Forest Hills School Board Meeting 4-17-24

001e e e on my back up L said I'm very bad about knocking my thumb into Li you jump off of there oh yeah a blanket hello good evening I call this regular board meeting of the Forest Hills Board of Education Wednesday April the 17th 2024 to order item 1.0 call to order Mr bib here Dr Simmons here Mrs Stewart here Dr strickler here Mrs Jonas here item 1.3 the Pledge of Allegiance please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all item 1.4 the safety briefing there is an exit at the top of the steps and at the bottom of the steps item 2.1 motion to adopt the agenda can I

002get a motion to either adopt the agenda or amend the agenda I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda second Dr Simmons yes Mr bib yes Mrs Stewart yes Dr strickler yes Mrs Jonas yes item 3.1 a motion motion to approve items 3.1 and 3.2 as presented can I get a motion I'll make a motion to approve items 3.1 and 3 two 3.4 3.4 as presented yes second Dr strickler yes Mr bib yes Dr Simmons yes Mrs Stewart yes Mrs Jonas yes sorry guys I was looking at the wrong agenda that's why that was wrong um special recogn s Mr hook yes we're excited every year at this time we uh we ask each of our buildings to find one which is nearly impossible to find a a volunteer that we want to recognize uh

003but they have complied and at least are going to name one because they're just fantastic um so we're going to start right away with I believe it's Kyle here let come on down and uh the rest of the principles and their guests can move make their way down the steps and we'll roll through this this is always a very special uh time of year for a lot of reasons and honoring our esteemed volunteers uh is certainly one of those things that this time of the year we look forward to like Mr hook said choosing just one is a nearly impossible task but I wanted to make sure to highlight Allison tonight as a a volunteer that stands out amongst the pack uh for a lot of reasons and I'll try to be brief so that

004so that we're not here all night because I'm sure every principal feels like they could gush on their their person but Allison has stepped up in a wide variety of of ways we talk about the academics arts and Athletics at Anderson Allison has volunteered in all three of those areas over the last several years she's been a vice president on our PTO team it's not just because part of her duties is taking care of the treat trolley for the staff every month didn't hurt uh but uh that's just one of the many ways that she brings joy to Anderson High School through her selflessness of her time and energy and resources she works tirelessly with our bowling team which has been having an incredible run over the last couple of years she even Subs uh

005she responded to the call a few years ago when we were short on subs and we just kind of put that blurb out in our family updates Allison was one of the few to raise her hand and say I I'll do that I will help in a tough time and that's really what Allison's all about she does the right thing for the right reasons at the right time and I'm incredibly thankful that we have her in our organization to make Anderson High School a better place so thank you Alison [Applause] while we're transitioning Allison even came back and helped me with coin Wars it sure would even though she doesn't have a kid there anymore so yeah we'll just kind of go secondary and then we'll start moving down through the elementaries and okay well

006great well it is uh is my honor to uh to talk to you a little bit about Laura T soon um once again uh just like Kyle said and everybody's going to say the same thing you know there's 20 or 30 or more parents that we could bring here tonight however um I'll tell you about Laura you know as far as our um school store Spirit Shop she is the one behind it she's been behind it for years uh the one that selects what we get in uh does the designs and then not only all that she's either typically it's her there or if not she has additional parents and she schedules those parents there during our um during every time we have you know our larger home games it's open moves everything outside so

007people can see it especially for football games and moves everything back in and then does that over and over and over again and then if that wasn't enough she thought you know what I feel that we're not getting enough students that are coming to this you know what if we have a student that wants to buy something and they don't have they can't get here in the evening to a game I'll just open it during flux on every Monday so and she asked me if that was okay I said absolutely if you want to come every single Monday during the day and that's exactly what she did the designs are amazing I mean I look really good in almost all the gear and not to mention we even had to bring in uh I'm not

008the easiest person to fit and uh we actually had to bring in some additional material which I don't want to get into right now but just to fit me but no she does an outstanding job and uh so happy to to have her everyone appreciates it and uh uh just could can't say enough things about uh about [Applause] Laura good evening um as the others have already shared we're so happy to be able to here tonight to recognize our volunteers um I'm excited to recognize Jamie holler and she serves as our um VP of concessions on our PTO exec board um as everyone will share tonight we are so grateful for the parents and the community members that show up to help us in the building with our kids supporting the events that are taking

009place um at the middle school we even more grateful because sometimes U maybe your kids don't want you around all the time and so we're grateful for those parents that keep leaning in um to the experiences that we can provide students especially because we know you're coming from your Elementary hom where you've built those connections and so being able to keep leaning in and supporting the work that we're doing we're just really grateful for that um Jamie has an eighth grader right now and assumed to be nigh Hawk who will be um speaking a little bit this evening as well so um some of the work that we're we know that Jamie is really proud of but we're also really thankful for is um through her work and getting all of the volunteers to support

010our concessions they also have a lot of small businesses like the rundo um Pizza that um have they come in and they recognize them and partner with them in all the work that we do um with the concessions they've raised just over $111,000 this year um and so all of that is able to go back to support the work that we're doing um at Nagle and with our PTO so always grateful for Jamie and the work she does um I know that Zach McCormack our athletic director pointed out um that while she does the work in getting volunteer she also really really wants to make sure kids are taken care of so when they can stay after school and be involved in the activities that they're also fed um and they're taking care of so

011we appreciate everything you do that's awesome hi everyone my name is Heather Holly I'm the principal at era Elementary I am here tonight to honor and recognize Carolyn Peta Patty as our volunteer of the Year recipient Carolyn's involvement at air has truly been remarkable she has always been a supportive member of our school not only when it comes to her own children but also for the benefit of our entire School Community these past two years were spent serving as our PTA lead for Global Adventure day which is our annual celebration of cultures and traditions around the world it is truly an unbelievable and unique experience it also takes so much prep work and planning behind the scenes another large task that she has taken on in her current role as PTA Treasurer this year she

012has really helped support the transition of our air PTA to an air PTO Carolyn takes on these huge projects and never complains at least not out loud when I asked our staff what they appreciated the most about Carolyn's support comments were shared that Carolyn has always been so positive and eager to help others for years she has taken on Destination Imagination teams she has helped make author visits possible for our entire school she has been a staple in our viie program for many years and so much more the biggest theme from our staff is that Caroline just loves helping others and we couldn't be more thankful for her ongoing support I asked one Falcon Harry a fifth grader at air what all this volunteer work meant to him as a son who sees his mom

013do so much for the school and his response was I just love that I get to see my mom at school he also shared his favorite event that his mom has helped with over the years is definitely Global Adventure day Carolyn's selfless generous attitude and approach often show up in many ways that are behind the scenes and without recognition but the truth is that she should be recognized publicly because she does so much for so many she should be honored because of re tireless work and making era a better place it is my pleasure and honor to recogn to recognize Carolyn pip Patty this evening and to show our immense gratitude for your dedication and support of air thank you [Applause] Carolyn yep all right good evening my name is Joy O'Brien I have the

014honor of being the Maddox Elementary School principal and I would like to introduce you to Barbara purcel um Barb's daughter Abby started in kindergarten in 2018 and Barb got excited about volunteering and jumped right in she's decorated our hallways with artwork she's held a bookmark design competition for our students and she's been the Forest Hills Council PTO representative for four years and served as the VP of communications for our PTO board she has also served as our VP of student services so Barb is very very active and visible in our school Barb has been a part of making many special memories at Maddox and even today Barb showed up to be a hallway monitor for OST bathroom breaks so that was awesome to see her there welome I did ask her daughter Abby who is

015a fifth grader hi Abby at Maddox if she wanted to share anything about her mom so this is a message from Abby and I might cry too I'm happy my mom helps at school because I have more time to be with her she can also come with me on field trips in third grade I went on a trip to the museum and my mom got to help I'm very proud of her and I think my mom is the most amazing person in the world congratulations Barb [Applause] good evening I'm Jody Davidson and I'm the principal here at Mercer Elementary School it is my pleasure to recognize our volunteer of the Year Johanna good in 2022 I had this random idea that we would change our outdated preschool playground into a garden as it would had

016to be removed Johanna sent me an email asking what would the commitment be and what would the volunteers be required to do being a humble person she of course downplayed her knowledge and her willingness to help Johanna worked with the teachers to create a student friendly space for all of our children students recycled their pumpkins grew new ones planted flowers and learned about the native plants that they are growing this year alone Johanna has um over 180 documented hours during the school day of volunteering when I asked her son what he loved about his mom volunteering at school he responded we get to come to Mercer almost every weekend when she works in the garden we play on the playground so that's the undocumented hours the Mercer staff would like to formally thank her for

017her dedication and passion for the Mercer garden thank you Joanna good evening Board of Education and all of our distinguished guests I'm Dan Hamilton the principal at Sherwood and uh I I won't reiterate exactly what they said but I I will tell you uh before I introduce uh my guest um I walked out into our office the other day and talked with my admin assistant uh Mary Mitchell and as I walked out and talked with her I stopped and I looked and we had two people two parent volunteers working on the Carnival we had six more parents who were walking in to help with the walking club and then we had two more parents who were stuffing staff mailboxes with all the stuff and I just stopped said this just doesn't happen anywhere else right

018we can't do the things we do without these people so uh we really do appreciate them so I am here tonight uh to introduce Sherwood's volunteer of the year uh Danielle quails uh a uh I want to First say that Danielle is a um honored alumni of Anderson High School very proud of that um and her current role at Sherwood right now I'm going to start with this is she is our PTO treasur so some of you who know how our pto's run that's a pretty big job and it's a small piece of what she does so I'm just going to start start with that uh other things that she does she organizes and was the chair of our back to school bash which the beginning of the year um helps kick off the school

