Stafford School Board 7 16 2019

001It's not on the Dr. Chase? Here. Ms. Decatur? Here. Ms. Egan? Here. Ms. Hazard? Here. Ms. Healy? Here. Mr. McCosker? Here. And Ms. Young? Here. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. All right, thank you. Do we have a motion for approval of the... Madam Chair, I move to approve the agenda, but I also ask that we amend the agenda to remove items 9.01 and 9.02 from the action agenda until such time as the legal opinion requested by school board members on December 11th, 2018 and June 25th, 2019 has been completed. has been completed by an attorney selected by the school board and that all members of the school board, not a select few members, are provided with the opinion and the advice of legal counsel. Second. I had some discussion. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So

002I guess my concern is sort of the open-ended date here that we're talking about. And, you know, back in November of last year, we had a lockdown drill that left a student thinking that. she didn't really have a great place to go for cover and this board asked at that time that the superintendent bring a policy to us by the end of the school year and we all as a board said this was important to us and it was something we cared about and so my concern is you know we've been talking about this for two years now and so And so I'm wondering if we would be willing to amend the amendment to specify that this will be brought to action no later than the anniversary date of when this student... Excuse me, Dr.

003Chase. All right, anyone who is disrupting the meeting will be asked to leave. We cannot continue this meeting with shouts from the audience. So... Okay. Let's just sit here until we're going to have quiet in the audience. Madam Chair, guys, I'm just going to really respectfully ask that we're going to do our job. I promise you that. This is part of our job, and if we can't have a conversation with each other, so I'm going to ask you so respectfully, let us have a conversation with each other so that we can get this figured out. And so the part of my discussion is I would just say I'm a little concerned about the motion that, you know, some versus all, you know, it seems like a little jab, if I'm being quite honest. Please, please,

004please. It seems like a little jab, if I'm being honest, because I was a sponsor of this. Any of these recommendations and as I understand it and perhaps I'm wrong But as I understand it that when you bring a policy Let's let's say it's just a policy about whether or not we have school on hot days if I'm a sponsor of that Policy and I request information in order to do my best job of bringing that to the board and I ask for information I'm not required to give you any of that information unless you ask for it, and I recognize that some things have been asked for. But I say it over and over again, we're a team up here, so I would just ask us to work together in a kind manner. So

005I can promise you that if there was anything that I left out... from you know that you wanted it was not intentional it was because I was just trying to do my job so I guess I don't that threw me off I maybe I'd had a little something smarter to say if I'd have known that that was coming but Miss Young yes you have a question No, no, no, no, I was fixing my mic. I didn't know if Dr. Chase was done with her comment. Were you finished? Because I thought maybe you were still waiting for it. I was just asking if the board could agree on a date that we would bring this back for action so that it doesn't just get lost for another year. And so I don't know what the pleasure

006of the board is. My comment is that There needs to be training in every school and the principal needs to get the information and the teachers need to get the information. So if we don't have a date when to bring it back, we're going to go on next year the same way we went the last year. I feel that the majority of the people. have a wrong conception of what the policy is. And if you really read the new policy, you may not even be here because it includes race. Okay? And there was a time that... Brown and black people, even with a policy, could not be in schools and were also bullied, subjected. And so to have a policy means that we will respect the policy. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going

007to bully the child, the LGBTQ, or any child disabled or not black or brown. This is about equality, folks, okay? When you look back... 10, 15 years from now, you want to be on the right side of justice, okay? And you know what? Excuse me, this is not a dialogue. It's not a back and forth. This is just a comment that I made. This is not a dialogue. This is a conversation, as Mr. Gator said, among the board members. This is a board meeting. You are invited to attend as members of the public. There will be a time when the public is given an opportunity to come and speak to the board, but that is not during this time. And I would ask you to respect. That right and if you do not we will

008ask you to leave and I will ask the deputy to help someone find their way out if they are going to shout out again while we are trying to conduct this meeting. You will have an opportunity to come forward in the public comments period and make any point that you wish to raise. But please, let us continue with our meeting because this is going to be an extended discussion. It's going to be a long meeting, and we need to get on with the business. And so, thank you so much, Chairman Healy. So with that said, I lost my train of thought and maybe it was best that I did. But I agree with Dr. Chase. And I remember clearly Back when I can't remember the date I did not want to put any more pressure

009on miss Hall But I stated that we needed to have a meeting with the lawyers if we really had questions or concerns Then which is last year and we didn't because it was going to cost money. Well here we have it again It's going to cost money or even more so I am willing to allow I don't know how many, two or three, to get the information that they need. If they're going to vote the same or not vote at all, or at least the information will be there for them. But there needs to be a date. There needs to be a date and time that Dr. Kisner could do his job and have the teachers and staff trained to be able to provide assistance to these children. Any other comments? Ms. Eakin? I think

010Ms. Hazard's motion basically said it. Once the information is brought to us, we can reconsider it. I have no information. She's got no information. We have no information. When people ask, have you done your homework, do you know what the consequences are? Do you know what the benefits are? Do you know what this is? Do you know what's going to happen if this happens? This is all we ask for, and I still don't have it. I don't want a justification. I want a good, the bad, and the ugly. That's all. We have a fiduciary responsibility. And we have to abide by that. That's all I'm going to say. Mr. McOsker? Sure. Well, thanks for everyone for coming tonight and the e-mails as well. It's very informative. And as members of the public, you both have

011a responsibility to be here on these tough decisions. And as a board, we're elected to make these tough decisions. So the way I understand it, and I have the motion on the floor, and I'll supplement it with a date, supplementary motion. We need to, as a board, to get... the opine, the questions of opine that we actually want. So if you want the good, the bad, the ugly, we need to say, board member, let's go down, you know, go down, maybe not in this forum, maybe this week sometime, we say, what is your one question, Chairman Hazard, in order to make you understand this policy or whatever, and go down for the opine, get the legal opine by question. and then come back at the September 10th date for a vote, for an action vote.

012That will entail two meetings. That will avail the what's your question that's unanswered. That's number one. Number two is let's talk about we find who's the lawyer that we're going to go to. Let's all agree on that, get that done. And number three, what are the questions now that the lawyer came back with the opine? And then once everything's on the table, then we make a vote. And you vote yes, you vote no. September 10th. So that's my... So the whole month of August, we have the whole month of August. Why September 10th? Why not the first meeting in August or the last meeting in August, which is what? We have one meeting in August. So I understand it unless I'm missing something. We have the 13th of August, which is a really quick turn

013for what I just discussed. And that's the only reason I say September 10th. I understand that school has already started and I understand the concerns of making sure that we take care of policy. So that's... So may I ask a question? In terms of the question, you have your questions right now, so it's not going to take you long to bring your questions to the lawyer, right? And the turnaround of the question in a work session, and we could still make it an 813. It's not a matter of a question. It's a legal analysis. It's looking at... If this happens, X happens. If this doesn't happen, this is what X happens. It's not about me just asking a single question. Correct, correct. But if that legal opinion already exists, it's a matter of bringing it.

014It does not exist. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. If the legal opinion exists, I am assuming that we would have it. So a question may be what are the repercussions if we approve this policy in terms of ba-ding, ba-da-bum, ba-da-bing, and the lawyer will answer that question. I think you shouldn't do it because of this, this, and this. I think you should do it. I think it doesn't matter. And so what I'm trying to do here is just trying to get all of us so we're not coming back to the next meeting going, hey, I didn't get my question answered, and I've got three questions. have a meeting and then when you have a meeting in a public forum you have a meeting what are your questions you get the questions

015answered and just the process that i just mentioned i think that's right now that's the way we need to move forward um that's so that's my supplementary motion is that we we come back with this issue for action uh 10 september barring um Barring I don't know, just 10 September we come back for action one way or the other. I don't think that we can anticipate what the schedule is of the attorney that we choose. I mean, I've already thrown a name out there, but nobody seems to listen to it. How are we going to anticipate? What their schedule is are they going to be able to do this and turn it around in three weeks for us to digest it and read about it? I guess I guess the frustration that I'm experiencing is

016I have felt like We've had on a number of occasions Like we tried to have a work session and then the work session ran out of time and then we said well let's have a discussion during the meeting but then there was a lot of time that the meeting had a lot of issues so nobody wanted to talk about it in the meeting. Then we said well let's schedule another work session but then people didn't want to schedule that work session because of of whatever the reason is. And I'll respectfully say that simply I'm talking about my feelings. I'm not talking about what people are actually trying to do. But I feel like if something is a priority, then I make time for it. And the safety of Stafford County public children should be our

017priority, and we should make time for it. Several of us asked specific questions at the last meeting. and ask for a legal opinion to address those questions. The problem is we did not get a legal opinion that addressed those questions. In order to make an informed decision, I think we need the answers. I don't think that's unreasonable, and I would suggest at this point that this board appoint one or two of our members to deal directly with the attorney to present the questions and to get the opinion to bring it back to this board. It's something that's important, and it's going to make a difference because in order to move forward, if this were to move forward, there is going to have to be... information we don't have that now and you mentioned what happened

018last fall my understanding was that our superintendent was going to address that immediately with the staff that has nothing to do it to correct that particular situation that you would have to have a policy for that should have been taken if it hasn't been taken care of by now then shame on us Because that was my understanding, that the staff was going to be trained, given advice, how to handle these things, that all the administrators would know this, independent of a policy. We didn't have to wait a couple months to have a presentation made to us to address that issue. And perhaps we need a report on that. But I can't believe that nothing has been done to make sure that that never happens again because that's what we were told. That will never happen

019again in Stafford County Public Schools. That's another issue. I don't want to get off topic. All right. Is there any desire on the board to handle this as a board? directly with an attorney, I'd suggest that every board member should have the opportunity to draft, and I don't want to say one because it might be very long and multi-part, but up to two questions, up to two questions that could be presented, and we will make sure that we get an answer to those questions, whatever they may be. And perhaps Mr. McOsker would be willing to do that. Why is it always Mr. McGosker? Well, I mean, I would be willing to do it. I don't know if you want me to do it. That's fine. That's fine. Whatever. It needs to be done. Who would

020I work with? You're the last man standing. I'm the last. I'm the only man up here. I'm the only one that gets elected to this school board. Where are all the guys at? Anyway, so who am I going to work with? Relax. Who am I going to work with? Jamie. All right, Jamie. So I'll work with Ms. Decatur. Is that okay with you? Well, I think it would be helpful perhaps if Miss hazard were there because she is an attorney Vice chair and then they worked with directly with dr. Kisner That's fine but but that we will present these questions now in the order of efficiency I'd say that we should have the questions Today's Tuesday by next Monday. So we can put them together. We're not going to edit the questions. No. Can I

021propose Mr. McCosker again, though? Mr. McCosker, last man standing, and if you want to do it. Um, fine. Or Mr. McCosker and, um, Jamie says she sponsored it. Like, why does it have to be? I don't know what that meant. We're all board members here and we all care about all the children. What does this mean? Well, I mean, on second thought, the two sponsors of this are Mr. Cater and Ms. Chase. And that's the only reason I said Mr. Cater or Ms. Chase. If, if that's, because I don't really want to get blamed for having information that other people didn't receive again. Okay. Okay, well what if you guys that's fine with me you guys want to do that I'm willing to do it with dr Chase if the board wants okay with that

022all right you okay with that I'm okay with that you're not okay with that no I'm okay with that you're okay. I'm okay. You're okay with it. Okay, then I'm okay with it if you're okay with it It's only 721 and we haven't even gotten the agenda approved yet. Well, so then there's the second part of that, a date to bring this back. And I think we do need to put a date on the wall. In all fairness, it's... Can we just wait until they have a conversation with the attorney to find out exactly when she might be available? No. Because this won't be voted on if we don't have the information. No, I want a date. Well, if we set a date and we have the information, we can go forward. If we set

023a date and we don't have the information, then... It'll be up to the board. But this is the thing. What if we find information that they don't have an answer to or they still have to go try to find it and then that time elapses. This is just like pushing it out and out and out. So, Madam Chair, and I understand, but 10 September is, I think, is a fair date. It'll give us the month of August to receive the opine and to move forward with action. on 10 September, barring any, you know, stuff always happens, and we have control of the agenda at that time on either the August agenda or we have control on the September agenda. But I think a date on the wall is something that we want to do. Can

024I suggest that we have our lawyer in these conversations too? We have a lawyer. Don't we have a lawyer? You mean the lawyer who gives us the opinion? No, like our, like Lisa or somebody. We're going to outside counsel. That's what we asked for. I understand, but I'm saying in addition to that. Just have somebody. I think at this point the board wants to have an opinion from an outside counsel without any involvement from anyone other than the board members. It was not involvement. It was just a third party, just in case. My comment to that would be when we see what is in the opinion, if there are edits or language that we may use modify, change, or whatever. That, I believe, is when we would potentially bring in our lawyer, but until we

025see what that is, I think we need to get- See, this is where I go again, where we're saying we're going to do it after the fact. Why not have somebody there that could translate for you if you have a question? Because sometimes lawyers throw information at you, then you're going to look at it, oh, I don't understand it, let's go find out what it means. That's time consuming at that point. I think we have some translators on this board that can make it better. Okay. We've got plenty of lawyers. Okay. Mr. McCosker, did you ask for an amendment? I'm asking for a friendly amendment to your original motion that will talk about the opine questions for the board members and the September 10th. We're working toward the September 10th date for action. And in

026between we will have as needed work sessions in order to get there. I would agree. I accept the amendment. Friendly amendment. We're all friends, right? A team, Ms. Decatur. Right. All right. Who made the second? That was Ms. Egan. Is that acceptable to you? All right. Now we have a motion to approve a revised agenda. Finally. Ms. Hall, you have that revision? You're clear with the date? All right. No further discussion. All in favor, please say aye. I want to hear it. I didn't hear it. What is the revised amendment? Please. I want to hear it. Fair question. All right. I'll give you the clip notes version. It is to remove items 9.01 and 9.02 from the agenda and to acquire Dr. Chase and the chairman will take up to two questions from each board

027member, consolidate them into a request to an outside attorney. and secure the responses to those questions in the form of a legal opinion, not a justification or anything like that, but an opinion on questions. And you can ask whatever you want as long as it's related to these two policies. Okay? That we will take them to an attorney, get the information back to the board members, and then... Bring it back to the board for action. Bring both of these agenda items to the board for action on the September 10th meeting. Okay? That's the gist of it. I'm sorry. I'm a little slow here. Bring those two things. for action. What are we bringing for action on September 10th? These two items. 9.01 and 9.02. Okay. We're approving or not approving. We're removing them from the

028agenda this evening. Yeah. We're going to approve them or not approve them on September 10th, which is policy 4107 and policy 2420. They will be brought to the board for action. For approval, just as they are here. Okay. Just as they are here. And one more addition I wanted to know. Who is going to select the lawyer? How are we doing the selection of the lawyer? Do we have a suggestion? I think Ms. Egan suggested an attorney who's done work for the school board. She worked with us as a board, not the school division. Jennifer Parrish out of Fredericksburg. We've used her on several occasions for special assignments, so I think she'd be perfect for this one. Isn't she the Spotsylvania County School Board attorney as well? Correct. So she's familiar with school boards. Absolutely.

