001good evening I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Elk Grove unified school district board of education for May 16 2023 at 4 pm and announced that the board will meet in closed session to address items one through four on the closed session portion of the agenda at this time I'd like to call for public comment on closed session items Mr Hoffman do we have any blue cards we do not okay with that I'm going to close public comment and recess into closed session thank you we could please have everyone take their seats those of you who are able to find a seat so we can begin thank you welcome uh I'd like to call this meeting to order at 608 PM thanks for your patience and announce that the board met in
002closed session and no action was taken good evening and welcome to the Elk Grove unified school district's board meeting the board of education has resumed full in-person board meetings unless remote attendance is permitted pursuant to the California Brown Act live streaming a full in-person board meetings will be available to the public via the zoom platform today's meeting is being video recorded and will be available on the district's YouTube channel next we are going to move to our Pledge of Allegiance and my colleague Miss Jamerson is going to tell you a little bit about um let's see Miss Shannon Tosh who is joined by Mr Mark Benson principal of Laguna Creek High School would you like to approach the podium good evening come on up so that we can read all these nice things about you
003in front of everyone so all right Laguna Creek High School is honored to recognize Mrs Shannon Tosh as our education partner the Tosh family is an excellent example of the power of positive school and family Partnerships Shannon Tosh has supported Laguna region schools for 16 years at John Earhart Elementary Harriet Eddy Middle School and Laguna Creek High School Shannon has supported Laguna region schools by serving on parent-teacher organizations School site councils and assisted with classroom support Shannon also served on the international Baccalaureate authorization parent committee supporting the Laguna Laguna region IB Middle years program authorization Shannon has chaired the Laguna Creek sober grad night event for the last three years Shannon has served as Teen Mom for our volleyball team for the last six years and supported our wrestling program in addition she has shared
004her musical talents by assisting our vocal Ensemble and theater Shannon and Dave's dedication faith and hard work as parents are evident in the character of their children Laguna Creek High School is honored to have the Tosh family as part of the Cardinal family and now if you could leave the pledge please stand salute pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and if you could stay right there for one second I do want to thank Mr Benson for everything and I wanna is thinking thank you thank you next up I'm going to share some information with you about public comments during regular board meetings the public may make public comments on
005items on the agenda or items not on the agenda individual speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on each agenda item the total amount of time allocated to public comment by the board will be limited to a total of 30 minutes designated for each public comment item and it can be limited further public comments during regular board meetings may be made about items not on the agenda but within the school district's jurisdiction public comment may be made on all items that are on the board agenda and will be heard when the selection when excuse me when the selected item comes up individuals may not defer their time to another individual speaker to increase their total time Beyond three minutes please be mindful that District students may be watching you are
006encouraged to avoid excuse me to address the board and the public in a respectful manner such that all those observing from children to adults are made to feel safe welcome and valued the board shall not permit any disturbance or willful Interruption of board meetings persistent disruption by an individual or group shall be grounds for a board pres for the board president to provide a warning and then to terminate an individual's privilege of addressing the board um I will add that statements made by the public during public comment portions of our school board meeting do not necessarily reflect the views of our district board or Administration public comments can be made by the public consistent with the First Amendment right to free speech and may include profanity discriminatory statements as well as some comments that are
007explicit in nature which may be offensive or disturbing to some com to some community members and inappropriate for children such comments are in no way condoned or supported by the District board or Administration given the brown Act and the First Amendment Free Speech legal mandates the board Bears no responsibility or liability for the content of public comments please be mindful that District students may be watching and you are encouraged again to address the board and the public in a respectful manner such that all those observing from children to adults are made to feel safe welcome and valued with that I will move to our first presentation and recognition and these are our high school student representative reports today we have representatives from Calvin Cosumnes Oaks and Sheldon High School joining us um when a call
008on student representatives and let's begin with Calvin High School foreign [Music] Nancy chairs Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos I am Juliana Reyna and this is karimai Naga we are Juniors at calvine high school and it is our pleasure to present an overview of our small But Mighty School community we appreciate California being a smaller school because it is easier to get to know the teachers staff and students we know our administrators and counselor will and feel comfortable talking with them in more personal way our court our Mr Court our VP is always in the quad and always joins in our conversations with us teachers encourage us to either go to college or help us to create a path in order to find a good job before we graduate at the
009end of each quarter students are celebrated for their high for their High academic achievements and perfect attendance throughout this school year staff give out positive moments cards to put to recognize students who demonstrate our core values which are to be considerate be productive and be responsible students are randomly selected for a weekly prize to acknowledge our hard work this year we introduced makeup Mondays multiple times per quarter makeup Mondays offer students to students the chance to catch up on late work with extra help from teachers at calvine there are lots of opportunities to get involved in activities at school that will continue to be beneficial to us after we graduate the iyt program is designed to increase the number of young men of color who attend and graduate from colleges and universities it is the
010second year of our two sorry it is the second year for our two pathway programs one of the pathways is the informational Technology support specialist which which provides a certificate for a Google it support specialist and cyber security skills calvine High School is one of 100 schools in the United States piloting the new program successful completion and of certificate will prepare students to work in a professional I.T team or continue studies at CRC in addition the Calvin High School mechanical systems pathway which is partnered with valara Corporation provides training on the installation and repair of HVAC solar and plumbing for residential and commercial buildings successful completion will result in an internship and possible employment with bolara another way to get involved is through the Calvin activities team they conduct get to know each other activities
011during the year to increase student engagement and connectivity to the school they also plan semi-formal senior dinner on our campus every year the event is spectacular and a fun time a fun time is had by everyone in attendance this year's theme was star and moons this Lunch Bunch meets in room two three days per week for music games conversation the tabletop games Club meets twice per week in room 5. I cite Equity Council allows students to discuss ways of improving the school and ways to ensure that all students feel welcome a new addition to Calvin this year has been the peer-to-peer program which is through the district's Youth Development Office both Julie and I have been part of this class during the fall semester we held Red Ribbon Week which provided important life lessons regarding
012the harm of substance abuse the week also served as our our false spirit week which allowed students and staff to enjoy a number of activities and events we had given presentations on the dangers of tobacco and vaping to three different elementary schools and to our own peers during our advocacy class one of our peer-to-peer students are started a Calvin care Circle to meet once a week at lunch this group provides a safe space for students to talk about what is going on in their lives and offers peer support one of my favorite aspects of being in peer-to-peer has been being able to expand my public speaking skills and being able to speak up for what I want one of my personal favorite aspects of being in peer-to-peer has been presenting not only to elementary schools
013but also to our peers some more highlights from our school year have been the variety of field trips we've been able to go on a group of art students including karime and I collaborated to create illustrations for a published story through the California Foundation of agriculture in the classroom we were able to be involved with ag day and tour our state capital we also attended a reception where we received a published copy of our illustrations turbine students have also visited and toured CRC and Sacramento State our most recent field trip which 50 students attended was to the Calaveras big trees and Moaning Caverns teachers at calvine really care and it then show it in a variety of ways either by being there for us to talk help us with our work or even having water
014or snacks for us just in case we didn't have anything to eat at home thanks to their support and the hard work of many students how Vine high school has successfully graduated several students to conclude it has been an honor and a pleasure to prevent calvine High School to unite see you tonight board president Nancy Chez Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos please come visit us anytime so you can see for yourselves the great things we are doing at calvine High School thank you great job Kevin next up let's hear from Cosumnes Oaks foreign good evening board president Chaya Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and miss ablos my name is since ibrahanu and I am Arya shergill and we are representing the Mighty Wolf Pack earlier this January we
015had our annual art show exhibiting some of the Fantastic pieces students made throughout the year from watercolor paintings to ceramic sculptures it's easy to say that the student artists definitely showed out during the month of February our very own black student union celebrated African African-American cultural clothing during the bscu fashion show which was held in the quad at both lunches in April we held discover Co a week dedicated to celebrating culture and diversity on campus performances by our Polynesian Haka and K-pop clubs as well as activities like the Vietnamese student association's trivia Booth were held throughout the week our Junior Prom was a huge success students got to show out in their best attire at our masquerade ball held at the Sacramento Masonic temple it was our first indoor prom since coven Engineers enjoyed the
016dinner as well as the music seniors didn't miss out on the front as they attended their old Hollywood senior ball in April the Hutchin Street Square in Lodi was decked out in Hollywood glamor and students were definitely dressed to the nines from April 24th to 28th our school held a spirit week to recap the spirit days were Zoom Day anything but a backpack Wacky Wednesday rhyme without reason and 90 Y2K day this Thursday our school will be highlighting our amazing seniors and their accomplishments during our senior Awards night we will also be having our senior barbecue and Senior sunset on Friday to celebrate the end of our seniors high school years and the beginning of their new Journey our Advanced children's leader program finished performances of the show Madagascar Junior which they put for all
017egusd elementary school students who took field trips to our campus the show was student choreographed and directed and kids especially loved our rendition of I Like to Move it our spring musical ranked contrastingly prompted by wolf pack Performing Arts shed light upon the detrimental effects of academic pressure on students mental health which a lot of students related to on May 12th our annual Visual and Performing Arts Arts Gala took place with Incredible performances from Vogel Ensemble band theater and our Hype Dance Company throughout the night seniors in our bappa program received Awards to commemorate their hard work and dedication to the Arts our student athletes had much to celebrate this season as well our boys tennis team recently won the division one championship and 15 of our track athletes qualified to compete in the upcoming
018Masters meet this Friday and Saturday and with all that being said it has been a great privilege and honor to personally have served as the student board rep for Christmas Oaks my junior and staff or Junior and Senior year for these past two years with Arya thank you for your continued support we look forward to highlighting our achievements in the coming year and remember that the strength of the path of the world and the strength of the back of the wood was the facts have a wonderful evening yeah great job consumedness Oaks let's hear next from Sheldon High School good evening Miss Avalos board president Charis Espinoza members of the board and superintendent Hoffman my name is interpreet Singh and my name is osagi ugbo and we're representing the student body of Sheldon High School
019we have officially compete completed one year of in-person learning meaning that Sheldon is once again up and running at full capacity starting off with academics on January 25th ASB held our quarterly Renaissance barbecue to recognized 1 500 students with a 3.0 and above GPA this also accompanies other Awards such as the front of the line pass and academic waivers that are available through an app moving forward to February academic awards were given to 680 students from all grade levels for having gpas over 3.75 such remarkable numbers show how much hard work and dedication that students and staff are putting into their education continuing on to our student Unity efforts on February 24th of this year we had our Multicultural assembly where different Sheldon High School clubs and cultures put their cultural heritage together in a
020performance watched by all of our students Sheldon High School is a very diverse school so there is many performances that people that students appreciated and related to also on the week of May 8th to May May 12th ASB held a spirit week for a teacher appreciation week for our wonderful staff on our campus each day students dressed up in a certain theme to think teachers for example Tuesday was tropical day so you could send your teachers on a vacay ASB also gave teachers something extra to show how much they mean to us like donuts on one day and cater lunch on the other Sheldon high school students greatly appreciate our teachers and unified during our during this week to show so moving on to Athletics from our last meeting this the winter season has come
021to an end and the spring season is almost ending starting off with winter our men's basketball team was second in the Delta league with a record of 14 to 14. our Women's Basketball team was really close to making it to the playoffs for our wrestling team they also had a great season Cadence Noah Daniels Kate and diamond and Christina bellejos all made it to CIF state championships our men's soccer team made it to the second round of playoffs which is a great accomplishment as well our women's soccer team had an amazing season with several seniors graduating at the end of the season moving on to the spring season our track team has done way better than compared to previous years several Runners have moved on to Masters meet after competing in the sack Joaquin section
022division one prelims and finals our softball team at this moment today are in the playoffs and is ready to take on the rest of the leave League sorry finally our swim team had had a great season and is ready for another season to come going on to activities since our last meeting our blacklight rally was held on March 24th which is one of the most highly anticipated rallies of the Year students enjoyed performances put on by a band cheer and our Universal Rhythm dance company and also participated in Fun Games put on by ASV the blacklight route the blacklight dance was held the same night and was enjoyed by our students a week later our junior class held held their junior prom on April 1st at the Sacramento Masonic temple and had an amazing turnout
023with over 300 tickets sold following that seniors held their senior ball at the Hyatt and had great attendance with over 500 tickets sold it feels like we're finally getting back to normalcy with our school events to conclude this season of activities ASB held their goodbye rally to recognize student athletes and say goodbye to your seniors with a video and giving them their yearbooks today as you guys know Sheldon does um senior projects which is a cumulative um project of all seniors they do something to help their community so today was our Showcase in which we showcased all of the projects that our seniors did throughout the year in conclusion distance learning has shut down Sheldon for so long and Sheldon's been working hard to bring back the experiences that students Miss we're happy to complete
024an entire year of events and announce that Sheldon is back thank you and remember every day is a great day great job Huskies thank you before we dismiss the students let's recognize the principles of These Fine high schools do we have Toby page principal of Calvin Calvin High School [Music] uh uh Juan howdegi principal cosumnus Oaks High School also in the back Miss Paula Duncan principal Sheldon High School thank you students for your great reports you may be dismissed I hope you oh you are not dismissed all right we've got so much going on today um before we move on to the next item so you have a few minutes to prepare uh I neglected one thing in relation to public comment so I believe this is at the chairs discretion but I want to
025poll members to see if we are interested in going from three minutes to two minutes for a public comment tonight given the volume of comments that we already have there's one item alone that already has over an hour so given that we do have substantive things on the agenda I just I'm trying to make sure that we can get to that where folks are still alert and awake so um thoughts and opinions in favor of going to two minutes no let's just go down the line do you mind Mr Vargas two minutes or three minutes with going to two okay yeah with two okay I prefer three I'm fine with two oops okay with three okay three and three that was three and three oh good times um well there's seven of us friend they're
026only six board voting board members it is a technical vote right no it's it's really advisory um yeah or there are three yeses and three no's rights so the motion does not carry well I get a vote right you would you you're number six right we have six board members here tonight and you're gonna be a yes for the two minutes probably he's allowed to vote this is advisor tiebreaker let her think for a second yeah um had this discussion before the people who have come to present to the board have a right to be heard they shouldn't be cut off for any reason okay that's that's a that's a lovely Applause line no one is suggesting that they should not be heard um I was just presenting an option that we have available ourselves
027of earlier um I can I can go either way so I guess we'll stick to three that's fine just wanted to clarify that before we start taking public comments let's see so moving on to our next recognition of the 2000 22-23 student board Representatives um Mr Schweitzer it's going to kick it off and colleagues at one point um we're all going to go down now you'd like us all down there Mr Schweitzer please okay colleagues we're being asked to join down all right good evening board president chira's Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos I'm Chad Schweitzer assistant superintendent of secondary education along here tonight with Chris Salk the actual Bosque uh here tonight to recognize our amazing stewed board Representatives during the 2022-23 school year the board of education has been
028apprised of academic co-curricular activities as well as special programs and events through the excellent informative and enthusiastic reports delivered by our student board Representatives this year we also piloted regional board presentations for Monterey Trail Florence High School and Pleasant Grove regions as board Representatives these students have spoken on behalf of their peers and their schools and have served as valuable Liaisons between their classmates and School District administration the board is asked to recognize the 2022-2023 representatives to the Board of Education let's clap it up we have Arya share Gill from Cosumnes Oaks High School and say buranu also from Cosumnes Oaks from Florin High School Liang long Wang also from Florence High School Hal Lamb we're gonna stop from Franklin High School Sophia Wang from Laguna Creek High School Riley Cooper from Monterey Trail min
029tamlung also from Monterey Trail Shreya Prasad from Pleasant Grove High School Nicholas theodorovich I'm not trying to confuse you also from Pleasant Grove Christina Garcia from Sheldon High School indepreet Singh from Valley High School Asta Singh how'd you get that one yeah yeah we're from calvine high school Juliana Reina also from calvine Carry Me Nava okay from Elk Grove Charter Brooklyn Gregory also from Elk Grove Charter Ciara Riley from Rio casadero sakila Davis and also from Rio cazadero Renee Randall parents if you want to come up and take pictures you're welcome we get one more round of applause for our student board Representatives and student board Representatives now you're dismissed you can take it home is it okay just friends if you're done with us if you could quietly move towards the hallway we would
030appreciate it there are some folks who didn't get chairs I know they would really love to be able to sit down foreign just pausing so that folks who are exiting the room can do so so that we can proceed okay let's proceed folks if you've got conversations could you please move them out to the hallway thank you our next item on our agenda is academic recognition of spring student athletes and coaches foreign thank you uh once again good evening board president Chivas Espinoza members of the school board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos Chad Schweitzer assistant superintendent with secondary education and I know Miss Brianna Smith Pinkens is outside right there at the door assisting with all of our athletes thank you to her for organizing tonight this evening I'm honored to present to you the
031spring team grade point average Champions of the Elk Grove unified school district these student athletes not only Excel in their athletic activity but they are also outstanding students in the classroom the following teams have the highest grade point average at their schools this fall and at this time I would like to introduce the coach and captains of all of our GPA champions from Cosumnes Oaks High School we have the men's tennis team coached by Chris Wall and we have captains and our captains tonight are Justin Ing and Brandon gong from Elk Grove High School we also have men's tennis coached by Brian Benson our team GPAA was 3.34 and the captains tonight are Wayne Cook and Andrew Nguyen from Florin high school we have co-ed tennis with a team GPA of 3.84 coached by Sophia
032Chan and our captains tonight are Jason Bowie and Karina Ocampo next we have Laguna Creek High School men's golf with a 3.83 GPA coached by John ursery and tonight's captains are Charlie golby and Eric devach and we'll pause for a picture if we can parents of these student athletes if you want to come take a picture you're welcome goodness nice work [Music] another pause for a little transition yeah all right I think we can continue on next up is Monterey Trail High School the women's swim team with a GPA of 3.8 coached by Asia bambuca and tonight's captains are Mandy Pham next we have Pleasant Grove High School men's tennis with a GPA of 3.7 coached by Jeff shin and tonight's captains are Ray carmana and Aiden vong from Sheldon high school with a team
033GPA of 3.89 also men's tennis coached by Norm Lin and tonight's captains are Trevor Sharp and Yasser babir and lastly we have Valley High School continuing with the team of tennis with a team GPA of 3.7 coach John andorff and tonight's captains are Dan quatt and Ryan Lee and parents once again you're welcome to join us and take pictures you can come up in front of those tables congratulations again yeah congratulations all right ready ready our next item is a recognition of our 2022-23 future farmers of America uh student recognitions which will be presented by Ms Sue Hubbard who will be joined by my colleague Miss albiani all right good evening president Charles Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos Future Farmers of America FFA is a Career Technical student organization also
