001provision of this app aberdeen board of education inquiries advertised sorry this meeting on june 20 2023 in the azure park church and the star level this notice was sent to the municipal clerks of the borough of matawan and the township of aberdeen and the matawan aberdeen public library the notice was also placed on the district's website And in saying our Pledge of Allegiance, we have Ms. Zoe Zidane. Thank you Vice President Martinez. Thank you Board of Education members. Thank you Assistant Superintendent Liebman and our other central office administrators. Thank you to all the parents for coming. It's great seeing so many people today. I saw many of you the last couple days over conferences, so I really appreciate all the time you're spending here with us this week. I am thrilled to give a sneak
002preview of our Night of the Arts that's coming up in May. Mr. Smeyda and your third grade children. have worked incredibly hard over the last six weeks. I was able to see the full rehearsal today and I was blown away by the work of the students, the leadership of Mr. Smada. While the students are performing our two songs, our special teachers, Ms. Viola, Ms. Rose, and Ms. Arie, put together a video, which is a collage of pictures of different events throughout the year. So thank you all again for your time. Thank you for allowing us to host tonight. And without further ado, Mr. Smeder. Thank you so much Dr. Cronin. So first off, I just want to thank our central administration. I want to thank our Board of Education. I want to thank Dr. Cronin
003for all of his incredible support with everything going on. It has been quite a time for our third graders here putting in all of this work. And for the entire special team, I'm incredibly grateful to work with such amazing people who are putting together such an amazing event at the end of the year for you in our Night of the Arts. And... Our third graders here have been working to put together a preview for that night and we will be singing two songs from our Night of the Arts. We Don't Talk About Bruno from Encanto and Hakuna Matata from The Lion King. And with that being said, third graders, are we ready to start? Alright. client matters. The subject matter of these discussions will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality subsides.
004Although the board cannot guarantee it, the length of the executive session is estimated to be about 20 minutes, after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business. Action may take place. Can I have a motion and a second? All in favor? I have a motion and a second to return to the session. Motion. Okay. And can I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes? From the Committee of the Whole meeting, October 12, 23. The Executive meeting minutes from October 12, 23. Regular action meeting minutes, October 19 of 23. And the Executive meeting minutes of October 19, 23. Motion. Second. Second. And can I have a motion and second to the person on the board? I can motion. Second. And just for the board, Mrs. Foley is not
005able to be here tonight, so I'm going in. So just a couple things. Well, thank everybody, and I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving, holiday, family, and friends in their break. This year, just so we're all aware, we were able to provide support to 144 families for Thanksgiving meals, thanking to the school community and their generous donations, so that's awesome. Last night, yes, Wednesday night, we had 57 children inducted into our National Honor Society, and that was done at the high school, so that's also amazing and a real achievement. and we also had a lot of good things. We also had our MAMS Esports Rocket League team and this is Baumert and this is Gaeo for finishing the fall season and they won the state finals. So that's also awesome. We had the high school
006boys soccer program for receiving soccer officials. They got the sportsmanship award. And we had a successful parent workshop at Weave Road a couple weeks ago that was facilitated by representatives from Compass and Preferred Behavioral Health and focused on various topics including online safety, organization skills as well as coping skills and strategies for building positive relationships. We are excited to continue this partnership with them for additional parent workshops in our future. And Lloyd Road also is excited to announce that they had a kickoff of their Lloyd Road Cafe. And this is an area that will provide our students in the... the MD class, the disabled class of autism the opportunity to learn important life skills and it's going to provide them opportunities to serve staff coffee, tea, hot chocolate, just basic things that our children. need
007to know and or be involved in and plus it helps the staff. The Lloyd Road Cafe will kick off December 1st and our students and staff are very excited about this opportunity for our kids. And we would like you to come out. We also want to invite you to our Matamoros Regional High School's fall drama production of Puffs next week. And the shows are December 7th through 10th. And the website, everything is on the website for details, ticket information and whatnot. Another great thing is that we are eligible for up to $1.7 million in pre-K grants to assist our pre-K renovations. at Cambridge, which will help offset some of the construction costs. And thank you to our central office team for submitting the grant applications and always going through all of the legwork to submit
008for every grant to never give up on any extra money that we can find anywhere. So I really appreciate that. Our next five-monthly discussion with the superintendent is scheduled December 12th, and that will get six in the high school media center, and that is also on the website. And if you have anything else that you're looking to do, always look on our district website, newsletters, upcoming dates, announcements, events, activities, everything is on the actual webpage for the district. Next, I would like to give it to our student rep and Mr. Richie. Am I saying it? Is it Richie or Richie? Richie. Richie. Okay, welcome. I know you're filling in as well, so you are vice president at the high school, and I'm also filling in, so that's good. We're here together today, so thank you.
