001[Music] good evening good evening and welcome to the school board meeting for district 196 it is monday august 9th 2021 would you please rise and join us with the pledge of allegiance 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 good evening board before we move on we'll ask for approval of the agenda the agenda is as as outlined there are no additions or deletions so with that i will ask for a motion in a second second promotion by craig a second by corey with that um i will ask for a vote for approval all in favor indicate by saying aye aye opposed thank you that passes on a 6-0 vote and such
002in isaac's is not available to be with us this evening first of all for we have we'll turn it over to the superintendent for recognitions of students and staff thank you i'll start off with congratulations to 2018 apple valley high school graduate gable stevenson on winning the gold medal [Applause] he was able to score two points i think this whole audience is aware of this was able to score two points in the final second of his olympic match in wrestling's 125 kilogram division we are so proud of him and this incredible achievement and congratulations to 2014 rosemont high school graduate peyton otterdahl who after throwing his personal best during the track and field trials this spring placed 10th overall in shot put in the olympics we are proud of his performance as well [Applause] and
003there is more congratulations to eagan high school graduate mallory wigaman who will be swimming in her third paralympic games later this month in tokyo paralympic swimming takes place august 25th through september 3rd so we will be cheering her on them and congratulations to the four rosemont high school spring sports coaches who were named state coaches of the year for their sports they are kelsey long girls lacrosse coach sarah and jay hat lilly girls and boys track and field coaches and tiffany rose rosemont softball coach congratulations to all congratulations thank you superintendent krieger next on the agenda is our special communication request if you'd like to speak during special communication requests we ask that you submit a form at least five days in advance of the meeting and you get up to four minutes to share
004your comments we do use a timer corey's doing timing for us tonight and we will remind speakers when they have 30 seconds remaining we expect p speakers to finish their remarks when their time expires speakers are also reminded not to share complaints about specific employees or make inappropriate comments opinions shared during the public forum portion of the meetings do not necessarily represent the views of the school board or the school district the audience is expected to remain calm civil and not disrupt speakers from being heard speakers when you come to the podium would you please state your name and your connection to the school district our first speaker this evening under special communication request is kevin kubler hi hi my name is kevin kubler and i'm a citizen of district 196 quote black supremacy is
005as dangerous as white supremacy and god is not interested merely in the freedom of black men god is interested in the freedom of the whole human race end quote this was stated by martin luther king jr a racial activist in the face of the civil rights movement his views were correct critical race theory is incompatible with his views critical race theory embodies the idea that america systematically creates white privilege disadvantages minorities especially blacks and has a racially discriminatory justice system this ideology is as false as a three dollar bill while statistics do show that blacks lead in incarceration those who claim that this is due to racism are committing the fallacy of begging the question and are assuming what needs to be proved is the high rate of black incarceration due to racism or something
006else according to the bureau of crime statistics blacks make up 13 of the population yet are responsible for 52 percent of the nation's violent crime and 50 of the nation's homicides in the 75 largest u.s counties about 60 percent of robbery and murder defendants are black even though blacks comprise only 15 percent of the population in those counties while this is a disparity is it due to racism no it is due to broken fatherless families and bad life choices as larry elder points out 75 of blacks are raised without fathers this is significantly higher than any other ethnic group children raised without fathers are three times more likely to drop out of school nine times more likely to get involved in gangs and 20 times more likely to go to prison as we can see
007the broken family and by bad life choices is the major cause of this race incarceration disparity and not racism fathers play a crucial role in the moral development of their children those who cite the exceptionally rare events of jacob blake and michael brown and others conveniently leave out the fact that these men were resisting arrest and contributed to their own outcomes critical race theory is divisive it's causing rapidly worsening race relations in this country its basic claims are not drawn from sound arguments they are axioms that are not to be questioned critical race theorists want students to accept the assumption that anyone who fails to swallow this theory is a tool of oppression it's a highly effective way of preventing dialogue and pitting students against students this reminds us of the tactics of nazi germany
008they too pitted one race against another this is regressive not progressive racial tensions are now the highest they have been in the 21st century and continue to intensify ask yourself this regardless of your race do you feel more comfortable amidst the ethnic diversity of your community now as a result of the events of the last 15 months or do you feel less comfortable today we have black lives matter but we can't say all lives matter nowadays merely saying that all lies matter subjects one to ridicule and abuse this demonstrates how racist and divisive critical race theory actually is white privilege i know of no affirmative action programs favoring whites i know of no business which refuses to hire blacks can the same be said of whites we have the magazine ebony devoted to only blacks
009but a magazine devoted solely to whites would be deemed racist this double standard is obvious and reinforced by critical race theory it does so in a militant way critical race theory can only be believed by an evil and nefarious mind furthermore as a supplier of the school board salary i am reminding the school board that they work for us the citizens of district 196 and per their mission statement they ought to not only reject critical race theory but assist in the development of curriculum which addresses just how false and divisive critical race theory truly is and how it was america's core value that all men are created equal that led to the end of systemic racism within america [Applause] our neck our next speaker this evening is kayla hauser make sure that the community knows
