001steve olson here miguel here i'm here rook taylor president albert here uh at this time would everybody please join me in the pledge of allegiance i must say it sounds a lot better with big trouble it does you could have sang it and had a all tools all right this meeting is a meeting of the board of education held in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting there's a time for comments by members of the public during the meeting as indicated on the agenda members of the public wishing to address the board on any of the topics included on tonight's agenda may do so by completing a public comments sign up sheet and handing it up to our deputy clerk remember here
002we have a sign up right here that people have signed up on so ready comment should be focused on the items being considered by the board and should be restricted to no more than three minutes in length action taken at today's meeting will be final approval unless otherwise noted i'd also like to thank everyone for being here tonight there's a lot of people we've received many emails on a topic that's on tonight's agenda i ask that we all respect each other and what their positions are i mean we also apologize for the cramped conditions but the location had already been posted and things escalated quickly and we didn't really have time to relocate so with that open to the report of the superintendent two informational items last week at the committee of the whole meeting
003on august 1st 2022 principal ferrari shared updates on lake superior elementary school he went over what was going on there with his relocation over there from the high school and gave us just that brief update the second item at the community of the whole meeting on the superintendent's report was uh superintendent starzeki shared an update on handle with care handle with care provides the school with a heads up a child has been identified at the scene of a traumatic event it could be a domestic violence situation a shooting in the neighborhood witnessing a malicious wounding a drug raid at the home etc if a law enforcement officer encounters a child during a call the child's name and three words handle with care are forwarded to the school district before the school bell rings the next
004day that's it no other details the school implements individual school trauma sensitive support so that traumatized or affected children are handled with care there were no action items and no discussion items under the superintendent's report that moved into committee reports starting out with the personnel negotiations committee we had two action items the committee recommends approval of the august 2022 new hires transfers and separations report move to approve second motion and a second is there any discussion hearing none all is in favor signify second action item the committee recommends releasing rachel swanson elementary teacher from lake superior elementary from her 22-23 school year contract per her request effective july 26th of 2022 with the liquidated damages provisioned enforced welcome oh glad to approve second but motion in a second is there any discussion on that none
005that all is forever signified by saying aye aye opposed she carries we had no discussion items and no informational items under the personnel negotiations committee so i'd entertain a motion to accept the personnel negotiations committee's report vote to approve second question in a second discussion every now and all's in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries all right next we've got the teaching and learning committee all right before we get into that and before i read the following action item under the teaching and learning committee i want to explain and what we are voting on tonight is only to determine what our review process will be moving forward into our upcoming appeal meeting the data which has yet to be determined i will read the action item which has three options you will
006need a motion and a second on one of the options before we can engage in any discussion or public comment once the discussion and public comment are complete we will have a roll call vote if the vote on the first option fails we will then need a motion and a second on the next option and we'll continue down that that road we have again we have received many emails regarding the topic on tonight's agenda tonight and i'd like to thank everyone on both sides of the issue for those emails lastly as stated earlier public comment needs to pertain to the topics included on the agenda and should be no more than three minutes in length i'll apologize in advance if i need to stop you at that three-minute mark and please remember that public comment
007is for the board to listen not for the board to respond so it's just that's a listening session it's a chance for us to hear what you have to say does anybody have questions on any of that good all right so the action item on tonight's teaching and learning committee report and it's a new action item board determination of the scope of review to be undertaken in regards to the 8-3 appeal of the administrator's decision received on 8-3-222 regarding the hgd curriculum complaint as stated in policy 9130 public complaints matters regarding instructional materials section h the board shall review the appeal and advise the complainant in writing of its decision within 20 business days the board shall determine on a case-by-case basis whether it's review will a include appearances by the petitioner and administration b
008be conducted based on written submissions or c only on the record produced by the committee and then action taken tonight will be final approval move to approve the action item to include letter a include appearances by the petitioner and administration second we have a motion and a second to include appearances by the petitioner and the administration i think at this time we can take public comment on the subject because then we'll have that information before we have our discussion everybody kill that sure all right can i read them all right so this is everybody that's going to speak yes first on the list we have ryan harrelson check boxer i'll forget good to go good to go my name is ryan harrelson i serve as principal at great lakes elementary going into my 12th year
009in superior in this district i'm really proud to be part of this district and the progress we've made and i hope to serve this district and the students in superior for many more years i believe in the district's mission all means all every student every day today this mission made a step forward to support our lgbtq students who are genuinely struggling with their gender identities the mission also requires me to support my teachers counselors and support staff at great lakes who are on the front lines working tirelessly to provide safe and inclusive learning environments for all students including our lgbtq students every day today i am asking the school board to deny the parent request to remove the gender identity curriculum from fifth grade not teaching this lesson does not mean students are not talking
010about gender identity this past year students in third fourth and fifth grades were talking about this topic at great lakes this makes it imperative that we have professional educators present age-appropriate information on the topic of gender identity dispel misconceptions and promote inclusive environments for all students including our lgbtq students from grades kindergarten through fifth grade students receive approximately 6 200 hours of instruction or 372 000 minutes of instruction the whole group lesson on gender identity makes up 30 minutes of the 372 000 minutes of instruction having a 30 minute lesson on gender identity in fifth grade is rationable is rational and reasonable step to help build awareness of the topic of gender identity encourage understanding of lgbtq classmates i observed this lesson being taught the lesson focused on teaching students about gender identity combating traditional
011male and female stereotypes and taught students to be open-minded and accepting of others both star zeki and our director of curriculum and instruction crystal hintsman are competent in their decision making and they combine valid educational research with local data to make decisions that align with the district's mission the decision to keep the gender identity in fifth grade is aligned to our district mission and advances our progress toward that mission um i'm asking the school board to support superintendents tarzaki's decision to keep the fifth grade gender identity curriculum in place our district mission clearly says all students it does not say some students it does not say most students it says all students supporting superintendent starzaki's decision will ensure our district's action on this issue aligns with the mission of all means all every student every
012day thank you for listening have a means of lifting up cards when they're getting knocked out a minute just so they're open i'm gonna can i put it this way then yep i need it you can see it too good whisper in there i have the cards so they kind of know where they're at yes all right next up we have rick flaherty i won't go for three minutes i promise i i think ryan did a great job of explaining and really spelling some things out i've been in the district this is my 18th year i've had the opportunity to serve as principal at the middle school the high school and now at the elementary students are way more accepting than adults at times we need to be inclusive of all kids we need to
013be supportive of all students we must keep this lesson in place we will follow what is dictated to us and what we must do but i encourage the board to continue with what we have in place and be able to teach this equity and support all students thank you heidi sigfrids hello my name is heidi sigfords and i am an administrator at superior high school until recently i was a guidance counselor at shs i'm here tonight requesting that you uphold the recommendation by superintendent superintendent starzeki to continue using the approved human growth and development curriculum specifically the lesson on gender identity and pronouns i'm an alumni of this district and i'm beginning my 10th year as an employee since i've been in this district i've seen tremendous growth and change in areas that including race
014awareness equity inclusion and acceptance our district is led by a teaching and learning department that helps our staff engage in professional development and continuous learning in regards to aspects of education the teaching and learning department works with individuals and teams of teachers to foster growth and change within our curricular areas and instructional practices we are continually reviewing what we're teaching within our classrooms our approved curriculum goes through a vigorous vetting process and is based on the input of local experts as well as state and national standards the curriculum in question has gone through that process to remove it would be taking a large step backwards in the work we've done as a district to meet the needs of all of our students as a guidance counselor i've had the opportunity to work with a variety
015of students in all aspects of education academic behavioral and social emotional i have seen firsthand the negative impacts of students not feeling safe at school as well as not seeing themselves represented in their school often children who are experiencing gender identity issues are more likely to experience mental health episodes including suicidal thinking or attempts by having a safe responsive and inclusive school we are helping protect often our most vulnerable students when students see themselves represented in classrooms curriculum and school language they are more likely to feel safe and therefore be more likely to learn at their full potential that is why this curriculum is crucial my counseling colleagues that teach this are professionals that are highly qualified and deliver this with sensitivity and professionalism parents currently have the option to opt their child out of