009Good evening, my name is Tom Strucci and I am the MRHS student body vice president. I will be sharing the November report with things up next or post. The students and staff at Cambridge Park Elementary had a very busy month. On November 15th, Cambridge Park held its first annual Veterans Day Parade led by Superintended Curriculum and Board of Ed member John Fontone. Students dressed in red, white, and blue to honor all those dressed for a different act in our country. On November 16, 2023, kindergarten students and families came together to celebrate our first Indigenous Peoples Day. Throughout the month of November, kindergarten students have been learning about the history and culture of Indigenous people. The event marked the culmination of our 10-day unit where we brought history to life through various interactive centers. The kids
010had a chance to travel back in time to experience how Native people lived in them years ago. Next month, Cambridge Park will invite families to visit during music lessons and participate in a winter holiday sing-along. Lloyd Grove is very excited to announce they've picked up on our Lloyd Grove Cafe, which will provide our students in MD and adultism the opportunity to learn important life skills while providing an opportunity for our staff to search for breakfast, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate starting on September 1st. Lloyd Road had a successful parent workshop last week facilitated by the representatives from Compass and referred by 8-year-old health. This parent workshop focused on various types during the 90-minute session including online safety and security, organization and time management skills, as well as student coping strategies and tips for fostering positive
011peer-to-peer relationships. We are very excited to continue the partnership for additional parent workshops in the future. Lloyd Road Student Council elections were held earlier this month and student representatives for each homeroom have been announced. Students did an amazing job preparing and presenting their student council elections. Each homeroom class at Lloyd Road has a student council representative who will work closely with their peers and teachers in the school administration to promote student voice, advocacy, and involvement to enhance our school and school community. The Environmental Club cleaned the main ground recently. Our academy students are painting winter murals on the district office windows. We are thrilled to have MAAN students showcasing their tremendous art skills outside our school. Thank you to Mr. Stevens and Ms. Chunk at Peckery for helping to lead these fun concerts. The 6th
012and 7th grade band concert is on December 12th and the 8th grade and jazz band students perform on December 15th. Also the chorus concert is set for December 20th. November has also been a busy month for the Ravine Drive Roadrunners. Our monthly food drive collected 689 items that were donated to the Matalon Community Food Pantry. We had our kindergarten ball fest. Many of the students' decorations are still on display at the gym right now. Chief Falco visited and answered questions for our students as we continue to build and connect with our community. Finally, our second grade students greeted a tricky transport design challenge that is displayed in the lobby. Be sure to stop by and check them out if you have a chance. We look forward to celebrating as hard as we can and reporting
013out all of our December events next month. Okay, moving on. Curriculum, Instruction, Arrangements, Student Services, and so personnel, drop your mic up. Good evening everyone. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, except for family and friends. I did. My mother recently is, I think my great-grandmother's time is over, so I'm excited to be on stage with my great-niece and great-grandmother. I hope the same for our family. We are going to start with the appointments of two staff members as listed on the walk-in. I also bring to the board's attention the items in red for approval tonight under A, B, C1, C3, C4, C5, C7. And that concludes the first conference meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Nunez. There's no policy and so can we motion and second the first now? I'll motion. And policy there
014is none and finance in this case. Good evening, we'd like to take action on items on the blue tent and we'd also like to take an opportunity to thank the entire foundation for donating $15,000 to the peace weekend at the Brooklyn College for our students. Thank you, Ms. Gates. and a motion and a second to approve the agenda. Any questions or comments from the board on agenda items? Thank you. On personnel number seven, I know we had asked about the transportation mileage or what was it, and it's because we're going back and forth between Cambridge and St. Joe's. I was just wondering, is this... If somebody could just remind me, is this a long-term plan or is this a short-term fix? Or eventually are we going to all be together? We're looking for a location.
