001foreign [Music] a call to order this meeting of the Coweta County Board of Education December 13 2022 agenda 782 if you'll please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in a moment of silence thank you you may be seated is there a motion to approve the agenda motion to approve SEC we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero recognitions DR Horton thank you madam chair at this time I'll call on Public Information officer Dean Jackson to bring your recognitions Mr Jackson thank you DR Horton we have several recognitions tonight starting with our Core Business and for that we have an anatomy lesson brought To Us by Noonan high school I'll call on Newnan High School principal Chase Puckett to come down and introduce um good evening it
002is our privilege to be here with you tonight recognizing the Coweta County school system's five-year strategic plan emphasizes preparing students to be College and Career ready it is my privilege to share with you why I have the coolest job in the county tonight I get to share with you how Newton High School has been incorporating 21st century technology as we prepare students to be College and Career ready by providing Advanced opportunities for all students prior to the tornado we had a flexible learning space known as the flex lab we'd bring our students in so they could take virtual field trips and conduct labs in that space after the storm our Innovative teachers said we are not going to let our circumstances keep us providing those phenomenal opportunities for our students so today you're going to
003get to see them as they use this augmented technology for anatomy and I'm hoping at the end when they invite you down some of our board members who are believers in advance opportunities will come down and play with the technology it is my privilege to introduce you to Miss Donna Amador and Jordan Canard and two of our fantastic students good evening my name is Jordan Canard and I'm one of the athletic trainers at Noonan High School where I teach sports medicine and environmental science recognizing the importance of students being able to connect Anatomy to injuries and how they are treated in 10th through 12th grade we are focusing on teaching students how to apply this knowledge as they also demonstrate their ability to identify evaluate and treat injuries this year in order to master one
004of our standards in anatomy and Sports Medicine we provided the following learning activity for our students first we teach our students the various parts of the brain and the different functions that each of these parts have from there students use their individual tablets to scan the 3D Anatomy mats which you see over there to see and understand the real anatomy of the human brain bringing the organ to life while also gaining a better understanding of the physical structure of the brain and the parts that are oftentimes damaged as a result of a concussion this allows our Sports Medicine students to have a better understanding of concussion protocols after a major injury the goal is to teach our students not only about the anatomy of the brain but also to prepare them for their future career
005in sports medicine nursing or any other medical profession they choose this also allows our students to be better prepared if they choose to volunteer as a student athletic training aide in our sports medicine program we are providing our students with Real World Knowledge on concussions and providing them with real-life applications by creating concussion awareness for our school our athletes and our community good evening my name is Donna Amador and I am the anatomy and physiology teacher at Newton High School as well as the science Bowl sponsor and science department chair recognizing the importance of students in human anatomy and physiology to be able to explain the relationship between body structures and their functions we're using or we're focusing on using models such as the augmented reality Anatomy mat to develop these skills the med table
006AR system allows students to visualize structures and regions of the human body with 3D detail as well as information about the function of each body part students are able to use the tablets and scan the anatomy mat where they can view a specific body part or an entire body system in order to master one of our standards in anatomy my students use the anatomy mat to do a virtual dissection of the human brain they were able to focus on different lobes of the brain and develop a general understanding of the neuroanatomy with this information they were then able to determine which areas of the brain are directly related to concussion symptoms and how the brain responds to a concussion and the goal of this lesson was to use data from a real life scenario involving
007a concussion to develop an explanation for how this injury would affect brain functions my name is Jada Grant and I'm a sophomore at Noonan High School in Ms canard's class we are asked to apply ourselves each day by using the skills and knowledge we learned in her classroom to assist the athletic trainers that treat athletes at noon in high school the thing I like most about her class is how Hands-On it is this activity taught me how not all concussions are the same and how different symptoms can be caused by which aspect of the brain is expected therefore it makes challenging and make it challenging to properly diagnose and treat concussions for this lesson we are placed into groups and we use the anatomy mats to get a general overview of the nervous system with
