Special School Board Meeting

001are we going to have oh should i start good evening and welcome to a special school board meeting for district 196 it is tuesday march 1st and i said this is our special school board meeting i will call the meeting to order and will you rise with us and join us with the pledge of allegiance i pledge of the allegiance states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all evening before we move on we'll ask for approval of the agenda board members there is one item on the agenda this evening that's another action item so there are no changes or deletions to the agendas outlined with that i allow us for a motion in a second second we have a motion by

002sachin a second by cory all in favor of the motion to approve the agenda indicate by saying aye aye opposed thank you that passes on a 7-0 vote first of all good evening everyone i would like to take a moment just to discuss the process for this evening first i want to remind the public that this is a special school board meeting it will look different if you've been with us for other meetings it will look different than those this is a meeting that has been scheduled outside of our regular school board meeting schedule we schedule those in july and they're scheduled for the whole year so you can look if you want to come to one in september you can look and see when that one's going to be our special school board meetings

003are needed when we need to take action or it's something or review something that's time sensitive the agenda and the structure of a special school board meeting is different than a regular school board meeting that it doesn't include an agenda items such as recognitions or special communication requests and it's typically not recorded sometimes it is and in this case it will be recorded in live stream tonight due to the high interest in tonight's topic and involvement of the public health and safety this meeting is being live streamed to reach a broader audience the presentation of the meeting will be available for viewing after the meeting during a typical board meeting the chairperson allows up to seven speakers to speak to an agenda item or anything that's listed under reports old business new business or other

004action items again this is different this is a special board meeting tonight due to the high interest and the unique circumstances of this topic we will deviate from that typical process and allow up to 25 people to share their comments i want to outline the process of this public comment portion each person has the opportunity to fill out a request slip to be eligible to speak during the public comment portion if you are interested in speaking and have not yet filled out a slip you can obtain one at the entrance to the gym to be eligible at the at the entrance to the gym to be eligible to speak the person must first complete and fill out the slip and submit it to our staff before we start the public comment portion you must also

005be a 196 stakeholder we are allowing one request per speaker and the speaker may not designate another person to speak for them during the public comment portion the board will hear comments and input speakers will be randomly chosen through a draw we will have an administrator call out the speakers names at the start and throughout the public comment we will call out a few speakers at a time and cue them to line up at the podium and you can line up over on this side so they'll probably sit you know give somebody's name and then say this person's on deck and this person's the next person on deck i will go over audience expectations of the public comment portion before we begin that portion of the agenda before we hand it over to our present

006presenters this evening i'm reminded the public that we expect all audience members to remain civil calm and to be respectful as we proceed through our meeting this is a public meeting we all have differences of opinion and we will quietly listen to others and respect others opinions as we go through the meeting tonight those who don't may be called out of order and asked to leave we'll move on now and i'll introduce superintendent krieger and our health service coordinator deb mears and they will go through our other action item for us this evening good evening everyone as chairperson magnuson said i'm superintendent mary krieger and i just want to start off by reminding us we are all here in this room tonight because we care greatly for the children of the school district and we

007want what is best for them it has been a truly challenging two years for everyone and understandably people are physically and emotionally exhausted from the experience as we present our recommendation tonight and move forward with the last three months of this school year i ask for everyone to keep the focus on our students show patience and grace with each other and keep supporting our amazing teachers and other caring adults who've worked so hard to provide our students with the best education they can get every day with that in mind let's take a quick review of the last two years of district 196's response to the coven 19 pandemic our response to the coven 19 pandemic began in march 2020 with the peacetime emergency declaration by the governor and executive orders that followed over the last

008two years members of the district 196 community have worked tirelessly trying to balance the needs of public health and public education for the good of our children and our community maintaining that balance has proved to be a difficult and ever challenging responsibility all along we followed the advice of public health officials and implemented the required and recommended mitigation strategies with the goals to keep people safe and students learning in person in school as much as possible to help achieve those goals this school year the administration developed a covet 19 operational plan for 2021-22 that was approved by the school board last august by september the local transmission level was high and face masks were required to start the school year the number of cases grew steadily throughout the fall and into the new year peaking

009in mid-january we faced monumental staffing shortages during this time while other districts were forced to shift to distance learning we managed to stay learning in person thanks to staff who went above and beyond to cover absences and do whatever was needed to keep kids in school a lot has changed for the better over the past several weeks in response to rapidly decreasing proven 19 cases in february states counties cities and school districts started to drop their mass mandates friday the cdc released updated guidance on the use of face masks and here we are at tonight's special board meeting to give a recommendation around face masks our recommendation is to update the district's covert 19 operational plan for the 2021-22 school year to reflect updated cdc guidance released last friday and the changes would be implemented

010immediately if approved by the school board face mask would no longer be required inside district 196 buildings i will now turn it over to our outstanding health services coordinator deb mir to explain the cdc's updated guidance on the use of masks that will be reflected in our covert 19 operational plan for this school year thank you superintendent krieger so currently our operational plan relies on this outdated cdc transmission matrix to determine when mass will be required or recommended inside of our school buildings decisions regarding masking protocols are based solely on local transmission data from the seven day average per 100 000 residents in dakota county according to this matrix masks are required when this the cover 19 transmission rate is categorized as substantial or high which is defined as anything above 50 cases per 100

011000 which we've been there since about the end of august last last year last summer mass are recommended when the coven 19 transmission rate is categorized as lower moderate which is defined as anything below 50 cases per 100 000 residents incidentally i looked at this this matrix even though it's out of date and today we were sitting at 88 so we're pretty getting pretty close to dropping below that 50 anyway last week the cdc released its revised guidance and now focuses on the community levels of cover 19. the new matrix takes into consideration new cases each week end severity of disease and subsequently categorizes levels as low medium or high currently under this new matrix the dakota county low cover 19 community level is categorized as low the revised guidance also updated mask wearing protocols