015No problem with that. I'm just curious about the long-term. Okay, thank you. Anybody else on the agenda items? The Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on matters of interest to the school community. Individuals wishing to speak must state their name and the municipality of where they live. Comments are limited to three minutes duration, but an individual may speak a second time after all other members who wish to speak to the topic have been heard. All statements should be directed to the board president or vice president, and no participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others whose legal rights may be affected. Please note, while it is not on the board's attention
016to stifle comment on matters of legitimate concern, the public should be aware that if statements violate the rights of others under the law of defamation or invasion of privacy, they may face personal liability to the Indian court. If speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of their comments, the Board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal advisor. So, um, Susan Santora, Aberdeen, um, I'm on one of those. I'm just going to read to you a letter I recently sent to the Board that I would like to have on record, even though I don't have it on the record anyway. New York Times editorial board said today, evidence is now in and it is startling. The school closures that took 50 million children out of classrooms at the start of the pandemic may
017prove to be the most damaging disruption in the history of American education. It also set students' progress in math and reading back by two decades and widened the achievement gap that separated poor and wealthy children. The most damaging disruption in the history of American education? This is from the New York Times editorial board, which served as a semi-official state news agency during the pandemic to push for unscientific COVID policies that many of us who had common sense continually said was wrong. They saved absolutely zero kids from death in the entire nation while creating a pandemic of learning loss and chronic absenteeism. that was concentrated among poor, interstate, and minority communities. And instead of calling for accountability, such as the resignation of governors like Murphy, who imposed this hell on our most vulnerable kids, while his
018high school kids and private schools didn't impose, the New York Times simply advocated for spending many billions more in a futile attempt to undo their harm. We need to have absolute accountability in the way this was handled on state, local, and federal levels, as well as compensation to affected kids and families. We must pass strong laws that make it impossible to ever close schools again for any reason. If there's ever another health emergency, give parents the choice of where to send their kids for school, in person or via Zoom. The funny thing is, I was at the board meeting when state test scores were released. Guys, I am so against state test scores. My two older children from fourth grade all the way up to high school in New York City did not take state
019tests because I absolutely feel like they are worthless. However, since we moved to New Jersey and the pandemic happened, my daughter takes the state test every year because I need to know how damaging the pandemic was to her. Okay? So, funny thing is, I was at the board meeting when state test scores were released. The presentation was a wash and repeat from 2022 with no significant differences. I felt like the entire presentation was a copy and paste. No real solution for struggling students. I heard about coaches for teachers, but no tutoring for middle school students. I wondered as I sat there if you guys saw the same state test results as I did. When are we going to acknowledge that we need to see some change? CARE's money is gone. We had a real opportunity
020to make a difference in disruptive education. I appreciate your service to our community. I need to see a difference for our struggling students. Thank you. Yeah, I don't understand how . You may think you do not, but it is irrefutable that the narrative, policies, influences, and various forms of indoctrination will and are already uttering in the epigenetics of gender-discordia and confusion among our youth that is coming to the door towards death, if not on it. Consider all of this by celebrating the UIV month. You know this is one that I'll miss. We have Memorial Day. one lute per day, etc. But month? Just what exactly are we celebrating? Then there is Awareness Week, Day of Silence, and several more, all being infused into our young, intractable children. We don't have a large population of students
021with gender-discordian mouths, but some adults want to see more, and want to facilitate conditions to make it easier for kids to go down this path. I personally think they have a psychological need to be validated, which is understandable, but that explains why they are in a mission to radically change social norms, redefine gender, marriage, etc., and over-sexualize our kids in schools. 5756 validates all of that student messaging and amounts to a flat-out indoctrination and an attack on the hearts and minds of our children. My children. Everything about 5756 is, in fact, fun. Some say conservatives are fear-mongering or don't know what's in the policy, as they assert that it is really about providing a safe place for children and to be economists in their gender identity from bad parents. I can assure you, I have
