001Bolan I just received an email as the meeting was underway um for an update for the We the People group and it says from our social studies coordinator I wanted to share the fantastic news that all three of our larmy 1 competitive We the People teams made it to State and they will all compete tomorrow from 8 to 3 o'clock so and many board members had a wonderful experience reading to kids I did as well however when I opened it up for a Q&A I thought I was going to be asked a lot about what I do all day and instead one y lovely young man from aerb was dying to know how much I weigh so with that I'd like to invite J selli to come forward to share with us our financial a
002information thank you Mr chairman uh Dr Newton members of the board uh just as a quick preface to the um audited Financial presentation uh you'll recall that each year Wyoming statute requires uh an annual Financial audit of the school district's operations that includes a presentation of District's financial statements well as well as a review of our accounting procedures internal controls and federal compliance among others uh in your digital meeting packets uh you were provided with the 2023 financial statements and audit report uh from The District's independent auditor McGee Hearns andas or MHP uh in a moment I'll turn the uh presentation over to miss Pickering um partner with MHP to go over the results in more detail but before I do there's a couple of areas I'd like to just point out briefly um first
003um as you know we uh as a district Monitor and provide two distinct um other post employment benefit programs uh the retention incentive and the early retirement incentive programs uh in order to maintain compliance with the financial reporting the audit relies on an actuar Actuarial study and that's performed by a separate consultant uh named GRS uh that calculates our crude liability uh for those post-employment benefit programs know I included with your materials um the report from our actuaries that provides additional detail on the presentation of those particular established trusts um additionally um as you know each of our Charter Schools um approved by our our board is a separate legal entity uh with independent audited financial statements and they are presented as component units within laramy School District funds uh financial statements now again they're
004they're responsible uh for obtaining separately issued fin finial statements prepared by a separate auditor uh if any of the board would like copies of those audits I can certainly provide those as well uh I mentioned earlier that Federal Law requires a federal compliance audit that's often referred to as the single audit uh and this is when a local government exceeds more than $750,000 in federal financial assistance in any particular year uh so suffice it to say that our district will always be uh privy and uh in compliance with that um and be required to provide that single audit to um the board each year now to give you a little bit of an idea in a typical year our district will expense roughly 15 to20 million in federal funds uh with the recent Federal response
005funds for covid-19 uh that more than doubled to about 40 million this past fiscal year now um I'll tell you this involves an extreme amount of work and coordination uh specific to these federal funds uh this is all the way from the cabinet level all the way to staff entering requisitions and processing payment applications to the state uh one particular particular area that maybe I haven't mentioned before um is that since the pandemic began uh we have not added a single Finance staff member to conduct that work um of course there's been a big increase in the workload um and that extends Beyond just our financing Department uh that impacts purchasing payroll um HR or instructional staff but a lot of this work Falls squarely on one individual shoulders which is uh Miss sha metler
006she's put in three hard years of monitoring and submitting those Grant expenditure reports certainly a big thank you to her and all of her work um with regards to the audit um each of our external Auditors will independently determine what those Federal gr programs will be tested are uh this year there was a number of major programs that were tested uh these include title 2A which provides supplemental resources to school districts to build support systems uh as well as teaching and Leadership um title six which is uh the cluster of federal education grants that helps provide funding for special education programs uh title four provides uh funding for for well-rounded educational opportunities uh safe and healthy students and perhaps probably the biggest um program that was under review this year uh were those funds allocated
007to us through the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund or uh the acronym Esser U just a quick mention um on those Esser funds we still maintain a spending plan that's available on our website um should there ever be a change to um our back to school plan which uh would likely not happen uh that information be shared through that plan um back to the federal program side of uh the audit I'm happy to report that there were no question costs I do acknowledge that there was one finding specific to documentation on two procurement transactions that are we were working to rectify uh the last section of your audit report includes a summary of our corrective action plan um on those contracts and how we will prevent those future occurrences uh one last comment
008before I hand over the presentation uh I want to acknowledge the work of uh Miss Pickering Miss Taylor Maybe Mr Dustin Frank and the rest of the staff with MHP uh and of course commend the finance team for all their work over the last few months it seems like every year I stand here to tell you this was a particularly demanding year well uh no surprise this was a particularly demanding year for the audit uh we're still navigating the new Erp system we're engaging rework in some of the areas of our system now that we're learning what sections work and which ones don't uh we took on a new gasby implementation uh we navigated everchanging guidance around our federal funds and Grant uh reporing uh we've had ongoing changes with our Ador tax collections um
009and we're certainly working to train staff that have turned over in some of the key roles that impact our financial side uh probably I can tell you I can count on one hand uh the uh the the the enjoyable aspects of an audit uh at the top of that list um would be recognizing some of our staff um there's one person in particular that I need to recognize for exceptional efforts that she puts into our audit report every year Miss Christine Sarah has completed her 18th audit report for lar County school district one this year um her expertise attention to detail and tireless work ethic have played a pivotal role in ensuring the accuracy and transparency of financial records uh the challenges posed by an annual audit are always met with a level of professionalism
010and proficiency that reflects her outstanding outstanding capabilities uh we are very very fortunate to have such a skilled and devoted senior accountant on our team so again um a big thank you to miss Christine Sarah for her exceptional efforts can we stop and give her a round of applause yes so Mr chairman with that that quick introduction introduction Miss Stephanie Pickering is joining us online and I'll hand over the presentation to her but it will be available should there be any questions before you go Mr selly um I know when you talked to us about the AIT there that there could be some consequences for some of those findings that we had do we know yet whether there's going to be any or is that still up there um Mr chairman um as the cognizant
011a agency the WD will review those findings I don't anticipate there'll be any further action from the uh Department of Education on those particular findings thank you well good evening um thank you for having me again my name is Stephanie Pickering and I am the audit partner at mcke her that oversees the audit um Kyle would it be possible if I could screen share give them a second to do that I'd just like to share with you all the the audit report here you not have the option down there at the bottom uh it says it's disabled poost disabled now I was getting all kinds of challenges tonight how does it look now Stephanie um perfect yes that's great all right um it looks like everyone should be able to see my screen now is
012that accurate it's it should the should say the larmy county school district report to the audit committee someone give me a a thumbs up or it's up there so we're good perfect perfect well um I don't want to spend a ton of a ton of your time today um I appreciate Mr sell's comments um what I thought I would do today is just share um the three opinions that we provide the school district in relationship to the audit work that we provided as well as the report to the audit committee um me uh my team and I met with um your audit committee trusty ederton and trusty Ashby along with Jed and his team um about a week or so back and presented kind of um preliminary results but really wanted to share Shar this
013letter with you all tonight um under our Professional Standards um it's it's our required communication to you all as a Board of Trustees and kind of really gives you an idea of how the audit went um which we will get to the opinion shortly but um everything uh as always with um lcsd number one went uh very swimmingly if you will so I am going to skip down here to um the first well I guess it's probably the fourth page in and it talks our required Communications to you all as a Board of Trustees and really want to hit on a couple of key points um the first one here talks about accounting policies and practices and it is a good reminder that the school district and management set those selection and use of accounting