029And she's a local attorney. Yep. Is there any objection to Ms. Parrish seeking the legal opinion from her? And it will be shared with all board members with no revisions, no advance review as it comes to us. It will be shared. Is that? Any questions or concerns about that? No, I don't know who she is, but it's fine. All right. All right, so we're all clear on what we're voting on. Revised agenda. No more discussion. No, Mr. McOsker. You're just waving. You're leaving, right? Yeah, I'm waving. All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed. Motion carries unanimously. All right. Well, that brings us to the superintendent's comments. Oh, no. Yes. Oh, superintendent. Yes, because there's appointments. Oh, yes, that's right. Dr. Kisner. Thank you. All right, before I just want to collect

030my thoughts a little bit. Anyway, I want to recognize a department before I recognize some people. I want to recognize, I'm not even sure if they're in the room, I didn't ask them to come. But I do want to recognize our operation and maintenance department. Yeah. They have been doing an absolutely amazing job this summer addressing multiple buildings, multiple projects, helping to in a sense save some projects, resolve some projects. And I've gotten their inside view of their decision making and their commitment. And recognize that many of the staff in our O&M department are coming in on weekends and visiting the sites. And I just want you to know as a school board, we are very fortunate to have these people as part of our system. So I want to make sure I recognize that.

031Are any of those members here this evening, Dr. Kisner? Is anybody? Is Quentin here? I was probably visiting my floor. They're busy out fixing air conditioning systems. I just wanted to ask him to stand so we could recognize him. All right. I'm not sure if all these individuals are here tonight, but we are going to recognize some new assistant principals. Ms. Erin Barker, is she here? Yes, she is. Okay, good. All right. Just to help expedite a little bit of time, she's going to be the assistant principal at Hampton Oaks. Those shouting outs we could do. Go home. Right now, she began teaching career as a fifth grade teacher at Winding Creek in 2011. She taught at Winding Creek as a fifth grade teacher, then as a special ed teacher in 2014. Anyway, welcome, congratulations,

032we're looking for your success, we're proud of you. Okay, is Lindsay Cash in here? Yes, Lindsay, good, okay. Lindsay has assumed the position of Assistant Principal at Dixon Smith Middle School. Ms. Cashin has served in the division for the past three years as the coordinator for Stafford Public Day School. Prior to assuming this position, Ms. Cashin was coordinator in Spotsylvania County Schools. She began her career in education in Prince William County, where she served as a special education teacher, literacy coach, and transition employment special. Welcome and great success. Is Miss Corriega Rodriguez here? Good. All right. Miss Rodriguez has assumed the position of Assistant Principal at Stafford High School. Prior to assuming this role, she served as the administrative intern and teacher on administrative assignment in Prince William County. She has experience both in English

033and as a ESOL teacher. Welcome and great to be here. Is Mr. Mark Jennings here? Mr. Jennings has assumed the position of assistant principal at Drew Middle School. Prior to assuming this role, Mr. Jennings was an instructional coach in Prince William County. He taught English at Rodney Thomas Middle School and was a literacy coach at Colonial Forge High School from 2008 to 2016. He began his teaching career in Spotsylvania County Schools. Is Ms. Rose Averitt here? Okay, yeah. Ms. Rose Averitt has assumed the position of Assistant Principal at Rodney Thompson Middle School. Prior to assuming this role, Ms. Averitt has served as the Mass Specialist at Rodney Thomas Middle School since 2010. She began her career with Stafford County in 2004 as a middle school teacher. Thanks. Ms. Sarah Rowe here. Yes. Ms. Sarah Rowe

034will assume the position of Assistant Principal of Staff at Middle School. Ms. Rowe served as the Principal of Clifton Middle School in Allegheny County prior to assuming this position. She has also served as a High School Principal, Director of Career Technical Education, Title I Specialist, Middle School Assistant Principal in 6th Grade Science. I will just say one thing. I know Ms. Rowe, and when you work in a very small school system, you get to have a lot of titles. So she worked in a, how many did Beth have? 200. 200 kids. So when you hear all these titles and everything, just understand you do like everything. And I know you also fed the children. Okay. I don't know if Ms. Stephanie Lee is here. Is she here? No, but let me just really quickly read

035about her. Ms. Stephanie Lee has assumed the position of assistant principal at Anthony Burns Elementary School. Ms. Lee has served in a division for the last 10 years as a fifth grade teacher at Stafford Elementary School. So everybody, welcome and thank you. Thank you. Dr. Kisner, we're all getting questions about the status of Moncure and North Star. Can you give us a quick update on that? Yes, I'd be glad to. So we are still believing and planning that we are going to open for the students on, was it the 12th of August? August 12th, whatever the first day of school is. August 12th. August 12th. There's no question the schools have been delayed, but They're working and I will start by thanking the staff now because they're not going to have a great amount of

036time getting their classrooms ready. But I think everybody hopefully is thinking about the end in mind, which is going to be two really nice schools. But we are working very closely with the county staff and again. unless I tell you otherwise, we're planning to open for the students on August 12th, but we are monitoring extremely close. I believe we want to thank the county, the supervisors, the county administrator, and particularly the inspection staff, co-compliance that are out there almost every day in our schools helping us to try to move this along so we can start on time. So thank you, Dr. Kisner. All right. That brings us to citizen comments. Dr. Chase is going to read the rules. We have, when she finishes, we have 42 people who have signed up, which will be a

037little more than two hours if you take your time, which is fine with us. But we will need to keep rolling. Individuals wishing to comment at this time may do so by responding to the general invitation by the board. Speakers shall identify themselves by name, address, and organizational affiliation if the spokesperson represents an organization. Speakers shall also announce the purpose or topic of their comments. Three minutes shall be allotted to speakers. The chairwoman reserves the right to restrict the total citizen comment received at any particular meeting to a predetermined maximum number of minutes with the approval of the board. Citizen comment which is profane, abusive, or which threatens imminent physical harm shall be ruled out of order by the chairwoman. Although the board provides the opportunity for citizen comment, individuals desiring to register complaints against

038division employees or division programs, services, or activities may also utilize the procedures outlined in Stafford County Public Schools Policy 1113, public complaints. All right, I'm going to read five names at a time, and I'd like you to line up on either side of the room so you can follow the person before you, because as I said, we have 42 speakers who've signed up. The first speaker is Father DiMartino. The second is James Benisek. The third is Jen Stearns. Fourth is Anna Farrell. And fifth is Maddie Fry. Is Father DiMartino here? Oh, you're first. Well, good evening. My name is Jim Benesek, and I'm a deacon in the Catholic Church. What that is is a married Catholic clergy, and I'm a resident of Stafford County since 1997. I think all of us here, you know, want

039the same thing. We want what's best for kids. We want what's best for kids. But sometimes rushing a policy through that isn't well thought out. Where we don't know all the implications, that isn't the best thing to do. What are some of the implications? It has implications in employment. Well, what are you speaking of? Suppose you have a transgender who wants to teach a kindergartner or kindergarten class. Now, some people think that's fine, but a lot of people do not. A lot of people do not. And here's the point. Adults... are free to teach their children what they want to teach, but you're not free to put your agenda onto other people's children. That's not why they're in a public school. You're in a public school to learn to read, write, do arithmetic and science.

040You're not there to be indoctrinated into the latest fad. Excuse me, Father. If anyone speaks out, I'm going to ask the deputy who is in the back of the room to escort them out of here. We cannot show respect to the speaker and continue with this meeting if we are going to have an outburst from the audience. Deputy, got that? Thank you. We won't count that time for the interruption against you. I apologize. Thank you. I just want to thank you all for standing up and coming in here. and running for office and public service, you know, it's hard. I was a drug enforcement agent for 27 years and in the military before that, so I know. And I wish everyone the best. I read the article on the student who was not protected during

041a lockdown drill. And you'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel sympathy. But it's a training issue. It's not a policy issue. Okay, the person, the teacher has to be trained to do what they've got to do if you have a shooter alert. If you don't know what to do, it's not the time to find out when that happens. You know, the training has to take place beforehand. But this can all be done. It can be taken care of without changing an entire policy. The best policies, I think, individually crafted policies. Why? Because they're flexible. They're flexible. You see? Each student then, we're talking probably a relatively small number of students, important students, students that we love, but we want to make sure that they have a program that protects their rights

042and everyone else's rights. If it's dropping a policy from above, it doesn't work all the time. And I want to thank you all again. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. James Benisek. Oh, I'm sorry. Who's Father DiMartino? He's gone. Oh, okay. Okay, all right. Jen Stearns, followed by Anna Farrell. Hello. My name is Jen Stearns. I've lived in Stafford County for 27 years. I've been a teacher for 27 years. I currently work in Stafford County. My child went through Stafford County Public Schools. Many of you were up here when he spoke at the school board meeting in October. And he cried in front of you, and I'm afraid I'm going to do the same. My child went to Winding Creek. My child went to Dickinson Smith. And my child went to Stafford

043High School. It wasn't until he got to Stafford that he discovered that he was transgender. needed support and I see Joe Lewis in the back there he was standing back there before the principal and I would like him to know that the drama teachers and the art teachers at Stafford High School saved my child's life the suffering and the pain that changed gender children endure on a daily basis cannot be explained in three minutes I am also Catholic a practicing Catholic I've had to come to terms with worlds colliding and understanding that above all else, love wins. I don't know what you all have been doing since Dr. Kisner presented his proposal in November, but I know what my child's been doing, and I know what that child that was left in the hallway was

044doing. They've been suffering. Why didn't you ask for a lawyer's advice in October? This is unacceptable. My preschool class of children with autism runs better than this. I am absolutely disgusted. I came in here hopeful for a vote, and I'm not going to get it, and all these children are not going to get it. Just so you know, my son is now employed in Stafford County. And for the person who doesn't want a transgender kindergarten teacher, it's too late. He asked me to be here tonight, so I told him I would speak in his place. I asked him, what do you want them to know? He said, I stood there in November and said, I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want to pee. He asked me tonight to tell you now he's an

045employee. His students and his coworkers know him as a man. He is a man. What's in his pants is no one's business. He is a man. He cannot go to the bathroom in his workplace now. Where should he go to the bathroom now? He thought when he left high school it was over. It's not over for him. Is Anna Farrell here? Followed by Maddie Fry. And you can just follow the next person. You don't have to wait for me to call your name. I apologize for the iPad. I have some notes. I want to make sure I don't forget anything. My name is Anna Farrell. I live in the Park Ridge School District. I'm a teacher with Stafford County. I teach special ed. I teach the room that no one else wants because multiple disabilities,

046yeah, nobody wants that room. I signed up for it willingly. I'm Catholic. My family's been Catholic literally as long as Catholicism's been in Europe. I'm also LGBT, and my wife is transgender. She's a veteran. This isn't the country. that she wrote a blank check to, that set up to, and including her very life, to deprive her of rights and protections, to deprive our students of rights and protections. Let me tell you something about teachers. We have signed up to be human shields for our students. That is how much we love them. That is how much we love all of these students. And we need to fight to make sure that this doesn't happen again. And without this policy, it will happen again. What these kids have suffered will happen again if we don't have a

047policy in place. I can be fired for the fact that I'm married to a woman instead of a man. That's how wrong this is. This is how much is hanging on these policies. Our students are suffering because of these policies. This is from the CDC. Of LGBT students, 10 were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. 34% were bullied on school property. 28% were bullied electronically. 23% of LGBT students who dated or went out with someone in the 12 months before the survey had experienced sexual dating violence. 18% of that was physical dating violence. 18% of LGBT students have been forced to have sexual intercourse at some point in their lives. And there are things that we can do to make schools safe. That's what this policy does is it makes us safe.

