001I'd like to call the February 24th uh nor Board of Education supporter we could all rise pledge alance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay Mr to here Mr gburger here Mrs Barky here Mrs Gearhart here Mr W here any additions or deletions to the agenda okay agenda is approv bring superintendent updates okay uh a few things here I'll go through them very quickly because I know we have a lot to cover tonight so uh as you know we are getting closer and closer starting the high school edition project just want to give you a brief update on that as part of our strategic PL to get that
002done it seems like uh it's been years and years but we're working for that um after going through the bidding process uh the committee detered two weeks ago to be so as the AR addition the addition includes uh adding a weight room to the high school this will add to our curriculum during the day as we will offer Wellness classes we're just happy to be able to keep the athletes inside the building for planing this purpose for a million reason for safety reasons um but really for during the day we have classes to offer kids who aren't Ed to being in the waiting room to get them accustom to that and have lifelong Health Fitness plans adding a restl in room this will be very Timely you guys know this but our our youth wrestling
003program has over 100 wrestlers participating so we're excited about that uh we're also building Greenhouse that will impact our science curriculum enable our students to have Hands-On approach to to learning science we're also building more storage space for our arts program to include man and chir speaking of that over the weekend you're probably going to talk about this but over the weekend chance to see the Hunchback of Notre Dame and I say it was uh it was really amazing and uh just to point out like I know that um Mr Busby who needs to be congratulated for an outstanding performance it was amazing but they had a set uh they looked at different sets of renting different sets for and and to rent those things cost thousands and thousands of dollars and I don't know
004whose idea it was probably Mr tsh's idea I'm guessing but it was a brilliant idea but but uh to uh decided to build the set and at a at a fraction of the price it would have cost so point being if we do have a storage area that expanded we can we can store things like we set we can reuse that we can run it out to other school districts so uh very happy with that but but more happy with James Welsh is the one who was really driving that he's he's an amazing person we're lucky to have him uh at our school district and uh he's he's been he had a chance to play the lighting the set that was all it was all him was pretty pretty amazing stuff the last thing we'll
005do is renovating the annex which probably has need to be uh done for for many years you I know that we're going to renovate that into locker room hopefully add more not restaurants but toilets in the restroom uh and keep our concession stand as well so we're excited about that uh we just hired architect so we we don't have plans yet but once we have those plans we'll we'll certainly share those with you and the community just you know just a long process and uh the next we'll be betting uh for uh in search of construction company to uh to work with our Architects the timeline so that you know that I'm being very clear with that we hope that to break will be in October of 25 and uh the completion of the entire
006project will be hopefully will be uh early August of 26 it will be just before the school start completion of all so we're happy with that so uh the last couple things I want to point out uh boys basketball amazing victory over my home mod I was very happy to see that actually had R people asking if I was rooting for R and I was like no I don't Ro for R but uh russling also came in fifth place over the weekend from what I understand our K coach Kine was very happy with that play was uh a great success Friday Satur Sunday the Middle School participated in power of the pen although I have no idea how that we end up and also congratulations to feeing debate we have two people qualify for Nationals
007once again we have one as an alternate the last thing I just want to thank publicly officer do he's been our SRO for a while he and Dave McConnell are amazing the best U officers I've ever been around working with kids they are great in in every possible way s um officer go he took the sergeant and pass it he was named Sergeant he be still be in the area he still says he's going to stop by but uh we can't hold back progress I'm very happy for him kind of sad for us uh but he'll be staying on with our C police department but they'll be Sergeant very soon uh he'll be replaced by as SRO officer Alex veils I I know he's a recent graduate I've met him a few times he looks
008I mean I'm an old guy he looks very very young yes but but he uh has a Northwest graduate I want to say what year is in remember 18 16 16 so he is a young gu but congratulations to him as well we're happy to have him on board that's what's happening all right thank you uh student achievement update I stealing you did we going to hear it again all right s it's time to highlight the amazing things that are going on in our school at the primary on Valentine's Day celebration the students enjoyed Valentine's Day parties in their classrooms and they also had kindness this was a big week for all the students of the primary with many valuable lessons and activities each day the students practic different kinds of kindness both at school
009and at home and they especially enjoy when the Stinson students came down to the primary school to read at Stinson career day Stinson's fifth grade students had their annual career day they had an opportunity to interact with several Stinson parents and Northwest Community members who shared their expertise in a of careers we can't thank our volunteers enough for their time and enthusiasm making our career day Absol success for Breakers PBIS the second VIP PBIS party took place this month and several students earned pre admission because they had perfect attendants other students used their earn PBIS bucks for admission it was a lively dance party at aan Children's Hospital for the past 15 plus years our Stinson students have been change makers for a hospital over that time they have raised more than $155,000 and I