014um policies and procedures and should you read uh should be interested in reading the most um prominent of those you can find those in footnote one to the financial statements now as Jed mentioned there was one new stand standard that was required to be adopted this year and that was gby statement Number 96 subscription-based Information Technology Arrangements the ultimate goal of this standard was to recognize um previously uh previous um commitments that school district had in relationship to Information Technology Arrangements that may have lived in the cloud um this standard really then requires the school district to to um estimate what that asset would be in place that on the books as well as an offsetting liability um so now you have a subscription asset and a liability that are been amortised off the books
015um annually that was a very very big lift for uh the finance office and Mr sarelli and his team um they had to work with multiple departments across the district including uh the information technology department procurement um per perhaps uh the superintendent's office and really dig down into the multiple agreements that the district has to identify all of the school district's uh subscription-based it Arrangements in order to implement this um this AR this standard if you will so not a small feat so in Jed talks about there's always something um this year even though his one standard was quite a lift for the school district um in our audit we found no issues with how the school district implemented it um in light of that uh significant acccounting policies we identified um no areas in
016controversial or emerging areas where there is a lack of authoritative guidance or consensus and we also did not identify any significant or unusual transactions throughout the year had we identified any we would under our Professional Standards be required to communicate to those um those to you as a board there are are a number of estimates that your management team uses to complete the financial statements um and I will discuss those shortly in addition as Board of Trustees if there were going to be a few additional footnotes that I would recommend you spend a little bit of time looking at it would be these three um they're all related to the pension liabilities or oped liabilities um that the school district has as well as the implementation of that new standard um hasby Number 96 those
017can be found respectively in Note 6 note 9 and note 11 um moving down here to the departure from auditor standard report this paragraph um lets you know that we do have an emphasis of matter paragraph in our opinion and I will show that to you shortly it is not um it's not bad um in fact it really just says um that you all uh implemented a very big standard this year and in fact our opinion was not modified with respect to that matter so really it's giving you um a highlight but nothing that you should be concerned or nervous about in terms of our um observations about the audit process we encountered no disagreements with management over the application of any accounting principles um any judgments that the management team used the scope of
018the audit or significant deficiency uh significant disclosures in the financial statements we are also not aware of any instances where your management team um tried to obtain a second opinion or opinion shopped with other um accountants about auditing or accounting matters um no significant difficulties in dealing with management during the audit and no um significant difficult or contentious issues that required us at MHP to reach outside our engagement team I'm going to skip now um down all of it's important but I'm just kind of trying to highlight the big important things for you all today um internal control and compliance matters um as Mr sarelli um referenced there was one internal control deficiency this year related to um a compliance program we audited this paragraph Just indicates as such and then references um our opinion
019within the financial statements and we will look at that shortly lastly in our letter um I did mention those significant accounting estimates um as a profession we think it's important to share um with audit committees or boards about estimates just due to their nature they're um highly susceptible to management judgment and bias and depending on those um judgments or biases uh they could impact the the nature or the amount of the estimate that is used so the estimates that the school district has the net pension liability through the Retirement Systems um your net pension liability related to the retention bonus plan uh your opab liability related to the early retirement health insurance plan on both the implicit and the ex explicit side and then your incurred reported claims on the contingent premium gain related to
020um health insurance at the school district in all instances MHP found that estimation process to be reasonable um and no no issues with how your management team has um has has reached those estimate conclusions now I'm going to shift over here to the finance and compliance report and really where I would like to start today um or this evening is just with your opinion um and it is a ways back here um but it starts about uh 20 pages in or so and at the top it has our logo and it says independent Auditors for work so the first paragraph here of our opinion says what did we audit um and as Mr sarelli um indicated earlier we did audit the school district as of the year into June 30th 2023 that is this first
021paragraph the second paragraph of our opinion talks about your two uh charter schools codair and um pass and this paragraph explains that those auditor those um those two uh entities were audited by Auditors other than MHP however they are reported in the audit um financial statements of the school district and then lastly here in this opinion the third opinion paragraph here it talks about the results and Auditors we like our words um but it says in our opinion the accompanying financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects the financial position and then it goes on um of the distri District as of June 30th so as a board and as a community this is the opinion that we are hoping you all are hoping to receive um as part of that audit
022process there are more paragraphs of the opinion they're they're all important but maybe just a few a few things to highlight um as I mentioned there is an emphasis of matter paragraph related to the adoption of Gatsby statement Number 96 um this just tells you that you adopted it and we did not monit fire our opinion um on to the next page in the auditor responsibilities for the audit section I think that it is important to remind you all every year that as Auditors our goal and objective is to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement that does not mean absolute in uh Assurance in order for us to properly provide our opinion there are certain things that we are required to do under Professional Standards and those are bullet
023pointed here for you all um of course we are required to exercise professional judgment maintain professional skepticism we identify and assess risks of material misstatements and then we design audit procedures to address those risks uh we gain an understanding of your internal controls at the school district we look at the appropriateness of your accounting policies including accounting estimates um and we consider whether or not there any condition or or events that we think raise a substantial doubt about the district's ability to be a a going concern for the next 12 months now there's some additional information about required supplementary information under government um Accounting Standards but I'm G to skip to the very last page of of the opinion and here it talks about um another report required by government auditing standards and this is
024referencing the district internal control over financial reporting and really what the goal of this paragraph is to say hey reader of the financial statements be aware that this is a government uh an audit conducted under government auditing standards and you should look for another opinion somewhere in the financial statements that tell you the results of of our work over internal controls so if you will um that is where I am going to skip to next for you all tonight takes me a bit to navigate see if I can guess here school districts report is is quite lengthy um here we are on page 80 or PDF page 190 if you're following along electronically um under government auditing standards it is our responsibility as Auditors to um look at the internal controls that most impact the
025financial statements and the financial activity of the district and if we were to come across any instances um prevalent or pervasive instances of internal control issues we would be required to communicate to you all um through this opinion um for our work on the June 30th 2023 financial statements we have no issues of internal controls over financial reporting to report to you all tonight secondly this opinion also address is the district's compliance with um certain provisions of laws regulations contracts Grant agreements uh State statutes if you will again if we'd identify that the district had violated any of those laws or regulations State statutes Etc we would be required to communicate those to you all as well through this opinion but there are no such instances to 14 old now our final opinion um to