008the main focus being the brain next we were able to hone in on the different regions of the brain to gain a better understanding of exactly which regions of the brain are affected and are damaged in a concussion this activity told me how this subject connects to the real world by showing the reasoning behind what ethic trainers and medical professionals do to properly treat concussions and return athletes back to say back to play safely my future goals and conclude majoring in kinesiology in college and working in the medical field after we made these handouts we were able to bring more awareness amongst the students and staff about concussions for example interesting facts are girls high school software soccer suffer more concussions than high school football girls are four times more likely to get concussed than
009boys in high school football thank you foreign and I'm a senior at Newton High School Ms amador's class we're asked to apply ourselves each day we begin each class by taking part in a rigorous q a that we like to call bellringers these Bell ringers set the tone for the previous instruction and also preview what's coming in the weeks to come the thing I like most about this class is the labs and dissections that we do for most of the units this activity taught me that um helped me to understand better parts of the brain and the different lobes and their functions to begin Miss Amador and I used the augmented reality Anatomy Mets to gain a better of this understanding of the structure of the brain next we were able to focus more specifically
010on the different lobes as they related to concussion protocol this activity taught me how the subject connects to the real world by helping explain how different parts of your brain interpret different things for example personality speech hearing sight Etc are all interpreted by different parts therefore damage or trauma to the different parts of the brain would have different effects and a concussion for example damage to the occipital lobe would affect Vision the frontal lobe would affect personality traits and the cerebellum or brain stem would affect motor control damage to the brain stem can be seen through the actions of tuatagavaloa after he was concussed in the Dolphins week three game he experienced posturing or the flexing of the fingers and hands due to the Collision indicating that he experienced trauma to the brain stem my
011future goals include majoring in Biochemistry to become a cardiologist and I know that taking my Salvador's class has helped me to prepare for the class I'm going to take we would now like to invite any of the board members down if they want to use the mats to look at the brain or any body systems and check it out thank you and guys thank you all for coming while the while the board members are returning to their seats you know there are a couple things that come to mind uh related to our strategic plan and and what you're learning number one Advanced content you guys are learning things that I didn't learn until I was in anatomy and physiology in college that's number one and then just the relevance the real world relevance so miss
012Amador Ms Canard thank you guys for for what you're doing Dr Hurston appreciate the work that you do each day and I would be remiss if I didn't say um you guys have been through a lot over there and it is so uplifting to see that the challenging work the advanced opportunities for all students do not stop because of Storms and that's a credit to to the leadership at Newnan High School and the job that you're doing so thank you very much [Applause] foreign our school system is nearly at its Christmas and New Year's break and that means that we get to observe a tradition that we've observed for several years and that is a presentation by 4-H the 4-H is a big part of our school system and is a very important part of
013a lot of students experiences that go through our school system and they have come and made a recognition of the board for several years now and I'd like to introduce Mr Roberta Prince who's going to make that presentation be careful with my cookies Roberta bring them bring them down slowly it doesn't matter what I say they're going to be watching The Box anyway so thank you guys for having me tonight I'm Roberta Prince with Quita County 4-H um you guys are such a an important part of our programming we um rolled out this year Statewide what we call a Thrive model and it's not really any different than what we've ever done but it's a different way of looking at things and at the base of that we have something we call a spark and
0144-H is where kids can come if they haven't found a place where they can find a spark and that spark can grow and become something much more and for me it's so rewarding to see kids find their spark but without you guys and your support we would not be able to be in the schools in those fifth grade classrooms and meet those kids and help them find their spark so we appreciate you so much and I'm going to introduce and let one of our 4-hs talk tonight this is Faith Whitlock she's a blob and let her introduce herself I won't tell everything about her because then she'll be like why did you have me come all right faith hi my name is Faith Whitlock I'm in ninth grade and I've been in 4-H since about
015fifth grade um I recently got back into it after being out of it for a couple of years but I really enjoy it and over the summer I went to Camp Jekyll and it was really fun I had a lot of fun learning about different animals and like the ecosystem and just like all different activities there were um I went to District in fifth grade and I won second place on my project um and I plan on going back to district and winning again so [Applause] I think my long-term involvement with Coweta 4-H is well known so I won't bore everybody with that story again thank you Roberta and I will pass them around so uh but uh just just want to say thanks to the board members and Dr Guy and and uh and
016DR Horton for the support over the years of of Coweta 4-H it certainly impacted my kids and uh and it continues to do so so thanks for all that they do and all that y'all do to support it for one more presentation tonight we have a recognition of several of our Coweta County social sciences teachers and programs uh several teachers and their programs were honored with a number of state level honors at the Georgia Council for social studies uh annual conference held earlier this fall we have several of them here tonight and I'm going to call on Coweta County Social Studies content specialist Philip Sykes to introduce them and uh while Dr Sykes comes up since he probably is not going to mention this himself I'd like to take a moment to note that Dr