022read 57 and 56 very carefully and have taken the time to write it down many a times. Words have meaning and policies based on those words have consequences. What are the implications of a student-centered policy if young children, even from kindergarten, are granted rights by the state that confer the inalienable rights? What does that mean and what will that mean? If administrators and their staff affirm without question, diagnosis or any other criteria, what is the potential harm to children who wouldn't have accepted their first gender otherwise? Look up the word at once. If you really want to protect all our children and provide safe placement and to learn and grow as children, have children. In a diverse culture, you will reject this divisive and dangerous policy that tries to create special rights for a few
023at the expense of everyone else, but will cause harm to those same few while providing no real benefit to anyone. Thank you. And I just pray that you would discern it in intellectual honesty. in this decision line that you touched on. Good evening. Hi. Hi, I'm Kim Lindman. I'm from Walgreens. I'm a former special ed teacher. So, I'd like to thank you again for taking the time to present Policy 5756. The suggested policy impacts many vital areas that unfortunately can't be reviewed due to time constraints. So, I would like to take time in this opportunity to highlight the following. parental rights, teacher-parent relationships, the First Amendment, the special needs student, and the First Amendment. So I would like to focus on the ones I mentioned, the relationship between teacher and parent, and the importance of
024the brain, the brain is significant in identifying the identity and personality of the student. The teacher-parent relationship plays a critical part to the academic performance of the student. The relationship has proven by various studies to have student benefits, and one study found by the Victorian Tocondo Research. Results found that the areas of math and reading that the teacher-parent relationship played an essential role in the significant improvement in these areas. It was found that math scored were more likely to improve ten times and reading the scores were likely to improve four times. On the other hand, in schools where the relationship between teachers and parents, the student scores suffered despite attempts to improve scores. Where there is clear communication lines between the teacher-parent relationship, As mentioned above, the student is of the one who will benefit.
025If 5756 is not rescinded, then the student will suffer the consequences. The reason is due to the lack of trust in the pivotal relationship of teacher and parent. 5756 allows the teacher not to provide the parent with the gender the student identifies as. Also, the student is allowed to use the bathroom and participate in activities that the student identifies as. In addition, another separate file is kept on record. This information is kept with parents if the student wants to inform the parent. The brain is a vital organ that plays a significant role in the development of a student's personality and identity. Research has been done that provides significant information than needs to be considered when rescinding Piles 756. One article that was published was the Mental Health Daily, At What Ages is the Brain Fully
026Developed? This article provides information that entails the stages of a student's brain which ultimately will inform how a student's personality and identity become to be. I would like to introduce a couple of them. Maybe just ages. The brain is not fully developed at the age of 25 or 30. Yeah, I'm sorry. Sure. All right. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. My name is Jennifer Woodruff, and I am a resident in Morganville and a business owner in Maryland for 30 years. Thank you for your time, for your dedication to the board. We really appreciate it. I'm also opposed to 5.7 and 5.6 because of many reasons, including divisiveness, privacy concerns for the majority of the kids, disregard of parental rights, and unfair competition in sports. But my main reason for the objection
027is that it serves to affirm a false ideology. There are two genders, male and female, and that cannot change. We know that gender dysphoria has and does exist for a very small minority of people, but in the past 10 years there has been a tremendous fight in gender confusion, and it's mainly in girls. This would not be happening if it wasn't for social media, far left-wing philosophy, the entertainment industry glorifying it, and it being affirmed by the schools. Let's talk about the school's role. Although not publicly broadcasted, we know that schools in New Jersey are not only teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity, they are affirming gender confusion. Both of the state mandate LGBTQ++ history in employment schools. Kindergartens are introduced to gender stereotypes. Impressionable little ones are taught there is no true connection
028between biological sex and gender. They are told that someone, like maybe a doctor, may have guessed what sex they were at birth, but no one really knows their gender except the child themselves. The little ones are taught they might have a girl brain and a boy's body. The curriculum in schools supplied by gender activists such as ACOU, Planned Parenthood, the Bill Gates Foundation, psychics, etc., include information on gender expression in graphic sexual material that will never have been discussed or shown in years past, nor have any reason to be taught in these schools. We know that many schools in New Jersey are celebrating, as the gentleman said before, many schools are celebrating Pride Month, International Pronouns Day, LGBTQ History Month, Transgender Awareness Week, and the Day of Silence. You wonder why gender fluidity has become
