001you ready Kathy are you ready oh mine's done I'd like to call the order the meeting of the King George County School Board um and we'll have an invocational Prayer by Josh Thompson uh from the Round Hill Baptist Church let us pray heavenly father I pray that you guide our conversations and our discussions tonight Lord for those who call you their master and Lord and Savior I pray that you give them Civility and gentleness and for all of us Lord I pray that you help us realize that we are here uh Desiring what is best for our community and I pray that as our creator you guide our hand Lord I Thank you for this time that we live in such a country where we can have discussions like this I pray that you uh
002help us show civility to each other and kindness and Lord may we see uh your name be great may we see uh our children uh come to to not only know great things but know the great thing and I thank you Lord for this time in your name I pray amen Dan for the Pledge of Allegiance I believe we have a un leading Us in the pledge Beta Club from King George Middle School to the flag of the United States of America to the one naice main standing for a moment of silence thank you you may be seated right wait don't leave yet tell us a little B about who you are Beta Club promotes academic achievement leadership character and service students must maintain honor role with A's and B's complete 10 service hours per
003year members participate in service projects and Leadership workshops to develop skills that can help them take leadership roles in the future any you the only one Speaking all right hold on we have some questions from the school board board members I would just like to know everybody's name my name's Emma my name is Sam my name is Matthew my name is Carter my name is Marshall my name is Emily and I'm Maran Donaldson one of the sponsors I'm Carrie Nunes one of the sponsors and that was Avery Nunes a Beta Club member all right I have a question um what is the most enjoyable thing that or the thing you enjoy the most about being in the Beta Club anybody probably doing all the activities and helping out others good can you name one of
004them uh we all we did a food drive for pets in the um animal rescue yeah all right good thank you very much somebody else I like all the awesome leadership activities that we do in meetings wonderful thank you anybody else favorite thing you enjoy about Beta Club I like helping out at my church um making food baskets for the middle school thank you that's okay thank you very much let's give my hand thank you all right I do want to introduce we have before we go to public comment because you'll see somebody that's new that's sitting up here well kind of new our student reps are Chad Brown with King George High School give him a hand and Eric Silber yes with the Middle School give him a [Applause] hand I they'll be making
005comments a little bit later um representing their their two schools all right now we have public uh an employee comment and if I'm going to say a few words but if you haven't already signed up for a public comment you can do so by coming up here and seeing Dr Boyd or our our clerk if you'd like and um here are a few comments before coming up if you wish to speak at the Public Employee comment please see the clerk as I said um public comment is a time for the community to present matters that they believe deserve the board's attention comments are one-way communication from the Community member to the school board and they are not a for for dialogue or debate the school board applies the following procedures to all speakers and does
006not discriminate based on the identity of the speaker the content of the speech or the Viewpoint of the speaker comments should be presented in a courteous respectful and appropriate manner a speech that causes disruption to the meeting promotes private business ventures or involves threats of any kind involves intimidating language or relates to U public cam office campaigns or involves complaints identifying individual students or personal attacks of Staff members is prohibited um so proper decorum well the members of the audience shall conduct themselves with proper decorum in the same manner as outlined above for the individual speakers and shall not disrupt an open public meeting of the school board nor incite others to do so at the discretion of the chair any person violating the rules listed of may be asked to um uh to sit
007down or actually leave the board meeting all right when I recognize you I'll say your name and if you'd come up and then give uh tell us with your staff member a student a parent Community member or what relationship you have to the school or if you're your magisterial District if you're a resident of King George all right the first one I have is and again three minutes if I didn't already mention that you have three minutes to speak the first one is um Sherman Davis how long do I have to introduce myself three minutes total well you already started the moment you start speaking I'm Sherman Davis Pastor Tabernacle Baptist Church known as the uh Pentecostal pistol packing preacher Accord to the paper but uh that's not me but anyway Isaiah Bible says woe
008unto them that call evil good good and good evil that put uh Darkness for light and light for Darkness scripture says for we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to what he ha done whether it be good or bad that's the verse written to Christians and is a verse written to Believers in Revelation chapter 20 you don't want to be part of that Revelation so we won't read that verse or part of that judgment but tonight the is isue is about books from what I understand and uh there are those who say that there are people here who want to ban books and uh Banning books is not what anybody's after Adolf Hitler banned books and that meant that if you
009had one you'd go to jail that meant if you printed books that were banned that you would be shot nobody here wants to shoot anybody or put anybody in prison there may be some people who deserve to be there but that's not our goal tonight but uh we want you to understand that uh there need some common sense things that need to take place and no one here is about banning books that's the false information that is a uh uh fake news but there difference between Banning books and not allowing something the difference between not being acceptable and being unappropriate and that's this called Common Sense uh legislation or policies and so the common sense policy for example the school has a policy that uh there's apparel about clothes and teachers and students can't wear
010certain cloes close uh to school they can't wear their bathing suit for example now they wear their B bathing suit to the public library they wear the bathing suit to the grocery store they wear their bathing suit they want to wear the bathing suit but in the schoolhouse is unacceptable baithing suits aren't banned it's just unacceptable in school they have they have a policy on Peanut Butter and a certain peanut butter is not allowed in classrooms I believe as I've been told or in certain areas of school you can't have peanut butter and so uh if you can't have peanut butter the peanut butter is to protect children who have allergies and so the peanut butter is not banned you can eat peanut butter at home you can eat peanut butter at the public library
011youat peanut butter in the car you eat peanut butter anywhere you want to eat peanut butter but you can't eat peanut butter in school and so that is uh the uh fact that it's not banned but it is against policy it's not allowed it's unacceptable it's it's un appropriate and so uh parents aren't allowed to tell their children that they can have peanut butter in school because they can't tell them that they have PE but at home but you can't have it in school I just think we need some common sense uh rules about uh not peanut butter but Common Sense rules about pornography and it is pornography and so it not shouldn't be allowed it's not appropriate it's unacceptable just common sense policy that we already have in play thank you Pastor [Applause] Davis
012next we have Leon Leanne John Leanne Jan right lean and Jan thank you by the way just so everybody knows we won't start the clock until you start speaking okay Leanne Jan Monroe District I have nieces and a nephew in King George schools I'm a taxpayer and a concerned citizen I withdrew my children from felon this year largely because of the issue of sexually explicit material available in our school libraries and I'm alarmed at the level of support from members of the community for sexually explicit material in school and especially from school system employees ma Laden in the social costs of pornography found that adolescents are normalizing sexual abuse done to them because of pornographic exposure females are especially prone to the normalization of sexual promiscuity normalizing sexual abuse yeah I get it really and
013here's why I was exposed to sexually explicit material starting at about age five early on I was physically sickened by what I saw but I quickly learned that that's just what adults do I suppose it was my haste to grow up and fit in that caused me not to tell a soul when I was molested at age 8 or age 10 a different study in a different Journal authors Lyn and Lou found sexually explicit media exposure predicted early sexual debut un safe sex and multiple sexual partners furthermore exposure to more media modalities increased the likelihood of risky sexual behaviors early sexual debut and risky Behavior I too know how that can happen in my middle school an older girl showed me a book she checked out from our school library it described a young teenage
014girl giving up job I didn't run home and ask my parents if that was okay okay I didn't tell anyone about the things that happened to me over the next four to 5 years either I normalized all of it just like the research predicted I would parents advocating for sexually explicit material are not the majority as some have claimed if this is truly about parental rights those of you who want your children to read sexually explicit material that's your business your rights are not being infringed upon by having these books taken out of our schools go go buy them go check them out from Smoot you can expose your child to whatever you'd like including Playboy and that person who defended Playboy I bet you didn't get that Magazine from your school library and to
015those who argue but they can see worse online I say to you your child might be able to get cigarettes drugs alcohol somewhere should the school then also go ahead and Supply those items where does this end thank you thank you Jacob gerding good evening my name is Jacob Gering I'm the advocacy chair of the Maryland Association of school librarians an elementary school librarian in Maryland and a taxpayer and resident of the doen district I'm here to ask you that you rise your responsibility as a board by protecting the rights of students and families to access constitutionally protected material I took the time to read these books asire my discernment on the issue while they are not books I would choose to read for myself they have value and deserve to be in a secondary
016school library collection their value has been upheld throughout the reconciliation process and they have been the library CL ction for what is likely well over a decade without incident while I am not an attorney I'm not providing legal advice the last time I spoke with you I told you about some presidents in case law some of which you are bound by law to consider both the US and Virginia Supreme Courts issued binding opinions in Virginia versus American book sellers Association addressing an important issue it says that if a book has serious Z artistic political or scientific value for a legiate minority of normal older adolesence it cannot be said to back such value for an entire class of juveniles taken as a whole the professional reviews as well the as the awards these books of
017w the scores and comments driving decisions during reconsideration as well as people speaking in favor keeping the books stand as evidence of the theary value of these book books regardless of whether you personally see it they are not obscene pornographic or harmful of miners under any legal definition in Virginia th please be assured that I will be monitoring the situation related to changes and procedures for procuring school library materials sh any of these appear to have compoint or content or Viewpoint based motivations that outside the all that is another issue that will be addressed at the core of this issue is the freedom of students and families to receive information through books not whether or not we agree or disagree with the information within will King George County School Board do the right thing and
018keep the books available as they are legally obligated to do or will someone in Richmond be making the ultimate decision on this issue thank you Susan Park thank you to the school board and to Dr Boyd for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Susan Park I have two children in the King George County school I believe the people bringing the book challenges are generally motivated by positive impulses they want to protect children from so-called inappropriate or offensive topics and that's a commendable motivation however the problem is that the definition of inappropriate or offensive differs from person to person and so we have to go back to who should decide what books are appropriate or inappropriate for student to read and I believe that should be the parents Librarians and staff follow professional
019and state guidelines and they have the background education and credentials to select books for the library that's their job and I trust them to perform their jobs and in addition I as a parent have the right to say yes or no to my child accessing the materials that are available and that's the process we currently have in the library but now an individual wants to override that process that person is saying uh who has no children in the schools is saying parents don't have the right to decide what their children can or cannot read she's saying she has the right to decide what my kids can read just because she doesn't like a book she's going to prevent all the students in King George from reading that book she's attempting to ban books simply because
020she dislikes them and that type of censorship violates the First Amendment because it deprives students of the right to receive information and ideas the the books under discussion for tonight are sold by Patricia McCormack and TTFN by Lauren Miracle sold tells the story of a nepes girl who is trafficked and the horrific experiences she lives through until she's rescued even in the midst of a terrible situation Lakshmi is able to make friends and survive and she even learns English TTFN is the story of Three teen girls close friends who deal with everyday experiences and because of their friendship they get through things that are tough the central point to both books is that people can survive and eventually Thrive even in the face of the most appalling tragedies and I think that's a positive message
021taking away the books that show young people struggling and dealing with those struggles means taking away a window into life-changing experiences that allow us to see each other other more clearly and deepen our empathy for our fellow human beings these stories tell students who are struggling You are not alone and people who want to take away these books are saying to these kids these kids yes you are freedom to read is the closest thing we have to freedom to think and no one has that right to take that freedom away thank you ran thank you Brian Mets parent Monro District yeah just be sure to adjust the microphone every time everybody comes up you're fine just adjust give my three minutes back sorry yes you will I'm sorry that's okay you might want to tilt
022it up a little bit H is that better there we go yes new room new microphones always good stuff so I do have a very serious question and I know that this is not a dialogue but uh where is our lawyer right this is this could not be an more important critical juncture in the future of King George schools than tonight that is a very serious question that I do ask you are all constitutional officers and I would like to point out there are a lot of Brave folks in this Auditorium tonight you must defend those who are not brave you have to defend the weak the meek just as you defend the privilege some will Proclaim well then let the parents provide that material that's a statement of privilege right I might be able
023to provide that for my child but think about single parent two jobs couple of children in school the school library is the resource for those parents probably for their entire School career your job tonight is really important you need to separate beliefs from truths you're going to hear a lot of people get up here tonight and tell you what they believe truth in 1975 School District versus Pico take out your number two pencil write this down this will be a quiz later Pico p i in that case a group of concerned parents had a school district removed several books described as filth anti-christian even anti-American it was settled at the Supreme Court in 1982 it was very clear the case actually split a little bit it did it did split hairs on this what they
024ruled was you cannot take them out of the library you as a school board have the authority to set curriculum you can take the book out of the curriculum libraries are a lot broader than curriculum truth the solution is already in place it's working six books have already been identified as not age appropriate for the middle school they were 15 and up and they were moved to the high school it's a common sense approach to addressing this problem we have a process that puts these books in a 13 and up ya group it's censored from the general population at the middle school and it's put back in the parents' hands that sounds a lot like common sense to me I've been canvasing my my uh neighborhood I've talked to a lot of people a lot
025of people have the same beliefs hey this paragraph is filth okay let's talk about the process we go through when I describe what the school is actually doing they're usually like well why are we even still talking about this that's a pretty good compromise it's not great maybe I don't like that book but that gives me the authority to to adjust that um we want compromise that's the environment we want in our school at the end of the meeting uh last time we talked a little bit about you you you the board talked about the environment we want to approach we want to have an environment of compromise we want to defend the people that can't defend themselves and we want to speak for the people that won't come speak at this meeting thank you
026thank you [Applause] Sydney Simmons good evening I've come to speak about the uh book ban I believe that uh these books are peep holes they're little Windows into the experience that I cannot experience on my own accord due to my upbringing I am a man I have been raised in a nice income I can walk down the street perfectly fine I can wear what i' like without getting attacked for what I'm wearing there's lots of things that I simply will never be able to experience and I think that reading these books lets me see the perspective of fellow students peers people I know people I love that I will not be able to sympathize with on my own accord I think that these books one argument is that it is pornography that it is dirty
027I don't hear the general consensus of my peers saying that it's pornography I think it's pornography if you think of it that way that's what I have to say on the books and then I wanted to also share my opinion that I think the new cell phone policy has been going very good I really like the increase the increase uh class productivity productivity I think the cell phone ban has been great and uh I like the work oh wait it's not banned it's just not allowed that's all thank you Madison Clark my name is Madison Clark I'm a student in King George high school and I'm in the District throughout my time speaking about the book challenges I've tried to understand the side of other side of this people who believe in book Banning and
028I simply can't I can understand not wanting porn in a middle or High School library that to me is perfectly reasonable the books being challenged are not that though calling them porn implies there is some pleasure you were trying to get out of it and if that is what you doing with these books then you are the problem not them I left the middle school last year and the staff there proved that time and time again they cared they are not Predators they do not want to give me access to drugs or anything that will harm me I've only been at the high school for 6 days but I know that the staff there is the same people challenging these books do not have my best interest at heart they are only focused on their
029beliefs they have not spoken to me or taken the time to get to know me so their reason cannot be for my best interest the majority of people with a direct correlation to the students want the books to stay I do not see any logical reason for getting rid of these books the words will not harm us they're not evil or the devil so please allows us to keep this knowledge thank you kayb posy hi my name is Kayla posy I live in the dokan district and I am a student of King George County Schools I won't be up here in front of you for too long because I find it kind of insane that I'm up here speaking again in the first place but when it comes to books I know that myself and
030so many other students alike find that even the thought of them being removed to be deeply saddening and crazy I've watched these practical meetings from home as they were happening and to say I was appalled and Al just just really confused of what people were saying is an understatement the main thing I told them tonight is the comment books like these are and or should be considered pornography well I highly doubt that books that pornography books are in any capacity at King schools I personally cannot touch on Soul because I have not had the time to sit down and read that book cover to cover just yet but I can say that there is no way pornography in TTFN and it is said educating its reader in some of the way students deal with their
031own school and social life issues I personally find the book entertaining and that's really one of the main things books are for what I'm not saying is that the books that the book is for everyone because it certainly isn't but what book is the point I'm trying to make tonight is that if you don't want your child to read a certain book Because of its content then that is a perfectly valid reason to have but try to take that book away from everyone readers everywhere especially ones that don't have the means or funds to purchase them books by themselves because it's poisoning the youth is just unfair and unjustified to say let parents and their children have discussion with one another to figure out what is appropriate for them what isn't because I know that
032when it comes to me and my parents they'd be pretty mad if I couldn't relearn something new from a book all because I'm adult I've never met before said so I appreciate you all taking the time to listen to me and what I had to say this evening and please let me read whatever R like no matter if the context if you agree with the context or not because frankly I don't think that's anyone else's business aside from me and my parents thank you very much Diane Osborne thank you I'm Diana Osborn and do District I've had four children who went through 13 years of this great school system and I thank you all very much for that um even while they were growing up some of the books that were assigned to them were
033extremely depressing and they were considered something to help them grow up and I would like to consider a few things one is that when our children are growing up in the system the mathematics that they learn they begin with simple mathematics and then they learn division and algebra and trigonometry and calculus as their brains grow and they're able to be able to learn more and more we don't use our farose method where they teach them everything all at once and I would like to suggest that um I praise you for being careful of what our middle school as well as the younger children are getting but also to consider the depressing effects of some of these books upon the high school children teenagers young adults excuse me we give the children time for their brains
034to grow and to comprehend in the same way that they need that for mathematics they also need it for other topics including real life and sexual topics this is not just a religious matter this is a matter of letting children and our young teens and even the middle teens to be able to enjoy life and enjoy their childhood as we were able to um as we were growing up we were not exposed to so much that we were scared and worried about our futures and so I would like for you to please consider that as you're deciding what to do with books and as you're wisely deciding which books are going to be available to all and which will be available to only some thank you very much thank you give me if I mispronounced
035some of these names Lee robosson close enough thank you good evening members of the board my name is ler roboam I reside in the James Madison District I'm a taxpayer and a father Dr Boyd you addressed this community and said quote we need to determine what is in the best interest of our community and our children this issue with books is a challenging one and seen in communities across the country end quote we implore the members of this board to act righteously to protect the children of this community this decision should be a simple one as these books are as you stated sexually explicit while King George Public School library selection process states that quote School libraries are viewed as places for voluntary inquiry Library materials must be treated differently from instructional materials used in
036the classroom end quote while this is true those books must still quote enrich and support the curriculum as well as quote be appropriate for the subject of age of which these students are considered minors if a parent or guardian of the radical groups promoting this indoctrination agenda want their child to read sexually explicit material that is a decision between the parent and child within their home not at school no King George County taxpayer dollars should be subject to purchasing these materials which do not provide schoolastic enrichment now in accordance with Virginia law it is unlawful under title 18.2 chapter 8 Article 5 subsection 376 quote is it is unlawful for any person to knowingly circulated printed knowingly circulate printed obscene items it's only ignored right now because this is political indoctrination but as prescribed in
037subsection 37 373 obscene items part one defines quote any obscene book and part four defin any obscene writing as it stands right now our superintendent has already declared that these books are sexually explicit again in accordance with Virginia law subsection 372 that meets the definition of obscene if you remain complicit by providing these books to children and not removing them which is not Banning books by the way we the people have seen your complacency and we will ensure it is known in the next election cycle board members who support the provision of explicit material to a minor even with parental consent in accordance with Virginia law are committing an unlawful act I ask each of the members of the board to keep our children further from mental abuse and harm it's already hard enough being
