March 2024 State Board of Education Meeting

001the board meeting will begin in five minutes due due to the weather we are going to delay our start for just about two or three minutes while some special guests arrive just so you know that we are just delaying just a bit okay we are going to begin our meeting if everyone could take their seats we would appreciate that the March 8th 2024 state board meeting will now come to order good morning and welcome to the March 8th 2024 State Board of Ed Education meeting board members please engage your microphones before speaking and turn them off when you are finished speaking please note that the board members may be using their cell phones and laptop computers to access the agenda and information related to the meeting live streaming is available through the State Board of

002Education website would the recording secretary please call the role paty coj here Lisa fricky here Patty Gobles here Jacqueline Morrison here Kirk Penner here Sher Jones here Elizabeth TM Here Deborah ner here commissioner Maher here all present there are eight members present quum is established please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible with liy and justice for all information regarding the open meetings Act is posted as you enter the room from the main entrance doors the open meetings Act is also posted on the State Board of education's website agenda item 2.1 nde staff member Derek enson Major General Craig strong strong State command Chief Jeff Horn State command sergeant major Dennis kcko and Mrs Carol lokan please

003join us at the front of the room for a special presentation good morning I'm uh Derek enson I'm the office of account uh sorry office of coordinated school and District support assistant administrator and the director of accountability um we are excited to be here today to celebrate April as month of the military child and April 15th as the purple up military kids day um I've got some special guests here I'll allow them to introduce themselves and um then you can ask any question questions that you have with them good morning I'm uh Major General Craig strong the 34th agent general for the state of Nebraska it's an honor and privilege to be here this morning to commemorate a very special month uh I will tell you that uh when I took uh responsibility for the

004Nebraska National Guard in July I told the audience that the Nebraska National Guard is based upon two principles and that strength and honor and the strength that we have as C and soldiers and soldiers and Airmen and Marines and sailors and now space Guardians uh is really based upon the strength that we have through our training and our dedication to our country but really it's the strength that uh propels us as our families and the families and our children that many of us have uh personally on a personal note um I've spent uh a few years deployed and um my children were in elementary school and I know that they deployed with me and uh my heart was with while while my uh I guess my my head was in the game but my heart

005was back here with my children so um really uh they were part of uh everything uh throughout my life and my career and without that strength that that guides us uh it would make it impossible for us to fulfill our mission so thank you for taking this time to uh uh commemorate this event I want to thank you all for your service as well uh on this very special occasion thank you very much I'm Jeff Horn the the state command Chief um I do I deal with all the enlisted stuff on the for the general and just with family we can't do this without the families and our kids and uh we I as well have four kids that went to lincol public schools and I've missed a ton of their stuff on my deployments

006so uh it is hard for our kids um but they get through it they're resilient and but we cannot do that without our kids and our family so but thank you for recognizing them at this time hi I didn't know I was going to speak so I apologize I am uh Miss Carol loen and I uh as a spouse my husband's still serving and so this is so important and I've been coming to these for at least three years um and this is great you guys recognize the kid you help the kids make Ure that they're okay while their family is deployed and that's really hard on the kids and we appreciate each and every one of you you guys to make sure that our kidss are taken care of because it is a struggle

007um with my kid alone um I have two and it was missing stuff and missing Sports and missing lots of things that we can't do this without you guys making sure that our kids are really taking care of inside the schools and making sure that they're okay and reaching out when they're not so thank you all this is a great thing that you guys do and we appreciate it every single year that you do this so thank you all for your service board members do you have any questions or comments well I'm a teacher and I want you to know that teachers in the schools in Nebraska that I've traveled around uh they really care about kids and they um do a lot of extra work and things like that um that are not in

008a job description and what you're talking about today is probably a lot of it not in a job description and so I want to assure you that that's happening and that you touched my heart by what you said this morning so if I were back in the classroom I'd do it even better job you thank you yes chair chairperson just make it's just a comment that I do thank you for your service and your sacrifices and as a school counselor I did have students whose parents were deployed long-term overseas so I can understand that we need to support them and their families through that so we tried to do that and we continue to do that I believe and my son was in the Army National Guard so I can appreciate the work that you

009do thank you thank you um I was just going to share a little bit on a personal note my sister's husband was a major in the Army um career army guy and they have three sons and my sister and of course he had tons of deployments and my sister always commented that for part of her life she was a single mom and I thought that's such an apt description because the family Dynamic changes so much with deployments and and the spouse is the one who does all the parenting at that point so I really appreciate spouses um for all of the things that they do as military families thank you all for being here I appreciate it come from a military family not only my dad 30 years in the Air Force but other family

010members and we moved at least 10 different times and I tell you that it's the teachers in my life that took the time with me because we tend to forget how moving from school to school can be traumatizing for a child where they have one type of math going on and you move clear cross country and they're in a different book different situation so um nde is now um we had this brief discussion yesterday that they should be considered um mobile Stu students so that nde can remind people that mobility issues um that are apparent need to be addressed and take extra care to include them when you're talking about Mobility so thank you for your service thank you for your time here today and I really appreciate this recognition because I kind of feel

011like it's in a way honoring in my mind my family as well and my mom moved about every two and a half years with seven members of a family and if you don't think that was she was superwoman but quiet about it yeah thank You' I've commanded a number of troops overseas but when I get home uh I I'm my wife is in charge [Laughter] so all right Kirk would you please read the resolution I will resolution to Proclaim April 2024 as month of the military child and April oh excuse me April 20 yeah have some different years here does it matter thank you uh as month of the military child in April 15 2024 as purple up for military kids day whereas more than 8,000 Nebraskans exhibit profound courage and selflessness serving America's Armed

012Forces whereas Nebraska schools are serving nearly 4,000 military connected students whereas military connected children have been found to change schools up to nine times between kindergarten and high school and face other unique challenges related to military parental deployment whereas the Nebraska Department of Education recognized 35 purple star schools which created or strengthened programs and supports for military connected students whereas the military interstate children's compact Commission of which Nebraska is a proud member recognizes April as month of the military child and whereas the military excuse me the month of the military child provides an opportunity to salute our military connected children and acknowledge the sacrifices made by military families worldwide with an emphasis on experiences and the need and needs of children of military members serving at home and overseas now therefore be it resolved the

013Nebraska State Board of Education extends its profound gratitude for the veterans active duty and reserved members of the Armed Forces and their families for sacrifices they make daily resolve that the Nebraska State Board of Education recognizes April 2024 as month of the military child resolved the Nebraska State Board of Education recognizes April 15th 2024 as purple up for military kids day and encourages students Educators and the public to wear purple in support of milit AR connected children and resolve the State Board of Education directs the Nebraska Department of Education to continue building coalitions to raise awareness for support and advocate for military connected children and their unique needs signed on behalf of Nebraska State Board of Education this 8th day of March 2024 and it is signed by Elizabeth techm and Deborah ner Sher do

014you have a motion to adopt the resolution I I do and I'm honored to move to Proclaim April 2024 as the month of the military child and April 15th 2024 as purple up for military kids day and to adopt this resolution I second the motion it is moved and seconded to Proclaim April 2024 as the month of the military child and April 15th 2024 as purple up for military kids day and to adopt the resolution is there any discussion on this motion the motion is to Proclaim April 2024 as month of the military child and April 15th 2024 as purple up for military kids day and adopt the resolution with the recording secretary please call the role ner yes Co John yes Penner yes Jones yes fricky absolutely Gobles yes Morrison yes tag Meer yes

015eight yes okay the affirmative has it and the resolution is adopted um I'm going to go off script because it is the month of the military child and I just want to take a moment as as a board if you have served in the military would you just please stand members of the audience please do so and and our special guests thank you thank you we have a lot of gratitude um so Mr pener and I will present the resolution the next item of business is the commissioner's report commissioner Maher please provide your report thank you first of all there are no items that have been identified to be removed from the consent agenda as a reminder if board members wish to have additional items or any items removed from the consent agenda please fill

016out the form at this time any items that are removed will be taken up under additional business I have three items to address in my commissioner's report today one is the teacher of the year protocol two is our exempt School update and three is also an update on summer EBT on item number one first of all as you know the teacher of the year program is one the department overseas and takes great pride in administering and we will continue the process of recognizing Nebraska's best and brightest in the coming year our lead for this program is David jesperson coming in front of us right now and I've asked David to just give us a a quick update on what to expect in the next cycle David all right thank you very much David jerson office

017of public information and Communications uh and here to talk to you about the teacher of the year program I'm the coordinator for that program so um first off just got to love the fact that the media turned out for this presentation so I really appreciate that thanks uh they do also turn out really well every time we do announce a teacher of the year so uh last fall many of you got to see um and some attend our teacher of the year celebration with Scott Phillips in Aurora and it was a fantastic time uh for those of you who haven't been out to one of those yet we always surprise the teacher of the year in their classroom they have a feeling they have a note that within a two-e period we might come if

018they're selected so they have a little bit of a heads up um but we do uh go in there and surprise them and it's a fantastic situation so um here to talk to you a little bit about uh what's going to happen this year because as soon as we announced Scout Phillips as our 2024 we started planning ahead to who our 2025 may or may not be um so little background on the teach of the Year program in in its entirety uh so it's a national program it's run by the chief Council of State School officers which our commissioner is a part of uh they choose a national teacher of the year every year as well that process is in the final stages they have the finalists for this year's National teacher of the year

019they plan on making that announcement sometime uh in the next month or two uh each year the State teachers of the Year also get to come together with that group for one-of-a-kind opport OPP unities throughout the year um it's it's pretty impressive the different things that they do uh they get to visit Google's campus and and chat about this year they visited Google's campus and chatted a lot about how AI will be in the classroom and the challenges but also the advantages and the and the opportunities for AI in the classroom as well they talked a little bit um they always get assistance with a TED Talk uh they get to visit a NASA space camp uh and they'll be doing that in May uh they're always a White House visit visit um that comes

020up with that as well and that's coming up this spring uh and then they end their year out with the college football championship uh they're invited to the the national championship game the things that I wish that we got to see on television is that during halftime those teachers take the field H and so the tens of thousands of people that are in that uh stadium that year get to honor the State teachers of the Year during that presentation and it's a really uh exciting time for them as I mentioned 2024 is Nebraska teacher of the year Scott Phillips m math teacher from Aurora Middle School he has been extremely busy so far this year already he's done uh several talks uh and then we did go to California for the um orientation um you

