001friends in your heart it's pretty cool Auto Connection don't forget to give me it's another consonant all right good evening everybody second session I'd like to call the meeting to order uh at this time would you please join me within flight salute the United States population under God individuals good evening and thank you for joining us um at this time I would like to acknowledge that director Eric is on Zoom following this meeting uh do I have an approval for the agenda which is the administration recommends that the board of directors approve the April 26 2023 meeting agenda do I have a motion do I have a second second any discussion at this time okay all those in favor say aye aye aye motion is carried we will now be going into the executive session
002and that is in accordance with the open public meetings act provision for executive sessions the Sumner Bonney Lake School District Board of Directors will hold an executive session for the purpose of discussing litigation action is not anticipated following the executive session we anticipate that the exact session or meeting should last approximately 50 minutes with that um I will adjourn and we will go into our executive session thank you okay welcome we actually opened our board meeting at 5 PM this evening so we've done the call to order flag salute and we've approved the agenda uh we're going to pick up on the consent items the administration recommends that the board of directors approve the consent items for the April 26th 2023 board meeting do I have a motion to approve the consent items as listed
003so moved do I hear a second any discussion all those in favor say aye any opposed motion passes okay I forgot to say welcome by the way thank you lovely evening the sun is finally shining um and we appreciate you taking the time out of your evening if you hear that tonight so thank you uh superintendent comments so tonight we have some special guests with us that we're going to recognize that we're on the contention agenda the Personnel agenda and I'm going to let Bobby Snyder principal at Donald Eisman kick us off because we are introducing three new leaders for our district um that we are super excited about good evening Dr Dan Sumner Bonney Lake School District Board of Directors my name is Bobby Snyder I'm principal of Donald Eiseman Elementary and I'm honored
004to be here tonight to announce our newest Elementary administrator someone who is eager to know value and support every student at Donald Eisman Elementary helping them graduate ready to pursue a promising future to help me introduce this outstanding educator I would like to welcome one of our young explorers Scarlett my name is Scarlett I will answer you will introduce you I am a conditioner at school Austin Elementary [Music] yeah yeah Sam Cargill I just wanted to say I'm so excited and super grateful to be here Sumner is my home I love it here I'm raising my girl here and I'm just really fortunate for the opportunity to continue doing the work that we're doing here in this District thank you we're getting Sam Cargill a new Elementary introduction of course they are uh Tony Clark
005get on up here 's uh okay good evening Dr dead and board of directors okay I'm not sure okay test once if that one works can you hear me now all right so thank you Dr dad and board directory it can only go up from there so actually I'm really excited I'm really excited to announce the next um assistant principal Barney Lake High School I think a theme of the night is going to be kind of Full Circle in this sense um Jeanette Morris who is uh assistant our new assistant principal at Bonnie Lake High School um one of our team I don't know how I think um uh Mike Howard said I don't know how I feel about this about the higher box first student to be a teacher and now we have our
006first student to be an administrator and so Jeanette Morris is a proud Panther once again because the strangest Mech I've ever talked into um I am thankful for the opportunity to come home again um and to be a panther again once the panther always a panther but now it's it's true so um I I'm excited about the year to come and the many years ahead thank you yeah is that one of your former uh I figured so any other Jen okay okay well there you go they're coming home speaking of coming home someone else is coming home as well and uh to to lead Sumner High School Spartan Nation um Mr schulen you want to come on up bring Mr Baines with you I don't know we're teachers here so you just kind of go
007with all right so working now all right I am excited uh thank you uh superintendent members of the board I am excited and honored to introduce Jeff Baines our new Sumner High School principal beginning July 1st Seth has been away the last four years he's been principal at Burlington Edison High School prior to that Jeff served at the 18 years as an assistant principal so um much like bringing uh Jeanette Morse home to uh Bunny Lake High School we are super excited to uh have Jeff and his wife Marguerite and Mindy um you know during the nation once again um please help me welcome Jeff back to Sumner High School check check anyway I just wanna the board and uh Lori for this opportunity and and to be able to come back home and to
008serve a community special to to me to to my family and a community where my daughter graduated from school so uh I'm looking forward to what's ahead the leading leading the Spartans into the future so thank you yeah welcome home welcome back okay so two other quick announcements one mark your calendar for May 17th board meeting because we are going to celebrate bang Parkinson where is she yep so she just won the state level Business Office Professional of the year for wasbo so we are going to have a big party and if you've looked at tonight's agenda well deserved for many reasons but to earn a state level recognition like that is it's a pretty big deal so we're going to make it a big deal and May 17th if you see balloons and cake
009and I don't know not really sure what else but uh we're just gonna have a lot of fun so you'll want to be here and my last Quick announcement is for those of you that don't know this is National Library week and uh I can't tell you what the library meant to me as a kid because I was that kid that loved to go to the library during recess I love to read books it was a safe place for me as it is for a lot of our kids are magical they can put books in and create this curiosity and ignite imagination I loved to read as a kid I still love to read as an adult but a lot of it is because of the Librarians I was with and the books that they
010um that they showed me and they gave me and a lot of times our Librarians are not really recognized so I just wanted to give them a quick shout out for the hard work they do and helping us fulfill that promise where every student is known valued and supported because if you've been at a middle school or a high school sometimes Elementary kids go to the library during recess during lunch because it's a place where they feel like they belong and I just appreciate so much what our Librarians do our library secretaries anybody that works in our libraries thank you so there you go thank you uh this leads us to board member comments does anyone want to kick us off with comments well there's always a lot going on in the district um at
011every level the high school level down to the elementary um I'll pick one because I'm sure everybody has something they'd like to highlight but I would like to give a shout out to the Bonney Lake High School robotics team who went to the world championships and finished and finished in a very proud way to make and to make the district uh you know Shine for what it is and appreciate all the effort that they and the staff and everybody that is on that team put in thank you um I just have two quick things that I participated in uh or was lucky enough to go to um the community for families event was awesome and um speaker we had a lot of anyway the speaker that we had um Aaron Jones uh I as board