012for k-12 settings and early childhood the kd the cdc no longer recommends universal indoor mask wearing in k-12 and early education settings when when we are in the low or medium community levels masks are recommended but not required to be worn indoors where community levels are high additionally the cdc guidance no longer requires mass to be worn on school buses or other school transportation vehicles however we respect the choices of families and students and you can always choose to wear a mask based on personal preference informed by your own personal level of risk as we transition into our next phase of mitigation against the pandemic it is important that we continue our efforts to prevent the spread of covet 19 in our schools and community included in this next phase we will continue with all

013of our other current mitigation efforts including having masks available for those who request them requiring a five-day isolation for those who test positive for covet 19 and promoting vaccinations booster shots when eligible regular testing for cobia 19 and staying home when you are sick with that i will turn it back over to superintendent krieger so again our recommendation review is to approve the revisions to the district covert 19 operational plan to align with the updated cdc guidance on use of face masks issued february 25th changes would take in effect immediately if approved and in compliance with federal requirements the public will have an opportunity to submit comment on the updated operational plan from march 2nd to the 4th the survey is available at district196.org and with that i would ask if there are any questions

014with that before we move into questions this is an action item for the the evening so with that i will ask for a motion in a second because it is an action item this evening removed second we have a motion by joel a second by sachin to approve the amended cove operation plan for 19 for 20 21 and 22 with that we're going to start the open part of the meeting and they can roll some of the questions into that don't you think next we will move into the public comment we will hear comments and input from up to 20 to up to 25 people for two minutes each after two minutes the microphone will just be turned off so we can continue on to the next speaker speakers will be randomly selected and eligible

015speakers are to be district 196 stakeholders who have filled out the request slip in full audience members we will be respectful and listen to each speaker if members of the audience are disruptive and not respectful during the public comment portion we will end the public comment portion and the school board will immediately move into deliberations and vote emily buss will call up the first speakers if you needed to still put in a request for speaking you can do that over here at the table and deb meyers has the slips for sign up with that we will move into the public speaking portion and emily will ask we'll announce our first three speakers thanks jackie um so i'll call three speakers at a time with the first speaker to approach the podium and the next two

016speakers on deck can be seated or standing over in that way so the first speaker is john kenley on deck we have shelly dodge and nika davios perfect davies welcome it was john right yes welcome i have three children attending at 196 elementary school and i'm a third generation graduate of rosemont high school while i'm glad to see the district has waited for changes in cdc guidelines to make changes to the massing policy i oppose removing the mask requirements without other mitigation and monitoring efforts being put in place i feel the district has been highly reactive throughout the pandemic rather than proactive i realized largely this has been driven by the pressures of pandemics put on the district in a changing landscape as new variants and changing scientific understanding now the cases are falling rapidly

017to manageable levels the district should take this opportunity to consult with public health experts and put in place a comprehensive communicable disease plan that address both cover 19 and future disease outbreaks some things i think should be included in which other districts that have removed their mass made are doing that we are not necessarily doing are the resumption of classroom notifications and contact tracing in schools where there are positives with cases down these should be possible to do again and this information will be very important to families with vulnerable children and family members if the mass requirement is lifted put in place a monitoring testing program onsite quick pcr tests for staff and students who show symptoms require visitors to mask or show proof of vaccination move back to 10 days of isolation for positive

018cases or 5 days plus a negative antigen test the cdc just released data that showed that over half of cases even where symptoms had resolved after five days still showed a positive engine chest which is a proxy for being contagious also establish an outbreak policy if this should include a definition of what an outbreak in a classroom or school is should automatically trigger additional mitigation measures such as masks classroom or outdoor dining depending on the weather additional air circulation and other mitigation efforts setting this up ahead of time prevents having to reactively scramble lastly i think the board should keep in mind that schools are mandatory and are a place that helps to lift up and protect the vulnerable and to protect them even if it means some minor inconvenience for others the new cdc

019document in many ways is not a public health policy document it is a personal health document just look at how many times it suggests someone to consult their healthcare provider a nation where access to healthcare is already a problem for many families this creates additional barriers and burdens for most the most vulnerable with this in mind school should err on the more conservative side when it comes to thank you john and next up if you can if you could tell us your name because i didn't catch it hi i'm shelly dodge i just want to say thank you for all the hard work that you have done this year in keeping our students and staff and community members safe your work is truly appreciated thank you for the excellent job that you've done [Applause] hi

020my name is nika davies i'm a resident i'm the parent of two alumni from the school that have done very well thank you very much i want to say thank you for explaining the plan very carefully thank you for following the science and thank you for all your hard work [Applause] okay so the next speaker after each speaker i'm actually going to pick another name so next up we have carrie winters after carrie winters we have kelly kenley and after kelly kenley we have charles curry carrie winters kelly kenley charles curley good evening sherry oh i'm getting old okay my name is carrie winters i'm a resident of district 196 and i have two children in elementary school i would like to thank the district kova team school board and superintendent mary krieger for everything

021they have done for covet safety in our schools for the past two years the new cdc recommendations however shift the burden of covet prevention and safety to the most vulnerable and at-risk people in our society for the districts this includes kids as young as three or four years old who as you know have not had a chance to be vaccinated yet i'm asking the school district to help your vulnerable students to protect them by also following the cdc's recommendations for community level prevention strategies helping kids who want or need to continue asking for personal or family safety to help them mask properly in the classroom as they need to and to not be help them not to be bullied or intimidated by other children for their choice i would like to for you to continue

022encouraging code vaccinations for all children to lessen transmission risk in the classroom and to avoid severe but rare outcomes for kids only 43 percent of kids ages 5-11 are fully vaccinated for coveted in dakota county ensure that all district buildings have improved ventilation with adequate air changes per hour and or adequate air purification measured for the size of the actual classroom covetous airborne and clean air is important while severe outcomes are rare covet disproportionately affects children from racial and ethnic minority groups in hospitalizations cases of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children and also in deaths please consider health and educational equity for every student in district 196 and please stick to your plan to re-implement indoor universal masking in the district bill thank you [Music] good evening was it kelly yes kelly uh hi i'm kelly