016this lesson and that wouldn't change but to remove it for all students would be a complete disservice to our student population i urge you to consider the process this curriculum has already gone through its development with the inputs of local state and national standards the national sex education standard states that by the end of fifth grade students should be able to distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how this may or may not differ this is age appropriate and recommended time to deliver this curriculum this curriculum fosters understanding and communication for our students and their peers it is important that all students understand the content as well as having supportive trained professionals to help guide them through this learning our superintendent as well as our curriculum team are strong focused individuals
017thank you thank you for the opportunity uh my name is aaron fezzy i'm the current principal of superior high school previous to that i've been a middle school principal for a number of years and a teacher in this district prior to that i'm a parent in this district i'm a proud member of this community and what it stands for removing this lesson would negatively affect all including students who are directly affected and those who learn an atmosphere we'll end up learning an atmosphere of fear and tension afraid to explore their own lives because of the worry about disapproval and rejection beginning this conversation in elementary school helps young people develop empathy for a diverse group of people and to learn about the identities that might relate to their families or even themselves as a middle
018school administrator too often i heard the words gay or lesbian or transgender used in a negative way in an attempt to hurt people it's our duty to teach young people these words or adjectives that should be used with respect to describe people in their community not words used in a negative way to hurt insult and degrade others an inclusive curriculum supports a student's ability to emphasize connect and collaborate with a diverse group of peers and encourages respect for all something i think all of us who are in the classroom in the schools over the last few years know is is a point of emphasis and something we need to continue to build upon all students deserve to see themselves in their curriculum including students who identify as lgbtq plus or come from families who are
019headed by a member of that community or taught by a teacher uh from that identity we all are connected we are all impacted by people from the community and we deserve and our students deserve to be to be taught and understand that lgbtq students who benefit from or who experience an inclusive curriculum have better academic and mental health outcomes and are less likely to be to be true or miss school the evidence is clear the research is clear we need to do what's best for our students and support our mission of this district thank you next we have amber popplewell hi everyone i'm amber popwell i'm a parent in this community and um also a citizen um the mission is one i believe you're all familiar with um and we're elected to uphold the school
020district of superior will ensure all students have the knowledge and skills for living and learning and working successfully a little over six years ago on june 13 2016 in the wake of one of the deadliest mass shootings in the u.s history that targeted lgbt plus community and latin community populations my child student in this community stood in front of the superior school district administration and shared her story on what it's like to be a gender non-conforming child in this district and here we are again today so i'm going to share with you what they said hi my name is kennedy and i'm a kid that loves hockey i am nine years old i'm going into fourth grade and i go to great lakes kids look at me weird because i don't look like a girl
021i look like a boy one kid in first grade argued with me if i was a boy or a girl it's really hard to go to the bathroom because people look through the cracks in the stalls when i get out they stare when they are walking to their stall when i'm waiting in line they still stare and when i'm just hanging out they stare the adults look at me too but when i'm out of school my mom tries to correct people and my grandma too it's hard i help myself by being genuine and true to myself and if i could change something it would be that people can be who they want to be and they don't have to hide it and they don't have to hide who i am i let myself be free
022the human growth and development education being appealed today by a very small group of folks and individuals does not reflect what the department of public instruction and the american academy of pediatrics and so many others suggest is in the best interest of children not only does this education support lgbtq youth but it also supports what the federal law suggests which is educating teens and youth on anti-bullying and harassment um because this is also a protected class because any gender based bullying and harassment violates federal law so this policy is clear they can opt out next kennedy papa well hi my name is kennedy poppawell i'm 15 years old and i attend superior high school this is my second time speaking out about lgbtqia plus youth in front of all of you six years ago i
023spoke up about the bullying i was experiencing in school due to the way i expressed myself since then i've been yelled at by guest teachers and almost punished for simply standing up for myself and correcting them i am a female who's never fit into the box of gender norms i'm constantly misgendered if i had a dollar for every time i was misgendered i'd probably be richer than jeff jeffrey bezos excuse me although this is funny it was very hard for me in elementary school due to the amazing staff sorry i lost my spot excuse me due to the amazing staff at great lakes they've helped educate my peers mrs gordon my kindergarten teacher taught everyone that it was okay to be different and that it was okay for me to have short hair and like
024trucks mrs bronson my counselor advocated for me since day one please help me conquer bullies and stand up for myself and mr haroldson always made our school a safe place and provided the right resources for his teacher to make classrooms safe for all kids middle school was a lot harder for me sixth grade i had a guest teacher in math and she misgendered me thankfully my classmates said something before i did she refused the fact that i was a female not a male then pulled me out of class and started walking me to the office she stopped in her tracks and apologized and told me to forget about it and act like nothing happened this has affected me a lot every school year i fear if my new teachers will accept me i fear coming
025to the high school it was if the bullying was going to get worse or better miss matson really helped me to make sure my my school year was safe and accepting she constantly advocated for me when my teachers shut me down also miss effinger mrs kelly and mrs h k created a safe place for me miss kelly has been to many meetings for lgbtqia students and his inequality in our school district these teachers have really inspired me our school district is not perfect but there are people trying to make change and improve our district teaching about pronouns and accepting people for who they are should not be taken away whatsoever our kids are your kids excuse me and my peers deserve to feel accepted some students don't have a safe place at home so why
026do we take that away at school let us learn and graduate in a safe environment not an environment that doesn't respect who we are and how we identify thank you for your time next we have jolene kemp hi i'm jolene kemp i have been a parent in this district i've had three kids go through and i have a couple grandkids coming up so why do we educate our children we want them to grow to be competent compassionate and equipped to do well with everyone and with all types of people for example the real word the real world contains lgbtq people we are everywhere we are parents we are grandparents and siblings just like everyone else gender identity is something that must be acknowledged how can young people understand gender identity if they are not educated
027ignorance breeds fear and hate i have heard this curriculum referred to as indoctrination educating children is not the same as indoctrination i grew up in a religious cult and then spent 30 years in an evangelical church those are the places that indoctrination happens not public schools public schools must be inclusive of all persons and serve to educate and create understanding of all people if a religious church school is what fits the beliefs of some perhaps that would be a better option for them but churches need to stop trying to force their religious agenda into the public schools as it does not belong there i urge the school board to uphold superintendent starzeki's decision thank you next we have brian friesman um originally i was planning to sit on the sidelines tonight i came here as
028a moral support for my partner's daughter who's a student in the district my nephew is a student in the district and it's pretty easy for a person like me a white male heterosexual educated middle class person to sit on the sidelines but sometimes my voice is heard louder than their voice just because of my privilege so i decided to come here and speak tonight i also work in behavioral health i work in an inpatient clinic for youth many youth that are students in this district that are inpatient care for mental health issues i see these kids that have tried to commit suicide that have carved themselves up because they hate themselves so much that have taken pills and od'd every day i walk into work i see it because they are hated by their family
029they are hated by their peers they are bullied by their peers because they're different i implore you to continue with this curriculum and i implore you to continue doing what's right for our kids history has shown time and time again that we need to step up we need to give our disadvantaged people a voice and do what's right let's continue to have our community to have our school district and to have what we do on the right side of history thank you so much mary smith johnson good evening i am a parent my husband and i are parents and graduates of this district i've been a teacher for 30 years in a very large district across the way retired from that i've been on this school board um and when i heard about this i
030i knew i had to come um i looked at i when you're on the school board you you study a a case and you you analyze what's going on with it anyway um i looked at the um the form that needs to be filled out and it says appropriateness of materials for the age and maturity level of the students from whom it's being used in the accuracy of the material so i went hunting off to state of wisconsin law and practice and then their guidance from national from cdc standards-based from kindergarten to 12th grade this is within the the practice across our state and across other states and what happens is and you'll do some version of this it says in the in the superior district policy manual um the board shall review the case
031and advise com the complaint in writing if the decision within 20 days the board shall determine case by case whether it's how to deal with it the final quote here is no challenged material may be removed from the curriculum or from a collection of resource materials except by action of the board and no challenged material may be removed solely because of presence of ideas that are unpopular or offensive to some any board action to remove material will be accompanied by a board statement and um sexual orientation in the law you can look at that i don't have the time to share that but sexual orientation is considered in in the law um i believe that this is appropriate curriculum and at the right time thank you all right next we have three dance i thank