048It protects the students that teachers are literally willing to give their lives for. This policy has a 91% staff approval rating. I don't know when the last time you guys were all in a room with a bunch of teachers was, but 91% agreement on anything that's not higher pay or lower classroom sizes is a miracle. We want this policy. We are asking you for this policy. If we are willing to give our lives to protect these children, if it comes to that, then please give us a policy that will help us protect the most vulnerable among us. Please help us protect these students. If you really love them as you say you do, then do this. Because it will happen again. How many students have to suffer on a daily basis when we could be

049doing everything we can to protect them? Without this policy, we're not doing that. My name is Madison Fry and I'm a senior at Colonial Forge High School. And I'm drawing attention to the lack of support students and staff who are part of the LGBTQ community receive. So speaking back last year when the student was locked out during a lockdown drill because the staff did not understand the proper action to take, whether they should place her in the boys or girls locker room. The LGBTQ non-discrimination laws in the US, let alone the school system, should not even be up to debate. Their safety should be required. If someone is saying racial slurs to the school, the school board would not question the punishment. the student or staff it should be the same way if someone is

050treating a person of the LGBTQ community differently. The same action and protection needs to be made. Imagine waking up afraid to go to school because you have no promise safety. Although it sounds cliche most of us were raised to treat others the way you want to be treated so why is it so difficult to promise everyone that? Actions need to be done and you have the power to do something. Do not waste your ability to change the school system for the better. There are students and staff out there afraid to be themselves due to the unsafe atmosphere. Thank you. The next five speakers are Kailil Yassin, Jeff Trigger, Karen Jackson Keeney, Scarlett Ponds, and Christian Peabody. Is Kailil Yassin here? No? All right. Mr. Trigger. Hello, my name is Jeffrey Trigger and I live in

051the George Washington district. Tonight we were supposed to vote on two action items that expand anti-discrimination protections to students and staff. Tonight I'm going to try to leave a motion out of it and I'm going to try to give you some fact-based reasons why this has to get passed. According to the Williams Institute of UCLA, Virginia's LBGTQ population is now 5%, which is slightly above the national average. Washington, D.C., which is only 50 miles north, has the highest percentage of LBGTQ people on the East Coast. As we know, a lot of people move to Stafford from this area for our lower cost of living. Statistically, LBGTQ numbers are only going to increase in our area. According to StopBullying.gov, both campus and cyberbullying are worse for LBGTQ students than their heterosexual peers. The rates in Virginia

052are 33% of students reporting on-campus bullying and 27% reporting cyberbullying. These rates are over 10% higher than their heterosexual peers. This has led to 10% of LBGTQ students reporting that they refuse to attend school regularly. That becomes a problem for me because you all confess at me when my SOL scores aren't right. As an educator, we do use a belief prevention program in this county, but I have to ask, how seriously is the board taking this program? Lastly, according to Mark Herring, our Attorney General, The Dillon Rule does not prevent school boards from amending their anti-discrimination policies to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. You, as a board, absolutely have the right to make changes to our policy to reflect inclusion of all students and staff. We have to put

053aside our personal feelings this issue and look at the facts. LBGTQ populations are in our schools and they will continue to be in our schools. Schools are only as strong as our weakest link. It is time to replace the kink in the chain and pass an all-encompassing anti-discrimination policy in Stafford County Public Schools. Good evening, I'm Karen Keeney of Rocky Way Drive in Stafford, Virginia. I am a parent, I am an RN, and I am a former school nurse for several years in Prince William County schools. When I started this journey, it was as an ally to my neighbors. I wanted to support my LGBTQ neighbors. In the last year, my 14-year-old daughter, who was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, came out to me. And now I'm here as an ally

054to my neighbors, and I'm a parent. And I've seen firsthand the detrimental effects of a child not feeling safe in school, to be teased and bullied relentlessly. One of the first things I was taught as a school nurse is that children need to feel safe in order to learn. This is a position statement from the National Association of School Nurses. The NEA believes that a great public school is the right of every child, free from intimidation, harassment, and safe for all students, including those that identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. The American Academy of Pediatrics tells us that the suicide risk for LGBT students is as high as 42% and possibly higher due to unreported. What can you do to decrease that risk? You can implement evidence-based policies and procedures that promote a healthy

055environment for students. You can amend the non-discrimination policy to include gender identity and sexual orientation. You have the ability to do that. Don't choose making yourself feel safe over making our kids safe. To those of you that are supporting us, I see you and I hear you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Is Scarlett Ponds here? Mr. Peabody, you're up. Good evening. Hello, school board members. Hello, Mr. Kisner. Thank you for giving us the opportunity, for giving me the opportunity to come up here tonight and voice my opinion on the two policies that are up for discussion. My name is Scarlett Ponds. I live in Hartwood. My children attend Hartwood schools. We've been in and out of this area since 1985, so we've seen a lot of amazing change happen in

056our beautiful county. Stereotypes and homophobia still exist in our country and in our public school system with regards to my kids' friends and classmates that are LGBTQ. The ignorance of this existing mentality negatively affects our children, whether it's violence or thoughts of suicide against and amongst our LGBTQ children or depression. when students witness harmful actions against their LGBTQ friends and classmates. You need to protect all the children in our public school system. It is time that all my children's friends and classmates are recognized as equals and you need to write this anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation and gender identity into the policy. We are seeking true action here. I came here tonight thinking there was going to be a vote. I have to say that I'm very surprised there isn't a vote happening. I rearranged

057my work schedule. I have babysitters. It took a lot for many of us to get here tonight. I think you have the information. I'm not convinced after the discussion I heard here tonight that you don't have the information. I think you know what to do. I don't understand why this can keeps getting kicked down the road. My question is, so what has been happening? I'm new to this topic, but from what I hear, this has been going on for a long time. What's been going on? I'm kind of floored tonight. Doing nothing, postponing your decision, it only endangers our students and our teachers. This policy is not about someone's religious views. It's not asking someone to change their viewpoint. It's about equality. Thank you. Good afternoon members of the board. Good afternoon. Dr. Kisner. My

058name is Christian Peabody. I'm the president of the Stafford Education Association. I'm also speaking tonight on the two policies that were supposed to been up to a vote and it's simple. It's time. It's time to protect every single student and every single educator in this division. Remember that 91% of your educators want this to happen now, based on what the policies are that have been drafted in place. And remember, this isn't a new issue. This is a mess that Dr. Kisner inherited that he's trying to solve. And his educators stand behind him with these policies that are in place. Remember these policies are taken from other divisions that are much larger and much more successful than us. These are literally copy and paste best practiced documents. Remember that lawyers have been consulted. I've had personal

059discussions about this as well. VA Legal has also consulted this. They're fine with this. The author of these policies has legal background. And remember that the professionals of this division, the educators you employ to advance this mission's division, who implement best practices for meeting the greatest needs, believes that these are living documents that will need to evolve and be financed, and they're ready to meet that challenge immediately in delivering that need for every child. And remember that not every one of these children who are being discriminated against have an advocate at home or at school. Some do, but now they're not in school. Many of them have nothing. remember that almost over 60% of children who discriminate against seriously committed consider committing suicide that this delay does nothing for these students it does nothing for

060my educators and it just perpetuates that danger that they face daily this additional they could very well cause the county to lose tonight a child or an educators life because they just lost their last chance of hope to begin a new school year free of discrimination has just been terminated Your division wants what is recommended now so they can protect all the students now the last time I brought you a division this unified it passed a budget that no one thought was possible We did that together Remember what the previous year was like and look how far we came That's what they're primed and ready to do Dr. Chase stated that student safety is a priority then that priority needs to be now not another full month into the school year It needs to be

061now And this division's continued unity convinced the Board of Supervisors to re-vote on a tax rate in order to meet the division's fundings. This division's unity should be enough to reconvince this board to reconsider the vote it just took tonight. So that way, every one of your educators, including myself, has exactly what we need as a foundation to get the discussion started and hit the ground running. I just came off really quickly from a state-level training. Every division in the school is looking at Stafford tonight. And they were excited. Thank you, Mr. Peabody. Reconsider this, please. We have to keep to our time limits. And I'm speaking on behalf of 4,000 educators, Ms. Keeling. I appreciate the extra five seconds. The next speakers are Matthew Lentz, Sarah McClellan, Mieta Guerin, and Sarah Bratt. Good evening.

062My name is Matthew Lentz, 14 Marshall Place, 22405 George Washington District. I, like a couple of my colleagues, came from Richmond specifically for this. I'm speaking on behalf of all of our children. And when I say all of our children, I mean all of our children. I am an LGBTQ ally, and I am proud of it. I have quite some experience with this, too. Not only have I been a safe place all the years I've been a teacher, but I've been the GSA sponsor. My son is gay. Thankfully, he did not have to deal with discrimination in high school because he was closeted. He shouldn't have to be. But as a teacher, I have helped save more LGBTQ students than I can count on my hands from suicide. The amount of discrimination these students face

063on a daily basis is unfathomable to most people. These are children, and like all children, they deserve to be protected. Being from Arizona, I've seen discrimination against migrants. Some people want to build a wall to keep migrant children out who also need protection. And the same could be said for Stafford. It seems that some want to build a wall to prevent our children from being protected. Hi, my name is Sarah McClelland. I'm in the George Washington District. I have three children, one at Dixon, two, I can't believe it, going at Stafford High School, a rising ninth grader. She's at summer camp right now. Otherwise, she'd be here speaking to you herself. I got to say I'm very disappointed that we're not moving forward. I've been coming here to talk about this issue now for a

064year and a half. That's a short amount of time because other people have been coming here to talk to you about this issue much longer than that, probably twice as long or maybe longer. So the fact that I'm hearing just now after a year and a half of coming and speaking that you don't have enough information and you need more steps that you haven't taken, I'm very disappointed in that. I do appreciate the efforts to get a date on the... agenda or whatever the correct terminology is. I think that's very important. I really just wonder if the tactic is just to continue to delay forever so that you don't have to decide. I mean, not deciding is a decision in and of itself. Isn't that true? You know, I got teenagers at home. They like

065to procrastinate. They don't like to do things that they don't want to do. They don't like to do the dishes more than anything else in the world. That boy will postpone doing the dishes no matter the consequence I feel that you are doing the same thing I mean I don't I don't want to come up here and talk with statistics and and consequences because you I've sat there and listened to all of these statistics Every single time I've come in here and I know you've heard it more than I have you've been receiving the emails You know all this data, you know the implications that if what's gonna happen if you don't pass this policy I'll leave you with this. I specialize in trauma and suffering. I hear the word suffering. I specialize, and I

066have a master's degree in suffering. I'm a clinical social worker, and I do crisis work, okay? I had a boy in my emergency room who had not transitioned in any way stab himself in the genitals because he did not want to be a transgender. individual. That's how upset he was that that is who he was. He didn't try to kill himself. He tried to kill the thing that was making him suffer and that was making him so unhappy. If I had a parent, like some of the people up here on this board voting against this policy, I would not be able to send that child home with you. I would not feel that child was safe. The analogy is very similar. There are some of you that are very supportive of this, and I appreciate

067that. And there are some of you, it's very obvious, you're going to vote no. We all know who you're going to vote no. We know who's going to vote no. I want you to think about the boy stabbing himself with a knife, 13 years old, in the genitals when you make your vote. That is suffering. My name is Mieta. I am 10 years old, and I am here to talk about the non-discrimination policy this board has been working on. I've grown up in a... In a supportive LGBTQ plus friendly family, and I believe that no one, especially children, should be discriminated against based on race, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, or disability. The fact that a child was kept out of a locker room during a distressful situation that could prevent her safety simply because she

068was transgender completely disgusts me. She identifies as female, therefore she should have been able to access the female bathrooms or locker rooms. No matter not. What they identify as, no one should be discriminated against. I don't think they should have a separate bathroom or that they should be banned from them. I think they should be treated equally and be able to access what they need to, especially when considering safety. If anyone opposing this perspective tries to differentiate from resolving this issue, we should create a separate bathroom just for them. Hi, my name is Sarah Bratt. I live in the Falmouth District. I taught in the district. I've subbed in the district. I have this best friend. His name is Jesus Christ. And when I found out that there's religious, faith-based organizations that are telling you

069that this should not pass, my best friend, he told me I needed to come here and I needed to talk to you. Because guess what? Those are all his children. He doesn't care. He expects you to protect them. If you have any belief in any higher power whatsoever, that faith will tell you that your job is to protect children. And you are especially responsible for that considering your position. And I know when I was hired as a teacher, no one asked what my genitals were. No one asked who I was married to. So it certainly shouldn't matter that what anybody else, that just shouldn't be a question. You need teachers in this district. You need good teachers. That should not be in play. Kids don't care. I taught second grade. No one ever asked me

070if I had a vagina. None of my second graders. It never came up. Never came up. You are being watched. Not only are other districts watching you, you don't want to be known for not passing this, guys. It's going to look real bad. You know who else is watching you? All the kids in this district are watching you. Not just the LGBTQ ones. The bullies are watching you to see if you're going to tell them that what they're doing is not okay. Pass this. Tell these children they're worth it because you know who else used religion to justify their hateful thoughts? The KKK. They use Jesus. They use religion to back up the hate that they spew. Jesus loves. That's it, period, the end. He loves everybody, end of sentence, hard stop. Pass this. The

071next speaker is Jen Robinson O'Brien, followed by Jen Coolidge, Dave Gent, and Constance Gordon. Good evening. I'm Jen Robinson O'Brien, and I wear many hats. I am first and foremost mom to Emma, a rising ninth grader who will be attending where I wear my second hat, North Stafford High School, where I'm a teacher. I am also a youth choir director at my church and a Girl Scout leader. I work with a lot of kids. I'm speaking tonight in favor of policy 24-20 because, frankly, I cannot fathom why a board that is supposed to seek the best interest of a school system would vote against it. Last meeting, I listened to the board discuss it, and one of the comments was, well, there's no follow-through. You build a constitution, a statement, before you build the bylaws.

