001uh yes please [Music] wow um somebody else's all right oh bye okay [Music] don't connect the audio i'm just clicking turn off my video i think [Music] all right am i good i'm so muted good evening everyone we'll get going momentarily we're just uh waiting for some folks to sign in so we'll get going a little bit past one two good evening everyone we'll get going uh momentarily we're just waiting for some folks to sign in good evening everyone welcome to the august board meeting reward doors public schools this time we like to salute to the frag and us please stand for a moment of silence for the father of laura benedetto and the father-in-law of mario espinosa i pledge allegiance the flag of the united states thank you item d approval of minutes an
002item e acknowledgement and acceptance of financial reports and budget transfers as printed do i have a motion second all in favor aye aye item f communications to the board of education communications were received from all the people listed on here some of whom might be here tonight item g the superintendent's report thank you mr greco good evening everyone welcome thank you for attending this evening can everyone hear me okay yeah okay thank you um thanks for attending tonight we uh have a couple items for the board of education tonight that they'd like to share first of all just some good news we we had some retirees in the district i know some of us some of them are joining us online tonight so i just wanted to congratulate them leslie loscalzo one of our white
003high school special education teachers i would like to i'd like to just congratulate her she's done an outstanding job for almost 25 years uh in the district and and really provided a great level of support for our students just a true professional and we will greatly miss her and i just thank her for our contributions to uh our district i know leslie was going to be joining us online tonight so congratulations and best of luck to you leslie vicki allset our nurse over at forest lake is going to be retiring as of september 30th we'll be accepting that retirement tonight on our board agenda so i'd like to congratulate her vicki's done an outstanding job over at forest lake elementary school she started in the district as a uh as a sub-nurse for us for
004for for many years filling in in various roles and then the permanent role over at forest lake for uh for about the past 15 years so she's taking care of many students along the way and many of nervous parents along the way as well so we thank vicky for her contributions and wish her all the best in her retirement congratulations to vicki uh linda piscatelli uh an aide at wonton middle school has been with us for the past five years we'll be retiring as well uh has done a really nice job for us over that time period and we wish her the best of luck in in her retirement as well um larry donovan one of our middle school custodians uh over 30 years in the district um i first met larry when he was
005uh throwing me out of wanto l uh because a meeting we were having was going too late and was going past his shift and he asked me and the board of education to leave the building uh that was my introduction to larry uh and uh since then i i kid larry about that all the time uh and larry has done a great job over the middle school in the evenings over the past several years and now he actually trusts me to stay in the building myself after the after the uh the his shift ends and and uh i set the alarm so uh so thank you larry for your dedicated service for over 30 years uh we wish you uh nothing but the best in your retirement and then ron peterson one of our maintainers
006at the middle school as well also has done an outstanding job for us since about 2008 so congratulations to all of our retirees tonight we wish them well we also got some really nice news over the past couple of weeks of some of our staff members that are being recognized nancy o'connor is one of our middle school business teachers she's being awarded a a outstanding middle level educator of the year by the business teacher association in new york state really nice recognition for her nancy does such a great job with our middle school business program so i just wanted to certainly recognize her for that outstanding accomplishment tonight as well we're going to be recognizing her at our september board of education meeting but that was some good news i wanted to share with the
007board as well as caroline winans our director of stem at the secondary level she's been recognized by the science teacher association of new york state she's receiving their champion of teacher development award for her work with professional development with staff and supporting new staff so once again another really nice recognition for a member of our staff so congratulations to both carol and nancy [Applause] uh and while we're recognizing uh we also received word uh this uh this month that our um our varsity athletic program for the 2020-21 school year is being recognized as a school of distinction which means that 100 of our varsity sports teams were scholar athlete teams which is a really nice recognition just we've continued to be on this list that's put out by the new york state public high school
008athletic association so we certainly thank our our uh our scholar athletes for being dedicated not just to in the classroom but on the on the athletic field as well so congratulations to our athletic program ms keene for her leadership there [Applause] a few a few other updates for the board of education tonight universal pre-kindergarten we were really fortunate this year to receive a grant from new york state we got word of that late uh in in may that we would be able to offer a pre-k program uh for this upcoming school year uh took some work uh on the back end of things to get it up and running but we have a partnership with scope to get that off the ground for this year they're going to be operating uh three classrooms one in
009each of one of our elementary schools uh we just finalized our lottery process for that and we have over 50 students that are going to be eligible for a a free universal pre-k experience uh through scope this year uh and once again fully funded by new york state uh no dollars uh coming out of uh from for our local taxpayers so we certainly uh thank uh the the state for that initiative and the support of that program and look forward to piloting it this year and and hopefully have some good success and and uh get it off the ground in the in the future years with continued support from from the state um some facilities work update uh we will be uh starting our secondary complex sidewalks uh this week and and completing that work
010uh middle school artwork renovation is is just about complete as well high school tech room renovations those are going well and on schedule and then air conditioner work we were able to complete the air conditioner projects for all three elementary schools at this point in their cafeterias they'll be air-conditioned for september which is great uh thank you for our facility staff we have a very talented uh maintainer on staff that was able to really do a lot of in-house work and and save the district a good amount of outlay uh in uh in in completing that work and we're in the process of completing about another 18 classrooms uh over the course of the next two weeks uh and we're going to be at a point where we're almost fully uh air-conditioned across the district
011uh for the start of the school year so um i'll keep the board updated on that as we go and then all of our ongoing repair and maintenance work has continued our custodial staff has really done an outstanding job this summer uh under you know some uh some warm conditions and in terms of uh painting and and all sorts of maintenance projects that we had uh throughout the uh throughout the summer so thank you for their hard work in preparing us for the school year and then just also to note for the board we did have some vandalism over at forest lake elementary school on our uh rooftop uh our air conditioner unit there was damaged uh by uh by some uh what we believe to be uh teenage students uh that we're investigating uh
012over uh the last weekend so we'll continue to keep you updated on that all right and then uh update on reopening uh i think that's why many of you here this evening uh to continue to i'll continue to provide some updates on our plans there uh and just kind of the state of of things and and where we currently stand um we continue to monitor the the covent situation as we do at every single board meeting for about the past 18 months or so we've been providing some updates uh these are the current numbers in the town of wauntaw you can see the total cases of covid and the numbers over the past seven days or so this is how we finished the year you can see the number of cases that we had across
013the district we had 374 total student cases over the course of last year 431 total cases when he includes staff cases um the largest number of cases that we had were at wanton high school you can see there was 197 student cases over the course of the year and that was about about 22 23 of the student body that at some point or other was impacted by covid uh and then followed by by wanton middle school uh the lowest instances that are our smallest schools in in terms of want to hell mandalay and forest lake um certainly disproportionately the numbers were at wantagh high school this is as we present each month to you this is the the current positivity rate you can kind of see the trend over the past year this is since