010that we're listening and each speaker has been given four minutes and so we're going to grace them with our listening to their comments whether we agree with the comments or not thank you my name is kayla hauser i have a kayla you might want to pull that microphone a little closer to your face of course can you hear me now i can perfect um i'm kayla hauser and i have a son in the school district i am here tonight to bring more awareness for parents like myself who want more transparency with the school board we want more parent-based decisions when it comes to raising our children thank you for currently making the final decision in regards to masking our children and vaccinating them with a non-fda approved vaccine that is still in clinical trials until
0112023 please continue this i want this board and the union for teachers to know parents are not going to take your fear-based reasons to treat our children like experimental guinea pigs before you write me off for what i'm about to say please know i am a teacher myself i fully get you're trying to protect yourself and your families and i respect that i respect your doing this for what you think is right and what you feel but i also want you to know that we want you give them back at the end of the day they're not your flesh and blood we put our hearts and souls into these children and i understand you're doing what you think is best but i do want you to know this is not my number do you know
012how many children between the ages of 0 and 19 have died in minnesota not from the vaccine itself from the virus zero zero children have died my child is more likely to get bacterial pneumonia wearing this mask on all hours of the day than dying of coven 19. that is not my number as well as the who just recently said in a press conference that they have concluded asymptomatic people are not spreading this disease like they once thought we need to stop making this generation live in fear over something they have a survival rate most elderly have gotten their shot if they choose to covid after being vaccinated if you say they could still catch it you are proving this shot is not a guarantee to save you so if you think that the shot
013is going to help you it's not the shot has no value other than the line the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies if public health is the main issue why are we not advocating more vitamin d eating healthy and staying active why isn't insulin and chemo not free i thought epipens are supposed to be helpful why is that not free if we want to make this country and our community safe we need to start at our borders before mandating more rules in the classroom as teachers and board members you have a lot of influence in our children but again you give them back you do not have the right to tell me what is safe for my child you are freaking out about case numbers which are not always 100 true where's the public outcry for
014obesity deaths starvation deaths suicidal deaths regular flu deaths war deaths and many more as albert einstein once said the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them without doing anything i want my kids to know it is better to have a big dream and fail than to sit on the sidelines to do nothing because the great thing about hitting rock bottom is a great foundation to rise up and conquer our voices hold power and if my voice held no power they would not try to silence concerned parents please continue to listen to parents before being bullied by the teachers union and if you want to see more research on vaccine side effects and children check out israel and see how it's going for them nothing will break
015your heart more than watching a video of an excited parent thinking they're going to protect their child and a few hours later they're having seizures or they're in the icu when they give you the shot they give you adult doses just like in the 90s when they didn't know what was going on with ritalin and they gave them adult doses then it worked out really well i understand you're listening to doctors but some of those doctors don't even know what they're doing i appreciate you listening thank you [Applause] our next speaker this evening is melissa mensch hi i'm melissa i'm melissa meach and i've got uh two kids in the school district right now so over the last few days i've read some things that are rather alarming education minnesota recently published a newsletter about
016parents and taxpayers showing up at board meetings and having the nerve to challenge educators and union reps on quote honesty and education one of the local union reps leaders is quoted as saying we are planning on having speakers at every event we're planning to get new teachers and teachers from different backgrounds we have a local social justice committee and the group is making plans plans as to what i'm not 100 percent sure but based on the dcue president in the same article based on quotes i can only assume it's planned to undermine the wishes of the very parents and taxpayers filling up this dream what's even more alarming is when i read that the dcue president felt they had the support of school board members especially since to my understanding board members are supposed to
017represent constituents of the district rather than the teachers unions now it's my hope that the dcua president may be misconstrued something but to be honest i'm not 100 sure especially when i see photos and hear stories about board members taking the time to thank union reps and teachers for showing up at these board meetings yet not doing the same for their constituents instead we get glares eye rolls closed body language and comments about fox news talking points and yes we all notice since these plans are being made without the input of parents and taxpayers i want to make it very clear what i expect from educators and board members because i'm tired of the gas lighting and the redefining of terms and concepts and the colluded efforts by educators union reps and apparently board members
018to bypass parents and taxpayer wishes as an educator your only role in my children's life is to teach my children how to think not what to think i don't care if you believe one plus one equals two or if you don't believe it does your job is to teach my children how to get to their aunt the answer on their own not what the answer is you do not trump me as a parent on moral high ground you have no right to teach my children between right and wrong when you're around my children less than .01 percent in their lifetime and probably interact with them directly less than that you have no right to undermine what i've spent years trying to instill in them that they are more than the color of their skin and