023kenley i am a parent to three northview elementary children in the district two of whom asked if they could come to the school board meeting with us tonight and we had to say no because school board meetings don't feel safe right now and i'm not talking about covid my kids are fully vaccinated we all had covid in january we are good but the behavior from february 14th makes it feel like an unsafe situation and i was hopeful that there would be more measures taken tonight and i don't feel like it's any more safe tonight and i think that that should be the measure of conduct and enforcement of rules at the school board meeting we have we currently as of right now for the next hour and a half have a mask requirement more than

024half of this room is not masked we all know how this ladies and gentlemen [Applause] we will we will stop the public comment portion of this meeting we will go right to board action we are not no sit down we are we are not here to we are we are not here to have a fight with our neighbors we are here to listen to our neighbors if it's going to devolve into a fight with our neighbors we will end any more public comment and the board will go right to deliberation and voting [Applause] i wasn't shaming anyone except for the school district in their response to the behavior last week i also wanted to ask a question i don't i know normally on on board action we're allowed to ask questions um there will be

025an open comment period after this policy is adopted and i'm wondering how the january public comment period was evaluated incorporated and integrated into the current policy proposals i also wanted to point out that one thing that was missing from mary's summary of board action is that also in january we rolled back the classroom notifications and school notifications and i don't see those coming back at the time we were told we should assume that covet is everywhere and our kids are constantly exposed so as we are responding to changing conditions i think the fact that presumably we do not need to assume our kids are exposed everywhere now should be taken into effect and those should be re-implemented thank you [Applause] emily would you introduce the nurse next speaker please thank you after charles we have

026chris bond and after chris we have christine kolb good evening this district has been a i have two children who've graduated from this district and we're still here we've been here since 1973. it's been an excellent district for a very long time and transparency has been a principle that's what we're doing here tonight but disrespectful disruption is not a way to improve the district there are shibboleths such as covet is fake critical race theory and other disruptive topics and they just are not helpful asserting that wearing a mask is a loss of freedom is not helpful instead a mask is a sign that you give a darn about the people around you and that's why i'm wearing one now our job as a district is to educate our children to be responsible well-informed adults the

027staff has done its level best to do that under very trying circumstances they deserve our full throated thanks and diligent support [Applause] next up is chris bond and then christine cole and then after christine chris bond two students three students within the district 196. hold on i have one name to call quick oh i'm sorry that's okay um so chris bond christine kolb and tony olson good to go all right so thank you guys respect for everybody not masks or not i think that should be a personal choice for our children as well as parents and uh ultimately i think it's um should be up to the parents i think there's a couple good ideas that the school district should implement some sort of health advisors within their you know i don't necessarily think that

028we should always be following the cdc guidelines because i think sometimes they do disrupt uh everyday lives and i think at this two years now we have a lot of data to back up the idea of masking but for uh to be put on our children uh with a very very low risk it is uh i think doing more harm for just uh cognitive function uh learning ability many many issues are being created because of something that children have a very low risk of um getting and my children are affected by it very much my my six-year-old has you know issues in school right now because he's fidgeting with it and it's and uh two years i think of this is is a little long um and i think many many people are kind of

029done with it and i think that each person should have their own choice if you want to wear a mask for your own protection go ahead the data is saying that mass did not necessarily prevent anybody from getting coveted so it was a lower the transmission but very low and um i'm more worried about the children i think i wish that most people were everybody in this room has either either vaccinated or had coveted and now survived so um we're looking at data that is new but it's just been a real issue and i'm more concerned about my children we have two here that they're affected majorly they don't even you know we need to reconsider what's happening ultimately i mean i don't think the teachers want to be wearing them anymore i think everybody

030is is done and yeah mainly my biggest concern is my children's health and and mental learning you know so let's all get along let's work together [Applause] next up is christine cole after christine kolb i have tony olson and after tony olson i have jessie kaley good evening my name is christine kolb i'm a resident an alumni and i have a child in the district if the board is going to get rid of the mask mandate tonight i would ask that the district put other mitigation strategies back into place please consider returning to classroom notifications and require 10 days isolation with a positive case the cdl cdc also released that 52 percent of people are still contagious showing infectious after day five so extending that to 10 days would protect more kids especially if only

03142 percent of kids in dakota county are vaccinated right now please also continue to support families and children who are at higher risk please the bullying that might happen for kids who choose to wear masks there i mean there's bullying here we need to not have it for our kids please work harder to make this safe this space safer for all district stakeholders we do not allow bullying in schools let's not allow it here thank you next up is tony olson after tony i have jessie kaley after jesse i have marla lindner my time's on good evening tony good evening my name is tony olson i'm a parent of a 196 student you know and i'm here today you know first things first i'd like to acknowledge the school board the district and the cova

032team for making data data driven decisions that have helped to keep kids safe and keep kids in school learning during this pandemic this includes air purifiers in every room sanitizing stations in every school and wearing masks as a mitigation tool you know my hope is that the school district the cova team and the board will continue to make decisions that are data driven uh and are designed to keep kids teachers paraprofessionals bus drivers and 196 community in the safest possible learning environment as it stands right now masks are required indoors if the transmission level is substantial we talked about that earlier the metric that we have cases over 50 over 100 uh just a couple of weeks ago it's been mentioned here already tonight that the county number was over fifteen hundred and if you

033were in a school around the school you were fully aware you were fully aware of it a string of students and staff quarantines that stretched out over the entire month of january bleeding into the first week of february covet is here fortunately our masking protocol was in place during this covet surge it looks like these numbers are coming down and hopefully it'll continue to stay that way i'm here today because i feel there is a silent majority and stays informed follows the data and trusts that our leadership will use the science to keep kids safe and in school for all stakeholders kids teachers staff para prayer professionals and community members thank you thank you tony kaylee then marla lindner and then after marla i have dan excuse me lupa good evening jesse good evening members

