001thank you good evening welcome to Asheville City School Board of Education regular board meeting for tonight Monday May 15 2023 it's an exciting night for this district and so I'm so excited to see a full room um for those of you who are online we're excited that you're joining us online for those of you who are not able to join us we hope you'll get a chance to watch this at some point it's a really exciting night so I do want to call this meeting to order we do have a quorum and we will start tonight with the Pledge of Allegiance from Miss bruder's second grade class from Isaac Dixon Elementary I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God
002indivisible with liberty and justice for all Coco [Music] that's excited bonus you're welcome [Music] I'm killing the first impression oh did a great job [Applause] I mean it's a celebratory night so [Laughter] um I would like to ask for a motion to approve tonight's agenda which includes the introduction of our new superintendent so moved it's been moved second second all in favor aye aye any opposed all right so we've improved and is approved and we will start um I know we're anxious to meet the next superintendent of vegetable City Schools but also we are a district committed to our Educators and our children and so we are starting tonight as we should with good news so April thank you so much thank you board chair interim superintendent Dr Cosby and board members for coming tonight
003and sharing with you our May section of good news Get Right started real quick um the other night we got to celebrate Lizzie Rogers she was named the 2024 teacher of the year and she is with us tonight foreign Lizzy and I came in the district at about the same time and she's taught my children so I'm personally forever grateful for all of her hard work she was selected by a committee who reviewed and did an interview process and she was also selected as a teacher of year for Asheville High School by her peers which is an amazing honor and we are so very proud of her and her many years of service if I remember correctly Miss Rogers it's been 20 2002 one 2001. so thank you so much also serves as she announces
004our ball games and she's crying to frantically get away to get to the state playoff game but if you don't mind take a quick [Laughter] she wears mini hats [Applause] at this time I'm going to ask Julia young to please come up and join me the National Honor Society seniors received their cords and signed the 100 year old scroll last week new members were also inducted to the National Junior Honor Society tonight I have Asheville High School senior Julia young and she's going to tell you more about the National Junior Honor Society or Honor Society hi everyone my name is Julia young and I'm the president of National Honor Society today we wanted to recognize our new members as well as our seniors graduating with honors after refilling the requirements of NHS they have excelled
005academically been strong models of character and leadership in our community and have committed themselves to service in the community at large National Honor Society is dedicated by its four key values scholarship service leadership and character our graduates have upheld these values and completed the required service hours which means they will graduate with honors we have over 2 000 service hours this year a total of 102 new members and 65 seniors graduating with honors so very good news thank you [Applause] we also want to take a moment and honor all of our hard work and middle school students who participated in the do right do the right thing essay contest the do the right thing is a writing program organized by the national campaign to stop violence it's for middle school students for to examine the
006root causes and impact of Youth fineness violence and offer a solution through their writing two student essays were chosen to put in the Library of Congress the students their teacher and a family member will get to go to Washington DC for this historic event last week we recognize and honor all of our finalists and the Asheville City Schools winner is Asheville Middle School student Ace Wilkins and Aces here with us tonight um hi um I have never spoken to this many people before um hi I'm Ace and I would like to say that I wouldn't have gotten here without my amazing teachers my moms and my entire family and my amazing boyfriend Artie um he has always inspired me no matter what and especially in my writing um which I am very passionate about and
007I would like to continue in the future writing stuff like this to help other people thank you while we're taking a picture I would like to personally thank Tanya per Shay and her leadership and work she leads a team to do this [Applause] it's very graciously supported by Sheriff Clinton in his office and we're grateful for that as well thank you Sheriff Miller [Applause] next we would like to take a moment and tell you about the Battle of the books this past couple weeks ago our elementary schools competed in the Battle of books and Claxton Elementary School won we have several members of their team here tonight you guys would come on up so we could take a quick picture of you with the board they come come on principal right and we have a
008student who would like to come up and say say a few words about the process hi my name is Cameron and I'm going to tell you about the Battle of the books process we get like seven to eight books we have to read and we have to make projects and really understand the book and then we get quizzed on it and we have to get enough answers right good job good job good job thank you thank you principal right next we have Hall Fletcher running stunning Racers that is quite the name principal Buchanan oh thank you okay got it the Hall Fletcher Hall Fletcher Elementary School has created a Girls on the Run Club they meet once a week to learn about Healthy Living they run at least one mile and have a lot of
009fun I think one of our board members actually runs with them sometimes we have some members here to tell us a little bit about why they love this club okay all right well we'll go applaud them anyway [Applause] we also have Ashland Middle School at least one Asheville Middle School track athlete if there's any more could you please come up with me just for a second woohoo yay thank you for being here this is a tough time of year to get students here we are so proud of our Middle School track and field team who for all of their accomplishments this season and they were our conference champions [Applause] their coaches are here wow thank you it's good to see you all take a quick picture with the board okay thank you thank you take