019year for all of our students she's also been a co-chair and has helped with our Carnival which is another massive event that's going to be coming up uh very shortly um she's also been a part of chairing and co-chairing our picture day and our yearbook and there's just so many other things that she's done it's like it's exhausting just to even say those things um she also volunteers weekly believe it or not in the classrooms helping out our teachers uh with copying and other tasks that they have I think the most important thing for me is she jumps in whenever um she can and so I know when there's a event that comes up uh one of the PE one of the things that people often say is that um she's always looking at what

020is best for kids so how can we improve and make this event a little bit better um I asked our PTO president uh to share a few words about Danielle and this is what Katie said she said Danielle is one of the most thoughtful generous and community-minded V unteers at Sherwood Danielle constantly strives for uh strives to help those around her she continuously considers the needs of the students and the teachers of Sherwood and finds a way to support them if there's an event at Sherwood you can often find Danielle there lending a helping hand and we're so grateful to have her as a part of our Sherwood Community and we're stronger because of it like the others I did ask Silas her second grader a few words uh I explained the award and it

021was funny I said you know your mom's getting this really cool award and he was kind of like yeah it's cool every day that's great um and so I said what is something that you notice that you just think makes your mom so special um that you notice about her that you want to share and the thing that he said to me was she's just so happy and to me that just speaks volumes at I think what you know her own kids see um and what we see when Danielle is a surewood so thank you Danielle for all that you do good evening everyone I'm Michelle saled the principal at Summit Elementary home of the bees it is a great honor to introduce Katie dly as our PTO volunteer of the Year Katie has been

022a PTO volunteer for four years um this year she is our VP of communications doing our weekly beine which is a huge job but she also has been our chairperson for staff appreciation week which I know the staff has really loved all that she has done for that over the years eat for Summit and social media she helps every year with the yearly PTO audit and has volunteered regularly in class rooms for the last four years what I really love about working with Katie um because she is always just so kind she always has a smile on her face and she is so flexible with anything that comes Her Way Beyond all of those extra responsibilities she is also one of our Summit Building Subs so she is working several days you know at some

023Summit besides doing all of these extra duties um Mrs dully was voted as our volunteer of the Year by our entire Summit staff but Mrs Lucas her um daughter's first grade teacher initially nominated her for the vote Mrs Lucas shared Katie has volunteered as a room parent in our class she spends countless hours planning engaging activities for the seasonal parties she's donated books and other Learning Materials in the classroom and she often helps prepare material materials for the students daily learning like some others of shared I called um Katie has three children at Summit Elijah who's in fourth grade Carson is in third grade and Charlotte AKA Charlie who is in first grade when I called the kids to the office today to kind of talk about this tonight the first thing I said to

024him was you're not in trouble they appreciated that and then I said you know you know about your mom's award tonight and I asked them how they kind of feel about having their mom as such a strong volunteer at school they said we appreciate all of her help we love seeing her at school she helps my teacher by helping other students in the classroom we are really proud of her for getting this award Katie thank you so much for all your time and dedication at our school over the past four years and congratulations on this recognition thank you good evening I'm Ain store the principal at Wilson it is my pleasure to honor Lauren hiler for always going above and beyond for our Wilson Community Lauren selflessly dedicates her time to enriching our Wilson Community

025whether she is spending endless hours counting pennies through our Penny War collection for shop and share or serving on our PTO exec board Lauren is all in all the time she truly is all about doing what is best for our wild cats it is it's been a pleasure working with Lauren over the years and I am grateful for all she does to make Wilson a wonderful place for our students staff and families Lauren thank you so much and if we could Josh I'm gonna let you okay if you guys want to go out for pictures that' be outstanding and as they're going again congratulations to all our outstanding volunte tears congratulations all as it was said as as they're walking out as it was said this is the tip of the iceberg you know we're

026just incredibly incredibly blessed in Forest Hills to have families and and the support that we get um the tremendous time and dedication energy that goes into it you can go into any one of our elementary trees secondaries and you're going to see the work going on on a daily basis so thank you to all of our parents not just our are ones that were recognized tonight we just have a great group so thank you Larry I'd like to add to that uh you know it's so easy to get caught up you know the emails that we get as a board is like people angry about different things that they're not happy with the school district's doing and you know I tot can't stop saying how much we love this school district how much our son

027loves this school district and when you go and you see not just the teachers but the volunteers helping to put on everyday activities to larger activities like Field Days 5Ks uh just different events uh Book Fairs all that type of stuff that volunteers make it happen so it's awesome yeah we're we're really blessed I'm telling you it's not that way everywhere just isn't so thank you item 5.1 for Stills Teachers Association Mr Preston hi there good evening uh I have two brief updates for you tonight first our buildings are in the middle of administering Ohio state test known as osts to our students our teachers have been working hard all year long to ensure that our students are confident and ready for these State tests for Stills Teachers Association is committed to support suppor in

028continued professional development datadriven decision making and collabora and collaboration between Educators administrators and parents in order to sustain positive outcomes second fhda remains engaged in promoting the professional growth well-being and advocacy of our teaching staff within our district we express our willingness to continue to work with you the Board of Education to achieve our shared vision of ensuring success for all students we look forward to furthering our efforts with you in making a positive impact on the lives of students teachers and the community as a whole thank you thank you thank you item 5.2 Forest Hills foundation for Education Mrs Gillard good evening um my name is Stacy Gillard um like Mrs Jonah said and I am thrilled to be here tonight um we are days away weeks away I should say of the forest

029HS 5K which is on Saturday May 11th I have a lot of folks with us here tonight that I know wanted to share a lot of exciting things that are happening between now and May 11th um so if you go to the next slide Miss Flora first and foremost if you are ready to enjoy nice weather tomorrow cuz it's not supposed to rain um join us at the 5K pre-party which is going to be held at wandering monsters from 5:30 to 7:30 um they are generously giving back 10% of food sales to the kids um and also we've been promoting this with the over 600 running club students at all the elementaries that we have participating in the race which has been great um I also want to give a special shout out um um

030when you I remember three years ago when I came into this role and saw like how big the 5K was um and know how much it has grown in the last few years it really takes a team of people it's not one it's not two many times it's many many people and so I wanted to publicly thank tonight um Amy Heist and Lauren tishler who are the co-chair of the race this year they're going to say a few words in a minute Sarah flora and Mana hail who are in charge of all of our sponsorships Megan wolf and Laura Dino the Afterparty and pre-party and Jamie hollerin and Stephanie Brown with our volunteers so I know Jamie was actually just recognized earlier so I have some fun students here that we're going to just say

031a few words and then I'm going to turn it over to Lauren and Amy I like the 5K because it brings our community together one thing I like about the 5K is I get cool snacks and stuff and I like seeing my mom work there oh and and when you support the for SS 5K you're supporting the students go to the next slide so I remember what I'm talking about okay so how can you get involved you can register today uh registration is already live we've got it pouring in one thing we did change this year um as everybody probably knows cost of everything went up so one of the ways we're trying to mitigate that is it's just $2 for a t-shirt if you want it but you can also opt out um if

032you can't attend um you can still do a virtual option um you can still come hang out at the after party come to the pre-party um and we are always always looking for volunteers which if Jamie comes back in she might she's in charge of volunteers you get a really cool blue shirt um and the UPS Store our locally owned UPS Store actually sponsored all the volunteers and getting all the things they need um so we hope you sign up for that you go to the next one awesome and then um it takes a whole lot of incred rible sponsors to be able to make this event go one of them um that we just mentioned was uh The UPS Store a locally owned UPS Store uh Tri-State running has been incredible they have done

033so much one of the things was uh sponsoring the Run groups this year and they are also offering 20% off on run gear for students for parents if you go in there and you mention the 5K go to the next one all right and then we have solidified our prizes prizes so um schools get prizes based on participation percentage and so for elementary they're going to get whatever whoever's the top elementary participation they'll get free Kona um the top Secondary School will get coupons for a free gold star Coney the staff with the highest percentage point this is always a really hot ticket item um is two free Riverbend tickets and the um amazing Jersey mics uh donated they'll give the second place staff all lunch so these are really great prizes that um we

034can't wait to tell who the winners are right now um air is in the top fundraising position and Laura Denna who's on our team is the top individual fundraiser but there's still lots of time so it's heating up and we'll see who wins oh yep and here's the the prizes for top fundraiser um so top fundraiser will get four free FCC tickets parking and free Tri-State running shoes the second top individual fundraiser will get four free Reds tickets 50 West gift cards and swag and again were all really nice donated things from wonderful families and sponsors aesome all right Amy I think you okay I will be quick I know that we've talked a lot and you guys have a long meeting um the race could not happen without many people in this room and

035I know I'm forgetting people so if I forget you please it was not on purpose I'm just having a senior moment because after I've turned 54 it's kind of you know happens more often than not anyway first of I'd like to thank Larry hook for allowing the race to happen and for participating last year it was great to see you cross the finish line um we could not do it without our Bob and Rob team um they are amazing and oh and there we go we have a picture um and their favorite costumes like really having you guys the smiles that you put on the kids faces and the adults faces as they cross the line is awesome so thank you for doing that this year we really appreciate you guys doing that um John

036is not here but John Ecker Larry Dean and his team I mean we could not do it without them like they make the race happen with all of the little Logistics that we asked for them to do dropping off Gators picking up Gators putting up Fen is they are invaluable and I just wanted to give a shout out to them Steve me we could not do this without you without Wi-Fi like I'm just telling you the Wi-Fi last year was incredible so thank you for all that you do for that um Tiffany brandan just left but Nagel they let us take over their school for two days and it's just incredible so I really appreciate all of their help um Brian Stewart he was here he's up here he is the I mean he's the

037man that makes this happen like I could not do this without him and he's retiring this year so I just wanted to have a special shout out for him I really appreciate all of your help um and Josh was on thank you for all of that you do for publicity we really appreciate that but one person I really want to thank most of all is jod McKinley because she has been like my right-hand person from the very beginning whenever I have a question I just pick up the phone and call Jody she's been with the race from the beginning so a huge shout out to her so I know I forgotten people but also just thank the district thank board members please come participate run walk um this is a great event and really we