034of the school board superintendent krieger thank you for your dedication and service to our community i am a proud district 196 parent and i'm so grateful every single day for our teachers and staff who are the lifeblood and heroes of this school system i believe that every voice should be heard and i'm here tonight because the loudest voices so far are against masking and it seems to me that they have been heard already rest assured we all heard their opinions from february 14th and tonight i would ask also that they listen to mine and i think we're doing great so far are masks perfect no do five-year-olds pick their nose absolutely do nurses have to wear kn95 masks n95s i sure hope so do people love to find graphs on the internet and prove their

035point sure seems like it we're all sick of covid no system is perfect but we have to make the best decisions we can based on our own situations i voted for you because i trust your judgment when it comes to making these decisions for our district so if and when it comes time science says it's safe to go without masks that's okay with me i will respect your opinion i sincerely thank you for continuing to follow science and cdc guidelines right now i'm personally in favor of continuing to require masked in schools until two things happen one vaccines are available to the youngest children two the level of community transmission remains very low as it thank god it is because we must also remember to protect our community members who are immunocompromised i ask our

036district to consider adopting a policy that could bring masks back in the case of a new dangerous variant or higher transmission they are public tools used in other countries already they keep our kids in school in person yay and they help protect our teachers and staff and community so i'm sure that plenty of folks share my opinion even though they can't be here tonight i know i'm not the only one making my kids wear kn95s to school donating kn95s to school and i really appreciate everybody's time tonight thank you so much thank you next is marla lindner then i have dan lepaka and after dan i have rebecca gierock my name is marla lindner dear school board members last i checked it was against the law to make medical decisions for our children i remember

037back in the day i had to fill up fill out paperwork for my child to use his ventilant inhaler during school hours or to take tylenol where's the paperwork for me to sign permission for you to mask my child with a medical device my child tries to walk through the school hall in pain from seven knee surgeries masked up glasses fogged i then get a call to pick him up after one hour because his pain is so bad he can't breathe or see i haven't seen proof that masks work however i have seen the harm it does emotionally and physically feel free to go to brownstone.org to see 150 scientific studies proving masks don't work every day i wake up praying that this horrific abusive dysfunctional movie would be over i think about the acting

038positions all seven of you are in i ask myself do they really care about our children if they did why would they promote options why wouldn't they promote options and really listen to us and what we want for our children the truth is you don't care and it's very obvious how much money are you receiving by implementing draconian measures are you being threatened by the minnesota department of education what kind of americans take away our children's health options promote racism through critical race theory or whatever name you hide it under many of us ask these questions however the veil has been lifted we see what your intentions are and what is coming down the pike we are not afraid to pull our kids out of school for 15 days to stop school funding i have

039sent each one of you three letters three separate times i've asked for proof of affidavit of truth with documentation that proves you have the authority to create such a mandate without liability i have not heard back from you since you have now been served you are directed to immediately halt all present and future covert vaccine covenant vaccines marla your time is up your time marla your time marla do you marla your time marla your time is up marla your time is up ma'am you are out of order ma'am your time is up marla we got you've got two seconds and we're gonna close this whole meeting down lady good night [Music] no you're gonna be the one that shuts the hole the whole open forum down ma'am did you see what the recommendation is next

040up we have dan lupecka after dan is rebecca after that we have carrie schultz hello my name is dan i have four kids between ages four and eleven my children take and attend thomas lake elementary it's been a proven fact that covert is very low risk it's less than two hundredths of a percent of the percentage point that people that have coveted will die of fatality from it it's more likely statistical probability that if a person has pneumonia or cancer up to like 15 that they'll die of that disease so i like to take and share some situations that my kids went through during the school year so my daughter she she could severe migraines multiple times a week because they were in a mask we had to get our doctor's note to take and

041be aware of face shield in school kids are forced to take and wear or wear masks and gym when they're running around our bodies require oxygen to maintain muscles and to take and have the nourishment to be able to maintain that type of activity not to mention we're taking and it's breeding ground now for facial skin diseases such as rainworm moving on i'm kids when they're forced to wear masks they're not learning i'm more worried about the mental health kids are not learning the non-verbal communication in school and there's nonverbal communication about learning empathy compassion but also that's also in the given group setting so i am taking asking that all coping mandates come to an end thinking of our children's children our future stationary masks are crippling their future children need to be taught

042i'm not to fear getting sick they need to feel like they have a voice that they're being heard that they're able to communicate verbally and non-verbally and then they also need to feel like they have the right tools there's often times i do hear about bullying going on because my kids are minority not wearing math in the cafeteria and children need to learn how to respect the opinions of others and to be that positive light thank you thank you dan thank you [Applause] rebecca is kerry schultz after carey i have cheryl like good evening rebecca good evening board superintendent and attendees my pronouns are she and her and i have three kids in the district schools first and foremost i want to be sure to thank our teachers and school staff who show up in

043service to our kids each and every day i'm so appreciative of the work that they do in face of really difficult challenges that the last two years have served up i also want to be sure to hear in the board's discussion your plan to serve those who are most susceptible going forward not only those who are in our school in the early childhood program but also the kids who are more immuno-suppressed and who may still be at risk of catching the disease thank you so much for your time for your service and have a good evening [Applause] next up is carrie schultz after carrie i have cheryl like after cheryl melissa goers hi excuse me i am here today because i have lost two family members to suicide one being my husband who is also

044the father of my two children who are students at isd 196. since then i have made it my mission to figure out what is the roots of mental illness and mental health so we can make this world a better place some of the things i have since found were astounding how amazingly simple they are or for example one being breath and oxygen obviously we need to breathe to live but if we're compromised over long periods of time that creates a state of anxiety and there's not enough evidence over long periods of time what prolonged use of mass can do that's the simple thing i think the gentleman before me addressed this issue obviously connection to our community is huge so seeing each other's face eye to eye face to face smiling calms the autonomic nervous

