LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Meeting - October 21, 2024

001e looks like it's call this meeting of the L County Schools one Board of Trustees to order and please stand as we have um after elementary students doing the pledge of leing SPS and you can join along or you can just much I'm Craig Williams I'm the principal of affa Elementary I'm Joy Fox Jensen for grade teacher at afba and this is my class foring The Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and J and thank you to the app CLA student for doing that wor it's always a great way to start a meetings reminder to us what we're here for all right so a motion oh we have adjustment to the agenda I'm sorry Mr chair there

002are no adjustments to this evening's agenda okay now motion Mr chairman I move to adopt the agenda and I second okay motion to adopt the agenda the second all those in favor say I I those oppose no okay so we're going to do recognition of staff and students right now so we have students to be recognized and we're going to call it first um South High School I don't know if it's the manage coming first or not watch the others close up good evening trustees and Dr Newton I really thank you for accommodating this schedule I know we missed one of our first ones um because we're finding out that Camila weed Amire here is a very busy young lady which is why we're nominating her for student of the week um because she is

003super enthusiastic about education she is active in many um activities including let me tennis soccer Wildlife Club something with medical Sciences Orchestra and then there was one other one that I really wanted to share that she has been provided leadership leadership opportunities even with the Harvard medical program so this is a young lady we're super proud of and so I would like to introduce Michaela noox real quick the teacher that she volunteered hi I don't want my purp lanyard so you're gonna have to trust I'm a real teacher um so I think that Camila absolutely 100% deserves this I couldn't think of any other student that deserves it more um she's incredible she keeps me in check every day um because my ADHD gets wild and she's always like Miss Knox Miss Knox let's go

004um she is the president of the Wildlife Club um so she is always helping me run the club she's pitching ideas she's helping me with contacts helping me with fundraising um she stays after all the time to help clean up Labs She's Always a really curious fun student when it comes to dissections and other projects um and she is a true leader so I'm really blessed to be her favorite teacher so I'm a senior at South High School um and I'm honestly like really honored to represent South High School I think it's a really amazing school and then um can I have and then we also just want to congratulate the parents so if we have Erica William and I know you have a sister in the house so if you want to stand in

005representation give our parents a good Round of Applause thank you our next person is from East High School and as they're coming up here like to say that uh Lori's mother has been involved with this program for four or five years how long been doing because she's at a Western Vista she kept asking me is my daughter ever going to get this I have nothing to do with choosing East High School Community does that but she's finally up here so good evening trustees my name is Mark kersner principal of East High School and I can say without a doubt that lauriana is absolutely deserving of this award this is lauriana Walter a senior at East High School and she was chosen uh mostly because she's so service oriented and because she's so involved with the

006East High School Community as an example I was at the homecoming dance a few weeks ago and I noticed lauana in the concession stand slinging soda and I'm like what are you doing she's just like you guys were struggling to keep up so I just jumped in and took care of it and that's just what laiana does when she sees a need for her school or for her community she fills in uh and make sure that need is met so lauriana chose uh Mrs Stevens Hamilton as her favorite teacher and we'll let lurana speak here I'm a lot shorter than Mr Kushner sorry um so yeah like Mr Krishner said Miss Stevens Hamilton is my favorite teacher I always have called her Miss Hamilton she was my English teacher in my sophomore year of high

007school and I've always been an honors English student but she pushed me harder than I've ever been pushed and that's what's helped me succeed in my junior year and even in my senior year she's helped me with um looking over my papers for my college English class so I really appreciate that but not only is she a great teacher she's helped me when it comes to personal issues I'm having in my life I'll go to her in the morning and I'll be like Miss Hamilton guess what happened and she's always there and she'll listen and she'll give me feedback if I need it hello I also don't have my purple lanyard so I'm naughty sorry um but yeah lauana is awesome um she's also one of my favorites I know we're not supposed to have

008favorites as teachers but um secret we kind of do um but yeah she's just great she's successful in everything that she puts her mind to and she's just a go-getter she's involved in lots of things and she's going to be great in everything that she decides to do later on outside of high school I know laurana has a lot of family members in attendance tonight to support her so if we could get the family members to stand so we can recognize them and our last recognition is from Johnson Junior High School good evening chesties I'm Michaela Bradshaw principal at Johnson and I am so super privileged to introduce you to Haley brael 8th grade Superstar at Johnson before the school year even started she signed up to be one of our volunteers to wear our

009Firebird mascot costume not only for our student new student orientation day but other family events as well and you'll see soon that her energy exudes even through feathers and a helmet full of crazy because I knew who she was out of the three each time um so her teachers boast about her not only her grades but she is such an intense listener to her peers she's a great leader on the volleyball court and she was just elected to be our National Junior Honor Society president who will be going um on our next Church to Chicago for national student council and National Junior Honor Society annual conference so also like to introduce her favorite educator this is Mrs Bradley she is our dean of students at Johnson so we'll go ahead and let her introduce why

010she loves Haley so much so last year I was her uh honors math teacher and I get to now say I'm our resident Haley expert because she gets to tell tell me all the time now about her day about what's going on anytime that she has a problem going on I get to be the teacher that or the person that she turns to um to tell like hey I need help with this can we talk about this um and I'm very privileged like I have other students that do that too but none like Haley I can say I'm really the Haley expert I absolutely love that she excels beyond the classroom um her energy is amazing just like Miss Bradshaw said but it goes into the privilege of being able to talk with her and

011Coach her through multiple things not just on the court like her coaches have but um in life like I've been able to have those conversations to know she thinks about it goes home Ms it over comes back and we get to continue that conversation um so just her maturity is amazing at her age um so I am so privileged to get to know you for whole another year to see you grow um and I love you so much little girl this is Haley brel oh my goodness I feel so short next to this um so my name is Haley broel you guys have heard me um I chose Miss Rodriguez I call her Miss Rodriguez because last year her name was Miss Rodriguez to me um she's my math teacher as she said I can

012go to her about literally anything like I'm having a bad day I'm struggling with something like she said like I kind of feel like she stole the words right out of my mouth um I can go to her about anything if I have a problem I know that she's the person I can go and talk to and I can tell her I'm having a horrible day like today I just came into her and told her all the tea it was crazy I don't know I just feel like the second Miss Bradshaw was talking to me and she was like choose a teacher say who's your favorite and why I knew that I could choose her cuz no matter what she she pushes me she tells me I can do whatever I need to she tells

013me I can get to my goals and like genuinely she acts like a mother figure to me and as my mom is in the audience like I love you too I don't know I just I feel like I have so many parent figures like I know BR thought she asked as my mom too I have so many parent figures at my school and I'm just so grateful and lucky to be able to be out of school like this and I love you guys we do have Vicki and Devin family could you please rise so we can honor you as well thanks for sharing he congratul [Music] okay Miss gonna come up now and talk about Western bu involvement well congratulations what a great group of students um my name is Mary Quast I'm community relations

014director and so on behalf of um the school district I just want to say congratulations and introduce PJ Brennan he is our Western Vista representative for this evening and he has some congratul at words as well good evening uh as Mary mentioned I am PJ Brennan senior Vice President of Sales and experience with Western vist Credit Union uh it's an absolute honor once again this year uh that we get to sponsor our student of the week uh by the school district uh it's absolutely amazing that we have an opportunity to go ahead and learn about these amazing students and and all the things that they do uh and so with that we do have a certificate of achievement for all the hard work and effort that our students put forth with it along on with

