001good evening I'm calling this meeting to order the time is 5:32 p.m. in accordance with the Texas open meetings act Texas government code chapter 551 this meeting is officially open with the Quorum present at this time we will hear public comment addressing items on the agenda let me remind you that because restrictions by the Texas open meetings act board members may not engage in a verbal exchange about a subject that has not been posted we will listen and take notes but the board is prohibited from responding to any inquiries made during a board meeting on any topic not posted on the agenda however the board May reply with one a statement of specific factual information given in response to the inquiry two recitation of existing policy in response to the inquiry or three direct a
002person to visit with staff about the issue no presentation May exceed 3 minutes unless the speaker has prior approval for additional time because of the use of a translator speakers who require the assistance of a translator are permitted double the allotted time of speakers who do not require the assistance of a translator as soon as the speaker begins speaking the time clock will begin our first speaker speaker is Jamie Bryant followed by Missy Cara and Christy Beck good evening I am Jamie Bryant I am here today because I think that Fort Worth ISD students deserve more than just a referral to plann Parenthood um when they're facing an unplanned pregnancy so I believe that these students deserve to know about the wealth of information and free services that's available at local pregnancy centers I have
003six years at the Fort Worth Pregnancy Center so I've seen firsthand how we serve these students um as a matter of fact just this year alone we have served um 113 pregnant middle school and high school students 73 of which were from this school district in the last five years we've served nearly 500 teens and pre-teens from this school district and we provide them free onsite resources medical services and information just to give you a little bit of an idea of what we do we um confirm their pregnancy with a lab quality test our registered diagnostic medical sonographer provides a sonogram to confirm how far along they are to look at whether or not the pregnancy is viable to screen for health risks like ectopic pregnancy blighted ovom refer them for immediate medical care if
004needed um but then we go beyond that um we give them an options consultation where we can talk to them about all their options available we give them information on abortion in terms of the procedures what to expect the risks the recovery time relevant laws we talk about modern adoption and what that looks like um if they want a parent we talk about the resources and all the help that's available to them and we give them a a judgment free safe place to arrange their thoughts and really understand what lies before them and what their options are and where they go from there um if they do decide to parent we walk alongside them so that uh free parenting classes to equip them to be moms and dads Because we serve the fathers too and
005and we believe their voice matters and they need support we help them get enrolled in in Medicaid prenatal we provide them all the material resources they're going to need to be moms and dads from maternity clothes to baby clothes to bigger things like car seats and strollers and so we're just with them every step of the way helping them to look at what their goals are and how they can um achieve those goals and we do that as I said all on site and all free of charge for the Ser thank you missy Cara followed by Christy Beck and Donna Collins okay well good evening board um tonight Fort Worth istd will claim that they do not have a relationship with Planned Parenthood if that's true please explain to me why that highly politicized multi
006billion abortion giant is at the top of your recommended reproductive Health Services providers list right here this list actually only has three other options on it at the exclusion of multiple local providers clinics hospitals and nonprofit centers that provide accessible affordable care for students if there's no relationship why have a hearing about it tonight there were three opportunities to resolve this complaint before today which would have saved thousands of dollars and countless hours of preparations for this that's a rather large unnecessary investment just to keep an organization that you do not have a relationship with at the top of a list that actually has y'all's logo on it Fort Worth ISD has a relationship with Planned Parenthood because of a relationship that you have with the cdc's division of Adolescent and school health years ago
007the CDC awarded a grant funding that made you a national priority District to accomplish their strategic goals of implementing comprehensive sexual health education and that's how we got Health Smart and creating confidential access to sexual health services at places like Planned Parenthood the CDC program was designed for a singular purpose and that was to use public school students as cap human capital commodities for their revenue generating model it's the public school pipeline to plan Parenthood and the cdc's goal is to implement that Nationwide they've already started they're using our students for this and so tonight I'm asking you to please put an end to it and remove Planned Parenthood from this list if you choose not to do you have a policy to notify parents that this resource list is available for their students to
008access without their parental knowledge or consent it's in buildings it's on the walls and posters it's in binders if you do have a policy like that I'd sure like to see it and are parents aware that your current policy to access this allows your staff to usurp Texas Family Code 151 which removes a parents right to direct their child's moral and religious training consent to their child's medical care and decisions regarding their child's education it breaks the law this district has an ongoing problem with breaking the law in regards to California based ETR associ its Health Smart and new york-based abortion giant Planned Parenthood are these two things really worth all of the trouble that it has caused you this actually could be an easy fix and it's within your power to do something about
009it today please remove Planned Parenthood from this list as a reminder to the board Miss Cara has a grievance later today so any of her comments within public comment should not be considered during the grievance process okay thank you Christy Beck followed by Donna Collins and Jennifer Crossland hi board um at the last board meeting I spoke with you all about the proposed policy to limit or prioritize public comments to stakeholders within the district I pointed out how the driving force for several P public commenters has been from curriculum programs and influences that are outside of Fort Worth if not even outside of Texas tonight's grievances are no exception let's begin with New York based Planned Parenthood as a Fort Worth ISD recommended Sexual Health Resource provider this billion dooll organization is a well-known abortion
010provider that now also provides gender affirming care I've seen your recommended Sexual Health Resource providers list and it's remarkable to me that there is only four local providers um on it with Planned Parenthood being first and foremost the city of Fort Worth itself has a host of providers that are available to provide Sexual Health Services to minors including STI testing and treatment pregnancy tests contraceptives and health education the exclusion of all these other options lead me to believe that you are willfully positioning the students at Fort Worth ISD directly into the public school pipeline to plan Parenthood I have been a volunteer the past 3 years at a pregnancy center on the east side of Fort Worth I work directly with women including high school girls who have found themselves in unplanned pregnancy situations all