014uh covent this is since last school year so this just illustrates the positivity percentage on a seven-day average for you you can see starting last august where we began you know under positivity rate uh and then that that spike that we experienced in november december january uh and then uh the the real nice decline that we saw as as we entered the end of april into may and to june and then the the current increase that we've seen the current spike over the past several weeks with the delta variant so that's what we've seen as of late we've you know continued to monitor that and then this is the number that we started talking a little bit more about towards the end of last year everything that we had all the guidance that we received
015from new york state last year was really in terms of positivity rates now we really didn't hear much about the per 100 000 number this is the number of cases that you have in nassau county per 100 000 residents over seven days uh and the the transmission levels that they indicate you know low moderate substantial high the number they use to indicate a high number of cases is when you have a hundred cases per 100 000. so this chart just indicates that data over the course of the past full year uh you can see where we started back in last august at the start of the 2020-21 school year and you know through the spike you know very similar in terms of the positivity rate spike and then when we were in really good shape
016at the end of april and uh really all of may and june uh and into july and then we started to see the increase again this is the number that you'll hear the cdc reference and and now our county health department has begun to reference as well in terms of when we're in levels of high transmission the anything over 100 is what they seem to to indicate as a number for us to take a look at and this this indicates that transmission level we've also just recently started to get some more detailed data from at our request um a number of uh superintendents in the county have reached out to the county health department uh really requesting we requested that if we get more detailed data in terms of the per 100 000 number that
017they're asking us to look at per zip code so we could really get some school data and and that's helpful to us because we could really see what the level of transmission is in our own in our own towns uh and not just simply rely on the county number so they just recently started to supply this to us i uh received the the first uh report of this uh this uh this week um and this is for the week of august 8th to 15th and the great neck marks the top of the list and you see where want is on the list this is the number of cases per 100 000 residents obviously we don't have 100 000 residents so they take the number and they they scale it up to meet that number so
018uh you know we're about just under 19 000 residents in in the town and they take the number and adjust it for the 100 000 number so that's the the current level it's at 241.5 and good news this is the vaccination rates uh which continue to move in a positive direction uh certainly helps that's the other thing that they asked us to certainly take into account is the um the rate of vaccination uh when we're taking a look at uh these pieces of uh county numbers you can see there i don't have the breakdown of daily of of um numbers by category here for rwanda i just don't have access to that data but you can see what the county rate is 12 plus 74 percent and then all residents for wanton it's at 66.3
019so that being said priorities for our 21 22 school year we continue to be to maintain a safe learning environment for all students and staff return to in-person instruction for all students as a continued priority maximize time spent in school with minimal disruption address learning gaps as a result of the disruption caused by the pandemic and the social emotional learning needs of all of our students one of our challenges this year was limited guidance and late guidance we learned very late in the summer that we were not going to receive guidance from the nassau county health department uh excuse me from the new york state county health department but this is the guidance that we've received so far i've posted all that guidance to our website for anybody to reference we received received guidance from
020the state education department last week along with some guidance documents from the nassau county health department the cdc american academy of pediatrics and the new york state academy of pediatrics chapter 2 as well so here's where we are school will reopen fully for all students starting wednesday september 1st students will follow all of our traditional starting times and schedules um we will be offering all of our extracurricular and athletic opportunities we're at a point where we've removed death shields we did that the the last couple of months of last year back to regular locker room using locker use at a secondary level we're really moving away from uh full year remote learning experiences and really prioritizing in-person instruction if there are any uh certainly health issues that we need to address to make accommodations for
021families can reach out to us they'll be receiving that information from us shortly and right now mass are required on school bus transportation as per the mandate that we received the other information i'll just highlight that that we received from the county health department we did not know to this point where they were going to how they were going to handle close contacts and quarantine for school districts we worked closely with them throughout the year last year and this is ultimately where uh where they landed which is in line with what the cdc recommendations were which in a classroom setting uh the if if students are mass they they exclude the the the three to six feet uh requirement for uh for quarantining which is certainly a much different position than they held last year
022last year where if you were within the three to six feet they were recommending quarantines even with masking they have backed off that position which is certainly good news that does not apply to staff but it applies to students but it does not apply to unmasked situations so one of our concerns certainly will continue to be what the quarantine requirements would be in unmasked situations um and then uh yesterday our incoming governor uh made statements in terms of uh that we'll continue to monitor that you know as of tuesday that uh it sounds like she is moving in the direction of of mandating masks for all children as they head back to school okay as far as folks will have an opportunity for a public participation we'll have we'll have uh opportunity for public participation
023momentarily if you could please let me complete my report as far as next steps go we're going to be uh we'll continue with our reopening plans we plan to finalize those by the end of next week we have various meetings scheduled for next week including with our administrative team reopening committees uh we'll meet and our various constituent groups throughout the week and i just want to just encourage us to continue to to work together one of my concerns continues to be the divisiveness that we've had in our community on this this this issue and with that i'll turn it back over to mr greco thank you john item hb h a retirement letter of resignation for the purpose of retirement has been received from a member of our teaching staff we wish miss lascalzo health
024and happiness in her retirement and thank her for many years of dedicated service to the education of our children do i have a motion second all in favor aye item hb item c and item d do i have a motion second all in favor aye item e item f item g and item h do i have a motion second all in favor aye item i item j item k and item l we have a motion second all in favor aye item 2 personnel actions civil service item 2a retirements letters of resignation for retirement purposes have been received from members of our staff we wish them health and happiness in their retirement and thank them for their many years of dedicated and loyal service to the wanton school district do i have a motion [Applause] second
025second all in favor item two b c d and e do i have emotion the second all in favor aye item f appointment of non-instructional substitutes do i have a motion second all in favor item three contractual and other authorizations item three a b c and d and i have a motion second all in favor aye item e f g and h do i have a motion second second all in favor right item i j k and l i have a motion second all in favor all right right item m item n item o an item p can i have a motion second all in favor item q r do i have a motion second all in favor all right item i unfinished business item i won policy revision and i i have a motion
026second [Music] all in favor aye item j new business approval of committees on special ed and preschool special ed recommendations and item two revised planning calendar for the 2021 and 22 school year can i have a motion second all mr president i'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting do i have a second second all in favor explain how this works all right how this works ladies and gentlemen is now we open up the discussion to the floor there'll be a microphone we'll have instructions are listed on the paper that you received when you came in okay so this is every meeting this is how it goes then maybe we should understand what's on the paper first that's right we know the microphone is open my name is stacy genovese i have one
027child entering middle school can you hear me yes one child entering middle school um in september it is not up to parents to decide if our unvaccinated children wear masks in school or not the same way it is not up to parents if their infants or children need to be in car seats everyone has a right to say their opinion is the united states of america you will get your turn let them have their say everyone gets to say what they believe that's how this country works that's how this district works that's how the community works let everybody say what they want to say you'll have your chance to same way they don't have a choice on if their infants or children need to be in car seats or seat belts it is not up