015a Visa gift card uh in addition to that for the teachers we do have a certificate of appreciation because certainly by the stories tonight without all your hard work and dedication this would not be feasible um and so with that you know we wish you continued success in the future and it's an absolute honor to be here tonight so thank you and as they're taking picture I just like to say there was a theme tonight that not only do teachers teach the content they're also there as counselors for our students so that's great yes pict there you go there you gok you again it's like her mother lurana took over range things up there so chip off the O Block you don't and you're certainly all welcome to stay we have a lot more fun

016things than we do at our board meetings but I understand that you're all want to get home get your homework done so and grating papers for the teachers okay next thing on our agenda is a resolution Mr chairman I move to approve a resolution of recognition for National dyslexia Awareness Month October 2024 whereas dyslexia is a neurobiological difference often inherited that makes it difficult for people to read write and spell which can impede reading comprehension and vocabulary growth and whereas dyslexia is unrelated to underlying intelligence can occur in up to 20% of the population regardless of race socioeconomic or educational background and whereas literacy is a critical skill need for educational and Career Success and socio emotional well-being and students who do not read proficiently by grade three are four times more likely not to

017graduate from high school and whereas this District encourages all educators students or Educators Schools students and parents to increase awareness and understanding of Dyslexia this month and throughout the year now therefore be at resolve that laramy County School School District number one Board of Trustees recognizes October as National dyslexia Awareness Month in the district I second okay we have a motion as second to um have a proclamation for national disley awareness month for October all those in favor any comments all those in favor say I I those oppose no motion passes and we'll be hearing more about this seia as we go to our next part which is our first public comment section people signed up talk about that U First up is and you know briefly go over the rules here State first and

018last name keep your comments two to three minutes so others have time to keep waste their comments and there will be a timer up there right in front of you you can see it keep your comments General nature not directed as specific individual or individuals or group and suable language and content for K12 grade students add additional information or perspective try not to be redundant all right so our first person up is Todd Reynolds if you don't know I'm Todd Reynolds good to see you father of two girls here in lcsd1 uh speaking you tonight ask for you to vote for the informal hearing on Monday's not coming for two very specific reasons first it would show that you are committed to holding your process accountable to your process this is a chance to show

019the community that you believe in the process that you created and that you will make sure that you follow that process to the best of your ability and appeal is part of that process and voting to have an informal hearing would demonstrate your commitment to the entirety of the policy that you created second this is your chance to hear a presentation of the evidence so you can make the decision for yourself an informal hearing is the way to do that voting yes tonight does not tie you to any decision on that informal hearing it would just allow that hearing to take place if you remember a person may appeal based on whether there was insufficient evidence to make a determination in the case of Monday's not coming there was a split decision two to one

020from the district selected reviewers this is your chance to participate to hear how there is in fact insufficient evidence to make a determination based on specific lcs2 on board policy allow me to brief this explain without going into detail in the process outlined the lc1 board policy readers asked to look at nominated passages from a book and then compare those passages to each of the five conducts uh to we see if they are actual simulated or animated and looking for more than a passing reference or Illusion actual simulated animated and more than a passing reference or Illusion are the key phrases in your policy in Monday's not coming seven passages were nominated as being sexually explicit and no passages were unanimously viewed as containing sexually explicit content by the district selected reviewers of those seven

021passages not one contains actual simulated or animated sexually explicit conducts as defined by lcsd on board policy chapter 7 section 21 there are Illusions or references but your policy says that to be determined sexually explicit the passage must be more than a passing reference or Illusion in an informal hearing someone like me would have the opportunity to break down each passage word by word to demonstrate whether there's a lack of sufficient evidence to make a determination this is not about rightly taking the book as a whole or about appropriately applying current and applicable women State statutes or about asking you to follow Supreme Court guidance and federal law on obscenity it's also not about arguing the quality of the actual overall policy the informal hearing would be a way for you to see how LCS

022War board's policy very specific definition applies to each of the seven passages and how in that close reading of those seven passages using lcsd one's policy there is simply not sufficient evidence to come to this determination this would be a way for you to adhere to your own policy I ask you tonight to follow LCS on board policy to be transparent for the community I'm asking you to vote for the informal hearing so you can truly participate in the process you defined in board policy thank you thank you Todd next up is chandel Pine good evening my name is shandel Pine thank you for recognizing National dyslexia Awareness Month dyslexia affects 5 to 20% of the population assuming larmy County School District number one has 14,168 students dyslexia affects 78 to 2,833 students 70% of

023welfare recipients have low literacy levels if students aren't proficient in reading by the end of third grade they're four times more likely to drop out of high school 80% of prisoners are illiterate or functionally illiterate student with learning disabilities like dyslexia are three times more likely to attempt suicide as of right now only 48.75 per of your students are reading at grade level in third grade you know this but do you know the steps that need to take place in order to ensure that every child is taught how to read how do you solve this crisis how do we solve the pipeline between fourth or excuse me how do we slow the the pipeline between fourth grade and prison first and foremost to follow the comprehensive system of personal development as required by idea and

024Wyoming chapter 56 train all teachers and Par Professionals in science of reading reading difficulties how to support and accommodate students train all administrators Elementary and all secondary English teachers in science of reading structured literacy reading difficulties and how to to support students using letters a o g PE classroom educator level aim Pathways or approved all special Educators and reading interventionists must be certified in an intensive evidencebased structured literacy program for screening and intervention plan give Fast breath Bridge or approve screening instrument to all students K through 12 if below 30% then the student should perform a one minute reading fluency if the student is below the 15th percentile on word reading then the student needs to be evaluated for dyslexia with a dyslexia evaluation far or test of Dyslexia delivered by a psychologist or certified

025practitioner then the student needs to be placed on an individual reading plan this needs to happen for kindergarten through 12th grade students if the student is above the 15th percentile on word reading then they should receive a diagnostic to show the specific foundational skill they are missing then intervene accordingly using an evidence-based structured literacy Intervention Program if the student reads accurately but does not comprehend look into developmental language disability if students are diagnosed with dyslexia they will be placed in an intensive evidence-based structur literacy program for one hour a day five days a week delivered by a highly qualified certified teacher thank you for your time and for recognizing dyslexia now please hold Dr Newton accountable for ensuring that every child is taught how to read you shend next up is Annie mofin no I'm

026sorry mofin well thank you for giving us opportunity to talk um I was here before and and with your permission pretty much what Shan Dell said we have copies for you would you like that I mean take over there and them to us a lot of information um yeah I'm here um not to reiterate too much but of course I'm raising a grandson who I love very much he's 12 uh he is one of the fortunate children um that is receiving uh structured literacy Wilson program very rigorous intense one hour a day five days a week after tens of thousands of dollars we spent on attorneys so he is receiving that I would just like to be honest I don't have a speech but you know I've worked with legislators on different issues over the

027years because my business is working with people with disabilities so you know I was wondering if it were possible to really have you guys come together and create like a task force I mean not a token cat task force but some kind of a working body comprised of stakeholders you know people from the administrators yeah teachers people who are trained certified uh some parents some children who have are who have are witnessing the fact that they could not read and with the program they are reading because it's time not to just I don't want to come up here six months from now and and be talking about this I am getting what I want but I am afraid of going to the next IEP meeting because three separate times the administration in in this District

028not current but past administration has literally usurped the IEP process and instructed the IEP team to remove the language that's on his IEP so I feel like I'm signing up for combat duty every time I walk into a building I don't want to go through that again all we're asking for is one hour a day from a teacher who actually is trained and I don't mean a five-day Workshop so this outline that Carrie was uh put together is talks about rfps getting a systemic practical um group together to solve this problem because it is solvable but it is there should be accountability that's all I'm saying there's got to be accountability because not all the parents have attorneys or can hire attorneys I'm older I have more money I didn't have any money when I