017Sykes himself was also one of the educator honorees at this year's gcss conference he was recognized with the gcss outstanding social studies leader award for his work with the teachers in our school system and with the Department of Education congratulations to him and congratulations to many of the people here tonight so all right all right good evening good evening everybody as you guys know my name is Phil Sykes and I would like to just share a couple of accomplishments that our teachers have earned this this school year the Georgia Council for social studies gcss is an educational organization that works to Advocate and highlight social studies education across the state of Georgia by providing teachers with quality resources as well as professional learning and network opportunities each each year the organization receives nominations from across
018the state and selects exceptional social studies teachers departments and leaders who are positively impacting social studies education across Georgia schools this year was the council's first in-person state social studies conference since the start of the covid-19 pandemic and spotlighted multiple Dynamic social studies professionals from across the state at the conference luncheon on October 27th Coweta was well represented this year as several Awards were presented to a few of our teachers I'd like to start off by calling down Ashley Dawson from Blake glass Middle School year Miss Dawson teaches eighth grade Georgia studies at Blake bass received the Gwen Hutchinson outstanding educator award this award is given to social studies teachers who provide outstanding social studies instructional opportunities both in and outside of the classroom while also fostering the development of democratic values and citizenship within
019the community Miss Dawson is extremely involved at Blake bass middle school and consistently leads the way for interactive relevant and out-of-the-box instructional practices for social studies teachers at her school and across Coweta County School System please help me congratulate Miss Dawson on her accomplishment proud of you thank you all right our next award if I can get the Madras Middle School social studies department or some of them to come down this is the eighth grade team all right each year gcss recognizes various programs that provide exemplary social studies education to students this year Madras Middle School sent 8th grade Georgia studies teachers Jeff Welch Jimmy Countryman and Lauren Holstein to accept the 2022 gcss program of Excellence award on behalf of the hard-working and dedicated Madras Middle School social studies Department Madras Middle School social
020studies Department strives to make social studies as relevant Hands-On as it possibly can the lessons offered to students at Madras are highly engaging and make relevant connections bringing the history of our state and world to life I'm super proud of the work as a as a former Eagle that these teachers do daily and am excited that their hard work was recognized at the state level please help me congratulate these teachers goodbye [Applause] all right now I've got one more award and this is not a gcss award this is a Georgia Ed Tech conference award and this is a state organization that hosts a conference just for technology integrating technology into the classroom so I did not get to attend this conference this year but Coweta was not without representation several of our empowered teachers who
021are here tonight got to attend this conference to support their virtual lessons at Empower so I would like to now bring down Miss Christy Thompson Miss Christie Thompson teaches a sixth and seventh grade social studies foreign power um no eighth seventh and eighth she was six last year but this is this is her seventh and eighth grade this year all right the Georgia Ed Tech conference Rising Star educator award is intended to recognize an emerging leader in Georgia K-12 schools who whose record reflects ongoing exceptional growth in the field of education and a passion for technology integration that trans transforms learning for students fellow teachers and the community of Educators at large at this year's conference Christy Thompson was honored with the rising star educator award Christie's creativity and adaptability in Virtual in the virtual
022world is evident every day I've got to go in and work with her multiple times and what she does with the technology is just unreal she is a true leader in all aspects of Technology education and is always willing to collaborate with other teachers in order to support and encourage their love of integrating technology please help me congratulate Christy for her for her accomplishment I would just like to say that going to the state conference is is extremely powerful for me as a as a professional but getting to work alongside alongside other Educators and meeting with other coordinators from across the district it's it's very humbling to get to go there and then come back here and realize how good we have it in Coweta County and I know a lot of that is because
023of the work that you guys do on the board and what you guys um you know I guess value social studies as a Content area so we really appreciate it from our hearts as social studies lovers and we just appreciate everything you guys do as well Merry Christmas [Applause] all right is there a motion to approve the minutes of the November 8 2022 meeting so move we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor okay motion carries five to zero with um Buzz will abstain Mr Glover will abstain since he was absent all right moving on to action items group one DR Horton thank you madam chair the first action item I have for you in group one is to approve 2023 Board of Education meeting dates times and the location the
