tracks so the first thing I want to I want to talk about when this started I stopped and I waited for more answers I watched all kinds of podcasts Zoom calls from doctors around the world and they have led me they have said it themselves and they have led me to believe the first of which which is probably going to shock everybody here covid-19 does not exist does not exist we are all being lied to around the world as a World Civilization number two who here remembers about the Nuremberg codes the codes that were created for crimes against humanity they were established so that civilian people have the right to choose for themselves now being that the United States signed off on that everyone from the president down to local leadership is subject to those laws and codes I want to read you a snippet from article 6 section 3 of the Nuremberg code in no case should a Collective Agreement or the consent of a community leader or any other authority substitute for any individual's informed consent leaders should be aware that mandating Max on the citizens of a nation and preventing their access to food Health Care transport or education if they don't comply is a war crime mass or any other medical intervention must remain voluntary so with that said what I want to reiterate here or what I want to tell you is that Nuremberg trials the second Nuremberg trials have started thousands of lawyers around the world and ten thousand doctors around the world started the second Nuremberg trials on July 4th 2021.

these were on display from last board meeting the recommendation is that we approve them as presented with the following notes 1 30 is the mission statement review we are if we ever get around to the strategic planning process and that changes we will change it in policy at that time so this is fine to keep that and then Mrs gocher actually reviewed it and and uh saw on 120 I didn't have this in your notes but uh we have parando still listed as our special education Co-op and we've been out of coriando now for seven years we're going on our seventh year and so um we should probably take prando off of our special ed co-ops Adam and Scott are the two board members on this committee did you guys see anything that needed to be noted most of this was really just legally's updates and whatnot I have nothing else yeah nothing else well did we update the mission statement during our planning meeting remember with all the posting notes and I thought that was that's the mission statement that's in here okay all right so that's it that is the most updated one yes okay so my understanding is since we have deviated from the standard plan our changes or remain constant even when we approve this we're not going back to their language we're staying right with us right right okay yes any discussion questions all right then I make a motion to approve the Press policy 107.

the board meeting of center grove will come to order now our mission statement here at center grove is we develop knowledgeable confident and responsible citizens through inspirational and innovative learning opportunities if we all stand so we can do the pledge please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you our first order of business is the adoption of the agenda do i have a motion mr president i move we adopt the agenda as presented thank you mr alexander do i have a second second thank you mr hubbard all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed motion passes 5-0 our next order of business is public comments regarding agenda items so it appears no one's put signed up for public speaking we're gonna do this that's up to you mr president okay listen up participants must be recognized by the presiding officer and will be requested to preface their comments by an announcement of their name address group affiliation if and when appropriate each statement made by participants shall be limited to three minutes duration and may only speak once all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no person may address or question board members individually the presiding officer may prohibit public comments which are frivolous repetitive or harassing interpret warn or terminate a person's statement when the statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant request an individual to leave the meeting when the person behaves in a manner that is disruptive of the orderly conduct of the meeting request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's behavior interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action waive these rules with the approval of the board when necessary for the protection of privacy or the administration of the board's business the portion of the meeting during which the participation of the public is invited shall be limited to 15 minutes and right now we have more than 15 minutes worth of speakers just to let you know so i will start down the the order our first one is jerry hornberg or brick or hornbeck okay if you will step up to the mic here please and sir when you come up would you state your address for us we need that up for the rest sure thank you jerry hornback 1203 east stone shore drive greenwood thank you i'm sorry ready yes good evening my name is jerry hornback the center grove school board was elected by this community to create and implement district policy the voters of this community trusted you to put their children's education first and you betrayed them again and again you've been trained to trust the parents taxpayers and our children and here's a short list of examples we found the last few weeks you hired an sel counselor who based on our social media comments clearly supports crt ideology you've allowed crt curriculum to be taught in one of the assignments called education racism today given to the center grove high school in july july 18th in a u.s history class you allow doors and windows lesson plan to be given which has direct connotations redux connections to crt as well as a panorama survey which was funded by facebook used to track students actions for future use you protected you you and your staff by not allowing parents to be in the same classroom as the audit was being taught your typical response is that you have to protect the student's privacy which contradicts your security cameras all you're doing is hiding behind your policy to protect yourself besides the parents would not want to be there to honor other students we want to be able to audit your staff what's being taught in lesson plans you also also have accepted federal funds to teach scl and also undertones of crt now you're in a corner you cash the check from the government support crt and scl but now you have taxpayers and parents that are uproar about your poor decisions the teachers unions have also stated in their last yearly conference they'll continue to push crt and scl ideology so this indicates that you are also being influenced by teachers you need to push these racist policies and programs you're now being a pawn of the woke class and being your useful eddy sex to get their plans and just to clarify we're not disputing supporting kids on individual traumatic events such as suicide divorce death personal injury we all agree on it that's not even the topic but yet you push seo like it's a crisis and it is not all you've shown is data that is one sided supporting your hidden agenda critical race theory so i've got a you have another thank you i've got a list of terms that are disguised as crt um and what i want to do is for the parents if you're watching a listing be aware of these terms and make sure your children are wearing these various names that are cover-ups for crt they're used to disguise crt and these names change all the time and this is just a small partial list and most importantly tell your kids if they hear any of these words to tell you immediately then report them to the attorney general's office the toddler cuter for evidence of allergy ideology here's a list it's a partial list action civics social emotional learning diversity equity and inclusion culturally responsive teaching abolition teaching anti-racism anti-bias training anti-blackness anti-mediocracy obtuse mediocracy centering for de centering or de-centering collective guilt colorism conscious or unconscious bias critical ethics studies critical pedagogy critical self-awareness critical self-reflection cultural awareness cultural competence the list goes on and on that's what one third of the list [Applause] our next speaker cara cecil and thank you caleb our next speaker then is colin i don't know are you going to do it now kelly you tell me go ahead kelly's sponsor 4763 brockton ridge court barkersville ready it must feel like you are getting feedback from all ends of the spectrum right now but all you have to do is walk into any building in this district to see where the majority of our community lands on covid between 70 and 80 of our students represent the families who are choosing not to wear masks not because they're selfish not because they're anti-science but because they believe that in life there is acceptable risk how can i stand here having lost two friends to covet and call it an acceptable risk because the one bright light in the midst of this pandemic is that healthy children recover incredibly well from this virus and that's not a hope or a hunch it's scientific fact did you know that we have had 2500 positive pediatric coveted cases in johnson county and we have not lost one child in fact out of those positive cases there have been only 15 hospitalizations typically only seen in children with pre-existing conditions and all of them made a complete recovery i initially had trouble finding our local stats on the indiana dashboard so i reached out to the johnson county health department alarmingly they had no idea how many children had been hospitalized with covid how does a county health department not know that because it's not relevant to them they are simply regurgitating the guidance handed down to them through the government chain of command maybe it's time for us to ask some questions before we follow that guidance and not questions like will we be punished if we don't but questions like what data do you have to support that why are we taking unmitigated measures to protect our kids from something that we know with almost 100 certainty they will recover from we don't do that in any other area of life car accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers but we have a parking lot full of cars driven by kids across the street every day could we lose one we have my brother was a junior at center grove when we lost him in a car accident but i'm not going to let this keep me from taking my 16 year old to get her license in three weeks because i don't make my decisions based on fear acceptable risk life is full of it if the state and local health departments won't acknowledge what we can see with our own eyes we can't make them but we can acknowledge it when 10 different experts tell you 10 different things you have no choice but to look at the data for yourselves we elected you to be a bridge between bureaucracy and our kids unprecedented times call for unprecedented leadership and that's what we're asking for some of you have stepped up to do just that with respect some of you rely far too much on bureaucratic guidance and not enough on good old-fashioned sense i am asking each one of you to put the mental emotional and academic well-being of our kids above your fear of retribution from the government that's why we elected you okay our next speaker is colin garlick i'm impressed that's rare many years of kids names in classrooms 462 ridge road greenwood indiana obviously um i won't waste much time here but uh i know you guys are probably in an impossible position in a lot of everything that's going on right now uh i want to acknowledge that it's got to be very tough you guys are probably pulled in thousands of different directions and i respect it but i think the time now is to stand up the time is now to stand up against all this and i have a very hard but easy solution the answer is no no to critical race theory in any form just know period we're done no to any social emotional learning i mean it we're done no none of it no mass mandate of any kind at any time and any place on any part of your property the answer is no parental decision of course they can kids can do what they want and no vaccine mandate just no absolutely no vaccine mandate we know it's coming no medical apartheid no so either say no to all of this at once and make it easy on yourself make it easy for us say no to all of it or just be done with it please and just say yes to all of it so we can move on so as i see it i was here last time mr hubbard based on your lines of questioning and your deeper understanding clearly of the issues i think should be the example of how this board proceeds forward it's time to ask deep questions in my opinion just say no and i beg you and you stand up for liberty be resolute this is the time this is our martin luther king moment to say no i yield the rest of my time state your name and address please bill collins 3865 new battling bargersville since johnson county didn't know any statistics i actually looked up a couple took less than five minutes actually maybe because i'm an analyst by trade i work with scientists and engineers every day maybe johnson county health department might want to talk to some a couple interesting statistics i did a quick google search of some of the leading causes of child death number one cause pneumonia with 800 000 children dying every year uh simple diarrhea with 480 a year malaria while not a big issue in center grove 274 000 a year tuberculosis 600 a day that's 219 a year the common flu something that has had a vaccine for longer than i've been alive um 56 000 a year while so far this year we've had 14 128 as of the 17th of this month which is about 2 000 a month on trend at this rate 24 000 covid deaths of children a year while granted i have three children one is too many but that's still far less than the common flu um you know we're panicking over covid meanwhile diarrhea kills far more and when was the last time you required kids to wear diapers just to go to school it's it's insane another statistic for you guys when my daughter was two she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that has a her type of leukemia had a mortality rate of 20 percent if you're going to have cancer that's really the kind you want because that has an 80 cure rate she went through two years of chemotherapy where she had no immune system i could have a runny nose she got hospitalized for a month she could have died at any moment we would hear weeping families down the hall constantly and seeing the covered gurneys being wheeled out almost daily thank you somehow my daughter survived we never shut the city down shut the world down we never required our family and friends to mask up and wear gloves and require everyone in the school to e-learn we just asked when you came into our home wash your hands here's some sanitizer and then we bleached before and after they came we took control of our family we made the decision for what was best for our children and i ask you guys to do the same and i ask you guys to not hold anyone else to a different standard than what i did for my own daughter that had a much higher chance of dying than anyone from kovid thank you [Applause] our next and last speaker will be uh i don't know if you put your last name first the first name janice walt it is walt janus gotcha name please i put it on the sheet there is it oh could you say it we can't read the numbers there it's uh 392.

so if you won't see this in the budget for a while but as i said we've done some pretty extensive modeling to make sure that the the the message we want to get across about this is that it will not increase the tax rate so at this point um i'll turn the meeting back over to mr russell to conclude the hearing thank you so at this time this is the appropriate time for members of the public to comment on the middle school building projects or the information presented this evening are there members of the public present who would like to comment on this particular subject thank you i now close the jack i saw him i saw him yes [Music] their current enrollment is smaller than middle school central and the building's a little bit better the building's a little bit bigger as i said we we have built into our long-term plans the locations where we will add classrooms there eventually but we don't want to spend that money and add those classrooms until we really feel like it'll be they'll be necessary and we think we can get by and you know as you grow the first thing you the problem you have is the common spaces like the cafeteria you need a bigger space for kids so that's what we're tackling in this project so does this project include repurposing the existing orchestra yes that was on the on the slides yeah it went real fast no we are yes okay what's the repurpose of the existing area music rooms more music yeah okay do you want to become a couple just did something at middle school i thought it was in the cafeteria the last time there was a project was that not we added a cooler on to the kitchen that's always just yeah freezer and it was on the outside that's why you could see it there's another handy camera any other questions to this particular subject thank you okay you said that the cost of this wouldn't raise the task tax rate with the additional staffing that would be required for the expansion with the combined extra cost possibly you have to raise tax rates when we do our our long-term modeling we consider all those things and um [Music] the issue there is that those as we specifically look at the extra classrooms um the extra cost would be teachers for those classrooms and as we continue to get more students to put in those classrooms the state gives us more money so the cost of teachers is pretty much covered by the money we get for enrollment growth so that shouldn't be a problem and and but more importantly we model the total tax rate of the school district to make sure that that does not increase okay i now close this public hearing are there any board members who have any comments or questions i guess my question is for mr zolly in the back i'll save my the hard one you can get the project plane sharpened before the next board meeting are construction rates material costs starting to come down are we anticipating any issues as you've had with a couple of the other projects they're leveling out they're not they're not still on the rise they're leveling out okay we feel confident we can get this in and the number we update yeah we updated uh our estimates are uh hunted for us right before this you know they're the most current they're the most numbers that we have okay thanks jim yeah yeah construction costs are moving all over the place for month to month okay there's no question thank you guys very much and i i do want to compliment the board your work on this and and of course uh bill and paul on these projects um you know we've we've had to do a lot of work being such a growing district and growing so fast and the fact that over the last 10 plus years we have not had to increase the tax rate is really just a testimony to boards before and all of you and of course your hard work too so thank you guys thank you at this time there is no board action required on this particular hearing okay we are moved down to other business go down the line here mr daniels do you have any other business uh not at this time thank you mr russell thank you mr hubbard i don't have another business but i have a couple board member taking time out your day coming here tonight taking it away from your family um i also want to thank all of you guys for sending us your emails and um you wouldn't even imagine the emails that we've gotten and i do appreciate all of them i really do um i i read them i catch myself and i'll be at the gym working out or be at home and i'll just catch myself getting caught up in emails and stuff so i do read them um i if you don't get responded to by me uh please don't make it feel like you go unheard um but with that being said i my background is different a lot of the board members up here i didn't go to college i uh i won the military and i spent a lot of my time overseas and and kind of something colin said maybe made me think that something i realized when i was in the military and um our freedoms are extremely precious especially precious to me and um i you don't have to do that um but anyway i i realized that my role on this board is to represent the community and i don't in all honesty these are your chairs they're not my chair they're not ours they're yours this is your building this is your school um so that's why we do read those emails because we do want to represent you we do want to you know and just because something might not go your way doesn't mean we're not listening and we're not hoping you know i mean i always want the best for for all of our kids here and uh and that's what i was elected to do um the school is a republic and i do realize that um and i'll always fight for you guys and i always kind of do what i feel is in the best interest of the community not always what's in the best instances of the administration or the teachers here at the school you know i i won't be pressured i can promise you that um but anyways the what i want to talk about is this antibodies thing that kind of went out last week i'm sure a lot of you guys are aware of that you saw the email um and it and a lot of your emails kind of talked about mistrusting us or kind of being secretive with you maybe um i just want to kind of clarify a couple of things um some things are brought up in those emails we know that we kind of told the administration and the board told you that we would not change any anything unless it was mandated and then uh so on the earlier middle of last week rich dr argenov got with the board and said we he uh he got an email from the johnson health department that we were mandated to not be able to use antibodies test anymore so the board gave him our feedback on that and uh email went out to you guys i believe it was friday um before and i didn't even know the email was sent out but i got it friday morning and i knew something kind of didn't feel right so i called the johnston department myself as a parent and asked them why they felt uh kind of asking for the data of why they felt that they needed a mandate to center growth that we couldn't take the antibiotics anymore and they informed me that they did not mandate that um they recommended it so at that time i got back with with dr arkanov and and and he was upset and i'm you know i basically said somebody's not being truthful and uh it's making the community look bad um we're you know it's we're losing trust in you guys and that's not what we want to do and and he was upset and he sent us the emails from the johnson health department that did say that so um at that point we kind of had a decision to make i think the weekend came kind of came and went and and and i know the board was really upset because you guys called us liars you know because we said we wouldn't do some unless was mandated i wasn't the only parent that called i saw it on facebook it looked shady for lack of better words so with that being said to tonight i feel pretty i was going to make a motion to reinstate it but hold your applause but before this meeting um dr archanav said he got a email from the state today that mandated that we are not allowed to use antibodies tests anymore so um i just that's the whole truth of the matter i just wanted you guys i just wanted to clear the air i i don't think the [Music] not too many people would just tell you that we rely to you but i'll tell you i don't care they can be mad at me but we were and that's the way it is so and i'm sorry that you guys went over the weekend thinking that you guys elected some people that were not being truthful to you and that's just not the case so um we're not time for public comment now we're not we're not i promise you i wouldn't do that so that's all i have mr alexander so yeah i guess just a couple of things in the my voice doesn't carry to the back of the room without it um we read all the emails i know there's been a few of the emails i've read that have implied that we're not taking the time to read them i'm going to tell you you can you can ask my wife you can ask my son we spend hours reading the emails i mean we've gotten probably in the last week four or five hundred emails and if we each of us took the time to respond to those we we wouldn't have time to do the to do our day jobs to be to be quite honest we're we're spending our free cycles trying to read the emails and understand what everybody's asking for and there are as dr arkanov said in the coffee chat yesterday we have 9 100 students at center grove and we got nine thousand one hundred opinions about what we should and shouldn't do at this point um and all of us are taking those into account taking them into consideration um it's it's it's bigger than you know i when when you run for school board you go through the school board training there's no training on what to do if there's a pandemic um we're we're trying to figure this out partner with the medical authorities and understand the rules that we have been given to go by and one at one point in time the johnson county health department did approve our back-to-school plan and that did include the antibody testing as we all know and and have i know we have all learned over the course of this journey that the situation is fluid the situation is going to change we're going to receive mandates strong recommendations from the health authorities recommendations from the health authorities and mandates and ultimately the as as mr hubbard said the state health department informed i'm going to say dr arkanov because i think that was more directed towards center grove than it was some of the other schools well i believe they released just a slide a statement directly to everyone it felt very centered where where they have mandated that we cannot use the antibody test and and at that point um quite honestly folks when it's a mandate and it comes down from the state we we have to go by that and it falls in with the executive order the governor is also giving us about quarantining there's an executive order that exists on the rules we have to follow when it comes to quarantining and i know we get mrs norman and mr taylor get tons of questions about it and there's i mean the executive orders out there it's a matter of public record we're as flexible about it as we can be we're working through the problem as we go and i kind of like i said there's no playbook for this i mean we have a disaster recovery plan and pandemics in there but i don't know that you know any of us tabletop to exercise what to do for a pandemic so thank you mr alexander miss counts so i want to start i i have some comments as well but i want to start by talking about the gala for the grove and the center of education foundation for those who don't know i am the liaison between the education foundation which i served on the board for four years and the school board so i did attend the event i think there were several people that attended the event that might be in this this crowd and it was a great event so jen gave me four updates they have four new board members for the education foundation and i believe most of them actually attended the gala so they you know got thrown straight in uh they were the beneficiary of the kopetsky's clean to contribute program for the month of august so i think that was actually last tuesday or the tuesday before they received an educational partnership grant from the johnson county community foundation and again the gala for the road was amazing so and i was the lucky recipient of the stadium picture that was signed by the 2020 football team so that was really cool so um gosh i i went back and forth uh with my comments and it's really weighed on me a lot this week i'll tell you i am a newly elected board member so i have served on this board now for a little over seven months i'm in my eighth month and i will tell you that learning what the heck is required of me is rob put it perfectly when i started it's like drinking water from a fire hose so everything that is thrown at us i mean i don't think there's a day that goes by that we are not talking as a board and you think about that's that's eight months that i communicate daily with these gentlemen and everything is talked about so what i wanted to say kind of goes along with what the other gentleman said i'm listening to you i read your facebook posts i i take that to heart i really do i try not to i have thick skin i owned a restaurant for eight years believe me when people leave you know negative comments you just have to let it roll and understand that sometimes they're just having a bad day but i read your facebook posts i read your emails i'm up at 4am reading your emails because i have 142 sitting in my inbox and that little red dot on my phone is just bothering me you know i say that and i'm saying that with i too have my own opinions right so i don't want my kids to wear masks at school i don't know if i'm supposed to say that but i i'm one of those parents but if my kids want to wear a mask at school they can wear a mask at school but i do make them wear it on the bus because that is a mandate um actually i had a conversation with my sixth grader about that so but i will say that i re i read everything that you present i read your facebook posts i read i read your emails i take your text messages and your phone calls and i keep an open mind even though they may not necessarily coincide with what i agree i keep an open mind for my community and i continue to pass it back and forth with these gentlemen and i'm telling you that there is research that's presented you know by jason taylor and mrs norman and we continue to poke holes in it because that's our job right that's our job is to poke holes in the information that's presented and to try to find ways around this to i'll tell you my number one priority right now is keeping my kids in school because i now have a middle schooler and i don't want i do not want her sitting home two to three days a week i don't she's not going to learn anything i want her in that classroom that's my number one priority right so i just want you all to know that we are all listening and um while you don't you may not think so and you don't know what necessarily goes on behind the scenes just know that there's a lot that goes into it and we appreciate believe me keep sending the emails like they said you're giving us information that maybe we wouldn't find on our own and that's great and i appreciate that and i will continue to read and i'll continue to listen and i think that's all i have to say jack [Applause] dropping off oh chad could i just briefly i just didn't have anything to say and jackson maybe the line out of that pass but i i just want to i don't want to repeat any anything that's been said because i think they're all all good points and i don't want to waste everyone's time with that but i do want to compliment our community and when i say community i'm not just talking about the people sitting here i'm people that aren't sitting here we disagree on things there's people that don't want masks there's people who want masks there's people who don't want the vaccine there's people who want everybody to get vaccinated but we are keeping it civil and let's continue to do that we're going to disagree on improvements we're going to disagree on a lot of things but what i was impressed with the five people that got up and spoke tonight you have opinions you express those opinions we are listening i also read the emails i al we are also always communicating but let's keep it civil let's not get to a point where we've seen in some other communities where it's getting ugly because i've got to tell you we are all in this together we all want what's best for the kids we all want in-person learning we want to do everything we can to keep it civil express our opinions and get to whatever ground we get to in the right way so i thank you all for doing it the right way this evening thank you jackson [Applause] dragonov thanks mr russell um just a couple of things one i just want to compliment um you know everyone that came tonight and shared your opinions we appreciate that as the board said um we get the emails you probably all have emailed me and hopefully you've gotten my response yes sometimes my responses are a bit of cut and paste if they are the same email over and over again which they are a lot you know there's the don't wear masks there's the wear mask so after a while i just thank you for letting me know and i share that with everyone involved so i appreciate that as i said in the coffee chat 9 100 plus children 9 100 plus opinions if not more with parents involved as well so we're working hard to navigate everything thrown at us being a public organization we do have to follow mandates and requirements and we have to figure out whether they are or not and to be quite honest with you there are days where we have no idea just like the antibody test we would never go out and intentionally lie to anyone our team works really hard to figure out what we're being told we can and can't do and quite honestly it's extremely frustrating because there are hardly any clear directives directions from our legislators and our state much of this is pushed down to avoid the political climate above us and now we're all in this together as mr daniel said and has said for two years now but we're all in this together and while we're trying to navigate what local control is and mr taylor will tell you this oh we had local control oh i didn't realize it because every time we think we can make a decision they tell us no so we're not really sure what local control is you know with the antibodies being a really good example now we have official notification that we can't use it we just never know so if we you know it isn't that we are looking to make people's lives difficult believe me they work really hard and i just i can't say enough to amy norman and our nursing staff um please please please be kind to them many people are not and it's just not right they are working their tails off to keep our kids safe to apply the rules that they are responsible for applying and to take care of our fa our kids and our families i was in the buildings today and i can tell you our high school clinic was packed packed folks kids are sick now i don't know what they're sick with i didn't ask i don't know but they're sick and so our nurses are in there working it may just be a flu it may just be a cold it may be sore throat it may just be that they've got a test and they don't want to go to it you know i don't know but you know it is it is very busy in all those clinics uh middle school north middle school central you know they're busy busy places and these folks are working their tails off so i would really appreciate it i know you take emails and tell us what we think but boy it'd be wonderful if you could send some really nice emails to our nurses and to mr taylor and mrs norman because they're they're working really hard too so we the last thing i'll say is we do we work together as a team up here we're a good team because we we argue we fight over things we have open honest conversation i like to say we're passionate and unguarded in our discussion and then we make a decision and we move on and we do that the best we can with the information we're provided which unfortunately under covid is ever changing but we're continuing to do that and so we just appreciate your support and understanding and believe me we share in your frustrations so thank you all again for being here tonight and sharing that really appreciate it i'm very proud to be a part of this community and have two graduates just recently you know from from the district and i just tell everybody really quickly my daughter made the marching 100 at iu so i [Applause] yeah that's tough because i got one at each so that's why i was asking well thank you all for being here this evening and your comments i'm not going to go through and repeat everything that the other board members have said because we all feel the same way on the same thing it is a fluid situation it changes every 24 hours if not sooner we have made it clear i hope that we have everyone in the community to deal with and i don't mean that in a negative manner it's just that opinion where do we get all of us to be somewhere we can agree and that's really hard in the political environment that we're being thrown upon in our country right now so be patient try to work with us in a positive manner because i can guarantee you something may come out next week or another week that will not agree with you or something may come out that we'll agree with you but we all have to work together to move forward and i can tell you for my personal and i'm sure it's with the others my greatest thing is to want those kids in school learning in the classroom i want them to see each other every day socially i realize how important that is i have family in the school buildings i may look a little experienced on top here but i have kids in the building that i care deeply about and i have talked about before it's my cg family i care about all these kids tremendously so it is it gets hard to make some of these decisions and how do we deal with this on a day-to-day basis when the people who are supposed to be leading us are not giving out the right information or twisting information so you can all understand how that that is hard to work with we'll do our best and we appreciate it thank you what wow that's the teacher i haven't lost the teacher look at this i just have one thing else to say um i got off on the antibodies thing i totally forgot what the whole reason what i wanted to say was um we know you guys want to talk to us and you want your voice heard and i know that people signed up tonight they didn't get to talk and last week people didn't get to talk and that's unfortunate i want to hear from everybody um last month for example i know i kind of got on jack a little bit and for that jack i apologize um we do have a board we do have rules and and you know we do try to limit that to 15 minutes but with that being said we as a board need to recognize that that you guys want to have more of a communication channel with us whether it be town halls coffee chat something i think it would do the community well the five of us could try to figure out a way to have a dialogue with with you guys versus just emails i think that would be more transparent because that's what i'm hearing a lot is the transparent word because these board meetings really aren't for that they're really not um but we are here to be represent you so let's let's work together let's try to figure out a way and um you know let jack run the meeting and let's just move on and and if you guys got comments let's let's do that on the outside and figure it out you know what i mean i think i think that's the best for everybody okay if you got an idea email it to me that's it sorry we will reconvene for our executive meeting thank you all

in the absence of vaccines our choices are limited or non-existent masks only work if everyone is wearing them the choice is therefore between all kids at school and all staff wearing masks to protect one another and and the community at large or a very real possibility of schools going back to virtual which would not be acceptable to to to my household to my family therefore until vaccines are available i fully support mask mandate as the only logical choice thank you very much thank you do we have anyone else wishing to speak to the board bernie yes uh next we have uh james carr good evening james excuse me can you hear me yes we can okay hopefully i can make this quick here um so on august 14th superintendent valeski sent out an email or sent out a message as we said regardless of your beliefs by last year in the rapid decline of positive codes and coping 19 cases in our schools it's a direct result of masking and baskination vaccinations was deniable so first of all uh superintendent velasque i find that kind of condescending kind of insulting the superintendent in essence is looking at each parent and students of the district in the eye and basically saying i don't care in your beliefs carrying your evidence what your doctors have to say i don't care what your scientists have to say you don't matter the only belief that the superintendent seems to think that matters is his and those are the governor the superintendent provides zero data to back up his undeniable beliefs on masking governor exec the governor's executive order also provides zero data no state agency agency to it has provided data i have data as a matter of fact i'm going to be sending uh to the board 23 studies are you harms of extended max mask use i'll also be sending the board 29 studies that suggest massive surgical and cloth are effective in reducing transmission i urge the board and the superintendent to read at least a handful of these basically what this really boils down to is a deportatorial imposition of a medical device on our children without our informed consent i think the burden of proof that full day masking poses no danger to the kids of east brunswick now lies with the superintendent and the board superintendent on the board also bear the responsibility also bear the liabilities should any harm befall any student as a result of the mass mandate and as reminded to everybody the superintendent is an elected non-voting member of the board the community's expectations of you the board the representatives is not just the rubber stamp the beliefs of an unelected superintendent but to the board i'd like to read a section there's three of the fundamentals of school board membership and it basically states the board members who are community representatives means representing the entire community not just the area in which they live their particular supporters board members have a responsibility to listen to all citizens explain to those of the particular point of view the needs of the school system as a whole so the community strongly urges the board to hold a vote decide to ask the governor to rescind his punitive mandate the wall school district has courage howell school district has courage they ask the governor to rescind for those of you with courage to stand with our children we will support you because you who lack courage we will vote you out what are you guys going to do when my children start getting sick from wearing these masks what is the plan you guys always have a choice accepting the consequences of your choices is going to tell the community where your obedience lies with the state or with our kids thanks for your time guys i'm sorry sir were you done he was finished mrs becker okay thank you very much and the next person wishing to speak to the board uh yes we have arlene shoemaker hello early mr shoemaker uh you will need to um there you go i'd like to address the board in favor of the mask mandate it is the only proven device we have for children under 12 that will allow them to go to school safely so that they themselves don't get sick and they don't bring this illness home to their family members there are many children in our community including the child in my own home who will go to first grade this year who live in a multi-generational household so this is not just parents and children this is also grandparents as well we can see with clear evidence the result of choice for masks around the country in states such as florida and texas and arizona mississippi arkansas where the governor himself has expressed regret in signing a mass mandate ban he is trying to get the legislation there to reverse that decision so i am again in support of the mask mandate i request that any child who shows up to a bus stop without a mask not be admitted onto the bus any child who shows up to a building without a mask not be admitted into the building and any child who takes off their mask in a school building please be have their parents pulled to have them picked up immediately thank you and have a great day thank you and who is next please uh next we have uh ryan mangles hello ryan hello how are you sorry about that um okay i i'm not here i'm just going to read what i wrote um okay so i'm disappointed at the events that unfolded on august 5th here at one of our elementary schools a school where our youngest most vulnerable students come to receive their public education a school where the children are least affected by covet and most affected by masks i think the east brunswick community is owed an apology we all make mistakes but can anyone explain why and for what purpose has served for murphy to choose our elementary school did he let you address him or did he just showboat his political agenda he endangered the police officers the community as well as the public elementary school itself murphy is a very divisive politician he has divided the people of east brunswick in new jersey with his rhetoric and name calling he's gotten one side to live in fear and believe that they are right and righteous and that the other side is endangering people for being hesitant to take an emergency vaccine or to have mass on their children in school we have to make sure the teachers don't instill fear in our children by disciplining them over improper mess wearing forcing them to wear masks when they're not required by order or sending parents inappropriate emails we need to spend more time teaching standard education and not grooming our children towards certain ideologies ideology should be taught in homes and in places of worship my children have not been taught to write script or type um sydney sugarman a discord just a court judge in new york once said teach the children how to think not what to think teach them how to think not what to think we cannot let somebody like our governor who shows fear and division mandate what is necessary for our children murphy does not follow the science he demonstrated that last year when he said i'm just not ready yet he is inconsistent in his policies on masking you yourself and the other superintendents of middlesex county pointed it out and the letter addressed to him at the end of last school year yet you still follow his mandates i can't even imagine what the contract tracing or quarantine policies will be this year i'm urging the school board at the very least just the very least to oppose his mandates and restore the decision-making to you the board of educators dr velesky if you and the board decide that you want to have mass on the children in school let it be your decision alone do not take the easy way out and stand behind someone else's decision there's plenty of support for you in east brunswick you have a bunch of good doctors that work here the mayor is a doctor you can tap them for any kind of decision and science that you need made i think the board of education with dr bless you should make that decision on what you feel is right for east brunswick students and not be held under blanket mandates for all the school in new jersey by you accepting this murphy has laid down the foundation for other mandates to follow do not yourselves climb your own political ladder on the backs of our community and children stand up against murphy please or any elected official that would take the decisions away from this board you say you swore an oath to the government plea governor police were an oath to our children that you are charged to they say you want the community to work together then allow our board of elected officials to make the decision not just one power hungry politician and i i do believe that if the board comes together i think it will bring the community together instead of allowing murphy with more mandates honestly the goodness mr mangles your time is up [Music] thank you and who is next please next we have alexander spielman hello alexander good evening board and superintendent my name is alexander skillman uh the six douglas rhodes brunswick i am an alumni from the class of 2011.