029was younger so you know but it should be that way not just the privilege but all children deserve to learn to read especially the ones with dyslexia who struggle and I am supporting you know the teachers who are going through this training and I'm supporting the administrator who who sanction this who want to see it it's time to act it's thank you thank you next up is Carrie Rhoden I was hoping it wasn't goingon to be a student coming up since I name um she's my support person uh my name is Carrie rhen I thank you for recognizing dyslexia I am a board member of the international dyslexia Association Rocky Mountain Branch I'm a Wilson dyslexia therapist and I'm a structured L literacy dyslexia specialist I have a lot of knowledge and as you probably

030know as I forward my my resignation email to you um I could only do it for so long there's uh when I had let me just start you so I I try to take a proactive approach to this since I was an educator and a teacher for 12 years with the master's degree in reading and then I had a daughter that that beautiful intelligent bright animal loving daughter that has profound dyslexia and I realized that I didn't know what was going on I decided instead of to take The Stance um with my partner Heather Fleming from wlit of like coming to the meetings and going to the school boards and legislature and shouting I was going to try to make the change from within and be proactive and that was really outside of me that

031was outside my scope of of who I am as a person but I was doing it for her and for every student that struggles to read now my daughter was kind of hurt in the middle of this because I had to kind of tiptoe around what she needed and now as I look back because I didn't hire an attorney from the beginning and because I didn't hire an advocate I didn't get the IEP process at all and I kind of got her what she needed a little bit but it was three years of kind of iy like teachers didn't really understand the why and and then we had two really good years of teachers that were really trained and she just blossomed and grew so much and now I had to hire an attorney to

032make sure and to ensure that she continues to get what she needs they're trying to the intervention that she has been in and she's reading so much higher than I ever thought she would and so when when I had to hire an attorney against my own District to get my daughter what she needs that's where I draw the line um you read some great words from the dyslexia proc Proclamation that I wrote for the state those are words you need to take action illiteracy is the most solvable problem in our universe and so we're spending so much time right now now bickering about the words that kids are reading not whether they can actually read the words our kids can all be taught to read you need to hold the administration accountable I've been in

033there there's a lot of great talking there's a lot of great words going on but there's no action and like I said I've been in this back in this district for five years trying to make change and it's not happening there's words that literacy our number one priority well show me what you're going to change so taking electives away from Junior High kids that struggle I refuse to have an elective taken away from her ref I'm like you're not going to to punish my child for being dyslexic but yet we punish all these kids and these are our dropouts so please um contact me hold our Administration accountable to make sure that they are doing what they say that they're doing you say and your support person is there anybody else that would like speak

034on the agenda topic anybody online please raise your hand if you're online is there somebody back there oh okay we have another speaking time later for things that aren't on the agenda so anybody else on agenda anybody online Mr chairman there are no hands raised online okay so we'll end the this uh visors we will do another one later on for any other topics U board communication report so I'll start by as I've done the last few meetings um for the candidates for the three open positions um myself uh trusty Smith and trusty Ashby are running is there anybody in the audience who would like to introduce themselves who's also running Shea kler thank you and again thank you for stepping into the arena it's always a scary thing to put yourself out there and

035see how what people think of you with their votes so we're all anxiously awaiting these next few days as the votes are cast um as far as board uh Communications rewards I'm going to start with mine and that is several of the board members asked um what's going to be coming up for the wiing School Board Association um board meeting this week and the agenda is not out until Wednesday but I did reach out to Brian he said there's nothing I need to bring up with you ahead of time but I'll have a report for you from the board meeting um next time we meet and so that you'll have an idea of what what possibly could be voting on at the delegate assembly so that's all I I have anybody else on the board

036you have nothing okay I will say that I had a chance on um Thursday of last week to go to lebart elementary which and I missed all the elementary schools when I first got on the board but haven't been to leard for a long time so it's great to get into that building and we there as part of the exploring lar me one program and this was a stop so that the exploring people and anybody anybody else who was invited and there were a couple other board members that were there also got a chance to see our preschool program our prek program and what a fabulous thing and I know that the results we've seen from there during our study sessions have been fabulous and I think reading is probably part of that um but

037just the interaction seeing those actually getting in there with those students and watching them doing the learn to play and I heard learn to play a lot at the National School Board Association meeting last spring and I guess got SE in action during um when we were there for our visit we actually got to sit down with those kids and actually see them playing and they got to tell us about what they were doing and I'm not sure it does seem like play to them but there is a lot of learning going on with that too and one of the things they talked about was not only are they learning academic type things but a lot of these kids don't have a chance to interact with any other kids um maybe at home maybe their

038only child and so they got they get chance to learn their social skills also and I think that's equally important to the academic skills that they learn anybody else have anything to bring up got to learn how to save the superhero we got to learn how to save the superheroes right in in the prek class great that's for those you weren't there the superheroes had all kinds of rubber bands on them and they were twisted and turned and those kids that was I guess a dexterity type thing they were trying to do and uh there was one little boy I think he SP his entire time we were there some of the other were changing stations but he spent his entire time on that one he got every single rubber band off of every one

039of those superheroes so kudos to him and these kids were just very open to us and explain to us what they were doing and how much fun they were having and the the teacher was absolutely fabulous we got to see a session where she was actually sitting down with them and they were they were doing some activity where they were singing a song and learning letters at the same time so again it was a a great great experience so those of you are thinking about learning more about the district exploring learn me one it's already started for this year but there'll be a new class starting next year so a great program started by our former superintendent and it's being continued because it's been such success all right um see our upcoming meetings November 4th

0405:00 p.m work session 6 PM regular board meeting November 6th there will be a 6:30 p.m. parent advisory committee in the boardroom and November 18th um there will be a 6 PM regular board meeting individual reports okay now we're at superintendent reports thank you Mr chair just a few items to share with the board and the community um closely related to the proclamation we just heard and and U dyslexia awareness month I'm very pleased to report that uh last week almost 500 elementary teachers including our elementary special ed teachers related staff providers 241 Paras and all those who intervene with reading difficulties just received a full day of training on literacy instruction with more uh trainings to follow very soon um also October is also Down syndrome Awareness Month of a group of kids near

041and dear to my heart I wanted to give a shout out uh for that cause as well um as everybody knows we have had the very unfortunate experience recently with several threats to our schools we understand that these threats though unfounded thus far cause great fear and anxiety amongst our students families and staff school safety remains our top priority and while it's reassuring that no weapons have been uh found to be present in our schools thus far we must remain Vigilant in our efforts to protect everybody we know these are difficult times and we're here to support those who are feeling scared or uncertain please continue to report anything suspicious and together we hope we will all always ensure our schools remain safe and secure and in a similar vein um in response to recent

042racist incidents shared by members of our community I want to make it very clear that our district condemns all acts of racism in our schools we stand in full support of those impacted and affected and are committed to ensuring a safe environment for all of our students because privacy laws prevent us from sharing details about the circumstances and specific disciplinary actions in any given case it may give the impression that schools are not responding I want to assure the community that appropriate measures are being taken to hold offenders accountable and also to provide necessary education to them so that they no longer engage in hurtful actions please know that we take these matters very seriously and are addressing them with the urgency and care that they deserve um as you may know we're also sifting