010a quick picture of that team that is a big Middle School soccer team I'm very impressed with all that our tracks sorry track soccer I'm honest I'm hoping I'm sending Good Vibes the soccer team we also want us to honor Kelly McCarthy I know she is here tonight you can come join us she has been accepted as the Asheville City Schools principal's fellows at Western North Carolina University yay [Applause] thank you we would also like to recognize Craig shrimer even though they're not here we're going to applaud them anyway they were recognized thank you Craig will begin their principal fellow internship this fall at IRB Jones Elementary School uh Blair Johnston come on up woohoo [Applause] Blair Johnson Middle School assistant principal Blair Johnson has just graduated from the North Carolina principals and assistant principals
011Association of Future Ready leadership program Blair [Applause] Blair would you like to come up and say a few words about the program please I know that you're not Blair shot started his assistant principal with me actually so be careful what stories you tell okay um uh to the principal fellow I'm a former principal fellow so a great journey awaits you um and I guess what I will say is that Asheville City schools has allowed me to be a principal fellow supporting me in that Journey principal Landreth encouraged me to follow through with this Future Ready leadership so the encouragement and support of Asheville City Schools is why I'm a part of this community so if anything thanks to everybody for that [Applause] to a pep rally the first ever outdoor pep rally at Asheville Middle
012School a few last week actually would like to take a moment to honor Dr Mark Dickerson who I don't see in the room right now congratulations to our assistant superintendent director Mark Dickerson he recently completed the North Carolina schools superintendent Association of aspiring superintendent program so give him a minute [Applause] come on up I know you're both here yay yay we had to make a little adjustment so Nancy could be here I'm so excited this is perhaps my most favorite part of the school year Rising 9th graders in the class of 2023's avid students were celebrated for their accomplishment at their end of year celebration banquets the banquet included these fabulous speakers I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and they were also had a speech prepared by Asheville high school or Cecil graduate Erica Howard
013spoke last week this year's graduating Avid class is our largest cohort ever for those of you who are new to Avid Avid stands for advancement via individual determination and perhaps one of our most Stellar programs I'm so excited about these kids we'll let them go ahead and say a few words all right hello everyone my name is Janaya and I've been in the AVID program since I was in sixth grade so Avid to me helped me motivate getting my work done because at first it was really hard and challenging to get through High School Avid also helped me get free um college applications because they paid for everything and I got awarded the opportunity to get scholarship opportunity before anybody else knew about them and of course I have Mr Hughes to thank for that
014[Applause] because if Mr Hughes every senior got the opportunity to get help of what they needed regardless if they had the help at home or had any family members and Mr Hughes stepped in to help them yes after high school I will be attending North Carolina Central University yes Eagle prize [Laughter] I will be getting my degree in criminal justice with the minor in social work thank you uh my name is Nancy and I'm also graduating this year and AVID for me has given me a lot of opportunities to be able to apply to college and not only that but also gain a community as you see on our screen we're all very close friends and we have been for probably since middle school and Avid is just something that I don't think I would
015have gone through high school without because it helped me a lot especially as a first generation student [Applause] yes so the college application process was not easy especially with a Hispanic mother I'm sorry okay [Music] okay so so Avid is super special to me and um with the help of Mr Hughes and a lot of teachers and my family I after I graduate I'm going to go to Chapel Hill University full ride [Applause] full ride and so I just want to thank Avid so much um ever since sixth grade I knew this program was gonna help me through a lot so thank you to everyone thank you thank you [Applause] yes yes yes yes please thank you [Applause] and that completes good news for me thank you so much thank you April um I want
016to say that the next agenda item just continues our good news and if you wouldn't mind me um a moment of um personal privilege we met as a board as a full seven-person board in January of this year um now here we are our middle of May with the help of summit search Solutions we had 49 can applications for this superintendent position with there with Summit search Solutions help we whittled that down to the 16 highest qualified applicants working together as a board we narrowed those 16 down to our nine semi-finalists with Summit support Summit search solution support and conversations among the board that were fruitful and deep and engaging we narrowed that down to four finalists and now here we are tonight so excited to be at the threshold of being able to make
017a motion for our preferred candidate our number one choice for this position so thank you to the board thank you to Summit search Solutions I'd also be remiss if I didn't remind everyone that over the course of months of community input sessions we had over a thousand responses to the questions that we asked and we heard we heard what the community needed and was and was asking for and so we trust that the person you're about to meet that we have we have heard those voices so with that I would um like to move to this next section of the election of our next superintendent it was great gratitude for every single student parent educator and staff person who contributed to this process and with utter excitement I move that we elect Dr Rick Cruz
