Board Of Education Meeting September 12 2016

001Yes. um Is this showing upstairs now? Can you check with us? If they can see that, then we're good. I'll make it bigger. Yeah. Yeah. in the background Test 1, 2. Hi, everybody. Before we start videotaping and the meeting comes to order, I want to just make you aware that we have two public comment sections tonight. If you look at the agenda, the first agenda item before Accent on Achievement actually is a budget hearing. So if you're here to speak in regards to the budget that is being presented, please make sure you're in this room and available to make your comments at the very beginning of the meeting. All other comments will be heard. during the public comment portion, which is right after Accent on Achievement. For those who are upstairs, hopefully you can hear

002me. We will be vacating the front rows here as soon as Accent on Achievement is over, and we'll have additional space available in this room. And we'll try to make sure that everybody knows the next 10 speakers so that you can come down and be ready to present. Thank you. OK, well, we will resume the meeting of September 12, 2016. Sorry. I would like to acknowledge that Eric Laura has joined the board. And if everyone could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. We would like to take a moment of silence tonight to remember Jan Bletchding. and elementary school lead

003lunch supervisor who passed away on Tuesday, August 23rd. Jan worked at Highland Elementary School for the past 25 years. Jan will be missed by her coworkers and the students at Highland. She was a valued colleague and dear friend to many. We will keep Jan's family and friends in our thoughts and prayers. We would also like to take another moment tonight to remember Greg Stout. who passed away Thursday, August 11th. Greg worked as a U-46 school bus driver for more than 29 years. Greg was well known around the district and the city of Elgin for his contribution to many charity events. He had a kind, generous spirit and had many friends in U-46 who will miss him dearly. We will keep Greg's family and friends, especially his wife Maureen, also a U-46 bus driver, in our

004thoughts and prayers. Thank you. Okay, the first item on our agenda is the public hearing for the 2016-2017 School District U-46 budget. I will declare the hearing open. Are there any comments from the public? Okay, hearing none, I will ask Mr. Rodriguez, have we received anything by email or? We have none, nothing in writing. Okay, with that, I will close the public hearing of the School District U-46 Budget 2016-2017. Next item on our agenda is the Accent on Achievement Summer Reading Challenge. Good evening, everyone. It is my pleasure to announce the finishers, the winners of our annual summer reading competition. This is part of the Board of Education's Accent on Achievement. And tonight we are here once again to recognize Highland Elementary School and Sycamore Trails Elementary School for winning the. 2016 U-46 Summer Reading

005Challenge. For the fifth year in a row, where's Steve Johnson? I'm looking for him. Elementary School 1, Highland Elementary School. Come on up. Good to have you all with us. Highland Elementary School has won for having the largest percentage of students in the district who competed in the summer reading program, with approximately 150 of the elementary school students participating in the program. Additionally, we would like to recognize Sycamore Trails Elementary School. Sycamore Charles Elementary School won for having the largest increase in summer reading finishers from last year with 116 finishers completing the challenge this summer. Congratulations to all of you, especially our readers who are here with us tonight. First, I'd like to read. Is it on? Okay. The certificate of achievement, the Board of Education of School District U-46 hereby recognizes Highland Elementary School

006for winning the 2016 U-46 Summer Reading Challenge, presented this 12th day of September 2016. Signed by me, Donna Smith, Board President, and Tony Sanders, our Chief Executive Officer. Thank you so much. And I guess I would like to ask some of the students here what they read. Give us a few examples of what you read. Either way. One book. Okay, you think about it, okay? I'll come back to you. Can you tell me what you read? Comic books? Comic books? It's reading! Diary of a Wimpy Kid. What is it? Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Yeah. What is it called? Can you tell me one of your books? What is it called? Tell. Pete the Kid. What was it called? No. Pete the Cat is what he reads. Pete the Cat.

007I heard that's a favorite for a lot of kids. Did you think of anything or no? Not yet? Okay. Thank you all for being here and congratulations to all the students that did all the reading. Next, I would like to read our certificate for Sycamore Trails. It's a certificate of achievement. Let me move down here. The Board of Education of U46 hereby recognizes Sycamore Trails Elementary School for winning the 2016 U46 Summer Reading Challenge, presented this 12th day of September 2016, signed by myself, Donna Smith, Board of Education President, and Tony Sanders, our CEO. Thank you so much. And please send our congratulations to all the kids. I will. Thank you. I just have something for our viewers at home. We have 40 elementary schools, two early learning centers. And so if you want to

008knock Highland off, next year is the opportunity. And by the way, I read a lot of books this summer, too. So I competed as well. And I did at least eight books this summer as well to join with the kids. And yes, fiction, not comic books. Thank you all. Somebody left a phone. So if you left a phone. And please, we have at this point over 50 public commenters who have signed up to speak. I know that some are in the room already. Some are upstairs watching their YouTube live stream. At this point, we have several seats available for those people who are first on the public comment list. Nick Lucek, Tracy Kelly, Heather Fodor, Rich Jacobs, Mike Domofsky, Lowe Perez, Sandy Reeves, John Kohler, and John Kirkwood could at least make their way down

009here into the empty seats, and that way you're here and available for the public comment portion. And we'll try to do that in groups of 10 so that you know it's time to come downstairs. With that, the intro to our public comments. Mrs. Ferguson. Good evening again. Welcome to the Board of Education meeting. We are, as CO Sanders said, now at the public comment portion of that meeting when the board listens to issues and concerns but does not respond to statements. As stated on our board welcome flyer, we ask that you complete a request to speak card. Each speaker will be allotted up to three minutes. The Board of Education encourages participants to avoid repeating the same points made by other speakers. A tone will sound when your time is up. If you wish to

010have a reply to your concern or your question, please check the box on the card and a written reply will be mailed to you. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to the Education Board. Now we open the opportunity to make comments. This is the moment when the Education Board hears concerns and questions, but does not answer their statements. In the project, we indicate that a card be filled in if you request a turn to speak. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I just like to put out one reminder as we have speakers come up to the desk to speak I would ask everyone in the audience to please remain quiet and please do not comment or Anything while they are speaking let's be respectful to our speakers and Speakers I would ask that your comments. Please remain

011respectful to everyone. Thank you I'll be calling up speakers two at a time. There's two empty chairs up here at the board table or not. There's one empty chair. Okay, we'll call you one at a time. Our first speaker will be Nick McClusack and following him will be Tracy Kelly. If Tracy could be ready to go. So we have no chairs. I can stand. Hello. My name is Nick McClusack. I'm a teacher at Bartlett High School. I have an extensive teaching history, however. I've taught in some of the best and some of the worst CPS high schools. I've also taught in an exclusive private boarding high school in Pennsylvania. I like to think the best of all people and their intentions. So I assume people are here tonight for the best of all children. And

012I understand that there are some members of, I believe it's Walsh's Freedom Warriors here. I assume the best of those people as well, and that they are concerned for the best of all children. But to those, the warriors, I have a very humble. and Christian challenge. And that is to please be very careful of the words that we use. These words have consequences. And I've seen the consequences in every school I've taught at where I've seen horrible cases of bullying. And in every case, these, these bullyings. have been preceded by hateful, poorly chosen words by adults. Words can hurt directly or even by proxy. They can encourage violence or they can have someone that is fragile either ponder or commit suicide. So I plead with you. choose words very carefully. I hope you could respond

013kindly to my humble challenge. And if not, I guess I will have to hold your commitment to all children in deep suspect. Thank you. Tracy Kelly will be our next public speaker. And while she's coming forward, Mrs. Fergus, is there a way to minimize the screen so that we can get the timer up there as well? Unfortunately, it should be over on the other side if you just click the minimize button. It's kind of cut off on the screen up over. Good evening. My name is Tracy Kelly, and I have two kids in this district. Those two kids, along with all of the rest of the kids in our district, are my concern and will always be my concern. That being said, the need for these students to have access to quality educational programs should

014be our number one priority. The need for these students to have updated curriculum, textbooks, and technology should be priority. Giving teachers and staff the tools they need to teach should be priority. When will these things become priority again? Where a person pees should not be the priority. Which locker room a person uses should not be priority. Whether or not a board member gets to listen to closed session tapes for meetings that occurred prior to tenure should not be a priority. The students are the priority. My students are in high school and middle school. They don't care who's in the locker room with them. They don't worry about who uses the bathroom with them. What they do worry about is how other people will treat others that they see as different. They are kind, good-hearted kids

015that see the good in everyone and feel that judging others that do not look the same way as they do is not the way it should be. My kids go to school to be taught another language, to be taught theorems, to be taught how our government works, to learn about atoms, elements, and molecules. That's what should be going on inside our schools. Please get back to the purpose of what the school board is supposed to be, and that is determining the best way to achieve the best and only the best for our students. Start listening to those of us that matter, to the parents that have children in the district, to those of us that have more than an invested interest in this district. Please stop bringing in outside troops to stand with you, and

016most of all, stop using it as a personal political platform to incite controversy and spew venom. I am U-46, my kids are U-46, and it's time we stand up and take our district back. Thank you. Our next public speaker will be Heather Podor, and Rich Jacobs will be right after that. Okay. Good evening. My name is Heather Fodor. I am a proud U-46 teacher teaching at Larkin High School. I was asked to wear my spirit wear, and this is the most appropriate one I could find. And it says Ohana. And on the back, it says Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind. I wanted to talk to you guys about Suicide Prevention and Education Month because did you know that more than one out of every ten students reports having attempted

017suicide? And one in six have seriously considered it, according to the Youth Suicide Prevention Program. That means that one in six, I'm sorry, one of my classes with 32 kids, five of them have seriously considered suicide. And three or four have attempted it. That number is appalling when you consider that I have five classes. That's 120 students. That means that 20 of them have seriously considered suicide and another 12 have attempted it. And I'm just one teacher in one high school. Even more disheartening than that is that more than 30% of students who are LGBTQ report at least one suicide attempt within the last year. And what happens when we ask transgender youth if they have attempted suicide? By their 20th birthday, that number jumps to 50%. 50%. That's one out of every two transgender

018students. Even one life lost is too many. So to my students, I tell you, you matter. Suicide doesn't end the chances of life getting worse. It eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better. And each and every one of our students is a valuable human being. And it is our responsibility as the adults in U-46 to ensure that we do everything in our power to see those students of U-46 as people who deserve our love, respect, and patience. And we must protect them when they are vulnerable. That is our duty. Thank you. As we progress, when you're done speaking, if you don't mind, we do have two other rooms of speakers upstairs who've turned in cards. So if you're done speaking, if you could please exit up to upstairs. We have staff that will

019get you up there. That way another speaker can come down. Our next speaker is Rich Jacobs, and after Mr. Jacobs will be Mike Domofsky. My name is Rich Jacobs, and unlike some others who will be speaking later on tonight, I am a resident and property taxpayer supporting School District U-46. I believe in equality. I am here to speak up and speak out in support of CEO Tony Sanders and the U-46 School Board's approved policy regarding supporting and protecting all students, including transgender students. The policy is already in place. It's appropriate and needs no further action or consideration by this board, a board that already has plenty of work to do. I find it reprehensible that when school board member Jeanette Ward was informed of the situation with a middle school child, her first action was

020to ignore the child's legal right to privacy. and instead seek out the press and fringe political groups known for their hate and divisiveness. The vitriol spewed on Ms. Ward's Facebook page is sickening. Despite the heightened risk of suicide for similar teens, Ms. Ward is intentionally fanning the flames of hatred towards the most vulnerable in U-46. Her failure to uphold her duties as a school board member to protect all children at U-46, including transgender students, is inexcusable. Gender identity is a spectrum, a continuum. It's difficult enough to be an ordinary teen without having to deal with transitioning as this child is. The board's current policy is clearly good for transgender children, but perhaps more importantly, it is good for all other children of the district who will hopefully learn empathy and compassion for the struggles of

021others. I stand with the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American School Counselor Association, Child Welfare League of America, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and National Education Association who have stated, all of our nation's children deserve equal protections and a treatment in the classrooms. Transgender kids are already at heightened risk for violence, bullying, and harassment. Ms. Ward, it is my belief your actions constitutes bullying. Pick on someone your own size. You should be ashamed. Our next speaker will be Mike Domofsky, and the speaker after Mr. Domofsky will be Flo Perez. Good evening, Board of Education. My name is Mike Domofsky. I am a resident of Elgin. I have three students in U46, and I'm also the proud principal of Bartlett High School, which I have to say I think

022is my finest work to date. So I appreciate you giving me the chance for that. I couldn't be prouder of the work that we've done as a district. We've opened the doors with our current leadership that have broken off the lid of tough topics like race. discipline. We brought full-day kindergarten in. We are light years ahead of where we were. And Tony, we appreciate all the work that you've done under your leadership. We do. Those, what we just talked about, those are real issues. Those affect our students. Our diversity is our strength. And our students are light years ahead of us, the adults, as far as in their patience, their tolerance, and their way that they can protest and reform. But we have a problem. And the problem is not our students. Problem is, is

023that we have adults that are coming here that have brought this perception and maybe it's a reality. But the perception is that there are adults who are driving self-serving agendas and we're forgetting where the real focus is. And the real focus is on all of our students. So I come here to hopefully make this perception and turn this a reality. And the reality is that we are continually dragging ourselves through the mud with this Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, sideshow nonsense that's masked in a Constitution civics class lesson. So again, I respect the rights of all people, and everyone is going to have different views. And I will stand with you to defend those views, but make sure that on this pulpit that we are doing the right thing for our children. And I will never

024forget the words as she left of Dr. Joyce Fountain. And what she said was, it is your responsibility to take care of my babies. So let's start getting back to that. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Flo Perez. And after Flo will be Sandy Reeves, if Sandy could be ready. And we now have two seats. So Sandy, you're welcome to join Flo. Hello, my name is Flo Perez. I'm not really here to debate on who is right and who is wrong. Everyone has an entitled to their opinion and I respect everything, but I'm here mostly to speak about my experience as a transgender student. I go to school at Elgin Community College. I work at the wellness service there. And I also am president of our LGBTQ plus ally organization by the

025name of Students Who Are Not Silent. My biggest concern is the safety of my fellow transgender friends, my family. I know that for me growing up, my teenage years were the darkest, most depressing ever moments of my life because of the lack of acceptance that I had, because of the lack of support that I had, not only in my family, but during school. I wasn't able to go into the assigned bathroom that I identify with, which is male. And things like that, minor things like that prevented me from focusing on my studies, focusing on my future and what I wanted to be or what I want to be. Instead, I focused on pretty much just wanting to be dead instead. Because of Elgin Community College being supportive, changing policy for our transgender students, I now

026don't have to worry about that. Now I know exactly what steps I need to take in order for me to achieve my personal goals. I am working to get my associates in art, working on getting my major in substance abuse counseling, and that is all I need is support. And I believe everyone is entitled to that. The rights, the respect. Thank you. Sandy? Good evening. I'm Sandy Reeves. I live in Hanover Park and I'm here because I'm here to address the situation that one board member took upon themselves to openly out a young person to not just this community but to the world via social media. I don't know how much information was shared but that private information was not to be shared, not to be gossiped about. I imagine the student has faced some

027major hurdles because of their uniqueness. Uniqueness is a great trait to have. Others may not feel the same way. They may find this uniqueness disturbing because their idea of what an ideal person is not what they are used to or accepting of. Public humiliation is a form of bullying. Public shaming is a... form of bullying. Shunning is a form of bullying. That has happened with this transgender student who will be treated just like everyone else from now on. They will finish high school in this school district just like everyone else. They will be treated and respected for who they are. They will not be a statistic. Whoever the student is, I send them my support and peace. You are somebody. Thank you. Is it Mr. Kohler then? Yes. Okay, and after Mr. Kohler will be

028John Kirkwood. If Mr. Kirkwood could have a seat up here. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you for the work you do on the board. I'd like to agree with everyone that's spoken about equality of students, the importance of caring for each and every individual. I'd like to make a point though about individuals that may not want to be sharing a co-ed bathroom with someone of the opposite sex, whether that's orientation or not. And this is not meant in any way to criticize those who are transgender. It's not meant to be any form of hate or dislike for folks. They have equal rights. I want there to be equal rights for boys and girls who don't want to be exposed to nakedness of someone of the opposite sex in a bathroom or a

029locker room. I think that they deserve some defense or at least some support because there are many, many that don't want that. In light of that, I'd like to mention that you have the responsibility to promote education as the number one priority for the students in the district. Resources are scarce. There is a specter of lawsuits coming on this issue. Already in Minnesota, there was young girls who wanted to avoid exposure to those of the opposite sex in a locker room. They went to a different locker room where they were told it would be safe. They were followed into the locker room. This individual exposed themselves. Now there's a lawsuit with it. Okay. So the facts and particulars of that case could be debated, of course, and will be debated in court of law. But

030nevertheless, the cost of litigation will be quite substantial. And so I'd like to raise that to the board to consider the implementation of this co-ed locker room policy as having grave financial implications for the school district in regards to litigation that will inevitably occur. protection should be put in place so that students can be protected if they don't want to be experiencing that the naked person around them that's not their same biological sex. So Again, I hope that you'll consider their interests as well. And I think that their parents should absolutely be aware of what could happen. I think that this is a very significant psychological, psychosocial, physiological experience in this regard. And I think parents must know about this. And that does not violate anybody's privacy to send out a letter that says to

031all the parents of the district. co-ed locker rooms are now a standard in the district the parents should know that so they can either take action to protect their child or make adjustments do whatever they want to do but they have a right to know because their children are minors i mean they're not adults yet and the parents it's their primary responsibility to care for their children thank you thank you Our next speaker is John Kirkwood after John will be Miguel Baroque. I'm John Kirkwood and I want to thank the board for having me tonight. I am reminded, driving here, I was reminded of an anecdote from history. It was just after the war between the states. It was a Sunday morning in a little country church and the parson was about to offer communion.