045system down these are all things that are crucially for everybody but especially our young kids and masks obviously cover that up and i think this is a very important part of socialization and thank goodness the quarantine is over because the social distancing was another whole thing nobody thrives under isolation so thank goodness we're back in action again educationally my son for example has an iep for speech so also like the other person said being able to see the postures of your speech therapist was going to be have a big impact and that makes me wonder what it's like for the younger kids who are learning how to speak or neuro neuro-divergent children who rely on the facial expressions which we are not getting when we're masked besides the fact that masks are dehumanizing in itself

046um just compressing it all down we have lived with uh the kovit for over two years now most of us have been exposed to the virus and have taken precautions as we see but to protect ourselves um i ask that we can sit mental oh thank you thank you yep thank you [Applause] next up is cheryl like then melissa goers and then vernon vi uh thank you my name is sheryl like and i have a child in the district currently at rosemont high school the last two years of living under covid under the shadow of covid have been hard for everyone and we're all sick of wearing these masks our children have missed out on many important milestones but a lot of our schools are overcrowded and i am concerned about completely dropping the mandate

047i encourage the leaders and heroic teachers and staff in our district to continue to be role models and masks for the remainder of the year and show what a small sacrifice it is for people to show support for immunocompromised neighbors and community thank you to those teachers that have stuck it out these past two years i hope this district makes it a place where teachers love to work and can do so without the fear of being bullied by parents who don't get their way and that our society doesn't continue to dissolve in a way that we cannot have reasonable discourse without being threatened and screamed at and to remember we all want what's best for our kids and in a district this size we won't all get our way thank you thank you next is

048melissa goers then vernon vi and after vernon [Music] judy finger good evening hi um board my name is melissa gores and i'm a resident and have a seven-year-old first grader in the district mom i don't want to wear my mask anymore look at my eyes my eyes are crying i don't want to wear it it makes me sad that morning was really tough my seven-year-old first grader and i were eating breakfast at the table before heading out the door this sweet smile turned into tears that morning after i told him he had to go back to wearing masks again my heart breaks for him because of his sensory issues and all others suffering from the mental and emotional trauma that has been happening he's highly emotional he can't be confined he struggles in social situations

049he can't feel trapped he needs to see faces he needs to see smiles his anxieties skyrocketed the past year just as we started to feel normal again we were forced to back into the state of fear he cries at the table in the morning not when he not when he is told to pick up toys and he doesn't want to it's an emotional cry it's a mental cry it's an anxiety cry there's something special about faces they help us navigate and it's a source of emotional information which he needs and all kids need i'm just sad i'm sad to see him sad to see him struggle mom i don't want to wear a mask anymore to school look my eyes are crying i don't want to wear it it makes me sad i'm here to

050be an advocate for my child and my family the mental and emotional damage has been done and now we have to take years to control that damage i'm asking the district and the board to help advocate for all children including the ones with special needs not just immune compromised children thank you up i have vernon bye judy finger and carolyn stebner good evening vernon hey how's it going everybody my name is vernon vi i am a parent of three children that attend district 196 and uh i honestly can't even believe i'm up here right now i can't believe we're even doing this right now i can't believe we have to do this right now but at any rate we have to do this so thank you to the board uh for putting this amendment in

051front of the board for i assume it's going to be voted on this evening yes yes so thank you for that although you know i don't really think it's necessarily uh necessary at this point thank you uh who here by show of hands cares about their environment come on i can tell some of you out there do don't lie to me show of hands one more time who cares about the environment thank you thank you so maybe uh you could answer my next question do you know how many of the masks that you guys are wearing wind up in the ocean since 2020 how many [Music] close about three billion so there's that i mean that's that's one of the many reasons why uh masking should be 100 optional i read the uh i read

052the amendment to the covid plan and i thought it was very wordy uh we probably could have summed it up in about the last sentence masks are optional nobody here i don't think well maybe i don't think anybody here would want to force anyone else to wear a mask can we all agree on that okay nobody is saying that anybody can't wear one if they want that's the optional yep you've got about 20 seconds so don't go over your time so i got 15 seconds left masks don't work have a great night [Applause] next i am judy finger after judy is carolyn stribnerd and then next is kelly milkey emily what number of speaker are we on just for a reference judy is number 18. we have 25 total tonight good that's what i that's

053what i have to do good evening judy my name is judy finger i've lived in the district since 1975. i have two children who graduated from district 196 my husband was a teacher in the district for many years i'm here to say thank you thank you to the board thank you to the staff thank you to the teachers the bus drivers everyone who contributes to the education that our children receive and the dedication that you show in providing service to this community not a job where you're going to get rich i hope you understand that but i came tonight because i wanted to say thank you to all of those who have upheld the standards the science the data that helps our children get through this pandemic which nobody asks for and nobody likes but

054it's with us it has its own timeline and we are subject to its wishes so thank you i appreciate the work that you're doing thank you next is carolyn stebner then kelly milkey and then jennifer who's the peary one carolyn stebner good evening hello i'm carolyn stebner i'm a school bus driver i've been driving for 30 years and i've been down at this district for about 13 years masks don't work plain and simple they don't work and i wish our school board would have uh followed the science and looked for the truth you're our leaders and we left it up to you to investigate the truth but instead you decide to follow your own narrative follow the money because if you follow the money you'll find corruption so i'd like to give you an opportunity

055here because soon down the road things are going to get tough for you i know things that are coming down the pike so you should do the right thing tonight and resign you think that's funny i'm giving you an opportunity because then maybe you could save faith i might have lost for words because i just can't believe we're in the greatest war humanity knows and god is on our side thank goodness because god will win thank you [Applause] next up is kelly milkey then jennifer peary and then melissa conlon hi i'm a parent in 196. thank you board for following cdc guidelines during the pandemic and acting in ways to care for the most vulnerable in our community i know it's been hard given the current climate i feel we are all responsible for the