032you for the opportunity to be here to speak this evening i don't have prepared notes but um i'm speaking on my role not only as our school force coordinator and in working with students from the time they're pre-k all the way through high school and believe it or not i get to know those students pretty well and watch them grow one thing that i would also like to bring up is the summer i've been meeting around the state with many representatives from different school districts um having been recently selected as wisconsin teacher of the year and what i want people to know is superior is looked upon as a leader in equity and we must maintain that i'm proud to be from here i'm proud to work with the staff that i do i'm so
033proud of our students and what i want to remind people is we are here for every one of our students one thing that i talked about in one of one presentation that i had to give to a committee was the fact that a former student that i had contacted me and that student said to me you saw me when i didn't even know myself and because of that i did not commit suicide i'm a successful member of the community i'm living in and i'm proud of myself that's what we have to do for every student in our district so i implore our district to continue to be seen as a leader in our state i will be out there advocating for us and for the entire state of wisconsin but please let's uphold this decision
034and keep advocating for all of our students tiffany metsen hello thank you for allowing me to come and speak um i'm actually speaking for my daughter who is a graduate from shs she was fourth in her class and got the scholarship full ride to madison so she's actually at work tonight but um attends madison and she'll be going back soon i don't know if you're familiar with sociologists west and zimmerman's work but i'd like to share share their theory from their 1987 doing gender article with you all because i think it's important to learn their perspective wes and zimmerman explain gender through the lenses of performance incentive gender being something innate to humans rather we do or perform our gender on a daily basis based on a set of social rules and conventions for example
035dresses and heels are deemed feminine and a tie and dress pants masculine now if we are constantly performing our gender to the world gender identity and our pronouns become a core part of our self-concept fifth grade is a crucial time in our lives it's where many begin to discover who they are and what story they want to tell without proper knowledge of gender identity expression and pronouns we force our children to tell the same stories about themselves to the world that we have told for centuries when simply human beings are more complex than that at any age we should be given the opportunity to conformably to comfortably express our authentic selves gender identity and pronouns we force our children to tell the same stories about themselves to the world that we have told for centuries
036we should be given the opportunity to comfortably express ourselves i understand hearing something different maybe from something that you've always known or thought can be scary and difficult at times but this is serious it's so important and i really hope you can consider the impact it has on future generations thank you for listening and for your time and please keep this curriculum the way it is peyton matson thank you all right emily kelly thank you for the opportunity um to hear from the community today as you know my name is emily kelly i have been a teacher with this district for 10 years now the same amount of time i have also been the co-advisor for the superior high schools gsa giving our students a space to feel that they can be themselves without fear
037of others today i speak to you as an educated professional and a district parent asking you to uphold the current hgd curriculum and ultimately continuing to honor our district's inclusive mission statement of all means all every student every day i was a part of that of this district when we were asked to reconstruct the mission statement and i wholeheartedly support the inclusive language that it represents i'm also a parent to three in our district as a parent i appreciate the opportunity that we are given to opt out of any lessons we as parents deem we should be teaching our children not teachers with that i feel that this appeal goes against our entire mission statement we are taking away the education for all students when the option to not have our student learn about a
038specific topic already exists if the board chooses to take the pronoun and gender identity lessons out of this curriculum you are setting a dangerous precedent of not trusting the educated professionals that you have hired to do the job that we are trained and we work tirelessly to do i'm a pretty empathetic person for those who know me i teach with the mentality and try to keep this together here of once my student always my child thank you i have experienced the devastating loss and effects that children not feeling seen heard and valued within our district has our lgbtq students are three times more likely to attempt suicide than our cisgendered students and it leads to debilitating health effects which have horrific outcomes if we take this out of our curriculum we are not being proactive
039but we are giving in to a system that hurts our children i beg you please keep the pronoun and gender identity lessons in our curriculum so that our students see hear and feel valued and respected in superior all means all every student every day please continue honoring all thank you meet hagelin pagel hi there i'm tate hagelin pagel assistant principal at the high school uh and i've worked here since forever um uh so yeah to uh to mirror that in spirit all means all every student every day uh we did a survey with our students last spring kind of getting the climate of the school and on that survey kids had the opportunity to indicate their gender 6.9 identify as non-binary in addition as i kind of combed through the data there were a lot
040of students who either identified as male or as female but somewhere in their comments mentioned being trans so at the very least we have something like seven percent of our students reporting that they are something other than the gender they were assigned at birth if our school's gonna support all students we need to support students uh who are trans uh so cutting the discussion from fifth grade curriculum isn't going to stop these kids from being who they are send the message to those kids that we don't want them in the school and it's going to send that message to their friends who know and love that same kid so as we keep pushing for 100 graduation at the high school if that's something we actually are supposed to do uh we need you to uphold
041the curriculum as it is in place so we can do our jobs and help the kids thanks jesse also and i'm going to do my best if i go over please be a little patient with me today i want to talk to you about science in particular the science brain development um i appreciate your patience it might go a little over three minutes but i'll do my best teachers have made a career of studying the brains of children and adolescents in order to do what we do we need to understand the science behind what we do and one of the arguments that i've heard against our our current human growth and development curriculum is that it's not age appropriate here's something we've learned as teachers at a certain age children's brains make a crucial change
042they move from being influenced mainly by the adults in their lives to being influenced mainly by their peers it's a survival instinct at some point all adolescent mammals do this and they're expected to survive on their own eventually from that point out they have to develop that independence or they won't be able to compete in the unforgiving real world for many mammals it happens around two years of age but fortunately we keep ours around a little bit longer than that um and a child's brain develops a lot in those 18 years i've been an educator for 13 years and i'm still baffled and overjoyed by what those little brains are capable of uh i love that i get to learn more about it every day i think neuroscience is absolutely fascinating the subject at hand
043is the age at which children become influenced more by their peers than by adults which is age 12 to 14 which is why i have no hesitation in saying that middle school teachers have the most difficult job in education uh fifth grade students are generally 10 to 11 years old and in a short time they'll be moving on to middle school where their brains tell them to learn from their peers they learn to seek acceptance they learn to seek popularity my point is by middle school it is in a way already too late by and large the adolescent brain is moving on and simply will not absorb the curriculum as willingly as it would have in fifth grade but that's not the only reason it's too late in 2017 a 14 year old boy walked
044into a clinic in cincinnati for help he was having suicidal thoughts assigned female at birth he stated he hadn't he had been having these thoughts for over a year associated with body dysmorphia and gender uncertainty he expressed dissatisfaction with his appearance stating i'm so ugly i'm a joke i look like i'm 10 years old i look stupid i hate myself it's not fair to be me i'd be better off dead he was reportedly well up until age 10 when he began to experience depressed mood body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria 10 years old is fourth grade in colorado in 2018 jamel miles committed suicide the day after coming out to his classmates his mother said it was due to the bullying he received for being different jamel miles was nine years old third graders are nine
045years old anecdotally third grade's the earliest i've seen a student assert a gender identity other than what they were assigned at birth and i have colleagues who've seen it sooner if we're not affirming gender identity by the time students hit middle school we are too late almost done this curriculum must be delivered before we lose that crucial period of children's developing brains being influenced by their trusted adults i'm going to be appropriately blunt with my conclusion that this curriculum saves lives if any of you eventually vote to alter it you're complicit you work against science against educators and against children a tragedy like that jamel miles may not occur in our community but wherever and whenever one does you can count yourself among those who actively worked to allow it to happen if any of
046you so clearly vote against all means all then perhaps this isn't the job for you yeah angela whitling hi my name is angela and i have worked for the superior school district now for 10 years as a paraprofessional it has been a great opportunity and i have enjoyed watching our children in the community grow and learn as my own did our educators are hard working and dedicated to their jobs human growth and development class is a choice and that choice is not yours to make for me or anyone else i have watched the video under the topic society and culture which is about two minutes and i am certain that your child will come home the same as when they left your home in the morning there's a choice to opt out of this class
047or the video if you would like so i am not understanding the issue i hope that if you are feeling as a parent that this curriculum is going to change the way which in your child sees themselves that you are ready to follow them around the rest of their lives so you can protect them from everything you don't believe in the information in this video is a topic that your child already knows about talks about and hopefully respects the choices of others children today are open-minded caring and understanding of others feeling and how they would like to be treated i don't think a 30-minute lesson is going to change who your son or daughter are but only give them the wisdom to understand the feelings of others and be respectful of their choices or maybe
048it will give them the courage to come to you about how they are feeling and not know how to approach you as their parent who is trying to make choices for everyone and not themselves we as parents are here to give our children the tools they need for their lives as adults and feel as though they can be who they want to be and feel confident in their decisions again if you are against this curriculum i urge you to opt your child out and give them the advice you would like to give them in their own home i stand by my decision i feel as though everyone has their own choice of being who they want to be and it is not anybody's right to make take that away from them or the opportunity to