018as our next superintendent second [Laughter] I was here for a while it has been moved and seconded all in favor aye any opposed we have elected Dr Rick Cruz as our next superintendent [Applause] so as Dr Cruz comes up to the podium um I just want to give you a little bit of background Dr Cruz comes to us from Houston Independent School District as their Deputy superintendent he has um uh Dr Cruz is an Alum of Yale University and also of Teach for America you might be already saying some of these so I'll try not to jump on your um you know take take away what you're saying but he's been in Houston for 15 years in that time Dr Cruz a spearheaded equity efforts across the district his commitment to the children and educators
019of his district was apparent to us from the first moment that we met him and the the tireless efforts he has in bringing Community together in support of the schools is really one of the defining things that helped us know that he was the right person for the job so Dr Cruz thank you for being here we're really excited to start this next chapter with you thank you are the two young ladies that were here that spoke about Avid still in the room or maybe they stepped away I just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge and thank them can you all hear me I'm Sorry by the way um is this a little better yeah there you go thank you sorry about that um I was saying those two young ladies who spoke a
020little while ago about their experience in the AVID program and spoke about their teacher Mr Hughes um I don't know about you all but I felt a sudden pain of emotion as they described the community that came together here in Asheville to support them they talked about their teachers about their family their parents that inspired them and that's what it's all about and that's why I'm thrilled to be here extremely grateful to the board of education for the opportunity to be here I can't tell you how excited I am I'll tell you a little bit about myself in a minute because I'm sure you all are probably wondering but for me the work is really all about ensuring that we work together as a community that we are in Partners in the work and that
021we're making sure that every single student in Asheville gets the support the resources and the guidance they need to be successful that for me is equity that for me is what this work is about that's what brought me here so now let me tell you a little bit about what did bring me here as was shared I have been in Houston for the past 15 years I am an educator I started as a teacher I was a fifth grade bilingual teacher in Houston and really inspired to do that work because of two people very special important to me that are in this room right now so I'd like to take a moment actually to acknowledge my mother and my father who are up here Ruth and Richard if you can just kind of stand in
022a way and the reason I I mentioned them is because my parents came to this country they brought me as a small a small child as an immigrant to this country and really education public education shaped my trajectory and gave me opportunities that I never even knew existed the incredible teachers that I work with the counselors that I had the principals instilled in me a sense of possibility coupled with an education that prepared me for so many different types of opportunities so much so that after it was mentioned I got the chance to go to Yale on a scholarship and after I graduated I wanted to do the same thing for others I wanted to give back I wanted to inspire others as I had been inspired and I fundamentally believe that education public education
023in particular is the most powerful resource and asset that we have in this country and for me what better way to do that than to serve in education and I remember I called my dad and my mom and I said Mom Dad I'm graduating from college I'm going to be a teacher and my mom was like okay uh right she was she's like are you sure like you know you got that fancy education and and I said no this is this is what I want this is this is what drove me here this is these are the values you all gave me and imparted me and I want to be able to do the same thing so I started as a teacher in the district and really near and dear to me was this notion
024that we have to prepare all students for Success so I worked in one of our highest poverty schools in the Houston area and my life changed as as cliche as it may sound the students changing me probably more than I changed them I knew I'd found my calling I knew that for me and this is why I go back to those two ladies who were earlier today it was about making sure that we're positioning every one of our students for success in life that we're giving them Pathways so they can choose what they want to be who they want to be and nothing regardless of their background their immigration status their race their ethnicity social economic status nothing can get in the way of their ability to achieve that and as a teacher I got
025to do that every day and it was the most amazing thing the most amazing opportunity that I had and so much so that I decided I want to go above and beyond and as a teacher similar to Mr Hughes I worked on helping kids get into college first generation low-income minority kids and worked with a group of other fellow teachers we came together and we started helping students go to college and get scholarships to go to college because as young ladies were mentioned mentioning sometimes that's a complicated process sometimes they don't have people to guide them sometimes they're not fortunate to be in programs like Avid that really give those incredible resources and support so that work got me to do to start a nonprofit organization in Houston called emerge that does that and we
026took it from one school and really expanded it quite a bit it's now a pretty large organization working with about 3 500 students across multiple school districts and really just an incredible opportunity for me to grow and have the impact that I wanted to have and around 10 years ago I was asked by the then superintendent to join his leadership team to help kind of oversee the district's broader efforts at preparing kids for College and Career so how are we working starting in pre-k even before Pre-K as we think about family and Community engagement to position our kids so that by the time they walk on that stage they have options they have a degree that matters they can go out and pursue their passions and live the life that they want to live and