038a child in today's society Don't Force these ideological agendas onto our children you and I both know that if these books remain in the library it's only a matter of time until they're provided without parental consent no disciplinary action will be brought upon that person who provided that book and finally all minors will be able to possess this sexually explicit material at school to all those in attendance today in the event of the failure of this board to protect your children you should all review Virginia law subsection 384 which is proceeding against books alleged to be obscene and open investigations against those individuals who want to Pro keep and procure those things here with our tax dollars stop them from harming our [Applause] children hly Roberts hly Roberts James Madison District I'm a taxpayer so
039my money buys dirty books for the schools one of the smut books in our schools tricks which sensationalizes pedophilia and describes in graphic detail children having sex with adults threesoms with children and children being anally aped by adults and enjoying it says on its cover this book will turn you on and repel you at the same time this has been given to 11year olds this is the compromise that we're told we should be okay with to compromise the children is smut the high quality educational material we're paying for now our money is being used to buy filth when it could be used for better things the educational benefit better far outweigh the risks that you're assuming giving children sexually explicit materials is a form of grooming if you desensitize them to vile sex acts and
040put trash in their minds now don't expect that to come out as treasure later as Educators you know that what children learn now shapes their attitudes and beliefs the rest of their lives at the Schoolboard meeting on August 5th an employee of King George County Schools who stated that she also worked in the school Library actually defended giving Playboy to the children she thinks this is totally okay but this is how far the radical left is willing to go there are no limits to the filth they're willing to put in the schools and in children's hands School Board apparently you have a bigger job than we thought evidently we need you to write policy to keep out Playboy Penthouse and Hustler now at the July 15th Schoolboard meeting Dr Boyd stated that some people don't
041know good good from Evil and sexually explicit from not sexually explicit I think he hit the nail on the head with this statement because clearly some School staff members need assistance with this in case they're unclear providing sexually explicit materials to Children is grooming providing porn to Children is child abuse and a crime and you shouldn't give Playboy to middle schoolers also the detailed definition of sexually explicit is in policy I a so highly qualified professionals should be able to read and understand that criteria sadly what we've seen recently is just more of the same school staff choose to ignore policies they don't agree with they lie to parents and the public the principal allows it and does the same and the superintendent doesn't hold them accountable there's no discipline even when policies and laws
042have been broken we need a strong leader who is respectful to people who bring concerns to him expects his staff to follow policies and holds them accountable the middle school librarians have proven they cannot be trusted they refuse to label the books sexually explicit prop policy and one even lied to the school board and the public and claimed that the challenge books were never in the Middle [Applause] School paa wor hi my name is Paula wara I'm in the dowr district and just a resident czen um is this working okay uh it's several school board meetings people have expressed their view that books should not be removed from the Middle School library however they rarely if ever directly address the real issue which is the presence of sexually explicit content in the challenge books instead
043they misrepresent what the actual issue is and argue against things that are not happening one mischaracterization of what is being happening is the claim that one person is being allowed to dictate what books are in the school libraries this is just not happening no single person has the ability to decide what is in the libraries except maybe the librarian our schools like all divisions of Virginia provide a means for community members whether they're apparent or not to submit complaints about learning resources that's all an individual can do after that it's up to the um all of you guys to decide what happens another mischaracterization is that if a book is removed a parent's right to decide what their own child can read is being taken away this makes no sense libraries have limited budgets in
044space every year they buy a limited number of new books and have to remove books are we to believe that when the librarian chooses to purchase some books but not others or removes books to make space for the new books that they are somehow taking away a parent right to decide what their own child can read if the librarian removes a book due to lack of circulation or if the book's lost and decided not to be replaced has a parent right to decide what their own child can read be taken away or is a parent's right to decide what their own child can read only being taken away when a book is removed due to its determined to be inappropriate due to sexually explicit content sexually explicit content that is so egregious that when excerpts
045were read out loud at a Schoolboard meeting the public comment section of the meeting cannot be posted on the County's YouTube channel content so egregious that when excerpts were read even many of those apparently who do not want any books removed from the library were offended and scolded the people who read them so egregious that if a teacher read the books out loud in the classroom that would be a problem a Content so egregious that if anyone took these books to a playground and read them to children they would be arrested such is the sexually explicit content found in the two books that are being voted on tonight I respectfully ask that the school board members vote to remove these two books from the Middle School library regardless I will respect the school board members
046and their decision even if I do not agree with it and I respectfully ask that all community members do the same thank you thank [Applause] you yolander Williams good afternoon thank you for the opportunity to speak um the concern is not about banning books it's it's what about what's appropriate and inappropriate for public school libraries and removing and stopping the intake of unsuit unsuitable books the purpose of the public school is to prepare students for college the workforce and to become productive members of society the Founding Father Dr Benjamin Rush taught that public schools had three purposes to teach students to love and serve God country and family Dr Rush put the country before family because he understood if we ever lost control of our country it would become the greater enemy of our families
047the founder of operation underground ra railroad rescue America's largest nonprofit organization fighting for human trafficking stated it is estimated that over 200,000 children in the United States are being exploited in the commercial sex trade and number and the numbers are growing the greatest population of sex excuse me the greatest population of children sex offenders live in the United States this can be anyone included the highest um corporations and government officials there's no profile that identifies these individuals um the question their question is that excuse me there is no question that the people who are taking part in the taking part in this activity are in the highest levels of Corporations and government the pressure is to prot protect themselves and not to let excuse me to protect them to protect themselves and others by not
048letting this become a big deal and neutralizing the topic one way of neutralizing the topic is to teach small children sex education if adults are heard talking or seen showing sexual designs or pictures to children it's illegal but if teachers do it it's it's legal and healthy and to question their gender by showing porn consistently presenting textbooks and images with sexualized sexualizing children desens uh desensitizing boys to make them sex uh etics pedophile dysfunctional husbands and to teach girls to promote to promote it children will be children will become victims as well as well as Predators reference the American first policy institution 50 billion that's the number of children enrolled in kindergarten through uh through 12th grade in American public schools roughly 82% that's the percentage of public school funding that comes from local property
049taxes according to the Department of Education with that said parents should have the right to to shape their children Children's School curriculum the United States is facing a literacy crisis with many children lacking adequate reading skills and 2022 to 20 2023 about 40% of students in the United States were unable to read at the basic level and almost 70% of lower income fourth graders were in the same situation in 2021 through 2022 2021 through 2022 school year thank you thank you [Applause] Joe silver good evening uh my name is Joe silur I am a parent and a taxpayer in the James maroe District um I won't take the full three minutes I just wanted to say that I've heard a lot of impassioned people speaking this evening and I know that everybody uh I think
050involved in this has the best of mentions um but two points I'd like to make that I haven't really heard yet uh one is that uh as most parents know children mature at different rates and what's appropriate for one child at a given age may not be appropriate for another child that's why for example movie ratings are guidelines and not laws um so I think that uh of all the people to judge whether a child is ready for a given piece of material I'm not sure who would be more appropriate than the parents and the other thing I've not heard a good answer to is uh why these particular books have to be removed from the schools rather than requiring some sort of paral parental permission system for the children to access them so that
051children who can whose parents want them to be able to read it can and those who think it's inappropriate their children cannot I've not heard anybody uh explain why that would be a difficult thing to implement that's all thank you for your time Rick crook Shank Rick krook Shank from the Shiloh District um the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction according to Proverbs 1:7 For those who are born again this verse lays a worthy foundation for all critical thinking but for one who does not consider himself a Christian even this this verse serves as a sobering statement of the consequence of assuming that he knows everything God does indeed care how children are nurtured and given the tools necessary for maturity the tools are not to
052be instruments of shipwreck children are not to not an afterthought they're not Wards of the state or the school psalm 127 teaches that children are an assignment from which every parent will give an account to God there's absolutely no biblical doubt that God is attentive to children and of course he takes a child and puts him in the middle of the disciples and he uses him as an illustration if you become like one of these little children then you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven in the midst of that conversation he says if you put a stumbling block in front of one of these kids he says there's woe to you and so the issue of a stumbling block is something that would cause a kid to trip up and when you take the great
053love of God for kids as he puts kids into a position that's very special um it reminds us of the significance and the seriousness decisions to be made the real obligation of nurturing rests with children's parents in their place parents utilize other adults and organizations and to augment their n nurture of their children the school Finds Its place in assisting in the parents' role of nurturing God created Family before he created government parents will naturally differ when it comes to the form that nurture takes some would keep their children close others would have them learn to shift for themselves earlier a Biblical principle comes to mind we are our Brother's Keeper Cain is the one who said that first and my My Brother's Keeper and I don't think any one of us wants to be
054in that uh category of individual I believe that the school in its matters of choice such as the contents of the school's libraries which would cause division within the school's constituency should not voluntarily make available to materials which can create stumbling blocks for children especially where they are age inappropriate children mature in age and hopefully will mature in Discerning character but not all children mature at the same rate and some children never mature well if the school board determines that any particular book should remain in the libraries yet there is a sizable portion of parents in the school that have objections these books should be restricted and access from the general population of books a wise teacher will not make these questionable books required reading for students and parents who are more lenient in their
055instruction of their children must be the ones who take possession physical possession of the questionable books as they withdraw them from the library be responsible for all exposure to the books while they are checked out and be responsible to personally return the book to the library for propor storage according to the established policies of the school I further believe there ought to be a committee which reviews the books already in the library and those about to be purchased and that there is a system that should be created by which materials would be thoughtfully considered the committee should consist of at least one member of a school board and an equal number of citizens of the community as well as Librarians equal Librarians to Citizens so that there might be transparency thank you sorry I know
056if I can read this why W Wyatt I'm sorry I can't read the last name Muller is that right never mind go ahead and introduce yourself my name is Wyatt Mueller and I'm a senior at King George high school and hopefully soon a college student good evening members of the school board thank you for the opportunity to speak today about the current cell phone policy and its potential impact on students rights privacy and educ ational experience firstly I'd like to discuss Student First Amendment rights the Supreme Court in Tinker versus de Moes held that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate the currency the current policy states all use of portable Communications device shall be prohibited to prevent disruption of the educational environment this blanket
057prohibit prohibition may be overly restrictive as it does not consider non-disruptive uses of cell phones such as educational apps or academic communication I propose that the policy may be amended to allow cell phone use for educational purposes with teacher approval ensuring that does not disrupt the learning environment the issue of privacy is equally important the Supreme Court in New Jersey versus T established that students have a legitimate expectation of privacy in their personal belongings and that any searches must be reasonable in scope and based on reason suspicion the current policy allows for searches of students phones stating school officials May search a student's personal device whether the official has Reasonable Suspicion to believe that the student's personal device whenever this the official has Reasonable Suspicion to believe that the student has violated or is about
058to violate a law or School rule while maintaining order is important this provision could infringe on students privacy if searches were conducted without clear justification to align with T I recommend implementing specific guidelines for searches ensuring that they are conducted only with Reasonable Suspicion with the respect for students privacy next let's address the overly broad nature of the restrictions the student the Supreme Court in Frasier versus bethl allowed students to regulate disruptive speech but emphasize that restrictions must be n narrowly tailored the policy's blanket ban on devices with photo audio video or and capabilities and it's prohibition on their use in any classroom or any school bus or in any school location might prevent legitimate educational uses for instance phones can be a valuable tool for academic research or project collaboration or more targeted approach
059could differentiate between disrupted behavior and legitimate educational uses allowing phones to be used for specific academic with teacher con in summary while the current cell phone policy aims to create a focused learning environment it could benefit from revisions that better balance this need for order with students constitutional rights and educational needs thank you for your attention and consideration I'm happy to answer any questions provide further information thank you Jason mcgaan J mcgallen I am aent resident of the Shiloh District I was actually gonna talk on a few things real quick why it this had to say but I was listening to other people talk about the book books and inappropriate books um in the content of books what I don't hear anybody talking about is we have the most resources in the in the entire
060world but yet we're 16th in sport everybody's people are getting concerned about um well we have a right to have this well it's not I agree it's that's fake news book Banning I mean you could easily put the book in the public library and put a card in the school library and say hey if you want to access this book it's in the public library that's not book Banning when we focus a little more on getting the standards up for the kids rather than focusing on I'm going to keep a watch on you for constitutional violations of pornographic stuff in the high school I I I completely agree there should be no books ban that's why we have a public library you have access to it and it's free or a very low cost going
061to what white was saying so I'm a retired law enforcement officer and I was reading your policy on uh drug testing and um searches of cell phones I have extensive extensive background on this what reasonable suspicion is what it can get you what it can't get you um clearly um if you guys talk to a lawyer you probably need a fire if they guided you on that Reasonable Suspicion only gets you a cursy search of some things you can't force the student to take a drug test because you think they might be using drugs now I applaud the board what you're trying to do but there's reasonable things you can do if you think a student is using drugs get a school resource officer or a sheriff's deputy that's schooled in searches and they know
062what to do I wouldn't have a teacher do that um and secondly on the on the cell phone search um same thing I wouldn't I wouldn't have staff start searching stuff you're putting yourself at a big big big risk liability thank you thank you meline peroti hello my name is meline perat I have a kid in middle school and one in high school as well and a couple that CR graduated a few years ago so I'm speaking tonight as a parent but also as a professional I work for the military and Human Resources with a specialty in sexual assault victims advocacy and suicide prevention and I've been very disturbed over what I've been hearing the past couple of meetings a shocking number of books being discussed for Banning including sold advice Children of the D
063dangers of grooming sex trafficking and rape incest and the Very people who want to keep children from this information refer to the Librarians who keep the books as groomers and pedophiles I wanted to weigh in on that as someone in the field groomers generally do not give children books that illustrate what they are doing is wrong and getting a college degree to groom and mistreat is a lot more effort than most pedopiles generally want to put in I am not saying that there are no predators in school but I would be surprised to see any pedaling books that tell children what to look out for most are content running youth groups and waiting for the uned or for uneducated on the topic isolated and lonely or neglected kids to come around what are we solving
064by Banning books and I do use the word Banning purposefully there was a compromise one that I don't personally believe in however I at least understood it here is my plea talk to your children tell them about human trafficking talk to them about the Beauty and the dangers in this world love them protect them from actual harm not books my honest hope is one day there won't be any more victims to advocate for what I have heard tonight is people concerned about sexual assault and grooming and for those of you actually interested in helping kids instead of this lazy and ineffective attempt the Rapa hanic Council against sexual assault is always looking for volunteer Advocates I'll go ahead and let them know about the Deluge of calls they are about to get thank you so
065much for your time thank you Serenity Boyd hinch I'm sorry the writing is so small forgive me if I good evening I come to you as a King George parent and one of those kids whose parents let me read what I was ready for I was also one of those kids who qualified for reduced cost lunches so libraries were a Lifeline for feeding my curiosity about the world and ultimately allowing me to go further in that world than seemed possible on my way I read so many things I read amazing books about uplifting topics painful books about actual obscenities like the Holocaust absolute Fluss about topics best left forgotten and everything in between despite reading everything I could get my hands on I've never kidnapped anyone nor been kidnapped I haven't carried out a genocide
066nor prevented one I haven't married into royalty overthrown a government or explored the pyramids of Egypt I've not been a murder victim perpetrator nor have I solved one single crime in Victorian England it seems these books did not indoctrinate me instead I've learned many lessons from the books I've thought about when I should trust my instincts and leave a situation that didn't feel right or when I need to stand up for others because they can't stand up for themselves they made me think about who I am am and how I need to approach the world they gave me tools to prepare for that wider world I want my children to have those opportunities too to have fought through uncomfortable situations before they have to face them to have that protection the system in place allows
067that and it encourages parental involvement with their kids and that's something we all want Mr chairman you and I spoke at a middle school concert in this very room at that time you told me about how important it was for parents to be involved with their children's education we are both sitting in the audience then you're sitting in a different seat now I ask you to that you remember the importance you put on Parental involvement then I ask the entire board to keep the current system in place because it keeps parents involved as was said before that's the opposite of what a true Predator want and it's this what our parents do want so I ask you please don't take the opportunity to remove parents from the discussion of what their kids read just because
068you have the ability to do so thank you thank you Rachel Scott my name is Rachel Scott Shiloh District I have two kids at King George Elementary I'm here today to ask this School Board to remove sexually explicit books from the school library and to create policy that would make it harder for sexually explicit books to be put on the school library shelves at all people have called this book Banning like it's morally re reprehensible thing to do it isn't it is using discernment and protecting children from early and unnecessary exposure at school to harmful normalization of destructive sexual activity Proverbs 226 says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not not depart from it thank you Bill Davis Bill Davis dowen district number one
069I like to thank everybody for being here whether you're someone that agrees with me or someone you don't the first three words of the Constitution of this country are we the people the first three words the Constitution the most powerful of any document created by any government because the first time in history where something didn't start off with I the king or we the government government in this country did not give us our freedom it's out of our freedom that government was birthed the people We the People declares that the constitution derives this power not from a king or a board or congress but everything comes from the people themselves if our rights do not come from a government where do our rights come from all the documents written the Declaration of Independence the Constitution
070the Bill of Rights 2 the 27 Amendments all written to protect the people from the government nothing is written to protect the government from the people I say this because I hear a lot of people today they're talking about First Amendment rights the First Amendment rights and then what follows that a lot of times is keep God out of it keep God out of it these same people that are saying these things don't understand that our forefathers declare that our rights came from God and the reason why they're unable as that says and they can't be taken away from us because if God gave them to this they can't no man can take them from you the D in this whole ordeal no matter what side you're on if you take God out of it
071then men will decide what you can say and what you can hear and what you what you can believe in if you're a Muslim I'm a Christian but if you're a Muslim and the government came out today and said you're no longer allowed to worship your God I'd be the first one on that Hill fighting for them to be able to to exercise their religious freedom if someone was here today and I may not agree with your point of view that said you couldn't express your point of view I'd be the first one standing here here saying that person can say that whether I agree with it or not because that right doesn't come from man that is something that you're born with unable right says that it's not even something that you can give
072away if you want to that it's embedded in you Congress shall make no law respecting on establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or Bridging the freedom of speech or oppress or the rights of the people to peacefully assemble and petition the government and readdress their grievances I just question those people that in any way want to think that God doesn't have a part in this because every founding document we have says that our rights come from a god from a Creator thank you thank [Applause] you Debbie Roberts good evening I'm Deborah Roberts from the Madison District I'm an educator and a taxpayer um there are millions of excellent books in the world that are wonderful Windows into another life that we can read and then there are the other books that are