so within the first month of school we have already experienced about half the number that we had the entire year so hence there are a lot of people in a concentrated part of time who have heard from received notices as our protocol in our mitigation plan outlines i want i want us to share we have heard adamant and we have heard passionate voices on all sides we've heard from stories we are hearing people would they have shared their thoughts with us part of it having time to announce that we were having this meeting is it's part of also hearing from our community and we've heard from them so with the reason we are here tonight is obviously for the governing board to have the opportunity to discuss all of these pieces obviously we have current factors we have developing information and we we are turning to you as the um elected policy makers of this district to help us determine what do you want us to do at this point so thank you thank you dr foley like you said that just looking at the number of our cases um so far four weeks into school we needed to at least have the conversation and that's what we're doing tonight i also wanted to point out mr moore mentioned that part of this grant requirements is that we stay in person for the school year that's not always our choice we quarantine and if if need be close a school based on the direction of maricopa county public health they are the ones we have to follow what they tell us when we've had to quarantine freshman jv and varsity football teams from higley high school so far this year all three levels have had to quarantine so our cases don't even represent the number of kids quarantined it's just positive cases that is at the direction of maricopa county public health that we don't have that option if our cases continue to rise and the maricopa county public health determines that we have to close a school to move back to a remote environment that is not our option um unlikely that we would have to do that district-wide unless we see something different but that too could at that point make us ineligible for that grant with out of our control because we do have to follow what maricopa county public health tells us at this time yeah or legal counsel is saying it's going to put us at risk um like i said this this grant just came out two days ago um and so litigation or anything has not taken place regarding this requirement so um at this point yeah anything not meeting those requirements would just put our district at risk thank you anyone have questions regarding the information presented dr foley i know we sent you questions but i want you to be able to answer some of them that we've already sent we will be having another meeting next week will you be going over the mitigation strategies that we currently already do and what we're looking to do besides mass um as we've been talking about we have a mitigation plan up there but we've been working on progressive mitigation plans what are the types of strategies temporary things that the district could do for in the event of rising numbers as we shared with our community there were some minimal ones that we started doing being that our numbers as yours as you've heard are arising and again some campuses not as much as others some of these were proactive measures put in place because administrations were saying we've seen we don't we've seen there's issues that have happened at other sites let's not have those come here we're wanting to keep the numbers low uh uh honestly the one of the most important mitigation strategies we have found is to please not come to school sick we've had multiple times where students are called out of the room in their teacher's classroom when they've been at school and they're not well and they've tested positive which causes additional frustration and concerns so we're going to talk through potential additional mitigation strategies yes and you've seen drafts of those documents that we're working on with our and general administrator team and our teachers union group i think it's important to say here even if your child's tested negative keep them home if they're sick it's a really good practice any other questions regarding the information item um can you help me to understand or better clarify what is the criteria that the county is using to make terminations about okay president reece board member anderson there are several components to this obviously every single positive case we have jillian and kelly are working hand in hand with the maricopa county department of health there's a lot of factors involved in that from the date that it tested positive to symptoms to last time on campus to when the case is identified to when other cases are identified so there isn't a rule of thumb that always says well when there are two or when there's three then that then triggers it depends on how the cases happen and we work with them on that now you'll notice remember that the term for an outbreak we had several schools have an outbreak now in some cases they had more than two you know they technically say two cases and then there's a an outbreak we might have had more cases on that campus but they're they're looking for the epidemiologically linked and so every scenario is unique um every situation depending upon the date of when the student was sick when when the they were tested when the results came back the number of cases how did they come are there ways that they would have been in similar classes on the same team not and then they work with us to help determine when and where that is the challenge is is that they are cracking down on quarantining i have been in conversation with multiple are multiple superintendents and they are receiving calls from dr sun and jine herself when there is issues and concerns when when school districts do not respond or follow through on the quarantining expectations of this and and they're quoting there's four laws that are connected with quarantining in one administrative code so in other words we do not quarantine until we're given the directive to do so but we work with them on a case-by-case basis so there's not a rule of thumb it's a it's not one one case fits all scenario obviously the goal would be to minimize the potential for having to quarantine the hope would be if it could be minimally if there has to be a class rather than or a whole grade level before there'd be a whole school so the goal would be to try and keep keep the the numbers down if they're going to have to quarantine a substantial number of students based upon a certain scenario or case then sometimes it's led to entire schools and and again watching the news you you see over the last year there have been several who've had that ex experience and obviously we're following and working closely with them on each scenario that happens and following the guidance we are we are doing it when we have a directive in order to do so and if i remember correctly i believe it was scottsdale unified that ended up having to quarantine over 600 students last week i believe is when it was if i remember correctly at the direction of maricopa county public health any other questions how does this affect sports if we put a mass mandate if we don't do a mass mandate probably more if we put a mass mandate in tonight how does this affect our sports teams especially probably the big one is football but we have some others out there as well um how does this affect them what does that look like what does it look like for spectators who are maybe going to those games at our middle schools as well we have lots of stuff going on so how does this affect it if we do put a mass mandate in this evening so i'm going to ask uh mr ladson how's there to talk about that a little bit but remember this one this policy at this point has been ingested for just indoor only so outdoor event an outdoor event outdoor activities do not would not have the policy does not require a mask mr lutz president reece vice president wilson members of the board if you remember last year we followed a lot of aia direction that came out and talked specifically about spectators and about the number of attendees and different things that we had to do it evolved from the football season into the winter season in the spring this year the aia has come out and they've given us some guidelines to look at but nothing definitive like like they did last year now are we looking at doing possible reductions of the number of people's attending games to make sure that we have that yes and that's following along with conversations that we're having with the other districts however we have not made those decisions yet but from the aia's perspective and looking at the guidelines that they're putting out for us there is not the specific guidelines that we had last year whether it's people on the bench having to wear masks or at one point while even they competing now there are some districts already phoenix union particularly that's come out and said when you travel to phoenix union and you compete against us we're expecting everyone to wear masks indoors and outdoors and when you're on the bench except when you're competing athletically however they're the ones that have put that in specifically for them but in terms of the east valley and about where we're at we there none of those things have been decided yet i'm concerned about that a little bit because i know last year we had an issue at one of our campuses uh where school didn't want to pit um didn't want to follow our rules so i am a little concerned about making our admin have to make those tough calls just putting that out there i feel for our admin who have to make those very difficult decisions and have to ask for backup to make those decisions so thank you to all the admin who had to do that last year it was not fun we got emails about it i felt for them thank you and i believe aia also kind of jumped in a little bit there too so to try and help but we're especially when we're visiting a school it's their school their rules we're expected to follow them out of respect for for them any other questions sorry you know you're going to talk about mitigation more in depth at the next meeting just to clarify everything that you're doing right now whether we vote yes or no on it would still continue in place and you'd still continue to evolve those um just to clarify and you've always been doing these even when we voted uh to rescind the mask mandate last year yes yep these are those additional strategies that are temporary they are you know simple things that can happen additional lunch spaces or schedules um all of those things those are temporary things that happen that are not permanent nor nor a policy issue mask the face covering because you have you we were required to have a policy for enforcing we removed it this is a policy issue and currently you're making decisions on a school-by-school basis correct yes and currently there are some similarities because we're just starting with proactive trying to to stop the extreme number that we're having compared to relatively to what we had had historically all right hi mrs kaler we've just finished going over the information item i know you've had the information ahead and was able to review it there okay so you're up to speed all right mr president or just mrs caleb board member kayla have any questions sorry i slipped up with president perfect all right if we don't have any other questions for dr foley we'll go ahead and we will go on to our public comment portion of the meeting we value input from our constituents this time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this is not an appropriate venue to evaluate discuss or criticize district personnel policy keb provides a process for complaints about personnel speakers should be aware that fault statements about individuals may result in civil liability members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ars 38-431.01h action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date only those persons who have completed the request to speak form and given it to the board secretary prior to the start of this meeting will be allowed to speak please limit your remarks to three minutes if there is a large number of individuals requesting to speak a time a time allotment for public comments may be utilized abusive language or personal attacks on staff or board members will not be tolerated individuals displaying this behavior will be ruled as out of order and asked to relinquish the floor and may be removed from the meeting thank you for your participation and for helping us con to conduct an open and orderly meeting and before we get started i just want to remind the speakers that we um we're all here for one purpose we ask that everyone be respectful even with differing opinions we can not have the same opinion but we do need to be respectful everyone sitting in this room outside all of our staff members they all deserve that respect none of us want to be back in this position we were here in april but we're here and out of respect for our community we're allowing this time for a public comment there are districts that are not so we do ask that you please keep your comments professional and respectful we will try and get through as many requests to speak as possible we will be calling people in the order we received them and i when i call somebody up i will let then i will announce the next person to speak we do have people in the lobby who have requests to speak so that will also allow us the ability to allow them to come in as well so our first speaker is going to be barbara summers and our second speaker will be mindy brocker is barbara summers or mindy brocker in here she may be out in okay just want me to get started all right i know there's a lot of anxiety today about making the right decision here one thing we can all agree on is that no one really likes wearing masks another item we can all agree on is that in-person learning is beneficial for our learners and being in person is ultimately the best place for our children that is truly our overall goal it should be our priority unfortunately in our current climate the issue is how do we do this safely pediatric coveted cases and hospitalizations are on the rise everywhere including in arizona hospitals are reporting coveted missions among children at an all-time high locally the number of admissions for pediatrics at banner has doubled monthly since june in june the number was 35 in july it was 71 and in just the first two weeks of august they had admitted 70 children for covet while these numbers seem relatively low we are talking about hospitalizations and illnesses and in some cases even death that can be prevented when you look at the big picture the number of known pediatric coveted cases overall in maricopa county is rapidly outpacing adults by nearly double i know there is a lot of talk about how we still had cases last year while masked but as our district mentioned contact tracing with the county showed that the spread wasn't happening in our schools at that time this was because universal masking does work this is evident by the numbers on our dashboards overall last school year we had 574 known cases the entire year and this year we already have 252 known cases at our dashboard in less than a month and it is spreading at schools this time children under 12 aren't currently eligible for vaccination and with an over 200 percent increase in pediatric cases in the u.s since june we should be doing more to protect them where we can while numbers seem low coveted deaths among children this year have topped 350 in the united states with 35 of those deaths being reported in arizona i know it's not what we want but mass will help stop the spread in our schools mass will mean that there is room for treatment at local hospitals if one of our children is injured and needs care more importantly to everyone here according to the maricopa county health department if a student is in close contact with an infected student and both are wearing masks the student won't be considered a close contact and subject to quarantine ultimately this means less disruption to our students we can all present data from whatever sources we want to believe and we can all argue about how we personally feel about mass but in the end it comes down to taking care of others while the idea of the grant funding sounds exciting are we willing to sell our kids out for that we need to bring back the mass to keep our children in school and work together as a community because we are in this together thank you guys thank you so our next speaker is going to be okay can you try and take a look at that our next speaker is going to be mindy brocker followed by megan jones is megan jones in the room okay to be honest guys thank you for your time i'm so put around right out there this is like my worst nightmare i hate this so much but i need to thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak with you i recognize that our state government has been actively working against all the district boards leaving you guys torn between science and politics my goal for my family is the same as yours to keep my three children in school we keep schools open by protecting the health of our children our state is trying to punish school boards for keeping local control in the community that they know best i vote i volunteer and i donate to support schools and their funding this is how we should improve our school budgets don't let doug ducey put a price on the heads of our children the feds states courts they'll be battling this out in the coming weeks let them fight while we focus on our students i'm not going to give you statistics about how maths work or best ways to quarantine because i'm not an expert and neither any of you i have to trust that you will rely on your medical and public health professionals unfortunately case count and husd is substantial with over 250 higley children now identified as coveted positives in less than four weeks of this year's start it's very clear changes need to be made we should also consider the current rise in rsv cases another respiratory illness causing many absences thank you so much for the common sense modifications you've already made i may not love every choice but i acknowledge and respect the impossible situation you find yourselves in right now today our community needs to stand up in unity i'm sorry that i even have to ask for a mass mandate a request to higly parents should be enough but as we all can see a request to our masks isn't effective when it's voluntary i admit mass aren't perfect a risk will always exist but we know it's an important tool to reduce our kova transmission at the source please institute a temporary mass mandate to be re-evaluated at fall break this would greatly reduce the need for quarantines and reduce all respiratory illnesses further keeping our kids in school please follow the maricopa county quarantine rules the best source control is keeping children who are actively sick and those at high risk to develop covid at home for short periods finally please increase transparency sharing on your dashboard more information like the count of children in quarantine on campus transmissions plus grade level case notices for each school people will tell me you are doing your best i want to remind you your best requires risk just like me standing here it's bad but your best is not to pray hope and wish we depend on you in this time and need to make hard choices and be proactive in helping our kids so thank you thank you our next speaker is megan jones followed by eric real if that's the correct pronunciation okay thank you hi my name is megan jones i'm a mom and stepmom to five kids all either currently or previously enrolled in husd i know you you've heard so much from both sides i'm sure you've been inundated with laws science data and opinions i appreciate you listening to them all i almost did not attend this meeting tonight because my youngest son a student in the district tested positive for covet a few weeks back after being back in in person school for just a week and a half don't worry i've already tested and i've done my quarantine and he's allowed to be back in school he's not been able to attend for 11 days now likely won't be back for the foreseeable future he still can hardly speak without coughing i'm sure if you ask him he would say he'd rather wear a mask forever than to ever feel like this again i mentioned this to bring me to my first point when i called to notify the school of his positive test results i was told that his siblings who he is with 24 7 shares a bedroom and bathroom with are not considered close contacts and need not quarantine or test unless showing symptoms yes i'm here to ask you to reinstate masks at least until kids under 12 can be vaccinated but i'm also here to ask you to please do more the recently released released mitigation strategies are a step in the right direction but not enough why are we no longer following exclusion guidelines i've received nine coveted notifications already for saseman how has none of these been a close contact when according to my children there's almost no one masking in their classes if we can bring our positive case levels down wouldn't that be the best for all involved so that we can keep these kids in school safely and have less disruptions for teachers than them i guarantee my son will be behind for months as a few assignments posted on canvas are just that assignments he won't be learning anything he's missed that brings me to masks i don't want to ask forever no one really likes wearing them i understand that eventually we need to get back to normal i know that one day hopefully soon this will have to be treated like the flu strep or common cold governor ducey states that public health officials in arizona and across the country have made it clear that the best protection against covet 19 is the vaccine however that's not yet available for our under 12 kiddos in the meantime the cdc aap and ih and many others recommend masks as the next best protection i get the argument about making decisions for our own children but really do we actually get to do that anyway we can't drive them with drive with them in a car without a seat belt for a proper restraining device if needed based on age and weight they can't ride the school bus unless they and their parents agree to the best safety rules dress codes regulate what they can and cannot wear and even stick with us into our jobs in adulthood they can't play sports without a physical and proper equipment people can't smoke on campuses heck dcs has a ton of things you can and cannot do with your kids there are many things in place already for both public health and safety that regulate our choices why is this any different we trust you to keep our kids safe every day they walk through the doors in any of our husd schools i'm asking you to please take those necessary steps in order to do so thank you all right eric real and then our next speaker will be kelly stromello and kelly did i she may kelly may be in the lobby not inside okay thank you thank you good evening and um thank you for calling this meeting and allowing me the opportunity to address the board directly a mass mandate is an important topic i'm glad we again have the opportunity to share collective views about it don't want to be here but thank you for having us i despise masks my young kids do as well it breaks my heart every day to kiss them goodbye through their masks and send them off to their classrooms wearing them but we do it because it helps keep them safe it helps keep their classmates safe there's no arguing that it's the best defense that my five and eight-year-old and their classmates have against covet right now it's their only defense it's why you should vote this evening to reinstate a face covering policy in husd until there are other two other tools available for us to keep our kids safe from this some are saying this is a medical matter which only parents should decide believe me the last thing i want is the government meddling in my kids health care this is not a medical matter it's a public health and safety matter it will be a medical decision once a vaccine for young kids is approved and parents can decide for themselves whether or not their kid should be vaccinated but until that time this is not a personal medical decision it's about the safety of our kids in the school community there's a lot of numbers being thrown around that about this but there's only one that matters to me in less than four full weeks of school four confirmed covet cases at my daughter's school in her grade level that's not acceptable we need to slow that down and your best option for doing so is to reinstate masks these are your choices tonight reinstate a face covering policy to help keep our kids safe or risk a hospital bed or worse for my kids for all our kids it's pretty simple choice please make the right decision tonight for our kids thank you all right we have kelly stromilo sorry and our next speaker julia ridden okay i apologize for anyone i butcher their names i'm trying my best okay well good evening to all my name is kelly stromiello so you're close i'm a mother of two students in the higley district and it's clear to me that everyone is very passionate about the topic of their children's safety and health no matter where you stand i have tried to be a good advocate for my children's health and the health of our entire family i've tried to read up on as many studies regarding the efficacy of masks and other mitigation tools at our disposal i seek out neutral and well-informed evidence-based sources science supports the use of masking as just one of many layers of protection the research that i was able to find from studies around the globe show it the research points to the data that it cuts down on both the chances of transmitting and catching the coronavirus they are effective in both in protecting against coughs sneezes and talking that spray aerosols that carry the virus that's it they are there are no credible studies that suggest that a simple clean cloth mask lowers your oxygen level increases carbon dioxide in lungs or weakens the immune system they are no more danger to school-aged children than a kid who sleeps with a sheet or a blanket these studies are found to be credible by many recognized and respectable organizations around the world such as the cdc the nih the american academy of pediatrics the america the pediatric infectious disease society the american lung association and the list goes on but the evidence i find most compelling comes from our very own district last year i was impressed with the mitigation protocols we had and as a result of those efforts we ended the year with 574 cases for the entirety of the year as of today we have hit almost half that number in week four with little to no mitigation our total numbers of resolved and active cases are at 252.