056current climate we are have all been complicit in a culture where we are collectively disconnected from one another on a daily basis polarization and the surrounding hostility is a product of a culture routinely disconnected from one another however we can be a part of the solution so my question is how can we come together as a community marginalized and vulnerable voices say they do not feel safe at these meetings how is the school board going to enforce going to ensure that these voices do not continue to be pushed aside as elected officials you have the power to enforce rules and policies that give people access and needed boundaries for civil discourse but this is all of our responsibility to change this as a community we must seek to ways to diffuse the us versus them

057mentality let us work together to make sure all students have the best experience to grow here in 196. next up is melissa conlon and then i have oh sorry jennifer peary yep good evening melissa conlon sorry and then kyle thompson you said my name twice you're jennifer peary melissa conlon i need jennifer pearyness that's what i thought good evening i had a lot of anxiety coming here i'll be honest my name is jennifer peary i'm an eagan resident i have two kids in the district and i'm a bus driver and um i want to start by saying that what i'm here because i'm not here to talk about masks um this isn't about masks anymore i mean it is about masks but right now i want to talk about what happened at the last meeting

058it's in the past yes um but we need to think about being role models models for our kids and showing them how to respond when we dislike rules set in place about how we're treating others whose hands are tied with decency and grace and practicing patience because change doesn't happen overnight it's about following rules even when we don't agree with them it's about showing our kids how to have a respectful conversation when we disagree with the opposition which is the opposite of what happened on the 14th as a bus driver i'm often often confronted with behavior much like what was seen in the last meeting and now i know why to the parents who chanted demands while others were speaking who were verbally belligerent i acknowledge and understand your frustration i don't want mass anymore

059either i'm ready to move on but it is there is not one good reason for your behavior if your child is that's what doesn't dislikes the school rule you have shown them it's okay to chant their demands at their teacher or their bus driver change and implementation doesn't happen overnight anyone who has ever worked a day in their life knows companies have procedures and structured processes demanding implementation before those processes have been completed is selfish and ignorant as was your behavior on the 14th this is no longer a mask issue it's a respect issue it's a kindness issue and it's a human being [Applause] melissa conlon and after melissa we have kyle thompson and after kyle we have dana bacon good evening um i'm also a 196 employee i also drive school bus i'm here

060tonight to ask the board to end this mask mandate we have all the school boards around us that are loosening the mandate the cdc has loosened it and now congress why haven't we this whole time you said that you're going by the cdc well why are we not going by it 196 just passed it tonight or sorry 197 just passed it tonight i'm done hiding and living in fear it's time we start seeing smiling faces again why are we here we live our lives outside of school walls without masks every day why do we only need them in this district thank you next is kyle thompson then dana bacon and our final speaker this evening is summer share housing sharing housing hello um just kind of short and sweet thank you for showing up this

061is not this can't be fun um thank you again you've made hard decisions um you stuck by them um there's a lot of opinions we're very um someone earlier kind of asked you know can we all agree on something i think what we can agree on is that we all love our children and we want the best for our children now i feel very strongly that that happens in a certain way and i know other people do in a different way and what you guys have had to deal with listening to all of this it's just it's a lot of stress so thank you for doing it one quick point i've never experienced distant learning with my child i have a kindergartner in this district she had three coveted cases in her class that we

062know about the the uh acknowledgement and and and notifications things changed but there were three three coveted cases in her class it was not spread throughout the class the class never shut down they never went distant so like thank you i'm not a teacher i never had to do that this year and i know some of us in here had to do that that sucks that's hard so while my personal experience i can't logically think that it was something other than the mask keeping it you know to the to the people that were positive and keeping it out of the classroom so hard thing you did thank you very very much um what can we do to get these teachers some raises because this is if we have to deal with this you know imagine

063um thank you very much [Applause] dana bacon and summer sharing housing hey folks i'm dana bacon i'm from rosemont i'm an isd 196 parent first let me thank you for putting the safety of kids and staff first it's what our community needs and it's what i hope you'll continue to do the first time i spoke to you was at another hearing about covet 19 and the remarks i wrote i wound up tossing them because i heard so many misunderstood misaccurate from people who said we didn't need mass and i spent my entire time going through quotes from previous witnesses pulling up the links of what was actually said in the documentation then saying well here's actually what it was and two minutes wasn't enough but it seemed important to urge you to rely on accurate

064verifiable information as you make your decisions which you'll continue to do and those same standards apply today you've done your best to balance a variety of concerns and you've risked your own safety to reward the facts and and not the bullies and i say bullies because what we saw at last month's meeting was appalling i honestly have been touched by the testimony for and against dialing back mass so many people have conducted themselves well tonight there have been exceptions i mean you've only been threatened once tonight directly by a speaker we all have the right to be heard and there's nobody in this room who loves what's been going on these past two years it hurts everybody knows it but that doesn't give us the right to shout people down like we saw last month

065to cough on people i heard somebody came up here and coughed on you to show how ridiculous things were does anybody here want to own that i bet not can we do better we ought to and we shouldn't try to win through intimidation what we can't win through open and honest discussion so implement these standards if the science tells you go back to what we were doing before do it but always regardless of the issue promote civil discussion because that's what we need to make good decisions thank you our last speaker for the evening is summer sharon hausen good evening hi good evening my name is summer and i have two kids in elementary school in the district um we're new to the district this year and i just wanted to share a little bit

066of our experience um being new here and and where we previously were we came from another state and masks were not required in the district that we were in there and a lot of shutdowns had to occur throughout the school year sometimes the classroom sometimes an entire school and a few times the entire district had to shut down so we were actually glad to be here where masks are required and we've seen the difference there's been very little need for any kind of shutdown due to clovid spread and i just do think that the masks are working to keep the kids in school and while my children and i don't like wearing masks it is better than the e-learning that we've had to do and it is better than the quarantining we've had to do