032when the door in the back opened and a young black man walked into a lily white church in the deep south. And heads turned and they thought maybe he was in the wrong place because the black church was down the street. But he made his way to the front and he kneeled to receive communion. And no one was quite sure what would happen until an elderly gentleman stood up from the back and approached the front. smiles came to faces thinking now this young man is going to get his comeuppance when this elderly gentleman who was respected in all of the South looked at the man kneeling next to him and looked at the parson and he took a place next to the black man kneeling next to him, not because he was a black man,

033but because he was a brother in Christ. He nodded to the parson and they took communion together because the chancellor of that Virginia University, had before been a general named Robert E. Lee. And everybody remembers the courage of Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville when he divided his army and conquered an enemy against great numbers. And it is true, you can have courage in the face of an enemy, but what he demonstrated that day in that church is that courage in the face of friends and families and the entrenched bigotry that they may share. goes a lot further. We have an entrenched bigotry today, a sanctified bigotry, and it's been handed down from up high. And the question is, who among you is going to stand like that brave gentleman did in Tiananmen Square in front

034of the progressive tanks and say this is unjust? Now, I may disagree with those men who didn't stand up for the national anthem in the NFL yesterday, but one thing you can't dismiss about them, they had the integrity to do it in front of the whole nation. They didn't forcibly do it in the dark of the night without bringing it to the attention of parents, without bringing it to the attention of the board. And the only bullying I've seen here tonight has been the bullying of Mrs. Ward and the people who stand for common sense accommodations. You can accommodate any child with needs without compromising the rights of every other child in the school. My question for you all is who among you will stand for what's right? There are two things that was wrong

035with this, the process and using a child as a human shield to force your agenda. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Miguel, you'll be our next speaker. And after that will be Brock Friedman, if Mr. Friedman could step forward and have a seat as well. My name is Miguel Roque. I am a former student of U-46. I attended Bartlett High School and Teff Middle School. I am here on behalf of all the transgender students that I do agree that they need all the support that they can get. A transgender female, a transgender male deserve to use the same locker rooms that they identify with. And then it's not just that. I also believe people from the LGBT community deserve more safety and respect in classrooms. When I attended a few classes, I was treated

036with disrespect by my teachers and fellow peers. I remember this one time, one of my teachers, I will not mention names, but he Tossed away my assignment because it was LGBT related and it made him feel uncomfortable So what I would like for you 46 to do is train their faculty and staff on how to deal with LGBT students and like topics just so everyone can feel more comfortable and No one will feel left out or like feel mistreated Thank you Our next speaker is Brock Friedman. Following that will be Dave Rediger. I am here tonight because this district has secretly made a policy change that affects the safety and privacy of our students. I want to state that I have nothing against the transgender. I respect their desire to live as they believe is

037best for them, as I would only wish for myself. If we had a plethora of private bathrooms in the high schools and junior highs, this would be a non-issue. In that perfect world where everyone has a private place to change or to do their necessaries, we might also not have crime or sexual violence. But we do not live in that perfect world. We have limited resources and sexual violence is a reality that is often chronically ignored or swept under the table by high schools as documented by the Huffington Post recently by Tyler Kincaid. The choice you have made will invariably open the door to abuse at some point and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, but it will be too late. Rape cannot be undone. In creating this accommodation for men to share

038private spaces with females and vice versa, the district has stepped over itself in spectacularly bad fashion. The policy was created in secrecy. The promises the district has put forth guaranteeing safety and privacy for non-trans students is unverifiable and unworkable. I feel the district has betrayed the vast majority of its stakeholders and has been disingenuous, disloyal, and discourteous. I believe the district has acted in bad faith and tarnished its good name. If the district really cared about everyone's well-being, this issue would have been out in the open for public comment. There are many voices in the district that should have had the opportunity to be heard. That is what a democracy is about. Silence and secrecy have no place here. They are anemic to our values. Instead, the district has cravenly bowed to another example of

039extreme and malicious executive overreach that threatens school funding. This is educational policy by duress at its worst. Was a single person who is not transgender asked their opinion? How about 10 or 1,000? What sample was surveyed to accurately ascertain how the student body or the larger stakeholder community felt? I consider myself a person of faith, albeit an imperfect example. I know there are huge numbers of us in the district that count ourselves as such. Was a single person of faith consulted? Why were our voices ignored? Are my religious convictions guaranteed by the Constitution of no value? Are we second-class citizens? Are my children? I stand here before you as a person of faith speaking for all those who the district has consigned to silence and the rush to stave off the militant ire of sexual

040fascists and sexual supremacists. I will not be muzzled, and I will not be ignored. My children are human beings, not sexual playthings for crackpot experiments and social engineering. How dare you play God with my children's lives? I am furious. and I'm sad. We are considering pulling our children out of school. You have poisoned the school year and cast a pallet of gloom on it. I can only hope the district will consider that going forward a more thorough policy can be crafted based not on the sexual fulfillment of a few, but the rights of all. Think about that as it reflects silently for the remainder of my time. Our next speaker will be Dave Rediker and following that will be Kate Thomas. And as a reminder, when you're done speaking, it would be great if you

041could move to one of the other overflow rooms upstairs. And that way we can have other speakers come down and join. Thank you. Thank you, Board, for allowing me to speak. My name is Dave Rediger. I have been an administrator of a school for several years and a teacher as well. But one person has said, I have the right to play my stereo as loud as I like. But his neighbor says. Your right is fine up until the point where your freedom interferes with my right for my peace and quiet. Hopefully you'll see an analogy with what I'm about to say. Parents have the responsibility of protecting their child's physical, emotional, physical, and emotional well-being. And it should not be undermined by a school board for the sake of a confused individual. This board has

042lost its moral compass. The dignity and the privacy, the modesty and the emotional well-being of safety of our children has been compromised and violated. A member or members of this board have attempted to keep the decision of having a transgender bathroom from the public, supposedly because of an improper application of a federal privacy law that really does not apply here because no names of individuals needed to be released. Nonetheless, parents should have been notified that this policy of having transgender bathrooms were being considered, but they were not. Parents should also have been advised that a transgender bathroom decision was made so that they could have taken appropriate action that they may have deemed necessary, but parents were also not notified here. The board's policy does not require a professional medical diagnosis. So anyone that just

043feels like it can say, oh, I feel like a girl today. I think I'll go and use the girls' restroom today. Or guys can dare other guys, or girls can dare other girls and say, hey, let's see if you can get into the opposite sex bathroom today. There have been numerous lawsuits across the country and in Illinois against these same type of policies that U-46 has adopted. So inevitably, Elgin will face costly lawsuits that can drain resources away from core programs. This would not be a good fiscal responsibility of taxpayer resources. And I would say how dare the school board ask me to put one more dime into this craziness. U-46 has violated our trust, the trust also of our children. Other options are available that can address the needs of one or more individuals

044that's suffering from gender dysphoria than to affect the majority of the students. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Kate Thomas. After that will be Gwen Catron. If Gwen could step forward. I am a parent of three U-46 students, two of whom are boy-girl twins in two separate middle schools. I'm here to speak in support of Tony Sanders, our families, and our communities. I appreciate that Mr. Sanders and members of the administration were proactively working to ensure that U-46 stays on the correct side of the law regarding the current issue in front of the board tonight. In a February 2016 letter addressed to various state governors from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Child Welfare League, among others, the Human Rights Campaign has found that 75% of children who identify as transgender

045feel unsafe in a school setting. I feel proud to be a part of a community where a transgender student felt safe enough to request usage of the locker room matching the gender with which they identify. I am proud to know that my children and their fellow middle schoolers provided an environment that made this student feel safe. I am appalled at the number of adults in our community who have made statements implying, or even outright stating, that this child is dangerous, or that any child is unsafe because of the situation. A variety of websites and organizations point out that the safety of a transgender person is at far greater risk than anyone in the room with a transgender person. I continue to have faith that U-46 staff, teachers, and administrators will continue to keep all of

046the children of U-46 safe. I continue to have faith that calmer heads will prevail. And I am certain that voters of U-46 have taken note of who has treated this student with dignity and who hasn't. Many of us have noted who has acted within the boundaries of the Board of Education Code of Conduct. We have seen who has acted unethically. And if I might add, I've noticed a few District 211 parents here. I'm a graduate of 211 from Tice School where the other issue is happening. And I would like to point out that the school, when I went there, was far more welcoming than I think the people tonight are going to make you believe. And finally, to the family of this student and other transgendered students, you are not alone. Many, many of us

047support you. Thank you. Once again, if you've turned in your card and you've already spoken, if you could please move to one of the overflow rooms. I see several of you still sitting in here. We need to be able to get more people down from room 240 and room 239 upstairs, so please go upstairs. It's also live streaming up there, but we need to make room for more people to come down. That way we have enough space. Thank you. Our next speaker is Gwen Catron, and following her will be Wendell. Catron, did I say it correctly? Yeah. My name is Gwen, and I'm a mother of seven children, and all of them are out of high school now. And as a mother, I just want to say if my children were in the school district,

048I would want to know something about that this happened. I just think it was a breach of trust on the school board's part not to communicate. I think communication is really important. So they can know, they can talk to their children in however way they want about it. They can, you know, they have as a parent that right to know. I'm a Christian parent. I hope Christian isn't a bad word in this group tonight. But I do love the Lord. And I do know that a lot of people love the Lord. And he loves us all. And he loves everyone. I mean, I love everyone in this room. There shouldn't be any ill thing in our heart because Jesus said, they'll know you're my disciples by your love for each other. So I want to

049say it's nothing to do with hate. We have to learn how to love and care for each other. And if someone is misguided, we should help and we should pray for each other. And I think bullying is wrong. But I also know we didn't. you know, tell who this person was. I don't know if it's a female or male. I don't know. No one ever put a name out there. So there was persecution against this person. I don't know. And I don't think it's important to know. But I did read that before this happened, that they were allowed to dress, undress in the nurse's station. And I think they were okay with that. I don't think they were being persecuted and it gave them privacy. It gave the people that maybe didn't want it privacy.

050Why can't we just do that? I mean, I think when I was growing up, we had prayer in school. Now we took that away. Okay, when I was growing up, abortion was illegal. They took, now, you know, you can get pregnant and get an abortion. When I was growing up, they didn't give out contraceptives to kids. Well, now kids can have sex. Well, I didn't have sex in high school because I didn't want to get pregnant. And when I was growing up, it was different. Was it better? I think so. I think we're closer to biblical morals. And I think as the school board members, we all need just to really pray because we... Jesus said, he who causes a child to be offended, you know, who believes in me, to sin. If you cause

051someone to sin, it'd be better if a maelstrom was around your neck and thrown in the depths of the sea. Is Jesus telling the truth? Do we believe what he says? I wouldn't want to cause any little one to stumble. Is middle school little? Or are they big now and they know everything? But we've got to think about that. And we have to love, and our teachers have to love. And I want to say I'm very grateful for Jeanette Ward because she let us know. Now I can pray. Thank you, Jeanette. Thank you. Our next speaker is Wendell. After Wendell will be Roxanne and Vic. And then once again, I'm going to ask the plea. We have some seats down here that we can start bringing people down from upstairs. It looks like we have

052at least probably six to eight. And again, if you've already spoken, if you could please step to one of the upstairs rooms, that way we can make room for more speakers. Thank you. I am Wendell Catron. I'm a taxpayer in Elgin and I applaud the board member who brought this issue to the light One of the reasons is because I really believe that parents have the responsibility to teach Their children the difference between right and wrong The parents have the responsibility to transmit their faith and to have courageous conversations about this kind of issue. Because I don't think it's just the rights of a minority. And I really think we need to guard against responding to the loud voice of radicalized minority groups. We need to understand that there needs to be a balance and

053that their majority needs to have a voice. And something else that very much concerns me besides the parents' ability to be able to transmit their faith and values to their children, they need knowledge of what's going on to be able to do that. But also, I am very concerned for the other kids. The other kids, I have a feeling, and I don't know because I'm not there, I have a feeling that they're told to be quiet, that they're told to acquiesce, and that if they say that something is sin, I'm not saying that they should be disrespectful or bullying, but I'm saying that they should not be made to compromise their faith either and agree that a certain lifestyle is anything other than sin. And they need to be able to say that and not

054be afraid of being punished. If a child doesn't want to go into a restroom with a member of the opposite sex, they should be able to find accommodations for that child, not just for the minority. But everybody's rights needs to be recognized. And the parents really need to be aware of. their responsibility to raise their kids to know the difference between right and wrong to be able to make right decisions to be able to Treat people with respect and not bully and they need to be able to understand that and to be able to speak into that I really think this is a radical political issue that shouldn't be political. For example, there's 12 states that are fighting against the Obama edict to make this issue cause the federal government to withdraw funds from schools.

055This is a valid debate, and I believe that Obama overstepped his bond, his authority in writing those kind of edicts, because he's really not supposed to write law. And I think it's a valid thing to fight this and to stand up for the rights of the normal child, for the rights of people who want the privacy and safety in the bathrooms, and not to be having to be shocked at what they see when they go into a bathroom. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it. Thank you. Before we get to our next speaker. I would just like to note that we've made it through about 13 or 14 speakers out of 64. So if somebody else has shared already, as we said at the very beginning, somebody's already said something that you think was more

056appropriate or that you would just like to mimic, feel free to do that. Otherwise, I'm sure the board would be glad to listen to the full three minutes of everybody, but that means you'll all be sitting here for about three and a half more hours. Our next speaker is Roxanne. After that will be Vicki Wilson. If Vicki could step down. Okay. Thank you. I am a parent of a middle schooler. I'm also the vice president of SWANS, which is an acronym for students who are not silent. We are an LGBTQ plus and allies organization. We know what it's like. from our allies to everybody in that whole acronym there on this particular issue, what it means for them, what it means for us, and what it means for my son. My son does not care

057what somebody else is doing in the bathroom. Middle school is awkward enough. It's hard. Why make it worse for someone else who is struggling so hard? I struggled in middle school. I struggled in high school. I purposely got myself injured because I did not want to be in the bathroom because of ridicule. The mission statement right behind you says that it's a place for students to learn and that it's to be great. Make it great. I don't want you to tolerate. I'd like acceptance. Toleration? No. Acceptance. We are people. And the gentleman that spoke before me said normal. I am normal. There's nothing wrong with me. And there's nothing wrong with those children. Please understand. We all want great things for our children. And I want acceptance for each and every one of them. And

058I will speak up. I will not be silent about it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. My next speaker is Vicki Wilson, and after Mrs. Wilson will be Tom Morrison. My name is Vicki Wilson, and I'm from District 211. I want to start out by saying that I and everyone in our group in District 211, we absolutely empathize with every child who suffers from gender dysphoria. We also believe that schools have a duty to protect the privacy and dignity of every child, and those two statements are not mutually exclusive. There have always been children with gender dysphoria. It's not new. It's not new that these children need help, love, understanding, and compassion. But with a little research, you will find that there are scores of people who have spoken out about having

059these feelings as children but no longer feel this way as adults. The media buries these stories, but they are out there. These folks have said they are so grateful they did not grow up in today's world where things are much, much different or do anything by way of transitioning to live as the opposite sex. These adults are so grateful that they did not do anything to alter their bodies. They cannot imagine what their lives would be like now if they had. They are grateful the adults in their lives just loved them through it and waited. With a little more research, you will find that there are people who did transition and regret it. They have mutilated their bodies, and they are in a deep depression with no conceivable way out. Research shows that the vast

060majority of children with gender dysphoria end up losing these feelings and identifying with their biological sex before adulthood. Brains are not even fully developed until the mid-20s. To encourage all children with gender dysphoria to celebrate these feelings is extremely dangerous and will confuse those further down the road when they become, likely become, part of the 80 to 95 percent of children who outgrow these feelings. and identify with their biological sex. Don't take my word for it. Do the research. Listening to only one side, not listening to all the voices, is dangerous and has major consequences for these children. Children need adults to help them, not to use them as a social experiment, not to use them to fulfill some political agenda. And while these children are experiencing these feelings, it is compassionate to give them

061an option to ensure their privacy and safety in school. since they may not feel comfortable in the locker room where they identify biologically. If it were my child and they asked for help, I would get them help. I would request a private space, but I would never demand to trample on the rights of the other students. There is a path forward where all children are protected and respected, but that's not what you're doing. And with regard to parental notification, I've heard many districts and yours say as well that state and federal laws prevent us from communicating about these situations with other families. Well, the truth is there is no law whatsoever preventing you from telling parents that a policy has changed and that you have opened private spaces to the opposite sex. None whatsoever. This

062can be done without disclosing any confidential information. And none has been in this case. And not only is there no law that... It is your duty to let parents know about changes that affect their children. Can you please wrap up? I will. I've also heard districts point to the Illinois Human Rights Act, but maybe folks aren't reading the entire act because there is an exemption for facilities distinctly private. Any facility which is distinctly private in nature, such as restrooms, shower rooms, etc., may grant exceptions. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tom Morrison. After Mr. Morrison will be Lucas Kelly. Thank you to the board and for those who have come out tonight. As a private citizen, I'm a father of three children, but I also wear a public hat. I'm a state representative

063from the Palatine area, and I wanted to talk to the board and the residents to share some of my experiences on this issue, both as a resident of District 211 and as a policymaker in the state. Schools have our duty to protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of all students. And I want to remind the board and all the residents, we're talking about minors here, going through major transitions, not fully understanding all of these issues. And we need to be very, very careful with the policies that we enact because it will affect them now and for decades in the future. As I mentioned, the District 211 issue led me to really look at this issue in greater depth. I support common sense. It's common sense not to force boys and girls to undress together in

064locker rooms or shower rooms. The dignity, privacy, and safety of every child matters. All school policies must respect the needs of all children. Schools can accommodate a small number of students with different needs without compromising the rights of every other child and their parents. And as I said, I think there can be a compassionate, reasonable. common sense compromise approach. And so I filed legislation, House Bill 4474. I have nearly 30 co-sponsors, Republican and Democrat, from Northern Illinois, Central Illinois, Southern Illinois. What I found, it's not a partisan issue. This is just an issue of common sense and compassion. And what it does is it gives every student the safety and privacy that they need. For those students who cannot for whatever reason, use a facility that corresponds with their objective biological sex, it gives those

065students privacy, a place to use the restroom during the day, and it does so without interfering with the safety and privacy of all the other students or the majority of the students, I should say. Because what we do, our needs as human beings differ. That's why we have separate facilities for bathrooms and locker rooms and changing areas. We have objective differences, our biology, our physiology. And I think this bill is something that you should look at. It's a policy that we don't need state legislation to enact it. A school district can enact it. School districts around the country have enacted this legislation, again, because it's compassionate and common sense. And with that, I just thank you for your time. Thank you. Good evening board I am a teacher in this district and I'm also a

066u-46 product so I was a student here and I'm just very happy that we've embraced the diversity and we've addressed concerns of students that were having issues and That we didn't ignore them and brush them under the rug like it is usually done with the very small minority populations As far as safety, I don't agree that it's a safety issue. Most middle schoolers and high schoolers even don't enjoy the locker room. It's not a place they want to hang out. They want to get in and get out. I remember when I was in that age, I didn't want to be there either. It's not a co-ed bathroom or a co-ed locker room that we're talking about. It is students that are identifying with a gender that was not biologically assigned to them. It is not