019more than just victims of white people you have no right to teach my children they are oppressed and cannot accomplish anything without the white man's permission you have no right to teach my children how to be anti-racist by viewing the world through a eurocentric lens i could care less if you wholeheartedly believe it or not all i care about is what you're teaching my children teju cole once said the white savior supports brutal policies in the morning funds charities in the afternoon and receives awards in the evening the white savior industrial complex is not about justice it's about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege it appears in this school district the idea of oppression has to be reinforced in the minds of bipac students so educators and union reps can have that emotional
020experience i really hope you think about this the next time you post photos of yourself adorned in black shirts on social media using my children as your stepping stone to get praise and recognition for your work in quote honesty in education our next speaker is seth fine oh i'm sorry seth is not with us this evening the next speaker then is evan and lisa powell good evening my name is evan powell um my wife and our parents haven't been coming elementary school student in the district can you hear me now yeah my name is evan powell my wife and i are parents of an incoming elementary school student in the district uh i'm an attorney and i'm also deeply concerned about the district's decision not to follow evidence-based expert advice requiring masks for everybody in
021the district school buildings i'd like to start with some facts today in this country on average more students over 200 and more children over 215 of them will be newly admitted to the hospital of cloven 19 than any prior day even compared to last fall when vaccines were available this number is increasing on top of this no child under 12 can yet be vaccinated and long-haul covet is a reality for up to 15 or more of all cova cases not just those hospitalized including thousands and thousands of children who catch cove at 19 each day here's the most important fact this school board has the power to protect its students health while in school and reduce these interruptions education but it hasn't decided to do so issue the minnesota department of health the cdc the
022american association of pediatrics the minnesota department of education and other state and federal agencies and expert organizations have recommended that k-12 schools follow and implement current cdc recommendations of universal indoor masking for all students staff teachers visitors regardless of vaccination status the school board has equivocated and said they will not require what's not mandated by these organizations so the board will not implement anything and has merely restated their recommendations why is this an issue i think there are several problems with the district reasoning and the result first who has the power the federal government can only mandate compliance for local education issues that implicate constitutional rights or whether it is agreed in exchange for funding state agencies can only mandate by law or under the governor's emergency order which is the force and effective law
023expert medical organizations can only advise persuasively the simple conclusion is that this board is the body with the authority to implement the recommendations and that is why the guidance at schools follow the recommendations which can only mean mandating compliance as the ease of administration if the board mandates masks it's easier to roll back that requirement perhaps sometime after everyone can be vaccinated then it will be to re-implement the mass mandate mid-year teachers and administrators implemented this dates mass mandate last year and this summer brightline rules and maintaining the status quo are easiest for educators there will be exceptions and no one expects everyone to comply but mandates have better compliance than mere recommendations what's the board's responsibility the board's own website says the board's responsible for developing policy and supporting the mission of educating our
024students to reach their full potential the word can mandate the masking policy and doing so supports the board's goals it keeps more students and staff healthy and able to learn and achieve it realizes we all need the act to have greater effect and it protects everyone equally especially the most vulnerable among us an example in education where a mandate protects us all is that state law mandates anti-bullying action by districts and schools this board has specific mandates regarding anti-bullying to compare would the board not implement any anti-bullying policies if it were not required to do so i for one hope not i believe the district wants to do better than the minimum standard are these statements about anti-pulling persuasive because this is what people say about masking why should we follow the guidelines if i
025don't think it's a problem my kid's uncomfortable discussing bullying my family should choose whether i get to address bullying my family isn't worried about it so those families that address it should that want to address it should do so and finally very very few children die of bullying or affected by bullying so why should we have a policy to address it those those arguments are not persuasive in that example and it's not persuasive regarding mass mandates i think it's clear they i think that's clear a few requests of you of this ask whether you're taking all reasonable actions to protect every person you're building the goal is mitigating harm we can act reasonably even if there's no perfect option beware logical fallacies anger is contagious energy and so is selfishness i think it's clear what
026is the angry selfish choice here and so do the experts in closing we avoid harms in society all the time by making reasonable precautions mandatory how do we know this is reasonable that masking is reasonable and the benefits outweigh any costs because the experts in public health education and pediatric medicine have said so and they have asked you to act the board should require masks for all in school buildings regardless of vaccination status at least the board owes an explanation of its reasoning how it engages the community in open meeting laws and what in dish it will use to make future decisions on this issue i'll follow up with a with a letter to you all i appreciate the time [Applause] our next speaker is zach bauer hi my name is zach bauer i'm the