024Calgary County Board of Education regular meetings will be held on the dates listed below at 6 30 pm at the central office located at 167 words Industrial Boulevard those dates are January 10th of 2023 February 14th of 2023 March 14th 2023 April 11th of 2023 May the 9th June the 13th July the 11th August the 8th September the 12th October the 10th November 14th and December 12th Madam chair I recommend approval of those dates meetings still be held at this location regular meetings only this location you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the 2023 Board of Education meeting dates times and locations is there a motion to approve so move second we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero next action item I have
025for you in group one is to appoint County counties 2023 Georgia School Board Association legislative liaison we need to identify or appoint a member of the board to serve on gsba's legislative liaison Network as Coweta County's representative for the 2023 session of the Georgia General Assembly appointee will attend gsba's annual 2023 Summer Conference in Savannah during June of 2023. Madam chair I recommend approval I guess with that we'll open the floor all right um yes we'll open the floor are there any nominations for a person to serve as the legislative liaison yes Madam yes Madam chair I'll uh nominate Mr Larry Robertson for this great honor all right we have a nomination for Mr Robertson are there any other nominations all right is there a motion to close the nominations motion to close second we
026have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor all right motion to close the nomination carries six to zero all right is there a motion to approve Mr Robertson as we have a motion to approve him so um a nomination I guess give a formal motion if you would motion to approve Mr Robertson now second all right we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero is your hand up okay all right sure all right thank you the next action item I have for you in group one is to approve an mou for Project Nova approvals requested to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the county county Development Authority and the Coweta County Board of Commissioners regarding the recently announced freighter battery project also
027known as Project Nova copy of the mou is attached board members just will I'll mention a couple of things related to the mou this mou outlines the scope of the freyr battery project which is estimated to be in the 2.6 2.7 billion dollar range this mou also outlines the incentives or inducements that were offered by the Development Authority for this project the length of those incentives or inducements the system will continue to receive Revenue as part of the agreement that is in place and there is no obligation on the part of the school system related bonds issued for this project all of that is included in the mou so Madam chair I recommend approval I've heard the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the memorandum of understanding for the Project Nova is there a motion
028to approve so move we have a motion and a second any discussion DR Horton it's pretty obvious that we don't have any control over what what they pass in those groups that were passed down to us and we're just and we understand it correct yes sir my understanding is is that under Georgia law the sole discretion to offer any inducements for proposed Economic Development projects or to deny any inducements rest with the Development Authority the board does not have any any discretion over that so this mou does basically say that we understand the parameters of that project yes sir any further discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero the next action item I have for you in group one is to approve a proposal from Willis Road Elementary for the purchase and installation
029of playground equipment Willis Road Elementary PTO requests approval for the purchase of materials and installation of playground equipment for the school equipment will be purchased by the Willis Road PTO total project cost for materials is thirty six thousand four hundred ninety dollars and ten cents requirements of board policy FEA have been met supporting documents are attached Madam chair I recommend approval you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent to approve a proposal from Willis Road Elementary for the purchase and installation of playground equipment to be funded by the Willis Road Elementary PTO is there a motion to approve second we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero the last action item I have for you in group one is to approve a contingency change request to modify
030the generator and transformer pad for the Newton high school gymnasium that's bp2 approvals requested for a contingency change request to modify the pad for the generator and electrical transformer for the gymnasium at noon high due to the size of the new equipment the size of the specified concrete pad must be enlarged this will require the addition of a retaining wall and fencing around the pad cost to modify the pad is 25 737 dollars change order proposal and supporting documentation is attached Madam chair recommend approval you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent to approve a contingency change request to modify the generator and transformer pad for the Newton high school gymnasium is there a motion to approve so moved second we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to