073sexually licit that don't belong in our schools the two books that we are focusing on primarily tonight are the latter number one these two books lack educational value we have limited money to use on educ educational resources and we need to use it wisely number two the two books mentioned tonight do not meet Community standards not one person in this room wants me to get up here and read excerpts from those those books tonight and why because they are offensive they're offensive to you and they're offensive to me and they do not belong in our Public School library um the language contains in these books cannot be printed on a T-shirt and warn to school not by the students not by the teachers the words in these books cannot be read out loud in the
074emergency room and Mary Washington Hospital under threat of not being treated for whatever emergency you came in these books cannot be taken into our jails or prisons inmates would be punished employees would lose their jobs our community has standards set against the very obscene language that is contained in these books for adults so how can we possibly claim Merit of these books for our children we need to be reasonable nobody wants to remove any parental right parents have all the rights they want to give their children whatever books they care for but this this is our public school this is our educational system and we need to guard it and protect it thank you [Applause] you Jim Roberts my name is Jim Roberts I am a resident of the James Madison district and I am
075a taxpayer the books in the library uh by policy in King George are considered instructional materials therefore they fit within the oversight of uh curriculum and so the Judgment then that needs to be made when we purchase these books and give them to our children is how to the how do they contribute to meeting our educational requirements and what you're being asked to do today is to look at these two books and explain to us how these two books meet the educational requirements of the King George County School District I don't see it the content of these instructional materials has been placed in these documents intentionally by the author these characters were created by the author to State exactly what the author intended there's no chance here there's no Randomness it's purposeful just as your
076decision needs to be purposeful the libraries The Librarians intentionally selected these books it wasn't random in fact they tried to justify that through the through the process of review when they were brought up so this is not by chance either the principal of the Middle School endorsed these books intentional there's a plan there's a mission here and I'll stop right there and say superintendent finally got to the books and he stood up and he made a call that those books contains sexually explicit material and I thank you for that that took courage I appreciate that did the right thing now what's before you is now that these books are labeled as explicit sexually explicit materials what do you do with them do they further your curriculum what is their utility I say they don't meet
077the educational requirements of the school district get rid of them their curriculum we change curriculum all the time change this curriculum thank [Applause] you Elizabeth Buckley hi I'm Elizabeth Buckley um I vote here at the middle school I can never remember what district I go to it's one of those m1s anyway um I have uh two of my four children matriculated through King George County schools and um I contacted them both and asked them will you in school here where you taught porn they both answered no so I don't know what classes these people's children attend where they claim they're being taught forn but my children didn't encounter them any of those classes speaking of schools okay I'll admit here I have math anxiety I had to take math from Junior High all the way
078to my senior year I took math 8 math n while my contemporaries were taking algebra and then I took Algebra 1 part one semester to Algebra 1 part two and so on and so forth I had a slow and constant drip of math and when I wasn't getting in in school my parents paid people to come teach me I was indoctrinated into math yet when I took the SATs my mother asked me if I understood the instructions because my math score it pulled me down so I'm here to say that books did not turn me and teachers did not turn me into a math person so that's my story um it's clear to me that this this fight or whatever you want to call it is being driven by a local church and their playbook
079is from um moms for Liberty which um is a big Corporation yes they've had their issues with sexual misconduct so you got to be careful who you hit your wagon to Liberty is defined as the state of being free within Society from oppressive restrictions imposed by Authority one's uh or one's way of life Behavior or political views the power or or scope oops scratch that the freedom to live at as you wish or where you want I've read a few of these books and yes they can be alarming I don't even read romance novel so there you go but I'm hearing a lot of Hyperbole and I'd like to mention that these books aren't required reading they're there for the children if they choose to and as of this moment no parent in the middle
080school has gone through the process of trying to um prevent their children from checking out these books so that's all I have to say you Kathy Roma hello well I'm Kathy rain as a lot of you some of you know me I can come off a little bit abrasive in my emails um to so some people don't know the current policy for these books is that a they are behind the lock and key in one way shape or form and we are and parents do have to be uh informed if their child wants to check out this book but are we who are we holding accountable to make sure that's being followed because it's been as clear as day since Jesse has been here that there's no accountability taken thankfully for the new school board
081we don't have kitty litter boxes in our CL our bathrooms and we don't have kids wearing tails and it's not gone completely to the dumpster but like we don't we have a huge accountability problem and a sexually explicit problem we have enough issues with our teachers bringing sexually explicit stuff to school so for them to hold accountable another teacher who allowed the books to come into school to be the person that's monitoring this I think is just it's just like not common sense you don't have someone who's allowed this to continue monitoring this um I definitely think that that the book should be taken out of the school I think that you guys do have something major to deal with because you're going to piss off a lot of people either way what you go
082um you're either going to have lawsuits from one side or you're going to have parents just pissed off in protecting their children more in a sense of uh what can be uh found in school now something else I would like to say is if you do keep these books in the school and a parent is contacted by whoever um and kids check out this book and read it what happens if it gets into the wrong hands because once it's checked out of the school you don't know what other kids are going to see this you don't know if Joey on the bus is GNA show Sally or whoever it might be but once they're checked out out from the school and the students read them and the students get an idea into their head who's
083held accountable if those children or that child act out on anything they've read in that book who's held accountable before what they said yes we can all agree that they can find much more worse sexually exposed porn or whatever the heck they else want at their house the only difference it house or or and outside of school the only difference is is when you come to the school in the library you are on public taxpayers time and for another person that said that looking to see who talked about remember next election just so everyone knows the next election is voted by the school board the superintendent's job is not an election but I do think it's best for Jesse Boyd to resign thank you um Julia Gibson Gibson Monroe District taxpayer and I want to
084start off by saying I am not one of the moms for Liberty I'm not associated with that organization I watched the last school board meeting and heard many parents voed their concerns over the First Amendment right being violated by removing not Banning books from the school library it's funny the chair started the public speaking by censoring speakers to what was allowed to be said concerning language and uncomfortable content which was actually the subject of the discussion I heard parents accuse some parents of bad parenting because they don't have discussion with their children on these various topics regardless of the different parenting Styles my tax dollars don't need to be spent on books that have zero educational value however if you insist on including these topics as your rights then I would also like to include
085books on how to load and fire all guns including ARS I want Firearms included in the curriculum including target practice with live rounds now I know some parents are uncomfortable with their children handling guns guns maybe they should have better relationships with their children and make them more comfortable around guns if that sounds outrageous to you know how outrageous it is that you want to sexualize children under the guise of Education in the First Amendment thank you TC Collins Mr chair members of the board student reps Dr Benson Madam um clerk Dr Boyd I said Dr Boyd saided Benson oh I'm so sorry so sorry um I come before you as a resident of King George I watched all the school board meetings and and I've watched this discussion play out I've read the policies
086I question what educational now we're here for an appeal not for a book ban that'll probably be next month the book b but this this week we're here for two books in the appeal process so um from what I have read of these books and I've been a former state trooper sheriff's deputy correctional officer School Board member Board of Supervisors member even and I've met these Predators by the way you might have one here in the audience but these that those books were uncomfortable for me so I don't know what educational value these books can have for our youth now I'm going to speak as a Christian so I do get very thick tired of people villainizing people for their Christian beliefs I hear I hear at the meetings I've heard at this meeting um
087there is a fight for good and evil and this is the fight for good and evil and and we must stand up for what is good churches aren't made they're made for Sinners everybody in this room is a sinner but we all need to repent and go forward and do this right someone spoke about the moral fabric of our community well I'm I'm out and about in this community I can tell you that the moral fabric of this community is not to have these two books in any library in King George County Schools thank you for your time and sorry Dr Boyd thank [Applause] you Steven Henderson yes my name is Steve Henderson I am from the James Madison District uh I am a a parent and a grandparent and uh what what I would
088add to this is that I have seen the hardships both uh from family from Friends where they have uh had children have gone sideways because their minds were not shaped properly for sexual understanding and I believe that the books that that I heard what was it a couple of months ago uh were not right for any child you know if you're an adult go to the library and get them go to the bookstore buy one but they shouldn't be here for just any child to be pulling off the shelf and to read those it damages their psyche ahead of time they and and I'm even thinking of a situation now where somebody a dear friend that is suffering because of a husband who is uh you know into sexually explicit material and and it's damaging
089the family damaging the children and I think that we need to be wise at what we allow in the library don't ban books but there are books that shouldn't be on the Shelf thank you thank you in the school we meeting on August 5th I felt compelled to come and speak to all of you my first thought was to come here and read out loud a small portion of one of these books but I was ashamed to even be reading it silently to myself and from what you said at the beginning of this meeting I wouldn't be allowed to read that pornography here but it's okay for our kids to read it at school first let me say that I don't think these books should be available to any children and I don't think that
090any parents should want their children to read them however it is ultimately the parents decision this is not anyone trying to ban or burn books we're not saying no one should have the right to read them we're not removing books from libraries this is about school libraries so if any parents want their children to read these books go to the public library check them out and let them be read in your home what we are trying to do is make them available to other people's children lastly I heard a reference to the idea that when we think about minors we must think about the age of the oldest miners that we serve in a place I wholeheartedly disagree we should be concerned for all children but our utmost concern should be for the youngest child
091whose mind could be perverted by the disgusting detailed descriptions of rape and molestation and the parents in the book telling their child that it's okay and there was nothing wrong with what happened to them yes child trafficking rape and child molestation are real but these things can be discussed with children without detailed description and the worst of profanity and children should be taught that not only is it wrong but it's against the law I pray that you will make the right decision for the children not for the parents they feel like their rights are being taken away thank you thank you Rachel Anderson hello my name is Rachel Anderson I'm coming to you tonight as a parent of a seon student next year will be in King George Middle School I am fully in support
092of these two books being in our library our Librarians have gone to school they have picked these books they are behind the desk I have to sign a form that says what my child can read and what my child can't read I personally would much rather have my child read those two books than I would have them read the Bible I also that's excuse me let's while someone is speaking let's be sure to keep quiet and respectful I also wonder since this seems to be the same church crowd if the 5013c political affiliation is taking place here they are not allowed to discuss politics before you were threatened with your reelection you are constitutional officers you guys get to decide not me not them and not people who are for or against it's you guys
093while I may not agree with everything the board supports my job is to carry it out if these are gone they're gone I fully support the cell phone ban it's not a ban they're book bags but the kids like not having them on I am fully in support of funding every school lunch for every child in this County I would love to have an air conditioner that works in my classroom it was 84 degrees today now it's freezing in here I wish I could like take some of that air to my personal classroom I am here to support the kids in whatever they need not to offer my personal opinion again I'm coming here as a parent I support my son and my daughter if they want to read books that maybe have objectional content
094we talk about that before I was a teacher I was a foster care worker the amount of children in the system that have been abused is staggering the amount of children in our school system that have been abused is staggering the amount of children that come to me and say Miss Anderson can I talk to you it's it's honestly heartbreaking what these kids go through at night this is not the issue we have decided this issue last year you put them behind the desk it worked no parents have actually used the form like I don't I I don't see the issue here thank you thank you H stoud Ken shoud I'm here as a citizen change Masson District I didn't catch a last lady's name but that was awfully scary she said that she's a
095teacher so that kind of changes what I came up here to talk about because now I think I'm going to have PTSD from that so after uh one of the talks tonight I think I would like to volunteer to be the instructor for your weapons classes and those books but on more serious nature in the Marine Corps there's 14 leadership traits the fifth one that we talked about was called decisiveness and had there been de decisiveness on this matter a long time ago we probably wouldn't be here tonight but there was a lack of decisiveness and you know I've got notes here to talk about laws that have been passed by and other locals as well as Virginia but but laws that were passed it countered the laws that other people talked about and people
096brought up some good laws in Virginia tonight so I'm not going to go through Reading those to everyone I think what I realize is the issue that we have here is a lot bigger what we're distracted by isn't as important as what we're distracted from and really the issue we have is a lot larger it has to do with our educational system and what we have here we already have over 60% of our budget is spent on our education system and clearly there there's some there's some problems that we're having with the books that are being provided or being made available to school how the money's being spent on books and uh you know maybe the people that are instructing the the kids if they support this type of stuff that the that a lot
097of parents don't so maybe what we really need to do is we need to just look at changing our whole educational system into an Adaptive learning environment once these kids get out of high school and they go to colleges or they're going into industry they're in they go into adaptive learning environments we can save a lot of money by going into adaptive learning environments we need to be teaching more technical schools we can teach our education using technology to teach our our kids we can still use our schools but instead we use online learning and adap adaptive learning so we can develop and Implement adaptive learning approaches and save our educational system a lot of money save our people our our parents a lot of money and maybe get some of our homeschoolers back into
098our education system Stephen on andr forgive me again my name is Stefan Andre I'm a King George resident of 30 plus years proud parent of three children and five grandchildren I've never had to been be you know be at one of these meetings cuz I never heard about such nonsense but now my grandchildren in the schools I can't believe it I just can't believe it I don't know the content I don't know the sub I mean I don't know the book I've heard people on the news read excerpts from these books and they've bleeped it out they've bleeped it out what they're what the with the uh with the books are saying or what what's it wrote In the book which says a lot in my estimation and I was going to relinquish my time
099to Reverend Davis I'm not a speaker as you can see but if you guys are parents I don't know if you are and you think that this is the right thing I pray for you because it's not these kids do not need this they want to do it later on when they're adults that's their part that's their you're pushing stuff on them that you think that is correct for them which is not and I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me and how you can sleep at night is beyond my beyond my comprehension a child is a child child is not an adult and you're pushing on them that's all I got to say thank you Cory Reinhold hi there my name is Corey uh this is my first time here uh I
100heard about it recently and apparently you guys want to bend some books that only a couple people in here have read a teacher who came in and said that she's actually here no one's checked them out because you guys have a system already in place these people want to get rid of the system for some reason even though it seem to be working I don't really understand why we're getting rid of something that's working if they've got a problem with it they're not checking it out if they do want to check it out they have to get a parents approval that seems pretty reasonable so keep the system that's working don't get rid of it and try something that may or may not work if you know something is working that's all I got to
101say thanks thank you all right we have five people who have either sent an email who um wish to have um their comments read and U Mr rolls is going to read two of them because they were from his district this one's from Stephanie my name is Stephanie maruch I live in the Monroe district and I have three children in the King George County School System I hope the board votes to keep the two challenge books in the Middle School Library without letting their personal feelings about materially influence their decision time and again I have heard the board state that they have that they welcome parental input and would like parents to be involved in their children's education the current policy that is in place provides a mechanism for parents to do just that be
102involved in their children's education while preserving parental rights for all parties majority of the people who have spoken in favor of keeping these two books in the library are parents are children currently in the school system please listen to us and trust us to make decisions for our own children thank you one more from Renee Parker also James minro good evening board members please know that I am opposed to a book band of any sort a 31y year resident of King George County and a parent of eight children that attended King George County Schools I implore you to stay the course in your current policy where parents make important decisions such as this one for their children not only does this policy adhere to the guidance provided by the governor of Virginia it ensures accountability
103lies where it should in the hands of parents Dr Boyd's guidance since assuming the position of superintendent has been refreshing and inspiring please allow him to continue his exceptional work with educator staff and parents like with your blessing and your vote to stay the courts on this issue thank you all right I have three I will read first one is from Ivon Richard my name is Ivonne Richard I'm a resident in the James Monroe School District I'm a parent of King George high school graduate and a current kghs senior uh I am also a teacher uh at King George Elementary School I would like to to express my respect for religious diversity in King George County Schools I acknowledge that religious practices are important to many individuals but emphasize the public institution must be neutral
104in the school system the inclusion of prayer as part of the meeting appears to be violation of the King George County School Board policy in indd c-r which is tied to the US Constitution and the code of Virginia I have chosen to write to you rather than attend in person because coming to the meeting and hearing the prayer continues to make me very uncomfortable I do not believe that it should be included as part of the meeting and am disappointed that this board is trying to push their beliefs on everyone in the county Additionally the secular nature of the speaker at King George County School con convocation held on August the 8th 2024 was not what I expected of our school district the speaker could have provided the same message to staff without including God
105and quoting the Bible I attended convocation expecting to be motivated by the upcoming school year instead I felt as though I had attended a church service if I was planning an event for students I would have been required to provide all relevant information to parents in advance get signed parent permission forms and provide an alternate activity for those students wishing to opt out unfortunately these procedures do not apply to staff members who were required to attend the presentation under what can only be described as false pretenses I do not believe it should be acceptable practice to expect all all staff to hold the same religious beliefs as the speaker and be required to attend such events in the future consider using the money to boost morale of Staff by providing a motivational speaker who can
106provide a message that is not secular in nature or simply allow the staff to have the time to work in their classrooms to prepare for the upcoming school year I would also urge you not to remove sold or TTYL from the K King George Middle School library I have read both books and believe they are appropriate for students in Middle School some of the topics in these books even relate to Sol's taught as early as Elementary School such as substance abuse the books currently require parent permission for students to check out which allows parents to determine if their child can read the book unfortunately the argument that they could be checked out at the LI Public Library is not valid because the books have been checked out for a long time at Smoot and have
107not been returned it is unclear if this is just one individual or group effort to keep people from reading these books additionally not all students have the ability to go to Smoot library and check the books out themselves some students who wish to read these books with parent permission may not be able to afford P to purchase them for themselves due to financial reasons these are just a few reasons why these options are not Equitable for all students I hope that in the future the board will work toward fixing issues that are much more important like improving staff morale increasing staff retention decreasing CL class size increasing staff pay and decreasing the number of long-term substitute teachers oh AR thank you sorry it's behind me please forgive me all right I just cut this one
108off my fault yeah would those I have a couple more to read if someone could turn around and help me or go ahead and keep the timer on even for me okay because I'm reading other people's comments okay John I apologize that is my fault and I appreciate that he was being respectful to me all right let me read this these other two all right this one is from Kim zuk thank you for taking the time to read and consider my concerns regarding the topic of books at tonight school board meeting I have three daughters in King George schools two in high school and one in middle school before that they were at the dogr do o DEA school when my husband was on active duty as a mother and former teacher I ask you
109to allow parents to make the decision about whe what their children can read I would like for the books to remain in the libraries so my daughters have the option to check them out my daughters and their peers face more complex and challenging issues today due to social media and the internet unlike social media and the internet books help a child develop empathy awareness and an understanding of what to do when confronted with challenges I would like for my daughters to have the option to read a book that we can talk about and most importantly understand that if we do that most that what we do if they or their peers are in situations that they've read about please allow Librarians to keep these books in the libraries and I'd be happy to give my
