001nice job lately yeah exactly meeting the order please please rise for the fudge of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and justice problem just take a roll call I wonder jump here tie four here your guardian here Palmer Dahan here fine here please note as a courtesy to members of the audience and the Board of Education to silence your cell phone uh public will be able to speak during public comment if signed up do I have any more forms all right let's move on to our agenda can I get a motion to approve the agenda all in favor yes yes opposed um next on to consent action agenda can I get a motion support all in favor yes opposed and then
002now on to regular action agenda uh it is recommended that the Board of Education approved Mrs Susan engelbart for a new three-year term as a parent representative on Pace the parent advisors for special education support yes and Caroline erst is here uh to tell you a little bit about Mrs engelbert's so Caroline that receives special education services Central Elementary um any questions or comments all right all in favor yes opposed motion carries uh we are moving on to the reports and discussion portion of our evening and we have something from West Elementary yes very excited to have uh some representatives from West Elementary here um you will see forthcoming as we move throughout the remainder of the school year many of the schools will be coming to present so I introduced to you Mrs Stacy
003bile and some awesome kids from West Elementary our fearless leaders in this way okay welcome welcome hello all right so these are my some of my amazing fourth graders and we're here just to talk to you about the amazing Shake which is something that we are getting ready for it will be in the spring and we are learning skills that are going to help us in life so what are some of the skills we're learning how are you showing charisma you're going to be engaged when you're talking very good what else are you learning confidence confidence what else under pressure presentation skills so these are all skills that we can blend into our regular curriculum like we need to present what we learn we try to do a Charisma be engaging we're also learning some
004really important skills like how to meet people we've been working hard on meeting people but also good morning what's the big one we've been working on lately answering the telephone and answering a landline we've learned that we've set the phone down the person's no longer there we need to get back up our students are also experts at giving tours so if you stop at West Elementary they'll be happy to give you a tour so my class is the first group that's been training the other fourth graders at last will start training this week and then our fifth and sixth graders will begin their training and our goal is in the spring that they will be able to go up to a group of businesses business owners members of Mercantile Banks a huge um help with
005this we invite any of you to your house there will be a competition and our students will be participating in a bunch of little stations each judge will be at a station one might be um you might be just reading them checking their mansion the next one might be you are receiving a cold pizza for my delivery people and they have to respond when you're an unhappy customer so we've been practicing that one of the kids did that last week very well they might actually have to answer the phone yeah so lots of different things for them to practice just life skill we're super excited about we're excited to bring the community into West we had tried to do this before in 2020 things fell apart there but we are super excited we want to
006invite you to join us and we are going to do right now is each student would like to meet one so tell me just ice [Music] nice to meet you so what do you like to do in your spare time [Music] yeah that's great that's another one what kind of things do you like these guys yeah absolutely that'll take you far in life it was so nice to meet you all right so one more time we would love to have you I will send you invitations and everything foreign [Music] [Laughter] that's a late pizza delivery right there that's right yeah where'd this idea come from where'd this idea come from um a little brochure about it so we've been watching him in fact my kids have watched their competition which is really high level yeah
007we're not going for quite that level but um the kids realized how cool that was and so we started just practicing with the little things like how to meet somebody eye contact and then we've added more challenges shark tank is our favorite right now they actually watch shark team um the kid versions so they see the kid in the house to realize what is charisma what is good presentation still and so they're excited to get started that'll be one of the stations so tomorrow they're going to learn how to walk into a meeting late no we're very excited it's a bills in these little things just are important in general and yeah fun with that at the same time and also partner with some of our local businesses to bring them in and get a
008wide range of people can ask for anything about it so I'm glad they did a wonderful presentation yes if they really if we really take them further we could take it to the point where there is a national competition where we could take our winners and they could go to Atlanta and compete in the national competition and really see so the national competition is it fourth graders or is it multiple grades fifth grade kind of like what we're doing they'll do the lower level but Fifth and fifth through eighth is the national competition okay all right so is it is it then like an extracurricular activity or I mean how do they do that I mean oh the national owner yeah when they go into the competitions I mean so really we're able to do