010think that's pretty phenomenal donations will be collected in February and students can purchase paper heart for a dollar and they will be displayed in the main lobby one class from each grade level will earn an extra recess with the principal Middle School power the pen that Sean already talked about the Northwest Middle School power the pen creative writing team competed in the region the regional tournament this past Saturday at Lake Elementary School results of the competition will be released in the next two weeks with qualifiers moving on to the state tournament at ashon University on May 21st team members who competed at Lake include eighth graders Joy Timmons Abigail Stitch Olive petrick Bella Gart Sarah and seventh graders Chase Arnold Aubrey eless Chloe Garrett Caitlyn Lewis and roxan maren academic challenge the Middle School academic
011challenge team has been Making Waves during this current season team members recently bounced back from a tough loss to North Canton by knocking off Alliance last week last Wednesday uh the team's final match of the Season takes place this coming Wednesday at Jackson many thanks to Mrs Everly who coached the team throughout the season and basketball we have basketball news in middle school and in high school middle school congratulations to our eighth grade girls and boys basketball teams who both won their respective tournament titles the girls defeated Tesla in their championship game which was held at bville high school the boys team completed a perfect 18-0 season by defeating Manchester in the championship game congratulations to our players and coaches for outstanding season and in the high school in academic news congratulations goes out to
012February students of the month freshman Mary Jane CE sophorn braen vbl Junior Joselyn Wright and Senior Briel rickball the very SU speech and debate team is back at it if you get on Facebook you'll see that they're up there a lot congratulations goes to Tama acres and Miriam olivy uh for making it to the finals in the Ohio speaks original spoken word competition they will both be performing at the state competition in Austin Town pitch High School in March also to Mia and kayy feather offif for the national tournament in Iowa uh Tama is a four time State qualifier and a two-time national qualifier and is currently ranked number one in the state of Ohio the state tournament is on March 1st and 2nd and the National Tournament is in June and in the Arts
013congratulations to the Northwest singers for being selected as one of the four schools in the state of Ohio to be invited to perform at the Oma conference on February 6th and in case you missed it the musical was his past weekend Northwest High School performed the Hunchback of Notre Dame and it was to put lightly breathtaking the students cast directors and musicians put on a show for the ages the students at Northwest put their talents on display for the entire community and they did not disappointed in athletic news both the boys and the girls basketball teams won the pack seven conference League titles outright for the first time in Northwest Rich story history both teams exceeded expectations this year in Staffing news congratulations goes out to our band director Mr stepen Emler he's a finalist
014for the 2025 music educator Year award that recognizes music educators in the region who have positively impacted their students and communities and who have shown great dedication in the field of music education the award will be presented in partnership with the Canton symphony orchestra concert on March 22nd and finally the high school has picked off the brick initiative to help address the declining mental health of our teams team and we're excited to welcome parents and community members Tuesday and Wednesday that's tomorrow and Wednesday of this week to puffen murer Hall where we will discuss the initiative and communicate to parents and communities The crucial role that everyone plays in addressing this Monumental crisis both presentations start at 6 o' and we look forward to partnering together so for the approval of the minutes oh no
015there are no visitors that want to speak to agenda related items unless anybody Char report yep so approval of the minutes um we did not you'll have you'll find a copy of both the organizational meeting and the regular meeting from the January uh 6th uh meeting date in your packet um since we did not get those out um two days prior if everyone would like to just take a minute or two to review those um and if there's any revisions to them uh let us know and then you can vote on Onis contact that we need to he changed since the one you sent out today there's one change and it was a typo um on the second page of the organizational meeting minutes at the top um this had the wrong tax years listed
016that we were uh had moved to accept advances the County section one put the cont cont all the same yes for did for go back and look at the notes come back to that as soon as we get done with this part that's okay as we get done with go ahead thank you okay so what I was asking step about just so everybody here under on the organizational meeting under one25 1.25 it has just the nomination and the second it doesn't have the roll call vote like it does for the vice president side so she's going to look back at notes for that to add that into there there anything anybody else yeah so we need a actually we need a motion to approve the minutes then I then I need to make a motion
017to amend section 1.25 to include the roll call vote thank you and a second okay thank you okay then we vote on going backwards we vote on the update roll call for the update on the minutes and then we do a roll call on the actual Mr yes Mr gindlesberger yes Mrs Cary yes Mrs geart yes Mr Wy yes so now it will be the roll call for the approval of the Amendments as so amended Mr to yes Mr G yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs geart yes Mr L yes everybody's okay we'll pause and go back to the agenda related item anybody have ISS with that okay I apologize my bad okay I Ken in here just wanted to show our support for Middle School go apprciate everything J has done and fors apprciate consideration
018thank you okay anybody else okay going back to treasure report um next item is um a resolution to approve the board to join in with the start Council of government um and the house schools Consortium to uh look into pricing for electric for the district need a motion second any questions that there's potential for a significant increase in electoral rates there is Okay so we've been attending meetings um over at the ESC to discuss this and continue to look at um how we can mitigate these increases so do have any idea what the increases potentially looking like so the challenge that we're having is uh the bills that we're receiving aren't as clear as they could be and so one of the factors um that that's going to drive these increases is is your demand