027father to a second grader in a kindergarten in the district first i want to thank the board for making masks optional this year for our kids on behalf of the parents in this room please continue to let accurate scientific data drive decisions on these matters there's a legal term called assumption of risk which means a plaintiff cannot hold the defendant responsible at the point of knowingly exposed him or herself to the possibility of injury please continue to allow parents to make these decisions it's a concern as risk of spread to staff all teachers and staff have had ample opportunity to get vaccinated if they so choose and are assuming the risk for themselves the cdc has proven to be susceptible to political pressure and the recent recommendations for all students who are mass to attend
028school in person lacks scientific justification when the recommendation was first made they could not provide data to back it up other than a study in india india related to a vaccine not available in the u.s the cdc's own website shows the death rate from covet still remains statistically flat the rate of hospitalization from breakthrough infections is roughly 1 in 000 for vaccinated individuals on a 70 rolling average more people in the u.s die in car crashes if we lowered all speed limits to 40 miles per hour i'm sure we'd save a lot of lives but i don't see that happening anytime soon although many things have been nebulous about cova 19 one fact has been clear since the beginning children especially young children are not at risk as of july 1st data from the mdh
029and cdc concludes that children have a 99.999 survival rate the statistic alone says it all because students are not at risk from cover 19 they do not need masks they do not need a vaccine they do not need a social resistance in order to be safe students are already safe imposing masks requiring vaccines or replacing other restrictions on students learning due to cover 19 is unnecessary and utterly abusive not only are masks unnecessary but they can also be unsafe face coverings hide expressions integral to human connection such as signals of fear confusion and happiness dental studies show rise in gum disease and tooth decay in a condition called mask mouth masks can increase risk of illness because they trap exhale viruses which are then re-inhaled in florida six children's mass were tested by a lab
030after being worn by for five to eight hours the analysis detected 11 dangerous pathogens including pneumonia tuberculosis and meningitis mass reduce intake of oxygen and lead to carbon dioxide toxicity in june a randomized clinical trial in germany showed that after only three minutes children wearing masks carbon dioxide levels climbed six times higher than the legal limit for an indoor space this can lead to dizziness shortness of breath and decreased neurological function there is no statistical scientific evidence to justify forcing healthy kids who are not at risk to wear masks whose effectiveness is questionable and that are shown to be detrimental to their development since the beginning of the pandemic 349 kids under the age of 18 have died of coca-19 every one of them tragic for perspective there are roughly 3.6 million known cases in
031that age group a death rate of .0097 percent in the course of the last 18 months percentages in terms of increase can sound scary but a 100 percent increase from 2 is just 4. most statistics used to support recent measures and recommendations are given to percentages rather than raw numbers for one reason fear the raw data presents a different picture the cdc's website shows the current u.s seven dakova death rate of one in one hundred thousand according to the national weather service a person has a one in fifteen thousand chance of getting struck by lightning fear is natural and healthy it can help us respond to danger more quickly or avoid a dangerous situation altogether but it can also cause us to worry about the wrong things especially when it comes to estimating our levels
032of risk if safety is always number one nothing would ever get done as there is risk in everything we do it is our job as free citizens to make decisions for ourselves and our families and how to live our lives balancing level of risk with the ability to live full and experience filled lives if you try to take away liberty without good data-driven reasoning you will create a mass exodus from your schools thank you our next speaker is jerry ceriano can you hear me my name is jerry soriano i'm a resident of 196. on july 26 2021 at the last school board meeting we heard a young student give her account of what she and her friends experienced firsthand with regards to bullying in district 196 the first instance ended with her informing the principal
033of rosemont middle school and according to her the bully wrote a letter of apology the problem persisted the second instance was a friend who was bullied when they approached a staff member they were told quote unquote to suck it up persevere and finish strong she tried to explain after which why critical race theory would help with regards to what her and her friends had gone through she ran out of time after which she was given a round of applause by the district 196 faculty staff and supporters what was my takeaway the district failed her twice she gave an example of what her and her friends had gone through the faculty and staff of district 196 failed to help her both rosemont middle school and high school have anti-bullying pages on their website yet nothing was
034done to help these students to be clear the faculty and staff that were approached failed her if the actions and actions of a few are representative of the whole then maybe we should be thinking of defunding the teachers union with all the rhetoric that is used with regards to providing a safe inclusive equitable school system it seems clear that when it comes time to doing what is necessary you simply choose not to to our superintendent you two have failed it was under your watch these two incidents occurred for a child to come up here and ask for critical race theory concepts so evil that it exists only to bring people down so they can feel better about themselves is reprehensible at the last school board meeting the call for your resignation was put out i
035echo that call step down superintendent you no longer have our children's best interests in mind did a school board you too have failed the hubris that you show everyone when you come in these meetings i observed how you cozy up to everyone on one side of the room while completely ignoring the others we put you there to look out for our children's best interests you went to bed with this union who is clearly more interested in giving themselves congratulations and pats on the back all the while pushing their own agenda on our children it is time to reevaluate this relationship with the union if they no longer have the best interest of our children if they are unable or unwilling to teach the basics that our children need in order to be able to be
