SSUSD Regular Board Meeting 8-19-21

001like to call to order the regular meeting of the sierra sands unified school district board of education we will have the pledge of allegiance by our student member led by student member hannah ostermann ready begin of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all we will now observe a moment of silence thank you item number one adoption agenda any changes yes mr president couple changes i'd like to add concurrent items 2.1 2.2 and 2.3 to to be heard after item 8.3 and i'd like to move item 7.1 to be heard before 6.1 all right with those adjustments we will follow that order uh okay approval of the minutes if there are no changes they will stand as presented i

002have a very slow moving computer there are no programs and presentations or public hearings we move right into uh reports and communications first off we have murray middle school murray had a great first week of school last week and continued this week with welcome week students designed name tags and then had daily challenges all week long tomorrow is name tag day the last day of challenges and class competition day so many kids have been involved already asb has asb has done a great job kicking off the year we are halfway done with our mustang way assemblies where students learn the rules of murray and especially to be responsible be respectful and be safe our parents teacher organization met last night and they have some great ideas for the year we are excited to welcome all

003our parents to back to school night tuesday august 24th at 6 30 pm we are excited to have sign ups for volleyball tryouts and cross country this week we can't wait to see our mustangs in action again we want to send a special thanks to our teachers and staff as they have made the start of the year amazing we look forward to a great year at murray next is monroe middle school more than 150 sixth graders turned out for web which stands for where everyone belongs this powerful student orientation program culminated on the monday before school our student leaders trained for several days over the summer to help new students feel welcome to their new campus in the middle schools experience in this special year as a return from the from the pandemic closures the

004desire to be on campus manifested in a historic turnout for the older grade orientation in past years maybe a dozen seventh slash eighth grade students need to be shown around campus the more than 100 students and their families arrived after lunch on monday in hopes of relieving anxieties for the first day in preparation for the first day teachers worked extra hard and prepared beautiful signage for students to see grade level colors and teach our names at each store ptso also helped with the festivities by providing a beautiful balloon arc around the front gate and a bag of goodies at each teacher's desk students were strategically placed in advisories for intervention and enrichment to start their first weeks the whole school took the first week to explain expectations to help students engage in the tiger way

005in the coming weeks students have the chance to select their favorite activities and advisory to reward their academic progress last but not least asb is about to kick off its kick off its first spirit days a welcome dance and sign ups for volleyball season this week go tigers next is mesquite high school welcome back mesquite students have gotten off to a busy start and we are so happy to be back on campus we started off our first day of school with our staff and asb students serving donuts and coffee to parents in this in the school's drop-off line we adopted a celebration type theme in our school opening for in our sorry we adopted a celebration type theme for our school opening for we are truly happy to be back on campus with our students

006and teachers our asb yearbook students are busy planning our back to school barbecue which will take place on wednesday august 25th we will serve hamburgers and hot dogs at the end of the day and enjoy yard games on the grass our back to school night will also be august 25th parents will have the chance to meet with our students as teachers and mesquite staff to continue to collaborate with one another to create a successful learning experience for our students asb will begin volunteering at st michael's food bank this month we have a long time partnership with st michaels and the students are looking forward to volunteering with their food pantry program again last is burroughs high school before the school year began student leaders conducted both incoming freshman and sophomore orientations both classes were successfully

007toured around the campus and given a big borough's welcome the school year has just begun and students are back on campus with mass being worn indoors class sizes are back to full capacities without plexiglass on the desk boroughs had had all class assemblies friday the 13th through tuesday the 17th where rules and school expectations were explained to students school pictures are also on the 19th and 20th coming up soon is back to school night which is on thursday august 26th sports clubs and other activities are back in session all fall sports girls tennis girls volleyball cross country and football plan to start their league matches in either august or september afb has brought the school spirit back with the spirit day aloha my name is they also organized a welcome back kickback last friday where

008students could socialize eat some snacks and play outdoor games such as cornhole and spike ball the students and staff are back full of energy and are excited for a mostly normal school year that's my reports thank you so much hannah i understand you need to leave early tonight do you want to wait for the entire public comment session or do you need to go ahead and go to the seat right now okay well if you'd like to you can excuse yourself right now we appreciate you being here this evening you bet that brings us to reports from members of the board tim anything you'd like to say this evening i just want to say thanks for watching you bet you bet i just want to make a comment i'm just really so excited that we

009have students back in the classroom i mean it's been a long haul and i know we've been concerned about meeting the educational needs of our kids and i appreciate the hard work that all the staff and members of our community have done to try and meet their educational needs and keep them safe and it's a lot of hard work but uh it is so nice to actually have them back in the classroom where we know we can meet their needs in a better way so then that brings us to the superintendent's report dr ostash thanks mr ferris i have a number of updates this evening for the board and for the public thanks for being here this evening as of friday our total student enrollment is 5185 and last year this time we were 5100

010so we're up 184 students which is really great news uh that's not the case in a lot of districts where they're seeing declining enrollment so that's uh that's excellent news we also so of those 5101 students we have about 100 of those students are enrolled in our independent study program interestingly we actually have six inner district transfers four from south fork and two from kernville whose districts could not provide independent study and we volunteered to help out those students so it's nice to have those six students here and to help serve them in ways that their families wanted and the county office is really appreciative of us doing that i want to thank ms mcclellan the principal at mesquite and her team for making all that happen as was mentioned by hannah we had a

011number of back to school nights which were outstanding opportunities for families to connect personally you know with their teachers and to establish those partnerships right up front for student success uh this week we held back to school nights at fowler richmond las flores and in ukraine and we look forward to all the other schools next week and the fall actually all next week i also want to give a little shout out to mrs savco and her team and all the teacher leaders in the district and at sites who helped out we had our second boot camp event this afternoon where at our curriculum and office a curriculum and instruction office we held workshops for our newer teachers to help them you know get up to speed and be able to hit the ground running and

012communication communication is a is a super important aspect of all school districts and we've taken great pride and enthusiasm i would say in upping our game i think the pan i think we were working on constantly improving communication but the last 18 months we've really expanded the way we communicate especially through social media we had a very little a very small presence on social media in the past and we've been utilizing that as a way to communicate in the last four weeks we've shared about 20 different updates through our facebook page these included information ranging from nutritional services to bus schedules to employment opportunities to this to the enthusiasm like you mentioned mr ferris surrounding our full return to campus these posts resulted in more than eight thousand individual engagements and reached more than eleven

013thousand users these posts uh of course have yielded hundreds of responses some of those responses reflect a lot of support for the action that the district has pursued there's also there have also been those who have expressed frustration and opposition to the state mandates that we must follow each one of these comments is read and shared and weighed by staff and leadership and everywhere that we can we always use the feedback to refine and improve and maximize our service to for student benefit one of the things or one thing the numbers do tell us is that many people are very invested in the health and well-being of our children and the staff in our school district and we'll continue to use this tool to keep the community regularly updated and i want to take a

014moment speaking of well-being of students we have we see 98 of our student enrollment at the school sites in the classroom and while there probably are a lot of events that would be considered optional that i think are being cancelled and significantly modified in a lot of school districts we are putting a lot of focus and dedication into making things happen for our students and for our staff like i said back to school nights are happening we're not canceling them we're we're hosting them we think they're very important at burroughs high school last friday evening the asb hosted a popular event at the stadium field they called it a kickback and they played jenga they hosted a cornhole tournament they sold food and drinks they just had a blast and students and staff connected with

015each other and had so much fun a couple of quotes um our asb director laura larson asked uh cerilia denson you know what what'd you think of that event how did it go and quote she said prior to the event there was a lot of talk among the students about the kickback and they were all very excited to attend the event the event was one of the best asb turnouts we've had since my freshman year kids had a lot of fun and it was nice to see everyone playing games and hanging out i think that's that's very emblematic of of the kind of commitment we're making to to serve our students and focus on our students earlier this week we had very exciting ladies volleyball games in the gym had some great wins next friday

016we'll host our first home football game i can't wait to be there under the friday night lights it's been a long time so i'm just i'm really excited and looking forward to that today our athletic director michelle lazaro was out helping students get on the bus to go to their contest and she caught freshman lake lakedon seymour before he got on the bus to travel to paraclete and he said quote having sports back is really fun and exciting we didn't know if we would get to play since football didn't play last year my favorite thing about being back to school in person this year is being able to see my old friends and meet new friends and mostly sports so i just think that quote captures this incredible energy and enthusiasm and the success we're

017experiencing so i just want to say to the board uh that we're leaning into this pandemic in a thoughtful and purposeful way we're following the law but we are also matching that compliance with the relentless energy for maximizing student experience we want our students in the classroom seeing that growing enrollment here seeing that 98 of our students are in the classroom that's absolutely proof that we're getting it mostly right we are striving for the balance and our 100 percent primary focus is on protecting our students ability to go to school every day [Music] i want to acknowledge we you know we have like all the districts across the state we're having some staffing challenges we're almost fully staffed but we have uh some positions we're still um looking to fill anybody here looking to help

018out in the district um we're looking for about 10 individuals to fill some paraprofessional spots mr delbik our executive director of sopa and his whole team are just doing an incredible job plugging the holes and and making things happen but we are still looking for about 10 individuals to fill important paraprofessional position openings we're always looking for interested candidates for areas such as food service clerical transportation etc so come see us in the human resources department just the last couple things as a result of the 2020 federal census california is losing a congressional seat this means that redistricting must take place the california citizens redistricting commission is soliciting input from stakeholders across the state to help inform the process there are community outreach and public input meetings that are being scheduled over the next several

019weeks and it might be a good idea for us the district and or the board to weigh in and i wonder i'm kind of asking a question if the board might be interested in putting this item on a future agenda uh for consideration of what might might be our best interest in this process and if it's the board's uh willingness to do that i'd be happy to put that on a future agenda i think we can have that discussion under a future agenda i didn't see if that's something you want to do that makes sense okay that's great and then my last announcement here is we do have a couple upcoming board meetings we have a special board meeting to conduct workshops for the following three items on september 1 to look at our guiding

020principles to receive a selpa update and to discuss the role of the student board member and how we see that moving forward and then we also have a special board meeting on september 8 to accept uh the fiscal year 2020 2021 on audit unaudited actuals and that completes my report thank you mr ferris thank you dr astash we now come to the point of the agenda which is for communications from the public the board will prov well i'm sorry i jumped four and five i can't count to six so our next item is item four report to the board of trustees by the desert area teachers association ms poole president ferris board members dr ostash members of the community i've been thinking a lot about last year about standing here last august we had just

021begun our zoom year and i remember staying here telling you we weren't happy about it but we were going to do it and we were going to do it as best we could because that's what our kids deserved and that's what we did frankly and i feel the sense of pride and first of all having made it through the year but in what all my colleagues did what all my data members did and i and i think it's not just us but i think that all of us on the campuses and district office came together and did the best we could it was what we had to do and and we did it i also remember telling you that there's a sense of pride i felt because last summer oh my gosh i feel like

022we spent hundreds of hours together negotiating and there was some pride in that because at the end you know we got it done and i i thought that the settlements that we reached were fair and uh and they served all the stakeholders well and now it's been a year and some things have changed and some haven't of course that's how it goes so now we're two two weeks just about into this year and we're back on campus and it is great it is fabulous we've got full classes regular schedule some of us are almost giddy about this i've had teachers telling me that they're happy in the morning knowing they're getting to go into the classroom they rediscovered that joy of teaching that we thought was gone after last year and i have to say