110approval for my daughters to check them out thank you Kim zook I have one more this is from Brian grian while I'm in favor of any while I am not in favor of any porn likee books in public school libraries I understand removing or Banning current porn like books presents a problem I agree with Dr Boyd's approach of segregating the porn like books for Parental approval I believe having a better approval process for potential porn likee books added to the library going forward and keeping the separation process in place that Dr Boyd has implemented as the best approach to this sensitive topic I ask that the books are not removed tonight and the Dr Boyd's process is continued is continued Banning the books will likely spark interest in those books by students and may negatively
111impact the King George County school system as a whole thank you for all you do for this community Brian grian parent all right that is all unless a board members receive something else one all right yes please come forward did did you put your name and I just somehow missed it okay go ahead that's fine okay James Shaw James Monroe District taxpayer not representing any specific organization on May 1st 1992 Rodney King asked this question can't we all get along we are only dealing with two books here out of thousands so easy lock up and restrict the two books let's move on let's fix the system that brought this about in the first place place and that includes the obvious going into the future we simply need to use taxpayer money for buying much better
112books our present here is evidence of what happens when we get it wrong many years ago I was given this illustration if Superman was to try and read all the newspapers novels and non-fiction books being produced he would have to be reading one every second 365 days a year 24/7 this illustrates how one's low Library cannot include all books so as stewards of The Limited taxpayer funds we are smart we are selective and when we choose we should be choosing better we got into this mess because protocols and preser procedures were either not followed or did not fully exist as I understand things these procedures have been fixed or are being fixed and improved so going into the future we should not have to attend meetings like this which includes more Sheriff's Department uh deputies
113and the sheriff in in the back present at taxpayer expense tonight we have to deal with the wreckage left over from previous practice that needs to be cleaned up Life's lessons Lessons Learned and if learned we should not have to repeat tonight's event over the decades I've taught all ages from preschool to Master's level I've been a school board member I've dealt with predators and groomers who would use their position and even their own kids to attract and obtain victims I sat across the table from a parent and their child a child who had been horrendously abused by an educator that educator is now in a Penitentiary far far away after all the damage they did to numerous school kids these kind of perpetrators use tools and books like these are part of that tool
114set don't be an enabler empty the perpetrator toolbox protect and save our kids and future Generations God bless King George County Schools thank [Applause] you was there anyone else that I missed all right um we have a response uh that's part of the agenda now from our superintendent all right thank you Mr chair uh this has become my favorite part of the even evening so um let me first say what I I think uh one of our Board of Supervisors members said this evening thank you all for for coming out tonight it means a lot I I see a lot of familiar faces I see a lot of folks that have come for the first time and we here in King George are dealing with an issue that um let's not fool ourselves this is
115an issue that's going on across our country right now along with many other issues and and we're handling it the King George way the way that we should but let's continue in showing up let's continue to be here for our students let's continue to stay involved in our schools don't let tonight be the first and only night you come and speak at a Schoolboard meeting let's not take this Schoolboard meeting opportunity and think that this is what's happening in our schools get involved in our schools we have all kinds of mechanisms opportunities to volunteer opportunities to be on ADV advisory committees which we just sent out uh opportunities to engage with myself anyone that wants my cell phone number 54623 8835 I'm more than happy to sit down and have conversations with anyone about any
116issue and you can agree with what I give you you canot agree with what I give you and and we can work forward from there I think if we all come to the same table together we will come with differences but I think at the end of the day we all sincerely believe we want to do what's in the the best interest of King George County students I sincerely believe that everyone in this room believes that please continue to stay engaged stay engaged in the electoral process in a few months when we are called to The Ballot Box please inform yourself and know what you're voting on when we're talking about building a new school for our youngest and most vulnerable students in this community stay engaged stay informed when we're talking about in just
117a few months we will probably be wrestling over a 3% raise that the state recommends for our staff please inform yourself and know what our other counties around us are paying and please understand that the real real challenge in public education right now is the shortage of public Educators that still want to do this job so please I I just ask I know we're going to talk tonight I don't want to give any opinions on where I think we are with the book that's certainly before our school board this evening but I do want to just speak a few facts right now so that everybody that chose to spend this evening with us knows where this situation currently resides so this currently resides in the appeal process begins on the school level that decision can
118be appealed to the superintendent my my decision as it stands today was to label those books as sexually explicit and take those books and put them in a place that are inaccessible to our students we also have and this is all per the governor's suggestions through executive order and through guidance from the general assembly we've certainly spoken with many lawyers we've spoken with our lawyers we are up to speed with the laws uh we do currently have a list of 133 books that are considered sexually explicit if you go to a Google Search and type in King George County School sexually explicit list you will find 133 books on there those books on there include the Diary of an Frank they include Brave New World they include of M and men they include a number
119of a number of books and and many many more uh they also tell you what grades those books are approved for currently the author of those books and really how we're using those books if we're using them in public education right now whether it's in a classroom or in the library everyone that's in attendance this evening that has a student in King George County public schools has the right to decide themselves whether or not their child reads that book has access to that book or not that's where it currently sets that's the decision right now that is before our school board this evening our school board this evening decides whether or not they take on the appeal from my decision to the next level and that I believe will be later on in the agenda
120this evening after we uh conduct a few more orders of business so I can certainly stop there Mr chair and uh thank you for the opportunity thank you Dr Boyd um do I have any recommendations for changes to the agenda Mr chairman yes I would like to add I don't know how this works yet because I've not done it but I would like to add um something to the agenda discuss about bus the buses from under discussion yes please thank you Mr chairman I would also like to make a change if it's acceptable we have two new student reps right now and um rather than them waiting till the end of this meeting and having them stay here until 10 or 11:00 or later um if it is okay I would like them to go
121ahead and give their reports now and then immediately after that if it acceptable to make that change to the agenda only their reports the rest of us will do it at the end of the school board meeting and then after that we will go into Clos session motion for Clos session do um I have consensus to allow the student reps I'll start with Miss Hoover yes yes yes all right um you give your name if you would please and then give your um whatever you'd like to say about your representing your school good evening my name is Chad Brown I'm a senior over at King George high school and the school year has been off to a great start with only one week so unfortunately I don't have too much to report um I wanted
122to shout out the transition day at the high school I think it was a huge success for a lot of our students coming in I think that a lot found it beneficial to be able to explore the high school see all it has to offer without all of the student body for the first day which mean an easier adjustment which I would strongly recommend in future years as I definitely think it was a success um as everyone knows the cell phone policy is a Hot Topic over at the high school um I really do think that our students are adapting well to the new change whether they like it or not or wherever they stand I think that everyone's doing well adapting to what is put in place I think teachers and staff and everyone's
123just trying to find this new normal so it's definitely work in progress but we are all in um fall Sports have started and are off to a great start uh field hockey has their first scrimmage tomorrow I know in a few weeks football will have their first home game um and we're definitely looking forward to all that comes with that um that is all I currently have for King George high school but thank you so much again for having me and I look forward to this year being on the board thank you Mr Silver you want to introduce yourself I'm Eric silur I'm an eighth grader at King George Middle School uh this is my very first meeting as the Middle School rep to the school board uh I would just like to thank uh
124everyone involved for giving me the opportunity to rep represent my school uh on this prestigious board uh I think that while my report will not be quite as detailed as Chad's uh I think this the phone policy uh overall has been going over well at the middle school they uh adapted better than I thought they would um you know as soon as I exit the bus no phones were out whatsoever uh I mean there's more class includ like there's more productivity class uh personally I think that I actually prefer not having my phone on at all and not using it at all during the school day uh there's less distractions uh I'm not constantly worrying about what's going on on social media and instead in focusing on the much more important classwork that I am
125doing and yeah that's about it for now again as Chad mentioned it's the first week of school I don't really have that much uh hopefully I'll have more next time but but again thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to represent my school here thank you thank you very much well let's give them a both a hand thank you uh audience as you probably guess usually this is done along with our comments from the board and then they give their comments but because they have to be in school tomorrow I thought it was better to let them go now all right we are in a moment going to go to the closed meeting and then immediately after that we'll come back and we have some consent agenda to approve and then we will
126go into the discussion that a lot of you have come here to participate in it should not take too long um I'm guessing somewhere around 10 minutes and we'll be back in here and then after that some brief things about consent agenda and then we're going to get into the the appeal process for these two books all right do I have a motion to go to to close session firstent to state code section 22- 372a of the code of Virginia I moved at the board convene in a closed meeting to review hires substitutes resignations and stip as permitted under 2.2 D 3711 a number one of the code of Virginia I have a second all those in favor say I I I chair votes I we're now in close session e e e do I
127have a motion to return to open session oh hold on hold on let Mr rolls get his book got something in the in the room I have to certify e do I have a motion to return to open session I move that the King George County School Board return to open session hold on hold on the door was locked I sorry yeah I'm sorry we have to have everybody here because they have to certify What was decided in there so I apologize that's a great question mean the blizzard yeah it is very cold in here Dr Boyd can uh can we do something with the air conditioning or not really all right all right all right now do I have a motion to return to open session I move that the kingridge County School Board
128return to open session and certify that persuant to state code section 22- 372d only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements under the chapter and only such public business matters as are identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened or heard discussed or considered in the meeting by the public body also certified part of it certified okay do I have a second second do you certify so certify certify certify I also certify all those in favor say I I chair votes I now back in Open Session do I have a motion to approve the Personnel is presented motion that we approve the personnel as presented in close session I second all those in favor say I I chair votes I they're approved all right now next on the agenda we
129have consent agenda there are four um consent agendas 311 325 48 and 424 board members did you have a chance to look at those and do can I have a motion either for all of them together or one at a time I have some corrections for the first two okay uh 311 is the first one Mr rolls all right one second so just simply for March 11th the uh gentleman who gave the invocation his name is misspelled it's Micah m i c ah last name m mu U HR so there's multiple instances of that if you just correct those we can pass it as amended all right do I have a motion about this particular set of minutes I move that we pass the minutes for March 11th meeting as amended second do I have
130any further discussion all those in favor say I CH votes I passed all right the next one two things here uh page 73 I have a comment and then page 83 the full packet I have a correction so I should have a chance to comment when this first happened real time want to comment on Pastor Davis's comments about the uh separation of church and state that was spot on was good OB been a lot of confusion about that lately and showing that the original intent it's kind of a strange thing to talk about because the only where place we get that phrase from is from a letter between danb Baptist Church and Thomas Jefferson which obviously a personal letter is not law but pointing out the original intention is to keep the uh reassure the
131state would stay out of the church's business not that Christians wouldn't have Mr I think there's a question of where you are 325 it's the second well page the full packet it's page six of the oh okay that it's coming and um and also mention that people commonly talk about separation in church and state as if that's a phrase from our Constitution and I think it's important to note that the only it's not in our Constitution and the only Constitution I'm aware that it's in is the constitution of the Soviet Union and that's the same Soviet Union that is responsible for murdering an estimated 100 million of its own people before it dissolved and so I from one I'm very happy that we have nothing in common with this that country because I don't want
132have anything to do with uh you know Godless murderous Communists and so that's that's it's a good thing that it's very distinct between us and um and them so so what do you want changed Mr RS no just comment so going down to page P 83 of the overall now for the correction but let me get you the actual page number of the minutes if you could go to the actual minutes I'm scrolling down there all right so yeah for the most part I don't worry about little changes to these but what we do see in our disclaimer is that we make sure that all the Motions are exactly right so I'm looking at the motion on page 17 that was done by Mr Frank and it starts out saying that his motion was first
133want to State and I'm sure that's not correct it ought to just we just copy whatever was on the agenda as far as the you know printed verbage for going into close session and I see I see what you're saying yeah he didn't use the exact verbiage for the closed session well I'm guessing it's a transcription error not that Mr Frank said that okay so if we can make that change that it matches the uh wording I know sometimes we say something and it's not necessarily recorded as the right words anything else Mr RS that's all all right we have uh really just one amendment I have do I have a motion to approve these as amended by somebody I move that we approve the minutes from the March 25th meeting as amended second any
134further discussion all those in favor say I I I chair votes I motion carries next one 48 nothing anything do I have a motion I make a motion that we approve the amendment for April 8th 2024 second any further discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I they're approved last one 424 I move to make a motion to approve um the minutes 4 a24 as amended I second further discussion all those in favor say I I I I minutes are approved all right thank thank you for the audience that's out there is um we were behind a little bit on minutes approval some of that had to do with the change in our clerks and so we're taking these several at a time until we catch up all right next on the
135agenda now is the discussion about the appeal give me just a minute to get some papers here all right um what I'd like to do board members if it's okay with you is I'm going to go ahead and read um the letter that was written uh without the name of the person that was uh written in response to the decision made by uh Dr Boyd in regards to these um both of these books the verbiage is pretty much the same and then that's the appeal is for these two books which are TTFN and then also sold and um so I'm going to read this appeal and then if we can I would like us for each one of the board members we'll start with Mr Frank to um um Begin by taking five minutes Mr
136Frank and we'll go down each each one of the board members will take five minutes and then they have a second time after they may have heard from some other board member and you don't obviously do not have to take five minutes if you can take one or two that's fine so we'll do that one time around for all board members and then a second time and then if there's no problems we will possibly have some open discussion or look for a motion so we have two sets of five minutes each and a final comment or a motion is that acceptable I understood that we were going to each first talk generally about the subject of the books correct but then go back and talk individually about each book having a separate time but it
137sounds like you're wanting to talk about them both together well if you'd like to do that mention that in your first time around I understand what you're saying you want to do it two times two sets and if you want to do that why don't you mention that in your first five minutes and then we'll see you hear what Mr RS is saying he wants to do it twice once for each book and I was actually saying three times once just talk generally about the topic and then come back and talk individually about each book separately all right is that [Music] acceptable all right so first five minute session is to talk generally about the two books and the second one may be individually about either one or both okay all right all right Mr
138Frank would you like to begin generally about both of these oh excuse me let me read what we're doing okay um we are going to be discussing an appeal process that Dr Boyd stated uh um quite well earlier in that um it is being appealed the decision that Dr Boyd has made about both of these books is being appealed and we are the final in that appeal process so I'm going to read uh without um the names I'm going to read um the response that Dr boy had with both of these books I in receipt of your appeal concerning the decision um of the King George Middle School principal to retain its TTFN and then also the other book was sold I have reviewed the notes from the book Review Committee I have read the
139book and several editorial reviews from the book paying close attention to the age recommendations provided following my review I did notice content that would be considered sexually explicit based on the definition found in King George County school policy IA based on my review of the committee's findings and my own research search my DET determination is to retain the book with restrictions the books will be housed in a section reserved for books having content that meets definition of sexually explicit per King George uh County Schools policy IA and as a result not accessible to all students as a result parents May determine if their child should have access to this book additionally or books additionally the books will be added to a published list of instructional materials with sexually explicit content as defined by King George
140County Schools policy IIA so that parents will be able to make decisions about whether they want their child to have access to these books thank you for bringing uh your concerns to my attention as noted King George County Schools policy klb you have the right to appeal my decision to the King George County School Board okay this was Dr uh Boyd's decision and that decision is being appealed all right Mr Frank yes thank you Mr chairman first I'd like to thank everybody for showing up tonight uh I wish we were talking about Sal teacher salaries uh qualified teachers in the classroom uh bus and overcrowded buses and bus drivers uh the reading scores and our math scores improving those uh and what we're going to do about our preschool however we're here to talk about
141uh maintaining two books uh into our libraries I have read both books uh the first one sold I I have been to Nepal and I've seen what goes on there and it's a horrific things that happen uh and it's a fictional book uh and it has you know when you read what the library books are supposed to do they're supposed to enrich and support both the curriculum and the personal needs of our students uh I didn't see whether that uh did any of that as far as sold goes when we talk about the other one oh oh and sold uh has been checked out twice in the last four years I think that's the big thing it's been checked out by students twice in the last four years uh we have a weeding process uh
142as far as these books go so you know maybe we should look at that the TTFN uh has been checked out nine times uh since 2021 uh I read that book it was painful really really painful uh uh you know I guess if you're a 15year old and that's your lingo and you're back and forth on text messages uh you'll get something out of it but as a 75y old I didn't get anything out of of it uh so that's that's all I have for right now thank you Mr Frank Miss Davis hello okay um thank you everyone for coming out one of the things I want to mention that these books unfortunately were challenged before our our current policies were put in place and implemented so they were reviewed in a way that we
143deemed non-sufficient we've did we've changed a lot of we changed the review process of these books we changed the way these books are checked out we changed the location of these books we have communicated with our staff members where these um type of books if they're in the classrooms I've seen the emails go out I've seen the response from The Librarians I've seen the response from staff that these books are put on a I'm talking now not talking prior are put on a sheet and the parents were notified that these books are in the classroom and they are locked up they're no longer allowed to be sitting out they have to be put away um I think that we have implemented a lot of process we've done we've tried our best to be fair now
144with that being said I I think TTFN let me go to my reading really quick has is a negative reading has no positive impact on someone's mental or moral health or SAT score everything we have in our school should be towards our goals to enhance success that's one of our goals go and objectives in our handbook and in our policies that book we have thousands of books that our kids can read removing one I'm not saying we need to remove it I would if if it was up to me I would remove it but I think that um of all the books we can read that book has been checked out very little same was sold um so with that being said how often sold this been checked out I do want to say this
145and I know I'm going to get Flack for it but we we should consider people's intentions and and although that our some of our staff members have supported these books on defense they've only been checked out two or three times less than a in a year to say that that person's intentions was to purposely push these books on our kids would be false according to the data now I can't I cannot stick up for the fact that we're defending these books but people's intentions in our as far as our staff members I don't think it's to I don't think they are purposely trying to harm our kids knowingly that these type of books do I've lived through it it was mocked at the last board meeting it was belittled my trauma um and books do
146affect people their mind shaping so yes sexual explicit books can negatively affect people with that being said as much as I don't like these books I don't feel like especially TTFN belong in our schools or public schools I'm satisfied with the work that Dr boydd has put in place and he has been backing up and we're still working on the processes of accountability going forward I would be careful who we listen to because there's people out here that are sharing information that have a vendetta agendas both sides you you can always reach out to us many of you have not and ask what we're doing what's going on because there has been a lot going on that's not been shared which is our fault as a board that has not been shared with the public
147but we are doing things to make sure that your child does not have access to this these books and we're also making sure that we select books better thank you thank you Miss Davis Mr rolls I actually prepared quite a bit to say but I'm I'm reading the ruin thinking we're going to keep this a little bit shorter so I'm going to pair this back to about a third of what I was going to say uh so I'll agree that I it's very important for us to move on to other topics but it's also along the lines of what Mr stoud said it's very important that we deal with this decisively so that we can move on to other topics and get some resolution here so it's interesting I was maybe this is encouraging to