027I've had the the incredible um opportunity to do that over the past 10 years in Houston became my home it's my community and I loved it there my adopted Community but when I heard about the opportunity to come to Asheville when I was first approached and someone said hey Rick you really need to look into this place you need to look into this community because it seems to align with all of your values with your experiences with your skill sets and this would be a great place for you to call home and for you to work with the community to do great things for kids and I started talking to people I started looking into it and very quickly it became apparent that a lot of the values and the things that are happening here
028in Asheville resonate with who I am and what I want to see in this world and that became very apparent to me I'll tell you when when I came to Asheville I had the opportunity to interview with this board I fell in love because their language what they articulated in terms of the vision that they have for the students of Asheville the desire to build on the Excellence that's here the desire to partner with all of the different stakers was a great thing to do great things and their focus on equity and again making sure that we're doing right for every one of our kids resonated with me [Applause] and I remember leaving the interview and I called my mom and she's like how'd it go and I said mom I've never wanted something as
029bad as this um and she said are you sure son and I said yes I I just felt this energy and this excitement which is what I feel today coming here seeing all of the students seeing the staff the good news the the positive energy in this room is inspiring and something that I look forward to building off of to do even greater things for kids here my commitment to you all is that I will work with you all I will listen to the community I will stand side by side with each and every one of you in this room in the community in our schools our teachers our principals and provide all of the resources and support so that together we can move this district and make it even better than it already is
030so that we can ensure that every one of the students who on the ground goes on the graduation stage has a story to tell that inspires just like those two young ladies that inspired all of us a little while ago so again I just want to tell you how incredibly humbled I am by this opportunity I am looking forward to making Astro my home for the long term this is a community I've already grown to love as was mentioned I was in Houston for 15 years and that's because I value Community I know that this work takes time it's about relationships about building trust it's about figuring out how we work collectively to make things better for kids and I am really looking forward to being here for a very long time with each and
031every one of you as we work together towards excellence and Equity so thank you all again I'm really looking forward to getting to know you all over the next few weeks [Applause] thank you Dr Cruz and and welcome one more time um you all um have heard me say this from this place from also down on the floor during work sessions if you were a part of our community conversations you've heard me say it as well um I believe firmly that Dr Cruz as our superintendent is as successful as we as a district allow this District to be and so I can speak I will speak on behalf of the board now we will support you Dr Cruz as you come into this role and we will rally this community around supporting you because supporting
032you means we're supporting our students and we're supporting our Educators so I want to lift that up right now that that this is a collective effort for supporting our school so thank you Dr Cruz for being a part of that Collective effort and now you get to sit and watch the rest of a board meeting so [Laughter] so with that we will move on to public comment what's that oh yeah I do yes thank you Amy um and just a reminder for folks who are in the room um after I see commissioner is leaving um after this board meeting we are having a light reception in central office um right after this so I hope those who are walking away will be able to stay are they listening George yes can I just say something
033really quick I know these people are leaving um and Dr Cruz you don't know them these folks that are leaving but it was a real Testament to the importance of this school system to our community that we had County Commissioners the sheriff was right behind you the the city manager was here and these folks are really invested in our school as well and they were here to celebrate you being here so you won't get to meet them tonight but I just wanted to say it's been pretty exciting to look at the crowd tonight and see these folks who are so excited that you're here thanks George thank you so next on the agenda item is public comment Board of Education greatly appreciates your interest in the Asheville City schools and we welcome your comments to
034the board please be mindful of the following guidelines per policy 2310 unless otherwise approved by the board the total time for public comment shall not exceed 30 minutes for in-person and 50 minutes for virtual speakers members of the public may speak for three minutes and the time remaining is indicated by lights directly in front of you at the podium multiple speakers from a group who are presenting on the same topic may choose to elect one speaker for the group if a single speaker is used by any group they shall be allocated five minutes instead of three to address the board if your group chooses this option please identify everyone in the group when you sign up to speak and when you're up at the podium if an unusually large number of people wish to speak