009it I bet I spend 20 minutes a week or on it okay the rest of the time I interview but right into our courage yeah so we're doing presentations of what we're learning yeah they learn how to track the speakers they learn how to move their feet when they're talking that's all part of just the curriculum we're teaching yeah so it's very easy to embed right into the curriculum about taking up extra yeah cool nice well thank you for your Innovation and I'll tell you that I think fourth grade is such a year that um personally that I will never forget fourth grade and I'm just glad that you are a teacher to our fourth graders so thank you so much a lot of results are scared to talk to adults right yeah and then
010a lot of times we wait until the kids are in eighth grade ninth grade they can have them give speeches and they're a nervous wreck yeah these guys are pretty yeah they're like oh okay well yeah we have a few that are a little bit shy but if we can give them the skills of how to present and how to have eye contact early it makes it so much easier great you know when adults do Toastmasters I was just saying like people as adults are nervous to do all of that stuff so it's very cool to see them starting this year awesome bless Elementary yes yes [Laughter] all good yeah great thank you so much for being here tonight thank you everyone for being here yeah thanks while they transition out I want to take
011a moment to recognize the Granville Public Schools Marching Band I know it's not a member report night but I can't wait two weeks to tell you guys how great they were at the Michigan State finals this week and I thought I saw one of our couple of our former band directors in here many exactly and so um if we can just take a moment because they built the program foreign company at Ford Field this weekend and took second place Jonathan took first we're gonna have to work on that gotta get our neighbors but Jonathan kudos to Jenison it was an amazing program as well um now we're moving to the public comment portion of our evening if you've signed up I will call you one at a time up speakers have five minutes to address
012us they are addressing the board not the gallery please respect them and what they have to say and stay quiet so that we can hear what they have to say I want to remind speakers that they will get their four-minute warning from Mr Highmore and also to keep your topics on board related issues and if you have questions we cannot respond to them here that's not the um organization of a board meeting but you can do a follow-up with us we can have a phone call or an email anything of that sort afterwards and I know that tonight is the night before a really big day in our nation in our communities in our state and a lot of you have elections on your mind elections are not a board issue or a board policy
013they're a community issue so we need to keep our topics tonight to issues that we decide on here but I'm excited to hear what you have to say about those things outside of here and that's per Michigan campaign Finance law so I just thought it was important to say that tonight because I know we have a lot on our minds as a community all right our first individual up I'm so sorry Chris I cannot read your last name there's Chris that signed up it is wonderful come on up it's okay you are first up and then followed by Michelle Thomas this was just brought to my attention today so I I'm a little bit unpolished with this but I I'm really pretty incensed by some of these titles in the uh the book the in
014the library and I understand there's a couple hundred of these titles that are sort of questionable like this and you're you've offered this sequester them out off on the side I mean you guys are Educators you know how this works kids see that as a challenge like they don't they don't see that as an obstacle they see that as like just bait out there to go get so I'm surprised that you guys I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you genuinely believe that the librarian is gonna tell some six foot plus eight 17 18 year old kid to stay out of that adult area when he's not authorized some of the stuff in these books are just it's just offensive and porn I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't stay in a bar that
015somebody was saying that to me let alone what does it belong in a high school what's the agenda there that it has to remain in the high school it just seems like there's a an effort to sort of normalize pedophilia and a bunch of stuff kids don't need to have any opinion on let them be kids okay that's kind of my whole thing thank you for your comments Chris um our next individual off is Michelle Thomas followed by Eric Fouch I don't have anything prepared as well um I've just heard Rumblings about a topic called The Book Nook where the KDL is going to be bringing books into our school I don't know if that's going to be a weekly thing a monthly thing or if they're going to have a display set up I'd