021can kind of find him in the picture about halfway up uh on the leftand side uh these are the 2024 State teachers of the year that we at the orientation really special group of of individuals um that they get to come together one of the things that's great about this event and all the events they go to is that they get to collaborate at together these are lifetime friendships and professional groups that they form uh during this time that help build them out throughout the entire rest of the year here they are at Google I couldn't find him in this picture but he told me he was in it um I think's he's one of those hands that were there uh at the Google staircase this one's a little bit easier for me to find

022from him uh at the Google campus too with some of his cohort of teachers at the orientation event one of the things they do talk to teachers about are things that are going on in the teach teaching industry and what they can be prepared for for their year as state teacher of the year the topics were almost identical to the way they were last year um probably is no surprise to any of you they talked a lot about the teacher shortage uh and strategies to help out with that they talked a lot about increased responsibilities that teachers are seeing in the classroom uh they talked about outside influence both good and bad they talked about sharing good stories uh advocating for the profession and supporting other teachers uh I really want to highlight the last

023two because when Scott applied to be our state teacher of the year those were two of the things that he said were going to be one of his major focuses is not only recruiting new teachers but reigniting the love of teaching in teachers that are midcareer or or even late career uh he tells a phenomenal story that not too many years ago he was at a point in his life where he wasn't sure he wanted to continue being a teacher uh he was at that burnout stage as well and it was an epiphany moment for him and he'll tell you this this story um that he needed to find that work life balance and that's one of his big messages is helping teachers find that work life balance uh so that they can continue their

024love of teaching um one of the things that we want to do today uh for sure is as I mentioned um we want to well we want to celebrate and we want to uh move forward with the 2025 teacher of the year so nominations are um now up and running and and ready to be accepted if you go to education. ne.gov uh as you can see this is a screenshot from that website so we are now actively accepting nominations for the 2025 Nebraska teacher of the year really easy to nominate it's the easiest form you'll ever fill out um I promise all you have to do is put your name the name of the teacher and what school they attend if you happen to know the principal and superintendent I ask for that that but

025that is not uh necessary if you don't know who that is you just know the teacher in the school that's all I really need U from that point forward uh anyone who gets nominated as a Nebraska teacher the year for the year um we create a certificate and I reach out to them personally uh and uh encourage them to apply to be teacher of the year our process of course it's open nominations anyone can nominate anyone across the state as long as they're an active teacher in the classroom in Nebraska schools um but the teacher gets to choose whether or not they apply because the process is um very extensive and it can be a challenge uh Sherry joined us in the um application process last year uh when we talked with the finalist so

026she has an idea of the challenging questions and and and how much goes into applying to be teacher of the year but we would love to see those numbers continue to rise uh last year we had more than 90 nominations from across the state uh and I had challenged Nebraska to double that I would love to see I would love to be flooded with nominations this year um because it's it's it's it's an an exciting time for us I think it's an exciting time for the Educators uh one thing that I think is so neat is that I do share uh the nomination letters with those teachers as well and most of the time it's coming from a classroom um of students or it's coming from a colleague sometimes it comes from a parent sometimes

027it does come from a principal or superintendent but I always think that the ones that mean the most for these folks are um the ones that come from their students and the ones that come from their colleagues that are nominating them so my ask of all of you is to take this information with you and let people know that at education. ne.gov uh they can click on that nomination in your districts uh and we'll see if we can uh get a good healthy large amount of nominations from each one of your districts and we'll move forward with the process uh the applications will be open through the summer we usually close that right at the end of July and we'll start the process of choosing um from those applications our finalists and then eventually the

028teacher of the year sometime in um August September OCT October of this year any questions for me um just I I just think that that is so neat I didn't realize that you sent a an award or certificate to everyone who's nominated because I think what a compliment it is to our teachers to even be nominated even if they choose not to follow through the process and to hear what people the appreciation that people have for them and we just started that last year so I'm glad that um I'm glad that we're doing that I did get some really good feedback from some of the teachers that uh although they didn't want to apply it was too much for them they were honored obviously to be nominated by someone like I said especially when it's

029someone that they know um and and they just get that recognition too often and if you talk and they talked about this at the orientation as well too often you've got these great teachers in your lives that you never tell them that uh we take it for granted that they know how great they are um and by Design most of these teachers are extremely humble um and and a lot of the times one of the things they talk about at the orientation is this uh impostor syndrome that they call it that why me I shouldn't be here I'm not this good am I yes you are uh they're chosen for a reason and and teachers across the state uh have done a fantastic job and um it's it's a pleasure of ours to be able

030to to share with them when folks um let them know how good of a job they're doing yeah well I just uh every year um I you know I uh am just blown away by the teachers that are selected and then I end up following them on social media and learn so much and I'm tremendously inspired by everything they do throughout the year and I recommend that for others and I know you've you've changed the process a little so that it's a little easier to apply because our teachers are so busy and yeah they don't have time to uh but um and I uh I just to my peers on the board I know that you know getting word out when we the nomination process begins is so important and I appreciate that everyone has

031been involved in that uh because there are just being nominated I know is an honor for many teachers and so I look forward to starting a process again and I should point out that a teacher doesn't need to be nominated to apply for teacher of the year they can do that on their own as well but so often these teachers as I mentioned need that little nudge um that maybe they do think that they're uh the correct person for the job and they just need someone else to say it too so if we can provide that little nudge to them that' be fantastic thanks thank you thank you David my next topic isn't nearly as fun as that one uh it is uh on on exempt schools and I want to provide an update on

032our process uh to to go through the process of providing information on on the exemp schools front particularly as this issue relates to homeschool students um but also their families and the resident districts where they live we're having an having an impact in on all of those fronts we're experiencing extraordinary backlogs in processing exempt School notifications and quite frankly the problem has existed for all of my time as commissioner and I suspect well before that and I want you I want all of the board members to know what we're doing to address that topic so that we don't um simply throw our hands up and say Well it it is what it is uh I met with Bryce Wilson who who supervises that particular area um a few weeks ago to get his assessment on

033three things as they relate to home school to exempt schools uh in in general and homeschools specifically uh one what's our overall performance in this area two what has our implementation of the technology available to us been to this point and three what is our our uh Staffing issue in this area are we performing well do we have enough people Etc uh first I would tell you that nobody that I've talked to is satisfied with the current status of working through the exempt School paperwork uh Mr Wilson shared with me that it would take two months to get to catch up on the backlog of paperwork so I'm here to tell you today that I checked with him earlier this week to make sure that I was going to State publicly that we would be

034caught up by April 15th and he said yes we will that's that's the good news the bad news is that's on this year's paperwork so there's a there's a a good news back bad news scenario there um two on the topic of technology our implementation of a new technology was meant to streamline this process and it's been met with many snags as of yesterday I talked to the folks responsible and I've got the following information number one the exempt school system is operational number two parents are able to submit paperwork to the system and we can respond to that submission three our Tech staff are available to assist with any bug fixes and we will prioritize these fixes should a problem occur while our staff are are um logging those notifications and four if there

035are changes needed to open up next year's process that begins on July 1 we'll make sure that we that the system is online and as scheduled for that June 1 submission including any re any changes that are required as a result of pending litigation and I'll address that in a little bit in regards to the Staffing question Bryce believes that we're appropriately staffed once we're caught up so how do we how do we get caught up I would tell you we're bringing in reinforcements from throughout the department to help us catch up and it should be noted that we are willing to put more resources into the Staffing uh equation part of this equation if necessary on another note there's a legislative Bill lb 1027 that was introduced by Senator Clemens and is a speaker

036prioritized Bill during this session and this bill would actually reduce the work needed to be done by the department and would help streamline The Homeschool notification process we're thankful to Senator Clemens for not only bringing this bill forward but also for listening to the department on how to make that bill we think a little bit be a little bit better than it current than it was in its current form or in its original form we're in favor of the bill and we're providing help to get this bill to the finish line so three areas one we're not satisfied with with where we are and we're addressing issues as they exist currently two we're making sure that the technology is what it needs to be to process uh those the the paperwork that comes with exempt

037schools and three We are continuing to analyze the number of people that we have working in this particular area to make sure that we have put the resources necessary into into this particular U issue so that's uh that's my exemp school report uh hopefully next time I report to you it's a much more positive report than it is today the third topic that I bring to you is the summer EBT program and it is moving forward I would say what a difference a month makes on this particular topic uh you likely recall that last month we discussed the barriers there were for nde to to administer this particular program um and in in fact our administ our administration of the program would have taken a pretty long Runway to get that program up and running

038in the meantime between last meeting and this meeting I was brought to a meeting at the governor's office uh or with the governor's office and DHHS where I was asked if nde would be able to participate with DHHS in their administration of the program that's a significant difference than what we were talking about a year or a month ago I immediately gained engaged our expert in that area Katie parch um and with those barriers of us being the administrator of the program removed I asked Katie to work with DHHS to see what we would need to do to assist their administration of the program and with that I've asked Katie to bring the board up to speed on what our involvement is in the summer EBT program and Katie was just right here she is

039K Katie's ready to go so with that um Katie would you pre please bring the board up to speed and thank you for allowing me time to share information with you about this important program as commissioner Maher said my name is Katie parch and I serve the agency as the assistant administrator of of the office of coordinated student support services and I'm also the director of the Child Nutrition programs which I'm sure you've heard a lot about over the years we support and administer School meals School nutrition programs the summer food service program and the child and adult care food program um as our big programs and along with many other smaller ones so get started by first sort of just level setting on some background basic information about EBT electronic benefit trans ER is

040the way that all states in the US excuse me distribute funding on something like a credit or debit card for recipients of the supplemental nutrition assistance program also known as snap so none of that information is probably new to you but the EBT part of Summer I think was important to make sure you understand that S Summer EBT or SBT will operate in the same way issuing cards to households of eligible students that they can use use money um to per or funds on the card to purchase food for their household and summer EBT actually was done as a demonstration project back in 2011 and at that time they issued two different funding levels a $30 a month level a $60 a month level and Congress authorized that requiring also that there was some investigation