028to this board if our unvaccinated children should wear masks or not it is up to the cdc and it is this board's responsibility to enforce the recommendations it is up to this board to enforce the recommendations of the top doctors in this country no one's opinion should hold any weight unless you have an md with a specialty in epidemiology and have been studying the covert crisis for the past year and a half we are still in the middle of a public health crisis and we are sending our children to a public school if you want your child to go to this public school then the recommendations of the public health officials need to be followed if parents choose not to have their children wear masks same as if they choose not to have their child
029vaccinated against mmr polio or the chickenpox they have the right to homeschool their children or to send them to a private school which has the same values as they do but again tonight we are talking about requirements for children in a public school during a public health crisis in my opinion any parent who does not want their unvaccinated child to wear a mask is very lucky lucky that they have not spent days in a hospital watching their child struggle lucky they have not had to watch their child die in front of them knowing that there was nothing they could do for them lucky because they don't know how cruel life can be there is still so much that we don't know about this virus we don't know if it will lead to long-term effects on
030our children or not we don't know if this virus continues to mutate if the next mutation will be deadly to our children what we do know is this mass keep our unvaccinated children safe at this point the cdc recommends anyone who is unvaccinated wear a mask in a public indoor space which includes a public school this board needs to enforce the recommendation that the public school is doing everything you can to keep our children safe and on a more personal note i would just like to thank mr mcnamara for all of his hard work for this district and the wonderful job you are doing thank you [Applause] hello uh christina corwin parent member um when i was deciding what i was going to say at the board meeting tonight i thought it would be helpful
031to better understand the role of a board of education so i googled it and this is what i found it said first and foremost school boards look out for students a member of the board of education in new york state signs an oath and takes on one of the most important responsibilities that can be assigned to any citizen helping to plan the education of the community's children i trust that you all take this responsibility seriously the education of our students nowhere on any of the numerous google links that i clicked on did it say anything about rendering medical decisions nowhere [Applause] nowhere did it say you are responsible for protectingly for protecting elderly relatives at home nowhere did it say you are responsible for protecting community nowhere did it say it's your job to protect
032teachers we have a union for that now i do understand a part of educating our children includes safety issues so let's address the safety of our students with respect to covid according to the ameri american academy of pediatrics 0.0 to 0.03 of covet cases result in death in children under the age of 17. [Applause] total since the virus started last year there were 2 685 deaths from brain injuries in children 17 and under why aren't you requiring helmets in school flu deaths in children during reached 188 but the cdc reported that the estimation probably is closer to 600 yet there was no mass mandate then additionally science shows that a surgical or cloth mask does not adequately protect you from kovitz in hospitals i have two sisters who are nurses and work in a covid
033unit the protocol to be adequately protected is a fit tested n95 mask eye protection shield end glasses a surgical gown and gloves so unless you're willing to mandate that level of protection for children safety is a farce and i know that's a scary thing to hear but by all means if a person is fearful they have the right to choose to protect themselves to that level that's called individual choice and freedom [Applause] now let's talk about education i have been a teacher for 25 years i am proud of my profession but during the 2019-2020 school year we failed our kids remote learning does not work students students tuned out they cheated excessively they became more socially isolated and school phobic than ever before most teachers knew that this was a terrible idea but we were
034forced to follow guidelines by people who do not know the first thing about teaching kids and teaching in a mask does not work either it is not the same i cannot hear my students i cannot fully see their expressions nor can they see mine it takes away from the connection i have with my kids to tell if they are happy or sad or having a bad day but even worse than the failed remote learning methods the unscientific masking testing and scooping what was even worse than this was how adults in this community blamed children for spreading a virus they instilled a fear and guilt into innocent children of all ages they changed the way that kids looked at each other for the worst a new school year is starting and as expected the fear machine
035is striking on all cylinders right in time for september but what will the board do this time will you willfully ignore scientific realities and hide behind a false pretense of safety will you sacrifice children again i truly hope not i hope you show courage and leadership i hope you stand up for children and if you don't we as parents will decide what our children need and more importantly what they deserve thank you [Applause] hello hello i am a ninth grader i'm going into ninth grade this year at wanta high school uh thank you for helping me up here in my opinion mass should be the parents choice for their child i completely understand if a person does not feel safe without a mask but it should not be forced on people who do not want
036to wear a mask last year masks were super annoying and nobody wanted to wear them most people i saw around the school either wore them completely wrong with it below their nose or under their chin last year i followed the rules and i wore it properly in fear of getting in trouble but the only reason was because i was happy we were in school instead of remote as the year progressed i got more and more sick of the mass beginning to wear it more and more improperly if that many kids were wrong last year how many more do you think will think will be like me sick of all this nonsense no student in general especially no student just going into high school should be fighting to wear a mask that when board members should
037be the ones to think and see that this is not fair to the students who are enduring eight hours and more in a mask masks get sweaty hot and gross they are also annoying when wearing glasses like i do but that is not the point the point is math should be the parent's choice for minors as we are think of it as like this kids and i bet everyone here most likely went the whole summer so far without wearing a mask going on vacation to concerts or even to your local supermarket so what makes a difference not wearing them in school it is basically the same thing but in school you are near people you know they are your friends maths are also a huge distraction in class i took a final last year where
038the teacher would keep telling students to put their mask on properly that helps me do bad on the final i'm usually a good student i blame it on the math as a distraction i don't blame it on the teachers because you put it in their brains to tell us that people can each do what they want wear masks don't wear a mask get the vaccine don't get the vaccine but it shouldn't be forced on the person especially the vaccines first of all being forced on the vaccine is going against the nuremberg code which is codified into the u.s federal law a code that prohibits forcing people in any circumstance to participate in a medical experiment which this vaccine is this vaccine is known as an experimental vaccine that is not approved by the fda as
039i rest my case i take everything into consideration and allow the choice to appease to the parents because i know these parents behind me will fight for their child's views and opinions thank you for listening and have a nice night [Applause] good evening my name is marilyn rich i've come in from the board before i have two children in the district and i'm happy to be here tonight this past june i stood here in front of you and i'd advocated for local control and for parental rights for masks and vaccines the board assured me they were going to draft a letter to our now disgraced former governor and they did so on june 30th asking for local control based on our situation based on nassau county health officials which is what you guys did um
040after about 35 other long island school districts sent their letter surprisingly to just about everyone the new york state department of health um did not think it was necessary to put out guidance as you mentioned earlier since new york is no longer in a state of emergency per their office i'd call them every week and that's what they tell me so now instead of creating a plan based on our local numbers we're here back at the grace of the state and our new lieutenant governor who you put up her quote um about possibly making mass universal and it will be statewide you left out the part that said still hotshell said she imagined any statewide mass mandate she may issue after taking office will be lifted on a local basis depending on a particular area