067because of covet so thank you all for making this a great district and i do have faith in whatever decision you make thank you with that we've had our limit of 25 speakers thank you all for listening this is the way we're going to have community conversations by talking to each other and not shouting at each other so thank you that concludes this part of the meeting and now we'll move into board discussion board members are there any questions or comments on the proposal that has been presented to us by the administration did you have a comment yeah i have a comment um first of all i just want to start by thanking those folks in our district who's been at the tip of the spear for this past two years in the schools in

068the buses and everything in between for all the folks who said thank you to us i multiplied that infinitely to say thank you to you guys i mean is this incredible to keep our schools going for the past two years the way you have thank you for that i i was it was clear that that each of us cared deeply about our children and one nothing but the best of them that unites us more than anything else and perhaps because of that that innate need for the wobbing of our children that emotions have gone to where they have but the last meeting lines were crossed and and from personal experience witnessing it firsthand going back in that room and then come having people shine a light at me in the dark other than bambi empathizing

069with me i did not feel very safe about that it is important that we engage in civil discourse regardless of if we agree or disagree because at the end of the day we're all doing what we think is that is the best in the best interest of our of our children our of our constituents of to those we serve i am also extremely grateful for the how the meeting went today it is a significant departure from the last meeting and i thank each of you for making that happen and i continue to hope that as we continue to transition off this off ramp of covid that we go back to civility and finding ways to discuss and debate that changes hearts and minds through through good conversation and not through creating hostility around each other

070so thank you thank you to our educators all of those who have worked on the on in our district and i hope that we continue to have better conversations and today was a wonderful step forward for that thank you board members questions okay go ahead so deb's probably going to have to answer this my understanding is that um at no point the masks will be required is that correct so even if we get to 1200 or 1500 it's just recommended so currently that's the cdc guidelines i would anticipate that if we take a turn for the worse those could be revised over time but all indications at this point are that the expectation is we'll continue this downward trend and by the fall of this coming school year in my conversations with mdh in dakota

071county we anticipate that levels will be such that we'll be doing surveillance as opposed to this individual case counting and and responding in this way so we'll go back more to our pre-covered kind of state where we we still honor uh infectious diseases and try to protect public health but it's it's a little more secondary than what it's been the last two years so does that answer your question no sorry um or follow up i understand like i totally we are we are on the downward slope right it's great i think that's awesome but in their guidance they they break it out into two levels right individual and household and then community level prevention so we're just following the community level for high and not the individual which specifically states that um sorry i have

072to scroll up here to wear a well-fitted mask indoors in public regardless of vaccination status including in k-12 schools and other indoor community settings so we are not following that path but the other path is that correct i can't hear you can you sit you couldn't hear the question no sorry not so much so according to the cdc guidance there's two paths right the individual and the community and under the individual under high it specifically says wear a well-fitted mask indoors in public regardless of vaccination status including k-12 schools and in other indoor community settings we are not choosing that option we are using the other one is that correct well i don't know i think that our school board would reconsider if we find ourselves in that position so currently the way we look

073at it is you go into one of the two buckets either your opportunity is the low medium or the medium high based on that 200 number and and we're pretty solidly under that 200 number at this point don't anticipate that going up but i would imagine we have a collegial relationship where we would continue to have conversations if the wheels were falling off that's what i would picture so i wouldn't say that we will never again in our lives have masks but at this time with the matrix and where we are at in that matrix that's been put forward for us by cdc i don't picture it happening anytime soon okay just because the slide said recommended at high and so if we're high we're going to have a conversation we're going to have a

074conversation before we get to high we'll be having conversations and it will be conversations with everybody else involved and at the table and we'll continue to follow cdc guidelines okay i just no thanks yup do you have any other questions bianca oh probably i just need a minute to process okay yep you probably can just stay right there any other questions or comments from board members joel well first of all happy mardi gras this is just where i wanted to be on mardi gras um i do find the humor in having this mass discussion on the second greatest masking day of the year but here we are quickly to to [Music] address last the february 14th meeting and you know it's been talked about a lot and i won't go into anything that's been talked

075about already but only to the extent that that the response that we received or at least that i received after that meeting just always you know it just reminds me what a wonderful wonderful district we live in and um the the level of support that has been extended to the board and the administration um for you know just for the for the work that's being done and you know people we had several people who spoke at the last meeting telling us to get rid of masks emailed us after the last meeting to say you know i still think you're wrong on mass but but i didn't support what happened at the meeting and i appreciate that and you know so so that enough of that meeting moving forward with the masks um this is another

076tough decision in a long line of tough decisions with covid and we have had lots of tough decisions and this mayor i don't know how the vote's going to go tonight i haven't talked to other board members um you know it may pass it may not um i know i will respect anyone who votes against me because i know that there's not a cut and dried answer here personally i think looking at all the data that i've had i've had the opportunity to look at listening to what we've heard from our kovid team listening or reading the new cdc guidance and hearing a lot of a lot of good arguments on for keeping the mask a few good arguments for getting rid of the masks you know i think it's it's probably time we need

077to follow the revised guidance and um you know keeping an eye on things and if if the numbers start going back in the other direction then we have to revisit it but i think now is the time to make it optional i still recommend it i'm going to continue wearing masks when i'm out in public and i hope others do as well but i think it's probably time to to make that move and then continue to monitor it and i know that there's there's a lot of concern from parents on you know for [Music] family members who may be compromised or children you can't immuno immune no compromise but there's also the argument on the other side about and we heard it tonight about the facial expressions and the ability for students to see each

078other and to for teachers to see students and there is a certain validity in that as well so it is a tough thing and i have been struggling with this for weeks and you know trying to figure out what what is the best way and you know i'm still not a hundred percent that this is the right answer but i think it's it's the right answer for right now and let's see where where it goes but that's that's where i'll be voting tonight board members any other questions or comments so yeah i'm sorry i got questions right that's right bianca so how are we going to support families whose kids who want their children to mask i'm i'm not asking you guys i'm asking them because i'd like to know how so you know bullying