suicides are up 500 percent anxiety depression up 242 have you ever tried getting a therapist in this valley for your child they're booked out for a year i need you to stand up i need you to protect their kids if you want to wear your mask you want to get vaccinated i support you as a parent to do that for your child no one's preventing you from not wearing a mask if they work wear one but don't make my child go through emotional i had to pick my kid up twice for having panic attacks pull her mask down because she can breathe [Music] protect my kid do what's right stand up thank you i have hari and then i have danielle hello my name is carrie pendleton i'm a parent of two high school boys at williamsfield high school our family is new to the district we transferred here from gilbert school district this year because they were still enforcing mask at the end of last year even after governor ducey lifted the mass mandates we toured many schools in various districts and we settled on williamsville because they are in the higley district who voted to do the right thing and make mass optional i am here to tell you my boys will not be wearing masks at this district either i do not authorize you to make medical decisions for my kids my older son has given up half a season of football he has to sit out as a requirement by aia for transferring he loves football he's lost some friends because they're calling him a traitor for switching teams but he feels that passionately about not having his freedoms taken away it's bigger than a sport right now you can go ahead and insert any activity important to your child an example as an example instead of football it's a really big deal to miss half a season as a junior on varsity in high school my younger son a freshman said at this point he'd rather just drop out than put up with this again everyone in this room that stood for and spoke the pledge of allegiance i'd like to remind you that it ends with liberty and justice for all liberty which is defined as personal freedom personal freedom that if you have access to the news or any media sources you have seen images of people falling off the plane trying to get to their freedom i don't understand why any of you would vote to have our freedoms taken away i don't understand because unlike some people in this room and in this district my life has not been taken over by fear fear is the only thing that could drive someone to give up personal freedoms to this extent to wear a mask because you believe it makes you safe from a virus that can't be blocked from a mask is irrational thinking created by fear it is a security blanket nothing more you might as well just put up a chain link fence like my friend back here said to block out the mosquitoes or flies in your yard but that is neither here nor there i will not tell you what you can have to do go ahead and exercise your right to mask up vaccinate up keep you and your family safe the way you see fit in that same light do not block mine in my children's rights because my thinking differs from yours if someone came up and berated you and forced you to unmask you'd understand where i'm coming from you'd be angry you would tell them that they have no right to do that be honest with yourself you say you don't want to discriminate kids that don't want to wear masks will be the only ones discriminated against as they won't have an option do the right thing better yet do the american thing thank you thank you after danielle will be kristin apodaca my husband and i have a freshman at williams field one of the biggest reasons we chose this district is because we felt a sense of patriotism freedom freedom of all parents to be able to choose what's best for their own children own child this freedom is not taken away from those who are supporting the mass mandate the pro-mask individuals believe their ch if they believe that the mass work and they're protected by them no one is stopping them from wearing them freedom is taken away from those of us who do not want our children to wear a mask through my own countless hours of research i understand the negative effects masks have on our children's health this information is coming from doctors nurses pediatricians virologists other health care professionals who have nothing to gain everything to lose by speaking out against these mandates when our kids have a mask on their face throughout the day it's cutting oxygen to the brain it's really important to consider because the brain continues to develop until age 25 and the kids are in that stage right now that critical stage of brain development with a mask on the face and constantly breathing in their own carbon dioxide for countless hours throughout the day this can be dangerous for many reasons but especially the respiratory system there's much evidence and statements even on the cdc website as well as on the box of the mask themselves stating that the masks do not protect anyone from getting code it's a virus the particles in the virus are so minute it's nearly impossible for the virus to not pass through the much larger fibers making up the mass it would be like shooting a bb gun through a chain-link fence to date there is no proof that a child has infected a teacher or caused death in any school in the entire world the kids when they do get sick so they are typically the symptoms are fairly mild the death rate of covet amongst kids is .003 percent that's a ninety nine point nine nine percent survival rate and there has been no report of a healthy child that doesn't have underlying conditions that has died from it instead of instilling fear in our children and teaching division why don't we focus on teaching them to be proactive with their health by boosting their immune system let's educate them on eating healthy exercising drinking water getting enough sleep reducing stress it's it's as though we've lost all of our common sense there's nothing stronger than our god-given immune system when we take care of our host to me the saddest thing of all is what this is doing to our kids mental and emotional health we're already seeing the ramifications currently there are not enough therapists to support the growing need of mental health support in 2020 suicide rates increase five-fold anxiety and depression are at an all-time high amongst our kids our kids are meant to be social they're meant to see each other's emotions and facial expressions they're meant to be able to see sadness happiness anger they're meant as we all are to have human contact and interaction our kids are already losing social skills in large part due to social media but also because they're being suppressed so i'm asking you please let our kids be kids let them see and feel a sense of normalcy in a really abnormal world please do what's best for them in this district they need us all of us to advocate for them thank you thank you kristin apodaca and then we will have will fordenberry okay perfect thank you hi my name is kristin apodaca and i have four children who attend schools here in the district i stand before you today to ask you why why are we here doing this again the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result which is exactly what is happening we did masks last year it did not solve anything there were still kids who got coveted and still kids being quarantined with the mask mandate in effect what will mandating masks do for five weeks there is zero logic behind this it is another attempt at throwing something at the wall to see if it will stick i am asking for common sense and logic to have a place at the table tonight once again the goal posts are being moved every time we get close or achieve the last goal it's it swiftly gets moved further out it started out that we could drop these mandates and resume a normal sense of a school day once the teachers could be safe safe met when they had a vaccine available that could protect them that day came and became available for all those teachers and yet here we are again being told once it's safe the queen creek school district what has remained excuse me mask optional since last year as has most charter schools in our area did they collapse did they need to shut down why are we not using them as an example of how it can be done safely masks being optional has always been an option for those who felt feel it necessary for their family no one is taking their option to choose a way and in doing so those schools have maintained a safe environment for all this virus is not going anywhere as we have already seen and we have already tried by mandating masks before we have to learn to live with it in the best way possible the mitigation plans that have been put into place over the last week is another example of the lack of logic that creates these rules herding children in one direction down a hallway or a set of stairs for middle schoolers all at one time does nothing for their safety cramming kids all together to move to their classrooms taking their ability to walk across the hallway away has no merit for safety if anything it's creating other safety hazards taking morning recess away from our elementary children no longer allowing them time to be outside getting fresh air sun on their skin getting their wiggles out once again has no merit in safety it takes a lot of courage to stand up here before you to speak and to take a stand for our children but as a parent that is what i am here to do i am here to stand up for my children i am asking you the members of the board to do the same members of the board if you took on this job for the children then please be courageous set an example for our district and our children our children are not for sale and they are not a bargaining tool in this political game that continues to be played in our public school system deep down i know you all know what is happening is wrong the only way to stop it is by stopping it please keep mass optional thank you thank you we have and then our next speaker is larry shrimp okay thank you go ahead hello all right so i'm a father of two higley students and a higley taxpayer i want to thank you board for listening and for your service on the board overall i know it's a tough job i also want to thank you for your example tonight in making a personal decision as to whether to put a mask over your face or not tonight and potentially risk harming us all by not covering your face um covid stats everybody's talked about a ton of stats looked at cdc today as of yesterday since this thing started 430 deaths under the age of 18 the large majority with terminal illnesses the previous year flu stats flu is was non-existent somehow last year but the previous year there were over 600 likely flu deaths according to the cdc so the flu is literally more deadly than covid is yet we've never messed up none of us growing up we never did any of this stuff right we never had dashboards any of that however the psychological impacts are real people have talked about those as well ssa.gov did a study they said that over 50 percent of children have suffered severe impact on mental health due to covid and the coveted response i might add my son william fifth grader at bridges elementary he's in h pal 97th percentile on the testing last year he's such a loving kid bright and outgoing he's become angry depressed he lashes out far more often now and just this past week through tears he shared with my wife in his words he just can't take this stuff anymore so the impact to our kids is huge and as it's been said i think it's permanent so if masks if this thing isn't harmful to our children why do we wear masks is it to protect adults every adult has had the opportunity to get vaccinated already and even if it is even if they haven't it's not a child's responsibility to protect adults it's adults responsibility to protect children so with that in mind it's not in my child's best interest to wear masks and as loving parents we will not comply with any mask mandate the government of these united states is by the people for the people we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness the people do not want to mask their children our country was built on liberty and we demand the right to choose whether to mask our children or not ars 1-602 number 5 has already been stated but it's it's against arizona law to make health decisions for our children so if a mandate is brought forth my children will be forced to unenroll and take our tax dollars elsewhere as taxpayers and citizens we will vote with our feet in regard to how our children are educated uh it's been mentioned the the fiscal impacts as well you'll lose you know eight point something million dollars uh in terms of of the doug ducey funds there so in summary a vote for mask mandate will restrict freedoms negatively impact children's mental health and take money away from our district all without providing any real health benefit please make the right choice as you did in april thank you [Music] we have larry and our next speaker is kim collins okay she's it thank you hi thank you for the opportunity to speak um tonight um i realize this is a highly charged topic and everybody's got an opinion you're getting criticized either way you come down on it but uh anyway i just want to commend you for giving us a voice the people here in the public um really i just want to talk about two studies that have recently come out the first one it was talked about an article last month in the wall street journal it's called in children the risk of covid19 death or serious illness remains extremely low new study finds and i'll just read a bit from it it says that children are extremely slim risk of dying from covid19 according to some of the most comprehensive studies to date which indicate the threat might be even lower than previously thought some 99.995 percent of the 470 000 children in england who were infected during the year survived one study found in fact there were fewer deaths among children due to the virus than initially than initially suspected in fact only 25 of those 470 000 infected students died due to the illness itself and my understanding is there's limited studies on the delta variant but based on the limited studies it does not appear that that's any more dangerous to children than the original strand the second study is from the cdc's own website it's called the physiological burden of prolonged ppe slash mask use on healthcare workers during long shifts basically it says that the n95 mask is always going to n95 mask users are always always going to experience some level of difficulty breathing or breathing resistance even though these devices are designed to minimize breathing resistance as much as possible enough breathing resistance can result in the reduction in the frequency and depth of breathing known as hypoventilation which is basically a co2 overload some of the side effects that they found from not from co2 overload is headache increased pressure inside the skull nervous system changes increased pain threshold reduction in cognition altered judgment decreased situational awareness difficulty coordinating sensory or cognitive abilities monitoring activity decreased visual acuity widespread activation sympathetic nervous system those are all the direct effects as well as increased worker breathing cardiovascular effects all the things that everyone else has already mentioned tonight one other thing of interest in that wall street journal article is they they mentioned that it went on to say that a child has a greater risk of dying from the flu or drowning than kovid we don't send our kids to school and life jackets to keep them safe from drowning i don't think we should send them to school in mass to keep statesman covered thank you president president ruiz yes i wasn't here i know at the beginning but can we have some of the people that are waiting in the lobby to come sit down since there's empty seats or was that not allowed earlier we just hadn't done that so it's not disruptive okay it's good all right so we have kim and then following kim is jana mclean okay good evening as a parent of two students here at higley unified school district in my opinion masks make sense as an educator at a higley elementary school my opinion is masks make sense this variant covid is different it's different because it's affecting elementary age students it has the ability to affect elementary age students these same students are unable to be vaccinated in my opinion masks make sense to reduce the communication of covid at our schools my ask today is that we protect hiddley's students by making our campuses requiring masks as a mandate that's it short and sweet thank you and then after the speaker we're going to take a short recess so if at that point additional people want to come in all right okay i am not a doctor a nurse or a scientist but i am a dental hygienist and have a bachelor's in science and my career is literally based in preventing disease i wasn't originally going to attend tonight because 40 days of masking isn't going to do any appreciable good in stopping the spread of covid just like that initial shutdown that was only going to be two weeks long obviously that didn't work but i realized something i was planning on wearing a bikini top tonight and daisy dukes but i lost my courage why am i saying this we have a dress code in place most places including in schools the dress codes are to facilitate learning in a safe environment not wearing a mask during a pandemic does not facilitate a safe learning environment if we can make a dress code for the length of shorts and skirts words that are on a person's clothing and hairstyles surely we can make a dress code for masking when there is a highly communicable disease my son is six he wears a mask when he is with me but he is refusing when he is at school i was told i would have a choice if my kid wore a mask or not i don't so to say that um he's not doing it because he's saying no one else is doing it so it's actually more of a peer pressure thing kind of like if everyone else is jumping off a 10 foot bridge are you gonna do it too i guess he would for those people who are saying that their child would be outcasted if they did not wear a mask that's already occurring the kids who are wearing a mask are feeling outcasted and feel like they're embarrassed to wear a mask kids tend to be like their parents so if the parent is verbal and anti-mask it's highly likely their children especially younger children will be exactly the same i'm not big on punishment but i do believe in consequences there is no logical consequence for my son not wearing a mask that is related to him not wearing one when he's at school not going to school really isn't a good consequence and the only other consequence would be natural and that natural consequence would be him acquiring kobit i had to test my son on thursday night of last week thankfully he was negative he was really congested i think it was just allergies that's what most of us are saying right it's just allergies but i got a letter on tuesday that a coveted positive person was on his same bus he sits in the bus for 20 minutes waiting to leave the school he likes riding the bus and the bus is a main factor in why we kept him in his district school today we got two letters another from transportation another kid is sick and that a first grader is sick the grade that my kid is in this did not happen last year we received zero letters he went from january until may if you look at the dashboard it is evident that the cases are up let me go over some common arguments against mass dirty mask wash it you can easily hand wash and dry a mask overnight buy multiple masks if you need to and rotate them but i also find this argument contradictory because people say well they're not getting into contact with germs because they're wearing a mask well if your mask is dirty then you're getting into contact with germs breathing in the mask fibers you breathe in dirty air all the time we have multiple red flag days all this to say i am asking actually the district put in a temporary dress code while there is a pandemic going on asking for a mask thank you thank you what all right we are going to take a brief recess probably about two minutes okay thank you we're going to go ahead and resume our meeting um we will we will have 10 more speakers and then we will close public comment so i have logan geronimo and then mark eltowell okay thank you three elementary age children and i was not at any board meetings last year because i withdrew from higley upon the mask mandate i chose to homeschool them to avoid the risk that they'd be in masks 33 hours a week if you do a web search for a times magazine article titled hospitals overwhelmed by flu patients are treating them in tents from january 2018 that's january 2018 you will find a quite similar hysteria to today the article includes inundated hospitals across the country including new jersey alabama california pennsylvania illinois and missouri seeking quote extraordinary measures such as asking staff to work overtime pulling nurses from all floors setting up triage tents restricting friend and family visits the use of ventilation due to respiratory failure and canceling elective surgeries just to name a few end quote alabama also declared a state of emergency i have copies here of that article if any of you would like to see it in that 2017-18 season the cdc estimated that 600 children died from influenza and during the 1920 season they estimated 434 juvenile deaths in the past 18 months the cdc estimates a total of 332 children i heard somebody else say updated to 350 have died from cove in 19 so those previous flu seasons had more deaths despite a widely administered vaccine and lower case rates so what's the difference between the response in 2018 and that of now it's been over a year since the medical community has navigated and learned about this virus and provided vaccines to everyone who feels they are at risk an analysis published by the financial times in an article titled why are fully vaccinated people testing positive for kovid found children at a point zero zero zero two percent less risk from covet 19 than vaccinated adults in fact a new york times article titled kids covid and delta found that children are about 10 times more likely to die in a car accident than from kovid so who are the masks meant to protect what is the difference from 2018 why wasn't there a demand to mask up then is it because there is suddenly a new revelation that masks can protect others against asymptomatic viral loads not quite leading up to 2020 several randomized controlled studies had found that masks can hardly be deemed effective at preventing the spread of disease the cdc pointed to one randomized controlled trial which concluded quote this study is the first randomized controlled study of cloth masks and the results caution against the use of cloth masks this is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety moisture retention reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased infection again that's increased infection to date there is yet to be another randomized control trial completed to show that masks are any more effective or even safe to wear so again who are these masks meant to protect thank you after this our next um following mark will be michelle judd okay perfect thank you hi uh thank you for having us here today and give us the opportunity to speak on this issue and i do not envy the difficult position you all are in um my name is mark eltawell and i'm here tonight as the grandfather of two two children in bridges elementary um i just wanted to throw out some facts i'm sure everybody's reading and and uh and keeping track of what's going on but i haven't heard a whole lot of facts tonight i've heard a lot of passion over the according to reporting from the state and from the children's hospital association over 160 000 of our arizona children have gotten covet 19 and sadly 34 have died there are vaccination programs underway for those 12 and over but those 12 and under don't have the opportunity to get the vaccine yet and even for those over 12 at 44 vaccination rate we're lagging the national average and we're well behind our neighbors to the east and the west both of whom are well over 60 percent vaccinated so we need to continue to do more to help protect our children arizona has the sixth highest rate of childhood coveted infection of all the states in the u.s and that rate is nearly 50 percent or actually over 50 percent higher than the national average rate we're not doing enough to protect our children the rate of children being hospitalized is accelerating so contrary to what some people think that kids aren't really getting sick and going the hospital the rate of children going the hospital is accelerating it's now ten percent higher than it was just two months ago and uh 15 percent higher than it was just three months ago just this morning valley wise uh health system reported that their hospital is seeing an increased rate of pediatric admissions and is uh imploring asking us as leader as as parents as adults to do something more to protect our children i'll end where i started over 160 000 of our children have gotten covered 19 and 34 have died we're the adults we're the leaders we need to do everything we can to prevent these deaths from happening thank you so i have michelle judd and then kyle speck okay do masks reduce covet transmission in children it is nearly impossible to find any study answering this question and the results on this are inconclusive of the 42 billion the national institute of health spent on research last year less than 2 percent went to covid clinical research and not a single grant was dedicated to studying masks in children while there is an absence of data in the case of masking children there is a plethora of information on the case against it before schools decide to start forcing children to cover their faces regardless of the non-proven efficacy of such a decision let's consider the harm many children struggle wearing a mask children who wear glasses can struggle to see because the mask fogs their glasses masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems some students may experience anxiety or difficulty breathing while wearing a mask increased airway resistance during exhalation can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood this can lead to dizziness excess fatigue and headaches some children compensate for such difficulties by breathing through their mouths it is well documented that chronic and prolonged mouth breathing can alter facial development resulting in amount deformity and elongated face the psychological harm this may be doing to our children should be an even greater concern facial expression expressions are integral to human connection especially for young children who are still learning how to communicate covering a child's face mutes these non-verbal forms of communication and can result in emotionless interactions as well as anxiety and depression young children need to see people speak for their phonetic development especially children with speech impediments i have personal experience with this with my three-year-old son he needs to be able to see his teacher's mouth move he also needs to be understood without the impairment of a mask if safety measures are to be implemented we should be implementing safe safety measures we should not be choosing a safety measure that has more risk associated with it than reward children who wish to wear a mask are free to do so forcing children to wear a mask and make personal health and developmental sacrifices without any proven efficacy is not only abusive it's lunacy thank you so after kyle is karen stanley yep okay good evening governing board my name is kyle speck master sergeant united states air force retired the reason i bring up my service is because i gave an oath to support and defend the constitution of the united states as well as the people of this country my question to you is what are we doing here i sat in this room about four months ago went over the same topic came to a conclusion voted four to one to get rid of masks as a mandate leave it optional right come on to my knowledge there's no city state county requirement that this meeting even takes place no other schools to my knowledge are even have in this meeting my guess is because of the cases that's what i've heard people talk about right so let's talk about the cases the pcr test exclusively used for covet 19.

thanks Jared [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Nicholas Halford oh hello my name is Nicholas hoffridge I've grown up here from kindergarten all the way to high school graduated in 1999 and love this community and thank you so much for having us all here and hearing us I I have 16 years of flexible material and adhesive experience and I I work with 3m I work with all the different adhesive manufacturers and I do a lot of different work with venting as well as um different I also I've been working with n95 mass for a very long time that mask has not been designed for what we're what we are um up against right now and it is when you know understand mask understand particles that you understand the blocking anyone wearing a reusable cotton mask is just not following any type of science guidelines whatsoever um the the and also unless you're going to completely regulate and micromanage every kid's mask as they walk into the door make sure they have a clean mask you are you are posing so many health risks to our children it is it is the bacteria that gets collected it's called blocking um and as air comes in um and dust particles come in bacteria comes in Paris their parasites and all these things get trapped into the filtration material and it is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine what we are doing to our kids by making them wear masks and and no one in the political world seems to understand anything about filtration does not understand how the weaves work does not understand and the idea that they are mandating a a cotton homemade mask um and they've had a year and a half to come up with some type of government spec and government standard I've worked with a lot of different Labs I look at lab reports I have different types of adhesives tested to military specs I know what a pass and fail is and we have not come up with any type of standard it is completely Rogue on what kids are wearing and what they can buy off of Amazon and unless we're going to really look at this and micromanage uh come up with a spec that is going to to allow the correct amount of oxygen in collect the right amount of dust and gets rotated in a proper schedule um and unless that's managed and regulated properly you're going to to be causing tremendous harm to our kids long term and I have 16 years of experience telling you that this is the wrong type of filtration medical masks do not provide filtration and unless we have kids spitting on each other this is doing no good whatsoever all right thank you very much [Applause] Noreen Frederick foreign Frederick I don't know if you guys can see me I might need a chair to stand on I'm a little short um honestly I was not prepared at all to speak tonight but I want to thank you all for your time and more importantly I want to thank everybody whatever side you're on for speaking tonight because it takes a lot of Bravery to stand up here and to fight for what's right I came from a father who was a politician he came into his position at a time when his County was in moral corruption and he did something that changed the face of that and it wasn't easy all I want to say is that sometimes what is right doesn't mean that it's easy I am here to teach my kids to do the same thing I can sit here and I can say I'm only one person I'm only a mom my child's only a child who are they who what kind of voice do they have but a fire starts with a spark that's all it takes is one spark if I can't stand up for my children for what's right how can I try to teach them to do the same thing we live in a world right now where they're constantly trying to tell our children what to think how to believe but only if it's on their terms and only if it's what they agree with I'm not going to sit here and look at my son who's over there right now and tell him not to fight and not to do what's right when I don't want to do the same thing so all I ask of you guys I know it's really really hard and I know you're in a position I know it's hard to not be defensive toward what the government wants and Twitter what your guidelines are but what I'm asking of you is to take some time to think about it to pray on it to do what you have to do whatever that means to really reflect on what's right what is best it doesn't have to be it's because the authorities tell us that it is all of these people have given you all the facts they've spoken to you from the heart I'm not a doctor I can't give you all the statistics and all the numbers but what I can do is I can sit here and I can ask you to sometimes do and do what's right not just because it's easy you guys were elected this position nobody said it was going to be an easy position I think you hoped that it would have been that you wouldn't have had to deal with all this but now you are in a position where you can say where do I stand personally where do I stand do I stand for what's right even if it's hard or am I going to do just the easy thing because that's what I'm being told to do and like everybody else has said where does if it starts here where does it end what's the next thing that we have to be vaccinated that my if I don't decide to vaccinate my child they have to have a letter A all over them or they can't get educated so if it starts if we don't do something right now where is it going to go from here and the last thing that I want to say is the oath you guys when you came into this you took an oath and the oath says I'm not going to read the whole thing obviously I don't have time but the one thing I want to say is that it says I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the schools of the school district's assets and that's all that all of us are asking you to do this evening thank you for your time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Grace Wilkowski foreign ER at the school and I have been in the Columbia School District my entire life and I was not going to speak tonight if I'm being completely honest but I feel like I had something wash over me that I should voice my opinion because that's my right and I think that mass should be completely optional I firsthand have seen the hallways in the high school and quite honestly it's a joke it they they air off the hallways and that's doing nothing but more harm than good because we are now crowded to go down one hallway from each from the top hallway we have to go down one little staircase crowding us together which no one is social distancing and quite honestly it feels like the school picks and chooses when they want to social distance us just like in the morning before the Bell Rings they pack us all in the lunchroom and we have to set up lunch tables but why is it at lunchtime we have to social distance so [Applause] personally I think that the main reason why we are still having issues with mass and covet is because of fear we need to stop living in fear doesn't matter what you believe in or your religion or anything fear is awful and fear will take over your life and will make you do awful things things that you don't want to do things that you don't think is right and we need to stop letting fear control us because we're obviously getting nowhere and I just want to say thank you to all of you for letting me speak since I'm only a junior and I'm and I'm obviously not 100 educated on everything with all the facts and the numbers and the data and the statistics with everything but I know I'm 16 years old and I have formed my own opinion based off of things that I have seen and I think that my opinion matters and it should so [Applause] Taylor Etheridge [Applause] good evening my name is Taylor Etheridge and I'm a junior at Columbia High School my friends and quite frankly um the only the best way that I can put the what we want is we want a normal school year back the last time us junior class had a normal full school year was eighth grade year that was Middle School we walk in our freshman doors like oh man homecoming well prom not until Junior and Senior year of course and every event and every sport event like Friday Night Lights and that is the only thing that we could ask for back I've talked to many people about homecoming situations and how they want them and no matter what whether it's with school and whether or not it's going what's going to happen whether it's personally or with the school um we have uh we have been in trouble for masks trying to get them together which quite frankly really isn't fair but I understand and and no way that I want a teacher's opinion to change on me because my opinion is different than theirs um we we walk into school we're all friends and everything but we still are right next to each other in the hallways like Grace said like shoulders shoulder closer than we are right now and um it really doesn't make any sense but that's okay because if you guys are trying your best and that's all I can ask for you guys and um so we asked for our homecomings back because that's what high school is about and that's the memories that we want back we don't we don't want to put on a mess to cover our face because like everyone else has said it it doesn't really do much no matter what like I use the same mask maybe once like the same week and then I'll change it because I watched that one but it's not a clean mask so it's still getting me sick last year I had allergies and I understand the cautions that we took last year but it took away from the education of me and my younger sibling my younger sibling didn't do as well in school as I did because you know I'm just better than him like that um but that does not matter um but I've asked students and like on one of my social media platforms of what they wanted so it doesn't just come from me and my friends because that's not fair and it came to a 75 75 kids know and four people yes I would like to wear a mask so that's why we just asked for it to be optional it's not we're telling you not to wear a mask or not have students wear a mask because that's not on that's not fair on their part either um we all hang out this summer no mask none of us got covered we're all good um but we just asked for a Friday night life back um we uh we just want our high school like High School classes back and but I want to thank you guys for your time and thank you for everything you have done for us because it has been a lot and um thank you to the teachers that I've gone with this because the Google Classroom stuff is not easy because I'm struggling with it too but um we just asked that masks are optional just because it'll respect our opinions and everyone else's opinion and if the student wants to wear a mask that's completely fine too but thank you foreign I'm speaking off the cuff here so bear with me my name's Alyssa eynen now when covet first started my dad showed me a video of a scientist who had was was trying to explain that mass did not work he had a vape inhaled put the mask on and then exhaled smoke everywhere I think that just proves that masks don't work within itself so what I'm trying to say is we should make masks optional if you are so scared of coronavirus covid whatever you want to call it you can wear a mask but don't make everyone else here who doesn't like them and who doesn't believe in Mass wear them it's kind of ridiculous also we've never been scared of the flu we've never been scared of anything other than coronavirus so are we just going to be scared of the flu and all these sicknesses for the rest of our lives are we going to wear masks for the rest of our lives we have to get back to normal I think we can all agree on that [Music] also I'm a junior in high school now the only normal part of my high school career has been the first half of freshman year everything was normal then covet hit okay we had one homecoming we've had nothing else we've had prom who knows a prom is going to happen I know the seniors last year in the Juniors last year didn't get a prom coming or was that even going to happen this year none of us know I mean we've had normal high school events be taken away from us and it sucks and I think that we all agree that it's time to get back to normal thank you for your time [Applause] thank you anyone else anybody want three minutes of fame feel free to jump up there well thank you all for the comments [Applause] hello