012members we've heard her to speak on several occasions but um I've got to say this time I something about the way she made it so warm and friendly um anyway it was wonderful I was really proud of the work that Marilee and her staff did it was awesome and breaking into sessions the session I chose was the um mental health and the effects on our youth and um wow there were some great exchanges of information and um I said if we had buckets and two things that we could have mentorships available with citizens for students that may need help and I I've been interested in that in a long time but the other one buckets of money again is to have like a comfort dog at each school and I know that sounds crazy but
013my daughter who worked for FEMA up it Oso had a dog there for the Congressional Liaisons that were there everybody was there and it was a devastating issue and um watching those dogs come in and just lay down at their feet gave it a certain calmness that you just don't get sometimes with humans so I was um kind of hoping for that if there's those buckets coming around um the other thing um I know Lori would probably like to touch on it too but um we were going to have our winner on one and then Lord text me and said um we've got a special award for one of our members um at Mountain View Elementary or not Elementary but middle school and I might not say her name correctly but boy talk about the
014most humble wonderful person Tammy yes that's her name and um right awesome and she received an award um through the hmh lighthouse award um 500 names were submitted throughout the country and she um won and it was so awesome and um maybe Laura could explain more of what what what she does with her students but it's it's miraculous so I was really touched by that today well stay tuned for that because we're going to celebrate Tammy as well I'm looking at Steve schulen right now super cool experience today celebrating the work that she's done with um an intervention at Mountain View I mean just outstanding nationally recognized inaugural award she's a superstar stay tuned we'll we'll bring that one too we got bang we got Tammy I mean we've got like this rock star staff
015so I know Kevin you talked about robotics but I just want to touch on it for one second too um I I've never seen anything like this before I've I've never been to a robotics event before and so um I swung in and just upon arrival there were food trucks and people were eating all over Bonnie High School's lawn and I mean they were just the energy just even before you got in the building and then you go on the build and it's the gym is transformed into this um I don't even it looks like something you see on TV it's an incredible there's screens and then all of a sudden you're watching it into it and then all these kids start jumping up and doing Champs you don't even know what's going on but
016the energy in there was amazing and then we walked down and uh Tony Clark gave us a amazing with was it Sam the student Sam I think um gave us a really cool tour of the pet which is the commons where all the schools have these build structures where they're tinkering with their robots and I truly it was amazing I left to go to my daughter's soccer game and then I pulled soccer players back up with me like you guys have to see this let's go check it out and then they were they were blown away to a student who had never gone to a little event either and so I just just to kind of go off from your enthusiasm for it I was blown away at the quality of event and then the
017students so smart I just thought oh my gosh these kids are amazing so kudos to the kids kudos to the adults who helped support them um it was amazing so glad I got to be a part of it and hope to go again someday Rick and Paul it's pretty much like Kevin said there's a lot going on and going heading into May and June it's just going to increase with all the graduation celebrations and actually this is the time of year it starts to get kind of fun to be a school board member uh other times not so much but with that said Aaron I would describe the excitement at the robotics competition kind of like a WWE event with a cage match around it uh it's that kind of an atmosphere and Sam did
018a terrific Job showing me around the pit as well um and then like Deb and uh Kevin I attended the community Summit I went to the parent leadership group that's our PTA and PTO organizations within the district it was much Fuller than I think they anticipated because the room was standing room only um and Kevin Olson our technology director highlighted all the technology to development that's going on and still to come as well as the upcoming needs that we're going to have going forward with the technology Levy Ellie talked about the communication initiatives that are coming up in the district um and then at that I was able to because I had the PTA O's and ptas right there I asked them hey you know if you guys invite board members send us all five
019of us an invite chances are good one or two of us are going to be able to make it to this event and we actually enjoy going to those things so I did I think we all got one it's a Victor Falls art night invitation I've already got it on my calendar and then I wrote a note on the back so that I probably need to stable to my head RSVP tomorrow uh then there was the uh the the Sumner High School talent show uh it was three hours long I didn't eat before because I thought it would be an hour uh so by the time I was pretty hungry my wife and I went out to eat afterwards but it was fun to see three hours of students uh playing the piano singing uh
020doing some comedy uh they even unveiled uh who the student was who who did Sparty uh throughout the year he came back on stage after he took off his helmet or head or you know the face now the last thing was this last Saturday I went to the Bonnie Lake High School Musical Into the Woods that's the first time I got to see a performance in the pack up there it was phenomenal the students it was it was great I'll just say that they even had an orchestra there although I did see some pretty thick beards on a few of the musicians I'm not so sure they were high school musicians so they might have been some community members but it was it was just fun uh I again I thoroughly enjoy the fact that
021this District spends money to include the Arts and all that goes along with that so thanks Aaron all right any other word comments before we move on yeah hearing none I getting lower and I'm going to keep my chairs just so if I disappear I'm still here I just you might not be able to see me soon oh you switched it okay all right no it's I'm good um all right this uh brings us to audience comments the summer Bonney Lake School Board welcomes the public to its meetings individuals who wish to address the board should sign up online hopefully you've already done that comments are restricted to three minutes and remarks regarding District Personnel are not appropriate for audience comments portion of the meeting thanks again for coming out tonight okay uh David would
022you like to go over the other parameters absolutely comments from the board from the public are taking under board advisement may or may not receive action at Future meetings as stated topics including charges or complaints against employees employment or dismissal of personnel acquisition of real estate lawyer client relationships campaigning and parameters for negotiations should not be discussed in audience comments other information questions or problems can usually be addressed by District staff the audience comment period will end when all registered speakers have been heard we ask that everyone adhere and understand these guidelines in order to maintain retain respect for all points of view the school board requests no clapping booing or any other form of support or non-support be used the board will not respond to comments but will take them under advisement speakers should