034known as a ctso and it was founded in 1928 by a group of young Farmers the CTO ctso is an integral component of our agriculture and natural resource CTE Pathways the FFA organization is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for Premier leadership personal growth and Career Success Through agricultural education FFA is not just for students who want to be production Farmers FFA also welcomes members who aspire to careers as teachers doctors scientists business owners and more four of our high schools offer comprehensive AG programs with courses and Pathways and agricultural business mechanics Agricultural and animal science forestry and natural resources ornamental Horticulture plant and soil science these students being acknowledged tonight have achieved at the highest level of competition in California competing against students from over
035300 FFA FFA chapters throughout the state and categories such as public speaking Cooperative marketing agriscience research projects many of these students and teams will be representing California in the National FFA convention in Indianapolis in the fall recognition at this level requires a significant amount of time after school and on weekends from both the students their agriculture advisors for practice participation and completing competing and qualifying events I'm here tonight to ask for recognition of Elk Grove unified school district students who competed and went first place in the future former of America State and competition the school year and now I'd like to present students with their certificates of recognition thank you Miss Hubbard I do have certificates for hidden I scared you all right ready all right for outstanding team project and animal systems we have
036Gianna petters Peterson and Jory weeks power structure and Technical Systems we have Madeleine fixed all and Presley Clement environmental science and natural resource systems we have British shuleta and Maddie Marino for marketing plan we have Madison Mercado Gracie Morrow and Alyssa Nolan and did we have Pleasant Grove here Mike this is the president and then we did have students from Pleasant Grove that were acknowledged too but I'm not sure they're here tonight we had a vegetable crop proficiency we had Katie Looper water issues team we had Abby Overton and water issue individual and then as a team we had Abby Overton Abby mores Joy Stewart Victoria babby and Addison Lindy we have parents and supporters in the audience you want to come up and take a picture please feel free to do so thank you
037and you don't get to leave us yet Miss Hubbard not yet next item is our student board member recommendation I'd like to call on Miss levasser to see if there are any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam president there are no public comments via Zoom for this item thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards for this item we do not have any blue cards for this item to take it away Miss Hubbard well I'm here to present to you on the committee's recommendation for the 2023-24 student board member I want to talk to you a little bit about the why what is the rationale behind having a student board member how what was the process we used to elect the student board member um how we recommend the board member
038student board member to you and then recommended action one way to nurture Democratic citizenship and develop Future Leaders is to engage students in the governing process of local school boards as Harvey Firestone says the growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership so what is the process we go through an application process where the students submit it to their principals for approval each High School holds a School site election and moves forward one candidate six of our comprehensive sites put forth a candidate this year an interview committee was formed by the egusd school board members and formal interviews were held at the district office each candidate was given up to 10 minutes to answer three predetermined questions all students were given the same question and no additional questions or comments were allowed
039the selection committee reviewed this candidate's applications and after the interviews the committee selected the candidate for the recommendation to the board one thing that's really important as we do this is our third year is a process review and every year we learn something new about this um since this is our third time with our student board member elections and with the goal of constant Improvement we are actually meeting with all of the candidates from last year and our student board member and our candidates from this year and this student board member um for a dinner on Thursday night to discuss the process and how we could make this even better and now I'd be happy to say there was one candidate that interviewees would like to recommend to the board and that is Isabella Seagal
040Isabella is a junior at Franklin High School she demonstrates great pride in her community by volunteering at the Concordia Counseling Center where she helps with website design and Communications making sure she's adding student voice to the organization she also works at the American Cancer Society Discovery shop for her clubs and activities she serves on the ASB as class president Club commissioner and vice president for our teens from teen club which includes working with local non-profits to increase understood populations access to clothing her award she's honor roll principles list and block F and now Isabella would you like to share with the board why you're interested in being a board member good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos I want to begin by expressing my gratitude for this recommendation as
041the student board member I'm looking forward to the possibility of collaborating with such a passionate and accomplished board if given the opportunity to serve in this position I hope to represent the collective voice of my fellow students communicating their needs concerns and ideas my work in my school and in the community has underscored that diversity and inclusivity are fundamental pillars of a prosperous educational institution I will make it a priority to not only Embrace but to celebrate the diverse perspectives and backgrounds of our community I believe that only together we can bridge the gap between students and administrators crafting innovative solutions and prioritizing learning only together we can create a fulfilling educational Journey for all one that encourages empathy and growth thank you thank you I would now like to respectfully ask the board to
042give consideration for the approval of Isabella Segal as the third Elk Grove unified student School Board member I am who is that I wholeheartedly uh recommend Isabella as our next year's student board member yes thank you I wanted to pause uh for members of the subcommittee who did the work of reviewing and meeting all of the candidates was there anything that anyone wanted to add uh since I'm already on uh yeah we had a really excuse me I want us to go to someone else and come back I thought I turned it off we had a a very good group of students which made the uh recommendation difficult but Isabella excelled she excelled in her responses to every questions her energy was was definitely on display the entire time of of the the interview she
043was confident she was comfortable and what what was very important to me was the comments that she made with respect to the need to represent all the kids and what her plans were for doing that and so uh by the time we were through it was uh evident that she should be our next board representative nobody else on the subcommittee go ahead Miss Jamerson we as uh Mr Fortuna said we had a stellar group and I was so impressed with the level of commitment to equity and inclusivity that all of the students brought forth but Isabella really talked about Solutions in terms of bringing people together and really got at the intentionality of equity and inclusivity and as you can see she's clearly articulate I'm really excited to see what she's going to bring to
044the sport I know it's going to be outstanding comments well thank you with that I'd like to call for a motion to approve the recommended student board member who will officially be seated on July 1 2023. I recommend Isabella as our next student board representative moved and I second thank you but will be by acclimation so all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed none that is approved unanimously congratulations our next item is going to be uh our resolution for lgbtq plus pride month Miss levasser do we have any public comments via Zoom for this item yes Madam President we have several public comments via this okay let's begin so the first uh public comment via this item is Julian Cunningham not on uh next uh Community member angel or Daniels can you
045hear me yes I can okay good evening my name is Angel Bernardino my pronouns are she and her um and I'm the trans Advocate and student services specialist at the UC Davis lgbtqia resource center today I'm here on behalf of the Sacramento Stonewall Foundation board to support resolution 3 to approve recognizing June 2000 uh 2023 AS lgbtq Plus pride month first I'd like to express my gratitude to the to the Elk Grove USD board for considering this agenda item the reason I joined the Sacramento Stonewall Foundation was to affect change in the lives of lgbtq plus Youth and folks in general every day I work with students who like their parents love and support and that leaves them with little hope for the future I'm tired of hearing about parents failures to compassionately support the
046people they are supposed to guide every student especially transgender and gender non-conforming student should be affirmed our kids deserve a safe space to learn and grow without threats meet against their existence they deserve to experience joy and walk out their door without the fear that somebody is out to hurt them your vote would show Elk Grove usd's gsas your commitment to lgbtq plus kids well-being let this be a big step in the right direction I urge you to vote Yes on this item thank you thank you next Community member I'd like to public comment Debbie hobble we're in public holiday good evening um I didn't realize that would be the picture that you would have to look at uh Madam chair Madam president board members uh thank you for the opportunity to address your board
047tonight about this resolution as a resident of the district I am here to urge the board to adopt the resolution recognizing June as pride month for the district the resolution I think does a great job of making clear the significance of the proposed action to the district students and staff as well as to the larger community now unfortunately more than ever it's critical for our leaders to stand up for members of the lgbtq plus Community particularly for Trans and gender non-conforming students they're under attack as they just try to live their lives and it's hard enough as you know better than I do it's hard enough to be a young person in our community all should be respected and supported which I know is a value of this District which I treasure adopting this resolution
048is one way to further that thank you very much next next public comment is Brian rickel good evening if I can be heard I'll begin we're ready oh thank you great uh first off I just want to address two groups of people tonight first and foremost the board I want to thank you for taking up this resolution uh and I I offer my full support behind it I'm not only a parent in the district as you know I am also the dean of arts median entertainment because some of this River College uh when we all talk about Equity we have to do more than just talk about Equity we have to fund equity and we have to staff Equity at our schools which means we need lgbtq plus centers on campuses often those are theaters
049music rooms and arts classrooms and we have to fund those fully with Educators or that are there full time to support these students to the students in this District who are members of this community or not sure if you are members of this community I say to you tonight please do not accept anything in your life but I love you period full stop no I love you but no I love you but I'm not sure I can accept your lifestyle this is not your lifestyle this is your life your human beings existence matters representation matters we just heard celebration of everything from Sports to Farmers we can celebrate the members of this community in our schools and we can do it safely we started the evening tonight by saying that we are supposed to be
050here tonight to make you feel safe and valued passing this revolution resolution tonight will make you feel valued I promise that and if you do not feel valued in your homes you have been taught since you were children to find the helpers in the world to help you find the helpers if you cannot find them in your homes seek them out you are welcome as students in my division a division full of artists and love and we are here to support you we just raised a thousand dollars to buy a bunch of tools for the Valley High School theater program because we know that these are spaces where queer students show up to be seen and to be found and to find themselves and I am very grateful to have the privilege as a middle-aged
051white cisgendered man to stand here tonight as a member of this community and please beg you to pass this resolution your students deserve the support the community deserves the support and we deserve all of you in our community thank you for your time tonight next public comment Adam Beckner uh can you hear me yes go right ahead my name is Adam Beckner are you see your pronouns uh I grew up in Elk Grove on Factory drive a few houses down from the Elementary School uh three generations of my family have been teachers and administrators in the Elk Grove School District and Eve and I worked and taught at Franklin High School for a time I went to school here uh during another time of extreme anti-career rhetoric you know just because of those experiences that
052I'm here to ask you to approve your lgbtq plus pride month resolution I attend Joseph care in Franklin High School during the anti-career fervor in the 2000s uh when even a rumor that a teacher might be queer would lose them in their egusd job I was lucky enough to have queer friends in school despite the protests against their existence and attempts to deny them of their civil rights and I will never forget the pain and abuse that they suffered daily for being who they are for those of us who remember Prop 8 and the Hague marches all this recent anti-trans rhetoric looks very familiar I will never forget seeing uh conservative parents sitting in their car and directing their young children and their nicest Sunday clothes to stand on the corner of Bruceville and Laguna
053waving signs that the children clearly did not understand and smiling while calling for the oppression and Erasure of my friends and family I also never forget holding my best friend as he cried into my lap because his boyfriend's parents had just found out that their son was gay and they were going to hurt him for it I am only 34. 4 and so high school wasn't a long time ago uh and when I came to eventually teach a small theater class at Franklin I had a queer student who told me that because of the environment of acceptance and support that they found in their class they no longer thought about killing themselves and I will also never forget how every single student in the room nodded their head because they had all shared the same
054sentiment um please never forget that when we were talking about creating accepting environments where students feel representative and affirmed we are talking about saving children's lives I want to implore the school district to have the courage now to do what it would not then and to stand up against those whose desperation to maintain their comfortable Supremacy compels them to try to ban books when they can no longer burn them and erase people if they can no longer Force to erase themselves please approve this resolution drafting it was a big first step towards building a world that our children will thank us for thank you thank you next public comments Trisha Velasquez can you hear me yes ma'am whenever you're ready all right uh good evening my name is Trisha Velasquez she and her pronouns I
055grew up in Sacramento but I have many friends and loved ones who attended School in Elk Grove most of them are part of the LGBT community and have had to endure bullying mistreatment and more from those around them simply for being who they are and this time of violent anti-transactions and legislation it is imperative for everyone to do what they can to protect trance and all Queer people and I thank the school board for creating this resolution and fully support it and I urge you to approve it today some this may not seem like a big deal but for so many kids it can literally mean the difference between life and death to be in a space where they're supported and accepted and I can only imagine how something like this would have benefited the
056people I love if this had been in place when we were in school a little over a decade ago this is the first step in addressing harm that has been allowed to happen for far too long and I hope the district continues to put the well-being of students first and provide affirming curriculum and resources and do not ever feel pressured to cater to the sometimes loud voices of a small minority of people who for some reason think it's okay to bully children for being different than they are thank you again next public comments Emily autenry hi I am here as a parent Community member and owner of an inclusive bookstore Cafe here at Elk Grove where we have founded our business because there is such a need for safety I'm speaking to thank you for
057this resolution recognizing June as pride month in Elk Grove unified and your specific inclusion of trans and non-binary students in this year's resolution this resolution specifically recognizes both of the core reasons that Pride must be celebrated on the one hand queer students continue to face bullying and discrimination based on their identities as a city there is no place for hate in the school district that defines its schools as safe zones we must boldly face identity-based bullying head on this resolution is an important part of creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone on the other hand you affirm that lgbtq individuals bring Talent creativity and positive impact to our communities and I want to thank you for including that in this resolution we're up against a lot of hate from Fringe extremists who do not
058represent mainstream parents and families these extremists want to derail the conversation with hate and fear we will not accept that for our children and our queer community pride is about Joy pride is about celebrating and affirming our valid beautiful rainbow identities prize for everyone and our doors are open to all who want to celebrate with us change is possible even those who grew up believing we are invalid as I was raised are welcome to open their hearts and Minds to who we are and the truth of our humanity and join in our joyful celebration of all that is possible when we accept each other and make room at the table this pride month I hope that the diverse students and families of egusd can feel true Joy everywhere they go including in their schools thank
059you again for helping to make this possible this is the last public comment for this item thank you Esmeralda Cabrera hi just trying to get situated here can you hear me yes ma'am go right ahead great thank you good evening my name is Esmeralda Cabrera I live here in Elk Grove and I'm a parent of a student in egusd thank you for putting forth this resolution I urge you to pass it as it honors the contributions of the LTB lgbtq plus leaders of the past present and those still to come who are forming in our schools we cannot let a politics of fear and intimidation take precedence over environments of acceptance and compassion and I believe this resolution reflects the values of a community who Embrace diversity as strength so thank you very much thank
060you so I neglected to give our incoming student board member an opportunity to get a photo to capture the moment so please bear with us we're going to pause to do that and then we're going to continue public comment on this item oh yeah thank you for bearing with us so we will continue with public comment on this resolution Miss Jamerson do we have blue cards on this item yes we have blue cards on this item take it away first we have Shawnee Jones followed by Le Feliciano I apologize if I'm mispronouncing and for those of you who are new to this room and to our process the reason we give you go ahead come on up the reason we give more than one name is so you can start making your way up to
061the front of the room I know we're really crowded today so it's really helpful if the next person is standing over here by the side of the diocese and ready to go okay go ahead all right thank you very much thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening my name is Shawnee Guzman Jones my pronouns are she her I am a parent I have three students who started off at a life at honor Elementary and made their way through Pinkerton and consumedness Oaks High and I am very appreciative of all of their opportunities with public education here in the Elk Grove School District everyone's been talking tonight about how important it is for the lgbtq student identities to be valued in the classrooms and I agree but another very important point I would
062like to make is that by not acknowledging their value um we do a lot of harm and the importance of making a resolution as the one that you are all proposing is that it also serves to combat Erasure minority communities and communities who have historically been marginalized in our country and in our classrooms must fight to ensure their identities are acknowledged and their histories are not erased sanitized or whitewashed lgbtq people have existed for as long as human beings have walked this planet of hundreds hundreds of cultures around the world including the cultures of the original inhabitants of this continent and the land on which we are all currently standing have honored and celebrated individuals who exist outside of the two gender binary but wasn't until European colonists that fit on this continent that religious
063bigotry cultural assimilation and Adventure were forced Upon Our lands and a western oppressive religious gender Norms will imposed the article of Unified School District should be plotted for working to ensure that all student students feel safe seen and are postured to succeed people who oppose the district making this positive affirming and humanely decent statement in support of our students should be reminded that students have a right to be free from discrimination or harassment based on religious views those people should also be reminded that we are standing on native land and we are no longer forced by tools of colonization to adhere to harmful oppressive and redefining culture customs identities values or Norms we are reclaiming inclusion humanizing marginalized people and embracing the diversity of the natural world thank you okay I have Laura Feliciano and
064followed by Brit good evening my name is Dr Lara Feliciano my pronoun answer she her I am a product of this school district taught in this school district was an admin Here and Now lead the youth development office um but always going to be a teacher at heart and so actually what I want to share today are some historical facts to celebrate as we go into pride month um and some other facts uh regarding lgbtq plus students I'm here to represent their rights their safety their well-being not just during pride month but every single day um the first thing I'd like to share is about ab1266 with info I sourced from the California Department of Education ab1266 is also known as the school Success and Opportunity Act it was approved in 2013 and ensures that
065students can participate in the programs and activities at school to align with their gender identity and that they can use the facilities that are consistent with their gender identity students have this right regardless of what gender may be listed in their official records ab1266 reinforces prior California non-discrimination laws and adds to those the protection of student privacy and their right to participate in sex segregated programs and use sex segregated facilities it's an important step in affirming safe and inclusive schools regardless of one's gender identity um another thing actually I want to share is about gender identity and gender I mean it's this part is sourced from Anti-Defamation League gender is a set of social rules or expectations about how one should or look sometimes individuals develop gender identities that don't align with these social expectations
066it's also important to note that the dominant Western culture defines gender as a binary only men and women many other cultures around the world have more fluid understandings of gender gender identity is a person's internal sense of who they are it's not defined by anyone else and sometimes someone's gender identity may not match their sex assigned at Birth gender identity is also different from sexual orientation someone's sexual orientation is about who they are attracted to whereas gender identity is about who they are inside in many of the same ways that we work to affirm all identities such as race ethnicity religion we should also work toward affirming the spectrum of gender identities represented among our diverse egusd students um Anna rushed through this part but I definitely want to give props to GSA clubs um