041and study done on the impact of those funds as far as food in security goes in households of recipients and there are positive out comes from that I oops I'm sorry I imagine um that that informed the willingness of Congress to pass a bill and it looks a little different than those demonstration projects did the permanent sebt authorizes $40 per month per eligible student for 3 months of summer break like estimating approximating that most school students are not in school for about 3 months in the summertime and wanting to help support their nutrition needs when they don't have access to school breakfast and lunch like they do during the school year so in total for each eligible student they would receive $120 on that EBT card if they choose to receive it by their participation

042in the SCBT which also requires of course that they attend a school that participates in the national school lunch program and that they are eligible because that household qualifies for free or reduced price meals and I've given a just a a brief sort of overview of the summer EBT budget so far as it applies to the resources and staff time needed from the nde and as commissioner Maher noted DHHS is the lead agency they already had and have the infrastructure to operate snap and sebt being a lot like Snap meant it was a natural fit for them to continue or I'm sorry to to be the the leader of this program they have a card vendor and have processes set up for data validation and have Staffing um needed to support um administering the program

043so the asks of nde Staff include the ones you'd see up here we are responsible for developing and distributing as well as processing and making determinations on the sebt application which will be used by a small fraction of eligible students because we can use School determined free and reduced eligibility information for individual students okay there might be some students who attend a community eligibility provision school that does they do not have that individual eligibility determination made and those are the ones we need to offer the sebt application to as well as students who live in households whose um income may have changed at some point during the covered summer break so we want to make sure we've got an option available to them to comply with the federal regulations to be able to do that

044and that will be a significant portion of our contribution toward the total program therefore it's going to be the one you see that has the highest value associated with it the USDA has developed some summer EBT Outreach and communication tools we do not plan to reinvent any of that that would not be a wise use of resources we're going to use what they've developed and distribute it through our traditional um communication channels in partnership with DHHS of course and then will be some data operational and development um investment as well we do have or have had because of pandemic EBT um a pretty good way of collecting validating and then sharing validated eligible student information with DHHS that will remain our role but because we're not developing something new from scratch we're going to use

045the system we' used and make some tweaks to make it better and less time intensive for staff but that's why you see a small contribution toward that effort there so I want to delineate the roles and responsibilities of both of the agencies tasked with getting this um important program done obviously dhs's roles and responsibilities would be things you'd presume Contracting with a card vendor to issue those plastic debit card cards um issuing cards to households that have eligible students in them and they get that information from us of course that agency is also Al responsible for investigating allegations of Fraud and completing Federal fiscal reporting now that's not all of it but I tried to sort of group those things that DHHS staff and leadership are responsible for into some bigger buckets I've done the

046same with nd's roles and responsibilities we need to communicate clearly and effectively with school staff because we know that households families of students go to their school first and foremost they're very familiar with schools they seek answers of anything anything related to school meal benefits probably with their school so we want to make sure they're well informed we need to develop and maintain that data collection and sharing system that we need to be able to use to effectively and safely share information with DHHS finalize that application to participate in the program for students in households who don't already have that determination made and then it's also our responsibility to complete the required verification a random sample to verify that income report reported on anbt application is accurate just supports Integrity of the program and that

047we're issuing benefits to people who truly qualify and to sum everything up I've tried to identify a couple of the things that we have completed in our partnership with DHHS we've submitted the management plan and budget we have not heard back from that agency yet on what questions they might have or where we are in the approval process and we've identified a benefit issuance schedule which allows us to sort of work backwards and identify um deadlines preceding benefit issuance that dictate how the staff in each agency gets the work done and how we prioritize our tasks um ongoing or upcoming would be those Communications with schools and households finalizing the development of the sebt application and then in May collecting validating and sharing eligible student data with DHHS and finalizing that secure data transfer system

048and I'm pleased to answer he questions you have I might not have answers board members if you have any questions or comments I just have one question Madam chair for Katie did you say the number of eligible children in Nebraska do you have that number it's about 150,000 Nebraska students that are eligible for free or reduced price meals yeah I didn't say that so thank you for asking to determine um how this is paid for can you explain um what it's going to take to put this into action and so we know and does the federal government how much do they put in great question the federal government fully fund $120 for the covered summer period for all of the students to whom we issue cards the cost to administer the program as in the

049time we'd pay for Staffing um contracts related to the card vendor and purchasing cards that get issued to households is a 5050 match between State funds and federal funds okay well I just want to thank you for being here today it's it makes a lot of sense to do this for children but I I want to thank um Senator day put it on our radar and I want to thank Governor pan for listening and getting this going so that you could be a part of this so it's going to work together for the benefit of kids because so many people got together and talked about it and talked to kids about it yeah so thank you thank you any other questions I have to M okay so so you said that the administration cost is

050a 5050 match of state and federal so that $50,000 slide that you showed us this okay so so the state is approximately 25,000 for that portion and that doesn't reflect the the budget as estimates for the work of DHHS that's closer to $2 million because they have a significantly higher investment in this than we do okay so okay and do we have to take on additional staff to do this that's a great question and and consultation with other folks of this agency who worked on pandemic EBT which isn't the same program but the model by which we work with DHHS and the the parts of it that we're responsible for is really similar to that program anyway in consultation with them I we didn't determine additional staff would be needed we will shift responsibilities as

051needed but adding um additional full-time people isn't anything we foresee needing to be done at this time okay okay and just one just one final thought so so these EBT SNAP cards my I'm just I'm just clarifying no matter where in the state that they are used whether it's western Nebraska Eastern Nebraska these are used at privately owned grocery stores can be they can be are there other options that they can be used at some farmers markets accept EBT but getting a little bit out of my realm of knowledge because I'm not well versed in rules and rs of snap unfortunately okay no just clarifying that we are using public funds public money that goes to privately owned institutions that would be correct thank you just clarifying that's been an issue lately thank you thanks

052any other comments before we move on um if for some reason a student goes outside the state of Nebraska for a a portion of time during this summer and it's a state that also accepts the EVT program can they use it in another state maybe you don't know I don't know the answer to that but I can find it it's just interested because a lot of our students are mobile that's a great question and you know take off for summer part of it so yeah forgive me for saying this but that's such a great consideration for something we need to be able to communicate with households too I hadn't thought of that so thanks for bringing it up it'll be added thank you I guess um this is more for you so stay though just

053because our discussion's continuing but I want to backtrack to what you just said because I think there's some confusion in that I mean this this money isn't going to a price organization this money is going to needy families uh as has been the case forever for SNAP programs I mean it's and so how they spend it I mean that's I I didn't understand your coming am I understanding it wrong or maybe you could help clarify I was just clarifying that the SNAP benefits are the the the $40 per month month will be used at farmers markets privately owned grocery stores that's all I was clarifying that there's not some sort of like like on the military base where they go and they get the groceries from the military base this is this is this is

054tax pay your money being spent at privately owned grocery stores that's all I was clarifying okay but cuz now I'm so confused about the so when we vote on contracts here and we the department contract with individuals to do Services those are privately owned businesses that we're spending taxpayer dollars from nd's budget that we voted on multiple times especially last month when we were here when we authorized millions of dollars and Technology purchases to be purchased from Private Industry which were Federal public dollars for Private Industry technology purposes so I'm confused as to why that's being brought up in this context when it wasn't last month I was just clarifying for myself okay thank you py so are there any limitations is what they can purchase with um so they could purchase candy and pop

055and I don't know the the the requirements for a snap eligible purchase okay so I do believe it's for SCBT the same the the requirements or the allowability aligns with whatever the snap requirements are for a traditional snap recipient okay seeing no further questions or comments commissioner Maher first of all Katie thank you very much and to all the folks who helped me with my report that concludes my report okay so item number four president's report um extremely brief I just want to point out that the Nebraska Rural Community School Association spring conference is next week in Carney and Dr Maher will be there as one of the keynote speakers along with uh Mr Penner Mrs Jones and I will also be there to hear from our rural schools um what their needs are what

056their successes are and how we can and support them uh so we will be there Inc Carney next week so that concludes my president's report we are moving to item 5.1 public comment period just a reminder if you are not signed in and you wish to speak please sign in at this time those wishing to speak must be signed in at the table outside of the meeting room the public comment period is available to any person who wishes to address the board on any subject within its Authority including items appearing on the agenda except for contested cases up to two hours will be allowed for the comment public comment period when on the agenda of a regular meeting a majority of members present and voting may take action to extend the total amount of time

057allowed for the public comment period a majority of members present and voting may also take action to allow or terminate public comment at any time time during a meeting please note that public comment should be on topics related to the work of the state board's constitutional and statutory Authority if you are not signed in and wish to speak please sign in at this time those wishing to speak must be signed in at the table outside of the meeting room each individual speaking to the board will be required to complete a signin card for identification of oneself individuals are required to include on the signin card their name address and name of any organization represented individuals may be prohibited to speak in public commment if the signin card does not include the required information persons speaking

058to the board during public comment should State their name at the beginning of their allotted time and may submit printed materials for the board but may not use any other form of media anyone refusing to be identified will be prohibited from speaking each person may address the board for up to five minutes the majority a majority of members present in voting may take action to reduce or extend the amount of time allotted to speakers if at any time persons appearing before the board exceed the time limitations set forth in this policy or on the agenda or become abusive or threatening in language or behavior it shall be the responsibility of the president to refuse permission to continue to address the board we do you want a break or do you want to go right to

059it do no I'm okay okay um all right so um Madame vice president how many public comment cards do we have uh we have 31 and so we have 31 public comment cards submitted um so may may I make a motion okay um because our policy is that we only allow two hours for public comment uh we would either allow everyone their full five minute time which means some people would not be able to speak or we could reduce the number of minutes per speaker so that we can get everybody in the only way to get everybody in that's here right now without going over two hours is to reduce everybody's time to 3 minutes so therefore I would like to move to reduce the amount of individual time allowed to each speaker to three

060minutes does have a second I second is there discussion okay um can you repeat the number that you had again uh 31 so 31 would be 54 minutes if we did it regularly if everybody had four minutes that would be 124 minutes so we go over by 4 minutes assuming everyone speaks their whole 4 minutes is that right is my math wrong yes it's correct correct you're correct okay um I would move to amend your motion to go for four minutes understanding we may worst case scenario be over four minutes but potentially could still be within the two hours because some people may speak less okay so is there a second to the amendment okay a second of the amendment any other discussion the motion St so the so the current motion on the floor