019rate I maybe misquoting that Stacy jump in among and so it's a portion of your bill and at this point the bill is not clear enough to determine what portion but that portion is going to see a 10 time increase now when I'm looking at other the a bills are much clearer than uh than the First Energy bills are from what I can fig and the ESC is helping us to to um break down our bills we had to get the actual data behind the bills which Stacy was able to get and so now they're going to look at all the districts that are um are with um First Energy and help us do the simulations that they did with the districts that are on a but when I when I looked at it I
020figured it was going to be somewhere between 25 and 45% increase W so again we're we're continuing to work with ESC to get a better Inderal on on all these different factors that play into your bill um and we're also starting to have some discussions internally um talk about the various strategies that we can do to reduce the usage also so to wrap this up what we're voting on here is the availability for us to join let's call a Consortium of other schools to increase our buying power and potentially lower prices to look and see if yes K hourly um rate can be lower and the ESC is doing this no Char sh um is it is it limited like um for residential you have to live in a certain area uh I don't believe
021so no but let me double check that you can shop provider you can your person or company that provides to edic but not you can't switch from Ed to that is all right thank you and we're not locked into using their R this is just so they can for correct okay anything else so what's that well so it it has something to do with the amount of demand overall that's being put on the grid and the capacity that um the energy companies have to generate um and so it's becoming like a commodity that's bought or sold and so um just the share increase in demand is is rising this this up um and what we're hearing is a lot of it has to do with all the technology um and for instance they're indicating that
022the amount of energy it takes to do an AI search through Google as opposed to regular search is like it takes a lot more power just to do that because it's looking at more data and so as more and more of this comes into play um just just the Shar demand for energy anything else Mr chill yes Mr gburg yes Mrs Mrs Mr W yes all right last item on the agenda in Treasures uh is a recommendation to accept the selection of s day architecture uh as a design professional and approving an agreement with Sal players day uh for the district Improvement projects need a motion any questions process I was just going to say yeah we can you want to talk through process the process yes sure um so we we um put out
023a request for qualifications to have local architecture firms um submit back to us um their statement of qualifications and and how you know they felt that they were able to fulfill the needs that we had for this project um we received those back and we had um five of us reviewed them was myself Dr brayman Mr towhill Mr candles bger and Mr freas and we all reviewed those um separately we had three firms that um submitted their statements of qualifications we all reviewed those separately and ranked them based on the items that we asked them to respond to um and then we all got back together and combined all of our scores and and just talked about the proposals overall uh to come up with the ranking that we did and Sol's day ranked first
024um Thrasher group no they were third I'm sorry C architecture rank second and The Thrasher group uh rank third um and once we determine the ranking then um we responded to salul Harris day who then submitted their pricing proposal um timeline and and overall contract items to work with us um and we able to negotiate with them uh to come up with a final contract and and amounts and timelines uh at this point um the next steps for Sal hair's day um would be approving contract with them they would then be part um of our selection of our Construction Group um which we have um rfps out right now for our shortlisted group of of those that submitted for that portion of the project um with the intent of approving that company at the March
025board meeting and then the Architecture Firm and the Construction Group would work together to come up with the exact um drawings and specifications um for for the projects any questions a lot of reading for that stuff some of them were 60 70 Pages worth of documentation all right nothing else go Mr tohill yes Mr gindlesberger yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs Gearhart yes Mr W yes all right Section 8 superintendent recommendations thanks Adam so we have resignations for a number one recommendation to accept the resignation Kelly gar Administrative Assistant to superintendent em coordinator effective February 7 2025 Kelly as you know uh resigned she uh is an assistant got a position as an assistant treasur at Wier City school so we're very happy for her um she'll be missed we realize till she' been gone how
026much she right number two we have recommendations to accept uh the resignation of Sheil asss bus driver due to retirement effect of May 31st at the end of the school year 2025 she was a great person great driver and she'll be Mr all right any motion any discussion Mr to yes Mr gendb yes Mrs Bary yes Mrs geart yes Mr W yes for B salour position adjustments recommendation to hire Amy Johnson from cook at Northwest Primary to head cook at Northwest Primary for zero years experience effect of January 27th 2025 number two recommendation to H Gillette M Laughlin administrative assistant to the superintendent zero years experience effective Mar thir could be soon enough maybe tomorrow even uh 2025 but Julie is here with us I just if I can say a word about that we
027had over 40 applicants for uh that position and uh we interviewed I'm going to say we interviewed 10 people and from that it was very clear there was nothing against the other applicants we had some very strong applicants but Julie was by far uh just very connected to the community uh I said hey why don't you come to the board meeting meet the board knows all you guys so I don't know but but uh she was Head and Shoulders Above the Rest and we're very happy to have her come on board so Julie is here with her family thank welcome AB okay need a second second any discussion thank you for coming tonight thank you congratulations um I had opportunity to meet with um Sean and Steph right after they talk to you and they