016like more information about that and will the books that KDL is bringing in will those be listed somewhere will they be in the online will we be able to look up those books I'd like to know um how that product process is going to work so that's all thank you Michelle take a note next up Eric Fouch followed by Tessa Jan's mom hi like my previous two speakers I come totally unprepared wasn't even planning on coming to the meeting tonight until I got like a last minute text from a group but uh um I represent uh Precinct Three as a Precinct delegate here in uh Grandville and previously I served eight years on the Gaines Township Board as a Township Trustee I've been to several board meetings at the Kent County Board of Commissioners as
017well so I spent several lots of time on both sides of the podium and a lot of people that I've talked to feel a lot of frustration when they come to public comment they think that they're going to come to public comment with a topic and they're going to get something solved or they're going to get it on the agenda or they typically they leave frustrated because they feel people aren't listening to them they weren't paying attention and just kind of just to let people know this isn't the Forum to get something on the agenda this isn't the Forum to get a problem solved if you want something that you feel needs to be on the agenda then you need to seek out some of these people on the board pull them aside get them
018on your side and get a sympathetic ear and you can get in on the agenda that way that being said I would also charge the members of the board that when you hear a reoccurring topic like the Hot Topic these days are books that are in the libraries in the high schools and the middle schools that if I brought one of those books in here and tried to read it to you you'd shut me down right away because it's inappropriate you hear that topic often enough then the onus is on you to put that on the agenda because obviously it's what your constituency is concerned about so it kind of goes both ways if you want to get something done through the board you need to approach it the proper way talk to the chairman
019of the board talk to your representative on the board that you know to try to get that on the agenda and if you're on the board and you're hearing the recurring topic over and over again that's something that you really need to take under your wing put on the agenda so that it can be discussed because that is what your constituency is interested in thank you thank you Eric next up Casa Jan's mom followed by Ruth Brandon I'm sure all right my name is Tessa jansma um don't worry I won't read the books um tonight I wanted to talk about your climate uh your school climate survey that we're still doing um I had concerns with this when my son was in Middle School he's now in 10th Grade and now I'm seeing a survey
020that you guys are giving third through sixth grade and your first question on your survey is what is your gender or gender identity who is going to explain to a third I have a third grader by the way who is going to explain to her what gender identity means and whose definition really matters like I might I might need a clarification on that one because gender identity is the exact same thing as saying I pretend and if that's what we're doing and you're gonna explain that to her you need to explain it in that way not how you feel you can flip flop daily like that morals of the parents matter and that is a moral issue right there you know our children's gender because we have to sign them up so high school it
021gets better your high school your first question is what is your gender identity not even what's your gender just what's your gender identity you get female male non-binary transgender or other or I prefer not to answer now obviously the high schoolers don't really need any explanation on what these are but again why is this any of your guys's business at all why is it any of the school's business why are you putting it in their minds at such a young age that their sexual preference is something so dire this is our first question and you guys do these surveys every single year this is disgusting like this is this is something else and then oh the next question on the high school one which of the following best describes you okay you got heterosexual for
022some reason in parentheses it says straight because our high school students don't know what that mean I guess gay or lesbian bisexual or I prefer not to answer again why is that any of your business why what the morals of the parents if we don't want our children thinking about sex yet every year they have to do this survey to let you guys know what their sexual preference is is is beyond me and it just it makes sense that we're keeping porn in our schools because this is the type of stuff that you guys are doing obviously not personally but you guys have an oversight over this and somebody is approving this so the like there's gonna be a huge change happening here soon and I just I I really wish that moving forward whatever
023happens with these elections that we can just come to some kind of common ground and just do what's right for these children Granville is at such a high standard I'm sure you all know that like I went to Grand Rapids Public Schools I know what LO is all right like I've driven my kids for eight years because I don't live in Granville but I really enjoyed Granville schools and one minute it's it's it's it's slowly fading and I just it's sad it's it's really sad and to see Nationwide parents waking up to the agenda that's happening this ends soon and you all need to decide what side of History you're going to be on because this is Nationwide so please look at these surveys consider what you're asking these young children like the high school