072This is an equity and non-discrimination statement. I've heard commentary focusing on the LGBTQ plus portion of the wording about family values. Let me share my experience as a high school teacher. The majority of my students have been taught by their parents. If someone picks on them, if they hit them, you hit back. As hard as possible, you finish what someone else starts. That's their family value. It is not the value of a safe school. And then there's the religious aspect. As a Christian, I love my God, and I know Jesus loves all his children, but that has nothing to do with school. Save we teach respect to all religions. Tonight you speak about lawyers. This policy was written by a lawyer, has been brought before lawyers. How many are enough? Right now we have no

073policy for non-discrimination against students, all students. This policy seeks to make a powerful statement, one that 13 other countries in the state have already made, and many have even gone farther to building those regulations to address the policy. It seeks to state our schools are a safe place to learn. Shouldn't we aspire to have our schools a safe place to learn? The board is committed to providing for an equitable safe and inclusive learning environment for our students our students Stafford County is not a county that is only white or Christian or rich or sis We have a diverse population that spans many ethnic backgrounds religious practices and yes sexual and gender orientation our students safe inclusive. You are here ostensibly to help lead our schools and to provide the best for our systems, students, staff

074and community. Martin Luther once said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in a moment of comfort and convenience but where he stands at a time of controversy, challenge and challenge. Hi, my name is Jen Coolidge, and I am a former resident of Stafford County, now proudly in Spotsylvania. And I say proudly because I am horrified by what my experience has been in Stafford County for the longest time. And Pam, I love what you said about race because we're going to go there. Oh, yes, we are. Students in Stafford County are looking to you all to draw the line in the sand. You all know how you're going to vote. You already know. You didn't account on this many people showing up to give you a piece of their mind. Well,

075I'm here to give part of the peace of the mind and call out the elephant in the room that is here and no one wants to talk about. We have someone in the White House who is using this, this issue to divide us. And let me tell you, as a mother of someone who is gay, who thought of herself for the longest time as less than, it breaks my heart to stand before you and to see you and look you in the eye and to say that I have to go home, even though she's 34, and say, you know what, the kids in Stafford, they're still less than. Because the Board of Supervisors refused to take the stand tonight to do what they were supposed to do. You all have known for the longest time

076you've had access to lawyers, the this, the that. You have the policy. All you have to do is approve it. Every student deserves equal protection under the law. It's that simple. And I got the biggest kick out of that guy that came up here first. You know, it's up to, we don't need a policy. We can just, you know, play it by ear. We can do this, we can do that. And that's how lawsuits start. And you know this because it's the third time this happened to this poor girl where she was set aside, separate and unequal, outside that bathroom where they didn't know where to put her. And you were going to do something about the last time I came here to speak, and nothing has been done. And I'm outraged, and I'm saddened

077that a school year is about to start again, and you all still can't figure out what the heck you're supposed to be doing. Shame on you. Shame on you. I think that Stafford students deserve better. And come the election cycle, if you all vote against this and you know who you are, you will be taken to task at the polls. And God help you. My name is Dave Gent. I'm a teacher at... I can wait. That's fine. Take your time. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'll share with you. Please restart his time. I'm sorry. Restart his time. Thank you. My name is Dave Gent. I'm a teacher at A.G. Wright. I've spoken here a couple of times. I like to have speeches prepared. I had a pretty solid one tonight. Had some repetition in there. It was

078funny. Might have cried. Not giving that speech. That speech was for a different turn of events. I have made some changes. A lot of people mentioned being disappointed. I am not disappointed. I am livid. What you have done tonight was cowardly. And I want to be clear. It's not cowardly to oppose the bill. I don't begrudge people their wrong opinions. It's not cowardly to stand up for your own beliefs. That's fine. What was cowardly was doing this out of nowhere with no chance for citizen comment to bring in a new amendment to delay something we've been working at for years with no input from us. At the minimum, that vote should have happened after you announced it and we had a chance to comment on it. It was disgusting to watch you come up here,

079sit down, and just ransack the night's plan with no warning or plan for us. That was the cowardly part. We've heard people talk up here about their religious beliefs, and we all know that religion is not supposed to play a role in politics. I think it is naive to believe that that is the case. Whether or not that happens though, I want you to listen to those who came up here with a religious perspective that was different from yours. Because I can't help but notice those words on the wall behind you. Hopefully they weren't just a group of letters thrown up there at random and a couple words stuck. They were put there for a reason. To inspire. To empower. To excel. How a school board can put those on their wall and fail so

080spectacularly to do them is amazing. Because we've seen this behavior before. People here have already said it. You know the answers to your questions. You just don't like the answers to your questions. So you want a second opinion. And I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm not. Because I spent all day today doing research into this school board's history. And it does this all the time. Going back decades. I don't even mean you guys. 1962, the first five black kids graduated from a high school and the school board voted not to renew that principal's contract. This school board has a legendary history of making terrible calls. We can't change the call you made tonight. It's done. I hope this is the last time you do something so monumentally hateful. This is Constance

081Gordon here and Donna Gordon. All right, the next speaker after the Gordons is Anna Smith. and Steve Wasilewski followed by Allison Sullivan. Good evening. My name is Ann Smith. I live on Lee Court here in Stafford 22554. I am speaking from my heart as a retired Stafford County school nurse. I object to your considering adding sexual orientation and gender identity to your anti-discrimination policies 4107 and 2420. These policies could endanger the safety and bodily privacy of all students. Stafford County Public Schools have always been safe, inviting and caring for all students, staff and faculty. As educators, you can't say that you do not know. What would and could happen if you add these policies to your existing student and human resource services regarding non-discrimination, anti-retaliation, equal employment, and educational opportunity policies. I was and am

082proud to have been an employee caring for ill, injured, and special needs student. Don't open this can of worms. Stafford County Schools will not recover. and we'll lose everything that has been. Anyone who's already signed up doesn't have to sign there. Steve Wasilewski here? Well, that brings us to half of the speakers, so we're at the halfway point. Of course, there were a number that weren't here, so we'll see. The next speaker. We can. Well. If he's ever there, he won't speak. Ten people? Yeah. All right. Listen up. Allison Sullivan, Kay Crawford, Pat Brown, Sarah Taylor, Paul Miller, Ann Adams, and Josh Hetzler, Bill Johnson-Miles, and Nicholas. Which one? Is it? How do you? What is it? As I said. Ohio, okay, sorry. Ohio. All right, so Allison Sullivan. she's gone all right kate crawford

083just say whoever's next well then pat brown oh okay sorry so pat brown's on here sarah taylor all right paul miller well the second half is going to go faster than the first come on up well wait a minute ann adams Ann Adams coming up. I think we have miss Adams coming up No, we're gonna go in order where this is miss Adams is that you is miss Ann Adams here She's what? Good evening. My name is Katherine Crawford. I'm a former resident of Stafford. I lived in the Garrisonfield District. This is my first time at a school board meeting. I worked as a teacher. I'm a little bit nervous. I worked as a teacher in this area for... Four years. It's been a little while since I've talked. It's easy talking in front of

084a bunch of kiddos than sometimes talking in front of a bunch of adults. But I... This might sound out of place. I worked abroad in Honduras for the last year. And so I haven't been in the country. I don't mean to disappoint anyone because I'm not really going to talk about the bill that was proposed. But all I do want to say is that... I think that the fact that there's a forum where people can talk about things, hopefully in a respectful manner, is a privilege. And I imagine that everyone in this room probably knows that. I'm sure that you've experienced that in your lives. And I've had the great experience of working with people and meeting people that don't have that ability, that can't come up and talk about that because their system of

085government doesn't allow that. And all I want to say is that my hope is that all of us in this room People are going to have different obviously opinions leaving the doors about what has transpired this evening But I'd like you I don't know to remember the fact that you have a platform Whatever your opinions might be you have the opportunity to talk about them And I guess that's that's really all I have to say but And the last thing is that the I'm good. Thank you. I'm Ann Adams. I live in the Georgia Washington District. I've been a teacher here in Stafford County for 26 years. I've been resident of Stafford County for 21 years. I've taught thousands of children in that time. I've been very blessed to have spent my career here in

086Stafford County. I don't know if I've inspired them, but I know I've been inspired by them. by all of them, whether they are straight, LGBTQ, whatever. No one should be afraid to come to school, whether they are a child or a teacher or any adult. No one should be bullied, a child or an adult. As a resident and an educator in this county, I am beyond disappointed in what happened this evening with the delay of this vote. We start school August 12th. We have thousands of children in this county. We have thousands of adults in this county who look to you to make decisions on our behalf and you couldn't do that. I'm supportive of all of my students and my colleagues. Why aren't you? Good evening. I'm Paul Miller from Garrisonville. Thank you for

087the opportunity to present this evening. I appreciate your time. I really feel for you all. because nobody should be bullied no matter what and I think the reactions of the audience this evening is Bullying the school board so I really feel for y'all you're in quite a spot here Hopefully folks will also consider some of the basic facts that factor into this and everybody has a set of chromosomes and you can't change those. There are and just like some people might have a heart condition or a brain tumor or whatever so depending on a person's condition sometimes they may need to seek psychological assistance maybe for post-traumatic stress or for a medical condition so you would want to seek professional help for those types of things. I would hope that the school board focuses on

088education for all of our children and Try and leave some of these other things for others to decide there comes a greater issue I think at stake here of inclusion and You know just trying to think that through it looks like you'd probably need four locker rooms because you would have to have the two you have now, and then a boy who identifies as a girl, you probably need a separate locker room for them and vice versa so that everybody can have their inclusive space to go. Little bit of a challenge for y'all. I don't know that your policy addresses that, but it seems like at some point, if you're going to make a policy, it has to come down to, well, how are you going to include folks then? It's not just a matter

089of saying one or the other, because if you give preferential treatment to the one who identifies otherly... Well, then the folks that are in that group are going to feel excluded because now you brought somebody with other chromosomes into their group and there's just going to be attention there. So I really feel for you and how you're going to proceed on this issue. And I wish you the best of luck because, like everybody else, we really want the best for our children and we want to have a safe and encouraging educational experience for them. So I wish you well. Thank you. I will remind the audience that we want to show respect to every speaker. An outburst talking while someone is speaking is not going to be acceptable here. Bill Johnson Miles, followed by Nicholas

090Ohio, Chris Hernandez, and Melissa Cook. Good evening. My name is Bill Johnson-Miles. I live in the Griffiths-Widewater District. I'm a retired 20-year Navy veteran. I'm the secretary of the Stafford Democratic Committee. I'm the second vice president of the Stafford NAACP, and I'm a member of the Board of Trustees in my church. However, I'm only speaking on behalf of myself, not on behalf of any of those organizations. First and foremost, there is not enough love in this world. So to discriminate against those who just want to love is wrong. I respect differences of opinion, but there are some things that are just wrong and right, and opinion doesn't matter. And discriminating again against anybody in the LGBTQ community or against anybody for anything is just wrong. It's not a matter of opinion. All right? So the

091only other thing I'm going to say is this. November 5th, there's an election. All right? There are three districts up for election. Rock Hill, Griffiths-Widewater, and George Washington. So everybody here is watching that. So what you what you do Reflex and people will be voting Based on what own on your decisions All right. I see that what you did tonight. It's just another way of pushing something away that you don't want to handle All right. It's just another delaying tactic You've had this issue in front of you for what seven months. I think now since since the superintendent brought it to you seven months To me, if you don't know what's going on with, you know, now you haven't done your job. You haven't done your research. You should have already asked your questions. You

092should already know what it is you need to place your vote. And to let the students go unprotected is just wrong. Thank you. Good evening, all. My name is Nicholas, and I'm a resident of Stafford. You guys are going to hear a little different accent tonight. So I'm going to start with a quote from Reverend Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor. And she says, Beware of those who claim to know the will of God and are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others confirm. Beware of those who cannot tell God's will from their own will. So I'm going to put a question, maybe something everybody has to think about. And if we look at the population of LGBTQ, it's not declining. It's growing. And what does that tell me and my fellow maybe religious people

093who believe in God, is that if God wants this to stop, he would have stopped a long time ago. But he keeps creating these same people which we are discriminating against. Isn't it time for us to stop and look at their brain rather than looking down below? Look at what they can do for us in the future. the sciences, the doctors, the lawyers we are about to break. This is the time to lift them up and make them who they are and bring the best out of them. Thank you. Chris Hernandez, Melissa Cook, Chris O'Brien, and Emma Robinson. Are any of those persons here? I see someone coming down. Okay, if we've called your name, please line up so we know you're here. Hello, I'm Chris O'Brien. I'm a resident of Stafford County since 2010

094down in the George Washington district. Lifelong Republican, currently bipartisanly curious. Stafford County would like to express our commitment to provide a welcoming, inclusive, and safe community for our residents and visitors. We value an environment of unity, trust, and understanding. We honor our history and respect and protect the right to live free from discrimination. That's the first thing people see when they log on the Stafford County website. It's right there. Google or Bing it if you don't believe me. We opened this meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, which ended with the phrase, for liberty and justice for all. for all. Ladies and gentlemen of the school board, take a good look behind me. Look at the parents, look at the children, look at the educators, look at the current and future voters sitting right there. This