026provide to the school district is our independent auditor report on compliance for each major federal program as well as the internal controls over those programs and as Jed mentioned we did audit four programs this year um in relationship to the school district's single audit there were no instances of non-compliance that we would be required to report through this opinion um as Mr sarelli mentioned there was one internal control um deficiency that we did report uh related to procurement um and if you wish to review the um official write up on that that is also included here in our report um it is finding 2023-the that were so forour uh through the program now our auditing standards also require us to evaluate uh by findings that the school district had in the previous year and um
027test whether or not your corrective action was appropriately implemented uh so you may remember last year there was one audit finding related to inventory um we are happy to announce um and and it is reported as such in the um the audit report this year that the school district's um corrective action was appropriately implemented and that previous finding is thus resolved and with that um I think that that kind of gets to the end of of our opinions um and our Communications to you all that I wish to share today uh can I take any questions from the Board of Trustees doesn't look like we have any questions thank you so Jed are you all done with your presentation also Okay so we will move on Mr chair with that that ends our superintendent reports
028for this evening okay Mr chair yes sorry may I make a comment sure okay I just want to um convey a thanks to the finance team for doing an excellent job again um I know these audits are big I actually read through all those pages um I won't pretend I always tell Mr sarelli I don't pretend to understand at all but I I do trust that um our team does and they do a great job so thank you for all the work you also had a very big audience here tonight too so that's great oh I'm sure that's what they came for sure okay before we go on to the regular meeting does anybody want to take a break at this point since we already been almost at this for two hours or any want
029to just go on it's like we don't want look like we want to go on okay so next thing we're going to go to organizational meeting election of officers think we have a motion Mr chairman I move to keep the current slate of officers for the coming year I second have a motion second to keep the current slative officers that we've had for the last year um any further discussion all those in favor say I I those oppose no motion passes okay so now we need to get Mr SEC up here again to give us our gr of office thank you Mr chairman um if the trustees could stand and raise their right hand for the administration of The Bu of office and if you could repeat after me um I state your name you
030solemnly swear that I will support obey and defend support oby and defend the Constitution of the United States theti of the United States the Constitution of the state of Wyoming of St and the policies of larmy County School District number one that I have not knowingly violated any Law related to my election or appointment Rel to my elction or cause it to be done by others or cause it to be bys and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties of my office with fidelity as the state your office of the Board of Trustees of ly County School District One dist state of Wyoming thank you Mr chairman congratulations and next up is the consent agenda before I go on the consent agenda I do want to did you want the [Music] commments
031can okay thank you and the committee assignments were we're going to be voting on as part of the consent agenda are in the leg as as the legislative Le is on we have a Renee Susan and Brook and then in the Chey schools Foundation board is Alicia the Cheyenne community recreation District I don't know as direct word is Alicia Susan and Brook and the a committee is Britney and Susan as you can see that's a thrilling committee to be on um the executive committee um is the chair the vice chair and the clerk the director of of the the um area one wom School Board Association is myself calendar committee is Britney and Alicia Bounty waiver committee is is Susan that's the very interesting ones to be on um space committee this see my third
032year on that one so this will be my last year on that that committee teacher of the year selection committee is going to be Britney education support person of the year select committee is Christie and I'm on the insurance committee and then all of us from time to time we'll go to the par advisory committee just to see what's going on so that was just some information so all items listed with designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion on these items any item removed from the consent agenda will be considered as normal sequence on the agenda does any board member request to have to remove a motion from the consent agenda not seeing any Mr chairman
033I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda I second have a motion to approve the consent agenda and a second all those in favor say I I those oppos no test and now we move down to new business I guess we have [Music] some okay so let's go one Mr chairman I move to approve the fiscal year 20222 23 Financial audit by McGee Hearn and LLP a second okay we have a motion a second to approve the audit for this year any further discussion all in favor say I hi those close no Mr chairman I move to Grant permission to purchase automatic external defibrillator def later aeds from AED everywhere for an amount not to exceed $185,700 Mr chairman I move to approve the amendment of board policies chapter 7 instructions section 21
034library media Services as reflected in the attached proposed amendment hereto and made a part thereof by this reference I second okay we have motion a second to approve the chapter seven um policy changes and I believe we have some amendments and we're going to put the amendments up there so the audience could see them as well all about transparency here here we go Mr chair I move to amend the draft policy on page two line 13 to insert the best of the teachers ability after honored and before when so it'll read the superintendent will develop a process to ensure any limitations are communicated to the classroom teachers and honored to the best of the teachers ability when accessing of the classroom Library so we have a motion for an amendment a second second second for
035the discussion what is the intent of the the intent of the amendment is kind of just to take a little bit of pressure off of the teacher shoulders I think from feeling the weight of oh my gosh now I have to adhere to all of these different students policies or whatever it may be um so where I mean the teacher can only do it to the best of ability so I feel like this part protects the teacher in a way from I don't know a lawsuit that's not necessary did you want to add something Christie sorry she was I'm sorry okay thank you Mr chair my understanding is that and and maybe we can ask Miss paie about this but my understanding is that um the teachers will be asked to the best of their
036ability enact the policy or the enact the choice of each parent um with with what choice they're making and so uh it was a recommendation that I noticed and and so did truste hrey in the comments that we received back from our community just as an idea that would make sure that the intent was that we are not trying to punish teachers but we are trying to um let them know in other words that we're trying to um recognize that they are humans too but that they will enact this policy doesn't change the intent of the language to um that they still would have to respect the choices that are made through the process does that make sense you also have something to thank you chairman Bolan so when I looked at this policy I
037thought about the friends that I have that are subs and what a difficult spot it may put them in going in cold not knowing who the students are and making an error not intentionally but an oops and I wouldn't want any of them to get penalized or in trouble or lose their subs spot because they made an honest mistake anybody else okay we have a motion second for an amendment to gra policy on page two considering the teacher part of this any further comment all those in favor say I I those oppose no how many eyes did we have hands up all of a okay motion passes all right so now we have another amendment Mr chair go ahead all right I'd like to sponsor this amendment um I move to amend that the the
038draft policy on page three lines 9 through 12 to delete parents Guardians may also utilize this option to limit their students ability to check out Library materials have been that have been nominated as potentially containing sexually explicit content but that have not been formally reviewed and then subsequently on Page 6 line 20 delete both nominated materials and those four words and on Page 6 line 21 delete and Y referring to again those nominated materials um and the purpose of oh well that's my sorry I should that's my recommendation read what it sounds like for With The Changes oh um so the Bullet on page three lines 9 through 12 uh it would read no access to materials containing sexually explicit content content means the students will not have access to check out any Library materials