041or school district's infection rate so that brings us brings us right back to where we need to be local control here in wanton based on our numbers and our statistics and what we do a lot of people are saying follow the cdc guidance we all know where a lot of that cdc guidance came from it came from the american federation of teachers that verbiage was was brought out in may by a freedom of information act which told us they put those those mass guidelines in place and the cdc adopted them so we're not really getting guidance on masks from health professionals we got them from the american federation of teachers union uh in nassau county our nassau county executive just chatted our 85 vaccination rate which is wonderful and we leave the state and we
042we rank third in the u.s of counties of more than a million people our current hospitalizations in the county are 217. there are 33 people in icu 17 on a ventilator and a one death seven day average so where do we put the line on where numbers are needed to put these mass mandates to an end i mean we need to have some sort of plan to say where when that's going to happen i don't want to repeat a lot of the data that another mother came up before me regarding the um the cdc numbers the the number for the flu was 643 in 2017-18 of children that died of flu in five months uh following year was 477 in the same five months following year was 434 in the same five months the covert
043numbers as of yesterday august 18th over 18 months 430 children that have died over the 18 months so that is less child deaths from covert 19 than from each of the last three flu seasons no one at any time has ever asked anyone to wear a mask during flu season during strep throat season when letters come home no one has ever said oh come to school in a mask it never happens because it's unreasonable and it's absolutely unreasonable for children to wear masks all day in school just quickly the cdc has not done any substantial scientific research on masks there is ample evidence to suggest that masks are not effective and do nothing to mitigate the virus there was a study in university of florida that showed 11 pathogens including diphtheria pneumonia and meningitis found
044in masks that's very hazardous the former cdc dr robert redfield admits studies are inconclusive and acknowledges they lack data i quote these policies should be grounded in data as opposed to opinion redfield said i think this race is a very important part there's been very few studies that are really compelling in the setting of a classroom i think it's a fair criticism a fair criticism you heard that i think in the wall street journal they took talked about 42 billion of nih funding and less than 2 percent was done on kovid these are critical questions um i'm not i'm of the point of view that has to be locally decided as opposed to a general mandate that's coming particularly in the absence of data that's coming from former cdc director robert redfield michael ulster home
045is the dr fauci of minnesota cloth masks aren't nearly as effective as n95 respirators but the cdc directives ignore the distinction many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out there are thousands of these opinions i won't go on and on about it math studies and brown university concluded that there was no difference in states that had mass mandates and those that didn't as far as transmission i can email all of these studies to you if you'd like to review them i have them ready for you if you'd like to review them other countries are ditching masks the uk has decided to keep kids out of masks it's important that primary school children don't wear face coverings says public health of
046england's medical advisor dr susan hopkins she explains that is because covet infection rates are low among their age group and wearing face coverings could affect their development is that what we really want to do is affect our children's development in school i think it's the absolute opposite we need to help their development along not not affect it that way to conclude the decision to wear masks should be left up to the parents based on numerous studies that are available to question their efficacy and their benefit we were not involved in the planning at all that none of the sessions have ever involved parents not a single survey was set out to the general public multiple long island school world school boards held emergency meetings sent out surveys hired legal counsel to represent parents interests the
047members of this board did not respond to any of my emails this summer at all and i've sent many i'm first on the list the people in this room elected you guys to serve our interests uh we foot 80 of the bill for the budget we we do that not the state it comes from us we fund that through our taxes and i've said that before we have to really start looking at local control and stop leaning on the state for guidance they gave it to us and we just we gave it away and that's not how we we should be running our district massapequa carl plays beth page plain edge and locus valley as of today have all announced mask will be optional in september i really hope you follow that lead thank you
048good evening everyone my name is uh alan jacoby i'm a wanto resident i have a child in wantor elementary school and i'm a business owner and i'd like to talk tonight a little bit about common sense which i hope you as elected board members are going to use going into the new school year first we have a new non-elected governor being appointed in days as she takes over for cuomo who has said like you put up there she is in favor of mask mandates for everyone in schools we know that this makes absolutely no sense at all masking our children our children have been masculine all summer long along with most teachers staff in restaurants and bars at sporting events at barbecues everywhere and i'm sure everyone up there and members of the board who
049wearing masks now were also mask-less all summer long and i want to know why now based off what science because you talk about cases and a positive case means nothing okay there is no common sense behind masking kids in school as covid poses almost no risk to our kids at all 4.2 million kids have been tested positive for covid and a total of 0.008 percent of them have died in and around there maybe it's not exact but what about the flu thank you what about the flu why weren't we masking during the flu 480 kids died from the flu in 2018-2019 flu season and that's more that have died from covid in a year and a half so why not masks then why no masks for the flu which is more dangerous to kids than
050coven it's proven masking children for six to eight hours a day is psychologically damaging them when kids go an entire school year without seeing their teachers faces or their friends faces and their smiles that's psychologically damaging [Applause] when when you're when your eight-year-old comes to you and says dad all the kids are in masks nobody's seeing each other's faces i'm getting a case of the depressions from an eight-year-old that's a problem that's psychologically damaging absolutely learning is suppressed learning is suppressed brain oxygenation is suppressed it's not rocket science people touching and grabbing the masks instead of paying attention to learning in school from your teacher who's wearing a mask behind plexiglass is a problem covet is covet is not a threat to our children if adults are worried about kids carrying the virus because they're
051little germ factories anyway every school year then go and get a vaccine they're free your choice go get one wear a mask your choice go get one but stay away from my kids [Applause] you must it's parents choice you must leave the masking decisions to the parents you have no no authority to tell me or anyone here to mask their children public school or not you are elected you all work for us you are elected by us wantor your budget is passed by us juanto which didn't pass this past year and we had a begging plea to get it passed remember that okay you must not listen to unelected career bureaucrats and start listening to the ones that elect you us you need to stand on your feet and tell us that it's going to
052be parents choice to mask our kids or not individual liberties because our liberties are not selfish and our rights are not going to be hindered by anyone's fear or drunkenness of power i want to leave with this you're on the cusp of making the right decision you're removing plexiglas i understand the buses i'm not arguing that massapequa plain edge some other schools that were mentioned that are making it optional parents choice i am not going to berate somebody or or thinks bad of somebody who wants to have their child wear a mask which by the way we may not agree but i will defend to the death for you to be able to express yourself ma'am ma'am hold on excuse me excuse me so don't attack her don't attack her i was a new york
053city paramedic for 10 years i've delivered nine children and i've seen leave this i was just defending you leave this to the parents and i'm going to tell you my name is alan jacoby i'm self-employed i have the time and i have the money i don't know which one of you is up for re-election in april but depending on the decision you make going into december you have met your opponent for the school board election you very much have a good night it's a tough act to follow good evening i am gubernatorial candidate john nistico i am here to speak for my constituents who clearly have done their homework the only thing that you guys are taking into consideration is a little piece of data that you left out you can look at me all