023the kids are happy they are thrilled they're delighted doesn't mean they're perfect they still talk but they are we are all just thrilled to be back and here's something that hasn't changed that pride that i felt last year and the relationship that data and the and the district have cultivated it's still there now it's not flawless and it's not meant to be the system works and i think we've proved that but it's significant to me that the district and data agree on some very important things we both know that kids thrive on campus it's where they belong and we both know that student safety is priority number one and i think that this mutual vision and the mutual trust that we have for each other benefits all stakeholders it makes me proud makes me proud

024to be part of sierra sands and proud to be part of desert area teachers association now we still have a whole year ahead of us and things will get rocky again but again that's the system that's the process and it works in the meantime i find it comforting to know that we have these fundamental agreements and that working together for the better for the betterment of the kids and giving them the best that we can give them thank you thank you miss poole item five report to the board of trustees by the california school employees association do we have a representative tonight to share with us seeing none we will now move to item six which is communications from the public the board will provide time during the discussion of each agenda item for members

025of the public to comment at this time members of the public may address the board on an item that is not on the agenda comments should relate to items of public interest within the board's jurisdiction the law does prohibit the board from taking action on items that are not on the agenda but if appropriate your comments will be referred to staff for response when addressing the board please state your name and address at the podium limit your comments and remarks to three minutes in accordance with the board bylaws the board will limit the total time of public input to 30 minutes those wishing to address the board beyond that 30 minute time limit may do so at the end of the scheduled meeting agenda so if you'd like to speak please step your way up

026to the podium and give us your name and address thank you very much hello my name is lindsey stevens my address is m file good evening members of the board i'm here tonight to introduce a group of newly formed citizens it's a large group it's called we the people of ridgecrest california our mission is to promote and protect faith family and freedom in our community we strongly believe in upholding our unalienable rights that have been endowed to us by our creator among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness our government was designed to be a constitutional republic with the higher levels of government federal and state to be limited and the most controls to be given to the local government boards the state and federal government and cdc have greatly overstepped their role

027we are here tonight to request that you as our local elected officials intercede on our behalf and approve a resolution to restore the power to the people i have reviewed other resolutions that other boards across the country have adopted and drafted one that we would like you to consider to put on the next meetings agenda in addition we would like to request that you look into joining the lawsuit filed by the orange county school board against the state on abusing their emergency powers now going to read the resolution that we're proposing be adopted covid19 continues to spread among individuals who have or have not been vaccinated and among those who do or do not wear masks the center for disease control and prevention cdc has once again changed the direction in mask and vaccination guidance

028the cdc guidelines contradict prior guidance and may not reflect circumstances that exist in our district in ridgecrest california we believe that health decisions are best made by individuals in consultation with their medical professionals common sense should be exercised ridgecrest regional hospital and kern county health department have worked and continue to work diligently to ensure that testing and vaccines are available to those who want them anyone who once can obtain vaccinations anyone who once can wear a mask and anyone who chooses to forego masks or vaccinations has a right to do so we have had covert 19 with us for over a year and a half citizens have been provided with information regarding how to protect themselves from coven 19 and are fully capable of making their own decisions we need to stop depending on the

029federal and state governments to push safety measures and mandates which deny people the freedom they deserve to make their own health choices additionally parents should be determining whether their children return back to schools with or without max vaccinated or unvaccinated finally we fully support hold on finally we fully support and respect the right of citizens to make decisions regarding their own families we have been fortunate the cases have remained low in our district but we trust that if they rise again the people of the district will make their own wise decisions regarding how to take care of themselves we will continue to do everything in our power to see that necessary services for testing and that's why wrap up okay yeah i'm on my last sentence testing and vaccinations are made readily available to everyone

030in the district and look forward to the time when we are able to move past the covid pandemic thank you for your time [Applause] good evening as well my name is jennifer williams um my address is 1421 gold canyon i've been a teacher for sierra sand school district for the last 29 years and i've always felt the leaders of sierra sands have listened to the needs of our community and responded to the needs of our community and i've been very grateful for that all these years however at this point in time i don't see that happening at the school board level i simply see you as a messenger serving as our serving our governor and the cdph cdph our liberties currently are being eroded away and we need you to stand up for our liberties

031which include medical freedom i realize that as an elected board member you feel you are taxed tasked with the responsibility of responding to the executive orders either issued by the governor or by the cdph i'm here tonight to ask you to rethink that to rethink i'm here to ask you to rethink what you see as your duty last week the orange county school board filed a petition in the california supreme court asking the court to declare an immediate end and newsome state of emergency why because the school board has acknowledged that the state of emergency has essentially terminated local government and its ability to make local decisions that are in the best interest of its students and its community another school board sutter union high school district has responded to the needs of the community

032by taking the following position as you will find posted on their district website i'm going to quote this the sutter union high school district will strongly encourage all students to comply with the cdc cd ph guidance including mask however district staff will not be placed in a compromising position of taking enforcement actions both of these districts have done more than read and implement the cdph guidance each school board locally determined a course of action that was best for their students and their community i'm asking that you do the same i know you did not run i know you did not decide to run for the school board so you can dictate personal medical decisions for our students families and employees i realize that and i know that regulating personal medical decisions is not a district

033goal nor is it a goal of a california school board association you can take the position where you can tell us that you are bound by the orders and guidance or you can do what other districts have done and locally govern our school district and protect our liberties and make the needs of our students a priority you have an obligation and a responsibility to seek input from our families and from the employees i realize that governing locally is not easy at this time but then i think to myself i'm sure glad someone like rosa parks did not obey the order that that stated she was supposed to sit at the back of the bus i'm glad she had the courage to stand up for liberty and we need you to demonstrate that courage for our

034kids for our employees for our community and for the liberties and for our liberties and for our medical freedom it's time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable um like all everyone that's here tonight it's not comfortable for me to be up here and it's not comfortable for anybody else and so we're asking that you do that thank you for your time [Applause] hello i'm brian williams i just started my 29th year teaching in sierra sands i'm standing here tonight as a concerned citizen parent and teacher i am deeply concerned about the attacks on our personal freedom and the lack of listening to the voices of everyone in our community i joined the student california teachers association 32 years ago when i was at cal state chico studying to be a teacher and i've been a

035member of cta ever since i've also been a member of the local chapter of cta the desert area teachers association data for 29 years i believe the union was an organization that protected the rights of its members i still think to a certain extent this is true but since the start of the government force shutdown i have doubted this on many occasions last year sierra sands agreed that the gathering of information on what teachers want in our district would come from data cta as one body there would be no other voices heard i am not in agreement with this data has pulled its members including myself many times over the past 18 months and on many occasions barely half the membership was voting and there are teachers not part of the union that aren't being

036polled since wind is a union that is supposed to protect the rights of its membership agree or mandate for forced medical mandates sorry i am against health mandates for people being forced to wear a mask is wrong give people a choice being forced to take a vaccine is wrong give people a choice what's next demanding all employees to be at a healthy weight or risk of losing their job i'd probably ask to lose about 15 pounds which might be a good motivator but it's the wrong way personal health decisions should not be forced forcing someone to lose weight exercise daily have good blood pressure or have a number of or another other healthy choices sounds funny but as someone who told me two years ago brian you'll be required to take an injection and wear

037a piece of cloth over your face all day long while teaching or lose your job i would have laughed again it's my understanding that you as a board have made an agreement with the union that you will only take teacher input from the union what the union gives you i'm asking you to change this practice i want you to ask each employee for the input i know that all teachers voices are not being heard and that agreements are being made aligned to the cta agenda the union doesn't have the right to speak for me about my personal medical choices and because you have established an mou with the union you have taken away my personal voice please change this [Applause] good evening my name is kelly carakas sarah sands teacher for 20 years i live

038at 913 caroline street i'd also like to to follow up with lindsay's resolution ask the board to generate a resolution and here are some reasons whereas immediately following the release of the cdc guidance the california department of public health decided not to follow the cdc guidance and instead implemented the requirements for mask in k-12 settings which wasn't based on scientific reasons they just didn't want students singled out for being vaccinated or unvaccinated and whereas numerous studies in the cdc confirm that children are at an incredible low risk of severe disease long-term side effects and death from coca-19 with a mortality risk substantially less than influenza whereas numerous studies found low case rates in countries where schools did not require mask and studies published by the cdc and the covet 19 school response dashboard found no

039difference in case rates between schools with or without mass mandates whereas numerous epidemiologists pediatricians and health care professionals have publicly advocated for the removal of mass requirements for children and many states have already eliminated that mass requirement whereas recent studies have shown that mask wearing can impact a child's language development emotional development interpersonal communication overall physio physiological and psychological health and whereas as many as 50 to 90 percent of pcr tests may inaccurately identify subjects as positive for covid when the subject is not infectious now therefore let it be resolved and this follows right along with our board goal number three grow family and community partnerships that benefit students so let's number one advocate in writing to the cdph to remove mandatory requirements for preventative measures such as masks and testing number two advocate for

040choice and masking and vaccinations and number three ensure that mass requirements will not be used as punishment to course our children into getting vaccinated be it further resolved that this board commits to acting at all times in the best interest of students and be it further resolved that this board is committed to bringing normalcy to our classrooms including the removal of any and all prevention strategies which are not based in science have harm that outweighs the benefits of which impede in any way a child's student's ability to fully participate in classroom instruction which also aligns with goal number two to maximize student engagement you have the authority to generate a resolution and we as a community ask that you do that you can say that this is a liability issue and i say please don't

041make it about money make it about our students and our families franklin d roosevelt once said we have nothing to fear but fear itself let's stop fearing the unknown and what if and look at the reality of what is the pandemic has been detrimental to our students emotionally mentally and academically and we're seeing that very clearly right now what uh what other issues are our children going to have next year because they've worn a mask for six hours a day every day five days a week alluding back to that fear a question about the vaccine mandate why is someone's fear of dying of carbon 19 more important than another sphere of dying of the vaccine i've personally seen both is the district going to pick up liability for injuries because the manufacturers don't let's stand

042up for what's right save the kids and keep teachers working uh [Applause] helen tomlins 737 randall street when i first saw this on the facebook it's a the next back to school coveted seven layers of defense it's on the left and what i immediately thought about when i saw this cute little colorful chart was a fairy tale that i knew from a long time ago about called hansel and gretel now these brother this brother and sister got lost in a forest actually they were abandoned by a selfish stepmother and a feckless father but they eventually found a tasty house made of gingerbread cake and pastries but they were to find out that this house was only decorated to fool the children because inside was a cannibalistic wit witch who wanted to fatten them up and

043eat them and this colorful cottage was cloaked in deceit in order to bring damage and death to the children and i see a lot of similarities with this clever kova defense chart the bears bears this innocent look also but the protocols are filled with deceit and damage and possibly death there are worse things like the vaccines but i'm going to talk about the masks just the description is deceitful what it says is it's a is simple and very effective that's a myth masks prevent viruses from spreading that is a myth they offer next to no protection against virus-sized particles it's like me throwing sand right through a chain-link fence and expecting the chain-link fence to stop it and also mandatory mandating face masks makes the whole school into a clinical experimental child trial where people

044or children are zero percent practically point zero zero zero zero three percent uh chance of death from this covid also any intervention that we have especially prophylactic must be less harmful than the infection itself so not only is the wording deceitful on these about these covet met these masks that everybody has to wear every day when they're inside for hours and hours but they're also damaging and they've had a lot of mask studies throughout the decades and what they found is that they do not decrease influence influenza linked illness the virus is so small that it can go out of the mask and in the mask but the bacteria is 50 times larger and it stays inside the mask the mandate is also illegal it's against the california education code if you need to stop