067we're just going to let boys and girls just change in front of each other just willy-nilly. And to say that it would allow sexual predators is also ridiculous. What middle school or high schooler would go that far to portray themselves as trans to get into a bathroom? I mean, honestly, that's ridiculous. Most kids don't even want to be in the attention or the spotlight. They just want to be there and learn. So the fact that they would go to that extent to get in another bathroom is just ridiculous to me. I'm very thankful to my district. I love working for District D-46. I think we have a diverse population in our school, and I'm very glad that the district is embracing them. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mike Meyer. Following Mike Meyer

068is Gene McNamara. Hey, good evening. Mike here. This looks dangerously close to something we can't do where I work as sexual harassment. Got to be careful with that. I'm holding traditional values. They work in the long haul. I tell people think two steps ahead. I tell kids, where is this going to take you five years down the road? The third point, I'm keeping it short and simple. A right carries with it a corresponding responsibility. Guys, we've got to be responsible. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jean Magner is our next speaker, followed by Daniel McCarty. I'm not good with microphones. Am I okay? My name is Jean McNamara and I've been a 30 plus year resident of U46. I'm a master's prepared nurse and my area of interest is in hormones, endocrine hormones. And I'm

069here today really to discuss endocrine disruption. It's a little bit different tact than what we've been hearing. But I'm one of these nurses that think and hate the Band-Aid approach. In America, there's a pill for every kind of medical problem. And instead of getting to the underlying reason, like we don't even begin to know really what causes cancer. And my husband died two years ago from cancer. We don't know what causes autoimmunity, why diabetes, type 1 diabetes juvenile, it's autoimmune. And my family is riddled with autoimmune disease. We don't have a clue. why that is. These endocrine hormones, for instance, adrenal hormones, thyroid hormones, testosterone, that is the predominant hormone that causes the male to be a male, and estrogen and progesterone that cause a female to be a female, those are endocrine hormones. They

070all can cause serious mental aberrations. Sorry, I don�t like to speak in front of people. But basically, I am asking you, we do not know much, really, about our very intricately designed bodies. And we have given up on these people. Because you see, in diabetes, when the blood sugar goes high, we say, why is the insulin, that endocrine hormone, not working? And they find out why. And we treat the person. Yes, we don't know much about it still. And they die all the time. And they lose their legs and their vision. Now this testosterone in a male is not causing the effect that it should have. And this estrogen and progesterone in the female is not causing the effect it should have. And instead of us saying, why? We give up on these people. We

071let them. As responsible adults, we are sending them down the road to having sex change operations that will mean they'll never father a child. I'm a mother, and I desire grandkids. They will never father a child, and you're leading them down that road. Don't medically give up. There's a cause. When testosterone doesn't cause the effects it's supposed to, there's a reason. And so I have some scientific articles here. One of them is from Yale. And the other one is from the University of Missouri. And we'll get through as far as I can here. Unraveling the mystery of bizarre deformed frogs. For the last two decades, strange things have happened to frogs. While others have high incidence, what is known as intersex, traits associated with both males and females, such as male frogs, whose testes, their

072male part that should produce... Firm. Produce eggs. Am I already out of time? Yes. If you would like to leave those with... I do. And just finishing up, there are many articles on these endocrine disruptors. BPA plastics, horrible, horrible. And the synthetic birth control hormones, they're citing for changing the sexes in other animals. and how it affects vertebrates, those are humans. If you'd like to leave them with Ms. Fergus. And if there's extra for reporters, please. Thank you. Our next speaker is Daniel McCarty. And then after that will be our Margaret Brish client. Daniel. My name is Dan McCarty, and I live and work in Elgin. I have a small business. I employ people, and I have a 7-year-old daughter in second grade. I love diversity in every area of life, especially people. I've lived

073and worked on four continents among diverse racial groups. I feel at home and elegant. I believe that love trumps everything and that there is no place for discrimination of hatred of any person or group. I would hope my remarks tonight are not intended to disrespect anyone. I believe in free will. I do not believe we are genetically determined blobs of chemicals, powerless against any destructive thought that enters our minds. We can choose to stand free against addictions, pornography, drugs, alcohol, sex, food, etc., which are so seductive to many of us in this increasingly undisciplined, amoral society. We may have a predisposition or inclination towards these. We may have childhood or adult trauma that gave them a foothold, but we can still choose to be free of them. Children by nature are pliable, open to suggestion

074and manipulation. I believe we need to protect our children from those who would suggest and teach that gender dysphoria is normal and positive. U-46 school policies teach our children, just as my daughter learns from what I do more than from what I say. Do we want our children to be taught that gender dysphoria is a good thing, something to be encouraged? How would that impact them? As has been mentioned before, psychological research has shown that over 90% of children with gender dysphoria discard it as they grow into their teenage years. However, if we as parents encourage them to develop those feelings or give them hormone treatments or surgery, we can prevent that normal transition occurring. Transgenders suffer an attempted suicide rate of over 40% compared to 1% rate in the general population. Life expectancy is

075two decades lower. Do we want that for more of our children? As parents, we all have a responsibility to encourage and protect modesty and to help our children have healthy sexual relationships. I believe this new U-46 policy goes against what many of us believe is correct. The morality of our children is being undermined by TV and social media. Pornography used by teens and preteens is rampant. Our children are living in a very destructive and a very difficult environment. This policy increases the dangers that our students may face from criminal assault and rape, not so much from transgenders, but from normal males. students like myself when I was 16 who took advantage who may take advantage of the open door policy of U-46. Indecent exposure is against the law in Illinois for those 17 and older

076but this policy would make that of no consequence for the student. Thank you. Thank you. After Ms. Klein will be Jennifer Schroeder if Jennifer Schroeder could step forward. I'm Margaret Frisch-Klein, the rabbi of Congregation Knesset Israel, your neighbor right around the corner. Our parking lot is available because we like to be the warm and welcoming neighbor. This was my... That was not the applause moment, folks. This was my cup this morning at Starbucks. It's actually a clean one, but... It says upstander, and that's what I teach my students to be, to be an upstander, not a bystander, to champion the rights of the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the most marginalized among us because we as Jews were slaves in the land of Egypt. The mission statement of the U46 school system is clear. All

077means all, and it fits squarely within Jewish tradition. Judaism is a 5,000 year tradition and within it there are many different interpretations. We Jews argue better than anybody about everything. If there are two Jews, there are three opinions, so I take a risk in being here tonight. Within my own congregation, even in the room tonight, there are differences of opinions about everything. Some will no doubt be unhappy that I'm here tonight. But as the spiritual leader, what I and my leadership team do is to create an atmosphere of respect. Our vision statement says, similar to yours, building community and embracing diversity. So here's the surprise. All rabbis agree. that according to Genesis, a book that many of us in this room hold sacred, everyone was created in Hebrew, B'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God.

078And like your mission statement, everyone means everyone, all means all. Some rabbis, and this is the long part, sorry, even argue that the initial human being, that first Adam, that first Adam, was some kind of androgen, since it says male and female, he, and I don't usually use the he, created them. They think that means both together. That fascinates me, because I didn't learn it that way in Hebrew school. We didn't talk about such things way back then. You do the math. Here's the surprise. Each of the major branches of Judaism and their rabbinic associations have said similar things. The Reform Movement, the Conservative Movement, the Reconstructionist Movement, the Jewish Renewal Movement have all embraced the rights of transgendered people on the basis of that idea, B'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, period. I

079can provide you with their statements. Even Yeshiva University, the Orthodox University, has rehired a professor of English who was Jay and is now Joy. Her book, Through the Doors of Life, is masterful and outlines her own fears of what going into the bathroom was like as a new woman. I encourage you to read the book. I'm not here tonight to argue scripture. That wouldn't be appropriate. That should happen in synagogues, temples, churches, and mosques. I'm here at a public school to argue for the appropriate communications and access that protects the rights of all students. Our job here is to uphold the federal and state law to provide a safe environment. There's more, but I'll quit for now. Thank you. You know where to find me. We'll note that we have people coming in, so if

080you have room near you, if you could scooch in, that way maybe they can just sit on the outside until we fill all the seats. And then in addition, if you've already spoken, please, please, let's be respectful and please step upstairs to one of the overflow rooms, and that way we have room for those with public comic cards to come down. Our next speaker is Jennifer Schroeder, and following Jennifer will be Mike Roeder. Good evening. I'm a former board member and as such I know a little something about being a board member. I'm also a woman of faith. One of your members has put a target on the back of several children in this district that is unacceptable behavior for a board member. I want to tell those kids that there are many, many people

081in this district who love and support them in spite of the hate demonstrated by this board member. We are here for you. Please don't let that hate touch you or your heart. I know administration in our district and in our schools can't be everywhere, but they will do their best to see that you are well cared for. As for the board member, I can't imagine what provoked the hateful behavior that has, but that has to stop. You need to go to resign. Your actions have overstepped the bounds of decency. You needed to go the first time you voted to disregard state and federal law. Now it is abundantly clear that you care nothing for our children. Time to go. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Mike Broder and Deborah, and I may have mispronounced

082it, Deborah Unti will be next, but first, Mr. Broder. Good evening. Wow, what a turnout. It's my understanding that there are three or four more rooms filled like this. Can you imagine the total number of years of education? that those of us here must represent? Are we saying that the only way to provide comfort for the few is to deny it for the many? With all of our education, that is the only solution that we can offer to this challenge. Thank you, Jeanette. That's all I have. Thank you. Our next speaker is Deborah Eakin. And after that is Shannon Dunn. My name is Deborah Unte. I live in Cary. I have children that are a product of District 155, which is our four high schools. And our school board did vote in secret about a

083change in the use of lockers and washrooms and all of that. And that is not the way that should be handled. These this area is funded by the community taxpayers. Secrecy is inappropriate and immoral. Look at me, Mr. Sanders, please. I'm taking I am taking notes on what you excellent. Thank you. And as a mom, or I'm assuming you are a dad. No one wants their child harmed. That is never the discussion. Our goal always should be to protect. The discussion of having a child who does live with Judeo-Christian morals, or any kid, talk about being uncomfortable about undressing in an area where there's members of the opposite sex. Yeah, we need to protect that. It's been that way for how many years that we keep them separate. Why now we must change? Wrong. Threatening.

084Intimidating to the kids that don't want to have a public viewing. Children's privacy will be violated by allowing mixed usage in washrooms and locker rooms. Nakedness is awkward enough. Look at yourself in the mirror. Nobody wants to go there. So we need to keep it straight, boys and girls. All of our children are God's children. It is our moral responsibility to protect them. All of them. All of them represented within your community and my community. Choose wisely you will answer for your decisions. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. Thank you Jean Hi, I'm Shannon I Started going to you 46 schools when I was 2 I was enrolled in the Larkin high school Pre-k program for teaching high school students about care of young children. I continued to go to U-46 schools until I graduated

085South Algern High School in 2009. What U-46 schools have taught me is how to accept everyone. I was placed with a lot of different students from a lot of different backgrounds, and I learned to accept everyone. I support the school board's policy. I agree with it. I hear a lot of people talking about the safety of their children and I just want to point out that trans students are disproportionately put at risk. Being outed as trans can be a death sentence. I know that that was not your intention to put a target on a child's back, but you did. You called for a witch hunt regardless of whether or not those were your intentions, Mrs. Ward. And now we have a lot of people here who have an invested interest in what's going on in

086our school district, but they don't have children here. It's not your place to come into our school district and tell us what our policies are. I think that our children should be telling us what our policies are and what they're comfortable with. Please, please let her speak. We have respected every other speaker. Please respect her. I graduated the school district. I babysit for kids in the school district. A message of fear and hate, regardless of whether or not you see it as fear and hate, affects them. It affects how they see people. We need to teach each other how to love everyone, regardless of the differences. And I know a lot of people are talking about their religious rights, and this is a public school. I respect your religious freedom, but do not push it

087on those who do not share it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jean. Following that will be Reverend Calvin Lindstrom. Hi. My name is Jean Croco. I don't live in the district. I have 10 children and 19 grandchildren counting. My 10th child, I'm homeschooling at this point, but I've had kids in public school, in private school, and in parochial school. So I'm very interested in all children. I'd like to talk about truth. The truth is that a man can never become a woman, and a woman can never become a man. Just like a man can never become a dog or a cat or anything else. What you're born is what you're born. If a child came into the school and said, I identify as a cat. I want to chase mice and eat them raw.

088You would consider that to be a problem with the child and not support it. You'd say, no, you need help. If a little girl says, I want to be a little boy, you don't say, oh, that's fine. That's good. We'll help you do it. you find out what's going on with this child. This is a mental illness. Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and it needs to be treated. And the children who suffer from it do not benefit by having people lie to them and say, yes, you can become whatever you want to be. And when you encourage this to happen, what happens to the other kids? If Johnny wants to be called Jane, do you tell the other kids you have to call him Jane also? You make them participate in the lie that

089this person can change. You can change. You can have surgery. You can mutilate your body. You can reconstruct your body. But you're still the same. You can take hormones, and they will make your attitude change. They'll make your voice change. They'll do a lot of things. but they won't change your DNA. It can't be changed. It's with you from the moment of conception until the day you die. If you're born a man, you stay a man, no matter what you do to your body. If you're born a girl, you stay a girl for the rest of your life. And to tell children that they can do that is lying and deceitful. And of course they have a high suicide rate because they're not doing what they should be doing. You can't just... Tell someone to

090live a delusion and expect it not to come back and bite them. There's people who have committed suicide because they didn't like what happened to them after their gender reassignment surgery, as they call it. That's mutilation, and they realize that. It's not helping. You need to tell these children, we love you. We want you to grow up to be the person you were made to be. Male and female, God created us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Reverend Lindstrom and then Ray Stalker. Mr. Stalker, if you could step forward. Good evening, Board, and thank you for providing a public forum. I am not part of this school district. I'm not trying to come in as some hero, but I do want to support a board member that I think has taken

091much flack. and I realize this is a controversial issue, but I believe Mrs. Ward has come under attack very unfairly. And I am a friend of Mrs. Ward. I've known her for a number of years, and so I wanted to stand with her. Yes, she did post something on Facebook, but Mr. Sanders also posted something on Facebook. They both had the right to do that. And no student was identified. I don't know the details. I read some of your Facebook posts. You had supporters. You had many detractors on your Facebook post, Mrs. Ward. So what you posted was not an agenda. I believe it was information. And people are going to take that information. Some are going to be positive. In fact, I was a little bit, I noted it's mostly for the board. Most

092of the people who posted were actually supported the board. Now, I thought that was a little strange. Maybe I'm behind on the times. But Mrs. Ward, I think, took not a position to engender her own career. If anything, it went against her own career. So I want to support her for, I think, her constitutional rights. She did not, I do not believe in any way endanger any student. She raised awareness of what is a controversial issue, which does need to be dealt with by the adults in the room. A previous speaker mentioned Genesis, and I do not believe there is any confusion of what scripture teaches us. That there isn't confusion. That man was made male and female. And in education, I'm an educator also, in education we have objective truth. That's the basis for

093education. There is truth. In math, in science, we search for that truth. We don't always get it right. The history of science shows many people did not arrive at objective truth. But God has given us. truth related to creation, related to who we are. And I also want to emphasize the central truth of Christianity is not angry people, but it is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the only hope that people, wherever they are, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are happy or sad, the only truth is in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners. That's what all people have in common. We are sinners and we need a savior. And the Lord Jesus Christ is that savior. And I believe we must follow what

094he has said about humanity. Otherwise, we do it to our detriment. That may not be positive. That may not be the majority message, but it is the objective truth. Thank you. Before we continue forward, I would like, again, if you've issued your comments, we still have two rooms full of people who are waiting, and many of them have public comment cards. So if you've had your opportunity to speak, please, there's rooms upstairs available to you. We have staff members who will escort you upstairs, and then we have speakers who can step back down. Our next is Mr. Stalker, followed by Sue Johnson. Hi. Interesting that that text from the Old Testament has been used. One far wiser than I think all of us quoted it to community leaders in his time and said, have you

095not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? It didn't stop there. And went on and said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. The two become one flesh. And one of the results of that, quite often, is children. Children do not belong to the state. Children do not belong to the school. I'm concerned when I hear a school violating rights of parents to even to know or to be informed, much less to be consulted. The school and the school board answer to parents, not the other way around. That is really critical. It's really critical in our Western society. The civil government answers to the citizens and not the other way around, ultimately. So I

096implore you to not violate the parents that are involved with the school. They must be informed. They must be part of the decision-making process. Otherwise, you will continue to create situations like this, and you're going to have great difficulties because of it if you do. Thank you. Thank you. It's Sue Johnson and while Sue is speaking of Mark Mark, I'm gonna mess up your name I think but No, it's actually Okay, I am Sue Johnson. I live currently in Crystal Lake, formerly of Palatine, formerly of Streamwood. Thank you, Jeanette Ward, for shining the light of truth on this controversy. Jeanette Ward is not a bully. Telling the truth is not hate speech. Telling the truth is needed and necessary to evaluate failed policies and decisions. I had three children go to District U-46 schools, and

097I am disappointed at recent immoral decisions made and how things have changed in 16 years. Parents and all students need to know when school policies fail to protect the safety and privacy of each student. CEO Tony Sanders and board members have a chance tonight to correct their mistake and vote for transparency and vote to protect the rights and safety of every student. Privacy matters. No child should be forced into an intimate setting, like a locker room, with someone of the opposite sex. Thinking away your biological anatomy doesn't mean a confused student can invade the private space of another student. The privacy and safety of all students need to be protected. Board members, don't allow yourselves to be bullied by the federal government when they threaten to withhold funding. According to Alliance Defending Freedom, countless students

098and parents And 24 states agree that the Department of Education's threat to take away federal funding if public school districts do not open locker rooms and showers to members of the opposite sex is an abuse of its authority. 24 states are calling on the Obama administration to stop imposing its agenda on students. I ask the board members and Tony Sanders to do the same. Thank you. Mark, just so I, we have two different versions of your name. So could you, B-E-S-T-U-L. U-L. Thank you. All right. Yeah, my name is Mark Bestel. I'm the pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church, a sister congregation of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and a congregation of 350 souls in Elgin, including a number of young families who have children in the U46 school district. I'm here to simply put on

099display, as some have before me, that religious leaders in our community are concerned about this issue, as confessional Lutherans were concerned about the issue. And yet we also want everybody to know that that we're also very compassionate toward those with whom we disagree. We pray for them. We ask for their prayers as well. We desire to point them to our mutual need for forgiveness in Christ crucified, through which forgiveness comes. And while I have concerns about the locker room decisions that are being made across our land, I also can understand where you guys are in a little bit of a conundrum in trying to juggle all of the opinions of the public square. What concerns me the most is that the perception at least is that we just didn't want to have the parents involved.