067and this Party Source from glsen uh GSA or genders and sexualities Alliance uh formerly known as gay straight Alliance our clubs at our secondary campuses designed to provide spaces at school where lgbtq plus students can feel safe and affirmed and be known Youth Development Office supports our GSA clubs through grants that we have worked to obtain the elementary version of these clubs is often called rainbow clubs glisson's Nationwide research on the impact of GSA clubs shows that they have a positive impact on the experiences of lgbtq plus students and help to reduce some of the Hostile school that they may face um and I hope you support GSA clubs too okay we have Brent followed by Laura Delight good evening everyone my name is Brittany I use Shi they pronouns and I'm here uh to
068talk about supporting uh the lgbtq pragmas in June I have the privilege of working alongside lgbtq plus identifying students staff and Community every day and if you think that they aren't in this room and every room in egusd spaces please think again I also have the privilege of working with the dedicated group of lgbtq plus youth advocates in the district who have shared their sentiments with me about why Pride should be recognized not just in June but every day here are a few of their statements Pride means you shouldn't be afraid of who you are and who you want to be even if there is someone who is holding you back from that pride is feeling is a feeling of pure joy a feeling of being able to express yourself in a way that you
069could never do before pride is about being confident with who you are who you love and not letting outside voices put you down pride is about being able to appreciate who I am and makes me feel accepted and loved it gives me confidence to be me and gives me the freedom to express myself for me pride is about taking action and demanding change I stand with and for my students and colleagues who feel unsafe or uncomfortable and attending meetings like the one today because their right to exist was a threat to some folks finally I leave you all with this that a friendly reminder that you don't need to fully understand the nuances of gender identity gender expression or sexual orientation for that matter to know that each individual person knows who they are but
070doesn't anyone ever will maybe it's time that we just let people be who they want to be good thank you you have Laura Delight followed by Cleveland Anderson good evening um I want to start tonight with a deep breaths please feel free to join me thank you my name is Laura I'm not only a product of this District but I'm a proud educator I also happen to be queer look I can stand here and speak about why affirmative and safe educational settings are life-affirming or life-saving excuse me I could enumerate statistics about how even one supportive adult can change in LGBT youth entire reality I could recall both great and terrible experiences of my own time as a closeted student in this District but we know these things and my stories aren't unique i instead
071would like to address the kids like I was LGBT and navigating life in Elk Grove hello lovely humans I want to remind you that you are worthy you are loved you are seen you are valued all of that is true all the time especially when it feels like you aren't I'm not the only one who feels this way your District continues to make a concerted effort to grow into a place that is safe I know we still have progress to make but you have my word that we have your back to the detractor is trying to take our district back your hate and your fear will not flourish here our students are protected for who they are they have gender support plans they have over 21 gsas including all of our secondary schools they have
072curriculum that reflects their identities the best part y'all can't change it not with accusations not with snide comments and not with intimidation these are legal and systemic protections for our kids and our staff thank you to Elk Grove unified for honoring those protections we aren't perfect but we are getting better every day I have Kailyn followed by Joan goosman hello my name is Caitlin Anderson I'm a 9th grade student and I currently attend Sheldon um so basically I just wanted to come out here and say that everybody should support one another and nobody should feel excluded I am here to come out as bisexual and I hope that everyone here will be very supportive of me and will surround me with love and passion I just want to say thank you for this resolution and
073I hope it passes thank you very much I have Joan followed by Teresa wins Wenzel sorry Cherise Wenzel go ahead members of the board I'm Joan goosman a resident of Elk Grove for over 20 years I have eight grandkids six of whom have attended Elk Grove schools are currently attending or are going to attend in the near future I'm here to thank you for supporting the lgbtq plus students I'm proud to live in a community and within the boundaries of a school district that ensures that all students feel safe and respected in their environment and feel free to express themselves without fear of discrimination harassment or bullying I'm proud that the Elk Grove unified school district stands against discrimination based on sexual orientation and provides the resources for lgbtq plus students such as safe spaces
074student organizations and access to counselors and mentors I want you to continue ensuring that the lgbtq plus students are not excluded for mini school activities that they are given equal access to Athletics clubs and other extracurricular activities and that they are represented in the school's curriculum I chose to live in Elk Grove partly and primarily because of its excellent schools I fear that this will not be the case in many school districts in America going forward unless each district counters the Christian white nationalist ideas that are infiltrating our political and cultural discourse and threatening public education with poisonous lethal results we need to fight anyone seeking to downplay the contributions of black Americans immigrant communities religious minorities indigenous groups and all others including members of the lgbtq plus community we need to counter attacks on
075curriculum like AP African American history courses we need to fight the Banning of books and the denigration of teachers I want Yale Grove unified school district to continue fulfilling its mission in providing a quality education to all students and creating an environment that's free from discrimination if I want my kids and their kids to live in a school district with no diversity programs a district that bans books and distorts or even a races history then indoctrine H young lines and white Christian nationalist beliefs are Advanced by their religious right I would move to Florida I am proud I am very proud that Elk Grove is not Florida we're better than that thank you very much for your time consideration okay I have Cherise followed by Kenneth Carlson good evening two grandmas in a row I'm
076afraid she's much more well spoken than I am though my daughters grew up attending Elk Grove schools and now I have grandsons that are almost through the egusd system but I want to speak for the students that may not have anyone to Champion who they are in my past I have lost two people that I cared about to suicide years apart and in different circumstances but the thing they had in common was a feeling that they had to hide who they were at their core they both pretended to be the person their families expected I've wondered if they had grown up knowing that they belonged in the community just as they were would they still be alive to pursue a happy fulfilling destiny I am respectfully asking the board to not only acknowledge and recognize
077pride month but to let schools be a safe place for students to read books and participate in activities that let them see that everyone belongs and don't forget Banning books has never been on the correct side of History teach and show that what a person reads or who a person loves or the clothes they wear and how they express themselves as individuals is to be respected education and exposure to all differences is how we combat irrational fear you have the ability to save lives our schools and our city cannot Buckle to narrow definitions and extremism and we will not be Florida okay I have Kenneth followed by Ron Owens good evening your person chairs Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman estopoulos my name is Kenny Carlson I'm an Elk Grove resident husband father to
078school age children and a proud parent of a member of the lgbtq plus community I've come tonight to ask you to vote to approve the resolution to recognize June AS lgbtq Plus pride month by voting yes you tell the citizens of Elk Grove that you stand with the lgbtq plus community you show your dedication to making our schools a safe place free from bullying and discrimination you announce that you care for and will support the mental well-being of all of the children regardless of their genetic gender identity and sexual orientation by voting yes you continue to protect First Amendment rights of our youth by supporting their right to express themselves not express themselves to be themselves by wearing the clothing they want using the pronouns they choose allowing them to join groups to support each
079other and to have access to books and medium that share their stories and their truth by voting yes you stand up to those that continue to uphold the message of hate and Division in our community and you affirm that our children whoever they are deserve love respect and protection oh yes because you would support more than a single month of recognition you would send a message that the Oak Grove unified school district here forward takes a stand to remain truly Unified vote Yes because if you don't you send an even louder message if you vote no you would side with fear hate ignorance you would allow people to continue to push their religious Dogma into public schools where it doesn't belong you would say to Elk Grove that you stand against the lgbtq plus community
080and that you will protect only some not all of the children of Elk Grove please show us how much you care for all of your students in our community and vote Yes to recognize June AS lgbtq Plus pride month thank you I have Ron Owens followed by Amanda Scott Emil from Oregon transition from female to male in her late 20s Camille said when my breasts were are Hollow I could never get them back I can never breastfeed Camille asked who will love me Camille regrets transitioning Alex from the United Kingdom transitioned from female to male in her 40s Alex had hormone treatment hysterectomy removal of vagina and ovaries Alex Underwood a procedure which created for her a prosthetic penis Alex regrets transitioning Walt from California transitioned from male to female in his 40s world had
081genital reconfiguration received breast implants and underwear other feminization procedures Walt regrets transitioning what caused him to question their genders what happened to them that Nathan want to butcher their bodies Walt's grandmother cross-dressed him beginning at four years old Alex was sexually abused as a child Camille had a history of mental abuse did you hear what else Camille Alex and Walt had in common when they transitioned in spite of the trauma adults inflicted on them as children they all transitioned as adults there were no drag queen performances performed in front of these children at school assemblies there were no curricular nor Library materials instructing these children how to sexually gratify themselves by inserting physiological appendages and inserting artificial objects in each other's orifices very no school district resolutions which would have ignored their physical suffering ignored
082their psychological suffering ignored their depression or their anxiety and they were certainly no school district resolutions proclaiming Pride over children's pain just like bad things happen to Walt Alex and Camille when they were children what bad things happen or are happening to children in the Elk Grove unified school district ice will submit a California public records act request asking questions I urge you to vote no your time is up Amanda we have Amanda Scott followed by Courtney Arizona we have Amanda oh okay Courtney followed by Brandon Morgan thanks hi um I'll be talking about special ed later um I'm here as an ally every this is really amazing tonight I'm really touched after the last several meetings we've had um I wanted to speak specifically on the book Banning what's going on the conversations about
083it the books that are getting pulled um you know in the library world we think of books as Windows and mirrors and sliding glass doors that's the analogy that we give um there's a quote when children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read or when the images they see are distorted negative or laughable they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in a science Society of which they are apart that is fiber Dean and Sims bishop and that was all the way back in 1990 so why are we still here talking about this we know that or we have a very diverse community and this is a culture we need to make sure that we continue to provide books to our children they need to be able to see themselves in
084a book to one kiddo it will make all the difference in the whole world and to all the other kiddos it will teach them to be empathetic humans thank you branding followed by Tiffany Woods oh it's all the way up okay well I want to thank you guys for your consideration of pride month um as a resolution and your unwavering support of our lgbtq plus youth you know one of the biggest impacts on a child's life is knowing that they're recognized and supported for our lgbtq plus Youth Study after study shows up if there is not recognition in support there's a high level of psychological distress that can lead to suicidal ideation and attempts well studies go on to show that it only takes one supporting adult in their life to reduce that distress for
085kids who do not have that support at home recognition by their school and resources being provided by the district makes such a huge difference and saves lives that's why this resolution matters so much I'd like to also specifically thank this district for your support of our transgender students as of the past few years these kids have been used as a political football to excite political bases and bolster political power this has caused overwhelming distress for kids who just want to live their lives as who they are with all the talk of protecting kids by denying them their identity they choose to ignore actual harm they're causing as the ongoing victimization of transgender youth puts them at four times higher risk for suicide but again studies show that it takes one adult accepting them for who
086they are to reduce the odds of suicide attempts by a third and if it's by a family member it's by nearly half having supportive communities matter it's also important to note that we should be talking openly and honestly about gender identity and sexual orientation with our kids if we want to protect them they need to know that lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer people and everyone else on the spectrum of that exist they're loved and they're accepted because if they don't they are a much higher risk of ongoing sexual abuse as the shame and stigma will prevent them from disclosing when sexual abuse happens because they fear it may out them to their parents or other ones who would not accept them so I thank you for adopting a sex ed curriculum that begins this conversation
087but there's so much more work to do continuing to support pride month and policies that support and recognize our lgbtqpls youth is so very important it protects our kids it keeps them alive it also creates a stronger more diverse population of amazing and wonderful kids in our schools who see each other with dignity and respect instead of hate and beverage bigotry thank you I have Tiffany followed by Mark spots chair board members um I speak in support as a parent of three teenagers that are thriving in the Elk Grove School District um to high school one Middle School one getting ready to go to middle school I have three teenagers so we know that struggle is real yeah we better be homesteading it right now for finals um I rise in support wholeheartedly I applaud
088you for this resolution I applaud the transgender conforming genderqueer diverse expansive students inclusion I Echo everything that everybody has said I'm not going to sit here and take up three minutes of your time to repeat but what we do know is that our children Thrive with unconditional love my children are thriving because of their friends they want their friends there's all of their peer leaders to thrive they are part of the lgbtq fabric in the school district um we love them unconditionally we're two parent family uh two mobs and uh we're going to continue supporting you're going to continue to be inclusive we're going to be here supporting this resolution and all the other uh feature inclusive policies that you're going to be doing and one last thing hate homophobia anti-lgbt animus entrance we have
089no place in society and especially not in our school districts have a good evening okay I have Mark followed by Sarah Street Madam president uh superintendent Hoffman and Steve board good evening as a 26-year veteran teacher in our district an alumni of egusd schools and Oak Grove resident and a proud member of the lgbtq plus Community I'm here to speak in support of pride month resolution and in recognition of our transgender community and students I'm also against a harmful practice of banning books growing up as a gay student in Oak Grove schools during the 70s and 80s I never saw myself represented in anything at school I didn't feel a part of and never saw myself reflected in any books I grew up feeling ashamed of who I was and excluded from my community I
090would have loved to have known my school district valued me and included my representation in books and curriculum I would have liked to have been seen and heard when certain groups of people are silenced or marginalized through censorship it sends a harmful message to our students about who is and isn't valued and accepted in our community Banning books is a form of censorship that can have serious negative effects on our students it limits our children's freedom to read and explore new ideas stifles their curiosity and critical thinking skills and ultimately damages their education it's important for us especially as Educators to create supportive and inclusive environments for all of our students including those who identify as lgbtq plus unfortunately many of these youth faiths harassment bullying and discrimination in and outside of school even in
091school board meetings this can have major negative impacts on their mental health and well-being and can even lead to higher rates of suicide and self-harm by adopting a pride resolution we can send an important message to our students that we care about their well-being that they're an important and valued part of our community and again I'm asking you as a teacher member of the community Uncle to a gay niece who's married to a trans man and as a proud member of the lgbtq plus community that you join me in support of this Pride resolution and against book Banning I want to say the last board meeting my own sister was up here reading Bible verses and telling you that you were on notice I'm here to tell you you're on notice that she does not
092speak for my family or much of hers a lot of bear shirts here and I would like to know people to know the best way to scare off Bears it's make a lot of noise thank you we have Sarah followed by Carly bien oh ran in apologies hi I am Sarah Street my pronouns are she her and I work as a youth Minister over at St John's Lutheran Church in Sacramento and I have the pleasure of having a number of Elk Grove families in our community and I'm speaking in affirmation of pride month and I hope that you have heard the wonderful words of those who have spoken in support of this having an affirming environment even just one of you've heard the statistics can greatly enhance the experience for Youth and their Mental Health
093we are by providing this space by affirming them in this in your community you are saying to them you belong and that school is a safe place for you this is not necessarily true in every single family or in every single church or in every single space that these kids walk into and so allowing for a space that is affirming in their educational environment is primarily important I urge you to adopt this resolution thank you so much we have Harley followed by Rowan reign of heart today sorry hey there my name is Carly Brannan my pronouns are they them I am queer in both my gender identity and my sexual and romantic preferences so I kind of fall under the whole umbrella of lgbtq plus um I wanted to Express gratitude for this resolution um
094it's so important like everybody else has said for the mental health and just overall well-being of our queer and trans youth um I think it's really strange that the group that is saying that they're here in the name of the Lord or whatever are like handing out pornographic material to use and coming up here and giving very graphic descriptions of things that should not be discussed in front of children um and I wanted to address some of the things that somebody said previously um it's incredibly disingenuous to come up here and talk about detransition because only one to maybe three percent of transgender people who have transitioned have then de-transitioned and not only when not only speaking about that if you break that down further only five percent of that one to three percent of
095people who have detransitioned have done so because they were unhappy with their transition the rest of them detransitioned because of the lack of support because of the incredible violence that they face the Discrimination because they feared for their lives because they did not have support um so I think that it's really important to have holistic conversations about these things rather than just picking and choosing and using speaking points that are not based in reality um so I again thank you so much for supporting our queer youth um and I urge you to adopt this resolution thank you I have Rowan followed by amaranta Sarah just before you begin I want to remind the audience that we don't interfere with the ability of folks to participate in public comment so let's please give the respect that
096we all want when it's our turn thank you thank you so much my name is Rowan Reinhardt I use they them pronouns I am non-binary in trans I know people who have gone to the schools in your District I know a kid that's in your school right now and I have supported uh trans and queer youth in your District so I just want to say that first off and also point out that this in and of itself is a debate that is harmful to the kids just hearing this I am harmed right now this is painful to go through and I just want to point that out because the kids that are listening or the kids that are experiencing this are harmed right now just by this debate so having you all have this pride
097month happen I know it has to be on this agenda and I know that we have to have people talking on it you're saving lives and you're showing people like me who didn't have that representation and the kids in your community that you're there despite all this opposition and you're reducing that harm just a little bit that we're experiencing even from this experience do you know what I'm saying and I just want to point that out um it's very painful to have our lives debated and to be shut down and to be you know unsupported so I'm here to just represent I'm trans I'm non-binary and I support this it's pride month happy Pride and all the youths that are queer Trans non-binary in this District I support you I love you you're seen you
098have support so go to those people that support you because they're here and your District obviously supports you I'm not worried about those people because it's already done Pride month's already here let's be real y'all are gonna vote for it so I'm not worried about that but I am worried about the continued debating of this issue and the form that it's having on trans and queer use currently because we shouldn't be debated we should just be allowed to exist thank you I have amarantia followed by Rick Atkinson please correct me if I'm not pronouncing that right very very close my name is amaranta I also go by Alma and I use they them pronouns I am currently working at the transgender Law Center as the finance manager and I also volunteer as the board treasurer
099for the Stonewall Foundation of Greater Sacramento I am a former employee of the gender Health Center in downtown Sacramento and a former student of Elk Grove unified I'm also the oldest child of amelina Mendoza her name may be familiar to the board she has spoken here uh the past few weeks just to be transparent and I would like to take this time to highlight my lived experience as a young queer person who was raised by a conservative Catholic Family here in Elk Grove there were a lot of things that my family did right like teaching me about body autonomy as a child and that my body should be respected encouraging me to dream big and work hard to reach those dreams and there wasn't a single talent show or dance recital when my mom what