043through our recent uh the state relased performance and accountability reports that have been coming out there's a lot to share in the future uh but a few that I thought would be worth uh singling out tonight um we had two of our schools Anderson Elementary and Gilchrist Elementary that um were designated as exceeding expectations on the state measure and um while we had a number of our schools that that uh were meeting expectations uh one of our Title One schools altav Vista has gone from a few years ago being repeatedly on the schools uh list of schools in need of improvement U altav Vista met expectations this year so we're very very proud of the efforts of those schools and all of our schools and the one last thing that as we were sorting through

044some of our act data in our high schools um we uh we noticed that when we look at the big districts what we might call the big four Casper Gillette Rock Springs and ourselves um we have just moved up to where we're number one out of the the four big districts um on overall composite at ACT scores our scores are steadily improving and when you're testing a thousand kids in a cohort that that's not signal noise when we see those kind of improvements we know that that profound things are indeed happening we know that we have a long way to go in all of these matters that we that I shared with you this evening we are committed to getting better and better each day and with that Mr chair that's the end of my

045reports I would just like to add that uh one of the most valuable tools we have in investigating these incidents that have been happening recently are the cameras that we have and we appreciate all the money the legislature has given us over the last four or five years to make sure that those cameras we have enough of them although we can always use more and that they're updated so they have a better quality picture and we just got through doing that so those are always is very very helpful in solving these these situations so um that also should make students feel safer too because I would guess that most cases um they're going to think twice before they do it if they know there's a camera that's going to catch them I know that uh

046back when I was a teacher there were a lot more fights in schools but once we put those cameras in the hallways and on the buses those those fights well they may not have diminished but they went someplace else at least so un hopefully they diminish but um at least they're not happy with our schools anymore and if they are um you certainly can get the facts a lot more quickly rather than just listening to the stories from each side anything else anybody have the word okay so next we're go to the consent agenda all items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion there'll be no separate discussion on these items any item removed from the consent agenda will

047be considered in this normal sequence on the agenda does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda Mr chairman I move not seeing any Mr chairman I move to approve all motions list consent agenda and I second yeah motion second to approve the consent agenda all those in favor say I iose no motion passes and now we're going to move down to new business Mr chairman I move move to Grant permission to contract for cellular service and Hardware with T-Mobile for an amount not to exceed $175,000 using funds from the school and Department budgets I second okay a motion a second to approve seller service with T-Mobile any questions or comments Mr chair I I think it would be good for our for those listening to understand why we're we're making

048this change Mr mckenny would you mind coming forward he loves to come up with do us Mr chairman trusty Clon um are you speaking about the change from Verizon to T-Mobile sure we're looking at a cost Savings of about up to 50% uh with this change for us so um and we've done a lot of work to make sure that coverage is appropriate and we're getting the same level of service Mr chair go Ahad I just want to thank Mr mckin and his team for looking at that and finding us cost savings appreciate it and of course any dollars we saved there can be used for student related things yes um I actually just was hoping to get a little background on that since it sounds like we're just replacing expenditures we've already approved and

049moving those over to this company you can give us an idea of who it is that the district provides cell phones for sure Mr chairman trusty Smith um cell phones are generally provided for administrators um and then also for technicians um we have some school bus lines um backup lines on some buildings uh for the most part this is It's A Line to Line uh switch from one vendor to the other thank you any other questions okay have motion second to proove the permission approve the sell your service with T-Mobile all those in favor say hi hi hi those oppose no motion um just to um let everybody know we we are missing one board member at this point um so we have six here but it still takes because we need a majority to

050pass any option it's going to take four votes to pass on any of these options that we're going through okay we got another motion Mr chairman I move to set an informal hearing for November 4th 2024 for the board to consider whether there was sufficient evidence to support the superintendent's determination that the book Monday is not coming by Tiffany Jackson contains sexually explicit material a second okay a motion a second to um send in formal hearing any discussion all right all those in favor again what your root is actually saying that we're going to have a hearing so all those in favor of having a hearing say I I I see Hands okay all those opposed no no no see the hands there okay so did not get four votes so it does not pass

051all right so now we're going to go on to the next motion Mr chairman I move to affirm the superintendent's determination that Monday's not coming by D Jackson contains sexually explicit content I second okay motion to second to affirm the superintendent's termination that Monday is not coming um contains second explicit drill we need for the discussion just go ahead down thank you um I think you all know how I feel about this um this is the book I use many times when um discussing our library policy and that it is uh quite um uh Broad and uh will make many books that um are award-winning and important books um for our children to read um in the sexual explicit category my opinion about Monday's not coming is that it should be required reading not only

052for all the kids in the district but for all the parents as well it's a very uh moving book it um discusses um many different um topics um and if part of our library policy was to have to read a book and determine whether um the entire content the book is important or not this would definitely not be on the sexually explicit list um IT addresses uh invisibility of kids in poverty IT addresses uh dyslexia IT addresses uh and the stigma that is caused by that IT addresses many many different things the characters the main characters in this book never have sex um sex is brought up maybe three different times but it's never explicit it's never um direct um it is always a passionate reference and this book should definitely not be considered sexually

053exposive um and so I think I'm disappointed that there's not going to be a hearing because I think this would be a really good way for us to test this Library policy um the administrative uh regulations that uh came out of it um and I'm disappointed that that's not going to happen but this book should not be on the sex was it was Smith Mr Reynolds will be happy to know I did read the book the entire book um and it's a great book I I enjoyed it very much I actually stayed up really late last night finishing the book um but it has content not thematic but there there are there are parts of the book that are troubling and they're not there are parts of the book with with language and with um

054situations that contain content that is sexually explicit um as a mom I would like to know before my child is able to check out this book um that perhaps it it has content that I I would find troubling and that's what our policy allows um for the families in the district who are not opposed to this book or the the type of content that it and others might contain their children can still check out the book they can say my child May read anything they want there's there's not a problem for their children to access this book for a parent who possibly has concerns about content or their child having access to certain things um they by this policy have the right to say I you know because we found that it contains this kind

055of content I don't want my kiddo to read it um in terms of the the vote at hand though and affirming the superintendent's determination we do have a procedure set out an administrative regulation their Administration our legal councel I they work tirelessly to come up with a way to review these books and with this particular book in the ins determinations two of the three reviewers agreed that it contains sexually explicit content um the superintendent then and looking at those and looking at the the supporting information also agreed it contain that data um so I am I appreciate that we have a process in place and um I I support the what three out of the four who looked at the book and looked at the information have have said so anybody else I would like

056to say that in order to make the decision that we did the board did on these two items that we're voting on the one previously the one this one we got to see first of all the original complaint that put it onto the list we got to see all of the forms filled out by the um people that were evaluating the books we got to see the um um the form that was filled into um to start this process of of trying to um look at that process again have the board look at it again um appealing it to the board and so we had plenty of evidence to look at that's the reason I didn't think hearing would have necessary it would have been and we also had some heard some more today from

057one of our um people that were making comments so um I at least had plenty of information in order to make my determination so we're not we're done doing this blindly and so um we have plenty of information to look at and you have to come just I'd like to respond a little bit and just say that however of the three reviewers not they did not all agreed on the specific pages that they considered sex or explicit and I think that explains or that is a perfect example of how vague um the policy is any other comments yes I just want to say that I I know trusty hle has mentioned in her opinion this should be required reading but this policy is always have been about giving back the power to individual families to