045anybody from breathing it's against that code thank you [Applause] good evening i'm dr tom toliver most people know me as dr tom1051peg i'ma speak to you tonight in a language that i think that you could understand and relate to [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm wearing i'm wearing a jewish star because i'm a messianic jew my maternal grandparents left nazi occupied germany i'm sorry romania so i know what state control is and i'll be damned if i'll let america turn into that or ridgecrest well some of you may think i'm not a real doctor here are some facts chiropractors receive on average 400 more hours in the basic sciences than medical doctors including three years of physiology that's how the body works if that word is too big for you we are trained in histology cell biology

046microbiology pathology immunology pharmacology neurology diagnosis differential diagnosis lab diagnosis pediatrics geriatrics and more we take the same national boards as mds we are the experts of the entire body not just apart i'm also a member of the national vaccine information center since 1993 and i've treated over a dozen children with vaccine damage since ninety three i'm here to tell you that these don't work they are physically physically and psychologically injuring our children i did a randomized test in my office using a medical grade pulse oximeter four biological males and four biological females without a mask than wearing a mask in each of the eight patients all of them had their pulse rate increase on average five beats per minute and a two to three percent decrease in their oxygen saturation oxygen that goes to every

047cell the entire body the end result of the psychological distress alone is the number one cause of childhood suicides this past year and a half these do not block covet never have never will vaxxed or not it will not stop a two to six nanometer particle period children need to be exposed to our natural environment to fully develop their immune system and stop using hand sanitizers which kill all the good bacteria used to protect the body's largest organ the skin the cdc blatantly is lying to the world about cobot and you suck it up covet 19 is the rna virus so are the following the common cold influenza sars mers dengue virus hepatitis c hepatitis e west nile fever ebola rabies polio mumps and measles and these don't cover those and of all the things

048i just listed if the cdc is recommending masking children then they are actually recommending a medical procedure which requires informed consent you as a school board are not empowered to make medical recommendations for someone else's child and i don't see a lot of parents giving consent if if parents want to mask their children that's up to them not you unless you are willing to sign an assumption of liability to include upcoming forced vaccinations to date there are no studies showing the efficacy of mass because you can't study it it would be unethical they say to expose a child to a known pathogen that's why there has never been any study on children for any childhood disease that requires state mandated vaccination you do not have the authority to take medical control over someone else's child

049this is america unless you hail the fura facie [Applause] evening my name is amy schermer 554 east monte vista avenue i'm here this evening to speak to you regarding the covet vaccine and my desire my desire to be fully informed and appraised of all the facts before moving ahead with informed consent i'd be more grateful if you could please provide the following information to myself and my colleagues in accordance with the statutory legal requirements one can you please advise me on the approved legal status of any vaccine and if it and if it is experimental two can you please provide details and assurances that the vaccine has been fully independently and rigorously tested against control groups and subsequent outcomes of those tests and what safety measures were taken three can you please advise of the

050full list of contents of the vaccine i am to receive and if any are toxic to my body can you please advise that there are no aborted fetal tissue cell lines used in the development or testing of any of the vaccines can you please give me advice of all adverse reactions associated with this vaccine since its introduction can you advise whether the test i am to take is yet approved for use in humans by the us food and drug administration and whether the cdc still holds it as a valuable diagnostic tool to determine if a person has coveted or is contagious with covid can you confirm that the vaccine you are advocating is not ex experimental mrna gene alternating thera therapy can you please confirm that i will not be under any duress from yourselves

051as my employers in compliance with the nuremberg code can you please advise me of the like likely risk of fatality should i be unfortunate to contract covet contact coved and the likelihood of any recovery or if i take this vaccine thank you very much [Music] good evening board members and everyone here my name is lauren zesos my address is 1327 south sundland street i come before you today not as a student within any of the sierra sands k-12 i don't come before you as a parent i don't even come before you as a teacher in the school district i come before you as a concerned citizen i ask everyone on this board if they truly know what it means to be a citizen and what duty that comes with the declaration of independence states that

052when any form of government becomes destructive of the ends and the rights that we have as american citizens is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it do you know as board members that founding fathers said that it is our right and our duty to posterity that we are accountable for our rights and rulers as you've heard from so many speakers today we have legitimate concerns of how our government is being run we have invested authority into you as local officials to help us with the circumstances that come forward within our communities we ask that you do your jobs in that and we are thankful for all that you have done as you can see you have students who are happy that you have been able to help them return to campus

053you have teachers who are happy with that but at the same time you are complying with government mandates that are not laws and you are hurting the very people that you are claiming to help as you see up here on the screen you have five five points for a vision i see up there that you're trying to maximize student engagement and grow family and community partnerships by enforcing these mandates that hurt your teachers you are not doing those things the constitution which is the supreme law of the land according to article 6 section 2 states which is the supreme law of land according to that section is what we govern ourselves by our rights are coming from that every one of the people in this room has a right to medical freedom the supreme court

054you might ask about the forced vaccination case that everybody brings up jacobson versus massachusetts unfortunately you'll find that that case will allowed for mandated vaccines it did not allow for forced vaccination you will not find a person in this room who will be able to you will be able to force a vaccine upon if you want to try to do that you will lose your teachers you will lose people in this community who are trying to give your students a good prosperous education so that they continue on sit on a on a safe path throughout their education i ask that the board hears the resolutions presented and takes up their duty as a citizen to help this community thank you for your time a little short hello i'm danielle slaton i live in 832 east

055california avenue i stand here tonight not as a scientist a teacher or a medical professional but i stand here as a mother of three students that attend and and go to school within the sierra sands unified school district i imagine some of you have children and in that i venture to think that you too would stand for the rights of your children that's what i'm here to do to stand up for the rights of my three boys who are sitting right over there who have been stripped of their freedoms to choose what is forced upon their bodies a mandate a mandate by which they are told they must wear masks while indoor while indoors i would take i would like to take a brief moment to share with you what happened on the first day

056of school for my boys at gateway elementary sure there was music and clapping while we arrived at school but more than that there were multiple gateway employees who appeared to be more concerned about who had a mask with him than welcoming these these sweet kiddos back to full-time school after being dismissed for a year for a year and a half not to mention almost every person in the school grounds except for myself and my boys were wearing masks outside i believe it was because every person in faculty was in one we were outside now i understand there are those who choose to wear their masks at all times keyword shoes but i know for a fact that not every teacher and parent at these schools agree with the mandate mainly because outside of school i've

057never seen them wearing one the forced pressure both my sons and myself felt was very real and it was unacceptable one of my sons was overcome by panic because he felt he was doing something wrong when he was absolutely not surely i am not the only one who sees the problem with this surely i'm not the only one who doesn't see the logic behind not wearing a mask outdoors but then it being forced to wear one on the inside there's no logic speaking of logic i have researched and found that masks are worse off for the bodies than covet itself if you are unaware there is a group of parents in gainesville florida who have cultured their children's masks and found they are traps for dangerous bacteria that potentially make children much sicker than that

058of covid these parents sit six masks into the university of florida's mass spectrometry research and education center after being worn for five to eight hours most during in-person schooling by children ages six to eleven five were found contaminated with bacteria parasites fungi and including three of those masks with 11 dangerous pathogenic and pneumonia-causing bacteria these pathogens cause pneumonia tuberculosis meningitis sepsis bloodstream infection severe infections with high mortality rates why are we subjecting our children to some of these very deadly pathogens when we do not need to after just a few days of school i wash my boys masks and this picture shows just what was washed from them again why are we not fighting for their rights to choose fresh air over the muck and the grime that they are breathing in due to these

059masks those of us parents that are here tonight please let me finish are willing to fight but we need you to fight too i'm gonna leave with you what my six-year-old over there said to me when he watched me wash these masks mommy why do we have to wear these i wish it could be over uh thank you that was our 30 minute limit so if you'd like to share some more you may stay around till the end of the regular schedule meeting and give us your thoughts at that time thank you we only have three additional people thank you for thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] let me be clear 30 minutes ago mr fast was very clear when he said how this works so that's how it works [Applause] we're going to proceed

060with the meeting as was discussed if you'd like to address the board you have that opportunity at the end of the rest of our business meeting you're welcome to stay and address us excuse me i have i have the floor i gave you opportunity to speak we do not accept people yelling from the audience that's disruptive it's it's it's inconsiderate uh we've said it we have we have listened to you respectfully we expect the same from you i believe civil discourse is what makes this country great we have given you that opportunity we will continue to give that opportunity we do have business we must attend to as well this evening and we're going to do that and you're more than welcome to stay and speak to us at the end of the meeting if

061you would like to share your ideas but i do expect you to be respectful and we'll be respectful to you that's the way it works we are a close we are we are a close community we live together in this community it's a great community and we are great because we are respectful to one another i ask you to do that way and we will be that way to you thank you very much and we'll move forward that brings us to item six six point one approval of a tk six seven point one first oh i'm sorry seven point one first you're correct seven point one will be the next item on our agenda and that is the authorization for selpa to contract with 360 degree customer inc hang on 7.1 okay i apologize as

062soon as it rolls around on the computer here 7.1 is policy what are you is it 7.1 yes okay so 7.1 is approval of revision to the board policy administrative regulation 6158 independent study ms savco please good evening president ferris members of the board superintendent ostash staff and community for the california school boards association's july 2021 policy maintenance communication school boards must address new law assembly bill 130 chapter 44 statutes of which requires all school districts to offer independent study for the 21-22 school year unless the district has obtained a waiver without distance learning as an option for the upcoming school year independent study programs will be more widely used as a means of providing instruction for students who are unable or unwilling to return to the classroom setting education code 51747 as amended by

063ab130 mandates that the governing board adopt a policy with specified requirements as a condition of receiving state apportionments for independent study students commencing in the 2122 fiscal year the guide for annual audits of k-12 local education agencies in state compliance reporting will require verification of the adoption of an independent study policy by the board including loss of a port of apportionment for independent study for districts found to be non-compliant in addition to meeting the requirements specified by education code 51747 board policies must comply with rules and regulations adopted by the superintendent of public instruction school boards are encouraged to review independent study policies as the spi adopts revised rules to reflect the new requirements of av-130 current considerations mandated revisions have been made to the board policy and administrative regulation 6158 independent study to reflect

064education code 51745 as amended by ab130 chapter 44 statutes of 2021. there are no financial implications and it's the students excuse me it's the superintendent's recommendation to approve revisions to bp ar 6158 independent study as presented move recommended action second second has been moved and seconded are there any questions by board members comments any questions or comments on this item on the agenda by members of the community or staff and we will call for the vote it will be roll call vote uh mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr rockwell hi we'll let you vote too mike i i vote why as well as unanimous that moves us to 6.1 ms stavco approval of tk 6th grade where i tried to go a minute ago independent study program offering thank you education codes 51745-517 49.6

065authorized districts to establish independent study programs to meet the educational needs of students pursuant to education code as amended again by ab130 chapter 44 statutes of 2021 for the 21-22 school year all districts are required to offer independent study education code 51749.5 mandates that the board adopt policy with specified components as a condition of offering a program of course-based independent study prior to the 21-22 school year the district's independent study program served 7th through 12th grade students in order to meet the mandates of ab130 the district's independent study program will serve transitional kindergarten through 12th grade students in accordance with the anticipated approval well that just happened of revisions to board policy and admin regulation 6158 the superintendent or designee shall ensure that students participating in independent study are provided with content aligned to grade