100are these food cheering me on in the background backstage in the audience she was there and I'm so sorry it's okay take your time I can't say from my own experience what it's like to be a parent I don't have kids of my own but I can say as the now adult Isles of conservative parents there are things that I really wish had been different for me growing up I wish that I was given comprehensive sex education in my teens because I didn't and not only did that leave me confused and in the dark about my own sexuality for years it also resulted in situations that were harmful and dangerous for me because I just didn't know about it and I didn't think that I had any adults I could trust to talk about it
101I also never had access to positive queer representation growing up and in fact queerness was something not to be celebrated but something to be hidden or vilified or shamed or ignored this was also harmful to me especially in regards to my mental health and I've spent years learning to love and celebrate who I am and who and how I love which I think is pretty great if I say so myself so I just want to let the board know that I commend the work you are doing to educate and support all of our students and all of our youth especially queer and trans students I stand by this statement recommendation whatever five month exists y'all were just saying yeah we agree it exists um I support your continued Improvement of the comprehensive sex education in
102our schools thank you we have Rick Atkinson followed by Eve bonus my name is Rick Atkinson man everybody's talking about the harm is going to cause kids and to not support them and you know uh you you support your kid and you you not cause harm to them by giving them clear guidance like these are minors elementary school kids they can't house themselves they can't feed themselves they can't clothe themselves they they can't make these types of decisions that adults make they're a minor that's why they're not allowed to make they're not allowed to vote they're not allowed to you know enlist in the military all that stupid stuff and I call I call upon the power and authority of the name of Jesus Christ and he he has all power and authority he loves
103everyone and this is out of Genesis 1 verse 27 says so God created Mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them male and female he created them and I tell you if my kid came and told me he was a bunny rabbit I would do him harm if I acknowledge that stupid over our profanity I'm just so upset I'm object I object to this my my melloroos taxes pay for the school pay for the light board and and superintendent and good for you uh Marcus Vargas you got the whole two percent LGBT community cut out here you know if if every single kid is that grade level of math English and science which they probably aren't this only confuses kids and it's confusing enough to be a kid what business
104do you have including anything else we're going to include everything I've been to a lot of these meetings oh let's have this day that day every day is a certain day 365 days a year we're celebrating something but there needs to be a focus on math English and Science and I promise you I'll teach my kid the rest okay and and and this is another promise the people who voted for the comprehensive sex ed health education will not see another term I will do everything in my legal power to make sure that I'm just so disgusted okay I have Eve followed by Sarah Wingard hello everyone my name is Eve Banas I use Bae and she pronouns um and I'm the advocacy and training lead at the Sacramento LGBT community center I am so excited
105to have be here alongside so many fellow queer and trans folks tonight um I'm really glad we all came out um the Sacramento LGBT community center Works to create a region where lgbtq plus people thrive we support the health and wellness of the most marginalized advocate for equality and justice and work to build a culturally Rich lgbtq plus community so we are here in strong support of this Pride resolution amidst Rising violence towards lgbtq plus folks across the United States it's extremely important that we be allowed supporters of the lgbtq plus Community especially our lgbtq plus youth lgbtq youth experience heightened levels of anxiety depression and other mental health struggles with 70 percent experiencing discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity now many changes are needed to address this harm but a clear
106step that we can take is to provide social support and freedom from violence within our schools pride month provides a time for lgbtq folks to celebrate and it's also a time for us to organize around the issues impacting Our Lives pride is resistance we need the help of part of me we need the help of schools to best support lgbtq plus youth we need schools to celebrate our community and condemn anti-lgbt discrimination and bullying so that queer and trans students are better equipped to learn and build community with one another lgbtq plus youth need to be celebrated they need to be respected and they need to be included within our schools this resolution is a crucial step towards that and for those reasons the Sacramento LGBT community center supports this Pride resolution thank you so
107much for your support I have Sarah Wingard followed by Laura Clegg hi good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak um thank you to the egosd board for presenting and considering the recognition of the month of June as pride month it is essential that our schools are safe and inclusive for all of our students while this resolution is important to help Ensure lgbtq Plus students feel the support and love of our school Community this should be just the beginning I encourage the board to further fund and require and support the schools in professional development delivered to teachers and School staff according to the CDC lgbtq youth are more likely than non-lgbtq youth to experience violence at school and have lower level and have lower levels of school connectedness the CDC says that professional development
108should address fundamental knowledge about health risks faced by lgbtq plus youth effects of the school environment on the health of lgbtq plus youth unique needs of transgender and gender diverse and non-binary students supportive school policies and practices results of the Trevor pardon me Trevor Project's 2022 National survey on lgbtq youth mental health show that lgbtq youth who live in a community that is accepting of lgbtq people reported significantly lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not so in closing I just want to thank you on behalf of all of the students who are hearing your support and knowing that they have a safe Community we need to continue to ensure that this is a safe and inclusive community there is no place for hate and outgrowth okay I have Laura Clegg followed
109by Norman Sandoval Sandoval Sandoval good evening thank you for having this conversation tonight um I'm a 29 year resident of Elk Grove my sons graduated from the Elk Grove School District they went through K through 12. um they graduated with honors and so even though I'm a proud mother that's not why I applaud Elk Grove School District I think back to when the when they were shining stars and when that was celebrated in those part of the school district part of the curriculum it taught tolerance and compassion the children were acknowledged and recognized for learning these really important values as human beings and I think that that's the thing for um all children is that they need to have a safe place to come and be and yes they graduated with honor so you're doing
110really good in the areas of uh science and math and English and all of the other things so um keep up the good work with that um however these are human beings that are sitting in these classrooms these are little beans these are humans that come from a lot of diversity and a lot of experiences and we can't just be canned about the body the human that's sitting in these classrooms learning math learning science learning English all super important and I think that the one thing I can say from my experience as a parent who's also queer um as a parent raising children in this District was the only time my kids came home really stressed and harmed was when their peer next to him and my children both identify as heteronorm but they came
111home with stress because their peers were being bullied their peers who identified as lgbtq were being harmed by other students they were they were treated with intolerance they were treated with lack of compassion so my my sons really really had a hard time with that they didn't know how to be supportive when that's what they're facing when they're watching other children be bullied and I think that that's why this resolution is so important I think that's why tolerance is so important that's why inclusion is so important that's why education that's holistic is so important and so I'm here to support this resolution and I'm here to ask that you all continue to keep doing the good work and reflect love reflect all of the values that are of love and not Pander to any hate
112to any bias to bigotry and to anything that's exclusive thanks for your time and I have Norman followed by Gandhi one-ish good evening thank you for the opportunity to um be able to express my opinion I'm here in support of the resolution and I am um I'm a sociologist a social scientist I could say a lot of things that have already been said and I could give a lecture on it but I think enough has been said I'm basically here to just support the resolution and urge you to vote yes thank you thank you can be followed by Sarah Louie and how do I pronounce your last name I'm sorry French so hi my name is Gandy wrench I identify as she her I have a child that's in Laguna Creek High School she's a
113freshman and I just love her to death She's a wonderful student she gets really good grades she's been on honor roll for multiple semesters now she recently entered the SMUD competition for electric vehicles and she won an award with that she's an excellent artist she does all sorts of drawings for Flyers next year she's going to be president of the Japanese Club she's very involved in the high school and she loves Laguna Creek High School and that's a testament to the safe space that you've made Laguna Creek High School because my daughter is also a lesbian she is also a lesbian and there's a whole group of people here that their sole purpose is to just hate on our lgbtqia plus kids that's their purpose and we know that they're here representing moms for Liberty
114and we know that regardless of what they say because of the information that they've co-opted so their reading lists their material that's all straight from moms for Liberty and even their t-shirts the mama bear papa bear that if you look that up on Facebook that's a gay organization that they've stolen and and that's per moms for Liberty and what it so what does that mean so whether are there if they're just taking this intellectual information from moms for Liberty and co-opting it for themselves that alone is dishonest but it also gives us kind of an insight into where they want to go we know what moms for Liberty is accomplished in Florida and that's what they want they want to have accomplished here what was accomplished in Florida and so right now my daughter goes
115to a school where she has books that reflect who she is as a person and that's what library science teaches us is that you need to have a library that reflects the population that is inclusive and diverse and that's what we have right now and they want to take that away in Florida there's hundreds and hundreds of books that have been banned now and that's what they want right now if my daughter checks out a book and her um librarian happens to be a lesbian she can freely say I went with my wife to England and it's not a concern she can speak about her relationships the same as a heterosexual librarian would and that's not allowed in Florida she could be fired in Florida and right now if a teacher like her art teacher
116were to have a lock screen that had her family on the lock screen and that happened to be a non-heterosexual family that would be okay and my daughter can look at these people and say I could be a librarian I could be a teacher and in Florida having that photo on your lock screen means you could be fired and so this is what they want this is their hate-filled agenda and it has to be stopped and so I thank you for providing my daughter with the wonderful School environment that she has I have kids at folks Ranch Elementary too and I love it there too and I thank you for your work that you're doing and I just want you to keep thoughts of our our children with you yeah Louie followed by Graham Stewart
117I I wanted to first thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to each and every one of us I know it's a long evening but it is important my name is Dr Sarah Louis I'm a parent in the school district I have an awesome um nine-year-old kiddo who's part of the lgbtq community I'm also the daughter of somebody who is part of the lgbtq community and couldn't be who they were until late into their 40s because they didn't see themselves represented and it wasn't okay and I saw the harm that that caused but more importantly I wanted to speak to you as a physician in our community who provides gender affirming care and all of the statistics that you hear about the harm that is done even by the debate that's
118going on right now are very real I spend time in exam rooms with folks who have been harmed by hateful public rhetoric personal attacks even just the feeling that who they are is not okay and so I felt it was really important to come here tonight as both a physician and a mom to make sure that folks know that who you are is exactly who you're supposed to be that you're beautiful that the medical community we're getting better we're not quite there yet and but and that Mom's you know just as a mom that you're just loved and so I really applaud this resolution and appreciate you taking the time to hear all of us tonight thank you so much they have Graham followed by Heidi Moore hello my name is Graham Stewart and I
119teach 8th graders here in the district I live in the district and my child is a graduate of egusd and I am a proud sponsor of my school's GSA Club I am a white heterosis male I go by he him and his and apparently part of the audience thinks I'm part of a global Community Global queer conspiracy to convert their children I'm not I I haven't heard from the home office in a long time um but to be serious I'd like to talk to you guys about suicide four out of 100 children have suicidal idea suicidal ideation 44 out of 100 queer kids have suicidal ideation my journey in uh this advocacy started holding a kid's hand in an emergency room because they had suicidal ideation we're dealing with the lives of children here I
120want to commend you I am very very happy with the direction that you guys are going I'm very happy with the direction of the district office is going um I do want to urge you to do a little more especially with our kids who are who have psychological issues every day I stand outside my door second period and I wonder if this one kid's going to come to school and not that they're going to come to school like they're sick or something but if they're going to kill themselves the night before and this kid is not going to kill themselves because somebody told them they were trans this kid's going to kill themselves because their parents are going to kick them out their parents hate gay people more than they love their child and that's
121just sad I'm worried every day about my kids um so I would like you to please consider allocating resources that I know money's tight and all that we just signed a new contract please um we do need some more mental health uh help um I want to talk about book bands uh talking about a book ban now is kind of like worrying about uh horse Health when the automobile was invented you guys realize there's the internet right I don't know I mean I want kids to be able to read whatever they want but they're all going to whip out their phones at some point and be able to see whatever they want to see so we better have some critical thinking skills and hopefully I can provide that and some support for my own children
122this if you need to hate somebody hate me I'm an adult I can take it stop hating my kids Heidi Moore followed by Lisa Buckner Buckner okay good evening I want to make the public aware of this memo shared by a board member Michael Vargas to multiple groups in Elk Grove quote local action item from egusd board trustee Michael Vargas on May 16th Elk Grove USD will be approving our pride month resolution this is not the first year we've done this however thanks to some lobbying from myself and other board members this will be our first year we specifically recognize and lift up our trans community in the resolution as you may be aware egusd has been the target of a small but vocal campaign by anti-lgbtq activists beginning when some of our students held
123a drag show on campus these anti-lgbtq activists have been making discriminatory and offensive comments during public comment in an effort to ban Pro lgbtq books from the library center and Bully are lgbtq plus students and cut lgbtq topics from the curriculum as we prepare to approve this month's this month resolution or the pride resolution we expect they will be back in full force which is why I'm reaching out we need to show up in force to counter this and make clear that the community supports our lgbtq students faculty and staff um may I have extra time if they're going to interrupt me if you want to speak in support of the resolution during public comment that is great but it's also great to just have people there holding rainbow Flags wearing your best Pride outfits
124and making sure our board sees the level of support we have for this resolution I recognize that not everyone feels safe confronting anti-lgbtq activists and many of you may feel triggered by their hateful comments the more people we can get into the room and the more we can surround each other with love and support the safer it will be for all of us to so bring a friend bring your family or bring a drag queen and share this information with anyone who might be interested end quote mister Mr Vargas memo was extremely insulting to parents such as myself who have valid concerns about sexual explicit content we have found in libraries he's falsely labeled and stereotyped concerned parents he is creating unnecessary division inciting intimidation and honestly left parents feeling threatened for their own safety
125and potentially the safety of our children his invitation to bring his invitation to bring a drag queen seems to be a clear slap in the face to parents who had valid concerns about the pghs drag show that was mandatory and not made known to parents or students in advance his memo also indicates quote other board members and also States quote the time is up I was interrupted your time is up I think I have Lisa Becker followed by emelina Mendoza typically no that's a fair question typically we we don't say that when it's Applause but it is a good time to remind folks please try not to interfere with people's inability to speak and and also when we do keep an eye on the clock and if we if we notice that you are losing
126your time we will add back so don't worry it really wasn't significant it was a few seconds here and there whenever you're ready go ahead good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Lisa bunker I am a proud out trans author of books for young readers including a couple that have been challenged or um banned in other states um I am here tonight because I feel a sense of mission about speaking uh in favor of resolutions folks that's that's clearly an attempt to interfere with the speaker that wasn't that wasn't Applause for a couple of seconds so if if you're going to interfere you're going to have to leave so that is your warning okay let's proceed um I recently moved to California from New Hampshire and based on my experience
127as an activist there I was expecting much more of a 50 50 night um so and almost everything that I've wanted to say sitting waiting for my turn has been said very well by others I want to acknowledge and celebrate the powerful Ally energy in this room you all are fabulous on a couple of points have been made that I would like to offer robotics to there was the gentleman who raised the Specter of transition regret um I would just like to offer a personal testimony in response to that I transitioned from male to female in my 40s it saved my life um it was miraculous I now live as who I've always meant to be as a free whole effective and Powerful human in the world and as somebody else mentioned the the numbers
128about the tiny number of people who have transition regret um so enough said about that I also wanted to respond to a sign I've seen in the audience about the sexualization of children um the point has been made before but I want to underscore it gender and sex are completely different gender is simply the sense that we have of ourselves as gendered beings as making sense as feminine people or making sense as masculine people children of all ages work on their gender every day you you're teaching gender when you tell your boy that he's not allowed to cry when he's when he's uh sad you're teaching gender when you tell women girls that they need to follow certain girl rules that's not sexuality that's gender and it's appropriate for all ages I had the experience
129recently of writing a book with a young trans activist named Kai shapley from Texas she's 12 years old now she was raised in a fundamentalist Christian households um now for this as a as an as a Counterpoint to some of the narratives from the radical right right now she was raised in a fundamentalist Christian household as young as 18 months she was indicating to her mother that she was female her mother tried home versions of conversion therapy at age four Kimberly her mom overheard her child praying to go home to Jesus rather than have to live one more day as a boy in the world um and that got Kimberly on a new track um she's still deeply Christian but she's found a form of that of that Faith which is inclusive and loving and
130that can happen so um thank you for this this moment this opportunity to speak to you please vote in favor of the resolution and thank you for your support of the rainbow youth it makes a difference followed by Shayna I am amelina Mendoza and I'm calling for resolution number 86. 22-23 recognizing June 2023 as a lgbtq plus pride month to be voided the reason I'm calling for this resolution to be voided is because Michael Vargas a member of this board has admitted in writing and I quote on May 16th Royal Grove unified school district will be approving our pride month resolution thanks to some loving from myself and other board members and quote as we write in the lgbtq plus group to attend today's meeting in addition Michael Vargas unethical behavior is unacceptable as he
131said in his writing that there are anti-lgbtq plus activist who is trying to bend her lgbtq plus folks Spencer and Bully are lgbtq plus students and cut LGBT plus topics from the curriculum end quote because Marco Vargas seem to be quite sure that this resolution will be passed today due to his Lobby as he said quote as we prepare to approve our five-minute resolution we expect to be there in full force meaning the concerned parents who opposed to pornographic books at our school libraries there is a question regarding Mr Vegas or Michael Vargas in a violation of the brown act section 54 952.2 C2 which prohibits members of the legislative body to discuss among themselves issues of general interest to the public with that I am asking for the board to avoid this resolution because
132of Mr Michael Vargas actions and other members of this world working together behind the scenes to influence the voting today I don't think it's fair he's very biased about this resolution he hasn't shown concern for the parents who are here bi-weekly and he is verifying us because we are throwing our concerns about pornographic books and he's using that through inside this kind of behavior from other people so um I just want to remind you Mr Vargas that you know the LGBT community was not the only people who voted for you your time is that thank you followed by Jack staff Jackson before before the next speaker speaks thank you good evening um before you get started there's been a couple of questions comments about the brown act and since this is an item on the
133agenda I can provide some clarification the brown act does not prohibit school board members from talking to each other about items on the agenda what it does is it prohibits a majority of the board from meeting in private to make decisions or have discussions about items on the agenda so just just be really clear okay I I believe I I've I've provided the information so that folks will not be confused that's my only intent we're not having a discussion during this public comment okay okay is it Shauna Shannon um first and foremost I'm a mother I came from the Bay Area because of the excellent reputation of Elk Grove unified school address district and I haven't been disappointed um sorry I learned that in addition to academic Excellence which I came here for the district