079is a real issue right like i've got a kindergartener okay no no it's not my child can go to school let's let the district she's got a question because of the question we'll let the district answer then we'll all know the answer are you done yeah so how how will we support students like i've got a kindergartner right you know who's going to go to school and i also have cancer so to me masking is important as an immune compromised person how will my teacher or the school district support him as he goes to school with a mask that's a great question and we would ask all families if you want your student to be wearing a mask that you that you start that conversation with your student obviously and role model and have those

080conversations so that they know what your expectations are we also know that students don't always listen to their parents and you know would encourage you to reach out to the teacher and have a conversation so that they can support what you're trying to do and maybe if your student isn't wearing the mask ask those questions so we can help support you and your and your child's decision and obviously bullying will not be tolerated with that and so if we pass this tomorrow is when this goes into effect right correct okay just i just want to make sure so then we we have so there's a few things um i think i think we're we are i think we all are on the same like we're headed to the same destination right which is no masks

081and and i think this is the right time i think you know you loosen restrictions when we're in a good place i think we're heading in a good place right i just think the journey there for some of us is very different right so there are some folks who are already there you guys got your coffee or your beer or whatever and you're just like come on people let's get to it right i'm not there yet and as you can see from a large number of people we're not all there yet right but we're on that road so my question is would there be any harm because now i have had conversations with my children because i'm part of this and i knew this was coming not everybody's had that opportunity to have the conversations

082or to arrange with their teacher or to get masks to move this to go in effect on monday versus tomorrow and i'm just throwing that out there i don't think this is actually for me but i can answer the mask part of it we will still have masks available for students and staff and visitors that want to wear them so i can answer that part but the rest i think is board stuff no so i'm just throwing you don't have to answer i'm just throwing it out there right and then um communication to families we've heard that from people here that they would like better communication one of the issues i have with this is that i don't see how we're gonna on ramp as we if we have outbreaks or if the case rate

083or you know if we remember the omicron came up on thanksgiving day that was just a few months ago right it was like not there and then it was there so next week who knows we could have some new variant and that's what i struggle with this is that i don't see how that process works we're in the current metric and i'm not saying we should stick with the current metric i do think this is the direction to go so i think the difference between even omicron and delta was was what they found so obviously omicron spread like crazy we still had some severe cases um we still had death but it was it was a different look than what we had with delta and it was weird to me i'll admit it was weird

084to me too when in the middle of omicron the cdc implement that shortened isolation period but i think that that reflects it does reflect the severity of disease has gone down which is why they've added those two additional parameters to the to the uh seven day average case rate per hundred thousand so i think that that that we we will continue we look at it at it every day we look at the data every day we're still looking at the old data we're looking at the new data we're looking at the old matrix we're looking at the new matrix we are looking at this ever every day and i can promise you that i care about this community and public health within this community and our school and we're not dropping the ball on it

085we're just it's just we're just at a different place does that help it's not what you want to hear but does it help i think you answered the question so thank you okay did you was there more question for me oh i don't know deb i just need to think a little bit okay well no yeah there is all right so yeah don't go far this is you know um so you know we we use the five day cdc for isolation in students and i have kind of an and that's not part of this right but it does weigh in because there is a small percentage of students who will now be coming back and will we be requiring them on day six to mask through day ten we will be recommending we'll be recommending

086that they wear a mask day 6 through 10. at the same time we don't want to put a scarlet letter on notifying everybody that they had kovitz from one hand we say we're following the cdc until it doesn't fit our narrative which is whatever no not exactly because cdc this is their recommendation that we follow this new matrix and that's part of that high sp even if you're in the high spread it's a recommendation it isn't a requirement from cdc that students wear masks but i think the intent of the five-day isolation is really symbiotic with masking it was when we were in a more severe level of spread but that could be in a month from now correct and then we would make so we have lots of things that you continue to work

087on so that's great um any other questions or comments from board members well yeah because now see i mean you should have known right like i always have a lot to say on this topic so um because you know others have got to weigh in i'm just going to say where i'm at and i want it to be really clear i do think it's important that we align with the cdc guidance i just don't think our journey there is one that i can support at this time i think yes we are in low transmission my concern is poli or our plan uh leaves a lot to be desired for what the future looks like if we have an increase in cases outbreaks in a school you know who's to say that what highland is that

088the one that has 14 cases right now isn't 32 tomorrow and we're just going to roll back masking i think it's easy to fall back on the cdc when making these decisions but it's a lot harder to say we can do better and i really do care deeply about our students and staff just like every single one of you who came and spoke today i will put the health of their their health and safety at the forefront of my decision and because i don't feel confident in our ability to address ramping up at this time i have a hard time supporting this okay i am going to be supporting this melissa or if you're still here i hope you can go home tonight and tell your son he doesn't have to wear a mask on

089the bus tomorrow and he doesn't have to wear a mask i understand the concern about where are we going we have a very smart coveted team we have very smart school nurses if you have a problem with your child with your family contact your school nurses contact our covent team we work with the county we work with the state we are watching this all the time so do i have confidence that we're in the right place i have confidence in the people who are watching these numbers for us and if something changes we can change but right now melissa i hope your kiddo gets to go home gets to go on the bus tomorrow and go to school and doesn't have to cry and he doesn't have to wear a mask so i will be

090supporting this resolution tonight any other questions from school board members or comments seeing none we have a motion by joel in a second by such and that we approve the administration's recommendation for the covert 19 operation plan for 2122 with that given there appears to be a mixed opinion about amongst board members and where we're going to vote i'm going to ask that we do it by roll call so will emily will you call the roll aye coulson aye isaacs hi johnson i magnuson aye mohammed i vernig do i say or no the vote passes six to one [Applause] before we adjourn the meeting i would just like to remind audience members that once the meeting is adjourned we're going to ask that the building be closed they've got to turn this building back over

091for school tomorrow and this is what happens when we can have a community discussion and not a community wrestling match so thank you very much for your actions tonight we have a motion to move second we're adjourned you