100And as speakers have said this repeatedly tonight, I think it just needs to be reinforced over and over again that the parents need to be involved in these decisions, not just reactively but proactively need to be involved in them. It's not the government's duty, but the parents. whether Christian or Muslim or Jew or atheist, to raise their child in a particular worldview and ideology, and those ideologies will converge in the public square. But a middle school classroom or locker room isn't the public square. And we have to be careful for our kids' sake. Some folks have said that my religious values shouldn't come into this conversation. I'd like to remind you of a particular quote by not a religious leader, but one of our nation's presidents and sons of the state. Ronald Reagan said, the

101First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values from government tyranny. And that's really the opportunity that you as a committee have, is to protect everybody's values in this case. I'd lastly like to say that I don't know all the details and all the facts, but I don't believe, from what I know, that Mrs. Ward has outed any individual. Someone earlier saying that she has reached out to the individual and said, whoever the student is. Well, by definition, that means you haven't outed the individual. I don't know who the individual is, and I don't know what school the individual goes to. Finally, I commend the individual who said that students belong to their parents. not to the government. And I'd encourage the school

102board to know that it's your job to serve the parents, not for the parents to serve the school board. And we keep you in our prayers as you work on this difficult decision. Thank you. Thank you. Our next two speakers, the first is Blasi Decker. Following Mrs. Decker will be Donna Miller, if Donna could also step forward. I don't use microphones either, so you'll have to tell me if it's not okay. My name is Rozzie Decker. I'm a taxpayer for U46. I do not have children in this district, but my money does go to this district. I support Jeanette Ward. Every person matters. I agree, but at this juncture, it feels that some matter more. Girls have a right to have their bodily privacy not be invaded. I have compassion. However, I feel that the

103rights to privacy are paramount in the locker room. The argument is that this person feels left out or different. Why would dressing in a different place make any difference? He is already different, he or she. Different not being bad, just different. I can understand why he or she may feel that his place is not in the boys' locker room. However, the girls' locker room is not the answer. There are accommodations that could be arranged for everyone, and it absolutely goes against common sense for this arrangement to be configured in this way. I'm not discussing safety. Now I'm discussing the competing rights. Your values say a safe and secure environment for all. Safety doesn't just mean from violence, but from all aspects of invasion. Invasion of privacy should be included. One could feel violated when a

104person of the opposite sex is in the safe havens of the locker room. If I could get a clear representation of what the other side feels are the explicit rights of the girls sharing the locker room in this situation, I think it would be clear that the rights of this person to feel included does not trump the clear-cut rights of the girls to modesty and privacy, a right that has been a clear case of solid morality for centuries. Feelings aren't a stronghold to attach a right to. The sexes have always had an inbred instinct to clothe themselves in ways to cover themselves for modesty and privacy purposes. I do agree that all children should not be bullied and should be taught compassion for all. I firmly believe that. However, allowing for privacy and modesty for

105all is an ideal we can all agree on. Thank you. While Donna Miller is speaking, if Sandra Crenshaw could step forward. I am here to speak many words, however many good people have gone before me. And so firstly, I just want to thank all the board members for being here and listening to the many people. Thank you. And I would like to especially thank Jeanette. Mrs. Ward, and thank you for representing the students of faith and traditional values. You are giving these students a voice and you have many supporters upstairs. So thank you all. Thank you. Our next speaker, Ms. Crenshaw, after that will be Ellie Alvarado. Good evening. I'm Cedra Crenshaw. I'm here tonight from Wheaton. And I drove here tonight to support my friend and board member, Jeanette Ward. Like I said, she's

106my friend. She's also my sister in Christ. And I have every right to be here, even though my children don't go to school in this district, because this is not just about U46. This issue has statewide and national implications. And that's why I support board member Ward's principled decision to expose U46's unlawful co-ed locker room and restroom policy. Every student's safety and privacy matters. And no child should ever be forced into an intimate setting in school like a restroom or a locker room with another child of the opposite sex. The September 7 Chicago Tribune article states that if a student does not feel safe in a locker room or restroom, they are to contact a building principal with their concerns. But this is an unreasonable burden to place on children, further justifying board member Ward's

107decision to inform district parents. Parents are their children's best advocates. And parents have a right to protect their children, and school districts have an obligation to listen to the parents they serve. Parents have every right to be included in such a major decision that affects not only their children's bodily privacy, but their children's beliefs and values. So why did the district move forward with this reckless social experiment? CEO Tony Sanders stated in the Tribune article that the district was in compliance with federal guidelines from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. However, just a few weeks ago, a federal judge ruled that those federal guidelines violate the Administrative Procedures Act and are contrary to federal law. The judge in that decision granted an injunction blocking the imposition of those federal guidelines. So I ask,

108is it wise for this district to align itself with unlawful federal guidelines that are the subject of litigation? Our schools are the wrong place for social experiments. And let's not kid ourselves, this is a social experiment. School safety and privacy policies should respect the needs of all children and the rights for parents to protect their children. The obvious solution is to rescind this policy, continue to allow transgender students to change in a nurse or staff restroom if they choose, and maintain locker rooms and restrooms according to biological sex. This way, you will represent the entire community and not just those with the loudest politically correct bullhorn because every child's safety and privacy matters. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ellie Alvarado and Teresa Nunes. Hi, I am a proud U-46 teacher, Go Ridge Circle Panthers.

109I'm a proud U-46 community member, and as next year, I'll be a proud U-46 parent, too. I just want to say how proud I am of U-46's commitment to all students, regardless of race, language, ability, or gender identity, and protecting the rights of all children. When I started working in Elgin, we rented. When it came time to buy a house, I knew exactly where I wanted my property taxes to go. As of this year, we are now proud U-46 homeowners. I am tired, though, of people singling out children based on things they can't change. I've seen it with social and economic status, race, language, and now gender identity. Who will be targeted next? Who will be able to escape being targeted by supposed adults who are in charge of this district? My heart goes out

110to all the students and adults who have been watching this board meeting and being told that they are sick and not normal. You are not sick and no one is normal. Everyone is everyone. We're all strange. Again, I am proud to be part of such a diverse and inclusive district and I cannot wait for my daughter to start dual language full day K next year. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Carissa, and my background is in education, and I've also served on a school board when I lived out of the state, so I feel your pain. This is not about hating anyone. This is not about shunning anyone. This is not about being disrespectful to anyone. This is not about acceptance or rejection. This is not about being unloving. This is not about fear.

111This is not about religion. To compare this to racism or bigotry is just bullying. We live in an age where children struggle with body image and self-worth. We live in an age where pornography, which objectifies men and women alike, is rampant. We live in an age where pop culture tells children that the only way they can be accepted is by being sexually active. We live in an age where children are sexually active earlier and earlier, which spreads disease. Now the school, which is supposed to protect children, is going to set the example that there should be no prohibition from undressing in front of the opposite sex. At a time when a child's body goes haywire as he or she enters puberty, privacy is being taken away. A young girl who may be struggling with feeling

112okay about her body now has to undress in front of a boy. A young man who may not feel as manly as his peers has to undress in front of a girl. How is it that the adult world has figured this out, but the school district hasn't? When I go to the gym, my seven-year-old son cannot enter the women's locker room. It is inappropriate for him to see women undressing and violates the privacy of the women using the locker room. This is about telling children that it's okay to want privacy. It's okay to be modest. If the school district chooses to tell students that it's not okay to want privacy and it is old-fashioned to be modest, it is the school district who is bullying. It is right for the school to protect a child's

113privacy. Respect the LGBT community. They are equally important and worthy human beings. Protect the LGBT community, but not at the expense of all the other children. Make other accommodations. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Wayne Dula. After that will be Cassie Deal. Thank you for being willing to listen to each and every one of us tonight. Unfortunately, the hard truth is disorders exist. Everything from claustrophobia to pedophilia, they exist. And not everybody who has these disorders... chooses them. In fact, most people would not choose to have a disorder like claustrophobia or pedophilia. But we're not building extra large restrooms for claustrophobics. We're not building special restrooms for pedophiles to keep them away from our children. rationally expect is that people with disorders conform themselves to our reasonable norms. That we don't conform ourselves

114to their disordered desires or expectations. A male mind in a female body is a textbook example of a disorder, and I'm saying that objectively, no hate whatsoever. A female mind and a male body, textbook example of a disorder. For psychiatrists to say these are not disorders, that's flat out malpractice, and yet that is what's happening. You're basing your policy on basically a decision by some malpractitioners. I don't find that very rational. I don't find that very fair. Our approach to people with disorders should be to help them learn how to live with them happily without enabling immoral or irrational or controversial behavior. That should be the goal. Not to cave in and grant to each and every person with a disorder their unreasonable demands. I guess that's pretty much what I want to say. Thank

115you again for listening to all of us. Thank you. Our next speaker is Cassie Beal. After Cassie is Christiana Corley. This is not something I do easily, but I guess as a younger person, a millennial, as they would call us, I see a lot of millennials, a lot of younger people representing the LGBT community here. And I know there's a few that are traditional, but there's not as many. And I just, there's a lot of stuff that was already said. And I had a lot that I wanted to say, but a lot of it was already said, but I wanted to represent the younger generation. That still holds traditional values. I have two children. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Not old enough to attend school yet. And I'm not part of the U46 district. But I

116do work with a lot of kids and teenagers who are a part of the U46 district at my church, Northwest Bible Baptist Church. And they come to us on a Friday night program, and we try to help them with different things that they struggle with. If they have a problem, we try to help them. If somebody is struggling with drugs, if somebody is struggling with pornography, if somebody is struggling with they start smoking at a young age and they know it's not good for them, they want to stop, we try to fix that problem. So if somebody comes to us with a gender identity problem, we try to help them. We don't just say, oh, that's okay. They're confused. It's not just you wake up one day and, oh, I'm a girl. Or I was

117born a boy, but now I wake up and I'm a girl. No, they're struggling with this. It's a process. And someone needs to direct them. And a lot of it is directing them from what they watch on TV, what the music they listen to. I saw a YouTube ad, the new YouTube ad. Maybe some of you have seen it. Maybe I'm quoting it wrong, but it was a transgender ad. And it said, It's who you are. What the ad was talking about YouTube what you listen to it's who you are Why did they say that why did YouTube say that they're saying that the music they listen to influence their choices? So they come to school they come to our church. They're looking for direction. They come to school these kids need direction They're not

118adults. I'm barely an adult. I'm 25. I'm still young. I'm still young. I still need direction I still need counsel these kids need help and they need counseling the direction You don't need to cater to what they're learning from the media's agenda, what they're learning from this music, what they're learning from TV shows that take down family traditions and don't promote moral standards. They need to come to school and be directed to have consistency. James 1.8 says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. A lot of these kids that have problems is because nobody's directing them. Everyone's just saying, well, what you're doing is okay. That's okay. You are how you feel. They need direction. They need a solid foundation. And if the school's not giving them a solid foundation and clear

119direction, then where are they supposed to get it from? And I guess that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Our next speaker is Christiana, and then will be Margaret Miller. My name is Christiana Corral and I'm a sophomore at Providence Baptist College. And I guess I'm also here to represent the younger generation because a lot of the people who have spoken have been adults and I think that's great because they have children in the school but I'm just out of the school system and I'd like to identify with the children. And I know that there's a lot of people here who are more qualified to speak than me and who are wiser than I am. And some people have said that they think it would be inappropriate to quote scripture here, but my freedom

120of speech allows me to do so, and so I will. And some folks have already said that God created humanity as a man and a woman, and I do believe in that. And I would also like to quote Genesis 6-5 that says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, if a man chooses to believe that he's a woman, I believe that that's wrong, but I'm not in control of that man or what he imagines himself to be in his own mind. I can, however, refuse to allow his imaginations to dictate my future and the futures of my children, who very well may be raised in this district. And, you know, and I'm not meaning

121to say this in any way that would offend anyone or to laugh or make fun of, but if several children in your school fancied themselves to be unicorns, would you decorate the school as a magical forest to make them feel comfortable? I don't believe so. And, you know, I looked up the word tolerance because that seems to be the cry of society today. The word tolerance means willingness to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own. Tolerance is to accept, but it's not to cater to something. It's not to make that the majority. And you say that I have no tolerance because I do not support the transgender restrooms, but what about tolerance for the beliefs of us who do not want ourselves or our children to be exposed to something that

122is against our beliefs? And I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Margaret Miller. Margaret Miller here. Okay, then our next speaker will be Bernard James. Bernard James? Okay. McKenzie? McKenzie, I'm not going to be able to pronounce your last name. Chudzik? Chudzik. All right, so hi, my name is McKenzie. I'm 17 years old. I go to Elgin High School, and I'm a female. I identify as lesbian. I like women, I do not like men. I am attracted to women, I am not attracted to men. I am not transgender, but I have gotten a lot of hate for my sexuality. I have been told to kill myself. I have been called numerous names. I have been told that I am not real. And I would like to say, for one, that

123if those things have been said to me, I can only imagine and I have heard things that have been said to people I'm friends with who are transgender. They exist. It is wrong to compare them to unicorns and, you know, decorating the school as a forest because unicorns, everyone knows, aren't real. It is a fairy tale. Whereas... transgender people, that is who they are. Growing up we are told we can be who we want to be, we can be anything we want. You can be a doctor, you can be a firefighter, you can be an astronaut, as long as you go for what you believe in, as long as you have that passion. Why is it any different? That is a career. But who you are is most important growing up. And if you don't

124have the decision to be who you want to be, if you have people telling you who you can be and who you cannot be. If you have people telling you that you are real or you are not real, then what's the point of everything else? There aren't high suicide rates because people don't like the decision they made about their bodies. There are high suicide rates because they're told that they're not real. They're told that they're worthless. They're told that they have no right to be in this world because they want to be a different gender than what they were born. I want to say that years ago, women were not able to vote. Women didn't have a bunch of rights. And now they do. What's different between the two of them now? And if you

125tell me that I can't compare women's rights to transgender rights, then you have no business comparing unicorns to transgender people. At all. So I'm going to just say that I'm 17. I go to Elgin High School. So many people are so supportive there. And I went, you know what, from sixth to eighth grade, I went to Lutheran school. I went to St. John's Lutheran school here in Elgin for three years. One of my teachers, he didn't believe in it, but he didn't tell us we are wrong for who we are. And I just want to finish by saying that just because people are opinionated and... They don't understand what goes on because you can't understand unless you live it. Can you wrap up quickly? Yeah, yeah, you can't understand you can't understand what's going on

126unless you live it like you can't understand how it feels to be an addict or you can't understand how it feels to be the child of an addict unless you have gone through that so it is wrong for anyone else to listen to anyone but these transgender students Edward Carr. Is Edward Carr here or upstairs? All right. Bruce. Is Bruce here? After Bruce will be Deborah. Deborah Smith does want to speak. Okay. Yes. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Good evening, Jeanette. I am from Peoria. I came all this long way because I have watched. And listen to a dear friend of mine be bullied, to be humiliated, to be publicly defamed and slandered. And I'm sick of it and I'm pissed off about it. And because of that, I want to point out

127some spectacular hypocrisy in this board. There are people here who would slander Jeanette Ward as a racist if she orders a ham sandwich for lunch. I mean, it is just ridiculous. The postings that she has done on Facebook have been diplomatic. They have been respectful. And even more importantly, they have served a vital public function. The way this whole issue was handled was a mistake from the very beginning. You are all publicly elected officials. You do not work for President Obama. You work for us. We pay your salaries. And we vote in the elections. I am a recovering day trader and in that world the SEC will occasionally come out with new regulations, new policies. It is customary for these policies to undergo a six month comment period. You don't force anything on people whose

128livelihood is at risk without allowing them to comment on it, without allowing them input. And the SEC is humble enough to know they don't know everything. They welcome this input. They incorporate it into their findings and resolutions. It is astonishing to me that children, who are vastly more important than the money rolling around Wall Street, that children have been treated in this way. They are being subjected to a policy which turns 2,000 years of Western civilization on its head because of politics. This policy must be rescinded and the kind of arrogance which seems to have been behind the high-handed approach of not asking for public input, allowing for comments beforehand, that has to go. And lastly, the whole thing was just stupid, if I may be blunt. We all know as soon as Mr. Obama

129issued an executive order, We all knew there were going to be legal challenges. There was no need to do this now. Just wait, let it work its way through the courts. You've got plenty of time. You would have served your constituents well by doing so. Instead, I've got a long drive home, which, well, don't get behind slow drivers and I-39. That's all I'll say. But again, thanks, Jeanette. Keep up the good work. Our next speaker was Deborah Smith, but she's asked to not make remarks now. So that makes our next speaker Denise Logan. And alongside Denise, if we could get Heather Matthews also to step forward. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. First, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Denise Logan, and I have

130been an educator for the last 23 years. I'm also the parent of a transgender son. My main purpose for speaking tonight is to express my appreciation to the administration and the school board for your leadership in creating an inclusive environment for all students. It is important that all students are able to come to school, learn, and participate in activities, and have their gender identities respected and affirmed. So again, I thank you for working with students and families on an individual basis and for protecting the privacy of those students and families as well. Your example is so important as one of the largest school districts in our state. I believe what you will find if you look across the state that many districts have and are implementing policies for transgender students to use facilities that match

131their gender identities without incident. With your continued leadership, I strongly believe this will be the case in U-46 as well. Thank you again for your leadership and the example that you are setting. My name is Heather Matthews and I am a nurse, a person of faith, and a parent in our U-46 community. I am here today because I am dismayed by the leadership failures of a particular school board member who chooses to repeatedly alienate and marginalize minority groups in our school district. Several months ago, we saw you alienate our black students and families. Now you have chosen to alienate our transgender students. You label them as threats to our community and intentionally invite controversy instead of collaborative community problem solving. I am here today to call on each and every one of our school board

132members to resist the temptations of politics and fame and fear and instead lead with wisdom. Each of you took an oath when you accepted this office. Each of you solemnly swore that you would represent all school district constituents honestly and equally. You represent even the transgender ones and the ones who don't look like you. You swore that you would refuse to surrender your responsibilities to special interests and partisan political groups. You swore you would avoid conflicts of interest, the appearance of impropriety, and that you would not use your board membership for personal gain or publicity. You swore you would take no private action that might compromise the board or administration and that you would respect the confidentiality of privileged information. After yet another board member-led drama in the past 10 days, we must question whether