049understand what is around them and more common than you know i also feel learning about this topic from people that are educated and ready to answer questions is a better opportunity to learn it and not to hear in some back alley by people who are not and not understanding of it themselves all right brett jones what hello thank you for your time i'm glad to get to speak here my name is brett jones i've been in the field of higher education for about 20 years um i'd like to offer a counter point to what's been presented so far here um and i'll i'll present that a couple things i've heard recently though are the phrase opt out and all means all and i'm wondering if all means all why are we telling students that they
050need to be opted out why are we telling families that they're not welcome and why are we making those students feel othered by the school district because if all means all we should be presenting a curriculum that actually means that i haven't heard that so far i haven't seen it in the presentation of what uh is within this curriculum and what i haven't heard very much yet tonight is things that actually pertain to what we're talking about i've heard a lot of support for lgbt students which we should have and we should love and care for and and respect um but we need to be talking about the actual curriculum and the topic at hand i'd like to obviously express my support uh of the public complaint regarding the recently approved approved gender identity and
051expression curriculum that's being considered as an educator a parent of speech children a taxpayer and a community member i was very dismayed by the recent voice vote in favor of implementing this this curriculum that presents gender theory as an established fact into the human growth and development unit for fifth graders having taught students with gender dysphoria and transgendered students setting of mutual respect love and genuine friendship i find the way that this topic is addressed by this unit to be coercive academically dishonest insensitive and bordering on prostitutization first though encouraging the use of through the encouraging the use of gender pronouns this curriculum coerces students to conform to gender theories notion of the separation of biological sex with one's gender identity although some individuals many that have spoken already agree with this many do not
052it's certainly not been a scientifically proven fact it's a philosophy founded on what many believe to be faulty reasoning this philosophy is presented as an established and objective truth in these materials which means it's academically dishonest no matter how how much heart is in there given the political nature of this theory presented as a truth puts the school district in the position of a political player by forcing students to accept a portion of the political agenda that's attached to this this also potentially puts teachers in a position where they have to abandon their own knowledge of reality in order to present a theory that has not been proven it's entirely unfair for the school board to put employees in this position one that could have negative employment consequences for those intelligent caring educators many of
053whom i've heard from already tonight who are not willing to abandon their own reasonable beliefs in order to implement this curriculum i'm almost finished and since we've been given grace before i'd like to finish thank you gender theory separates the scientific truth from abstract psychology and metaphysical theory although it sets forth gender as a separate from biological sex this newly created distinction is not universally held the theory holds that gender is a choice that is severed from biological reality being based instead upon an internal feeling or hidden truth that only the individual can know for this truth is one that is fluid and changeable though this theory is far from convincing the unit presents it and promotes it as an absolute truth therefore this curriculum is a form of proceduralization a coercing of students into
054a metaphysical belief not one based on science or biology that is not based on these laws but rather internal feelings or perhaps a spiritual knowledge finally inserting this ideology into the curriculum is an attack on religious students and teachers who sincerely held faith does not allow for this newly invented dichotomy between the biological and actual self not only is this theory directly opposed to the faith of many muslims orthodox jews and christians who are now being asked to leave this school so that they don't have to hear this it's being presented as a settled truth the school district is actively impeding free practice of a student's religion by promoting this gender ideology the school district is encouraging students to abandon their faith in favor of a new secular dogma this curriculum attacks us okay that's
055fine thank you for hearing my comments and i just ask i feel responsible to everyone if we're gonna stick to three we have to stick to three and that's what we're gonna have to do i think just because that's the nature of the beast you have to have people complete their like last sentence statement yep that's fair but and you haven't been here that long so this is normal i'm just saying you weren't here for one that did go over that time yeah i've been to many more board meetings all right three minutes is it then that's what it's going to be that's what it's going to be and angela and all know okay i got it jeanette because i can say the last name jeanette gil de la madrid [Laughter] superior board chairman mr
056albrecht and members thank you for this opportunity to speak at this meeting concerning a curriculum item gender identity i really don't think it's appropriate topic for 10 year old students it found its way into our schools under the guise of prevention of bullying rather than submit all our children to this education why not just teach our children to be kind one another and to enforce that rule to me it's like the nose of the camel under the tent it will not stop with one item in the curriculum for 30 minutes already there are schools that have a room filled with clothes for kids to change into when they get to school clothes of the opposite sex that they are the teachers call the child their preferred name and pronouns all this without the parents permission
057or knowledge the child can get gender counseling from the school nurse and counselors again without parental knowledge schools call this affirming gender girls especially in middle school are prone to peer pressure and dissatisfaction with their own bodies do they do they really need to have a teacher or counselor plant one more thing in their minds to agonize over and lastly studies have shown that people with gender dysphoria if left alone will resolve the issue thank you all right christina kintop hello everyone my name is dr christina kintop my pronouns are she her i want to thank you all for listening to us here tonight as some of you know i have served a few years on the superior school board i'm 19 to be in fact 13 as vice president i served 11 years on
058the human growth and development curriculum i also serve on a state board with wisconsin public education network the reason i bring that all up is i'm actually sitting here very very proud i got a lovely message from a friend that said i hope you know that these people are part of the growth that they're speaking because of the growth in this district and she said that's because of the work you did and i actually told her no it's not it's because of the work the district did that gave back to the school board and told us what they needed and what they saw in their students and in their curriculum and this board for many years listened to the experts and the professionals that we have hired and trusted over the years crystal i want
059to thank you i've enjoyed serving on this committee with you part of it maybe you don't know history transparency has been very big in this district and because of that transparency we are not required to do this but this district for the last for sure 10 years because i've been on this committee has developed a committee of community members students teachers staff members pastors community business people and we come together and we review this curriculum every five years this is not required by dpi this is part of the transparency that's been very important to this district i have been a part of that and every time i've been a part of it i've walked away feeling so strong and empowered by this community so i want to thank you the teachers staff students who've gone
060through this that gave us the board members the strength and the ideas that we know we needed to help you teach and live better so with that said i want to also let people know that the board is following the policy to a t this is we're on h of that policy and you want to look it up they are following it to a t i want you to know that this board has overwhelmingly supported teachers i myself have always been very pro-teacher i would like to however ask that in that same vein of transparency who the members are of this parent group and who brought the um the uh appeal forward i would like to know names i would like to make sure that these are valid people in this community that have kids
061here i would like to know that it's not paid for by an action group i think in transparency we should know who this superior parent group is by name i've heard a lot of beautiful testimony and i'm not going to go over stats and facts i can tell you since serving on this board in the last five years we have had three of those suicides that emily talks about there's nothing worse as a board member to know that that was something that could have been prevented in our students so i think the work that you all do every day the professionals that you are really make this district better so thank you for your service hi i'm rob nice to be on this side of the podium all right you know a couple of things
062this is a obviously a tough thing to talk about and i applaud you you still know how to pack a room that's good i like to see everybody get their voice heard and get their three minutes and see what they think i also appreciate that you picked the first one because i also agree with chris you know when people bring these things forward it's nice to know who they are is it alec that's bringing them forward is it what organization is paying for this or are they actually parents that's something i would like to know but the main thing i'd like to put forward is that i wholeheartedly uh support superintendent starzaki's decision on this and i agree all means all and i think denying this curriculum is a form of cancer culture we've got
063over 4 000 students in this district we got to support them all that's why we declared all means all a couple years ago and i can also say after sitting on this committee a few times we hire who we believe is the best to do these jobs picks the superintendent who they believe is the best superintendent picks principals who are the best like ryan harrelson and i personally believe i've listened to the people that i respect most in education speak earlier tonight they've told us their their position as a subject matter expert and i knew as a board member i was not super i was not the subject matter expert there's things i could probably talk about but i was just trying to be as good of a school board member as i could if
064i wanted to talk to a subject matter expert i would ask the people who we pay to do that i guess that's what i'm saying wow let's give them a chance they've done a pretty good job so far how do we continue that mantra let's keep our education system where they want it to be because they know best well i think that book covers everything i've got you want to talk legislative issues right yeah thank you for having me here uh my name is ephraim nikoi and i've been in the community for about 12 years now when i moved here to superior of course i knew i'm a minority and you cannot deny the fact that we have differences we have diversity and so once i moved into into the district i immediately got to