031zero action items group 3 trips call on Dr Mark guy to bring you trips Dr Guy thank you DR Horton the principal of Northgate High School requests permission for the marching Viking band to travel to Norfolk Virginia from April 20th through April 23rd 2023 to perform in the Norfolk Parade of Nations students will miss two days of school there is no cost to the school system this request does meet our guidelines for out-of-stake trips recommend approval you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the Northgate High School field trip request for the band to travel to Norfolk Virginia April 20th through 23rd 2023. is there a motion to approve second we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero superintendents reports DR Horton call on Mr
032Chapman to bring your budget report and sales tax Mr Chapman budget report we continue to stay in good shape through five months for eighty four thousand dollars under budget sales tax continue to see good collections there three a little over 3.1 million over 14 percent increase year over year Dr Guy staff and student attendance thank you DR Horton for the fourth attendance reporting period ending on December the 5th highest staff attendance was Eastside Elementary School High student attendance in the program area with Central Educational Center highest Elementary student attendance goes to Canongate Elementary School highest Middle School student attendance Blake bass middle school and the highest high school student attendance Newnan High School home of the mighty cougars thank you Dr Guy not sure how to follow that board members for our board goal report
033I want to call on Dr Julie ration who is our director of assessment and accountability to talk to you about Coweta Effectiveness visits this is an internal quality assurance process that we have and she's going to elaborate on that Dr ration good evening DR Horton actually stole my Fender I my first sentence I am extremely excited that we have resumed our Effectiveness visits it is another indicator that we are back in business in normal in normal times as you're aware these visits are are one of our internal quality assurance processes we use to assess provide feedback and improve program Effectiveness and offers operational conditions that enhance learning and promote Student Success at each of our schools the Coweta Effectiveness evaluation visits provide an opportunity for teams of school administrators teacher leaders and District staff to
034observe classrooms interview stakeholders and review data to determine the impact of school processes on developing supportive learning cultures that increase achievement our visiting documents are directly aligned with our strategic plan and they monitor the impact of school and District Improvement opportunities and initiatives we focus these areas on Leadership Learning and resource capacity while the primary purpose of our visits remain focused on building monitoring and supporting a performance culture in our schools it is also designed to help build staff capacity and promote Collective efficacy efficacy at each of our schools visiting team members learn how to identify powerful instructional practices analyze data evaluate Effectiveness and develop recommendations that help schools improve during the first semester of this school year we have completed visits at glanton elementary Brooks Elementary Eastside Elementary and Willis Road our visits to
035these schools have provided clear evidence of processes in place that develop meaningful relationships promote strong school to Home Connection and support a commitment to continuous Improvement I have brought copies of these reports from these four schools and I'm pleased to share the results with each of you as we head into the spring semester we're going to visit another seven schools with our goal of providing feedback to all of our schools before the end of the 24-25 school year I'm excited to spend time in each of these new schools next semester and I want to personally invite each of you to join us for one of our visits I think you will find that it's time well spent in our schools and talking with our teams will not only motivate you but will excite you about
036the good things that are taking place in Coweta County so I do have the reports I'm going to leave them with you just so that you can look at them later this evening thank you I said thank you I'm sorry DR Horton I said how long is one visit and because I understand you have seven to do in the spring and we have what 33 schools we do typically we do about seven visits a year because we are condensing it into three years we're doing 10 visits each school year most schools it's a two-day visit we spend one day in the building doing classroom observations interviewing looking at evidence of of school processes the second day we typically spend back here at wurtz evaluating what we uncovered we have a rubric that we use to
037score the schools and then we spend that time to provide feedback we give the school information on what we perceive as strengths what are opportunities to take the school to the next level and then we provide suggestions for things that would help the schools to improve we do have one school visit this year at East Coweta High School that unfortunately we will not be able to complete in one day so we will be in the building for two days at East Coweta High School thank you very much please come join us for that one I will say while she's leaving the the feedback for us there are a couple things that are very powerful about these visits number one the feedback for the schools when you have a team of Educators that can come into
038a school and give you an honest evaluation of whether you're meeting the Strategic plan that is incredibly powerful and what I've noticed is our our principles they look forward to getting that report so that they can dive in and make make adjustments to to make the experience better for our teachers and students but there's something else that I think is is incredibly powerful about these visits the team members that go on these visits if you asked them to a person every single one of them learns something to take back to make their school or their classroom a better place for kids so so that learning that Loop of learning is is very very very powerful and it's great to be able to to tie it all together to make sure that we're doing the things