133this board member intends to uphold this oath of office moving forward. We must recognize that any elected official who is not willing or able to keep their word and abide by the oath of office that they took has a responsibility to resign in order to preserve the integrity of the institution they took an oath to protect. I want to challenge each of you to hold yourselves to the very standards that we expect from even our elementary school students. Use facts and evidence to back up your claims. If you have concerns about whether transgender students have ever posed a risk to their peers in the past, don't run to the media. Do some research instead. I have heard a tremendous amount of misinformation shared from this board member in the past 10 days. I have yet

134to hear a single fact or a single piece of evidence to support the suggestion that transgender students pose any threat to their peers in any situation. If we can expect our 10-year-olds to use research and evidence to support their claims, we should certainly expect this from each and every one of our elected officials in this room. It is time for this childish drama to stop. and for all of our leaders to finally lead together with wisdom and grace. So please, when you step into this room or begin a Facebook post on your board member page, remember that you represent everyone in this district, even the people who do the same as you or look the same as you and resist the temptations of politics, fame, and fear. Thank you. And following Mr. Johnson will be

135L.E. Hobson. Hi, my name is Steve Johnson. I am a parent and a resident of U-46. I've got three girls in elementary school. But first, Mr. Sanders and the rest of the board, thank you for all the service that you do. And thank you for the ongoing work that you do for all the students and all the people here in the district. So much has been said here tonight, so many wonderful things from both perspectives. And I think the lady that was up last emphasized the importance of having collaboration. And so much has been said to have the platform for that. This is the platform for that. And thank you so much for opening up the microphone, Stiney, for us to have this platform. As a parent, I'm charged to raise up my children and

136train them in the way that they should go. And for millennia, there has been male and female. It has. It's so inherent and it's so distinct. And to not teach these children that there is a distinction between the two is doing harm. I was a young person, and I think one of the big misunderstandings is that the adults in the room haven't gone through this. I think it's unfortunate. I was thinking about all the stories that came up through the evening and just thinking about the difficulties I had growing up. You can't excuse that. You can't just brush it aside. But you know what? I was challenged. I was challenged with some concrete evidence, some truth, some wisdom, and I changed my ways and I grew up and I still have a lot of growing

137to do. I have to do the same thing for my children. That's my inherent responsibility. And as a school board, it's your job to partner with us on that. And there's been a lot said tonight about hearing different perspectives and understanding and rights. and justice and truth and love. And so many of us can define those in different ways. But I would trust that patient dialogue, understanding from both sides, and coming to some reasonable... answers and decisions would be a good thing. And I think what's going on tonight is a good thing and I appreciate the time for it. Just please be patient as we work through this. Don't be harsh. Don't hide anything. Please be patient. Please be loving to everybody. Really loving. I mean, a lot of people say tonight they inject their

138faith into the conversation, but really, I mean... everybody can have different perspectives on love and i'm not championing that i'm just saying that's the way it is you can listen to all the testimonies tonight and i think we all understand that we all have some different perspectives on what truth and love all means so before we get the let the rhetoric get away maybe we should have some more dialogue with each other and really understand each other thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is l dean huffstein is uh l dean huffstein in the room This is a good opportunity while LD and Hupsey has a seat Gary Lorber will be up next and if you've already had your opportunity to speak and Are still in the room I would ask you

139to respectfully or respectfully ask you to move back up the stairs to one of the other viewing rooms and that way we can get more of the public commenters down into this room and Mr. Lorber you're up on deck. So Mr. Hupsey proceed Yes, superintendent Arndt President Smith and members of the board I'm glad to be here tonight. I mentioned that I wanted to say a word about a legacy. I started by saying, President, or not President, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in fighting the Nazis said, we'll go on to the end. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills and we'll never surrender. And the British, they did fight to the end. They

140didn't surrender. General Eisenhower said very briefly, when I'm elected president, I will go to Korea. And he did. And President Kennedy, addressing a joint session of Congress, said, I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. And the people of this nation supported him, and that was brought to fruition. Now, I ask... Well first I want to say we should recognize these quotations after all these years are still an important part of the legacy of these great men. And now I ask the members of this board of the school district U-46, is this the best that you can do as your legacy? And that is to say to the residents of District U-46, we fought

141hard so that boys could go and pee in your little girl's bathroom and in their locker rooms. That's all. I do have, since I have a little time to spare, to commend Ms. Ward for her stand. It reminds me of what a country preacher of mine said years ago. Sometimes you have to have a stand, take a stand, and stand on it. And I would just add to that, sometimes you have to stand alone. And I want to commend Mrs. Ward for the stand that she's taken. And I'll say I'm one individual that I'm on her side. And she doesn't have to stand alone. And there are people that are standing with her, too. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Cary Loeber. Mr. Loeber will be Nancy Hayhurst, if Nancy could step forward. On

142August 1st, my colleague Missy Ross spoke here against bigotry and hate. that was targeting our LGBTQ community. Missy also proudly spoke about the philosophy of the Elgin Teachers Association, the IEA, and the NEA. To none of our surprise, Seth Hancock attacked Missy and some of her comments in his subsequent Bartlett Examiner article. There are a cast of cackling cronies who include Mr. Hancock, Mr. Rick Newton, and two U-46 board members who have done their best for the past many months to portray educators, U-46 administration, and other U-46 board members as sinister agents of indoctrination. Let's talk about indoctrination. In the first paragraph of Mr. Hancock's poorly written attack, he commits three logic errors, a bandwagon fallacy, a faulty appeal to emotion, and a straw man. The writing does not improve. Ad hominem attacks, slippery slope

143fallacies, hasty generalizations, moral equivalency mistakes, red herrings, and a favorite of mine, the no-truth Scotsman, riddle his article. I have a suggestion for the Bartlett examiner. Instead of letting Mr. Hancock continue to do his best to indoctrinate the public with faulty logic, you should hire Bartlett High School students to write for your paper. I know a couple hundred kids who would produce better and more thoughtful articles. Let me be clear about why I am here. To confront these cronies. As long as I am in an ETA leadership role, when you attack hardworking, thoughtful, and dedicated board members like Donna Smith and Tracy O'Neill Ellis, I'll be there. When you attack administrators like Tony Sanders, Suzanne Johnson, and Ushma Shah for their efforts in improving areas of social and emotional education, early education, diversity education, helping

144our kids to understand that they are part of a global citizenry, I'll be there. When you attack members of my union with pathetic ad hominems and you portray unions as extremist evils hell-bent on the destruction of America, I'll be there. And you can bet all the money you have in your bank accounts that when you attack my kids because of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, I'll be there. I do not know how you all have become so lost and so hateful. I imagine that once there was a little boy and a little girl who did not look out into the world and find so much to attack, so many that you thought to hurt. I wonder what a little girl thinks of when she looks into your eyes. I wonder what hatred

145you indoctrinate in her eyes when she looks into yours. I'm lucky. My job and my kids make every day a day worth embracing with everything I have. I love them, all of them. And I love them not for who I want them to be, but for who they are. Our next speaker is Nancy Hayhurst and Pam Murdoch will be the speaker right after. Again, Pam Murdoch will be our next speaker after you. Do you want me to sit here? No, you're fine right there. Just speak into the mic. Okay. I'm Nancy Hayhurst and... I am a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, and a former central office administrator for 12 years. I know you have a very, very tough job. I've sat through many, many board meetings, and God bless you all. A very wise person

146once said to me that we are in this state, we are in this country, because Christians have not stood up. I'm standing up. I praise God that Mrs. Ward let the community know what she did let us know. Because this affects me even though I don't live in Elgin, this affects me. I have worked in Elgin. I have worked with the school district here. But it affects me because I live in Geneva and Palatine affects me and all of these other districts affect me because it's going to affect my grandchildren and my children. eventually because these things travel and these things what you do is a board will be a model for other boards now here's something that no one has said and a lot has been said what was passed down has tied your

147hands I I know it has because I've I've read all the way through it I would prefer that you fought it anyway that you stood up what was right for all children. But I know what Obama has passed down has tied hands because some districts have tried to create these safe spaces and they've been told that no, no, no, no, you can't do that. You have to allow gender dysphoric children into the other spaces. And so my fear is for all children, for their safety, for their privacy, and for their modesty. So I did a little research for you, and you could certainly do much better than me because I didn't spend as much time as you can spend on it or your secretaries could spend on it, about what other districts have done. I

148don't agree with necessarily their politics, but they have had some solutions. So if you choose to not fight this, and I really wish you would, and I'll pray that you do, I would like you to take a look at this, and I'll give it to you. The last thing I will say is that God loves all his creation. You can make your own truth, but God's truth is the only truth. Man can make his own truth, but God's truth is the only truth. I hope the lawsuits in this country are successful and that we can protect the safety, privacy, and modesty of all of our children. And there are some solutions in here of where you could do that in your district if you don't fight this. So I thank you. Thank you. Next speaker

149is Pam Murdock. And the teacher directly after her will be Avery Harmon. My name is Pam Murdock, and my husband and I have three children that have been students in School District U46 since 2003. We have six more years to go. We attend church on a regular basis and volunteer at our church, our schools, within our community, along with our children. We display the Ten Commandments as well as the Beatitudes in our house. When our children were young, we shielded them from the news and, for the most part, TV. Books are big in our house. As issues arose, we talked to our kids about the issues, always trying to be nonjudgmental to allow them to process the information based on their upbringing and answer their questions. We didn't want any views or fears that we

150may have had to be transferred to our kids. We wanted our kids to figure out on their own any fears or views that they may have. Last year, when High School District 211, which I'm a product of, was in the news in regards to locker room access for a student that is transgender, we talked about it with our high schoolers. We asked the kids how they felt and if they would be uncomfortable, and they said no. And it sounds like they were having discussions with their... classmates also and that seemed to be the general consensus among the high schoolers. As we discussed the CAC meeting, high schoolers don't shower after PE as much as teachers would prefer them to. It's a quick process in and out of the locker room. As a matter of fact,

151they said they would actually be more uncomfortable for a student that didn't look like their gender to be in a locker room or a restroom. Recently, I asked my middle schooler how she felt if a transgender student, after making sure she understood what that actually meant, and she did, was in the locker room with her at school, and she said it would be fine. I did tell her that if anyone was uncomfortable in the locker room or anywhere, they should tell a teacher, and that everyone deserved to be comfortable, and she agreed. I can't tell you what it's like to be African American or Hispanic or gay or transgender or even tall for that matter. But as a parent, I can tell you what it's like when your child is scared, sad, feeling left out,

152feeling like an anomaly among their peers. No parent wants their children to feel like this. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but this is not one of those times. I approve and commend the policy of U-46 to be intentionally inclusive to all students. I also support Tony Sanders and how he handled the recent disclosure to the school board only. As a parent, if I felt this was an issue, I would have looked in the student handbook before school started. We knew this was coming. This is not a surprise. After District 211, we knew this issue was going to hit our school district. I hope that we can keep this issue focused on the students and not on parental views or fears. Have trust in your children. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Avery Harmon. Avery Harmon

153here. After Avery is completed speaking, Jennifer Zold will be our next speaker. I'm Avery Harmon. I come from Genoa. I guess I'd like to introduce you, introduce myself as a former lost student. I did not fare well in my high school. I unfortunately can't identify with the percentage of students who had committed, who had seriously considered suicide. And I know what it's like to feel erased. I know what it's like to be told daily that I do not exist. or I do not deserve to exist, or that I am a danger. I'm also LGBT. I'm actually with the Elgin Group Swans, students who are not silent. And they completely overhauled my view on education. In high school, I knew adults didn't do anything. They didn't do anything to help me. I graduated by the skin

154of my teeth. But I'm so glad I did. At Elgin, with this club, through respect, they've taught me to value myself. I do love myself. A little too much sometimes. I've heard so much. Emotions are really running high here. I'm so sorry to hear some maybe unintended ignorance. In the recent addition to the DSM-5, which psychologists all over the world affirm that gender dysphoria and transgender is no longer considered a disorder. We are normal. We are part of you. I don't understand as a bisexual, a person who is attracted to the same sex, you're not nearly as uncomfortable as me sharing a bathroom with you. Let me go ahead and assure you, I'm not impressed. Really, I'm in and out too. I have better things to do with my time. And I'm so glad that

155the people who've taught me respect and the people who've taught me self-love can be respected and shown that they are cared for in their home school district of U46. And I'd like to thank you for letting me speak as an outsider looking in. And thank you. Oh, oh, and I'm not a frog. I'd like to thank you as Jennifer Gold. And Steve, the mask is up after that, but it looks like somebody scratched him off, so we'll see if he shows up if he left. Jennifer? Good evening. I'm from Palatine D211 where parents in our district are legally opposing the loss of privacy for all our children. They advocate that self-dignity and privacy should be for all students. privacy for transgender students and privacy for all other students. Open access in locker rooms takes away

156the privacy of all students. Thank you for having me here for a few moments to offer some thoughts. Think about this. According to the CDC, 20% of girls have been sexually abused by the time they reach age 18. Who is speaking for them? Commingling locker rooms puts these young victims in a very naked and vulnerable position. This can trigger flashbacks and panic attacks. Can you just imagine what this is like? Can you imagine the fear in these girls who have been made powerless over their bodily privacy again? Now, suicide rates have been mentioned many times tonight. What about taking a look at the very high suicide rate of this population of young abused women? And this population is 50% of your student population. So 20% of 50%, that's an alarming number. You are entering a

157slippery slope of variables, and I don't believe that they are being considered carefully enough. Please consider the privacy rights of these young, traumatized, sexually abused women. Protect all children. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Steve Mask, which is crossed off the screen, so I don't know if he turned his card back in. Is Mr. Mask here? Then we'll move on to Phil Cavanaugh. And as Mr. Cavanaugh comes up, it would be a good time for Fred Readers to also step forward. Again, my name is Phil Cavanaugh. I'm a father in U46 here in Elgin. I'm a father of four, a taxpayer. I'm also associate pastor of Northwest Bible Baptist Church. And I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I have never met that I know of any of the board members that are

158currently here. But I am here. for sure, as a response to a board member that was willing to take a stand and bring to the forefront something that is an important issue, but yet should not be a shocking issue to any of us. You go back, and most of those, most of the adults in this here, in your lifetime, you go back, we've gone back 40, 50, 60 plus years, and you'll start to realize that what brings us here today is not an accident. When you start to remove God, from the lives of individuals, this is the end result. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, it says, In the beginning, God. God created, that's Elohim, plural, Trinity. He created each and everybody, but he created them male and female. And it has been stated earlier that

159God accepts this. As a pastor, I cannot accept that, because that's contrary to the word of God. To say that God created individuals in the image that they want God to be is not correct. God created them in a specific image, and it is not in who you determine God is. It's definitive, and it is a basis for all truth. Opposition to harmful behavior is not bigotry. Compassion, very compassionate. And on a daily and weekly basis, do I work with the community? Hundreds of individuals from all various of ages that we reach out to to try to make a difference in their life. They come to us hurting. They come to us confused for various reasons. But ultimately, the only thing that's going to bring them hope, the only thing that's going to bring them

160a relief in their life is to stop going contrary to the things of God and to yield to the way he planned them to be. We've heard financial reasons. tonight. We've heard physical reasons tonight. We've heard psychological issues or reasons tonight on both sides of this. But I implore everybody tonight to understand that there are spiritual issues here at work. And these spiritual issues need to be taken into account. That our future of our young people, not just their safety and their privacy, but all those ultimately that are affected by this, they need help. They can get help. And we need to take a stand and go back and evaluate where we fall. and from if we're really ever going to offer the help that is needed. That truth comes from the Word of God.

161It's not up for debate. It's not really confusing. Only really, and I've been educated, only somebody that can distort and manipulate the Word of God, usually it comes back to somebody who has no faith or somebody who has educated themselves out of their faith. Thank you. That makes me feel good. Good evening. My name is Fred Raiders. I have three children in U-46 school district, two in high school, one in elementary school. I was completely taken by surprise by the announcement on the radio of why we're all here tonight. The transgender bathrooms and changing rooms, the locker rooms, is not acceptable. Not acceptable in any way, shape, or form. My children are not going to be subjected to some social experimentation. It's not going to happen. You work for us, everybody. You don't make rules

162and expect everyone to cow down. Not going to happen. Thank you. Thank you. And the next speaker is Laura Moore. K-N-O-E-R-R. Laura. Steve Schwarga. And as Steve comes forward, the next speaker will be Antonia Ramirez-Cronunga. My name is Joel Schwarga. I'm here for my dad. He had to leave. I'm a youth pastor at Northwest Bible Baptist Church. I want to thank the board for their work that they do and for hearing everyone tonight. I work with a lot of teenagers at our church. We reach a lot of teenagers. We have charitable bus routes that we send out in many communities around here, going up to Belvedere, to Pelotine, out to Hanover Park, Streamwood, down to Aurora, and everywhere in between. And on a weekly basis, we work and help with these teenagers and teach them

163the word of God. We teach them through issues they struggle with at home sometimes and try to help them and their parents and be a help to these families. And we have been having now some teenagers that come to us with concern in District 211 even just past Saturday. young lady came and she said she's scared to death is her words to go in the locker rooms in the restrooms and because of what what took place there and so I just want to be a voice for her and for many of the young ladies brings me to another point here we I've heard tonight that we need to take policy from our kids we need to listen to our kids and how we shape policy and and what we do and I thought the point

164of education was for us to teach them We're supposed to be teaching them. We tell them how math works. We tell them how English works, how science works. I appreciate that they have viewpoints and that's fine, but at the end of the day, education is about us teaching them the truth. And that includes biology as well. It's our job as education to teach them, not let them run us. We need to consider this in our policies that we make. and make sure we understand the ramifications that's already been expressed tonight very well, I think. And so I hope you'll consider that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Antonio Ramirez-Cologa. Is Antonio here? Joe Herman. And Joe, as you come forward, our next speaker will be Cindy Asawar. Forgive me if I mispronounced it, but Cindy,

165if you're here, if you could come on forward too. Good evening. First of all, thank you for having this opportunity to be here to speak with you guys tonight. My name is Joe Bermia. I've been in the U-46 area for over 20 years. Both my daughters graduated from Streamwood High School and from Bartlett High School. They got what I would consider a top-level education from this school district. I had the opportunity to be PTO president for Streamwood High School one year. My wife was pretty active in the Bartlett High School. And like I said, both my daughters, when they were going to school here, I mean, I know there was a lot of talk a lot of times about U-46, but I can tell you that from personal experience and from seeing what the district