028had nothing but positive things to say um so we are looking forward to having the awards I'm excited to play bigger Ro Mr to yes Mr gburger yes Mrs Bary yes Mrs geart yes Mr Wy yes for C supplemental contracts it's a recommendation of the poing person be awarded supplement contracts for the 24 2425 school year contingent upon criminal record check Certification Number of student athletes and there's the list it's a long list no I wanted to ask a question jul questions um so besides the ones that are on your volunteer yes everything else has a [Music] St that is correct yes so one more question for like Junior High track the amount of coaches does that depend on have now students yes they they and quite Frank I mean they all do Depends depending
029on the numbers they have anticipated numbers what they think are going to have we adjust I mean if we only had five show up obviously we' have to have to have some people I've gone through that before that's track is one of those you just never know so there the form there's so many advis depending on the sport yes anything else all right Mr to yes Mr GB yes Mrs Bary yes Mrs Gearhart yes Mr W yes I'll do uh that's okay certified and classified together so for d& certified substitutes Katrina Bales for teacher substitute Olivia Jeffers as teacher substitute classified substitute Stacy B for cafeteria need a motion any questions yes Mr kindleberger yes Mrs Barky yes geart yes Mr way yes the letter F letter F authorization or advertising receiving bids for integrated
030School Bus units whereas northwest school district of Education wish to advertise receive bids for the purchase of a two 277 Passover conventional integrated School Bus units therefore being resolved the national local board education wish to participate authoriz start County Council of govern to adverti bids behalf as for the specification submitted for the coopertive the purchase of two 77 pass integrated School Bus un you guys know as we have discussed in the past we're on a bus rotation and uh that's really I mean it's not necessarily going to happen here if I'm right so I've saying that no it just puts us as part of the group um that the county out as but we don't have need a motion second um how many buses do we have I meant to ask you this afternoon when
031you talk to me I forgot 28 how many 28 28 28 buses so if we even if we replace two every year it takes 14 years to rep 20 not many people drive so and you've say we're all I only say that because I know people always ask why are we buying another bus we don't know if I once that's exactly right we can't if we can wait you know and put mandates on them and hold them but eventually they will begin to just set call then the price will be astronomical so we try to keep a nice even steady flow we're not here I go later plus it's safer that way but and you know being at Capital conference you know how you guys all know how how expensive buses are so we are
032not in the bus of buying brand new shiny spank buses we're trying to buy Ed bus not buses the Elric bues not quite can you collaborate the term integrated integrated school bus um I can't I think from what I looked at the previous resolutions it used to talk about I forget something and a chassis like it was two separate pieces of equipment that that makes sense and I think now they just use the term integrating because I know but I you could probably just like at commercial trucks you can have many cabs or many configurations on a chass so this indicator probably needs exp it's yes it's the whole unit yep what happens to the that we retired yeah so typically we what we found in the past is they really they have no tradein
033value so to speak I mean it's really strange um we've been using an online platform called go deals not just for buses but for other pieces of equipment and I mean we get a little better we get a better um price than we do for a trade in you can buy I was say they're everywhere just in fun most you know my son is now bu and so just for fun every once I will hop online and you can buy 10 15y old scho buses for Grand nothing yeah you know but you don't want it after it's been years old do we have a preference on gas versus [Music] diesel U I think he gets a mix of them I think the last couple we got were gas were gas yes and he we yeah
034we have most of them are diesels I I think we have four or five gas ones and we have one propane anything else all right roll Mr to yes Mr gindlesberger yes Mrs Bary yes Mrs geord yes Mr W yes for G uh Middle School golf Golf Club recommendation to approve a co- Middle School golf club with volunteer coach s g there she is she came just for T night you're not here out the month just for tonight but we're excited to see this program go she's very committed to golf uh if you guys said know that she's quite the golf herself but she's done an amazing job with our girls team I've been to a couple uh couple matches out of lions lions den and the kids look like I mean they're very well
035coached I would say and they look like they're they're enjoying themselves the program has gr how many kids do you have sign up for this possibility of this pretty need a motion second any questions obviously understand volunteer coaching but do we have any estimated or anticipated cost [Music] Isam I'm pretty sure they'll both be willing to let the team Spring Hills oh they were free okay I wasn't sure I don't know what I don't deal that part I just up willing to really involved in growing Sport and students learn during season so just learning an early foral it condensed because of the O season or yes it's Lally like generally a but they've beening a closer to the this year we're starting July but then we're finished pretty much sep start and by aot practice
036match become practices ESS prti so the kids learning at this earli age at Middle School level were definitely impact grow they call the bad you know they they would get the bad things out of their system at the middle school level Le thank you anyone else okay Mr to yes Mr GB yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs geard yes Mr W yes uh for H school calendar just recommend to approve the 25.6 school year calendar I misre that we do have continue to have your approval so that back for your approval motion any questions same one this last month correct is I think option two this is the one that starts on a Wednesday so the stff start on Mr yes Mr gbg yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs geart yes Mr W yes for IBA annual