054you want it's not going to back me down you don't scare me you're trying to intimidate me it's not going to work what are the adverse effects of long-term mask wearing on our children do you realize that the w.h.o your blessed cdc the aap nobody's doing any data on that my staff is doing data on that my staff is going to make it so that if you go forward with this mass mandate we will hold all of you legally and civilly responsible for any damages caused by the adverse effects of long-term mask wearing on students you have no idea the damage you are causing to our children suicide rates are up alcoholism and teenagers are up and you want to put our kids in masks it's their choice if they want to make a mess
055if they want to wear the mask this is america i wore a uniform to protect people's rights and let me tell you something if they want to wear a mask let them wear a mask if they don't want to wear a mask then they shouldn't have to wear a mask you don't get to say you don't get to say but i want this board if they have the data to show the adverse effects then you supply it to each and every person in this auditorium and i recommend that you all file a foia request and you ask for that data thank you [Applause] hello can you hear me hi my name is meredith bernstein i'm a mother of four children three in the school district of wanta can you hear me now okay my name
056is meredith bernstein i'm a mother of four children and three of in the school district i'm also a board certified pediatrician and neonatologist um the most disturbing thing i hear about everything that's going on is this can you hear me now okay the most disturbing thing i hear going on from everybody is the two words only and dead kids in the same sentence because those two words should never be in the same sentence for everything we do in life is to protect our children when we talk about school shootings only 64 children have died in school shootings in the last two years can you hear me only 64 students have died in school shootings in 2018. yet we have lockout drills lockdown drills we have school security guards that our taxes are paying for why
057i'm not wearing a mask and you people are rude where was i um we have all these drills to protect our children because no children is supposed to die and i understand we can't protect everyone but we had 400 cases of pediatric cova deaths this year and that was with mitigation factors with masks with remote learning with plexiglas with hybrid so what [Music] what does it matter folks everybody everybody will get that turn it doesn't matter if you're the pre-existing conditions where covid were obesity and asthma how many children in this district have asthma how many children in this district have obesity and just because you have a pre-existing condition does not mean it doesn't your death does not matter we're supposed to protect children how many children in our district have peanut allergies yet
058we're not allowed to eat peanuts during snack because there's a one or two children that might die those are pre-existing conditions we're supposed to protect all children okay sure the flu killed 188 children in the 2018 season of flu and 80 of those were unvaccinated and if the more people are vaccinated against flu if more children are vaccinated against flu we could protect other children who might have passed away from the flu even if they're vaccinated there is a risk to covet and if we leave our children unvaccinated unmasked sitting in a classroom next to unvaccinated unmasked children coming from unvaccinated unmasked homes of parents who i'm sure are not going to target and supermarket vaccinated and masked what are we going to do to our children how many dead children is going to take
059for you people to say oh no maybe we should stop and rethink this what is the magic number of dead children because only and dead children do not belong in a sentence together i don't know that number yet but we are right now in a pandemic so when that pandemic is no longer pandemic and it's more endemic that's it ladies and gentlemen please address your comments to the board this is not a i have a forum for everyone to yell at each of you that masks work there are 70 studies that pediatricians across the world and physicians across the world are following and i can give those to you that masks are effective there was a study done by the abc science collaborative in north carolina out of duke university where they studied the districts
060about 11 schools in north carolina and they followed for nine weeks using masks how it projected against seven uh secondary infections there were about 600 primary infections of covet and from their 32 secondary infections that were passed from in school transmission that's less than one percent that's effective trans prevention of covet using masks they don't defect development they don't affect your face they don't increase co2 because i have the studies to show you i have the data if you want the data i can give you 70 studies sure i'm just saying so i know nobody believes anything but that's that's what i feel thank you [Applause] can you hear me can you hear me can you hear me i want to read you an excerpt from one of the books that might please identify yourself
061my name is lisa bulkelman my daughter is in 11th grade and this is a book that she received this past year or one of her classes what privilege looks like in everyday life whites are less likely than blacks to be arrested and once arrested they are less likely to be convicted and once convicted less likely to go to prison regardless of the crime or circumstances whites for example constitute 85 percent of those who illegal drugs who use illegal drugs but less than half of those in prison on drug related charges whites are more likely to that more than i'm sorry i'm a glasses whites are more likely than comparable blacks who have a loan application approved and less likely to be given poor information or the runaround during the application process those are just from
062one chapter but a couple things here's another chapter police make life hell for youth of cover [Music] what repeat this [Music] basically what i'm trying to say is that this is critical race theory this is not okay and i was told when i called and asked the school district i said why are they handing this out i was specifically told we have to teach critical race theory this is from our taxpayer money we paid for these books we paid for these books we paid for you guys to teach this was given to my 10th grade student this past year okay this is not okay okay you don't need you don't need to put nyp nypd make hell like youth of color the life of hell or whatever but that's not okay no and to be
063told that you're actually teaching critical race theory to a predominantly white community that's just you're just inviting inviting mistakes we're not teaching critical races what we're not teaching critical races why is this in our schools it's been in here for through two or three years what do you think what is that called that's your your member that runs the social studies department told me that it's critical race there they have to teach it i didn't give this book to my kid 10th grade social studies teacher forgive me i don't know the name of the teacher or the class because my daughter refused to tell me she was afraid i was going to open my mouth so can anyone hear me this work at all no we can't hear you either [Applause] okay so in the
064ap capstone program which is in the high school they do many different readings and they do many different readings with different points of view they don't teach a specific point of view they share many different points of view that are out there and they have the kid to discuss and debate it's not to teach a specific way of thinking it's to teach kids to analyze and be critical in their reading and then to make determinations for their own self about what they believe and what they want to to if you guys want to know here's the other thing no we do not teach let me let me be very clear we do not teach critical race theory we teach kids to read to analyze material and to make decisions for themselves now let me finish
065there are other arguments in there that are the opposite of that there are opposite statements in that book as well yes the other article does that's opposite it i heard the comment listen and and it's the and it's the trusted right but it's it's it's the teacher's job as to help kids understand what they're reading and to differentiate right but also they're cherry picking a line there are many lines that say the exact opposite that's enough to tell the nypd i understand and there's other there are other articles in that book that say the opposite point of view you don't teach do you know how many nypd officers i did know about the book are we going to address getting rid of it no there isn't critical race there this is critical race theory police
066make life hell for youth of color that's critical race theory the class is not about that all right can i just there's a couple of things okay i just want to be clear that article that you're reading from has never been assigned that it happens to be in the book in our school district okay this stuff like this is what propagates all the bs okay which keeps prolonging it well it stops well we say it stops okay we don't need this stuff in our schools regardless if it's a discussion or an opinion we don't need it in our schools we need to be teaching our kids the constitution and history and uh i don't know the nuremberg code how about that one we teach them that all right everybody needs to learn the real the