029such a thing, that school policy has to address it. We are teaching it in schools, we are affirming it, and we are celebrating it. How about telling children they were fearlessly and wonderfully made by God as male or female, and this should be celebrated. For the insecure child going through puberty who has anxiety over bodily and moral changes. Why don't we just give them guidance and love, have them deal with the usual hormonal changes, go through the typical trials of being an adolescent, and if necessary, get them help by a trusted counselor. Most kids will outgrow their fears and awkwardness about their bodies. For those children with other psychological issues that may be pre-existing or because of a trauma in their lives, let us help them work through their fears. Most likely the pain is
030nothing to do with gender. We talk about bullying. Most of the bullying happens in the last few times. Cell phones are a big part of it. I don't know why kids have cell phones. During class time, it would be so much better without the cell phones and there wouldn't be so much bullying. Your anti-bullying intimidation policy is 27 pages long. It's all hands to bear. I don't know why we need a separate policy. Thank you. Thanks very much. Hi, I'm Ryan Darian from . The father is six myself. And I'm also here because I would like to see 5756 rescinded. I do believe that all children should be treated fairly. All children should be protected. I don't believe that one type of child should be given their own personal rights. But I think that does
031the job. I think that persuades them to say, oh, well. If I change my gender, then I'm going to have specific rights and privileges that should not happen. We have health class that teaches kids about their sexual identity. And we allow them to use whatever bathroom they want. They don't believe that something should go on in schools. You know, but that's my biggest question is why are we treating one child differently than the parent child? And I think that's the question that needs to be asked before allowing this policy to go through. It needs to be rescinded. as quickly as possible. I'm not going to be a dead horse. I'm quite a serious person. I really appreciate you allowing me to speak today. Great schools, great systems, great towns, unfortunately, we can't go around in
032traffic because everyone else wants to work here. I'm very concerned about the special rights, the really special privileges for someone who's already given the rights to be a protest. We have plenty of rights. But if they were protesting, they would find themselves dead or in jail in another country. So we had plenty of rights. We don't need any more special privileges for a special class of person. We think that actually is a very good job. Also, the trisexual agenda, particularly those in the early 30s, the communist Marxism, the fascists, the atheists, the atheism, the religious, that are on. Or the hit-backs, things like that. or even the government unit. And I was like, yeah, I heard about that. What that happens is crazy. Oh, guess what? It's the business service that they're talking about. We
033don't want those stocks anymore. We want to be able to do business service and also policy work. We're very concerned about the rising, the level of rising in the economy and the anti-American corporations and investors. So I'm very, very upset and confused that so many people are really unaware. And I think any of you guys that are aware of what's really going on, you would want to have a special class. And who would have thought, oh, we need another bathroom in every school? It's a classic. But I know we always put the curious people under the bathroom in the schools that are already there. and then 30 to get the start of this horrible Thomas character, that piece of garbage, who is a mediocre man swimmer and now he's the greatest woman swimmer ever, beating
034Riley, who worked all his life for him. There's just so much you have to do, so much I'm carrying this on my hands, and I'm sorry. And I read the, and not the, the Golden Grade, Angry Men, I've said it in the three grade end videos, it doesn't give a clear definition of what the teacher's responsibility is. So, in, I guess, just a problem here for a few minutes. So, in short, I love our town, I love the children, I'm sure everybody on the other side loves their children too. But in the sky. And I don't think we should take Jennifer's story as, and try to, as someone expert, as someone who's privileged. And we are a type of artist, citizen, citizen. We're a kind of group of things you're doing. I just heard about
035the old curfews and the people that, you know, hit. We're as awesome as them. I want to continue to create a town like this where people really care about their children. Children cannot be used as pawns. Thank you. Thank you. Just a couple of quick ones that I said before. I think this board has a scope that doesn't pertain to some of the comments that I was given. So you said policy here. We don't determine whether or not a student is gay, homosexual, trans, or anything else. We don't determine that. That's not what we do. Another thing is this policy has been around since 2017. As far as I know, I've worked here since then, there have been no special privileges or rights given to any student that I'm aware of. You know that's happening?