024one irritates my soul but the elementary one that's just reflaming my fire it needs to be fixed thank you [Applause] Ruth Brandon followed by Julie doll foreign my name is Ruth Rondon I'm not prepared either I just want to let you know who I am first I am a human trafficking Survivor I was trafficked from age 15 to age 33. I was appointed by Governor Snyder to serve on the Michigan human trafficking Health Advisory Board in 2015. I wrote a book my um life story I talk about rape but I'm not graphic I'm very careful about second-hand trauma when I write these books when I wrote my book I also created an online human trafficking training program for law enforcement and for health care I never wrote one for school I know that takes a
025lot of work I know that you all know that children are very vulnerable to predators and to traffickers and I'm sure you're all interested in how we can combat that and Empower our children and empower the teachers with age-appropriate training I just want to let you know that I'm going to be sending you an email about some of the trainings that I have looked at that I really recommend and then maybe we can have conversations about that later thank you thank you next up Julie doll followed by Karen DeWitt migley Midgley good evening my name is Julie Dahl my address is on file two quick things I want to talk about um first thing is learning loss and then the sexualization of these young kids learning loss we've sat here in meetings it's come up
026twice now several meetings ago it was Dr Merkel gave a big long presentation on it what is the plan for that we send our kids to school for academics not for sexual identity we send our kids to school to make sure that they have a high standard at Granville for academics not to sexualize them the priority right now seems to be reversed there is a lot of learning loss that has happened over covid we can go into detail as far as who to blame but that's not going to help we hope the same things aren't going to ever happen again let's caution ourselves in case they do but what is the plan to bring the academic standard back up to where it should be and how are you going to help these kids who have
027fallen behind years one year two year possibly three years what is the plan why is that not the utmost priority every single one of these meetings end of story that should be it that is the priority for these kids when it comes to the school I know you guys talk about mental health issues and everything we obviously we all want these kids to be taken care of we do but you cannot take the parent away from that the books in the school we've talked about with this over and over and over again people laugh people say you guys want to ban books all of this stuff no one's trying to ban books I've said this a thousand times before no one's trying to ban books but when you're sexualizing kids and desensitizing them to it
028we have issues a lot of these books are not appropriate for minors to be reading without parental supervision again end of story the survey that's happening again why do you start with why is the forethought of somebody's identity their sexual preference why what is the end game with all of this academics school is for academics stick to the academics we are falling behind when I was here I look at schools that were really I mean right in there with Granville East Kentwood have you looked at East Kentwood scores recently have you seen what's happened there recently are we and that's 20 years two decades ago what is Granville going to look like a decade from now two decades from now the decisions that you make in this room will have lasting effects and how you
029handle this learning loss that has happened please listen to the parents please don't just brush it off over and over and over again these people come in and talk about this over and over and over again the decisions on this board have affected my family directly they've affected a lot of families directly we want to come beside you and work together but you guys don't want to hear it from us it's incredibly frustrating incredibly disappointing please make academics a priority when it comes to learning loss thank you next up Karen DeWitt migley followed by bethleggett Midgley sorry I'm not going to talk about books um really want to talk about something no one's talked about yet and that's pathways um I moved to Granville public schools from Grand Rapids because I saw it going downhill
030and them not caring about my kids and my older kids were okay but my one son really struggled after his dad died we moved you guys worked your butts off to get them to graduate his counselor worked with him so hard and made an exception and said if you finish these classes and extended the deadline you can graduate on time and I just applaud her for that and my other son you know I had to pull him for a year do connections and we moved he said I'm ready to go back did great eighth grade he had great year toward the end of the year my dad died and he took it really hard had a hard time blew up at a teacher he knows he messed up and this is a really really really