035the board may decide to either reduce the time allotted to each speaker or require the designation of a group of spokes um to require the designation of a group spokesperson substitute speakers will not be permitted and speakers may not donate any portion of their time to another speaker please be respectful A disruption by any person or persons of a public meeting will not be tolerated and can result in removal from the meeting incorrect or misleading information presented by a speaker may be responded to at the discretion of the chairperson public comment allows you to provide the Board of Education with your thoughts and or relevant information concerning the Asheville City Schools therefore board members will not normally respond to individuals who address the board except to request clarification in order to make a public comment
036individuals must be present and make their comment in person or virtually online confidential student and Personnel matters may not be discussed during public comment and the board does not accept Personnel complaints through public comment if you have a concern about an employee or a student matter please contact or see the superintendent after the meeting and I will clarify what I mean by that is our interim super Dr Crossman um the board permits public comment on issues relevant to and within the jurisdiction of the school district although an individual May identify themselves as a candidate for any public office no person may use the public comment portion of a board meeting to actively campaign for or endorse a specific candidate running for public office persons are not limited from speaking on issues relevant to the official
037business of the school system for purposes of the purposes of this policy active campaigning includes but is not limited to asking for support for a candidate running for public office and or stating when a candidate will do if elected to public office uh so with that in mind we will start with our first in-person speaker um Sybil Jefferson the board members Asheville City Schools foundation and central office staff colleagues and community members my name is Sybil Jefferson and I currently work at Asheville High School Mr Jefferson I'm sorry to interrupt you do you mind moving the city [Laughter] [Music] thank you I currently work for Asheville high school as the assistant principal for ninth grade um I'm here to say thank you thank you once again for educating Me by giving me a chance to
038further my education your investment in my education once again through the Asheville City School of Foundations means more to me than you'll know I am a legacy as are many people in this room but um I started Asheville City schools at Berry Temple daycare it was a low-income daycare right over here off of town Mountain Road um I later was a latchkey kid from Claxton Elementary School yep and I later went to Hill Street Middle School where Martha Geithner sang her little diddy throughout the day as we went down the hallway I was later at Asheville junior high as it's last year as the junior high and then I was the first freshman class at Asheville High School I started working for Asheville City schools in 1998. and I started as an education or an
039instructional assistant for the special ed department where I found my love for special education and all the things special ed later I ended up as the teacher at Asheville middle school with April Dockery and I am now at Asheville high school as I said as the assistant principal but during the time that I've worked at Asheville high school or Asheville City Schools I have gotten four degrees my last degree was I graduated Friday with a master's in school administration [Applause] thank you I say all this I say all this and I tell you all this to say this it is so important that we have things like Asheville City Schools foundations to grow our own we have to grow our own we are people in this community who have investment in it we've gone to
040school here we've grown up here some of the people in this community have raised us and we are here to stay and we want to be a part of this community so having scholarships like what the Asheville City Schools Foundation had helped push me in that direction and I just want to say again thank you [Applause] next we have Pastor Ronald Gates [Music] well good evening I'm superintendent Ronald Gates I'm the senior pastor of Greater Works Church of God in Christ here in the city of Asheville North Carolina I am also a parent and a taxpayer there is some explicit books and videos uh specifically I'm going to be talking about that addresses our elementary schools uh these books are used during story times without the parents uh knowledge to undermine the children that have
041Christian beliefs and faith in God of the Bible these uh Educators or teachers with their Endeavor to with with Endeavor to insight and deceive our children or more or less with say predator or evil intent for the next few moments I want to share or address some books that are not in line with the North Carolina General statues with sexual explicit graphic and pornographic information this is specifically in elementary schools evil intention according to Cambridge Dictionary means morally bad cruel or something you want or plan desire explicit or inflict injury or harm to another these evil intentions is to undermine their belief and faith that God made them a boy and a girl these evil intentions morally bad undermines and disrespects the parents in the video it begins to share that the parents would not
042understand that they can be either a boy or girl when they're a boy is x y and a girl is xx and they begin to disrespect or undermine the parent in the midst of the child evil intentions to groom or indoctrinate our children that's with a plan to say that they can be a boy or girl or can be changed with the Endeavor with gender affirming to change them without the parents consent or even issuing puberty blockers or moving them towards some type of surgery this is evil intent I have given you a handout with just a few of the end uh elementary schools but there's so much more there'll be others talking about the middle schools it's a sad day you know Matthew 8 and 6 says for whoever shall offend one of these
043little ones which believe in me it will be better for them a milestone to be hanged around their neck that they will be drowned in your deceived thank you your time thank you for this opportunity to share I do have amen uh cards for those who want to know what's actually in the school system thank you Reverend Gates next up we have Pastor John and I'm going to butcher the last name forgive me um I'm on manchukyu is that correct sir if you if you wouldn't mind in front of the mic and you have three minutes I know God and I'm glad to say that I do I'm here today to talk about uh this book here my name is John almond choco as I've stated earlier it's called It's Perfectly Normal for students 10