023be courteous and professional please refrain from using profanity vulgar language threatening or defamatory comments as a reminder individuals are not permitted to name a specific staff member board member or student during public comments failure to do so may result in the board president or designee interrupting or ending the comment the audience comment process is as follows speakers who registered by noon Tuesday April 25th will be heard if you're providing an in-person public comment when your name is called please come up to the podium and state your name please address comments to the school board as a whole individuals will have three minutes to speak I will signal the speakers with the Bell when one minute remains our first audience comment tonight is Christina Cooper hello my name is Christina Cooper and my pronouns are she
024her and hers I was planning on advocating for an anti-racist policy tonight but that will have to wait after February's board meeting I am reminded that policies are only relevant if they're supported and fully enforced I'm an education Advocate with the NAACP and we have received a handful of complaints from parents whose children have experienced and continue to experience racial slurs gestures and bullying when I ask families who they have notified in the district the most prominent answer I hear is no one which is usually followed up with comments like what's the point they'll just disregard it nothing will get done or I'm scared of retaliation I always try to Foster positive trusting relationships between districts and Families but I have to say it's getting difficult as a member of the district's Equity advisory Council
025I have listened to administrators boast about the district's teaching tolerance staff trainings on responding to hate and bias however when members of the equity advisory Council met with District administrators in March in regards to the hate and bias that was displayed at February's board meeting we were told the equity advisory Council cannot respond to what was said the district cannot respond to what board members say or do regardless of the harm the individual causes to their students and this is happening all over the country so it's time to move on and give the bad behavior no attention so help me understand how this board and administration expects its staff to respond to hate and bias when they refuse to do so themselves it has become very clear to me why families and students are reluctant
026to come forward when they experience hate or bias of any kind the families and students that need you don't trust you and I'm starting to see why I wanted to end with three foundational Concepts held across Native American communities as I think this board would benefit from the one let us be careful of one another's well-being before speaking think about how your words will impact others two let's all hold one another to being sacred or important to one another your elected officials and your words and opinions that are shared publicly have influence on others and three we all belong regardless of any board member's opinion if you are a student parent or Community member within this District you belong here thank you our next audience comment is Timothy Cooper good evening my name is Tim
027Cooper on February 15th of this year we are subjected to a certain School Board member's 18-minute plus rant about the personal and political beliefs about trans issues in their school system as they went on and on one thing stood out to me their specific use of the words six foot four inches 200 plus pound man was used to describe the aggressor and young lady as the victim for someone who doesn't seem to understand the use and meaning of pronouns they had no problem using specific phrases to control their narrative and that narrative is one of fear and Hate it reminds me of the media's coverage of Trayvon Martin's Murder By George George Zimmerman in 2012. certain media Outlets reported on the incident for trading Trayvon Martin as a fully grown man it didn't matter that
028he was only 158 pounds it didn't matter that he was only 17 years old they wanted to portray him as a big scary man that would feared so the murder seemed Justified not important all because of his race this was the narrative put forth to sell fear to the public now we're being told that we're being sold a narrative by the school board member that our school is our school children are so traumatized by the use of pronouns that they can't concentrate in school the big Burly men are dressed like the opposite sex just to infiltrate the school Walker the girls locker room that this is happening every day in our schools we should be terrified of this happening to our little angels remember this is not about who plays volleyball but the real issue
029is keeping our students safe from things like active Shooters which actually happens in this country the truth is our children are just trying to be their true selves they aren't doing this to be edgy or cool they aren't transitioning to fit in because it's the newest fad can you imagine how hard it is today's society to come out as trans and see these idiots shooting up Bud Light cans and social media because of their ignorance and hate hate for our children it's literally a life or death choice for some of these kids the security they face in the outside world is hard enough without having the bile hatred and fear mongering aimed at them from school board members that are supposed to have their best interests at heart not just the white cisgendered students might
030do but all students transgenderism isn't new it's just newly demonized for political gain in our country on my 10th 1933 The hirschfeld Institute of sexology in Germany was looted by Nazi supporting Youth and the entire contents of the library was burned why does this matter because almost all scientific research into trans lives was destroyed that day do we really want what bind ourselves with these people at what point in our history and by the number of books being burned from across the schools it does seem so I don't know maybe we replace the phrase politically correct with treating people with respect maybe we replace woke with a bit of sympathetic maybe we practice some empathy for it thank you our next audience comment is Sharon Bale Sharon Vale and I attended Sumner High School a
031million years ago and my sister and her three sons graduated from Sumner High School I have five nephews and nieces currently in your District I realized that not being a elected official isn't always easy and always fun but I appreciate the right Spirit trying to make your community a better place creative things I do not understand evil may win so I'm here tonight in our country and specifically in the Sumner Bonnie Lake School District our non-discriminatory policy clearly states District does not discriminate in any program services or activities based on sex race Creed religion color national origin age military status sexual orientation including gender expression or identity and the presence of sensory mental or physical disability yet here In This Very Room a couple of months ago during a public school board meeting in complete