166did with the schools and how they treated the students, I always knew that they had their interest at heart. I was a member of the Citizens Advisory Council here at U-46. I was on the executive board as well. And it's been years since I've been active. One thing I have to say is I'm not sure how the politics play out within the community a lot of times. But in this particular case, I look and say, you know what, Jeanette, you got me out of retirement. I don't know what your agenda is. I don't know if you have one. I don't know where you stand on that. And I can't support that because I don't know it. The school district, you guys have a responsibility. And that I do know. And the responsibility that I think

167you have right now is to stand up for the right thing to do. Don't get pushed by anybody. I mean, just because you get a president of the United States that tells you, this is what I want, he's doing that for political play. You represent me and my community here. You represent the traditions that we all fought for years ago when I was here, part of this group. And I ask you to accept the responsibility that comes with that, each of you. Put personal agendas aside. Move forward and do what you need to do, whatever it is. I mean, you guys are all here for a reason. You've all accepted the responsibilities. I know the process works because I've been part of it. And I know that the process, given time, the right decision will

168come out. And at this point, I say I trust in each of you to do the right thing for the kids, as Joy, I think, said once to one of you. God bless. Thank you. Our next speaker is Cindy Osward. Is Cindy here? Mark Ahrens. And as Mark comes forward, Talbot Behnken will be the next speaker. Mr. Sanders, I'm going to be the first one to take your option to say I agree and then shut up. I just want to say this before that, though. I've lived in Elgin since 1975. My son is an Elgin Maroon on the football team and I drive your Kenyon Woods middle schoolers home every day. I appreciate the board's concern for the safety of each student. I really do. At the same time, and I'm not being contrary with

169that, Jeanette, I appreciate... your concern that the whole community gets in on the process. And with that, I just want to urge the whole board to really think about Tom Morrison's common sense legislation that he spoke about here earlier. It sounds to me like something that will protect each student. and at the same time value what everybody in the community values. So I'm done. Thank you. Thank you. Talbot, I assume from the nod that I actually did pronounce your name correctly? Yeah, very good. Very good. All right. After you are done, Margaret Lesniak will be after that. Thank you. I'm Talbot Behnken. I'm an Elgin resident for the last seven years, a U-46 taxpayer. I also had the unique distinction of having been an administrator in District 211 the previous four years when that's been

170mentioned a lot tonight. My kids, however, do not attend U-46 schools. They attend Harvest Christian Academy because their dad is the principal there. The reason I wanted to address the board tonight was to say this is a really difficult issue. And I've seen it play out. Well, many people looking to try to do the best for kids that they can. I think the difficult thing to understand is that the board is under really intense pressure. And this is not just a local issue. I've seen that play out in my past. I think there's a decent number of people probably tonight who are going to go home disappointed with the board's decision and that's the way these things go sometimes and I know for me it was a difficult thing to reconcile the two things what

171I personally believed but also what our board was doing and doing what they believed was right. I would like to respectfully say to those of the people who leave here tonight who are not pleased with the board's decision that there are alternatives in the community. There are a lot of other excellent alternatives. I would like to recommend One Harvest Christian Academy as an alternative to very respectfully, I would add, that people could consider. Thank you very much, you guys. It's a tough decision, but we appreciate you. Thank you. academic equity and a gift to education across u46 middle schools as we know an improved identification process of gifted student population which led to a higher enrollment in a gifted program and the need to bring neighborhood children together were the two driving forces behind the

172decision to expand the gifted program to all middle schools The decision was made hastily and abruptly sometime in February and since then no effort was made to prepare the new sites for implementing the gifted program in their classrooms with the exception for an optional and voluntary few-day collaboration that was offered during the summer break. There is no equity in a gifted education because as some gifted education teachers began their school year with well-developed gifted curricula, a great wealth of resources, professional experiences and knowledge about the gifted student population ready and capable to challenge and meet their students needs other Euphoria VI gifted education teachers began this school year without the knowledge. curricular resources and experiences that make learning in a gifted classroom truly gifted. As an example of the enormous discrepancies that exist in our

173gifted education among different middle school classrooms, I would like to share the content of gifted science material that two groups of gifted students learn in two different middle schools since the beginning of the school year. At one middle school, the students learn about lab safety, independent, dependent, and control variables, control and experimental groups, hypothesis. Additionally, they learn how to make data tables, completed Gapstepper lab, Zipper lab, and Babu lab. While in the Peril gifted science classroom at my daughter's school, the students learn about lab safety, completed marshmallow activity, and started learning about measurement. it is plenty responsible for u46 officials to expand the gift education program to new middle school sites without first and foremost providing the gifted education teaching force at those schools with all the support that is needed to make such program

174a success or at the minimum not an ill-functioning gifted program by overlooking this essential ingredient of high quality education gifted or not our district has privileged a group of students who are fortunate to be placed in a well-functioning program where their needs are met on a daily basis and has discriminated against my daughter and her peers and possibly other groups of students who are being deprived of the services that were promised to them when they qualify for the gifted program. For the first time I have sincerely lost faith in our district's mission to do whatever it takes for all of our students to succeed. The expansion of the gifted program does not promote that success for all, just for some, the lucky ones. our final public comment tonight will be larry burry good evening as

175actually when i was originally planning to come here tonight it was to discuss a somewhat different topic transparency and the follow-up on my request from last week but considering we've gone on two and a half hours so far this evening on this topic let's save that one for the next meeting if you will in the meantime i've sat here and observed the comments from both sides of this discussion it's been rather revealing to be perfectly honest Mrs. Ward, congratulations. You won. The count, by mine, 35 to 20. Your efforts to bring in people from outside our U-46 community have succeeded. You also got some people from our U-46 community out. Wonderful job. For those from the U-46 community, you showed up, and that's good to see. However, there's a bit of a contrast. between the

176two groups of speakers this evening, and I think you should be aware of as you go forward. 20 people spoke in favor of the policy. Almost all of them were from our U-46 community. Education professionals, students, parents, pastors, members of our community. And they spoke in support of our students. They spoke in support of our schools. They spoke in support of Tony and all of our education professionals. On the other side of the equation, what have we heard tonight? Actually, quite a bit of polite discourse, but quite a bit of things that should really disturb us as individuals. And to be honest, I'm a U-46 parent. I was kind of appalled by some of what I heard tonight. I'm hearing that our Board of Education, our CEO... are sexual fascists. They've lost their moral compass.

177They've put the safety of our students at risk to be victims, to be sexually abused. Really? What have I heard about our students tonight? They're misguided, craziness, mentally ill. They should be, and I've heard this implied, the same, the choices they make is the same as becoming a dog. and they should be thrown to the depths of the sea. Really? That's what you've brought into our district? Thank you so much. In the meantime, for the rest of the board, Mr. Costello, Mr. Holt, Mrs. Ellis, Ms. Kerr, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Nolan, you've seen what happened tonight. You've seen what was brought into our district. How do you feel about this? How does this support our students? How does it support their achievement? And how does this protect our most vulnerable students? What does it say? I'm

178asking all of you. Do you support the words of Mrs. Ward's speakers? Or do you support our parents, our students, our educational professionals? Mr. Sanders, be clear with all of us. We deserve to know. This has been an interesting evening. I'm looking forward to hearing what each of you individually have to say. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I am thinking, just so board members know, if we could go through the other business portion of the agenda, board member and CEO update, and then before we go to the consent agenda, take a short recess because we've been sitting here for three hours. If we could just take a little break. Sure, that sounds good. Ten minutes, max. But let's have the board member update first. That's what I said. Yeah. After that, before the

179consent agenda, we'll take a five-minute, ten-minute recess. Okay. I have an update when you're ready. Okay. Other business board member and CEO update? Can I go ahead? I wanted to say that I appreciate each and everyone who spoke, especially my supporters, but also those who didn't agree with me. Free speech is a hallmark of our constitutional republic, and that includes the press. I'd like to remind everyone that we don't control the press. The board doesn't control the press. Fortunately, because that's how it should be, the press should be free. Although I appreciate my supporters and the signs that were in the audience and again everyone who spoke and I also wanted to remind people that I stood up for the rights of one person who spoke who was being interrupted who didn't agree with me.

180I believe everyone should have the right to speak. And this isn't about me. It's about ideas. What is good for students? And we disagree profoundly on that, both sides. But I am glad that we had this conversation. This conversation needs to be had. And I'd like to offer a chronology of how I got to post what I posted on Facebook and why I did that for everyone's understanding in the room. The Friday before Labor Day, I was informed of a change in practice that was going to begin Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. That same night, I asked for specific details about communication to parents. and I didn't receive them at that time. Instead, on Sunday, I received a piece that was entitled Schools in Transition that was written by the National Center for Lesbian

181Rights and Gender Spectrum and endorsed by the ACLU and NEA, among others, which states that transgender identity is healthy, appropriate, and typical aspect of human development. The reply further stated that experts do not recommend notifying all parents and at this time there would be no parent communication because it might violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. On Sunday night I replied that that wasn't acceptable and I again asked for details on what was communicated to staff and parents. By mid-Monday, I had not received a reply, and in light of the fact that this new practice was to begin the next day, I alerted the public via my public Facebook page. So hopefully you can understand why I did that. And Mr. Sanders also followed with his own Facebook post a few hours later. When

182asked if students were uncomfortable with this new practice, it was responded that students who feel uncomfortable for any reason should speak to the school principal. And asking a child who feels uncomfortable with someone of the opposite sex in his locker room or her locker room to speak to the principal can be intimidating and I think that's not an acceptable way to proceed. Parents have a right to know if their sons or daughters are sharing locker rooms with members of the opposite sex and they shouldn't be kept in the dark when it comes to the privacy and safety of their children. And privacy begins at the locker room door. Thank you again for all your comments. Any other comments? Anne Bradstreet, an early English poet, once said that authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe

183without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish. That quote seems fitting for where we find ourselves tonight in U46. Some have questioned whether or not administration consulted any people of faith. Well, let me assure you they did because Tony Sanders called me, and I am a woman of faith. Because Tony notified each board member individually about this matter in advance, I thought that we would have the opportunity to discuss the current situation and the related decisions as a board with administration in closed session before talking publicly. about this student or our existing anti-discrimination policy. And I think it's important to know, U-46 did not change its policy or practices. This anti-discrimination policy has existed as is, publicly voted on since 2013. Closed session is where such discussion about the details of handling a student situation

184properly belongs as individual student privacy must be accorded the maximum protection. Instead, the board was unfortunately unilaterally robbed of that ability in favor of having this issue tried in the media first, so to speak. Discussing school board policies publicly is always appropriate, but not student matters. But regardless, I want Tony Sanders and this administration to know that I fully support you. I respect deeply the course of action you took to navigate these choppy waters, and I stand fully with you. These are relatively new issues that we are dealing with. I first faced a similar situation when my oldest son entered high school and at age 14 was then in school for the first time with a transgender student who had chosen to reveal that fact. Cooler heads prevailed in that situation and I can report

185tonight if other parents' experiences with these issues are of any value, no students were harmed in the accommodation of that transgender child. That was 12 years ago, and although I understand that reasonable people can disagree on complex issues such as this, I firmly believe that Tony and administration handled this situation with appropriate discretion and due diligence, seeking legal advice and the advice of respected legitimate experts on this matter. Having practiced law for 26 years, I could recite chapter and verse the laws that currently stands and opine based on that experience and the history of the long running battle in this country over LGBTQ rights, where the United States Supreme Court is likely ultimately going to land on this issue. But I choose not to do that because I am not basing my support for Tony

186on what he is legally bound to do. although certainly our legal obligations are of paramount importance in what we do. But when dealing with children, the least that we are obligated to do is hardly the best standard. I am basing my support for his decisions on what the right thing to do is in this situation for students, all of them. And I believe that in this case, as in so many other instances, Tony and this administration chose to polish rather than to bruise. To the staff and the families who are dealing with this delicate situation, at the school that is impacted with tremendous grace, compassion and discretion. I applaud you. As of. Late last, well, my comments say late last night, but actually I checked today. As of today, I have received exactly zero emails,

187private messages, phone calls, or other communication from any parent at that school who has expressed any concern that they were not sending an email or letter about this situation. I applaud your sensitivity and maturity in handling this student with the compassion and discretion that authority. coupled with wisdom demands. Thank you for recognizing that School District U-46's policy has not changed. We have always handled transgender students on a case-by-case basis, meeting the unique needs of each individual student. And you know what? We do that for students in general. Our staff confidentially deal with students with all manner of personal situations. We do not notify parents of anything concerning the LGBTQ status of students. or the criminal records of students or of many other things that we know about students. We are a public school charged with

188educating the masses and the truth, uncomfortable though it may be for some, is that the masses collectively show up in school straight. Gay, lesbian, questioning, transgender, and a host of other factors that make each one unique. But when dealing with our particular masses, we must remember, I agree, that we are dealing with children, adolescents, and young adults. And they all have names and stories and rights. And what makes any one of those children's rights superior over another? I've heard it suggested tonight that the rights of the majority should prevail over the minority. Well, that is a slippery slope for those who would rest on that argument. If the status of the majority is the barometer by which we will make decisions in this district, well, let's just say a whole lot of things will change

189around here. Be careful what you ask for. And to our students, I offer this to you. If you are straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender, non-conforming, queer, questioning, white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American, biracial, or any other racial, ethnic, or national origin. If you score a perfect score on the SAT and are headed to Harvard, or you graduate dead last in your class and wondering what you're going to do. If you are able-bodied or disabled, if you are low-income or the child of the most affluent family in this district, if you have one, two, or no parents, if you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Scientologist, Atheist, Agnostic, or of any other belief, However, you show up in U-46. When you cross the threshold of a U-46 school, I welcome you. You are not less than. And because

190you are welcome here, that means that as a district, we have to work to meet your unique needs and well-being while balancing others' needs and well-being. In other words, we must exercise our authority with wisdom in order to polish, not to bruise you. Thank you. Are there any other comments? I'm relatively new to the board, and I will say that... When Mr. Sanders notified me of this situation, I felt that I lacked the sense of the process. And I still believe that we lacked the process. Now, there might have been a policy, but it was never referred to. This was an incident that raised a reaction and a way we handled it. And that's what concerned me most. I did not want to know anything about this individual. I only wanted to know that we

191had a process that was sensitive and was known to the students and to the parents. And I felt that that was what was lacking. I felt that there's, and I asked a lot of questions and I was answered a lot of questions. I was asking as a parent, even though I don't have any children in U46, I was thinking that the parents should be able to go to the website and I don't think that is the case. We simply kind of went into this situation. So I kind of faulted the administration for what I thought was the lack of process. We've heard that there is a process and a policy. I guess I was just naive that I didn't know about that. So that was what my major concern about this whole issue was. I've

192heard, and I will applaud everyone here, I think that it's just terrific. that there's a lot of people. I hope you all listen to the other side, et cetera, because we have to learn from this and we have to move forward. That's the critical thing after this tonight is that we move forward in a positive direction for U46. Thank you. I have been a member of the U-46 school board for the last three and a half years, and I believe this is the first time I have felt compelled to prepare a statement despite my distaste for long narratives that are often seen as political grandstanding. In this case, however, I feel I must voice my concerns to my fellow board members in the most succinct method possible. The recent accommodation made in U-46 for a

193transgender student to use the locker room of their gender identity instead of their birth assigned gender has unleashed a maelstrom of fear-mongering and hateful dialogue that leaves me ashamed for many in my community. I first want to point out that the journey for any person publicly admitting that their gender is not the same as the one assigned to them at birth is usually the result of a long period of reflection and thoughtfulness and not one that is embarked upon flippantly. It is an insult to those vulnerable individuals to suggest that they would do this because of a perverse or violent desire to prey upon others. It has been suggested in social media and elsewhere that allowing transgender individuals to self-identify which facilities they wish to use will open up the door to a new world.