134is committed the whole because committed to the whole child their physical needs such as health screenings nutrition and PE their emotional needs through mindfulness counseling PBIS parent participation and engage in lessons I've also learned that every student has the right to the least restrictive education under the law whether they are intellectually gifted challenged or anywhere in between regardless of the home language or the color of their skin whether they are affluent or struggling financially regardless of their religious denomination affiliation or beliefs whatever gender they choose to identify themselves as every student should have the ability to pursue an education in a safe environment free from harassment of any kind every student should be able to strive for their potential and be seen as the individual they are they are and should be seen valued and
135appreciated thank you I'm in support of the resolution thank you I have jax followed by Aaron Lata uh hello Jack stay him um my daughter is a graduating senior in your District um class 23. um I am a Luther Burbank Titan class of 94. different districts few years apart uh when I was in high school we had one kid that was out in the school remember his name was David he was linking to have blue hair um they caught him on the tracks halfway through the school year a few day or two in the hospital he was back at school a month later within a month they caught him again and he was in the ICU and he didn't come back to school after that that was when I was in high school the early
13690s I told my daughter about that when she started high school and I said I think it's different now it's totally different now thank you there were a lot of us that kept quiet when we found out about David it was just that hushy thing where you heard about it but nobody knew who did it nobody got caught nobody really investigated it he was the gay kid um some of us were we knew people that were in the closet or we were in the closet and we all just stayed quiet that wouldn't happen now it's safer now I support you guys doing this resolution I have pride month every kid deserves to exist and when I was in high school not all of us could and not all of us made it please please support
137this these kids deserve to be and I know there are people that think if you make pride month not exist then these people won't exist no they're going to exist people exist no matter what you do we existed in the 90s we existed in the 50s we existed in the 1800s but having a place to exist that makes a huge difference for the mental health of these kids and the adults that they're going to grow into also the kids aren't even in the community but have parents or aunts or uncles or cousins or other people they care about that are in the community to know that pride is allowed that Community is allowed to be in outgrowth it means a lot to those kids too thank you I have Aaron followed by Jorge Reyes Salinas
138good evening superintendent Hoffman president Espinoza and the assemble the trustees of the board my name is Aaron Lara my pronouns are he him and I am a field representative for Congressman Doris Matsui uh and uh I am happy and proud to be here tonight along with my fellow of Sacramento County res residence to voice the congresswoman's support of the Elk Grove unified school district's resolution in support of pride month the congresswoman the congressman wishes she could be here tonight unfortunate uh unfortunately she could not be here because she is spending time voting on our behalf in Washington D.C as pride month June is a time to honor the many sacrifices that our friends and family within the lgbtq plus Community have made and continue to make to freely Express themselves and their love over the
139next several weeks communities Across the Nation will be holding various events to uplift the voices of fellow Americans in the lgbtq plus Community uh for their many contributions to our society over the entirety of human history as your representative congresswoman Matsui pledges to continue standing as a strong Ally to the lgbtq plus community in the fight for equality by approving this resolution the Elk Grove unified school district would make a pledge to unequivocally stand with their lgbtq plus neighbors across our regional Community against hateful acts as President Biden once said pride month stands for love of yourself love for whomever you choose to love and the love of your country to make our world and our nation a better place a Freer place and a more loving place as the representative of California's Seventh District
140congresswoman Doris Matsui enthusiastically supports this resolution and the inherent human rights of our whole Seventh District Community thank you and on top of that I also have a series of eight letters the congresswoman asked me to hand out to all of you is there a good person for me to hand it to okay thank you so much folks followed by David Simmons thank you good evening school board members my name is Jorge Salinas another communications director for equality California the nation's largest Statewide lgbtq plus civil rights organization already this year as you know we've seen over 500 pieces of legislation being introduced Across the Nation that are purposely attacking lgbtq plus students and actually we saw one here in our backyard in California with ab13-14 that of course teachers or any educational staff to out
141trans and non-binary students thankfully with the work of equality California the lgbtq plus caucus and constituents calling in opposition of that Bell who were able to kill that Bell so there's an advanced and harm our students here in California not only does each bill our birth evidence harms lgbtq plus people that directly impacts their mental health and well-being but he sends a broader message that lgbtq plus people don't have the right to exist or thrive in the race that non-lgbtq plus folks do undoubtedly having any part of your identity devalued and validated or church claimed not celebrated can continue to issues of your mental health however data also shows that affirmation and support saves lives lgbtq plus youth know lgbtq plus youth who have access to our birming homes schools community events and online spaces
142to report on lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not a healthy United Community hopefully like the one hearing outgrow uplift those members who are most in need I'm the lgbtq plus Community is the one in the most need I don't have to tell you that the lgbtq palestinities under attack you see it here and school districts of the main target you are literally the focus of many Americans across the U.S equality California also releases every two years of safe and supportive schools report card and this district is actually one under the spotlight area which means you're doing a lot of great things for your community your families and your students I applaud you with that and I congratulate you on that State legislatures as well as elected officials in local seats
143just like the ones we're hoping today so Ram thanks for watching you're paying attention and this is a district that we're definitely following closely so I do ask you and we have the quality California for the spirit of your vote and to any student here today who has lgbtq plus we see you we love you an equality California will continue timing for you we have David Simmons followed by Daniel Washington hi my name is Dave Simmons and my pronouns are he him his I am the proud father of a transgender daughter I want to speak in support of our lgbtq kids both my kids attended Elk Grove schools graduated from Franklin and Laguna Creek recognition of in support of our lgbtq students with groups like The GSA and events like Pride are integral to the
144health and well-being of our lgbtq kids I thank the board for putting forth the motion to recognize pride and I encourage the adoption of the resolution thank you I have Daniel Washington followed by Surrey sorry sorry is Daniel here all right sorry you're up yeah nice hi my name is survey pravatiar and I have two students in the Elk Grove unified school district I have a child who identifies outside the norm my pronouns are she and her but for those who are homophobic and transphobic I identify as your big problem I'm opposed to your bigotry I want to congratulate the district for taking the term unified in our district name and taking it seriously with the pride month resolution we can only be a unified district if all of our students are treated with fairness
145equity and compassion this means recognizing our differences and also celebrating them I also want to put any discrimination in the name of religion into historical context the KKK used to point to the Bible to justify racial discrimination we now have a group of parents that point to their religion again for sexual identity discrimination I ask those parents to ask themselves do you want to be placed in the same historical company of the KKK in addition imposing religious views has no place in our public school system and so I encourage the enforcement of the separation of church and states last I want to address book Banning in the habit of radical activists bringing in portions of books and not providing a title as a tactic I was able to find one of those books online that
146was brought up at the last board meeting I found the title it's called Fred get stressed it's about a child looking through his parents closet to decide what to wear the radical activist that spoke against that children's book said it was pornographic that's what caused me to look it up I was like well that's not good to have in the school system well the book showed a cartoon child with a cartoonish bare bottom in a couple of pages that seemed to be just like the Coppertone sunscreen logo of a dog pulling on a swimsuit's child if anyone thinks that's pornographic then they are the Pervert and should get help or if they are not perverts and they are just using Snippets of books for false rhetoric either one is not appropriate and dangerous all of
147our children deserve to be loved and respected in all aspects of public life our queer youth are at Great risk for bullying and suicide I want our kids to survive and be loved I believe every religion and moral belief system believes that all children should be loved just as they are it's not that complicated thank you Madam chair that concludes the blue cards on this item thank you are we sure okay okay so um as has been stated this is not the first time this board has approved this resolution um we typically don't have a great deal of uh discussion for resolutions but uh given the interest here today I'm going to open it up and uh invite any comments from members sure um well I will get I will start us off um so
148first I want to thank the administration so much for bringing this forward again I think this is our fourth year um I want to thank the the curriculum office and uh and all the folks who had had any part in this uh drafting this resolution for their uh openness to feedback and for including um you know for the first time a real call out for our transgender and non-binary students who really do need our attention right now um and and and that's important um it's important to everything that we do uh that we focus in on the students who are most in need of our help um and lgbtq students definitely need our help you know now more than ever but our transgender kids are non-binary kids are the ones who are the focus of
149the attacks right now and so we need to do everything that we can to lift them up and celebrate them and shower them with the love that they deserve um I also want to thank everybody in this room um I would love to take credit for all of you being here but I am I do not recognize most of you um although I want to thank uh you know one of our presenters uh now all of you recognize me um because I got called out um and I also want to thank some of our leaders uh you know Doris Matsui got uh you know one of her staffers came out he came up here um and presented but we also got letters of support from our local assembly member Stephanie Nguyen and our local Senator
150Angelique Ashby um and I'll be sharing those with other board members as well um we also got support from a number of our local labor Partners uh and we had the LGBT Center and equality California um and just the outpouring of support is so incredibly important to what we do and it's not you know it is nice to be surrounded with love it is nice to be surrounded with family and people um you know who are saying amazing things but it is not important that you are not important you being here is not important for us you being here is important for the kids who are watching you on YouTube and on social media and all of that because they're the ones who matter they're the ones that we do this for um and you
151know they recently they have had a lot of other things to watch um that are not as helpful and so I really from the bottom of my heart want to thank all of you for being here um to send them a message of love and support um and you know I I want to admit I am very biased when it comes to our lgbtq kids our lgbtq kids deserve nothing less than our full throated love and support and affirmation and we should be giving them that every day at every meeting at every opportunity from our parents from our teachers from our staff that is what we need that is what they need and I am so thankful for all of you being here and I am so proud of this District um you know uh
152one of our presenters our presenter from equality California got up and pointed out that we are a we are leading the state in lgbtq inclusion and that is amazing because we are really quiet about it we don't do the big loud things that other districts do we do this quietly but methodically and we do it intentionally and it is so important that we do that um and we are not drawing a lot of national hate down on us in the process um and that's huge right having Pro lgbtq curriculum across the board almost across the board we're getting there um you know having Pro lgbtq books in our libraries having gsas on almost all of our campuses we're going to have lgbtq resource groups I mean we are doing all of the things that we
153should be doing all the things that we need to be doing and so and one of the things what actually like a story that I want to give you all is I go to and I saw somebody wearing one today I go to campuses a lot to visit our teachers and students and see what everybody's doing and I see those rainbow lanyards everywhere it is amazing to me and I had no idea right because I'm relatively new and so I had no idea we were doing that but the fact that they're everywhere and they are noticeable and our teachers are wearing them and our staff are wearing them that sends a message to our kids right the right message to our kids all right so I do want to give all of my other colleagues
154in opportunity to speak I'm I'm verbose I apologize um but I want to close by talking directly to our students as many of you did and I think this is incredibly important um there are an awful lot of awful things that get said in these debates these these discussions can be very difficult and I recognize that but hear me students hear me when I say that those things do not reflect the values of this community or this school district here you belong and you belong to something bigger than you know right now you belong to a queer Community culture and family that has been centuries in the making I am so incredibly excited to see what you will add to our big joyful and loving lgbtq family and this resolution is our promise to you
155and your teachers and your friends and your family that no matter what else is going on in your lives no matter what else is going on in the world that has you stressed and angry and is making it difficult for you to be who you are in this District you are loved you matter and you belong uh so I just want to say that I think that the uh what we're trying to pass today I do think it's a good thing although I do understand what some people are saying about the sexual sexualization um I do believe though that the point of this isn't to sexualize kids but rather give people I guess in that Community more representation and as a student who has a lot of friends who have undergone that process and our
156part of that community that they really they're people just like the rest of us they eat sleep do everything everyone else does so I think that there's kind of like a misunderstanding like the point of this isn't to sexualize kids but give people more representation and make them feel more welcomed I know when I first heard one of my friends went through the transgender process I was surprised but after I got to know them more those are the same person I always knew and they I was still like a really cool friend I appreciate so I do hope we can kind of come to an understanding but overall I do think this is a good thing and I hope I'll pass it you know what else I just want to thank the district for um
157and the work of our District staff as well as board members for including our trans students in this resolution and I'm looking forward uh if this passes I'm looking forward to Pride celebrations on our campuses and hope to visit anybody else thank you I'm going to vote um in support of this resolution tonight and before we take that vote I need to make some comments I am a Catholic and as a Christian I was taught to Love Thy Neighbor I was taught to respect each individual for their dignity and for their human rights and their constitutional rights and it's a sad time when we get into a situation where people become polarized and in so doing there is no tolerance is accept what I believe and what I say or you are wrong as a
158person and and that is very very sad for me many issues are becoming politicized and I saw that tonight at the Diaz here as board members we are not supposed to interact with the community during public comment and yet there were people up here tonight applauding comments that were being made shame on you that is not what we are supposed to be about we have one job that is to be there and do the right thing for children that's what we're about you put your politics aside when you come in this room and you sit down at this table we have a responsibility to hear the words of all individuals and based on on what we know and what we believe what we learn we make a vote and I will vote Yes because of
159my closeness with children and my closeness with those who suffer when a child talks to me and tells me that they're confused and they can't talk to their parent that's hard when we have staff members come in here and talk to us about homeless youth and I know that so many of those our children have been kicked out of their homes that hurts but what really hurts is the intolerance of people for one another and and it's something um that is troubling to me uh I'm sorry it's there what I care about are the children and because of that and my experiences I will vote yesterday thank you Mr yang thank you for your time for whether tonight it's a very emotional night thank you for taking more time to express your opinion that you
160have any right to do so as a constituents of this school district of this Sacramento County Iris wrote then two and a half years ago roughly about 63 000 votes because then here was the district y and I believe is variety of background of people that voted for me and that includes everyone in here and perhaps more so I'm here to serve everyone in the school district I come from a background Iraq refugee as a motorized community but I know how it feels to be alone not looked at as someone who's in moon or not to accept them in what so-called accepted it's a very dark place to be and very sometimes really shameful however I am an American now citizen we served Community tonight right now we're talking about this resolution lgbtq plus prime
161one and to me that itself would be to move far from what some folks are saying about with sexual graphic I think this resolution is about accepting people across our country with different background and that is not about the sexual graphic or from a graphic anything that deals with that so for me I definitely support this resolution the fact that this school district is a seven most diverse School District in the nation and what that really means is that we have people that looks like me are being referred to names that hurtful and when people say that to one another the one that says it it's really easy to say coming off their tongues but the one that can do that pain is not easy so I hope that we come to understanding that each
162person that comes here to testify in their case they're playing it's real the folks that were the yellow shirt they have some good point as well and they have every right to express you know a problem so I we're really happy to hear from our student uh more representative to speak of who should come into a understanding and that's a great point he has student who represents the students roughly about 64 000 students in our school district the biggest school district in Northern California that we we must listen to very simple common like that and really learn how to live with one another and just one another and yes our school districts will do a better job of doing books that is appropriate I know that I have talked to Chris about it and I
163will continue to talk to him about it too and that's part of the reality that we do have process and it's just not one Board number it's all of us with this the cabinet leading and then the parents and the students the whole nine yard so so to me we're going to continue to do our best and serve all of you but I do support the resolution as well because this is Seven's most diverse School District in the nation and I do support are diversity because our diversity is our strength thank you thank you Mr yang um the dignity and worth of our lgbtq students employees and families is not up for debate um I read a quote recently James Baldwin wrote we can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted
164in my oppression and denial of my humanity and my right to exist everyone is welcome to their beliefs and to participate in the Democratic process but I'm not going to pretend that attacks on children are appropriate engagement in the Public Square um I espouse the radical notion that all human beings are fundamentally equal and that comes from fellow radical Saint Augustine um it's my job and I believe the job of this board to ensure that we demonstrate that in everything that we do if we are not here to keep kids safe and alive and affirming that they are loved and Worthy then I would have to question what we are doing here so with that I'm going to call for a motion to approve resolution number 86 recognizing June 2023 as lesbian gay bisexual transgender
165and queer pride month so moved do we have a second second all in favor please signify by saying aye aye oppose measure passes unanimously thanks to everyone who's come out to participate um I'm going to call a 10-minute Comfort break for my colleagues who have been meeting since 4 pm I do want to note that it may be of interest to some of you that the district will be participating in the Sacramento Pride Parade I believe it's June 11th and we welcome students and families to join us take care the next item on our agenda is folks can we get can we get one conversation here thank you Mr Yang thank you next item is student expulsionary involuntary transfer requests uh if anyone wishes to address the board in closed session regarding a specific student
166expulsion please let us know seeing none I'm going to call for a motion to approve the recommendations for student expulsions so moved we have a second second all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed measure is approved unanimously next is um public comment for items not on the agenda I apologize somebody just asked me about this and I said we had already done this at the top of the meeting that was my confusion so um if you have not already gotten your blue card in you still May um so we are going to proceed with a public comment for items not on the agenda Miss levaster do we have any Zoom public comments for items not on the agenda yes Madam President we have free public comments the first public comment is Elda
167Garcia hi can you hear me yes go right ahead good afternoon board members my name is Elda Garcia I'm a parent here in Elk Grove District I'm going to begin with reading some scripture Proverbs 22 6 train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it woe unto them that call evil good and good evil that put Darkness for light and light for darkness that put Bittersweet for sweet and Sweet for better Psalms 139 1-4 Lord you have searched me and known me you know when I sit down and when I stand up you understand my thoughts from afar off You observe my travels and my rest you are aware of all my ways before a word is on my tongue you know all
168about it Lord my faith is in Jesus Christ and tonight I'm coming again board members imploring to you that there is age-appropriate books pornographic does not belong in elementary or any school library I don't understand why many are saying that this is targeting any specific group we're a parents that are concerned about our children letting them be children you you did speak and share that you are for the children and for diversity but the diversity seems to be only one-sided when we're not being heard as parents again I implore with you board members please remove those pornographic books if a child was at a park and they gave them those books with all that explicit pictures they would the police would be called so I don't understand why this continues to be something that many