032opposition to this policy again in complete opposition to this policy an elected official representing the district did not just speak out but he might as well have kicked his feet up on the desk and had a beer while he hemped it hot about his perplexing thoughts his comments were uneducated transphobic and borderline hateful this diatribe of nonsense went on approximately 19 minutes while other board members simply looked on not only did I lose 19 minutes I'll never get back but the hours I've spent since going over and over the video to make sure what I heard was correct these discriminatory behaviors are not only illegal but the Silence from board members sent a message of condonement has within our families community and students shattered our trust those 19 minutes could have been spent better maybe
033researching why we have six teenage boys at least six teenage boys sexually assaulted at Sumner High School the coach was alerted to you five years ago that he was a problem that he was inappropriate and now we have six teenage boys there's not a little more concerning than what size basketball the girls are playing with or the boys are playing with I think so these boys are damaged for life the ripple effect of the damage to them Irreplaceable or irreparable and will go on forever thank you our next audience comment is Gabriel freed ready good evening everyone my name is Gabriel freed my pronouns are him and I am the registered nurse at Bonney Lake High School it's pleasure to see several of you board members here tonight I am here to talk about the
034interesting perspective of being a school nurse because it is not just individual students and ice packs from where I come from I get to have this wonderful privilege to also address and look at the community health as a whole and if there is one thing that I can say that is very concerning to me is the fact that I cannot diagnose things as a nurse that is not within my scope of practice as a registered nurse but when I see symptoms such as transphobic rhetoric and other such bigotry or other such biggest tree going on within our community um I am allowed to examine that and to take a look at how we can adjust that but I would first like to point out a couple of the issues that I see with this first
035and foremost I would like to really make this clear to everyone in this topic because they're in this boardroom when I see someone walk like a transphob and I see someone talk like a transphobic there is no thing that you can say essentially to dissuade me from understanding that you are transphobed there is no amount of I don't really care how someone identifies but or I don't want to sound like a transfer but no full stop when someone brings up transphobic rhetoric that is transphobia we all agree in this room board members community members and people who are watching that bigotry is a social pathogen that is unacceptable that does not get to exist within my community and for that reason I want us to make sure that we are taking notes to samp us
036out and to basically block out that space so that cannot have space to exist furthermore there's often this concept as well too that students seem to owe parents and Guardians this idea that they need to come out to their parents but let me tell you something too and a lot of these speeches when I have people make public comments as well too give kids some credit our students are wicked smart they are observational kings and queens they know Royals for crying out loud they know what they are doing they know people who are safe to come out to and talk to so they're not going to come out to you as a staff member or as a parent that is reflection on you that is reflection on your relationship if they trust you enough and
037know that they are safe I want to make this community safe for my students I can do that in my health room and I know that we together as a community can do this there is no culture that exists like this this idea and concept that exists as a guidebook we can create a new culture of kindness compassion curiosity to go forth and support our transgender students we do this by asking their pronouns by sharing our pronouns put that in your signature that's really easy that's two seconds three put your pronouns in there make sure you invite people to come to gender neutral restrooms you can do that or making sure they have easy access to that or other facilities that they have that that is something we can do invite them to your sports
038your clubs your events when they are a transgender individual most importantly too with this is that when you hear transphobic rhetoric not only do you speak up and say no more you do not let that go you stop being quiet and then you let transgender people speak so they can stand up for themselves and you can advocate for them and Empower them we can do this together Bonney Lake High School we see this diagnosis of transphobia let's stamp it out thank you all so much for your time thank you our next audience comment is Steve McCoy hello my name is Steve McCoy the Sumner School District provided me with an education that served me very well my high school diploma carried me far beyond my expectations into a successful career in measurement Sciences working with
039engineers and PhD conventional scientists that changed our world thank you for that I believe the education I received helped me make a contribution I've added value to our world my time in school coincided with the chaos and protests of the Vietnam War of black power with protests calling for peace in the domestic terrorism of the Weather Underground the chaos did not bring peace 50 years later there are still protests and burning cities it seems we have knew we have moved no closer to peace it also seems we are angrier with each other than ever before now we have speech labeled two months ago I was here and listened to the comments about policy 3211 and how it would affect the rights of young girls who are being told they must share locker room in bathroom
040with biological males isn't sexuality a fundamental personal right isn't unwanted sexual exposure an intrusion and violation of a person's right isn't exposing oneself to a person with different genitalia considered indecent even criminal our constitution protects our right to our own beliefs and the freedom to speak those beliefs which is fundamental to the Democracy of this country but now one of the school board directors is being labeled for hate speech and speaking his confusion about the distributor policy think out loud how we protect all children Martin Luther King Jr led the civil rights movement against discrimination and superiority based upon skin color it was a revolt against the bigotry and the mobs who would Lynch people simply for holding a different opinion labeling people with different opinions is nothing new we are still labeling people and
041now we label their opinion as hate speech mobs are formed to silence them to censor them and to punish them it's still a lynching just using labels instead of a rope the Jim Crow laws supporting discriminations were bad laws not all laws are good the principle is if we believe a lie we will act on the LIE and bad things will happen we still have some bad laws and we are being told lies and bad things are happening if we really want peace we must revisit the principles respecting all people and their differing opinions we must remember the dream of freedom and justice for all the dream of a Nation where people are judged by their character not condemned for their opinions the converse principle is if we believe the truth we will act on
042the truth and good things will happen this is when we make a positive a contribution to our world and maybe peace will have a chance and thank you again for my education thank you our next audience comment is Christy Martinez hello the opportunity tonight my name is Christy Martinez I live in director District Four I'm a member of the Sumner Bonnie like Education Association I currently teach at Bonney Lake High School I'm also a proud parent of a Mountain View Middle School student and a graduate of Sumner High School I think the education I got at Sumner but get better over I wanted to say tonight a few things mostly about action action is important my dad who is also a graduate of Sumner High School and I went to school with him but he