011of our services are free 100 100% free we offer education regarding their options as the previous speaker had mentioned pregnancy tests sonograms parenting classes and baby items and we have connections to many other resources around Fort Worth one thing that most people don't realize is that services at pregnancy centers like mine continue to provide support and resources to women and their babies until their child is 36 months old so it doesn't even stop once the baby is here I cannot believe that a district this large with the resources and funding available to them has a list this short not only that you can have continued to align yourselves to California based ETR Associates Health Smart human sexuality instruction this program has ties to Planned Parenthood and even reported that it does not align to the
012recommended Texas teaks after all the offenses listed earlier I really question why this district has not disassociated itself from this failed program there are other health curriculum options available to the shack for consideration I ask you to remove Planned Parenthood and ETR Associates Health Smart their consultants and everything with regards to them thank you Donna Collins followed by Jennifer Crossland and merited Bowman good evening I'm Donna Collins I live in Fort Worth ISD boundaries and I am a stakeholder as all are as all as are all taxpayers I am a concerned grandmother and I want all voices to be heard I'm very concerned about the lack of transparency that has led to this meeting as well as about this meeting why has the healthmart curriculum been so hard to see multiple friends of mine not
013just the ones with grievances tonight have tried to see the curriculum and they were intimidated and pretty much prevented from adequately doing so and why is primary Planned Parenthood the primary resource listed on the curriculum I'm not going to reiterate what previous speakers have said um but it is also my understanding that the proper adoption process was not followed for the healthmart curriculum there should have been public viewing and that didn't happen when I was told about this meeting I kept checking the board uh calendar for more information and there was no listed listing upon checking Saturday night at the 72 hour mark the meeting was finally listed however there has been and stills no location or description of the meeting a friend pointed me to board book to see the agenda you only use
014board B board book book for the first time last month and the agenda was listed um through board book on the calendar then how would one reasonably be expected to find information about tonight's meeting with without it being on the calendar as it usually has been I find this another example of lack of transparency in Fort Worth ISD thank you Dr Ramsey for halting the use of healthmart when you became aware that it was not properly adult adopted we need to start over and find a better curriculum Health curriculum for our children a quote from the most popular book in the world acts 17 verse 2627 and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the Earth that they should seek God and perhaps find him he is
015actually not far from each one of us please may the best may the blessings of Christmas come upon each one of you and open your eyes to the plight of our children amen Jennifer Crossland followed by meredi Bowman and Tiffany ke good evening a lot can happen during the span of a year in this case one year ago this board and District was discovered to be out of compliance with the illegal $2.6 million purchase of ETR Associates healthmart human sexuality instruction and was challenged by a number of individuals we are still here because this District denied the requested remedy to reject this vendor and curriculum from consideration throughout the year the F following the filing of this grievance several legal violations were committed including circumventing the responsibility of school health advisory Council or sha excluding
016parents and stakeholders from Shack meetings concealing curriculum from public view protecting an administrator that lied to stakeholders about content in the curriculum obtaining consent forms for students to receive instruction from material that wasn't formally adopted yet violating o Texas open meetings act by concealing agenda items with false and misleading descriptions which were later covered up by your attorney and just recently attempting to close an RFP with zero bid so that you could keep Health Smart with no competitor and finally censoring a stakeholders public comment that pointed all of this out not only that in the span of a year we've discovered and publicly disclosed to you several other offenses conflicts of interest with Health Smart which include California based publisher ETR Associates own admission that healthmart is not aligned to the Texas teaks a clear
017relationship between ETR Associates and Planned Parenthood and additionally the health education curriculum analysis tool used by The Shack to evaluate the human sexuality instruction curriculum Health Smart was developed by Dr Susan tjan the author of Health Smart and the same doctor Dr tjan received $94,000 in Consulting fees from Fort Worth ISD in the span of a year we've collected over 600 petition signatures as well as have seen multiple parents and stakeholders speak out against this curriculum and in the span of the year I chose to enroll my children in a charter school instead of footw Worth ISD along with literally thousands of others who are seeking alternative educ options which have contributed to the loss of enrollment for this District I once again recommend in lie of our taxpayer dollars being spent at school on
018human sexuality instruction we develop a list of Community Resources to provide this type of education to families who desire for their children to learn these topics outside of the home thank you for your [Applause] time as a reminder to the board Miss Crossland has a grievance later this evening and anything that is shared in public comment should not be considered during the grievance process thank you uh merited Bowman followed by Our Last speaker Tiffany ke good evening board I'd like to just take a moment to um recognize the family that has been lost to this community um last week and a terrible tragic accident um their lives should not have been spared but praise God that the the mother is still fighting for her life um a few months ago when this I came and
019spoke about a book that is called The Adventures of fuego and this is the second episode of The Adventures of fuego and it talks about this young boy that has had this opportunity to make some bad choices and in the book it's him talking about the pressures of what that feels like I'm going to read a few epert from the book um and then hope that this kind of might help some of us to step out in boldness and stand for truth in the righteousness that we have deep within our hearts um so the story goes along and here it talks about somehow Fuego had lost sight that he had the power of God inside of him to stand up against pure pressure you see when he was 8 years old he had received the