194...open the door for rapists and predators to attack women and girls. In fact, in over 17 states and 225 municipalities with transgender-friendly bathroom policies, there hasn't been a single sexual assault where the rapist used the transgender legal cover to attack a woman in a bathroom. Those that are perpetuating this notion are just plain fear-mongering. And I am not alone in stating such. A group of 250 sexual assault and domestic violence organizations led by the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women condemned legislation that forces transgender people to use the wrong bathroom. specific to the claims that the proposed legislation is necessary for public safety and to prevent sexual violence against women and children, they responded with, and I quote, as rape crisis centers, shelters, and other service providers who work each

195and every day to meet the needs of all survivors and reduce sexual assault and domestic violence throughout society, we speak from experience and expertise when we state that these claims are false. Even the venerable American Academy of Pediatrics or AAP, the medical association that represents over 60,000 of the nation's pediatricians and for which I worked for almost 20 years, has led a coalition in urging governors around the country to reject policies that target transgender students by forcing them to use the bathroom which does not correspond to their gender identity, saying such policies actually harm students. On the positive side, rather, studies have shown that when children and youth have a supportive environment and are allowed to socially transition to their gender identity, they fare much better than those without such support. The president of the

196AAP, Dr. Bernard Dreyer, in his August 3rd letter to fellow pediatricians, quoted a supportive parent as a transgender student, quoted a supportive parent of a transgender student who said, I will not be my child's first bully. Dr. Dreyer, someone that I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with for many years, went on to urge fellow physicians to pledge that they not be their patient's first bully. And tonight, I urge our fellow board members to do all that we can to ensure that we do not act as our students' first bullies. As board members, we took an oath to serve all students and communities in U-46. I do not take that oath lightly. When presented with ideologies different than my own, I listen with respect to the information presented and then make a decision

197that I feel is in the best interest of all the children and families and employees of this district. But in recent weeks, we have been presented with so-called facts and studies from groups that claim to be medical authorities, but in fact are fringe groups who use deceptive names to sound legitimate in an effort to further their political agendas. These groups truly hurt the already vulnerable of our communities, so much so that they are even classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Having personally experienced the vitriol of other hate groups in the past simply for being who I am, in my case Hispanic, I cannot abide this attack on the LGBT community by the current round of hate groups making headlines. And I most certainly will not stand for our students to be

198victimized by fear mongering or religious ideologists. This type of behavior only serves to bolster the flawed ideology of a narrow minded subset of this community or worse, the political ambitions of certain individuals on this board. Therefore, I must state tonight unequivocally that I support our transgendered students' rights to self-identify and use the facilities of their choice and for accommodations to be made for those students who are uncomfortable with the situation. And I support CEO Tony Sanders and the staff of U-46 as they continue to follow the law and the policies of this district with professionalism and understanding. It is the right thing to do. Thank you. Tony? First and foremost, I want to thank everybody who showed up tonight to share their stories, share their life experiences. I think it's very important that we were

199able to hear from both sides on this issue. One of the people who I really thought hit the nail on the head was State Representative Tom Morrison when he said that there were and there can be common sense ways to not only protect people's students' privacy, but also to provide procedures and accommodations to protect the rights and privacy of all students. With that being said, I think that all students and their parents both deserve to know their rights and the fact that we can provide alternative accommodations. This should be paramount in how we move forward, and I look forward to addressing this issue with common sense and listening to the public vehemently. Thank you. I also want to thank everyone who came out tonight to speak. It was wonderful hearing from everyone. I've been giving

200this issue a lot of thought the past week, learning a lot myself about this whole issue. One of the things I've learned is it's not just an issue for this district, for this state, for... even this nation. Schools throughout Illinois are dealing with it. And there are a couple of interesting things I discovered when I was doing my Googling this week. One is that IHSA, the Illinois High School Association, which oversees high school sports in Illinois, recognizes transgender students. I didn't realize that. And they may play on the teams of the gender with which they identify. In other words, a transgender girl can play on a girls soccer team, a transgender boy could play on a boys baseball team. And obviously they have a long statement on their website emphasizing student privacy and encouraging school

201districts to take into account locker rooms and other situations that will have to be made available. The other thing I discovered in all my searching was that this issue even goes beyond schools. For example, the Illinois Association of Park Districts tomorrow is holding for its members a transgender rights workshop. And obviously when you think about it, park districts have to deal with this too. They have locker rooms, they have teams, which may be bi-sex, gender, so that's an issue for them. As I was thinking about all this, though, I thought of it more personally. I'm probably the oldest one here. Okay, second. I grew up in the 60s. I graduated from high school in 1974. in Massachusetts, not Illinois. But I didn't know anyone gay when I was growing up. I certainly did not know

202anyone transgender. I don't even know if that term was very common. That's not to say they weren't gay people. They were. But no one in their right mind who was gay would come out in 1968, in 1972, in 1974. Now my children who are all in their 20s now have had a very different experience. Not only were they brought up knowing gay people, including gay relatives, they knew married gay people and have married gay relatives. They have a totally different view. And I think this is what has struck me is society changes. And it's not always easy, but we have to work together and make these changes work for everyone. And I would encourage all of our district to work together to do what is best for all of our students. And I certainly support

203the administration because I believe they have done what they think is best for our students. Thank you. I also wanted to say something tonight, but I more or less would like to speak about policy and process. I guess I am going to start by saying that I do support the way in which this issue was being handled by Tony and our staff. This was not an off-the-cuff decision. It was being made thoughtfully. They took into consideration the needs of all students while following policy and law and were still being discussed when it became public. Tony called each of us. and kept us updated as they were working through this, as he does with other issues that do not necessarily require a board action or vote, but the board should be aware of these issues. He

204gives us the time to voice our concerns, which sometimes may not fall within the policies or the law. He does his best to address our concerns within the parameters which I greatly appreciate. Although there are some circumstances that do need our attention to resolve, I personally will continue to direct my time, energy, and efforts on the big picture by following law, policy, and the Board of Ed Code of Conduct. supporting students success in their education and supporting staff to optimize our students ability for success as a leader I am going to continue to try to balance the ability for each board member to have an individual voice while also keeping the focus on continuing our work to move the district forward Are there any other comments? I would just like to add that, like Sue

205said, there is a park district forum tomorrow, and I will be attending that. And I meant to add that to my comments because I think moving forward, we have to become better informed. We have to adhere to a process that serves all the interest of all students and all parents and all members of this district. On a lighter note, I also wanted to share. some unrelated, but as a former CFO of Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois located out of Elgin, I'm proud to know an ambassador, similar to Eric, that she took the step, she graduated from Bartlett, and I want to say 2014, and she is now going to make a pilgrimage to the Dominion Republic and Haiti to discuss the immigration issues. I think this is what comes out of a good school district.

206Someone like Alexandra Flieg. I've known her parents and she's just a great kid and I think this is the product of a great school district. So, thank you. I just have a few things to add. So I was careful to say that the practice had changed in this case, not the policy. And this was the first case where the practice was being employed like this, and it was going to happen very quickly. Even though it was still being discussed, it was going to happen the very next day, essentially. This is broader than one school. It's precedent setting. And that's what concerns me. As far as preying upon others, it has happened. It's been in the news, and it was in Minnesota, I believe, that a transgender person was in the locker room with teenage girls

207and making lewd gestures and so on to them, and the parents are now suing that district until they return to people using the locker room of the same sex. The group of doctors who disagree on transgender issues are not fringe groups, they just disagree. And finally, the Southern Poverty Law Center calls anyone who disagrees with them a hate group. So getting on their hate group list is actually a badge of honor. Okay, anything else? First of all, I want to thank my administrative staff and especially the staff at the school that has the student who we are trying to support. We have 40,000 students in U-46, 28,000 families, and each and every one of our high schools and many middle schools and yes, even elementary schools have transgender students. We've never had this issue come

208up where a student requested access to a locker room before typically and if you talk to any principal you talk to any teacher you talk to any counselor they will tell you that the students that come before us who are facing a challenge that I could never fathom just want their privacy. They just want to go into their own changing room. They want to be left alone. They shy away from other people. A few years ago I had the ability, the honor of visiting three of our Gay Straight Alliance clubs at our high schools, some called Rainbow Clubs, and getting to know several transgender students and that was the experience I had whenever I engaged with those students. So I think at the end of the day, get to know other people. Get to know

209other people. If you meet and talk to a student from one of our high schools or middle schools who's transgender, who's gay, who's straight, if you spend time to get to know people, you find out they're not out to hurt another person. They're not out to seek a locker room access for their own deviant thoughts. They just want to be normal kids. So I think the decision we made to provide access to this individual student was the right one. I believe that providing a space of seclusion within the locker room where they could be was the right decision. Having adult supervision in our locker rooms has always been the norm. And so I'm proud of the decision we made. Thank you. All right. Hi. So, uh... Oh, you betcha. So, um, I'm practically keeping myself

210up, so I'll try to keep my update short. But I guess in relation to this meeting and the meeting's events, I was elected to represent all these students in the district, and that's 44,000 students. That's a lot. And in that population... There are so many different kinds of religions, races, genders, and I think it's really my position to advocate for anyone who comes and stands for what they believe in. And I think today we saw many of transgender students, even post-graduates, come to speak about something that they really believed in. And I think you couldn't ask for anything better, especially from a student voice. So I stand by them to say that I support and I advocate for them as well. So I do think that their needs should also be considered as well as

211the rest of the population, no matter what accommodations they need. I think we should try our best as a district to make everyone feel welcome and make sure that they can. Learn just like everyone else so that's all I'm going to say about that My board update, so I've been a busy bee It's been a month since the last meeting As we had the ribbon cuttings went really well was not disappointed they Had the big scissors and big ribbon so that was good to see It was nice going out to those schools. I haven't been to the three of them so now I know where they are and that's Good on my part to get to know the Elgin community I met some of the principals as well. That was nice. When school started, the

212AVID program had a volunteer. opportunity at the Oak Hill Ice Cream Social. So I was there to kind of watch over and all the volunteers were juniors, which kind of upsets me that none of my seniors came. So good on the juniors for coming out in the community and helping out. They had an anti-bullying speaker and kind of a motivational speaker, Omega Friends, I'm not sure what the name was, the sir's name was. I tried searching but I couldn't find it. So it was a really nice event. I enjoyed helping out and playing with those kids. It was Great to see those parents. I got to speak with a few parents as well. Generally just seeing kids and high school kids kind of engage with these younger students was quite the experience. We had a

213lot of fun playing with them. We played some soccer. We played some basketball. I'm pretty sure we made a few kids days and that's the best you could ask for. So that went really well. After that, Key Club, which is a club I'm officering for this year, is also a volunteer group. They had a Phil's Friends, so if anyone isn't aware of what Phil's Friends is, I'm not sure if I've spoken before the board about it, but essentially you create care packages, letters for cancer patients that get sent around the whole United States. So that was a first experience for many of our freshmen who were on the club. They had the chance to hear about Phil's story, and I think they were really influenced by being able to make a difference in a cancer

214patient's life. one of the great things about volunteering that I really enjoy. After that, AVID had a Feed My 7 Children event, which is a place where you can pack foods, typically, and the location in Schaumburg, they typically always go to Haiti. I can't remember off the top of my head where the location, but it's pretty consistent, and that's where you get to package foods. Usually it's large groups of people and in only a matter of hour maybe an hour a half we made I believe it was 76 boxes If only I remember how many students that but I'm pretty sure that's 21 students for a year. I mean students. I'm sorry 21 Children are fed with those one and a half hours that we spend volunteering and I could be fed for the whole

215year So it's pretty incredible how an hour and a half of your time can change the lives of people in a third world country around the other side of the world. So that's great that we're having our freshmen experience that, and I hope that they continue to engage in ways of helping the community. After that, I had a bingo night at the Victory Center, which is a retirement home, and they really love their bingo. So we came with a bunch of prizes from the dollar store. Other stores are available. We brought them a ton of decor of Halloween, fall themed kind of things, and they really enjoyed it. We didn't have a huge turnout, but they just kept coming and they were having lots of fun, so it was great seeing their faces light up

216when they got a bingo. You can, you know, it's quite the feeling. Recently, so last Saturday, was the Kiwanis Fishing Derby, and the Kiwanis Fishing Derby is held by Surrey Woods Park where there's two small ponds. It's held by Kiwanis Club of Streamwood. This year I attended along with a few key clubbers. There was around eight or ten of us and actually they were all freshmen. So well one of them was a junior but I won't count her. They we packed up some worms and the weather by the way was it was windy It was rainy and these parents and families still came out with their kids in ponchos. It was amazing. I loved it I'm quite the fisherman myself. So I gotta say I was impressed and I don't even have my own poncho

217So they handed out some awards. They handed out smallish fish, caught, largest fish, most fish. It was a really nice event to go out and see the community get together that way just for fun fishing. So that was last Saturday. And after that, which I'm sure a lot of U-46 families know, was the Hispanic celebration month at the Galeborn Library, which I attended. Other board members were invited, but I turned out to be the only one who went. So they ended up... No, no, no, no, no shade to them. No, no, no, no. I'm just saying, just so you understand the situation. They were looking for a board member to give the ceremony, to speak on behalf of the U-46. So I took that. So I said, yeah, sure, I'll do it. Yeah, you know,

218just get it over with. And they really enjoyed it to the point where, I don't know if I want to mention this, but the president of ECC, Said he was so impressed and he ended up giving me a scholarship on the spot. I don't know how much but I thought that was pretty amazing. Has anybody told him that we're not coming to high school graduations? He's just got them all? Just kidding. I really enjoyed the festivities. I had a chance to eat some some of their tacos and salsa. I wish I could compliment the chefs but... If they see this or if it gets out on the media somehow, they were delicious. And so was the salsa and pico de gallo. I love it. Oh my god. And I also ended up making a tissue

219paper flower, which I have at home. I would have brought it for show and tell, but given these circumstances, I didn't think I should. Let me think. I didn't get a chance to make a piñata, which stunk because they were making Pokeballs. I know. It's crazy. So I missed out on that, but it's whatever. Oh, I also saw the play. They had a small play, and it was great because the students in the play were U46 students. And it was a series of short stories, mostly Hispanic, kind of like old folk tales. So it was kind of – I mean, I couldn't really understand it all. I have kind of broken Spanish, but for the most part, I did enjoy it, and they did a really great job. So I think that's all I have.

220So that's all. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Eric. And if you would like to go home, you can go home now. I'm already here. I'll just stay. Okay. Feel free, though, if you have homework. All right. Minutes of the board committee meetings. Before you are the... Oh, sorry. Before I do. No. Okay, go ahead. Yes. No, let's get through these two items and then we'll take a break. So before you, the Legislation Committee meeting minutes of August 29, 2016, they're before you for acceptance. Okay, could I have a motion to approve the Legislative Committee meeting minutes 8, 29, 16? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Costello? Yes. Ms. O'Neill-Ellis? Mr. Holt? Yes. Ms. Kerr? Yes. Ms. Nolan? Yes. Mrs. Ward? Yes. Madam President? Yes. And FOIA requests, Mr. Sanders. Under FOIA

221requests, there are nine responses to Freedom of Information Act requests that we have provided. I do want to just note for the public, there was one previously reported as a denied request. We ultimately found documents that were responsive to the request but did not realize we had in our records and provided that to the Illinois Policy Institute. And that is also included in the board packet and will be posted on the district's website. Okay, thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Sanders? okay could we oh can we just do a consensus of 10 minute recess thank you Okay. Oh, there we go. On the consent agenda, we have personnel report and workers' compensation cases, minutes of the board meeting August 1, 2016, minutes of the board meeting August 15, 2016, and determination of Martha.

222Machuca Camargo of Ellis Middle School, a monitor. Administration respectfully requests that the board pull the minutes of the board meeting of August 1st, 2016 for a correction. Outside of that, administration recommends approval of the consent agenda. So that would be item B? Correct, item B. Are there any other items that any board member would like removed from the consent agenda? Hearing none, could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Items A, C, and D of September 12, 2016. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Excuse me, Ms. O'Neill-Oates? Yeah. Mr. Holt? Yes. Ms. Kirk? Yes. Ms. Nolan? Yes. Mrs. Ward? Yes. Mr. Pistola? Yes. Madam President? Yes. Thank you, could I have a motion to approve the board meeting the minutes of the board meeting of August 1st 2016 as amended Yes,

223madam president if I may address Yes, okay, thank you they need to be read into the record so the amendments status follows Mrs. Ward commented that she feels that it's acceptable for the public to address her and others by name. The board members agreed. Mr. Costello added that as long as the comments are constructive, this is a good way to deliberate facts and share opinions. Okay, could I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Holt? Yes. Ms. Kerr? Yes. Ms. Dolan? Yes. Mrs. Ward? Yes. Mr. Costello? Yes. Ms. Sonia Wallace? Yes. Madam President? Yes. 7-0. Discussion and action, Mr. Sanders. Under discussion and action, our first item are itemized bills September 12, 2016. Administration recommends the Board of Education approve the list of bills in the amount of $18,484,358.65. Could

224I have a motion to approve the itemized bills of September 12, 2016 in the amount of $18,484,358.65. So moved. Seconded. Phil, any discussion? Roll call, please. Ms. Kerr? Yes. Ms. Noland? Yes. Ms. Menorid? Yes. Mr. Costello? Yes. Ms. O'Neill-Allis? Yes. Mr. Holt? Yes. Madam President? Yes. Our next under discussion action is emergency action plans for concussion protocol. The board will recall these were presented at the last work session. I do believe we have one question from a board member in regards to the dates and times that this would be available for the athletic trainers, and that is for every practice and every game. Correct as long as it's at home event that is correct so the trainers are assigned to each high school and so for any event that happens Practice or game at any

225one of our high schools. We have a trainer there so even 6 a.m.. In the morning. I know some schools do really early practice and yeah I'm sure they work like 7 to 3 30 and this on a Saturday or whatever, but they're available. Yeah, okay, okay? Any other questions? Okay, could I have a motion to approve the emergency action plans for concussion protocol? So moved. Second. Sue? Any discussion? Roll call, please. Ms. Noland? Yes. Mrs. Ward? Yes. Mr. Costello? Yes. Ms. O'Neill-Ellis? Yes. Mr. Holt? Yes. Ms. Kerr? Yes. Madam President? Yes. 7-0 approved. Other business CAC update we forgot to update that sue and I were at CAC Good evening, Melissa Owens, Chair of CEC. So we had our first general meeting last week, and that was held at South Elgin High School. We've

226kind of shifted around our meeting schedule for the next few months because of the construction going on at Elgin High School. We had a fantastic meeting. We had a full room over at South Elgin High School. We did a split program. Some of our members, our longtime members, had asked that. they not be made to sit through an orientation one more time. So we took them up on that and so we split the meeting. Our veteran members had a program on full-day kindergarten. Ms. Peggy Ondera gave an update on that. I heard that that was very well received. It's very strange because I wasn't at that meeting. Don't have first-hand knowledge of how that went, but I heard that it was very well received I had all of the new members in another room with

227an orientation and that was a full room which was awesome I mean it was it was a really really really nice to see that many new members out. They had some great questions So we went through their orientation, and then we all came back into the meeting and had our committees give their updates on what kind of work that they're going to be doing for the next year. So there was a lot of enthusiasm with that. Our committee chairs are extremely excited about the work that they're going to be doing this year. For sake of brevity, tonight I will go into some of their work at subsequent meetings. But they welcomed some new committee members, and so we're all really looking forward to the work that we're going to do this year. Very quickly, just

228going through, because we do have our program scheduled for the year for our general meetings. I'm going to skip over October for a moment. In November, we're going to have a program on educational funding. And again, that's going to be at South Elgin High School. In December, we will do our annual roundtable, which all of you are invited to attend. In January, we will do a presentation on the AVID program. February we will do a curriculum update. March will be the board candidate forum for the upcoming election in April. And then our April program will be a presentation on district plant operations. And then for October we are shifting things around a little bit. We are going to be at Elgin Community College as part of the Explore 2016 Curriculum and Career Expo. So that

229expo is going to be held at the Events Center at Elgin Community College from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock on a Saturday. And again, that's October 1st. The CAC program will be from 9 to 10 at Spartan Auditorium. So we're going to have kind of a lead-in. Program highlighting some of the CTE programs that we do in the district some of the things that have changed in that program That'll be a nice lead-in for parents then to go into The the Expo and then I'm going to also because I am on the planning committee for the Expo and I'm in charge of recruiting volunteers. I'm going to extend the invitation to all of you and to anybody listening today that we are in need of volunteers for that event. It is a large-scale event, so

230we really would like to see a large volunteer force out at that event and representing U-46. This is a program that is for the entire community, but it would be great to see U-46 participation in that. And then I also invite you to attend that fair. We've got some great programs lined up curriculum-wise. We also are expanding that to showcase some of the businesses in the district that work with potential graduates that we have from the district. So we're looking for a great event. Any questions? Just a comment. Thank you for the partnership that CAC has done in making that a reality last year and again this year and expanding it with the Alignment Collaborative for Education. So it's a bigger thing with some more community partners. And I think with their financial support, I