my name is Debbie allendorf and I have grandchildren that go to the Columbia School District I'm up here because I love my grandchildren and I'm going to ask the audience if you're a parent or a grandparent do you love your children you as school board do you have children grandchildren just none you love them right and when you took your oath that you would uphold the assets of the school I believe in my opinion that the most important asset we have is the children we love [Music] now we are America we heard our freedoms tonight and last I heard and I've witnessed as as living in the United States of America we have a flag that represents our freedom so we are a Land of the Free because of the Brave and before this meeting tonight I kind of wondered why we didn't say the Pledge of Allegiance but we do have freedom and we do speak the Pledge of Allegiance I ask the crowd that as we say that we will stand for our freedom we will stand for our children and will stand for the people we love as these are all wonderful virtues but love is not up there but that is the main reason I believe we are all here tonight so when we can we all stand for our freedom right now and say together the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] and I know they've thrown maybe some monetary funding for us but last I saw on my dollar bill it still says In God We Trust I School Board I thank you this has been a wonderful school that is why I'm here tonight my grandchildren have enjoyed coming to the school and I just want to give you support in us all in unity we can stand for our freedom together thank you all right thank you anyone else foreign all right I appreciate all the comments and you guys taking the time to come out here tonight I know there's a lot of emotions on both sides I think we're a little overwhelmed on one side than the other but that's fine too um the uh we also received an email from a group of parents and asking us to address some questions and normally we don't address questions and the reason is this is not a debate we would be here all night and none of us get paid so we wouldn't get overtime or anything so we want to go home eventually but also we're aboard so none of none of us have any Authority individually so I have very strong opinions myself as do many of the board members but until we actually reach a consensus we don't have any board action so we can't I can't speak for the board um you know board policy 8010 says the board presidents the official spokesperson for the for the school board uh the superintendent is official spokesperson for the for the district so we have both of us up here I'm going to make some comments tonight but the comments that I'm going to make are not as school board president I'm not speaking for the board I'm speaking for my personal opinions and Views so please understand that again I don't have the the permission I've I've spoke with a lot of the board members individually we have not come to a consensus we've as far as what I'm going to say so a lot of these is my opinions I spent like you guys I spent a tremendous amount of time on this and to some of the comments I I have read the reports on Mass so I guess we want to start let's go ahead and uh and start with the questions yeah why don't you read them because I can't see my phone very well I was trying to pull it up during I was trying to pay attention to you guys and see my questions at the same time prepare so apologize for wasting your time a little bit here so is that good can you hear me okay first question have you as a school board looked at what happens if you do not follow pritzker's mandates on masking and quarantines what would happen yeah can you guys hear me better [Applause] and again I'm I'll start right off the bat I'm not a big mass square I this thing has been wide enough in my pocket forever but I'm wearing it tonight because we're asking the kids to wear masks so far that's the official position of the school board and so I'm I'm trying to set an example so that's that's why I'm wearing this it is hard to hear so I'm socially distant so I think we're all all good with this so far so the question was have you as a school board looked into what happens if you do not follow up with Chris mandates and masking core unmasking and quarantines what would happen exactly so a lot of people pointed out so basically what would happen if the school board goes against the governor's mandate which I personally don't think he has the power to do it either but it's what fight are we willing to fight how much money or of your money are we willing to spend I hate spending other people's money I and and I despise wasting people's money especially that's not mine you put us up here to and somebody made the comment that you know we took an oath to to protect your asset and that's one of my views is what we're doing but so basically the governor and the state of Illinois have threatened to obviously take away our accreditation which honestly we'd have 60 days to they would probably just like water or I'm sorry Redbud went through they would send us a letter saying you have 60 days to correct we can fight it we can do all that kind of stuff it is going to take some time for that to really happen so we would have time to fight if we went that route but one of the things that no one's really thinking about is sports so the state can take our Sports weight instantly and that's something that we we would be really hard-pressed to get back in would cost a lot of your money to do it you know I always say don't fight a fight somebody else is willing to fight and we have two school districts currently that have already filed suit against the state let them spend their money let's ride on their coattails and see what happens again in my opinion guys this is just I'm not speaking for the board um the third thing is the uh you know again there's so much fear and and they're you know I've already well you're going to get threatened sued personally and honestly I'm not just I'm not afraid of a fight and if if I have something that I truly believe in or willing to stand up for I'm more than happy to do it um and I I don't back down easy but then I get I have to make a business decision based on what's best for the school board and you know emotions are high and and I understand and I agree with most of you but at the same time again we have to look out what's best for the school um I don't see her I agree and which brings me to I say The Best For Last again sorry this isn't the debate guys okay we're we're not we're not going to back and forth sir sir come on please and just be respectful I I we've sat and watched everybody and listened and gave you guys time and now it's our turn we've asked us to answer questions and I'm here to answer them and again I'm kind of I'm kind of bucking the system because this isn't typical for us to do and again that's why because we have to act as a board we can't act individually so I'm trying to address some questions and we're trying to go that extra mile and and help you guys out but the the number one thing in my mind is why I'm leaning towards and for enhancing the mask is the quarantine so basically we've added two teachers and one for kindergarten one for first grade so we're going to have a little bit smaller class size and so I think we can I'm pretty sure in fact I know we can we can attain the three feet separation so with a mask and three feet separation we don't have to quarantine virtually be be gone so all the ideas about sending a packet home and sending by getting ahead of myself but okay sorry question two all right if children are masked and it is the most powerful protection against getting coveted according to the CDC website why are they quarantined if exposed where in the school setting do you think they will be exposed within three feet we request the administration to provide a seating chart for each classroom showing the distance between the desks and the students please um do you want me to answer yes okay we are with the masks it is down to three feet in most cases um no one's going to get quarantined with this now we do have buses I do want to point out that our buses are extremely full this year compared to last year and quarantines will occur on the buses and so if you can go back to transporting your own children that would reduce their chance of being quarantined from a bus connection I'm just saying that in the buildings there's going to be some classrooms that there is going to be maybe one or two children quarantined last year it was a six foot radius who came up with three foot or six foot I don't know who came up with the 15 minutes I get it it's it's it's numbers there um but they do need to be the rules are that they have to be warned or not quarantined excluded from school if they're within a closed contact and that's going to be minimized a lot this year uh Mr Wagner do you want to talk about the if it's the mass star so important why are they quarantined pH and going on CTC recommendations this year it is down to three feet if both students are masked and it only applies to indoors there's no quarantining on anybody that is outdoors um the quarantining is under this communicable disease code local Health departments we have no say in that that is law that is under the communicable disease code the school board cannot override the quarantine the only people that have the authority to quarantine or isolate an individual is the health department and the crowd is correct the speaker was correct it would take if we cannot get voluntary compliance it does take a court order to quarantine or or isolate an individual isolation is when your positive quarantine is when you're close contact and obviously this past year we've had overwhelming support for voluntary quarantine we have not taken anybody to court we have not had to to force you know police officers outside a house or anything like that so but in the school setting three feet uh the the trick is and water was already been in school we are seeing a number of cases already with some close contacts buses and the Lunch Period are the difficult ones that the board if you can address those the seating in a classroom can usually meet that three foot separation and then we would not have to quarantine anybody if you can meet that three feet on the Lunch Period what we've been pushing is keep the kids seated at the tables for under 15 minutes and then we can take the Lunch Period out of that if they're only at the table for 10 minutes and then they get more than three feet apart after that you don't even have to go back and look at your videos or anything to see who is at the lunch because they're under 15 minutes so obviously the goal is to keep as many kids in school as we can last year we quarantined a whole lot of kids a whole lot of kids one percent of those children that we quarantine came back positive only i i i and all I'm here is to give you guys the numbers I I'm not taking your opinion on the mask I I agree with a lot of what you're saying on the mask obviously you can see when I'm standing here talking to you the front of the Mask is not going in and out I can feel it on my face all the air is coming in and around but that doesn't change the fact that it's a mandate from the the governor now that's up to the school board whether or not they want to somebody wants to challenge that in court but as as a mandate what's happened so far the letters have come down to the to Red Bud they were sent them already they're on probation they have 60 days to come issue a corrective action plan and then I don't know what the state's going to do after that you know and I don't believe anybody really knows whether or not they're going to go ahead and proceed with a penalty phase basically uh whether that be Sports looking at accreditation funding whatever this this mandate that he put out this time he's not I don't my personal opinion he's not going to back down from now legally if it's challenged Will he win I have no idea that's more above than what I I know that much about the law so um to keep the kids in school masking is necessary you can't meet the six feet that would be required if you're not a mess and like I said I have no control or very little control we can do some leeway and stuff like that as far as how close a close contact is but six feet three feet uh it's under the communicable disease code we have to quarantine them and then if they don't we don't get voluntary quarantine we have to turn it over to the state's attorney now will that be prosecuted and will that be taken to court you know I I have no idea Mr White yes I'm sorry I'm going to jump forward to um because there's another question on here that relates to you if the CDC according to their own website recognizes positive antibodies as protection from covid why can't students who have antibodies return to school in addition why can't students who test negative for covid return to school and I that's a legitimate question and the uh there is an option for antibody testing what the state has come down with is if you are a high probability of being a child's a high probability of being positive but was never tested say they weren't when we've already had this come up actually in Waterloo I had it come up today a whole family was positive mom dad and a child one of the children tested negative initially on when they were sick the parent and the other children got really sick then the fourth child did get sick but the parents were too sick to get him didn't want to take them out and get them tested so a story like that we as the health department this is where I do have some leeway on the quarantine we can say yes we will accept an antibody test on that person as a proof that they're positive and that is in the guidance from the school and from idph this year who pays for the test s right I'm just like wow whoever wants to test would have to pay for it I would imagine so so there is an option for anybody to test but no why is it not why and that that goes higher even than the state why are antibodies not observed that goes up to the federal level they're they're not observing them in any situation other than for 90 days why I have no idea that you know it it's it's not something I can say we're going to observe okay thank you sir John I have a question from a board member yeah so we have a workaround on the lunch is there a workaround that you can think of for the buses like windows down that's kind of like being out because it falls under the mass transportation law and that's why even if you do away with optional man if even if the school board or whatever was to do optional masking in school the buses would still be required that is actually Federal on mass transportation that's why you have to wear a mask on an airplane a bus a train anything like that that is not up to local uh or even State control that's actually Federal requiring and and they're looking at buses as mass transportation I'm not worried about like wearing the mask but the quarantine for it because our kids are so close together right and they're no there's really you know if if the bus ride is more than 15 minutes you know um the the work around right put these for the kids to move seats every 10 minutes to keep them from the total of 15 minutes next it's 15 minutes next to a child in a 24-hour period so if if they're only sitting next to a child for 10 minutes and they're not around them for the rest of time because it's a different grade or whatever if they were to move to a different seat at a 10 minute they would never hit that 15-minute threshold it'd be difficult it could be done I guess that I mean that's that's really pushing outside the box but it would hold true it would meet the regulations and obviously I am just so I'm looking looking at schools or will be looking at schools as we get back comparing the masking schools to the unmasking schools now I may have to go outside the state if you know to look at unmasking schools personal opinion not Health Department not Public Health personal opinion I don't think we're going to see much difference on the masking he didn't see it this is the same talk I gave to Waterloo to Monday night we didn't see much difference in the states unmasking versus unmasking if you look California had some of the strictest masking rules in the nation Florida had some of the weakest they both we have about the same amount you and I had this conversation so I'm going to ask you a question because um we had this conversation in the beginning when it was mask option one was strongly recommended by the CDC we were of the mind okay then we'll just strongly recommend it and that maintenance masks are optional when the governor then mandated it we mandated it when they make masks strongly recommended again when will they do the quarantining and the distances as strongly recommended because that to me and I saw some of your faces with the moving on the Bus 15 minutes the frustration and the anti-logic in your eyes as a superintendent I deal with the state a lot and so I'm kind of numb to it but yeah it's if you can think of a logical way to do something sometimes the state goes the other way it just it is what it is it's a mandate when are they gonna or excluding I have no idea I you know there's been no talk of reduction on any of that stuff from the state at this point um who would we need to talk to like would that just be the IDP age I don't think they've discussed it I don't think you're going to find an answer they're they're tend not to look too far in advance on on issues um you know it's it's going to be difficult for uh to find out to do a long-range plan no I'd like to see it done as soon as possible I'd like it to be done as soon as we can you know as soon as we can compare non-masking schools to masking schools now we could do that from last year we had schools that masked and didn't mask last year maybe not not Monroe County but in other states and we could compare transmission rates in those two schools the difference this year and this is where I'm a little worried about the spread of the virus is the Delta variant it is true it is more contagious you do have more the Delta variant has a higher viral load meaning when you're sick when you breathe out more of the virus goes in the air because it's heavier in your system doesn't mean it's making you more sick or anything like that just means it's heavier in your system and that's why it is more contagious now there's is it more deadly no it's not and there's even some studies that show that it's less and a lot of people like to talk about studies while we're on the mass I did a whole lot of research last week before uh I knew I was going to the Waterloo board meeting on masking the only legitimate study that I can find that is not a third world country was one out of Denmark where they did what's called a basically it's called a double-blind study it's a randomized study they're they're the scientific basically from the medical field they're the gold standard in science it's basically where you have a number of people that are masked a number of people that are say that they religiously don't mask so you have the two groups then you might they go out and these these were large groups you know of people these were hundreds of people they go out and then they a certain amount of time whatever the study length was for then they bring them back and they see how many people of this group were ended up catching covet how many of this group ended up catching covet what they found in that study was that two percent of each group ended up catching covet so virtually the same now that's not to say more studies need to be done but I still haven't figured out why I can't find any U.S studies there are none you can't find it the what what the studies have been done in the U.S are called observational studies is with this mask on if I cough or breathe out it stops large particles from going out so with that being said if I was sick you would assume that the mask would stop spreading of the virus you would assume that and that's where they're coming up with their assumptions but there have not been randomized stuck that's just an observational study and they're very inaccurate they're they're they're they're you know you can talk to anybody and and there's other observational studies you know we had a group here that was masking a group here that wasn't masked and this group got you know sick well that's an observational study you don't know why that's the case you know uh that's called an observational study the randomized study the gold standard the only one I could find was one out of Denmark there are some out of China but I would you know I wouldn't read too much into those so um and China and India were the other other randomized studies that I could find but there's no good studies I mean you can everybody wearing the mask right now can can feel when you breathe you can feel it on your eyelashes you can feel it coming out of here I don't want to say mask do no good because they do if I was to cough or sneeze this mask would do prevent a large plume from going out but if you're coughing and sneezing in a school situation you're not supposed to be in school anyway so is you're in a classroom for six hours sitting next to an individual that is positive is this Mass going to protect you my opinion is no it's not But there again more studies need to be done I don't know why we we still don't know how long this virus lives on a surface you know at first if everybody thinks back to the very beginning of this it was two weeks on a cruise ship remember that when the news came out two weeks on a cruise ship then it was two hours on a hard surface it was longer on stainless steel and less on something else and now it's oh it hardly lives at all on a heart more studies need to be done in the U.S so that people like you can make legitimate decisions on it um the you know same talk I gave to water the school board unfortunately school boards your hands are really tight unless you want you know unless you sink a lot of money into an underprepared to take a legal stand against not the mass mandate but the authority of the governor you know it's it's not whether or not he he made the mass mandate or not it's against whether he has the authority to to pass these things um this he's not going to back down you will probably lose your sports very quickly um that's the first one that's going to do and then they're going to go after the funding and then they're going to go after the accreditation it's not going to be here's a warning letter and he's going to kind of let it slide that's not the impression I'm getting this year he's not going to let this slide he's going to take it to the fullest extent now that's up for the your school board to decide how far they want to go with that but this is not one that he's going to last year there were certain things that he passed everybody knows I fought the restaurants forever keep trying to keep them open that was one that he he did the same thing did he have the authority to close the restaurants Washi stayed open you know they got a ticket and everything like that he wasn't going to put the political Capital into fighting that any more than sending State Police down to try to intimidate him this is not that case he's not going to just say threaten you he is going to follow it to the fullest extent that he possibly can I'm not saying he's going to win if you go the other way because I don't know that's above mine yeah but this is not one he's going to back down from at least that's the impression this this kind of feeds into the next thank you sir this feeds into the um [Music] [Applause] I'm jumping around in the email I have another question for John I thought that question was for Johnson oh okay John I'm sorry okay you're not gonna like me for this question but um okay so since one percent of the kids who were quarantined last year actually got coveted that tells us we're quarantining all these kids for no reason basically last year speaking of washies the state's attorney did not go after washi's for being open so what are the chances has have you had a conversation with the county on the kind of resources they would want to put into going after kids who or families who choose not to allow the voluntary quarantine I had a few conversations with the state's past States Attorney I have not talked with the current one and across the state what I'm hearing is the voluntary quarantine on a close contact can be challenging to prosecute a a isolation that's a positive case that's easy to prosecute and get I don't I use prosecute but it's not you're not thrown in jail it's to get a ruling that basically it's forcible isolation meaning there's police officers stationed outside your house and everything like that it can be difficult on a close contact the reason being is the three foot the six foot where did the can you imagine those of you who have some you know uh have been around Court can you imagine trying to fight that where'd the three foot come from and saying somebody thought that was a good distance where'd the six feet come from how come your eyes quarantined three how come we're not doing one so that's why from what I hear it would be difficult there are right now I just heard today from other health departments up north and I guess some Northern schools start sooner than we do down here um there are kids showing up at school breaking quarantine and the schools don't know what to do about it and the health departments are the least of the county that this came out of the administrative the health department said her State's Attorney would not take a case for a quarantine do you know what county that was no is that quarantined because they have coveted or no it's because they're a close contact the ones that have coveted all states attorneys that I've heard of will go after that and make you isolated if you're sick obviously we can't have you running around the school being sick it's the close contacts that are going to be the issue and it's already starting up like I said it's I heard of a administrator today on a call Clay County maybe one of those up north of Springfield uh she was telling us a story about that the the school called her that they had kids showing up that were supposed to be under quarantine from the health department we you and I have talked about this because I mean and masks or no masks is not to me the real evil the real evil is sending home the healthy kids because you and I have seen it last year they weren't getting sick so why not just leave them here it's the only thing you and I start having uh the more Flex like when I called you today and asked about the testing right you know I would love that if they would just take a home test and they prove Negative they can come back but they've got to get an alternate doctors if someone goes home with the symptoms so let's say I get sick I have covid I go home I I don't know if it's covered or not I'm sick and I take a uh I go to CVS and I take a rapid test and that turns out negative I'm still gonna have to go to a doctor to get an alternate diagnosis in order to come back to school without being out those seven days and that to me is wrong but those are the rules that we don't follow then they that's something right that's under the ISB that's that isolation tree that graph that we all have where you where you saw it from last year where if you're a close kind you know positive in this positive in that that's under that yeah and you don't have any play with that I mean they will you know um so yeah it's it's it's it's going to be a difficult year the only but what I'm hearing you say is that if we accept those tests no one would prosecute us to accept what tests the if I if I do the if I if I if someone comes to me and says that they've got a CVS test that says they're negative could they come back to school not on not under the you would be in trouble with ISP if you let them back into school without a doctor's note an alternative diagnosis is what it's called is what it says in that decision tree because you would not be following their decision tree that they said that you have to abide by um so it's yeah it's it you know the only difference this year and that's why I'm not saying you know last year we had one percent the difference this year is the Delta variant I'm not 100 sure that it and this is you got to remember I'm on Zoom calls all the calls every and even I don't know if felt the variant is really that much more contagious than the regular one because I don't know who to believe anymore it's you know um [Music] the the point I guess the point is though we can debate it all we want the fact of the matter is is the state has a mandate for excluding kids for close contact and for wearing masks and we don't like it and so the board has to decide if that's what we're if we're going to follow those rules or not it sounds like you've got the the if they're Mass you've got the quarantine stuff pretty much under control as much as possible you know you might tweak some things to do it but as far as unmasking everybody I wouldn't even say your decision is really whether or not you want to unmask everybody it's your decision is more or less do you want to get legal help to try to fight the State look you know that that that's more the decision because you know that that's what it's what that's what your decision is going to mean if you just elect to say Mass optional right now that's that's not where it's going to end yeah you know so this this gets in go ahead but if we go Mass if we say Mass optional now we're at a six-speak quarantine and we're gonna have a lot more kids yes right that's right yes and that is the carrot basically that the state is trying to push to get everybody to mask is if you do mask you know that that was their initial if you remember when this mask uh when the mass recommendation came out from CDC the state had there were no schools back in you know so the state came out and said we're going to follow cdc's recommendation that was all fine until the state started getting word that a lot of schools were going on the word for word recommendation word and that's when the governor came out and said mandate so you know it it we can work with the school either way you know obviously there is going to be more quarantine if it's six feet uh you know but it's it is what it is I don't know how fast it's moving through Waterloo already pretty quickly um we have quite we we have over I think when I left the office we have 16 we have 24 school age kids better positive we have a whole lot more than a close content now Waterloo apparently cannot I separate their kids quite as well as you guys can I don't know if it's because the school size or building size or what it is but we have certain students that come up we had one today that had 16 close contacts he came up positive 16 other kids are going to be out of school for 10 days can I uh jump in real quick because I was on my phone and I apologize for that that's extremely rude but one of the questions is is could Mr Grody talk about the other districts and what they're doing and Mr Tallman who is the superintendent at Redbud just texted all of us and said we're no longer on the naughty list they have voted to do masks and um I said can I announce this and he said yes they agree that I love my high school kids that came here and talked thank you [Applause] I don't have to mask is off I can talk normal the best thing I heard tonight was when they said they just want a normal year they want their homecoming they want their prom if we try to fight this fight they won't have Athletics and whoever graduates at the end of this year while we're fighting this fight won't have a certified diploma and so when they go off to college they're going to wait now lawyers move slow State bureaucrats and lawyers are like sludge it's it's it's you know I mean when I'm sitting here we're talking about the rules I can see on your face just this I can't believe you're dealing with this like the movement on the buses and whatnot it's a crazy world we work in I hate it I love it because of these kids that you get to see but the bottom line is is that for them to have the most normal year what we need to do is put on our masks go to school and try and get the state to realize we don't need to quarantine the healthy kids that's the first fight the second fight being let's not wear the masks or do it optionally I get that it's um the next question next question yeah next question please I'm being told to move on I'm sorry we can't take questions at this point it's just we're making an exception doing this kind of answering the questions that are pre-formed and everything I know there's a lot that goes on and we'd be here all night I'm sorry all right next question what is the what is the school's remote learning policy with kids who are quarantined how will children get help they need when they are home without instruction from the teachers I know that the um the plan frustrated a lot of people because it said the bare minimum which is a packet being sent home the stats with the states that is the bare minimum that you have to do for these kids that are sick there's a few things that I want to make sure we're clear on one we don't do the bare minimum last year we did remote learning and we did it very very well but it didn't work for everyone and the complexity of trying to come up with one plan that works for everyone is impossible and so what we did was we just made a very clean statement not a list of what could be done because we didn't want it to be considered a menu but there is going to be the turning on of videos and people watching it there's going to be synchronous there's going to be asynchronous and and I brought this up before you know if in a science class if they're dissecting a pig this week while somebody's quarantined they might just they're not going to follow along and and watch the class but they could get a link that would be a online dissection process if you're dealing with a lecture you know they might get the worksheets through classroom and they listen to the lecture and they do the worksheets if that's what the class is doing but even for like kindergarten students um we have kindergarten students that could go asynchronous where we do videos that didn't work for every kindergarten student some kindergarten students last year were quite successful with packets and so what we wanted to do was to make sure that we meet every kid's needs and we know that we can individualize it as long as we're not quarantining too many now that said the state superintendent today just started to bring back remote learning days and this is going to get into a rabbit hole of nightmares just understand that when we take attendance we have to code it a certain way and the remote learning days coming back is now where they can learn at home and I'm scared that it might be because they think we're going to have to go hybrid or we're going to have to go to real learning because of the Delta variant I want you to understand our goal is to keep kids in all day every day as much as humanly possible but the remote learning is going to be individualized you want anything there to say Mrs Smith I was just this is what I was going to talk about in my assistant superintendent report but yes in speaking with several of the teachers they discussed a lot of the strengths that came from last year with the remote learning and they also mentioned some of the more difficult things that they experienced and so the teachers want to be able to include what is absolutely best for students and so a lot of that will be turning on and doing the Google Classroom links and the videos like they've done in the past um but there are like Mr Brody was saying there are occasions when it would be better for a foreign language teacher to be able to record their lesson and then post it so that there's no glitching if you're trying to learn a new language same with our kindergartners if you're trying to learn to read or to speak correctly it becomes a little more difficult if your internet is glitching in and out or if there's some kind of static going on in trying to listen so the teachers wanted that flexibility but overwhelmingly it will be done synchronously very similar to the way things were done last year with just that opportunity to have some things go along the teachers all in the return to learn plan if you go towards the end of that paragraph it talks about the methods of learning will be communicated by each teacher and so the teachers will be sharing with the families if that is going to be you know what parts we will need to get on and join in on the Google Classroom what will be videos what will be expected to be there and then also though how they can be reached to be helped because no teacher in this district is willing to send a student home for 10 days and just tell them to go learn on their own that's not why they got into this profession and there's not a single one of them that is willing to just let them do that that was an overwhelming conversation that I've had with not only our return to learn committee but also in being out in the buildings and talking to teachers and they've also gone as far as to say it's no different than in the past pre-all of this when a student was out because of the flu or chickenpox or whatever it might be as a teacher when a student returns from being gone if they don't understand they do everything they can to catch that student up no different in this situation all right thank you um yeah I uh regarding the municipality says otherwise we're mandated by the State Board of Education and so the um it's the state board that we have to answer to they're the ones that uh have the stick so to speak and so uh we're hoping for the the one of these days soon for the local health department and the administration to work together on doing what's best for our kids given our numbers and look at the um the quarantining rules and the masking rules at that time the packets we talked about that oh the last one it's our understanding that Mr Brody's making an executive decision regarding Mass mandates and quarantines is this true and if this isn't true we would like a transparent vote from the entire board tonight to know where the board members stand please show us how you voted um Mr Grody is making an executive recommendation uh the the fact of the matter is is that every district is doing that and the ones that aren't are going through the process of changing their mind at the next board meeting um as we just saw Redbud did there's going to be more that are doing that because again those sanctions come and they ruin it for the kids and we're here for those kids said tonight they will be voting on The reopening plan which is with masks being mandated for the Governor's order I can tell you that when it comes down to it's no longer a mandate and it is strongly recommended we would go back to the strongly recommended language which is not a mandate um for me again it's that quarantine that's the one that I'm going to be working on more with but the remote learning plan will be voted on tonight so do we have anything to add on that one nope I'm getting back to also what else would happen if we don't go with the Mandate is our third round of Covina covid relief is up and which equates about 558 thousand dollars so if we don't approve the mass mandate we're ineligible for those funds which is putting more burden on the taxpayers as well so again we want to be good we want to be good stewards of your money it's it's not money that we've received or spent or anything else but it definitely does hit the bottom line you know thing too though guys what you got to understand is we represent the entire Community not just who's in this room so we have people at home without kids and you know we would have to if we win against this mandate is going to cost a lot of money and are we willing to knock on their door and say I need a check for x amount of dollars because we want to fight this Mass mandate when two other school districts are doing the same thing so we want to keep your property taxes down as much as we can we all pay them too and that's you're you're talking about two different things so it's we're gonna keep property taxes down or we're going to increase them and find a mass mandate against the governor with unlimited funds so again um that was all the questions sir okay I think that does address all the questions we had and again I'd really like to do more of a town hall meeting but this isn't the setting for it and this again we're kind of bucking the rules a little bit we want to communicate