020first gift when he had made a decision to live live for Jesus the gift of Salvation and forgiveness of sins but there was more at the age of 10 he had received the second gift the gift of the Holy Spirit he received a new prayer language called tongues when filled with the Holy Spirit he received the power to live for God and to say no to Temptations fego didn't have a plan for where he would stay after running away this is what he was planning to do thoughts of fear were overtaking him he decided to run away and he had run far outside ran far outside outskirts of town and and found a long stretch of railroad tracks he decided it would be a good place to walk and think there was no one in
021sight for Miles as he continued to walk he began to hear a quiet voice inside the voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper you are more than a conquerer through Christ no weapon formed against you shall prosper greater is he in you than he that is in the world you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you he decided to go back home because he remembered how it felt with the god being within him um he he asked for forgiveness from the Lord and then he continued to pray his friends and him finally came together and he stepped out of boldness and got them to not do the bad things that they were planning on doing which was stealing I'd like to leave you with this thought God has not given you
022a spirit of fear of intimidation but a spirit of Joy life and Hope the spirit is inside each and every one of you if you would like to read more you can look in the books of Acts in the Bible thank you our final speaker is Tiffany ke so I'm here for the third time asking the board to discard the Health Smart curriculum and to reject any other curriculum that promotes radical gender ideology gender affirmation for children is an experimental Endeavor with truly nefarious Origins I I urge you to look into that from Alfred Kinsey in the 40s to lury Children's Hospital in Chicago where children can now get exposure to Kink and BDSM as well as trans ideology it is abundantly clear that radical gender ideology is not about affirmation but about the sexualization
023and sterilization of children an experimental Endeavor which by the way has recently ground to almost a complete stop in much of Europe why because the Damage Done by puberty blockers cross- seex hormones and the lifetime dependency on Pharmaceuticals has been exposed I encourage you to read the personal accounts of victims of this experiment uh one young woman is Helena kersner you can read her accounts online Helena walked into a Planned Parenthood Clinic as a teenager and received a prescription for testosterone in her very first visit a few difficult years later Helena reversed course she said in an interview it's just devastating to especially from a young age be lied to by adults at school and by medical professionals and told that your body is wrong you need to change it you need to get hormones
024you need to get surgeries that's devastating for a young person please don't vote to put Fort Worth kids on that path with any sort of curriculum that promotes that kind of ideology thank [Applause] you thank you for sharing your thoughts this evening at this time we'll move to action item 3. a.1. a the level three grievance of Missy Cara those overseeing the process please come forward at this time thank you Dr Rodriguez good evening my name is Cynthia Ranon and I will serve as a presid in officer for this grievance hearing the purpose of this portion of the meeting is to hear the level three complaint of Miss Missy Cara this hearing is being conducted during a duy called meeting of the Fort Worth Independent School District Board of Trustees convened on Tuesday November 28
0252023 and pursuant to the district's complaint policies notice of this meeting was provided in accordance with the Texas open meetings act for the record a quorum is present the following board members are present trusty Wallace Bridges truste andar truste Toby Jackson truste annael Lanos trustee Kevin Lynch trustee Quinton Phillips trustee and board president Dr Camille Rodriguez trustee Dr Michael Ryan we are meeting to consider the level three complaint of Miss Cara Miss Cara would you and your representative please state your name for the record my name is my name is Missy Cara Mary low families engaged thank you with the individual responding on behalf of the administration please state your name good evening I'm NE bonavita representing the district thank you I will now ask each member of this board whether he or she is
026able to serve as an impartial member of this body and to arrive at a decision based solely upon the record in this matter and information presented at this meeting and not on any other information he or she may have heard prior to this meeting any member not able to serve should say so now and ask to be excused I'm going to request that Toby Jackson remove herself from this because of comments that she has made aligning herself in support of Planned Parenthood on social media and the value and the importance of Planned Parenthood and this is against Planned Parenthood we would request that she would remove herself from voting on this item thank you Miss low your request is noted however it is incumbent upon the board member to make the decision whether or not
027they are able to uh serve okay a recording of this hearing must be made please avoid talking when others are speaking so that the recording will reflect the proceedings accurately this hearing will be conducted in Open session miss car and the administration will each have a total of 10 minutes to make their presentations to the board this is not a formal legal proceeding so no strict rules of evidence or procedure will apply also there is no cross-examination the board is not required to consider documentation or claims not previously submitted or issues not previously raised there will be an opportunity for the board members to ask questions however board members are not subject to questioning by the complainant administration or legal counsel as the complaintant Miss Cara you will present first I will keep time for
028the presentations and we'll notify you when you have two minutes remaining or would you prefer some other minute marker um so eight in reserve two okay and before uh you begin the timing I need to make a correction to the board book let me um proceed and then we'll we'll get there uh thank you any time remaining of your 10 minutes even beyond the two minutes that you've just requested uh after your initial presentation can be used by you for rebuttal after the administration's response the administration's presentation will follow Miss Cara's initial presentation Mr bonavita I will notify you when you have two minutes remaining or would you prefer some other minute marker what you've described as fine B R thank you any time remaining of your 10 minutes after your initial response can be
029used by you for your rebuttal after Miss Cara's rebuttal following the presentations the board will meet in close session with board councel for advice and may then return to open session to deliberate and take action if any okay so at this time does anyone have any questions or initial procedural matters that need to be discussed L uh yes procedural matter is item 25 in their response to level two um we presented s sp22 in its written form however um the sp22 that they use to determine their um assessment was not based on S sp22 that we submitted so with legislation you have a number can be used over and over and over again and then the numbers that are in the parentheses out beside it would design designate what year and we did provide the