039that our strategic plan says that we need to be doing but it's also wonderful to see the difference that it makes in classrooms for kids so thank you for your work Julian putting all that together for us over the years Dr Rashid if you'll uh please forward some dates I'd love to join you for for part of a visit one day probably not the whole day but uh at least to see the process in action last thing I have for you tonight is the facilities and construction report you can see North Gate we actually I believe had the the final Farm Fire Marshal inspection on the gymnasium today I'm waiting on Final closeout documents on the renovations and modifications there the addition just awaiting some project closeout documents have started actually the Smoky Road and
040CEC gym fire alarm Replacements are substantially complete with just a few punch list items remaining Madras and Winston dowdell we're working through those right now project completion scheduled for 20 April of 2023 and then last month you approved surveillance camera upgrades at various schools hoping to have those completed to have them all on the same server by January of 2023 that work is progressing nicely if you've been by Noonan High I think I mentioned last month that we were we were to use a little construction language going vertical there's been a lot of going vertical Mr cheek over the last month gymnasium is coming out of the ground steel is going up we actually last Friday poured I say we they actually poured the the first footings on the academic building last Friday and the
041work on the east side of Armory road is progressing as weather permits to be able to to bring that elevation up you can look in in the next couple months we will have to bring you a proposal for some landscaping for that site where we're raising that elevation on the east side of Armory Road where it's progressing nicely there's a lot going on we're at the point in the year where you know we have a decent day today and we get three inches of rain tomorrow so we're having to manage some of that but everything is still on schedule for occupation of the gym next fall and of the academic building in July of 2024. so board members that's all I have thank you DR Horton this is the time of our meeting where we
042set aside 45 minutes for public comment and I'd just like to read the policy in regards to the public participation in the board meetings to guarantee an orderly meeting and to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak the board has implemented the following rules regarding public comment each speaker will be limited to five minutes the Board of Education will listen to each presentation without comment after the presentation is made each board member May respond if he or she wishes to for a period of no longer than one minute each only citizens of Coweta County or employees of the County County School System may speak at the public comment portion of the meeting no grievances will be heard concerning any specific Personnel action or any specific County employee except through the
043grievance procedure set forth in the board's Personnel policy no one will be allowed to discuss any matter involving threatened or pending litigation with the Board of Education during the public comment portion in the need to preserve order no person attending will be allowed to boo help hiss clap cheer or otherwise show approval or disapproval for any speaker in any manner whatsoever no signs or placards advocating any action or position will be allowed no personal attacks on any person will be allowed is the chairman I am in am responsible for enforcing these rules no citizen or system employee will be retaliated against in any manner whatsoever for speaking on matters of public concern at the Board of Education meeting any person not recognized within the allotted time period will be rescheduled to speak at the next
044meeting and finally requests to speak during the public comment portion must be received at the Board of Education Office no later than three hours prior to that meeting being called to order and there's additional information if you do would like to sign up to speak on how you can do that with speaking with Miss Nixon and she will get you on the list so having said that we have four people who have signed up to speak and I will call you in the order in which your request was made first we have Miranda Winters thank you hello my name is Miranda Winters today I'm here to talk about books being banned in schools not only in this County but all over the world it is not right to stop children like myself from reading books
045that help them Express themselves and know what they are feeling and experiencing some kids don't have any other resources to note that what they're feeling is not wrong but perfectly fine how is it okay to have books that openly oppose homosexuality and even say that they should be put to death the Bible quotes if a man is with a man is with a woman both commit an Abomination they must be put to death so the Bible's stance is not just to bash homosexuals but to murder them why would anyone want to associate themselves with such a inhumane text is beyond my comprehension this is directly from the Bible stance on homosexuality from in cbi.gov the only book in the library that talks about lgbtq plus is the Bible and you say it's because of religion
046how are we allowed to have romance books about straight people but not any books whatsoever about an lgbtq plus person if you want the rate of suicide and depression in lgbtq plus teens to go down then education starts with books we need to be educating people on topics such as these there is a poem that I really like by someone named Haley Amelia it is in response to the Florida don't say gay Bill don't say gay because if the man at the gas station is having a good day he might tell you he can fix it don't say gay because if the man at the gas station is having a bad day he might just kill you don't say gay because on June 12 2016 a 29 year old man fired 202 bullets into a