036responsible contributing members of society then it's time for them to go i also echo the call from the last school board meeting for the school board members who no longer have our children's best interest in mind to step down you no longer have our confidence in doing what is right the unfortunate thing about speaking in these open forums is that you risk offending people i know i will receive backlash for speaking out so for the record i am jerry soriano i am a resident of district 196 i'm a parent of a school-aged child i'm a former coach and substitute teacher i was 18 when i came to this country in 1993. 30 years later i have a loving wife five beautiful children one energetic grandchild in a life i could only have dreamed of the
037united states has given me many opportunities just like it does every person who is willing to work hard and give their all i am not marginalized i am not and have never been oppressed i am an immigrant and i am an american citizen and i refuse to sacrifice our children's future for anyone's gains our next speakers are daniel long and retinol sorry do wrong superintendent krieger chairperson magnuson and school board members thank you for this opportunity to speak my name is danielle wong pronounced she hears and i'm a 2016 graduate from east view high school history informs the way we view the past how we address the realities of the present and where we move forward to in the future when we don't learn our history and aren't given spaces to have brave conversations that
038contextualize this history we are set up to be harmed and cause harm let me give a couple of examples one of the many pieces of history that my schools failed to teach me was the page act of 1875 which actually predates the chinese exclusion act up until this last year i had no idea that the page act specifically prohibited the entry of chinese women because of societal beliefs that they were immoral highly manipulative sexual beings and only entering the u.s to work as prostitutes in 1870 california senator cornelius cole said that chinese women quote spread disease and moral death among our white population this is where prejudice becomes material where bigotry becomes systemic from the moment i was born i was racialized by a history that predated me and by being denied access to the
039history of asian american women i was set up to normalize harm against myself due to this hypersexualization of asian women that went unaddressed when it was left out of our school's curriculum my classmates throughout grade school felt justified making sexual comments about me tying it specifically to my being an asian woman comments i wouldn't even repeat here in this forum in march we saw yet another manifestation of this normalized violence toward asian women after a white gunman specifically targeted asian-owned spas in atlanta and was witnessed saying quote i'm going to kill all asians that he had a quote sexual addiction and that the spas were temptation for him that he wanted to quote eliminate when students aren't taught and intentionally taught about harm and held accountable when they're not taught about their actions being racist
040students of color are the ones who face the consequences further perpetuating inequity and making schools unsafe making our world unsafe not only did i experience harm but i witness other students of color be harmed by their classmates and teachers and i was put in the position to be complicit or do the same to them because i was never taught otherwise as a continuation of enslavement and anti-black racism which we are not adequately taught about in school black children are expected to have maturity of adults and punished for exhibiting age-appropriate behavior research has shown that this adultification has been and still is used to justify their mistreatment and harsh punishment in school settings growing up i watched as teachers in my classrooms publicly called out black girls in class for being too loud or obnoxious while
041white boys exhibiting disruptive behavior was simply laughed off as being the class clown i too began to parrot that same language and would describe my black girl classmates as being sassy and too loud to keep secrets in many cases i exuded unspoken feelings of intellectual superiority every time i was called on to provide an answer over my black classmates now as i've gotten older i have realized that in these moments i was being conditioned to internalize anti-blackness and misogynoir rather than unlearning harmful racist ideologies i was being set up to cause harm while i was afforded teachers who praised my intellectual abilities and went above and beyond to meet my needs it was always at the expense of my black classmates who refused resources discarded and mistreated in your free time look up the model
042minority myth i share all this to affirm the work being done by the minnesota department of education to reformat its history curriculum to be more equitable and accurate and push district 196 to hold itself accountable to its marginalized students and put in the work to make us feel safe i look forward to seeing the school board push past the noise and build the more equitable inclusive and just schools you've all been advocating so hard for thank you our next speaker this evening is our next speaker this evening is marcus johnson hi my name is marcus johnson and uh my wife and i have two boys in the district um i just wanted to start by pointing something out tonight i've been attending a lot of these board meetings this year and there's something i've noticed
043that's really disturbing for everybody uh division right we're all divided i mean there's two sides here um you have the teachers and supporters on this side of the room with mask on and anti-racism shirts which is great and you have concerned parents on this side right and they're not wearing masks thank you i'm sorry okay excuse me we're going to talk and listen can i speak and civilly or we will take a break and it's a dialogue or can i speak excuse me yes okay um so where was i is my time still going okay so this side what i'm wondering is the mask appears to be political tonight that's what i see really let's take a picture okay anyway um i'm here to speak in regards to the upcoming school year we have a
044five-year-old starting kindergarten and a fourth grader hoping we have a normal year for the first time in two years note i'm not a scientist but i can do math and i could reach hearts it's not that hard so i'm not a doctor so this first this first uh poster just shows sorry i should speak into the mic here this is basically just a seven day rolling average anybody can look at this up on the cdc website okay and what that shows is the blue lines are the daily deaths the red line is the rolling seven day average and the orange line is the per capita per thousand one hundred thousand population and as we know this was the first phase this was last summer this was the awful fall and winter that we all went