with you we want to be transparent I definitely want to show you where I'm coming from and you know there's two sides of her story and you know as the physics teachers will tell you for every action there's an opposite equal reaction and this is no different so no matter what we do and yes we have the authority we could say there's going to be no Mass mandate we're going to let them all all be and we understand you know we see the kids together and outside of the school and we know they're not wearing masks we're not stupid but again it comes down to what is best for the district at this time so again everybody again my personal opinions we're going to have a vote so you guys will see exactly how we come down but uh I want to share with you a little bit about my insight and and what's on the other side of the equation so sorry but I appreciate everybody's input you guys definitely made an impression I think on all of us again I can't speak for the board but definitely on me so all right we'll proceed with our business meeting item number four is our consent agenda and throw you the new to the school board meetings this is just a an efficient way to take care of the mundane items on our agenda there's only one change for the consent agenda okay um Mrs uh beckerer asked if they could have a lunchroom monitor as a vacancy that would be one more position into the lunchroom but that's to help us do the supervision and keep them more separated so that would be the only addition to the luxury monitor Administration recommends that we pass this as presented perfect any questions from the board comments would that entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as amended Scott I have a second thank Tyson we have a motion in a second Kimberly can you roll call please yes yes all right item proved unanimously on to item four is our Personnel items that sounds considering nope we're on communication reports and presentations sorry all right perfect thank you and Prophet otwell is here with Mr Eckerman wonderful welcome all right we'll start with our administrative reports let's start with our building report well why are you up here I am the seventh and 8th grade Spanish teacher at Columbia Middle School I also teach at Columbia High School and I am the cea vice president so the cea came to the administration Mr Brody and asked if they could have a representative during this report so we're kind of uh we're treading new grounds here so we're going to see how this goes um we have had an amazing two days of cool it has been the longest and the shortest two days I've ever had in my life if that even makes sense um the the atmosphere and the vibe in the building it is amazing there's a vibe there that that I personally haven't felt for an entire year it feels like the quote-unquote non-covet normal year talking with students for the past two days their biggest concerns that they've expressed to me is not being able to open their lockers with the locks because we have two whole grade levels that didn't try didn't get lost so that's been that's been a nice change um our baseball and softball team started I think last week they're both having so far winning season so that's amazing too um I would like to thank Kurtz and his great crew for the summer the building looks absolutely amazing it's nice to see the middle school all white and not that all that gray black mustard stuff over there on it um to Monday we had a parent open house and I heard a parent come in and say oh my God these floors are so clean I can eat off of them I offered she denied but but that was a great thing to hear our gym floor has been totally expanded it actually looks like a brand new floor was laid it's been totally planted they've repainted we got rid of our old kind of jaundice yellow looking eagle and we have a nice New Bright White Eagle so that looks amazing um the past two days we have Miss heels and I have kind of reworked our schedule so our students went through all eight of their hours but we created a big block in the middle of the day to do a like a kind of a reboot kickoff session and over the course of the past two days our students um have been reintroduced to life at the middle school there has been different different quote-unquote sessions we've worked on relearning all of the different programs they need to log in we've talked about appropriate social media usage we've talked about lots of different servers service our three Behavior expectations all the different things that we kind of need to reboot and restart the school year and I'm going to hand it off to profail yeah so we had those kickoff sessions and I think it's been really good for the kids I think they brought a lot to the table um with what they were able to contribute to those sessions and one of the things we did today was an author um an author we met an author today of this book The insignificant events in the life of a cactus it's really good actually I read it and my daughter who's a fifth grader this year read it and she was gracious enough to come on a Google meet with us and I think the kids really loved it they had great questions um they really enjoyed it she showed us her pet bird that was really cool um the kids enjoyed that but it was just a nice way to to get to see everybody again um you know despite all of the changes in protocol and mitigations and everything else I've just been so proud of the way the students have reintroduced themselves to school life they've jumped right in they've had lots of it's been high energy positive energy I've just loved having them in class and one of our fifth grade teachers and I think this is kind of across the board said that our fifth graders are transitioning really well and I would have to agree as a parent of a new fifth grader at CMS um she loves it and so I think the past two days and what's going on at CMS have just been um really fantastic and I'm looking forward to 174 more yeah it'd be great not today but he's counting though no no it's a lot easier if you just do the weeks though then it's like almost 39 weeks thank you thank you thank you let's start our assistant superintendent report um so we've been working on several things one of the things that I've been working with the para committee our evaluation committee there was two changes that came down from the state one was on if so teachers can receive one of four ratings in their evaluation cycle it's excellent proficient needs Improvement or unsatisfactory and so one of them is if you receive an unsatisfactory there's now an appeals process so our para committee met together we came up with the process that would go through that that teachers would go through we are hoping that we never have to use it but it was mandated that that be in our pair of plan so we now have that in there and the other thing was currently teachers are on a two-year cycle when they're evaluated so they get an evaluation every other year this new ruling that came down is based on if you receive an excellent or a proficient evaluation and you're a tenured teacher that instead of being evaluated every other year you would go on a three-year cycle but you would still have an informal evaluation within those first two years and so that was something we weren't mandated to start that until next year but the committee agreed that it was something that those teachers work really hard to achieve those excellent and proficient evaluation levels and so that was something that we felt was very easy for the district to do and get into that plan so those two changes were made with the committee and we've been sharing that new information with the teachers during the opening day meetings um I've been meeting with the teachers a lot of things that they were asking for was more professional development on how they can do things um just a little bit better or just have a little bit more support and how to continue to grow and become better for all the students in the district and so I've kind of been presenting different options that can meet the needs of all of the staff on a broad spectrum but also in a more specific way and then the other thing I was going to talk to you about was the return to learn the quarantining plan so I don't know if there's any questions still about the the quarantine learning plan or if we kind of talked about that before okay that's all I have perfect thank you and the big guy all right there were no foyas this month um summer projects are pretty much done we have one more project that's kind of a summer project it got added on mid-summer I'm not sure if you're aware but behind the visitor um football field visitor bleachers there's a land bridge that connects the middle school and the high school and it has um it's about this wide right now and I would not walk on it we're going to Grub the bushes back in a way and we've got a metal Bridge that's coming in and they're going to have concrete bunkers and so it's going to be a lot more space there and a bigger bridge is going to be put into over that over that Ravine we're working with the Architects on that we did go through the Roe we will get a builder's permit all of those other things that you need for Bridges of such significance um our first day of school came back we're hoping that that bridge is there for football season but it doesn't look like it's going to be um there's an issue with supply chain lines here in America the beginning of the school year went well our mode today is reboot refocus get the whole year started to get Get Back to Basics and really start looking at the curriculum and uh Ms Smith is leading that charge and I'm excited to see where that's going we have taken a pause in our do this again in our strategic planning process you'll be getting an email from me tomorrow regarding the um the the values that we have and then writing those statements that some of you have forgotten to send me I got one so I appreciate the one I won't Point anybody out gold star is in my office and I'll give it to you later but that's it all right thank you all right we'll move on to item seven there are items for action the first one is a approved the reopening plan for the 21-22 school year yeah and we discussed almost every aspect of that tonight Administration recommends the board approved a reopening plan for the 21-22 school year as presented all right open up two discussion the important thing is you know last year it was we couldn't have kids in school all day every day and that was so important and I think that's part of the mental health issue having kids in school every day all day is so important and if we go ahead and continue following the order then that allows us to only quarantine at three foot which means we're going to be quarantining very very few kids and after listening to John Wagner then those parents have a choice to make if they're going to sign off on us excluding them and if they don't sign off on it then they take the chance of what could happen right I understood that correctly so um I would I'd like to continue with the mask just to be able to keep those all the kids in school as much as we can I think that's so important and I I agree with Tammy I think keep getting the kids in school and keeping the kids in school and as you said I mean we were we were in a little bit and backed off and then a little bit more and all that last year and I think keeping the kids in school it should be our number one priority I believe personally um that we should probably get options for the homecoming Proms and stuff like that to be possibly held Outdoors so that the kids don't have to wear masks and they don't have to social distance and we can get them back to a more normal year I would hate for a senior this year to graduate and not get any accreditation um if we chose to go against this mandate that was set by the governor I mean I'm a mask optional person until the Mandate came down but with reading everything that goes along with the Mandate I'm not willing to put all these kids our staff and that stuff at a Jeopardy um I would much rather see the kids stay in school every day all day with the mask on and try to return back to as much normalcy as possible I do want the seniors to graduate with a diploma that means something anyone else so I'll share my thoughts too so I can tell you that me personally not you know just as Greg did earlier as as a parent and a member of the community I am not a master um you know I work for the federal government I you know understand how compliance works so from my school board position you know I'm going to do what it takes to keep the kids in my daughter that's in the middle school you know it hadn't it had a toll on her the emotional piece of it I saw how it affected her mentally being out of school not being with other kids not getting to learn firsthand everything being remote that was just not the best option for her so as a parent and a school board member my my first priority is keeping them in the classroom if that means that she has to wear a mask I'm going to give her a new one every day of the Disposable masks that are in my opinion less restrictive um and and that's my that's my choice as a parent I'm gonna that's what I'm gonna do is give her a new one every day so that she doesn't carry those you know pathogens are viruses or whatever gets on the master in the day from day to day but um you know it's really that if following the rules means we wear a mask and they get three feet and we can do three feet with the classrooms and that's where I that's where I stand everyone else um I'm going to speak up a little bit so personally speaking as an individual I don't agree with the governor's mask mandate and the quarantine protocols being put in place by the Illinois Department of Public Health I believe the best decisions are made locally and by individual parents blanket decisions across the state just don't make any sense um until there is a court order and validating the executive order and there are two suits pending one in Clinton County and one in McKendree County I don't think we have any local control we could we could vote against it tonight but I don't think it amounts to anything I don't even think we have the option um we're backed into a corner uh we're being bullied and uh to defy the executive order it hurts the students I was most moved by the kids that were brave enough to come and speak tonight and you know so how do I justify to tailor Etheridge that and her parents that her diploma that she has worked 12 years for is unaccredited how does that affect how she applies to college what she does I I don't have the answer and to say that the Illinois State Board of Education is just bluffing uh they're not bluffing they're actually doubling down and digging their heels in um and do I think they have authority to do it no I don't but they are doing it and so who gets hurt the kids get hurt again and the kids have been hurt enough the you know I've lived through it I'm still living through it with my children it's been a nightmare and the kids are getting hurt I you know not to pick on Taylor she's probably gone but Taylor's an athlete Taylor she you know so do we really want to after all the time she practices and plays games to take away her ability to participate in ihsa activities no that's not just Athletics it's gullible it's the band are we going to take that away from the kids again I mean I read the letter that the isbe sent to Timothy Christian High School who said they were not going to file the Mandate and the thing that really stuck out to me was that you know seniors who graduate from a non-recognized school or receive a diploma that's not recognized by isbe this action is irreversible should the school later regain its recognition status and these students will forever have a degree from a non-recognized school I mean it's unbelievable but that that is what they're doing so you know I've I've told many people I would never vote for masks because I I just I believe the science I believe Mr Wagner tonight um but if the masks keep us in school keep them playing keep them doing what they have to do then I think that is the bitter pill that we have to swallow so you know that's that's my position I couldn't agree with you more so I just have one more time yeah please I don't normally talk right but um what you what you said before is I totally agree I'm not I'm not willing to to spend District dollars to fight this we have a couple other school districts that that are leading the charge for that and that's that's great uh the other thing is I think you know I know it's a very passionately by parents tonight um I hope they realize and look back to it was just last month when when we voted to to um go mask optional right so um I think from that they understand where where we stand and I should say for myself or how I voted last time um but the in Andrew's point it's we're backed into a corner there is they gave us no option and and by Design and isbe is is not the most responsive body in the past but they have turned these things around for these schools that have voted against uh the mask mandate they turned around it so so quickly and coming down hard on them um and honestly it's I wouldn't say they were totally unresponsive before but you know it's hard to get things out of them before this is something that they're very fervent about to Mr Wagner's point I mean it's not they're not backing down so I want to see kids play play sports I want to be able to to follow our quarantine guidelines follow the processes and keep those kids in school perfect thank you anyone else I mean I talk way too much tonight and you all kind of know how I feel I mean I I Echo everyone's sentiment that spoke tonight and I he just goes against my grain to require these mass and you know when the governor came down to it I was one of the first ones going oh heck no they're not going to happen in Columbia we're going to fight this and everything else and you know what though when you take the emotions out and you get down to the business side of it or backed into a corner I mean it's we can't waste your money and and the other people that don't have kids in school we can't just throw these dollars especially when someone else is willing to fight and we have two school districts that are in the fight let them spend their money I'm happy to run on their coattails and uh but it drives me crazy it's it's a this is a painful vote for me personally but uh you got to go with the greater good again in my opinion so any other discussion all right who's going to be brave enough to make a motion to approve you Scott that was easy all right got a motion on the table a second Timmy all right Motion in a second can be a roll call please unfortunately yes all right all right motion carries so anyway we do appreciate the input and it's not going on deaf ears I mean I I you can tell by the comments everyone's made if we thought we had a choice or any way out of it I think we would definitely go for it so and I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed and I do apologize for disappointing that's not why any of us ran for school boards so all right next one next one good don't leave yet Mr Wagner please with compromised immune system severely they need to really talk to their doctors these are not mass or not making everybody that much more safer than you can have and compromise child in the classroom now because I've heard that I heard that in order I heard that here tonight too that they the parents want to ask us their child that's some underlying conditions these are not going to protect them okay thank you all right and line of action B is our approval resolution to work with the regional board at Regional Office of Education for voluntary covet testing and this is actually something we probably should have brought up during the question it's a work in progress is really what it is originally I was not a fan of the on-site testing of covid for schools and the reason was originally it cost us money you needed at least 100 kids to volunteer to get tested they'd be sent home if there was false positives it just didn't seem to make sense to me um since then they started to change some of the rules it is now no cost to us the Roe is looking to get a group together and so the 100 would not be there and if we do get people that voluntarily test they test every week if someone then gets excluded for a close contact we could test them every it would be test on day one so like if I if we are here today Mr Meyer gets sick I'm going to be quarantined for a close contact because of that today that we're together zero I'd come to school tomorrow on day one and I would take a test it would come back negative I could stay day three I could take the test and stay day five I could you know and so I I basically test my way through the the exclusion so I don't get quarantined the problem with this is I want to just be above board with the board is um if we do this that's all well and good I think it's a great option for the um for those that aren't vaccinated yet and can't be uncoordinated or excluded but it also then gives other people the option if I don't want to get vaccinated and I get excluded it would allow me to be able to stay in school which again my number one goal is to keep everybody in school I want to work with the re and have your permission to do that it might cost um because if it doesn't fall through if it falls through with the Roe we might have to have somebody drive up to Springfield every week to drop off the tests there's some details that are still needing to be worked out um the other thing is and Mr Wagner you can correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is once we go to mask optional the the testing for staying is no longer on the table right so the carrot that there or the little carrot that they're hanging out in front of us is only good when we're masks mandated once they're optional and we go to a six foot thing I no longer contest to keep them in and so I've when I found that out just the day before yesterday I kind of went that doesn't help me at all because I was really excited about the once we get to six foot this testing would really help um I'm hoping that they change that rule have you heard anything like that not yet no no foreign how can you say that an asking is doing it you think so how people say that I'm asked s360 so they're going for this is a constantly emotional so I'm hoping things will change as we go along um there is some leeway in some of the wording as far as quarantine now it's necessarily as high as speed or in the state that the local Health Department can but for me to go against a state guideline I have to have hard evidence to justify meaning a school that schools that are automatically schools that are masked have the same infection rate that would be a justification so we would say that's pretty good nice way even with myself does us being a part of this testing assist you in getting that information is there in your mind any reason we should or should not participate in the state's voluntary testing not right now and the benefit I would say proceed with trying it it's nothing to stop it it's more to get it going you know try it no right now no I because it hasn't been done long enough yet for me to see the problems if we start seeing false positives pop up and we start quarantining kids that are close contacts to false positives or hope the big issue is this whole family you have a positive child that all the siblings can pull out too yeah I guess so what I'm asking the board is to give me permission to work with the Roe to do what seems to be reasonable um because if if we do this I want to get on as quickly as possible because again the state moves like sludge and so getting onto that list you know this testing won't happen for a little bit um so I guess the recommendation is is to allow me what is there a downside the downside would be that [Music] um there might be some kids with false positives right right but again those are parents that would make that choice with that knowledge so if they are you can stop the program in school s I just want to be very clear when we do this test to stay it's only while we're all masked and that's that's the part that that frustrated me because it seems to me that if you've got a system where you can test to stay you should be able to do that with six feet or three feet or whatever it's just I mean if you're testing negative and you can stay why wouldn't you yeah we're in Illinois and we can come up with guidelines like I said it is ultimately the local Health Department's authority to quarantine or isolated individuals but if for us to go against a state guideline on the important we have to have something good to back it up which we quite possibly would I want to say one way or the other right now we can address that once the mass can come up we don't know who yet on that so that's kind of why you know you guys are you know last minute or now who knows what's going to happen a month from now you know and maybe Delta will start to Wing will start to go back downhill we'll start seeing that mask and unmasked schools have the same infection rate you know things may change can change pretty rapidly so I don't you know you're Mass mandatory now that may not be that you know it may not it may be long it may not be that long before you can look at making a change we just don't know right now okay so what's the logistics if somebody does test positive in this do they go get a formal professional test no no the the test that they're using is the University of Illinois test um it's a mouth swab saliva test it seemed to be accurate enough for that now they can go get other tests if they'd like to and then we have to look at each you know each one obviously the PCR is still the gold standard test so each case has to be looked at if there are conflicting tests we have to look at each one to determine was there an exposure you know and one was negative one was positive you know you can test too soon you know it's more likely to get false negatives than it is to get false positives but there can be false positives okay and then is again logistic wise is it do we get the results instantly because we said talk about running tests to Springfield is that is not instant but along with that you can be using what's called biomex now if people have probably even seen them in Walgreens and stuff those are the one tests that are using for tests to stay so you basically have two testing things you'd have the random testing that students maybe want to sign up for weekly testing that's the U of I test but then you would do the one three five and seven would be 5x9 which is a rapid test so how long would this study need to go on before a decision could be made because the today as far as schools masking and everything well before you consider it enough data to actually make a decision based on because right now we're 18 plus months into covet and nothing seems to ever have a final a date of closure of you know if we do this for 60 days or you know we would need at least you know I I need to see schools at least for a month before there'd be enough data you know depending on how many schools I could look at if in within a month I have 30 schools that are unmasked in 30 schools that are masked and they all are coming back about the same that may be enough if I only have one school that's unmasked and one school that's Mass to compare that data to decide on close contact quarantines you know that's a little bit questionable you know and it depends on the number of cases if you're talking to school that you're talking two cases in a math school in two cases that's not enough cases so I'm just going to be looking at all the information I can you know and as soon as I can to give guidance on that do we have any Baseline data from 2020 yeah yeah so how is that being used and it it didn't show much difference in the schools the problem that we had with black the past years was the schools were not in full capacity they have ABDC you know ABCD days we had social distancing that was greater back then this is a whole new school year a whole different variant whole new school year classrooms are full different school year you know we can't but it's not but they're not different schools they're not different environments it's different capacities you have a bunch of tiger kids this year you have a different Fair a completely different bearing that you had last year that has much higher viral loads so we don't know how that's going to spread we don't know if the mass are going to show protection so has any virus in history gotten stronger as it progressed stronger over time yeah but the ideal virus the muted people like to think about mutations oh it's trying to mutate into something it's not trying to mutate into anything it's just random there's millions of mutations the ones that stick are the ones that are more contagious the ones that are less contagious die out because they just don't get spread to another person so the predominant variant is more contagious the ideal virus is one that's highly contagious but not deadly a deadly virus is not ideal because it dies out once it kills its hose it can't spread you can have a highly contagious virus that does that does the hose that's that's the best virus of it it could help hope to mutate them and yeah they can get stronger than get weaker typically they don't get weaker because the variant that's around will continue to be around a weaker one will not if one virus doesn't spread as easy the one that spreads the easiest is the one that's going to be the dominant virus so it can't go down it can't go together it's hard work to go the other way now it can be more contagious but less severe now that would be a good thing to happen but it can't be the more the contagious the viruses the more predominant that virus is going to be in the setting less contagious virus is not going to overtake a more contagious virus is stronger foreign because it does add another level of complexity another whole set of rules we got to keep in track of and it it it not being able to test to stay with six feet once we go mask optional I find it less some advantageous but I still think that that it wouldn't be bad to try it and then we can drop out at any time so my recommendation would still be to to work with the Roe and see if we can get in on this Mr Grote can I ask you a question certainly in in the materials it talks about Mass breaks and we haven't talked about that at all it says it'll be included as needed for students throughout the day the duration and timing of breaks is determined by the individual School leadership team can somebody elaborate on that um yeah the first thing that I want to say is that last year Mass breaks were more difficult because you had to keep them within the six feet one of the things about this year is is that once outside you can take off your masks and then you don't have to quarantine for close contact so I could literally have my class go underneath a tree outside take off their masks and be outside and so we're going to see more breaks for that does it because there'll be more chances to take kids outside and so what we're going to need to do is come up with a plan and a schedule so that everybody gets those Mass breaks but I think that once winter comes it'll be harder because it's colder but uh until then yeah do you have you talked to any of them so PE will be outside as much you know weather permitting so they'll be able to take their masks off for PE um recess they'll be outside and then the teachers will still utilize the outside space um when the weather is nice last year you guys ate outside didn't you or do you plan to reinstitute that or no schedule a break schedule last break we also teaches we will go out and actually so close do we have any outside seating like for kids to sit anywhere other than on a curb stop or on the grass because the classes are 40 minutes right I don't know um is there any reason they couldn't sit on the ground yeah yeah just have class outside we do have also have random uh so I'm just still kind of trying to figure out if we're serious about being outside why we're there's no accommodations at all other than the grass because you know there's this is a long-term thing hopefully for at least a few months till the weather's good as long as the weather's good and the more comfortable kids are the more they're going to pay attention if they're not so I'm just I'm just curious of what's being done or if there's anything because I think we may be able to do more to make them excuse me Mr I'm a more comfortable learning environment yeah are you I saw you like thinking about an outside classroom where we have a big gazebo and and picnic benches underneath it that the whole class can gather or what do you what are you doing just chairs you know I mean we've chairs are not hard to do even just having chairs for them to sit to where they can comfortably sit and so like the folding chairs out by the door and the Tacoma class can take it out because there is concrete for them to sit on right they could sit there okay well we looked into tents originally but there was a problem with permitting or structure to put up a semi-permanent structure you need architectural drawings and um engine and Structural Engineering so we looked at the trophy tents and um it just became cost prohibitive even to rent them we would have to get architectural specs and and an architect to get through the Roe that's that's the Roe that's not yeah that's not you know for building for building permits we need uh yeah it's an Roe permit we have to get stuff that's really yeah Mr Ackman um last year the CMS added an additional lunch did you decide to stay with that this year um I would say the high school has added an additional Lunch Period initially they took it back but with all of this going on they went ahead and added that third Bunch period back at the high school so not to be particular yeah we're kind of getting off subjects a little bit so yeah so the recommendation is for the board to approve a resolution um for me to work with the Roe on um voluntary testing again I'm not sure I was I got my answer or I understood the answer anyway so why do we go into Springfield once a week you have to drop off the test it's the results or the tests the results the um the actual well you have a rep like sample so yeah I think what he says we have a rapid test and then you have that second time and right now the Roe is looking at hiring someone to do that because for every test that you drop off at the state they give you eight dollars it's it's uh you know but you need to it these are again these things that they're trying to do to encourage and it gets to the point where I'm thinking for me I'm looking at it as if I can keep kids in school with this testing process then I'd like to try to do it right but it does add a level of complexity and a level of frustration because you're dealing with another state program okay so to keep it simple for my thing so I'm asking permission too I understand that I understand that what I'm I'm stuck on the Springfield thing and the results so are we are we sending this to Springfield to get the results or are we giving Springfield the tally of the results once a week no I think the actual tests go to Springfield okay I think and so that's what I understand so if there was there was there was a there was a rapid test so you know the results right here and then there was some some other tests that do you have my test Mr Wagner yes goes up hey John John that's right here yeah that testing going to to Springfield it's kind of a package deal what is actually going to Springfield a Suave of the swab all right so we do on day one we're gonna do a rapid test and we're gonna get the results instantly from the test to stay you're using what's called bionics now okay but to do the test to stay program you need the shield testing which is the weekly testing oh that's a week okay that's that's what the difference is so the voluntary we're just taking a random sampling to send that to Springfield once a week where the return to stay we're doing testing house all right cool all right oh and they wanted tools to start to use it they first started out that tier one and two schools were going to get a three three four were working at the table I'll let nobody sign up for it so then they made it free to everybody yeah well when still nobody has signed up for it yesterday but is it good for customers so you could just go perfect field so to test to stay you must do the shield to get the violence okay gotcha gotcha I was wondering how we were gonna know foreign [Applause] would be to proceed finding out about setting it up and everything and then after the problem we pull out yep yes all right I know we beat this dead horse so we'll just be added to the monthly agenda the results are the ongoing progress of the test so we can gauge that as we go I could I couldn't I could collect the data and share it with you and put on your superintendent report yeah all right any other discussion a motion to approve Mr Grote to work with the Roe to implement the testing I'll make it okay Adam made a motion Lisa seconded I can really roll call please hi yes yes okay motion passes unanimously on to C which is a privilege purchase of a 2022 Bluebird 71 passenger bus from Central States Bus Sales and a 2020 Chevy minibus 18 pasture with one wheelchair lit from Southern bus and Mobility we sent out our our bid specs to all of the companies we normally send those out to when we do these bids we try and get two buses a year in our transportation fund this is um the lowest responsive bidders for these two buses and the recommendation is that we award it as presented foreign discussion so you said we sent it to the ones we normally send it to how many companies did we send the requesting um I believe the three I also saw it posted in the legal notices of the Republic times I believe yeah but no one ever there's no bus companies that have really ever so we don't get those in so we get them from the three that we've always worked with before and what about Midwest Transit did they bid on it do they respond Midwest Transit and yeah I can look into that all right oh yeah all right another discussion it is in the budget that we're putting on display so perfect is that an entertainment a motion to buy a couple buses I'll make the motion Thank you Lisa 20 or a second thanks Scott Kimberly roll call please yes yes hi [Applause] motion passes on to D which is their approve the 2021 to 2022 budget display yes the budget is on display you all have a copy at your table as I always point out if you go to page two I believe line number 22 is a key line page two the budget summary page will tell you your estimated beginning fund balance online on on Row three uh then you'll get your total receipts of revenues which is 15 million and your expenditures of 15.7 and so if you look on that road 22 you'll see that in the education fund we're projecting a 728 thousand dollar deficit um last year we projected a 700 000 deficit we ended up two hundred thousand dollars in the black so that's a nine hundred thousand dollar difference there the year before that we projected a zero and we were seven hundred thousand dollars in the black so um I was hoping that I'd have more time over the summer to really dig into the budget and try and find out why we have such variants I did not get a chance to do that this summer um I trust that I'm going to be watching this very closely we do have the fund balances to absorb that seven hundred thousand dollar deficit um but this is on display and so if you look at it if you have any questions please call me I'd be happy to sit down with you and talk about it any questions regarding the budget right and we just approved the display of the budget correct yeah we just okay entertain a motion to approve the 2021-2022 budget display I'll make a motion thank you Adam I'll second it and your second thank you Kimberly roll call please yes yes hi yes yes yes motion carries a letter e is established the date and time for our 2021-22 budget hearing and we've historically done that at 7 pm on the regularly scheduled meeting which actually is actually on the fourth Thursday because the budget has to be on display for 30 days and so um I recommend that we do it at 7 p.m on September 23rd and the regular meeting would occur directly after Thank you Lisa have a motion on the Florida second thank you Tammy Kimberly roll call please hi yes yes yes all right perfect pressure curious all right letter F is the approval and accept of the second reading of the board policies the pressure issue number 107.