038couldn't do it without you so thank you very much you say okay well please come out and volunteer you're going to get free Donuts free coffee and this beautiful shirt and a beautiful thank you thank you ladies item 6.1 superintendent update Mr hook thank you Mrs Jonas and members of the board just a a variety of things first of all you know once spring break happens it's it's like a Sprint to the Finish Line it's you know you just um we are like deep into the oops sorry deep into the testing season um as was mentioned the Ohio State tests in English language arts um as well as in science um deep into those things um we also uh at the secondary level you know are dealing with the graduation tests in algebra and and

039um biology and government history so a lot of stuff is happening um and just when you think it's about over then then I ready takes over uh we do I ready testing coming up um right right at the end of April and through about May 10th um and that's really important because that's what we really look at in terms of driving instruction helping to understand where our kids really are a little bit of progress monitoring and those kind of things um and then may of course is fun for all the AP students because they get to take their AP tests which are uh exciting I remember being the coordinator of that way back when and uh yeah that's a little bit of a restful time for those guys but they do great um and that's

040usually the mon uh month of May and then the final Sprint uh the week of May 20th is the finals at the secondary and then guess what we're we move into graduation next thing I wanted to mention is prom we're in prom season not just obviously for us uh but we start that right away here April 20th just a couple of the days so tpin high school this Saturday uh is prom at the 20th Century theater and then they go back to the high school for after prom and then Anderson will be a couple weeks later May 4th that'll be at the Cincinnati Museum Center and then again back to the high school for after prom um they stay up way later than I can do that so that's but it's an exciting time and

041such a memorable time for our kids um so it's exciting as we get into this just uh realize you'll start seeing a lot of nice gowns and tuxedos and different things like that so it's a fun time for these kids and it's a it's a Memory Maker for them uh as I mentioned commencement uh will be this year uh Saturday May 25th at the Cintas Center uh obviously on the campus of Xavier University Anderson High School this year will be first at 300 p.m. followed by Turpin High School at 6:30 p.m. so that's Anderson at 3 Turpin High School at 6:30 uh give yourself a little time don't try to hit that place you know in a whirlwind because if you've not been to a graduation that this is your first child give yourself plenty

042of time to get there and navigate traffic um because it'll be it'll be full um so with that I want to move into some more exciting things and I'm going to have some of our uh new administrators and those that if you're here come on down I'm going to have you stand over here so you can get smile for the camera is Nathan here come on down Nathan I didn't see if Cammy showed if Cammy was here she may be involved in something so awesome well first I want you know one of them that that's not here is uh Cammy art um in our a little bit later in our um meeting um she'll be brought before you and recommended for the associate principal's position at Turpin High School that replaces Brian Le basically takes

043over those responsibilities involved with scheduling uh is one of the most predominant pieces um that they do and so we're very excited for Cammy uh to assume this new role and the growth opportunities that gives her as well um while serving our great students at Turpin High School uh secondly everybody knows Nathan Dumford Nathan step forward there there we go just wave so we know okay uh Nathan will be recommending Nathan who is currently a an assistant Su or assistant principal at Turpin uh will assume the role vacated by Melissa Buckaloo uh for the coordinator of secondary special education and Nathan's with his experience as a building administrator and of course a special ed background makes him an ideal candidate for us in that position so we're excited for for that uh and joining us

044at the central office there's a a lot of work to do and we love doing that and we're glad you're there uh also want to just quickly thank Andy Jos I don't know Andy May if he's still here just just thank you to him and and uh his crew um at Turpin High School you know finding the right people it's not it's a lot of times it's easier said than done it's it's um you know what's what's on a resume NE doesn't necessarily translate into who who it is but they did a meticulous work critical work and uh we ended up with We Believe two great um people to come in as assistant principals at Turpin High School the first one I want to introduce is Dr Ashley Warren there's Dr Warren and she's finishing

045up her eighth year as an assistant principal at Sycamore High School so we're welcome welcome her down to the east Southeast side and that's where it's a good place to be um also I want to introduce JP Casanova JP is finishing uh up his first year as the principal at North College Hill High School uh but JP also has 15 years of building administrative experience and um some of it is was not in this state um but I mean it's it's an incredible uh resume and we're excited to have JP here and the next one I want to introduce is Ali Moore and Ali is uh will his name will be brought forward at the district level for our director of student services uh he's a got an extensive administrator of experience as a building

046principal at col rain middle school and Princeton middle school he's also got experience central office experience at Princeton City School District um this this is going to be very similar to the position that Kelly brazzo had a couple years ago plus we're going to J he doesn't know that we're going to give him some other things to do too just because we want to make sure he stays busy no I'm just I'm playing with him the only thing I had to say about it when the interview was done is he told me he' like the University of what was the name of that place Michigan that's it that's it so I I'm might have to work on them a little bit but I you [Laughter] know and yes his better half is here as well

047by then and she can wait there we go uh we're glad you're here and we're glad we've got Ali coming to the forest so thank you thank you very much I also want to introduce finally uh Brian Stewart many of you know Brian it's been the head custodian at Nagel uh I was I was waiting for you guys to get excited up there so we're going to let him retire for no we're not we're gonna we're gonna move him forward as an assistant to Larry Corley predominantly with oversight over our all of our custodians uh as you know Larry's just swamped and we need to make sure that we have a couple of guys in there that really get really get it and know what's needed in the maintenance and custodial Arenas and so we're

048excited uh for Brian's leadership and and we're very excited that he's agreed to to stay on for a few more years so this is some of the new faces and new positions I just wanted to make sure youall had a chance to see him so thank you guys appreciate you being here feel free to head back and if you wish to stay okay but if not thank you everyone and welcome to for [Laughter] HS um the next thing I want to mention uh in my update I I certainly want to congratulate uh and some really exciting news to once again receive uh National recognition for our award-winning music education programs um Forest Hills this isn't the first time that they've won this and so that's what's really neat they just keep doing it um and

049hopefully I don't I hope people don't take that for granted it's not an easy task but they've been named uh best community for music education by Nam which is is the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation it's a prestigious honor and we've been able to earn the past several years um and it's just a direct recognition of our entire music education program so that's that's exciting congratulations to our music educators and all of our kids and parents that support um our programs there uh the award evaluate school districts is I mentioned um for a variety of things again it actually even goes into the classrooms it's not just about performances it's also what we what do we teach our kids what are we doing you know when they enter into the music programs and what

050what they're being taught so it's a pretty inclusive group uh in process so very excited for our music programs um kind of in the same vein also wanted to make mention that we're in the midst of our performance season so if you've got a child in one of our elementaries or he got a child in junior high or high school or all of them you better have your calendar set because this is the season when we're going to have a lot of those little concerts and end of the year programs and that's exciting and one of them is is um at the high school is really important um is our spring musicals and I want to make sure that because it's they're both coming up like not this weekend but the next weekend so April

05125th through the 28th um you've got uh Anderson High School theater is uh performing Alice by heart it's kind of a musical inspired by Allison Wonderland uh Turpin High School theater has its version of the classical musical into the woods um it features traditional storybook characters and in unique story so both of them run April 25th through the 28th and if you've never seen a High School Musical it's worth the time and finally um I think this is what we just were notified by the state uh um that Aaron Cox a third grade teacher at Mercer Elementary School has been selected as a finalist to represent Ohio in the National Review for presidential Awards of excellence in mathematics science and teaching out of the entire state of Ohio only five teachers were selected for this

052honor and this is the only one in Southwest Ohio actually anywhere south of Columbus be real close uh Mrs Cox really stands out uh in her ability to create meaningful lessons to solve real world problems uh which truly engage our students in the learning process um she's just a a fantastic the educator and um we're excited that she's here and teaching with us uh Mrs Cox has led some wonderful educational initiatives with the Anderson Township historical society and urban farm she's working with our food service and custodial custodial staff to develop creative ways to improve sustainability and become more environmentally friendly both areas have offered many Hands-On learning opportunities for students um and in closing State finalists are reviewed the five from Ohio as well as other states are reviewed by a National Review panel

053and one of those awardees one of the five she got 25% chance um will be announced by the Office of the President of the United States and we know who I at least I know who I'm rooting for and I think you'll all join me in rooting for Mrs Cox and wish her the best of luck absolutely thank you go air thank you Mr hook y item 7.1 procedures for public comment the board is committed to conducting its meetings in a productive and efficient manner to assure the meeting is completed in a reasonable amount of time while also recognizing the importance of adequate opportunity for public input in order to conduct an orderly and fair representation of expression the board will provide a period of 30 minutes for public participation per policy po 01691 at

054every regular board meeting each speaker will have three minute 3 minute time limit if there is more than 10 speakers individual time will be adjusted we do not allow yielding of time to others the board does not discriminate based on the individual content of speech or Viewpoint of the speaker if several people wish to speak on the same topic the time may be adjusted speakers are asked to speak from the podium and address the board speakers are asked to start by clearly stating their name and addressed the district expects attendees to treat others with respect and courtesy when expressing concerns or criticism about issues or incidents we have one speaker tonight and it is Mr [Music] Meek Kevin mishack 8433 Holiday Hills Drive um first all congratulations for administrators and and all the volunteers who

055are who won um I came here to talk about the facilities plan fiveyear plan that is being worked on by Mr eart I'm disappointed that he's not here this evening um I'm a little disappointed still that the assessment uh funded last fall failed to incorporate our pools um it still is concern after we lost Anderson High School pool 5 years ago um even though a plan was put forth in 2021 we still haven't moved forward on that plan um it's my understanding that the Turpin High School pool although it was maintained about 20 25 years ago in terms of replacement parts I don't find anywhere where there is a plan to replace or repair it so at some point I I would hope that the the district would begin a planning session large scale projects