148some of the English High School teachers out there that as I was thinking about this I actually a line from a poem I probably Last Read in high school came to mind so I read looked the thing up and I was going to read it to you but maybe I'll you can find it yourself later but it was written by William Butler Yates uh after World War I he'd seen all the horrors there and the fu pandemic in 1918 as well Millions died and seeing what would happen What had happened and you worri about the future and of course in the future it got even worse with World War II tens of millions dead there the rise of the Nazis the Communists and just the last line of the first stand of that poem he
149writes you know the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity so that stuck with me that uh it's important to speak up about what's right otherwise history shows just how badly things can go so with that I would like to uh say with conviction that sold and TTFN are the two darkest most disturbing age inappropriate books in a children's library that I have ever had The Misfortune of reading it's like I had a dark cloud following me around as I had to read those as me as a grown man I can only imagine what the effect that could have on some children so therefore I I sincerely apologize that for years kids as young as 10 year-olds in sixth grade could walk in the library and access such inappropriate Conta
150with parential knowledge uh or consent and paid for by your tax dollars I do thank Dr boy for declaring them sexually explicit and requiring parental consent to access them but I am concerned that it had to rise to Dr Boyd's level before this Common Sense action was taken it is my hope and expectation that the discussion and decisions we make tonight will inform the division of the will of the board so that these determinations can be made more quickly and at a much lower level going forward I'm also de you're grateful to the conscientious and engaged assant that have brought this to our attention while often enduring undeserved personal taxs for their efforts thanks for your perseverance and courage and fire but I no that's there's more I C it a lot but you know
151there there's more all right so and I'll agree with some of the folks that me we could say while sign for a couple books but it's not just a couple books I mean there's some examples so what this will serve to do as I said is to get some guidance to deal with other things that are of concern and so the bigger picture that this is all part of that I think we need to be aware of uh I'll refer to uh will and Ariel Durant to the very well-known historians from the 20th century they Endeavor to do nothing less than write the story of human civilization thank the Ser called the story of civilization and they wrote 11 volumes covering thousands of years of American civilization and it was very well respected after volume
15210 they got a Nobel Prize for it and then W Duran also got the presidential medal of freedom 1977 for his effort so it just shows how what high regard their work was shown and also after volume 10 they wrote a book lessons of History to say okay we've looked at thousands of years of human history what can we learn from this that's kind of the point of studying history right so what what does this boil down to what can we pull from this and uh one of the things that they observed and I'm sure some of you will wonder so I'll mention it that will Durant is an atheist who wrote this after looking it all these thousands of years of history and he he said that sex is a river of fire that
153must be banked and cooled by aund restraints if not to consume and Chaos both the individual and the group so by introducing these sex expit books into schools you're basically exposing children to a river of fire which is a uh Curious thing to do in this day and age of helicopter parenting that we be protecting them with the helmets and the uh all the pads and where your mask to go outside and play but going and reading a book and desing yourself by river of fire that's okay uh but that's I didn't actually read the whole line myself I got that out of another book that's trying to make sense of this point we're at in history it's called the new politics of sex I haven't got to read this book yet with all the
154other reading I've been doing and just to summarize it I'm just you the first paragraph of the conclusion which makes my point say every society must regulate sex it is not healthy for any society to be so saturated with sex that it dominates the political system when sex becomes a society's political currency then public life comes to be dominated by those willing to use sexuality as a weapon to acquire power and so concern is the sexualization of children as many of you have mentioned but also that it's not just that I mean that's bad enough but people have realized just the power of su it pulls up people's passions and it's it can be used to use kids essentially as political ponds and that's not okay that's not what our tax dollar should be used
155for a lot of things all come together there that to me mean we have to really lay down the law with these books I'll leave at that for now thank you Miss Hoover well thank you everybody for all your concern and interest and one of the things that I really uh ran for when I was running for a school board was parental involvement and now we have it and for that I'm grateful um I also read both of the books and really don't see any educational value um however I also believe that if a parent wants to allow their child to read that book and discuss the topics with them for whatever reason uh that it should totally be up to the parent um I don't necessarily see a concern with um the book being
156behind lock and key and I walked that process through with Dr nice and Dr Boyd and it's fairly impossible to get that book well it is impossible to get that book um there was two locks involved and um if a parent is called and made aware that their child wants to uh check that book out then allows them to do that hopefully the the positive thing is conversation between the parent and the child and um we need more of that so I'm grateful for more parental involvement thank you Miss Hoover well I've been involved with um most of you don't know this my wife and I are are trauma healing facilitators we deal with trauma healing on a regular basis and we have groups and um I can tell you that um a lot of
157them a lot of the trauma relates to this exact subject and that is being exploited or used when they were younger and the trauma lasts for many many years and affects every part of their life and it is very very traumatic um I won't go through all the process of what we do but we do go through activities because a lot of people don't realize we call them heart wounds and how much it affects the heart it may be something that happened physically but really it's a heart wound that they don't get over very easily they might get over the physical part but the Heart part may come up up in all the decisions they make the way they treat their their husbands or wives the way they treat their children and their workplaces and
158co-workers Etc and it may be even 30 and 40 years after the actual incidents my wife and I have seen this many many times we've also um myself I've also been to Nepal been to India I've been to I don't even remember I lost count you know over 50 countries in the world and I have seen some of this and it is horrific and I would like to see it stopped and I do believe obviously I'm a Christian I don't deny that and I believe that we are in a world that is um that is evil in a lot of ways and very sinful and we need to do everything we can to protect our children here in King George okay that's enough of my background I won't go into anymore I could go on
159for probably an hour about the things that I've witnessed and seen and I don't like that horror I was forced to read these books too and uh I can tell you that my uh grandchildren are in the schools and I would not want my granddaughter who is still in middle school to be able to access either one of these books and I am very thankful that these two books have been taken off the shelves now um like Miss Hoover said and I agree with this those books have been taken off the shelves and they are put away in a locked area and I believe the natural weeding process we haven't talked much about that but we will and we talk a little bit about how we order books and so on and the natural weeding
160process I mean if books aren't checked out for years or they're hardly ever checked out you know they're going to be naturally weeded now that's not Banning that's just simply we have to make room for other books as are ordered and these are the kinds of books that I'm guessing um and I'm glad this came up that we can not we can be notified of this this material that is possibly could have access by our students but even if it hadn't come up these books probably after a couple more years would have been automatically weeded out of the library I'm glad we're not waiting for that okay but the point is is now they're in a place where only the parents can get permission for their sons or daughters to access these books and have
161the discussions it's been talked about which I I agree with I I am not the parent who wants my child to have access to that book but again I like the idea which goes along with our governor yunan and giving uh parents a whole lot more say in the education of their children and I believe that this accomplishes that me um as a past educator and also um in Ministry um most of my life I'm also 75 years old or will be next week or a couple weeks sorry um I can tell you that um I am glad that these books are not easily accessable to my grandchildren but I'm also happy to have parents who think that or who believe that they want to have the discuss with their children to allow that to
162take place I don't agree with them but I do agree with their right to be able to have that conversation and allow that to take place all right I think I've taken my five minutes I have a little over five all right so this next round um it can be to talk about a specific book or if you want to just make a second opinion that would be fine and this time I'm sorry we will start at the other end Miss Hoover for your second round talk about an individual book if you don't have anything more to to say or if you'd like to add something Now's the Time let's hold off making a motion until we have get through a second time around okay I don't think I have anything else to add Mr
163rolls talk specifically to sold so you're saying this you want you want this to be the last round is what you're hoping for this would be the second round if you feel as though we should talk about each one individually go ahead and do that now I want to give you the freedom to be able to that if you wish right I'll say for sold just the bottom line I found it totally age inappropriate and that it shouldn't have ever been in the middle school but it's not totally devoid of educational content and I I wouldn't recommend it ever recommend to any child of mind at any age but I don't think it's so tasteless as to be Beyond The Pale of what taxpayers might pay for to be in the high school library so
164my specific recommendation would be is to move it to the high school library but still require parential permission for it to be checked out yeah I think the I just put the comment that I don't think people talking about parental rights but I don't think you have a right to free access to like any Buck you might want I mean we're gonna we we the Virginia constitution does require that we pay for education and that should be education that's accessible and you know palatable to all it's not absolutely everything there's like points been made there been just's millions of excellent books out there far more than we could ever fit in our library so there's no need to use taxpayer dollars for things that there's different categories I mean primarily we should focus on books
165that are that no one's going to object to uh OB there's going to be different things more at the high school level that um it may it make sense to have parents weighing in there to give access to those books on a Case by case basis but there's also things we mentioned people mentioned Playboy or Hustler that they just beyond consideration it's just not something tax dollar should go towards um that's that's General but then I gave you my specific thing for sold just sent to the high school then parents can decide from there uh but another comment specifically for this I mean I look at this book and my youngest daughter is in fifth grade so middle school next year this would be an absolutely traumatizing book for her to read it's and she's
166not an unusual kid I if you so that's a big concern if you look at the r.org that stands for rape abuse and incest national network it's the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization they list things in there about typical things that groomers do and among those is desensitizing to touch and discussion of sexual topics so my concern is that putting books like solds in the hands of especially of young kids it's stting that process of desensitizing to sexual topics and nothing that happens in our school should have any resemblance at all to things that groomers do so that that's a big concern there and so that's all say about sold and I I have I can see my TTFN comments for the next round then to go ahead and make him now all right so
167for TTFN I think it's useful to look at each of these books individually and make a separate for each that helps give guidance to um the division about what our expectations are you treat each separately we have our policy Bel SE explicit books but there is a bit of a Continuum on that as far as how detailed you're getting for instance like I said for sold it's not so terrible I I wouldn't recommend it but I think I can see how some parents would would legitimately want to May their High School wants to read it to help with a report or something and they're mature enough to do it that's fine but uh TTFN is different this one I'm saying it's also totally in ag inappropriate and should have never been in the Middle School
168library um but that TTFN is so inappropriate in fact that I think that maintaining in our school system libraries at all would be more akin to contributing to the delinquency of a minor than providing a proper education that should be done at all much less at taxpayer expense what's more I don't find this book to be consistent with our Community Values therefore this book should be given away to another Library otherwise removed from our school system and if many have pointed out as stutely that's not book banding our our job is to represent the community's values make sure that the education that providing with tax allows is consistent with that to pass on our values Next Generation so they can be responsible adults um they gave us some specifics in the book about why I
169make this distinction between it and sold it include a fair amount of profanity it uh plants the idea of teacher student sex by describing sexual tension tension between a student and a teacher normalizes the ident the idea of sexual activity between minors with numerous conversations about it plant's ideas about how to rebel against and lie to parents multiple references to oral sex like how many calories there are in a tablespoon of sperm normalizes underage drinking even to the point of getting blackout drunk multiple references to smoking pot and this normalizing that as well and so all this flies in the face of the presumed justification for us asking to tax our neighbors to educate our children you the only justification to do that is that it's serving some public you know common good and I've
170mentioned before although I didn't read it Reba him I think I will now though that's looking at the Virginia Constitution Article 1 Section 15 that talks about the qualities necessary to preservation of a free government which is presumably why we have education to help pass these on to the future generation So reading that it says that no free government nor blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to Justice moderation Temperance frugality and virtue by frequent reoccurrence to funomenal principles and by recognition by all citizens that they have duties as well as rights and that such rights cannot be enjoyed Sav in a society where law is respected and due process is AB observed that free government rests as does all progress upon the broadest possible diffusion of knowledge
171and that the common wealth should Avail itself of those talents which Nature has so sown so liberally among its people by assuring the opportunity for their fullest development by effective system of Education throughout the Commonwealth so if you look at that list of things I listed with doing drugs drunkenness sexual promiscuity and so on I don't know we can say that this book giving this book to an impressionable child who's hungry for education and wanting to know how to live what choices to make in life that this is going to help promote Justice moderation Temperance fality or virtue and will this help them develop their talents by being told that it's normal to get and cool to get drunk and high and experiment with sex all as miners I think not it's a total misuse
172of tax paay of dollars and in worse it's corrupting our youth that we're supposed to be investing in to develop their character and their minds so but I'll say we got it's not just these two bucks we got to look the whole way forward so so now what and we're not going to have this whole discussion right now but just is out there for future discussion I think we need to consider having a book Review Committee of citizens to ensure that new book Acquisitions are consistent with our community values and we're not spend our time with meetings like this because certainly the school board cannot become a book club we we got a lot of things to be doing and also I had proposed this earlier I think we need to reconsider it that the
173school board decisions on appeals should be viewed as precedent and what is acceptable and what is not and should be respected by all lower levels in the book review process um and okay and another thing is that the ability to appeal books all the way at the school board should be limited perhaps we should require either two or three board members who agree to accept an appeal before we spend board meeting time to discuss particular books and so yeah so hopefully my My Hope Is that these things will be resolved at much lower level going forward once we give our direction today and I will leave it at that for now M Davis my brain is frozen I'm so cold right now sorry you know I'm sitting up here thinking and I'm looking out at
174the crowd and seeing all the pressure that comes off the crowds both sides because I'm a person that I empathize with everybody no matter if they believe what I believe or not and so I try to see everybody's point of view I try to really um look at people's intentions and heart on the matter um and so it's easy to stand down there and say I'm for this and I'm for that it's a lot harder being up here looking down and I know that's why you voted a it I'm just being honest it's a lot harder because you're trying to have a compromise and it is hard to compromise with your core beliefs of what these books are and with that being said I will tell you you know I read sold and for the
175first few chapters it was a great read like I was enjoying the book and then you get to the part the writer writes it that way because she wants you to feel the shock of what's happening to this child and I was speaking to my husband and and he was right he said you don't need that description to express the shock of being raped as a child you don't need that in a child's mind um because as a child I don't feel like I share too much that's who I am so if I want to share something about my life I will with that being said when I was you know four and five years old and I have the cops and the doctors interviewing me and I have to read this at 15 years
176old read things that had happened to me and things that I shared with the doctors and and the pornography that I was involved with oh your dad did this cuz he was always looking at pornography which he was when I was a little kid and I saw that at such a young age I saw the books I saw the TV it was happening to me as a kid the doctor said it's so normal to her that she doesn't know it's wrong and if we can save a child like me that it's happening to by not allowing that book that type of stuff in the schools that's sharing with other kids that it's normal I I put up with a lot in my life because I thought it was normal nobody looked at me and said
177that's not great coling that's that shouldn't happen so that's why I stand against these books because I personally know the extent of it and I will say this is too just because it happen to me does yes it does happen to other kids because I've helped other kids recover and heal when they look at me and say how did you how did you get through this and how did you heal I'm able to help them that they're not disgusting like I felt when I was 15 years old reading this stuff again you're not disgusting so if we can save one child from being from not feeling like that's normal then I'm I'm willing to take a stand and say they don't belong my compromise here is that we don't order any more books like this
178that we're very careful with the books we order and that if a parent that have been here want their child to read it they have to get permission that there's parent permission um that's that's what I'm willing to do here but as long as we're very careful about future books and y'all know where I stand on it Mr Frank yes I I'd like to first thank the citizens who brought this to our attention uh this has been going on since before coling and I got on the board uh so I thank you for bringing it to our attention I thank Dr Boyd and Dr Wright and the staff for what they have done uh as far as uh putting this matter uh the best that we can do to keep it within uh the parents
179hands and the parents being a part of the education it's obvious that we've got a lot of work to do uh some of this is going to come here after this uh when we start uh talking about how we order uh Library materials and uh what is done there uh I know some of you mentioned tonight uh a list of the books that are ordered be published for for you guys to see and I think that's a great idea and I think that's something that we can probably do uh but we have a lot of work to do now uh to make this thing work and to get you know and you we're never going to make everybody happy but we're going to do the best we can and to satisfy all your needs thank
180you all right my second set of comments again I would put both these books together however after reading sold um my had asked my wife to read it who is an English teacher and taught English for many many years um we also agreed it's too bad that um she put in I don't know how many pages there are 6 10 12 pages of basically descriptive kinds of things that really didn't need to be there and um I think the book itself could have been written in such a way that it might have been helpful it might have been valuable for 13 14 15 year old kids to read this so that it would discussions they would have with teachers and parents and so on you know about not being caught up into those sorts of
181things but why I just said as I was reading this I was thinking why why did she have to put this much description because this could be something valuable but now there's no way I would want my granddaughter to be reading this it was it was almost more upsetting the fact that I can see the value of having these discussions just like talking about the Holocaust and so many other things we can learn and what's going on in the world right now but what we don't have to get into that nitty-gritty that that's not even the right word we don't need to get into those horrific descriptions of sexual behavior that is um you know from a child's point of view so and it's interesting because I can remember so many times when I was
182living in Africa as a missionary and I remember doing some favors for people and taking um the children and some of my our pastors that we were working with and just said can you take them to town and so on and I remember some of them there was the very first time they'd ever seen a building that wasn't made out of mud first time they'd ever seen a two-story building those of are innocent things but I can remember that so clearly or should they were in total shock so I can identify with what she was trying to do but it was totally inappropriate and it's sad because it could have been a book of some value I'll say that I think there's several things involved with us number one is we as which is mentioned
183by a lot of you and also me and again I haven't thanked all of you thank you for coming I know there's people on both sides of this issue um but I can also say many of you mentioned that we need a better selection process I can tell you that at reading through our process though as these books are ordered they're put on a list and they can be reviewed by any parent who wants to read what's being ordered um they can now we're going to talk at the end of this a little bit about selection process and if you want to stay for the end feel free to do so um because that is something we have to do we have if if we could prevent these books from being in the library in
184the first place we wouldn't be here but they are and the reality is even no matter how well we think we can do even in the selection process there will probably still be some books that might slip through and so it would be nice to have a process that doesn't always end up with decisions that have to be made and then appeals and eventually it comes back here again we want to try to avoid that as much as possible and so that is another thing I would really like this to I would like to move on from this we got so many better things we need to be dealing with and that's been mentioned by many people and I totally agree I mean we have got issues of we need you know teacher pardon bus
185drivers yeah we need bus drivers we need better more teachers we need more training we need there's so many things that we need we need an elementary school we need a primary it's just and why are we dealing with this and for that reason I do like the idea first of all as far as I'm concerned I want those books off the shelf those two books are off the shelf so I agree really with the decision that Dr Boyd has made now putting those two books in a locked area so that parents who want to give permission can access them um it's kind of like that's in my opinion that's a better solution than totally burning them or throwing them away or removing them simply because it still allows parents who in insist on being
186able to have those discussions with their children to be able to have those discussions if they wish um and I don't feel and I feel that that that matches with what um Governor junan wants it's what we've talked about so much giving more um availability to you parents to be involved in the decisions about your own children it does that and I think I like the idea that um if we keep what Dr boy has done here and allow make sure those books are taken off the shelf and put in an area that can only be accessed If the parents agreed does in my opinion solve the problem and lets in the future do a better job so we don't even have to have these discussions anymore and if they do come up then use