095is the future of Stafford County. We talk about money and transportation, England Run, that frickin' Aquia Harbor thing. This is the future, and someday you're gonna have to explain to these citizens how you voted. or why you abstained and deferred until it was too late. You're going to have to look them in the eye and tell them the thought process that led to your decision, a decision that might lead to someone getting hurt or worse, causing you to get caught out on the carpet. They're not going away. Our parents and grandparents would tell you about the 60s and the upswell of political change that swept the country. Behind me is the beginning of another such upswell. You're gonna ride the wave or you're gonna get swept aside. Look, I'm straight, I'm white, I'm male all

096the way down to the penis. If you asked me to explain transgender or pansexual, I'd be completely lost. Heck, I didn't know until today they added a frickin' plus sign to LBGBQ. What do I know? These are kids. Their education and safety is your first priority. Someone mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that the school board is a team. Well, right now that team is the Washington Redskins, and I can't believe I'm going to say this. At this moment, I really wish you guys were like the Dallas Cowboys. At least they get shit done. Good evening. My name is Emma Robinson, and I am a freshman at North Stafford High School. And I would really like to speak about the LGBTQ plus policy that is being discussed tonight. To be completely honest with you,

097I wasn't going to come here tonight. I've never spoken in front of a board of any kind before, and I'm not very experienced with this kind of speaking, so please excuse any sort of mess-ups and stutters. Not speaking was the way to go, but that all changed when I was coming home today and I got a call from my mom, Jen Robinson O'Brien, who spoke earlier. When she called me, her voice was shaking, and she told me that the school board was debating on this policy, and she desperately needed me to speak. She never makes me do things I don't want to do, but this time I could tell she really needed my help. Let me introduce myself again. Hello, I'm Emma Robinson, and I'm a Methodist pansexual. I love people for who they are

098and not for their gender or sexuality, and my church loves me for that. And trust me when I say I look at the big picture, and I mean what I say. Mom's words were all at a blur except for one part that struck a fire in me. Bathrooms. Why bathrooms? Why are these the places of discussion recently? I'm going to ninth grade in August and things are supposed to change. I'm supposed to figure out who I am and what I want to do for a living. How can I think about that when I know people are getting threatened and not emotionally but physically hurt for being who they are? Why are kids, kids younger than 18, wanting to kill themselves because they aren't accepted? That is just absurd. We shouldn't be putting children in danger.

099because of who they are. That's not their choice to think that way. It's the utter fear and anxiety that they might get hurt or killed the next day, so they might as well do it themselves. I know a lot about this because I have gone through that. I've hurt myself because I wasn't accepted. My sister, who's transgender, has to go through this. She's a sweet person and she would never think that way. But she 100% have friends who do and I feel sorry for her. Those friends aren't happy and how can she be happy if she wants to become a he and doesn't have the freedom to do so? So bathrooms. This step is one of the most important steps in the life of a transgender person, going to the bathroom with the gender they

100are or want to be and don't get odd or disapproving looks for it. How can this be possible if everyone is not equal? If you had or have a friend who is transgender, gay, or any type of sexuality, wouldn't you want them to be happy? I mean, I want to be happy. I'm being joyful going to school becomes more and more difficult every day. Wouldn't you want them to be accepted for who they are? Don't let bathrooms be the reason someone comes home crying every day. Don't let someone's peers be the reason they come home crying every day. Don't let someone come home crying because they aren't accepted. Sure, we can't magically make everyone in the world accept one another, but we can at least try to make those who aren't accepted feel a bit

101better about being who they are. No matter what gender or sexuality they are. It's 2019. The world is changing. So why can't we? Let's rise up and make people like me and my sister not be treated like freaks, but let us be treated like people. Thank you. The next speakers are Abe Jacob, Diane LaFrat, Jeff Crocker, and Megan Oden. Are any of those here? Let's see one. Good evening. I'm Jeff Crocker. I am a Stafford resident since 2004. My wife and I have four children who have been the fortunate beneficiaries of going to the Stafford County Public School System and Widewater Elementary School and Shirley Heim. My wife and, to a lesser extent, I have been active with the schools, with various organizations. We've been exceptionally grateful for the quality of the teachers there. It's

102clearly not a job. It's not a profession. It's a calling for them. And for that, we're grateful. I hear terrible stories of suffering from children that are wrong and unjust, with no caveats to that. Unfortunately, these are based on objectively untrue statements. The very fact that we have girls' and boys' bathrooms are irrefutable statements of the government that girls and boys are different. No one's better or no one's worse than each other based on their gender. These arguments can't withstand logical questioning. For example, something that matters the most to us all, our children. If one of them was kidnapped, what would we tell the sheriff's office? Is my little boy or my little girl kidnapped? What would logically, obviously, get the most response from a concerned citizenry who is looking for our child? If my

103little boy was kidnapped, But he said he was a girl. Would I tell that deputy that he was a girl? No, I'd say he's a boy because I want him to be found. And I know that the vast majority of the public would say, that's a boy, that's a girl. Someone said something about a second grader not asking about her genitalia. That's to be expected. I would hope that children wouldn't be asking such things because it's not in their nature. They're innocent at that age. Your love and inclusion and tolerance is disgusting. Would you want your children seeing this? Excuse me. Would you please address your comments to the board? Deputy, the next person that interrupts, please. Ma'am, with due respect, you've said that six times now. Well, I'm asking him specifically at this point.

104No one wants to talk about what this looks like when this policy is implemented. Does my six-year-old little boy in the boys' room and when a girl comes in who says she's a boy? and he gets alarmed and thinks that he's going to get in trouble or she's going to get in trouble, does he get penalized? Is he punished because he didn't call the other student he, she, or any invented, manufactured pronoun? A school should be teaching objective. academic topics, not subjective social issues. Likewise, it should stay within its authority. A fire department has no authority to carry out parks and recreation matters. This policy, much less a law, will not make these children safe, and there are legitimate physical and emotional concerns. If laws don't stop human beings from sexually torturing and murdering each

105other, as those of us in the law enforcement profession are aware, a policy will certainly not. have children stop the cruelty and meanness to each other. I've had people up here use profanity in front of my child. Thank you. All right, we call Diane LaFrat, Megan Oden, and after that is Patrick and Allison Kalf, Robin Gardner, Deb Stevens, and Deborah Tricky. Good evening, school board members, Chairman Healy and Dr. Kisner. The SEA office is located at 1127 International Parkway, and I am discussing the non-discrimination policies tonight. My name is Robin Gardner, and I am the lucky lady that gets to serve the members as SEA, as their director. In March 2018, SEA hosted a training to learn more about LGBTQ issues. What I learned that day was shocking to me. Some of my members did

106not feel welcome because they could not be themselves because there was no policy in Stafford that protected them. It is my job to make their jobs better, so I knew we had to start working on a plan. Unfortunately, it is too late to help some of my members that have left. They are now teaching in Prince William, Spotsey, and Fredericksburg. The reason they leave is not always about money. It's about how they feel in their environments. 91% of the educators that took SEA survey overwhelmingly asked for this policy. Honestly, when have I ever asked you for something that 91% of the educators agree on? Why are we delaying on this policy? You are in a national teacher retention crisis. Why, oh why, would you limit anyone being welcomed in Stafford? You will never be fully

107staffed again, and you can argue and say you are welcoming everybody, but your actions of dragging your feet and not passing this non-discrimination policy is telling a different story. I am completely baffled of what is holding this policy from being passed. The background information on Policy 4107, the proposed revisions to Policy 4107, Human Resources Services, non-discrimination, Equal Employment Opportunity Anti-Retaliation, Expand the protections under the non-discrimination section and increase it increases the scope of the equal opportunity statement. And it states, as required by law. Why aren't you passing this policy? You are absolutely opening yourself up to allowing me to come in and file EEOC claims on you over and over. In closing, I ask us to come together for your students and your employees. They are watching every move you make, as you can tell

108with these two policies. Do the right thing and welcome everyone, regardless of their color, color, nationality, and sexuality. I leave you with John 13, verse 34. I give you a new commandment. Love each other just as I have loved you, and you must also love each other. Thank you. Is there anyone else whose name I called that wishes to address the board? Deb Stevens, live on 30 Lakeside Drive in Stafford, retired teacher from Berkeley County, West Virginia. The issue came up where we had children, girls who wanted to use the boys' restroom. Legally, they decided in Berkeley County that if you were a boy, gender boy, you used the boys' bathroom, girls used the girls' bathroom. A lot of it was just practical. As an instructor, I was obliged to monitor the restroom, to go

109into the ladies room, not into the boys room, into the ladies room. Men and women, we went in all the time. If we would have to deal with, again, as a woman with a boy in the bathroom, you're raising all kinds of legal issues as well as ethical issues. The other problem is I'm also a devout Catholic. I don't like to lie. If this child is a little girl or a little boy, and I mean high school, I still think of them as children. I'm lying if I call you a girl when you're a boy. You're still a child. You're still a male or a female. I don't want to be obliged to lie. I'm very concerned because there are moral issues, and it feels like, again, there's no consideration for the practical, the idea

110of modesty for these boys, modesty for these girls. That's my biggest concern. Thank you. Hello, my name is Allison Kelly. I've been a resident of Stafford County since 2001. I used to live in the Garrisonville District, and now I live in the Hartwood District. A lot of religious talk, and I don't refute it, oppose it. It's interesting. It's like, okay, we're not supposed to be religious in a public area, but then we are. I want to speak to the intellect tonight. I have not... taught in a school or been in a school probably since the 80s. I have a master's degree in English and when I see words flying about we're gonna play with pronouns and say XX is XY and XY is XX. I'm confused and I think I don't have the answer and

111I'm not blaming anybody, but I'm just watching and I'm listening and it just seems like this generation is being raised with and again I know crap happens my dad died and left my mom with six kids but it just seems like this generation is being raised with a lot of a lot more drama than they can handle and I'm not sure what the answer is that I too feel for you guys please remember this is A school and your first job is to educate, and yes, they must be safe. I've been bullied. I was bullied as a little girl. I didn't like it at all. I don't want to see anyone bullied. Anybody gets bullied, they've got to come to me. I'll go after them and say, you don't bully anybody. Vote for intelligence, please.

112Thank you. Good evening. My name is Deborah Tricky. I reside at Antietam Loop in the Aquia District. I'm against policy 4107 and policy 2420. I speak now because I fear my right to speak if this policy is implemented will be terminated. When my child's female teacher comes to class the next day pretending to be a male and demands to be called by her new male pronoun, I will be able to do nothing except remove my child from the school. I will not allow my child to be taught to lie. I have and always teach my children to tell the truth, even at the cost of their education, which is such a sad thought to me. Why would any policy be implemented that encourages a child to lie? When an anorexic individual looks in the mirror,

113she might see someone who is obese, even though she weighs much less than everyone else her age. We don't tell that girl, that's right, you are overweight. We will help you lose more weight so you can die. Instead, we say. What you perceive yourself to be, well, that isn't you. In reality, you are dangerously underweight, and because we love you, we aren't going to help you harm yourself. That is the loving response. This is also true for those who are transgender. We should not encourage them to use the opposite sex bathrooms, lockers, sports teams, or overnight accommodations on class trips. We should help them to find out why they can't love the person that they biologically are. Why would a policy be implemented that affirms what a person believes in their imagination? I ask you

114again why a policy would be implemented that encourages children to lie and affirms what a person believes in their imagination to the detriment of all involved. It makes no sense to me. So please vote against policy 4107 and policy 2420. Thank you. Is there anyone else whose name has been called that has not come forward? All right, then we will open this up. Oh, was your name called? All right, well, we're going to open this up to speakers from the floor, and I would ask if you wish to speak to please line up on both sides. We'll start with this side and take someone from the next side and go forward. There are plenty of seats for those of you standing. If you're not standing up to speak, I invite you to take a seat.