067real history not the bs that has been put put in place over the last 15 years a hundred percent fast okay you and i have similar shades i don't think you should have your kids to be learning stuff like this i don't teach my kid to get a better you know a better loan application or a better price on a car that you don't teach them that this is not this is like brainwashing this is not something that you would just say oh yeah it's just open discussion these discussions don't openly happen i just wanted to be clear that that particular article was not assigned to any students there are multiple articles in there so get rid of this book get rid of the book so get rid of this book sure can can we
068discuss getting rid of this book we can discuss lots of things absolutely we can discuss anything no that's what i'm saying can we get rid of the book yeah i think and stuff like that we should be more you know decisions sure we can discuss anything i mean i feel like sometimes you guys come to these meetings thinking we're the government we did these things to you you know whether it's mass or not mass we listen to you and i'm sure the board will you're on the board there because you're supposed to be our go-between you're our goal between we only look at you like the enemy when you treat us like we're doing something wrong i'm sorry if you felt that way i never meant to make you feel that way i'm just sitting
069at a table listening to you that's all i'm doing [Music] as i mentioned we're uh we're gonna continue to review uh until uh until through next week we're waiting to see what the governor's announced as well uh just so there's no confusion why are you listening to tyrannical government why are you listening to tyrannical government why are you listening to them [Music] is [Applause] implications and all that goes with it i just want to clear up a couple of things that some people think that parents that are anti-masks are okay we're not we're actually looking for a best benefit for our own children because i live with three teenagers a freshman in high school a sophomore maggie and i have a senior grace so i have three they're living it right now and you know
070what i listen to their their stories i listen to how horrible they feel when they go to school um they're miserable miserable uh i had one of the three that was depressed i begged for that for him to get to school so i gave that one up right if i have two girls and one boy but i you know i needed him to get back to school for a routine and then he goes to school and it's like you know with the mask and the half and the up and the down and the only nine yards but the most important thing is to hear from a student now i know we had one before i think earlier that was speaking well here's another one here's a sophomore go for it mag as a student of
071wanton high school with these masks it's miserable i use somewhat love i used to somewhat love going to school now i hate it i can't understand anything my teachers are saying and honestly i have such a short an attention span i can't i can't focus i don't understand anything i'm learning going to school is honestly upsetting at this point and i don't know the last time i went into school with a smile on my face i'm getting like emotional no it's okay i come home with my throat all dry all sweaty and it's literally miserable if you smell through these masks what makes people think that they work that's my question really but you know at lunch you know at lunch we can stay on top of each other and then and then all of
072a sudden it's covet again you know you know it magically appears again it's absurd oh and these dividers that do so much if anything they're the ones that sprang covered even more okay i went the whole summer of life going normal and now it's all of a sudden it has to be taken life the past year and a half has been such a struggle and now wearing these masks or if you guys are going to make us wear these masks just makes it worse and i'm not saying for those people that feel uncomfortable wearing these masks go ahead don't wear the mask but as as of the opposite side because that doesn't really get recognized as much you should you should be able to speak up and we don't have to wear these mess just
073as those people who actually do want to wear these masks if that made sense but that just didn't make sense but it's fine but end of discussion it should be my choice because like they all say my body my choice [Applause] uh can everybody hear me okay michael simon i have two kids two girls beautiful girls uh forest lake and now middle school so it's very simple you vote the budget you pay their salaries don't vote the budget simple right you vote them into election don't vote for them an election the other people who want it can vote for them the people don't want to vote for you vote them out it's very simple they don't get their money they don't pay their salaries they don't get their uh board right they don't get anything
074so just vote no the budget barely passed last time the budget barely passed last time and and it barely passed last time because of a reason because people were fed up so i doubt it's gonna pass the next time just keep that in mind all right [Applause] good evening perry uh perry fuchs i have a daughter in mandalay elementary school um before i begin i'm going to be very very quick good to see you um i'd just like to remind the board um that there are there are rules for running board of ed meetings um as far as you know who the people are speaking need to address and and so forth and i believe that everyone should have their opinion heard and i think that's very fair i understand that people have different signs
075opinion but i believe it's your responsibility to keep order uh in the auditorium and i i just kindly ask that you do so please um so i don't know if um like i said i'll be really quick uh i don't know if you're all familiar with ware county georgia last week they had to close all of their schools in their in their district due to covid um i think that kids need to be in school last year i was very happy that my daughter was able to attend school she wore a mask this summer she was very happy to not wear a mask at the start of camp unfortunately when the delta variant started to go up my wife and i made a decision that she was going to wear a mask and as a
076young child she said to me daddy i know i'm gonna wear a mask because i don't want to get sick and i don't want uh anyone else to get sick and um the point i'm trying to make is that i think that children are a little more resilient than uh we'd like to we a little more resilient than we think and i believe that children will and their heart they want to not get anyone else sick they don't want to get sick and we can argue back and forth all that we want about whether mass prevent or whether mass don't prevent um the the the data that i've seen uh shows a reduction in the transmission uh if you were in a mass i mean it's not that it's not that hard to understand either
077if i sneeze on you you'd probably want me wearing a mask rather than just openly sneezing on you so [Music] uh mr president please go on perry i'm i'm just i'm i'm just yeah i'm waiting i'm waiting for you go on okay thank you i appreciate it you're allowed to speak go on and speak yeah no i'm just waiting so that i can speak so i would like to make sure that my daughter goes to school this year i agree with a lot of that what's been said so far about keeping kids home and i i believe it is detrimental to their social and emotional well-being so being in school is where the kids need to be i don't want my daughter learning behind a computer that will not work for a six-year-old i don't
078think it really even works for a 16 year old so in order to keep the schools open which like i said and this is one example i just happened to quickly pull up where county georgia i'm sure you could go there's plenty of districts that are having to close their entire school district um because of kovid so i i don't want to see that happen and if wearing a mask is is how we do it then that's how we do it um i'm going to leave you with one final thought um i i love numbers i i really love numbers because you can actually manipulate numbers to say whatever you want so i'll give you a stat um that was given here tonight and i'll put some value behind it because i think when you
079think about it it's actually pretty frightening so the stat was given by a gentleman this evening that 4.2 million kids in the united states have come down with covid and .017 percent of those students of those children have died so 0.017 so so if you like i like i said you know uh i i'd like to speak and um and have an orderly discussion all right let the man at the podium speak you could come up again if you'd like to speak but let him finish and stop interrupting or else you're gonna have to leave no i'm not so anyway so according to the numbers given tonight that equates to 3 360 kids dying uh just to give you an idea of how many students that's actually more students than than are going to wanto
080school right now that's [Music] you guys got to take control of this meeting man come on folks can you please can we please let people finish speaking please do not interrupt a lot of people and many of them were untrue tonight so let's just not be cherry-picking let the man speak i'm not saying anything about anybody's stats let anyone speak who wants to speak and you can decide okay so i stand up here tonight and i and i ask the board to please consider doing the right thing because to be quite honest one person one student dying is one student too many and if we're my kid i would i would be devastated and i i don't know how it would go on in the world because my daughter is everything to me i mean