169are opposing I'm sorry for all those that have gone through troubleless times with their families friends maybe I'll pray for all of you but again board members I'm just pleading I'm imploring to you remove these inappropriate Books thank you next public comment Teddy Simon good evening Elk Grove Community my name is Teddy Simon I use pronoun she her I'm the indigenous Justice Advocate at the ACLU of Northern California and member of the Navajo Nation as we approach graduation a time of momentous celebration for so many students families and communities we at the ACLU of Northern California Southern California and California Indian Legal Services urged Elk Grove to truly live up to its commitments clearly expressed this evening across so many presentations and speakers in the most recently past resolution to be a district that is
170truly welcoming too and celebrates all of its students as we shared with Elk Grove in a May 8th letter the district's current restrictions on students rights to wear tribal regalia and items of cultural and religious significance are in direct violation of California Education Code and the U.S and California constitutions we urge the district to take Swift action to resolve this matter this is an issue of particular importance and salience for the many indigenous students in Elk Grove public education has been used as a tool of genocide and Erasure since the time of contact for nearly two centuries hundreds of thousands of indigenous students were forcibly removed from their homes and communities and sent to Federal Indian boarding schools where they were violently stripped of all markers of their indigeneity including their language tradition ceremony and
171their clothes and regalia that regalia is a symbol of resistance and resilience as students today seek to reclaim their right to an education that honors their culture and Heritage telling students they cannot wear turbo regulia at graduation is simply a continuation of this nation's awful history we urge you to respect all students rights to wear a tribal regalia and items of cultural and religious significance at commencement across your District we ask you to clearly communicate to all students families and staff that students have the right to wear more than one piece of regalia at graduation and that students who come to graduation wearing such items will not be excluded from the ceremony or have their regalia taken from them regardless of whether they were able to navigate The District's opaque and burdensome pre-approval process we
172will be monitoring the district's actions in this year's graduation ceremonies next week and we truly look forward to working with you to ensure that students rights are respected in the future thank you thank you final uh public comment via Zoom Jasmine clee we're ready for you can you unmute yourself please was it Chi okay Miss Lee can you hear me okay does not appear there available okay Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards or items not on the agenda yes we have items blue cards for items not on the agenda first step I have Heidi Moore followed by Charlotte riger at the last board meeting I exposed a pornographic book which depicts oral sex naked individuals together with erections naked teens having sex girls putting items into their vaginas and smelling their vagina slime
173and more I asked important questions that are still unanswered such as where is the physical copy of this book that was purchased for Sheldon High School library why did the book not require approval before being ordered by the librarian why were our tax dollars wasted on this porn why did the book conveniently get removed from the online catalog after I told District officials that I was aware of it how do we know the book isn't still in the library how do we know that the book isn't in classroom libraries since the district also has no oversight over classroom libraries I also asked via email for a copy of the purchase order including the purchase date of the book I also find it alarming that the district does not seem to think it's an urgent concern
174that we have a book available in libraries to children as young as 12 directing them how to use sex apps for easy sex with strangers the district's response to my concerns indicate they were too busy to worry about or take immediate action regarding this book that directs kids with step-by-step directions on how to find strangers to have sex with via sex apps it's quite unbelievable and horrifying to hear this from individuals who are supposed to educate and protect our children I also found more books one details infant molestation and rape another depicts 4GS and orgies and references a teen having sex with his coach and some other some older uh male from Grindr if the district really promoted uh is a really District really promoting that miners have sex with adults horrifying what is the
175academic value to this filth how do you just justify providing it to minors how can we opt our kids out of R-rated movies and sex ed yet you can secretly provide this explicit sexualized material to kids furthermore you think you have no obligation to tell parents that this material sits in their children's libraries again our purpose in being here is to stop the sexualization of children and we have made that clear this is about sexualization of children we will not stop until we get real answers and resolutions to our concerns I am also providing a memo uh indicating the questions that I would like answered from my public comments thank you start with it followed by Rhett Pennell okay sorry that's okay um so I want to start off my pronouns are mama bear I
176have had these pronouns for seven years so I'm not affiliated with the groups you think I am so I'd like to refer to page six in the district handbook under inappropriate technology section accessing posting submitting publishing or displaying harmful or inappropriate matter those threatening defamatory obscene disruptive sexually explicit or that could be construed as harassment of disparagement of others cyber bullying based on race ethnicity national origin gender sexual orientation age disability religion or political beliefs this is penal code section 313a then referred to page 75 under prohibited sexual harassment policy which you provide to teachers prohibited sexual harassment includes but is not limited to unwelcome sexual advances requests for sexual favors and other verbal visual or physical contact of sexual nature when the conduct has to a purpose of effect that have a negative impact
177on the individual's academic or work performance or of creating intimidating hostile or offensive educational or work environment other types of conduct which are prohibited in the district which may constitute sexual harassment include sexual jokes stories drawings pictures or gestures which are found in these books so we have a book called push let me just say there's four copies in this District Two at Cosumnes Oaks one at flooring but it's lost but oh they purchase a new edition so Florin has one and Valley High so when you look this this book up it says sub location is realistic fiction interest level adult why is this in the library so this book is 177 pages and 109 of them have offensive literature that is 62 of the book so let me read you part of this book
178a girl gave her father's dick in her mouth no things that the other girls don't know but it's not what you want to know it started when I was oh about four or five years old from him fondling me feeling her way up by the time I was 12 he was having intercourse with me three or four times a week Carl to raise his knees on either side of my neck my hand is going up through the smell of Mama my hand was pushing daddy's dick out of my face I was raped by my father and beat no one is talking except me nine weeks no time is up thank you who have read followed by David Hauser sorry okay and you can move that Podium to fit to where you need to be that's
179too high is if it's if the podium is too high you can push that black button and it'll lower I think I'm okay okay um last time I mean somebody kind of answered my question about who um buys the books in the library and said you know you were gonna check you know I don't remember exactly but said that you were gonna the board and people and stuff but my thing is talking okay but I gotta see action you know if this is really going to happen that's what I got to see action speak louder than words as they say and um also I don't agree with those books that are here I do think they're pornography I want to protect my grandchildren's innocence I mean if there's something that they need to know I
180think that should be done at home um I don't have anything against the people other people that spoke I mean I listened and I respect what they said you know and I'm not saying I don't like them I have lots of family that are but it's the thing that I just want those things to be done at home I don't think they should be done at school I don't care what level it's not right and uh oh I had a question about these books that they it says um we are not free in the astounding color of after who picks those books who decides on that is that only one or two people too and so I'm just curious on that it's really the the books that the children learn in school the library books
181you know I think they need to be scrutinized a little more really think about it for everyone's sake you know and so um also I want to talk about real quick about bullying uh you know that sign over there says School safe Zone but that's not true there is still a lot of bullying and it doesn't matter on what level or who it is it's just bullying in general and I don't think a lot of the schools take care of it because my grandchildren have been bullied and they got in trouble with the bully that's not right you know and if they get hit I'm sorry they're going to swing back so maybe if you get hit money you're gonna fight back or swing that's wonderful but I can tell you when somebody hits me
182I'm fighting back no matter what because I'm not gonna get beat up I'm going to protect myself and maybe I'll get in trouble maybe I will I don't know but you know I don't think the principles really take care of it the bullies are kind of running the school and I don't think that's right yeah thank you I have David followed by Sarah Wingard well first I want to say that I was very impressed with the high school students to the microphone so that everyone's very impressed with the high school students that were at the beginning of the program they came and they did their presentation so I I think you're doing a good job on that I am my background is I'm going to watch the time because I'm I'm I do a lot
183of speaking uh I have 35 years in public education and that goes from uh Elementary to high school to um I I was given students that were fighting cancer I have a lot of history with education then I have 15 years and I just think you need to know this I have 15 years as a professor at Apu working in the grad Department teaching teachers how to become teachers so I have I have some knowledge about what education is all about uh I went to my first meeting here last um uh the last meeting you had and someone had asked me to come because I wanted to get a feel for what was going on here so I kept my mouth shut and I just listened and it really is a very diverse community that
184we have here and that's been shown by what's you know by all the things that have been said but what what I did at APU when I was teaching teachers I was trying to teach teachers what it meant to give a quality education what what is a quality education so one of the things that I did is I brought the superintendent of the Azusa Unified School District into my grad courses and I had him talk about what he's looking for and finding a teacher and uh what he said that really struck all of my students because everybody wants to get hired and uh what he said that really struck me he says I'm looking for teachers that love students I didn't expect him to say that because I need teachers that love students so I
185was very moved by that and they were always very happy that I was doing those kinds of things so what I wanted to what I really wanted to share I heard this stuff and boy I got 45 seconds my so what I heard was last week or the few weeks ago was some concerns about racism some concerns about books and all of these kinds of things but I felt that what I was supposed to say to this group there is greatness here did you hear what I said there is greatness here but to get to that place of greatness it takes courage and what I would like to suggest to you with all the diversity that we have out here and I've been hearing it is that you form a committee of a variety of
186parents with the Educators with the Librarians get a committee together and let's find some kind of unity your time is that means something to somebody here thank you thank you very much I have Sarah Wingard followed by Kirk Thompson hi thank you for having us again so I wanted to give a comment um related to the funding for librarians and the libraries in school I recently became aware that all schools aren't guaranteed the same amount of Library funding and I would like to encourage the board to increase funding to guarantee full-time Librarians at each of our schools studies show that reading and writing scores tend to be higher for all students who have a full-time certified librarian and when it comes to reading students and at-risk groups tend to benefit more than all students combined
187A well-stocked library at a child's school is how education can work through some of the problems facing students of lower socioeconomic status and better test scores have been associated with how many times a week students visit their libraries how flexibly their access to libraries is scheduled and how much the how much they borrow Library materials for use elsewhere Librarians receive training and selection evaluation and integration of educational resources and should be thought of as a key resource for everyone in the school including Administration and should be thought of as Chief Information officers or cios and should be called upon to help with the selection of the books it is important to provide Equitable and adequate School library services and instruction and this is a social justice issue um again I'm an outdoor resident and a
188mom of two kids in the district and I'm here in support of access to the libraries and appreciate your consideration thank you I have Kirk Thompson followed by Brandon Morgan hi I'd like to tell you a story about a young man's Journey this young man used to be very much against gay rights he believed a lot of silly things about how gay sex should be criminally illegal gay marriage should be banned by the US Constitution and even that homosexuals were more likely to be sexual predators I see that young man in the mirror every day and I shake my head and laugh at his silliness and nonsense over the past 20 plus years many of my friends and co-workers gazed and straight disabuse me of many ridiculous Notions the main stupid idea they disabused me
189of was how gays were out recruiting kids to be gay and actively trying to confuse them about their sexuality from a young age fortunately the gay right enthusiasts around me over the decades namely my wife explain to me rather convincingly that gays and lesbians were just looking to be free to be who they are and generally want to be left alone to live their lives in peace just like the vast majority of Americans being a bit more libertarian in my leaning to my Politics the ideas of Freedom peace and leave me alone they always speak to my heart however seeing this board take zero action on removing sexually explicit material under the guise of promoting lgbtq Pride makes me call into question whether all my friends professors co-workers and even my wife were wrong to
190be clear I don't think they were there are two people in my inner circle who are LGBT my kids will grow up calling them Auntie and Uncle these are people who were in my wedding who I invite over for barbecues and birthday parties in short there are very few people in my life with who I would trust my kids around more in fact I would probably trust them more than most anybody in my life guess what they are not allowed to talk about sex with my kids they are not allowed to show explicit material to my kids just like my parents my siblings and my in-laws are not allowed to talk about sex with my kids and show them porn I decide when where and to what extent sex is discussed with my kids this
191is not a pride issue or a gay rights issue this is a basic decency issue this is about protecting our kids from sexual confusion which was hard enough to do before the internet I don't think there's a problem with the LGBT community I think the problem is here with a group of people who have convinced a lot of parents to give them power over their children they somehow convince them to get power of our children and they think we're going to eventually go away let me be even more clear we are not gonna go away we move every pornographic and sexually explicit book from every Elk Grove School library and stop trying to sexualize our kids their timeout is not too much to ask I have Brandon Morgan followed by Courtney Arizona thank you all
192again for uh oop this is the wrong speech here okay let's get the right one here too many speeches today all right well thanks for this opportunity to come and speak again uh for a Riley reason uh EG speaks members we're not here in full force last time uh part of that is because a few of us had an opportunity to join Ann regali and some EEG USD staff members for the self administrators legislative day um that following day so this is a great opportunity for us to further our advocacy work with students with disabilities and we were excited to discuss proposed bills with the members of the state legislature and their staff in particular I wanted to draw your attention to SB 354 so write that one down which addresses inclusive education and using
193Universal Design for Learning to incorporate inclusive practices one of the main reasons why we at EG speaks are so excited about this bill is that it will Define what inclusion is across the state and provide instruction in these areas as part of the administrative Services credentialing program which would in effect create a top-down culture shift in how we include students with disabilities as part of our classrooms I would ask this board to consider drafting the resolution in support of this bill as it would reflect a return to supporting inclusion in our district as the standard and not just the exception as for EG speaks I do want to let you know that the presentation in April was great and we think it would be a great plan if all the right pieces managed to fall
194in place and I hope they do um but our work is not done there's still many issues we plan to bring up in future meetings in particular the issues surrounding intersectionality of disability and race Elk Grove continues to be a hotbed of racism and we see that not only in the stories um the wonderful people at bylp bring up but also from parents that we've talked to who see inequality and disproportionate implementations in their IEP meetings I don't have much time left to talk well actually you know I have a lot more time than I thought but uh um I'd be watching this will be a topic we'll continue to push on the Forefront and hope that accountability can be had at the top levels of the administration should these issues continue about inequality in
195IEP meetings and other areas across the district um so I guess I've got a couple seconds left here but uh you know I want to say books are great you know you know it's kind of hard to listen to some of these comments about books um you know growing up uh in the church I was taught you know how to read the Bible right and one of the things that we taught is that you can just read a verse and that has meaning but unfortunately books don't quite work that way you know there's context so you have to read Around everything so I'm hearing a lot of these quotes from books I have no idea the context of what these things are about I hear things that maybe maybe they're pornographic but you have to
196look at the whole picture to understand the value and worth of a book before you can actually say whether it qualifies as graphic obscene or pornographic that's kind of what the Supreme Court decided too so there's that all right Courtney Arizona followed by jensy miss jensy here Sensi unfortunately had a family emergency okay so I don't know who's after okay Dustin is up next hi again I'm here to give you a report from EG speaks um I'm mostly touching on things that Braden talked about um two weeks ago a few of us went with Ann rigoli to represent e2usd proudly at the selfless State Legislative sharing day and I want to thank the district and Salva for including us and there were two amazing keynote speakers Dr Shelley Moore and Dr Katie Novak they gave
197a presentation entitled Universal Design for Learning and in sport of inclusive Services um holy cow Not only was it incredibly educational and informative and enlightening but it was also entertaining and engaging and easy to understand as an employee of the district I really appreciated that um I found myself thinking over and over again how we would benefit from having that presentation they were over Zoom we could have them over zoom and I also kept thinking about how General Ed teachers specifically would benefit from that especially since we're trying to change the culture here um you know we hear over and over again from gen Ed teachers that inclusion is more on their already overflowing plates and this presentation showed that truly using udl would help clear that plate um I'm still thinking of that presentation
198two weeks later I cannot recommend those speakers enough after lunch we boarded some school buses and got out in front of the Capitol with a bunch of kids on field trips and headed to the legislative offices we talked to members of the State Assembly and Senate that represent eusd um they we explained to them why it was so important to support SB uh ab1517 ab248 and Abu 447 I'm going to send you guys info on that and we'd love to see a resolution from egusd but as important that is I don't want to go in depth because I only have a minute left and I want to talk about how amazing Ann regali was she we saw how highly respected she is we saw I mean she was just amazing that day and we also
199saw some severe differences between our district and the other districts there and our sulpa and other selfas I understand that we're our own self or whatever is going on with that but it's too much for one person to be the director of special ed and the selpa most districts much smaller than us had multiple assistant directors and almost every director of special ed was on the cabinet so as we're moving forward together partnering and making special ed you know we want to we want our district to lead the front again let's consider working on that together I'd love to meet with you we would like can we get us something what's up yeah thanks thank you okay Dustin followed by Carly Brannan all right good evening um this school year has been nothing short of
200stressful with ups and downs wins and losses we're very grateful for the presentation on special education two board meetings ago and for the acknowledgment to parents and all affected by this year's changes and we look forward to continuing the work in the Newfound collaboration with the Oak Grove unified school district I'm here to talk tonight about a few things the need for special education on the district cabinet and para Educators I am also here in support of the lgbtq plus community school librarians and inclusion for all despite the opinions of others in the room special education services is vital to students in this District and it is shocking to me that decisions about sped are made without the input of the director of sped and so many surrounding districts like Courtney just mentioned sped is
201part of the sitting cabinet it Elk Grove does not have that structure sped leadership our leadership needs a seat at that table when decisions are made about our children's services Mr Hoffman I would love for you to consider adding our Supple director Miss rigali to your cabinet with regard to our amazing District Perez EG speaks is here to support you over the past several months we have seen para Educators rise to the occasion in some cases being the only support system our students have had and doing so with little to no guidance from the site admins program Specialists or District as a whole in some cases not knowing who they report to how to best support their students or having their whole world turned upside down due to lack of Staffing and constant fluctuations in
202programs as of today they still do not have a plan in place for what next year will look like for them specifically rather hearing rumors of placements trainings will they be in one program or moved somewhere else what is being done about hiring and outsourced parents these things are not being addressed in a timely manner and that leaves us the parents concerned we asked the district to provide these pairs with a clear plan and provide that plan to parents as well many parents are invested in this process as a whole and need the complete scope of how you are providing services to our children we need transparency and the pairs deserve it thank you I think I have Carly followed by Nia Nguyen I believe Nia has left oh okay followed by Rachel Usery hi