030print out of the actual bill that we were were referring to for convenience and the actual print out is included in your board book but the decision was rendered that s sp22 was not relevant based on the person who reviewed this looking at the wrong s sp22 did I make that clear or was that so I I that's not really a clarification about the record I think that's an argument that you're making no it is it's printed in the record it is part of the record as yours as Fort Worth isd's response to level two it's not an argument that I'm making today it I believe you're indicating to the board that the um decision is based on an erroneous version of the Bill of the of the law but but what Miss Cara presented
031is in the record correct yes okay I I I'm stating that you all have made an error um um so and then the other thing that I would like to uh state is that there is many um evidentiary pieces that were brought forth in the recorded hearing that are not reflected in the book so if you the the recordings were provided to the board and have they listened to the recordings that the board is not to be questioned so uh the the recordings were provided to the board as part of the record okay okay Mr bonavita do you have any comments or questions okay um Madame President are you ready to proceed yes ma'am just proceed thank you all right at this time Miss Cara you and Miss low May proceed with your presentations give
032me one second so I can start the timer is the timer posted somewhere Miss molar would you kindly be our Tim keeper sure eight minutes correct yes it is not posted but miss molar will um make sure that we're aware of okay when you have you might give me a few minute notice before the8 minute Mark a second or two before the eight minute Mark just say almost eight minutes so that I wrap it up that's fine m m would you like to say Mr bonavita no I'm I'm fine as it is okay okay um Miss molar Dr Molar I apologize I'm getting used to it okay okay we're ready Miss thank you so this complaint that is brought to you tonight by Missy Cara is um very sinere and it is very amply documented
033in simple terms this is about Fort Worth ISD breaking the law they violated sb22 exponentially and the Texas Attorney General's office has also provided an opinion as to whether or not s sp22 is constitutional sb22 can be found on Tab seven in your book uh it is quite lengthy I'm not going to read it into the record but I am going to summarize for you sb22 prohibits any government agency which Fort Worth ISD is a government agency as it exists off of taxpayer funding states that a government agency may not do business with Planned Parenthood and they are very specific that you they cannot do business business with Planned Parenthood it is not an abortion provider it is Planned Parenthood and in question today and which is very well documented is that Fort Worth ISD
034has uh prior to this rule being an effect has uh contracted because of some government grants with ETR healthmart and ETR Health Smart was written by a woman who was at the time she wrote it affili affiliated with Planned Parenthood and it is an entity of Planned Parenthood it also does not align with the Texas law of abstinence-based sex education or health so we expect um any government agency to align themsel with the laws that are set forth by our legislative body um so in again simple terms you are violating the law by doing business with Planned Parenthood uh you have continued to engage in memos of understanding with entities that contract with Planned Parenthood so even though you may not be always directly in contract with Planned Parenthood you are via you are doing
035it via another a third party entity which is still according to the AG illegal so I would like to set that forth to you and then um as I go to tab eight you advertise for a job and in your job description you're referring to students and someone who can make references to a Planned Parenthood agency so you're advertising for jobs saying you want them to refer to Planned Parenthood uh and many of the other tabs um let me find the tab uh your counselors repeatedly on the website refer students on the website to Planned Parenthood and that happens over and over and over again so you're basically advertising for Planned Parenthood I believe that um when a government a law is passed it says you can't do business with them you may not advertise
036for them either so I find that that's a violation but it's also an indict ment that your employees have been given the authority and the right to make referrals to plan Parenthood uh since sb22 was passed there have been many other laws that have passed that have become even more stringent as far as the state's rules and guidelines regarding abortion I am not here T not nor as Miss carara to discuss the laws how they came to be or whether they're right or wrong we are here tonight to ask you to abide by the laws and have been set forth I would submit to you as a board that if you do not have enough respect for a child in utero that you do not deserve the right to serve on a board that must
037respect a child in the classroom there is no difference there cannot be a difference in your position so to continue to align yourself with Planned Parenthood just cannot be accepted how are you doing that well we have two grievances tonight that show very clearly that you subverted other laws that we'll talk about in the next grievance but you are um showing partiality by subverting the laws to get to continue to use Health Smart and you purchased Health Smart without going through the proper procurement second grievance however um another real issue here with with your use of Health Smart not only did you do it improperly and not not only is it illegal but uh you're planning to continue to do that so even after you have been made aware of these um violations you're continuing
038to do that so Missy car would you please read your statement into the record now okay I'm going to repeat my public comment to get it in the record tonight Fort Worth ISD will claim that they do not have a relationship with Planned Parenthood if that's true um please explain how the highly politicized multi-billion dollar abortion giant is at the top of the recommended reproductive Health service providers list that's in your uh board books this list only has three other options on it at the exclusion of multiple local providers clinics hospitals and nonprofit centers that are providing accessible affordable care for students if there's no relationship why are we having a hearing about this there's three opportunities to resolve the complaint before today which could have saved thousands of dollars and countless of hours of
039preparation for this that's a large unnecessary investment just to keep an organization that you do not have a relationship at the top of a list that has your logo on it Fort Worth IST has a relationship with Planned Parenthood because of a relationship that you have with the cdc's division of adolescent school health noted in your board book years ago the CDC awarded grant funding that made you a national priority District to accomplish their strategic goals of implementing comprehensive sex ed and creating confidential access to sexual health services at clinics Planned Parenthood the CDC program was designed for a singular purpose and that was to use public school students as human capital commodities for their revenue generating model this is in their strategic goals they outline how they use comprehensive sexed and Sexual Health Services