043was very different I think she's always told me growing up actions speak louder than words my teachers my coaches at daffodil Valley at Lake Ridge that's also reminded me to walk my talk and I still still see and feel that in the district here it's the teacher I wanted to say thank you for a lot of action that happened here this year to Dr dent and Marilee Hill Anderson for all of their advocacy really working around House Bill 1238 which is now passed as it expands school lunches and breakfasts for students and even more families in our district so I appreciate it I also want to thank the board members that are actively taking action to make schools in a better Sumner body like School District more safe I encourage you to continue taking action
044by implementing the anti-racism policy that's being discussed and upholding in the existing board policy 3211 gender inclusive schools here tonight to stand in continued solidarity with my students colleagues and fellow citizens who are part of the lgbtqis2 community I do not share the homophobic and trans music phobic views that are currently being shared after student solidarity the March board meeting learned that some of us teachers are now being called activists as if it's derogatory well I don't condone name-calling the way I see it at best my actions my activism if that's what you want to call it will bring about change that results in a school system and Community where all students are known valued and supported but even if the name calling stays just that a put down set an attempt to make teachers
045feel some sort of way at least at this point your hurtful attention is no longer aimed at the Youth of this community thank you our next audience comment is Tracy Brennan foreign my name is Tracy Brennan and my pronouns are she her I'm here today as a parent of two students one a Donald Eiseman at one at Mountain View I'm here to speak up in support of board policy 3211 gender inclusive schools the first sentence of this policy states the board believes in fostering an educational environment that is safe and free of discrimination for all students regardless of sex sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression at February school board meeting there were comments made that go against the sport policy this is my son Allen and he uses he him pronouns he is transgender
046he wanted to be here today but due to comments I've heard in this room before I chose to protect him and he is safe at home he does not always feel safe in our District's buildings due to transphobic and homophobic comets he hears not only from students but from adults as a parent his safety is my number one priority I encourage him to speak up but he's afraid we talk to him about the balance of speaking up but being safe we want to empower him but we also want him to walk off the school bus at the end of the day and into our home safe last summer his safety was in danger I took him to the emergency room twice begging for help he wasn't eating he wasn't sleeping he was self-harming he stopped
047taking his meds and he didn't want to live he felt hopeless he was scared to go out into the world afraid what others would say to him when they learned that he was transgender he felt killing himself would make his pain go away I begged him to want to live after the second emergency room visit Seattle Children's admitted him and he spent two weeks as a patient in their psychiatric unit they saved his life they honored his pronouns never used his dead name listen to all of his worries about the world Listen to why he stopped regularly going to school at the end of last year as this school year began he showed Glee when his name appeared as Alan on rosters and teachers asked students what their pronouns were not every day is easy
048for him gender dysphoria is real just two weeks ago a student thank you refused to you pronouns I'm sorry that's the end of the audience comment our next audience comment is Sean Foster before you speak can I just say one thing I know you had your comments written down if you want to leave those with us we'd be happy to read them even though your time was up okay okay Wherever You Are my name is Sean Foster and I'm a language teacher in high school so I can do a very quick uh lesson here if you forget my name and someone says who's that guy with the shaved head you can say uh he is or someone said that you could say compassionate and informative or appeal to our sense of justice fairness kindness and
049respect we've heard remarks that provide scientific insight into the biological and psychological nature of LGBT people broadly and people living with gender dysmorphia excuse me dysphoria specifically I'm not here to change the mind of anyone specifically and I do think that one-way dialogue such as this is not a great way to do that but I am open to personal and private dialogue if there is a sincere desire to talk through these issues I would like to highlight who are bored into those present that we as a district have invested well into the six figures of dollars into positions and initiatives to promote equity in our district and yet we have not had so much as a statement or an acknowledgment that our District's taxpayer-funded time was used in this meeting in this room hash what
050amounts to hate speech directly from the highest positions in our district our Equity directives have always asked us to lean into difficult conversations as a matter of practical necessity and our leadership in this room has failed to do so completely failed to do so we say that we are a community here at least at Sumner High School we'd like to say that but have these concerned people ever tried engaging in dialogue with these young people with me as the advisor of the GSA at Sumner High School with the other club advisors who Endeavor to make their schools safer for our LGBT students for all students I don't think we have and instead we get rehash content derived from right-wing YouTube videos fed to people through an algorithm that knows that hate keeps people glued to
051their screens and watching advertisements and then fed to us as official remarks from our leaders and in reality despite any narrative the trans kids are running the show around here the reality is that they are harassed daily in our halls I see it as the advisor at shs I deal with it as a teacher and they don't know about our board and they don't know really about the comments or in February they don't know they can go watch these recordings they don't know anything about that and they don't need to and that's the problem because these remarks are dime a dozen nothing that was said in this meeting in February all past comparisons of pub and Terry being compared to racially motivated mob killings all the rhetoric and paranoid breathless hypotheticals about rights just amounts
052to one drop in a sea of hate that these students these people are drowning in every day they don't need to hear the comments from us in this room they hear it behind them in class they hear it on the internet they hear it in our district by failing to address that their own District allows their harassment to follow them from the halls of their schools to the elected leaders the people that their parents pay to help educate and direct the board for them thank you for your time thank you our next audience comment is Chris ijama hi my name is Christy Jama my pronouns are she her I have three children in the district thank you Dr Denton school board members for having us here tonight there are two issues I'd like to bring