045through right and then vaccinations started in december january and they're fully rolled out anybody can get one right now and look what happened i am pro vaccinated i am pro-vaccine i am vaccinating a wise vaccinated okay we're very proud of that but what i what i wanted to show you currently this is where we're at there's not much death going on right so my one statistic i want to show about this the on january 14th which is my birthday there were the rolling day average was 388 three i'm sorry 3887 deaths on the seven day rolling average don't do you know what we're at now 454. that means heart disease 1800 people die a day cancer 1600 diabetes 240. we're at one of the lowest seven day rates we've been at chart doesn't lie um
046second chart is just deaths in the u.s as of august 4th by age and what do you see there okay zero to 17 which is all of our students in this district there's only been 349 deaths out of 75 million that's a point what is that that's a point the death rate for that age group mathematically is .0097 i mean math doesn't lie um i'm sorry i'm sorry but but this age group is what are what i'm happy about the the 50 to 85 year olds that are the most vulnerable most of them are getting vaccinated and you know what the death rate is way down we should all be proud of that should we not okay now the last one thing i hope i can get in here i've my time i'll be done
047soon i promise um is hospitalizations and icu hospitalizations this is just right off of minnesota department of health's website all i did was just copy and paste and put on a poster so basically as you saw this was the winter craziness when we had no vaccines okay this was our april may time right now thank you we gave we gave you an ex we gave him an extra 30 seconds thank [Applause] you [Applause] our last speaker this evening is john shaffer is this good i know people have had issues with it so all right my name is john shaffer and good evening everybody i'm a parent of a soon-to-be kid gardener in the school district as the parent of this child i would like to address you regarding your responsibility to ensure my child is
048educated with a strong academic foundations and a healthy happy and safe environment as a former teacher in oklahoma city public schools i was expected to do all of these things regardless of whether i liked it or not i trusted that our board and our superintendent would do the right thing at all times i disagreed with them a lot of the times but i still did it as a teacher because it was the right thing to do if i were a teacher in this district you would expect me to educate students using the minnesota k-12 academic standards along with ensuring their safety every day if i were a teacher in this district you would expect me to design my instruction using the latest statistical data based on individual and state tests if i needed to change
049the instruction for individual students classrooms subjects you would still expect me to follow the opinions of educational experts you would expect nothing less than me and you would hold me accountable for the education health and safety of my students in this district as a parent i'm expecting you to make decisions regarding my child's education health and safety based on the experts in those areas when it comes to health and safety especially during a pandemic the experts are the center for disease and control and the american academy of pediatrics along with our state and health department recently all of these experts have said that students do belong in the classroom with mass social distancing and other mitigation protocols it is your responsibility to make sure that these things happen period cases are rising across the country
050amongst the age group that my child represents and i'm concerned for her safety at school i should not be in a position to decide does she get educated or does she live i shouldn't have to make that decision i have a lot of friends that are teachers i have a lot of family that are teachers i love teachers i was a proud union member as well for art as a teacher i would have done anything for my kids and i know my board would have done the same along with the superintendent when it's the right thing to do last year while many states did not mandate masks including my mother and brother and my best friend their school districts did even against the will and want of their governors all of them made it through
051the school year with mass mandates and social distancing many of these schools had no cases because of this or if there was a case and one of them being a teacher nobody got infected because of the mask and that class went on for the rest of the year nobody had to go home these protocols were obviously successful my mom in fact taught kindergarten and found that students did not feel annoyed abused etc with having to wear a mask they understood that their teachers were trying to keep them healthy and safe when the cdc and aap announced the guidelines for this school year their health department and their school board against their governor's will said hey we're going to do this as well in fact nearly every other school district in a very conservative state in
052the surrounding counties went ahead and did this anyways making mass optional means hardly anyone will wear them and the children who will do will be subjected to questioning teasing and bullying i saw it all the time as an elementary teacher over less trivial things than this i implore you to follow the guidance of the experts in this pandemic and keep my child and the rest of the children and stu and staff in this district as safe as [Applause] possible we've come to the end of our special communication can i help you no we've come to the end of our special communication requests tonight and we'll move on to the items of the consent agenda under the consent agenda that was we have no open forum i know we're going to move on to the items
053of the consent agenda under the consent agenda this evening we have the minutes do we need to just take a break under the consent agenda we have the minutes of the july 26 2021 regular school board meeting pardon me we have gifts we have grants we have personnel we have a catastrophe in accident insurance we have election of [Applause] [Music] we're going to take a 10-minute break good evening we're back in session on june 28th the board changed the policy to eliminate the open forum in lieu of having a special community or in lieu of having listening sessions and that was on the june 28th meeting the current agenda as with it listed as open forum was a clerical error no one no one signed up technically to have open forum you at you signed