047nightclub full of people who had their Audacity Of Love 53 people left the nightclub wounded 49 never left at all don't say gay because no amount of pride in the world will remove the shrapnel don't say gay because officers were bulletproof vests to Pride parades where we where rainbows like Shields and pray to a god that does not believe in us that should the dance be turned to gunfire our flags will be big enough to stop the bleeding don't say gay because right now in Six States senators are arguing over whether or not trans people deserve doctor's appointments don't say gay because our history is not yet history don't say gay because we have come too far for the fight to stop here don't say gay because the past is running into the future don't
048say gay because Stonewall was 53 years ago and politicians are still painting Targets on our backs with the blood of Marsha P Johnson don't say gay because children are impressionable don't say gay because queer kids might grow up unashamed of the hearts that they've inherited don't say gay because if they know that they don't have to keep quiet they might throw the first break and set the whole end on fire not having books in the library about these topics does not keep us from being bullied does not keep us from not being discriminated against it does however keep us from being able to feel seen and hurt being bullied and discriminated against at school is something that everyone in the lgbtq plus Community has experienced a library is a safe space for most kids and
049you are taking that away from us having lgbtq books in the library would make us all feel heard foreign thank you I'm sorry you can go ahead sure thank you next we have Debbie Carroll is Miss Carol here tonight all right next we have Mr Alan Brady foreign good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you for the opportunity opportunity to speak first something that I believe is encouraging news I heard that a few of the handful of books with explicit sexual content that have been formally objected to and mentioned in Prior board meetings have been removed from or restricted at some Coweta School libraries specifically I was told that one was recently removed from Evans Middle School although Smokey Road opted to keep it with restrictions a graphic version of another was restricted at Noonan high
050school but Northgate opted to keep the novel with no restrictions and a third which is part of a set of Highly explicit novels intended for adults was removed from Smoky Road in Union High School as an aside this book a court of silver flames which is one of the books in the Throne of rose's set which includes a court of mist and fury the third book referenced previously is presently in our home collection my wife purchased it and read it about a year ago after having read the other four books previously online I haven't read any of these but she says they're extremely well written and also extremely explicit both sexually and in violent content and certainly not appropriate for children I hope there's more schools review more of this handful of books they will
051come to the conclusion that they are an appropriate inappropriate for minors and that they will be removed or at least restricted to students age 18 and older which is all that we're asking and less encouraging news I recently watched the video of a show that aired in November on Georgia public television called lawmakers beyond the Dome this particular episode featured a discussion panel including one of our own board members part of the discussion was about this board member's experiences over the last 15 months at board meetings I was surprised to hear citizens who objected to or read from these handful of sexually explicit books present in the school libraries described as political activists who came in mean angry yelling and screaming accusing teachers and calling names and making false accusations board members felt embattled and
052police presence had to be increased due to violence these activists were angry that parents were the only ones now allowed to object to materials not taxpayers since it all came down to taxpayers and money wow I've been coming to these board meetings for about 15 months now myself and after attending my first one last summer in the smaller previous room in the midst of the promotion and consideration of the East Bloss renewal at that meeting a certain group of people were strongly objecting from presidents on the board of one particular member and what seemed to me to be pretty angry and personal terms police presence was pretty heavy but I think it was because Flyers saying this particular member has got to go and calling for a street demonstration had been distributed on social media
053fortunately the demonstration was canceled and the meeting was otherwise peaceful I recall that after I finished my statement regarding the East lost I spent the last couple of minutes of my time talking about Civility and the need for it I've witnessed that I can think of only three instances instances where I've heard voices raised in this room once during the Great mask debate I hope a subject I hope we never return to a gentleman loudly objected to another speaker's statement and then voluntarily removed himself from the room another time A large group of attendees said that most famous and important of Christian prayer of all time the Lord's Prayer out loud during the moment of silence admittedly a violation of the rules but the loud voices were of those who at the same time erupted