061is to strike three minutes and let each person speak for four any further discussion okay will the recording secretary recall the RO the motion is to reduce public comment from 5 minutes to four minutes which would ex POS the motion right now is to am stri minut and inserting minut no other way around other way the motion is to amend by striking three minutes and inserting four so with the recording secretary please call the role Morris yes T Meer yes Co John's yes ner yes fricky yes Jones yes Penner yes Gobles yes eight yes so the amended motion has full support Miss Morrison I have discussion now on the motion okay question okay okay all right so the question now is reducing the time to four minutes Jacqueline I should have asked this before I

062amended moveed to amend the motion so my apologies I'm assuming that the list is now closed and that was what my motion was based on so is that a correct assumption okay thank you correct once we begin public comment and we've made the announcement we do not take any more um signin for public comment so the motion on the can I just make a comment and once again jacn has proved at one of our meetings that she's way better at math than I am so the motion on the floor is to reduce public comment time to four minutes any further discussion with the recording secretary please call the role on reducing public comment time to four minutes Morris yes T Meer yes Co Johns yes Gobles yes Penner yes Jones yes fricky yes ner yes

063eight yes so the motion has been adopted and public comment will be four minutes in length um vice president Neri will announce the names of the speakers who will sit in the desert designated chairs at the front of the room we'll be pulling them up in groups of I believe 11 and so when your name is called please come to the front of the room Deborah okay thanks good morning and thanks everybody for being here uh the first 11 if we'd like to ask you to just come sit in the front row and then we'll call you one at a time to come forward for your for minutes Robbie ad Adams Ted Lewiston Sarah Mitchell Heather Hall Mary rean Terry Cunningham Swanson Jamie bonowitz Amber Parker Dennis schlice Steve Davies Doug Ken thank you and

064then if Ronnie wants uh Robbie Adams wants to come forward and be number one uh Ted Lewiston will be number two then and can follow good morning my name is Robbie Adams I support the proposed changes to rule 10 I have been a voracious reader all of my life of both fiction and non-fiction I have an English ba degree have taught conversational English as a second language for eight years and taught children in private school for 13 years in addition to my 30 years in public relations last spring a friend shared his extensive research into sexually explicit material he found in the Pilon Lista Community Schools both middle schools and high schools after researching myself and being appalled by finding over 1,200 individual sexually explicit books in pilion South High School alone I decided to

065act I formed a committee of other committed mothers from team sarpi and joined with moms for Liberty Douglas County to plan a forum and workshop on this subject to both inform citizens in the Metro and teach them how to submit complaint forms for some of the most egregious sexually explicit books found in the school districts we had a PhD clinical psychologist speak on what affect these objectional books have on children a gret a mom who has researched all the materials found in all the school districts in the Metro a speaker from Heritage action in Washington DC and a current School Board member fighting to remove sexually explicit books and materials from her District we had 96 people attend our event this past July who were from 15 different school districts we mailed out packets of

066complaints to different school districts I'm sad to say that the principal of Ian South High School called me to say that the book I complained about was not full of sexually explicit material but that I was mistaken and the book was actually just a book of poetry it was not she did not know that I had seen a copy and knew exactly what was in it I am happy that this rule change would require public schools to have an online card catalog to their school library you might add to this rule that when a teacher has a classroom library that those books books must have an online card catalog as well otherwise teachers will just hide these materials in their classrooms parents and Guardians know exactly what is in their school libraries and uh classrooms

067would be a needed first step for parents to hold teachers and administrators accountable for the violations of community standards and pornography statutes our tax dollars should not be used to purchase sexually exp explicit materials especially for minors if an adult would give one of these titles on the upper end of this one to five scale of inappropriate material to a child on the street they could be arrested for disseminating child pornography that is how graphic and damaging many of these books are I ask how in the world are these books getting into our schools who is suggesting these books be put into our school's libraries what is their agenda these books are stealing our children's innocence and will cause damage to their psyches and mental health that can take years to heal the middle and

068high school year should help students prepare for additional education in college and trade schools these sexually explicit books of materials steal time from the truly wonderful literature that expands minds and imaginations our kids should be delving into the 100 best books to read before college and other lists of the world's greatest contributions to literature for enrichment not this sexually explicit material inappropriate for minors please help our Nebraska kids find truly inspir inspiring books and increase transparency in our schools by approving the changes to rule 10 thank you thank you Robbie uh Ted if you want to come forward and I just want to mention to everybody that one of this isn't a requirement but one of the things we really like is if you'll also mention what community you're here rep I mean that you've

069come from and it just kind of helps state board members know uh if we're listening to somebody from our particular District or not I mean it doesn't matter we listen to everybody and and value everybody's input but we do like to hear what community or from if you're willing to share that thank you uh your your four minutes begin Ted thanks hello I'm Ted Lewiston from bellw um I my parents and Grandparents were in public education they were teachers my grandparents my uh my grandfathers my let me start again my father and grandfather were also superintendents in public schools um as indicated I fully support these changes in in rule 10 when we look at what's available to students what is the mission or the purpose of schools and school libraries and media resources these

070changes that have been proposed clarify what that purpose is that the education system works alongside partners with parents in character development and preparing students and young people to be successful uh contributing members of society and the types of materials that would be uh excluded from school's libraries are the types of materials that would tend to shape young minds to see other people as objects to be used and abused or we would not allow or we would not purchase books promoting violence uh trying to promote racism and that's saying because of the color of one's skin or national background that somehow uh other people are inferior or Superior those types of materials would not be appropriate to stock in the libraries because that provides uh an endorsement from the public school saying this is how Society

071works and this is the way to behave and those types of materials they're available outside the schools we really don't need to be spending tax dollars or time with materials that are not conducive to positive character development or to undermine or Sidetrack what parents are doing in raising their their children to be contributing members of society so I fully support these changes and appreciate them being brought before the board for consideration I thank you very much thank you Ted uh Sarah if you'd come forward and then Heather you'll follow Sarah thank you good morning my name is Sarah Mitchell I'm from the Omaha Metro Area members of the board I'm here as a parent a grandparent and retired School librarian to ask you to reject the proposed changes to the school library section of rule

07210 I want to specifically speak to the proposed changes to minimum Staffing and minimum number of Acquisitions certified Librarians are vital knowledgeable and credible in supporting literacy they are their school's literacy cheerlead leaders they are trained specifically to curate their unique collections to specifically meet their District's curricular needs and the interests of their students while working as an elementary librarian in a title one school the literature I curated allowed students to gain vital prior knowledge for State assessments my collection allowed a new student who were had job to see herself reflected in some selected titles and for other students to have a better understanding of her culture Librarians are often the tech leaders in their schools and provide essential lessons in information literacy my three children were the benefactors of those sorts of lessons they

073knew how to select credible resources use a variety of academic databases and correctly cite their sources they were well prepared for college after retiring from teaching I worked as a sales consultant for a company that provided Li Library materials in that role I covered all of Nebraska and all of Kansas I was able to see amazing school librarians and libraries across Nebraska they worked tirelessly to support the unique needs of their districts all with good selection policies that were approved by their school boards Kansas however made me cry with no mandate on Staffing materials I came across countless districts that hadn't added a new book in years their students were left to just Google or use Wikipedia sadly those impacted the most were students in poverty not only were their homes booked deserts so were

074their schools I know if these changes are approved there are schools in Nebraska that will not have certified Librarians or any Library budget I'm pleading with you not to let this happen to Nebraska students maintain Nebraska's minimum Staffing and materials requirements and reject the proposed changes to school library section of rule 10 don't be like Kansas thank you Sarah Heather if you'd like to come forward and Marcy will be next good morning my name is Heather Hall I'm the mother of three I'm from roken Nebraska and I'm here to express my support of the proposed changes to rule 10 I'm not a proponent of banning books but that's not what this rule changes this is about curating material that is appropriate for age appropriate for our kids and I'd like to share my personal experience

075with you concerning this matter and why this real change is needed last year I emailed my son's English teacher to ask for the required reading list for that year required reading upon her response I immediately recognized books that I knew contained sexually explicit content including sexual assault of minors gang rape of a child a grandmother molesting her grandson masturbation vulgar language and other extremely inappropriate content not suitable for students to read this was for 15 and 16-year-old students in the class had I not been proactive my son would have read these books without my consent that as a mother and taxpayer I do not approve of one of the books has language so foul and inappropriate I still cannot see the literary value in having students read it because it's just plain filth and I

076had a discussion with the teacher on why she picked these books she said because of the themes of forgiveness Redemption perseverance overcoming trials but I argue that there are many other books that contain the same themes without sexually explicit content and vulgar language thankfully we were able to work together to come up with alternate books for my son to read and I stated he was not allowed to be in the room during discussion uh with the books containing this material and I just want you to know one day a student came up to him a classmate saying he was like lucky he didn't have to read the books because that student said that they were so disturbing the problem with these books is that you have no idea as a parent what they contain until

077you read them and you cannot unread that scene it's already embedded into your brain um parents have no idea what their kids are reading and the teachers don't offer the information unless you're proactive in asking for it there are detrimental effects to the brains of adolescents exposed to this sexually explicit material um I emailed you all uh the research paper um and it's full of great information and I highly encourage you to read it um one statement the prefrontal cortex is innately less developed in teens compared to an adult this Dynamic results in more sensitivity to sexually explicit material due to a decreased ability to retain cognitive control in response to stimulating material the Adolescent will be more easily distracted and will have a harder time switching from potent stimulation to quiet cognitive mode this

078could have a negative impact on school performance self-control and emotional self-regulation all of which could affect the normal development of interpersonal relationships um I do realize that there are wonderful books that have literary literary value as well as sensitive topics such as rape sust incense the Bible contains all of that stuff but it's written in such a way that it's not um it's it's non-descriptive but you understand what's going on um I'm not against these types of books in in our schools they have a lot of literary value but again they're not descriptive and some of these books are so descriptive and violent and I don't know why they are in the school and why they're being allowed in the schools um and it's these extremely sexually descriptive books where nothing is left to the

079imagination because it's written so descriptively that you can actually picture in your mind what is going on and when our kids read we teach them to use your imagination to picture these things do we want them picturing these images in their brains I don't so I'm asking you to please support the proposed changes for rule 10 to remove the these books containing sexually explicit material from our schools thank you thank you heather Mary if you want to come forward uh Terry you'll be next good morning my name is Mary Ryman and I am a retired Nebraska school librarian and during my years in Wakefield and then here in Lincoln I used rule 10 as a guideline always there have been many letters from your constituents regarding the proposed rule 10 media and Technology s resources