081guys you got to take control of me it's it's not it's not so i'm going to address the board because that's what that's that's the robert's rules of order is that i address the board thank you i appreciate that and and um like i said i don't want to see one student in wantore school district die of covet and so i'd i'd please like you to consider regardless of what the governor does i'd i'd like you to seriously consider a mass mandate and i know that here tonight i may seem in the minority um but there's uh over six thousand residents are approximately 6 000 residents in the wonton school district close right so um in in a room where we have maybe 200 people uh i'd like you to consider that there might be
082other people in the community who have the point of view that i'm expressing tonight so thank you very much for your time hello my name is mary and i have a son going into first grade i work as a funeral director in a local funeral home i've been a funeral director for almost uh probably 15 years i did work in the funeral home during covid from day one and i did see the deaths i did see the numbers going up and i saw them drop dramatically in may all of a sudden we did not have any cases in may they obviously did something in the hospitals differently there obviously was something that they figured out and did something different so i have to get my thoughts together but i apologize for everybody's you know attack
083on you when you were talking nobody has to die nobody i go home seeing people die all the time obviously i go home with that i don't want my kid to die but you and i both know that this whole mask thing and about mandates and this it's all leading to the vaccine and human all we're fighting we're here because we want choice choice and you know what i mean if because if we give those this choice away or our rights away what's next it's going to be the vaccine and some people do not want the vaccine for their children this is it's an experimental drug it's not fda approved and i'm sorry but they are hiding all the adverse reactions and deaths i assure you they are hiding it so it's just about choice
084and right exactly it's america choice and that's all we're fighting for [Applause] i encourage everybody to watch the crime of the century it's a documentary i watched it on hbo it will open your eyes to so many things and unfortunately i think they're filming part two right now thank you [Applause] so there's no doubt whether the data is true or false aap.org to the gentleman who sat up here and said three thousand or some odd kids died as of 12 august 2021 the aa the aap presents this data number of children 0 to 17 years of age tested in the united states 40 million 700 000 number of positive cova tests uh covered cases 4.41 million number of children died 360 that is 0.00892 percent of the 300 excuse me of the 368 children who
085died every single solitary one had an underlying comorbidity basically saying 0.00 of healthy children in the united states did not die from covid [Applause] good evening my name is dawn conlon i'm a mother of four and a teacher um i had something prepared but most of the audience has already said most of what i have written down um i want to start by saying first i'm very disappointed because i came to this meeting thinking that i was going to have an answer the answer as to what the policy was with masks school is starting in two weeks and we need to know what is expected of our children other districts had the courage to make a decision and i'm highly disappointed in everybody on that stage for not having a decision tonight it is unacceptable
086unacceptable i've been a teacher for more than 20 years i've been in in board meetings every kind of meeting i deal with superintendents i deal with boards this this is my profession and you should have had answers completely unacceptable and i think you can see by the the people here we're not tolerating this anymore we are here we are watching everything that goes on everything we want to know what books are being given to our children i want to know what conversations are being had with my children my daughter in a classroom in this high school was given a conversation about the vaccine and how it's selfish to not get it unacceptable teachers are not qualified to give medical advice to their students nor are they able to give their political views and shame children
087critical race theory is racism we will not have racism taught in our schools no child should be ashamed of their background the color of their skin or their religion and critical race theory is pure racism unacceptable so i would like some answers from the board you've had to listen to all of our statements and now i want answers two questions question one what is going to be done about teachers pushing their opinions on students whether it be political vaccine or anything as something needs to be in place and when i asked my daughter the teacher's name she refused to give it to me in fear of retaliation from that teacher again unacceptable my children are supposed to come to school and feel safe teachers are role models they are support systems my t my daughter
088daughters because i have three of them in this in the school district should feel safe and comfortable with teachers i bought my children special masks where they can actually breathe oxygen it's amazing and they were afraid to wear it because of their teachers again unacceptable completely unacceptable my daughter had something on her eye caused by the mask i had two eye doctors tell me it was because of the mask because bacteria is going up into the eyes and she had to have surgery to have it removed my children will not be wearing a mask in fall they will not i hope that everybody on the stage will give parents the choice it is our choice what is the best medical decision for their child it is not a school district's choice to decide what's best
089medically now yes there are people here who feel it is best to mask their child congratulations good for you that's your choice i will not put masks on my children so going back to my question number one what will be the policy for teachers that are posing their opinions and shaming children for their views politically and with regard to masks and the vaccine thanks colin please feel free to share that with me offline i'm happy to talk to you about the incident and we'll certainly address it certainly we don't want our our teachers or our students in any situation whether they feel that uncomfortable so what will be the policy like my suggestion my suggestion again being in this profession you have superintendents conference day where there is time set aside for meetings i would
090like to see this school district within every building hold a meeting where this is discussed with their buildings i want teachers to know this is unacceptable and that there will be ramifications if they conduct such behavior that that is what i would like to see next question when will we have a decision with regard to masks and i hope you pick the right one with parent choice but when will this decision be made because we have planning to do yep as i said by the uh by the end of next week we will uh we'll have a final plan out to the community and how will that plan be shared um so well we're gonna do one or two things depending on where we are uh we'll uh we'll either hold a public forum next
091week to review it and we'll publish it obviously we'll email it out to everybody [Music] again it is my hope that you will determine that mass choice is the best option for the people in this community and it is um all of your jobs to represent the community and what the community wants the um the next thing though is when you do make your decision i think you need to have a plan in place um should you come to the determination or should this new governor decide that she's going to mandate masks which i don't think she's going to i think it's going to be up to the districts to decide there needs to be an option for people who are refusing masks anyway thank you [Applause] most kids are afraid to speak up of
092what is happening in classrooms but we're not we've had a teacher i won't name her but in this exact room call us white privileged and racist just because of our beliefs and went off of a lesson on no place for hate day and call this this we are here because everybody is entitled to their own opinion and no one is saying that anybody's opinion is not true we are all here because we want a choice no one is saying that we should or should not wear a mask although some of us believe that we shouldn't there are some people that could want to wear a mask and we are not saying that they can't but once again we are here for a choice and everybody is entitled to their own opinion she also told us
093to wear three masks when coming into class when we only need to wear one and most people don't even want to wear one she told us to wear three and she would give us detention or because carbon dioxide is good for us she also told us running with a mask is even better for you she claimed to be a doctor a lawyer and other many other things yes and the reason no one speaks up inside of our classrooms is because everybody is scared of the backlash we are going to get from the teacher and i think everybody can understand that some things are censored and i sit back in my classroom because i am scared that somebody's going to say something to me because of my opinion i was about to say something but i
094held back because i did not want to get in trouble and ruin my perfect [Applause] [Music] but reputation have spoken to guidance counselors about this other teachers know about this thank you girls so i just uncle you you've reported this to the folks okay okay great we'll have to follow up with you [Applause] hi i'm just a resident also my kids aren't in the school any longer but i just wanted to know i see with all directing to the board i see with this really big important issue at hand my one question is where is the fifth board member why is he not physically present in the room with all of the parents looking for some sort of accountability one way or another mr fischer is president on video conference i did say physically though