058choose for their mind and we're not taking this book off the shelves you have access to it through our our our school library if you want your child to read it it's your decision and that was the beauty of the policy before and and we met with we met with our library staff before we even started this process and we learned about how parents could address concerns with books before we were told that not you know because we have thousands of books in our in our library system that we don't always know exactly what's in them and so identifying every book that might have sexually explicit content was not something we were doing as a district so when we took on this policy we we we wanted to do two things we wanted to identify

059those books so that parents could make a choice and that's exactly what they do they choose for their own minor we don't make a decision on whether whether that book is good or bad we just give the parent the information they need to decide if they think their minor is ready to read about um sexually explicit content yes I think that's a little disingenuous in that um yes for the first policy that is true that is you it's on a list to give parents permission but ultimately that list and the decisions we're making about what qualifies as sexually explicit are guiding the second policy and um I you know I understand that we went through the process and that the process um made that decision um but I also really wish we were having um

060the chance to have a discussion on it as well because I that was my biggest concern about the broadness and the things as well that we're not all going to agree on what CLS is sexually explicit and I think that's clear yeah Mr chair I respond um I appreciate that and and I agree with you that we're not always going to agree but I will remind everyone that um those that don't like the policy didn't participate in the process of defining that um definition so you know we did our best we worked with Council and we consulted other districts and and other states and did our very best to try to just give parents the information they needed to choose for them themselves El we didn't participate because we didn't agree yeah Mr chair goad

061that's correct I agree with trusty hle they didn't agree that they should be doing it at all correct any other comments okay so we have a motion on second to affirm the superintendent's determination that Monday is not coming um is contains sexually explicit content all those in favor say I I I I so can I see hands on them like we have three all those oppos no no we have two so it takes four votes so I will vote uh yes so that's a for for to vote motion passes all right the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday November 4th 2024 at 6 PM a work session will begin at 5:00 pm the business of the district is done except it's not quite um we have during our executive session today we

062are going to be um narrowing down we have 10 people that have signed up to or that have expressed interest in becoming our new trustee to replace um trustee ederton and so we'll be having discussion during our executive session today uh to try to narrow that down to just three so then we can do some interviews in the next week or so all right but I want to give you the names right now of who it is that's expressed interest we have make it a little larger we have Nora tames Thomas Lear Patricia McCoy Shelley dham Samantha Sanchez there's also goes by Sam van rer uh KY Burkhart Kathy sigano Isaiah tooya Natasha Brown and Marilyn Burton and name was a little bit there on the okay so now we're going to go into our

063next part which is the second public comment I wanted to make sure that you heard those names for you in there just in case one of those people's here would like to speak to us or in case somebody had a comment about those we're going to go first of all the people that have already signed up um for non-agenda topics and that first person is Heather web and just reminding what I heard the guidelines earlier I hope still remember those yes and how intimidating to have three minutes right in front of you right all right so good evening my name is Heather web Springer last time I was signed up to speak and I apologize I was not able to attend I have twin four and a half year olds who have dance on Monday

064evening so my husband was here in my stad last time I'm here tonight he's taking care of children um I'm here to speak about the October 7th vote to advance the fore option and the Mercer reports um and just to clarify just so everyone knows because maybe not even everyone in the room um knows that that vote advances to decommission Bane lebart hubard Henderson Fairview Deming Miller and Jessup three schools in the central Triad one school in the East Triad and four schools in the South Triad I'm considering my children we wanted to walk our children to Demi that's our neighborhood it's safe for us to get there I call it our neighborhood because I don't have to cross Randall and persing to get to Pioneer Park Demming is safe we pass our neighbors on

065our way to that school I also want to point out that um it was wonderful that you were able to visit lebart recently that school will now be closed I'm curious if the prek student population was considered in the study there are many concerns with the study many were not questioned and left unanswered the board had an option last meeting to say we have concerns and many questions unanswered the board elected to not do that public comment was not considered or invited parents were required to download a 150 plus page document via an app that is not Equity that is not communication that is not transparency you speak about the opportunity for parents to voice their concerns regarding literature it seems like that is a much more transparent process than what was conducted regarding the

066closure of eight schools in our district safety and transport was not considered City infrastructure public comment I believe at this point was honestly obstructed I represent over 700 families that are saying no we're saying no you have not considered our students you have not considered Equity when you're saying we're removing neighborhood schools where students go to access food in the summer parents need to be able to walk to the schools to be engaged you are not considering students you're not considering your community and this was a very poor decision many people in this community believe so I urge the board to now take Progressive actions to remedy these concerns thank you for your time thank you and I will mention one thing you said was K pre considered and of course that's not considered a

067part of the basket of goods from the state so it would not have been considered when they went through that process and again it's not our process it was their process it was just kind of passing through us as it went along okay next person was going to be Mansfield little good evening everyone good evening board my name is m Phil little um the reason I'm speaking before you today is regards to the issue of racism which is currently going on within the school district a lot of people are not aware it is going on it's flying underneath the radar my child was recently a victim of this a few weeks ago she came out from a volleyball game to a car having a swat sticker on it and the word n g g e

068r written cross the hood of the car I was told that the young men who had done this said they was trying to play a joke on their friend which was supposed to be another young male I'm a father it happened at night time the school parking lot is not brightly lit at all the only reason something was done about it is because we told them we filed a police report then all of a sudden they jumped out of the seats to try to help us after one of the assistant principles told us they couldn't see anything on the camera and I told them that is a lie I know for a fact they have infrared on these cameras they can see at night time with motion sensors so something needs to be done in

069regards to this because if not it's going to continue on I've had stories last week we had a meeting we had stories where there's a young kid that goes to Fairview experiencing racism I'm currently right now his mom doesn't even want to be in school anymore because of that there's a freshman that goes to east that the mother pulled her kid out of school because she's dealing with racism and she's doing homeschool and it's getting swept underneath the rug it needs to stop it needs to stop something needs to be done I'm tired of hearing these stories back and forth didn't experience it with my child dealing with that she doesn't bother anybody she gets good grades she doesn't do anything crazy I got her a car as a birthday gift not for it to

070be vandalized with the police report the police closed the case they said because there was no physical damage done to the vehicle they can't charge anything not even vandalism the RSO at the school didn't even know about it because the administration there didn't say anything they let it go he found a about from a death sergeant from the precin that we called and spoke with so communication is not there between the school and what's going on these communities and stuff like that and I feel it's going to get even worse as time goes on and something needs to be done I feel you guys need to have some type of protocol in place when we have these student orientations you give out a leaflet explaining about your zero zero tolerance to racism within the school

071given to the parents not the students the parents they understands if something happens these kids will face this type of action because of their actions racism is taught it is not inherited once again racism is taught it is not inherited I'm say that one more time racism is taught it is not inherited thank you thank you next up is Patricia McCoy good evening board members my name is Patricia McCoy I'm a Southside mom since' 08 and I have to tell you attending that meeting this week and hearing those stories of things happening in my Triad at my son's school that broke my heart my kid goes to that school he doesn't want to go to that school either and for many reasons and that breaks my heart for these kids it's racism it's hate it's

072the people talking down to the special needs kids and abusing them the other students it's uncalled for and it's unnecessary yes we also have threats in our schools now that are getting more and more frequent and more and more out of control we have excellent policies in place right now to address these things but as a community we feel like they're not being fully enforced because we keep seeing more and more and more of this happening with no communication from the district about it we have chapter 8 section 10 student rights and responsibilities the students are to be held accountable for their behaviors follow that with Section 8 or chapter 8 section 11 disruptive student Behavior discipline and detention that outlines what punishments they're supposed to get but we don't feel like those punishments are