203it's me again um wanted to kind of circle back to a few things that we've heard this evening I'm really grateful for the sharing of that James Baldwin quote because it really talks about the Paradox of Tolerance which is a very important topic we in order to defend tolerance we must not tolerate intolerance and when I say that we need to kind of talk about what is that intolerant intolerance mean because I am intolerant to those who are intolerant of my basic identity if their disagreement is rooted in my oppression and the denial of my humanity and right to exist I must not tolerate that we cannot demand kindness and tolerance in the face of hatred and bigotry to do so upholds the values of transphobia queer phobia sexism ableism and the very thing that
204all of these isms and phobias are truly rooted in which is white supremacy I think it's really interesting that some people in here are talking about being concerned about sexualizing children sorry I'm jumping topics here um people talking about being concerned about sexualizing children when they're showing up to meetings with large printed pictures that include nudity they're saying very offensive words into this microphone and handing out pornographic content to children at their schools so kind of weird how they're saying that we're the ones doing that just by saying let's accept queer and trans people um and to talk about being against bullying but being here actively bullying queer and trans children using arguments that have absolutely nothing to do with the support of these children and if we're going to talk Bible verses I'm going
205to close out with a Bible verse here a couple of them Corinthians chapter 13 verses one through three if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol if I have the gift of Prophecy and can fathom all Mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love I am nothing if I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to the Flames so that I'm a boast but I do not have love I gain nothing Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13 and now these three remain faith hope and love is love hate it has no place here thank you excuse me before the next speaker I'd
206like to make a motion to extend the meeting till 11 o'clock thank you sir um do we need to vote on that yeah okay thank you uh motion second do we have a second take your pick of a second Miss albiani I guess uh all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed approved unanimously thank you Mr Fortuna okay we have Rachel followed by Rick Atkinson hi good evening um thank you for allowing me to speak this evening I'd like to just offer a different perspective um I I feel like I didn't address this during the lgbtq segment because I didn't want it to be presented as if I was attacking that particular group because that wasn't my intention here today um my intention is just to kind of bring light to some of
207the some information that I had found um I uh there is a book um and it is called this book is so gay um so um again uh this isn't about being gay uh and my issue with it is not about being gay my issue is that it says step by step of how someone would elicit sex on an app um the benefits are obvious quick and easy and uncomplicated sex um how you would upload your photo how you could meet someone um they how they would actually see the app would show you where they are so that you could meet up anonymously um and the reason this is so concerning to me is obviously I don't want my children having sex at a young age I don't find that appropriate but we need to
208be aware of where we live and that is Sacramento County um where the number five on the list of sex trafficking and I feel that this is opening a door to exposing our children to be exploited by who knows is on the other end of that app um according to the data of national human trafficking from 2015 to 2018. um there are potentially 100 1 000 potential sex trafficking victims were recruited using online services like Facebook Snapchat Grindr this is significant this is a lot of children being exploited and I feel like this is a gateway to that um I would uh sorry I'm a little bit nervous um and the research that I've done you know 75 percent of the people that have been forced into sex trafficking are black 20 are white many
209of them say that this was something that was voluntary but quickly became involuntary these um these people that have used children know how to manipulate them and take advantage of them and I feel like having this type of information in a school is really irresponsible um and it's really sickening um we have to protect our children and telling them that this is okay that this is an outlet to uh quick gratification is really putting them up for failure so I feel like this is actually okay well thank you Rick Atkinson followed by Jess Carlson um I'm Rick Atkinson Okay so this is in regards to the comprehensive sex ed and uh that you know lgbtqs throughout all of it and you can't just get a whole one class because it's it's throughout all of the
210the teaching and so like let's take the Hot Topic off of the table right so like because every time I speak about it then you know I I'm hateful or I'm a bigot or now I'm a white supremacist oh my God uh so like let's think about it this way okay so that we can think about it in in a way that's logical and we're not talking about the Hot Topic okay so say say nut allergy or tree nut allergy right okay so that's an issue in a school right okay but very few kids have it right and so there's like at my school right where my kids go there's a table with about 12 kids that like they could sit there because they have a nut allergy and then that that's a nut-free table
211right so there's a solution right they don't feel discriminated against or segregated they gave them a resource and and it solved the problem right they didn't say oh we'll have a nut-free cafeteria and force every kid to not ever get peanut butter and jelly again you know so like on the same lines when we when I came in here for the informational median meeting about this comprehensive sex ed the question was posed how many people in how many students in egusd have this have this lifestyle or identify this way and it was acknowledged only two percent well about 12 kids at the nut free table is only about two percent but they didn't force the whole school to change anything just because these kids have a nut allergy just like in the same way like
212there's only two percent they didn't change they didn't you shouldn't Force an entire school to change your entire curriculum for two percent like give them resources give them counseling whatever is necessary but you don't change the entire curriculum and force the other 98 that we're comfortably going to school and learning just fine I'm just so sad because like like I'm I looking at your faces and like I think only maybe a couple of you are really even freaking listening you know and I really don't even if you are listening I don't think you're gonna do a damn thing about it it just breaks my heart because my only choice then my only choice then is to not participate with your Madness and I'll have to unenroll my kids and they love that place they got
213friends there it's not right so like because I know yo you're really quick you're ready to tell me it's not right thank you I have Jess Carlson followed by Rodney Thompson good evening board president chairs Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos my name is Jess Carlson I am once again speaking out against the intent to ban books in school libraries in our community it is disheartening to say the least that a select few find it necessary to waste all of our time trying to take our first amendment rights to read and to access information I'll start off by stating that bigotry is learned but it can be unlearned we are very aware as a community and country that transphobia homophobia nationalism anti-Semitism and racism are on the rise the extremists that
214are here tonight trying to ban books honestly only want one thing to breed more ignorance fueled Hate by erasing so-called objectionable materials from school libraries books that depict a very real and difficult topics our kids are still having a face in modern day America books that help students know they are not alone in their everyday struggles books that make them feel visible and hopefully no longer ashamed or afraid of who they are statistics have proven that bullying of lgbtq plus and bipoc kids has greatly Amplified with the rise of book bans across our nation as a mother it truly breaks my heart when books reflecting my children's and other lgbtq plus students identities and experiences are brought up to book Banning with hateful rhetoric and out of context passages used only for shock value it's
215obvious these right-wing extremists don't even care to take the time to read these books because if they did they'd understand how life-altering the situations described in these books are and how difficult it is to overcome on your own the books are Lifeline to many Banning them only sends these students the message that there's no one out there to help them no one out there who understands them and what they're going through and that they are unwelcome ghastly targetable and erasable Banning books on lgbtq plus issues and race impedes the education personal development and growth of these students students need access to Shared lived experiences and the honest truth about our nation's history in order for them to become better human beings and not repeat the same mistakes that people who came before them did these
216book bands are no more than a malicious political campaign of Erasure Erasure of our most vulnerable marginalized and disadvantaged students and it must stop thank you Rodney Thompson followed by Sabrina Demarco Rodney Thompson okay Sabrina Demarco Melissa Gentry emelina Mendoza oh Melissa okay followed by emelina Mendoza good evening thank you for the opportunity to address you I've come to speak to you today to advocate for children um it's clear based on what has been shared previously that some material in the school libraries is pornographic um posters that are back there that were objected by they they're directly from the school books in our libraries in our district um so I thought maybe we need to discuss why children shouldn't be exposed to pornography since it's established that it's there the American College of Pediatricians has
217published a strong position statement called the impact of pornography on children these are a few of the effects referenced and cited in the paper pornography exposure at Young ages often results in symptoms of anxiety and depression children also report feelings of disgust shock embarrassment anger fear sadness after viewing pornography that seems pretty reasonable to me children under 12 years old who have viewed pornography are statistically more likely to sexually assault their peers children exposed to pornographic material are at a risk for a broad range of maladaptive behaviors and psychopathology I quote from the paper here sexual predators have purposefully exposed young children to pornography for the purpose of grooming the children for sexual exploitation this is why you have heard comments from outraged parents wondering who are the groomers producing buying and suggesting salacious books
218to children sexual predators like the idea of mass grooming children to slowly overcome their natural boundaries long before actual abuse occurs I don't want to ban or burn books I just don't want obscene sexually explicit materials available in our school libraries how can you make context make that better this is a depiction from a graphic novel of oral sex you can't and there's no context that makes that better um I don't want anyone to feel unsafe in school but there must be a better way to make children feel safe at school than to hand children pornography I don't see how that makes anyone feel safe and my children certainly don't feel safe because that's there um I never thought I'd have to worry about nudity in my first graders library book and sadly it's there
219in the library um as board members it's your responsibility to protect the children in our district and we're counting on you to make a difference we'd love for you to stand up against the indecency thank you emelina followed by Molina Mafi okay someone says that we're taking things out of context read the book well I'm gonna read the book as a request from someone in the back this book this book is called Jack of Hearts it is at Laguna Creek High School and I'm not taking things out of context I'm reading it from the book Jack how he gets all that da 4G in Hannah Ling's hot tub it's like his life is a PornHub is it like that or is it like that for all gay guys like when he got by the coach
220from Pink book in the locker room during the homecoming game Clem wasn't the only thing that was coming oh man I wish I was a gay boy I could all the asses and we could go have orgy all the time I bet rumor me doesn't have a history because like Spirit or if he does he already has an A on it for giving Mr Davidson a blow job where was this sinner from another school and we were drinking and flirting and eventually we took off together he got us a hotel room nearby ordered up champagne to be fancy now before reverse I sucked my share of books and had plenty of more jobs their jobs and every kind of job but only about sex only about sex I had was with a junior who was
221totally in love with my and he's just hopped aboard and taking control of them quoted bossy bottom I pretty much just laid back and enjoy so as far as I knew Anno was pretty easy like fun or easy literally so this senior I'm not naming the rooms and I haven't found juicy and suddenly and 69 and heavy hero I wanted to affect the greedy he said I want to put to that little ass of yours and I'm like oh I don't know I never had that before he snorting said sure right I said no really well I pay for the hotel he said so let's use it I'll take it easy on you but it was pretty clear and he couldn't believe I was an anal virgin so he began he bends me over the
222bed on Jerusalem of course and he starts pushing it in or wow that hurts I tell him to stop it hurts and who says I won't share I'll say okay because he's already he's already in and I'm thinking I'm good so this is something I have to learn to do here so as you can sign this up as you can see in the library your time is up I have Molina followed by Stephanie Bert it's Molina here no Stephanie okay Stephanie is followed by Kristen higginbottom I'm coming tonight to speak to you because I'm concerned about the vulgar and obscene books like this one which is available in several Elk Grove School libraries including at least two middle schools albiani and Edward Harris please listen to this excerpt of an instant incident of incest between
223a father and his ten-year-old daughter described in this book identical on page 238 and explain to me the educational relevance as usual the smell of wild turkey preceded daddy in the bright Moonlight you could see Kaylee cringe in the shallow sleep Daddy crept through the door to the side of the bed stood looking down for a very long time before stirring her with a volley of kisses cheeks forehead lips oh little girl do you know how beautiful you are no one was ever as lovely as you not even your mother when she was a child I can't believe you're mine Kaylee roused at his words came into the moment secure in the aura of Daddy's love she tried to sit up but Daddy pushed her gently back down against the mattress stayed just like that
224for Daddy I want to teach you something new he lifted her nightgown rolled it up over her belly coaxed her Thoroughbred legs apart she squirmed a paltry protest don't move Daddy's Scarlet face underlined his command I thought he might smack her but as quickly as his anger flared it dissipated smoke don't be afraid this won't hurt you'll like it I prom promise he kissed the length of her torso down to the small naked V it was only his mouth that night he didn't even ask her to touch him prove how much she loved him afterwards she worried didn't he want her love anymore what had she done wrong and yet he had taught her something new something awful worse something wonderful something every girl should know the joy of though of course she shouldn't learn
225it from Daddy at 10 it isn't exactly easy to separate good touch from Bad Touch proper love from improper love doting Daddy from perv I am a mother and an aunt of children in this school district I am also a taxpayer contributing to these schools I want all children to be able to enjoy their innocence and receive a quality education it's insane that we have to come here tonight and implore you to remove the pornographic and vulgar books that are readily available to our children in the library the ideas and descriptions are so graphic and disgusting I can't imagine that you're okay with putting these images into the minds of the most vulnerable our children please stop sexualizing our children you have been entrusted to protect our kids and I'm sad to say that you
226are failing please please protect their innocence and remove these books thank you yeah Molina oh no Kristen good evening I'm usually asleep by now but I told our school librarian that I would be here tonight and I could not let her down so um my name is Kristen Higginbotham I am an English teacher in the school district I've been teaching for 14 years um and I'm a product of Elk Grove unified school district as well I if you told me 14 years ago when I started teaching that I would be speaking about book bands at a scope meeting I don't think I would have believed you it is hard to believe that we are here and we're talking about this um it's incredibly upsetting and I felt compelled to speak tonight to show support for
227the incredible librarian at my school who helps every kid who walks in the door find a book that they love all the Librarians in the district who feel attacked right now I believe that the community members demanding censorship in our libraries are a vocal but very small minority in our community book fans are part of a manufactured culture war that does not accurately reflect what is happening in our schools for example the image of this group has blown up on signs distributed on Flyers are from a book that are not insert that's not in circulation at a single egusd Library I find it ironic that they have bought exponentially more visibility to these images that they deem pornographic and they would other otherwise would have had they serve only to provide shock value and instill
228fear I implore the board not to take the bait this is purely about politics and not about the best interests of the diverse student body but I am proud to serve thank you I have Alicia Ramirez followed by Carrie Smith uh good evening my name is Alicia and I am also a teacher here in the district one of my former students actually came out to you earlier at this meeting so thank you very much for hearing her and affirming her identity I'm here today to stand in solidarity with our schools and our amazing Librarians who work hard to make our libraries safe and inclusive spaces for all students I oppose the Banning of books created specifically for young adult readers despite the fact that a handful of these books are currently being challenged for their
229depictions of queer sexuality I agree that when it comes to sexual content there are books that are not appropriate for young readers however many of our Secondary School libraries are shared between the Middle and the high school and they should serve all students who use that Library there will certainly be books that may be appropriate for an 11th grader but not a seventh grader however these books should remain on the shelves to be available to the students who are in fact old enough to enter R-rated movies regardless the question of what is and isn't age appropriate is largely subjective especially at the secondary level there is no official rating system for books the way that there are for movies and TV shows which leaves the question of age-appropriateness up to the reader's interpretation parents absolutely
230have the right to make this determination and guide their children's reading but these parents should not be making decisions for other parents children or the community as a whole specifically a small group of parents should not dictate what books other people's children are allowed to read or have access to by censoring literature based on its sexual content we risk stunting our Collective understanding of Human Relationships sexuality and the complexities of The Human Experience I also wanted to point out that many of the books that have been read aloud today or in past meetings have achieved literary Acclaim sold is a national book finalist push was nominated or the NAACP image award for outstanding literary work of fiction and out of the darkness is a Michael L Prince honor book so the claims that these books
231have no academic value is absolutely asinine to fixate on a few salacious pages of a book that is otherwise lauded for its literary merits ignores the nuances of a good work of literature which is meant to reflect the joys and adversities of The Human Experience we must embrace the rich richness and diversity of literature even it may if even if it makes us uncomfortable at times it is through the exploration of uncomfortable topics that we confront our own biases brought in our perspectives and create a more inclusive Society instead of banning books we should encourage an open dialogue and provide guidance to readers particularly parents and Educators to navigate challenging or explicit content by fostering critical thinking and encouraging responsible consumption we Empower individuals to make informed decisions about the literature that they engage in
232let us defend the right to access diverse ideas and engage in open dialogue recognizing the power of literature to shape our minds and promote empathy perfect timing good job thank you Terry Smith followed by Trisha Phillips hi my name is Carrie Smith I came here tonight as a parent of three children in three different schools in this District so what happens is very important to me as their mother I understand them more than anyone else in the world I know their capacity their intelligence their fears and their concerns as such it is my responsibility along with my spouse to be the one to help guide them as they learn about intimacy sexuality and grow in their understanding and expression of sexual attraction we have open clear frequent Frank and loving conversations with our children about
233sexuality and sexual safety they have been taught that they are loved no matter what and that we are there for them as their mother I want to be very clear that the sexual training of my child is in no way with the responsibility of any school the Elk Grove unified school district or any educator or individual or employee I have appreciated the Elk Grove unified school district has historically given parents the right to review sexual education materials and given parents the right to opt their child in or out thank you that policy shows respect for the many different strong opinions around this sensitive topic however by housing and therefore providing sexually explicit training books in Elk Grove unified school district textbooks libraries or classrooms that includes that include obscene and risky material school district is
234removing that parental right from me I'm not willing to replicate that right not only is it wrong to disrespect my parental rights it is illegal to promote materials that put my kids at risk and adding insult to injury would be the school board fails to act and then spends my money on defending against lawsuits or paying out settlements to families for wished of all is the child that follows the instructions of that hookup app and ends up raped tortured trafficked or killed are you really willing to be the one that has that on your shoulders how is that protecting our children how is that keeping them safe but as I've sat here tonight I'm extremely frustrated by the comments and memos that claim that wanting to be the one to guide my child through such
235an important topic is their sexuality would somehow mean that I was trying to hurt other people or being sensitive to their pain that is simply dishonest rhetoric wanting to not have my children reading sexually explicit training books at school does that mean does not mean that I do not care deeply about the children of the district and their pain as the caring person I do not want any child to feel bullied unsafe or in love that is simply not okay not only do many lgbtq friends of mine and family know that I love them and honor them they do the same for me in turn I don't want my children indoctrinated and I don't want Theirs to have to be I strongly reject the idea that we need to meet each other with hate and
236derision so with that said why are we approaching the topic this way can't we come together represent differing views and work together famous our Cooperative solution your time is up I believe we can the chef Phillips followed by Elise George hello my name is Trisha Phillips I have lived in Elk Grove for 20 years my family's from the bay area but we moved here on the recommendation of an aunt who said the Elk Grove School District was the one of the best and so we raised our son here we moved here when he was elementary so he went through all he went through Pinkerton um as a junior high he was in Donner for elementary he graduated consumers Oaks High School he went on to become a U.S marine and he is now a veteran