080revisions and they're largely focused on the concerns about the Banning of books I'm hoping that many of you saw the 60 Minutes report on CBS last Sunday it presented background on this topic from the national level and it was very very informative I was also here at your February board meeting to hear your first discussion of the recommended changes I'm here today though to address sections 00 6.01 b c and d those are the guidelines regarding the number of books the minimum number of new books to be purchased each year for every school library program in Nebraska it's a minimum funding for new books each year to keep a school library collection up to date no matter how many or how few students there are in a school district that does not seem like too

081much to ask it's sad to me that we need to have such a statement in state guidelines but we do we're all well aware of funding concerns and taking away the minimum means that could be four years there would be years when there would be no Library budget at all that means a school year with no new books in those libraries and that is a disservice for the students in our school districts students need new books every year up-to-date resources and without these rule 10 guidelines there will be administrators who for whatever reason will prioritize differently cutting out the library budgets to best serve our Nebraska students to encourage literacy that should not happen so please keep rule 10 as it is to support media and Technology resources thank you thank you Mary Terry if

082you want to come forward and then Jamie you're next I'm Terry Cunningham Swanson and I'm from plats smouth Nebraska let's just cut to the chase the books we're talking about not only meet the common sense definition but also the legal definition of obscenity every one of you sitting on on this board understand that to be true and if any of you don't let me read Nebraska statute 288 d808 the parts that pertain to this it shall be unlawful for a person knowingly to sell deliver distribute display for sale or to provide to a minor or knowingly possess with the intent to sell deliver distribute display for sale or provide to a minor section B any Book pamphlet magazine printed material however produced or sound recording which contains any material enumerated in subdivision 1A of this

083section or explicitly detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement sexual conduct or satom masochistic abuse of a predominantly perent shameful and morbid nature and which taken as a whole is harmful to mind minors any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a Class one misdemeanor that is the law I am speaking for parents and grandparents across the entire state of Nebraska when I stand here and I look you in the eye and I say how the crap are we even here how the crap is this even a question I'm Sorry by the time for nities is over and it's the time has come to maybe start flipping some tables and maybe flipping some board seats our course of course our library should not contain obscene content it should not contain graphic

084descriptions of naked body parts depictions of violent rape and as the law that I just read stated detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement sexual cond content or sedom masochistic abuse parents if you doubt that our state board's current standards would allow this content in your school do what I did and check your library the Middle School in my small town of Plattsmouth is grades 5 six 7 and 8 students as young as 10 years old are in the Middle School it's in that library that I found the book Neanderthal opens the door to the universe by Preston Norton that book includ includes illegal use of drugs and alcohol violence suicide hate and as well as extremely offensive sexual content content that the book itself describes as quote Puritan style dominatrix BDSM pseudo

085porno end quote again this book is available to 10-year-olds God help us exposing children to sexualized content is damaging we know this it is proven and well documented I don't care what CBS news says this is a proven fact yet our education system clings to the lies of perverted men like Alfred Kenzie and John money whose research included the rape and sexual assault of children even babies to justify their inaccurate and frankly disgusting theories of human sexuality to the detriment of every child study after study shows that harm the harm of exposing minors to sexualized content and it includes physical harm intellectual emotional social and spiritual harm please pass these changes for the sake of our children thank you Terry Jamie if you want to come forward Amber you're after that hi my name is

086Jamie bonowitz I'm from Omaha Nebraska I'm the parent of two children one in public school and one in private private school I'm here to oppose Kirk's attempt to change the library media and Technology section on rule 10 Kirk's proposed rule 10 changes are evidence that he is too radical to be on the state board of education political ideology should not be an issue for board membership but he has repeatedly shown that his views are extreme and unsafe for Nebraska's children his primary change to the rule 10 document is removing the regulations that ensure that libraries have books certified Librarians and access to educational databases these things are necessary for children to learn how to find facts verify research and safely navigate the internet in place Kirk has offered no suggestions for how libraries should stay

087resourced and inste instead makes a redundant porn ban there is no porn in school libraries but there are well-educated trained and caring adults whose job it is to supervise students and teach literacy skills Kirk is offering revisions based on the idea that kids are accessing porn in school libraries rather than where they actually are which is while unsupervised on the internet at home are on their tiny computers that they carry in their pockets every day Kirk sexualization of children's books and denial of the internet's risks are disturbing if this weren't evidence enough that Penner is too radical to be allowed to make any decisions for my children and other people's children his support and po promotion of the propaganda movie the mind pooters is this movie claims that teachers in government schools are grooming children

088for sex this has outraged politics at its finest yet Kirk had no problem with spreading this propaganda all over Nebraska mainly showing it in churches I would like the people listening to really think about what Kirk's intentions are with changes to rule 10 Kirk the hypocrisy of you running your campaign on the parental rights and local control are not lost with me yet you are trying to take those same rights that you campaigned on from us parents I can tell you that a lot of parents like myself are tired of having extremist groups like moms for Liberty Nebraskans for founders values and protect Nebraska children on and running their school boards an example of this is in January of just this past year parents and residents of platou schools recalled Terry Cunningham Swanson because of

089her extremist beliefs we are also tired of you retreating retweeting dangerous po propaganda by Libs of Tik Tok on your social media platforms and you meeting with Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters in August to discuss policy you believe that you're some sort of patriot simply by using your constitutional right to free speech yet you are an adult man with a considerable political backing sitting at one of the highest seats of power in education and you have chosen your free speech to hurt teachers and minor students who you should be protecting and you also Target LGBT lgbtq plus students who also happen to be the most vulnerable in our society this is setting a dangerous president for our state board of ed education once again your beliefs are your beliefs your religion is your religion preach that

090to your own kids and your grandkids my kids are not yours I trust the teachers and administrators in my children's schools first and I absolutely have no trust in you thank you Jamie Amber if you'd like to come forward and Dennis you'll be next I come before you today I believe it's been over a year now since coming forward and I see that things have not Chang change but I want to say thank you to board members of um Elizabeth TM Sher Jones and Kirk Penner who are the only ones that have fought to protect the innocence in areas of our children um many of you there's a new face here as the election commissioner uh law you're you're all accountable to law just as we are and I have to tell you it's different

091in legislation when you're proposing amendments versus a proposing State Statute when I'm going to read um Terry wson had already read 28808 and I want to be very clear because we do have a judicial branch and when there are signs of abuse um and uh any areas of pedophilia the judges do have CPS Services can come in and remove those children from the homes we do need to tighten up our parental rights legislation here but what I'm here to talk about today pertaining to 28808 is this you cannot uh cut out existing law from another law who decides that that goes to uh court or courts which brings accountability because the reality of this and what we are facing is truly a Praying upon our children through the education system and through our tax dollars

092I would argue strongly that 2808 gives direction to how laws are to be upheld also those on the state board with the exception of pener Jones and T Meer because they didn't violate the wording or provide to a minor parents could look at this that state board members who connected with groups people going against 2808 could face charges what does this mean it means they have opened themselves to a Class one misdemeanor which one could face maximum not more than one year imprisonment $1,000 fine or both minimum none but let's go deeper those bringing these unlawful seen literature materials they too could face penalty for aiding to give to minors now with reports across the state of such materials questions become are the professional staff in all of this exercising Lawless activities meaning those who

093are participating now within s of some cases across the state multiple copies of such materials have been found the question remains has this now become a part of curriculum in Nebraska schools again under 28808 and I want to be clear so without the the health standards um that you tried as that were tried to pass as a GU on us you could actually be exercising in these ways and doing those very things and what you tried to deceive the people on and you don't have to have and pass the health standards with the way right now um that this is uh literature materials have been discovered throughout the state of Nebraska and Nebraska schools um Public School System under 2808 how many Nebraska education professionals could face a Class one misdemeanor and some may rebuttal

094but I will say as well as others there's a reason we have a judicial branch but before you today will be a solution to include parents and restore local control for each School District by changing a rule that member Penner will present before for you today the choice is yours thank you Amber uh Dennis and then Steve hello I'm Dennis schlice from Omaha my wife and I enrolled our three children in the public school system one of the most important things that we wanted our kids to excel at was reading because reading skills are necessary to to not only learn things but also to be successful in later career life our kids were Avid readers and our home was filled with books for them to read addition to their school library books all three liked

095reading and we let them read whatever subjects interested them however private matters like sex topics which we were shocked to see in our school libraries contain reading material that should be left to parents to discuss with their children in private children should not be exposed to these subjects in our Public School Systems without parental content consent and I have never heard that pornographic books increase a student's reading skills thank you thank you Dennis Steve and then uh Doug thank you president T Meer and members of the board for this opportunity I am Steve Davies from Stromsburg and I testify in favor of um the sexual explicit material part of rule 10 that is being proposed um just as kids are growing physically the same is true of their whole being their psyche self-awareness and cognitive

096skills are not capable of absorbing and dealing with sexually explicit materials a personal experience I grew up in small town in eastern Colorado there was a family had four four boys and then a young girl in a small town like that you kind of know everything about everybody and what was kind of understood what happened in that family would be scary when that girl was in first grade her and a classmate were found without clothes under the bushes of the schoolhouse when asked what they were doing they said we're making babies that's first grader when she was in junior high she was very promiscuous and in high school she started an affair with a married teacher that had kids you broke up that marriage that family that's what can happen sexually exp explicit materials do

097not belong in the schools they affect the character and personality of these growing children let's let them be kids and not do the job of GR rumors thank you thank you Steve Doug you're next good morning Doug Kagan Omaha representing Nebraska taxpayers for freedom in 2022 a National Science Foundation science and engineering report raised an alarm this report showed that the US is falling behind in science technology engineering and math the state stem Fields according to the foundation public school graduates no longer produce the most science and engineering research Publications communist China does our graduates no longer produce the most patents communist China does we no longer graduate the most natural science phds communist China does these unfortunate Trends will not change anytime soon our problem is not that the US Lacks higher education institutions