039that have been identified as containing sexually explicit content as defined in this policy period and the next sentence that follows that would be removed and then as I mentioned later on in the policy um it states parents and Guardians will be notified annually about the existence and location of we would take out both nominated materials and take those words out so they would be uh notified annually about the existence and location of materials that have been identified as containing sexually explicit content and the ability to opt their child out of those Library materials period you want to explain do I need a second first oh I'm sorry we need a second I'm sorry a second okay have a second okay motion a second schedule okay the purpose for doing this U again reading through the
040comments um was that and it makes sense to me that materials that are identified have gone through the process that we are establishing in this policy and materials that are nominated may be materials that are deemed by the committee as not qualifying um to be to have sexually explicit content as defined by our definition and legally I think that it's just more prudent that we have a process in place and that the materials go through that process before we actually deem them as containing sexually explicit content so that made sense to me and that's what I'm recomm can I ask a question on that yes so I'm not sure I'm following exactly so does that mean that um people so the the nominated list before it's vetted does that mean that people can't just opt
041out of that that or how does that work Mr chair all right thank you Mr chair um trusty ashy the nominated list will still be available for people to view on the ELA website um I believe and um yes that's true and but it won't they will not be opting out of that list unless they go to that list and say in addition to what I want to opt out of which might be their they might choose to opt out of the designated list books that have been reviewed through the process and then designated is having sexually explicit content then they can go to the nominated list and they can add whatever books they want from that list if they would like to add to off out because as you know we have four options
042and people can custom make their list for their student SCH one well isn't that one of the choices it's a limit based on a nominated list Mr chair Mr chair thank you um trusty hle the idea is just to remove this this sentence from the actual opt out from the books that have been nominated so right now we combine the two concepts you have the opt out for the designated list and then the very next sentence says and parents may may utilize this to opt out for the nominated list we're just taking it out because we don't want to confuse things we want the process to be that the books that are opted out of parents know that they've gone through a reviewed process that's been established and followed with Fidelity may I may I
043clarify iy Clon just just to clarify I believe that um with this change if I choose to um select no access to materials containing sexual explicit content for my high schooler um that automatically makes it so that my child cannot check out books that have already been defined and they've gone through the review process and they now have been we've we've decided that they do contains sexual explicit content so she would be opted out of those however um if someone through the nomination process maybe just to approve a point nominates to Dr Seuss book just because it's been nominated um Ashley is not automatically opted out of that because it is nominated it has to actually complete the full cycle and be um determined to contain sexual explicit content before she would automatically be not
044allowed to check out that book is that correct corre Mr chair yes truste Smith that's absolutely right I think that the idea is that we we've seen that we've seen that in our community um in discussing this issue everyone has a different line a different measure and we uh the the amendment is to follow the policy and so if the nominated list has books on it that are recommended that the committee doesn't necessarily meet the definition of sexually explicit content you um in in opting out of this material you are not automatically opting out of doctor te so that's the reason you can always choose to opt out of Dr Seuss if you say boy I really don't like that but um uh that would be your own personal decision it wouldn't be based on
045Dr Seuss having sexually explicit Conta because we all know that doesn't so um that's the purpose thank you for that clarification anything else all right so we have a motion a second to do amendment number two all those in favor say I hi oppos no le make sure we I see I thought it was everybody but can I see Hands please just make sure who have the eyes all right so what six all right so all right so we now have another amendment yes amendment number three Mr chairman I move to amend the draft policy on page six line two to insert considered historical text after widely and before held and on page six lines two and three to delete held to have serious artistic significance or works of anthropological significance so the text would
046read materials that are widely considered historical texts or materials used in District approved curriculum shall not be designated as containing sexually explicit content know that's going to look slightly different on your copy that's in front of you then if you look up here I believe it's actually been Ed into up there so Mr Sheriff I if I could quickly um uh trusty Smith I don't believe that the board docks uh document has been updated to um what is on the screen which would be that materials that are historical text okay thank you so I believe that amendment is different than what you just read can I retract that Amendment then and go with what's been changed you didn't read this this no I was reading let's do that okay all right Mr chairman I moveed
047to amend the draft policy on page six line two to insert historical texts after R and before widely and on page six lines 2 and three to delete held to have serious artistic significance or works of anthropological significance so the text would read materials that are historical texts or materials used in District approved curriculum shall not be designated as containing sexually explicit content okay now you want to talk about um oh go ahead what's up oh I'm sorry okay thank you um you know i' I'd like to tighten up this text this is this has been an area that has um haven't quite been comfortable with with how we've phrased it all along um I think by limiting this to historical text um takes out some of the ambiguity from that section um and obviously
048our district approved curriculum um we're not that's it's really not a part of what we're looking at uh through this book policy me yes so is the intention that if it's a if it's a art book with art pieces that have some of the things that we've described on them that they that that is okay to put on the naughty list and maybe the word text we sort of have um Amy and I had some conversations going back and forth about that um I think if it has historical significance um such as a famous art piece then um that in my mind would fall under this this historical phrasing here um I don't I mean that that could be a part of appr curriculum as well I could be could be a research top I
049mean I don't know I guess I I have concerns that by taking out the artists or the anthropological pieces there are significant primarily research texts that have things in them part of it is part of history and if we're going to say yes it we'll just see it as history I guess but they're ultimately artist art books or anthropological books and I have that makes me nervous Mr chairman oh go ahead um I'm also concerned because when in 10 years when none of us are on the board anymore or most of us won't be on the board anymore um they're not going to look at what your intent was with that they're going to look at what the words say and the words say historical text and so if it's something that's not a historical
050text like an art book or or something else that could um have importance in education that they're going to look at that and say oh it's not a historical text so we're going to get rid of it um so I think that increases the slippery slope 100% um so I'm very much against changing that wording because they're not going to look at what youry CL or trusty Smith's intent was in 10 years when we look at this so this is not this is this is something that will be in our policies for a long period of time so we can't just think about what you want me paully what's your opinion on how that would fit with text uh Mr chair trusty Ash I think that's a good point um you know text does does
051seem to limit itself to um written materials um and and maybe the language that truste Smith had originally read that the material material just having materials that are uh widely held to have historical significance captures more than just texts would include um all materials within the library so that might be um a way to address all materials rather than limiting it to just written materials so what we'd be doing is just eliminating mean the part of the sentences uh are serious artistic significance or work anthropological from the original one uh correct Mr chair you would be inserting um after the word materials the phrase that are widely had held to have historical significance and you would be removing uh the phrase serious artistic significance or works of anthropological significance yes Mr chair um in thinking