066level standards at a level of quality and intellectual challenge substantially equivalent to in-person instruction high school suite and a special education supplemental program acellis are utilized for the 7th through 12th grade independent study program bright thinker is recommended for the tk through 6th grade independent study program as it meets the criteria of content aligned to grade level standards at a level of quality and intellectual challenge substantially equivalent to in-person instruction right thinker will allow the district to offer a comprehensive standards aligned independent study program for tk through 6th grade and meet the requirements mandated in education code 51747 the 2021 bright thinker course catalog and 2122 course list are attached for the board's review and consideration the independent study program is funded for the district's general fund and it's the superintendent's recommendation to approve bright

067thinker as the tk sixth grade independent study program offering move recommended action it's been moved and seconded any questions or comments from board members i guess i i want to make a couple of comments i am i know that we spoke um as things begin to transition for the summer and we were aware that we needed to make options available for for our parents and students uh when we were bringing students back and there were going to be some folks who would prefer to use an independent study program and i know we talked about how important it was that we try and develop a strong program and that was adapted to what our kids need um clearly since there were a number of requirements that were legislated in this whole concept i know that there

068are probably some elements in this program that may not have been our first choice and may have been more politically motivated than educationally motivated but i do appreciate the hard work that has gone into putting together a program that can give our kids options so that we can meet their educational needs specifically for those who who either are fearful or cannot come back to campus so that's a lot of hard work and it's done in an instantaneous fashion uh i know we had hoped to be able to spend the year kind of putting together a program we thought that would really be best for our kids we weren't able to do that but we responded and you responded in miraculous ways and what you've done is is certainly appreciated thank you so much any other

069comments or questions by wargrams any comments or questions by members of the public hearing we will call for the vote mr johnson aye dr hauck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell hi myself i just passes unanimously that brings us to 6.2 approval of sped 9th 10th transition skills course at burroughs high school miss tafko thank you so just a little bit of background each spring and early summer not too much later than that or it's hard to get these course adoptions to the board boroughs reflected on their offerings for special day class students and have updated and revised course offerings to reflect best meeting the needs of our students so that's the background for the next three so burroughs high school administration and special education department conducted a special day class course analysis in the

070spring of the 2021 school year as a result of the analysis and identified needs student needs rather a sped 9th 10th transition skills course outline was developed the purpose of the course is to provide 9th and 10th grade sdc students with basic knowledge strategy skills and support to introductory high school social skills beginning work skills basic independent living skills self-advocacy and self-care skills during the transition into the high school learning environment the addition of a sped 9th 10th transition skills as an elective course will help support 9th and 10th grade sd sdc students in the areas of social emotional learning academic success and independent living the course is an important step in providing high school sdc students with the support needed during transition to the high school setting the course outline is included in the

071board packet for review there is no additional cost associated with the course adoption and implementation as previously adopted textbooks and materials will support learning objectives it is a superintendent's recommendation that the board approve sped 9th 10th transition skills as presented move the recommended action second it's been moved in a second any questions or comments for board members mr rockwell i think the only the only comment i make is that this and the next couple of items i i think these are great um and uh and i'm definitely in favor uh i actually would love to see similar coursework for the general education population as well um you know just life skills is something that we could all you know if we all learned them better in high school we a lot of us would have

072had a easier road shortly thereafter so this is this is good stuff thank you any other questions or comments for board members any questions or comments from members of the public hearing none we will take the vote mr johnson aye dr hauck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i passes unanimously we now move to 6.3 approval of no yeah yep you're right of sped 11th 12th transition skills course at burroughs high school similar background information so as a result of a special day class course analysis in the spring of the 2021 school year there we identified student needs and want to meet those needs with through a sped 11th 12th transition skills course the purpose of the course is to provide 11th and 12th grade sdc students with essential knowledge strategies and support

073to foster social skills work skills independent living skills self-advocacy and self-care skills as a transition out of the high school learning environment the addition of a sped 11th 12th transition skills as an elective course will help support 11th and 12th grade sdc students in the areas of social emotional and emotional learning independent living and community participation and academic success the course is an important step in providing high school sdc students with the support needed during the transition out of the high school setting the course outline is included in the board packet for review there's no additional cost associated with the course adoption and implementation as previously adopted textbooks and materials will support learning objectives it's recommended that the board approve sped 11th 12th transition skills as presented move recommended action second it's been moved and

074seconded any questions or comments from board members any questions or comments from members of the public if you'd like if you'd like to speak ask a question you step to the podium give us your name and okay all right if there are no other questions or comments we will move ahead with the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself aye does pass unanimously item four with my very slowing computer i'll move to paper all right approval of sped raising independence through supported education rise course of burroughs high school to meet the needs of the community board packets are always posted on the district website and you're welcome to post comments or to ask any questions but that's typically where we can find all of our information in these

075course outlines thank you for clarifying that that's fine so as a result of an sdc course analysis a need was identified to support adult 18 to 22 year old special education student transitions a rising independence through support education rise course outline was developed to address the identified need the focus of the course is to provide an age-appropriate transition from the school environment to adult life with emphasis on the following real-life practice and application in the community including but not limited to the development of social skills work skills independent living skills self-advocacy and self-care skills the addition of a rising independence through supported education or rise certificate of attendance course will help support special education adult students in transition to adulthood the course is an important step in providing adult special education students with the support

076needed to transition from the school environment to adult life the course outline is included in the board packet for review there's no additional cost associated with the course adoption and implementation as previously adopted textbooks and materials will support learning objectives it is recommended that the board approve rising independence through supported education or rise course as presented actually we've recommend action it's been moved twice so we'll call that a motion in a second any questions or comments by board members any questions or comments by members of the public if not we will call for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck hi mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i it passes unanimously it moves us to item five ratification of contract with presence learning mr delbeck president ferris superintendent hostas members of the board staff

077and community according to state and federal laws and regulations school districts are required to assess students who have been referred for special education services in all areas related to suspected disability assessments must be administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel a student must be assessed when first referred for specified disability then considered for reassessment at least once every three years after qualifying for special education when a consent for an assessment plan is signed by the parent or guardian the district has 60 days in which to complete the assessments and hold an iep meeting to discuss the student's eligibility the needs of the district special education department require the services of at least three full-time educational psychologists in order to meet the compliance timelines at the end of the 2021 school year one of the district psychologists

078resigned creating a unified unfilled position the district advertised for the psychologist position with no applicants willing to relocate at this time in order to meet the needs of students the district need to reach out presence learning a company that provides cell therapy services in areas including school psychology presence learning sent the district the resume of two california licensed school psychologists after phone interviews with the celpa director and one of the district psychologists the district offered to a contract to the psychologist services on a full-time basis for the remainder of the 21-22 school year psychologist is fully licensed californian holds a valid credential in school psychology district staff believes the use of school psychologists through the teletherapy will assist in meeting the compliance timelines for the educational psychologists assessment as mandated by federal and state law

079the estimated cost if the psychological service is 144 450 which comes from the special education budget it is the recommendation that school board ratify the contract for president's learning for the services of the school psychologist health therapy for the 21-22 school year we've recommended action i have a motion in a second any questions or comments by board members i i've got one um so we see the cost for this particular service yes how does that compare to you know if we had not lost that psychologist and were able to hire one pretty similar because we don't pay benefits or anything to it so it's fairly similar okay thank you any other questions or comments by board members i just want to comment i know that like many districts in the state of california in the

080nation filling positions is becoming more and more difficult and i know that our staff and leadership has been diligent in trying to find alternate ways of meeting our children's needs and i know that's not easy but the board really appreciates the efforts that go into that because indeed we do need to meet those kids needs and if whether it's ideal or not it's what we what we have to work with and we appreciate what you're doing to to solve those problems any questions or comments from you can i add anything to that yeah so uh over the years i've been pretty vocal about um being irritated at our inability to hire these kinds of positions i have learned to change my tune a little bit because it is increasingly obvious that it is increasingly problematic

081to find people who uh choose to do these kinds of jobs in in education in a remote desert town whatever whatever it is i mean i know it's a lot broader than just rich crest so i really appreciate the the the ability to kind of turn to and you know very quickly provide a resource to our students and our parents when we have these kinds of things come up so i appreciate it thank you any questions or comments from members of the public on this item hearing them we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i is unanimous that brings us to item six approval of contract zero one two one two two with la europa academy for provision of educational instruction room and board

082and related mental health services for july 21st july 1st excuse me 2021 through january 31st 2022. mr delbeck sure this the reauthorization of ida which is individuals disabilities educational act signed in law december 3rd 2004 provisions of the act became effective july 1 2005. the final regulations were published on august 14 2006 ida requires school districts to provide students who qualify for special education services with free and appropriate public education or faith that meets the needs of students with disabilities according to ide the term faith or free and appropriate public education means special education services have been provided at public expense under public supervision and direction and without charge meet the standard of state educational agencies that must include appropriate preschool elementary or secondary school education in the state involved and are provided in conformity

083with id individual educational program required under section 64 i'm sorry 614d under the regulations implementing ide each public agency must ensure that continuum of alternative placements is available to meet the needs of children with disability for special education or related study and students the continuing continuum must include alternative places listed in definition of special education under section 300.38 instruction in regular classrooms special education classrooms special schools home instruction and instruction in hospitals and an institution make provisions for supplementary services such as resource room or attenuated services to be provided in conjunction with regular class placement ide includes private school students and states of children are placed and referred in private schools by school districts are provided special education related services in accordance with an iep at no cost to their parents the regulations implement ida

084also include provisions related to students placed in residential treatment facilities specifically the regulations provide that a placement in a public or private residential placement is necessary to provide special education and related services to a child with disability the program must include non-medical care room and board and must be at no cost to the parent and child the regulation required school districts to provide related services that may be necessary to enable the student to receive vape the regulation divides related services as transportation such as developmental corrective and other supportive services and are required to assist the student with a disability to benefit from special education and speech and language pathology and all autological services interpreting services psychological services physical and occupational therapy recreation including physical therapeutic recreation early identification and assessment of disabilities in children counseling

085services including rehab rehabilitation counseling orientation mobility medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes related services also include school health services and school nurse services social work services in both schools and parent counseling and training the regulations to find counseling services as services provided qualified social workers psychologists guidance counselor and other qualified personnel the regulations note that transformation includes travel to and from school between schools traveling around schools buildings specialized equipment if required to provide special transportation for a child with disability before 2011 local education agencies lea shared the cost of providing mental health services for students with disabilities with county mental health generally the lea was responsible providing the educational related services and county mental health his responsible educational services and county mental health department was responsible for providing mental health in 2011 california legislator

086passed assembly bill of 114 which repealed the state mandate on special education and county health agencies eliminated related references to mental health services california statute as a result of this new legislation school districts are solely responsible for ensuring that students with disabilities receive special education and related services to meet their needs according to ida current consideration in june of 2018 a student with complex mental health profile including several major disorders that affect the student's ability to access the program was identified by the students iep team as needing special education services it was concluded that the iap team at their most recent meeting in july that the mental health needs of student would interfere in the ability of the district to meet the educational needs of that students in order to ensure the physical and mental

087health of the student and others a more restrictive environment than one could be provided within the district was needed inquiries made by stealth department determined that la europa academy is an appropriate placement for that student the facility is certified by cdea california department of education is being approved to provide services to the district the rates are consistent with similar facilities that are on the cde approved list of similar providers the contract for the time period july 1 2021 through january 31 2022 is not to exceed the amount of 98 250 dollars the above noted figures reflects the cost for placement and related services to provide the student with vape as described at the present time the funding for the contract will come from monies received from the state for the provision of mental health services