237I was involved when he was in school in the PTA and going to field trips and being in the school so I have loved the Elk Grove School District last meeting was the first time I have ever come to one and I was just appalled at the literature that we're allowing in because as was brought up before sex trafficking and pedophilia is on the ride on a nationwide level and I'm part of a Ministry called prey California I'm on the board for 12 years we pray for you we pray for the Oak Grove School District we pray for Gavin Newsom we pray for this state and we have yearly conferences and there's different Ministries and non-profits that are therefore um people who have been sex trafficked and have been rescued and so hearing a story
238of a father raping a child an advocate that I know named Liz she was raped by her father sold to her uncle and was given away and she was raped for 13 years of her life she now stands for those who have been rescued out of trafficking and was stated before that books are doors and gates to open up and when we're exposing our children to this sexually explicit content we are desensitizing them to even have that blur that that boundary line between consent and non-consent and the testimonies I have heard of adults that have been raped by a family member or sodomized by a teacher they have had mental problems physical problems that follow them their entire lives and if we truly love our children why are we not protecting them God gives us
239children to raise and to love and to protect and we're not doing that in this school district my son is now married I don't have grandbabies yet I'm looking forward to that day but even he tells me mom if things don't change he goes I don't want them in the school district that he graduated from he goes can you help I would like them to be homeschooled so why are we not protecting our children our most precious resource that God has given to us and I'm going to do a quote from an author Ian Clayton everything I am beholding I become a Gateway four both good and bad your time is up thank you thank you I have Elise George followed by Michelle Ford I can't even believe that I have to come here and
240talk to adults about what's in our schools and even debate and think that you're not as offended as we are but first off we are here not because of hate but because of love the love that we have for our children and for the future of all the children and let me ask what is your intention with leaving these books in the hands of Elementary Middle School in high school you each individually should be striving to make children's education a priority an education that will provide kids with a bright future rich in knowledge that they need to grow education that promotes life lifelong learners the fact that we are here having to tell you about pornographic books and our school libraries and to fight to get them out is ridiculous you should be holding a
241high standard and working with parents to bring education to kids they count on you to do your job I'm sure you have not read these books have any of you read these books well let me go ahead and read some for you so if you have children you might want to turn this off this is also from Jack of Hearts and it's in Laguna Creek High School it's hard for me to read and it's hard for people to hear and uh it just shouldn't be available for kids but if you want to role play with a partner who says please don't hurt me but has told you beforehand exactly what they're into and has a safe word for you for when you go too far then that's perfectly fine kinky BDSM sex can be fun
242I've never gone quite as far as you want to but I've used handcuffs blindfolds engaging some light spanking and oh no please don't hurt me role play the most intense I got with a guy I met on Grindr he was a bit older but I didn't ask how much older before we met up we talked about what we wanted to do and what we liked and didn't we set boundaries then we met up he tied me to the bed and blindfolded me and pretended and I pretended I had woken up like that and didn't know what was happening that was his fantasy and I was pretty into it he told me before I had to use a traffic light system which I told which I didn't know about but your time is up thank you
243and the little group that you call I have your time is up your time is up I have Michelle Ford followed by Brenda Ross Michelle still here are you Michelle are you Brenda Brenda okay okay Brenda and Then followed by Heather delph's well I commend you all for listening to us all so long I don't know if I would be able to do it but um so much of what was said tonight I agree with um when it comes to recognizing what's happening to our children the sexualizing of our children there is a difference somebody brought this up earlier there is a difference between gender and sexuality and I think that's exactly what I would want to address here tonight is the extent to which um our district I can't speak for I don't know
244what other districts are like other school districts but it's become uh made apparent to me that Elk Grove has really gone a lot farther than I ever would have imagined I came to this community 30 years ago my husband and I came to a point where we were deciding whether we wanted to stay in Elk Grove with our young children as they started school or if we were going to move back to Sacramento just around the corner at the Williamson post office I was there one evening there was a Lobby full of people at five o'clock and I looked around me and I literally said to myself am I the only white chick in this room there were so many people representing other ethnicities speaking other languages and I went home that night and I
245told my husband I said I want to stay here in Elk Grove because I want my children to not be afraid I want them to expect and enjoy being around people that don't look like them that don't act like them be at homes where they eat different food they celebrate different holidays that's what I want and we've been here they've graduated and they're in their 20s now but um I'm very proud of them that they're best friends were all people of other Origins other sexual premonitions and and it it's so much is a terrific School District but when I'm fearful of is what's happening here I mean it's not surprising for me to see that we are number seven in the diversity what I'm fearful of that's going to happen if this continues with the
246material that's being brought forward people are going to pull their kids I would I would not have them in the Elk Grove School District right now knowing what's going on with the materials that are being passed out I would homeschool so if you want to have that number seven status we really need to reevaluate where we're going with the materials that are being allowed in thank you thank you Heather delves followed by Al Boone I'll left okay followed by Callie belps she left his or followed by Emma havers she left okay you're right you're the end after the clothes are no pressure boy good evening thank you for taking the time to listen to all of us um I think there's a couple of things that most of us agree on and some of these
247things were said tonight um I personally agree that the dignity and worth of lgbtq plus students is of utmost importance I also believe that the dignity and worth of all students is of utmost importance that's why I'm concerned about inappropriate books in our school libraries the books we have blown pictures up from are in Elk Grove unified school district Library somebody stated they're not we have confirmed that they are that was not true so somebody said something about so-called objectional objectionable material um yeah I think most of us agree that it's objectionable um tell them what you want them to do that doesn't involve their hard once they get their heads off their flagging hard-ons they usually return in my experience when I lose my erection it's even happened to me I just focus on
248function sorry focus on pleasuring the other guy it usually comes back after a bit and now since you've made it through talking and erections finally some tips use your lungs to suck not your lips to pull you're not trying to yank the dick off with your mouth you're trying to make it feel good use your tongue lots of different ways ask him what works as you're trying them bottom is when you receive anal sex on top is when you give it penetrate both really craving some in your ass either take turns or grab a double-headed dildo I just don't understand what we're even debating like can like I said last time I was here two weeks ago can we all agree that there there's a line I think we all would agree there's a line
249we just all have to Define where that line is we've read things that are obscene vulgar objectionable and people in the people here tonight disagree that that's obscene vulgar objectionable can't wrap my head around that and I would hope that most of you if not all of you would agree that it's inappropriate for our children we all agree there's a line we don't have triple X magazines in the in the libraries we don't have certain books in our libraries we just have to decide where that line is I would hope that you guys are discussing this amongst each other amongst yourselves and we just beg you to help protect the innocence of our children thank you Madam chair that is the end of the blue cards for items not on the agenda thank you very
250much public comment for items not on the agenda our next item is a consent agenda Miss levasser do we have any public comments via Zoom for the consent agenda it is I think it may be too far better Madam president there are no public comments via Zoom for this item thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards for the consent agenda we have one blue card for consent agenda item 30. okay go ahead Heidi Moore um the reason that I'm commenting about um item number 30 is there's no information on it at all no link no description no reference to if it was introduced to parents um I think that's unacceptable the district continues to show lack of transparency they did this I believe uh last month or the meeting before where there
251was no link um it was also done with the sex ed where there was only an outline of the link on the link um so we need transparency we don't even you can't even say this is public um this was made public when you passed it if you didn't make the information public to parents so I'm asking that it'd be pulled so you can prove that you want to be transparent to parents thank you thank you that is the end of the blue cards for this item with that I'm going to call for a motion to approve items 1 through 31 on the consent agenda so move did we have a second second I'd like to discuss item 30. would you like to pull item Thirty yes okay do we have an amended motion so
252moved and seconded second all in favor please signify by saying I for the approval of sorry I have to recommend it uh one through Thirty one with the exception of 30. those items are approved go ahead Mr fortina thank you earlier tonight when I spoke I spoke about the fact that one of my responsibilities and something that I I hold very dearly to is the fact that I represent the constituents and when I say constituents I represent everyone irrespective of what their thoughts and beliefs are and as such I have been open for the last nine years to listening to a wide variety of opinions and I provide support to the extent that I can sometimes the results are pleasing to the people other times not with respect to item 30 I have had communication
253to ask for removal from the agenda I have had communication that has said to me it's really not a big deal go ahead and approve it in our recent California school boards Association California School news in reviewing parental rights with education codes 51100 and 51102 it states that it's essential to our democratic form of government that parents and guardians of school-aged children attending Public Schools and other citizens participate in improving public education institutions the parents and guardians of pupils enrolled in public schools have the right and should have the opportunity as mutually supportive and respectful Partners in the education of their children to be informed by the school which includes the right to review the curriculum those are pretty pretty poignant words the notification that this item was going to come to the board four
254days prior to it coming to the board to need us and constitute being informed parents can only be partners when we have transparency when parents are welcomed into the process then we have an environment which can be mutually supportive we've had a lot of discussion over the last couple months with respect to library books in our schools and Jen Navy and Mark ceruti are working on review and revision of policies that will have um input by parents I have raised the question and awaiting an answer with respect to the board's involvement because as the process is currently stated even though the concerns have been brought forward to this board this board will have no part in making a decision with respect to how library books are approved one thing I've also learned in the in
255the last nine years is that in order to Be an Effective leader that sometimes you have to compromise uh even if the compromise goes against what you think should be so Fortuna I don't want to interrupt you but I just want to make sure that we stick to this particular item and not get into a broader discussion I'm right there I am concluding in the spirit of compromise um I was going to go ahead and not request a removal of the item on the basis that in discussion uh I understood and accepted that we needed to review process and that and that in fact we would do that we would move forward to to look at current policy I take my word very seriously but but having listen to so much I will have to
256vote no tonight on that on that item I understand my vote's not going to make any difference it'll be a it'll be a a five to one vote um but we can't we can't continually talk about transparency and inclusion and then take actions that are neither that's false and and so I will vote now thank you Mr Fortuna can I just have a clarifying question here um I I looked at the item I went through the public website I don't know what links people were looking for but it's it's four instructional materials right they're all named and it's very clear about what it is there's two books one of them is a national book awards finalist the nuanced narrative about the Japanese American experience during World War II another one is described as a luminous
257debut novel about finding oneself through family history art bravery and love the other two are supplemental materials uh basic life support manual and the screen agers project which is a film that the district has been screening for several years and I hear it really does a great job of sparking conversations about how to keep your kids safe from what they encounter on social media and on the internet so what is your objection to what is actually in this item process okay all right I've been talking about that for six months now process okay and I asked a quick question that's a really quick question excuse me this is time for board conversation and discussion please don't interrupt are these uh Mr superintendent are these part of curriculum have these been approved through curriculum already so
258these have gone through the board approved um adoption process with regards to instructional materials um so there's so they it's the board adopted board guidance that staff is working with um and working with um full faith that they're they're tearing out the duties that have been they've been charged with carrying out and they've run through this proper steering committees and have been vetted and being brought forward to the board for um for consideration great so this is really just buying books that we've already pretty much yeah we've gone through that we've gone through the process to identify that these are materials that will benefit our kids I you know we had the conversation um and I am open to additional ideas now that actually I did speak with Mr porcine about and I had Jazz
259talk with one or two other board members as we're um prepping for the meeting and now we just have to call you sir about the fact that we can't talk about process because that's not what this item is about and we'd be violating the brown act so okay it was just the book The the materials have gone through the process as the process has been given to us by the board um and their quality materials that we need to uh that I would ask the board to approve so we can purchase them and move on when teaching our kids great that was my question thank you yeah um anybody else questions comments okay so just I wanted to clarify that there's nothing in this item that affects set process this is not a process item
260it's just you know buying four things okay so do we have a motion on item 30 in the consent agenda I move item 30. thank you do we have a second I'll second all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed uh let the record show we have just one right six one okay one one no vote uh measure is approved thank you so folks we are um almost at our limit that we will probably have to extend of 11 pm given the lateness um we are going to move our reports the May revision uh update we'll either get that as a as a board policy excuse me um a board communication or it will be moved to the next meeting I mean the materials there that means we're just going to run through
261it we received the information on um on Friday so it's very quick turnaround we'll be meeting with school services and getting a more detailed report and we'll do a follow-up piece with the board with regards to that but the next the next meeting we're doing is actually bringing the um the budget to the board as well but that works already underway the main revisions just another step in the process yeah the other item we are going to have to move it to our next meeting is the a through G completion Improvement Grant plans so that's uh our June 13th meeting I don't want to unwittingly skip bargaining units do we have any bargaining units wishing to address the board okay thank you for hanging with us that takes us to action items first up our
262series 2023 bonds consideration of a resolution providing for the issuance and sale of General obligation bonds election of uh 2016 series 2023 of the Elk Grove unified school district in the aggregate principle amount not to exceed 132 million four hundred thousand this is a continuation of the conversation that we had at our last meeting folks so last time we had a presentation opportunity to ask a lot of questions today is when we would actually put that plan into action Miss levasser do we have any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam President we have no public comments be assumed for this item thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards for this item we have no blue cards for this item thank you Miss Coates take it away I think you summarized
263it really well um it just is a continuation from last week's meeting and um just asking the board to consider so uh moving approval for the issuance and sale of the general obligation bonds okay um I'd like to call for a motion to adopt a resolution number 81 providing for the issuance of the bonds and delivery of a bond related excuse me delivery of related Bond and disclosure documents move approval resolution uh 81. okay moved and seconded all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye proposed it's approved unanimously next is consideration and approval of Chief Financial officers employment agreement Mr levasser do we have any Zoom comments on this item Madam President we have no public comments Museum on this item thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards we have
264no blue cards for this item lovely Mr Singh right ahead good evening it is my pleasure to bring the um contract for considered an approval for the chief financial offices employment agreement um the verbal summary prior to the approval of employment agreement uh is in relation to California government code section 54953 part C sub part three requires that a verbal summary of the proposed compensation and fringe benefits be given to the public prior to the final board action on certain employment agreements the proposed agreement is for the following Chief Financial Officer Mr Murray with Watkins and it contains the following material material terms number one the term of the proposed employment agreement with Mr Murray Watkins for the Chief Financial Officer position shall begin on May 16 2023 and shall continue through June 30th 2026.
265number two compensation the following constitutes the employees base annual salary effective May 16 2023 the Chief Financial Officer shall begin on step six of Step six steps six and seven on the chief financial offices salary schedule effective beginning May 16 2023 the base annual salary at step six of Step six and seven shall be 194 400 which shall be prorated for the fiscal year based upon the May 16 2023 start date number three one-time compensation effective July 1 2023 and calculated based on the 2020-2023 2024 school year service schedule the chief financial officers will receive a one-time off schedule payment of two percent to be eligible for this one-time payment the CFO must be in paid status with the district on September 30th 2023 but if it's the Chief Financial Officer will receive the same
266Health and Welfare benefits and retiree benefits as District certificated management employees as those benefits may change from time to time number five vacation sick leave and holidays the Chief Financial Officer shall be entitled to the same vacation sick leave and holidays as are provided to the certificated management personnel number six travel the chief financial officers will receive a hundred dollars per month for travel within the district's boundaries irrespective of the number of miles traveled on District business and general business expenses that she incurs in the official performance of Chief Financial Officer duties and responsibilities number seven the Wikia the chief financial officers certificated management work year shall be 246 days number eight duties the chief financial officers duties shall be in accordance with the policies adopted by the board and regulations and rules of the
267Board of Education that the Chief Financial Officer shall perform such duties and assume such responsibilities as are contained in the chief financial offices job description and or as designated by the superintendent or the superintendent's designee this concludes the summary of the employment agreement for the Chief Financial Officer in a complete copy of the agreement is available from the district office upon request with that I will ask the board to consider and approve the chief financial offices employment agreement thank you Mr Singh I'd like to call for a motion to approve the chief financial officer's employment agreement so moved you have a second second all in favor please signify by saying aye aye proposed approved unanimously thank you thank you in two minutes board member and superintendent reports looking around all right Mr Fortuna go ahead
268yeah last um excuse me last week Chris and I met with the city of Rancho Cordova and we had a single uh agenda item and that agenda item was uh the status of the middle in high school out in uh the Rancho Cordova area we shared we we being done Gary may only and I we shared with the city people uh the results of the meeting that we held with the coalition from Rancho Cordova which is numbering in 400 now um and we shared that uh the disposition of that meeting was such that after two hours we concluded our meeting with the agreement that the coalition is going to meet without any of us for the purpose of reviewing the answers to their questions and reviewing any additional questions they might have and after that
269it's done then they will be requesting a joint meeting between the coalition the city and the school district for the purpose of examining all the issues that remain around when we would build a new school one of the problems that was certainly shared with the coalition um and it's one we can't do anything about no one can do anything about and it's the lack of children uh we we look at 2 000 kids for our high schools we've got 150. we look at 1200 for our Middle School we got 343 or something like that so uh um it would like I say it was an update meeting as always loved working with Rancho Cordova right thank you Mr Fortuna uh anything to add on that or any other matters Mr superintendent nope I'm good tonight
270thank you yeah I know I know that we've been doing a tremendous amount of board subcommittee work but I think we've reported back on just about all of it now so hence I I did have a meeting for the land recognition and the student Bill of Rights and um I think both went very well um and they'll be and they'll be coming back coming soon to the board I appreciate the public that we're working with yeah absolutely um with that consideration of future agenda items yes I have one so we need to extend the meeting again sir no I'll be done quickly I'll I'll have my words uh Limited um we have had continued discussions on a variety of subjects with respect to parent rights and we've talked about District rights what I would like
271to ask for future agenda item in the spirit of moral clarity is that we have a report that reviews existing Ed code and existing federal judge decisions that specify parental rights in the education of their children okay do we have a second okay sir I'm not hearing a second so measure dice for last of a sec back of a second yeah thank you I'm used to my emotions not getting seconds okay thank you all I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 1102 PM please get home safely