098to train future scientists or an economy capable of encouraging outstanding Innovation the problem originates much earlier in the education supply chain it starts in our Public elementary and secondary schools and their libraries in 2019 the national assessment of educational progress the American report card clearly showed that American students are inept in The Sciences over 25% of fourth graders earn a score below basic by 12th grade that proportion grows to 40% a similar pattern in math scores 2022 nap test scores for math show declining scores and increasing percentages of students below basic Nebraska taxpayers pay between 55 and 60% of our total property taxes to public schools with this abundant Revenue School District Libraries can Avail themselves of an array of reading choices school districts should invite taxpaying parents and other taxpayers to actively involve themselves

099in library material choices I think that you will find that most of those involved will be more interested in their tax dollars paying for books magazines Etc that prepare their children for professional life and entice their children and teens about finding cures for diseases building better Bridges or space exploration rather than reading about why Johnny wants to wear a dress it is simply a matter of priorities that schools libraries can choose we respectfully ask you to support Mr penner's revision of rule 10 thank you thank you dou now uh we'll have another 11 uh come forward uh to the front seats they are Marne hoden Kathy foucher I apologize if I mispronounce names Jo Judy Wyman Chris Hefner Cheryl Wagner Jesse McGrath Merlin Bartels Lou BRZ III Nancy Nancy Packard Jean Grier and Kevin aboras

100and again sorry I mispronounced uh Mar you're first and just a request to please please state your name when you come up um as as board members we do like to to to note who's here good morning my name is Marney hajin and I'm from Omaha parents trust Library teachers and administrators to review and Screen books for appropriate content yet students are bringing home or being asked to read books filled with profanity crude references to reproductive Anatomy inflammatory racial and religious commentary and sexually explicit materials parents have even taken this topic to the legislature in support of lb 441 reading book excerpts to the Judiciary Committee we were asked why haven't you gone to the school boards we answered we have the time for allowing children free range access to sexually explicit material based on

101ala recommendations while utilizing taxpayer money to purchase such materials needs to stop now parents can't trust what is being selected nor does a working parent have the time to screen the books themselves we know from studies and common sense that viewing sexually explicit images have harmful effects promote objectification and degrading degrading attitudes towards the opposite sex leading to high-risk Behavior desensitization to sexual violence and intimacy issues so when an author creates a story weaving words describing sexual acts in which some books include violent and unwelcomed advances toward a character it is not a stretch to infer that the imagery conjured up in the reader's mind will have similar effect as if they were viewing explicit photographs or movies in reality children learn by imitation and because their brains are underdeveloped the impact of this imagery

102is far greater on a child than than an adult Eleanor and Park was required reading at Pilon L Vista South one student claimed it encourages calling people and and that by reading a book like this she says the district is saying students can say whatever quotes from the book they want such as do I make you wet another student admitted even the teacher was uncomfortable to read Parts out loud adding he is not any more prepared for Life After reading this book what kind of learning environment are we creating in schools with books like this certainly not an environment where everyone feels safe welcome and included even the teacher was uncomfortable what is the educational value of these books what kind of culture are we cultivating will these adolescence grow into adults who will take

103sexual harassment in the workplace seriously if calling peers derogatory names is okay right now in schools I was speaking with a friend who is a survivor of sexual abuse and we got on the top topic of these books so I asked would reading something like this have helped you when you were experiencing abuse she said no as a grown woman who's been working on healing her whole life reading sexually graphic books depicting rape and molestation takes her back to some of her darkest moments she said kids are inadvertently being asked to relive trauma with these story lines when people defend these books as helping Abus children feel included and represented she said she never would have thought oh I'm so glad I can identify with this character and thank you author for making my abuse

104and making me feel represented it is our job as parents grandparents state board members teachers to protect our children tough topics can be taught through literary Works without being sexually explicit without bringing sexually explicit imagery into our children's psyches I would like to think one thing our state board members could find common ground on is keeping our kids protected from sexually explicit materials while in school today is a good day to redeem some of your lackluster voting records I ask again what kind of learning environment and culture will you be responsible for cultivating with your vote today thank you thank you Marney Kathy if you want to come forward good morning U my name is Kathy foche and I am in Deb n's District I am speaking today in support of the proposed rule 10

105Amendments when I brought up the book all boys aren't blue in early 2023 to my school district they stated to me as follows quote the work as a Define themselves there is value in offering different literary works for different students end quote a few months later our superintendent retired I brought up this book again along with other books available in the high school library that graphly graphically depict acts of rape and sexual assault the new superintendent directed A Review Committee to form and shortly thereafter the books were removed by the district one of the reasons for removal was that the books are widely available outside of the school through other libraries and media sources parents do not have local control with with regard to Media selection if the superintendent supports such books this will set

106the direction for the school and generally be supported by the majority of the school board have schools ever thought to consult studies on the effects of sexual content on teens and pre-teens when reading these books my guess is no when I found online reviews of these books something occurred to me here's one review from an individual who supports making all boy boys aren't blue available in schools quote I wish I had a book like all boys aren't blue and a chapter like boys will be boys when I was 11 and full of questions no one was willing to answer full of emotions regret disgust shame that weren't on me to process alone I could have had the language to know what happened to me I could have understand that my depression PTSD and substance abuse

107issues were common ramifications for survivors of childhood sexual assault here a review from the book Blood and Ash given by a woman quote appears to me that it was written from the perspective of someone who enjoys a forced consent Kink as someone who's experienced enough I felt nauseous after reading it I cried fully put me in the heads space of sexual assault in the aftermath here's my point these readers are not telling us they walked away from the book having gained learning or an esteemed sense of self it either informed a self-counseling session involving serious problems or invoked trauma what is the purpose of a public school to empower students to learn and think critically to prepare them for their future or is it to explore trauma and practice mental health these books are just

108the tip of the iceberg of education's efforts to become mental health facilities and that is not what Nebraska parents either expect of public education or want to fund with their hard earned thank you thank you Kathy Judy you're next and then Chris after that good morning I'm not going to say my name again because I'm scared of Kirk Penner and the people that follow him on Twitter coming at me if it's okay with all the humans in this room I'd like to pause for a moment in silence and honor Oklahoma student next Benedict friends I'm standing here today in fear I am afraid of weirdos like Kirk Penner Sher Jones and Elizabeth TM I fear these bible-based weirdos being the ones making decisions for Nebraska Children's teachers and Librarians how come none of you are

109discussing the violence incest and rape found in your Bible today I don't have a choice I got to cast my fears aside and turn on my mad mommy voice I am mad as h e double hockey sticks Kirk Penner Works to hurt kids and teachers the harass ment of last year's teacher of the year Renee Jones his Rogue letters and testimony against social emotional learning his tweets to Libs of Tik Tock and his conversations with Oklahoma superintendent Ryan Walters all of this is meant to incite anger and fear his wearing of his concealed guns to his board meetings his bold-faced lies and now his weird obsession with pornography and children his allegiance to hate groups like moms for Liberty NV and protect Nebraska children Kirk I don't feel safe near you I don't feel safe

110near you you Kirk Penner do you understand that you make this state less safe I'm disappointed that not one of Kirk's fellow board members has had the huta to stand up against this really weird behavior and this rules change you guys decided on rule 10 last year why now Kirk you know it's not going to pass today you're very well aware of that so what's going to happen is that you think you're going to flip the board and bring it back a year from now let me tell you something folks I got 55 seconds left and here's what I have to say if you live in sarpi County do not vote for Lind Vermon if you live in Fremont Bennington elorn do not vote for Lisa shanoff if you live in East Douglas County do

111not vote for Stacy Matula and if you live in this wonderful City of Lincoln do not vote for Liz Davids parents we have the control not Kirk Penner not TM and not Jones and by the way Kirk your tweets about your bestie Ryan Walters that's not the flex you think it is bro thank you Judy just want to remind all speakers that anyone refusing to be identified will be prohibited from speaking Chris Chris and Charles's next then thank you my name is Dr Chris oh I'm so sorry I'm sorry what are our identification rules because can can you can that be stated can can you go over that again I know there were some issues previously about what's written I'm sorry I'm speaking what's written on a card versus what is said verbally can you

112um Can the board parliamentarian go over that and just to add to that I on this signin list there's quite a few there's an N by their address will you explain that to what that means thanks certainly so the policy is uh in compliance with state law that a person must um provide their name and their address this board has instituted a practice in compliance with its policy and in compliance with state law that on the card one can elect to not indicate their address for their own reason and so uh that is all done on the card when someone signs in in the president's uh remarks preceding public comment then the president has asked speakers to State their name and if persons refuse to State their name they may be refused permission to speak

113does that answer the question just so that I'm understanding correctly the law says you have to provide your name and it doesn't indicate how you have to do that I don't believe so thank you Ryan thanks for being flexible Chris certainly uh my name is Dr Chris Chris Hefner I'm representing myself today um and I am served on this uh board by Kirk Penner uh I I live at 4343 North 178 street so um our school libraries in Nebraska serve every child who comes to them we serve kids from every country and every imaginable background we serve kids with conservative parents and liberal parents we serve kids who are tucked into bed safely at night and kids who experience unimagined Horrors we serve kids who have traveled the worlds and who and kids who have

114never left their city limits we serve kids who sit down to dinner and have conversations with their parents every night and we serve kids who try on and learn their values through television social media and books we serve kids who are exploring their sexuality we serve kids who are learning about boundaries and deciding who they want to be in this world we we serve kids who've been sexually abused and who are looking for their voices we serve Christian students Muslim Students agnostic students we serve kids whose parents take them to the public library every weekend and who have bookshelves full of books and we have served kids who have never once stepped in a public library and don't have a book to their name we serve them all let's remember why it's so important for

115students to have well-funded Library is full of books that are new engaging and that represent the lives and ideas that are complex and challenging as one of my favorite authors Richard peek writes we read because one life isn't enough and in the page of a book we can be anybody we read because the words that build the story become our own to build our lives we read not for Happy Endings or for New Beginnings but because we're just beginning ourselves and we we could use a map we read because every Journey Begins at the library we read because one of these days we're going to go everywhere and meet everybody and we need to be ready that's why it's so important for rule 10 to keep the provision that requires school libraries to purchase new

116materials for their students every year if our students are looking for a map to help build their lives our libraries need to be able to provide the current compx and meaningful B books to help them do that this is also why it's our local school boards who should decide for their districts what is or is not appropriate for the students they are serving in their local school libraries any parent or caregiver can already walk into their school library and request require that their child not have access to whatever books or content they disagree with every parent already has that right it's not questioned every district has a process for parents to report concerning titles and to ask their districts to have them removed according to board policies that already exists additionally every child also has