040Across the Nation they're using our students for this and I'm asking you to please put an end to it and remove Planned Parenthood from this list thank you so if you would go to tab a 11 at the very top and I believe this is highlighted in your book it states this is a part of the Texas Family Law the state warns that the that you must follow s sp22 it says the centrality of absence education in any human sexuality Tec 28.4 and the right of a parent or legal guardian to be informed of the of and consent to an abortion performed on their pregnant child with judicially authorized or medical emergency Texas Family Code 33 if you are making a referral to plan Parenthood you are not following that law and we have many
041instances of Fort Worth ISD referring students out to plan Parenthood usurping a parent it goes on to say Educators also should be aware of an abide by the statutory prohibition on taxpayer resource transactions between state government entities including public schools and abortion providers or an affiliate of an abortion provider Texas government code chapter 2272 um further more um in your in your table of content okay in your table of content the memo of understanding uh the table of content is very clearly labeled of where you can find the evidence of all of the things that we are alleging that you are in fact doing thank you thank you Miss low Miss Cara Mr bonavita you may proceed thank you Dr M are you ready yeah okay thank you Dr molr members of the board again
042my name is Neil bonavita and I am an attorney for Fort Worth ISD I've been asked to cover these two grievances tonight and I have some things to say with respect to the analysis that's being done with regard to miss Caris presentation regarding Planned Parenthood I'd like to spend a little bit more time with the law rather than what they believe the law to be I'd like to have a conversation with you about what the law actually is and in doing that research it's coming from an attorney's perspective so you'll forgive me if I am shanding certain certain aspects but it's important in your decision making today to understand what the law is regarding these issues that they've brought forward I'd like to start with the very same government code that uh M low quote
043it and I'll quote it as well the Texas government code does prohibit this District from entering into taxpayer resource transactions with an abortion provider or an affiliate of an abortion provider that's clear we're not contesting that however if you go further we've gone and actually codified that within our own policies if you look to board policy CH legal that that's where you'll find the same codified version of what is prohibited here by the Texas government code and the legislature the government code bear with me with these definitions but I really want to get down to what we're really talking about because it's very important to be very specific about the language that we're talking about here when we're trying to understand what we can and cannot do as a district the government code defines taxpayer
044resource resource transaction the very information that Miss low and Miss Cara are hanging their hat on as a sale purchase lease donation of money Goods services or real property or any other transaction between a governmental entity and a private entity that provides the private entity something of value derived from the state or local tax revenue regardless of whether the governmental entity receives something of value or not that's a lot but it's important because the district to be clear has no agreements with Planned Parenthood whether they meet the definition of taxpayer resource transaction or not and that's important because if we did have an agreement with Planned Parenthood we would be in violation of this code but we do not not even an agreement in a casual format to provide that type of information secondly the
045district to be clear I'm sorry the district does however have a relationship with the centers of for Disease Control which was also mentioned by the by the grievance we do have a relationship with them they're an important government governmental entity that we work with from time to time and we do have a grant specifically we were granted u a CDC promoting adolescent Health through schoolb based HIV prevention back in 2018 that's a 5-year Grant now as one of the major operating components with the US Department of Health Services the CDC does wide- ranging work to advance its mission to protect Americans and as part of that mission works with both public and private entities to gather and share important data and information the CDC of course is not an abortion provider so we're clear on
046that part since the CDC is a Clearing House of important medical information it would then seem reasonable would it not and likely that it would interact with private entities such as planned parenthood as a source of information regarding the spread of sexually transmitted diseases pregnancy rates among the various age groups Etc so going back to the government code if you're still with me let's Circle back to the government code and CH legal we've already established that the CDC is not an abortion provider right if they were we would be prohibited from engaging with them but the policy goes further right it also prohibits the district from Contracting with an affiliate of an abortion provider and this brings us down to a single legal question is the CDC and affiliate of Planned Parenthood the answer I'll
047Telegraph that by the way is no but it lies but the answer lies in what it means to be an affiliate you see you just can't walk in with a a bunch of pieces of legislation and just broadly talk about things you think might apply or not we have to get to the words so where we get here again two ways in which we can be held accountable for for having to separate one is if we are Contracting with an abortion provider or we're Contracting with an affiliate of abortion provider if the answer is no to both then we have done nothing wrong now let's talk about what an affiliate means an affiliate which is defined by the way in the very legislation that Miss low has brought to the table and shown and attached
048as one of her exhibits it's in there within the body of sb22 the definition of affiliate is right there affiliate means a person or ENT who enters into with another person or entity a legal relationship created or governed by at least one instrument including a certificate of formation a franchise agreement standards of affiliation bylaws or a license that demonstrates the following one common ownership management or control between the parties and the relationship a franchise granted by The Entity to a to the affiliate or three the granting or extens of a license or other agreement authorizing the affiliate to use the other person's entity's brand name trademark service Mark or other registered identification Mark the CDC is not an affiliate of Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood doesn't get to tell the CDC how to run its business
049Planned Parenthood has no common interest in terms of contractually running their business they're not franchised they don't get to label their uh their uh plan Parenthood doesn't get to display the CDC symbol on on on its letterhead neither does the CDC get to show the Planned Parenthood labeling in short as a matter of law they're not Affiliates so I realize that's a lot but we don't have we do not have common ownership here or management between planned par Parenthood and the CDC neither do they manage each other nor are they franchisees in this case the district is in compliance with the district policy CH legal and by extension the applicable provisions of the government code which was sought which were site sorry one minute out of the 10 out of eight out of the eight