187the same thing if they're identified as sexually explicit material then take them off the shelf but let's do a better job to make sure that they don't even get on the Shelf in the first place but I do think it's so important let's move on and that's why I like this decision that has already been made and I'm mden that it was appealed but it was and so that's why we're talking about it because in my opinion we as a board already discussed this we've already made this decision we just heard from Dr Boyd and the staff about how they're going to implement the decision that was made and we were happy with that but now these two books have been appealed and that's why we're talking about it now all right in this last
188round it can either be I have no further comments uh I can Mr rolls I want to respect Mr RS opinion he would like to do deal with each one of these books separately and I I'd like to hear with from the other board members do you want to do this as a separate decision or do you want to do this putting both of them together and Mr rolls my feeling is you want and then we can have a discussion about them individually further if you'd like especially in reference to a motion so your opinion is what you want to discuss them separately correct Miss Hoover what is your opinion let's just talk about just that alone for a minute okay Miss Hoover I'm good with either way either way Mr Frank let's put them
189both let's put them both together Miss Davis I'm not sure why we need to separate it because we've all said spent 10 or 12 minutes on each book already like the whole topic so unless Matt has a reasonable quick reason on why we should separate him then I would say vote together I also would say they would be together so Mr rolls we clearly have three people that want to keep these together as single decision we have one that said they can go either way I'll allow you to make a statement about that and then we'll be looking for some either further discussion or a motion Mr rolls I already stated my intention with each book you need me to restate no no not at all I just you understand that there's a majority of
190the board that would like to deal with this together all right now we're going to go with any final um I'm either looking in fact I'll just ask for volunteers do we have a a final comment before I will entertain a motion as to whether we will um not allow this appeal to go forward in other words we're going to continue to stay with the decision made by Dr Boyd by these two books are concerned or whether we're going to accept the appeal and then um do something further with these two books not following Mr uh Dr Boyd's um decision Mr chair I would object to that wording I think we're doing the appeal right now it's not that we accepted or rejected it's we're hearing the appeal and now it's our turn to decide
191what to do with these books yeah that's what I said not accepting or rejecting the appeal we're they appealed it now we need to decide what to do that's right we can either stay with what he wanted them to do or do something different I agree I'm sorry I think we're saying the same thing if not please forgive me I guess when I was talking before about accepting appeals and that means that we don't even we don't accept the appeal we don't even hear it we don't we're not sitting here spending hours talking about it um so that's something talk about later I guess maybe all right any further disc question or do I have a motion I do want to say one more thing go ahead um the other thing is the big white
192elephant in the room is there's a few people in here I know we can't come together on the fact that I know these two sides are never to come together and see the book the same but I want to do because like Dr Mr Bush said to move forward there's so many teachers and parents that are exhausted from this because they're not suffering but there's so much that needs to be done I want to apologize to both sides because we have to we have to look at people's sides and and we can't take away their feelings or their beliefs on each side of how each P person feels both sides have been attacked and I asked as moving forward this kind of um I guess I can speak for myself that I hope that our
193Librarians know that um I do what I know I can't speak for the past of what happened but moving forward I have seen um them kind of working with Dr Boyd and trying to make this policy go into place with another parent pushing it along and helping um so I just want to say that that to both sides of that of the story that um I I do appreciate you both I know that's hard to hear but that's who I am that's my heart that's what God has called me to do and um I don't think either one of you guys have intentions of hurting children on purpose especially so as we move on I want my Librarians to know that they can talk to me anytime they want and I'm open to their views
194and opinions and cares and concerns the same as I am for the parents involved as well any last uh comments before any motion I was going to say that I had spoken to Dr Boyd I guess earlier this week regarding looking at this process at the end of the year in terms of how many parents were called you know how many parents actually said okay we don't need to know their names or whatever just to see CU I'm thinking that the students aren't even going to ask about the book and it's kind of going to be a loot point they're not going to see it right so they're not going to ask to check it out so maybe we can at the end of this I know we're going to talk about how we're going
195to move forward with not allowing these in the library in the future which is a very important discussion I keep hearing things about taxpayers well these are already bought our taxes are already spent on this I totally agree with moving forward we don't want this um but I still feel very strongly about letting the parents I wouldn't want anybody to make a decision for my student so I feel very strongly about allowing parents to make the decision for their their child right if there's no further comments do I have a motion about whether we're going to um about this appeal that has been made appeal against the decision that Dr Boyd has made appealing his decision you can word the motion however you'd like Mr chair I make a motion that we uh continue with
196our process that Dr Boyd has set up uh as far as these books uh understanding that uh we're going to look into uh and create uh policy uh that will help us uh in the future for these things okay so basically your motion is that we will um continue with the decision that Dr Boyd has made regarding these two books yes do I have a second I second now further discussion I'm Miss sh I'll move to amend that in addition to continuing the policy that we would move the both these books to the high school I have a second for that Amendment my question about the well well first is there if there's no second just dies so second it yes you do second the amendment to move him to the high school for the
197discussion part of it well I have to motion yes in order to have a discussion on it yes you do all right so you second the motion second the motion all right now discussion on the motion to move which would take the which would continue with the policy that has been established by Dr Boyd regarding these two books but then to still moveing to the high school it was made by DR Mr rolls and seconded by Miss Davis now there's discussion quick question is this going to have another board meeting to talk about the books again like what we're going to do with them no that be a decision so no not necessarily but I do think that this PR I want to hear from the rest of you first before I give my op
198I guess my question is is what's the rating on TTFN for age when I looked it up I kept find I kept finding 14 or 15 some were less but the majority was around 14 years old which is or High School so where do we stand what does the school deem the age recommendation for that book TTFN I'm know you sent it to me Dr Boyd I'm sorry yeah there's a number of what do we use like what have we deemed it we use a number of sources no no what did we decide is it 14 and up or high school or eighth grade we we currently have it in the middle school for the for TTFN currently they're both in the Middle School yeah they're both Curr nor School 14 is normally High School
199correct yeah like nth and 10th grade but what you'll see in your packet is you'll see a number of reviews that have been Bri considered with with different age age ranges in them if I can make a comment about that if you look at that I did look at this you'll see the full gamit of age rages depending on what agency what group or individual say that they think it should be at and I found it as low as 10 years old for one or both these books and I found it as high as 16 or 17 years old well I looked up what adult novel is adult young what is it young adult and I googled the Torah out of this okay like I Googled I went all different type of search engines and
200adult content or young adult was always 18 and above and this book is deemed young adult I know 13 and 14y olds aren't young adults so I I'm ready to let this die and even keep it as it is moving forward I just wanted to have that conversation like if we it would make everybody's process so much easier if we just find maybe finalize what we're going to use as age con age recommendations because right now we're kind of all over the place I think but we're going to about that later well we're going to talk about the book selection process I believe that's in a discussion item for tonight we can move for okay any further discussion about this uh about moving these two books to the high school yes so ivly it's a
201compromise for me I was my preference is to move up only sold and TTFN remove it from the system entirely but yeah I think this would be just seeing every else's position I think this would be a good compromise because if there's parents in the Middle School who want you these books that badly they can still walk the high school and get them well I have an opinion but I want to be the last one Mr Frank yes Mr chair having read all of the the recommendations from the from the library committees that were there uh they talked a lot about I agree with the editor res sold is appropriate for our oldest and most mature students uh sold I think the recommendation for that is for uh 14 year olds I believe that was
20214 year olds and I'm looking at TT n right now or ttnf right now and that's talking about 15 and up uh and one of the book committee members there stated this book pushes the limits but there are students that can handle the material uh I don't know where how they came up with that uh however it's rated for for 15 year olds so uh I'm going to agree with with Mr rolls that it needs to go to the high school I have a major concern about this I don't disagree with us being said but the problem is it's we are taking the U how do you determine the age appropriateness of it and again we've already all of us on the board here sounds like we've said that we don't like the idea that
203it was on the Shelf so we don't think it's necessarily good for middle schoolers period but what I worry about is right now we are determining that we believe that this should be at the high school level we're making the decision about the age appropriateness of it and taking it out of the hands of the Librarians and that concerns me a little bit because my fear is that this is going to come back to us many many times in the future I just worry a little bit about that and um I do think that it can be that's where again where if we have a better process for the selection process and maybe not just using you know where do we get this age approach roess level I just have a problem with us making
204that decision here right now and I would rather that make a decision with this we put them in an area that they cannot be accessed and move forward because I'm afraid if we start moving the books around to different places that we may end up again another slippery slope um and I think it really the decision lies more with a better selection process than it does with us moving the books around any other last uh it's going to be both Mr chair definitely the selection process but there's this appeal and we can do appeals nothing but appeals we want but if we make give this direction say that we using our judgment as elected officials for this County that these are not age appropriate for middle school then that's guidance that we're providing in this
205appeal process to the lower levels they can make that decision themselves and if these continue to be appealed and we say that there continue to be books that are not age appropriate at the middle school level then that becomes a concern that our guidance is not being followed at that level and we would need to address that at that point but I think G guing should help prevent that they can make those decisions themselves but we're making the decision in this case is guidance for okay we're too we're giving the guidance but really we're taking away some of that from the parents who had said that they want their children to be able to read these kind of books at the middle school level and I just would rather the board not be in the
206position of determining that I think that's a librarian and I think it's also we as a board can determine a better selection process which will include these things but right now I think the better solution would be to just abide by Dr boy's decision regarding these two books last comment on this all right so we I'll go ahead M Miss Davis I'm I am done with this to be honest with you I guess but it's at our it's it's at our plate right now so what's the difference of changing the selection process or saying hey this isn't age appropriate we need to move it up they already move books up all the time that's another thing that the Librarians haven't had gotten credit for is that they there are books that they're seemed deemed unnecessary
207and move it up um this is what I would recommend I'm ready this to die but I would charge our Librarians to reconsider this book if it still belongs after hearing from the public because it's not just one parent obviously there was a plenty of parents here if they would consider looking at this book again and deeming whether it should be kept at middle school or high school but as of now I'm ready to move on and just keep it as is with that charge towards our librarian all right so right now we have a motion and an amendment do you want to say something else Mr RS just getting ready we have a motion and an amendment the motion is that um these books will continue to stay in the Middle School um library
208in a restricted area behind I think two a locked door and another locked area and in other words following Mr uh Dr Boyd's uh recommendation uh the amendment is that these books would be also then keeping that recommendation but they would be moved now to the high school that makes an assumption that they would also be in the restricted area at the high school so that's the motion is that we continue to follow with Dr Boyd's recommendation decision with the caveat that they will be moved to the high school I second and you already second it so I make a motion you may no it's already done now we now we vote on it okay we're going to take an individual vote and we're going to start with let me explain something though if we
209say um nay to this if we say yay to this one we're done if we say nay to this one we can still um go back to the the original motion or make it again okay so right now though we're making a a motion based on the original motion plus moving it to the high school that is the motion so if we agre to this the amendment sorry what did I say I'm just saying it's the amendment it's the amendment so so we're only agreeing to the amendment and not no right now we're voting on the amendment yes okay so right now we're yeah we're going to be voting on amending the motion okay then we're going to go back to the original motion if it's if it's not passed so I need a yay
210or a nay for amending the motion to move the books to the high school Mr Frank yay Miss Davis M Davis votes nay I vote nay yeah nay all right the motion fails it is 3-2 now we go back to the original motion of uh maintaining the decision that Dr Boyd has made where these books will be taken off the shelf and kept in to the restricted area behind basically a lock door and a lock cabinet any further discussion on that one it's already been made and seconded all right now we'll take an individual vote again and I'll start with Miss Hoover yay or nay yay Mr Rolls n Mr Frank yay Miss Davis yay I also vote yay it passes 4 to one thank you and thank you audience all right um tell let's
211let's take a f minute break it will allow if people would like to leave they may we're going to be going into some uh one other action item and then the rest will be discussion items if you'd like to stay for near the end we will be having a discussion about the selection process but it's a discussion so no decision would probably be made five minute break e e e all right let's uh let's return let's get this over with sorry don't Rec oh that's already recorded eliminate that we haven't come back from break till just now all right uh okay now moving forward now we have a uh reappropriation of King George County School funds Dr Boyd yes sir Mr chair so uh board members you do have in your packet uh our annual
212FY 24 budget transfer this is all money that has been appropriated to the school division but as is typical uh both on the school board or on the school level and and the county level as we come to the end of the fiscal year we are required to make sure all balances are are above zero in each operating uh subcategory uh so what this is is an effort by our financial department to make sure that we reappropriate These funds just before the audit process so that we're prepared to have a successful audit at the school division level and and again this is also a process that is conducted at the county level we would request approval from the school board this evening and then tomorrow night make um a request to the Board of Supervisors
213for the uh budget transfer as well so the motion the recommended action is uh above there and uh I won't read it I if we if we have a motion to that nature that would suffice all right do I have a motion or should There Is there further questions or discussion I move that we approve the recommended action by the superintendent for the reapo of Hur County School funds I think we probably need to read it Mr rolls I I don't think you can amount yeah I think you need to read the whole thing you have that big motion that gets a little more specific don't have it there I do all right go ahead go ahead and make the motion Mr uh chairman I re I I recommend that we approve the recommended action
214it is recommended that the school board by motion approve the King George County request the King George County Schools request to reappropriate 1, 91,8 66 from the instructional category 61 uh 611 0 0 to the social worker 6122 homebound 61230 Media Services 61320 Office of the principal 61410 executive Administration 62140 Information Services 62130 uh physical Services 621 60 Health Services 62220 uh Psychological Services 230 operation and maintenance 64200 and 66200 uh debit services 67100 and techn and Technology 68200 as identified on the attached document I think there was one your Executive Admin you said 62130 and 62120 okay do I have a second I second but he said debbit and I know Matt's going to catch it and change it so we might as well fix it now be debt Services I understand it okay
215so I have a second and it is uh the motion is slightly amended the executive action should say 62120 and then it should also say debt Services instead of um debit debit all right so it's been seconded any further discussion no all those in favor say I I I chair votes I motion carries all right next now next is the um discussion items and first one is the superintendent evaluation process we did talk about this last time and there's only two things and if you look um I believe it has been wait a minute yes it has been the timeline there's a new timeline which matches this year's and then also the one recommendation that I had changed now I don't see it oh here it is sorry it's there it's under the uh number
216two item number two under um unaccept unacceptable it says if any of the three areas in the unacceptable rating approve improved by 5% points or more from the previous year place it in the developing needs Improvement area are there any further discussions about this this is a discussion item but it can go to a motion or if there's further discussions about it that'd be perfectly fine I think having the um percent symbol is a little confusing I get rid of the percent symbol and just say it reads five percentage points like just spell it out that's good point any others yeah say the other thing I didn't bring up last time because we just wanted to wrap up and move on was that I'm not a big fan of as far as our doing the
217performance part of it uh okay we're using the pass rate for the s sols we do need to do that because that's part of the accreditation but I like to do better than that because that focuses only on the only way you improve upon that is getting the absolute worst students to do better I'd like to give the superintendent credit for helping the average student do better or the top performers to do even better too have a change in the wording exactly no I have to ask so idea we we had this discussion last December did we didn't really get anywhere with it but I mean ideas high like potential things for S sols is we could track average score or percent passing at the advanced level spoke with our our testing coordinator and uh
218there were a number of suggestions um passing Advance is obviously one that we can track average average score she had mixed feelings on uh there there's some a little bit of some challenges there one I I think suggesting she gave if we get away from SOS because we know you know SOS is measuring a particular standard uh we can take a look at honor rooll we can take a look at distinguished honor rooll and look at those percentages by grade level um if we want to get that deep we certainly can can use those metrics uh some of the other things that we discussed were uh the the percentage of students that are taking AP courses and taking AP exams and and the pass rate so if we're trying to look for more more accelerated
219uh metrics beyond the standard I I think distinguish honor Ro is one that we have that that talks specifically about progress in classes and not necessarily on an assessment and um again we have assessments like the AP exams that that are a little higher um achieving uh scores for us for our schools is that what you're talking about Mr rolls right yeah I would want to stick with standardized tests and I don't like on a role I would be a little L of that because I wouldn't want to contribute to like grade inflation you know that's not really as it's not standardized and as objective but I think what Dr boy suggesting we can add to and place some other things in there for the performance besides just the S sols to show some and
220add that to there somehow maybe even put that as a percentage or something to show you know the number of people the passing rate for the APS and the distinguished honor Ro we we could add that to show or you if you want to stay withs then we can take a look at the advanced past schore percentage that probably the easiest thing right that's the easiest thing and again I I appreciate that because it's it's we want to be conscious of the the workload that we're putting on uh our staff to to do my evaluation I guess a big thing that I'd want to see is more you know longitudinal presentation of all this data like looking back five years you how we how we've been tracking is it possible for us to get that
221like right now so we because if we want to set standards we kind of need to know where we're at to make sure it's somewhat you know want to go back comparable with where we are I I understand that but again this is the evaluation of Dr Boyd so going back five years obviously go right yeah I guess at this point let's go back to maybe the last two years sure but maybe okay why don't Dr boy I talk more about it but we'll send it to you Matt after our discussion and see what you think or do you want to talk to Dr Boyd I mean I'm trying to make it what would you like to see you talking the sign okay all right Dr I you go back to started but then probably
222what we would as as time goes on WE we'll extend it out to five years exactly I agree with that totally okay but we'll start with two and extend it out to five depending on whether Dr Boyd Signs another contract all right that sounds good will I'll work on that with Dr boy but we'll send it to you Mr rolls all right any other comments about this I know that for the new board members you really didn't go through all this um this was quite extensive and I think very valuable but I think the tweaks that uh the one that I made there already and the one that Mr rolls was talking about was something we talked about after we finished last year's evaluations that was be helpful all right if there's no more uh
223Dr Boyd you and I will talk about this and then we'll send it to Matt excuse me it's to Mr rolls and then also to the rest of the board members and maybe even have it as a discussion item that can possibly be an action item at the next board meeting do we need a motion this evening to accept the changes that we've made for CB g-f and then would you like us to bring it back or what would you guys prefer well there is an advantage to accepting the changes we've already made simply because it the timeline is the major part of this and we're already halfway through the timeline but um what are the thoughts we could just leave it like it is and and keep this as a further discussion but keep
224these changes so far thing I had though on this is for the timeline I still don't see any mention the formative assessment on there would it not be valuable to it's I thought it was up above oh is it where I mean it just the very beginning it says by June right but in reality we do it in the spring so I kind of want something like maybe the timeline it was more realistic about when we're actually doing it yeah because it does say up above formative uh formative assessment be completed by each Schoolboard member and delivered to the superintendent okay when is it done it's right under I evaluation sched oh yeah I'm sorry yes yes yes yes formative assessment shall be completed by June 30th so you're saying that should be changed to
225because yeah you're right we do it we do it spring and fall yeah we do we can either change it there or you're think before your you want to give some pad there but then I I want the timeline to be more realistic about when we actually do it okay either way all right we'll look at changing both of those to reference the spring because really June is in the summer after school's out right we'll do that too did you write that down Dr boy say it again um this right up here what it talks about the formative assessment we we don't do it usually in June I can't remember when we did it this year but we do it more in the spring was it in April Yeah March April it says by June