053forward to the board tonight the first is to recommend the adoption of an anti-racist policy for the school district the second is to support the rights and individual individuality of all students in the district adopting an anti-racist policy is a crucial step in assuring that we are providing an equitable environment for learning this policy provides a tool for teachers and staff members to use when instances of racism occur at school it helps to create an environment where all foods are seen heard in a previous school board meeting one School Board member spent 18 months devaluing our lgbtq student population this goes in direct opposition to the district State admission valuing all students seeing them as the Unique Individuals that they are in nurturing them to be stewards leaders and innovators valuing students and embracing their
054true selves enable students to engage in learning in a supported environment thereby adhering to the district's Future Ready strategic plan one such goal is to nurture engage and Empower students for this to be accomplished we must value and support everyone a nurturing environment does not tolerate or support bullying othering hate speech or exclusion LGBT students lgbtq students face an alarmingly higher rate of bullying and violence in school than their cisgender peers according to the American Psychological Association nearly 87 percent of lgbtq students support report harassment at their school over the past year and 60 percent felt unsafe nearly 30 percent of transgender have been threatened or hurt by somebody on campus that is compared to son of cisgender to you and values within the school district we need to support all of our students especially
055those most vulnerable as a district we must speak out against othering off-handed and off-putting comments that disparage Our Youth and stand up for the rights and recognition of all of our students it is in doing so that we created environment of success in the Sumner and Bonnie Lake School District and support inclusive thank you for taking the time to listen to me speak today thank you our next audience comment is Terry McCoy good evening my name is Terry McCoy and I've lived in this district for 45 years I want to thank superintendent dent and each of the directors for being present this evening my respect for the positions they are elected to is continually growing the more I learn about our system and as we've heard tonight board members are not exempt from being bullied
056I also want to thank Kelly den assistant superintendent of instructional services for a successful meeting this week for my academic concerns in our district what is a what is it about bullying that we all intrinsically know is wrong no one is exempt from hateful speech it happens to all of us that's reality I wish it wasn't so yet again we all know what happens the categories are almost endless body type gender race nationality psychological Health family structure and so on what I've noticed happening in our schools at all grade levels is an attempt to re-engineer society as a whole not representative of the general population by taking the laws of nature and creation and reducing them to political identities of oppressed or oppressor is destructive for everyone to segregate or isolate students and or adults
057to intimidate or instruct them with propaganda will destroy hope happiness and unity whether in sports or academics kids and yes some adults are left afraid divided uncertain and lonely this ideological anti-normative social movement desires to dismantle dissolve and deconstruct relational bonds of reality like the family schools churches businesses and so forth how can we hope all children in our district will succeed in school and Beyond if we keep allowing the use of language in our schools to destroy human value worth and confidence no matter what category or categories any of us fit in I want Liberty for all students para Educators employees and our districts more than any individual or group being able to coerce bully or shame any adult or child into compliance against one's own conscience why are we allowing the dismantling of
058our education system leading to kids graduating without some even having functional reading skills or doing basic math what can parents and grandparents do together with our teachers and administrators to compel the children in our middle and high schools to even attend classes social construction is a serious matter it's how we live it's how we speak it's how we operate in the real world but please do not misunderstand me is our American society without flaw absolutely not can we all do better for all our students and our community absolutely yes thank you thank you our next audience comment is Jamie gadsby good evening my name is Jamie gadsby my pronouns are she her I'm a district employee I work at Bonnie Lake High School I'm a soccer coach in the district a mom of two now
059adult sons who graduated from Bonney Lake High School and Sumner High School respectively and I'm a Community member who has lived in Bonney Lake for 10 plus years I'm here tonight with concerns that there have been negative comments and opinions made towards our District's gender inclusion policy and procedures as an employee and Coach I've had the privilege of working with so many of our wonderful students my concern is that a marginalized group of students in our community rumors from adults who should be here to protect them rumors second-hand stories and opinions do not equate to objective data or findings about what is actually happening in our schools decisions regarding our students are driven by data and it's disappointing to see opinions interjected into policy making it's saddening and disappointing to hear comments made ostracizing our
060students gender when a student comes to me and gives me their preferred pronouns or chosen name and realizes they have a safe space there is a weight lifted from them a visible show of relief and a willingness for them to share and be open with us in those instances we adults in our building have been able to help several students who are suffering from ideations of self-harm or in harmful situations either at home or school it's such a simple thing and yet can be so impactful supporting our transgender students is so impactful that it may prevent us from being called into yet another's all School emergency morning meeting where we learn that we have lost another student to suicide my only hope is that all of our students feel safe unconditionally cared for and understood
061if you truly do not understand something make a concerted effort to do so be open-minded and talk to our students all of them just a very simple survey sent out to students to get an understanding of the climate of a school is not enough get into our schools and talk to these kids they'll tell you what scares them they'll tell you what makes them happy what gets them through their days what make what their concerns are if you really want to know what's happening day to day simply ask they're truly amazing bright kind creative and loving it's all of our responsibility to make sure that every day they all feel valued and respected our lgbtqia students do not need further isolation and marginalization they need and deserve acceptance understanding and an environment that Fosters creativity
062and self-expression thank you for your time thank you our next audience comment is Melissa Russell hi my name is Melissa Russell and my pronouns are she and her um I don't have a super formal statement I am tired I'm I'm really tired of having to fight for what students deserve and um just to give you a little background I did speak last month but um I have three graduates of Sumner high school I graduated from Summer high school I have five children enrolled in the district two are with me today that are Elementary students they asked me on the way here is this going to be bad and I said well there'll be people speaking that we might not agree with but we all have different opinions and that's okay they are both very aware