037membership this is something we do each and every year it's a recommendation to approve resolution to renew the annual membership views for the Ohio school boards Association for 2020 as you guys know provides dire just any kind of General School Board information Direction you guys that theuse they have that and of course they R the they also a lot of um legislative support both in Ling and as well as uh sending out stuff to to us a lot of workshops too yeah any other discussion just for the sake of transparency can we make public that oh sure you I think it was just under 7,000 anything else okay Mr to yes Mr gburg yes Mrs Barky yes Mrs Gearhart yes Mr Ryan Yes uh for letter J sixth grade Camp recommendation to approve the uh
038the trip for sixth grade Camp to new hop leaving April 30th 25 and returning May 2nd 2025 need a motion discussion oh yeah I happened to notice last year when they were in doing the presentation that it was the same cabin that fell down the steps I was no I didn't anything else all right roll call Mr yes Mr yes mrsy yes geart yes Mr Wy yes uh the last thing I have for donations for K recommendation to accept a donation of 1,500 from bful gifts for lunch help us out we appreciate everything they do I'm uh I I step in I I don't meet all the time when they meet each each I to make many I just just awesome do a lot of donation need a motion this is in addition to the
039,000 from last month ah yes so that being said why in our lunchroom can our children not get two lunches if they this is an issue um Growing Kids that three chicken nuggets ain't going to cut it so why can they not get lunches and they are told the lunch when they are trying to get food is there is not enough you'll have to wait usually it's the first lunch or the second Lunch Period or whatever so this being said we're getting free money child is willing to P also but they also being told they [Applause] get we can look into it what grade level are Middle School and High well more high school I should say be clarifi more High School we' be able to purchase more food old especially when it's say pizza
040day Pizza Hut you have teenage boys that order free lunches because they want three pieces of pizza and they're not on they're paying it out of our pocket and they are essentially told no but the last period lunches can buy a whole box of pizza now we know that these kids are going to want more they are growing teenager boys they again if you want to talk about Mental Health then okay I mean can we fix that I mean like like tomorrow because I me that's that's a big problem for all of our schools I can tell you that I did not know that they two but I do I can share with you the is that kids don't order they show up in the cafeteria supp to put their and I'm just and then
041uh everybody's First Choice is gone and then we have students complaining that oh well there are no more chicken nuggets I'm being enough and and that I don't know if that's the reason why but but I know that happens but you also have kids going to school and high school at third period so essentially you order a first period so now your third period kids are just left out with free chicken nuggets I mean that's that's super unacceptable I did not know they wer allowed to but that's I would assume roll call Mr toille yes Mr gburger yes Mrs Barky M Kart yes Mr Wy yes okay recognition of visitors to speak to any other um issues that they wish to discuss um we have Alison and Sarah whichever one okay thanks for the opportunity
042to speak I'm Sarah Simon I'm the SAR County mon Liberty chap or chair can everybody hear me I'm gu I'm pretty loud um so I wanted to talk today about the uh brick initiative um I missed November's meeting but thankfully the school board meetings are recorded so I was able to watch it I've been sending a few emails and trying to get information about this um so the the Brick program is focusing on youth Mental Health crisis and specifically cell phones as the cause so I really did try to dig into this on my own I tried to find a website for this and found out that this is a Northwest initiative Mr toos is leading it and and I do find it a bit interesting because I did watch like I said I did
043watch the the the PowerPoint presentation we saw some stats and then there was kind of a Eureka moment cell phones that's the crisis that's what's been causing everything for a decade that's why we're seeing the big uptick so I did also listen to the podcast that was available I feel like the community needs to know this uh the podcast because when I watched podcast I thought this was from an organization um but it is not it was an AI generated podcast from the school I feel personally that it was kind of deceptive because when I watched it originally I did not get that vibe there was no disclosure on that so we're seeing this roll out of and I think it's worth mentioning anytime that I hear the school acting like a mental health expert
044or a medical expert those are big we FL for me I S my kids for school gr education nothing more so I feel like that needs to be disclosed to parents that this is a Northwest initiative and were there uh mental health experts included and consulted for this I have no idea it was brought up during the uh presentation maybe Tuesday and Wednesday I can ask it then in addition this initiative kind of hit a ner with me um I went through Co with everybody else I watched the force masking of students I got emails uh from the school promoting the vaccine my kid was a non-mass wearer he was stre like a second class Citizen and quarantined while other students wearing masks and vaccinated were not uh I didn't forget that happened uh children
045were living in fear forced to mask and forced into isolation that happened based on school policies there was Mental Health crisis that Amplified it but yet here we go the school is going to come in and save the day even though they were part of the problem and playing the problem I personally have a problem with that also worth noting in this action plan there's four proms hold off giving your child a smartphone until age 16 no social media until 16 return to play based childhood those are all parent initiatives that is our job what we decide to do with that our business business and then there's the phone free schools which is going to be up to the board whether or not that takes place so out of those three out of these four