22630th do you w to I think it's still yeah I think it should still something closer to when actually school is out which is what the first week in June last week in May May by the end of May it's Memorial Day Memorial Day Say by May 30th or whatever you'd like to see it by April 30th oh man this is by 31 in December for the summative but then we're actually doing it and so your timeline it says that there but then your timeline it says when we're like really doing it that's true October so we can just I'll change both of those okay all right we'll do that so we understand what he's saying we'll get revisions from you okay all right let's go on Amen oh any further did you have something
227Davis amen amen when I said let's go on right all right policy updates okay we've got a number of them let's go through them rather quickly if we can first one is um evb school crisis Emergency Management plan if you look at that quickly there's um there's very there's a few things one if you look at Schoolboard design the deputy superintendent as emergency manager and then if you look below each School building evacuation plan includes Provisions that seek the maximum opportunity for the students but with mobility and impairments evaluate the school buildings alongside their non-mobility impaired uh impaired peers that's it um I I don't think we need to discuss this anymore unless anybody else feels it we can just make it a motion and pass it I move that we accept policy EB as
228presented I second any further discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I carries all right next one EB what is it ebcb ebcb ebcb okay all these acronym all all right these are fire drills yeah school board members if you'd open that up and look at it it is very minor fire drills doing the school session in accordance with the requirements of Statewide and that replaces the sentence just below that there's and then also you have student changes to students below those seem to be pretty easy changes any discussion on those just really quick sure obviously this is up the code because I know at one time we in there was needed two what does it say two fire drills at least two within the first 20 days to make sure kids
229were to that's no longer necessary so what this was is there there was at one point a a a difference between the Statewide Fire code prevention code and the vdoe recommendations okay so what this does now is actually matches the uh expectations at the school which is uh one within the first 10 days two within the first 20 days of school and then one each month thereafter for the remainder of the school year which is what we've always done in King George County okay um this just matches this just makes sure that this policy matches the Statewide Fire Prevention code so that if one or the other changes they don't conflict with each other so the code States what we're doing yeah do I have a motion I move to approve ebcb as amended second
230any further discussion all it's not it's not we didn't amend it just it say presented right yes any further discussion all those in favor say I I I I chair votes I motion carries all right next one is FEA which is the this is just a cross reference to uh remove fcba and to change um the disabled to individ ual with disabilities I move to approve FAA oh go ahead has presented second further discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I motion carries next one febb fcbb again changes accommodations for the disabled to accommodations for individuals with disabilities and it speaks to um planning uh for the design construction and accommodations of school buildings making sure that they are usable and accessible by individuals with disabilities I have a motion we approve
231febb as amended second yeah okay yeah any further discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I motion carries FF FF is a policy that is uh being uh or requested to be removed from vdoe or excuse from vsba uh there was a policy at one time for the public dedication of new facilities this is not required by law so it's video V's I keep saying V vba's recommendation to remove this policy FF all it says is that the school board may have a public dedication ceremony following the completion of major building projects which we can certainly do but we don't need a policy referencing it that's good idea all right do I have a motion to that we accept the removal policy FF I second further discussion all those in favor say
232I I chair votes I motion carries all right FG FG has to do with the retirement of uh facilities and it's just update updating some terminology uh it replaces school facility with school building uh in a few different places and it changes the word if you go down to the second paragraph it changes a sh to a May giving the school board wider leverage uh with retiring school buildings and again it's it's um obviously something that we can do um like the preschool yeah like the preschool and it's in reference to the things that we should consider uh when we're discussing whether or not uh we retire a school building any questions or discussions about this one or do I have a motion I move that we approve policy FG as presented I second further
233discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I motion carries GBL GBL is a Personnel records it adds a statement to create a tighter timeline in the state of Virginia for requesting and receiving employment verification from former employers so the new statement reads when employment verification of a for of a former employee of the King George County School Board is requested by another school board the school board responds within 10 working days of the rece of receiving such request working days is applicable to uh not not include Saturdays Sundays legal holidays and federal holidays so in essence it just adds um a timeline to that request so when it says employment verification that's simply yeah they work the hear it's nothing about the performance they want to yeah they want to um verify
234it's it's it's normally not necessarily about performance but about whether or not they were employed with us further questions no do I have a motion I move to approve GBL as presented second second all those uh any discussion all those in favor say I I votes I motion carries GC GC is a policy um is our professional staff policy this again came through the general assembly and it allows now local school divisions to award local eligibility for a one-year license again this is a a process that the state is pushing forward to to allow more um specifically CTE teachers but also uh individuals pursuing licensure in education to receive a one-year local license I will tell you that our HR staff has uh contacted vdoe for some technical advice on how we award these uh
235local license one-year licenses but um this evening you can see the new verbiage there is just to allow local school divisions to to award oneyear license I have a question on that this uh third bullet point all training requirements prescribed by law it says that you and us the school board and superintendent supposed to make sure that's done where is where are those uh third bullet you said are you looking the third bullet when it says um oh no I lost myself yeah it says any individual issued a local eligibility license is required to complete within one one year of such lure all training requirements prescribed by law where are those training requirements prescribed by law indidual all training requirements prescribed by law so I the way I read that is the training requirements are
236all of the ones that we do uh first aid diabetes uh all all of the things of that nature nothing different than what we do for any normal teacher nothing different than what we do I just want to be sure because it looked like it might have been something different for these okay all right any other questions about there's a lot here on this one all right if there's no questions do I have a motion move that we approve policy GC as presented second further discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I GCA GCA is an entirely new policy this is a policy in reference to the Virginia literacy act it it discusses reading Specialists and it really creates kind of an so soq or a standard of quality for the number
237of reading Specialists that we need based on the number of students we have enrolled by school I will tell you um we currently meet this expectation at in King George County Schools uh however this is just a new policy that supports the Virginia literacy act all right give me a minute to I read this but did this come as a recommendation from VBA you said yes all right any further questions on this one accept policy GCA as accept as presented I second any further discussion all those in favor say I I chair votes I carries all right next one is GCB GCB has to do with uh supplementary pay usually stien pay uh so this just uh clarifies the definition I believe of a supplement of of like a stien that that it is a
238monetary reward so this is not a volunteer voluntary position uh this this uh supplementary pay also has you can see the underlying ver verbage for which a monetary supplement is received that's the only difference I notic stiped why didn't they use the word stien that's all right that's bad all right I move to make a motion to approve GC BB as presented second any further questions all those in favor say I I chair votes I it's approved all right gccb this policy is employment of family members this policy is an adjustment of revised gender pronouns I'm sorry all right we've had this discussion several times on this on this board is that um the uh the state continues and V vsba continues to want to change the uh gender pronouns so this one is not
239quite as in my opinion as bad as some of them that they excuse me that that we might disagree with but they still have made this change in reference to what I would consider and I've already said this publicly in agenda but I don't see as much difficulty with this one as some of the others that were obvious and I'll just say I don't know that it changes M much in terms of it doesn't change anything at all in terms of the content of the policy so the board can decide honestly either way and it doesn't change the enforcement of the policy it's just the acceptance of whether or not we want to take that policy with the change pronouns or not I move to disapprove changes made to policy gccb I second any further
240discussion all those in favor of not approving this policy say I I I I I the change of the policy chair votes I so we're keeping everything the same with that policy all right next one is GCL GCL is our professional staff development policy and there was some language in there that was time specific to last year that had to do with with again the Virginia literacy act so they're taking out the time reference if you see I think it's at the bottom of page one where it says effective for the 24 25 school year they've stricken that and really just moving forward it's it's really every every school year uh and then below if you take a look at the bottom part it talks about the requirement of school divisions to adopt uh Virginia
241IEP uh as as the system we use uh for evaluation reevaluation and eligibility forms in terms of special ed we use this and we have used it for some time so I don't think this is going to be too much of a Reach For Us in King George we've used Virginia IEP for for some time now so you think this is a good change Dr boy I I think it's one that we we've already by practice yeah we're working through do I have a motion I move that we approve policy GCL as presented second those in favor say I chair votes I last one last one is GDI it supports staff assignments and transfers again uh vsba has stricken this policy because it's not legally required of course this is something that the school board
242can certainly do but is not required by policy so this talks about support staff um being assigned to specific positions or transferred to different positions we don't have a have we don't have to have a policy by law referencing but as we all know the school board certainly has the ability to do so why was this policy made in the first place if the school board always had the ability to do this I don't know it says policy deleted because it is not legally required I think it was before all of our time we do all this and it just doesn't need a policy that's the way I see it any further questions or discussion well it does say like the support staff Personnel May request a transfer to a position within their area of
243confidence for which they are qualified is is this which they they can gonna change anything with that ability okay no they can and it's not going to stop somebody from saying hey that's not our policy we're shutting this down we get we have a practice setup right now for if you want to request a transfer you can but what if like you're not here and the next superintendent comes on and decides that they want to yeah if we if we yeah right now if you request a a transfer to a different position or you request uh being considered for a new position are practi is all you do is send an an email to HR requesting that new position or transfer to an existing position I think you have a good question M Davis you
244know in the fact that um if this is not here and you're not there and maybe everybody's changed what's going to protect the employee you know um is this a practice what what we do basically done throughout Virginia and all divisions I I can't speak to all of them but but I mean it's a common practice in all the years I've been in education I I don't see a problem with it but you got a good point Miss Davis you do yeah and and honestly I mean I don't see any harm in keeping it the board wants yeah it's a very short policy and for those in the audience it reads uh support staff shall be assigned to positions for which their qualifications meet the needs of the school division's operations support staff Personnel May
245request to transfer to a position within their area of competence and for which they are qualified support staff Personnel may be transferred to positions for which their qualifications best meet the needs of the school division period so again it's vsba is saying it's not required by law so they're scratching it it's a practice that we have had and will continue to have uh so I I really find it to be indifferent on whether or not we decide to keep it I I do appreciate Mr Davis's point and it's it's a valid one well okay legal references Virginia code you know listed there so that code is still there they haven't deleted that Virginia code have they they could have they're scratching it out like they it has been I mean it look well that's what
246they do to scratch out the whole poliy because because we're deleting the policy so they just automatically scratch it out I didn't I didn't notice was there us just a summary of all the changes yeah one that said yeah it's above it just says um policy deleted because it is not legally required is vba's recommendation well I don't have a feeling one way or another although Miss Davis you have a good point do I have a motion to either keep this or to delete it I Mo to make a motion to keep it just because I've dealt with a te a few teachers that have tried to move and felt like they weren't being heard I would like to them to have something to go back on and feel like their voes being heard and
247and confident but it's up to the board it'd be interesting to look at those legal references and the thing is if we keep it and it's not ESB policy anymore then if any of those references change they're not going to update it that's a good point as well don't update anymore all right why don't we keep this for discussion item next time and let's do just a little bit more especially looking at the legal references and so on we can certainly do that is that all right with you m I like the efficiency of cleaning up things though well no but you have a good point let's this is on the only one we did it with okay and it's a small one but we can look at that legal reference because if we do
248keep it we will get no more updates from vsba about it because they're not going to update it because they're they're saying we should delete it okay but doesn't mean we it's not a bad one there's no threat to it it's just St all right let's keep it and just look at the legal reference I guess I would just wonder how many staff members are going to look at this policy like oh I can I can ask for transfer or just can call HR hey can I transfer I mean I probably be pretty rare they'd ever look at this that's true kind of point what the what's the will of the board you want to move on with this and delete it or keep it or wait and look at the legal references for next
249time I think we should look at the legal legal references for next time just to double check I don't think BB though would scratch it out if it was still necessary legal well we'll look at that okay all right so if you keep that for next time Dr Boyd that would be good all right let's go on now we have the uh which I think several people have been waiting for the selection procedures for the school library materials is what we've been referencing a lot um hopefully the board members even I know we're tired but hopefully we've read this ahead of time so let's open it up it's a discussion item we don't have to make any move on this yet yeah I mean it's it's basically it's not a fundamental change of anything is
250I I read it so as I mentioned I think a more FAL change would be setting up a committee but there's no I'm sorry go I know Mr Frank you're saying there used to be a committee I suppose there's nobody here that actually was around when that existed to say how that worked yeah years ago when I first started teaching here there was a committee there there was a book committee at the high school anyway uh and then it fell by the wayside more stuff get gets put on teachers plates however we do have a policy already iib bd-r which talks about school libraries and media centers regulation yeah and what is does it talk about a committee it talk it says a regulation for the selection evaluation withdrawal and disposal of all instruction materials
251purchased can you uh say the letters again for that it is I V d-r and I mean the last time it was revised was 2005 so it's been a while so Dr Boyd would this we have here would this be replacing that or what's the proposal so that is the practice and you'll see that it almost I mean there's a lot of things in there that overlap uh you will see that um that policy was last revised in 2005 Mr Frank and I have talked it's probably one that we could revisit uh especially from the school board level taking a look at that policy what you see in the in the document that was provided is is really kind of you know I think our Librarians have been very astute and and and they they
252know where this situation currently sits and and this this was their effort and um talking about some of the practices that they're using currently to um guide the ction process and I think it's important for you know those in attendance in our in our community to know right now that since this since this has become a question as far as the book reviews we haven't purchased books there hasn't been a library order of of books at all um we're we're hoping and looking forward to to some guidance on not from the policy directive but you know obviously we got this for your review here this evening too as far as practices are concerned I can tell you I've kind of I think in listening to you all we want to put something in place but
253we don't want to put something in place that's going to put a lot of new responsibility on our staff and our teachers I spoke with some of our Librarians in fact today and they're very comfortable with um making sure that we provide a list of every single book that that is up for or been purchased uh through the library and push that out it's a process that we similar that we use for uh textbook adoption so anytime we're going to adopt a textbook let's say we use ho Mifflin every textbook that they have for that particular content area we set up a display for and we allow anyone community members parents students anyone to review those books I think in the LI you know when we're talking about library books we're talking about hundreds of
254books I mean we usually purchase hundreds of books annually so I think something as efficient as you know maybe an on online list or a virtual process or something like that where everyone in our community that wants to weigh in on the book selection process will have an opportunity to do it that way I mean we can certainly go to to to further extremes but I think that process is is one that would be um easily accessible to our community if you want to any anybody in our community and any book that's up that that's being U purchased or considered to be purchased will have the you know that whole entire list will be available for review from really not just a committee but quite frankly everyone in our community yeah because it says right
255here under V public review parents and members of the community can review all book titles by accessing the online card catalog through each um school's website so but the new books won't be on that so you're saying will be I'm saying taking that even a step further all the new books the new books specifically cuz as we've all talked this evening we're trying to move forward with books that have been purchased 10 15 20 years ago but from moving forward right now anytime we uh purchase books all just like textbook adoption all of those books will be posted uh online for quite frankly anyone to review uh Title by title and description and things of that nature and um from there we have our same policies in in effect we have KB in effect we
256have uh public complaints so if anyone has question with any of the books that are considered for purchase then we can still go through the same process that we've been going through just a suggestion I know nobody was here except for Mr Frank he was probably teaching at the time I don't know if anybody in the audience was but it sounds like you're saying again a number of years ago there was a committee that that was involved with purchasing library books I'm just wondering why that committee was stopped was one at each school or just at the high school I don't know about the other know the high school I mean I I almost get the feeling Dr Boyd that I agree with you it's nice now to be able and you'd have to almost
257add something here though because this is talking about current books you just have to add something that yes that to change this policy right here about new books will be on this or non well you can't on display thousand books but we'll be able you'll be able to all every the community will be able ble to access all new B for review before they're ordered I'm assuming we we can do it I mean I I think we can probably do it either way as far as that's gonna be that a long process I'm sorry no well it's the same if you have a book committee got to keep that door open is I guess what I'm saying order the book and here's what we're going to order you got two weeks to aside something like
258that yeah we can we can determine a timeline on the flip side of it I think it is good to let the public see but it also like how do the students know the new books coming in and they can excite more reading now that the phones are put away we do that already like hey here's the new books we order I they do a very good job I think of like displaying books in our libraries and making sure in fact I was over there today and those kids are excited to read new books that are in the library I mean they wonderful job help excite reading too if kids see new books like my kids when the book Bears came in we were circling the books we wanted to go look at and buy
259and it's just exciting so it's a win-win when when do they order when does the ordering process begin I know it's kind of all year speciically at the beginning of the school year correct after we come back for inservice shortly after now but we've been a little conscious of where we are in the process but but typically at the beginning of the school year we're ready to purchase books so have we already ordered all the books for this year or you're still no no so you're just in the process so you've ordered like what half of them third of them not even half we haven't ordered any of them haven't ordered any of them yet okay so but you but you have a list of the kind the books you're looking that already I'm curious
260I'm sorry we usually don't do this but since you're in the audience um hopefully you'll forgive me but about how many books um do you order you know say at least Middle School and High how many books a year do you order average 3 or 400 High School will be the same you don't know that's okay I would say roughly yeah I would say it probably be near the same so three or 400 books and you have an idea of what those are now maybe not totally but kind of an idea is it possible to put a list of those just books out U I'm Excuse me online somewhere am I asking is this too much it's okay yes it's too much Mr can be done she said well my I have a concern and
261I I I hear that a lot of my chair my um team has a think that's a great idea my only concern is is how many what's the appeal process when they see it it's not even ordered yet what's that going to look like how do has if it hasn't even been ordered yet no she's saying how do they not get ordered so if she if the Librarians post it and someone has an issue with that book how many appeals is that going to ask like I think it's my personal opinion is to like are we going to going to trust our Librarians to order books that are appropriate and then put them out there I just feel like it might be a tough you see what I'm trying to say and I I think
262that all comes back to a book committee if we want I mean we we don't want to do that because we don't want to put that much I think that all comes back to book Committees of something that we don't really want to do because we don't want to put uh any more burden on teachers or Librarians that they already have however uh it may be something that you know we need to do with like I think Lee said a school board member uh and some members of the of the community uh on that board well for Smoot I think the board of supervisor is there they each appoint two people we you know we would that big but maybe we each we each appoint somebody to a committee it depends on whether there's enough
263interest in supporting that I it looked like there was plenty of Interest tonight might be because I'm if they all are willing to come out I feel like they would be willing to be a part of the solution let's hope right yeah so what's I want to make sure that we're singing from the same sheet of music is in terms of the committee I mean we we've with the idea be that the Librarians share the list because obviously we're I mean I don't know how big of a committee we're talking about but we just mentioned somewhere in the ballpark of 800 books and we're not I don't think a committee is going to read 800 books is the expectation of the committee to review that list yeah and go from there and there might be
264what we definitely need here is you know how much notice I guess it's not as important for the committee because the committee is going to be notified let me go back a second so we doing the public thing my concern is they got give enough notice and how are people going to be notified if we have a committee it's not much of an issue because they know they're in the committee and they're going to have a timeline and they're going to respond but yeah probably and this might be something that cause some concern but you know worth discussion that maybe that the books need to be so old so that a year or two or however many years old so there's a chance you now there's a lot of services out there are reviewing books