117the right to find their lives and their learning needs represented in their school library so if they are looking for the stories to build their map of their World they can do that history has taught us that if we don't require District inest investment in school libraries some libraries will quickly become unfunded irrelevant and you unused rule 10 as it stands prevents that history has also shown that local school boards do a darn good job listening to their communities and provide light Library selection guidelines and reconsideration policies that represent their families thank you very much thank you uh Cheryl is next and Jesse after that I'm Cheryl Wagner from Central City Nebraska and I worked as a counselor for over 40 years in Grand Island Nebraska I'm a mother a grandmother a Christian and a

118survivor of sexual abuse as a child I thank you board for hearing us today and I am a proponent I'm supporting rule 10 I pray for your support to prohibit and remove to to I pray for your support to remove and prohibit sexually explicit books and material from our school libraries and classrooms that can harm our children from having healthy boundaries and values I feel God directs all of us to be responsible as overseers of children who are created in God's image to protect children from immorality and harm when we open today we said the Pledge of Allegiance and as one nation under God we are held responsible to protect little the little ones in Matthew 18 4-6 it says truly I say to you unless you are converted and become like children you will

119not enter the Kingdom of Heaven whoever then humbles himself as this child he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble who would cause them harm it would be better for him to have a heavy Millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea and just for me I guess I feel like I'm held to a to a higher ruling as a Christian and I came here today because of that because I want us to protect children from harm and I do see sexually explicit materials being available to six-year-olds 8year olds 9year olds uh on up is it they're too young their brain as

120we've heard earlier is not capable uh of handling that um I thank you for having us here today and hearing us and I just pray that you let this weigh on your heart and and that it helps you to discern uh what's best for our children in Nebraska as a loving human being thank you oops Jesse and then Merlin good morning members of the board my name is Jesse McGrath and I'm from Omaha I am a proud public school graduate of a Nebraska high school and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln for both my undergraduate and my law degree and in reading through this proposal I I I'm left kind of in a quandry because I've had people here tell me that there is pornography in our schools I've heard them say that that is

121illegal so if there is pornography in our schools why have there not been arrests why have there not been people taken into custody that are doing this that is the fact that there is not pornography in our schools of course it's it should be illegal pornography is illegal as under the statutes what you have attempted to do here is do a modified Miller test not about pornography but something that you are calling um excessive sexual material what is that what exactly is that and how is that defined and you do realize that if you're prohibiting Free Speech you have to use the least restrictive means available that means not Banning it but if you want to make it so that parents have a choice that you can have them tell the school I do not

122want my child to be able to check out this book that is the least restrictive means not Banning it for everyone you may have a view that you don't want a child to read a certain book great that is your view another parent may have another view of that and think that it is something that has has value to their child you are trying to take away that right from that parent to make that decision uh you can say oh well it's available somewhere else not always sometimes the school library is the only place that a child can really get to the materials that they need they may live too far away from a public library they may have other things that prohibit them from being able to gain access to those things the fact

123that something is available somewhere else doesn't mean you get to restrict it totally in a school so I think you should think very long and very hard about the Constitutional nature of what this is trying to uh to do and realize that there are less restrictive means and that you should not be banning things that you may personally disagree with because of your religious views when there are other people who have a different view from that you don't get to legislate your hate so thank you thank you Jesse uh Merlin is next and Lou after that good morning my name is Merlin Bartels Lincoln Nebraska I'm here today to support the proposed changes in rule 10 concerning the school library and media sources why does the entertainment industry have system of ratings that tells people

124if the movie or show that has violence or sexual content or language may not be appropriate for different age groups they realized way back when they set these different ratings that it can be harmful to younger people so why don't we have a better guideline in our libraries and schools that sets a standard for what is acceptable for the different age groups and not letting all material be avail aailable to everyone or let's screen to make sure that it's available to the appropriate age groups or just leave it out completely there are studies that show when younger children are exposed to sexually explicit material that it can cause relationship issues later in her life so why do we allow these materials to be readily available or taught in some of our classes on another subject

125wonder why schools are asked to spend money on new books every year I know they need to keep up and the local schools should be able to see if they need to be updated or not and our kids are not learning to read because of the curriculum choices that have been made in the past not the worn out books so let's leave that to the Local Schools taxpayers want relief from the spending so why does a school need to buy a new book every year if they feel they don't need it and I and as I've walked listened through the last year or so meetings I'm asking that this board just not rubber stamp everything that comes across them I set through several meetings with five of the present members on the board and a

126different commissioner that was asked to spend money covid money that never reached the Financial committee according to Jacqueline Morrison because she was the only one that objected to spending that money that day I thank you for raising objection I ask that this board be diligent and I see that this board is more diligent and our commissioner is more diligent too and I appreciate that fact so continue to be diligent to represent the people that you were elected to represent thank you for your time Lou and then Nancy sorry I lost my place thank you Merlin good morning ladies and gentlemen my name is leis Frank BRZ III I'm a born product of the Oma Public School System my children three of them are soon to be well at least one of them's graduating this year

127products of the Lincoln Public School System a lifelong Nebraskan along with my wife I didn't plan on being here this morning I didn't plan on coming here and talking to Y all because frankly I don't like being in places like this I was asked to by another parent I was asked to come here and ask y'all to oppose the rule change that Kirk Penner is trying to push through under the guise of protecting children why is that because what Kirk Penner and others like him are trying to actually do is erase children I was asked to come here because actually as a father of three one of my children is trans do you know what that's like do you know what that's like being a child in the schools and not being able to see

128a single literary work that is about you we made Barbies and we sell them on the shelves so that little girls can sit there and imagine themselves to be astronauts and scientists and presidents we made little GI Jo's and we made whole comic strips about them just so we could sell to the idea of little boys that you're going to go off and die for your country but we oppose the ability and the idea of children to actually read and see and understand who they are because some of our bigoted views and our ideas of mixing church and state which is against the Constitution sir we feel that somehow that's the way to go then we have parents who show up and they talk about trauma and keeping children safe I am not going to

129waste all four minutes of my time or yours getting into their thoughts and opinions but I do have to question how many of them are worried about keeping children safe as I sit here and have to send my children to school every day going through the processes of making sure they are okay if there is a school shooting at our school see that's a problem that has not been solved since I was in high school and Coline happened and you could go ahead and film I have no worry or concern about you or any of you that are filming right now I've already been outed on the internet I've already had death threats at my home why because we're different because we believe different we live in Nebraska we're supposed to be Nebraska Nice we're

130supposed to all be living the good life but somehow or another Nebraska is not just for everyone anymore isn't that right that's what you all want to do and it starts right here and right now it starts with all of you are you going to allow this to pass through in this shelving of education and literature and handing it off to the worldwide web and kids could go figure it out on their own are you going to stand up and do the right thing which has reinforced this state's public education system that when I grew up was one of the best in this country now that's up to y'all to figure out thank you because it ain't happened yet thank you Lou Nancy uh you're up and jeie after that I'm Nancy Packard of Lincoln

131Nebraska I have new hearing aids that make me not know how I sound to you every one of us in here has children's interests in heart and we're expressing it so very differently but we all want so much for the best for children um I didn't plan to bring some show and tell but I was going to take these books back to the library this morning I was going to walk I live close to one if I um but it was too snowy so I didn't do it these are books that I was hoping to interest my 1-year-old granddaughter in Reading with me we're going to take a trip together and I wanted us to read something together and some of you know these are superb books The Tree Grows in Brooklyn uh from the

132mixed up files of Mrs Frank b e Frank Waller I haven't read that one these are all uh I was a teacher and 20 years ago these were cream of the crop I think they still are but my granddaughter's not interested in them and I have conceited this time I'm going to read whatever she wants to read we'll read it and I hope in time to convince her to read that I'm not worried about her getting into um sexually explicit books in the library I really hope she doesn't but I'm really worried that she might encounter some pornography or some sites on the Internet or through U social media that's what I'm worried about I think libraries are not to be feared children are going to get their a their questions answered got my questions

133answered when I'm 79 when I was about nine my mom forbid me to read Forever Amber we must have had it in the house and also lady chatterly's lover and um I found a way to read them I did because I wanted to know and frankly I've got my questions answered about sexual Matters by Dennis and jeene my mother didn't tell me I didn't know there was a place to find them children will get their questions answered they will get exactly what they need and we parents and we grandparents will not know about it so instead of um instead of making the library a place a place to be feared I had kind of a funny thought in my mind in reading through the background to this I I felt like the main purpose of

134a library is to not check out bad books right it's kind of like if we were to take kids through the school and say now the main purpose of the kindergarten room is to not use up all the pencils and the main purpose in the bathroom is to leave toilet paper for the next people it's kind of what we're saying with um uh libraries the main purpose is not to get a bad book actually the main purpose is to get what we need um what we desperately need in our culture is for each of us to independently get the information we need without having it fed To Us by an electronic means that is the scary thing today and that is the thing that we all should be focused on rather than um restricting what

135our children have access to I can monitor a book with a child but I cannot monitor Electronic media thank you thank you Nancy Jean and then Kevin good morning my name is Jeanie gron and I'm here representing Nebraskans for Founders values and um I just want to look um looking at rule 10 um just quoting some of the um I guess definitions of science what uh the board says in your rules what you're going to teach children is help children develop an understanding of science Concepts and processes then under Health it talks about helps children develop an understanding of the body systems nutrition and wellness the curriculum includes the study of body systems and factors which affect health and so with that in mind um I did some research into some books um and things

136that are in libraries across the state and needless to say I was in shock and awe but I want to focus on one book in particular it's called ubu a guide to gender sexuality and family the title sounds amazing like while a kid maybe um when they're going through changes in puberty maybe it's obviously getting lower into like fourth and fifth grade it used to be people kids would go through puberty in eighth grade whatever but obviously it's lower so this book has some pictures in it um which believe it or not is showing that there's more than two genders and so they're touching on something and you can't say that it's completely false what this book is saying but it's bringing up the small percentage of ambiguous genitalia which according to an NIH publication