050thanks all right as to the list that uh that Infamous list of of Health Care providers for pregnancy testing that we keep on getting referred to it clearly discloses in that list it says and it lists others besides Planned Parenthood but it does say that this Healthcare provid provider location information sheet is not a referral and is not meant as an endorsement of these providers by Fort Worth Independent School District or any of its staff so there is a disclaimer and there's no affiliation and I'll reserve the rest of my comments for closing but I would urge this board to uphold the decision at level two or take no action on on the on the matters presented today thank you thank you Mr bonavita Dr mullar please correct cor me was it less than two
051minutes that Miss low has now no she um she actually had 10 more seconds okay so she has she two minutes and 10 seconds yes okay and Mr bonavita has two minutes and seven seconds okay so miss L and Miss Cara you have two minutes and 10 seconds to present rebuttal okay um so thank you so much so I would submit that um the attorney here has conflated that the issue has to do with the federal government the issue does not have to do with the federal government the issue has to do with Fort Worth ISD Fort Worth ISD has a clear relationship with Planned Parenthood and it is and and for that matter even though it's not entered into our evidence because our grievance tonight is not with the CDC our grievance is with
052Fort Worth ISD we have not included the evidence in this packet so it's not evidence that you can consider but you may Google of your own accord and see that on the cdc's website they refer also to plain Parenthood so I think it's a little muddy to go to looking at what an affiliation is or is not but I would also go and say a little bit further that it's not about a legal issue as to whether or not they're an affiliate it's a political issue and we're not here with you about politics we're here tonight about the law we're here with you tonight about the value of a child and that the the content of the curriculum of Health Smart is inappropriate it is not age appropriate it is not what the community has
053made clear that they want and furthermore is fiscally unsound when the state approved curriculum good har Wilcox fully is included in your allotment and you could use that I would also submit that I'm asking you not to make referrals to plan Parenthood when I have pages in here of referrals that you can make other than planned parenthood and in closing the remedy is very clear you cannot move forward with anything that relates to Planned Parenthood um you may we ask that um you remove project we're not asking you to remove project reach from the district we are asking you to remove planed Parenthood from the district just to be clear we are asking you to adopt and hold accountable the procedures for the Sha um furthermore I would submit to you that Ken Paxton's opinion
054on this is in here and we are not afraid to ask Ken Paxton to come and challenge Fort Worth ISD on the egregiously illegal steps that they have taken in adopting this curriculum okay thank you uh at this time Mr bonavita you have your two two minutes and 7 seconds remaining if you'd like to use that time yes I'm sorry just a portion of it thank you uh trustee Dar um and my voice is rather horse so it probably will help to have the microphone on um well this this is this has taken an interesting turn we're here to discuss the validity of whether or not the applicability of certain specific statutes and specific uh board policies apply to a sheet that has planned parenthood among several other vendors and health care providers that can
055provide early teen pregnancy testing and something that's been passed out with a clear indication that there's that referral is not being made the much to M Lo's uh you know much I know that Miss low said that it's not about the CDC but Ian if you go back actually to the decisions that were raised in the original original uh in the original filings that's the only way that they really can get to us in this and that is the way that they would have to be able to establish that the CDC is a affiliate of Planned Parenthood and they're not uh we're providing Health Services is providing resources which is in the process of being revised uh we're not in violation of either uh Senate Bill 22 or uh board policy and I would ask
056the board uphold the decision uh leveled at level two or or entered at level two or in the alternative take no action at all thank you that's all I've got Miss rink ring Miss R may I make one statement no ma'am your time is up okay at this time um does the board have any questions of any of the parties if there are no additional questions from the trustees we'll move to the next action item thank you Miss Caren Miss low the next action item is [Music] three1 3. a point1 Point C no I'm sorry 3. A.1 pointb the the level three grievance of journ for cross land those overseeing this process come at come forward at this time for ready okay thank you again president Rodriguez the purpose of the this portion of the
057meeting is to hear the level three complaint of Miss Jennifer crossin the hearing is being conducted during a duly called meeting of the Fort Worth Independent School District Board of Trustees convened on Tuesday November 28th 2023 and pursuant to the district's complaint policies notice of this meeting was provided in accordance with the Texas open meetings act and for the record the members that were announced previously are still uh present with only trustee roxan Martinez absent we are meeting to consider this complaint Miss Crossland would you and your representative please state your name for the record Jennifer Crossland Mary low thank you will the individual responding on behalf of the administration please state your name Neil bonavita thank you I will now ask each member of the board whether he or she is able to serve
058as an impartial member of this body and to arrive at a decision based solely upon the record in this matter and information presented at this hearing and not on any other information he or me he or she may have heard prior to this hearing any member not not able to serve should say so now and ask to be excused a recording of this hearing must be made please avoid talking when others are speaking so that the recording will reflect proceedings accurately this hearing will be conducted in Open Session as follows Miss Crossland and the administration will have a total of 10 minutes each to make their presentations to the board this is not a formal legal proceeding so no strict rules of evidence or procedure will apply also there is no cross-examination the board is
059not required to consider documentation or claims not previously submitted or issues not pre previously raised there will be an opportunity for the board members to ask questions however board members are not subject to questioning by the complainant administration or legal counsel as the complainant Miss Crossland you will present first I will keep the time for the presentations and we'll notify you and Miss low when you have 2 minutes remaining or would you prefer some other minute marker did you want the advance okay so you don't want the advance okay yes ma'am any time remaining of your 10 minutes after your initial presentation can be used by you for rebuttal after the administration's response Dr molinard did you hear how she would like it that's what she said thank you the administration's presentation will follow follow