very second I'll second I keep getting late everybody have motion a second I can't really roll call please yes yes yes yes yes all right yes all right that concludes our action items item number eight is our discussion items for individual board member comments I know we got a little off topic on the deal and we're talking about some outside things so this is perfect opportunity if you guys want to resume those conversations and foreign prerogative you guys have definitely heard enough from me tonight so I'll shut up executive session since we did pass the uh mandate we no longer have a needy for executive sessions there's no pending litigation so mark that off the list and the last thing is the German somebody like to make a motion to adjourn I'll make the motion that one didn't take long I think it took me a second a second Andrew thank you give me the roll call please yes yes yes all right yes that concludes our meeting thank you for the ones that stayed the whole time I'm impressed [Music] foreign

okay okay 392. right you talk about privacy a lot and in this age of wokeness and cancer culture some of us might be worried to get our names and addresses out there because we don't know who's watching this and may decide to visit our homes so um you know you talk about privacy for our kids you know these are our classes we're paying for them we're paying for the teachers to be there and we're sending our kids there um the question of privacy is one that i think is is uh disingenuous we should know what's going on and we need to have i mean if we can have police officers with body cams there's no reason why we can't make up the teachers and if nothing else just simply have an audio of what's going on in the class and if the picture and the camera is only trained on her desk that'd be fine too or his desk for that matter um there's um there's a question of how dangerous covet is for kids there's i was told there's about 9 000 people 9 000 students going to our schools here statistically speaking if every single one got covered every single one would survive um i didn't really prepare my statements as well as some of the other people here i just came came in here with some ideas um as for sel and crt we really need to worry about what's important to teach our kids and that's math reading science i mean real science not the woke stuff [Music] we need we need to really focus in on making sure our kids know how to think and not what to think there was a teacher in utah this past week i hear some laughter i guess you guys know about this did you hear that person got fired um that happened just a matter of a couple days she was teaching or promoting some very leftist views and we're told here in center grove we can't fire someone just as quickly we're doing something similar and we're not allowed to even discuss it because those matters are private well these are these are our public buildings these are our public schools we should be able to know what's happening we should also demand that our kids are being taught you know how to think not what to think and we need to also make sure that we don't indoctrinate them into certain ideologies that the parents would never even dream of trying to teach them we need to make sure our kids are learning to love our country and not hate our neighbors and that's all i got really so 30 seconds left [Applause] thank you all our next order of business is the consent items do i have any questions on them from the board members do i have a motion mr president and i move that we approve the consent agenda as presented thank you do i have a second second thank you mr daniels all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed motion passes 5-0 we move on to our action items luckily tonight we only have one but it does involve a hearing so dr arkanov thank you mr russell um this evening is a hearing to prior to selling bonds uh for the financing of middle school building projects and i'm going to turn this uh hearing over to mr russell to run so i'm sorry i now open this public hearing i would like to turn it back over to dr arkanov to introduce the presentation about the project the financing of the project and the actions we are taking this evening thank you i appreciate that uh mr russell i know it's kind of funny the way we do this but we have to do it by law um so with that before we get started on this um i think mrs hoover or dr hoover was going to introduce somebody after the personnel report and i didn't want steel or thunder so if you don't mind well one quick introduction then we'll do this while she's coming up uh i neglected to to tell you that we recessed the exec meeting we will be reconvening our executive meeting after this board meeting thank you um i am so proud to be here tonight to be able to introduce two additions to our center grove administrative team um our director of special ed ali chance let us know she'd be leaving at the end of july and this is one of the hardest positions to find in the state of indiana and so we were very lucky when we opened this search we actually ended up restructuring because we have two amazing people and so we will now have a director of elementary special ed who gets to really focus on the elementary um the work that we need to do and then a director of secondary and so kaylee brown miss hayley she's worked here since 2018 and she'll be continuing her work with the elementary in the director position and for our secondary dr renee staley comes to us from martinsburg where she's been already serving as their director of special ed and we're very lucky that she has wanted to transition to work with us so i'm really looking forward to work they're going to do and strengthen not only the special education program but just what we do for all kids thank you so much welcome [Applause] all right now now we'll go thank you so tonight's our first uh uh 10 28 hearing uh we're going to have two we'll have a second one at the next board meeting i want to talk a little bit about our project at both middle schools we're looking at 2296 new homes planned in in white river township right now we had been discussing what to do at the middle schools whether to build a third middle school or to expand our two the two existing middle schools financially it's it's better for the corporation better for the taxpayers to expand those two buildings so we've engaged the architects cso to help us with that that's all right that's my hand to go faster wasn't it that's right go ahead and go um so at middle school north uh what a couple of things that we want to do is replace the temperature controls add security cameras uh but but specifically the the big addition is adding a band room renovate the orchestra room renovate the music areas expand the cafeteria and then get new furniture if you remember we bought new furniture for all of the elementaries we've and as we've done the high school project we bought furniture for the high school now we're going to try to replace the furniture at the two middle schools this prepares us to um to be able to hold this is the first project of a two-part project that will allow us to house the the middle school enrollment growth that we see the nice thing and i think dr gabriel is going to talk about it is we can do the the additions to both of our middle schools with uh while maintaining the current tax rate so middle school central a little bit different we're going to add 12 classrooms two science rooms and two art rooms and then buy the furniture we'll also renovate and expand the cafeteria and kitchen again like i said we'll be able to do both of these projects without raising are with by maintaining the current tax rate just uh to give you an idea the addition at middle school central is there on the top of the screen with the red arrow pointing to the blue right now that's just half of what we need but it's it's in line with what our enrollment projections are so we'll do we'll do that there on the north end of the building and then on the south east corner is where we'll expand the cafeteria and expand the uh the kitchen area so that's what it looks like at the top that's just a little more of a kind of a block plan of what it looks like um and then at middle school north uh again the red arrows there at the top of the screen is where the new music room will go and the the at the bottom of the screen is the expansion of the cafeteria in kitchen here's just a little bit closer floor plan look at that when we built the middle school about 18 years ago we didn't have an orchestra room and we've added an orchestra room and we don't have the space to to grow the program so our we've had an orchestra program and we don't have the room to add that the cafeteria there is there at the bottom of the screen just to give you an idea of where that will go and what that does for the size of both the kitchen and the cafeteria then dr gabriel will talk about the financing but before i go on jim goalie from hunt construction is here if this broke if this project is approved we'll use hunt construction as our construction manager to help with the project so hard questions again go to mr goalie okay okay so i want to talk a little bit about the finance of the project middle school central um working with the architect and the construction manager we've developed a budget for this project it's um about 16.8 million dollars in construction costs and an additional 5.4 million dollars in the all various fees and the furnishings that go with a project of this size uh one of the reasons that this is as large as it is is because we are adding all the classrooms that that are included in this project that are really not included in the middle school north project at this time so and we of course i think most people are aware we have portables now out in front of middle school central and when we get these classrooms added it'll it will eliminate the need for those portables but we've got enrollment projections that continue to show the size of both middle schools gradually getting a little bit larger each year so that's middle school central middle school north same thing applies these have been developed by the architect and construction manager 5.8 million in in hard construction costs and 2.6 million and all the other associated costs that go with it for a total of 8.5 million dollars at that project this is the the required information that we need to present if when we have a hearing like this it's a lot of fine print i think i just want to highlight a couple of things first of all we will sell bonds to pay these projects back total cost there as you see is 30.8 million dollars for these two projects combined we'll sell the bonds over over a 20-year period if we did this all by itself with nothing else going on in the community or anything else it would have a tax rate of about about 13.68 but the important thing here is that because we have other projects coming off the books and an increased assessed value we predict that the debt service fund rate is going to continue for the next 10 years or so as a result of these projects that should not increase and again we're we've done a lot of work modeling what the future will look like uh and and we're confident that as a result of these projects we're talking about today the tax rate will not increase um yeah next uh just um okay this is just a picture of of uh what the tax rate looks like right now and what it shows for next year i didn't think we were going to talk about this slide but it's okay uh and he talks about it yeah right because we've got more current information this is for for actually for 2021 payable in 2021 but it's when we look at this slide and compare ourselves our total tax rate to other districts in the county we've continued to be in the middle of the pack for the last decade and and kind of expect that to continue that way so okay next steps tonight this is the public hearing and that's all it is which means there'll be no official action taken by the board um at the next meeting there will be a next school board meeting in september there will be a second hearing and at that meeting the board will be asked to approve resolutions to officially authorize these projects following that approval of those resolutions we publish notice that begins a 30-day waiting period after that then the architects will finalize the projects and all of the plans we hope to have bids for these projects ready to come back to for the board to approve next spring and then work on these projects uh was expected to be completed middle school's much smaller project it should be done by the summer of 2003 middle school central uh much larger project will be done by the summer of 2004 and then um the first payment on these bonds will begin we expect in 2014 and i know we've had this question i'm sorry 20 20 and we've had this question before why isn't this in the budget you're going to approve next next month well because the payments don't come until 20 20 24.

that evidence speaks volumes there are many other mitigations we could and should take to protect our students and the fact is we can't predict how it will affect each individual we need to work together using all the tools that we can to stem this tide coming coming up in front of us are the winter months when rsv and influenza will join covid to make our local hospitals and ers a nightmare and if we really want to protect our children and keep the stability of in-person learning they will encourage their students to follow those mitigation efforts and make the make the schools and the communities a safer a safer place clearly we we all care about kids but we must take steps to protect all kids while we can thank you very much for your consideration thank you all right julia's next and then we have daniel riddan okay hello my name is julia reardon and i am the mother of two higley students today we vote on whether to force or not force an untested for safety medical intervention on our children as a person of science i am greatly alarmed over mandatory masking policies to my knowledge not a single safety study has ever examined the safety either long-term or short-term safety of mask use in children not a single study was able to show that masking children for eight hours every day is safe the only studies that looked at safety practices that came with masking show alarming results they showed that co2 levels were exceeding those determined saved by osha within minutes so why is it concerning to me i can at least list two physiological mechanisms through which this could be greatly harmful to our kids concern number one multiple studies that i personally read show that various cancers including breast cancer thrive in low oxygen environment and grow much more aggressively in tissues where oxygen perfusion is suboptimal where is the evidence that prolonged use of masks in children does not increase the risk of pediatric cancers such evidence does not exist concern number two when co2 sensors in our brain detect increased co2 levels in the blood they deploy compensatory mechanisms one such compensatory mechanism is by making our heart beat harder and faster from what we know by studying these compensatory mechanisms in adults with heart failure is that our heart when our heart is forced to be stronger and faster over time the walls of the heart muscle become abnormally thick allowing less blood volume in each chamber of the heart the scientific term for this is compensated heart compensated heart is a stage that we observe before the heart gets too tired to compensate that way the heart gets too tired to beat harder and faster over a long period of time and then it goes into a failed decompensated mode which is weak and flubby hard that can no longer perform optimally so where is the evidence that prolongs masking children does not increase their risk of compensated heart such evidence does not exist if i had more than three minutes i could bring many more concerns that signed support there is no science however to say that musk protects from covet or flu our children chance of dying from covet is 0.00 statistically across all states bottom line this medical intervention has not been proven safe children my children are not your guinea pigs and we will not comply with mass mandates please vote no let parent decide thank you thank you [Applause] daniel [Applause] daniel radin and then travis st dennis is is he in he may be i have two kids in the higley high school there is nothing you or any policy maker can do to stop the spread of the delta variant matches the flu covet is here to stay for the rest of our lives and that's the bottom line forcing children to mask up holds as much common sense as banning the driving of kids around due to the chance of dying from a car crash actually it makes even less sense is the chance of dying from covet for kids lore yet and wearing those masks does nothing at all there's not a single data or study to show that those masks do anything beneficial the whole stormy the former head of city scene effect confirmed that fact while there is nothing beneficial or effective in forcing children to mascarp there is a lot to suggest that this is a nasty way to go through one's childhood those parents who wish to force their children with this draconian measure are already doing so as for the rest of us the vast majority of us ask you let us be thank you thank you [Applause] so we have travis st dennis and then we have hannah burgess hannah gorges all right so i got three minutes i'm going to fumble through this as fast as possible because i don't think i can get through all of this so to start parents of higley district i'm not here to address the border district i'm not concerned with their opinion or agenda i'm here to call to action the willing parents to stand for our children and to resist the tyrannical powers of these schools they think they have all executive orders giving emergency authorization to the counties towns and districts have been rescinded they no longer have the authority to even talk about this topic the enforcement of masks is a violation of current laws on the books such as parental bill of rights ars 1602 which reads all parent all parental rights are reserved to a parent of the minor child without obstruction or interference from the state or any political subdivision of the state any other governmental entity or any other institution including the right to make health care decisions for that minor child unless otherwise prohibited by law there are no more laws to it or executive orders suspend suspending state law or giving them the authority they had in 2020 there are no laws prohibiting our rights anymore the arrogance of the district to think they can dictate our lives the majority of our teachers in the two schools my children attend do not wear masks they obviously don't want to i'm talking about the super majority of teachers are not wearing masks they just want to teach and genuinely engage with our children further the overwhelming majority of parents are not sending their kids to school with masks trust me when i say us parents and teachers are fully aware of the current covet situation and we've made our voices loud and clear that is leave us alone we will not wear your mask your absolute power and reign is over and it's obvious the districts are drunk with power flexing a power play and resistance to the state of arizona the overwhelming majority and that overwhelming majority who chose not to participate in the coveted propaganda i'm calling on all parents to resist do not comply the criminal actions of this district cannot be tolerated ars 36114 titled limitation upon authority to impose treatment reads nothing in this title shall authorize the department or any of its officers or representatives to impose on any person against his will any mode of treatment provided that sanitary preventive measures and quarantine laws are complied with governor ducey just reiterated this in his executive order yesterday and reiterated that that is a class three uh misdemeanor do not allow these tyrants to criminally violate our rights and our children do not comply teachers we got red for ed we believe you're here with good intentions educate we'd like we would like to not and you would like not to be pawns in this propaganda we're asking that you get just as passionate for our children do not comply do not let them violate your rights resist do not show up monday with the mask unless you truly want to wear one that is your decision and it is respected we will resist your criminal action and take whatever steps necessary to defend our children i spent the majority of my adult life fighting overseas as a recon marine and marine raider which is the special forces units of the marine corps i've done unforgiving things for the ungrateful and is this what i came home to a population that can't stand up will not risk being uncomfortable and own what they believe are we that complacent and scared that even when there's no risk to life or body injury that we cannot stand up to and defend the future for our children we will not be we will be the death of freedom us our generation we will be responsible for the decay of american values because we're scared is that it and i don't believe so we will resist we will not comply stand up and save tomorrow for our children [Applause] again thank you i'd like to i'd also like to to clarify i know the majority of the board likely is is not for this so please don't take that personally uh this is more for the rest of the state and the parents that uh need to stand up for for what they believe and i also have i also have a because i know everybody likes to talk about science uh some cdc's thanks sir thank you if anybody else wants to read it uh okay i'll leave it up here thank you we would like to give as many people a chance to speak would you guys thank you either facts not opinions would you like to read them all right hannah and then our next speaker is adelia cinta [Music] good afternoon and thank you to members of the board and staff for listening to what i have to say my name is hannah borges and i am a registered nurse for 13 years with experience in the hospital i am here today because i do my best to live by quote which is actually an arabic proverb that says the greatest crime you can commit in a desert is to find water and remain silent about it i have found water and it's not being spouted from the dry sources like the news sometimes with water it's not at the surface and you just have to tap into it at the beginning of this pandemic that's just what i did i read countless articles research and studies to uncover the risks of covid many were afraid and i wanted to find out as much as i could as facts were not being disseminated quickly enough i found that hand washing and promotion of personal care and health was the best way to prevent the spread of covet in the community and even taught hand washing to my son's class two days before spring break of 2020 now fast forward a year and a half and the science behind hand washing continues to be effective and is the best way to spread to prevent the spread of infection as does staying at home when you are sick or you have a fever this is because when you are sick and ace and symptomatic viral loads are high this is the time when you are most able to spread an infection conversely asymptomatic people are not caused for the spread of covid those who are healthy should be free to go to school without a mask it should be a choice that each individual and their families make not the school district let's talk about the efficacy of surgical mass first you have to understand the size of the virus the virus responsible for covet is .12 microns in size the influenza virus similarly and also incredibly small is .08 to 0.12 microns in size to put that in perspective the width of a hair shaft is 150 microns in size now you can see comparatively how very small these actual viral particles are a surgical mask is not designed to block out very small particles in fact studies show it rarely blocks out any particle smaller than 100 microns or two-thirds the size of a hair shaft in other words the covet or stars cove two virus people seek to block out with the mask is nearly one thousand times smaller than the many holes invisible to the naked eye that exist in a surgical mask this truly is the equivalent of putting up a chicken wire fence to keep mosquitoes out it's not going to work even if we are all confined behind our own chicken wire fencing now cloth masks have no quality controls and vary accordingly to the materials with which they are comprised but not shockingly they fall into a category even less sufficacious and block out between 10 to 30 percent of only the large particles here are the particles that make it into your mask get tangled up into your spit for you to breathe in and out during the day and thus become a breeding ground for bacteria a lay person can see that this is not healthy and does not model the standard for healthy behaviors now that i have the science out of the way i want to talk about freedom just the other day the world witness beat people from afghanistan gripping onto any part of a moving c-17 airplane as it took off from a kabul airport we as a country witnessed the links that people would go grasping on to a freedom that they felt was still within their reach only to tragically find out that it was actually too late will this soon be a metaphor for us what are we going to do are we going to recognize this before we get to that point please not free fall to our demise because somehow we think it's easier to conform than uh to the constant moving of the goal posts thank you thank you all right adella and then the next one i have is ashley shaw is ashley's in here okay first may i address a question to you is it about a mandate till september 29th or for the whole school year she's asking because from september 29th the law says that you cannot mandate the mass what is being considered is september 29th what is being considered would in september 29th when the law becomes effective okay thank you mask mandates teach students that their environment is toxic they have toxic teachers they have toxic colleagues they breathe toxic air there are many peer-reviewed studies that show that wearing masks is harmful and none that shows they are beneficial but ncbi part of nih study from november 2020 children wearing masks made software of the following hypoxemia hypercapnia shortness of breath increased lactate concentration decline in ph levels acidosis toxicity inflammation self-contamination increasing stress hormones level adrenaline noradrenaline and cortisol increased muscle tension immunosuppression activation of fight or flight stress response chronic stress condition fear mood disturbances insomnia fatigue compromised cognitive performance legally you have no standing to mandate mask wearing because if you do so you will be in violation of federal law as face masks are under fda emergency use authorization title 21 united states code 360 bbb 3c 3e the federal food drug and cosmetic act states individuals to whom the product is administered are informed that number three of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product so on emergency youth authorization products are by definition experimental masks and thus require the right to refuse under the nuremberg code the foundation of ethical medicine no one may be coerced to participate in a medical experiment consent of the individual is absolutely essential in a letter dated april 24 2020 the food and drug administration stated that authorized face masks must be labeled accurately and may not state or imply that the product is intended for antimicrobial or antiviral protection or related uses or is for use such as infection prevention or reduction any emergency use authorization mandate requiring individuals to wear face masks conflict with section 360 bbb3 which provides that the person might be informed of the option to refuse to wear the device our students should be taught they have individual freedoms and not collective mandates thank you thank you all right we have ashley shaw and then drew young is drew young in the room okay thank you go ahead hello my name is ashley i have two elementary school kids at coronado elementary we transferred in from chandler to do the dual immersion program last year and a half has been hard for my family especially my small children um as it is for a lot of families as we try to navigate this they my children have no control over the situation and have to constantly change and adapt and our expectations of them are really high as a society we're saying hey here's this thing you have to meet in order to get this and it changes day to day hour by hour um and the kids are doing it the best they can my nine-year-old and seven-year-old asked me to come today they um i asked them if they wanted to come and they were embarrassed but they said they do not want to be forced to wear a mask again my son's words were please don't put me in a mask it's really hard for me so i'll quickly read some of their reasons my both my kids said it's hard for me to understand what my teacher's saying in class i get embarrassed having to ask her to repeat herself over and over they also are taking mandarin sometimes they don't know how to say the new mandarin words because they can't see their teacher speaking and so they have to ask privately to the side during recess to have the teacher move their mouth with the word um my seven-year-old daughter told me that it's hard for her in class because she's soft-spoken and the teacher can't hear her and she often feels invisible in class my son says he gasps for breath when he's trying to read aloud in class for the class to hear and the hardest was when we moved into the district last year they didn't know what their friends faces looked like really quick about my kids they both received speech services and there was zero improvement and actually regression this last year for them um once the mass came off in the year they jumped right back in and had huge improvement again um when their front when the mask mandate came off they were both overwhelmed with emotion to finally see their friends faces again and to see them cry about being able to see their friends faces was tough as a parent i have deep empathy for everyone including those who have been directly affected by copid i respect their individual choice everyone's individual choice whether or not they wear a mask or whatever they choose to do to keep themselves and their family healthy and i hope that i would have the same respect to choose how to protect my family we have come to an informed decision that the benefits of not wearing a mask for us far outweigh the benefits we would get from wearing a mask i just want to thank you for letting me speak thank you thank you all right we have drew young and then i have carrie ware is carrie okay perfect thank you i have uh three kids that attend the higley school district as well as i'm a spouse of a of an employee i found it interesting that the president brought up possible discrimination and reference to the grant when a medical mandate regardless of what the mandate is is in fact discrimination this should not be a political issue but i can't help but feel like this vote is taking place in order to be a cya for this board and district against those that would choose to blame them for any future positive covet diagnosis if you truly have the kids best interests at heart that sounds like the perfect time to have your legal team bow their neck in essence that's a legal issue not the opportunity to sacrifice our kids in the name of not fighting for our right to choose those in favor of a mandate seem to forget that it's not just a small sacrifice we have all had our first day of kindergarten our first crush went to prom and went to graduation the mental damage that these mandates have done and what continue to do cannot be undone it's not a small sacrifice these experiences cannot be given back to these kids it's easy to cancel and restrict when you have already enjoyed the very things that you're taking away kovit cannot be eradicated it's not going anywhere judging whether to disrupt lives and make medical decisions for people should not depend on your positive cases so how often is there going to be a vote on whether to disrupt lives and make medical decisions on the behalf of your parents this should not be an argument of whether you're pro-masking or against it this is whether you're going to infringe on people's right to choose kids and employees right now and far before covid have the ability and right to choose whether to wear a mask you're voting on whether you're going to remove the right to choose there's nothing preventing those from that feel they should wear a mask from continuing to do so if i was for wearing a mask i would be saying the exact same thing i have no right to tell anyone in this room or district how to raise their children or what is best for them medically or mentally and neither do you or the state for that matter it is in this board's best interest to put the political football back where they found it and continue to let people choose what's best for them thank you thank you i have harry ware and then deneen schmidt okay hi good evening i'm carrie ware i'm the one that says at husd all the time on facebook facebooking you guys i'm a little irritated sitting here listening to everybody thank you so much for letting me speak we have to work as a community to get this taken care of i have never in the 16 and a half years that i've been a mother solicited advice from any of you people or anybody for that matter and i do not plan to start today i cannot control what's going on in the white house but i can control what's going on in my community and i love the people in this community and i love the kids in this community but there's one thing that everybody in this room is forgetting you guys are up here acting like you're doing us a favor giving me the option of a or b that is not freedom that is coercion that is you telling me i have two options and that's not the case freedom means i bring to the table what i want to do and what hypocrites all of you are to stand here and pledge to the flag which represents freedom and then tell me i have two choices nonsense i'm over it my family is done doing what you tell me to do this is america this is gilbert the people are proud that people are here to tell you we're not gonna do it anymore there's half of the population for the schools aren't even here tonight where's the survey did you guys get a survey anybody get a survey did the teachers get a survey did the parents get a survey so don't act like you care what we think because you don't you guys are going to decide at the end of the day no matter what i say or any of them say if you really cared you would have asked and let me tell you something i have a kid at higley a kid at sofman and a kid at centennial elementary i got three different drop-off times and three different pick-up times and every day the teachers don't wear a mask the kids don't wear a mask nobody's wearing a mask but we're going to have an emergency meeting five days from now to implement a mass policy a few days from them what an emergency if you guys can't figure out by now the science is ridiculous then you're probably driving around in your car with a mask on by yourself and i can't help you at this point nor do i want to it's not my job i appreciate what you want to do for you and your family i would appreciate it if you respected what i did for me and my family because that's where we live the united states of america god bless america the end thank you [Applause] [Music] and our next speaker will be colleen is colleen inside she might be in the lobby thank you good afternoon i am here to oppose the mask mandate being considered by the higley board at this time but i have one question that i'd like to ask everyone here that is making this decision i'd like to know how many of you would have the audacity to ask someone who is in favor of wearing masks to not wear it to demand that they take it off or that they will be sent home to take it off or they can't go into a building to take it off or else i'm guessing that you all would say that science wouldn't support the forced unmasking of students and teachers well you know what science also doesn't support the force masking of students and teachers dr fauci himself said they don't work and that they provide a false sense of security he's changed his mind since then about everything from here to there and was caught lying about this subject but that's besides the point or is it what are we to believe well what i believe is what i've seen i've seen my daughter get coveted last december and was over it in two days she felt worse when she had the flu than when she had coveted i've also seen that while my daughter had coveted none of our family was infected nor were any of her friends that she spends more hours with in a day than she does us what i've also seen is a co-worker who locked down for nine months didn't go out at all and when she finally did she messed up like her life depended on it she ended up with covet pneumonia and meningitis to self-quarantining locking down and wearing masks prevent her from getting sick no it didn't in fact i would argue that doing so weakened her immunity system and made her more susceptible to it while i feel that no child should ever be forced to unmask because i'm not fearful of this virus i do not feel that others should force my child to mask because they are keep masks optional getting sick is a part of life being exposed to various germs and viruses is what strengthens our immune systems the common cold the flu and this virus are not something that can be blocked by masking that has been proven people were getting sick even when masks were mandated end this already please keep masks optional we've had enough thank you thank you colleen hernandez we didn't have one out there okay oh is that you oh sorry no go ahead come on up no that's okay the next one is sean chaban okay perfect go ahead okay the higley school district has continued to tell parents since the pandemic began that they would follow the guidance and recommendations from the arizona department of education as of today the arizona department of education is recommending universal and correct use of mass as the top mitigation strategy for safe in-person learning as recommended by the cdc the department of education strongly encourages all individuals in public schools to wear masks on campus and during school associated activities as parents we are not asking the board to mandate mass for the remainder of the year or to make it some part of school uniform this is a mitigation strategy because we are asking that while the numbers are high while there is an outbreak at higley high school which isn't those aren't my words that's the principal's words and while there is a pandemic that you consider the facts of the numbers and our children's safety when masks are worn the numbers are lower i'd rather have my kids in school with their friends than at home online thank you all right sean and then we have kari pendleton pendleton okay go ahead hi i'm shawn shahan uh i come from a teaching family my dad was a coach my uh brother is and i i taught uh high school as well i'm gonna go right into it stanford study data suggests that both medical and non-medical face masks are ineffective to block human to human transmission of viral infectious disease such as sarzikovic 19 supporting against the usage of face masks german neurologist margarita breeze brisbane who has done extensive studies on this says children have a very active immune system as well as developing brains which search for oxygen for proper development to restrict oxygen to a child is not only dangerous to them but is criminal the damage to the brain and the damage because of it cannot be reversed journal of american medical association recent out of 45 school children 6 to 17 years of age 100 percent reached at least four times the osha permissible limit of co2 exposure in nine minutes the irish health authority after looking at the mental health and the physical ailments of their children ruled basking children in classroom is not a legitimate medical option it's child abuse exasperates anxiety breathing prohibits proper development language and social skills co2 levels were felt found well above dangerous breeding ground for bacteria sickness using scientific research there's numerous scientific evidence supporting not using masks there is not one supporting the use of masks they're suggestions maybe we ought to do that as one of the people that came up here fauci on may 28 2020 said the masks are not effective the virus can enter there and actually it's prohibitive to the help of it he then changed his mind and said use 3 15 12 or whatever this is not science i can go to a restaurant take off my mask and sit down my kid can't sit in a chair for eight hours without having his on how's that science well it won't get you outside but it'll get you inside my child played basketball in middle school these kids were gasping for air gasping and refs were stopping the game and tell them to put it over their nose what are we doing follow the science they said i am what a change of pace we have study after study after study after study saying the mental the physical the emotional and the development is killing our kids there's a report that the little ones after a year of this their iq on average went from 100 to 78.