056like this are going to take 5 to 10 years let's we know that all right we talked about the cost whether it's $3 million in 2021 or $7 to10 million it's still a long-term project that needs to be started now all right um my understanding of the process is the board has to authorize the district to start planning that process all right there's no incentive on their side until they're assigned the task to begin that process I would ask the board respectfully to start that process to look at what are we going to do about the Anderson High School pool what are we going to do within the next 5 to 10 years about the Turpin High School pool and how is that going to impact our community given the loss of the sunset pool

057all right there is opportunity I attended the park district last night they're looking for collaborative efforts they do have a 23 acre dog park that we all joke about but it's just just a whole holding spot they don't really have a comprehensive plan for the beach Acres 23 acre Park There's an opportunity for it all right that means there must be a Cooperative effort towards that end not just the parks department the park district they don't have the money not just the schools right we have a lot of funding we have a mechanism in place we don't have a place to put it they do and the township because we need somebody to kind of cooperate and over that look over that Vicki earheart is the township administrator she is fantastic at planning this it

058is one of her fine points in life all right there is funding available from the state on down the line but not if there's no plan in place that has to start here thank you for your time nice night thank you item 8.10 Human Resources Mr fellows good evening happy April whatever it is and it's a busy busy time um in our school district in a lot of ways it's definitely busy in HR uh it's hiring season and we've got quite a few uh new recommendations for the board's approval this evening um some really great people and um kind of go through this uh um item by item here and I will remind the board that this Begins the consent agenda um item a there are uh retirements we have one for approval this evening

059Mimi Clark uh 29 years in the district and um she's been at Nagel um and she's teaching 8th grade social studies right now wish her all the best um she made this decision a little bit later so I think it's kind of like really exciting for her to realize that oh I actually can retire right now so very much going to miss her but excited um for uh her uh future retirement plans Item B we have a a number of resignations one that was recently added as um as late as this morning we received a resignation so um it's just kind of that season so um we will um um bring forward I'm sure uh uh one or two more uh before the school year is over but you'll see certified classified listed there um

060from a resignation standpoint item C is our largest uh portion this evening and I'll kind of take it in different segments here the first um just want to point out here uh on the change of salary I want to acknowledge um uh Steve trailer as well Steve is uh transitioning to um his retirement home he also like Brian retired and then we said no um and the board approved him to to come back during that interim period um but he is excited to get down to Tennessee Steve is and um he's in a spot right now where um he is not going to be able to be here as frequently as uh full-time so this is just a reduction of his um contract uh for the duration of this this contract um and then Mr

061hook had mentioned um oh and I do want to also acknowledge Steve um and uh I want to thank uh Bob and his team for spending some time and and um it takes a lot of time and effort to nominate folks for awards and sometimes that process in it of itself uh is enough in the number of pages to fill out an applicate to to you know folks are busy and all that stuff um but I will I will say there was um a lot of time and attention that was taken in in Bob's World on nominating for this but Steve has recently been the recipient of the oesa central office administrator of the year for the state of Ohio and he's going to be recognized for that in the summer at the oaesa conference

062in June is that right so um they had a panel a site visit come down and met with all kinds of different folks teachers counselors uh administrators and uh it was a great opportunity to kind of brag on on Steve and and the great work that he has done um so I'm pretty sure they left and they were pretty pretty much solid that he got it but um but anyways very excited for him um the other one is uh just kind of jumping down we have uh we're looking forward to next year and kind of speaking on on behalf of our new administrators coming in you we've kind of been introduced to them all they're bringing 36 years of administrative experience from all over the place Larry had mentioned that um not all of JPS

063for example is in the state of Ohio and that is very true um he's from Southern California and he spent time in the international school system as well so he was in Thailand and El Salvador um and uh we're excited for him for Ali for Ashley and certainly for Brian uh remaining with us and and helping out Larry um and the 52 custodian and you know however many Subs we have on a regular basis as well so there'll be some great support for our facilities and maintenance department um on the certified side you'll see there are 23 hires recommended for approval this evening six of them are returning after kind of a a higher resign year or they were filling for a leave of absence that resigned um but but 23 individuals uh great people

064and again I kind of want to take a moment just because of the it's one thing to see all this come down um the 23 people is you know I should figure the the amount of hours that are spent in terms of screening you know applicants candidates resumés all that stuff but it is a lot of work that our principles and our directors spend um so hats off to to Bob and Shane to Betsy and Melissa and Jamie uh and Brad early um because we do have a number of intervention Specialists on here as well and certainly all of our principles um I'd especially like to highlight our Elementary principles because now this is a the second or third year that they have really gelled in terms of collaborative hiring e efforts so all six

065principles are sitting in on almost all of these uh first round face-to-face interviews after the screenings and it's pretty cool because you know if you're joy and you're at Max you might not have a position but you're still vested in the candidates that we're pulling in and you also don't know when you're going to get a resignation um so that gives them a chance to all be on the same page which is pretty cool um so uh with that we've got about four more or so as of right now certified positions that we're looking to fill before the end of the year and of course if there are any resignations um you know between now and then and uh and on the classified side we have quite quite a handful that we're trying to fill

066up as well um that hopefully next month we will have uh a number to bring bring forward okay that was a lot um we've got we're W kind of weaning down on the end of the school year so there's only 10 there in terms of the uh supplemental positions here closing out the school year and um and only seven Subs that we're bringing in at this point um it's we're almost in that part where the haze in the barn and you know we're closing closing things down a bit but we are thankful for 41 new volunteers that are approved here and um and all the work that they do you know um I think our principles say it all um in that sense so we're very thankful for for that um and for their time

067and effort last uh thing I would point out items e and g e we've got a number of revised job descriptions um in here most of it is alignment issues with within our um uh operations side of things bizops and Facilities maintenance Food Service Transportation you'll see the supervisor position there for Brian that job description kind of resurrected from one that we've used in the past and um and then the Workforce Development specialist has been revised as well um in alignment with um Governor dine and the State Board of educations initiatives um we're excited for um to recommend that Melanie move into more of a full-time position doing that great critical work um getting our kids as much of an edge as they possibly can and the last one is uh just a Anu and

068agreement really trying to work with NKU bring in student teachers and uh so it's pretty pretty standard there questions sorry that was that was a lot the only FTE increase is Brian's job right Brian's is an administrative FTE increase we do have three uh certified side that our increases um one is preschool and two our ESC classrooms um and those are the two we have four rooms here at Mercer we're expanding those to have two at Wilson next year and that is to keep our numbers down in those rooms with medically fragile or students with a number of uh intense needs Rob those assistant principles and administrators that were bringing on all had two-year contracts is that pretty standard standard okay yeah yeah and then with the resignations I noticed there were five Camp Kern

069teacher resignations and Camp Kern's coming right around like is the is that unusual that there's five people resigning right before Camp Kern trips yeah no that's that's not uh unusual it is something that we are going to try to do a better job of on a paper trail standpoint is making sure that we've got those documented before the end of the school year so cool did you say the hay is in the barn was that not the right phrase yeah no that's an Iowa thing I got you it's all right I picked right up on it too it's good just thought I'd end it on a light note for you thank you thank you rob item 9.0 business operations Larry's going to St in um I'll and uh give my regards John is John eard

070is in Columbus at the osba he's actually doing a presentation up there um so anyway very short really um all we're doing here is an intent resolution it's an intent uh to award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder which is Beck Studios uh for the auditorium stage lighting renovation at Turpin High School so we just um the resolution is similar to others that we've approved in the past um which are basically granting permission to fully execute that you know once again we get legals eyes on it when it's the final piece is here but we we need to get this one going because this one is is a pretty big deal um for chirping so and that's really it all right thank you 10.0 teaching and learning Shane okay a couple of quick ones

071um first is another overnight field trip request this for uh the Educators Rising National um competition we sent a good handful of students probably close to about 80 students to the state competition out of that we have uh 12 students moving on to National so request is the approval for these students to go to Washington DC um for the National Conference um if there are no questions ask that to be approved as part of the board agenda consent agenda and then the second piece is the uh request for approval for a foreign exchange student at Turpin so this will be the second student that we're looking at um adding as a foreign exchange student at Turpin and again uh student becomes highly recommended um from from the the host family as well as the exchange

072program um as it's noted in the uh in the agenda um have to go through certain steps get approval um it's not just a quick request there's a lot of paperwork that's involved but uh the corporations and the family have gone through all that so again if there are no questions again ask that this be approved as part of the consent agenda thank you thank you thank you walking through an obstacle course over there um tonight I'm bringing you the first draft of our health course of study um before sharing I know Shane a couple of meetings ago had shared um the process that we go through for a course of study and essentially a course of study is simply a list of the courses that we offer the standards covered and in those courses

073or the standards covered in those courses um and the curricular resources needed for the instruction um each content area reviews it course of study on a regular and rotating basis um we typically do it essentially every 5 years we we try to review but it's try we try to align it with when there are updates um with the standards at the state level um for health course of study we have not actually participated in one since 2009 so we're past due um part of that is because in the state of Ohio there are not State Standards around health education we follow Ohio Revised Code um and so we do refer to that within our document as well as updates to laws around the save act and around um erands law those are different house bills

074that support instruction around Suicide Prevention um and violence prevention for students and so those have been updated within there um a course of study is again like I said it's usually based on State Standards we don't have those and so in the absence of those um we have used Ohio Revised Code and we've also developed as a team a philosophy um with the team that's part of the course of study which is made up of teachers administrators and that group of people also um reach out to leaders from Hamilton County instructional leaders from other schools and representatives from um the Department of Education and Workforce Development so at this point what we're sharing with you is just the broad overview we are sharing that this evening with the intent of having a for us to

075have that course of study in our office so it's there um in the curriculum department for review by parents and the board itself um and then our hope is to have that approved at the May Board of Education meeting um once while we've had a group of teachers together that have been working on development of this course of study they've also started a draft of Curriculum maps that would align they are very much skeletons though because essentially for us to really develop those we need this course of study um approved so that we are able to develop something that is aligned to that so it is there for your review do you have any questions I have a couple questions um I was looking at the terminology uh for Alcohol Tobacco and other drugs and