052about the wording uh talking to trustees Smith a few minutes ago I I wonder if it's better to say State and I'm wondering if trusty Smith would entertain this idea um of changing that from U materials that are historical texts to um historical doc um sorry historical materials or materials used in District approved curriculum because as Miss B just mentioned too I was thinking this but it's you know there may be there may be materials that aren't just texts yes so I don't know that my my full concern is the word texts um you know we could have a a modern art book that doesn't technically fall into the historical category as of yet or uh an anthropological book that talks about I don't something that's happening in the world today and then it touches
053on something that has has pictures or something um but is ultimately a research book um so my concern is ultimately removing the his the artistic and anthropological pieces as well Mr chairman is I think we should leave it as it is makes much more sense that's great so if we I don't know why my microphone is so loud sorry if we move forward with the changes of whether it's historical materials or um materials that or widely held whatever we move forward with the purpose of or so say that I sorry go it's not normally that loud um say that I choose on when I register my kid for school and I go to pick an option one of the four I choose um all access then this part like I'm G to have access to
054whatever historical significant materials or any I mean any of the materials that I want my kid to have access to they're going to have access to to that correct okay so this would pertain to the parents who are going to use um either the no access to sexually explicit or the that would be the only one correct okay correct thank you okay anybody else have any more comments okay so do you want to propose this as a friendly amendment can could you repeat your your proposal yeah thank you thank you Mr chair and Trust that I was proposing that maybe we clarify and we just state it more um that we State Historical materials or materials used in District approved curriculum shall not be designated as containing sexually explicit content would you um consider that
055a friendly amendment I would consider that a friendly Amendment yes okay so oh okay we haven't G do there yet then right no so really to do that change all we have to do is take out text right text because we already have materials at the beginning well Mr chair I I'll repeat if it's right okay you would start with historical materials or materials used in District approved curriculum shall not be designated as containing sexually explicit content okay I'm the concept I'm just wondering if maybe just delete it is just get rid of the word tax what do you think um Mr chair I think that the you know essentially what you would do would be to say on page six line two insert historical material before the word material so at the beginning of
056that line um and then delete um on page six lines 2 to three the serious artistic significance or works of anthropological significance and that would capture your Amendment so it would just say historical materials or materials used in District approved uh curriculum okay so do we consider that a friendly Amendment yes you made you made the second so you have also you made I'm assuming you're going to go okay with it Mr chair yes I'm sorry but you're right you could read it either way yes so I was kind of looking over my shoulder but you could read it either way yeah I I'm okay with putting hisorical and then just getting just say his material then immediately go to the other part right okay everybody understand what we're going to be voting on here
057we've got a modification all right so the amended Amendment any further discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed no no okay so I think I heard two NOS is that correct so the Y are why you raise your hand for all right so we have four four votes so the motion passes all right so now we're on to minut number four thank you Mr chair I move to amend the draft policy on page six line 22 to delete junior high schools and on page seven lines two and three delete and Junior High and on page seven line three after content and before must insert will put on the list called Library materials containing sexually explicit Library content and will be and on page seven line three delete must be and on page
058seven line three in insert due to the contents inappropriate in inappropriateness three delete must be and on page seven line three wa I'm reading that twice I'm sorry okay I'm going to start back line three delete must be and on page seven line three insert due to the contents inappropriateness for the age emotional development ability and Social Development of Elementary students and on page seven line three insert maybe after and and before moved and on page seven line three insert Junior after a and before high and on page seven line four insert Junior High and after two and before high so can I get a second and then I'll explain well let's read it all the together okay you want me to read it okay number one elementary schools following formal review and identification any
059existing Library materials that contain sexually explicit content will be put on a list called Library materials containing sexually explicit Library content and will be removed from all elementary library media centers due to the contents inappropriateness for the a for the age development ability level and Social Development of elementary students and may be moved to a junior high school library media center number two Junior High and high schools following formal review and identification any existing library library materials that contain sexually explicit content will be put on the list called Library materials containing sexually explicit Library content okay so now want to talk about oh we need a second I'm sorry a second okay so now we'll talk about that so with the elementary school when I talked to Miss Paulie really we're just borrowing the language
060from the from the administrative regulations so that's what we have right now as Elementary School language to the junior high out of the out of the vast number of comments what I felt was the most repetitive was that you're taking away the rights of me as a parent or my junior high school student and I know that we have one group here and one group here and we've tried to meet in the middle and so when I sit back and I I look at the policy and I think what is the most important part of this policy it's bringing books with sexually explicit content to light so that parents that don't want their children children to read these to be able to use this that is the most important part anybody else have any comment
061on the amendment okay thank you Mr chair um I just can't support providing books with sexual explicit content to our young high schoolers their bodies and their brains are still developing it's one thing to allow High School um to potentially read that type of content but really to me it just seems criminal to allow a junior high school or an 11 12 13y old access to that type of of literature of a parent in this community is adamant that they could read that um I think it would be easy enough for them to um find a particular title online or in a local um school or School in a local bookstore or even at the public library um I just I I I just can't get behind um just having those available to our our
062young children and I know they think they're big but they really are 11 12 and 13 year olds they're just young I'm not in favor of the amendment you comment yes thank you Mr chairman um I'll just comment to that about that comment and say that they will still be age appropriate bols um and so any uh mention of any kind of sexuality will still be appropriate for that age puberty Etc things like that so it's not going to be um adult and high school approved material that will be in the junior high schools any further comments thank you chairman I just want to clarify so the the changes on this part of the changes on Amendment four they're they're basically saying that if a sexually explicit book is found in a junior high school
063that it's not going to be removed from the school there's still going to be a sexually explicit list that that parent can choose I don't want my kid to have access to sexually explicit material but that book won't be removed for the parents that have decided I want my kid to have access to all material is that correct uh Mr chair uh trust me yes that is correct okay thank you Rich at the last meeting when we were going through the Amendments and I had asked for the line to be moved up it was twofold one was I had heard a lot of public comment on it's just such a strain on the Librarians to be able to keep track of the these lists so my thought was we have a caveat in this policy
064that if you had a junior high school student you could request a book from a higher grade and your child would be able to read that so those were two things that I considered in moving that line up but after going through the public comments four times I'm just I I think that the Focus right now with some of those comments and please go back and reread some of those and you may know the ones that I'm talking about to me the most important thing really is to get the list out there so that parents know what's in our libraries and we're transparent about that and they can use them for the comments okay so we have a motion and second to do amendment number four all those in favor say I I those oppose