the cdc and the fda have said that that test cannot differentiate between the flu and covid 18 months of this 18 months 2019 to 2020 38 million cases of the flu 2020 to 2021 there was less than 3 thousand that makes you question something doesn't it let's talk about mass effectiveness right we've been told let's follow the science okay so let's follow the science there are zero peer-reviewed clinical trials showing mass effectiveness peer-reviewed clinical trials by the way are the highest level of scientific evidence there are at least three peer-reviewed clinical trials showing the ineffectiveness of masks not only not only they offer the findings not only they offer zero protection but they found that the uh that they cause harm to the wearer and the more the longer you wear it the more harm pneumonia heart heart disease gum disease and then psychological and mental and that's really important for kids right we're making them wear masks they don't get to see faces in closing i'd like to ask you one question what message are we trying to send to these kids right they so we started off don't she says don't wear a mask then he says wear a mask then he's then don't wear a mask back and forth and back and forth at the end of the day what we're going to do is we're going to vote here and if you vote to put them in a mask it's going to be for five weeks that doesn't that doesn't send that doesn't send a clear message of these kids in all my time in the military i did i spent a lot of time in leadership roles i can tell you that if you vote to put the mask as a mandate for five weeks it will not give any confidence to the students of your level of leadership so please do the right thing and give our kids a choice thank you karen stanley stately no okay joanne loki and that will be followed by charlene steyers hi my name is joanne and i have two children currently attending higley unified school district tonight's vote is a drastic step to address the concerns about the spread of covid anyone over the age of 12 may get a vaccine and everyone can wear a mask should they so choose the choice should be voluntary and in response to one's personal situation it should not be a mandate that has not been scientifically proven to actually work at slowing stopping the spread of covid the cdc cites a study that emphasizes that a particular type of mask needs to be worn in a very specific way so that it can quote possibly may help unquote slow the spread of covid why such squishy language if it works so well first the spirit of the house bill 2898 was to apply it to all school districts as students returned to campuses for their new school year the idea that higley unified school district governing board is taking advantage of maricopa county judge warner's judicial ruling on monday august 16th to discuss imposing a mass mandate is very disappointing the lawsuits will continue to be filed giving opportunity for this school's district and others to continue their mass mandates for as long as they want to tonight's vote if a mandate is put in order will not end on september 29th i'm not sure people understand that there are lawsuits saying that this bill isn't legal it will continue the mass mandate to go on and on second if a mass mandate is to be imposed on the children what is the metric that is being used to decide to require mask wearing the district's minimation mitigation plan does not seem to include any such a metric plan as such how many delta variant covert cases hospitalizations or deaths in a week have to be recorded to mandate mask wearing to lift the mandate what did the numbers have to do to go down would the metric be applied by higley unified school district or maricopa county again we heard from dr foley and she was giving various metrics that would be followed but they were all squishy no real numbers i want numbers third in march of 2019 the american public was told to quote shut down and shelter in place for two weeks to slow the spread of covet today august 19 2021 we are in our third third school year and are still having to respond to arbitrary mandates that may or may not have any real effect on the spread of covet what are we doing to our children to ourselves everyone is so concerned about getting sick by the way people seem to forget what having the flu actually means that they do not consider for a moment the negative impact of the emotional psychological and educational effects of these arbitrary mandates on adolescents and adults we are destroying ourselves in the so-called process to save ourselves and it needs to stop thank you shirlene steyers we will go on to angelina abram oh so i didn't prepare any remarks tonight because i wanted to come and speak to you from the heart and your name charlene okay i just want to make sure thank you so i am glad to get the chance to do that because i could stand up here for my three minutes and spout off facts a lot of people have and i appreciate that but the real fact is you're gonna find what you're looking for we're all divided here there are parents just as much on one side as another and i get that i get that because there's not a parent in this room and i think we can all agree on this or outside and by the way there's a lot of us outside that wouldn't lay down our lives for our children i think we can all agree on that so when we come here and we talk about facts and we talk about numbers and we talk about cases that's all fine and dandy but we're just going to go back and forth like a volleyball game the real fact is it's my child i see the whole picture i don't see numbers i don't see statistics i see my child and things you can't see was my three children that attend your school district last year and all the effects all the measures had on them and i'm not faulting anyone because i feel like everyone was trying to do the best they could in an unknown situation and it would be an impossible one but we're not there anymore we have a lot of information we've seen things that worked we've seen that things that didn't work and honestly there's no difference out there if you look at everything you're gonna find what you want to find i can spit off facts i don't have to i will tell you what happened to my kids though my fifth grader had the worst emotional year of her life not just from masking although that was huge but from social distancing from zones from zones that kept her from talking to her friends at any point in the school day i send my kids to get an education and i send them for socialization all of that was removed last year out of fear and again that was last year you were doing the best you could this is now we do not need surveys although we all appreciate when you send them out but trust me we feel like you're not listening when this numbers come in really high one way and you make a decision the other way you're not listening use your eyes go to the drop-offs go to the schools now we are not saying you can't wear a mask i guarantee you anyone that wants to put their kid in a mask can do that now we're not stopping you do it please i've taught my children to be respectful of others and their opinions so do it and we'll try to be kind one to another know that we're on different sides of this know that everyone is struggling with this no matter what side you're on and be respectful of that all we're asking is that you don't take our choice away from us the same as it's been mentioned you would not be okay if i stood out front and took the masks off your children's faces if you feel that's protecting them you would not be okay with that so please do not force my children to put one on my child is in the dual language program and there's a lot of things besides masks there's the zonings there's the one-way hallways it all has an effect on them the no recess the no lunches it all has an effect it all needs to be considered but the end of the day it's a parent's choice this is easy just leave it up to the parents that's all we're asking thank you [Applause] angelina abraham abram amy faust and then julie hancock is julie hancock in here okay hi my name is amy faust and i'm a parent of a first grader in husd school district contrary to the second speaker there's a lot of experts here i've heard a lot of them speaking we're all parents we're all experts on our own children but i've heard a few other experts speak there's a few people of science they've spoken to the science there's a few military members they've spoken to freedom i'm a licensed professional counselor my field is psychology what they've been saying is true you can't find people like me to work with kids we're inundated i've been slammed since the pandemic started and i can't take on any more kids i can barely take on any adults and that stinks because our kids really need help this is hurting them i sent letters to all of you and thank you michelle because you're the only one that acknowledged receipt of my letter so i don't want to recite everything that was in that letter again i can talk about statistics like everybody has it doesn't matter like the last person it's like a volleyball match it just goes back and forth we all have our opinion but i'm here to speak to what's happening to our kids the rate of suicide is skyrocketing we're losing more children to suicide than we are to covet we need to pay attention to that the masked mandate harms our kids they can't see each other's faces they can't see our faces they can't see the faces of teachers that is so vitally important to their emotional and develop their emotional and social development kids up until the age of 14 haven't mastered social skills yet they're looking to us they're looking to their teachers they're looking to their peers to figure out how to communicate and never mind kids that have autism and asperger's they suffer their whole lives if we're masking we're making it even worse for them how are they supposed to learn we're telling them look right here look me in the eye look at my face am i smiling what does that mean in therapy we have face symbols and we ask children pick the symbol pick the face what emotion are you trying to express they're looking at their peers they're looking at the adults in their lives and they don't know when i'm at a grocery store and i'm not wearing a mask i smile at everybody i see because i want people to know that i'm friendly that i'm a person they can trust but when i have a mask on they don't see that i'm still smiling but they don't know that they're looking at my eyes it looks like i can't see because i'm squinting how are they supposed to be able to read that we need we need to keep masks off our children the data supports it but as far as i'm concerned that data doesn't matter what i'm getting in my office every day what's coming into my practice is what matters and that's what i wanted to talk about today please hear us we need people to keep masks off our children we are the experts the parents are the experts in our kids our kids need to be able to see their faces and ours thank you [Applause] and this will be our last speaker good evening dr foley board members thank you so much for once again taking the time to read our emails and to listen to the community tonight april 27 2021 will be etched in my memory as one of the best days in my teaching career even though we were nearing the end of the year of a very long and stressful year and i'm usually burnt out a little bit and very tired of working i could not wait to get to school i could not wait to see my students this was the day thanks to you that we were able to take our mass off you see i teach some of the youngest learners in the district i teach students in preschool 3 four and five years old with developmental delays and speech delays i wish you could have been there to hear the noise and the language that was coming out of these kids there was an energy in the room that you could feel and in the halls parents were happy dropping the kids off the kids were happy the teachers were happy and that again comes thanks thanks to you so again i thank you for letting us end last year on a high note my students made so much progress in just that last month and now i have some of those same students in my classroom again and we are continuing that progress if we return to masking my students will be going backwards and that is not an acceptable direction here we are again voting to either continue using mass or not i'm here to again to ask you to please consider the physical social emotional and the educational needs of our special needs students who cannot speak for themselves they need to be able to see our faces to learn and to learn the language they need to be able to not be hindered by two or three layers of fabric that from what i have seen is not clean and is so filthy you wonder how can this even be healthy finally i'm here to ask you to please allow families to continue to choose if they want their child in a mask because if we don't i fear that many families will continue to use their choice and choose to leave higley thank you so much thank you [Applause] i want to thank all of our speakers for coming forward and sharing their thoughts and information with us it's not easy to get up there and speak and we really we appreciate it i believe at last count we had over 200 emails that we've received even though they may not have been answered i can tell you every single board member read every single one of them i was still reading emails 10 minutes before our board meeting so we have received them we have read them we know what our our community is thinking we also know that this very topic is very divided with different viewpoints so again i appreciate everyone coming to speak president reece mrs wilson i too want to echo that i have read over 200 emails i did not respond as i mentioned in the last board meeting i would not be responding i'm going to reiterate that i did not respond to any of them there was actually one that did get a response she didn't tell me which side of the fence she was on but she did get a response that was the only one i will say our community does not have a lack of passion for something that has truly divided our community i have a speech that i read in fall 2020 when we were coming back to school i read it again in spring 2021 and i'm going to read it again so mr tom for the paper here it goes again you'll probably quote me we've divided our community i've said it before and i'll say it again whatever decision is right for you and your family make it it's the right decision please don't judge others for their decision you don't know what they are dealing with save me safe means something different to each family and each person some feel safe others do not that's okay please continue to be kind and show your kids kindness matters i'm going to say that one one more time show your kids that kindness matters something to remember tonight we will lose families probably with our vote we understand that but kindness goes a long way and maybe we should tell our kids tonight whatever way we vote that kindness is important let's be kind to the friend who decides to wear a mask or the one who can't wear a mask whatever it takes so that's all i have to share thank you mrs wilson presides can i ask a couple questions based on absolutely um first uh dr foley one of the speakers mentioned that their siblings were not quarantined when we had someone with covid is that what's the can you explain that a little bit if you'll recall this summer we talked about the progressive or we talked about the mitigation plans we talked about the exclusion guidelines and that our guidelines match the health departments and at the time they had you know loosened up those guidelines and where our guidelines now are currently the appropriate guidelines again those might those might continue to be changed and obviously we they we are in those meetings every week and jillian updates as needed when we bring you know again the updated mitigation plan they'll reflect the most at the time but currently ours are updated thank you i just wanted clarification for the community on when she mentioned that and then uh one uh i have two things actually um if masks were implemented uh would they're not having would there wouldn't be quarantine as far as what we're having to do now correct as far as the football teams and i'm just wanna like a good question well last year when we had math there were times that even quarantines were required because there were times when depending upon the circumstances if um quarantine quarantining happened obviously when we were directed to do so we did one of the things that had happened was the there was the primary and secondary exposure and that's one of the things that in the guidelines that was sent today from dr sun and shine is the proper fitting mass when there were students around them if there was a person who was positive and they identified that they potentially needed to quarantine if they had been wearing a mask they then didn't need to quarantine but in some cases even if there was they were they were and so again it depended upon the scenario and i appreciate the context people saying it feels smooshy it is it's depending upon every situation um the contact the exposure the date of it is it is hard to to be cons it is hard for it to be identical yeah thank you thank you i just wanted to clarify it for everyone in the room and the question or what's being stated and the direction doesn't come from us it comes from county health and mr schultz um and correct me if i'm wrong dr fully those when we were wearing masks the ones that were quarantined um were groups through contact tracing had contact outside of school that that's why while they were wearing masks in school groups may have been quarantined through their contract tracing that there may have been a group event that they were together at that masks weren't worn is or a sporting a sports activity or group in which there was prolonged exposure in which there was the potential for most many in most cases there's uh multiple cases of positive within a short amount of time that shows that there was exposure at that point so thank you it's squishy as a question squishy is a good word for sure all right i'm going to go ahead and make the motion that the policy ebcf be reinstated until september 29th of 2021 when house bill 2898 goes into effect is there a second okay there is no second therefore that policy will not be going into effect president [Applause] mrs taylor can i make a comment please absolutely um i i too mrs wilson read every email and um i appreciate the passion of this community very much i uh i want to share an email i got tonight today because i too i just i couldn't respond to every mem mrs anderson if you do that hats off to you okay but um so i'm going to read this email i asked the writer for her permission to share it tonight she did not write me back so i will not use her name but i think she kind of summed up what a lot of us are feeling and i just wanted to share it she writes i know tonight is probably going to be rough i do have an opinion one way or the other but i just wanted to thank you for the job you do i'm sure you get praises when the vote goes the way the people want you to vote and i know you get mean awful emails when you vote the opposite way it's a no-win job most of the time but i'm grateful you spend the time away from your own families to try to be best at your job even if you vote differently than i want i don't want that to change we are all humans just trying our best i listen to both sides and i sympathize sympathize with both i hope you can separate this part of the job and ignore the negativity have a blessed day and that's what i want to end with tonight board member taylor that is the one email i responded to i didn't get to see that email but i just want to say one thing am i the most important to me is to keep our schools open and so if that means not sending your kids to school when they have a sniffle please don't send your kids to school because as we've talked about all night it is not at our direction that we have to shut down schools i want my daughter to go to science camp i want the kids to play football i want them to go to prom so and and i respect everyone that's wearing a mask but i want to be able to keep the schools open and that is the most important thing to me that we get able to keep this normal for the kids and i used my eyes and i saw what the community wanted and that's the way i voted tonight on on what i thought that the constituents and the people that voted me into office wanted me to do well and mrs schultz let me let me also remind our community that the motion is a formality it is on our agenda so there is a formality of motion um i too hear you i've hurt our community and i just want to i i don't want this to fall on deaf ears and i know that's what a lot of people feel we continue to receive emails from teachers who have children in their classrooms in the morning that they get in a notification from their parent that they had to come pick them up because while they were at school they got the results of their covid test and it is positive and that they had sat in that classroom and in high schools gone to i don't know how many classes in the morning around so many students without a mask and i get it's optional but they sat in class while they were waiting for the results of their test that is irresponsible and everyone you write you have a choice to wear a mask please be responsible considerate of others do what we can to try and slow the spread down masks don't stop it we understand that it could help slow it we need to do our individual parts everyone has that right but we need to be responsible and considerate of others please if you are waiting for a coveted test for your child do not send them to school again we get these emails consistently from teachers and it's not that it's putting our teachers at risk it is but they're putting many many students at risk and while those statistics may be fairly low right now it doesn't mean they'll stay low and so we need to do our parts so i don't want this to fall on deaf ears we have hurt our community we do want it to be optional but we have to be responsible so i i appreciate everyone speaking tonight we have heard from our our community and i can tell you in my mind not at one time did the governor's grant come into a factor of my decision it is not about money it is about our kids so i just as our district moves forward and we still navigate this and we have cases go up and we have cases come down we're going to see ebbs and flows of this absolutely everyone who said this is not going away it is not going away hopefully sooner than later it will be more like the flu that we're not having these large outbreaks within our schools in our communities that are impacting our kids covet in itself has had a huge psychological impact on our kids and our community even as adults you know we've looking around the room i don't think anyone here has been through anything like this and it has been trying and challenging for all so i just asked again what mrs wilson said please let's model kindness for our children and respect the choices of everybody parents send your kids in mask if you want to do so and we will continue to move forward we will continue to operate within our confines of what the maricopa county public health department allows us to do and our goal is to stay in person we know that remote learning that was the hardest social emotional psychologically challenging for our kids and for our parents they were ready for our kids to be in school and they need to be in school so just everyone please be courteous and responsible and we will move forward i do want to note quickly representative mr jake hoffman was here when we were doing public comment i saw him leave but i do want to recognize he was here we were doing our public comments so he didn't have an opportunity to speak but i just want to make that noted so with that anyone have anything else mrs anderson i'll make it quick we've been here a long time we've heard a lot of people speak so thank you um i didn't read all your emails i couldn't sit with that being said and i'm sorry but i want to and i will it just will be delayed going off of what miss president reece said yes be diligent but i also want to thank those parents that have kept their children home i know it's a tough decision to make because there's a lot of school that is missed but i appreciate you doing it the numbers reported by students i'm sorry teachers and myself we've had a lot of students out so i appreciate you doing that um i'm just gonna with the one thing that stuck out i don't know who said this in their email to me but the one thing that stuck out stuck out was the comment of keeping masks off because of the children's attitude towards school right there i was moved and that's that was the moment where i realized that's what really matters is we get these kids in school and they're happy to be there they are safe when they when they are there and we are glad that they are in school thank you all for showing up tonight and speaking it takes a lot of courage and i'm so glad all of you spoke to help help us to fully understand what you're all experiencing i'm going to stop there thank you and to those who didn't get to speak we apologize we still had more requests to speak than we had even gotten through so we appreciate everyone requesting we appreciate um those who spoke and i'm i'm sorry if you had requested to speak and did not get to with that i move we adjourn second all those in favor aye aye have a good night you

these were on display from last board meeting the recommendation is that we approve them as presented with the following notes 1 30 is the mission statement review we are if we ever get around to the strategic planning process and that changes we will change it in policy at that time so this is fine to keep that and then Mrs gocher actually reviewed it and and uh saw on 120 I didn't have this in your notes but uh we have parando still listed as our special education Co-op and we've been out of coriando now for seven years we're going on our seventh year and so um we should probably take prando off of our special ed co-ops Adam and Scott are the two board members on this committee did you guys see anything that needed to be noted most of this was really just legally's updates and whatnot I have nothing else yeah nothing else well did we update the mission statement during our planning meeting remember with all the posting notes and I thought that was that's the mission statement that's in here okay all right so that's it that is the most updated one yes okay so my understanding is since we have deviated from the standard plan our changes or remain constant even when we approve this we're not going back to their language we're staying right with us right right okay yes any discussion questions all right then I make a motion to approve the Press policy 107.

suicides are up 500 percent anxiety depression up 242 have you ever tried getting a therapist in this valley for your child they're booked out for a year i need you to stand up i need you to protect their kids if you want to wear your mask you want to get vaccinated i support you as a parent to do that for your child no one's preventing you from not wearing a mask if they work wear one but don't make my child go through emotional i had to pick my kid up twice for having panic attacks pull her mask down because she can breathe [Music] protect my kid do what's right stand up thank you i have hari and then i have danielle hello my name is carrie pendleton i'm a parent of two high school boys at williamsfield high school our family is new to the district we transferred here from gilbert school district this year because they were still enforcing mask at the end of last year even after governor ducey lifted the mass mandates we toured many schools in various districts and we settled on williamsville because they are in the higley district who voted to do the right thing and make mass optional i am here to tell you my boys will not be wearing masks at this district either i do not authorize you to make medical decisions for my kids my older son has given up half a season of football he has to sit out as a requirement by aia for transferring he loves football he's lost some friends because they're calling him a traitor for switching teams but he feels that passionately about not having his freedoms taken away it's bigger than a sport right now you can go ahead and insert any activity important to your child an example as an example instead of football it's a really big deal to miss half a season as a junior on varsity in high school my younger son a freshman said at this point he'd rather just drop out than put up with this again everyone in this room that stood for and spoke the pledge of allegiance i'd like to remind you that it ends with liberty and justice for all liberty which is defined as personal freedom personal freedom that if you have access to the news or any media sources you have seen images of people falling off the plane trying to get to their freedom i don't understand why any of you would vote to have our freedoms taken away i don't understand because unlike some people in this room and in this district my life has not been taken over by fear fear is the only thing that could drive someone to give up personal freedoms to this extent to wear a mask because you believe it makes you safe from a virus that can't be blocked from a mask is irrational thinking created by fear it is a security blanket nothing more you might as well just put up a chain link fence like my friend back here said to block out the mosquitoes or flies in your yard but that is neither here nor there i will not tell you what you can have to do go ahead and exercise your right to mask up vaccinate up keep you and your family safe the way you see fit in that same light do not block mine in my children's rights because my thinking differs from yours if someone came up and berated you and forced you to unmask you'd understand where i'm coming from you'd be angry you would tell them that they have no right to do that be honest with yourself you say you don't want to discriminate kids that don't want to wear masks will be the only ones discriminated against as they won't have an option do the right thing better yet do the american thing thank you thank you after danielle will be kristin apodaca my husband and i have a freshman at williams field one of the biggest reasons we chose this district is because we felt a sense of patriotism freedom freedom of all parents to be able to choose what's best for their own children own child this freedom is not taken away from those who are supporting the mass mandate the pro-mask individuals believe their ch if they believe that the mass work and they're protected by them no one is stopping them from wearing them freedom is taken away from those of us who do not want our children to wear a mask through my own countless hours of research i understand the negative effects masks have on our children's health this information is coming from doctors nurses pediatricians virologists other health care professionals who have nothing to gain everything to lose by speaking out against these mandates when our kids have a mask on their face throughout the day it's cutting oxygen to the brain it's really important to consider because the brain continues to develop until age 25 and the kids are in that stage right now that critical stage of brain development with a mask on the face and constantly breathing in their own carbon dioxide for countless hours throughout the day this can be dangerous for many reasons but especially the respiratory system there's much evidence and statements even on the cdc website as well as on the box of the mask themselves stating that the masks do not protect anyone from getting code it's a virus the particles in the virus are so minute it's nearly impossible for the virus to not pass through the much larger fibers making up the mass it would be like shooting a bb gun through a chain-link fence to date there is no proof that a child has infected a teacher or caused death in any school in the entire world the kids when they do get sick so they are typically the symptoms are fairly mild the death rate of covet amongst kids is .003 percent that's a ninety nine point nine nine percent survival rate and there has been no report of a healthy child that doesn't have underlying conditions that has died from it instead of instilling fear in our children and teaching division why don't we focus on teaching them to be proactive with their health by boosting their immune system let's educate them on eating healthy exercising drinking water getting enough sleep reducing stress it's it's as though we've lost all of our common sense there's nothing stronger than our god-given immune system when we take care of our host to me the saddest thing of all is what this is doing to our kids mental and emotional health we're already seeing the ramifications currently there are not enough therapists to support the growing need of mental health support in 2020 suicide rates increase five-fold anxiety and depression are at an all-time high amongst our kids our kids are meant to be social they're meant to see each other's emotions and facial expressions they're meant to be able to see sadness happiness anger they're meant as we all are to have human contact and interaction our kids are already losing social skills in large part due to social media but also because they're being suppressed so i'm asking you please let our kids be kids let them see and feel a sense of normalcy in a really abnormal world please do what's best for them in this district they need us all of us to advocate for them thank you thank you kristin apodaca and then we will have will fordenberry okay perfect thank you hi my name is kristin apodaca and i have four children who attend schools here in the district i stand before you today to ask you why why are we here doing this again the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result which is exactly what is happening we did masks last year it did not solve anything there were still kids who got coveted and still kids being quarantined with the mask mandate in effect what will mandating masks do for five weeks there is zero logic behind this it is another attempt at throwing something at the wall to see if it will stick i am asking for common sense and logic to have a place at the table tonight once again the goal posts are being moved every time we get close or achieve the last goal it's it swiftly gets moved further out it started out that we could drop these mandates and resume a normal sense of a school day once the teachers could be safe safe met when they had a vaccine available that could protect them that day came and became available for all those teachers and yet here we are again being told once it's safe the queen creek school district what has remained excuse me mask optional since last year as has most charter schools in our area did they collapse did they need to shut down why are we not using them as an example of how it can be done safely masks being optional has always been an option for those who felt feel it necessary for their family no one is taking their option to choose a way and in doing so those schools have maintained a safe environment for all this virus is not going anywhere as we have already seen and we have already tried by mandating masks before we have to learn to live with it in the best way possible the mitigation plans that have been put into place over the last week is another example of the lack of logic that creates these rules herding children in one direction down a hallway or a set of stairs for middle schoolers all at one time does nothing for their safety cramming kids all together to move to their classrooms taking their ability to walk across the hallway away has no merit for safety if anything it's creating other safety hazards taking morning recess away from our elementary children no longer allowing them time to be outside getting fresh air sun on their skin getting their wiggles out once again has no merit in safety it takes a lot of courage to stand up here before you to speak and to take a stand for our children but as a parent that is what i am here to do i am here to stand up for my children i am asking you the members of the board to do the same members of the board if you took on this job for the children then please be courageous set an example for our district and our children our children are not for sale and they are not a bargaining tool in this political game that continues to be played in our public school system deep down i know you all know what is happening is wrong the only way to stop it is by stopping it please keep mass optional thank you thank you we have and then our next speaker is larry shrimp okay thank you go ahead hello all right so i'm a father of two higley students and a higley taxpayer i want to thank you board for listening and for your service on the board overall i know it's a tough job i also want to thank you for your example tonight in making a personal decision as to whether to put a mask over your face or not tonight and potentially risk harming us all by not covering your face um covid stats everybody's talked about a ton of stats looked at cdc today as of yesterday since this thing started 430 deaths under the age of 18 the large majority with terminal illnesses the previous year flu stats flu is was non-existent somehow last year but the previous year there were over 600 likely flu deaths according to the cdc so the flu is literally more deadly than covid is yet we've never messed up none of us growing up we never did any of this stuff right we never had dashboards any of that however the psychological impacts are real people have talked about those as well ssa.gov did a study they said that over 50 percent of children have suffered severe impact on mental health due to covid and the coveted response i might add my son william fifth grader at bridges elementary he's in h pal 97th percentile on the testing last year he's such a loving kid bright and outgoing he's become angry depressed he lashes out far more often now and just this past week through tears he shared with my wife in his words he just can't take this stuff anymore so the impact to our kids is huge and as it's been said i think it's permanent so if masks if this thing isn't harmful to our children why do we wear masks is it to protect adults every adult has had the opportunity to get vaccinated already and even if it is even if they haven't it's not a child's responsibility to protect adults it's adults responsibility to protect children so with that in mind it's not in my child's best interest to wear masks and as loving parents we will not comply with any mask mandate the government of these united states is by the people for the people we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness the people do not want to mask their children our country was built on liberty and we demand the right to choose whether to mask our children or not ars 1-602 number 5 has already been stated but it's it's against arizona law to make health decisions for our children so if a mandate is brought forth my children will be forced to unenroll and take our tax dollars elsewhere as taxpayers and citizens we will vote with our feet in regard to how our children are educated uh it's been mentioned the the fiscal impacts as well you'll lose you know eight point something million dollars uh in terms of of the doug ducey funds there so in summary a vote for mask mandate will restrict freedoms negatively impact children's mental health and take money away from our district all without providing any real health benefit please make the right choice as you did in april thank you [Music] we have larry and our next speaker is kim collins okay she's it thank you hi thank you for the opportunity to speak um tonight um i realize this is a highly charged topic and everybody's got an opinion you're getting criticized either way you come down on it but uh anyway i just want to commend you for giving us a voice the people here in the public um really i just want to talk about two studies that have recently come out the first one it was talked about an article last month in the wall street journal it's called in children the risk of covid19 death or serious illness remains