073being enforced at all I mean I know Dr Gentry and herited a hot mess when she became principal because I've been there since 2014 I've seen it all I appreciate Dr Newton trying to address that in his announcements before speaking to everyone I really do but I just ask that this board hold the district policies in place and enforce them protect our students if a child has disruptive behavior and is causing hate to another child handle it call that parent hold that child in parent accountable unless we have accountability for these actions they're going to keep Escala in and they're going to keep spreading throughout our district it's time long past time to nip it in the bud you already have what you need in your policy and you also came out with a statement

074as a board to say we have zero tolerance for this we're not going to allow this to happen but it is and you need to be aware of that and you need to do something about it thank you for your time this evening I'm gbody else up speak is there anybody online that would like to speak on agenda topic please raise your hand if you're online there's one hand raised you can go ahead and unmute goe and speak if you can hear us looks like we're not getting any audio from you while waiting on that is there anybody else in the room here who would like to speak on a non agena topic good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you for letting me speak I as a parent grandparent name first and last name I

075apologize my name is Glee net from Cheyenne what was the last name net NE TT thank you I would like to speak as regarding this Mercer uh I understand now from at Britney who was very kind to explain it to me how and where it came to be from the legislature down to you I as a parent as a grandparent and a member of this community I'm really ashamed that there's not more public input about this I realize it got handed to you but I don't believe the handling that you have given us the public is fair I would ask you to delay your decision upcoming decision on this and ask for more public input there are many parents and grandparents that I've talked to and even my neighbors that have no idea this is

076even going on and granted not everybody takes the print newspaper not everybody has the computer to get online I think it needs to be put out more and I think you need to listen to what the parents the neighbors the people who pay the taxes for for you doing your job have a right to have an input on this thank you I appreciate your time thank you are we ready another shot here goad unmute all right can you hear me now hello yes yeah my name is Melissa Earl and I'm a mother of a seventh grader that attends krie Jor high and I just wanted to chime in about that recent incident that happened to that child where her vehicle was parked and she had Reesa slurs on her vehicle I would really like to

077see all schools increase their technology when it comes to those cameras and like the gentleman said the lighting I just think it would make all parents feel more at ease um that's all I have to say thank you anybody else here or online online raise your hand please come on up hello board and or both committee I guess in this circumstance um my name is Autumn monrey I am a recent sociology graduate um I studied race relations and macr level policy and how it affects minority communities I have also had the privilege of being a teacher at krie junior high school as well as an East High School coach and then lastly I am I grew up here I am a person of color um I wasn't initially planning on speaking so bear with me

078um in regards to the race incidents of csd1 um I wasn't exactly sure what perspective I wanted to take and what lens I wanted to look at um through my many lenses and expertise um what has now come to mind is the amount of students I've had that are um students of color as you guys know we keep a profile and go it within each students profile it has every um behavioral incident um whether they are a victim of something that has happened um whether they have engaged in some kind of conduct um while I was a teacher I did look at my student of color and there was over 10 complaints involving race I then went out of curiosity and being a researcher I decided to go to my other students of color and

079look at their profiles and I would just like to say that every single student of color that I went through that I knew and it was close to all had incidences of racism within their record um with that being said I think it's fair to say in all transparency that our district is confused when it comes to race I think our Administration is confused on what to do when it comes to race and I think as a result our students are also confused so I really think it's time that we lead the way and start having these um discussions not just like PTO where somebody comes in because I think teachers are already put in a position where some of them take it serious some not as much as others but we need to like

080get down to the nitty-gritty and decide what we're going to do as a community because it looks like we're all confused and we're all frustrated and we're all Angry thank you for your time anybody else here or online raise your hand if you're online come on up R tost and your all the people online that you're talking to hi my name is good night good evening my name is Laura West um I just wanted to ask I'm not sure of how what's the protocol of getting on the board um but I think it would be a little bit easier if there was someone of color on the board that way not to say that you guys are not being fair but you guys do not know what we've been through and what our history is

081so if there was someone on the board of color I can say when you have your meetings with us I can say you can think one way and I can say that's not really what goes on when there's children of color maybe you guys should think this way so I don't know why there isn't anyone of color on the board maybe it's not easy for us to get on there I don't know because I don't know how what it takes to become a board member but um apparently it's not that easy because there's not one of us on there I would love to be on the board um but when I went to try to find out how to get on it you have to go through a campaign and you have to go through

082this and you have to go through that which is something that I'm not used to do or do I know how to do so maybe that is something that you guys can maybe help with or make easier so someone of color can get on the board so that we can help you guys to understand our children a little bit better because there's no way that you guys can know what we gone through because you haven't gone through it and it may be something that you not even understand because you don't have to deal with people of our color or deal with the what we have to go through being in this skin you know what I'm saying so I worked in crmc I work J peny I've worked with um a lot of places here

083lar County School District and I've went gone through a lot of racism from adults it's not just children so um we just need someone of a of color to be on your board so that you can understand what our children go through and as go through as adults thank you so much thank you normally don't have a back forth here but I will answer your quick about what you do to get on the board and that is there's three weeks in August where you can go down and sign out to become a candidate for the board this time there were three at large positions which means everybody in the lar mic School number one gets to vote for those positions uh next time in two years from now we'll have three Triad Representatives one from

084South Triad one East Triad one from Central Triad and for those you don't have to campaign as much because you're only doing a third of the district each time so and then there will be one at large position then so that's how you get voted into the board okay we have a unique situation right now that's happened I've been on the board for 12 years now so this is my third time that we're actually appointing somebody so we had trusty ederson resign um for personal reasons and so we had a position open so we advertised it and gave everyone till noon today to put in a letter of interest on whether we want to do that and we had 10 people did it I read the names a little bit ago and that's great we

085have that many people that were interested and I can tell you there are a few people in color that are on that list so they will be considered just as everyone else is um so that's a little easier process to get appointed used to be we could have anywhere from 12 to 13 people running every time last few elections it's gotten down to about seven people that are running so again those are the ways that you can actually um become a board member so very unique situation this time with the appointment so and the the nice thing sometimes employment only lasts for a few months depending on when it is that they resign this time that person will actually have uh two years on the board so until that resign because of the time when

086it happened thank you very much I appreciate that very welcome is there anybody else here or online there is a hand raised online okay okay go ahead online first hello can you hear me yes um my name is Carol maiah our church book club read Monday's not coming we found nothing sexually explicit about it and find that in the light of the recent meeting held by parents about racism their students have experienced in the district it's especially awful to limit access to a book that is by an African-American author that addresses the topic of race one of the themes of the book is exploring whether some lives are valued more than others and whether more attention would have been paid to Mundy's disappearance had she been wealthier in white thank you than you so I

087got somebody kind of back over here first once come on up well we'll get to you Todd you've already had CH one chance to speak but I'll get you there we'll get to you eventually the other CH first um sorry chairman members of the committee Dr Newton I'm here my name's Dirk Dil I have a kindergartener in the district thank thank you very much for the opportunity to speak um I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier so some of these comments might be duplicative with things that have come up before so I apologize that that's true I came last time you guys were talking about the Mercer study and in that conversation I tried to appeal to you that you absolutely had a choice in this process and you should have used that choice and the

088reason is is because this Mercer study I encourage you to go back and read in there you'll find that 13 members in a July Workshop in a private meeting worked out the details of this three members of The District staff proposed the remedies that are in this the only one that's actually proposed from the district is la1 and that closes seven schools so many of you said last time that your hands were tied that you didn't have a choice in this process that's emphatically not true in fact the district through your staff have moved forward these propositions to close these schools and have done so for many months so the fact that public input has not been a part of this process there should be some questions answered here this is supposed to be the