095yes yes physically in the room right now on video yes i understand video conferencing okay with such which such major issues at hand i would think that the entire board should be here 100 that's just my opinion i'm sorry mr fisher recently had a newborn child and that's why he's at home with the baby i'm jean dibiase my daughter is going into ninth grade and i have to address some of the stuff that was said tonight first of all i was told by mr ferris that we were not doing critical race theory however hearing that book that makes me very concerned but i do also believe all books in the educational system in the united states are a problem my husband and i watched a documentary on the history of how all the books have
096changed over the years so it i think you guys got to do this with a fine-tooth comb because absolutely no critical race theory number one number two well i've said this the last time we had five people here at the last board meeting really so thank god i'm seeing all of you and my daughter i am want to throw up i i'm not going to go into this this whole thing i did the last time but my daughter had a book that she was forced to read you weren't coming at we're still in covid and this book has everything to do with apocalyptic um there's nothing positive in this book boarding up the home no food no everything suicide left and right really this is the books they're recommending to our kids so i'm very
097disturbed about this now the other thing is that my daughter also has come home to me and told me about teachers talking about politics and i said so what did you do and once in a while she's spoken up but she's uncomfortable because there are kids that also attack her so now she's becoming an introvert in some aspect and why are we discussing this in school i i'm really disturbed by that as well i think you all need to hear this and everyone here needs to hear this about the teachers speaking politics and religion and i was going to say something else and i forgot oh i really think it's incredibly important that we have choice and i'm disturbed that you guys cannot answer that tonight and so far a lot of the times oh
098give me a call we'll talk about it now how about we talk about it here and we are we're listening to everything everyone has said here tonight as we have all year this is it's not that we're not unprepared we're listening to you we're listening to you we're listening to all of you we are listening to the families and the people in this community we still are and a decision will be made i would we want choice we want you not far into the future that's why we have no answer tonight and also [Applause] right good [Applause] [Music] i'd like to know the answer also um how does everybody feel just curious do you remember [Music] [Applause] do you guys remember the the photo you got back from the 8th grade class how they're all
099on the bleachers right next to each other that was a great picture i was happy to see it finally they're together with a picture but yet at graduation they have to be six feet apart does that make any sense so we want choice end of story do not be sheep and stand up for a lot of the parents we choice people who want masks people who don't want masks end of story [Applause] my name is allison i have two kids at wonton l this summer we had a reading and math program that within uh all of july there was no masks and it was in juanto elementary school i have a six-year-old and a seven-year-old and an eight-year-old no masks 18 kids in a classroom with the teacher that was unmasked and there was i
100don't know how many maybe you can tell me how many classes there were during summer reading math program about eight eight classes with about 18 kids in each class why are we going backwards you said we had no how many how many cases do you can you tell me where there i didn't get any any updates were there any cases within all eight classes 18 kids in each class with no masks there were there were none my kids were so happy to go to school during the summer which doesn't even i've never heard of such when i told my seven-year-old when i told my seven-year-old daughter that there might be masculine when they go back when she goes back to school she cried she cried you know how that broke my heart she cried my
101daughter for two months april of may had a very bad sinus infection i had to take her to an ent i had to get her scoped it was from wearing masks non-stop i was this close to pulling my kid out of school just so she wouldn't have to wear a mask all day so she can get better she was in and out of school all of april may i don't know why we're going back i was so i spoke to you on the phone i was so happy to hear that the day that the that the state said masks were not required but recommended you guys were all for it no problem the next day we got an email saying masks are not required they're recommended for this summer school program everyone when i walked
102in there nobody was wearing masks including the teachers not one case was had the delta variant this was just july the delta variant still existed it didn't just start august it still existed i don't know why we're going back [Applause] was there any case at all during all of july with no masks in those classrooms no the decision was made to allow that because the state allowed us to so we we did it in reference in reference to the state and i know this happened i know this happened last school year i believe cuomo was bullying school districts as far as school funding and he was acting like the thug he was and he was he was a tyrannical thug that's what he is and i i'm hoping my school board if that happens again
103with the new governor in the state like you said state i get it you have a lot to answer to for the state however you're also elected and you can fight and you can stand on your feet massapequa plain edge they're making it optional a choice and i understand you're going to make a decision in the near future and i understand it would i get the hard decisions okay i've been in in high authority positions myself and they're tough especially when you're in a position where you have constituents and people that you have to answer to public and then you have the state but there comes a time you have your i don't know if if they're here but you have your you have your school district council you have an attorney and you may
104have to play law fair to make the constituents happy because i know i am prepared to and and please don't take offense to anything i say i'm a frustrated parent okay my child went remote last year because i refused to put her in a mask she was afraid of the mask we tried it and again when your kid says they have a case of the depressions it's hard not to go into a room and cry and not cry when your eight-year-old says that to you i have a case of the depressions well what do you do with an eight-year-old with the case of the depressions when they're the happiest kid in the world because they can't see their friends smile okay so again wear a mask don't wear a mask i'm i'm using i'm i
105think everyone in this room would agree we're all we're practically begging to make the easy practical choice and leave it up to us and be prepared to fight for us against tyrannical new york state if possible that's the only thing we want from our school board and i'm and i'm not going to get into science with the masks but i'm going to point something out i got here at 7 30. i was one of the only ones sitting in the auditorium i walked in and no this is this again it's choice i'm just i'm not going to say it's hypocritical none of the security members here uh school staff wearing masks there was a there was a member of the of the staff here that was talking and she had asked a school board member
106i believe i don't know who it was should i be wearing a mask and they said yes and she ran and put a mask on who's sitting in this room there was a school board member that walked in early took his mask off was talking to that staff member the i.t person that was setting up everything was never masked until he finally said i have to go run upstairs and then he came back and he put his mask on because all the bosses are here that some of you are still sitting in masks some of you have taken them off sitting next to each other you had an executive session before this were you all missed in your executive session we did not have an executive session before this you did not oh it was
107on the calendar that's why i asked okay there thank you very much have a good night good night all right ladies and gentlemen since the beginning i'm going to tell you this the wonton school district has followed guidance from the state and from other officials from other officials that was not developed by the wantout school district right did we not have we not we are still following the guidance it hasn't ended nothing has ended here we have we have one thing to do here and that is to put the safety of the students and every staff member above everybody else and we will continue to do that good night young ladies and gentlemen and thank you for coming one last thing good night hold on hold on hold on one last thing sir one one
108last thing good night thank you for coming sir sir i have i have one thing to say mr mcmahon can i say something quickly i'll be brief [Music] [Applause] if you give me one minute please no miss cassidy can you guys give me one minute [Applause] i think you owe it to the community to have a seat another two minutes why is it over [Applause] you