044and up this book details all kinds of sexual images pictures of elderly people nude pictures of an individual who's in the wheelchair with his penis out all of these sexual pornographic images are made available and placed at the fingertips of children and I'm sure Dr Cruz I don't know if you knew about this before you signed on but hopefully this is something that you can address and deal with because this is immoral and asinine to allow children to be able to see this also this book even shows images of two women having sex a man and a woman having sex and two men having sex that's not perfectly normal who decides what's normal is it you is it you is it you is it you or do parents decide what should be placed at the
045fingertips and allowed to be taught to their children in the school system I'll read some of this for you it says after a bit a person's vagina becomes moist and slippery and the clitoris becomes hard after a bit a person's penis penis becomes erect stiff and larger Pastor sometimes a bit of clear fluid that may contain sperm comes out of the tip of the penis and makes it wet can we sir I'm sorry was it something I said if you don't want to hear it in a school board meeting why should children be able to check it out of the school system see we have perverts that are perverting our kids and you all sit back smug in your chairs and celebrate diversity equity and inclusion but you don't want me to read it so
046you can hear it why does it bother you yes or no you can't answer that question you wanna know why because politically speaking you can't say that it's wrong you probably are a Christian man but many Christians today have become more Democrat than Christian some Republicans have become more Republican than Christian I'm not trying to win an election I don't get my talking points from the RNC or the DNC I get my talking points from the b-i-b-l-e from the Bible and you don't want me to read the filth because it exposes the truth how dare you tell me to stop reading it if you don't want to hear it why should the children have to see it Pastor your time is the time is up thank you that makes two of us [Applause] next up
047we have Michelle Morrow in article 9 of the Constitution the North Carolina Constitution states that religion morality and knowledge are necessary for good government and happiness of mankind schools libraries and the means of Education shall forever be encouraged in the Preamble of that same Constitution we acknowledge that God is Almighty and also the Sovereign ruler of our nation and we need to give thanks to him for the blessings that we have received being citizens in this country I mentioned this because God has a high bar of expectation for anyone that takes on the role of an overseer of which each of you are God also demands that adults protect children he demands that we train them in righteousness the enemy of us all the devil seeks around who he can steal kill and destroy you
048are not only accountable if you're an elected official in North Carolina you're not only accountable the people here in Asheville and to the constitution of North Carolina you're also accountable to almighty God and as they have stated before God has severe penalties for people who will harm children or allow others to harm children um as a nurse of 30 years trained at UNC Chapel Hill there have been Decades of research that have been done about the impact of sexual stimulus in the minds of a developing child let me just give you a list of what has been proven decades around the world anxiety confusion it rewires their their growing brains to mimic the behaviors causes addiction to sexual stimuli depression identity disorder anger emotional distress a loss of academic achievement questioning gender and sexual orientation
049and relationship issues for a lifetime our young people are most vulnerable because to these effects because their frontal lobe is not yet developed until the age of 25. what is the frontal lobe responsible for for language judgment problem solving impulse control and social and sexual behavior when we allow adult themes to be inundating the developing Minds we are causing lasting damage we are robbing them of their innocence stealing their potential destroying their relationships and we are abusing our roles as protectors and Educators the school system should be partnering with families Faith organization stations communities businesses and law enforcement to provide the safe respectful and caring environment that will allow our children to achieve exactly what God has created them to be I implore you to please use your position to protect our children's innocence to
050Foster healthy relationships encourage personal responsibility and focus our limited instructional time on academics character development and career preparedness our children shouldn't know what happens in The Adult World let them have their childhood and I say anything less is morally ethically academically wrong and you will be held accountable if anyone agrees with me stand up these are the people that you serve and more than that our children need next up is Colleen Miller uh thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight I've been a advocate for public education for years since the 70s when I graduate from proquaman's high my daughter is a product of pro of public education however it's become apparent the schools are ground zero for the sexual and gender identity Revolution I discovered an alarming number of books in your schools in
051Asheville they focus on subjects that are not appropriate for minors just as Michelle said let me read from one of these books and young children really should not be hearing this I'm your daughter effing me illegal but I keep my mouth shut so effing don't turn into a beating I start to feel goo coming now rocking under Carl now my jumping juicy it feel good I feel shamed he squeezed my nipple a bit down on it I come some more so you like it he pulls his D out the white Calm stuff pour out my whole ho wet up the sheets and there's a lot more in this book I can't it will make you sick to read it if I were to provide this book to a child in my neighborhood I could be