089most aost effective remedy not the one that appeals to the district wants or to staff member wants in this we have remedy 1A remedy 1B both of which are remedies to meet the adequacy standards none of which close schools they both come under the budget that was already appropriated the ROM costs associated with that is $88 million to remedy the potential or the inadequate facilities so far and then one a is $66 million in its estimated costs somehow we've gotone from a most cost effective remedy to one that gets to the most costly in in terms of just the budget alone in the study the most costly remedy is the one that's actually adopted that's quite troubling especially when most of the additional funding that's going to be required is going to have to go

090back to the legislature which we do not believe going to be funded on top of this there was 18 potential remedies to start 15 of these were Whittle down and tossed out before any cost analysis was actually done on them this is in the Mercer study itself and it expressly States this 15 of the 18 remedies were thrown out with any cost analysis and it was done at the ction of the district in order to further District's visions and the goals as expressly stated within the Mercer so thank you for the time to speak there's a lot of troubling issues with this Mercer I really wish you would have considered this further I think there's a lot of questions that you continue to need to ask about this my time's up so thank you again

091for allowing me to come and speak to you thank you Mr Tel and anybody else online or in and I think we had somebody did you want to speak to in the yellow shirt there GRE thought you had your hand up earlier so we'll give you another chance here if you want to go hi sorry if I don't on front of anybody but my name is Den rosinski um I helped facilitate the meeting that was held last week on Wednesday um with the group wearing yellow here tonight um I came up here just to relay some of the notes that I took during the meeting and to tell you some of the fears and issues that I heard people expressing um these aren't in any kind of order because I'm just going off my chicken

092scratch from the other night but um one of the big ones was that students don't feel comfortable reporting to admin or teachers out of fear of backlash from from the students who are being the aggressors additionally they don't know how to report or who to report to um being the only black person in a classroom even if you have a nice white teacher at the front um might not be the most comfortable thing to step up and and have to report that a lot of the time if something happens to someone much like in cases of rape or sexual harassment um the person the victim of it doesn't want the extra attention put on them they want to fly under the radar they just want it to not have happened at all so I think

093that's really important um to keep in mind um there is a zero tolerance policy in place um what I was hearing from these parents was that they don't know what that means they don't know what kind of repercussions or punishment or followup happens um I think there was a lot of frustration with not getting any kind of closure or any kind of um followup on the situation which I understand you have to you have to protect the privacy of students but at the same time the ones who are doing the aggressing the aggressors in the situation um they might be getting a punishment but the people who are suffering and moving forward in fear they don't know what happened they don't know if if if anybody has their back at the end of the day

094um I think that's one of the big frustrations people had um there the fact that there's not very many people of color who are leading the schools or at the fronts of the classrooms um really makes students not feel comfortable not feel as comfortable to go forward um again the transparency um there's just there needs to be some kind of resolution for these parents and these students who are who are the victims of this aggression um I think that was the biggest me message that I heard and I think there are different ways we can go about that so I would like for you guys to think about how we could Implement some kind of resolution program for people you anybody else okay Todd did you want to come up did you decide yeah no

095I'll give you another three minutes to think about come on if you're gonna go totle give you a chance it's hard for everybody my voice carries my name is na Williamson everyone um I'm resident of cheyen um and it's I'm a very passionate person so it was hard for me to come today and really keep my composure and stuff because when I talk I talk and I just feel like I don't have any kids in the system um in the school system they grown but I have grandkids and I have friends who have kids in the school system multi-racial white black all all kids all Races and I feel like all of them really suffer at the hands of racism because it's almost like it's being overlooked and then when it is brought to the

096attention of certain individuals especially people of authority in the school system it's almost like it's just you know shined away or overlooked and if you're forced to do something about it not you per se but in general if you're forced to do something about it it's almost like the victim is going to be the one that's punished because everybody is worried about the privacy of the perpetrator and not the dignity and respect of the victim so and it really hit home because both black people been victims of racism but to a kid to a kid that's not okay yeah and her little girl shouldn't have went through that because first of all what kid is supposed to I know every kid know where the N word is but you going you going too far now

097you putting swasti and all of this weird stuff and then when when the parents demand to know what's going on the school system just say oh it's been handled that's not fair to the public that's not fair to that little girl that's not fair to her parents because all our ideas of it's been handled could mean anything I heard they was made to apologize anybody that say they sorry we all can say we sorry and we know they sorry we know that but I mean are you truly truly atoning for disrespecting and belittling that person like you need to be penalized for your actions so you would never want to do that again a school is supposed to be a no fly zone so CU we all know it's taught and it starts at home

098we all know that but when you bring it to school all of that fly out the window because everybody deserve conflict free learning period and when you disrupting that that learning curve you need to be the one on the outside not the victim and the school don't really I feel like they really don't process that enough and and enforce that like you said something need to be done at these or ation suppliers or something to let them know the importance of zero tolerance thank you thank you for being come back you did a great job of speaking CL I'm Todds parent of two girls one one of my favorite quotes is from my Angelo when someone shows you who they are believe them the first time as an English teacher what I like to read

099for are themes it requires you to take the whole book into account and we know that it's not what we like to do here but tonight want to look at the whole meeting and kind of look at what we saw tonight at this meeting because what we've heard so far is we've heard about the destruction of neighborhood schools that's coming we've heard about dyslexia and literacy issues that you had a nice statement about and we heard some other suggestion about that and you've also been confronted with some really cold hard truths about racism in this District things that you've heard about for years and still have yet to do much about at the same time you refuse to have a hearing on Monday's not coming and I think this is really important because Monday's not

100coming Monday's not coming deals with the neighborhood that's being destroyed that deals with a neighborhood that's being taken over it deals with a girl who has literacy issues it's a girl who can't read is in trouble in schools because of that and it deals with the Eraser of black girls and you tonight are so blinded by this script you've been given that you can't even take the time to have a informal hearing on a book that contains no actual simulated or animated sexual conduct acts as defined by your own policy now I say I I hear the read book and that's wonderful that you read the book but I question if you read the book it's clear that in the nominating passages that you refuse to listen to in the informal in the informal hearing

101that not one single actual animated or sated simulated sexual conduct act takes place not one there are some phrases that you might not like but your own policy says that a passing reference isn't good enough to be labeled sexually explicit now you didn't want to hear about a book by a black author about the Eraser of black girls because you didn't want to when someone shows you who they are believe them the problems that we're having here come from the top they always have come from the top and we see it over and over and over again we read what you wrote two years ago about how proud you were to protect hate speech under the First Amendment and no I have the screenshot and I have the link and it's there and I know

102what you've done and I know what you've said and I know what you continue to tell us over and over again and I see your actions and you refuse to act over and over and over again and tonight you refuse to even listen to a book by a black author about the erti of a black girl again and someone shows you who they are believe them the first time thank you anybody else either here or online Mr chairman there are no hands raised online Okay um I would like to say that couple of people have commented on the fact that we don't look out for the victim I I do tell you that if it's all possible we make the the victim be just as Anonymous as the perpetrator of the ACT sometimes that's not