088to students special needs it is recommended the port approved contract number 01 22 with large rope academy as presented this is the recommended action second i have a motion in a second any questions or comments for board members ladies yeah i think so we did this a year ago and maybe the year before that too and it's one of those things where we don't have much of a choice right yes okay any questions or comments from members of the public hearing then we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i passes unanimously brings us to item seven authorization of self contract with 360 degree customer inc for licensed vocational nurse background information district currently has a medically fragile student in a special day class program

089at one of its school sites within the district we have two full-time registered nurses overseas health services and requirements to meet the needs of students located at various school sites this causes a dilemma in meeting the health concerns of a medically of the medically fragile student in order to properly care for the students health concerns it requires immediate action as there is requirement for frequent assessments of the student's medical needs on site as well as someone to monitor these needs while the student travels to and from school you do utilizing district transportation the district has been able to contract 300 degree customer inc for the services of a licensed vocational nurse for the remainder of the 21-22 school year bellevienne has become familiar with the students specific needs and is able to assist in the

090classroom with district transportation to ensure the needs of this medically fragile student are appropriate men and men in a safe manner the contract 360 degrees is for eight hours per day five days per week at fifty five dollars an hour the contract is not to exceed eighty five thousand eight hundred dollars which will come from the special education budget it is recommended the board and the district self into a contract with 360 degree customer inc for licensed vocational nurse services move recommended action second i have a motion and a second any questions or comments from board members any questions or comments from staff or community hearing them we will call for the vote mr johnson aye dr hauck aye mr rockwell aye mr scott aye myself i it is unanimous brings us to item eight

091approval of contract number one 2122 with the academy for the advancement of children with autism for provision of educational instruction room and board and related mental health services for july 1st 2021 through september 30th of 2021 mr delbeck sure and this is similar to ida which is the individual disabilities act it was still signed in law 2004 very similar to the other ones the final regulations were published on august 14 2006 requires school districts to provide students who qualify for special education fake free appropriate public education that meets students just the needs of students with disabilities the term faith means special education and related services a have been met at public expense under public supervision and direction and without charge meet the standard of state education agencies and include an appropriate preschool elementary or secondary

092school education in the state involved are provided in conformity with individual education program under required section 614 d under regulations implementing ide each publication see much ensure that the continuing alternative placements is available to meet with students with disabilities um included in alternative placements in special education our regular classrooms special classrooms special schools home instruction instruction in hospitals and institutions two make provision for supplementally serviced such as resource room or itinerary services to be provided in conjunction with regular class placement the ide provides private school students and states that children placed in or referred in a private school by a school district are provided special education and related services in accordance with an iep at no cost to their parents the regulation implemented the ide also includes provisions related students placed in residential treatment centers

093specifically the regulations provided that a placement in public or private residential program is necessary to provide special education and services to a child with a disability the program including non-medical care and room and board must be at no cost to the parents the regulations require school districts to provide related services that may be necessary to enable the student to receive faith the regulations define related services as transportation such as developmental corrective and other supportive services that are required to assist the child with disability to benefit from special education and includes speech and language pathology audiological services interpretive services psychological services physical and occupational therapy recreation including physical therapy early identification and the assessment of disabilities in children counseling services including rehabilitation counseling orientation mobility services and medical services for diagnostic evaluation purposes related services also

094includes school health services school nurse social work services and schools and parents and counseling training current consideration on february 4th 2020 to disagree to fund the student's placement to the remainder of the 20-20 19 22 20 it's 2019-2020 school year including the extended school year through the end of 2021 regular school year at the academy for advancement of children with autism in lancaster california for an iep decision at the end of the 2021 school year was determined that it was best interested the students mental and physical well-being to remain at the mount county academy for the duration of the time listed the contract for the period of july 1 2021 through september 30th 2021 is not to exceed the amount of 18 18 cents the above noted figure reflects the cost for replacement and related

095services to provide the student with faith as described at the present time the funding for the contract will come from special education funding it is recommended the board approved contract with the academy for the advancement of children with autism as presented recommended action it's been moved in second any questions or comments from board members mr rockwell yeah just a just a quick little knit um maybe for the record if it's necessary uh this contract number is the same as the contract number from two items ago my guess is that might be something that ought to be changed yeah look into that different country different company so same same contract number okay so we're identifying the number of contracts with that specific company and that's why they're both in title number one interesting okay never noticed

096that in 15 years any other questions or comments from board members any questions or comments from members of the public hearing none we will call for the vote are you back there tim mr john thank you dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i it is unanimous and that brings us to seven which we've already done in front of item six brings us to personnel administration move eight one eight two eight one eight one and two have been moved and seconded all in favor i guess i have to take roll call votes i'm gonna get used to this one day mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i it is unanimous that proves to bring us to 8.3 waiver of requests enabling the district to assign

097individuals in certificated positions without appropriate credentials that's me this evening mr ferris this is the annual process for taking our new and newer teachers who are on the road to getting their full credential some of them are at the beginning of that journey some of them are quite a ways through and we're really excited for them the attached information identifies all the individuals and all of their assignments and they're doing a great job for us so far we appreciate them there's no financial implication and i recommend that the board approve the submission a request for a variable term waiver a provisional intern permit or a short-term staff permit as appropriate for each of the united named teachers in order that the above named individuals may be assigned in the designated positions for the 21 22

098school year move recommended action second it's been moved and seconded twice any uh comments or questions by board members all right just a quick hopefully a quick one um can you i apologize for not asking this in advance but um is there a reader's digest description that you could pull off the top of your head to the difference between those three types of waivers um let me go back to the to the item one second and we're talking about the difference among the just for the variable term waiver provisional intern permit or a short term stop permit and i probably would not be able to do a very good job of that we would need jan burke to do that but it depends on the eligibility and how many appropriate units an individual has and

099what the basically how the california commission on teacher credentialing handles each individual and so for example an intern permit if i recall correctly is one somebody who is moving further along in the credentialing process whereas like a short-term staff permit might be somebody like we would formerly call them on an emergency credential someone who's not necessarily enrolled and moving along and having at least for example six semester units earned in the their their selected credential pathway whether it's multiple subject or secondary so the my best answer is i know enough to be a little bit dangerous here but don't do that it gets pretty technical so hopefully that helps a little bit enough thank you okay stop that that was the reader's digest conclusion yeah that's all i want okay all right then i have

100a motion and a second any questions or comments from members of the public all right then i will call for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i it is unanimous that brings us to the concurrent agenda personal administration one two and three and also dr ostash okay hold on i'm gonna need to first one is approval of interim program agreement with california state university bakersfield intern program i'm going to hold on one second i'm going to have to move i know and this the computer is not moving very quickly so let me get to my special concurrent i'm almost there i see the wheels spinning on my computer okay so while my wheel is spinning and i'm and i'm waiting for the content i can describe

101that uh in 2.1 uh when uh some of our teacher interns as their yeah thanks diane because i don't know if it's going to actually work thank you okay so the district periodically enters into an agreement with a university to provide field work experience the students enrolled in teacher intern programs again that goes back to the previous item we just approved each you know teacher has to select a program to complete a field work agreement with the california state university bakersfield intern program is being submitted for approval there's no financial implication and i recommend that the board approve the student teaching agreement with california state university bakersfield intern program as presented we'll recommend action second and moved in second any questions or comments for board members i would just say that given the the thing

102we just approved prior to this it's good that we're yeah and we're finding agreements to be able to support these teachers that need that they need that training to get their full certification absolutely and we have a number of agreements because teachers obviously select different programs some public schools some private schools so we have to keep them current yeah and i think it speaks also to what we talked about earlier about what kinds of efforts have to be put in place to get the positions filled that we need to fill to give our students what they need it's not like it just happens automatically no it's it's a little bit of a complicated road and we're very grateful for our uh teachers who are going through that process it takes a lot of investment both

103financial and time and effort any other questions or comments from the board members any other questions or comments from members of the public if not we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye can i vote twice like tim i would say only if you're remote but i'm i'm really tired of that now [Laughter] myself i it makes it unanimous plus one i think all right then item two waiver requests enabling the district to assign individuals in certificated positions without appropriate credentials approval of the governing board is required when a district is filing for a variable term waiver uh a provisional internship permit or a short-term stock permit same three that we've talked about previously in order to assign an individual who is not appropriately yet appropriately credentialed for his

104or her assignment approval is requested for the district to submit requests to the commission on teacher credentialing for a variable term waiver a provisional intern permit or a short-term staff permit in order that the district may assign the following individual for the 21-22 school year you could see the name and places included there no financial implication i recommend that the board approve the submission request for these permits in order that the above named individual may be assigned in the designated position for the 21-22 school year second it's been moved and seconded any questions or comments from board members any questions or comments from members of the public hearing none will call for the vote mr johnson aye dr hauck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell aye myself i it is unanimous that brings us to

105item three approval of clinical practice agreement with california state university bakersfield and diane can you help me with this i'm not seeing it in here my computer is still giving me the wheel of uh you know what maybe it's right here okay and again these are all very similar district periodically enters into an agreement with the university to provide teaching experience through clinical practice teaching to teacher candidates enrolled in teacher training curricula a clinical practice agreement with cal state university bakersfield is being submitted for approval there's no financial implication and i recommend the board approve the clinical practice agreement with cal state bakersfield as presented you've recommended action action we'll call yours a second mr johnson any questions or comments on this item any questions or comments members of the public if not we'll call

106for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye mr rockwell i myself i it is unanimous and that concludes our concurrent agenda and then moves us into let's see if i can keep this straight now 9.1 9.1 nominations from for csba directors at large for african-american american indian and county for the california school board association board of directors that's mine csba board of directors is comprised of 21 regional directors as well as the officers of the association any officer or director of the national school boards association who resides in california and the president of the california county boards of education in addition there are five directors at large the directors along with the officers and members of the delegate assembly are a vital link and the associations governance structure ensuring that the

107association continues to effectively carry out its mission nominees for three csba directors at large african-american american indian and county will be accepted until october 1 2021 any csba member board is eligible to nominate board members for any of these director-at-large seats all nominees must serve on a cspa member board and each nominating board must certify that the nominee has consented to be nominated at the time of nomination election for these two-year seats will take place during the delegate assembly meeting in december and at this point the board may if it wishes nominate candidates for the offices of csba director at large african-american american indian and county anyone have any recommendations okay hearing none then we will pass on that opportunity and move on to revision of the meeting calendar for 2021-22 okay let's see if

108fantastic let's see if my computer will keep up with us i got it on april 15 2021 the board approved the regular board meeting calendar for for this 21-22 school year the current 21-22 regular board meeting schedule shows that the board is scheduled to conduct a regular board meeting on october 21 2021. it has become necessary to revise this schedule and hold the october meeting on october instead october 14 2021 no financial implication and i recommend that the board revise the 21 22 regular board meeting calendar in order to conduct a regular meeting in october on october 14 2021. it's been moved and seconded any questions or comments from board members any questions or comments from members of the public hearing then we will take the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott

109aye mr rockwell aye myself i it is unanimous that brings us to item 10 construction administration report to the board on construction activities and issues mr coyte president ferris members of the board superintendent ost dash staff and community i'm pleased to give this update on the status of the district's construction activities this report is presented for informational purposes only and no action is required at the sierra vista center the earthquake repairs that the sierra vista center are scheduled to be completed next week pending a final punch walk and approval by the kern county building inspector for v wig school with the completion of the v wig fire line we began working to close out the pending dsa projects that are still that were still awaiting approval with the installation of the new fire line for