052arrested for violating obscenity laws this book has even been made into an R rated movie but it's on shelves in Asheville schools yes it's okay if you want to read these books in your home or you want to provide them for your children please that's fine that's your right but don't spend good money on books that do nothing to help the development children develop critical thinking skills and improve their education stop exposing children to inappropriate materials schools are supposed to educate students in a safe environment what happened to the goal of excellence in education teaching students the skills they need and values they need to succeed in life our students deserve better let's improve the literacy rates instead of dumbing down children with books that are poorly written filled with expletives violence and illicit drug
053use sexual scenarios and such I've heard the excuse these books are necessary so every student can find a book that relates to his or her life that's not the intent of public education let's spend money on books that matter such as textbooks instead of books that do nothing to improve critical thinking academic performance of readers another argument I've heard is the first amendment I'm not advocating for Banning books that's nonsense school should provide books have serious literary artistic and scientific value unfortunately many of these books do not meet those expectations and then there's an ever increasing number of gender ideology ideology books these promote gender confusion even in the earliest grades as Pastor Gates mentioned this is driven by a political agenda and it's evil it's time for education and policy changes to stop exposing
054children to inappropriate texts and images we need a rating system like the movie industry thank you if you agree with me please stand thank you next up is Janet Peterson Ms Peterson just a reminder that you do have three minutes congratulations on your new position superintendent you you can see you have your work cut out for you uh America has a long history of protecting children through regulation in 1970 we had the passage of the poison prevention packaging act in 1986 the child car safety seat regulations were enacted in 2019 access to tobacco products were passed in 1968 the Motion Picture Association of America chose to self-regulate and established a rating system for use by parents to Shield their children from inappropriate content it appears that we need to do the same children have access
055to inappropriate material in our public schools of all places we're not protecting the innocence of children when we choose inappropriate books for literature study or place on the library shelves waiting for a trusting child to pick up books that introduce children to the confusion of many genders books illustrating self-harm cutting piercing suicide rape molestation drugs straight sex kinky sex instruction on anal sex and depressing stories where characters are left feeling hopeless we have a problem and we've talked about that Michelle talked about depression self-harm and suicide are at all-time high among our youth the Asheville City School's own vision statement says to empower and engage every child to learn discover and Thrive what are your students learning in the classroom and discovering on the shelves of the school libraries the pavementeducationproject.com is currently showing some
056of the books available to students in media centers in Asheville City Schools Pep's purpose is not to censor what authors write just to expose the content that is found within libraries where the primary clientele is minors not adults barely two years ago Dr Seuss books were banned at some schools by the same activists that are fighting to keep sexually inappropriate books and libraries now the board along with equal representation from across the community should create a transparent rating scale for purchasing and evaluating books you can no longer trust that the award-winning books from the Ala on or the list are necessarily good reading choices the Board needs to take action by rehousing or removing books that are sexually or developmentally inappropriate for minors and parents and citizens you need to challenge these books you need
057to see the principles thank you you're thinking your time is up thank you your time is up thank you next up we have John Brigham good luck sir I love being an American it's like we're all different and it we seem to make it work out somehow I think I think actually we do a pretty good job of mixing our uh I think we do a pretty good job I've got three subjects first subject let's look at Todd now Todd is a preppy white boy he is in a dysfunctional School District this is almost like saying he goes to school in the United States poor Todd what's going to happen to him you know what he's going to end up in law school anyway he's going to get another chance and then another chance and
058then yet another chance okay let's look at Mark Cuevas not a preppy white boy not at all this young man is in the same dysfunctional School District what's going to happen to him he's in danger of being thrown away he may get another chance but maybe not the only path to help Mark Cuevas is to put him in a strong healthy school system this is a school with teachers who can do this complex job this is the school with kids who want to learn we need kids surrounded by an atmosphere of learning if a school district wants to help kids of color and kids in poverty there's no way to do it without strengthening the whole District without strengthening the whole there are programs directed to kids of color let's make a new program we'll
059call that program number 17 to help kids of color and kids of poverty these programs will not work and actually become part of the problem let's quickly look at new subject let's quickly look at Congress they are surrounded by lobbyists the lobbyists are concerned about taxpayers rights they're concerned about efficiency in government they well no actually no they're there to manipulate Congress to their own selfish agendas the Asheville City Schools School Board the budget is 87 million dollars you are big power Brokers you have forces surround you they are much like lobbyists do not trust any of them even for a minute I've never seen the teachers union at the decision-making table I want to add that I Like the Way Daniel Winthrop does his job the parents groups I wouldn't just trust them exactly