054up before the meeting started no one signed up for open forum because there was no open forum so we are going to move on to the items of the consent agenda under consent agenda under consent agenda we have the minutes of the july 20 2021 we're moving on to the eye we're moving on to the items of the consent agenda under the minutes we have we have the minutes all right we're moving all right we're done please sit down we're moving on we're moving on all right thank you we're moving on we have under the consent agenda we have the minutes of the july 26 20 what 2021 regular school board meeting we have gifts we have grants we have personnel items we have the contest accident insurance election precinct and [Music] [Applause] all right
055we're gonna sit down this is a public meeting we're gonna sit down we're moving on we have catastrophe accident insurance we have election precincts and delegation polling places updates we have computerized measures of academic progress and instructional resources we have the cap agency head start integration agreement special education we have the agreement with the ymca of grad or twin cities for 2021 school-aged child care and we have a bus purchases [Applause] with that we've got the consensus with that we've got all right with thank you with with that with that we have the items of the consent agenda with that we have the items of the consent agenda board what i'd like a motion in a second we have a motion by joel a second by art to approve the consent agenda as outlined all
056in favor of the consent agenda please indicate by saying aye aye opposed thank you that passes on a 6-0 vote this evening we have no items of the report we have no items of old business we have no items of new business we are have other action items this evening and that's the building purchase that's that's the building purchase that's the building purchase and sale agreement with the autism opportunities foundation the minnesota autism center we'll call up mark stotts we will call mark studs up for this chair magnuson members of the school board superintendent krieger i'm coming before you tonight to recommend that you approve the building purchase and sale agreement with the autism opportunities foundation otherwise known as the minnesota autism center as most of you i'm all of you are aware most of
057the members of the public are aware our alc due to growing enrollments in the transition program was relocated to the rosemount community center last year and with the cooperation very generous cooperation of the city of rosemount we were housing them there temporarily in addition our early childhood programs have grown to a point where we have a waiting list and we're absolutely out of space at the dakota valley learning center located across the parking lot here in addition our early childhood screening program is located in a facility that really isn't conducive to that type of activity and so we located a building at 2120 silver bell road again it was owned by the minnesota autism center and the intent is to house the area learning center on the second floor and early childhood programs and early
058childhood screening on the first floor in addition there's a full-size gymnasium that all three programs are able to utilize as well as the cafeteria some specifics of the purchase agreement it's it requires a 320 000 non-refundable earnest money that goes into escrow and that is equal to the amount that we would pay to lease that facility over the next six months um the sales price then is ten million eight hundred and twenty thousand what we'll be doing is coming to the board in late january early february and requesting the approval of the sale of certificates certificates of participation in the amount of 10 10 million 500 000 in order to finance the purchase and uh there is an escalation clause if closing occurs after february 29th if it's due to the buyers default it goes
059up by a hundred thousand dollars per month and if it's due to seller default it goes up by 75 000 per month we do not anticipate getting to that point we're hopefully going to close prior to february 29th at least that's the plan at this point so with that i would take any questions that you may entertain and upon approval this evening by the school board we actually can start moving into that facility as early as tomorrow so with that this is another action item this evening so before we move into board discussion i'll ask for a motion in a second of a motion by craig a second by mike are there any questions or comments from the audience on our new building purchase this evening if you have a question you can come up
060here please state your name where you your relationship with the district we will allow you to have two minutes and we'll see if the appropriate person can answer your question after you sit down please thank you okay again my name is kayla hauser and my son is a student in the district my question is i have had students who have been in this program have family members in this program it is a great program my question is when you have a district who is mandating or encouraging to have mass mandates i know a lot of your program has to do with the students looking at the teacher's lips and doing the vowels that aeio use how are they learning and being successfully taught to new standards in this day and age when they can't even
061see the teacher's mouse so how are you teaching them successful skills when they're not getting that at this time or do you have anything in that budget plan that is going to address that issue because how are you assuring they are getting their full potential what we should be doing in our district well thank you unless i'm incredibly mistaking as far as i know we haven't implemented in mask mandate at this point it's it's encouraged thank you let it finish in addition to that we do have the use of speaker systems within classrooms and so forth to help those students who aren't able to hear um adequately on their own so deb mara will also help answer that question thank you deb no come on up to the microphone please thank you hi i'm deb
062merriam the health services coordinator and just wanted to say that we do address that with our staff so that students can see their facial expressions they just take their mask down and perhaps they have a shield up at that time so that they can continue to engage and see each other's facial expressions thank you thank you any other questions on the building on the agenda item with the building purchase and sale hi i'm judy hayes i'm a speech-language pathologist in the early childhood special education program and i have just a couple questions the alc is high school students confirming that and that we are having early childhood children four to three year olds right on the second level that concerns me when they're sharing common spaces my other question for you is this building in