076I know vaping is becoming more of an issue and I was wondering if we could get that term added directly into that just because uh yeah I think some of the terminology seems just a little dated with some of the new yeah we could do that and I know that that our intent is to include vaping I figured I just like it's specifically listed we just actually just did that in policy we just revised that because it just it just seems relevant well since 2009 some some things have happened in the world area of Health that um that's why it's really time for us to update excuse me the things that are relevant um I also had one another question in regards to um Middle School SC back to it hold on seventh and eighth

077grade are lumped into one category um are we talking to the students about this in both seventh and eth grade or are we just doing this we are bylaw required every year in seventh and eth grade to have specific discussions um they're not necessarily the same requirements but I know for every year starting in seventh grade we have to have um discussions around Suicide Prevention and we have to have so there are topics that have to be repeated but others do not I think I was I was looking specifically at um standard three and that seemed um more like a ninth grade level um topic instead of seventh and eth grade and so I was just kind of wondering um exactly what that looked like and did it actually repeat itself twice can you tell

078me it's uh human body growth and development we are required to teach it both years both years and the same topics okay that's what I was wondering if it was one grade or the other or okay any other questions now Kim I have some other comments that I want to make during board discussion about it to have a more robust discussion with the board but I definitely want to make sure I thank you for the insight into the process of how a curriculum like this gets developed and the the collaborative effort among District staff health professionals and whatnot that's important context to know thank you we have a large group of very dedicated professionals that um are doing their best for our kids for sure thank you thanks thank you item 11.1 technology Mr me

079good evening we have one item for technology tonight that's item 11.1 we're asking for approval for the purch the approval of bids for the purchase of equipment and services using the federal eate program are there any questions thank you very much thank you that was easy needs their Wi-Fi the Wi-Fi is working and that's what we wanted 12.0 Treasures update this will be you can be um shorter than St I don't know if I can be that short but this is pretty short tonight May is the fiveyear forecast so I have to be short tonight to make up for May anyhow the first item on the treasures agenda tonight uh 12.1 um is a request to add a new District provider as part of our uhri District 43b plan um ipx retirement has met all

080the requirements they've submitted all the uh required paperwork they have eight accounts which is what we require to be added as a provider under our 43b plan so they have met all those requirements uh so I'm respectfully requesting tonight that you um add them as uh as a provider under our for 3B plan again that's ipx retirement as part of the consent agenda coming up the next agenda item 12.2 uh the treasures report as always we have three full slides of donations so over the past month we received over 24,000 in donations which brings our total donations over this past fif school year which is 3/4 finished at the end of march to uh 321,000 so quite a bit of money not only do we have people giving us of their time as you saw

081earlier they're also very generous with their Financial Resources um Item B gives you the snapshot of our November fiveyear forecast and we'll be updating that very soon with our May forecast item C presents the general fund our 5year forecast revenues um and it compares the estimates on the five-year forecast to year-to-date actuals so as you can see on this the largest portion by far of our revenues come directly from local services or local funds so as you see there 75% come directly from our community um and 89% of that is pretty much residential in terms of property owners moving on um to item d this shows our uh general fund our 5-year forecast expenditures and it compares the estimate from the forecast to year-to-date actuals and you hear me say this every month you can

082almost divide total annual expenditures by 12 so with 75% of our fiscal year complet at the end of March we P spent 73% so spending is tracking exactly where we would expect at this point item e um presents the activity of the um general fund cash balance the balance at the beginning of the year was 20.8 million and after adding our revenues received and deducting the expenditures year to date our cash balance stands at 30.1 million or to put enough another way enough cash to operate the district for 114 days of course we do have some incumbrances outstanding against that for um future goods and services that we've committed to and once you take into account those incumbrances our unincumbered balance was uh 24.4 million which leaves 93 days of unreserved cash in order to

083operate the district so just to clarify basically three months worth of cash to operate the district but July 1st is the start of the new fiscal year so yes lining those up yes okay so moving on um to item F this is our permanent Improvement fund this only presents the uh call center um o um which is the permanent Improvement call center that gets the tax funds so there are two slides pertaining to the permanent Improvement fund that special cost center the first one um shows the revenue and expenditure activity uh for our fiscal year to date end at March 31st and the second slide um shows the summer projects that are coming up and as you can see right now we have all the summer projects budgeted we have some outstanding encumbrances uh for

084the uh CHP and lighting program but after tonight and of course with the contracts presented in business operations and Steve's uh short um very short very expensive uh presentation we'll have some more incumbrances in this next month moving on to item G that's the investment income snapshot gives you some history and um as you can see we've received almost 1.8 million to date in our permanent Improvement fund interest item H is the March 31st reconciliation of cash balances and Investments moving on to um item I that is our permanent Appropriations and we have two changes the first um the first slide on permanent Appropriations shows the totals With The Changes included and the second slide shows you the changes that we are asking for you to approve tonight so we had some resource a a

085little bit addition additional allocation given to us in uh data Communications and in$ 4.99 um we received uh 31,000 safety Grant uh that Grant will go mainly towards uh PD for our uh safety coordinator which of course is John and also our sro's and then there will be quite a bit spent on replacing electronic door latches cameras things like that so that's what that Grant will be spent on also in addition to these reports you have on board docs you have uh the monthly cash position report that just shows the detail um by fund special call center um year to date month to date so that said um any questions on the treasures report this evening if none I respectfully request that you approve the treasures items 121 and 12 to as part of the

086consent action items which began with item 8.1 can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve 8.1 to 12.2 is presented second Mr bib yes Dr Simmons yes Mrs Stewart yes Dr strickler yes Mrs Jonas yes item 13.0 committee reports the first one is the policy committee report we met on when was it Mar or uh March 27th I believe um I'm the chair of the committee Bob's the sub chair um we met the new niola rep and he shared with us uh the process for the policy committee and um basically it's just these changes are based on any legal alerts or house bills or anything like that this is a volume 42 number two for the January 2024 updates there's a list of policies there you can

087click on them and read them it was basically just word changes it it wasn't a lot of information um really it's based on the house bill 33 operations budget and changes to um the tobacco laws and vaping so this is up for a first reading and the next meeting it will be up for the second reading for approval and then the next committee is teaching and learning oh that's me uh we also met March 27th I believe and I am the chair and Wendy's co-chair of the teaching and learning and we uh spent most of our time disc disc discussing the uh Health curriculum that we were looking at approving today we also talked a little bit about special special education and um making sure we're in compliance in the growing number of students with

088needs in our district um we also talked about um should have brought notes I don't think about our partnership that we are doing um with like job shadowing and students um working within the community um looking at different jobs uh that interested like trades I think internships those kind of things and I think that program was really growing there was also um an auditorium um I think that the students participated in yeah the court the courts came in with three judges I was like I can't remember yes it's been too long um and so uh I believe there's also some schools that we are going to be getting rid of half day kindergarten at they'll be merging or offering only all day kindergarten at some of the schools I think that's and prek presented as

089well Brad Brad that was the that was the point which I had to leave we'd been there an hour and 40 minutes and I had a daughter standing in a car pickup line I we still have the ability for some of those to to still have this the half day kindergar but we may at a different location just because we're relatively small area so I do remember calling everybody for updates on that so I had I had better notes at that point uh but I think that was the general gist of what we discussed that day so do you have anything else to add or um no I mean we definitely had conversation about Melanie hartung's program and the work she's done around building the the work experience the awesome opportunity with the judges she's

090also offered interview and resume building activities so really looking at how to we build work experience and maybe start to look at how to build it into the school day as well as just after school options so that was a big part of the conversation special education and prek as was mentioned um I think part of the conversation with prek was understanding some of the um federal and state rules around the requirements that we have as a public school district to make sure we're providing um services and opportunities for all of the students who have um special needs or an IEP coming in um and that our classrooms are um filling up at this point and we need to make sure that we're uh making sure we have the resources to provide what's what's required

091by law so that was a part of the discussion and then there was a large Health discussion in terms of where we go especially around um Elementary looking at the um conversations around puberty and when those happen and the importance of providing kids with information as their body are starting to change and make sure they know what's what's happening and why and we we talked about providing parents with um information in fourth grade so they would have the entire summer and and resources and to talk to their children about that as well with the discussion being had in the fall of fifth grade so yeah all right um 14.1 board discussion I know you want to talk about health does anybody want to talk about anything yeah I have a few things my list has

092gotten a little messy throughout so forgive me while I look down at my notes um a couple different notes I wanted to um update the the board as well as everyone else um as Larry talked about last time we are very much working within the district on a long-term pool solution and this summer are already looking at Renovations and some redesign to make sure that the um Turpin pool will be able to um be sustained as a Forest Hill School District pool and will be designed as such that said I absolutely do think it is incumbent upon us as a board and I've talked to all of you about this to make sure we're asking questions and looking at all of the different options that present themselves out there so um I have been in

093touch with several trustees several Park board members as well as the administrators um at both the the park and um the township to just kind of gather information and understand where we are and and look at what possibilities there might be for a collaboration um and attended the the park board meeting last night as as part of that um basically I've read all of the economic development committee notes from 2020 and those who were involved and included the district the parks the um Township basically reached two barriers in 2020 um one was there a community need and two there wasn't land and so I've been continuing to pursue these conversations from the standpoint of Coney Island just close their pool and the parks just bought 23 Acres of beach Acres property so it feels like

094it might be a good time to revisit this conversation about a possibility for collaboration and I have had only positive conversations with everybody I've talked to about a desire to come together and collaborate and see about this possibility everyone is generally in agreement that the first step needs to be a community survey to ask what the community would like to see happen with that land which absolutely makes sense to me um so last night at the park board they discussed um early conversations two things of note here one um reaching out to the district um and to the trustees to look at pulling together a small group to begin some of those more in-depth conversations around the table together which I think is awesome um just to see what possibilities might be and uh two