065no no he sounds like we only have one no but let's see the eyes just to make sure we have four yes we have five okay so motion and now we're back on to the original motion on the original motion as amended yes go ahead so like many of the my colleagues up here I spent a great deal of time through all of your comments thank youor can I just do we have a motion yes we had the motion originally that was started motion we can't amend until we do a motion sorry going through the comments and trying to figure out how I you'll notice I didn't SM any Amendment amendments um because I was having a very hard time figuring out how to amend to deal with some of the issues that I consistently
066saw one of which we heard a lot of tonight around the impact on teachers um and the concerns expressed from our teaching staffs um we uh you know there was a number of comments around it the complication or the depth or the amount of complicating pieces in the policy um one of the things that I've had concerns about is there's a lot of process in a policy and that from a Governor's standpoint is concerning to me because then anytime the process changes we have change policy um so I instead of making an amendment I would like to throw out that we do two things um and I understand that this may this is likely to go up in Flames but um I would like suggest that maybe we votee no on the policy and that
067we use some of the language the processed language to request that the staff um the main thing that I've heard over and over again is that we don't know what's in we don't know what to request um to opt out of that we use some of that piece um to create or to continue to have the crowdsourced documents that allow people to better understand and to create the list that people can reference to opt out of um I think this does two things I think it allows us to continue the default to be um uh the access to the carefully Cod libraries um from the teachers and the Librarians because they do spend a lot of time doing that and I think um that makes sense and that we um and that it allows us
068to continue the process that is in place and to refine it because I've heard multiple times that it's not as easy to use rine the process for understanding what's in so you I'm just advocating for a no and a request to or request to sta any other comments before we V yes [Music] um I'm not sure I can say many of the things that I want to say and what you me um I am opposed to the new library policy everyone here knows it's no surprise I believe this is a policy meant to address an idea ideology not a pro a policy to address an actual problem there is very little detail in the policy as to what the processes will be or how they will be enforced the definitions of what can be banned
069are very explicit and yet I believe they will be difficult to apply even-handedly the explicit definitions will be hard to apply to language and grade school books and it's difficult to find commonality and how people objectively measure this type of content further under the proposed policy a measured and careful decision made by the superintendent or the committee as will be defined in a future time can be overturned by a biased Board of Trustees who may have never even read the entire book this is bad policy there are several additional points I'd like to make this is bad policy because it undermines the training and education of librarians and teachers this Poli tells our teachers and our Librarians that this board and some people in our community do not trust them if these teachers and Librarians
070decide to stay in the district and I believe many of them will not decide to stay I guarantee that most classroom libraries will be a thing of the past that's not good for our students we all want our students to read this is bad policy from a civic's point of view also remember your high school Civics classes and the purpose of our democracy this policy threatens First Amendment rights of students and parents who do not agree with the ideas of the majority of this board this board is elected to serve all students in the district and the constituents of this District not just the ones who have the same beliefs as they do I think it's remarkable and notable that a group of attorneys and judges have read this policy and agree that it is
071restrictive and could pose legal challenges this is bad policy because its purpose is to promote ideology there is no mandate from the legislature there is no mandate from the Wyoming Department of Education to make the changes this board is considered the ideas that are at the heart of this policy come from a conservative religious movement that started outside of Wyoming and does not follow Wyoming does not please no comments I listen to you you guys4 please no comments this is time for the board the ideas at the heart of this policy are the come from the conservative religious movement that started outside of Wyoming and that does not follow Wyoming's strongly held belief in limited government and individual rights on this point the policy is C as protecting parental rights in fact it does the
072opposite it limits the rights of any parent who believes there is a place for age appropriate references to sex or sexuality in some literature some age appropriate books will mention sex and sexuality because that is the social and biological nature of puberty some parents may want their children to be educated and to not ignore this reality these parents should be allowed to use books in their child's library to help educate them the policy before the board removes that important tool and strips parents of their right to parent I also want to make two important clarifications we have heard statements over and over and over again and I want to set the record straight there is no pornography in our schools our Librarians do not choose pornography they choose books book s from well documented and
073reviewed lists many of these books win national awards and contain current issues that are relevant to our students now there may be books that discuss sexual topics and that may make some people uncomfortable but that does not make them prol learning about sex and sexuality in an age appropriate manner is not pronography villainizing the work of our Librarians and staff and injecting this topic with the rhetoric of pornography is disingenuous and inaccurate the second point I want to make is that the reason for limiting excerpts from books read at this meeting are that these excert that most of these excerpts have been taken from age appropriate for high school this meeting has to be age appropriate for kindergarten and those are two different things M I would urge this board to vote no on the
074policy before us although the rules state that this board does not need to consider the number of public comments for or against a proposed policy I think the sheer number of people opposed to this policy speaks volumes to to its legitimacy if this policy is passed despite the obvious opposition of a majority of the public I hope those whose objections are ignored will use the power of their vote to elect members to this board who better follow their priorities and who don't promote ideological positions at the expense of our Constitution and Democratic Values finished anybody else yes go ahead okay so a lot of the comments that I've heard throughout this this process of sharing this policy have been um a lot that have resonated with me have been to do with teachers and librarians
075and coming from the home that I did teachers are what made me who I am today and so it's been really important to me to understand the work the I mean the workload that's been said that's going to fall on teachers is I would just like to ask a clarifying question if I could Dr Newton if you wouldn't mind speaking to this or maybe you have someone else you can um reference but can you explain that if this policy goes through how this could affect the teachers The Librarians and those at the building level dayto day Mr chair trustey Humphrey of course my answer is contingent upon the passing of this policy but as as I read it the work um that will be done subsequent to the passing of the policy when a book
076is nominated will largely fall upon the division of instruction um I read in here that a committee will be formed certainly will have teachers parents um and and central office folks as well but that the work of that committee will U go through process that is in keeping with the language of this policy um and so as I read this policy would suggest that if a parent were to uh submit the request online it would probably bypass all building Personnel um as I read it if they were to submit it in on paper um it would go to the building principal who would immediately forward it along to the division of instruction okay so basically because I I had some pictures in my head of librarians having to sift through the library and see what
077books are sexually explicit and I just want to clarify that if this policy does move forward we are not asking our Librarians to do that is that correct correct Mr chair trustee Humphrey as I read this policy it would not put the onus upon the Librarians um although if they wanted to be a part of the committee that reviewed the materials um I would assume that would be a volunteer Committee of course um it wouldn't preclude them from being a part of it but I do not read this policy to contemplate that any work in that regard would fall on Librarians okay thank you for clarifying um I also do trust our teachers I'm thankful for the teachers that we have and the Heart of this policy from where I'm standing does not come from