031good kid and they just said that's it we're making no exceptions with you we're not even going to compromise you go to Pathways that's it and so he sat over there and they said he really doesn't belong here in 10th Grade they said he should be back in Granville he should be learning and it was just a big fight meetings with the principal superintendent and they just basically like no we want him over there so yeah he'll graduate is he learning anything no and after two years there and he was excited about going back I just saw the light go out of his eyes now he doesn't talk about going to college anymore he's over at kctc he's doing well but Pathways is so easy he's not learning anything that's a mom that just like
032breaks my heart because he's a really really smart kid this is the kid that like his brother's like make sure he's not watching porn no he watches videos on Why Toys R Us went bankrupt or why Sears went bankrupt different things how cars work you know that's what that's what he watches his documentaries but all he got was no one caring and when I said I'm going to talk about this tonight he said don't because I don't want anyone to come down on me or to take it out on me foreign I'm not getting the caring for him at all Pathways is way too easy it's like let's put them over there so our scores will still look good and that's what we've gotten and then I'll move on to my daughter who has some
033cognitive delays she was in The Early Education Program when she was about three and a half four she still wore a diaper to bed at night um and she rode the bus she was in the I can't remember but the special ed program and one day I wasn't feeling good she got up still had her diaper and she knows enough to take it off didn't word on the bus pooped her pants and they called CPS on me they're the only ones who would have done it and I had a meeting with the school had a meeting with the principal special ed director and I kept saying what is the policy on this why would you do this how can I feel like I have this relationship with the school or you're working with me when
034this is what you're going to do like the guy came in the house and he said why am I here I have people who need me I don't need to be here and and I asked probably 10 times before they finally said oh our policy is if this happens with the poopy diaper eight times something like that then we'll we'll call never got a call home nothing how can I have like this relationship with the school when that's what they had they they wouldn't even just say you know what we're sorry and that's all I wanted was we're sorry we'll go check with someone and we'll try to make it better and I don't think it's gotten much better in those areas at all where it's like years later and I still don't feel like
035I have the relationship where the school where someone's like hey yeah we'll help you with your daughter so yeah it'd be nice if someone addressed some of those things but it was like no one cared the special ed teacher didn't care the principal didn't care and we ended up pulling her for the rest of the year and she needed to be in school but if I don't have that trust what am I going to do I did send her back the next year but anyway she's still struggling so thank you Karen our last speaker of the evening is Beth Leggett [Music] hi board um I'm Beth Leggett I do come prepared to address what I want to talk about tonight so um that doesn't make me a smooth speaker because I applaud West Elementary class
036for poison Under Pressure learning at fourth grade I think it was so in presentation skills we can all learn by that especially myself so I do think the board and the school administration for sending out the school climate survey to parents because I believe if I read correctly the survey was to go out to parents not to students uh and the parents were to answer that so it's a way for uh I think the administration if I'm not mistaken to hear from the parents concerning the well-being of their kids how they're being treated how they're interacting so thank you for uh being attentive to that and sending that out each year um and thank you for Kim for recognizing the achievement by the marching band so proud marching band mom here at least one marching
037band Dad here um and just all the parents and all the you know support from school administration we moved from fourth to second I just say yeah we're going to try on on Jonathan Kim but they are they're like five points I mean they practice every day it's pretty much you can't do anything else except for being in band so we'll try but from fourth to Second was a big big achievement so I'm proud of those kids so um and I did want to thank the board for those who have served um and who are rolling off or potentially rolling off to you Christy buck and also to you Bob wonderjem for serving uh your time in helping the board we appreciate that so um and I do want to encourage the current School Board
038to finish strong um up in these next few months here and then and for the next board to embrace these words as well um I know there's a lot of people in this room that consider themselves uh a Christian by by faith um so this should be a familiar passage to those and I think appropriate for those who have a different Faith practice as well so I just leave you with these words current and future board seek Justice love Mercy walk humbly thank you guys so much thank you thank you to everyone for your words tonight they mean a lot um there's some items to follow up on midnotes for Roger here and he's taken copious notes over here as well um the next regular meeting of the Granville Board of Education will be Monday
039November 21st 2022 at 7 pm right here at the administration building we'll see you then meeting you soon in that one excellent