063that they have a transgender sibling and they're very protective of him and they are very accepting it's not even an issue for them um as far as dismantling the societal structure and all of that super confusing to me I don't understand it um I think we accept people where they are and I don't agree with everyone else but I try to accept them and embrace them where they are I would love to focus on an anti-racist policy in the district as I have several children of color but we can't even get through this so I'm not sure how that's going to happen um I would appreciate and expect some support from the board for um our transgender population I would love to hear a statement sent to the community from all of you stating your
064opinions when it's a policy already in the district that everyone's already spoken um I don't understand how the board what the board function is I thought you were supposed to support an enforce policy you know lead with Equity um support all those are the things that come to but I don't understand so um I you know of course have this very personal connection but even without that it's important for us to include and accept all and you know just as a side note there there is a member of your board that knows this transgender student or used to know this transgender student quite well and it might be something to think about like you all may have someone that you care about or love that you might think about protecting and looking out for um
065I just wanted to say that it would be really great to hear from all of you and to really you know say that you have a stand against the statements that were made prior and that you support equity and inclusion for all students and really actually mean it would be great thank you thank you our next audience comment is Teresa McClymonds hi my name is well hello I feel like it's not on for this longer okay all right hi my name is oh and can you go back I'm sorry I was like baffled okay thank you very much my name is Theresa mcclemons and I live in the district freedom of expression my North Star research history and delve deep into his good book listen to the personal testimonies the 180 turns that people have
066took thank you Father for sending your son I accept what he has done perhaps some of you were offended by my poem that I just shared but my intent is not to offend but to merely with all vulnerability to Simply share I'm not asking you to follow my North Star I simply shared when freedom of expression therefore freedom of conscience is honored it brings confidence and security to the individual sharing when the government the school district and its members respect the rights of the people to exercise their freedom of expression this allows for many diverse opinions to be expressed this is healthy this is this is health and cultivates an environment where good conversations and learning begins by tolerating and then listening to diverse opinions the attribute of love and respect is brought to the
067table a thick skin develops along with good character tolerance is a virtue and when practiced it cultivates a culture where the pure um definition of Tolerance is experienced it becomes contagious it develops a foundation unshakable in a very very cool place to learn and to work do we really want a solution a resolve to this divide if yes then a deep respect and commitment to defend one's own one another's excuse me one another's freedom of expression must be foundational at that point we will all be slaves to no one we will be slaves to no ideology or religion so let's please create an environment a healthy one for the children so that they can thrive in some of those all of those ospi academic scores can be raised up so let's focus on Reading Writing
068arithmetic and developing a culture that becomes that welcomes true diversity of thought knowledge and convictions I suggest that rate through 12 diligently study the art of debating formally learning how to debate in competition by doing so so students will be motivated to research both sides of important issues and they will develop to themselves to be good listeners critical thinkers and greater keepers and have thank you our next audience comment is Jane James mccleiman hi um my mom named me James Kelly mcclymond she called me Kelly that's doing my family role um so you I register as James but you can call me Kelly it's good to be back here um been here a couple of times trying to make an argument over a period of time that uh there's a culture that's inherent in Bonnie
069Lake we can look at facts and data I've talked about that before that demonstrate kind of you know the demographic backgrounds uh you have your own demographic studies also that kind of bear out uh the character of that so please don't take any of my comments as pitting one group against another but more of understanding where we're at so that's why I wanted to talk to you about cultural competency so in order to do that what I want to do is I want to go to the root of the law rcw28a 415 443 it defines cultural competency as cultural competency it includes knowledge of student culture histories and contexts as well as family norms and values different cultures Knowledge and Skills accessing Community Resources community and parent Outreach and skills and adapting instructions to students
070experiences and identifying cultural context for individual students so that is the definition and that definition is used in the school director's governance cultural competency diversity equity and inclusion report also RCW 28a 3415 that says 1A develop cultural competency diversity equity and inclusion standards the school director government so Mazda has to create those things for you right um that's the law uh the law also says the school director governance um cultural company diversity equity and inclusion training programs the Washington State School Directors Association shall identify and develop periodically update governance training programs and align the cultural competency diversity Equity inclusion standards for School director governance developed under our CW 34 5.15 the governance training programs must also include building government to government relationships Federal recognized tribes so there's obviously a requirement in the law for training
071governance training program uh or 28a 343 100 says that accept is provided that beginning in 2022 each calendar year each board of directors shall complete a Governor's training program so the law says that there has to be a program developed that law says that you have to be trained It also says the same thing basically in RCW 20 day 410 265 for the professional Educators right so um rcw28a for 10 260 uh says that the Standards Board has to have a cultural competency diversity Equity inclusion standards as well and then finally the professional learning days there is one thank you that ends the comment that ends our audience comment period we're going to go ahead and take a break let's come back in about 10 minutes about 7 15. [Music] I need a new laptop
072the board adopt this resolution phase one project is going to be below here I think so yeah this is nice yeah we're opening summer High School second [Music] session [Music] thank you recommendation The District administration recommends the board of that revolution.com a second players opposed and motions so it is no presentations at this time um also included for information or the quarterly public reports [Music] change orders um one one change order as summer high school phase one bill Wayne listed there for your viewing because that's the board of discussion Kenny any more discussions this evening Paul so on the transparency public records report but it was only a three uh three-month glimps I'm assuming everything before that quote that so I'm wondering if we could including the ones prior to three months maybe even up