078a place of I don't trust my teachers I don't trust our Librarians because I do but I want the right to be with the parent whether you want your kid to have all access to all materials or whether you don't want your kid to have access to those materials and so I feel like um I I just want it to be spoken that whether however this vote goes I my heart is not to undermine teachers or Librarians and to create more workload and more burnout and from what I understand in policy that is not going to be the case let's let somebody else go ahead thank you chairman Bolan so over and over in reading through the public comment I heard keep the current opt out follow it works it's easy it gives everyone a
079choice except the current opset opt out policy it only works for those people that don't ever have to use it we used to have the form 85c it was a paper form I tried twice to help people with that it was a fiasco because you had to know every book with the author you had to know the title and the author you couldn't just say I want my child opted out uh books with sexually explicit content the way that our system works it's just not set up that way so then we went to the online form and that was great except for even if you knew the titles it only gave you room for like two books now thanks to Our IT team they changed that I think you could put about 20 books in
080there before you had to do a spreadsheet and create your your own but it still puts the work on you and I've heard from Librarians that there's all these different sites out there that you the parent can access and look at books but for for some of them yep that's great I can get these lists but it's not always so easy to go into our system and pull those out so my point in this is that we want to be transparent and for those parents that have given up or or every time their child checks out a book they get a phone call and saying are you okay with your son or daughter checking out this book and they give the title on the author and that's great I guess if you're available to take
081that call but I just see for parents that are struggling like the single mom who's working two jobs and has cancer going through chemo she needs a little bit of help the parents that have three kids in sports they get home at 7 dinner on the table homework done and now it's 8:30 quarter to 9 and they're all exhausted or just the maybe it's the grandparent that's not computer savvy and just needs a little bit of help I don't see why transparency and what's in our schools and our building libraries and classrooms I don't see why that's been made out to be such a huge de next I'd like to talk about the cost that was reported of the $10,000 so there was a foyer done and we actually got an email from the person
082that did the foyer and here's what it said so for four copies of one book was $415 so I figured four people okay going through the book and making their determination so that left $2,489 61 per person if you let's say they took eight hours to go through this that would break down to $31.20 per person hourly I think that number is a little inflated the second book that was that was on that list was a part of District curriculum so there was no cost to the book so I would chall chenge that $10,000 cost book Banning or censoring books so I move the line back to elementary school because overwhelmingly we heard that that that we were Banning but I don't see how having a definition of what's of what is and what isn't
083sexually explicit content and providing a way for parents to nominate books is neither Banning or censoring it's the fundamental rights of parents to direct the care upbringing and education of their children in the Wyoming Constitution 14-2 d206 the liberty of a parent to the care custody and control of their child is a fundamental right that resides first with the parent so whichever side of this issue you you're on I am with you I am for parental rights books in context versus as a whole so we have four options and I find it striking how many people have come up and said well you're not taking the book as a whole okay but the reality is is that you're going to check the box all access so I don't know why you're so worried about that
084the parents that want this brought out into the open they don't care about the books as a whole and maybe you do but they don't but that's their parental right number five parents or guardians of a few shouldn't limit the rights of others oh I saw this over and over again this is one sentence I totally agree on so again I would say if you're fine with everything in the library just check the box Open Access again again I want to bring transparency this is why there's so much angst over the list if you're truthful though why is there why is there such angst check the Box open access and let the parents that want to know let them know please book nominations when we first started this process there were a great many of
085us I think that wanted it open to everyone to be able to nominate a book and we got huge backlash from that so we compromised you have to be a parent or a guardian of the student in a district again that was a compromise that we made so in my two attempts to help people with their opt out form we had a librarian that said but what is sexually explicit content so it seemed seems like like without a definition they're really in a hard place to try to help and I totally get that that's why we created a definition so we had a few comments about bringing religion into this we were called zealots we weren't the ones on the Democrat on the ly County Democrat Party one final push before the last school board
086meeting where a decision will be made on the Larry m County School District 1 Library policy there will be a phone bank to remind local Democrats to make their voices heard on the proposed policy not comfortable on the phones no worries come and fill out a postcard that will be delivered in person on the board meeting on Monday November the 6th Sunday November 5th 11 to1 at the Unitarian Universalist Church social Hall 30005 th Avenue I'm just going to leave that one there so a lot of people also said to us you're spending so much time on this policy and there's so many other things that you need to be doing so let me just inform you of a few things that I'm doing I'm part of the legislative commit and so I watch every
087joint Education meeting as well as the select committee for school facilities let me tell you about the last Education meeting for those of you that didn't watch or attend they talked about early literacy screening dyslexia we had a mom that spoke that recently lost her son to suicide and she spoke about that about her son was dyslexic and he didn't get identified IED until fifth grade fifth grade that's a big issue with me okay early literacy and I don't know what was more disheartening was that the education committee that day she said through her tears I stand for any questions and there was silence and I know this woman so I texted her and I said I'm in say what they didn't and I'm going to say it right now all over again I'm sorry
088for your loss I'm sorry for every holiday that you're not going to get with your child and I'm sorry that we didn't do one better for you so you better believe I'm doing more than just a book policy I'm concerned about the loss of Esser funds and what that looks like with our district and how we're going to be able to provide quality education in every building professional learning Dr Newton and I have had several conversations about what that looks like the Eureka Math and all the material that goes out for 45 day review when I was campaigning I said over and over again I will not pass I will not vote for a curriculum that I haven't laid eyes on that I haven't to the fullest of my knowledge asked questions that I'm unsure
089about things that I don't know since I brought the Eureka Math up again I'd like to thank Amy castle and her team and all the teachers that piloted that so I'm not just working on an OP out policy buildings with temperatures in the 80s this first month Dr Newton again he and I had several conversations about that AR Elementary School and what's going to happen there it's not just the book policy I'll leave it at that thank you thank you Mr chair um I'll just add that you know we've got behavior in schools supporting our buildings and encouraging that our teachers and our administrators um just to name a few things so we're pretty busy but I do want to say thank you to everyone who has come and made comments or reached out to
090us over the period of time that we've been working on this draft policy um I really do believe that there are there is a lot of confusion about what we're doing and I think Mr Wilson mentioned something about just we could just talk to each other I know a lot of folks have reached out I've tried to answer and then I end up in the paper being called something horrible so um but I wanna I want to set the record straight about what this policy does you may not agree with it but this is what this policy does so first first and this is this is what I believe it does the intention behind The Proposal is to address the difficulty parents and Guardians face in trying to use the current opt out system to