065work because i have two kids in the school district i joined the diversity group and actually the superintendent and i and a few others in this room have been looking at the data on the on the school on the school district and you'll be surprised you'll be surprised at some of the things the work that we need to do in this district having talked about that i'm here to represent the communities uh the commission of communities of color and we want the current curriculum to be maintained this is because we believe that all our students need to be taught they need to know who they are they need to know who their neighbors are they need to know who their friends are and that is really important for us you know this afternoon having talked
066about this for a while i turned to one of my kids and i said so what do you think about this topic and then they looked at me and said if we remove it they'll be eating alive this is one of my kids saying this if we remove these lessons they will be eaten alive and so i'm here as a parent i'm here as a community member to edge the board to keep this lesson which is really important at a college level i teach at the university of uh wisconsin superior at the college level these are some of the topics i teach students because they need to understand that we have a diverse community and we need to be inclusive so thank you for the time and i hope we keep this curriculum thank you
067samantha berman ernie um hi my name is samantha berman i've been a teacher in the school district for 12 years um i moved to the school district when i was 12 years old um when i was 12 years old i was only the only minority student at cooper elementary and so today i'm asking the school board to deny the parent request to remove gender identity curriculum from the fifth grade i'll be reading a thank-you letter i wrote in 2019 to our district leaders for encouraging our students and staff to attend a civil rights rally in duluth despite the intense pushback from parents demanding that we not attend the same way parents are demanding that we remove inclusive curriculum right now um and i just before i finish reading this i have to support my principal
068ryan harrelson who would not back down to these very aggressive parents and when i would go into his office and i would say they're banging on the door and they're making phone calls he said we're going we are going and i knew how important this was to our students of color and it was very important to me and he did not back down so thank you here's the email first of all i would like to first of all i would just like to say that today was an epic day for me as a minority teacher in the school district i have never been more proud to be a part of the stitching than i was today marching down the streams to move with our students and our fellow staff members chanting together as a school
069community smiling laughing engaging in meaningful conversation about human rights inclusion and equity was the clear message i personally became very emotional several times during the speech speeches songs dances that we were privileged to witness um because the message was so powerful and meaningful and our country was in crisis as our country was in crisis i found myself wishing that something like this had existed for me when i was the only minority student many years ago at cooper elementary there were many times i was harassed originally targeted by other students or staff but felt it was something i just had to deal with on my own there were many places in the communities and establishments i personally did not feel safe going i didn't always feel like i had a safe person to talk to in
070my school however attending events like the civil rally rights rally allowed us to show our students that they were supported by us esta so to me on a personal level i cannot thank you enough for encouraging our schools and students to take part in such a fantastic event showing our students that this school district is a safe place for everyone no matter their race gender sex gender identity sexual preference they are not alone they are never alone three years later i hope that you can see how this inclusive event has affected me and now this will affect angela watt and abby mackey i signed her up and that wasn't fair um so i come as i was just going to come as a parent today um because i i value the school district i value
071what the school board has put in place um and so i was only going to put my parent hat on but if i have time i'll put the teacher hat on i also am honored to be a teacher here um i've been here i've taught for 22 years i came from a former district and i'm honored and i choose to stay because of what's happening for our students in a positive way so okay um i'm here because i was really confused when i heard um some talk about parents coming forward or a group coming forward to stop inclusive language in our curriculum and it just was disheartening because i thought why would we stop being inclusive why would we choose to have people amongst our community our churches our families and our schools feel as
072though they don't belong especially when our goal is to promote education acceptance understanding kindness kindness right i wrote a letter it was five pages and i got wordy because anyone who knows me knows like talk too much but one of the things i said is we don't need to understand everyone and everything we don't have to agree with everyone we don't even need to go outside and support but we do have to be kind and be respectful and this curriculum is teaching our students which we do every day to be kind and respectful we might not understand it our parents might not understand it but that's not our parents job to stop us from understanding it we're growing we're evolving i'm not even close and we're already on yellow okay so i'm going to get
073to my closing then you as a school board are faced with many many opinions many decisions and topics to make all i can ask for is that you please keep in mind as you make the decisions that you did choose to run for a school board in a school district where all means all all doesn't mean only the ones that live on our block or go to our churches all doesn't mean those that we understand and identify with all doesn't mean only those that don't argue with us all means all every student needs to be acknowledged respected and treated with kindness every day diana brooks i signed up really fast i signed up i didn't know i was signing up to talk i guess i would those of you who know me and i'm sure
074there are some i've had four kids go through this district but one thing i'm going to say is regardless of what comes out of my mouth i'm still the same person i was before i walked up to this podium now i believe that when we say all and i want that to always be that at a time that we need to think about evidence and base and everything i would ask that you just make sure that you take a look at that curriculum and make sure that it is evidence-based make sure that because if we could change the world in 30 minutes wouldn't we all do it right now we would all stand in line and say give me that book i can guarantee you that i instilled my son who just left for the
075marines and is there right now if you knew him he nobody gets left behind and he would be the first one to stand up to those bullies so it doesn't take a 30 minute curriculum to teach kindness and compassion and i understand that this is a heated topic and i am that person who would go to the trenches for those and it's not about he she will what we are all human beings in this room and what i see is that if we can all come together and treat these kids with respect and treat them it's okay to be different it's okay for me i'm not in a cult because i believe in god that's what i stand by that's my faith that's my belief and i ask that that be respected not because i
076i'm above anybody not because i'm different but because that's who i am as a person and that's what i've instilled in all my children some of these teachers are some of the most amazing people that have ever walked through those doors and i can tell you this district is an amazing district and i can tell you that regardless if i believe this curriculum or not i believe in these kids and i know that it is not going to take a curriculum it's going to take the society to change not a curriculum so i would ask that you just consider looking at it before it consider that person who made this you know is asking you hey please consider what my thoughts are before and you know what let's respect one another and treat one another
077with that same kindness and ask when we say all it means whether i agree with you or not it doesn't mean i'm less of a human being and it doesn't mean that i walk out i hear you know what i respect you all so much this is a tough job to have and i'm glad i'm standing on this side of the podium and not that table thank you you see if her daughter wanted to talk they were listed together let's make sure she didn't want to talk yes i think a lot of people came in late too and didn't know um i'm abigail watt i'm 14 and i'm an incoming student to the superior high school and as a student i feel that seeing representation in all of my classes is positively affecting what i
078can do as a student and many of my friends who are gender non-conforming and part of the lgbtqia plus community they have had negative impacts based on people not understanding what is going on with them and people not respecting their pronouns they don't have to necessarily identify with them but they have to be able to say hey you're a person and i respect you for that and i have had one of my friends have a stapler thrown at their head because someone decided hey i don't like that you use they them pronouns and they came to class the next day and they were literally shaking they are afraid to go in the halls and they can't be themselves and i have had many friends be afraid to come to school on days that they're feeling
079more masculine or more feminine just because that's not their assigned gender at birth and a couple of my friends have wanted to be here and one of them has not necessarily had the courage to come up and speak because they know that that could negatively impact them when they go to school and they don't want that because they just want to fit in they just want to be understood and they want to be respected as a human being and i feel like that is even a minimum ask like we're not asking to be put on a pedestal or anything we just want to be respected and i know when when i was in eighth grade there was the student equity team led by miss saunders i signed up for that and i'm like yes because
080students need a voice and lgbtqia plus people need a voice and many people here understand that and i'm so happy to see that and i'm so happy to see that my teachers and principals and counselors understand that and that as a student makes me feel more prepared and comfortable to go into high school because if we do not feel comfortable that is negatively impacting when we go to school and that will impact how we learn would like to sign up yet is there anybody out there that wanted to sign up i'm going to set it right here well i'll deliver it callahan a shorter podium i have trans friends and you can't pretend that they don't that they don't exist just because they made you feel uncomfortable thank you good job okay jim payne uh
081good evening uh my name is jim payne i am a former fifth grader in the superior school district uh and because a lot of teachers taught me a lot of things i wasn't ready to learn i became the mayor of uh i did my homework and i read this 30 plus page document today i really didn't have time for that and the reason i came is because it's it's not very good it it's it's poorly written in a lot of ways but there are a couple things that upset me especially it spends kind of an absurd amount of time talking about the the first person pronoun they and and really objecting to it but the very worst sentence and this whole thing that i wanted to read to you school board members was was this
082how is an elementary age student who believes in santa claus supposed to analyze whether their feelings and self-awareness conform with what their biological sex when they often don't even process the intellectual skills to discern fantasy from reality there's a couple things that i objected to that one you ruined christmas two it actually uses the non-gendered first-person day three times in one sentence and fantasy from reality i have the pleasure and the honor of representing every single fifth grader in the city i've met almost all of them i met last year's fifth graders i met almost all of next year's fifth graders and if you've ever heard me give a speech where and i'm gonna take questions at the end i've talked about them all because they are the most active and engaged citizens i have
083ever met they are fiercely intelligent they are brave they are ready to ask questions and do the work of community building what i'm asking of you tonight is don't let them down do the work for them that they're asking of you because i promise you they won't let you down and so on their behalf i'm asking that you reject this petition tonight thank you she's trying to sign up it's always a pleasure to follow the mayor in a speech um my name is nicholas ladine i am a city councilor out in the first district but um for this conversation more importantly i am the father of four children in this district three who attend bryant one who will be attending the superior middle school for the first time uh to the teachers and educators who
084spoke tonight i say thank you thank you for taking your time out of your schedule out of how much time we already ask you to take out of your schedule throughout the course of the day to come here and again fight students it gives me faith it gives me hope in this community and what you do to see you take your time out and and and do this so when i sat down and i looked and i looked through the district's website in anticipation of speaking here tonight and we've heard it already a few times i came across that vision and that mission statement of all means all every student every day i believe you guys on the school board have actually been given a great opportunity to reaffirm the mission and the vision that
085has just been said right here to yell it from the rooftops a rejection of this complaint to remove gender identity and pronoun usage from the hdd hgd curriculum will tell everyone that the mission and the vision of the superior school district will continue to stand for all the superior school district by rejecting this will acknowledge that those children dealing with gender identity and in this board will say we hear you we will not ignore that you exist and we will not wait until next year to talk about what you are dealing with we will have an open discussion for all of our students because all means all you've been elected to this school board because you've earned the public trust that you will live up to to the the vision and mission of this district
086i ask that you take this opportunity to live up to the vision of the superior school district reject the complaint again because all means all every student every day thank you hi um i'm kristy platch i've been a counselor with the district for 23 years wow um i am i we wrote a letter to board members um as part of the elementary school counseling team so i'm speaking on behalf of the elementary school counseling team we are also the um professionals that deliver the curriculum so i think it's important that you hear from us as well since we're the deliverers of the curriculum um first of all i just want to say as educate as educators for the school district of superior we strive to maintain healthy environments for students to learn and grow by
087delivering a high quality comprehensive human growth and development curriculum we are establishing welcoming respectful and safe environments for all students when we create a safe and supportive environment for our most vulnerable youth we improve the school community for everyone i want to repeat that when we create a safe and supportive environment for our most vulnerable youth we improve the school community for everyone just a little bit of statistics according to the american psychological association students experiencing gender related stressors at school you've already heard this but i want to say it again are more likely to be absent have lower gpas report higher levels of depression engage in substance abuse risky behaviors and be an elevated risk for both self-harm and suicide um another thing that the psychological association states which i think really helps us
088to understand why it's important to be having this curriculum in the elementary schools is that 80 percent of transgender adults report knowing that they felt different as early as elementary school this is why it is critical for elementary schools to establish a foundation of respect and understanding for all people gender identity and expression lessons help young people develop an empathy for a degree diverse group of people and actually teach them about identities that might relate to their families and even themselves that's the point of this um there's a i i did include this in the email that i sent to all of you there's some research a report from playgrounds and prejudice um about students that one in eight elementary students do not conform to traditional gender roles one in eight i guess in closing
089i'm running out of time um but by following our national and state standards we're implementing a gender inclusive human growth and development um curriculum we create safe and supportive school climates where young people are not only knowledgeable about their own physical and emotional development but about their peers as well we urge you to deny this appeal and accept the recommendation of our curriculum review committee all right next we've got dan rose oh thank you for adjusting the schedule so that we're able to have public comment prior to your guys voting awful um obviously a group of parents felt this was an important enough issue to file a complaint a concern and another group of parents felt this was important enough to come and discuss it so i think at least we could probably all be
090agreed that this is a controversial subject for that purpose we have these committee meetings right this committee meeting said to review the complaint determine whether or not the curriculum is appropriate i attended one of those one of those meetings and it seemed it seemed like the the complaint was not discussed earlier substantively and it one thing that puzzled me was the person presenting the case in favor of the curriculum was a voting member on on the committee it seemed odd as if as if a prosecutor or a defense attorney were also to have a had to turn with the jury so for my preference i would i would ask that you would consider option a that you would review the substance of the complaint with representation on both sides what we heard today a lot
091of passionate and thoughtful communication just standing here listening i feel like i have benefited and learned from other people's experiences experiences i don't have that was something that has helped me to develop my thinking on this and i would hope that both sides would have the opportunity to present their perspectives and concerns before before you guys that's all i got thank you very much first we have one more that wants to sign up so i know i sent this email out because i had gotten some information that basically said we weren't going to be able to speak excuse me speak tonight and so if you haven't had an opportunity to read it i just want to read what i actually sent to you so that you get a very good feeling of the emotion that
092comes behind every single person who stood up today to talk about this issue so i'm writing to express my concerns today regarding the gender identity curriculum that is being placed on the agenda for review i want to make it known that i am very pro-inclusion of this curriculum i find it very important to educate the existence of of all individuals not one person is alike and who are we to tell somebody who they are not i question have you ever been in the body that feels wrong or have you ever been inside the mind that keeps telling you that something just isn't right about me today and while you may ask me if i have ever been in that those shoes i can tell you i have not but i am very close to some
093who have and the feelings of not being able to be accepted for who you are is very real in the outside world this school district says zero tolerance for bullying the school district themselves removing this curriculum is making themselves the biggest bullies at the highest level how do you expect to enforce rules that you yourselves don't follow we allow support groups name changes and respect all of those just because someone doesn't believe whether it's right or wrong doesn't mean that any student deserves any less you took this office to represent all students and i'm sorry that some parents don't believe it but you do have a job to do every parent has a choice to not allow their student to participate in these sessions let a parent decide for themselves if they don't want their
094child to learn but i will continue to allow my children to learn about this very topic every single day because i want them to make sure that they are a difference in someone's life and nothing less and to let them help affirm other students in their existence as cited in the wisconsin department of instruction it was fun excuse me the wisconsin department of public instruction does not discriminate on the basis of sex race religion age national origin ancestry creed pregnancy marital or parental status sexual orientation or physical mental emotional or learning disability removing it from the curriculum would directly go against that as well as it could make the superior school district a direct reason for some children not learning as they should for fear of acceptance fear of themselves and fear of bullying i
095sincerely appreciate your time you owe it to every student for a very fair chance rachel larson hello like many people have mentioned i wasn't going to speak tonight but um i want to introduce myself i am rachel i have been an elementary school counselor in our district for 15 years and i am honored to do so i teach our students many lessons each week in each classroom on a lot of different topics social skills growth mindset emotion regulation a lot of different topics that help them grow not just in their academics but in their mental health and their emotions our counseling team administrative and curriculum department has been supportive inclusive and wonderful in supporting the work that i get to do every day with my students delivering this curriculum this year was part of my
096professional privilege and honestly my students were more appalled at me showing them how to use deodorant than anything else they told them thank you for that i just wanted to speak up on behalf of someone who teaches the curriculum who sees the students who sees the reactions and i please urge you to reject the petition and allow us to keep continuing this lesson for our fifth grade students in the district thank you as i'm saying is there another jim payne here or did he just sign up oh he wants to go twice that's one time i thought when he oh yeah so signed up i didn't come here today intending to speak but listening and thinking since i've heard the news i had to make the decision today my name is danny bardo my pronouns
097are they them theirs i'm a graduate of both cathedral and superior senior high schools and i'm not a danger to your children because i am a queer educator i'm a health and english teacher i went to school to receive these educate this education part of me this is a deeply emotional doing a good job i chose to pursue education because i firmly believe i needed to become who i needed when i was younger when i was younger i was terrified and i was angry and i was a deeply hurt individual the people in this room and some of which were my educators could attest to that i came out of cathedral so hurt and i think back and i can't help but laugh my friend and i were walking down the halls piercing high school