265that help folks out so they'd be mostly using those not reading you can't read all the books you know so but you know if it's brand new they might not be reviews available it's a problem for some of okay I'd like to I'd like to hear from the librarian um you know I know we have I know we have ideas no I agree um but I'd like you know because we have may have some ideas because we're looking at it from what we heard like tonight and many other nights of you know we really need to work on the selection process but they're in the nitty-gritty but they're the nitty-gritty there's the ones that we have to hear from um and I think they have heard some of this tonight too and maybe they have
266some ideas that we're not even thinking about um but um I kind of agree that it it could be helpful maybe to have some sort of committee could we bring this back at the next meeting and talk about after we've discussed this with the Librarians uh and I would also like to come up with some type of a weeding process I know we have a weeding process now but says it it's very vague and no one knows what it is but I mean one of these books that's here I was only checked out twice in four years so you know is it time should it have gone away that's what I was going to say because we have there's a process say here but it it says continually re-evaluated yeah but I I feel like
267there needs to be yes like you said it's process yeah yep that's again something we could talk to the The Librarians about yes yeah talk to Librarians because it it is vague here too it's just general weeding is essential to maintaining a relevant attractive process but all it says to like you said continually re-evaluated and relations to evolving curriculum and new material formats again a discussion with the librarians can we do a work session with the Librarians or no well it's not a bad idea no well I mean I think I don't mind it's not to it's to hear from them because they're they know way more than we do as far as the common selection processes and things like that but if you don't feel comfortable it's not that I don't feel Comfort hard
268for me to make decisions when I don't get to talk to the people who are doing it no I get it I understand where you're coming from you certainly want to hear from them what about at the next board meeting meeting I don't know 30 minutes early for a 30- minute work session and then go into the regular meeting the 30 minutes early would be with the Librarians what was your concern though he had a concern about it uh your job or stepping over the boundary well I I'm just I'm looking at this policy that or the regulation that reference I'm trying to figure out how it ties to in my mind as we're talking here I'm thinking well we're taking this selection procedures document you're giving us directives to go back and and provide
269greater detail in certain areas for the selection you know improve the weeding process okay let's talk a little more about the selection process now we need and then deliver a regulation that in essence replaces this one that that is from is from 2005 why don't if you want to I mean I don't it's not it doesn't have anything to do at all with what I'm comfortable with I you know I'd like to make a suggestion is why don't we just have Dr Boyd meet with the Librarians and get that feedback and maybe doc M Dr Wright and others and kind of let them work it through and then bring something back to us because I think you all heard enough and they have too that maybe you guys can come up with something rather than
270trying to worry about court then we're hearing what they're coming up with and then we could tweak it or yes or no or whatever but that would be easier to do because you may have a couple of meetings or whatever I I'm fine either way I mean I was just I I can see the value in us being part of the process I can also see it the value in you all you all being above the process and and making sure that you are the final say in that so I I'm fine well I just want to if you can take charge on that because right now we have a thing from 2005 and I it has no Personal Touch from the current Librarians and so I can't vote on something that I'm not confident
271on so if you can talk with them and get their ideas and then come back to us with that I don't know is that not no that is i that's perfectly fine I will be happy to okay and I would say not we're not just talking about middle school librarians we're all the libr we're talking about all the LI all right that sounds good other board MERS I guess one question how's this really what we have here as far as the selection process how it any different than what we already have what what significant changes have been made well I think that's what we intend to do I think what this document was was was kind of putting parameters around where we currently are and again I think what what that's this is just describing
272current procedure not not proposed Improvement well and it's making sure that everybody knows where where we are as far as the weeding process as far as some some of the the practices uh that have occurred I mean if there's some suggestion from the board on additional items that we want to so far this evening I heard you know let's let's get a little more specific on the the requirements for weeding let's let's get a little more more detailed on the possibility of a committee Andor the selection process on the front end if there's further suggestion on how to you know I think also we've talked here several times about you know age appropriate and what you know because I know there's when I looked on the internet like I said each one of the books
273we were talking about tonight was like 10 years old to 18 years old depending on which group you looked at maybe get some recommendations from the liberians or others as to you know how they make decisions and regards to what's age appropriate for that particular School a variety of of sources to make I would add to that just add that discussion to this that would you know Mr R's point about wanting to move it into the high school and that hopefully help with that in the future understood how's that sound and and also discussing about putting the books up before they bought or after their bought but like what that process would look like as well okay what that would mean to our Librarians and okay understood from their professional opinion what they would think
274was a better idea whatever really do think it's better for we can tweak it and look at it but for it to start with the Librarians the one who have to deal with it along with your oversight I think is really a good way to do understood I'm good all right so we'll have something maybe next time I know our agenda keeps getting Fuller and Fuller but this is important especially when we hear the community speaking it's it's an important process all right I think no I have one oh that's right you had one no go ahead but because I had a some constituent well actually I was reading it on one of the community pages and I'm seeing it a lot I've dealt with it with my own kid personally a couple questions I
275have about um so what happened was a parent buses a parent about the buses parents child 9-year-old girl had been you know kind of bullied on the bus this is first week of school that was dealt with correctly but then the second day she went another group of kids kind of mocked what happened the day before and now that little 9-year-old girl doesn't even want to get on the bus so what I did was I messaged the parent and I asked her I said hey since you know more of the situation what do you think would be a solution for this well she had told me that she had talked to one of our principes in that district and the principal recommended to her that the school board come up with a stronger policy against
276bullying on the buses and so then I started talking I talked to several I can't remember their name to be honest but bus drivers because it was at the was it was at lunchtime um and they what I hear a lot is they don't feel like they have their they don't feel like they have a voice really that it's they recommend that a parent would just go to the school board or the principal because they don't feel like they have a whole lot that they can say or do so I would like to implement a if we don't already have one either implement it or follow it maybe I'm not sure what it looks like if we have one but like a no tolerant bullying Tolerance on school buses cuz I have experienced it with
277my when he was in second grade the other thing is uh create something look at something to where if we have like my daughter who's in seventh grade rides with 12th grade boys on her bus I would like that to be divided some bus drivers already do it but I would like it something like that to be across the board and maybe um so the bullying like a no tolerance of bullying you bully your parents bringing you the next well my parent can't well then don't bully and we got to start holding parents responsible and that's what this parent said who is a um a single mom who can't AF she can't afford to take her kid to school but that's something she's willing to do if her kid like accountability for her child's actions
278and then one more was can we look at possibility of having I know we're short on buses but something a lot of kids are missing out on after school activities because they have no right home yes so we're trying and and if that's that's I first let me say that if there's any more information specifically about a situation after this you want to talk about then I I can certainly help facilitate any type of response that needs to happen moving forward um we we'll certainly take a look at uh bullying policy specifically on the school bus and um I'll take a look into the suggestion of having the students um grouped by by grade school or or how whatever would be appropriate to to your last Point uh there's well there's a number of challenging
279Transportation issues in our entire region right now and it stems from not having enough bus drivers um could we contract the something out for after school activities it doesn't solve day but it's such a smaller setting that if we contract a van I don't even know there's one out there now that just said I'm not saying it's legit but it's something to consider I think it would be so let me tell you what we're trying to do right now we are um getting ready to roll out uh we' sat down with our transportation department in terms of bus driver shortage we have buses it's bus drivers that we need we've sat down with our transportation department we've really tried to to streamline the uh acquiring a CDL process which is no small task uh we're
280going to uh start pushing that out with our instructional staff our teaching staff our quite frankly anybody that works for the School Division and I would probably take it even a step further you know anybody that's in our community that's interested in driving a bus then we are certainly willing and able to help you our transportation director would tell you tell you this willing and able to help you trained to become a bus driver I think what we're going to do here very shortly and and Dr Wright's been working with uh transportation and our human resources department is provide professional leave for our staff to do the classroom portion uh facilitate the process for getting the learner permit provide professional leave for the behind the wheel portion and then really once those individuals become quote
281unquote certified CDL bus drivers that's going to give us the opportunity to do a lot some of the things I'm hearing right now after school activities are very difficult to accommodate for uh sporting events and scheduling certain sporting events is difficult to include academic needs after school right now uh we have some bus um stop issues where students are having to cross Route three for example and it it all has to do with the fact that we have a limited number of bus drivers and we're trying to uh create a an efficient pattern so that especially down in the Shiloh area where there's a long distance between bus stops we're trying to make sure that we have an efficient route to pick students up and just really not enough bus drivers right now our um
282ability to have our students take field trips is limited right now uh so I've even tried to to to see if I can do some uh field trip routes driving buses for field trip routes but really it all boils down to Something in the ballp if we just had five more bus drivers just five if we create a policy that these two can ride buses because they want to H we've talked about it and and we' yeah we've s some legal counsel on it and and to be honest with you I don't mind publicly saying that I think we that that's a great idea did you hear that that we need to make a policy that well I we need to talk to I've Been Told I I've got to talk to a couple lawyers
283first of all just to let the audience know I'd like to be able to help drive a bus but I was told I couldn't that's very sad because I'd like to help with this I'm just one but who knows maybe Mr Frank would join me that's all right I'm not I don't want to put it anyway but I when I was in high school senior seniors were allowed to drive buses and I drove a bus when I was in high school Mr Frank remember we're 75 years old okay know all right did want to say a couple things I think on the bullying um this is not a new thing and um I even think about my background as high school principal there bullying on buses has always been an issue and I'm uh I'm
284trying to remember what I did but anyway have we talked to the bus drivers getting some recommendations how they might help solve that problem certainly can it's I think it would be a great idea just like we talked about the Librarians maybe hear from the bus driver they may have some ideas we're not even thinking about that will help with this bullet in um that I think could be helpful listening to them and they'd probably really appreciate us asking them too yeah I I I think the seating by by grade level is certainly a decent suggestion because we hear about other issues that don't it's not bullying but just the fact that we have to have students and again because of our limited number of bus drivers of different age ranges on our our school
285buses trying to accommodate for that is and many of our bus drivers do it currently but it's it's not a policy that the school board has pushed or anything of that nature but something that we could probably make a practice to a greater extent across the board and I also like to recommend I only did it once I meant to do it two or three times but to go ahead and ride on the buses school me school board members I anyway it's I know it's difficult especially if you do it at 4 in the morning or whatever it is but at least maybe riding home I did that once and it was very helpful watching why don't we ride in the bus we can't drive it no no no no you're just sitting in the
286bus you can just look at the route you can look at the kids the way the discipline works the way the bus driver I can drive the route to no sitting in the bus is helpful um the last question did I hear you say that the school be willing to help even just residents of King George by helping pay for their CD I don't know about paying for them okay because I want to make sure that was sort of now I can I can tell you that in the past we've we've we've covered the CDL I mean we we've covered the cost of the CDL it's it's if you come and you decide want to be a bus driver for us you're not coming out of your pocket for your CD we've always what I
287me paid for that yes but that's the problem is is they get their we pay for it and then they turn around and go somewhere else and make more money and that I've been told by bus drivers yes that's very true and and it's something that either by policy or practice we could you know you could have a minimum minimum amount of time uh of service dedicated to if they don't then theyd have to pay back that yeah or or yeah I mean that is done I think it'd be hard to make force them to sign something but they could say if they leave before a certain time they got to pay back the training that's very common it's very common all right all right these are great ideas so we'll do these things we
288talked about we'll talk about them at the next meeting or the one after all right that sounds good all right um next we have the committee reports we'll start over here with Mr Frank any committee reports I don't have anything M Davis committees you on my brain has shot I no Mr RS committees none Miss Hoover no and I don't have any either because it's the beginning of the year all right superintendent report uh again very successful first week of school I'd like to thank all of our staff for uh a very smooth start I think you heard this evening and and I heard a number of times over that the transition day that we implemented for the first time through uh adjusting our instructional calendar this year was very well received and something that
289I think can only be improved upon moving forward um I want to make sure that uh the community knows everyone that's still in attendance for those that are getting ready to make an informed decision about the need for a school or the need for a preschool in King George County this Friday from um I believe it's 400 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 1: to 3: myself and our maintenance department uh will offer tours starting at uh King George preschool moving over to King George middle school and and really just give you a perspective of uh you know where those buildings currently sit and I can tell you that everyone that I've ever given that tour to that has taken me up on that offer words can't give it enough of a description so
290anyone that's interested in in taking part in those tours I encourage you to come out either Friday or Saturday I I think it'll be uh worth your time especially if you're hoping to make an informed decision going into uh this election cycle um the cell phone thing has been quite good uh it certainly will be a a a continued um struggle but you can hear from our student reps and I hear in the hallways of our school that even our students at this point are saying I I think this is a good thing and I think I can do this uh so we certainly hope that continues uh but we we'll continue to monitor it closely as we move forward I I think all of our stakeholders right now are feeling heard and uh it's
291a it's a practice and a policy that we've put in place that I think is is working quite well at this point and I'll stop there thank you Mr chair all right um we have board comments we'll start with Miss Hoover so I agree that the transition day was a fabulous Edition I attended the k Garten transition day and boy the staff and teachers are so just excited and I saw a lot of happy faces and it was just I think a great idea those little ones you know getting into a building full of hundreds of of of students that was a great great thing um and then um oh the convocation I attended that and thank you for the opportunity Mr Bush to say your um greetings yeah your your 30 seconds of fame
292um but that was a great day to see everybody back and excited to be in school again I'm sure and then um the first day of high school I stood outside and greeted the students when you know the 10th through 12th graders and um the same I could just say the same like I didn't at first I didn't see a lot of smiling faces but well then I was paying attention they were actually pretty excited to be there and the the staff was great um Miss Davis and I stood out outside and talk to the kids and I can't remember one group was handing out Donuts to the kids and it's just a great it's exciting to be back in school so welcome everybody back and looking forward to a great year RS got the
293opportunity to attend the open house at pomac the other week before school started and yeah it was just a great Vibe it was really it was good together to see everybody getting El set up and excited for school um got to smell the new car smell in the uh trailers we got that pic there hopefully that'll wear off eventually but they they look good um and then the cocation also it was it was wonderful did a great job speaker did very inspirational just highlighting just the impact that every employee the division has that has contact with kids doesn't matter what you're doing you have a chance to have impact with or interaction with the kids it's a chance to make their day and make a difference uh very pleased to hear that the cell phone
294poliy invitations going well certain spend enough time on that um I did hear some folks suggesting that we might be hearing more folks here tonight talking about that but it wasn't much so it's most of it was pretty positive so very encouraged by that and I have quite a few other things I was going to talk about but it's 10:40 at night so thank you I'm gonna be down there thank you Mr all right Miss Davis no so you know when you're on the out side of the schools and you're not really I'm not I shouldn't say involved I've had kids in public schools most of their life until covid that I wasn't really involved because I was a working mom and all this stuff but there is something exciting about it when you're when
295you're in the schools and you meeting the teachers and you're seeing all the students and you're meeting you you get to see all that really does go involved in the schools not just indoctrination and not just bad books and not just there are all of that like bad teachers and good teachers and whatever but we have a lot of good here in King George at our schools and um I'm learning that as we go so it does hurt my heart too when people sh shoot down the system but I mean it needs to be fixed don't get me wrong we need to protect it I guess protect our children but we have a wonderful group of people here and actually it showed in the convocation there you know somebody told me that our teachers there's
296only about 20% of teachers that are Christians in our schools and I don't believe that not saying anything here I don't care if you're a Christian if you're not but at that convocation so many people clap their hands and we're happy to hear from that woman more than not more than 20% so anyways I just want to say that too but um yeah so I'm excited about this year I'm excited that I get to be a part of it I do want to thank say something about my father-in-law today a lot of people don't know this but he was a um substitute teacher for the high school and middle school for many many many years and he's been very involved in the schools for a long time and he has buried more people he has
297married more people he has paid more electric bills for children he's bought more children clothes more children their parents' gas money and food on their table he's done so much for this community um and I'm going to be honest I was happy about the thing that was written about him today because it shared a lot of good in him and I was happy to see the community stand out and actually support and see all that he does for this community CU a lot of people are trying some people are trying to shoot him out as as if he doesn't belong as a citizen in our schools he's done way more than those people have ever had for these children in this community Frank I want to thank everyone for being here tonight uh in this
298meat locker uh we have going on also want to thank the teachers and the staff for all that you do uh Librarians you may feel like you're being picked on but uh you're not we we appreciate everything you're doing um Saturday I had a town hall with uh uh Sully Mr Sullins and uh Mr Davis the the Board of Supervisors we had about well the room was full uh and one of the things that the members the citizens there were saying was why doesn't the school board home more Town Halls so Dr Bo and I have talked about that and maybe we're going to get something going on there uh Colleen and I were at the high school for the transition day and it was fantastic it was really really great really en enjoyed it
299kids were all excited so looking forward to getting into this new school year and thank goodness the phone's thing is working out all right thank you um again I also want to thank especially the Librarians um this is um this is this been a tough couple of months for you guys and thank you for what you do and who you are um and appreciate all of the people that came out and again I'd love to see this kind of response when we're building a you know the new preschool and when we when we building the elementary school we need so badly and a lot of other things that go on it was great to see the all of the community participation tonight um I was also there at the um transition day I was at
300the middle school with Dr Boyd and and it's funny at the middle school I mean they were on there I think but they were more scared than excited as I was trying to greet them and give them high fives they were it's just like okay this is they want to be sure they're going to fit in and everything and then there were even two middle schoolers that came to the high school first and that was a little interesting they were a little concerned they were actually scared and Dr Boyd assured them it's okay you're going to be fine you can walk over with us and but it was very good I think this concept of a transition day when they don't have the rest of the school there was absolutely wonderful then I traveled on
301to sealston and um I greeted all those kindergarten kids and I went to I coincidentally went to a class um a Kindergarten class that soon as I walked in she knew who I was because she taught my granddaughter um and grandson and it was very interesting and then she even pulled out some pictures of when they were there but then I told her I said well I'm here I was there a little bit early and I'm afraid that you know my big frame and those little kids even though I've been a preschool director and she said here why don't you hold this and so she gave me a stuffed a little stuffed animal a pink not a um a pigeon and that was going to be the theme for the day and I had this
302little stuffed pigeon I said this looks a little funny with this great big man holding a little stuffed pigeon but I bent way down and got almost on my knees and all the little kindergarteners came in and they loved the little pigeon so anyway it was uh it was enjoyable and kind of funny at the same time uh it was wonderful especially there at sealston it was almost like it was a cheerleading squad as they were coming in you know as each kindergarten came in there was a whole line and they were all claing and giving high fives these kids are you know like a little overwhelming but I could still see their faces were smiling and happy anyway it was kind of a really cool thing all right do I have a um excuse
303me I don't know if I'm pry sure we left out but it's late and I'm sure I left out many other things thank you Dr boy and I know you do a tremendous amount and thank you to our new um fairly new um um your name was CLK Aaron Aaron that's right uh fairly new clerk I'm sorry I'm s I'm getting old you know and it's late all right thank you Aaron for all that you do and the rest of my board members thank you I know it's late so do I have a motion to adjourn Mo we adjourn second all those in favor we are adjourned