060Miss Crossland's initial presentation Mr bonavita I will notify you when you have 2 minutes remaining or would you prefer some other time marker the two-minute time Mark is fine Mr rone thank you sir any time remaining of your 10 minutes after your initial response can be used by you for rebuttal after Miss Crossland's rebuttal following the presentations the board will meet pardon me uh following the presentations the board will have time to ask questions are there any does anyone have questions or initial procedure matters that need to be discussed okay with that Miss Crossland you may proceed with your presentation if Dr molinar is ready okay good evening um I would like to take a moment to to point to time sorry let me start all over again sorry I thought I pushed it on
061so Title Five Texas Title 5 States in line 10 through 19 that Texas education curriculum um that the funds attached to that are absence based while it was just very clearly pointed out that you all have usurped using the State dollars and that you're using a grant or a bribe from the CDC a bribe to teach what they want you to teach a bribe to not follow the standards set forth by the state of Texas a bribe that should really disqualify you for from any funding from the state of Texas if you're going to adhere that federal law usurps state law and in a court of law it does not this would be tried in a court of law a state law not a federal law so I would disagree with your attorney's assessment that
062you can do whatever you want to because it's CDC so I would like to point to Title 9 now um for the funding that it must be absence based and now I'm going to have Miss Crossland talk about the laws and the ways that you circumvented following sha which is 152 1525 House Bill 1525 or where you find the standards for the Sha law a lot can happen during the span of a year in this case one year ago the board and District was discovered to be out of compliance with the illegal $2.6 million purchase of ETR Associates healthmart human sexuality instruction it was challenged by a number of individuals including myself we're still here because this District denied the requested remedy to reject this vendor and curriculum from consideration some things that happened throughout
063the year uh after filing this grievance um the district circumvented the responsibility of the shack they excluded parents and stakeholders from Sha meetings they concealed curriculum from public view protected an administrator that lied to stakeholders about the content obtain obtained consent forms they failed to con obtain consent forms for students to receive instruction from material that wasn't formally adopted yet violated Texas open meetings act by concealing agenda items with false and misleading descriptions which were later covered up by your attorney recently attempted to close an RFP with zero bids so that you could keep Health Smart with no competitor uh and censored a stakeholders public comment uh that pointed all this out not only that in the span of a year we've discovered and publicly disclosed to you several other offenses conflicts of interest with
064healthmart which include California based publisher ETR Associates own admission that healthmart is not aligned to Texas teaks a clear relationship between ETR Associates and Planned Parenthood Additionally the health education curriculum analysis tool that is used by the Sha to evaluate the human sexuality instruction or Health Smart was developed by Dr Susan tahan the author of Health Smart Additionally the same doctor Dr tahan received $94,000 in cons Consulting fees from Fort Worth ISD uh in this year I also chose to enroll my children in charter school instead of Fort Worth ISD along with several thousand other parents and students and again we request that you in lie of spending taxpayer dollars on this human sexuality instruction that is not approved that we develop a list of Community Resources uh using maybe some Community stakeholders thank you
065so one of the most pivotal things asked for by this grievance is fiscal prudence and over and over and over again we see the lack of fiscal Prudence now I do respect and appreciate the fact that for the past two years because of the way that you went about not following the law that health and sex education has not been offered so we just don't understand why you would not be reasonable and rational to um why would you dig your heels in on something that's controversial something that runs a risk of there being legal consequences because there is a clear and direct tie between Health Smart and and Planned Parenthood and I'm going to go back to um on in tab 23 Contracting with abortion providers pursuant to Texas government code 2272 the district is
066prohibited from Contracting with any abortion provider a grant via CDC is not a purchase contract it's a grant and when you applied for that Grant this law did not exist if you had had a grant writer that would apply for a law apply for a grant that did not comply with state law I would think you would fire her so I can't see why you would continue to move forward with that when there is very very adequate health education available for you to use as a school district that's consistent with the rest of the state that complies with the tees and it's allocated to you from the State I mean really what is it that you're trying to prove that you are in authority and no the other members of the community shouldn't be spoken
067to or should not have a voice I mean what is it that you want to prove by digging your heels in and saying we're going to continue to use something that was considered acceptable 10 years ago it's not cons it's not acceptable today and as much as anything you must remain in trust with your stakeholders and your parents so I would not argue the merits of whether or not you want this to be a part of um Planned Parenthood or CDC which it clearly is but whether or not you really believe since you've already acknowledged that the shack was not followed you've hired someone from Arizona why you didn't hire someone from Texas I don't know but you did hire a consultant to come in so that you were in compliance with the SHA I'm
068here over and over and over again asking you to just follow the law if you follow the law then people can't come and complain but then I can go to the state and say change that law because what you're doing doesn't work for our schools and between Austin and here there's a lot of things that are happening that are not good for our students and they're not good for our local districts and we fight for you as much as I'm fighting for her and stakeholders today to do the right thing for students and for communities you're in a fiscal crunch you don't have a good relationship with the majority of your parents do the right thing and just simply say we don't want that brought back we want to look at this you did have
069an issue with the request for pricing um again it's really simple just follow the laws the state is very clear about what the laws are and if you just follow those laws instead of flirting with the boundary this guy doesn't get as much of your money and that should be a goal that should be a goal for him to not get as much of your money or for another Law Firm to not get as much as your money fiscal Prudence responsibility to stakeholders and apply and comply with the state if you're not going to comply with the state or the they they have District of innovation and you use it right and left but if you're not going to comply with the state because you don't feel it's good y'all hired lobbyist I mean change