110our bus yard the sce design team will be on site tomorrow to conduct utility locates in a site survey our architect and cm have developed preliminary plans and project estimates to be incorporated into the final sce design and for the new richmond school we are awaiting approval of our project proposal by the office of local defense community cooperation team we are continuing with preliminary design of site work and buildings next week geotechnical borings will be conducted by bsk work to complete the nepa and lease continues on schedule with the navy thank you anybody have questions of mr coy you've been the public have questions of mr clayton under new constructions thank you and that moves us dr ostash i believe report to the board on the private lte project update me one more time exciting

111news yes we have great news uh mr morrison our chief technology officer is not able to be here this evening so i will present that's great news for him [Laughter] and this of course this item is presented for informational purposes no action is required and i know that mr mcgowan back there has posted some great stuff so here here are some pictures that have been taken in very recent days and of course for the public the private lte update project update is one of the investments that we're making as a school district using some of the uh funds that the federal government has provided and we're uh providing a significant upgrade to uh connectivity within within our community hold on one second mr mcgowan so uh at the district office all construction and installation work

112is complete we're waiting for nokia to activate our license and then we will start testing at inukern all construction and tower work will be complete this week server room equipment installation and testing will commence on august 30 and at fowler elementary school pre-construction meeting was held this week drilling and concrete foundation work scheduled to start september 1 and then at las flores elementary school the groundwork and trenching will commence next week and then tower installation work will start after trench work is done okay if you can move forward thank you these are pictures at the at the district office you can see installing new fiber optics and the electrical box at the base of the district office tower and then the next one here again at the district office preparing the radio mount on the

113ground at the district offices i know i saw at times and there's here's the picture there were times three three guys up in that tower i don't know exactly how tall it is but way taller than i'd be willing to climb and so you can see those pictures there and then preparing the amount on the ground at ineocurrent there again the fiber optics and electrical panel install the annual current tower and then mountain radio is being installed on the in your current tower and then then that's it so we're but the amount of work and progress that's been achieved is just absolutely amazing and we're really excited about bringing this online in the coming months so we'll keep bringing you updates and uh let's let everyone know when it's fully operational mr scott dr ostash

114i know we're aware of what we sent but will you notify the public how much money this is costing us and we're spending well as i recall it's roughly about two million dollars and the out the outcome of this will be that uh initially at minimum half of our students and staff at any time could be could be on the wireless traffic so in other words if students are at home with a district issued uh chromebook meta lost words here chromebook then it will connect if they don't have reliable wi-fi at their home it'll connect to uh cellular uh through the lte and it'll go right through the district network so kind of it it's known as kind of bridging the homework divide making sure that students no matter where they live you know obviously

115in the valley there are spots that are not don't have great connectivity and this will will bridge that divide thank you just taking advantage of the extra people we have to know yeah so just trying to support that knowledge of everybody better you bet i think it's really exciting what we're offering our our kids and and it's a long-term investment and uh you know we went through some really trying times and i just want to compliment the district on the kind of approach that has been taken to all this additional dollars that have come into our district to to very wisely invest in long-term solutions that will benefit our kids for years to come i know getting through the crisis was hard and there are some districts that i've talked to that spent all their

116money just getting through the crisis and i believe that uh we really have to recognize what was done in our district to take a longer term look at what kind of investments we can make like this that will provide for our kids for a long time an advantage over other communities because they will be able to bridge that divide and i i just can't say enough about how how strong that kind of planning is and how it sets our district up in the future to be much healthier when other districts are going to be scrambling to do this we've already done it because we saw the opportunity and some people work very hard to make it happen so i i just think it's important folks that you understand that kind of thing that's going on

117in this district because it's very meaningful for your students very meaningful for your students thank you dr thank you that brings us to business administration uh mr smith approval uh to enter into an agreement with the parker and uh covert for bond council services good evening president ferris members of the board superintendent ostash community and staff and there's a typo on this that should be 2006 not 2017. so in 2006 the district placed a bond measure on the ballot and at that time the district issued an rfp or request for proposal for bond council for that measure we received six proposals and selected parker and covert as the firm that best met the requirements of the district the district is now considering placing a bond measure on the june 2022 ballot and would require bond

118council services the district has the choice of issuing a new rfp and evaluating responsive firms or resuming its previous relationship with parker and covert the district has been satisfied with the services it has received from parker and covert and has no reason to seek alternate counsel the district requested and received a proposal from parker and covert for bond council services the services for the election and the first series of bonds would be thirty two thousand dollars expenses associated with financing not to exceed eight hundred dollars subsequent series of bonds if we were to sell subsequent series would be seventeen thousand dollars and expenses associated with that financing would be not to exceed 400. this compensation would only be contingent upon the passage of a measure if we did put a bond on the measure and

119the issuance and delivery of bonds and shall be payable solely from the proceeds of a successful election and upon issuance of those bonds it is the superintendent's recommendation that the district enter into an agreement with parker and covert asbon council for a june 2022 bond measure if we proceed we've recommended action sorry been moved in second any questions or comments from board members any questions or comments from members of the public hearing then we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr rockwell aye mr scott aye myself i it is unanimous brings us to item two approval to enter into an agreement with emc research for public opinion survey listen so a bond measure is one way that a school district can fund significant facilities projects to assess the level of community

120support for a bond measure districts often hire independent consultants to conduct public opinion surveys in 2019 the district considered putting a bond measure on the november 2020 election ballot at that time we issued an rfp for a public opinion survey there were three proposals received and those proposals were evaluated ranked and interviews conducted at that time we selected emc research as the firm that best met the district's requirements emc research conducted a public opinion survey for the district in january of 2020 and ultimately the district decided not to pursue a bond measure at that time the district is now considering putting a bond measure on the ballot in june the district has the choice of issuing a new rfp we're continuing our relationship with emc research the district requested and received a proposal from emc

121research for a public opinion survey to be conducted in the october november 2021 time frame they will provide the following services under this agreement design a survey questionnaire with the wait um i'm sorry with the district team collect survey data through telephone and web-based surveys tabulate code clean and wait the survey data and perform in-depth analysis produce cross-tabulations of voter responses based on the key demographic information prepare detailed reports and recommendations and present those results and analysis to the board and be available for consultation the cost for these services will be thirty one thousand five hundred dollars and funding would come from fund 25 developers fees it is the superintendent's recommendation that the district enter into an agreement with emc research for a public opinion survey action second it's been moved and seconded any questions

122or comments from board members any questions or comments from members of the public or staff we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye dr howe aye mr scott aye mr rockwell hi myself i it's unanimous brings us to item three adoption resolution 01 2122 to approve an agreement with creative bus sales for two diesel buses pursuant to the county south county support services agency bid number 1819-sc 1101 d contract it's a mouthful so the district routinely transports students several hundred miles to participate in athletic events and or field trips during the 2021 school year the buses used to transport students to these events broke down on multiple occasions causing concern to parents and staff the district feels that it's important to ensure that students have safe reliable means of travel when traveling out of town

123the district seeks to purchase two diesel buses to support travel to out-of-town events pursuant to public contract code sections 10-290 and 10-298 the governing board of a school district may without competitive bidding contract with suppliers that have been awarded contracts master agreements multiple awards schedules cooperative agreements or other types of agreements with state agencies that leverage the state's buying power district staff in consultation with legal counsel prepared and reviewed a proposal for the equipment and services needed to purchase the buses from creative bus sales the proposal incorporates the terms and conditions established by the south county support services agency bid approval of this resolution will enable the district to procure the buses pursuant to the terms of the contract as permitted by california public contract code the cost for the buses will be three hundred

124and ninety four thousand seven hundred ninety two dollars and ninety eight cents funding will come from fundo one general fund currently there are no grants or rebates available for the purchase of diesel buses however the district staff will continue to seek funding to offset the cost of these buses it is the superintendent's recommendation that the board adopt resolution number one 2122 titled resolution to approve an agreement with creative bus sales for two diesel buses purchased with the south county support services agency bid number 1819 sc 1101d contract as presented move the recommended action second have a motion and a second any questions or comments i bought a business it comes like this is the first time in recent memory that we've paid full price for a bus and it kind of hurts yeah it was

125always nice remember remember that there that uh the state has moved to the electric bus arena and we received a grant for i think 90 percent funding for for was it 450. it was 800 000 total for the two yeah so the total cost is 900 000 for two electric buses and we receive eight hundred thousand from the air resource board and they've moved away from supporting the diesel buses but uh given our remote location given our current and near future need for transporting far distances we've got to keep our diesel fleet recent and also recall for the for the public and for the board that we have received grants for many diesel buses over the last five to ten years but the last i think it's the last seven possibly close to 10 years

126we've been purchasing with those grand special education buses and these are for two of the full-size gen ed buses that can transport full bands and football teams and etc for those field trips yeah i know completely understanding like i said it's just a sticker shop yeah we haven't seen it for so long so oh yeah yeah makes us appreciate staff when they're able to find those uh grants and decrease our liability on the costs when do we anticipate the electric buses being in the fleet so the purchase order has been sent to them after board approval with that last meeting and it's about 90 days before they can get them but we need to invest in the charging infrastructure before we can do anything with them anyway so we're kind of not pressing that issue

127until we have the infrastructure in place and we figured out what the construction costs will be for the charging art and it's unfair to me to ask this but off top of your head do you have a sense of when we expect that to be in place knowing the way things go probably six months we also uh have one more item for action for the board to consider because we remember it was a two-tiered process the board approved the concept and approved moving forward with the agreement with sce for the electrical infrastructure but we still need to bring to the board consideration for a recommended action for the type of installation whether we go with the existing blacktop or if we do new concrete or new asphalt and we've done the full analysis and and

128soon the board will um make its decision based on hopefully based on district recommendation or we could always be sent back for more feedback and so we we i think we'll be doing that in the next couple of months next couple meetings so we'll bring we'll circle back pull it all together and we'll move forward properly thank you for that update any other questions or comments bill yes mr johnson i just want to say thanks again for adding air conditioning to these buses i know for years and years we had no air conditioning but the last probably 10 bucks we bought have been air conditioned so i think thank the staff for doing that and we did confirm that the electric buses all have air conditioning all right any other questions from board members comments

129any questions or comments from members of the public if not we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye dr howard aye mr scott aye mr rockwell i myself i it is unanimous that brings us to item four approval of contract with sun wireless to upgrade the district microwave network backhaul infrastructure actually believe i'm taking that one right ms smith i don't know if i put that in properly okay but you're real okay uh again i'm filling in for mr morrison this evening um in 2007 the sierra stands board of education approved a contract with sun wireless to upgrade the existing at that time the existing microwave backhaul infrastructure to a more robust and scalable solution than what was previously in place the infrastructure solution that sun wireless provided has proven to be reliable and a

130robust system that has served the district very well for the last 14 years the current system is starting to show signs of age after the 14 years of service and requires an upgrade to maintain reliable network connectivity although we no longer use this system as our primary network connection between sites it still serves the district as a backup solution in the event that our primary fiber connection goes down and we know uh through experience that it's not often but occasionally that that connection does go down with the amount of online curriculum and activities we utilize in today's modern classroom network and internet connectivity obviously are vital and redundancy in all areas of the network is essential to maintain normal operations the national association of state procurement officials naspo contract to purchase and install the necessary

131equipment to upgrade the microwave backhaul infrastructure with sun wireless is three hundred and five thousand dollars seven hundred ninety six and eighty three cents i recommend that the board approve this naspo contract with sun wireless to upgrade the microwave backhaul infrastructure as presented move recommended action second it's been moved in second any questions or comments by board members i have one i have one question okay good go ahead go ahead jim yeah the question i have is this consists our connectivity over to the kern county office correct over the mountain uh i'm thinking out loud here um i am not sure mr mcgowan you i know you would be able to answer this question the reason why i'm pausing is because i know that um with the digital 395 project that we implemented in the