095to look at a community survey and when that might happen um and the way I I spoke last night and the way the conversation has kind of been left is the district would be very interested in engaging in those conversations to find out if there's a um valuable place for us that would benefit our kids and Community as a whole um a lot of that probably depends on what the community decides they would like to see happen with that land and whether there is a a position within that for the school district so I just wanted to bring up everybody up to speed and make sure everyone was still on board with um kind of where that's going and it really is just at a place of asking questions continuing to come together around the

096table and and look at possibilities is it the parks doing a survey or us I know didn't I think we got I think I got one in my email about a park survey so they are doing several mini surveys right now as well that came out at the the board meeting last night they've got a dog park survey going I think they've got a pickle ball survey going based on other things they're doing from the um Levy that just passed for them that it was I'm not going to remember all their pe's but right it was the PE Levy for Parks Pathways potties pickle ball and some other things so they've been doing some mini surveys around those pieces this would be a much bigger undertaking to try to get a much larger swath of

097the community responding to really look at what is the long-term Vision the last survey that was done I want to say was 2014 yes okay Kevin's nodding he was there too uh was 2014 and at that time there was a Grand Vision for a big WLEX complex um I think amongst the park there is still kind of a hope and desire that that would be part of that at that point there wasn't really a pool as part of the equation but again I think the context has changed so there's conversation about having a much larger new survey probably Guided by The Parks Board as a park survey but also in collaboration with the district and trustees in terms of how that would look and the types of questions that would be asked and then the

098information we get back from the community would probably help guide next steps in terms of who it makes sense to have involved so yeah I think related to that um State Rep Rachel Baker came to that meeting as well and talked about the process for applying for state funding and emphasize that a collaborative Community effort that involved the parks District the schools the trustees the Chamber of com Commerce and whatnot weighs more heavily on the Committees deciding who gets funding for a project like that to help offset some of the burden on on us as taxpayers for a massive undertaking like that yes which would be amazing I mean it definitely sounded just to be very transparent that the projects that are funded are Community supportive are collaborative in nature and have a path for

099moving forward so that the state money is going to help tip actually getting it completed and they're not risking a a potentially incomplete project so um I think there's great potential I'm very poana about this but I'm excited to to pursue what the options might be moving forward and I think we're in a different place than we were in 2020 so there is that something we can do with the parks is get a a joint survey together or with the at the township as well yeah I just received an email Emil about three hours ago okay I meant to tell them first there was an Emil well no about from Ken kersner and and um so yes we're in process of getting something together at least to start those conversations um second on my list

100I would just like to request as a board I know we had talked about this I think Jason mentioned it once before coming together around a board planning meeting I know we're in a crazy point in the year with um testing a graduation but looking maybe at some May or June dates that the the five of us would be able to come together really just around a planning session um I think we are we're doing a great job coming together around the management pieces of coming here and you know being prepared for the meetings and uh working together around these pieces but I do think in terms of kind of longer picture Vision um starting to think about what needs to happen around a long-term facilities plan um kind of our vision and direction that

101we are then able to bring back for Larry and atanta in terms of you know where is the district heading what do we need from a resource perspective a facilities perspective a teaching and learning perspective whatever it might be um I think there are pieces that it's incumbent upon us as Leaders to start thinking about what community input do we want around those but I feel like until we have a chance to to kind of talk and get our bearings together um we don't have time outside of this this forum to move forward with that so I would respectfully request that we could look at some dates for May June and I don't know if that's requesting that Larry send us some possible dates we might be able to get together or how exactly that

102works but um I know that's a conversation we've had I I would say June it's the school year is just slammed I know for everybody but um I'm booked every weekend in May yeah okay so if we looked at something in June and then I'm deferring to to you all in terms of setting that up just because I'm not supposed to email everybody's yes okay that would be great um I just wanted to give one more shout out to um the volunteers here tonight I think that was phenomenal I was actually thinking in my head my daughter is playing a game at 10 years old called try not to laugh where you with a friend try to make each other laugh and I was thinking this felt like try not to cry because the comments

103from the the kids were were just very very sweet so that was awesome uh reminder about the forest HS 5K pre-party cuz it's tomorrow at wandering mon monsters 5:30 to 7:30 free bowling for running club kids right I'm not making that up okay um so don't forget about that and then um couple shoutouts the theater Productions Larry mentioned them both AHS Alice by heart THS into the woods on April 25th through 28th um AHS has a lot of things going on um the PTO and ptas have been reaching out to help familiarized with parents getting used to Anderson High School the AHS baseball team went and helped at the Festival a couple weeks ago which is awesome because they got the high school kids in there helping to fill volunteer spots and be with the

104elementary kids who will one day rise up to Anderson High School um the as Larry um you know commended the the music earlier both AHS bands this year got Superior ratings at the omea um recent competition and I think this may be the first time that both bands have gotten a superior rating so that was exciting news and a has a big shout out to their PTO which is in the process of transitioning PTA which is in the process of transitioning over to a PTO which is a big organizational process but actually brings all of the um elementaries into PTO status so there's more continuity between them and that's been a big project that involved a lot of volunteer work so a shout out to those a volunteers who've been involved in that and those

105are all my notes thanks who told you to plug the bands sorry hey I just want to point out that came from Kyle as well but okay I might be bias before I start Wendy I just want to say thank you for your time meeting with all the folks and getting caught up to date on what was happening with the pool I know those meetings take a ton of time we don't get paid for those meetings um so I really appreciate that update yeah thank you do you guys have anything to add before we talk about the health course no real quick just so we don't get lost um I wanted to make a request for admin when after you guys have committee meetings is there any way to get the slide deck to all

106of us oh instead of just the two that are chair and sub chair and then the other request from like board member when we have a committee meeting would you guys be okay like maybe the chair and the sub chair splitting it up to call the other three so we know what's going on or okay I just called everyone our meeting yeah it's just so we're all kind of on the same page um and and we're gonna have our meeting when is it May 22 May is it yeah 22nd right yeah okay 22nd um but before that um Camp Kern will all the fifth graders will have gone to Camp Kern so um we haven't really heard much about that Bob I mean everything's good to go okay good wish everybody a fun time for

107Camp Bob like yeah we're ready roll awesome you said to slide we just we still haven't seen the um the slides from the um speaker at the last uh Nagle meeting Bill did I I got it cuz I reached out and asked for it I can pass it on am I allowed to do thats I can for it it was like a PowerPoint presentation everything he had we were all supposed to get that I haven't seen it okay good to you thank you sorry all right all right so yeah I had mentioned that I wanted to talk a little bit about the health curriculum particularly the human development growth and body sections um I just want to preface this by saying that I I recognize this is a polarizing Topic in our community and even

108among our board um and so I think this is our first big test of a board to have a conversation about something where we might stand on different sides of the fence on and have a civil conversation to see if we can come to some agreement on something um I think what I'd like to do for the next 45 to 50 minutes is talk to you all about five to seven minutes but that doesn't sound as bad when you initi I just want to get out of the I hope that's not true that's a joke a joke okay so so as uh Kim was mentioning earlier the state law help uh guides us on what we teach um related to sex education um Ohio Revis code section 33113 6011 specifically and when I read this

109Revised Code it seems very outdated in some ways Draconian in ways that are meant to shame students out of having sex at the expense of providing medically accurate information about sex sexuality relationships consent and human development um specifically in the revised code there's things in there that say um in terms of what schools are required to teach regarding sex sex education is that stressing that students should abstain from sexual activity until after marriage uh teaching the potential physical psychological emotional and social side effects of partic ipating in sexual activity outside of marriage teaching that conceiving children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences emphasize adoption as an option for unintended pregnancies of course no mention of abortion which was just um passed as a constitutional amendment in Ohio in November and we see

110the influence of this Ohio law in our health curriculum as it relates to the human growth and development where the sex education conversation is H housed so my comments here tonight are not meant as a criticism of the the team that put the health curriculum together I I think it's really in- depth I think it's awesome and I'm by no means a sexed curriculum expert but I do have a lot of familiarity with creating and assessing student learning outcomes and when I look at the health curriculum particularly as it relates to um the growth and development section where the sexed is is discussed you know some of these learning outcomes like at the middle school level it says students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to promote an age appropriate Choice related

111to being abstinent until marriage um use decision-mak skills in relationship to puberty human sexuality and what they actually get in there are content related to re reproductive body parts managing difficult relationships individual rights to refuse sex um I know Kim mentioned that the curriculum is kind of in a skeleton form but don't really have anything specific about asking for consent um and receiving consent um demonstrating consent also includes responsibilities of Parenthood STI benefits of abstinence and then sexual risk behaviors at the high school level there's a big emphasis on teaching students how to get information um outside of the schools about sex education which which is great um but also it explicitly says in our health curriculum that we are to explain that most students are not sexually active which I have some data that

112I'll talk about in a second that that is actually false uh as well as plan strategies for aoid voiding situations that place one at risk for engaging sexual behavior so when I read these like these are not learning outcomes I read them and they come off to me as Scare Tactics shaming some information literacy sex avoidance and misinformation brought about by abstinence only education and if we look at We compare these sections of the health curriculum to the healthy eating portion of the curriculum drug alcohol and tobacco Ed education We compare those to what's included as part of sex education the sex education part is much much less the other ones are much more in depth much more much more uh robust so what's the big difference well those other ones Health eating drug Alcohol

113Tobacco they're not driven by religion and politics but rather best practices Guided by the scientific Community we want our kids to be financially literate we teach them drug and alcohol literacy and information literacy literacy so why not a medically accurate sexual literacy program that parents can choose whether they want their children to participate I was talking to Kim earlier today she said that we actually have very few opt outs as it is related to the human development portion of our curriculum at the elementary middle school and high school levels parents trust the teachers in the districts with this information but much of the information they get is Guided by Ohio law is outdated and inaccurate stigmatizes sex only presenting it as a negative presumes heterosexuality uh stigmatizes the experience for children that were born out