070the law don't just subvert it I mean who are you to think that you can just say throw the law of the wind we're going to make up our own interpretation of it there's nothing unclear in the law that was written by Texas lawmakers or there is nothing unclear in the law based on the Attorney General of Texas review of this and these are recent reviews we'll be happy to see you in court over these issues okay thank you uh Mr bonab thank you if all this sounds familiar we've walked this path before on June 13th this board considered the level three combined grievances which I believe although I wasn't Direct involved were presented by mlo of Missy Cara Amy Curry Katherine Poma and chrisy Beck some of whom spoke here tonight each leveling the
071same complaints regarding the shack and the selection of human sexuality curriculum that you just heard this is just a platform for retreading arguments that have you've have already been rejected the board took no action then nor should it take any action now as noted by Miss Dr Lisa Castillo in her level two decision in this matter she says that the Fort Worth It is part of her decision to Fort Worth istd convene The Shack by board resolution on August 22nd 2023 to review possible human sexuality curriculum and submit a recommendation for an adoption of any human sexuality curriculum to the board for consideration and adoption that's the process I've heard people come here tonight trying to get this board to eliminate HealthSmart to vote against it now I don't know whether this is an misinformation
072campaign that's out there but what we have here is a process where we had to do a reset as as these board members did recognize early on you board obviously the board did recognize we needed to do a reset with regard to sha we rolled back the things that we were doing we did a reset the board has since appointed sha to evaluate a variety of different human sexuality curricula and we're following the processes that are outlined by state law and by our own policies initially the complaintants were complaining about the fact that we weren't following these policies now that we're following the policies and we've made a corrected course they want us to just go ahead and adopt their curriculum and reject to circumvent the very laws that we need to follow as as
073a district and as a proud employee of Fort Worth by the way not an outside Council there's anything wrong with that um Fort Worth istd will adhere to all the laws Dr Castillo went on and state sha guidance regarding the adoption of human sexuality curriculum and make all Communications regarding shck available to the community within the respective laws and sha State guidelines that's what we're doing members of the board We are following those guidelines sha has yet to report or recommend any human sexuality curriculum for your adoption when they do then there'll be a robust debate and consideration by this board based on those recommendations everything that that's being asked for is premature so as noted back in June the district has already remediated any procedural issues regarding the review recommendation and Adoption of human
074sexuality Comm curriculum and I would urge this board to sustain the uh decision at at the lower level at decision two or at at level two or in the alternative take no action and let the process work itself just like he did in June thank you thank you just to be clear Dr molinar Miss crosslin has two minutes and Mr bonavita he has three minutes and and 44 seconds thank you Miss low Miss Crossland you have two minutes remaining to present rutal so just to be clear Jenny Crossland's grievance was filed back at the same time that you heard all the other grievances but um the district lost it and it was never heard so that is why this grievance is being heard tonight because we had to go through the full process so it
075was filed at the same time but it was lost in the school district so that is why you're hearing it again and then secondly we are not asking you to subvert the Shaq process in fact I applauded you for taking the correct action there just so you understand me correctly however uh Dr Angela Ramsey a superintendent has the ability and the authority to direct the the administrator who oversees Shaq to follow state law and the state law dictates one abstence based sex ad however you do have the right to go beyond that and the but absence has to be a part of it and Health Smart is not an abstence based or founded and it does not align with the te so you have the authority and you as the board as her boss have
076the authority to say we do not want anything considered that does not meet the teaks or does not meet the law and that is what we're asking you to do we're asking you to be wise fiscally prudent to follow the law and to give direction to the Sha to follow the law when the RFQ was put out the RFQ should have stated that it needed to meet 100% of the Texas tees and had the RFQ been written that way healthmart would not have been able to put forth I submit to you that your RFQ was written in such a fashion so that you guys could be faced and continue to see these challenges so again at some point you can abstain as you did last time you no decision is a decision by the way
077and he just said that but you will be held accountable by your vote on the curriculum thank you in in regards to this Mr bonavita you have 3 minutes and 44 seconds remaining if you you'd like to use that time M I'm sorry is minutes so it's actually oh okay 5 minutes and 44 seconds I'm going to give the board the gift of time and I'll stand by the comments that I made earlier and I have nothing further okay thank you um does the board have any questions of any of the parties okay Madam president this concludes the hearing portion of this proceeding thank you we will move to the next action item 3 point A.1 Point C level three grievance of Maria Soria which requires meeting and closed session as authorized under chapter 551
078of the Texas government code sections 551.074 and 55182 so the time is 6:46 and we will move to close session the time is 7:28 p.m. the date is Tuesday November 28 2023 we will now recess and reconvene for executive session as authorized by chapter 551 of the Texas government code under sections 551.071 074 and 072 in accordance with the open meetings law the board opened the meeting at 5:32 p.m. with the Quorum presentent recess and reconvened Open Session adjourned adjourned regular session convened executive session adjourned executive session and now reconvened open session at 8:36 p.m. with the Quorum present let's move to action item 5A board deliberation on the level three grievance of Missy Cara are there any comments I I just wanted to make a comment and state for the record that the um
079grant that was mentioned um expired July 2023 and no motion has been made to extend that Grant out beyond that do I have a motion on the level three grievance of Missy Cara being as there's no motion let's move to action item 5B board deliberation and render the decision of the level three grievance of Jennifer Crossland do I have a motion I have a motion I move to uphold the level two decision and allow the school health advisory committee also known as The Shack to continue their work in the selection of a sex education curriculum for Fort Worth ISD do I have a second second Miss Jackson any discussion let's move to voting motion carries 6-2 next item let's move to action 5c board deliberation and render a decision on the level three gance of
080Maria soraa do I have a motion yes Madam president I move to uphold the level two decision and direct the superintendent to ensure the investigation is reviewed and appropriate action is taken also direct the superintendent to ensure that staff adhere to a timeline within policy D do I have a second second second trusty leanos any discussion please move to voting motion carries unanimously the time is 8:38 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned