Washburn School Board Meeting 05/11/2023

001information sharing with the community or otherwise Keith will develop a lot of information get it approved by the administration before it wasn't too well so as we on the isg level you know if you can clear that time sounds interesting on the ISU side um The Architects the team of Engineers as well really looking outside the building inside the building a tree seed plumbers hold on yourself online I couldn't see it I didn't know what it was all right so from an agenda site tonight we want to review the master planning process and then we're going to start to get into the facilities assessment that isg pulled together that's in a long spreadsheet form it's about six pages you may have seen some of that already um and then each one of those line items

002comes with a caucus into it after that assessment gets pulled together Kevin and his team started to identify different options to address the educational adequacy piece and you'll see budgets for those and then we'll talk about next steps at the end there different as long as it's keeping up so from his facilities assessment standpoint maybe Kevin you want to touch on what your team did for anyone that hasn't already heard it yep so uh when we look at the facility assessment we're looking at uh things to on the outside of the building windows masonry tuck Corning uh there's some portions of the building that are very old and so look at the condition of those to hvc plumbing and electrical systems as well it's a really holistically looking at the building um and as I

003mentioned before then we put a budget to each one of those line items and then Kevin's team starts to look at the option development and the prices associated with them so when we look at where we are to dates we're in that option development stage and refinement along with prioritization so from a professional opinion standpoint Kevin and his team went through and ranked each one of those items identified by a priority one two and three and ultimately that'll go back to the board and the district to help um find two nice those priorities before anything is moved forward this is really the start of the community engagement section then where the board will be surveyed sampled the contact Deanna and then the community is welcome in to weigh in any solutions that come out of

004it and then the portion I don't think you can see on the screen but it says refined scope over there so um is there a project yet no not at all we're still working towards that we were hired to identify needs and then take that back to the board and let them make a decision as to what the next steps are or the school district here so looking at the facility assessment specifically uh Andrew you can jump to the next one um the thing I would just touch on a little bit here is um again as Andrew already talked about we prioritize everything from four or um the other way I would put it from a timeline more like the media needs uh more important so a good example that if we see something as

005little as a joint failing on the outside of the building well that's moisture and water in our building so that's a high priority even though it's a small thing that has a big impact so so poor condition uh fair and good right so we know there's been recent work in the buildings over the last few years as well up at the elementary our playground is great right so things like that um you know we recognize that and acknowledge that in the study two so once that we get that list we go through a budgeting process and what this graphic depicts is is how we narrow in on the budgets for each individual line item but really we're at this top portion right here um using the historical data from the Myron specifically and isg's input

006as to what school construction costs so whether it's the cocktail that Kevin reference or replacing their handler units um we put those into the spreadsheet and what that number is intended to represent is an all-inclusive budget um they're Standalone all inclusive of any fees from a design cost standpoint or construction management and also the the cost to do the work itself and they're meant to be Standalone so as as that spreadsheet is prioritized and those budgets are moved around they're essentially Plug and Play they can be slid one way or then another to come up with the right solution for the district itself and I don't know if you mentioned as well but we also look at inflation which everyone sees in the grocery store these days but also factoring that into any cost yeah

007good points so it probably says 2025 on the screen there but knowing that any project takes a little time to get going by the time it gets through design and into construction we're projecting 2025 inflationary costs on the budgets we share thank you so what does that spreadsheet look like you see a small version on the screen here we will get this passed out and some of you may see it in the long-range planning committee earlier this week but that's the six page documents identifying hundreds of line items um as minute is a joint and as large as air handling and electrical systems that need to be updated just based on the age of the building and life expectancy of those pieces of equipment so what we're going to do next is actually jump to

008the budget piece and start to talk about what was identified in that report before I show numbers and everyone falls off their chair the thing to know is that when we do these assessments no District can ever go through and do everything that's identified it's meant to be a long-term report so that you can budget and repair things as you go along so when I flip here and show you 27 million dollars of needs identified in the district again that's not 27 million that needs to be done tomorrow it's not that the building is in poor condition and and your at risk of failing any inspections it's just if we go through and start to do updates based on life expectancy of the equipment this is the total dollar value once we add that that

009list together so that's really the first portion is that facilities assessment and capital maintenance lists that totals up to this 27 million dollars next Kevin's going to go into yeah well and I was just a few uh just a few really big items if you remember back when we first presented the brief summary of the of the facility assessment just the uh large dollar amount architectural structural a lot of that's coming in Roofing and then the tuck morning of masonry and also windows and doors so really think about that whole outside of the building and also um updates within the building as well uh what do you like a Mechanical plumbing a big chunk of that is looking at HVAC infrastructure and just the age of that in looking at you know this the older

010systems it's you know it's it is time for replacement or upgrades there um and then Electric electrical technology again some portions that are very old and some older technology as well so really uh potential to invest in that infrastructure and one of the good questions that came up Monday is you know if you start doing a remodel would you be required to upgrade the electrical system throughout the entire building if you want to bring elaborate on that yep so really any I'm going to just use the air quotes projects or upgrades we want to do those items would have to be brought up to current code but unless you actually I'm going to say use the term reconfigure 50 of the building you're not required to bring the food that we have to code I've

011never had a school that was 50 reconfigured you know we can do HVAC work we can do lighting across the entire building but that does not qualify as reconfiguration so from a state code perspective um highly unlikely that we would have to update the entire building to current code if that makes sense so just to carry that example for it I know we're sitting in a relatively newer space but say this hadn't been touched in 30 years if we want to go through and reconfigure this space we'd have to look at it from a code implication in this space alone not the entire building so that's the the first portion there next we should be on the master planning um Concepts and estimates so I'll put Andrew Miguel it's all working on this side here

012um and this will be the same thing between both of them um what we did we're going to hand out the paper and if you want to jump to the first one here yeah that's fine we're going to hand out a copy of the plans Kevin's going to go through that is all one package so um what you'll see the first couple of sheets that you'll see on there um you'll you won't see any colors on the first couple so the first one is the first floor plan um this one does show some color but this shows so South could be down on the mainstream here uh main entrances here to here the current ones just ignore the colors at the moment so what I like the examples you have there that does did I

013just add um you end this before this process started in the survey some of the things that the staff was asked about existing learning space what do you need we also driving this project was safety and accessibility in this building those were two major lenses taking a lot of virus to look at when they were talking about what this site needs to have that we don't have and access you safely we'll choose the main ones that came up to the top so that's the ones they're looking at when we talk about any model remodeling in this building that was always something that they looked at before they put anything down good point so the first the first thing I'll touch on and Andrew if you want to just talk a little bit how we're going

014to go through options here a little bit first so option yeah so I'll go back one slide that Capital maintenance report that we just went through the 27 million dollars of um needs identified in the existing buildings we're going to start calling option number one for the time being just to kind of keep them straight the last page that I hand out um we just passed out is all three of the options we'll get to but uh Capital maintenance only is what we're calling option number one when Kevin starts to talk about the educational adequacy piece and the drawings that you have in front of you and on the board and the screen that is dubbed option number two right now so if you yeah so if you start flipping it starts to see some

015color the first page you see color on it uh what this is it starts to look at the weight that we could really address those educational advocacy items so like Tom said some of the things that came up was uh security safe secure entrances into our building also accessibility we kind of come in at a mid height level uh what do you do with that how do you solve that Performing Arts is something that was brought up as well so we looked at some options there uh even updating this space it's a nice size Library space but just getting it to be as the most utilization possible so those are just a quick overview of things that we consider based on the feedback that we got in the staff survey in our assessment as well

016so looking at this and I'll kind of walk through every one of these here uh on the first floor the lowest level uh on the sell side what we looked at is we really do need some additional space um on the front of the building to create a secure entrance um and part of that reason why is we really do need to create an entrance that we can ramp down to get down to that first floor level now right now our thought is that we would make that office area at the first floor level um so everything that is at that level uh Monday night I think it was an interesting idea when you look at this you also see the the cafeteria expanded and the kitchen expanded we'll talk about that in just a

017little bit but one thought was flipping this and creating this the ramp and secure entrance at this point and then that what that would do is that would allow accessible entrance not only for school directly into the school but also for after like evening activities and into the cafeteria so I think that's a neat idea that was brought up um and again um I would say most districts um you know we start to get to idea option F G H you know so we plan on this is this is just the first round so but a great example of this plan not being locked right this is the first pass that these are essentially Lego blocks that get moved around on the site as the conversation progresses yep uh so that kind of starts the

018piece off we're looking at how do we look at a secure entrance uh in this scenario you would enter in through the accessible vestibule uh bring it down or stare down go into the office and then into the school from there so you could check in it's fully secure as well we've got additional restaurants that are kind of Latin in that area one of the other things that came up in the staff survey is that we just really lack restrooms over by the cafeteria and so one way that we look at solving that was taking the existing cooler and freezer because it's across the hall right now from the kitchen it's not a great spot of having to go back and forth and you got students going through there as well Victoria and kitchen Edition

019out there for the cooler and freezer and Associated space and then we can use that space for additional restrooms there um and then along with that just look at the overall cafeteria size and the potential to expand that to the cell it also creates some chair and table storage so really we can make that cafeteria a little more multi-purpose be able to move seats and chairs out um and make that space you know it is a nice size space so if we can make it more multi-functional uh field now the one thing I will say we're really pushing our site boundaries with this as well uh we you know scratch our heads I'm like well you know we there there will be a lot of things with any of these options uh that we would

020need to talk to the city about of how close can we get to the street there's challenges when you're getting that close and how do you make the grades and set work so again these are just first draft ideas um and and we value input so as far as other Renovations and I should just touch on this just a bit when you see this color or here that shows a building potential building Edition these colors here that shows a potential building renovation right so spaces that were reconfiguring um in the back period you see the existing lower level those uh those locker rooms are proposed as building storage uh we're looking at potential for new locker rooms up on the I'm going to call it second floor or technically on this floor level the reason

021for that is there's just not a great way to get an accessible route back to the current locker rooms there so um right now those this is the the option that I'm going but again we would obviously want to consider additional ideas I'll come back to this the tech ad piece in me just a little bit but Andrew if you want to jump to the next page so this goes up to current More Level If You're Expecting killer and with input is that again you see that this is kind of a blend between the two floors you see that if you gear entrance down below that Cafeteria down below um second floor which you see here we're currently in the media center or library right here again potential to just reconfigure and update the space

022through really uh better utilize the space um the current family consumer Sciences lab potential to update that and really those spaces are transitioning from just teaching basic life skills to teaching culinary arts and a lot of times Food Service might be our first jobs right as students so starting to teach some of those career Readiness um and and updating and renovating those spaces uh is uh is valuable also uh we continue to look at with the secure entrance potentially down on 34 that frees up the existing high school office our thought is that the counselor space could move there and then to really create a staff work group with restrooms in uh the the staff work room so really we have some dedicated space there uh for staff okay so the other thing that we

023looked at was Jimmy the the auditorium piece um and really the uh I really wanted to bring like a paper cut out and just say like the challenge of like try and fit an auditorium on the site um and that's the challenges that just does not fit well uh just because of how large that space needs to be and so right now what we looked at is a potential Auditorium in the range of 400 to 450 seats um and that's a lot of times what we would see for a a building with this uh number of students to be able to do that number of students plus staff for events so what we started to consider was what if we put the auditorium here uh there were some challenges to doing that the other thing

024is really we already have a stage space so we said what if we heavily renovate and reconfigure the existing gym um because of the locker rooms being needed accessible locker rooms doing a gym Edition instead of a Auditorium Edition to put in the locker rooms next to it so kind of from a layout perspective that makes sense and then a shared Lobby in between the two so in that scenario visitors could enter from the north come into the lobby space and go into the lot the auditorium pre-function into the back of the theater or into the side of the theater and Stage would stay at the front to reducing some really good feedback when we met with the long-range planning committee of you know we really do need some additional space for scene shop and

025set storage and things like that so we looked at that as well this week on the gym side of it which you can see is a little dash line here that's the current tech ed building or tech ed space I should say uh and so we said you know there's just there's just not a big enough space to fit uh either a gym or an auditorium on the current site so we looked at uh demolishing that portion there because at Jim Orono turned the roof height is significantly higher than that Tech Ed's face and we said we'll we'll look at The Tech Guy building down here on the southern site across the road so we'll touch on that just a bit but be able to do this gym expansion here uh very uh comparable size

026to the current gym so the one main Port bleachers on both sides and then to be able to have two cross Courts for practice and then the fighter menu in between and then there'd be a corridor down the back here to go to locker rooms that also support spaces so PE storage athletic storage restrooms as well okay so across the streets uh what you'll see here is we looked at this could potentially be the tech building across the streets now with that we would have students going across the street so again we're really just pressing our boundaries as far as the site uh constraints but we we want to come up with some ideas um I guess it's the questions are going to come up how expensive is the Skywalk it's extremely expensive okay I've

027built them they are very expensive so uh not showing anything but let's not look at a standalone tech building across the street we were demolish the existing building um and then this would Andrew classroom metals and auto space so there'll be overnight doors from probably from this side from the East and then the woods and metals Uh Wood space on the on the cell with access on the South Side so again replicating and really updating and creating better CT spaces um and again it could be a good option now uh and this one also does preserve some parking because that's the other thing that we're losing is we're limited to begin with and work take up a lot of it so with that um let's see Andrew go one more okay um actually yeah on

028third floor this really doesn't attempt anything there from like a reconfiguration of spaces obviously we're still doing the potential for Capital maintenance updates throughout the building so uh HVAC system those sorts of things so an exercise is actually a budget that's now updated because people just added a scale so here's the budget for what we're calling option number two and you'll see a couple members on here um and it shows up in African numbers on your spreadsheet but the way we look at it because it's a very high level and we're using the circle of beta it's a high range and a low range and then the average is what's being carried in that option to Budget on your spreadsheet there so again that's a long wish list based on great feedback but notice certainly

029never report their whole wish list if you add it all what would costs um over 50 million dollars so that's option number two foreign so usually The Logical conversation then is oh how much does a new school cost so we ran those numbers as well um Kevin made a touch on the space programming piece and I'll hit the budget yeah so really um we want to go through and kind of itemize out the spaces uh what do we what do we need for spaces so our current facility this building is around 90 000 square feet that does not include the building across the street that's just this current building uh really what we came up with first kind of draft of it um is really the need of around 125 000 square feet I would

030say when we look at this that option we just looked at with you know additional gym or Auditorium space um really that that option would have more I didn't check the numbers but that would have more overall square footage than a potential new building but that's really because we're a new building we can design it to exactly what what we need to plan for future girls so um so right around 125 000 square feet is what uh we think the range would be for a potential and that I should just clarify uh that will be looking at grades 6 through 12 or or I should say 17 to 12. so really so creating that Middle School High School secondary field and just to run through the numbers you see on the screen there then so

031we're taking that 125 000 square feet right now we have about 90 000 square feet right now that's correct but if we were going to add these other pieces I know that's the one I I can I can figure that out and follow up with common that I don't know it off the top of my head but I could figure it out good question absolutely have any ideas about parking because you're taking a lot of parking spaces but I mean without additional property um that's really the limitations right well I mean I think we do right I mean we I think that has to be weighed with any addition is what's the parking effect the sell side is less like the secure entrance in the cafeteria and kitchen but anything you do on the North

032side really has a patient yeah I think we could keep that a little narrower like the storage building is now um it'll be hard to keep it as narrow as it is but I think that you know parking has to be considered with any of these options and likely what happens if we start to own in on option number two we know we can't afford it all so some of those puzzle pieces come off the map and starts to free up some spot for parking it's still not going to be you know um extra farting or ample but that's likely what happens but again one of those driving forces access and not having locker rooms in a lower level that students and staff cannot usually get to that really drives and then they can drive

033it to move up again as soon as like one of those you do one it's going to be everything if you do everything you have a cost and you can do that you have no equipment left board uh one other thing difficult sorry um Andrew can you just jump back [Music] okay the one other thing I want to touch on one of the other driving courses behind that the gym on this side uh Earth in the kitchen is looking at where we potentially put locker rooms I look direct we actually put left the gym alone and looked at locker rooms over on this side but the problem is on that side it needs to be a kind of that mid-high Landing um and so the only way it's accessible biscuit that cut across the gym

034to get over there right so there's no real ex great accessible route to report or to get over there so then we started saying you know this is not a great spot for locker rooms for that reason any other questions there on the plan right so back to that new school option just to run through those lines quit so we're budgeting 125 000 square feet um in a per square foot cost of that we've taken that from three recent schools two of which we just bid the brand new schools and one we're still in the process of budgeting so we know that's that's pretty accurate for current market conditions inflated at 25. we have a line item hypothetically plugged in to buy a million dollars worth of land and this would assume that we would

035sell this or the district would get rid of this building offload it per gallon so those are conservative assumptions right now but that's what's baked into the new school budget option so next slide here is the last page you had in your packet but it puts all three of those options together and I'll spend a second to explain those top to number one we talked about was Capital maintenance only so it shows that that full laundry list that isg's team identified within your existing ability buildings totaling 27 million option two ads Capital maintenance to the the wish list items to address educational adequacy only that 77 on the bottom and the reason we total those two is together is people are going to start naturally comparing a new school to creating a like new school

036when we look at doing everything on your wish list so we wanted to Total that on the bottom and compare it to option number three we just shared for a new facility and I will again make the disclaimer I've never had a district but it's done every single one of these things that we come up with it's just never happened when we go through not only this process and getting feedback of this is a priority or not but also through the community engagement process of what is the community support um you know that's a really gonna tell us to inform that that input for the talk right there's times we don't put that total on there but everyone's going to do the math anyways so I you know that's why thank you so the last

037financial side we want to go over here is the districts tax limit and how that's figured out is is 10 of your equalized value or approximately 36 million so if I flip back to this slide and Kevin and I have spent an hour telling you you can't ever do everything we put on a list legally the district if they borrow right up to their capacity could borrow 36 million dollars so and I think the other thing we would just say is you know throughout the process there will be a lot further Deep dive into the financial side of it um you know as you as you continue to go through the process but again it's just a good refresher of what is that the the financing side of it look like yep so the district

038has the separate Tax Advisor that's neither of us we just you know a little bit is obviously dangerous um next steps in the process like we talked about at the very beginning is really to get additional feedback from the board and then starting you know if if the decisions still move forward with the assessment and and refining those options start to get the community's input on what a potential solution looks like thanks and I would just say um it's there's refinement to all three of those options needed so option one the capital maintenance we need to go through and do spend time with the district leadership priority and we did our first blush at it but we need that input with the district now as well option two when we look at that plus those

039those Renovations and potential additions um I think just spending time now you know not Beyond just long-range planning but with leadership but what's feasible how do we handle parking just have some of those conversations um and then really even option three take a closer look at that square footage are all these spaces essential what you know really because that also you know for example that includes Auditorium space right so it really does have those things that we want in there for the uh option three potential new building but again look through all of that with wants and needs um and it's not uncommon to go to the community survey piece with a renovation option and a potential new build option and get get direction from the community it's ultimately at the end of the day

040any solution that moves forward the only right one is the one that the community is going to support in the water Apple entertain questions from the board um it is anyone else lots of lots of tickets yeah absolutely obviously we'll be back at one of your future meetings as well um I do have the facilities assessment spreadsheet that I haven't handed out yet I'll leave the with the board as well so you can come through that after your leisure afterwards otherwise we thank you for having us and we will see you soon everything yes this is the same way today we're going to move on at this point in time um the next thing on the agenda is public comments I just need everybody's attention right now I need everybody's attention I do have a

041little longer statement than we usually have for this so I would like you to listen carefully um so that you are aware of what the concerns are if you would like to speak for public comment each person has three minutes and it's their time alone and cannot be passed on to someone else if you have concerns or comments about individuals those are not appropriate during public permanent finds so please don't say anything good or bad that would identify circumstances or a person or liquid people directly by what you say be respectful people on Zoom are welcome to join public comment put your name in the chat and we will call on you complaints about a staff member's performance actions or inactions are not to be addressed in the public comment period instead personal complaints should

042be made under board policy 9120 which sets out a four-step process for amazing concerns which then can be investigated confidentially the policy 9130 process culminates at the Nord level policy one nine one zero three is consistent with Wisconsin's open meeting law which allows closed session discussion of their confidential investigation of concerns which if discussed in public would likely have an adverse effect on the reputation and therefore the future effectiveness of Staff members involved in answering Wisconsin statutes 19-85 parentheses one person exam by raising concerns regarding employees under policy 9103 rather than in a public forum the speaker is also protected from making potentially defamatory or slanderous comments the public comment period is not the time or place to question the performance actions or inactions of individual staff members at the April 27th board meeting I

043ask a member of the community to stop speaking about an individual the person continued by stating the staff member's name yesterday a formal complaint was received about my handling of this situation the protocol has been the same for many years without problem I want people to understand that this board is interested in comments and concerns of the community but if the public comment time is used to speak negatively or positively about any individual the time for public comment will be ended the board is not required by law to have public comments so please choose your words carefully as we are doing public comment premably at having people come to the front stating your name enter your connection to the school but this tonight we started in the room yes last time we're going to start

044online for people with Publishers online is there anybody online who would like to speak okay Kate great uh ready um thank you I'm Kate stulp from Washburn and I just wanted to say that I know that tonight everyone in the room has two things in common and one of those is that we all love our children dearly and that's why we are here secondly the other thing we have in common is that we almost have nothing in common we are all very very different if you just look around the room and who is here their eyes the shape of their ears their fingerprints everything's different all of our physical characteristics are even people who are born with their heart and their stomach on the right side and their liver on the left side everybody is

045very different physically we have different personalities if I asked everyone here to determine if they were type A or type B I would guess most people would say neither of those descriptions fits any one perfect person perfectly so my husband might say I'm Type eight um so it's very interesting to me that with all of those variabilities between individuals that when we come down to sex and gender we think we only get two choices that's just illogical in fact there are many choices and there are many choices beyond the initials we have right now that our lgbtqia2s plus plus plus and I want you to tell you a little story about my sister who was born left-handed of course we didn't know if she was left-handed until she was old enough to show us the

046hand preference but when she started school which was about 1960 she was punished in school not parochial school either her hand was slapped with a ruler she was told you know she always had to switch her writing utensils to the right hand and she could hardly write she could hardly eat there was shame around it people said it was the devil's work that it was sinful but it's extremely awkward if you're left-handed to try to do anything right-handed eventually people came to accept people who were left-handed and once they did there was this huge surge in the number of people that came out as left-handed imagine that so that sounds like kind of a familiar story doesn't it so our kids and in fact all of us we just want to have a voice we

047want to be able to participate in our lives we want to be included we want to have a role we want to be ourselves so we are all here for them tonight and I look forward to other comments thank you very much [Music] no one else on the chat okay um people within the audience if you want to speak um please come up and good evening everyone I'm Miriam mayor of Washburn and local resident and parent of two former students I would just like to briefly read to you a proclamation that I made last year relevant to a topic that I've been hearing in the community and it's called the community for all Proclamation whereas washburn's social economic and Collective physical and mental well-being is predicated on our community's ability to be an open inclusive

048and diverse place to live and work and whereas a community's values are not only determined by its elected bodies but also its residents families business owners non-profit leaders Community organizers religious institutions and schools and whereas human diversity can be defined as differences in race ethnicity nationality gender gender identity sexual orientation socioeconomic status age physical and or mental capabilities and religious beliefs and whereas the city of Washburn recognizes diversity inclusion and Equity as essential to positive and healthy lives and is committed to ensuring people of all perspectives and experiences are welcome and feel safe in our community and whereas the city of Washburn is welcoming and inclusive to all residents and visitors alike no matter their age race color national origin religion gender identity or expression sexual orientation disability or socioeconomic familial or veteran status now

049therefore I marry demotif mayor of the city of Washburn in recognition of this event do hereby proclaim the city of Washburn as a community for all and will continue to promote an environment that accepts celebrates and appreciates diversity within the community while condemning any hate-based activity treatment or discrimination due to a person's protected class and I call on our partners in government residents families business owners non-profit leaders Community organizers religious institutions and schools to do the same thank you foreign I live here in Washburn my sister went to this school um I've been here I mean I was graduated at the time but um um anyway I am non-binary uh I'm on the board of P flag Washburn schwamagot Bay chapter and I didn't I'm non-binary I didn't know that word existed when I was

050in high school I didn't know this word until I was almost 30 years old but when I learned it it felt so right growing up in the Twin Cities I didn't know much about sexuality and gender at all I was just a huge tomboy and even though that word never really fit it was the best word I had to describe myself at the time I didn't fit in because I didn't know where I could fit in I didn't have the words to describe how I felt but there were bad words people used the word gay was then and sometimes now used simultaneously to describe queer people and as a derogatory to describe something that's an inconvenience or irritation I know there were others who felt like me but we didn't have positive words to describe

051ourselves the support so that we didn't feel afraid at school or the opportunity to get together and form bonds as a community so I never went to prom I avoided it like the plague why it was not for people like me the weirdos and The Outsiders but we didn't have to be Outsiders and our students here don't have to be either which is why I'm really glad they have queer prompt and they have groups where they can build community within the school but we've had some stumbling blocks what do our actions show queer students do they show that they are an inconvenience and irritation else the rest of that paragraph is Broad but in respect to not even making generalizations I'll skip it uh even so I am grateful that our students do have outspoken

052supportive staff and parents they have a chance to both fit in and be themselves they have more words available than I did to describe how they feel and who they are they have queer adults that they can look up to and be inspired by they have adult allies and parents who will stand by them and give them the validation that all children need and deserve this validation will lead to confidence future success to the ability to not just survive but to thrive kids growing up now have so much more freedom to choose their own identity to choose their own destiny 10 seconds and what is Destiny but another word for saying life liberty and the pursuit of happiness it's one of the biggest Promises of our nation and these students have the right to that

053promise have fulfilled thank you Rita Sharpton you I don't have any kids in school I don't even have any grandchildren in school but I've been around a long time and the school is to teach academics our school is achieving future knowledge in the core classes Reading Writing arithmetic math science do you have an ideology or you have a community problem seems a little counselors you don't understand diversity and thought is the most important thing we have and our children be educated is the only way we'll get Beyond any kind of problems that we have in this world education is a key not Community Services not your physical problems or your mental problems or how you feel about yourself you feel good about yourself if you have knowledge if you can support yourself and make the

054world a better place because you can help this world not just take from it so I hope people agree with you okay thank you my name is Amber Rouge and my pronoun pronouns are she her hers I live in Washburn and have two children who attend the elementary school and I have practiced as a psychotherapist for over 10 years in this area I watched the recorded school board meeting from April 27th and felt compelled to come here today as a male in 2015 the U.S transgender survey was published by the national Center for transgender equality in it they compiled the results of over 27 000 respondents the results outlined a distressing number of disadvantages that transgender people face the items that U.S school board members should find is especially distressing are 54 of the respondents

055reported being verbally harassed between kindergarten and 12th grade 24 reported being physically attacked while on school grounds and 17 reported that they were forced to withdraw from school due to the abuse what I found most shocking was that 40 of the respondents reported that they had attempted suicide in their lifetime I've completed hours of training through the Fenway board Institute in Boston to remain an LGBT informed therapist and there's some promising studies that are showing that gender affirming environments are helpful in reducing these effects we have enough opportunity to potentially save lives I hope that this school district can provide a safe and caring an environment for every child to thrive hi my name is Riley Claire I'm 28 years old I moved to swamigan Bay to attend Northland college and have spent most of

056my life here since then um I am also non-binary I have the distinct privilege of often being read as both a man and a woman that has provided me with an immense amount of knowledge and insight about how we all work and how our society works that I was not able to get in school um I went to school in the suburbs of Madison so my graduating class that was 2013 there were over 500 students in my class alone our GSA had I think five people we are in a very different situation right now um I feel like it's really amazing because we have so many young people who are willing to be vulnerable who are willing to to just explore who they are to ask very deep and intimate questions when you're in a

057very vulnerable place as a teenager like that's intense and then you have homework and you also have puberty and you have sports and you have the rest of your life and the rest of the world and covet so many different factors that are all swirling together inside of you and to want to prioritize being honest so want to prioritize being focused on who you are and being willing to share that with the world even when there are consequences whether it's from your peers whether it's from your family members whether it's from the Congress whether it's from just knowing that there's so many places around the globe that you cannot travel without risk of being murdered or assaulted one of the biggest memories I have in the span of my hi thank you so much just

058do you like high fives no then okay do you want to stand up here with me thank you so much for coming up oh I remember I was 12 years old I was in my English class and that was the first time I articulated writing just in class that I wanted to die that feeling did not leave me it distracted me some of my biggest memories from that almost a decade of my life are driving to and from work and concentrating on not running the car into the guardrail it has immense consequences on our ability to focus on our ability to prioritize exploration on our ability to love on our abilities to be connected with our friends and our families and ourselves and we are in a moment right now where there is so much

059space and so much support and so much information and that internet is crazy pants there is so much 10 seconds thank you the more adults we have who are supportive and are open the more guidance our young people can have anybody out there you are precious you are beloved you are awesome you are magic thank you for being willing to be yourself thank you foreign [Music] Nelson um I am an alumni of Washburn High School I'm sure there's a few of you here who maybe aren't so happy to see me again um so when I was seven years old I realized that I like girls um when I was eight years old I was shamed For the First Time by an adult when I was nine I was shamed for what I wore because I

060like to present more masculine um I was 11 when I first fell into my uh when I fell into my first significant depression um it was also when I came to Washburn um I came out when I was 14. it was pretty early in life I am very thankful to have the support of the owner of Cafe Toto my mom um she's an amazing woman um she made the cake for queer uh prom which was very exciting um face some paint for it online which was really hard to see um when I was 15 I think maybe 16 I tried to form the first GSA at Washburn High School I faced um some challenges in that it wasn't until a straight classmate of mine decided to also start a GSA that one became available at

061Washburn High School which was disheartening um I have faced some challenges both in school um and outside of it because of my sexuality my gender I would like to say though that now I am happily married for the love of my life I'm doing well and a lot of that came from the support of the community of um of uh he played was a big participant on that um gsas and Ashland and also in North Northland High College this is a big part of that providing a space was exceptional and I can't imagine how much better my mental health would have been in high school had I had the space like queer prom to be who I was without the possibility of mostly adults shaming me um and yeah I'm one of the lucky ones

062I survived it so thank you so much hello my name is Kathy Smith and I actually don't live in Washburn I live in Bayfield um and I teach at Bayfield I did teach in Washburn for a couple of years quite a few years ago um but I just wanted to give you guys a little history of our Short history of of our clear problem um because it started last year um at Bayfield um and we hosted the first queer prom of Shalom again Bay I lead the GSA at Bayfield school and we started washburn's had a had a GSA a lot earlier than they healed actually we only started four years ago and I started I I did not start it I found students who wanted to start it and I told them I would

063help them and so four years ago we started GSA and one of our student leaders last year was graduating and at one point in time she uh said my God I wanted to do queer prom for for so many years we got to do it it's by last year I said okay let's do it and so um we started the steps of planning a dance and um we had great Community Support P flag was instrumental in making that happen and funding the vast majority of uh queer prom they asked me to come up with a dream budget um so I did but I'm very conservative so it wasn't too big but um uh so we planned it and we reached out to people in Washburn we reached out to people on Ashland they all participated

064last year um Washburn did provide transportation for Washburn students and Ashland students to come because career prom is open to middle school and high school and most of them don't drive so that did happen last year and I'm we had a great career problem this year it was hosted in Ashland this year um and it was very successful last year the career problem was so much better than the other Prime um I did not tell you the energy in the room was ridiculous because it was so exciting for those students to get together and just celebrate our community and there were a lot of students that came and wasn't all lgbtq students there were lots of students especially Bayfield students who came I think just curious to check out the scene um but they all

065had a great time and some of them came back again because they said that was the best chance um so I really hope this tradition can go on and I just want to plant the seed that next year um I'm hoping that Washburn can help organize um because that's the the plan that we had was that the communities would host not necessarily fun because we can find funding other ways but little in little ways so um I just want to also just give you that so that you guys know as you talk about this where this all started thank you I would like to recognize the passing Eva this week also and I would just really tell the school appreciate the counselors coming in for the kids I lost my sister when I was little

066and it's difficult for kids to to adjust and they don't understand what it's like to to lose someone so young I think I hear a lot of division in the room but I don't think it needs to be here we've been here before the 1960s we went through segregation we fell back on article 6. you know and we were able to come together as a country and that it meant that the resources couldn't be withheld from you because of the color of your skin and I think when you address this issue as a board you should think that we can't discriminate against any one group the schools are for equal use and that's that's this whole group here you got people that support you to equal use but the thing that we're we're doing is

067we're we're having a special cause and and we're we're not looking at it in the Constitutional manner but we need to use equal access for all people the same as their so personally I've been coming here and I've been trying to work on kids health because I'm really sure these vaccines are just a rip-off but I would personally just love to send letters home to all the families to talk about Bobby Kennedy Jr um but for me constitutionally that's inappropriate because he's a presidential candidate and the school can't be used to blast out my my political opinions or my sexual opinions or anything else that matters to me but there are boundaries there's after school clubs we can deal with this and it doesn't have to be a big deal I just think that since

068we've been here before we're better than us we can do it again as you say fall back on that Constitution I've been trying to talk about the mistakes that went on during the coven thing but but I just I've never been able to have that conversation and I don't think we can heal as a community until we have it because the science is what I studied and thank you so I've been taking that cause farther up and if if you guys feel like there's something terribly wrong take your cause further up try to change the Constitution it's amendable or I've been going to the upper chambers of the legislator because I still want to talk to you guys about what went wrong during hope and there was a lot that one and I I went

069out past the school on my walk and I saw all the third graders running and they were getting healthy and that's why I come here so anyways we can fix this just disbelieve in the Constitution um would you hi everybody Allison my students call me Sheba I'm a 2009 graduate from Washburn High School I'm also a current Master's student at UW Milwaukee I'm Ashland's High School librarian and one of the high school gender and sexuality Alliance advisors last year our GSA was gifted the opportunity to host a historical event known as beer pong if you're not familiar with the event history let me give you a quick rundown our alternative prom got its start in the 80s by queer students who are sick of being docked at hounded threatened beaten up and kicked out when

070they showed up in a dress suit make up our outfit that should show the slightest deviation from gender norms and also when girls held hands when boys slow dance and when trans and two spirit kids who sometimes didn't fit in either group showed joy and love in public in front of their peers and teachers these proms spread like fire weed Bright Beautiful and carried on the Wind they were hosted in community centers homes college campuses and most likely a few Midwest cornfields as the host this year GSA shows the theme Intergalactic which sounded decidedly better than the proposed space 92 students 92 from Bad River Ashland Washburn Bayfield and Miss guavacon redcliffe showed up to celebrate their queer identities their friends and also strangers students from others schools Galaxy themed paper lanterns strings of metallic

071Stars twinkly lights and planets hung above students heads as they dance to songs like it's raining tacos Mamma Mia and I Kissed a Girl stars were projected onto the ceilings students snapped on Frankie's Pizza soda cookies and a delicious rainbow cake donated all donated by p-flag Northland College Alliance and Cocos we're prom acquires a combination of supportive community members and school personnel as well as representative School clubs a study by glsen the gay lesbian and straight education Network confirms these elements help students help students experience a safer and more positive School environment as an openly queer teacher and a not so long ago Career Team who grew up on that hill and went to this school it was an honor to help create create an absolutely joy-filled event celebrating our lesbian gay pan transgender queer

072intersex two-spirit non-binary gender deviant students and their friends I hope this conveys the pride I feel when I see your students finding happiness and comfort through their own unique paths encourage you you to feel the same and look forward to next year's Fireweed which will be growing right here in Washburn because Washburn is going to be hosting the third annual career prop um I'm happy to share this with you and thank you and I'm Noreen I'm the owner of Cocos and since the cake has been mentioned twice now that I might as well say something and and so I made the cake I posted it on Facebook I knew there was going to be below back and there was back but you know who controls the Facebook page me so whatever social media is like

073that I don't want to talk so much about my beautiful daughter as my son who also goes to Washburn he is 12 years younger than my daughter and he was raised in a home that never thought it was weird that Mara had a girlfriend slash wife he was raised in a home that didn't I didn't I didn't talk about you know them versus us or that kind of you know thing because it wasn't important because it happened right before us it's like hey Martha's getting married to Presley he's like cool can I pick can I pick out the decorations I mean that was his response because he was raised in an inclusive environment he didn't know that when Mara was little gaming marriage was illegal he had no idea he was stunned shocked appalled he's

074like what why wouldn't they let Mary Presley and I'm like well it was just the thing you know that's how it was and this is how it isn't um he was raised in a home where gay is not a slur that is not something you use to bring people down um and I think that that speaks to the time we can be living in and I think this whole blowback about this career prom thing is bringing us backwards and I'm very proud of both my kids for who they are and what they did and I know the kind of struggles that Mara went through the whole dumpster thing that was bad it happened when she was in the senior there was like this big blow up of things about it had to do with her

075and her gay friend with a lot of people you know her struggles to be herself when she went to regular prom dressed in a vest in a bow tie I think she had a do you have a bow tie on yeah and a bow tie I made her her own very very own vest I sewed it myself and a pair of black pants and a little bow tie and a fedora and she went off to prom and I I think hello there you just really want to talk don't you know um you know she had a good time but it was not an inclusive environment you know and that that is the difference here is like stray kids were not banned from queer prom queer kids were not banned from straight prom it's just a

076thing that happened you know and I just think I I that's all I got and I'm gonna donate the cake again next year my name is Jocelyn langholtz and I'm a therapist at Memorial Medical Center and I've been there for the past 20 years for the last 10 years I have had the privilege of working with transgender patients Youth and adults exploring their gender identity looking for places to make sense of who they were in the world and I come here today from a place of privilege because I want to be able to speak to what I have seen and heard and learned in terms of training in terms of sharing space with people and and learning from teachers and colleagues and Friends and what I want to invite the school board to be thinking

077about is do you want to be part of the help or do you want to be part of the harm because we've heard people's stories we've heard the statistics I have a list of them and I will tell you that they match what I see in my office that when youth are supported they're less likely to be depressed they are less likely to be suicidal they're more likely to figure out who they are and supporting them does not necessarily mean that they are going to come up with the most complicated set of letters that you have in your imagination they might which is great if that fits who they are but they might not but they will be safer and they will be cared for and they will be nurtured and if you want to

078be part of that as a school district I encourage you to find ways to say yes to find ways to be sure that kids get what they need in terms of support in terms of links with people who can help them and that parents are given the support that they need thank you thank you hi I'm David Siegler I live in Ashland and thanks for tolerating some comments from across the bank um I'm the grandfather of a trans granddaughter she's seven years old um when she started uh expressing to her parents and to her grandparents that she was trans at the age of three or four it wasn't because she had just chosen to be trans it's because she had just I think found the words to express that she was in fact trans she's

079lucky because her parents her grandparents her cousins her aunts and uncles they all support her not all trans kids are that lucky and even my granddaughter who's probably in as good a position as anybody in terms of family support she's got a difficult life ahead of her um it's not going to be easy for her when she was born before we knew she was trans we wanted for her to have a happy life a life with joy a life of accomplishment alike with security and when we discovered that she was trans none of that changes everybody wants their kids and their grandkids to be happy I mean we already heard from Thomas Jefferson but you know the pursuit of happiness is one of Jefferson's big three rights that we all have and who wouldn't want

080any kid whether seven years old or 17 years old to be happy what what parent wouldn't wouldn't want that to happen What Community member wouldn't want that happen what what child wouldn't want to be happy and what school district wouldn't want to support its staff and its faculty who helped that happen not Washburn I mean I don't live in Washington I've spent a lot of time in Austin and I know that that's not Washburn this is a supportive community um Elie wazelle the Holocaust Survivor and author when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 he had these words he said never to be silent um when faced with intolerance is his book we must always take sides neutrality helps the oppressed never the oppressor silence encourages the Tormentor never the tormented you're in charge

081of an educational institution here this is a wonderful learning moment um to show that to show the value of not being silent to show the value of not being neutral and to support your lgbtq plus students um and the faculty and staff who support them thank you I think I got the hang of it we just stand up right hello I'm I'm Tina raqueli and uh thank you for this opportunity um I'm speaking in support and care for our lgbtq plus children youth and adults and in this educational setting specifically Children and Youth and I'm also speaking from a faith a faith community perspective I'm an ordained United Methodist Pastor serving in the shawanagan Bay Region and I graduated from the Isle of School of Theology in Denver where I served Methodist churches there in

082from 1996 until my arrival here in 2009 so often in this conversation there's a piece of it that comes from the religious perspective and I feel called to just share that uh over the decades I mean I rigorously and my colleagues have have studied scripture and gone back to origin gone back to ancient languages and we have a never found passages that condemn the the sexual orientations and the underrated identities that are claimed to be not consistent with Christian teachings and I maintain my mainstream uh Protestant clergy colleagues and I have really not found an incredible grounding in in bringing into the conversation religious prohibitions and so I I find in fact what we did find was huge affirmation of the fullness and diversity of the wealth of teachings calling for affirmation and inclusion of

083these god-infused Expressions so I also wanted to share that over the decades I've been drawn to support youth Ministries I was serving when Columbine happened I was serving in Denver so that was a huge baptism of fire and I've been also while this work is joyful and exhilarating working with youth I have been so deep really saddened by the the very um honest true and harmful stories that have been shared with me that youth have experienced as a sense of minority and not included and actually the victims of so much so much harassment and shaming and danger within the churches I've served I've always tried to make and with with the congregate congregants to make a safe Sanctuary that's a word we use in methodism for persons that include within the lgbtq plus Community a

084place where they not only feel safe but also Thrive and find really the the fullness of their potential and who they are and for me one of the most powerful places for Children and Youth to find this fullness and potential is within our schools within our schools and making the schools through policies and culture to be these safe places you as board are Educators that are committed and skilled this way and I thank you that you have this power thank you thank you my name is Trey Sorensen esteemed members of the board I come to you today as a concerned citizen my cousin is a trans student at Washburn High he is a good kid but truth be told he kind of scares the hell out of me sometimes right because it is scary the

085kids get up to these days what happens when we're not there you're scared for them because they don't they don't know they're just babies and you worry you worry who's gonna protect them to be there when you're not but we have to have faith our kids are good our educators are good we have to have faith in that honor our neighbors love and Trust our neighbors though we may not understand it all that is happening in the world I tell you my neighbors we are not medievalists we can no longer point to Shadows or conspiracy corrupting our youth I plead to you our children our schools are going to be okay Wisconsin is the progressive state honor our home we only have forward to go thank you hello my name is Gina Kirsten I'm the

086Community member and I'm here to tell you that I adore my mother I have wanted to be like her since I was a little girl her values are amazing she loves people tremendously she is very well respected in the world and from her friends and she's a 91 year old lesbian I wanted to be like her in every way I just can't be a lesbian I wasn't born that way I I didn't I mean and if we're talking being around people gets you crazy to be lgbtq plus or being influenced by people causes you to be that I can tell you that's not true absolutely not true the second thing I want to say is that I was very delighted to come here tonight and hear about all these improvements that you're going to make

087to the school that's so cool for our kids in this area and I was interested to hear that most of them were based upon safety and accessibility and I'm guessing that's a fairly small population at Washburn probably growing but fairly small and I'm guessing that the same number of students at Washburn schools are lgbtq plus and we are willing to spend millions of dollars to make the school safe and accessible to them but there are other levels of safety and accessibility and we have heard tonight about people who didn't feel safe coming to school and I know from people from young people I talk to that it's still happening here at Washington I know that even though they're invited to prom there are cultural roadblocks that make them not feel that that's accessible and if

088all I have to ask is that if you are going to put millions of dollars into a safe and accessible school that you put equal energy into making lgbtq plus students feel safe and accessible thank you my name is William schlager I am a former Washburn teacher and I was thinking as I was listening to this about it's my first day second day on the job I was told that all means all that no matter what when they walk into my room if they can't read I take care of them if they can't sit still like take care of them and um I hope that all can also include the lgbtqia plus students with just as much uh Vigor and energy and in care and support as we give to all the other students who

089absolutely deserve it and on a slightly psyched uh or a separate note um as you're looking at these uh improvements to the school please leave space for the seventh and 8th graders to go outside and run around thank you hey mine should be pretty quick I'm Teresa fish um I have my Master's in education I'm also a licensed professional counselor um I have worked my entire Adult Career with kids and families I started out working for the Department of Corrections in my 20s and became a licensed professional counselor in my 30s and now I am getting towards the end of my 40s um and in order to learn in order to retain information our neurobiology says we need to feel safe we need to feel connection we need to feel a sense of call like

090we cannot learn so uh I don't know I've heard from a lot of people in the room um over the over the years how important uh mental health uh is in our community and uh I just want to tell you that's a lot of pressure right a lot of pressure I'm one person in a team of many who I love um uh but we are not enough and how many people have called and said I can't get in I can't get in I can't get in I'm waiting I'm waiting I'm waiting I can't do this alone and my team can't do this alone so it takes everyone in this room it takes family it takes community and it takes School thank you hi my name is Scott Griffins I know you guys have a long

091agenda after this um I've dedicated a big portion of my life to working with youth and I will tell you that feeling safe supporting characters the most important thing if you look at your yrbs data you'll see that the kids who are lgbtqia don't feel safe and we need to do everything that we can to support them the way that we can do that is to let them know that we've got their back you need to let them know that you've got their back if we let them feel and let them know when they come in this room or when they come in this building this is a safe place I know that to step in on a board of education at this point takes a lot of courage to walk into a meeting when

092you've got 100 people that are here to to share their thoughts with you take a lot of Courage it doesn't take as much courage as it does to walk into a school as a queer kid you need to like let them know resoundingly that this is a safe place for them thanks foreign Community member um thank you all School Board is a really tough job I appreciate you very much um much of what I wanted to say has been set but I'm gonna do my little bit anyway um I know I want to say it's not theoretical we have students in Washburn School District who do not feel safe let it sink in for a minute because I'm not talking in theory like what if they don't feel safe I'm telling you in case you

093don't know they don't feel safe we have students who don't feel safe um if we want to do what's best for kids and create a positive learning environment which I know we do at Washburn school we have to meet basic needs we actually do have to make sure that they're fed when they're hungry if that they get rest when they're tired because they have to be in this front part of their brain to learn and we know that so in fact we do have to take care of mental health and all those basic needs um as a district we have to consider the climate and everything that we can do to ensure that staff and students feel supported by not stepping up and supporting and celebrating queer prom a message was sent a message was

094sent to our kids and to our community and it's not too late to fix it we can always do better and we can start right now we can step up and pay for that bus we can start planning for next year now it's not too late I really believe that it's going to happen I have a lot of belief in this school I have three kids and it's been a wonderful environment in many ways there's just a lot of room for improvement and um and there always will be and I appreciate all the work that everybody is doing for our kids I think I'm just gonna stop there and say one more time please please make all students feel safe so they can learn they deserve to learn thank you hi everyone my name is

095Abby I'm 27. I am non-binary and I live down in town of Lincoln at the bottom of the county and I just wanted to thank everyone who's spoken it's really nourishing and healing to hear the support toward queer youth and it's really an honor to come join those voices and this conversation about the neurological impact on every aspect of your life when you can't just be at a calm safe Baseline it lasts far beyond Primary School um I did not get to start coming out to even myself until well into adulthood and that didn't happen until I moved up here to the Schwab again Bay I grew up in a really repressed place um in lower Michigan and it's really frustrating as an adult experiencing in my career that these are still issues um that

096impacts my ability to just give my professional skills to the world because my peers in my field have not been educated enough to just accept other people who they don't understand and they make it hard for me to be in the field I am and that's disappointing and that's why it's so good to see the support for today's queer youth because we should keep on moving forward and reconciling with the fact that this nation-state was not built for everyone it was built for very specific people and that's not okay so thank you for listening to all of us and I look forward to seeing what kind of support you're going to give to your students to queer prom which really I don't see how you can argue that having a safe joyous place for kids

097is hurting anyone thank you you're just amazing like I'm I've been doing with a lot of like homophobic classmates and like teachers who don't know thankfully now they do so so I'm really grateful for that but I'd have to deal with loss of people in my life so far like just going up like this in the same age I've had a lot of like words to express how I feel but I know that a lot of people haven't actually had the chance to say them and I feel like it just felt so welcoming and amazing there just yeah oh thank you nothing else uh Leo Ketchum uh my wife Theresa Fish Talk already I actually wasn't planning on saying anything and uh I didn't tune into the last meeting and so to be honest I'm

098a little confused it's bizarre to me that we're having this conversation because this is about acceptance and school is about acceptance like I don't even understand the only reason to say don't do don't have a queer promise because there's there's religious views that don't believe in it that's not part of a public school it just seems to me like I'm a little disappointed we're even having this conversation I thought we were Beyond this I think that having queer prom have and I don't even understand so thanks everybody for showing up I don't even understand this conversation Brandon Lindy I'm gonna go kind of rapid fire at the beginning here because there's a lot to get to uh one thing I noticed absent from the minor in presentation uh that's not consider consolidation uh why wouldn't

099you broaden your tax base schools like Northwestern have excellent facilities um we can partner with any of the smaller schools around and explore that option uh as a community member I think that's something that should be explored when we're talking 54 million dollars everything should be entertainment uh also in the board packet which is available on the school website for those who don't know um the state budget was published and I would just like to point out something I pointed out last September that the state budget with their increases is based off the inflated numbers of having to capitalize all of the school's leases so we had to inflate our numbers in our cost section it was offset in the revenue section so it was a net zero but it makes it look like you

100guys spent more money than you did that happen across the state and that is why the increase in the budget is extremely high for what is actually needed I also noticed that you guys published a quorum notification for going to the CSUB meeting I appreciate that after I brought it up a couple meetings ago then the next thing I want to get to is the oath of office You all take um you swear that you will escort the United States Constitution and the state of Wisconsin Constitution uh this is a public meeting it's open to everybody you also set it up as a public comment that means this is the same as speaking in a public park anyone can say anything they want about anybody they want and you guys can't cut that off once

101you open this public forum and I also wanted to touch on something you said that it's the way it's always been that you restrict public comments for a while the way it always had been was that black kids couldn't go to school so just because it's the way it was doesn't mean that it's a good policy um I had asked you guys last meeting to come up with an opinion or a board statement on the changes to the Title IX program it's not on the agenda so obviously you guys did not do that you still have until Friday to comment on that opposed rule change I extremely encourage you to do it um no matter what your opinion is we all have input into our government so go online it's the public register and you

102can comment on the changes to Title IX as far as that goes I continue to maintain that it's an unfair Advantage for males to play female sports it's just a simple fact in nature that the average man is bigger and stronger and faster than the average woman thank you you know any Resident of uh the area so I want to start off by saying um I'm really happy to see all of this involvement um I'm hoping that it was indeed in part due to our last meeting due to the records requests that anybody can make um I want to say that first of all I think a lot of people are here based on a misunderstanding I had a whole thing of what I was going to talk about but um I'm going to start

103off by saying um Sandy the board president violated policy by including stuff on emails before she was on the board that was improper use as school resources and taxpayer funds she continued um in her second meeting to cut me off from my public comment period which is a violation of civil rights and all of you judging from the flags should understand civil rights and what that means to somebody this board President should be taken off judging from what she did it's extremely wrong um I am allowed to talk about anybody as per the First Amendment um I appreciate your changed speech however the rules still stand your guidance is there but the rules do stand so when you are not following proper proper procedure proper policy you're going to see teach teachers who don't follow

104proper procedure and policy like we did in the whole case of the queer prom situation with a teacher which is probably why a lot of you are here so I think a lot and then we go down to not only the school board we have the teachers we have the students we see an amount of Disobedience that we have at an unprecedented level like we had to have a police called in for a third grade girl ridiculous so this gentle parenting social emotional learning inclusion and Di all these buzzwords are they working we have increased suicide rates judging from all of these social these social pushes and it what you're doing isn't working we have suicide rates that are increasing despite all we care about this we care about feelings all of these things they're

105not working so I would like people to know that that you have these initiatives but look at the bigger picture this is a small town with small-minded people you think you're great and having this great big global view it's ridiculous you're manipulated and you're wanting Equity at the same time asking for special treatment it's ridiculous so I asked the board to take alternative viewpoints um as they go through and listen to people um the misunderstanding with everything is it's not that there's a huge group of people opposing gays and queer stuff and events it's that policy wasn't followed you guys are fools for being here this is ridiculous I love that you're here don't get me wrong I love involvement but the foolish part is that policy wasn't followed and that's the whole reason why

106there was pushback and why there isn't support from the school is because people didn't do it right I would like to say at this point rainbow is God's promise to never flood the Earth again today's attendance is great and thank you very much for attending stay involved or anyone else who would like to address the board hi uh mark I lived in Washburn for a while I'm in Bayfield I was a former Middle School teacher uh I don't know where to start I want to tap into what you said because I don't know you but I'm uh three points uh acceptance like schools are anchors of communities I think someone said earlier um we have a reputation up here of acceptance and and the school has a role of maintaining that reputation don't don't tarnish

107that reputation uh two like on the personal level of this my goddaughter uh her last few years she's um come out as trans just coming out to your family and going through that and like to be honest being a teenager is hard enough like coming from the straight white male guy speaking right now like being a kid being a middle schooler is hard being a high school is hard you layer this other stuff on that and then you tell that kid You're Not Safe In This Place Your Community doesn't support you right someone cited the suicide statistics yeah and like this is perfect because like we do need the whole community I'm a teacher and I still have a hard time I didn't have the little ones I don't know what I'm doing all these

108people tonight have been helping me so I could be here to support these kids and you know and I appreciate anybody that's helped me with Mercy um I appreciate that because it does take a whole community and the community needs to know uh that the kids in the community need to know that they're loved and they're accepted um so I appreciate the time you guys have given so much time for this and I appreciate the role my wife's a school board member in um in Bayfield so I appreciate the role that you're serving it's really important role um so thank you what you're doing and uh thanks for making time for us thank you anyone else like this one I think we're ready to move on because everybody they're very okay let's take a five

109minute break thank you thank you very much no no body knows that's right um what about you guys together thank you foreign