046items three of them are direct at the parents so is that inferring that the parents are the problem there's a mental health crisis that's a high pedestal that you put yourselves on to be looking down us given how you handle things also worth mentioning aside from the massive Co failure I've heard nothing about Chromebooks I haven't seen a textbook in years from my kids how much screen time is my child on a Chromebook at school but we're going to talk about cell phones let's talk about what's happening in at school where's the list of the applications my children are on they used to be on the old website it got refreshed I have no idea what apps my kids are using at the school or how much time they're spending on a Chromebook or what
047the curriculum even is because it's on a Chromebook bowling has been an ongoing issue at Northwest yet the Northwest bowling incident summary online hasn't been updated since 2021 and if you look at the past incidents there's one to two per year we know that's we know that's not right we know it's much higher than that and bullying does directly affect mental health issues lastly the youth Mental Health crisis if this is a serious topic that is affecting our area manipulating this crisis to justify a schoolwide cell phone band which is what this in my opinion what this is all about is justifying it by creating a brick program without consulting mental health specialist fabricating an AI podcast to me which by the way that violated the AI board policy that was passed in November all
048right clearly two violations in that let's leave by example and fabricating AI podcast to manifest cred credibility for the program is not just appalling but it's also thank you for your com thank you I'm going to add standing up that's fine you are permitted um so we're obviously going to be talking about cell phones first I have three different agendas that I want to talk about the cell phones so we are essentially going to spend a large amount of money to put their our kids' cell phone in magnet pouches around my estimate is around 50 to 80,000 that's my research that I got not close what is it going to be 15 15,000 but we need to cut the budget because our electric bill is so high well wouldn't that just cover that I mean
049we're spending money when we're trying to save money when we are implementing steps right now to combat no cell phones in I can agree with that I can agree with no cell phones at all at schol what I can't agree is they can't have access if they need it our schol no one's schools are ever safe and until you can guarantee me that my child walking through this door is 100% safe they're going to have their cell phones they're going to break the rules I'm not putting my kids cell phones in there it's another electronic device magnet going all through this school who knows what radiation that puts off even more um I'm not doing it now if my kids get caught on a cell phone then they should be in trouble absolutely there's no
050reason a cellone to be in a classroom but the hallway sometimes kids need to call their parents sometimes kids need a text there's been incidents is I'm keep just with fooling I have I deal with a ton of people all day tons of parents have said their kid has contacted them through a text I need to leave now because so and so is completely harassing me XYZ is happening they've come to the school they've come to principles nothing has stopped where that kid doesn't feel safe enough to go to a teacher or principal and redo this again they just need to leave the situation we've all been there we all have kids it's it's Happ um like if an emergency happens now my kid can't call 911 or call their parents to say Heaven's forbid
051bye we've seen in the past of other school shootings of some sort I do not think it's going to happen here but that's a realistic thing I want my kid to not be like oh pause let me go to the magnet station unlock my phone and try to call and if that's the case that we want our kids to have no cell phones at all we're teaching them how to be adults that I feel that the staff and the school doesn't need to have cell phones they have a working phone in their office or their classroom or the office they have the internet with emails if we want to lead by example we need to lead by example there many times I've walked into all of these schools and you have staff on the phone
052and all of that which I don't necessarily disagree but now you're saying they can you can that's we're TR in less than six months you have 18-year- olds going to go off to war essentially right you're trusting them with bullets am guns but you can't trust them to put their on so there's that can I inter so what is the problem with using that I don't know if everybody can see it the thing on the wall it the number thing putting their cell phones in it what's wrong with that you want now yeah uh we need our guarantee and our promise to our parents our is that our students will go s hours 6 and half hours without any distractions on their phone I know staff are on their phone but our staff has they
053bring of AD what we're trying to do is we're going to try to limit the amount of time that our kids we going through puberty are spending on the on their cell phon social media and those times of things uh when you look at the classroom changes kids are on their cell phones I mean we call them zombie zombie hallways because the kids are SC just looking at the notification that they got I took a student's cell phone on Friday and while he was with me for less than 20 minutes he got 50 notifications from his friends um from other schools from not from Northwest but his Snapchat was just going and going so when they change their classrooms and they're down and they're looking at I mean they they could fall down the Serv
054watch them sometime our hallways are quiet the kids are all on your phone also at lunch if you see their lunch tables there's eight kids around all will be on the cell phones um once you give them a cell phone it becomes the center of their life nothing else stimulates them there is exciting is that uh we were at a basketball game last Friday night if anybody not Friday it was last Tuesday or Wednesday night the girls we had a student section they stood up when the game was playing as soon as they called time out every kid sat down and took B out their phones on their cell phone because they trying like what's going on and then as soon as a whistle blew they stood up again those types of of opportunities where