115All right, now, for the speakers from this point forward, we don't have your name and... address if you can sign the paper on the podium after after you speak because then the next peak person can be speaking while you're signing otherwise we will be here till midnight perhaps we will anyway but those of you who speak have the option to go home if you wish so please come forward the next speaker will come from over on this side Hi, my name is Devin. Hey. I would like to remind everyone you are addressing the board and not the people that are here. Hey, I'm Devin. I'm from Stafford County. I've been here my whole life. Had its ups and downs. We all know this. One thing I want to say is regardless of what you believe

116in, regardless of how you feel about this, understand these are children. We all get that with the children! Literally, they just want to be loved. They want an education. God, I remember going to school and I hated it. But I can only imagine what it's like for a child that's trans. I can only imagine what it's like. You see the stories. Y'all have heard the stories. Y'all have seen the tears that people have, like, fallen, you know what I'm saying? You've heard the stories. Y'all know. You know. Like everyone else is saying y'all already have your decisions. There is no oh we need to talk about no y'all pushing it off at this point Take care of the children take care of this community Don't leave us like this be better than this because understand

117what what was the districts that are up for voting? Who is it anyone? What's which ones coming up you are okay? You are? Who's that one? That one? Okay. Awesome. Do your job because the voters are in here and we'll come for yours. That is it. Thank you. Is there anyone on this side? Anyone on the right who wishes to address the board? Then we'll come back to the left. Thank you. I think we have. Phyllis Filoso, Acquia District. I've been a resident of Stafford since 1987. I've had two children go through schools here, and now they are parents and having children of their own go through schools here. I hadn't planned on speaking tonight, but after hearing a number of comments, I think it's important for what I need to say. I have not

118only been a parent, but I have been a teacher of middle school and high school. children bully. You have an anti-bullying policy in Stafford County. I was involved with the school board a number of years ago when the bullying policy first came into effect. They bully middle school, four eyes, metal mouth, you're fat, you're skinny, you don't have the right clothes. Kids bully for a number of reasons. Trying to legislate about gender is social engineering in my opinion. I believe the schools need to enforce the anti-bullying policy for whatever reason that a child is being bullied. It is wrong. However, I also think that teachers need training. There's a policy in place. Obviously, the teacher who left the kid sitting out in the hallway, her number one priority or his was the safety of that

119child. Common sense approaches on how to deal with this. Please do not go down this road for social engineering because next month it's going to be the fat kids or it's going to be the kids with glasses or it's going to be the kids with not the right clothes. Whatever group comes before you has a legitimate issue about this. It's bullying in whatever manner it is. It's wrong. It needs to be stopped. Thank you. Did you sign in? Please? All right, next. By members. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Good evening. My name is Leslie Tigner. I'm a Stafford County resident in the Aquia District. I've lived here since 1990. I have three children, grown now. They've all been through Stafford County Schools. Two of them graduated from Stafford County Schools. I want to say, first of

120all, that I think the most disappointing aspect of, although I agree with it, of your decision to postpone a vote tonight with the fact that a large number of people left thinking that um the comment period either wasn't going to happen or that it was a moot point at that juncture in any case i think i speak for a large number of them some a lot of them were friends of mine when I said no student should ever be subjected to any kind of bullying that all schools must ensure that all students including LGBTQ students are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment however I think that I speak for them also when I say that we are opposed to changing the non-discrimination policy because imposing a new gender ideology on schools is

121not necessary to keep students safe. Virtually all people have a biological sex, identifiable at birth and immutable through life, which makes them either male or female. I'm not referring to individuals who are intersex, have Klinefalters or other genetic... This genesis, okay. The belief that one is or has the desire to be of a different gender identity from their biological sex has long been recognized as a mental disorder. Changing non-discrimination policies to include sexual orientation and gender identity makes possible situations in which students of one biological sex will be permitted to enter intimate spaces designed for those of the opposite biological sex. And this is a violation of bodily privacy and can be dangerous. I think you'll find if you have a legal analysis done that no federal law requires public schools to allow boys into

122girls restrooms or vice versa. Title IX does not require schools to eliminate distinct facilities for boys and girls. In fact, it allows schools to provide separate facilities without committing sex discrimination. I'm running out of time, but I want to say also that forcing students to use a restroom with members of the opposite sex, or not just restrooms, but other facilities with members of the opposite sex harms all students by violating their right to privacy and making them participate in situations that most adults would object to if they were imposed upon them. Accommodating students struggling with gender confusion by providing them a single stall restroom, changing room, or similar alternative gives them a private location and avoids violating other students' rights. Thank you. Please consider that. Is there anyone on this side of the room? Yeah,

123she's signing now. Okay. Since everyone seems to line up over here, we'll just keep taking them from the right. I don't think there's anyone waiting. Good evening. My name is Benjamin Litchfield. I'm chairman of the Stafford County Democratic Committee. I live in Falmouth District, represented by the wonderful Dr. Chase. Quick PSA, there is a November election coming up with three school board seats. For anybody who did not know that, for the folks at home, remember, remember the 5th of November. But I'm not here to talk about that. You know, I can't really condone. the outbursts that we've heard for the past two hours. It's not very civil, but I can't condemn it either because folks here, educators and students, you know, the matter. that you should have been talking about tonight is nothing short than

124their human dignity. Their human dignity is at stake with these two policies, and it is a shame that you kick the can down the road and make it more of a political issue for me and my friends. I'm an attorney by trade, so you have a lawyer here. You have a couple on the board, too, but look, the law doesn't require this. Federal law doesn't require it. But it doesn't prohibit it either, neither does state law. The Family Foundation came in last time and they talked about the Dillon Rule. Well, in 2015, Attorney General Mark Herring, in a letter to Senator Adam Eben, said that the Dillon Rule argument advanced by the Family Foundation is, to quote Justice Scalia, pure applesauce. The First Amendment argument raised by none other than the Honorable Susan Stimson was

125likely, was also pure applesauce. So, um... There's two legal questions right out of the way done. Thank you. Dr. Chase has a copy of the 2015 letter I sent it to her with some other comments. Frederick County out in deep Virginia, that's deep Trump country. They have an LGBTQ policy that they passed for the Board of Supervisors for their county staff. Loudoun County passed one. Did we ask Loudoun what they thought about the legality of it? Northern Virginia has amazing lawyers, and they have opined on this, and they've passed acceptance policies, yet no one's done outreach to Northern Virginia either. You know, I was going to have so many different points, but I do want to talk about something. You know, people talk about science and mutable characteristics. There was a time in our history

126where we thought the size of a human skull determined their genetic superiority, where eugenics, where someone's mental... mental illness or mental handicap determined their worth. Science changes and the science on this is changing. It is teaching us that biological sex and gender identity are two different things. That one is rooted in your DNA and one is rooted in your psyche. But you're born the way you're born. You're born transgender. You're born gay. You're born lesbian. you know I'll stand up here I'll speak on behalf of the Democratic Party Bill didn't but I will I stand by every LGBTQ student faculty and staff I'm here for you I will fight for you my party will fight for you and I'll see you all in November did you sign in sir okay thank you Good evening. My

127name is Jeff Etheridge. I'm a resident of Appliance Harbor, and I want to do commend you for your bravery. I think obviously there are a lot of people that are very disappointed at the action that you took, but I think it's appropriate. A policy that's this divisive, and you can see that it clearly is, needs to be well thought out, and you need to have all the facts before you make a decision. I'd just like to share with you, because we're all interested in protecting children, but it's clear there's a division on what protecting children means. So I'd like to share with you from Michelle Cortella, Dr. Michelle Cortella. She is the Executive Director of the American College of Pediatrics, a national organization of pediatricians and other health care professionals dedicated to the health and

128well-being of children. And this is what she writes. To indoctrinate all children from preschool forward with the lie that they could be trapped in the wrong body disrupts the very foundation of a child's reality testing. If they can't trust the reality of their physical bodies, who or what can they trust? Transgender ideology in schools is psychological abuse that often leads to chemical castration, sterilization, and surgical mutilation. If I were to say, as a woman, Doc, I am suicidal because I am an amputee trapped in a normal body. Please cut off my leg. I would be diagnosed with body identity integrity disorder. But as a woman, I walk into that doctor's office and say, I am a man. Sign me up for double mastectomy. My physician will. C, if you want to cut off a leg

129or an arm, you're mentally ill, but if you want to cut off healthy breasts, you are transgender. Cheerleaders in the medical and educational community have gravitated to this issue, causing a negative impact on children that can only be regarded as abuse. So I would stand opposed to this policy. But we all want to protect children, and we all are against bullying, but we have to look after the rights of all the children, and we don't want to help children go in a path that can actually be destructive to them. Thank you for your time. Hi, my name is Julianne Keeney and I live on Rocky Way Drive. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, but considering how many people did, I thought that my voice would be helpful. I just want to bring up the topic

130of what are we supposed to do with students who are intersexed, who are born not either or. What are we supposed to do with them? It's with intersex students are we supposed to just throw them in there and say Here good luck No, they say what they identify as and then That's what restroom they go in it's not a matter of fact of what's in their pants because they weren't born as either or and Sorry, I'm a little shaky Another topic I wanted to bring up was the chromosome thing. I heard somebody talk about that, and it's not usually a subject you bring up in a conversation. I'm just saying. You don't usually go up to a person and ask, hey, what are your chromosomes? It's not a topic you bring up, and there's a

131reason for that. It's inappropriate. And that's really all I have to say on this matter. Thank you for your time. Did you sign in? I want to remind everyone we sign in because that is part of our record. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Catherine Face Meyer. I am a Stafford County resident. I'm a 17-year veteran of the classroom. I'm a parent of a Stafford County middle schooler, and I'm the spouse of a Stafford County teacher. I did not plan to speak tonight. I did come to the meeting not expecting a vote. I expected you to do exactly what you did because I am familiar with your cowardly track record. I commend Mr. Ghent, I believe it was, for calling you out on exactly what it was. It is cowardly. I came to speak

132actually because the five, I believe, of I think 30 at this point, people who have spoken this evening against this policy have presented fundamental misunderstanding of what transgender actually is. The gentleman who just quoted the doctor, it took me 10 seconds to find 10 peer-reviewed studies to discount what he said. Transgender is not a mental disorder. It hasn't been for a number of years. It was removed from the DSM-IV. Transgender has nothing to do with chromosomes. That is biological sex. Gender expression is based on societal norms. A baby has a sex. A baby does not have a gender. No one looks at a swaddled child and says, my goodness, that's a masculine baby. No one is asking you to pass policy that speaks to bathrooms. We're asking for a statement that says your lives matter.

133We're asking for a statement that says you will be treated equally. I heard the phrase preferential earlier. No one is asking for preferential treatment. We are demanding equal treatment. Sure, dismiss it as bullying. If you have the experience that I do as a 17-year veteran in a performing arts classroom, you know that it is not bullying. It is torture. Our LGBTQ children are being essentially demonized daily. Our LGBTQ staff are terrified. to openly express their identities. It is your job to protect your children and your staff and hiding behind pushing this off. You said earlier you should be ashamed of yourself. You should. And trying to pass that off as Dr. Kisner's fault, that was weak and completely expected. Good evening board. Dr. Kisner. My name is Michael Sneed. I'm a resident of Stafford County

134and a 15-year veteran of Stafford County Public Schools. I've been at Colonial Forge that entire time. For the last couple of years, just because it seems relevant tonight, I've also been the sponsor or advisor, whatever term you want to use, for SAGE, which is essentially the GSA at Colonial Forge High School. I'm here to talk about a couple of things. I think several things I wanted to say I think have been said better than I could off the cuff at this point by other people. thing that came up a couple of times from various people, including a few board members, was the idea that we don't need a policy, we need training. And I can tell you from having done just a little bit of that at the school, I think it was about two

135years ago, might have been a year, I don't know, they all blend together a little bit. We were asked, myself and another teacher and one of the guidance counselors were asked to give just a little bit of training to the staff during back to school week on some of these issues. And I can tell you that everything that we were able to provide them with, here's what the deal is with pronouns, here's what the deal is with preferred names, here's what the deal is with all these kinds of things. The immediate question that we got in that meeting and then I got a ton of in my email was, what is the policy? Teachers want to know what am I protected in doing and it is the board's responsibility to say this is what we

136will do to back you. We have decided as a county that we will not allow discrimination. Period. is the idea of these proposed things. And the teachers want to know that if they do what they believe needs to be done, if they recognize that child's preferred pronouns or preferred name, et cetera, that they will not be called on the carpet for having done that thing. They want to know the county backs them. You cannot put training ahead of policy because the teachers will wonder whether they will be punished for having followed the training. I also want to point out that because it's come up a ton, this policy is not about bathrooms. This policy is about we will not allow you to discriminate against anyone for any of the variety of listed reasons. Bathrooms will

137inevitably, I'm sure, be a part of what needs to be figured out at the school level. And I'll tell you, again, as the SAGE sponsor and having dealt with a ton of LGBTQ plus kids and a ton of transgender kids and friends in my life, the answer is very simple. Go to the bathroom. And stop worrying about what the other people in the bathroom with you have between their legs. Let them pee and then go on about their day. It really is that simple. You will hear straw man arguments presented about how men are going to come into the bathroom and they're going to assault people and they're just going to be like, well, I'm a woman and they're going to walk in there. That is, I'm going to go out on a limb here

138and guess that's happened zero times in human history. I hear about it all the time. It doesn't really happen. The other thing that I want to say, and this is part of that, Please, to the members of the board and to the members of the public that have been speaking against these policies, please educate yourself. I am hearing an awful lot of misinformation about this important topic. Please protect my children and protect my peers. Thank you. Good evening, board. I've never done this before, so I'm a little nervous. I'm Susan Young, and I'm a resident of the Hartwood District. My daughter went K-12 through the Stafford Public Schools, just graduated from Drexel Summa Cum Laude, and is starting her teaching career in Manassas Park Middle School. You missed your opportunity. Sorry. I'm here because I'm

139thoroughly disappointed in all of you. I'm not part of the LGBT community, but I am an ally of it. However, and however, I have this wacky idea that all, capital A, capital L, capital L people, young and old, should have equal rights everywhere. It's time to step up against this bias. All of you need to... Do the right thing and say yes to this policy Because a no vote shows you don't care for all the students in Stafford County Public Schools and teachers and should be and if you say no You should be voted off this board to the religious groups who Are opposed to this and have your ear. This is public education and And if they don't like it, they can leave and go to their religious schools. They need to, you need

140to explain to them what public education is. That's it. Thank you. Hi, I'm Savannah. I've lived here for about two years now. When I first moved here, it was halfway through my seventh grade year. I remember coming out as pansexual, and I remember holding hands with one of my friends who was female, and one of my male classmates, this was on the track, by the way, at AG Wright, said, are you gay? And to me, I kind of just brushed it off. But earlier this year during eighth grade, I was waiting for my mom to pick me up, and another male classmate said, being gay is a disease. And I looked at him in awe. Because now that I've changed what I identify as, which people do, I... I realized that, you know, people in

141general shouldn't be discriminated for what they identify as sexually, for gender. They shouldn't even be discriminated at all because 99% of our DNA is shared with everyone. That 1% makes us different. That 1% can be how you identify as. That 1% can be how you look. We are all human. We don't need to be labeled. We don't need separate bathrooms for people that don't identify as something. What we need is a policy that protects us because I'm going into ninth grade next year and I am terrified of the people that could hurt me because this policy is something that we need and I am Honestly, mad that you put this off for another meeting because it should have been solved earlier. This has been going on for at least two years from what I've heard.