091identify and avoid materials with sexually explicit content we're trying to improve the process and make it easier for parents to use the opt out system second there's nothing in this policy as it goes for a final vote that will remove any books or prevent students from Reading anything in our secondary libraries that their parent approves and books that would be captured by this policy would almost certainly not be intended for elementary students anyway so the idea that this is a book B ban is unfair and not to mention all of the other terms that have been used over and over again with this policy in place each parent or Guardian will be able to easily decide for themselves at registration what kind of access to sexually explicit content they want their student to have and
092they can modify their choice at any time during the school year if they ever find their student doesn't have access to something in our collections maybe for research they can change their designation to include those books the definition of sexually explicit content was devised by our lcsd1 staff and I want to just give a shout out to miss Paulie who's put in a lot of time and Research into this topic the definition was created to be transparent and be a transparent standard for identifying materials that may be of concern to parents and Guardians not as a basis to remove those materials once explicit materials meeting that definition or identified all parents can decide for themselves if they think their student is ready for that content this one's a hard one but I want to be
093clear that this proposal is not nor has it ever been about questioning the professionalism of any staff in our district and if you've been told that it's disheartening because it's not true you have also probably heard the criticism that the policy will cost the districts hundreds of thousands of dollars not true don't take my word ask our staff I believe that notion I really hear this I believe that notion confuses this policy with the district's existing and totally separate book challenge process which has to do with removing books the process and purpose for this policy is very different the identification of sexually explicit content is meant to act like immature content rating on a movie it won't impact whether the book remains on Library shelves but will require parent permission to check that book out
094no Library shelves will be purged as I have stated all along the primary intent behind this policy is to empower parents with information they need to choose what's best for their student parents will choose not me not this board or anyone else in our district if the public education system is to maintain the trust of our families our policies must reflect an acknowledgement and respect of the fundamental relationship of a parent and a child that principle is embedded in this policy and it's a principle that I will always seek to uphold especially when it comes to giving parents the tools and information they need to protect the innocence of their own children so Mr chairman that's why this evening I will be voting for this policy thank you you have some comments I do you
095want some comments yes I'll get back to you she's had her head up every time I just want everybody go once before I do twice so so as I start my comments I'd like to start by thanking our administrators and staff who I know have worked tires Tire tirelessly to bring us a draft policy and to work with our revisions and our questions and our what ifs and to get us to the point where we could put something out for 45 day review and after that to be here tonight and still through that 45 day review and once we've had am's and our team who have had a chance to compile things to constantly be Felding our questions and our whats and and working us through this so thank you very much um it's not
096lost on us as a board how time consuming and stressful this has been we just appreciate I appreciate you very much I will be voting yes on this policy tonight I'd like to be clear this is not a ban on books we are not removing books from the libraries we're not locking up books we're not moving them to a so-called naughty section the library that kids can only access with permission we are not taking away access to books nor are we telling any family in this community what their kids can or cannot read what we're doing is making the process more simple for families who are concerned with what their children might find in our libraries we're giving them an opportunity to Simply say I don't want my child to reach read books that have
097sexually explicit content their doing so doesn't preclude any other family from saying you know I'm fine with my child reading whatever they want if those in our community who are yelling the loudest about Freedom really want it then I hope that they will be pleased that all families if this vote this policy passes will now truly have the freedom to make a simple choice for their own children what I choose for my kid doesn't affect what you're able to choose for your kid if it doesn't bother you that your children might be reading sexually explicit content then you can choose the Open Access option TV shows have ratings movies have ratings video games have ratings the FCC has the power to revoke a radio station's license and impose monetary fines if a station dares to
098air obscene indecent or profane material every reputable social media platform out there has Community standards and rules regarding content our own district has rules regarding accessing certain types of content on our District's electronic devices our District administration in the past has even deleted portions of our school board meetings from YouTube because the reading of a sexually explicit book found in our libraries violated YouTube standards which if you pay attention to YouTube or your kids do they're not very [Music] H this policy does not even rate the books like those rating systems it simply allows for a process that will give families a choice in the content that their own children can access I can choose no access the sexual explicit content for my children you can choose Open Access everyone gets what they want for
099their children and we all have an equal say in what our kids are allowed to read this isn't an attack on our Librarians and teachers it breaks my heart to hear that repeatedly from the people who are opposed to this I I'm so grateful for our teachers and our Librarians I am so grateful for what they've poured into my five children over the years they really have helped my children become who they are today they've had profound impacts on their lives and that's not Last of Me policy is not meant at all to attack them or their efforts or to make their jobs harder this isn't personal it's not pointing fingers it's not dismissing staff and their workloads at all there's not anyone who's a bad guy in all of this but I believe it's
100about working together and moving forward from here to make sure that we're meeting the expectations of our families or the needs and expectations of our families all of our families we all want what's best I believe I'm sure in this on on this board for what's best for the kids in this community but we have to keep in mind their parents have the ultimate authority to decide things for their minor children this policy will give all parents the opportunity to choose for their own children what's best for their own family thank you there any other board that hasn't spoken yet want to speak thank you Mr chairman I was just gonna answer um trusty um hum's question about how much this will impact future so the librarian may not have a part in the actual
101process of the sexually explicit books but any teachers that have a school have a classroom Library will it will affect them it will affect their Library it will affect their ability and their trust in the system about whether or not they should loan out books so it will affect teachers in that way the rumors or the idea that this as a anti- te anti- librarian policy comes from the teachers themselves they feel that this is anti-teacher anti- librarian so even though that may not be the intent of some of the board members that is how it has been seen and that is those are the comments that they feel um when they have heard about this policy so it it is anti-teacher and anti librarian even though that may not be the intent um so
102again your intent is fabulous this policy is bad any F thank you chairman so there so there was a letter to the editor back on November the 30th and there's one paragraph that just Stu out that I'd like to read the real truth without rhetoric and marketing is that the new library policy gives more information to parents and Guardians whereby they're in the driver's seat and they get to make an in they get to make informed decisions about their child's education it's that simple more information for parents and Guardians and that was my number one intent with this policy thank you chairman any further discussion not seeing no one we had a motion and a second and to um approve the revised policy and amended policy as we amended tonight all those in favor of
103approving this policy say I I those oppose no no okay so let's see the I hands we have four so motion pass it I don't your meeting dates next regular board meeting will be held on Monday January 8 2024 at 6m a work s will begin at 5: PM the buiness of the district is now done I think because the late hour nobody signed up for the second part of comments so I'm not going to do that part so have a great evening and I would I wish everyone happy holidays we won't be meeting between now and the time Christmas or the other holidays so no