036Okay, I'm not aware of it. I guess what I find frustrating when I listen to this is I've worked here for this is my 26th year and I think this is a really good school district, all right? And I do agree with the comments that have been made praising the school district and what it does. However, my concern is that this seems to be more of a political argument to me than it is one of an educational argument, which is the board's job to educate children. This argument started as, if we all remember when we came together and this became an issue, was that we were keeping secrets from parents. That's what it started as. And that was a fair argument. It was. But when I hear about kids getting medication that teachers don't prescribe,
037gender dysphoria surgeries that we have nothing to do with, actually trying to convince children that they should be one sex or another, or kindergarten teachers basically telling a kid that you have a girl brain and a boy body. I am unaware of any of that happening since this policy has been given. Okay, go. So my viewpoint is that I work here and I'm hearing a lot of things that don't actually happen here. So if you make the decision to make, that's fine. Like I said before, I don't have a dog in this life in terms of whether someone will vote for Karen or not. I've shared my viewpoint on that with some of you. I think there's a age appropriateness to that. But when I start to hear arguments that become more political, and I
038hear things like the woke left, but this policy was written in 2017 with a Republican governor and appointed board of education by a Republican governor, that wasn't the woke left. So we need to have the facts straight before we actually make any decisions. And we need to make sure that we're actually focusing the recent decisions on educational policy, not what Fox News says about something and what MSNBC says about something. So let's collectively get together and figure out what to do with this. And what other districts do, by the way, with their policy is what they do. I heard and I know there's nothing against anybody coming out to speak and everybody had that right. But there are a few Matawan residents here. There are not a bunch of Matawan residents here. So I think
039we just need to remember we said educational policy. Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to speak? The children are prisoners here for several hours a day. They're very large persons of their life. their exposure to sharing and being decent human beings, caring about other people as well as learning, etc. But the idea that a systematical business here for an education, that's not really what I think. It's a social and engineering experience that I've learned for a long time. It's much worse since I was in the 60s when I was one of these little kids that learned how to talk. We want to represent the best. That's what we're doing here now. And I agree, we're not a bad school district. But we want to stay on the same path. And Christie's 88,
040whatever the governor today, there's no difference between a ridiculous liberal, and stupid. It's just a bad policy. And most of the people who helped me is not a very good structure, very sad. I'm nervous about it. But if we see somebody as political as a concern for what could happen, we want to admit this in the bubble. And this whole pride, sexual thing, I think there are many, many people who think there's something else. And I don't want to get into the details. I'm going to say, okay, well, do this ad, and the agenda is to order that, and it's value, and because someone is the executive, that's the program, and that's out of the under-recommendation. I'll figure out who needs that. Basically, we're not saying we're doing that job, because we're doing a great
041job, and we want to keep it, and that's all there is to it. We want to be protective. We're not totally protective. We're not 1.5% at the exclusion of the rest of them. We want them all. Thank you. I'm this, and that particular student. And so you want to have that open-minded communication with that parent. And trust issue is huge. But my other concern is about the other children. Like, my own child, you know? I never got involved in board meetings or whatever because I thought everything was going how I thought it was when I was in school. So I didn't. So shame on me. But now I'm doing it. And I'm glad. But there's a whole bunch of other thing with children and the elementary child. The elementary child is so... When they see
042their teacher, it's just like another part of them. Like their mom. And it's a different type of relationship. I remember kids coming down and they hug you and it's the best thing. My job was like, it wasn't even a job. It was like I forgot about my life because that's what I love. And so when you go into middle school, it's a different ballgame. You know, where they're having a little more independence and no hormones and everything else. But there's a whole bunch of other children. They don't think the same. My concern is for them. If my daughter had a problem, I know. I already know that the school is concerned about her well-being and being in the bathroom or whatever is going on. So there's a whole set of complex issues. So I just
043want to thank you for allowing me to take the time to speak and to realize there's a whole difference in the brain again. You know, we're living and developing 25. To have someone feel that as a teenager, they don't feel that way as a mature. That's all. Thank you so much. Thank you. And as you said in the past, we read everything, we listen to all of you, we honestly appreciate you guys coming and taking the time. And we are, every single meeting, we are working. Through this policy, but we're taking our time because there are nine members and we all have different pieces of thoughts and Like we did with the health policy we took an entire summer and we were transparent and told you we were doing it so we are you know