098and we saw a gay straight alliance poster up and we gawked and all of a sudden a math teacher came over and screaming at us for being cathedral kids being judgmental unbeknownst to him we were both unknown lesbians [Laughter] but i could have been saved years of anger and turmoil and self-hate had i then provided this curriculum being raised in a conservative catholic household did not stop me from being queer i knew i was different when i was four and i didn't come out until i was 24. and it hurt and i am so sorry to those i hurt while i was hurting but i need people to realize that this curriculum will save lives i need people to realize that teachers are professionals and to not let fear-mongering and hate dictate this school district
099people trying to stop me from teaching and i'm still here people really tried to stop me from teaching and i am still here and i will not stop and this curriculum needs to stay as is if not get more progressive thank you haley ronquist my name is haley gronquist i graduated from superior high school in 2016 and i went on to use that education to get a bachelor's degree at the university of wisconsin-superior i was very involved in my time at shs ranging from student council on the golf team golf team captain playing basketball being in deca and more i always grew up thinking i was different because i wanted to wear boy clothes play with my action figures and spider-man instead of playing with barbies thanks to some of the expecting accepting teachers in
100the superior school district i learned that i can be comfortable in my own skin and i don't have to conform to whatever norms society puts on me i sent an email to all school board members expressing my concerns and bringing up some very important statistics but i didn't receive replies from everyone so i just wanted to bring some of those up again because i think they're really important suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24 and lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer and questioning youth are at a significantly increased risk lgbtq youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers the trevor project estimates that more than 1.8 million lgbt youth 13 to 24 seriously consider suicide each year in the u.s and at
101least one attempt happens every 45 seconds think about how long we've been in this room the trevor projects 2022 national survey on the lgbtq youth mental health found that 45 of lgbtq youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year and more than half was transgender in non-binary youth did you know that having at least one accepting adult can reduce reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among lgbt youth by 40 percent the trevor project's research has found that the lgbt youth who found their school to be affirming reported lower rates of attempted suicide why wouldn't we want to keep those numbers that low because of someone's religion because it might make kids uncomfortable it's it's just something that societal norms have taught on to kids and people can opt out if they don't want
102to learn it and if you don't feel that your kid should be learning it then opt out and teach them something different teach them to be kind in a different way but you're declining so many different kids from the opportunity to learn how to be themselves and how to grow by taking it away from everyone as a whole you're taking away so many different opportunities for everyone else it's as simple as it's just a suicide prevention measure you're helping so many more kids then you're hurting that's it all right hi i'm kara downs i did not sign up to speak um i'm usually the one that's kind of behind everybody going yeah that's what i said but i figured you know what i have to tell you about my experiences i'm an english teacher at
103the high school and a lot of you that know me and miss kelly we are constantly helping kids through mental health issues not just in our classrooms and i want to take just a moment to tell you about my experience this year this is just one of probably over a hundred and some that i've dealt with this year and um i was going to the bathroom and i came out of the bathroom and one of our hall supervisors approached me and said is this there's a student crying behind the door is that one of your students and i'm like well i looked and it wasn't and i figured well okay i guess what's going on here so i sat down on the floor with this student and they proceeded to tell me that they cannot
104be in the class anymore because of the bullying under the breath the comments that are being made about their sexuality and who they are and they don't think they can go on and i said have you talked to your parents and they said yes and their parents were very supportive but that doesn't stop the under the breath and i proceeded to help the student feel more confident i took the student down and that day got the student removed from that class and put in my class that exact same hour where they found a community that was open that was caring because the students know when they step foot in my room everybody's equal i don't care who you are we leave judgments at the door and they know that and i also want to take
105this time to say that since this curriculum has been in place i have seen just a larger number of students coming through that are caring that are kind that are open they're more open than we are as adults and to take this away is going to do a lot more harm than just leaving it there it's easier to remove than to put back we see this as english teachers when you remove something it's going to be almost impossible to put back it's fine the way it is opting out is an option it's an option with anything we do and that's fine but when you remove it it's going to be impossible to put back so please don't do this and please show these kids that you support them that they don't have to go cry
106behind doors because of something that's being said under the breath that's all i have to say so thank you for your time dominic c hello and thank you very much um by looking at me you would think that i wouldn't have any problems in life you know i'm a good looking dude whatever it's it's all good i'm a trans man i was assigned female at birth um lived my life just like danny until i was 24 um being that person that everyone else wanted me to be um i wasn't gonna speak today um i'm i'm rather new to the community i am a father in the district um i'm biracial and a muscle trans man so it's hard for me to get up here in front of you guys and not feel like i'm gonna
107get some type of crap for it later um but i feel like i need to speak for these kids because i remember being these kids um i remember being bullied in the locker room and i remember people not wanting to go to the bathroom with me because i looked different and because i was masculine and i remember wanting to kill myself and my parents not being educated and then going into the compute the community and these people aren't educated and everybody was telling me that i was crazy and i need to be locked up in a mental hospital and that i had gender dysmorphia and that my body wasn't valid and how i felt was absolute garbage and these kids don't need to feel what i felt i'm 32 years old now and i'm still
108dealing with ptsd from what girls did to me in high school and i'm over it i won't go to a class reunion anything because just like i'm shaking right here i would still shake in front of those people because they couldn't accept me for who i am i'm a very good person in this community i am not only a director of drag shows in this community i am a huge transgender advocate i work with trans northland um transplant uh trans plus we just did trans joyfest these kids deserve to be seen and they deserve to be heard and they deserve to feel like they are just as valid as the next person i don't care who you are you want to be heard and you want to be felt and you want to be seen
109and taking this curriculum away from these kids is not going to make them feel any of those things it's going to make them feel how i felt as a scared little child going through high school they need to know that not only the teachers but you guys the community and everyone else has their back because it is not easy to be us thank you bonnie jordan hi i'm bonnie jordan and i am a mom i have five kids in the district i'm also a substitute teacher in this district um i'm my i am one of the people that are on the appeals i am very real and i'm a real parent with children in the district that being said i substituted in a classroom in fifth grade last year where there was an opt-out i
110didn't know that they were going to the guidance room to learn about this issue but nobody told me as a sub that there was children in the room that shouldn't be in that classroom and i brought them into the classroom and they they learned the lesson and um i didn't know and i felt horrible you know as a sub not knowing that and as a parent i wouldn't want my children to learn that if i'd opted out so i think there are issues with the opt in or the opt-out process that maybe could be looked at also i think that there is a misconception about what the appeal is about i don't think it's about hating anybody because i know i love everybody in this room and i don't even know you um it has
111nothing to do with disclosing people i think it simply has to do with science and not teaching children that you're not a girl or a boy because i think that's confusing for a fifth grader it was confusing to me as a parent hearing that in the classroom so i didn't understand why they were being taught that you're not a girl or a boy when you're born and that you should tell people not to call you a girl or a boy i was in the classroom when it was being taught and so i'm aware of what was being said um i think it's very important to include everybody and the appeal has nothing to do with discluding anyone or hating anybody i think everybody's important and if you would barely review the appeal i think it
112might show you that it has nothing to do with saying that anybody hates anybody else because that's just not true so thank you adrian adrian sure mental glitter apron glendale adrian glen hill get that right hi my name is adrian gledhill and um sorry i'm gonna get emotional because i didn't think i was gonna get to speak sorry i just feel like a lot of people like me are getting hurt um i do believe that it's all children and i think that means even kids that are in families that have different views than this one um i feel that if we have to teach what people believe their different beliefs in order to respect and love them and be kind them then we have a lot of teaching to do because we're all very different
113we need to start teaching different religions we have to start teaching different cultures we have to teach a whole lot of things if that's what it takes to teach the kids love and respect for each other my problem with this is i think it's too narrow i think it needs to be more broad i think we need to be teaching much more kindness and love and anti-bullying um i come from an lbgtq family my mom is gay or well was gay and now not and i have transgender family members whom i love very very much and there's as i was growing up i was never bullied for being the child of a lesbian i was bullied for being fat so i believe that the the anti-bullying needs to be very broad it can't just be
114one special interest and there are a lot of views on this um i just want to say too as a child in this community we were exposed to everything very young and the theory was that if we knew about it that we would be more open loving and accepting and i can tell you that the results were pretty tough i've lost a lot of family i've lost a lot of friends who killed themselves and so to say that opening this up like this is actually going to help a bunch of people i don't know it's just so rough um so i believe we should teach kindness i think we should teach respect and i mean that also means respect for people who don't believe the same things um so that's all i want to say