142I am shocked and honestly kind of disgusted because the fact that I know a lot of people who are in the LGBT community and there is no protection policy against discrimination. And I pray that the next time this is brought up in a meeting, it will be solved and the policy will be in place because I don't want to be discriminated in high school and all throughout high school because I want to be a teacher. And God knows that if this policy or these two policies aren't in place, I will not be teaching here because I don't want to be discriminated for who I'm married to in the future if I ever decide to work here. Thank you. Hi, my name is Heather Fitz, and I got to tell you, the first meeting that I

143came to was the meeting where my friend's daughter was unceremoniously left out in the hallway. And then I've come to meeting since then, sat right there watching y'all, listening. And I got to tell you, what have you been doing? It took you guys 20, 25 minutes up here to get it come up with an action plan about, okay, this is what we need to do. We need to... These are the questions that we need to have answered. This is how we're going to do it. Who's going to take responsibility for it? I'm really confused why that didn't happen months ago. If we could do that right here and see your behind closed door business. Why that couldn't have happened and then you guys come to this meeting with those answers. And then to have the

144audacity to sit here and smile and nod at the parents who are coming up here and the students who are coming up here as though you really understand your pain. You don't. Their pain, you don't. You have kicked this can and it's not cans. Let's be clear. It's not cans we're kicking. It's kids. It's LGBTQ kids. It's just, I am just beyond. But I do have a question. August 14th, 2015, did any of you experience anything earth-shattering, traumatic, something that brings you to your knees? Because that's the day I married my wife after the Supreme Court decision. And to hear it told, when that was made legal, the world was going to end. So if you can't tell me that your life was impacted by my marriage to the woman, I've been with for 15

145years, have a six-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. I'm here to tell you passing this legislation or passing this bill, it will be just as anticlimactic for you, but not for the kids it protects. Okay? It won't. You'll go on about your lives and you won't know the difference, but they will. They will. I'm Christian. I'll tell you that. I'm happy to stand before God with the heart that he gave me and told me I did with it what he wanted me to. I loved. And I am kind. And if I saw any of you in need of something, I would help you. And I instruct my kids to help you. And I can't tell you how many times somebody has come up to me and said, I'm having real cognitive dissonance right now because

146I have met you and I have met your wife April and I have met your kids. And wow, you are not what I have been taught to believe. Come have dinner with me. Come see how scary we are. We're not. We take the trash out. We love. We have arguments. We fight. April doesn't do enough at home. And my God, if she doesn't figure out how to brush my daughter's hair, I'm going to lose control. We have those arguments. Okay? That's what we argue about. I hear, I don't lie, I don't want to encourage my kids to lie. But you're asking these LGBTQ kids to lie, and kids are killing themselves because you won't allow them to live authentically. I prayed. I didn't want to be gay, but here we are. I am Rachel O'Mara

147Paddock, and I live at 113 Basalt Drive. And that's where I was five minutes ago. Maybe ten, depending upon, you know, if anybody was around me. I'm watching this tonight on TV, and I, like most people here, am appalled. I waited all afternoon to come here expecting a vote for something that I hold dear to my heart. I hold it dear to my heart because I have a special needs child. And I don't think that anybody, regardless of who they are or where they come from, should be discriminated against in any way, shape, or form. And that's all we're asking for. I also... I am listening to people talk about bullying and bullying the school board and bullying students and so on and so forth. And I listen to a man stand up here and

148bully my fellow friends in the back. And I just want to say I am so proud of them for being here to stand up to everybody else in the world to be televised, to be listened to, to say who they are and what they're about. and we're going to continue to discriminate against them, this is not okay. This is not okay in the county that I work for, and I am ashamed to work in a county that will not take control of this situation right now. Not in a week, not in a month, right now. We have children. And I'm going to say this, and people may not agree with me. The adults, yes, adults are tough, and adults can handle them. These are children. Children you were elected to stand up and fight for.

149And you're not fighting for them. You're fighting for your own beliefs, your own thoughts, and you're not fighting for the kids who won't and can't stand up for themselves. And it is ridiculous. So there I sat at home, listening. to people talk about children using specific bathrooms, children being bullied, and I'm watching everybody else in this county come forward and tell you how important it is, and we're still doing nothing about it. It's a travesty that we are not taking care of the people in this community. We are desperate for teachers in this county. Desperate for teachers in this county. And we're just stepping on them? not accepting them. You can't tell me that one of you on this board hasn't been accepted somewhere in your life. Take that memory and make a change today.

150Excuse me, could you please sign in? Thank you. Good evening, Elaine Callender of Falmouth District. I wasn't planning to speak, as you've heard a number of people say. But I did come in my purple in support of the anti-discrimination policy. And I wanted to say I'm sorry. the outbursts and the lack of respect and some of the language that's been used here tonight. Because I think if there's civil discourse, if we're all listening to each other, keeping an open mind, I think you will have a unanimous vote on this board for an anti-discrimination policy that deals with LGBT. I wanted to remind you, I did come to one of these meetings and I spoke about an old high school friend who was probably the brightest girl in her class, valedictorian on the debate team, editor

151of the school newspaper. She went to MIT. And years later, I caught up with her via Facebook. and she was executive director of an LBGT organization. We need to come to an understanding that everybody is born differently, and we need to accept who they are, appreciate their gifts, and... have love for everyone and let them reach their fullest potential. Thank you. All right, are you standing there to speak? If so, please come forward. We haven't started our business part of the meeting yet, but go ahead. Hi, I'm Maya Guy and I live in Aquia Harbor. Dwayne, I like your haircut. I hadn't seen that before like that. I outbursted. I'm sorry. I laughed. Some of the religious zealots are kind of funny to me and I do laugh out loud. I'm sorry. I apologize. I

152also want to thank you guys for being here, doing your job, for still being nice to me, even though you know I hate your votes sometimes, but I appreciate it. Last time I was here and spoke about this. policy, I had a bunch of friends, mostly conservative white Republicans, contact me. They were confused as crap. I'm confused too. This whole LGTBQ plus maybe there might be something, it's confusing as heck. I can only imagine what it is to actually live through it, not just listen to it and then try to make a decision. At the end of the day, though, it's children. The story about that little boy who stabbed himself in the genitals, I'm for him. I'm team little boy. I don't care what we need to do to protect him. Let's just do

153it. It doesn't matter. I was raised in a very anti-gay home, and I'm doing my darndest to not raise my children in that home. All my kids are cisgender. This does not affect me. I don't have really that many gay friends. I'm not in the community. I don't call myself an ally. I don't need to. I love people, and most importantly, I love children. And if your kid has an issue, you people are the ones to fix it. I don't care if you're Christian or if you're Buddhist or whatever. Just be decent. Kids are being tortured emotionally. These kids are killing themselves. They're dropping like flies, not because they're confused in their chromosomes, are messed up, it's because they're treated like crap at school. Their parents aren't even here. The number of kids who are

154affected by this, where the heck are their parents? They're not here because they're ashamed. There's so much fear and shame, and no one is standing up for these kids. You guys have lived your lives. If you're afraid to do this vote, just vote and quit. Move and get on. Go do something else. You all have all these other talents and possibilities you can do, but protect these children. I beg you, if that's the last thing you do here, that's fine. Make it be something great. Please protect these kids. Hi, my name is Yasmeen Guy, and I go to Brooke Point. I'm a cisgender female, and I have never feared for myself if transgender students come into a female bathroom because that's their decision, that's who they are. None of my classmates have ever feared transgender

155kids. Hate is something that's taught. You don't grow up with that type of fear and hate. Not voting tonight was cowardly. Everybody who opposes this bill, you disgust me. And all of the transgender kids who are willing to come out as children to their parents who might not accept them and to their peers, they are the bravest people in this room and in this country. You all need to support them because that's your job. You have inspired nothing but fear and empowered no children tonight. That's all. Okay. All right. Hi, my name is Khalil. I'm a senior from North Stafford, and I just kind of want to share with you guys, like, basically my struggle with coming out, and you know how hard it could be. Well, basically, growing up, I went to Rodney. I

156was there for middle school, and it was, it's a good school. Let me, like, nothing is wrong with, like, staff or anything. It's just, like. There's so much pressure on you like whether you don't know if you're gay or not There's still gonna be pressure I wasn't sure if I was gay yet and I got pressured into coming out so I wasn't even ready when I did so Not only is it just pressure but like also multiple things happened to gay people like Once you know that you're gay for real you're gonna like if your family doesn't accept you you're gonna think that I need to stop being gay that type things like my sister she's a she she has tried to commit suicide because she felt as she wasn't accepted at home nor was

157she accepted at school and I haven't been through that personally, but like I have been bullied because like I'm a stepper I love to step and you know when once you're gay and everybody knows it goes all around so I can't even enjoy the things that I like doing at school anymore because I always get looked at funny or judged because I'm a male stepper on the male dancer and you know all I want to say is that like You guys just had to think on the side of the kids like not what all these people are saying They don't even go to school anymore. Like it's for people who actually still go to school. That's what you need to listen to and I just want to say I mean, I wouldn't just, I wouldn't

158say it disgusts me that you guys pushed it back. I'm just saying I hope that you guys pushed it back for a good reason and that it comes with a good outcome that everybody can just be happy with and there would be rights for straight people, gay people, whatever you are, transgender people. And right now, the LGBTQ, we need our rights in school because we can't just be normal. You know, like, you can't feel like... Sometimes you just feel like you just can't do everything straight people do because you're gay now and gay comes with judgment judgment and all this extra things and it's just Yeah, just think on the side of the kids not people who just are here just to talk about it because of their beliefs Because they're not the ones in

159school anymore So yeah, that's let's say thank you. All right. No one else wishes to address the board We'll close the public comment part of the meeting and start with the The business part. Board reports and comments. Any board committee reports? Madam Chair, I request a five-minute point of privilege. Point of privilege. That sounds very good to me. I haven't had a break in the past three hours, so thank you. Five minutes. Let's make that seven minutes. Can I say five minutes? Oh, yeah. All right, you guys have a great evening. Thank you. back to order. All right. Do we have any Committee reports. Yes, I have. the report from the large CIP meeting that we had, and I gave all of you a summary of it in our work session, but just very quickly,

160this is just a first-pass draft that we will be talking about at our retreat, and we need to approve something to go across the street to the Board of Supervisors by September 13th, 10th, 10th, 10th. Oh, it's going to be a big day on September 10th. So what we had first was high school number six, then additional early childhood special education capacity, then elementary school 18, Hartwood Elementary School renovation, Drew Middle School renovation, additional early childhood special education capacity, and then North Stafford High School fine arts wing renovation. And we did not specify locations for any of these things because the county is changing and Much of this is quite a ways off, and so where things need to go may change. So it's just a preliminary thing, and we'll discuss it in a later

161meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Chase. Any other committee reports? I just did. You were going to do the rest. Oh, okay. Yes. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Yes, it is. Thank you chairman Healy. Um, so yesterday this is the continuation of the the Finance and Budget Committee We met yesterday for an organizational meeting. I was voted in as the new chairwoman and miss Decatur Graciously agreed to serve as vice chairwoman We discussed making changes to policy 5802, superintendent's purchasing authority. This will be brought to the August retreat. We also began working on the budget development calendar and discussed the FY21 budget priorities. This will also be brought to the retreat in August. Discussions surrounded on energy contractor and their energy performance lease. We discussed committee meeting schedule for the remainder of FY20, which is

162August 2019 through June 2020, and began discussions of the development of the budget calendar, budget priorities that will be flushed out during our school board retreat and reviewed and talked a bit about the large capital projects that Dr. Chase just discussed. That's all. All right. Any other committee reports? Just a quick comment. Yes, Ms. Hazard. Just wanted to make the board aware. I know Dr. Kisner was made aware. There was a reach out from the legislative committee about strategy about cost to compete and how The data that they would like to supplement I did indicate that in the superintendent's budget presentation There was a lot about where teachers were going north and so and dr. Kisner and I had a quick conversation saying the best data we can get so that we can help our

163legislators early get on this because the more if it could be in the governor's budget is the hope but that's going to require some so that's something that the legislative committee when we meet but I didn't want to overstep but also we needed to get that that information going because that to me is a huge budget priority for us is that cost to compete so and Dr. Kitzer have spoken but I don't know if I made it available to the board so just wanted to come. comment there. Thank you, Ms. Hazard. No other committee reports? That brings us to board member comments. Ms. Egan? I'll defer. Thank you. I'll defer. Dr. Chase? I actually do have something. I just wanted to say that I've been sort of doing my annual meetings with principals in the

164Falmouth District. And I just wanted to share with my fellow board members and any supervisors who might be watching how much appreciation our principals express for themselves and all the staff in their buildings for this year's salary increase. And I noted that this was very much a team effort involving the Stafford Education Association, the superintendent, the school board, the county administrator, and the board of supervisors. But I just wanted to share that expression of appreciation because sometimes we don't hear that, and it's nice to get a thank you on occasion. Thank you. Ms. Young. Back again. Okay, I have something. The school board had a work session on discipline coupled with test scores from disadvantaged, black and brown, poor, and disabled students. We received an awesome update on research by... Dr. Rebecca Tauri, I'm inspired