055they're all I was going to take a picture and say and like look at this but I was I was like oh my goshes this is the saddest thing I've ever seen I mean it was they're just so attractive to your phones and you probably think of it too when you're watching a TV show as soon as the commercial comes on you grab your cell phone we're trying to give our kids 7 hours of no phones of no phones whatsoever I do know it's impacting them he unfortunately I've been here in 2012 I've seen the rise in mental health I've seen what's been introduced to our young people and I know what's happening to them I met with the CBC in Atlanta in 2018 multiple times as they came in and tried to study the
056suicide contagion I've lived this I've been ready for this fight for six years but finally Sean Bron given me the opportunity and the school board supporting us I'm no longer willing to put Band-Aids on what's going on I'm trying to address the situation I guess we're not disagreeing that cell phones don't need to be in school I'm not disagreeing with that what I'm disagreeing with is completely locking up a phone where a child doesn't have accessibility if they need it that's my thing until you can promise me that my kids are going I can't guarantee that guarantee and I never s my kids without a cell phone period I don't go to a friend's house they don't go to the mall they don't go go out to eat it's a safety reason we are not
057in the 80s anymore where we cannot be or have accessibility to our phones I mean I would tell and I would say that if we were in the worst case scenario we all talk about this the elephant in the room if that were ever to happen safety experts will tell you they don't want kids on phones they want them listening and paying attention if you saw the video from the Delta plane looked over top the were yelling on the video get off your phones we got to get out of the plane people were videotaping a phone doesn't make you safer it does make mom and dad feel better if I need a phone call but if we're going to talk about safety we want kids attentive paying attention to off their phones now I will
058tell you every classroom will have a pair of he heavy shears that if there was an emergency they can cut the bags open and the par the kids can then call their parents once the immediacy of the situation ends but I think we all we do not kids on their cell phones in the middle of an emergency we want them attentative paying attention following directions and then they can make But there again we have a free system that we are using and is working in classrooms I get the hallways and I get the lunches okay that's where you're going to do your job and say put it away I catch it I take it parent gets call they have to come get it you're getting suspended I'm totally for all that I'm just not for
059completely eliminate they can put in their backpack I talked to many different principles around this area put in your backpack put in your locker and if I see it out it's gone with lunch I can agree to disagree with that but what are these you're talking about mental health but we have tons of kids that sit by themselves at lunch because they don't have friends or their friends are not in their lunch period they have their cell phone for an outlet what did we do before cell phones I just we had kids that were super depressed that were super sad so now suicide 134% increase in anxiety and depression well what what I'm saying is you're still going to have that just because you take away a cell phone or not allow them to be
060adults and put them away I should say I think it's a dangerous game to look at cell phones and say that's the factor causing everything no no no please I I it is a factor it's not the only Factor there's genetics there's domestic problems there are substance abuse at home there's a long list of issues so it but I think that you're a slippery soap to take such a hard stance about something and there's two sides to every point question if you're saying it's not the factor you're reping it is a factor it is a factor but defitely can I question hold on one second just so that we're we're clear on everything we're well past the the two minutes per per person I'm just I'm just saying we're we're bouncing between people we have
061to be you guys got the point okay the next one would be food there again we're talking about mental health why are we feeding our kids in the morning Donuts cereal bars that are full of sugar processed food carcinogens as we all know and then wondering why they can't sit still in class or their behavior is bad again mental health if we want to I mean if we're going to go with the full mental health thing let's start feeding our kids real food or partial real in the morning for kindergarteners I mean we got to be joking right that that's not acceptable at all in today's world especially now that I know that we're getting money for lunches people are donating money um and why are we not really cooking like for example our hamburgers
062just an example we just microwave them we just microwave them cuz that's eat that every I mean who who wants to eat that that's not nutrition that's gross why can't we fix the problem of our food um third thing is the seniors why do the seniors need to be there for four periods out of the day when they let's just say have one or two classes the other two periods need to be a study or working in the office I do not have a senior but I have a lot of senior parents that have wanted me to ask this question and how call school yeah call well I mean I I do want to know though too I mean eventually I'm going to have a senior and we're trying to implement these kids growing up
063being adults you know why can they not leave to go to a work force give me a call we can talk about that I mean there's a long list reasons okay so done with the recognition of visitors that for matters they wish to discuss Jeff if you wanted to say because I C you all and I apologize that's fine I I I just think we're we're taking things to an extreme here so if we can all agree that the phones are at least at a contributing factor to decline in mental health and the increase in suicides and depression and all the things that is has been medly proven by studies then if we're not going to we can't say it's everything but it's the one thing that a district can address it's one thing that
064a district can control we can't control what goes on once the kids leave these doors and what's going on at home or in athletics outside clubs and things that happen outside of our doors but we're actually trying as a district to do something positive instead of just pushing it aside ignoring it putting our fingers in our ears and saying this has no effect is the magnet case the ultimate and all I don't know I need to do some research on that myself and see what done for other districts and helping with those numbers but to just plug my ears and say no no no no no that wouldn't be right by the kids or the district to not at least look at this and this is all we're doing at this point the board has