044coming to Final endings of working with this but at the same time and we don't want to rush it so I appreciate it and thank you for your patience, but we do have something finalized which we're getting close to, we will absolutely share that. So again, thank you. Okay. I'm sorry. is because there is a lot of misinformation and I have been to some of the school board meetings also and often times when a conservative says the night sky is beautiful look at those stars somebody else gets up and says it's black and ugly okay so that might be a little bit dramatic but the fact is that our message is in this church right And nobody is asserting that teachers are trying to proselytize little children into incurring gender confusion or gender dysphoria. I
045haven't heard anybody say that in any of these states. I have not heard any conservative parents or conservative speakers suggest that. It depends on political issues. However, as I know I've mentioned one time, it has become political because that's what has been pushed down from this governor and his legislature, including the recent changes to Chapter 7, which take out the word equality and replace it with equity and take out the reference to the boy and girl and put it in front of them. Okay? That makes it a political concern to me as a citizen. Well, I just have my rights above it. But it also makes it personal because I have children, I have grandchildren, and I care about them. And if you apply intellectual honesty to this, you actually look at what this policy
046says and what it doesn't say. You can't improve anything other than it will be harmful. It's just a matter of when and to what extent and then who you expect. Because all the adults that are promoting this stuff and encouraging it and trying to tell you that you need to protect the children's safety. They're not going to be here in 10 years when these young kids that have ruined their formative years. and reality sets it. You can't avoid the fact and the reality of what the end of this road is for kids that believe that they can go down this trans-router transition, for example, because that's mostly what this policy addresses, is the team. Several other statements that were made by this gentleman, which I respectfully disagree with some of them, were not accurate or
047things that were asserted by any of these people or that I've heard from other people. So I appreciate that you use discernment and you look at the facts and the implications of what this policy is and you do it with real help with the thinking to acknowledge it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. And if we can move on. No, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I heard a speaker come up and say that young children were being taught by their teachers that they could have a girl wearing a boy body or vice versa. I heard that. I've been to every single boarding school. I think since I've been president, since 2016, I've missed one. So have you. I know what they say and what doesn't. And there have been many times that people have come
048to this podium and made statements about teachers steering children in one direction or another. Now, if we say that this isn't a political argument, let's hypothetically think about this. Does this district have a policy that would prohibit a trans adult from becoming a teacher? Do we have one? No. Would it be discrimination if we did not hire a teacher because that teacher was trans? I think the answer is yes. If in your mind you are saying that children are young and they can't discern, I'll agree with you on that. But if you just felt in the pit of your stomach, oh my god, there would be a trans adult teaching my kid, this is a political issue for you. This isn't about students. Thank you, Ms. Barroca. I appreciate it. Okay, so if we can
049move on. Everybody good? Okay, we can move on to action on agenda items. Personnel, including the walk-in and finance. Ms. Hayes? Ms. Faisal? Yes. Ms. Gershon? Yes. Ms. Rontan? Yes. Ms. Powell? Yes. Ms. Trout? Yes. Ms. Brown? Yes. Ms. Markey? Yes. Ms. Markey? Yes. Thank you. Is there any unfinished business? Congratulations. Congratulations and we welcome you to stay here. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Anybody else? I just wanted to get the word on it. It references... The teacher is not being able to prescribe medication, which we all know is correct. I just want to state that the next logical step after affirmation is medication. You don't affirm a child and that's all you do. That's all I want to say. I too just have one piece. We were supposed to meet with
050the township the first week of December, the fourth through the fifth. for a security update meeting. Unfortunately they had to reschedule so we will let you know when that is rescheduled and keep you in the loop with that as we are, as the team and administration just are working on the security piece. Just wanted to update you guys. And any new business, we're here. Because we don't have a meeting until after the fact, I just want to wish our community members a happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate coming up on December 7th. Okay, so we're going to go into your next session. We're not meeting again until when, Dr. McKinney? December 20th. Oh. First. Okay. action will not take place. Can we have a motion and a second to go to the second session? Second.
051All in favor? Aye.