115thank you so much for letting me speak my kid pooped his pants i drove all the way home i thought i wasn't gonna make it back so thank you all for speaking and continuing to speak so i can make it here too thank you so much for your time i think i'm going to speak with a baby in my house okay i don't have to call her um i'm going to echo what adrian and bonnie just spoke about and i am going to also say that i am one of the parents listed on the original complaint i think a lot of people here want to think that these are bullies who are concerned and these are parents that are people that are not in our community and the reality is these are every single person
116listed on the appeal and the complaint is apparent with students in our school district and they may not all be represented here tonight they may not have all spoken here tonight but they are real parents in our community um i truly value and respect every single experience that was shared tonight um in our family my daughter was in a class with somebody who and a student who um near the end of the year requested to be called a different pronoun in a different name and in our family we respect that that is not what this appeal is about that is not what the complaint was about and i believe that a lot of people here um have the mis head misinformation about what is in the appeal and in the complaint and i would urge
117anybody who isn't aware to read it thoroughly and to understand transparency is a big issue i want to clarify that there are no proposed changes at the middle or high school level none this is truly about age appropriateness and the specific curriculum in addition to not reading the appeal or the complaint i think a lot of people here tonight are not aware of the specific curriculum and what's in it and so i would encourage anybody that is isn't in the know about that to to watch that curriculum and to read the complaint thoroughly there's a lot of misinformation circulating and the truth is that we are we are not for bullying we are not for excluding anyone like bonnie said we truly care about teaching our kids to love and respect all in the school
118environment this is truly an issue of age appropriateness and the district's policy of controversial material in the classroom and whether it meets the threshold for use thanks okay that concludes all of the public comment thank you everyone for your time okay now get back to our action item and again the action item is just review the appeal and advise the complaint in writing as decision within 20 businesses the board shall determine a case by case business whether it's review will not again this is just to decide how we're going to review the appeal and right now we have item a include appearances by the petitioner and the administration is motioned and seconded so that's what we're going to do now is there any discussion by the board on item a include appearances by the petitioner
119administration as our review method i think it's very important that for me for part a to and i think you spoke very well and you took some of the words out of my mouth i sat on the review committee where i don't want this to become a toxic environment or episode in our community we all have passions for everybody that spoke on behalf of the current curriculum for those that have the petition of questioning the curriculum i think as adults that we have the capabilities we have the experience we have the knowledge to sit down and to work through this i've read through the petition three times now and each time i learn a little bit more so i think it's in our best interest of our current school board to offer the opportunity to
120look at this further we have to honor the appeal but i think we also should honor the fact that the petitioner should be present my only question would be is how is that going to be handled is that an open meeting and is the petitioner of one my understanding is it will be another meeting that's to be set up it's going to be an open meeting petitioner i don't know if they could have one person be their representative to do their speaking we'd have somebody from the district would then have someone to speak and there could then again be public comment that would assume since it's an open you know open agenda or documents included any documents that were shared in the any when you say die that could probably be like a uh powerpoint
121like well we get the appeal and or the committee's decision to review as well yes i would i think all those documents shouldn't documents all the documents would be submitted prior to the meeting for us to review and then is there a time limit for each person to speak in that on the petition you could formulate it the same way the committee to their meeting where it was 15 minutes for one side and 15 minutes for another side that's how the committee began who decides that just me too and are we deciding on the time limit right now okay if this does pass but you know i think for the sake of stuff you know this is coming fast we're hurt first inside a time limit at the next meeting so that we have time
122to think about what is the next meeting the one to decide this though yeah so we'd have to make the decision before that so that they can prepare on both sides this appeal i don't know i mean 30 minutes if you give each side 30 minutes i'd say that that's a lot of time that it gets at all or not that's up to them i'm in agreement with that 30 minutes let's go 30 minutes and then any any potential public comment then would be again the three minutes and i'll say that's going to be a hard three minutes there's other options though right we're just discussing aim right now we're discussing right now a roll call so sorry is there any other discussion oh i'm sorry one other thing there cannot be a combination of
123a b or c correct all right a b or c okay any other discussion so right now we're voting on a with a with a 30 minute time limit per presenter all right there's no other discussion i'll call for the vote that's clerk you're going to call me but i'll do it all right [Music] so it passes that five five one hate to be determined yet as you know class board members know i know that the document i forget what you call that document you sent out to pick dates yeah and you sent that email out with dates to pick for us okay if you haven't gone through that and filled in your dates do that you may need to send more dates or dates on a commentation no is there an option to ask
124for an extension on the 20 days just to accommodate everybody's needs that'd be okay the 28 that that 20 day timeline starts after the appeal meeting that doesn't in writing okay okay with that that motion carries with item a am i allowed to just encourage the public to continue to hopefully be respectful and kind again to one another because that's what i think everybody truly wants and so lies slander rumors i would just encourage people to reach out and clarify things if it's unclear again kindness and respect for all on sides of this issue i truly believe once we get that final date for our next the appeal meeting that will be uh put out on a public notice so that everybody will know when that meeting is and if need be we'll potentially be
125moving that to a different location that maybe yeah all right air conditioning okay sure steve sandals and shorts all right so that action item the motion carries moving on then y'all would like to sit and listen to the rest of our meeting yeah you can't go never don't get big crowds all right under the teaching and learning committee there were no discussion items there were two informational items crystal hintsman our director of curriculum instruction shared an update on the summer professional development and erica hutton our partner our interim director for student services shared a report on seclusion restraint data don't be sad what we do [Music] thank i think so can you just write your blog want to give me a ride to the pagan app four three three three my little by three and
126he's hey i was digging my bags i have that same exact train in my bag so it's like i keep driving restless i'm going to share my train it's in the car but then when he pulled no it's all [Laughter] i signed that sheet and i'm like no are you leaving i thought it was fine i didn't sign in but i'm like i've been in the woods for four days and haven't showered so i'm getting here and i'm going home and showering we'll touch each other another time but nice i don't know all right okay we're going to continue this meeting it down a little bit all right so entertain a motion to accept the teaching and learning committee's report is presented back in question in a second is there a discussion on that hearing
127none always in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries the budget and insurance committee has one action item yes ransom request the committee recommends approval to accept the gifts grants requests received in july of 2022. move to approve second motion in a second discussion thank you um no other discussion all's in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries there are no discussion items and no informational items so i'd entertain a motion to accept the budget and wait a minute are we going to get an update i know that i was just asking her standing here we talked about it last week okay no update yet slackers to accept the budget insurance committee's report is presented move to proof second in a second discussion every now and also in favor signify
128by saying aye aye opposed motion carries last we got the legislative committee no action items no discussion items two informational items the wasb resolutions the wasb resolutions book is now updated and posted online resolutions adopted by the annual wasb delegate assemblies set the policy direction for the wasb and its lobbying efforts board resolutions for consideration for the 2023 delegate assembly must be submitted to the wasb by september 15th lynn i'd like to add that ed and i did meet uh after the last meeting we just kind of decided with the tight timeline that we're gonna take a more thorough approach um and submit a resolution for next year instead of this year all right next the dpi released july 1 preliminary general aid estimates as required by state law dpi released estimates of the general
129school aid amounts each public school district will receive for the 22-23 school year these amounts are unofficial estimates intended to assist school districts to develop their school year budgets attached is the district breakdown per school superior school district is projected to see a 5.28 increase from last year according to 33 million seven hundred and five thousand nine hundred thirty nine dollars in aid the complete list can be seen on the attack on the uh building it's like that's janet if she's willing to be close to what you're thinking since you're the expert here i had that number already because i it came out july 1st so that was in the that was already in the preliminary budget that we presented back being that that's an unofficial estimate do you think that's close yeah party went
130up a little bit last year from july 1 to october 15th but um i don't think it'll go up this number it usually goes up a little bit a little bit yes it's going down any other discussion on that all right motion to accept the legislative committee's report is presented motion to approve again in a second any discussion hearing none also ever signified by saying aye aye aye opposed she carries there any other reports by members of the board tonight two one ella fantastic job with the golf outing on good crew of work to do out there so everybody had a great time very very good second um just uh thank you from the class of 1972 for allowing us to tour the high school i know that i got to lead that and the
13140-some plus people that were there very impressed with the facility and well thanks all right any other reports by members of the board restrict your program highlights i'm good consideration of bills and pre-approved bills move to approve second second they need by members of the remaining public any more comment corrects no all right that then meaning is adjourned thank you everyone i forget the suspicions