165and hopeful that it went well. I thank my fellow board members for bringing an open mind, an open heart for the dialogue and the problem that is facing us about our implicit bias, low test scores in our school to prison pipeline, needing a different approach, restorative justice. It is our duty to do right by these children. giving them equal treatment benefits us all in the long run. I look forward in the next session where we will be working towards standardizing discipline tools, providing training to our staff with the goal to increase our educational standards among all students whom are eager to learn. I think I don't know if I talked about the parks and recs last time but I attended that on June 20th there were presentations of the Realty company that wanted staffer schools

166to know first about the lots that they have at Leland station and I don't know if it's for parks only but there's land there so they wanted us to know about that and That's all I have I have a lot to say. It's late, so I'll spare you all until the next meeting. Thank you. Ms. Hazard. No comments. Defer. I have no comments this evening either, so we can move right along to item number seven, discussion, potential rescheduling of the August school board meeting. I think, Ms. Hall, you did a poll, and Mr. McOsker, were you not available? Yeah, I mean, I had planned a work trip around that. I know the... I would much appreciate being at the meeting. So, of course, I'm not in favor of this, although I do know the pros

167and the cons of it, and I do appreciate it. So that's my comment for now. If I could make a comment. Mr. McCaskill, I don't know if you saw my email today. I wasn't saying we had to have one on the 20th. I'm more worried about us having them. before the 13th was really more my concern. We also seem to have that week of the 20th, we will be having our board retreat, which... Maybe not having the meeting allows us to be focused on the retreat. Is the retreat date still good for you, Mr. McOsker, the 24th? Yeah, at this point, yeah. Okay. I mean, I'm actually more, I think that's going to be a wonderful session. I was really more worried about the intervening four weeks from today until the 13th, that if we

168do have, and maybe we don't. I just, I put it out as it was more my concern if we needed to meet before. I know the week before is back to school week and national night out. Sorry, I was trying to think of the thing we didn't want to ever meet on. Like I said, if it is the pleasure of the board, it just seemed to me that the one or two years. I think it was only one that we had to meet on the first. It just felt like we divided staff between those duties of being with our kids. And so that was really the impetus. I am not pushing either way. We can have it, but I just would hate for us to sit here, have like an hour meeting to do very

169few things, and then adjourn when maybe our staff's research is going to be elsewhere. Did Dr. Kisner, how did Dr. Kisner feel about that? Yeah, I mean that was my response was gonna be I'm just yeah if dr. Kisner thinks we don't we know it's okay to move it then Right yeah, right because I have my schedule so I thought they were asking me a question. I'm sorry. No, I was. I mean, the question I think that my response to that was going to be I'd like to hear what Dr. Kisner. No, the reason why I asked Dr. Kisner is because Ms. Hazard mentioned the staff, and so I'm thinking the staff belongs to Dr. Kisner. Do you have a problem with the staff being here an hour? Yeah, so just real quickly. Yeah, so

170the 13th, I think, I mean, my recommendation would be to stay with your schedule. Okay. Let's do that. Yeah, maybe that's. Okay. Great. Good. So we're just going to leave it as is. All right. Well, I appreciate the suggestion, though, Ms. Houser, because it's something I think we probably need to consider, or whoever's on this board in January needs to consider when you approve the calendar for next year, you know, take a look at that and when school starts and, you know, if there's. Since there's only one meeting in August, you might want to look at when that's going to be held. All right, that brings us to the consent agenda. Do we have a motion? I move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. Motion by Dr. Chase, second by Ms. Young. Any discussion?

171All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. All right, so is this refreshed? Yeah. Is it now 901? Is the old 903? Okay. Let's start with 903. All right. 903, approval of proposed revisions to Regulation 4803, authorize leaves for VRS hybrid plan employees to increase the sick leave accrual cap. Move to approve. Second. All right. Motion by Mr. McOster, second by Ms. Egan. Any discussion? No? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. 9.04, award the delivery order to Sunny Merriman, Inc. in the amount of $957,258 from budgeted FY20 operating funds for the purchase of nine mainstream school buses. Motion to approve. Motion by Ms. Young. Second. Second by Ms. Hazard. Any discussion about this one? So are we saying that there are only

172nine buses that are over 15 years old in our fleet? Because I am just becoming concerned that I know we are only replacing, and it says in here the 15 years. We don't have to have that tonight, but that would be something if I were on the FAFSA. I would ask, can we make sure, because if we're placing nine buses and we have like 30 that are over 15, I just think we need to really understand that. If that's just, and you don't have, it's up to you. No, but I would maybe, during our agenda setting, I would probably like Barry to come. I think there's a lot of, beginning of the school year, probably time to talk about transportation and things. So maybe. And the kids. Well, I wouldn't ask him to come on

173that second day of school. No, please don't bring him that day. He is actually dealing with issues at least the first two weeks of school because I know I always ask people to please give us patience. That's right. Please give us some time to work out the issues. The first two weeks of school are just a nightmare for transportation. You're going to get a lot of questions as board members and complaints the first few weeks, so I think it's to your advantage to hear what we're doing. Because you know the first month of school we hear about people who are upset on transportation. Especially this year. Barry would be here. He's going to be busy regardless. Madam Chair, I would like to note that the $10,000 extra per bus is in there for the air

174conditioning. So it is nine buses with air conditioning units. Just to make sure that the public knows that because it will be hot. All right, so does the board want the transportation director to come to the meeting? If we do, I suggest we put him on early so he can just not have to stay early. Maybe a work session so he can get back home. Yes, and as Ms. Egan just pointed out, he will probably be driving a bus that day among his other duties. All right. 9.3 voted. We did we voted? I can't remember. That was your your company. That was my comment. All right. All right any other comments? No all in favor please say aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. 9.05, approval of the purchase of Chromebooks for elementary, middle, and high school

175classrooms and libraries using budgeted FY20 VPSA technology grant funds in an amount not to exceed $1.1 million, and Chromebooks for teachers and staff, including charging and storage carts, using budgeted FY20 operating funds in an amount not to exceed $450,000. So we have a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Second by Ms. Young. Second by Ms. Egan. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Information items. All right, we have several information items on this agenda that we are being asked to move to action. Please note that this is because it was beyond the control of staff to have put these on their agenda at an earlier meeting. They either get outside information or some kind of approval from someone outside the school system. And part of this also has to

176do with their early start date this year. So, you know, we would... Request that you consider these requests from staff to move these things to action first information item And this is requested to be moved to action is approval of an increase to the cost of lunch And breakfast 10 cents each at all school levels elementary middle and high for the 2019-2020 school year I move that we move this to action Second. Motion by Dr. Chase, second by Ms. Hazard. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. That was just to move it to action. Okay. All opposed? That motion to move it to action carried unanimously. Now we have the same item on for action. Do we have a motion? Move to approve. Second motion by dr. Chase second by mrs. Hazzard miss young you

177have a question. Yeah, my question is simple So when you raise that is somebody here to talk to it or okay? It's real quick if when you raise that ten cents That there are students that would have been free and reduced and Because of that raise are no longer free reduced, but they're close to So now we're asking them To pay and it's the payment is not ten cents. It will be the full Breakfast or lunch like whatever the amount is because it just went over right the qualification for you if you don't Say to qualify for free and reduced lunch depends on your family income. It's not on the price of the lunch No, there's besides the free and reduced. There is another category that has they have reduced where they do pay something

178so My question is that, that group. It would be a proration of that reduced part. It's a nickel or four cents, but whatever the reduced part is, they would have an increased responsibility. Okay. Yeah. Okay. This is not a money-making business for us. This is because of the federal regulations. I'm just asking a question about disadvantaged kids. And I apologize. Berkeley had to leave. I had some family responsibilities. But I believe, actually, that this is not going to impact the reduced. But I'd have to confirm that. It might affect it slightly. But I believe that when I talk to Berkeley, it's not going to impact the reduced kids. Okay. All right. Thank you. Ms. Healy, if I could just ask a question, again, not for tonight. Mr. Fulmer, as you close out this year with

179Mr. Dunbrack, I have been asked by so many people. What were the remaining lunch balances? I mean, it's something we have talked about. And I had gotten a quick understanding, having seen him in the parking lot as we were walking over, that there has been some changes with the law that it probably is going up. If that could just be either presented as information to the board, I think it's something we do have a lot of community partners who I think may want to be involved. in that but the only way they would get involved is if they know so if is that something we could either report on it or like i said there's sometimes people who want to write us a check and i hate turning them away so like i said just

180for a future but i think that's helpful so thank you sure thing All right. All in favor of the motion to approve, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously, 10.02. This is another item that we've been asked to move to action because of the start of school in August. Approval of a contract rider agreement with Solian Health to address job vacancies in the Department of Student Services through temporary employee... Move to move it to action. Second. Okay, Dr. Chase, second. I think Mr. McOsker got his in there. He's moving on. All right. Any discussion? All in favor of moving it to action, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Do we have a motion for approval? Move to approve. Dr. Chase? Second by Mr. McOsker. It wasn't quite as quick, but

181you got in there. Yeah, I let him have it. I mean, and he delayed. Thank you. All right. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. All right. We got one more here. Approval, 10.03 approval for a purchase in the amount of $87,392.02. From budgeted FY20 operating funds of the Naviance Program for use at all middle and high schools. Do we have a motion to? I move to the agenda, to action. Dr. Chase. Second. I don't know. Who was that? I think that was Ms. Young. We'll give that one to Ms. Young. All right. All in favor of moving this to action, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Do we have a motion for approval? Move to approve. Dr. Chase? Second. Second by Ms. Egan. Thank

182you. Bingo. Discussion? Yeah, any parent of a rising senior will be very unhappy if this is not there. All right. Thank you, Dr. Chase. Good program. I remember when this first came in back in the... Ancient days. And just a comment. Dr. Kueser, do I understand that this is being, I guess Jan, moving down into middle school so that it can become kind of like a more used tool, I think, before you get to senior year. So anyway, I just hope we get the training at the middle school level as well. Yeah, this is the move down to middle school for the Naviance program so that, yep. Okay, all in favor please say aye. Aye. All opposed, motion carries unanimously. Okay, no more requests to move these to action. We're going to talk about gizmos.

18310.04, approval of a purchase in the amount of $92,267.50 from budgeted FY20 operating funds of Explore Learning Gizmos. for science, earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics in grades three to eight. This will come back to us for approval at the next meeting. Any questions about this item? All right, 10.05, approval of an annual contract with two additional option years with Blackboard, Inc., in the amount of $153,218.60 for year one, using budgeted FY20 operating funds for website and communication tools. Any questions about this item? We're using it. If you come up with any later, send them to Dr. Kisner, please, and he can get us the information before the next meeting. We need that, Cherie, right? Our blackboard is very important to our families out there and our kids. Well, this isn't going to affect it.

184When we start school ten point oh six approval of the renewal of the power school subscription for the 2019-2020 school year at a cost of one hundred and nine thousand seven hundred sixty four dollars and ninety nine cents don't you love all these Two cents ninety nine from budgeted FY 20 operating funds. What's the power school subscription? How much power does it give you? Dr. Strike thought she'd never get a chance. She thought she was going to get over it. She thought she was hiding in that corner. Your stay was not in vain. PowerSchool is what we use for our common formative assessments. And we have had math and English, and PowerSchool is now coming out with Performance Matters, and we have the power with Performance Matters to actually get data at the teacher's fingertips.

185So this is something we've been using. For several years, but with this new subscription and the new performance matters we can expand it to all four subjects so I just looked at usage reports and Through our PLC work our tiered intervention instruction work. We're using more and more common form and assessments So this is the database and the data bank that holds common formative assessments and other assessments From teachers and educators throughout Virginia, so it's a shared data back subscription. Don't let me know side-eye that kids know How do you measure this like the are there any KPIs involved is just assessment you go into the tool and You look at the assessment. How does it work? I just wanted to know. I'll be as succinct as possible. So when you have a PLC of

186teachers, let's say that they're teaching a fifth grade math, and it's a grade level math meeting, and they align and look at the standards that they have to teach, and they look at our curriculum, and they decide. how they're going to teach those standards, they agree to a common formative assessment, which is not a summative. The formative assessment tells them Which kids have mastered it and which kids need extra help with the tiered intervention? They can actually upload that common form and assessment or they can go in and see what other sixth grade math teachers in the school division have used for that standard on an assessment So it's a sharing database, but the power of it is it gives reports and it aggregates that data collection over time, okay, so And they can also

187create their own. Okay, so it's really for the teachers and not necessarily there's no... It is a teacher tool under the new suite that Pearson's come out with. Got it. It can actually be used as like a teacher data warehouse. Got it. So that's the reason why I was asking about key performance indicator. It doesn't fall into this because it's a tool. No, it's a good question. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. All right, that brings us to the last information item, 10.07, appointment of a school board member to serve as liaison to the Head Start Policy Council for the September 2019 through August 2020 council term. Ms. Hazard, you are still eligible, so if you're interested, we can certainly... I mean, I have served for three years. It is a wonderful, wonderful program. So,

188I mean, if there is someone else who would like to do that work, I am willing to. Is there training involved? I'm just kidding. There can be. So they do meet during the week on usually the third Wednesday, but that can change. during the week, usually starting at 11 or 11.30. So like I said, my term is not up, but I am willing to share the wealth because it is a wonderful program and it's a great experience for everybody on the board. So like I said, if somebody would like to do that. But are you willing to serve if there's no other volunteer? I believe so. You're in. You need help with your ribbons? Yeah, many of them. As long as you're legal, I'm good. All right. Okay. That brings us to our upcoming meeting

189announcements. The next meeting of the school board is August 13th at 7 p.m. Wow, we get to end. I love hitting that for the end tonight. Can you rip that a little louder? Here, let me help you.