103possible because something F State happens but we certainly do that and one thing we do offer is we offer counseling services to those people so if they are have been traumatized by something that happened we have a lot of counselors in our buildings that can help those students out so we are looking out for the victims as and unfortunately we cannot talk about what the even as board members we don't get to learn um when we long-term Su spend somebody we don't know who they are all we know is what grade they were in and sometimes school they were in so um we have to keep it Anonymous just protect your rights and unfortunately in our country everybody's rights have to be protected whether that person did something bad or whether they're they were the

104victim of something so we to protect everybody and unfortunately it's not always possible these things are still going to happen occasionally I'm really glad to hear that a public meeting community meeting was held I think uh this has to start with a community action uh to get this thing under control and we've had several of those Community meetings over the last few years I attended the one after the incident McCormick I wasn't able to attend this one and I know that the more more we can talk about these things hopefully the more we can fix it so I think there's probably even though it may not look at like it for that inst right there we are making some progress in our community and but but it's going to take the whole Community to do

105that it can't just be the schools um the schools are something in some case a reflection of what's going on in the community and we can start there and we can certainly do whatever we can we cannot fix the probability by ourselves so I appreciate all the community that worked on that and hopefully we can get together and come up with things that we can do as a community to help lessen the problem with these things yes wa is it we as a board typically don't most of you know respond responded all to public comment we're we're here to hear it but we don't engage and back and forth but I I'm I'm appalled by the insinuation that the determination about a book had anything to do with the color of the skin of the

106author or the characters in the book I'm just I'm I'm I'm like almost sick to my stomach about it my determination of that book including sexual content has to do with text that deals with oral sex and it deals with students having sex on a desk in a classroom in in the building it's it's here it's in print it had nothing to do with the author or the characters um it it really was um incidences in the book which I did read from front to back um but I I just to to tie that to racism is is just I mean you're I'm just sickened that we would even try to go there has nothing to do with it good thing about this process is this book may become more popular now and more people

107may read it as a result of us talking about it so maybe maybe that would be a good thing yes great and everyone who would like their student to read it can because now parents that don't want their student to read about oral sex before they think they're ready can opt out and parents that want their student to read about oral sex no matter what color the person is you know some of these books are people getting it on with puppets and animals you may not want your minor learning about that at the tnder age of 12 some parents do want that and that is now everyone is able to choose anybody else in the audience come on up because otherwise people online are not gonna be able to hear you oh it's wait wait

108till you get the microphone so everybody can hear you because we are online and they wouldn't hear a thing you said that's okay but I'm a little confused because when my youngest who was um 20 something now I can't remember but when she was in going to South uh the nurses was G out condoms they were giving out condoms I didn't know that she was getting condoms from there so that's okay for the nurses at the high school to give our condoms but we having all this controversy of a book I don't understand I don't understand why a nurse was giving my daughter condoms which when you get condoms is saying okay go out and have sex but this book we don't want them to read about it but it's okay for the nurse to

109say it's okay for the that's the part I don't understand so I don't understand did you did the board um vote for the kids to read the book or did the board vote for the kids not to read the book that's the part I don't understand if someone can answer that for me um Mr I mean yes uh you read the book and you apparently don't like it Dr hle said it's okay well not okay but it's okay for the students to read it because she felt like they should know about it so are is the book going to stay on the book on the uh shelves or are we going to take the books off the share Mr chair our policy says that somebody can challenge a book it goes on the sex explicit

110list and then parents have at the beginning of the year when they register they have to click on one of four options one option is they can have access to all the materials that are in the library one of them is they can have access to no materials in the library one of them is the parent can come in prepare a list of books that they have access to and the third one is they can have access to everything but the things that are on the sex explicit list so that's what this is this was being put on a sexy exp list we're not taking it out of the libraries other than we would not have it in an elementary library but if it's in a junior high library or Senior High Library it will

111stay there and just the the parents that have chosen no sexy explicit would not have access to it okay okay but and I think there's still a lot of Mis confusion out there about very confusing but about what we did we gave the choice and before before the choice was you either had everything or you had um you had to come up with your list and coming up with that list of what what okay for your child to read or not read was burdensome not only for the parent but also for the librarian if they had to do that for every one of our 14,000 students they wouldn't have time in the school year get thatt agree I totally agree this way there's one choice that they have to make takes a couple seconds during

112registration plus they can change that anytime during the year by going in and making making that okay and and that wanted to say that I'm glad that you read the book I have not read the book but I will um but any type of book that has a person of color written by a person of color is definitely about racism it's definitely it and I'm so sorry that it sickens you it just no further makes me wonder are you not understanding what's going on when it comes to that because it sickens me also but it sickens me because I know that that little girl in there probably went through something that I went through when I was young the the book did not sicken me the insinuation that we have said it's sexually explicit because

113it has racial or because it has it should the accusation that we decided it had sexual explicit content and in timeing not to insinuating that we did that because it is by a written by a person of color or has characters that are of color that's what sickens me not the book okay no not the book a good book let class just did we cover it no you clarified I think M well yeah Mr chair thank you you know I A lot of times people come and say boy you spend a lot of time on this book policy it's because we have people in our community that keep bringing it up and this isn't about taking books off the shelf it never has been it's not about blacks it's not about Asians or any other

114type of race um I agree it would be nice to have a person of color and especially that's why and Mr chairman was humble he actually initiated setting up the Triad system so that we would have a South Triad representative um and that would be easier for people on the Southside to run and get elected for this board I supported that um but there's so much misinformation and it's the fault of the media I'll be honest with you because they're not they're not following up on what they're hearing from people who oppose parents having a choice for their their minor parents having a choice for the minor should be something we all agree on because we can we can have our own values imposed on our own children right but um there is a loud

115minority I believe but a loud Community let's say that who for some reason don't want you to know what their children are reading and I don't understand that um but I I agree with our policy that we pass the majority of us past and I'd like to move on to other topics we work on a lot of other issues just for you all to know that it's not just about this issue anybody else anybody else online or in the room don't want to cut anybody else Oh I thought he was done there's a hand raised online okay can you hear us yes uh this is Carol Mai again um I think that some people on the board have misunderstood um I was not trying to imply that you want that book um not available to

116all students because of racism you want it not available because you think it's sexually explicit A lot of people do not think it's sexually explicit and um because of that people are being denied being able to read this book that deals also with racism also I think that U Mr B did not fully explain um the new policy um because now the procurement policy says that uh you um a a a librarian has to give their list of books they want to before they procure them they can now take books and uh deny everyone from Reading those books so it's it's not just sexually explicit it's it's saying we don't want anyone to be able to read these books thank you happen it person Carol we had a restart of our computer here um we

117are coming back online in just a moment else to little break right now come back up thee oh reporting in progress okay we have one of our board members that stepped out briefly so we'll wait till she gets back so little more awkward silence me e e Earl we were taking a quick break we'll be right back break up the board yeah so Carol you may continue okay um I in no way meant to imply that um you did not want Monday's not coming because it deals with racism what I was trying to say is that because you think sexually sexually explicit items are in the book which a lot of people do not think you are denying people to read a book that deals with racism also I think that Mr Bolan did not

118fully explain the new um Library policy because now with the new procurement policy um you haven't removed books but you're preventing future award-winning book books to be purchased because you're saying before those books are purchased you think they should not be purchased and that is in effect Banning books from the library thank you okay one more time anybody else here or online please raise and online okay so now we're going to do a motion Mr chairman I moveed to go into ex ex executive session of this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions and expulsions Personnel legal advice potential litigation and to consider the appointment of a public officer I second have a motion second to go into executive session this time all those in favor say I I those

119oppose no I motion passes and we'll will be in executive session we will come out of executive session to take any actions