extremely low new study finds and i'll just read a bit from it it says that children are extremely slim risk of dying from covid19 according to some of the most comprehensive studies to date which indicate the threat might be even lower than previously thought some 99.995 percent of the 470 000 children in england who were infected during the year survived one study found in fact there were fewer deaths among children due to the virus than initially than initially suspected in fact only 25 of those 470 000 infected students died due to the illness itself and my understanding is there's limited studies on the delta variant but based on the limited studies it does not appear that that's any more dangerous to children than the original strand the second study is from the cdc's own website it's called the physiological burden of prolonged ppe slash mask use on healthcare workers during long shifts basically it says that the n95 mask is always going to n95 mask users are always always going to experience some level of difficulty breathing or breathing resistance even though these devices are designed to minimize breathing resistance as much as possible enough breathing resistance can result in the reduction in the frequency and depth of breathing known as hypoventilation which is basically a co2 overload some of the side effects that they found from not from co2 overload is headache increased pressure inside the skull nervous system changes increased pain threshold reduction in cognition altered judgment decreased situational awareness difficulty coordinating sensory or cognitive abilities monitoring activity decreased visual acuity widespread activation sympathetic nervous system those are all the direct effects as well as increased worker breathing cardiovascular effects all the things that everyone else has already mentioned tonight one other thing of interest in that wall street journal article is they they mentioned that it went on to say that a child has a greater risk of dying from the flu or drowning than kovid we don't send our kids to school and life jackets to keep them safe from drowning i don't think we should send them to school in mass to keep statesman covered thank you president president ruiz yes i wasn't here i know at the beginning but can we have some of the people that are waiting in the lobby to come sit down since there's empty seats or was that not allowed earlier we just hadn't done that so it's not disruptive okay it's good all right so we have kim and then following kim is jana mclean okay good evening as a parent of two students here at higley unified school district in my opinion masks make sense as an educator at a higley elementary school my opinion is masks make sense this variant covid is different it's different because it's affecting elementary age students it has the ability to affect elementary age students these same students are unable to be vaccinated in my opinion masks make sense to reduce the communication of covid at our schools my ask today is that we protect hiddley's students by making our campuses requiring masks as a mandate that's it short and sweet thank you and then after the speaker we're going to take a short recess so if at that point additional people want to come in all right okay i am not a doctor a nurse or a scientist but i am a dental hygienist and have a bachelor's in science and my career is literally based in preventing disease i wasn't originally going to attend tonight because 40 days of masking isn't going to do any appreciable good in stopping the spread of covid just like that initial shutdown that was only going to be two weeks long obviously that didn't work but i realized something i was planning on wearing a bikini top tonight and daisy dukes but i lost my courage why am i saying this we have a dress code in place most places including in schools the dress codes are to facilitate learning in a safe environment not wearing a mask during a pandemic does not facilitate a safe learning environment if we can make a dress code for the length of shorts and skirts words that are on a person's clothing and hairstyles surely we can make a dress code for masking when there is a highly communicable disease my son is six he wears a mask when he is with me but he is refusing when he is at school i was told i would have a choice if my kid wore a mask or not i don't so to say that um he's not doing it because he's saying no one else is doing it so it's actually more of a peer pressure thing kind of like if everyone else is jumping off a 10 foot bridge are you gonna do it too i guess he would for those people who are saying that their child would be outcasted if they did not wear a mask that's already occurring the kids who are wearing a mask are feeling outcasted and feel like they're embarrassed to wear a mask kids tend to be like their parents so if the parent is verbal and anti-mask it's highly likely their children especially younger children will be exactly the same i'm not big on punishment but i do believe in consequences there is no logical consequence for my son not wearing a mask that is related to him not wearing one when he's at school not going to school really isn't a good consequence and the only other consequence would be natural and that natural consequence would be him acquiring kobit i had to test my son on thursday night of last week thankfully he was negative he was really congested i think it was just allergies that's what most of us are saying right it's just allergies but i got a letter on tuesday that a coveted positive person was on his same bus he sits in the bus for 20 minutes waiting to leave the school he likes riding the bus and the bus is a main factor in why we kept him in his district school today we got two letters another from transportation another kid is sick and that a first grader is sick the grade that my kid is in this did not happen last year we received zero letters he went from january until may if you look at the dashboard it is evident that the cases are up let me go over some common arguments against mass dirty mask wash it you can easily hand wash and dry a mask overnight buy multiple masks if you need to and rotate them but i also find this argument contradictory because people say well they're not getting into contact with germs because they're wearing a mask well if your mask is dirty then you're getting into contact with germs breathing in the mask fibers you breathe in dirty air all the time we have multiple red flag days all this to say i am asking actually the district put in a temporary dress code while there is a pandemic going on asking for a mask thank you thank you what all right we are going to take a brief recess probably about two minutes okay thank you we're going to go ahead and resume our meeting um we will we will have 10 more speakers and then we will close public comment so i have logan geronimo and then mark eltowell okay thank you three elementary age children and i was not at any board meetings last year because i withdrew from higley upon the mask mandate i chose to homeschool them to avoid the risk that they'd be in masks 33 hours a week if you do a web search for a times magazine article titled hospitals overwhelmed by flu patients are treating them in tents from january 2018 that's january 2018 you will find a quite similar hysteria to today the article includes inundated hospitals across the country including new jersey alabama california pennsylvania illinois and missouri seeking quote extraordinary measures such as asking staff to work overtime pulling nurses from all floors setting up triage tents restricting friend and family visits the use of ventilation due to respiratory failure and canceling elective surgeries just to name a few end quote alabama also declared a state of emergency i have copies here of that article if any of you would like to see it in that 2017-18 season the cdc estimated that 600 children died from influenza and during the 1920 season they estimated 434 juvenile deaths in the past 18 months the cdc estimates a total of 332 children i heard somebody else say updated to 350 have died from cove in 19 so those previous flu seasons had more deaths despite a widely administered vaccine and lower case rates so what's the difference between the response in 2018 and that of now it's been over a year since the medical community has navigated and learned about this virus and provided vaccines to everyone who feels they are at risk an analysis published by the financial times in an article titled why are fully vaccinated people testing positive for kovid found children at a point zero zero zero two percent less risk from covet 19 than vaccinated adults in fact a new york times article titled kids covid and delta found that children are about 10 times more likely to die in a car accident than from kovid so who are the masks meant to protect what is the difference from 2018 why wasn't there a demand to mask up then is it because there is suddenly a new revelation that masks can protect others against asymptomatic viral loads not quite leading up to 2020 several randomized controlled studies had found that masks can hardly be deemed effective at preventing the spread of disease the cdc pointed to one randomized controlled trial which concluded quote this study is the first randomized controlled study of cloth masks and the results caution against the use of cloth masks this is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety moisture retention reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased infection again that's increased infection to date there is yet to be another randomized control trial completed to show that masks are any more effective or even safe to wear so again who are these masks meant to protect thank you after this our next um following mark will be michelle judd okay perfect thank you hi uh thank you for having us here today and give us the opportunity to speak on this issue and i do not envy the difficult position you all are in um my name is mark eltawell and i'm here tonight as the grandfather of two two children in bridges elementary um i just wanted to throw out some facts i'm sure everybody's reading and and uh and keeping track of what's going on but i haven't heard a whole lot of facts tonight i've heard a lot of passion over the according to reporting from the state and from the children's hospital association over 160 000 of our arizona children have gotten covet 19 and sadly 34 have died there are vaccination programs underway for those 12 and over but those 12 and under don't have the opportunity to get the vaccine yet and even for those over 12 at 44 vaccination rate we're lagging the national average and we're well behind our neighbors to the east and the west both of whom are well over 60 percent vaccinated so we need to continue to do more to help protect our children arizona has the sixth highest rate of childhood coveted infection of all the states in the u.s and that rate is nearly 50 percent or actually over 50 percent higher than the national average rate we're not doing enough to protect our children the rate of children being hospitalized is accelerating so contrary to what some people think that kids aren't really getting sick and going the hospital the rate of children going the hospital is accelerating it's now ten percent higher than it was just two months ago and uh 15 percent higher than it was just three months ago just this morning valley wise uh health system reported that their hospital is seeing an increased rate of pediatric admissions and is uh imploring asking us as leader as as parents as adults to do something more to protect our children i'll end where i started over 160 000 of our children have gotten covered 19 and 34 have died we're the adults we're the leaders we need to do everything we can to prevent these deaths from happening thank you so i have michelle judd and then kyle speck okay do masks reduce covet transmission in children it is nearly impossible to find any study answering this question and the results on this are inconclusive of the 42 billion the national institute of health spent on research last year less than 2 percent went to covid clinical research and not a single grant was dedicated to studying masks in children while there is an absence of data in the case of masking children there is a plethora of information on the case against it before schools decide to start forcing children to cover their faces regardless of the non-proven efficacy of such a decision let's consider the harm many children struggle wearing a mask children who wear glasses can struggle to see because the mask fogs their glasses masks can cause severe acne and other skin problems some students may experience anxiety or difficulty breathing while wearing a mask increased airway resistance during exhalation can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood this can lead to dizziness excess fatigue and headaches some children compensate for such difficulties by breathing through their mouths it is well documented that chronic and prolonged mouth breathing can alter facial development resulting in amount deformity and elongated face the psychological harm this may be doing to our children should be an even greater concern facial expression expressions are integral to human connection especially for young children who are still learning how to communicate covering a child's face mutes these non-verbal forms of communication and can result in emotionless interactions as well as anxiety and depression young children need to see people speak for their phonetic development especially children with speech impediments i have personal experience with this with my three-year-old son he needs to be able to see his teacher's mouth move he also needs to be understood without the impairment of a mask if safety measures are to be implemented we should be implementing safe safety measures we should not be choosing a safety measure that has more risk associated with it than reward children who wish to wear a mask are free to do so forcing children to wear a mask and make personal health and developmental sacrifices without any proven efficacy is not only abusive it's lunacy thank you so after kyle is karen stanley yep okay good evening governing board my name is kyle speck master sergeant united states air force retired the reason i bring up my service is because i gave an oath to support and defend the constitution of the united states as well as the people of this country my question to you is what are we doing here i sat in this room about four months ago went over the same topic came to a conclusion voted four to one to get rid of masks as a mandate leave it optional right come on to my knowledge there's no city state county requirement that this meeting even takes place no other schools to my knowledge are even have in this meeting my guess is because of the cases that's what i've heard people talk about right so let's talk about the cases the pcr test exclusively used for covet 19.

so they would have been pretty predominantly a four five six building we had a third right it just seems to be our hot sauce i just have one maybe procedural question is there any reason why substance abuse reduces violence or you know the other headings is that like a statewide other questions all right open to the public for agenda items only um so in accordance with district policy zero one zero one six seven participation board meetings members of the public must sign in at the podium or online providing their name address group affiliation if applicable please state your name address followed by your public participate participation agenda items only comments to the presiding officer of the meeting your public participation is limited three to five minutes in duration no participants may speak more than once on the same topic until all others have been heard do we have any questions for agenda items um there's no sign in sheet but it's patricia o'reilly 745 school house so i'm just asking about uh agenda 7.2 just wondering why there's an extra day um there's there's an extra we put in an extra snow day um this year just because of last year we actually ended up closing and had to add it back an extra day so that extra day if you don't use it we'll be giving back to our memorial day okay and then uh 9.2 about the uh new policies and regulations um i've asked this about other things um it's hard for me to find stuff on the website are we gonna get like once these are approved are we going to be able to find these on the website on the website somewhere yeah they all get updated into our policy part of the website underneath the board but the board tonight is going to be asked to approve a uh a contract with a communications firm to redesign the website and make it more user-friendly so there's actually under under the board of ed then you go to yeah oh okay all right that's all thanks thank you we do have one online it is from jackie beers regarding 6.9 item 6.9 will reduce kindergarten from eight teachers to seven teach with moving mrs arias from kindergarten to first grade i understand this is due to current numbers being low however please take into consideration the influx of students that occur between now and september we have been in this situation many times before i hire an eighth teacher at the last minute and sometimes after school has already begun i do not want to be in this situation again this year i'm asking for to consider leaving this cesarean position her current spot kindergarten allow us to have lower numbers so we can accommodate any new registry to follow cbc guidelines and give our youngest students the best educational setting to learn as always thank you for consideration well the facts are this currently inside the county uh kindergarten classrooms uh as we did a check on this is anywhere from 18 to 19 kids with no aids currently if we left eight teachers in our kindergarten we would be at 12 13 by removing one kindergarten teacher would be going to 14 15 and if i still cannot fill any spots i'm going to take another kindergarten teacher bring that number up to 17 put another kindergarten feature somewhere else because right now filling positions and making sure we have enough staff where we need them is our major concern okay any other agenda item comments seeing none [Music] personnel resolutions to high school resolve the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions has outlined the personal resolutions under district high school 5.2 through 5.10 can i get a motion motion motion mr battle there second second mrs morris discussion seeing none can have a roll call vote please martinez yes mars yes busan yes i'm sally yes but larry yes [Music] yes ocean passes okay dan i'd just like to congratulate the gentleman who got a spoiler license that's that's a big thing that helps out the district immensely it does um personal resolutions middle and elementary school resolve the superintendent recommends for approval following resolutions has outlined the personnel resolutions under middle and elementary school 6.2 through 6.12 can i get a motion motion miss martinez second second second mr battle there discussion martinez yes morris yes ocean taxes education resolutions district and high school resolved the bamboo board of education approves the resolutions has outlined that educational resolution within the district of high school seven point two through seven point four can i get a motion motion motion mr battle air second second second mrs morris discussion so there's five snow days or there's two yeah it's five there was there was a mistake made in the calendar and they decided to keep it for the five days because that's god forbid we have to go virtual last time we went virtual i had to actually um use the snow date to kind of get everything all situated for virtual so i decided to keep the fifth day in and if we don't use it we'll just give it back door and memorially we can extend it out a little bit there so the extra days because it only says online the extra days are the 31st and the 26th it doesn't say yeah that that's all getting admitted after this is working okay okay question on the teacher's handbook we put in the policies new policies i probably did not because they just they constantly they just changed they're so fluid and they keep changing that we keep sending updates i haven't even sent that letter to the staff yet i'm doing it this week just because um thursday i knew that this was coming um i got the heads up that this was coming out thursday so you know i want to wait until just the right you know where i think we're in the spot where if i give that information it's not going to change within 48 hours at the record there's no covet on i just searched the code but there isn't okay can you just confirm what day it is that changed yeah it was um did we add one to november it's um the second the first tuesday in november which is election day okay because what we did for election day is we're doing an online day initially we had that day off but we're actually going to do online since they gave us the ability to do that so we just kept that day in there as an extra snow day or anything like that any other questions so you're not going to get a role full vote please martinez yes mars yes yes what's the matter yes thomas yes by the ladder yes yes dan i'm sorry with the election day so we're allowed to do virtual yeah just on that day just on that [Music] and basically what what what they had told us was we could use that as a trial rover virtual to see if we had any internet problems any sort of issues whatsoever that we could um use that i don't want to say an experiment day but a day where you know we can get some feedback on how virtual is going if we have to make any adjustments to our plan moving forward because again as as things are going in the way we are going i i hope you're in school all year long but yeah you just don't know and that's just this year or that's like as far as i know that's just this year thank you okay education resolutions middle and elementary resolved that the boundary court of education approves the resolutions is outlined in educational resolutions under middle and elementary schools eight point two and eight point three can i get any motion motion motion miss morris second miss lusada discussion i'd just like to compliment the english the language art department on their books i thought this the selection is updating very nice that's something that i've as you know i've said every year that uh we we need to get more current books for these people and mitch album is an excellent writer abstain education approves the resolutions as outlined in policy resolutions under district and high school 9.2 can i get a motion motion motion mr vavalaire second mrs martinez discussion so i just had a question i think at our last meeting we talked about an opportunity between meetings for us to sit down and review variances from blast and that that's my fault because obviously i was on vacation um so if you want to table these until we have that meeting you're more than welcome to do that although i can tell you right now i have another stack of positives i mean that's what you're having to have to redo as well um i can tell you that in this stack of policies that you're reviewing there is nothing earth shattering changes um there is some abolishments of some old policies which is coming from estimated spouses to our policy company that updates our policies and things like that otherwise it's just straight forward um striking changes uh to keep up with you know current legislation as you know they make amendments and things like that so we're okay going forward all right yeah okay any other stuff can i get a roll vote martinez yes mars yes yes ocean taxes okay resolutions resolve the founding board of education approves the resolution of the outline of financial resolutions 10.2 through 10.8 can i get a motion motion motion ms mark second second second miss martinez discussion [Music] any other 10.8 yes sir um i guess i'm having a little bit of trouble with that one in particular because of the speed with which we brought it over and i guess the the website seems to be a very big farm in my side it comes up every year as something that just doesn't seem to communicate well it doesn't work well with our community we've had a number of issues with it and constantly being asked to suddenly somehow come up with that and come to the realization that in-house we just cannot do that at this point in time so i asked myself if i can go out and get a company to do that unfortunately she's not here to say yeah she want me to go through so i mean personal opinion i think the initiative is great i do agree with you the website could seem to be improved um for the this particular proposal were there any other bids solicited from other vendors um and what is the expected all-in cost for the contract because i noticed that the website was a separate carve out with additional costs associated with it correct i contacted three this seemed to be the best one fit our needs um is it typical for us to vote on a contract without knowing the full expected spend um as you see there's a monthly cost um and it all depends on how many months we use it so if we're only gonna use it for two months at six thousand dollars however if we're able to use it for ten months it's thirty thousand dollars so usually what we do is at this point we do that not to exceed costs and that's usually what we do at this point in time cost okay so my question is there's the consulting side of this monthly retainer that much again i understand the website work seems to be in addition to wherever that retainer is so that's the total cost correct and again the reason the reason i mentioned myself is the reason i want to do that because communication is the thing that keeps coming back to me so you know i didn't want i did you know in years past what we've done is we've just brought in technical people to do websites right and it just hasn't worked for us so what what i decided to do and talking with michelle was let's bring in a communication firm who will make sure that the website is communication friendly it's all-encompassing it does what we want it to do so um again i am not a pr specialist i'm not i don't say i'm a communications specialist um however i think at this point in time if we bring in somebody who's a specialist to oversee that to make sure that we get the exact product we want that it's much more a beneficial spending than some of the other things that you know we've done in the past and do you think that they would be able to advise us not only on structure but also copying content exactly what they're doing exactly what they're doing again that that's why when i talked to michelle it was more about not only doing reviewing the website but making sure it's a communication platform that hits the needs that the board wants to hit because right now every time we talk about the website and we talk about information getting out you know we have multiple multiple ways of doing it we're trying to make sure we hit all those multiple ways we're for whatever reason and again i'll take the blame for it you know it doesn't seem to be as successful as we think internally that it is so at this point in time you know i just said you know i'm not an expert in this i'm not going to say am but let's bring in an expert who can say hey you've been doing this pretty good or no you've been terrible at this and this is the way it needs to be done and they just think at this point in time after our discussions and our offline discussions um with members of the board and with michelle that this was the direction that we needed to go i appreciate it and you know my final comment would be i think it's uh refreshing to see that we're not only like you said going to get a review of what the website kind of does right from a structure and hyperlinks and accessibility perspective but also what information we're putting out there how usable and useful it is to the people that are going to the website so you know from that perspective and and i also think that you know one of the things that you know offline with multiple people on the board and i have spoken about is making sure that that and again i talk about format and making sure it's clean making sure it's presentable make sure it's readable make sure it's something that's easy to digest and because we have a wide range of constituents within the district at this point in time really i think that you know we need somebody who's a professional at that to make sure we're getting the messages that we need to get across from our website thank you well um i think it's great that we're bringing in uh expert to help out with this communication situation we've been trying to handle i'd love to see in the future a way to involve the students i know that that would be really difficult because you know all these other confidentiality things but i think in the long run if we can find a way to incorporate them you know pr communication things like that's their thing right so one of the things i liked about her was that she's done this before for other districts and then she has experience doing this with other districts as what you just said she does have experience with student content as well so i really thought that that her particular proposal met by means the best um with a couple of the other ones that i you know one was out of like ocean city new jersey another one was out of lake minnesota another one was out in new york city so when i contacted those you know they gave you the typical canned proposals can things that they would do and with laura it was more no i'm going to customize it to what your needs are i'm going to come in and have conversations with you guys i'm going to come in and talk to you and see and make sure that whatever we do is meeting the needs of the district i think that was a big difference between the four proposals that i looked at and that's the reason i wanted to kind of move quickly out of this so so that's me and talking michelle and i'm just moving as quickly as possible because i like to get things done i don't like things to just linger and sit around and not get done so you know we're going into a new school year we're coming out of covet hopefully we're not going back into a code that locked out um you know we have a number of issues that you know we're gonna have to deal with there's gonna be a number of communication items that are going to have to deal with with you know do new regulations on quarantining and all the other different items that are going to come along i just felt as though we needed to get this done so we get her in here so we can get this cleaned up as soon as possible hopefully you know have a workable communication system out to our parents and our staff and our stakeholders and everybody else that works and that's clean so you know to me it became a very much a priority to get done and to move without it okay any other discussion can i get a mobile vote please martinez yes mars yes busan yes what's the matter yes thomas ellie yes uh yes with an extension of check number [Applause] and januzzi yes ocean passes okay um other matters to come before the board of new business i just wanted to say um congratulations to mrs mary i think the students are going to be sad i know they really liked his classes i hope we get someone as engaging as him to replace him as a teacher but i think it's exciting for him to move on yeah i'm glad we were able to offer him this opportunity i know um speaking to jeff having a relationship for death you know he was applying it to other districts so keeping here to me is a win for us yeah because he has his ticket now right correct is there any general updates you can share regarding new guidance from the state on covet or any changes since the last meeting sure um obviously the governor came out today mandating that all teachers be vaccinated by october 18th i think it is or they have to submit a medical or religious exemption for that again or they can get tested twice a week or right where they can get close to testing twice a week now the testing twice a week um again this is the reason that i really don't want to get anything out so i have all the information um i asked and you gotta know this i've asked uh i put it for a testing machine for the difference um through the county um the last i checked was they have the machines they have the testing supplies and everything else i just haven't exceeded it yet i also haven't been told i'm definitely getting it either um because i think that makes it a lot easier for us if we have a machine here um obviously we have one machine for the district who probably could appear at the high school and do testing out of the high school nurse's office um you know that's you know i'm gonna try and find out if we're getting the machine this week because that kind of makes things a little bit easier for for the district when it comes to this um in terms of um quarantine and all the other stuff that's still relatively the same that really hasn't changed the big news though is mandatory vaccinations okay i apologize i thought there was an update from a department of education suggesting that it was okay to use virtual options for individuals or classes again no that is not the case jordan schiff is now the assistant commissioner for the department he's former superintendent hillsborough his memo to us was basically you know do your best but try to get kids don't wait for home instruction try to get kids their opportunity um for education as soon as possible um and again what we had said earlier still isn't the same which is um we're probably going to use a virtual home construction option we'll just start earlier obviously like day one day two um versus waiting until day five um but we're still not going to do simultaneous instruction again just going back and looking at the stress that that put on our teachers and our staff um i don't think at this point in time that that would be a good move for our staff for um moving forward especially if it's only you know one or two kids depending on classes the situations obviously it's a little different in the whole class if a teacher has to pardon then at that point the whole class will probably be unvirtual with the teacher but that's you know a different situation for you know different circumstances again these things are fluid um you know i've always tried to approach these things with some some level of common sense right by kids as well as trying to take our stand into consideration and try not to tax them out too much because obviously we attack our staff too much that creates another issue so um we're gonna try and keep that happens at least as we move forward and try to do great i think that makes sense you know just from prior conversations i think there was some amount of concern about waiting elapsed time for home instruction and then does this look more like a probability not a possibility how practical is home instruction when the individual is supposed to be quarantining anything right so i think the you know the state loosening that guideline giving because the other thing is you know obviously there's regulations that if we're out for three consecutive days for a snow emergency or a declaration of mercy or medical or health emergency we can go to an all virtual option after day three my hope is that they even lessen that up to give us the flexibility if we have to flip to the next day that we can right now we're still being told three days so we're really hoping that that even becomes a little bit of a you know what we're getting a little bit better at this you know going from in class that you know virtual option that they loosen that up for us a little bit as well damn i thought what he announced today was all teachers had to be vaccinated except for religious or medical no they don't i believe i believe i didn't get the actual you know again i heard i enjoyed that i mean like everybody else i haven't gotten to the official memo i'm sure i will get one either tonight or tomorrow um exactly i thought they had taken the i did want to opt out and just get tested i have a hard time thinking that they can do that again that's just me but again i i would have to wait for them official memo and then i would be able to tell you whether or not that other option is or is not for the um this week probably at the end of the week is basically just asking everybody to update their stuff and you know this is where we're at these are what we're being told hopefully i have a memo by the department by that time without mandatory vaccinations and things like that and we can get a better handle on our inside information and then you know kind of go from there because obviously we have to you know if we have 30 percent of our staff which i think the last time i checked about 30 percent didn't have a vaccination um you know coordinating you know testing twice a week for 30 people is going to take a little bit of an effort as well yeah because then we have to test them and then they have to be quarantined while they're testing right i'm not sure again i need the guidance because again i think in that situation that creates a very big hardship for us yeah and i also think that you know one of the things is we don't get the testing machine and again there's this question these are questions that i have that i would have we're not going to test who's going to do it you know i mean i have a litany of questions that will follow the only reason i'm not asking those questions or verizon with those questions is because i put it into a machine last i heard was from the uh county executive is that there are machines available to schools they're receiving supplies from schools for testing and they know that we're on them so my hope is that we get the machine soon and we get the test livestream and this way we can just do it internally so this way we can you know make sure it gets done in an expeditious manner versus you know people have to make appointments and then missing class time and things like that right earlier that i'll have to pay for it before classes well that's the next part about it we won't be paying anything because we're getting this right you know yeah but the flip side to it though is if we don't get the machine we don't get the supplies then it becomes who who's it up is it on the employer is it not the employee because they didn't get that i don't know that answers interesting right and [Music] it is all state employees so if you are anyone who works in a school district must it's not just teachers and it does say or undergo regular testing or it doesn't say that it does say that i'm on the philadelphia quiet right now and again while it's all well and fine yeah until i get an official memo no you're yeah i i i'm not going to say one way or another out of here yeah absolutely okay anything else for new business or other matters to come before the board is mr steele here today no he is not this is part of how false parts you started out last time i talked to everything yeah everything was going smoothly we are open to the public for discussion items yeah patricia o'reilly 745 school house money so i'm just asking a general question because i understand that um regardless of vaccination status all the students and teachers have to wear a mask correct start september okay um so i'm just wondering about um you know what you will do if there is any pushback from that like either from the students or the parents like say your students say oh i'm vaccinated like what's going to happen they will become they'll be sent home okay thank you hello lauren paxton president of the bbea um if we get that machine that you were talking about do you know which kind of machine is it is it the i do not okay do you know who will be uh in charge of it running it and taking the tests i do not thank you okay we have no questions online so at this moment in time we need to go executive um if everybody's okay with the hivs i'm gonna skip executive session and continue to move on all right so we are up to approval of hiv cases middle and elementary school resolved this battle board of education approves of resolutions that have find an approval of hiv resolutions under middle and elementary school this is 15.2 can i get any motion motion mr vada layer and the second by mrs martinez and well we'll discuss roll call martinez yes morris yes musamata so exactly president