231think from Alignment that we actually have free food for volunteers. So, right? Yeah, we will be. That's an incentive, correct? And what we really need. What we're really looking for is for some people to step up and be ambassadors. And that would be to be working the floor. You'll have a nice little, you know, come talk to me sign. But these are high-level people that we're looking for that are really involved in the district, involved in the community, and can really help the attendees. direct, you know, and find what they're looking for and to give information about the district and all of the programs that we offer. So that's a great opportunity to really engage with the community. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. Work session, Mr. Sanders. Our first item in our work session

232are school resource officer contracts for all secondary schools with the Bartlett, Elgin, South Elgin, and Streamwood Police Departments. Good morning. Not yet. I'm here to present the contracts for this year as we do this annually. The contract renewals do represent the school resource officer program, the 14 officers that work in our middle schools and high schools, and the alternative programs here in this building. The contracts represent the salary increases for the officers as we pay a percentage of that, not the full amount, but their increase. We have an increase in cost of about 3.2% overall. from the four municipalities when you combine them all together there were increases in each place for their salaries. So I have also asked for a increase in the budget for events with their salaries increasing. We also have an

233increase in our costs for events as their overtime costs increase. So we got real tight last year with barely making a budget. And I'd really prefer to have a contingency for that budget if we have things that happen in the community. We need more police officers at events, unfortunately. But if that is a reality, I'd like to be able to move on that. So that explains the the increases of an overall 3.2 percent Well with the contract I just wanted to note a very important part of change the section 4.2 Removes language in the contract the SRO's responsibility of enforcing applicable district policies and procedures and on the second bullet point we add a statement and duties and responsibilities and the statement is that SROs are not school disciplinarians and will not enforce the student

234code of conduct. I was glad that that was added. Thank you, and that you call that out Our police chiefs were also glad to see that happen any other questions. Yes so with that being taken out both of those items and also the cameras doing more What is the role of the police is it just criminal and civil? you know, just making sure that they're taking care of situations and not trying to be, I guess I'm missing, if they're doing all this much less, do we need as much coverage? Actually, they're not doing anything less. They're not acting as school disciplinarians in Morton Forge Schools. So they have never acted as school disciplinarians. Well, we've, and the school, and... actually school resource officer programs around the country are moving this direction and to make sure

235we're not involving our officers and removing kids from class or dealing with kids swearing or dealing with those kinds of issues of that defiance of the school rules. Officers should be involved in law violations, reported crimes at schools, theft is our biggest crime. Criminal and civil. And we're just making it very clear where we all stand. Okay. Any other questions? I just wanted to make just a brief statement. I wanted to thank all the communities and the police departments that are involved in this, and Mr. Heiderscheidt for the work that you put into this as well, just kind of putting things together, and the rest of your staff. I think it's a very important thing that we have in our schools. So thank you. Thank you. Anything else? One more thing. I wanted to thank

236you for your presence with the police officers tonight. Sure. the job that you did and I appreciate it. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next work session are resolutions. We have a resolution by the Board of Education of School District 246 regarding Public Act 99-0604, the Local Government Travel Expense Control Act. This is one I think we're a little bit ahead of most other local governments that may not even know this exists yet. But this is a new state law that tracks... provides additional guidance for municipalities and school boards on how they can utilize dollars for travel and setting limits. So with that, Dr. King is here to present. As Mr. Sanders mentioned, this act was passed this past year. It requires school districts to bring forward to their boards, well, actually, I think

237almost all. governing bodies in the state, in municipal and otherwise, to bring forward to their board a process and a policy that will be followed to guide administration and the board with travel-related expenses. So actually, we did already have this document in place. But we had to make some modifications to have it compliant with the Act. So there were some changes made to pages 4, 5, and 6 to put some limits in place which were required under the Act. And then on page 7 of our document... There's a paragraph down at the bottom regarding board approval of expenses. We will have to add a paragraph which will come back for discussion action at the next meeting because the one thing missing out of this right now is that any expenditure by a board member has

238to be approved by the full board. And that's not detailed in here yet, so we'll probably just add one sentence to cover that piece of it. If there's any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Are there any questions? Thank you. Thanks. Our next is a resolution adopting school district 246 budget July 1st 2016 through June 30th 2017. I saw Dr. King get up and start to walk away. I thought maybe we're not going to do a budget, but I think we should. So here to present, joining Dr. King was Dale Burnidge, Director of Financial Operations. All right, thank you. Adoption of the budget resolution will be requested at the September 26th 26th, 2016 Board of Education meeting. Administration recommends the Board of Education approve the resolution adapting the school district U-46 budget for

239July 1st, 2016 to June 30th, 2017. Are there any questions? Sue? Just to compliment you on what a good job you did in that budget. It's actually really readable. Thank you. I mean, there's a lot of information. It's very well presented. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Okay, thank you. Our next work session item are under bids and proposals. Before the board is a bid for Elgin High School and Streamwood High School library remodeling. We have a full team coming to present tonight. Dr. Suzanne Johnson is joined by Jackie Johnson, Ricky Sparks, and Chris Allen, Director of Plant Operations in the back. I'll just take your role here real quickly, Ricky, and just say administration recommends award of the low bid meeting specifications to Hat Builders, Inc. for the total contract sum. one

240million one hundred and forty thousand dollars this exponential recharge of the educational fund and it is included in the budget for the 2016-2017 school year um that said earlier you heard uh melissa owens give an update saying that elgin high school's library is under construction that's not actually true it's sitting empty pretty much waiting for the board uh board's approval on this bit tonight so with this i'll hand it over to dr johnson to kick it off Thank you for the opportunity to share this exciting venture with you that we've been in conversation with since probably about 2013. And then we're given... the go-ahead to share with you. So our proposal is to create learning spaces within our libraries that provide an area for collaboration, creation, and for both independent, small group, and large group

241learning to support all of our curricular areas. This would include being in some areas known as a learning commons, positive learning environment, engaging students, and really going into creating spaces that promote learning and access to all of our students. So one of the things that is probably most unique about our proposal tonight is that typically the teaching and learning programs bring you curriculum and tonight we bring you a proposal that's meant to support all of the curricula that we have brought to you. And so when you take a look at all of the priorities that this proposal will truly help support, it lends itself to priority one that robust or certainly rigorous standards-based curriculum. When you think of the literacy curriculum that's come before you, math, the social studies electives, fine arts, science that's in

242the works, social studies that's in the works. This is a space to support all of that. It does provide flexible space, so for our students who need that space to collaborate, this would be a space to do that and support that. It's also a space that would certainly be welcoming to our community members. and our school community members, local and throughout the district, as a meeting place and a place for district events. And then, of course, it helps provide that safe and inviting environment for all of our students to promote that academic success for all. Additionally, you can see how this is tied to our technology master plan in providing access to all students across the district. It provides a model of what that technology should look like and also a model of how to

243utilize that technology to best support our priorities and our strategic plan. So Elgin High School's library dates back to 1968. Streamwood High School's library dates back to 1978. Those spaces have not been renovated since their conception. They still look pretty much the same and still have the library stacks of books exactly where they were during those years. So with looking at just those two libraries alone, with the fact that they haven't been updated, they are not meeting the demands of today's learning, today's careers, today's college expectations of what a collaborative learning space to support all of our curriculum should look like. We do know that our students and teachers need a space not only to read, but to create, explore. collaborate and practice in a larger space outside of just a classroom. They need not

244only books, but they need access to information, access to technology, and the space will also support those by giving separate breakout rooms and also giving technology support and access to some of the databases that have already come forward to the to the school board but also all of the other curricular areas. So when we look at some of the research that is out there, and we're really looking at not that we don't believe in printed books but that we know that with today's learners, today's learners use print and they use digital. And not only that but they use one another. And so when we look at what learning is today, how we function as a society. We don't function alone, we function together. And that's really where some of the beliefs and research come for

245the Learning Commons, is it is a space for people to come together, work together, to investigate independently, but then also to investigate together. So when we look at the standards that this will support, so we have ISTE standards, which are the International Society of Technology Education. We have the Illinois Standards for Libraries. We have the American Association of Libraries and the Illinois Learning Standards. And what these really are... promoting is critical thinking, they're promoting using technology to create, to publish, but also to learn, but to do it responsibly and in a safe environment. And that's the other piece that we hope that this learning space will support is that idea that this is a safe, supported environment for our students. So when we look at the design, the idea behind the design is that we're

246creating flexible learning spaces. So in these images, these are not U46, obviously, but they are images from local. school districts in our area. So we have flexible seating so that you have an area where students can sit independently and practice and enjoy reading or print or even some collaboration and conversation. Then you have round tables that you see that again students come together and they can work there. But then you have collaboration areas. So you have like the booths there. And we're going to have collaboration spaces as well. So we're going to be putting, our proposal is to put up some temporary wall dividers so that students have that ability to come together as a small group and create. And then you have a floor plan. sample as well that shows you there's a spot

247for large instruction, there's a spot for small groups, there's technology spaces, so that you also can support multiple classes in the space at the same time or you can support multiple learners in this space. So students coming in from study halls, from lunch, pieces like that. And then what this space conversion will then do is hopefully provide the engagement so that the space has pieces there for students to use. Laptops will be accessible. TV monitors where students can collaborate around will be accessible. Projectors where students can teach one another. Teachers can teach small groups. And that the community as well can be engaged with these pieces and to really celebrate all. learning that happens throughout buildings. So one of the models that we refer to quite a bit within teaching and learning is the model

248of engagement that's proposed by Brian Hamborn with research between 2000 and 2002 that identifies that one of the first stages for student exploration and learning has to be that engagement piece. We need to find topics, give students opportunities to engage and explore things that they are passionate about that will also open doors to additional opportunities. The second piece to that is that we have to make it accessible. So we need to provide access for all of our students to be able to interact with one another and interact with print and also digital. and electric resources as well. And then finally that leads to practice, which is such a huge piece of our instructional work, that opportunity for students to practice. So when they're given the engagement opportunity, they're given access to materials, then you foster

249an area where they can practice and implement those skills and work at creating. And that's a focus for us with the Learning Commons. To piggyback off of that, our learning outcomes that you see outlined here, these are the same learning outcomes that come from every single curriculum that comes forward. So the idea that we want students collaborating, we want them self-directing themselves when they are ready, that they're using critical thinking, that they're using information literacy, creation and invention, and that they're really owning their learning and demonstrating that they own their learning. So as you can see, we do have a rough estimate of an approximate implementation and planning timeline. One of the important features to this, though, will be the collection of data. So our student usage, what types of information students are accessing, how

250many students are accessing the learning commons before school, after school, during study halls, during lunch periods, classes overall and that access as well, in addition to feedback from... students and our teachers at our sites as well so that we can really take a look at the successes and potentially places where we need to continue to enhance our support to make that the learning space that we want it to be. With that input then we would continue planning appropriately for the other high schools and then potentially greater future planning as a system. Any questions or do you want to say anything else? Are there any questions? Is staffing going to be an issue? I had two kids at South Elgin. One graduated in 2008, one in 2013. 2008, he used the library all the time because

251they had two librarians. 2013, it was really limited. There was only one librarian, and they really discouraged the kids from being there. Has that changed? So that is one of the pieces that we continue to take a look at. One of the pieces that would align and support that as we review the appropriate staffing for our Learning Common Spaces is actually a curriculum proposal that's going to come forward a little bit later this year for our libraries overall and our media usage and what that curriculum looks like to best support our other curricular areas. We have received... numerous points of feedback from our sites about the need to be able to access those spaces. And so when we take a look at that, that would be something to consider as well. I was interested in

252the, Suzanne, you had brought up the metrics and traffic especially. So now we're going to invest a million dollars in this project and Are we going to see more kids enjoying and getting the outcomes that you've delineated here? And how do you measure the fact that we've accomplished that? I know that this is an evolution. It's not one and done. But what are you looking to achieve and how will you know when you've achieved it? So I think that goes into the part that we are looking at the curriculum that will be coming forward very soon. We're just finalizing those pieces. And with that curriculum, it's tied to every single content area. When you see those frameworks, it's... How does this apply to social studies, science, fine arts, every single course. And so really creating

253that back to the feeling that our libraries are the heart of our buildings and that this is where learning can happen and this is the resource that all teachers and students can come and expect to have these resources. So to Mrs. Kerr's point, you know, one student one year was using all the time, the next year it wasn't because it wasn't accessible. And so it's really about creating that access and having the doors open and teaching teachers and teaching students how you can use these tools to support your growth. So then go ahead. No, it's very difficult to tease out how specifically a library curriculum could be measured in support of other curricular areas if we're trying to look at either formative or summative assessment data to support that. So really the largest metric that

254we would start with would be that use and that utilization and what that looks like and how the space is being utilized. We've received a lot of input that we've taken into account in the proposal that you have before you as to what students and teachers are looking at for that space. It needs to be multifaceted, it needs to be flexible, and it needs to support a variety of those pieces. So our baseline data would be what that access looks like. How many students individually during what points in the day? How many classes? and what that work looks like as well. So what type of work is happening? Is it database presentation? Is it small group work? Are they accessing some of the different technology, OSBOX to support STEM in the courses, maker spaces, video

255editing suites? What is being accessed and how does that support the curriculum? And that would be our benchmark place to begin with that success of it. from our communities. And our librarians have already been tasked with that piece of to start monitoring why people are coming to the library. Why are they coming to the Learning Commons? What's their purpose? Is it to check out books? Is it for research? Is it for access? So we're starting some of those practices now as well. Okay, and then just one final hopefully thought is what successful models did you look at outside of U46 to come up with this? This is kind of a new thing. in front of me so so we've been out to Lake Forest we've been we went out to Stevenson and then also the

256high school districts in 211 they all five of their high schools were just under renovation so those are high schools within the neighborhood that we've looked at but then also across the nation looking at trends that way we also talked to Gil Borden and they have their new studio as well there and so the work and stories that they've shared with us. Oswego High School came in and did a training for us and so they also met with our librarians. We've also spoken with Barrington High School as well as some of our post-secondary universities in the area also. UIC a couple years ago revamped their libraries and their large meeting spaces for students as did DePaul University as well. And so really looking at how they increase that flexibility within the space so that you

257can really try to accommodate different sizes of groups and different learning needs. As well as Elgin Community College when they built their new library. Any other questions, comments? A comment, maybe you can confirm. It looks like it would be allowing more digital learning, in which case maybe there's not as much direct hands-on instruction needed or a librarian has to be there all the time. So it looks like maybe students could be more self-directed in this case. So the hope is self-direction at the end. I think every teacher, we're always looking for the instruction that we provide. that it supports the student to eventually be very self-directed. But the coaching that is involved will be there, the support for the teachers, and really moving to a co-teaching model. So when a teacher comes to the library,

258there's two people really there to support at minimum, so between the librarian and the classroom teacher. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you all and thanks for the time you put into the proposal and all the background work. You're welcome. Our next under work session are contracts over 25,000. The first one is a contract renewal for financial operations distribution center, annual maintenance and user renewal for school books and tracks software. Joining Mr. Sparks at the dais is Dale Burnidge. Mr. Sparks. Okay, our next proposal is for financial operations and distribution center annual maintenance and user renewal for the school books and track software. Administration recommends the Board of Education approve a one-year contract renewal in the amount of $52,102 as submitted by Active Network Blue Bear Software. This expenditure is charged to the education

259fund. This cost is included in the budget for the 2016-17 school year. Are there any questions? Thank you. Our next proposal is a contractual for information services infinite campus application. Joining Mr. Sparks is Brian Lindholm of our information services department. Mr. Sparks. Our next proposal is for information services, infinite campus contract renewal. The administration recommends the Board of Education approve a three-year contract renewal for infinite campus in the amount of $1,008,416 as submitted by Computer Information Concepts. This expense should be charged to the Education Fund. This cost is included in the budget for the 16-17 school year. Are there any questions? Just for clarification, For 16-17, you're only asking for 329,000, is that correct? And then we renew it every year for the next two years? Yeah. That's correct. Any other questions? And finally we

260have a contract renewal for transportation school bus GPS units Yes, we do make the guy that has to get up the earliest in the district wait for the very last proposal Don't get up at 3 30 tomorrow. We can get somebody over there to cover for you. Can't wait I think there was the last meeting I was at I was very last and it was also a very late meeting. Yes Sorry, mr. Sparks next time Andy needs to be first Our final proposal for the transportation department, the school bus GPS units. The administration recommends the Board of Education approve a three-year contract renewal and a total amount of $225,460 as submitted by Tyler Technologies, Inc. This expenditure will be charged to the transportation fund. This cost is included in the 2016-17 school year. Are there

261any questions? Well, just because he's here. Thank you. I'm just looking for cost savings, efficiencies. What kind of performance are we going to see because we're going to spend this money? The original GPS was installed in 2012, and some of the things that we've experienced in terms of benefits, number one is safety. We utilize the GPS for monitoring our vehicles. If there's an incident on the bus, we can immediately identify where the vehicle's at. Also, if there's a breakdown that might involve a breakdown of communication through the driver to our base station. Just overall efficiency in terms of finding out where the bus is at and if it's exactly where it's supposed to be. in route or on route from a daily basis. So I think the biggest advantage that we have seen is the

262safety aspect and just the ability to track vehicles. Are you able to convey that to the parents in any way? I mean obviously not real time that your bus will be here in the next four minutes, but why is my bus, it's been a half an hour and that should have been there at 7.15. How do you interact with that? That's something that will be available and something that we've looked into or that our department has looked into as far as an expansion or having the ability to do that in the future where it would be very much like a city mass transit where you could go onto an app and basically find out where your bus is at. So that's something that this will build toward and allow us to move forward in that

263direction. Yes, Mr. Martin, I don't mean to stomp on your great explanation, but I know when we first brought the GPS forward several years ago, there were some cost savings we realized over time. One was the reduction in braking because you, right, wear and tear on tires, brakes, because you can monitor speed limit, you can monitor to reduce the number of stops through efficiencies. That's correct. And also fuel efficiency from idling because it will alert you if a bus is idling for a period of time that it should not be idling. Correct. Is that correct? It is. And it also monitors the railroad crossing procedures. If we get a report that a driver isn't doing something, we can go back and we can actually check that through the GPS, the function of picking up students,

264using the amber lights, the red lights. All of that information is captured through our GPS collection. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. It's just possible click you had something that I had there well I was just gonna say all of those cost savings and things were our present on board docs for the 2012 14 years a whole our ROI Documentation that was put together to show the cost savings over the years. So it's all there and available Thank you Motion to adjourn so moved second roll call, please Yes Mr. Costello? Yes. Ms. Sonia Ellis? Yeah. Mr. Holt? Yes. Ms. Gert? Yes. Ms. Nolan? Yes. Madam President? Yes. Move up.