114of wedlock and leaves kids uninformed and have to search for information themselves we lean into I mentioned we lean into that piece about asking them or teaching them how to find information who to talk to but that information hasn't been vetted and students don't know what they don't know they don't know the right questions to ask or how to ask them we can provide resources both in the classroom and outside of the classroom to help answer different difficult questions but we get to vet what those answers are instead of them stumbling across something they might find through a Google sh uh Google search I strongly believe that we underestimate kids capacity to learn and talk about uncomfortable topics and engage in course materials and we overestimate at times parents preparedness and ability and willingness to

115have these conversations so there is a provision in that Ohio Revised Code that allows for additional sex education um and and it read a paraphrase but a school district can choose to offer additional instruction in veneral disease or sex education not specified uh blah blah blah um the school shall notify all parents or guardians of that instruction including name of the curriculum all this stuff and then uh no District or School shall offer that instruction to a student unless that student's parent or Guardian has submitt submitted written permission for that student to receive that instruction and this really excites me because I'm confident that one thing that all five of us can agree on is that we share a common ground on parents being able to have a choice in what their children learn in

116school right uh we ran a lot of us all of us had some sort of messaging around wanting parents to have a say in their kids education and we wouldn't be alone in this Venture according to the 2223 venial disease and sexual education audit performed by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce there are 58 school districts in Ohio that offer additional sexed instruction beyond what is required with the absent and only training in the Ohio Revis code and in each case parental notification was provided and parents had the choice to opt into that part of the health curriculum so I'm really hoping to find some common ground here and some agreement over the idea of providing some sort of optional sexed education um that we can provide guidance to Kim and Bob and the

117rest of the team to do some research on these things and I'll get to my specific asks shortly but um I wanted to share some insights from the scientific Community regarding SE said in schools I I really thank everybody for their patience on this because I think this is some really important information I have reviewed dozens of peer-reviewed articles on this topic and pulled 15 or so for the board to review um I'm going to cite a few of these and so I I created a shared folder that I sent out to you all before the meeting I also have printed copies of the Articles if you all wanted more context on what these studies were about I I have them available for you um but I want to talk about a few different aspects

118of Ohio sex education model and some of the benefits and um drawbacks of it starting with abstinence only education which is what's required in Ohio so there was a a study in 2007 in the public library of science medicine journal and they noted it quote two recent systemic systematic reviews of absent and only curricula suggest that uh the best implemented and evaluated programs fail to delay the initi initiation of sex sexual intercourse or to produce other demonst uh other reductions in HIV risk behaviors they also found uh no delays and sexual intercourse among virginity pled uh pledgers um and uh a US Congressional review found that 11 of the 13 most frequently used absence only curricula contain false misleading or distorted information including inaccurate information about contraceptive Effectiveness um there was another study also in

1192007 from the British Journal of Medicine who was looking at um the effectiveness of absence only programs in high inome countries and they use the us as the context for that um finding quote evidence from this review suggests that absence only programs that aim to prevent HIV infection are ineffective um and then there was another study that was you know I feel really important to this conversation a 2017 study from the American Journal of sexuality education entitled worth the weight the consequences of absent only sex education for marginalized students and these were interviews that were conducted with young women youth of color and lgbtq or other gender non-conforming students and there were six themes that emerged from the interviews with this population regarding abstinence only education one was a lack of practical information that met

120them where they were in their current stage in their lives um two absence only education tends to normalize sexist and heterosexist stereotypes which leads to othering of students of certain identities students of color were often adultification that also you know wasn't relevant to them for where they were in their lives there was a lack of Mo there was a lack of emotional safety where lgbtq students did not feel safe asking questions or expressing themselves in the in these courses and there was a Reliance on fear and shaming in addition to some of the information sharing for outside resources as I had mentioned before so this is just a sampling of studies among dozens in the scientific community that highlight the limitations of abstinence only educations that talk about how it doesn't lead to delays in

121sexual intercourse it doesn't lead to um decrease uh decreases in sexually transmitted diseases um it's not effective in preventing HIV and it creates um uh a place where marginalized students feel out of place within this form of education on the other hand there are multiple models of sexual literacy programs medically based sexual literacy programs um one study specifically from the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2022 examined 30 years of county level data on teen births in counties that receive federal funding ass assistance to support these medically accurate sexual literacy programs that include more than just abstinence include um robust courses on gender identity ities um sex human sexuality um contraceptive use they found quote um results of this quasi experimental design provide evidence of the causal effect of federal funding for uh

122more sexually literate education on teen births we find that Federal funding reduced the overall rate of teen births at the county level by more than 3% so that was over the course of 30 years teen birth rates in counties that supported sexual literacy um had teen births decrease by 3% another study in The Archives of sexual behavior from 2021 um found that laws that required um more uh medically based sexual literacy programs decreased sexual activity and raised contraceptive use for youth who are sexually active while State policies that mandate absence were found to increase sexual activity and decrease hormonal contraceptive use among youth who are sexually active evid was found that in districts where the districts had local control over the content such as what we're talking about here is like this supplemental content to

123what the state provides um there was a de decreased probability that High School youth were having sex in the three months prior to when the uh survey was taken um whereas requiring abstinence only sex education led to an increase in the likelihood of of sex in the prior three months to when the survey was taken um let's see I know I know this is a lot there was a few other studies that I did want to mention there was a study in 2021 in the Journal of adolescent Health it was a metaanalysis there a review of literature over 30 years on sex education in in kindergarden through um 12th grade what they found was um schools that adopted sexual literacy programs can also lower homophobia and homophobic related bullying can increase understanding of gender and

124gender norms and it can improve Knowledge and Skills that support healthy relationships right and that there was evidence to suggest that sexuality education is most effective when it's begun early before sexual activity actually begins so what we're talking about here are outcomes of reducing the uh instances of adolescent sex reducing outcomes that we're all interested in such as um STI teenage pregnancy increasing things like contraceptive use decreasing things like homophobia and homophobic bullying and increasing tolerance voices that are often left out of this conversation are student perspectives and what students want to learn when it comes to sex education all the times adults making those decisions for kids so there are another couple studies I want to mention regarding these student perspectives from 2020 the Journal of adolescence um this was a review of literature

12516 studies in this topic between 2008 and 2019 which they found that adolescence viewed um sexual health programs favorably if they utiliz knowledgeable open-minded Educators and created a comfortable environment provided the uh provided content throughout early and late adolescence and delivered relevant elev uh educational material um where they where uh Sexual Health where they desig destigmatize sexual health and improve the relevance of course content delivered that relevance of course content is really important to this discussion there's a 2022 article in the academic Journal sex education um that examines sex education preferences in a rural Indiana School District their data was collected through focus groups and web surveys so mixed method study and it's a district that teaches absence only education and this came straight from the students of those programs that said that the information

126was not relevant and they were being shamed into not having sex that abstinence isn't relevant to them now or later in their lives because quote most people in the schools are already having sex and so they're able to connect the education that they're learning to their current Lifestyles there was a resistance to absence only education the students were not listening and not paying attention and what so what they wanted was best practices for safe sex and information on what to do if you feel like you have contracted a uh STI information on abortion even though in Indiana and the district it's uh controversial um you know there's religious objections to it but recognizing it as needing the information to make a decision that's best for them and regarding sexuality it was noted that the lgbtq

127students in the district were afraid of being pressured and being ma made uh made fun of um there's one more study that I specifically want to mention regarding student perceptions on this there was a very recent study just came out in 2024 from the Journal of adolescent Health that examined a sample of nearly 14400 middle and high school students in New York state and asked them what questions they had about sex and sex education TR help try to guide um the content that they would provide in these courses and the topics included consent pregnancy withdrawal or pulling out STI condoms birth control pain during intercourse body and hygiene Alternative forms of sexual intercourse um and then some other um individually coded ones that didn't Nest into a higher theme I mentioned earlier that in our

128District's Health curriculum it says that we're supposed to emphasize that most students aren't sexually active and I said that that's not true I I referenced several studies already that talked about it um but there's other research that I provided in here there's so much research out there that talks about the ages where students become sexually active um I presented some as I mentioned but I was able to find a study that really um speaks to this it's a nationwide sample of nearly 6,000 men and women ranging from ages 14 to 94 to examine rates of sexual ual Behavior so obviously we're interested in the Adolescence in the study so among the Adolescent men in the study 67% were sexually active by the age of 15 and we're talking about a very broad definition of what

129sexually active means 99.99% by the age of 15 had engaged in what we would consider traditional intercourse with someone of the opposite sex that number went up to 30.3% by 17 and 62.5% by 19 so 62.5% of adolescent males by 19 years old had had tra what we would consider traditional intercourse in a nationwide sample among adolescent women 43.3% were sexually active by 15 again with this broad definition 12.4% had engaged in traditional intercourse with seven uh someone of the opposite sex by the age of 15 that goes up to 31.6% by 17 and 64% by 19th um this data even skews even lower I can show you some research on on that when we're talking about adolescence from lowincome families so now get to my big ask it wasn't quite minutes we can't continue

130to teach abstinence only education I think regardless of our personal values and opinion the data is overwhelming and many kids are sexually active again broadly speaking sexually active when they're like Nal age and freshman and high school age we are doing our kids a disservice I I'm being very sincere here I'm not trying to be political or push any kind of agenda I'm trying to follow data and science for the benefit our kids while respecting parents rights to choose what is best for their families I did speak with Bob buck and Kim Tinsley and they expressed it they need guidance from us on how to proceed I want to remind the board that we're not responsible for getting into the weeds of the curriculum and like you know what books they're reading or what videos

131they're showing in class but what they need to know from us is if this is something that we'd like to pursue for our school district and we would need a majority of people on board to kind of commission them with he hey let's go out and research and find what some of these options are so here is my ask plainly would the board support Bob and Kim and the rest of the health curriculum team researching some medically accurate sexual literacy programs being used both in Ohio and across the country that we could potentially offer our students as a form of what we'll call abstinence plus sex education where absence is still emphasized as the only way to prevent team pregnancy and STI contraction um but adding additional content related to human development sexuality gender identity