065not voted on any of this we have not talked about we're doing this yes it's definitely happening it's a study and I'm going to listen to every single person in this community what my time sorry we're going to listen to every single person has an opinion on this and at the end of the day the people in this community the parents and the citizens they vote us to these positions so therefore I'm going to do what they want and what the majority of them want not the one that yells the loudest but what the majority of the community wants us to do try to help kids how do you know the majority of the commun wants this do you want us to walk down the street paper ballots we're going to talk to people you
066get send out a survey that's fine all right so one last thing um just because it was mentioned the bical gifts uh donations are for unpaid so those are majority of the students that cannot afford um their the lunch feed so that's what um go specifically for so it's not big wind call in using that for Cle times can I have one more thing too there are many great things happening in our district you guys that I and I do support this initiative I think it's uh it is well meaning with lots of good intentions there it is a new thing and we're not we're talking about a process beginning in the uh in the fallowing new school year so I know that Mr Tosh is having a night tomorrow night is at 6 o'cl
0676 o' for uh primary and Stinson parents tomorrow and then the day after for high school middle school parents quick question about that is it essentially the same for both they're very similar no no reason to know about both if you get okay we're trying to do a lot of things to take care of uh and meet the needs of all of our kids I think this is a a very ambitious idea and I support it so uh you know if you guys have questions want to know more about it that be a good place to start thank you need a sorry I'm back here behind the door so is this our daughter is in sixth grade and I she's probably the only one in middle school that doesn't have a phone she probably but
068will this 15,000 be for each school because I know it's a problem that middle school too with kids having phones which is a problem that can stem at home as well I'm not disagreeing with phones I think it's horrible but it's just as bad for us parents to be on them all the time it's a learned behavior now is the are we getting bols for the middle school and Elementary because I'm seeing it I mean our daughter gets made fun of a lot because she doesn't have the phone but she can go ahead and get made fun of because that's not going to change our Rule and our policy at our house but are we doing the bols too at the other schools or is this just the high school problem right now it's just
069the high school okay uh Middle School scared comp and that's kind of colletive action to support so that phone I'm only without cell phone because then it is isolation it is isolation but what if like half the class more than half class parents all got together to I job using parents to say no rather than always being harass yeah and I I think cell phones like you know we grew up in the ' 80s and 90s we didn't have anything we were the first group to have school shootings and things like that and I understand the scare of it but I don't really agree in a vault thing I agree in maybe tossing it in somewhere or more of a penalty kind of thing I do think it's a little ridiculous but also it's ridiculous
070it's got to this point um is or donations that the school can get rather than us foring out the money um is that an option that they have as well I don't I don't know this is the first thing I'm heard about these F things I I think it's I mean it's so sad that it's got to this point okay so two things one um we need to talk about next meeting um and two for stett and anybody who talked we need the uh public participation at board meeting um sheet filled out please I'm going to go against Mr wag said he would listen to everything everybody had to say he just that on okay I've heard this it's totally like I just heard this so that's one so um I I just want to
071make sure like that's something that they not and then is my youngest he does take a cell phone it's in his book bag off during the day he has after school like I can't get to him I can call he is so scared to get caught and it's not a bad thing it's not thing he knows the rules he knows take it and I told him like on that it's yours it's gone I'm not getting you another you have to put up with you have to so I applaud the teers there know that those are the rules and you know ever happens get CAU with that so at I do I apprciate they what about the that true so as many of you probably know my son did the did the he was at drag
072was um I know it was incredibly difficult scheduling wise drag helps a little bit with that um but I've also heard that I'll call it a rumor because I yet to get confirmation from anyone about it um I have asked several times and every time the question has kind of gotten pushed and not completely answered um so I will I will make that commitment that I will push harder and concrete cancer I've also heard the same thing about the programs to go into Dr for but she really wants to be she's like I don't want to give up this this like I said I I can tell you that I will push harder because again i' I've gotten let's let's call it cloudy answers so get with me and and I would say this to
073anybody as well um I hear a lot of people ask questions and things and over the course of the last however many months since I've been doing this but yet I have not ever gotten one single email question on our publicly uh broadcast email addresses and meaning people in the community have questions and they like to uh kind of say the board's not doing anything and the school's not doing anything but yet I I in I can't remember how 13 months or mon whatever I've gotten zero emails from any asking a question about anything we had the property tax technically address to all of us that did come to all I I you get my point so please if there are questions like this out there in the community those addresses are public let us
074know and tomorrow night and Wednesday night 6 all right okay board meeting for March was it because it was on oh I no it was spring break spring break okay there was a date yes 1 okay we moving yes so next next for meeting will be March 17 2025 we also think the Mur okay need a motion toour the meeting second okay all in favor