132last couple years our main internet goes through the digital 395 fiber and i'm not sure what our back haul does good evening um it is actually an internal connection between the the schools back to the district office so then it would go through the pipeline through digital 395 right currently it does as a primary connection this would be the the back in case that goes down to answer your question mr johnson yes thank you dr howard right question and i should have caught this beforehand what fun do we pay for this out of it doesn't say on here uh general funds general fund yeah thank you any other questions by board members any questions by members of the public staff and we'll call for the vote mr johnson aye dr houck aye mr scott aye

133mr rockwell aye myself i it is unanimous we will now temporarily adjourn the meeting of the sierra sands unified school district board of education to convene the meeting of the india current schools financing authority the only item on the agenda is the approval of the minutes if they stand as presented we will accept them and we will adjourn the meeting of the india current schools financing authority and reconvene the meeting of the sierra sands unified school district board of education to consider the consent calendar move entire consent calendar second consent teller has been moved and seconded are there any questions or comments from board members are there any questions or comments from members of the public seeing them will call for the vote aye mr johnson thank you dr hi mr scott aye mr rockwell

134aye myself aye that makes it unanimous that now brings us to future agenda item i believe we did have a issue for a discussion on a future agenda item of the consideration of taking a position on the redistricting is that something we have consensus on the board that uh they would like to do yes okay um and uh could you remind me um uh tim i didn't hear from you or are you you have consensus on you on that what was the time frame on that uh that we would need to be timely in this discussion that's a great question um i believe the sooner the better because what i have here is the timeline from we draw the lines uh handout that i got from dave janus and on august 31st the census data

135is expected to the commission actually that came out sooner and they say september through october are the line drawing sessions input and so uh if it's if it's all right with the board i believe i could have something in place for that september 1 special board meeting we have consensus that would be okay sound like a full full meeting there yeah okay um i i do believe we've also had a request from the public to put something on the agenda regarding and the public does have the authority to ask for some for a discussion item on the agenda so if we could look at the future agendas and see one that would have room for that discussion and see that that gets calendared that would be helpful as well i'd be happy to do that

136okay okay we have we have now we have now reached the end of our regularly scheduled meeting i appreciate you folks waiting so that you can share with us your thoughts and ideas i also want to compliment you on how well mannered and let us get through that i know it was exciting and you were sitting on the edge of your seat the entire moment that you were here and we want to invite any of you who haven't already spoken up to the microphone to share your thoughts and ideas i would like to share that we absolutely invite your passion we invite your emotion we know this is important but we do ask that this be a civil and respectful discussion i believe we can get a lot farther as a community if those are

137elements we we include in that discussion so thank you very much for that in advance and we will let you go till the cows come home same same same guidelines the same guidelines of three minutes per speaker please introduce yourself at the microphone good evening board and rich crest my name is wallace martin my dress is on file and i'm a proud member of the we the people of bridgecrest organization and i was the former vice mayor of ridgecrest um my message today is in support of all of the teachers and the college students who are now faced with a horrific decision to accept a mandated non-fda approved experimental chemical injection into their bodies or lose their jobs or their ability to go back to school this is a massive state overreach and it it's

138horrendous uh understanding the politics of everything i understand your limitations but you are our local representatives in this particular matter and the point was made earlier about we've got the unions directing their thing but then the public and the parents oftentimes get left out of that i think it's very important that y'all recognize uh that tremendous point some say this is not being forced but i say that if anyone is going to lose their jobs and the ability to feed their families by not conceding or their entire college program and career development is being mandated this is force plain pure and simple it's being forced uh and while it's true you know half of the population is refusing to take this shot especially doctors and nurses and emts and others in the medical field the

139reason is simple many have taken the time to check the official government websites as well as the official warnings on the vaccine themselves as well as studies by renowned physicians and researchers worldwide very renowned universities however the most important data that they have is eyewitness actual patient side effects that they see in front of them every single day so the upcoming mandated coveted shot according to the official cdc not inquirer the cdc and the fda websites can and the shot can in fact be deadly the latest statistics from veers this is our official vaccine adverse effects recording system through august the 8th latest report there have been more than 570 000 reports through july the 30th including more than 12 000 deaths 51 000 hospitalization sixteen thousand permanently disabled four thousand bill palsy and six

140thousand heart attacks and even more alarming is the fact that the cdc bears have stated in the past and i think now that regarding vaccine related side effects less than one percent of address are even reported now at first glance this seems like just a quick statement but you know okay let's move on but what this really means is that 99 of deaths and injuries are not even reported if we use the math this little one percent quick statement really means that the actual number of death is not twelve thousand we add two zeros and it's one million two hundred thousand and many other agencies say that this is six to ten percent or not i don't think this has been three minutes yes i really don't itself states death as a possible side effect

141so at this point i'm asking the board to very seriously consider not making this a mandate allowing the teachers and the students have their their own choice and uh a tenth grader told me today when i picked one from school please wrap up thank you everybody else is stuck to it thanks [Applause] my name is tammy jones i live on springer avenue ridgecrest i'm about truth and facts in researching information regarding mask i have discovered a lot of information and i purposely looked at resources that both promote masks and those that discourage masks the resources that promote mask always gave vague statistics and medical evidence some studies were even done on mannequins with breathing machines this information was always backed with guilt-tripped and political motivated narratives however the majority of resources that discourage mask gave

142clear precise statistics and medical research actually dating back decades as the study of wearing masks in the medical fields has been studied for decades i discovered many things i was not aware of and was was alarming such as the common paper mask that most people were wearing and the ones that are passed out at the schools have been found to contain graphene and asbestos like fiber children have stated that they have cat hairs in their mouths which turned out to be these asbestos-like fibers they contain formaldehyde hazardous fluorocarbons and parafluorinated chemicals pfcs which are deliberately applied to mask as fluid repellents pfcs are often used in fabrics for protection but are not intended to be inhaled plastic surgeons warns of prolonged pressure on ears hiding teachers lips and muffling their speech make it harder for

143children to develop linguistic skills we rely on facial cues we are more likely to misinterpret one another this is particularly an acute problem in children with the autism spectrum how do we expect our children to develop social skills when they only see masks we are not a country or culture of mass wars our society relies on visual communication and smiles studies have also shown that parents are reporting children or having more headaches difficulty concentrating hypoxia increased reluctancy to attend school unhappiness malaise impaired learning drowsiness fatigue mask or breeding grounds for infections from bacteria such as mrsa mold fungi and acne three minutes do not provide me enough time to dig deeply into this i'll be more than happy to provide you with spreadsheet of all this information in conclusion mass mandates make absolutely no scientific

144sense when this all began the lack of knowledge justified some of the mandates with scientific knowledge that that excuse has vanished it is clear long ago that these mandates no longer have validation and we must have the courage to draw the line in the sand and stand as a community the parents who are responsible and who know their children the best have the right to decide if their child should wear a mask or not i would hope we all would remember when we were children and how we would feel if we had to do this please just let us see our children smiling faces and let them breathe thank you [Applause] dr ostash the board community i was not prepared for this um i'm not here with can we get you sorry can we get

145your name and address please oh i'm sorry vicky peach district employee 18 years i drive a germ capsule okay not really if i didn't like my job i wouldn't do it i love driving and i love the kids also a foster parent 15 years i've had i've raised 19 kids yes um like i said i was not prepared for this i want to share with you guys and the board not only these masks bought two thermometers to put on my school bus a digital and then a regular one with like the mercury stuff in it 110 degrees on my bus my route causes me to be on that bus from 12 30 until 4 30 in the afternoon in the hottest part of the day with no break i have to squeeze time in to

146go to fowler to sit in the cafeteria to cool down because i am in the easy bake oven granted we know it's hot i've been here 47 years but with these masks it's even worse you any of you that wear glasses i've seen you guys take your glasses off for whatever reason i try not to wear mine um your glasses are steaming up we have drivers that this is happening to not only with the heat i've been accused of yelling at students because they can't hear me we are passing out up to 25 masks in the mornings when parents already know that one of our policies one of our policies are to wear masks to school i'm having to give out masks after school what's happening to these masks i don't get it like i

147said i was not prepared for this i have spent three evenings barely eating at home because which is a good thing um because i got overheated three days ago to the point that i felt light-headed driving i am also a state certified behind the wheel instructor we are working under extreme heat conditions that are being it's all over the news it's on facebook you just uh weather rich crest and you're gonna see that we're talking about the new buses i'm absolutely thrilled the air conditioning imagine driving down the street open your door you're letting off one to 25 kids you close that door and you drive a few blocks down even if it's a quarter of a mile half a mile how long does it take for that vehicle to cool down this is a

148serious problem [Music] i want to breathe and so do our kids ostash president ferris board community my name is butch ziesis i live at 1327 sunland i do not have kids in this school but i've been in this community most of my life and [Music] i had stuff prepared most of what i was going to say has already been spoken so i don't want to repeat a whole lot of things but two questions i want to leave you with have any of you guys ever read any science supporting any of the stuff we're being asked to do by our government can you come up with any scientific studies random controlled trial studies that masks are a benefit to prevent any infectious disease if you can i'd like to see them i would like you to

149ask whoever the whoever you guys are getting your mandate information from is that the california state school district whatever that agency is if we're going to be following or asked to follow this stuff we need to ask them to produce science real science that shows the benefit of this not the science that mainstream media is saying daily on the news trust the science trust the science trust the science i have yet to see it now if you take five minutes and do a google search there are dozens and dozens of mask studies out there that negate the efficacy of wearing masks for vile viral protection it's all over out there studies by major universities not only here in the states but worldwide second thing on mass that wasn't mentioned is there's probably not a person

150in this room that wears their mask properly moment you put that on your face and then you touch something and then fiddle around with your mask you've just loaded a bunch of bacteria on it whether you realize it or not so proper pfe wearing you put that mask on and touch it you really ought to take it off and throw it away because it's really doing you no good a great visual representation of the efficacy of how masks filter if no none of you have done it or not you've seen it wait till it gets cold this winter and go outside and put a mask on your face if it's cold enough you're going to see where when your breath condenses where that air goes if the mask is tight enough or if it is

151possible that it would filter enough air then you're going to have really real difficult time breathing and that's why the co2 numbers that people do this testing on are so high with a mask on your face for two minutes we'll leave you with a quote thomas jefferson there is no justification for taking away individual freedom in the guise of public safety not even close to that tall um and i'm an educator so i came with props um my name is emily slatkowski 901 carolyn street i'm a speech language pathologist for sierra sands this is my sixth year and i have some concerns that i'd like to share about how the current mask mandates are going to affect the quality of the therapy that i'm providing to students on a daily basis the students i work

152with all qualify for individualized specially designed services that require unique interventions for them to successfully access their general education curriculum as their peers do many of the students i work with struggle with articulation meaning that they have difficulty producing age-appropriate speech sounds correctly the current guidelines require that all students and staff wear masks and doors my mask covers my face it removes any chance the child has of getting a visual model of the sound they're already struggling to produce the alternate option i've been given so far is a face shield which technically should have a drape here are the two face shields i've been provided so far by the district this one with a drape has been cleaned a few times and is covered in scratches making it difficult to see through and has a

153really sweet glare the second one without a drape is brand new at best i have a good visual of the student's mouth while they're wearing it but all that i can see is the glare of my own equally glared reflection while these are both better than a mask often for students that require my services a visual model of the sound they cannot produce spontaneously is not enough at least initially a typical speech session may include items such as gloves or a tongue depressor a cheerio and eminem to get their tongue in the right place or a straw to make sure the air is coming in the right place to help provide tactile feedback for the sounds that they're working on none of these tools are possible while wearing a mask or a face shield this