054in spontaneous counter something to try to drown out the prayer and finally I observed a member of the audience turn around and begin cursing at another audience member for no apparent reason and get escorted out of the room by law enforcement I've never seen any speaker scream yell or use profound profanity except from reading an excerpt from one of the books on the list I'll do anything more than Give In some cases pretty pointed criticism of board policies I know I haven't done any of that I've tried as I said I would when I first began speaking to you to provide constructive criticism only in a calm peaceful manner as the Lord said in the book of Isaiah when he was trying to convince the Israelites to change their ways come now let us reason
055together Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all [Music] thank you next we have Jasmine Meehan right there good evening um it has been many months ago now but no left turn in education Coweta chapter put a survey out to the community on Facebook in an attempt to gather parent and teacher input on what they feel is going on in our education system we received quite a bit of feedback some unpleasant and very disturbing but from what we have learned about our community over the last year or so we were not too surprised however there were some responses with real issues and concerns and I would like to share a few of them now one parent of a Brooks Elementary and a Blake bass Middle School student had shared that they had a concern
056regarding the Chromebooks and here's what they said everything is on computers the parents can't investigate or really see what is being taught I'm uncomfortable that I do not know what is being taught very little is done where parents can see what is being taught in the third to fifth grade the kids are given multiple choice spelling tests and they have to pick all they have to do is pick the right word they are not really learning to spell another parent of a smoky Road Middle School student had a complaint of teacher a teacher or teachers saying that black people can't be racist and that they overlooked horrible Behavior a student actually responded out of Evans Middle School stating there is a promotion of transgenderism homosexuality pronouns name changes Etc and that they stated an issue
057was with some of the children not being called by the names they want to be called and then a parent out of Lee Middle School stated something similar that there is a promotion of transgenderism stating that there's a teacher who claims to be non-binary and telling the kids that she may dress like a man one day and then a female another so there are parents and even teachers with issues of all types of these same concerns over and over you heard one parent testimony a few months ago regarding gender identity at one of our middle schools parents and teachers alike are scared to speak out they do not want their names drugged through the mud or their children ridiculed or for them to be treated differently while they are at school so you keep telling
058yourselves and whomever you encounter that these types of issues are not present in our County and um Mr Allen just said it uh Misty's you recently repeated all the same Garb with Donna Lowry on the GPB that same interview I got to see but I will get back to that in just a moment um there are parents that will continue to believe everything that you all say I see them all on social media weekly it's really sad I have said booking I've spoken out on the Chromebooks many times myself I've been called a bad mother for even sharing my personal experiences it's been said it's my fault my kid was exposed to the things that he was and I will agree and say yes it was my fault it was my fault I trusted in
059a system that has failed me time and time again and I do not fault our teachers I do not fault the principle I fault you all I fought you all who will make the decisions for our County you are the elected leaders chosen by the majority to take to make those decisions on what goes on within our County and I hope to see each of you removed at some point whether that be during an election cycle or somewhere in between we need leaders that can own what happens in this County we need leaders that are not afraid to admit fault or even apologize when needed we need leaders of action we need leaders that can see the bigger and whole picture not just what their blinders allow them to which takes me back to the
060gpp GPB conversation so misties it was really interesting that panel and the entire discussion um you did mention and Allen had stated something about it and I'll quote so not to change a single word but you said we have had to increase police presence at my school board by nine people because of the angry violence that has been exposed over this and what you were talking about was the obscene and explicit books being read and complained about at the meetings you claim and I've heard it many times and I will quote it again that these political activists are mean angry demeaning pointing fingers with false accusations are you kidding I encourage you to find the footage of me over the last 15 months screaming and yelling at you all you won't so what violence are
061you speaking of if community members and parents coming here and exposing all this violence then I guess we have a new definition of the word violence I highly appreciate the NPD being here and I have zero issue with our police they have actually had to escort my chapter president and myself out to our car a few times after these meetings because if your activist friends verbally assaulting us or in one instance body bumping and refusing passage out of this room you and your members of this board have made it about politics I have made a conscious effort not to thank you thank you Miss Meehan are there any board comments at this time all right is there a motion to approve to enter into executive session to discuss Personnel real estate and potential litigation so
062move second we have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor motion carries six to zero