132and some of these other topics that I mentioned while again respecting parents rights to choose to make sure we stay compliant with Ohio Revised Code so thank you very much for all that I know that was a ton of information it's a mouthful controversial topic but thank you for your time on that I'd love to hear the board's perspectives I know way back when when I was in junior high We There was abstinence and then there was the side effects of not adhering to absence which was STI and pregnancies and things like that that was taught to us I don't really have an issue with that being taught I mean if you're this is cause and effect type of thing um the rest of your data I'd have to read I mean sounds like you

133sent us a lot of stuff yeah so all that stuff I cited is in the um shared folder and in I have it printed if you prefer that so you can go get more context and read up on yourself there's tons of other studies too and I if you have other stud that say opposite I'd love to read those as well I have never taken so many notes during a board meeting so thank you for that um I would be interested in pursuing what other options are out there and I know there are curricula that go to another extreme and I I don't think this District would be in support of something that was fully comprehensive I I get that but I do feel like there is a middle ground somewhere and I had called

134Kim about this too conc ER that when I looked at this and have also looked at some of the CD c CD data and I've seen anywhere from 40 to 60% of um adolescence by 18-year-old being involved in sexual activity and I think are we preparing our kids for the world they live in right now we are Educators our job is not to shame our job is not to fearmonger our job is to teach um and to provide accurate information no matter what the topic or conversation is and so I I do feel like if there are opportun unities to make sure that the information our kids are seeking is is accurate and the sources they are finding are valid I think that would be really important I I'm Gravely concerned that with the the

135limited amount we talk about and the fear mongering we do um make this irrelevant for kids make it feel like it's not grounded in what they need and then they're going to go to their peers and they're going to go to the internet and that's a scary proposition if that's your next best source of information without really understanding what you're looking for so I would I would support looking for what other options are that would maybe provide a little bit more in-depth knowledge with some of the things like yes abstinence is the only 100% guarantee but um you know I was looking at some different information today just as I was reviewing the health curriculum over the weekend and one of the things I found recently was because there are other forms of birth control

136available now they've actually seen a decrease use in condom rates among adolescents not understanding that that is going to be your second best option for preventing an STI right so yes you may be able to prevent pregnancy but that doesn't mean you're keeping yourself safe in other ways and it just feels like we're at a point where maybe our kids don't have the accurate information they need to be making less risky decisions and with two teens sitting in the school district this feels pretty real so yeah so just to share in seventh grade they talk about how STDs are transmitted signs of STDs they talk about uh longterm long-term and short-term consequences of STDs they also talk about relationships alcohol and drug use and and sexual risks that are accompanied by drinking or doing drugs

137that's in the curriculum here um they also talk about let's see the benefits of being sexually abstinent which I think is a huge benefit especially through high school um the more Partners you have the worse off you are in relationships down the road so I don't see any problem with that continuing to be taught um they it it talks about engaging in sexually risky Behavior Uh it talks about let's see uh it talks about Effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of condoms and reducing the risk of pregnancy and STDs um that's all being talked about in seventh and eth grade M scrolling down to high school so I do not believe that we need to go into any more depth at such a young age um I I I think this is a conversation that parents

138need to be having with their children which is why we had talked in great length about um giving parents tips and material on how to talk to their children about these things um because you might be okay with your child having an abortion but that is something that I have very strong feelings against and I would not even be okay with that being discussed in the classroom so I think that when you're talking about things that are incredibly polarizing whether it be religiously speaking or politically speaking those are conversations that I believe are best left to the parents and at home M so our job is to educate students and prepare them for for uh for jobs in the future and and for college or trades or that kind of stuff I do not believe

139it is our job to step in as a parent and cover uh sexual um Identity or sexual behavior or any of these other ISS uh topics in in great detail with children because this is such a Hot Topic and an emotional topic I I think this is something that is best left for parents to discuss with their children and we can give them resources on how to discuss things but I do not think this is something that needs to be brought into the classroom but Katie I I appreciate what you're saying and and I hear you and I I feel the same way and I I guess I have two responses as a parent um one I fully support what you're saying and I think that's why an opin would be incredibly important and I

140can tell you too as a parent I would opt into this because for the number of times I've tried to talk to my kids that they don't really want to engage in a full conversation about this with their parents is more than one and so there's you know what I mean so why would we limit options in terms of the the education we want to give to kids and again you would have the option you it would be it was was it opt in was that the way yeah I mean with the in the revised code any additional programming that we would offer is required to be opt in right so it would still be very much very much parent choice because you would have to opt into any more than the Ohio Revised Code

141information so you're asking to pursue what else is out there just so we know what the other curricula look like what the options would be yeah and I'm I'm not saying tonight we're deciding on anything I would Envision Kim correct me like you would all would be able to provide us with some examples of what some of these additional curriculum could look like and then we could potentially vote on if there's something we wanted to adopt and so my ask was if if there's not interest from the board we don't want to waste their time in having them do this research but if there was a majority of people are like I'd like to see what some of these other options are out there not making a commitment that we're going to adopt any of

142them at this point just do we want to see what some options are because there is some compelling data that's what I'm I want to know what about if he had something at the next Parent Academy for parents that'd be beneficial I mean I think all of it's beneficial um and I think that's something we can have a conversation about is like what does it actually look like not everything has to happen in the classroom there can be I mentioned like this idea of like we could provide additional information rather than just directing them like well you can go talk to your doctor you can talk to these people here's some actual information that you and your parents can consume in the form of Articles books podcasts videos um that can help lead to those

143discussions in the home uh Katie you did mention there there are in in the curriculum there are a lot of these things related to uh STI and and condoms and all this type of stuff there are some specific things that I think are missing um and again I'm not a sex education expert so I don't know where age appropriately this fits in um but things that I notice being absence from absent from our curriculum are um human development which which includes specifically sexual orientation and gender identity especially going back to that piece that shows that that can help lower um homophobia and homophobic related bullying um increased body positivity conversations around that more information about healthy relationships um medically accurate sexual literacy so um you know what is actually happening in your body uh you

144know again I don't think we want to go down to some Far extreme I know this isn't like a liberal community I we we have concerned parents about a topic like this um but another topic I think is vitally important that we do not have in our curriculum is media literacy and what I mean by media literacy within this context is as it relates to adult content online it's very easy to find it's very accessible we talk about addiction as it relates to drugs and Alcohol Tobacco there's addiction uh problems in our country as it relates to adult contact on content online that can serve to set realistic expectations for what sexual relationships look like realistic expectations for what occurs during sex and um promotes violence against women which isn't this definitely something we don't

145want um to promote I actually agreed with you on something there we go see porn addiction is is an issue and said porn I didn't that's what it is it it could be an addiction it could be a problem in relationships going forward and it does give you unrealistic uh ideas of of relationships in the future so I I actually agree with you on that so that that's a type of thing like that media understanding we're not watching I'm not suggesting at all watching that stuff in class what I'm suggesting is what I'm suggesting is teaching our our kids what it is the expectations it creates around you the the the the dangers of it the the those unrealistic expectations that it creates in your mind that leads to unhealthy relationships there's no educa there's

146no component of our curriculum to my knowledge right now that that covers that piece I didn't make up that absence plus term by the way that's a very widely used term as a um in states where there is absence only education we again we're still emphasizing absence is the only 100% effective way but there's these other pieces that we can add to it what those are that's up to the committee to to potentially research for us then we can review it a little bit more uh closely to see if it would be something we' want to adopt well I I don't wish to see the teaching and learning committee look at anything else I am fine with the abstinence curriculum as it is look similar to what Katie said I think a lot of this

147is the parents role so that's my opinion on it would would you I would absolutely love to see more because I I hadn't even thought about the adult content literacy piece of it and and where that plays into what kids are finding when they're looking for the information they're not getting um Sarah and Katie I'm I'm just asking your opinions on these things would would you agree that not all parents have the same knowledge level or Comfort level or skill set to have a a standard type of conversation with students with with their kids rather so like for example what the conversations you might have with your kids are going to be different with the conversations I might have with my kids so not everybody is getting the same type of education on what human

148I don't know everything and know everything there is to know about it either and I'm assuming neither do you like we want to make sure our kids are having safe relationships healthy relationships they're educated on this and they're not going online to look in the choose your own Adventure World of Google to find out what what this is all about well hopefully those parents have controls on their kids phone or devices not to be able to search that information um no I stand firm on what I said so the second question I want to ask then and again I'm not trying to get in an argument about this stuff was I I know parent choice was important to you all when when you ran how does that jive with you know I'm I'm I'm saying

149this this would be parents could opt into this we're giving the parents the choice of what they would want their students to learn and it seems like that that's what you were saying when you guys ran is that you were for parent choice in their education but now you're saying you don't want parents to have that like I don't want it so can you help me understand a little bit more sure I I think we should follow the law and it is your choice as a parent to have that kind of discussion with your child I think you've done a lot of research it sounds like you're really passionate about the subject and I don't see what's stopping you from having that conversation with your kids and if you want to get together with your

150friends and talk about I mean that's your prerogative but no I'm I I think we should keep what we have as an absence only because that's you know that's where I would stand okay all right Bob what do you think oh I I said you you know the absence and um like I like I learned in junior high was the pros and or not the pros and cons the causes and effects you know absence only and then if you choose not to these are the consequences of your actions I'm not saying a child as a negative consequence I'm just saying thish so are you saying you would not support uh Research into additional options that we could be presented with from the district I wouldn't go go past what we've like if what I just

151said is about as far as I'm willing to go right now which is what we have right now okay all right okay does anybody else have anything for board discussion no okay um the next meeting the date did change so it is May the 22nd and it is here still at Mercer and can I get a motion to adjourn I make a to adourn Second Mrs Stewart yes Mr bib yes Dr Simmons yes Dr strickler yes Mrs Jonas yes thank you everyone for coming