154is just a brief example of how the therapy i provide will be affected this doesn't even factor in the effect on students pragmatic abilities seeing facial expressions reading body language cues or the phonics instruction within the general education classrooms for all of our students i'm not sure that there's a perfect solution to this problem but i think it's important for the district to realize that the current guideline guidance is not appropriate in all situations all students need a visual model for any new sounds or learning and many require more than that the current guidelines and procedures in place do not allow for any professional judgment to help students in the most appropriate ways possible thank you [Applause] ross ross menzel 812 east dolphin superintendent president members of the board thank you for your time this

155evening i don't have statistics i don't have chemicals i don't have anything like that i have a story to tell you though the about what happened in this room several years ago when the issue of the casino came up now i'm not talking i'm not here to bring that up but there were many members of the community that came out in the floor the casino and came out in against the casino i was actually for or i was actually against the casino but we had a room like we have here tonight uh and lots of people wanted to talk and so about 10 45 that night they said we're going to take we're going to take a break and we'll reconvene in about 15 minutes well it's 11 o'clock almost my bedtime's nine i've got

156to go to bed so i just thought you know what i know a couple of the board members or the city council members i'm going to just go up share with them so i'm not taking up everybody else's precious time and share with them my concerns so i went up to them during the intermission shared my concerns with them i said you know i've got lots of statistics you know and and everybody else has had all these statistics and this is bad news and you know all that and the two council members told me that night they said what are we supposed to do with the land they didn't say well we need to take into consideration what everybody's feelings are because we're your elected officials they said what are we supposed to do with

157the land so what i'm asking you guys to do tonight is to take into consideration what everybody has said everybody's comments here tonight the fact that we want freedom for our children for ourselves for our students and and don't and remember that you are elected by us not the government okay that's what i'm asking you to do thank you for your time my name is juliette viegas i live at 313 nedu i don't have a lot to say tonight um i have to say that i'm a rich rest citizen born and raised i've lived here my whole life i used to want to be a teacher for this school district i wanted to teach in a school and be able to reach out to children and give them an opportunity that maybe they wouldn't have

158gotten somewhere else with everything that's happening now i no longer wish to be a teacher for this district i would not want to work for a district that takes away medical freedom and i feel like i'm not the only one if it continues like this there won't be enough teachers for the next generation i feel like the board has been given an option that has community backing and that all you need is a little bit of backbone and courage to follow through with it thank you [Applause] my name is kathy mccoy i live at 8 12 east california avenue i am a teacher in this district i've taught for 22 years this is my 18th year here in sierra sands and i want to say thank you very much to the board for making sure

159that we are all safe in our schools i want to say thank you for following the science the actual science the science that is provided by the cdc and people who have been doing that job for quite a long time and know what they're talking about so yeah no they don't eliminate my request to be respectful they do know what they're talking about anthony fauci has been doing this job since he worked to stop the aids crisis so i really appreciate that you are doing the things that need to be done to keep us safe my students in my classroom seem to feel safe they seem to feel happy they seem to feel that they are being engaged i don't see any of them tell me gosh i can't see you smile therefore i don't

160know how you feel i think that we communicate that just fine as someone who is actually in the classroom working with students they don't they don't have a problem they're wearing their mask so i and i'm not sure why we're laughing because they they don't pardon me we've let everybody speak with respect and listen to what everybody has said we ask you to do the same right i know in this room these are not popular thoughts but i have my ability to communicate my thoughts too i have that same freedom so again i want to say thank you and i appreciate what you're doing for our students and for the people working at your school and i want you to know that not everyone in this room is here because they want the masks to

161be gone thank you [Applause] hello just just one moment okay so there's been a recommendation by a board member that if we can't be respectful we'll we'll quit the public hearing i'd really like to hear everyone's comments and if you have comments i've asked that you come up to the podium and make them shouts from the audience are not appropriate they are not respectful we have said very clearly that we are here to listen to everyone and if you want to get up and make whatever animal noises you want to from the podium we'll make sure everybody in the in tv land can see how ridiculous you are please treat everyone's respect that's the way this country operates go ahead thank you my name is beth schweitzer and i live at 117 west rancho del

162cerro i have four school age children and i do homeschool them and but i was a public school teacher here at murray before i started my family and so i have i've been in both environments and i wasn't prepared to speak tonight i don't have any facts to present to you um but i want to appeal to your emotions um i experienced tonight that it was very difficult to understand what all of you are saying with your masks on and i'm just thinking of the children that's what we're here for is the children the children in the classrooms and i can imagine having a spelling test given by a teacher that i can't understand what they're saying and i know my anxiety would hit the roof just for that alone and i know that there

163are children that come from abusive homes and you as a teacher might be the only positive part of their day and they might not be getting a smile from one person and that it's just horrible for me to to think that that that could be happening in our classrooms and you're as a teacher you could be their advocate and if you can't see their facial expressions yes i know we speak with our eyes too but sometimes i can't tell if somebody wants to hurt me or if they're glad to see me because i can't see their mouth and i want to say you know what if it's on your conscience to wear a mask and you believe that they're helping you go for it we're not saying we don't want people to wear masks we're

164just saying that we want the choice to wear them or not and not to be forced and forcing on our young children to wear a mask to feel uncomfortable to feel like that when they go to school they have to do this thing or they're going to get in a lot of trouble let them let them make the choice let the parents of the children make the choice we all have a conscience let's be led by it and for me i don't want to mask my children and maybe you do and you should have the freedom to do that but please consider that thank you hello my name is cynthia allen i live in 218 south lilac here in rich cross we've been talking about the time is now running we've been talking about numbers

165right and we're trusting in the cdc and we're trusting to know the you know the facts and everything but i would like to know when was your last cholesterol when was your last colonoscopy because according to the cdc the number one cause from 2020 is colon cancer and heart disease all until the end is all respiratory infections and all that so i don't know how to trust the numbers that mr astash say about how happy he saw the people and the welcoming and all of that i don't know the facts i don't know the numbers i haven't talked to the people out there in the schools because thanks to you thanks to your decisions i make my choices to take and pull my kids out of school so thank you for ruining my life and

166thank you because i realized that i can do this and i don't have to mandate my kids to enforce your tactics or be grateful because we have a government to say what to do and what not to do and i was i don't know it was a good thing to talk to one of you members and he say sadly i am a part of the board member but i don't have anything to say or i don't have the power that you want me to have to decide or not to implement the rules to implement the mandates and all that i'm just following what my bots say for for some reason you are sitting in those chairs and i think you have the power to say something to do something and obviously to support this community

167that is trusting you it is trusting that you're gonna have the mind i mean we have a doctorate we have somebody in the police enforcement we have i don't know your background exactly but i know you have what it takes to support our decisions i know you probably are afraid to lose your job because god forbid you are against the mandates or anything i'm scared today that if my husband loves his job we're going to lose our home and everything because you're mandating a vaccine you're mandating and screen and everything else so i know you got the point i know you are smart enough and i hope you sleep well tonight after hearing us because you really need to make a choice and it's all in your hands i'm just saying please have have the

168things have their thoughts in your mind and please make the right choice [Applause] my name is kellen zesos i live at a 1327 south sunless street i don't have much to say i just want to end this out with something that we probably should have started with so if you all would join me in prayer heavenly father thank you for allowing us to gather here this evening and thank you for allowing us to live in a country where our opinions can be heard our opinions can be voiced and i just want to thank you again for just allowing us to be here this evening and uh that our opinions uh can be heard and that we could uh use our opinions and our voices to preserve the freedom that you have so graciously granted us

169in this amazing country amen and i'd just like to thank you guys for that as well uh for allowing the public to be here and voice our opinions sorry i know you guys thought that was it but uh holly ferris 449 laurie anne greetings sorry i'm not dressed appropriately for this this came from a birthday party so glad i made it in time um you know we've had a lot of talk about freedom and the constitution and lots of things like that i think we all have our own ideas of that and we [Music] i'm not discounting that at all but what i would ask of you as educators is we we want to educate our children on how to manage risk on how to manage their personal behavior not live off of mandates non-live

170have been told what to do and how to do it based on this the little little chance that something awful could happen we deal with things minute by minute that could turn out horrible but i i the worst thing in the world for me would be to get one of my kids locked in a bedroom because they might fall outside they might get a car accident um pull them off the football team because they could get a concussion there are so many bad things that could happen out there and mandating them to do one thing to manage this teeny tiny risk just teaches them to live out of such fear and i believe that that's heartbreaking and i would really like to see as was said earlier in the night you guys to stand up

171for that as um my sister pointed out earlier tonight way back when i felt like our district was wonderful at that um maverick is the word that comes to mind we stood up for things that we believed in and that mattered and right now i don't see any of that i respect all of you i know most of you personally and have for a long time but this has been very disappointing to see so i ask that you step up and make some stands that won't be popular but you have a lot of support in doing that so thank you [Applause] my name is karen taggart i had no intention of speaking tonight but after hearing everybody and seeing you know the passion behind everybody when it comes to their children when it comes to

172their jobs their livelihood there's a lot of people out there who are far more worried about their jobs than you guys are and they're the people who elected you they're the people who picked you to represent them and to represent their children especially which everybody you know we all know how passionate people are about their children and i feel like you know again this is in your guys's hands but you have all these people here that are backing you all of them and again you know nobody has authority to take away our medical freedoms and to take away our children's medical freedom and i again you know i i beg of you guys to please take into consideration you know the things these people are saying tonight they're saying it because they love their kids

173and they care about what happens to them and they care about their futures and i think you know again they've elected you guys for a reason they put you here you know they they chose you to be the ones to represent them and i think it's fair to ask you know that you guys represent the community and we are here to back you thank you [Music] [Applause] hi my name is ben sperbeck i live down the street am i allowed to ask you guys any questions this is the time for public comment uh if there's specific questions you need information with staff we'll give you that information so i guess what i want to say is if you guys um i assume by wearing masks right now um that it's a choice that you want

174and that you that you're making because you feel safe and out of weighing all the facts of of of everything that you know you want to wear the masks and i just want to ask you what if you were told or mandated that you can't wear them and you're you know now what you want to do based off of the facts that you know based off of the fears that you have based off of all the information you're mandated and you're not allowed to wear it it's just the opposite point of view that i'd like everyone to think about i really would like to ask if you guys are wearing the masks because you're told to or because you actually feel that they are doing you a service of protection or whatever feel free to

175answer we can break the rules a little bit right all right thank you i don't want to miss anyone was there anyone else that wanted to speak this evening you you've had your time if you want to get a message to us you can write it down and get it to us but i appreciate uh yeah go ahead if you haven't you haven't spoken already i just want to reiterate um to my name is amber grote i'm at 816 south lakeland and um i just want to reiterate what has already been expressed to you as far as the gratitude in the position that you guys are all in to make the decisions that you're making i can't imagine being in this decision in that place making a decision in such a time as this um

176when there are things to consider all sorts of facts to consider when we all are trying to care of the livelihoods of one another and ourselves and our children and taking into consideration all the facts right so science science and opinions as well you know because empathy does matter so i appreciate the fact that you are taking into consideration everything on both ends um and doing what you think is best so thank you so much for taking these positions thank you so much for hearing us and for calling us to respect one another and to hear each other out thank you anyone else want to speak this evening thank you so much for being here uh our country is great because the participations of its membership thank you so much for your participation tonight and

177have a good how are you evening