060but they don't have a little much to offer school districts always have these non-profits swirling around them the Charities have angles and agendas and there's no reason to assume that they are genuinely interested in education if they offer you resources take them if they put conditions on these gifts be wary but John you're implying that not everybody is interested in public education that's exactly what I'm implying and if you can figure that out you let me know okay third subject we live in a world of hierarchies we are all responsible to others and have persons responsible to us how does the Asheville City Schools School Board fit into this the Asheville School Board is at the top of the pile period there's nobody above you you are now responsible for a school system that you
061did not create the Asheville City Schools needs change the teachers will be patient but they need to see changing if they do not see change it's your fault period and and I wanted to offer my sincere thanks thank you next up is pepia Sabo good evening um wow that was a little bit uh of an unexpected Trend in our public comment normally we have people who are advocating for resources or thanking the board or thanking the superintendent um bringing issues to the attention of our school board and our superintendent I just want to say Dr Cruz thank you for coming um my name is pepia Sabo I'm was one of the candidates along with a bunch of these folks for school board and I'm just grateful that the school board has put in the hard
062work um thank you all for against my advice going out and getting a fabulous superintendent uh we have this track record of having absolutely amazing interim superintendents including Dr Cosby and then sometimes not getting a superintendent who will be with us for years so I'm going to do everything that I possibly can to support your success in the school district and the success of the school district as a whole and thank you very much for being here thank you Pepe [Applause] next up we have Bailey Griffith good evening um thank you I am Bailey Griffith and I am a media coordinator at Claxton Elementary um and I am at this meeting tonight to celebrate my battle of the books team um and I wanted to just take a second and talk about some things that
063happen in our school libraries um and battle of the books is one of those really awesome things where students get the opportunity to read lots of different types of fiction books and study them learn to discuss those books with their friends create a project and then have a competition about the things that happen in those books and that's just one piece of my job that is absolutely delightful every day students come in we talk about what types of books they love to read what they're interested in we try to find the next best read based on their reading level what their interests are what we have in our collection and I spend a lot of my time talking with my colleagues other school librarians about what great books we can add to our collection to
064get students more interested in Reading because they can read high above their reading level when they have an interest in those books and I am incredibly proud to do what I do and um I'm a professional I have skills in collection development in cataloging in teaching and I use those every day and so I just wanted to share a piece of what all school librarians in this district and in this country are doing to encourage reading in students thank you [Applause] that wraps up in Person Public comment I believe we have some virtual public comment okay we we had six sign up we had one show up but they may have already left yeah they have left I want to take the other one just to make sure foreign April is the one that says
065virtual public comment okay okay thank you next on our agenda we have consent items which include um meeting minutes from March April um we also have student releases to Buncombe County our Personnel report number nine included in consent items are the recommendation the resolution of our own State prc071 the supplemental teacher pay budget amendments recommended 2023 school calendar change and then policy second and final read on those items any questions about the consent items does the personal report go on consent or do we did we change that we moved it to consent just because uh recognizing uh this meeting is particularly just to kind of try to squeeze off if we need to move it off we can make it a move that we adopt the consent agenda second it's been moved and seconded any
066questions about it all in favor aye any opposed consent items have passed uh and finally just some announcement of future meetings for this um for our community um Memorial Day holiday is Monday May 29th no school for students and staff [Laughter] we have our next work enclosed session the board does Monday June 5th at 5 pm here in the boardroom a big shout out on June 10th at 7 pm at the Asheville High salsa campus we have graduation for Asheville high and silsa seniors I will be there and very excited for my daughter our next regular board meeting is Monday June 15th here in the boardroom at 5 pm and then we do have a special called work and closed session board meetings scheduled for Thursday June 29th that time is to be decided um
067that will be as a response to whatever the Buncombe County Commissioners um you know if we have to make some budget changes so it is scheduled and we'll keep you posted if we need to actually have that meeting um and with that anything else that yes I don't believe that June June 15th is not a Monday it's a Thursday Monday would be June 12th thank you appreciate catching that so yes uh the regular board meeting would be Monday June 12th at 5 pm anything else on the board once again Dr Cruz we're excited for you to join us um Dr Cruz's official first day will be July 1st um so there'll be time to um to get him involved and Dr Cosby will be part of that transition for those who've um invited we'd love
068for you to join us at the close of this meeting for a light reception on the other side of the central office building and with that I'll ask for a motion to adjourn second