073to a year that are not closed uh so that we can see that okay it's serious violence it's taking longer than three months to get closed and then uh if we had a question right it used to be kind of a running record but it was supposed to be uh foreign in the policy there's always a big chunk Right restaurant they're in Canada I'm called more easy right there you know a couple of word changes update something new maybe from uh so we've got all those first typically and then we move to the more creative ones um we only spent about an hour hour and a half cops a month that's what it takes a long I'd waiter once he's through well there's kind of a backbone right next week on the agenda and but
074it's it's a better way here once when they get through first we've been prefer to crap at it I submitted a standalone policy that prohibited uh compression erased effect comments um so they're looking at policy that can be expanded and broadly and then there was a equity policy uh I brought it two examples um other people had others to look at so we'll wait through that and see whether the Pittsburgh or possibly I mean the other question is is it needed uh and for example on that uh Rockville too in case somebody yeah uh here's a good example well there's there's Equity loans things there's Act five things whether we're doing policies or whether we're doing curriculum and things like that question to ask that problem pretty good but so here's an example that you
075had some together and I highlighted them but at the very end of a couple of these you can see the cross reference this one here has it's over yeah you get a good sense that very happy positive so and we need a standalone like this or do we need to focus on what we already have and tighten it up and and maybe add different items uh that can maybe more easily direct somebody toward uh abrasive incident occurs in school you know in the principle look it up and say oh I thought you're bullying harassment and intimidation well maybe but if it sends racism at the top it's a lot easier to find right don't break something down so Builder receptions that are on them so you know go ahead you're going to say something because
076I just wanna I clearly have a different memory of the district um not saying that we did not want to stand alone uh because I mean that that was um are you talking about an equity policy talk about a standalone racist uh well so it's a bit still in a draft form it's still to be named right it's a lot of policy coming to a lot of different things um so uh we haven't even officially decided on a name because we're still talking about policy and while you did submit a standalone policy iTunes submitted a policy for consideration after that meeting um because we felt like we needed to strengthen certain policies and consider uh what a standalone policy to meaning that at some point would look like um so I just I just want
077to make sure that if I clarify that because it it sounded like um the district wasn't interested in the Standalone policy which emotional so much um I was under the assumption that we were looking at current setting the harassment intimidation and fully follows even put a significant language and also the stability policy and that would accomplish the third forestry any anti-racial prominence issues like that we were needing more towards that and not um I know there was talk about equities policy on Ryan wasn't sure what we were thinking about them and we already have been keeping the plan valuation there's a lot of effectively yeah but and my recollection was that it was the strength in the current policies that we had and really did not mean words so it sounds like there was this
078I think there might be a difference of memory about that with the last meeting um there's an internal discussion that's still going on um and um I'm not the only person on it uh Equity or the possibly registration so others and you clearly give me their perception about I don't think we remember this the same way um I know what they strictly similar we're working it's right we did sure attention policy that you should see on a May 17th or agenda um and we're continuing to work on what um the discussion around what would a standalone policy look like Equity anti-racist their own results so many different things um for reading learning and really trying to find the best way forward it gives me a really good sense of where things are at um I
079just have one follow-up question for Paula right um as Paul's committee um we've heard from students um racism or any racist incidents that have happened it's very sense of what might be needed to be changed in policies where have you had any students Because by the time you get through the first batch you already have well you can meet and so you can see why if you want a leading topics take longer to get they take a lot more than one one and when you're actually in uh Monday thank you for your work on that I appreciate you guys continuing to massage that out with the house another surgery right here well David reads yeah well David reads about the board of reading the audience group I think that was changed because I believe says
080that the board made they address an issue that's being fought for fun we need to go back maybe about a year so I'll find one another because it really was about a year ago because sister spends comments from the board or a program that may or may not receive action out of the future meeting maybe I'm losing my memory but years ago this used to say that the mayor May here okay because if you want to respond yeah because yeah that's that should be used to say to me I feel like I feel like it's always something that we want that and you know and yes sir I don't know that we'll find a couple years ago where it says even in Maine uh because we give obvious comments out here but it's like we've
081never seen anything back I mean if we ought to be kind of like a song like you don't want to end up in a confrontational situation I made like uh you can do that within your mind but I think it is environment it might evolve into something I'm productive and you end up in an arms everywhere here years ago there was young kid in a student in here talking about swimming and the kid I mean the girl because if people come in here and they probably would like a little conversation it would be good to have some clarification on that because it's my understanding that we don't comment if the topics presented on the agenda and we want to have both transparency because maybe different types of things we will be discussing and if it's
082not on the agenda then it's not the transparency of what we're going to be success perhaps I'm not and you guys can make sure that we're on the right track because I agree with you there are times where I want to respond any case it's a part of the earth um but I thought that that was our practice for a reason yeah it could be wrong but I think the percent will need to speak I also think you have an opportunity to go up to that person either during the parade [Music] all right what's going on announcement of the next regular board meeting the board of meetings from scheduled for Wednesday May 17th between 6 pm here in the central office program um at this time it was a First Act religion for exception for
083the director of people in an executive exceptional navigation action is not indicated following related questions about 30 minutes all right for whatever reason it was tied to your computer and you were muted so earlier um so I'm a co-host earlier was having issues she had to leave the meeting rejoin so it probably I mean they might be listening to me right now who knows close all this down anything I'm going home now