063our district when i looked it up it did not look like it was in our school boundaries okay thank you i can answer those marks um so the way the building is organized it is possible to physically separate those programs and by having early childhood on the first floor alc on the second floor um we should be able to keep both programs mutually exclusive also uh you are correct the building is not located in our district i've confirmed with the minnesota department of education three times that we're able to own and operate a school outside of our district and i was assured we were pardoned any other questions about the building yes come on up and state your name at the microphone my name is joe but why would you do that why would you
064operate outside your school district thank you second question why is the deposit non-refundable two why if the seller pushes the sale date back why is there still a penalty to the school district because of the way i'll answer those questions because of the way that the the seller financed the construction of that building they aren't able to lease that building to us and so the non-refundable deposit represents the amount of lease that we would have for the six months that we're going to be in that building prior to actually purchasing it so it's money we would have had to pay even under a lease arrangement now the reason we have the escalation clauses is because again if we do not close by february 29th we're still going to occupy the building and it represents lease
065costs okay fully answered your question and also why is it outside of the district we've looked at other facilities within the district that we'd have to do extensive remodeling to and this school was built as a school so it has a gymnasium has cafeteria has all the amenities that are required of a school building we can basically move out move in without doing anything to that building to get it ready and the price we're paying is significantly less than the price to that the building was built for it's also significantly less than the price it would cost us to find land and build a new bill building a similar size there any other questions on the agenda item that's in front of us the building purchase seeing none we'll close the public part of this
066and we'll move into the board members questions and comments board members any questions or comments this has been an interesting purchase for you with all the different entities and thank you this will be a great a great place yeah go ahead this building it's a real good deal and we're getting there for like 50 cents on the dollar so it's a great investment for our district there you go with that we've got a motion by craig a second by mike to approve the building purchase and sale agreement with the autism opportunities foundation minnesota autism center as outlined all in favor indicate by saying aye aye opposed thank you that passes on a 6-0 vote mark stotz is going to stay right there the next item on our agenda this evening is the naming of our
067new district building well we have a new building and so we have to name it and it's not a neighborhood school it is a district-wide facility the use of that building may change over time so we are recommending that we would name the building the silver bell learning center for a couple different reasons number one it's consistent with the names of our other learning centers in the uh district dakota valley learning center and uh it's the other one cedar valley learning center um also including the name of the street and the name of the building will help people be able to locate it better and there's no other schools or educational facilities in that area with the silver bell name we will be putting new signage on the building as well as the district 196
068logos so with that i had to entertain any questions you might have great this is another action item this evening so before we move into questions i'll ask for a motion in a second a second i have one question for mark will be going up after the purchase is complete right pardon signage will be going up after the completion of the sale yeah we're anticipating putting temporary signage up during the time that we're utilizing the facility that was just so if any citizens had the question that we're already addressing that yep um going back are there any questions on the name from from the audience seeing none will close the audience part of the meeting questions or comments from board members seeing none it's a great name fits right in with the other things that
069we do and as you said it gives it a location so pin on the map with that we have a motion by art the second by cory to approve the name of the new school building and silverbell learning center all in favor indicate by saying aye aye aye opposed thank you that passes on to six zero thank you mark we've come to the end of our agenda this evening unless there are any board members who have items they'd like to report this evening go ahead i just need to correct one of the statements that was made earlier that that no children had died in minnesota from covid which isn't true having worked for the health department you know i knew that wasn't true so i'm correcting the record a speaker earlier this evening said that
070no children in minnesota have died from cove but actually three have died from covid 116 000 children have had coven in minnesota up to this point these are statistics as of today from the department of health so i didn't want that to go unremarked the other thing is i'm going to be working with the board and the administration over the next three weeks i really believe we should have a mass mandate looking at what the state what the cdc has said so we'll be working you know this is this is not a decision that was made you know to be you know set in stone we're going to look at the situation as it develops and we see what's happening with the delta variant we see what's happening around the country the cdc recommendation that
071we do this so i'll be working with the board and with the administration over the next three weeks and we'll make a decision before the start of school and let folks know but as far as i'm concerned we need a mask mandate so thank you [Applause] we've come to the end of our agenda this evening so with that i'll ask for a motion and a second to adjourn move to adjourn we have a motion by corey a second by joel all in favor of adjourning indicate by saying aye hi thank you we're adjourned [Music] you