137affects 0.1% to0 2% of the population which is nothing so we're putting this book in schools in Nebraska at this age group to say and they with pictures showing there's more than two genders so we're using books like this spending taxpayer dollars to create confusion in children when they're going through through puberty which is completely stressful anyway so now we're going to add more confusion into this process where kids are really struggling now is are we following what our policy is about health and science that's what I'm wondering so that's a waste of taxpayer dollars and why would we do that to our children so in addition to to that particular one I kind of want to refocus on some things that happened since last year and I'm going to bring up Jason Martinez we

138were all in shock last year when he came to this board and read excerpts out of uh books that contained detailed inexplicit sexual content this board was shocked every person sitting in the audience was shocked and needless to say that was in a book that's in all these schools the same thing happened at the legislature in Senator Wayne's um hearing people showed up and read excerpts out of these same books and guess what Senator Wayne and that whole committee of senators were completely uncomfortable as well and he didn't like it that this material was being read to him so he didn't like it the people in the legislature didn't like it you all didn't you all didn't like it either however we're saying that's okay for our kids to read it and have access to

139it I think that's such hypocrisy so I support Curt's penner's um rule change because we don't need to sexualize our kids and incite sexual responses by allowing them to read this material while they're at school do we have behavioral issues in schools absolutely talk to any teacher maybe it's tied to some of this material so I really want you to consider voting for that and we need to get this explicit content out of the schools thank you thank you uh Kevin you're next and then Tony good morning thank you for the opportunity to speak today my name is Kevin Abes I am a longtime journalist a husband and father of five children here in Lincoln I'm here this morning to oppose board member Kirk penner's proposal to ban pornographic materials from our state's School libraries

140now outwardly penner's proposal is designed to combat an epidemic of sexually explicit reading materials that have contaminated our school libraries encouraging our children to become sexually active and develop sexually deviant personalities outwardly that's what his proposal would do the funny thing is no such epidemic exists in our state you heard as much at your February 2nd meeting from Chris Hefner president of the Nebraska School Library Association but still pener persists contending School libraries across our great state are failing every day to filter obscene reading materials from our children's inquisitive Eyes Only the state is capable of ensuring lewd reading materials are denied to our children according to Penner mccortney pentland president of the American Association of school libraries assured you in February that school librarians are well trained to weed out salacious reading materials they

141not only have re teaching certificates but also have taken additional class classes to earn Library certifications so what is the true purpose of penner's proposal to fix something that isn't broken for those of us who watched this happen elsewhere it's become clear what Penner wants because we've seen this play before we saw it in Oklahoma where State School Superintendent Ryan Walters appointed anti-lgbtq plus activist Chay Ric to the Oklahoma library media committee Walters demonstrated his own hatred of lgbtq plus children and August of last year when he released a video calling transgender students a threat to school safety now Kirk penner's admiration of Libs of Tik Tok has been well documented and I can help but wonder whether Penner plans to include its founder Chay raek or some other member of her hate group in

142future decisions regarding what constitutes pornography in our schools regardless the purpose of penner's proposal has come to focus The Proposal if approved would do nothing to stop pornography from entering our school libraries a problem that simply doesn't EX exist what it would do is create greater oversight of our school libraries by people who have demonstrated their hatred of our lgbtq plus children it would seek to erase from our libraries any mention of lgbtq plus people it would seek to erase their histories their challenges and their contributions from the literary Havens where our children's minds are molded each day our children then deprived of any knowledge about their lgbtq plus peers would undoubtedly become less understanding less tolerant of those peers seeing them as strange and abnormal bullying of our lgbtq plus children would inevitably follow

143as a Native American I understand all too well the impact of historical eraser it is something we fight every day to every day to reverse but that continues to affect the hearts and minds of my children who must walk into classrooms each day in which their people's histories are entirely absent it is clear to me and many in this room that Kirk Penner wants to erase lgbtq plus history and contemporary presence as well and so I call on each of you to stop and take an honest look about what you're about to consider face the truth that if you approve this proposal Penner and others who share his ideas would do will do everything in their power to ensure they are the ones who decide what constitutes pornography in our schools rather than the hardworking

144well-trained Librarians who have built their careers on their ability to protect the minds of our precious children and our local school boards and make no mistake this is about eras it's about hate don't do it do not do it again thank you thank you Kevin Tony is next and Marilyn after that oh it's a new group sorry about that uh the next 11 Tony tangwell Marilyn Asher Brook Ritter Darcy Zod Katie mcclemens Sue Greenwall Jenna dur Judy dur Scott Thomas the last ones and then Tony you're up first I wanted to speak to Mr Penner he's not here yet you let somebody else go but I'm going to can we all right I'm just GNA read you want me we're GNA read them one more time because I don't everybody's not up here so we're

145going to read them one more time yes okay I've had a request from a board member to take a five minute break and so we will reconvene at 11:25 yeah the board will reconvene in one minute please begin to take your seats the board will reconvene in one minute please please find your seats okay the board meeting is going to reconvene um and we will continue with public comment as we take this item back up I just just want to remind the members of the public to please address your comments to the board that is the purpose of public comment and also please state your name for the board thank you so much 450 miles west of here so I wanted to make sure Mr Penner was here this morning when I walked in the

146lady asked me if I wanted to sign a comment sheet and I went ahead and filled it out but I wasn't going to say anything and so I thought that as Miss Tech Meer has just pointed out that we were here to address the board but it's become very obvious that many people want to address Kurt pener so I want to address Kurt pener today Kirk as your detractors call you and I want to just tell you I can see you're a pretty big fell and got pretty broad shoulders but you don't have to carry this burden Alone brother I'm proud to call you a friend and I'll ride with you any day anywhere so that being said let me remind some people we've all gotten up here and we've uh uh acts very eloquent

147about things and I've he people speak about the Bible and how things are in the Bible so I'd like to address that subject first of all someone was talking about well Song of Solomon I would remind you this morning that the same person that wrote the book of The Song of Solomon also said this that the fear of the Lord is a beginning of wisdom and our nation needs to remember that we've talked about the Constitution and our founding fathers I'd like to remind this board and everyone in this room that our founding fathers believed this that you were entitled this was what you were entitled to you were entitled to the things that the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitled you and many of these things that are in these books that

148we're talking about are not natural I'd like to remind you as well that we've had people come up here and talk about how they were raised in a public school system 30 years ago and it was a great thing probably was because the books that they're proposing to put into our Public School Systems now weren't there 30 years ago I'd like to remind this board that there are some of you on this board that are doing a good job and there are some of you that are so out of touch with the people that live in western Nebraska that when your names are brought up this the their heads just shake you're out of touch I know you probably don't care about that because you live here and I know that everybody thinks that western

149Nebraska is Cary but it's not it's Crawford and it's Bayard and it's Hay Springs we don't appreciate when our rights as parents are scoffed at and we will stand for it we'll do it correctly and we'll do it in a manner that is uh worthy of the office that you hold but there are people there is a there is a tide rising in this state so CT you don't sit here this morning by yourself there are people all over the state that support you we drove 450 miles to get here to tell you that we support you the very notion that we would say that because nobody's being arrested there must not be a crime it's Paramount to telling me that it's not snowing out side cuz a snowplow hasn't gone past your house Senator

150Steve Erdman is famous for making this quote common sense is not a flower that grows in everyone's garden and when he said that I said well that sounds like Senator Erman the more time I spend in Lincoln the more I realize he's absolutely correct thank you for your time thank you Tony Marilyn you're up next it's Marilyn aser here you're up next and then bre my name is Marilyn Asher I'm from Omaha Nebraska and I'm the president of Nebraska's for Founders values and a member of protect child health Coalition I retired from the Department of Correctional Services where I worked for with severely troubled youth at the Nebraska Correctional youth facility from 2002 to 2017 it was there that I saw the effects of negative influences in those kids' lives which started when they were

151young children because of my concern for children I have done research for Senator Janie Albright and other public officials since 2020 I have researched what is accessible to children in our Nebraska public and school libraries through Library databases which I refer to as digital encyclopedias in my research I have documented screenshots of sexually explicit and age inappropriate material materials found in databases that are purchased by Nebraska access as well as an edtech program called simolo in Nebraska Elementary libraries not only can a child access such materials by typing the word sex into a search bar and what kindergartener or first grader cannot spell that word uh but an innocent search of such topics as boys food or girls dolls in some similo search bars come up with astounding x-rated videos of sexual intercourse these sites

152lead vulnerable children into a world for which they are not prepared children are naturally curious about sex which is a normal phenomenon but Nebraska is allowing their views of sex to be distorted by disregarding their childhood innocence and by allowing them to view materials that are obtained from vendors and are curated into school and Public Library databases adults in Nebraska are not allowed to legally expose themselves or show such photos of such to children as they walk down the street in any of our city school libraries for the last three years I have testified for anti-obscenity bills to legislative committees that have turned a DEA air and have not Advanced those bills to General file but in 2023 I presented my research to the administrators of the Omaha Public School District I showed them the

153path that a child could take to access ex sexually explicit materials within 30 seconds in the Elementary online libraries and I was pleasantly surprised when the administrators of Ops took my research seriously and eliminated access to the source to which I directed them which was the simolo edtech program I then checked out 207 other schools districts in Nebraska and found that eight of them scattered throughout the state still contain the simolo program I recently have written to all eight of those districts administrators and have asked them to remove that program and I'm happy to report that one of them is doing so right now in my opinion any program that produces age inappropriate material impedes the academic and intellectual progress that any student can achieve by going online to do research on any given topic

154I have likened it to ordering a set of world book encyclopedias which we did for our children and then having sexually explicit material pop up on any given page when one of our kids could be doing research on a bonafied subject the effect on one's mind is shocking and is impossible to erase especially from an innocent mind any child that would come across such material either intentionally or unintentionally could be severely distracted from learning about any other subject not to mention the mental and emotional trauma that such material would cause if you approve these um if you approve of the changes uh that Mr Penner has uh suggested I trust that you will vote for them because our entire state will be better off if you do and it will restore trust in the Board

155of Education thank you Marilyn Brooke you're next and then Darcy after that is Brook here no okay Darcy is she just right outside the door okay then we're moving on all right Darcy saod uh you're up hi Darcy swoda Corney Nebraska I'm with protect Nebraska children so Deb nurri was quoted in the Nebraska examiner for an article written August 20th 2022 I am quite certain that there is no school administrator no policy maker no librarian no educator no Democrat or no parent in Nebraska that is intentionally promoting the use of inappropriate materials in our schools that statement is ludicrous Library contest staff favorite pics band Book weeks class Library time where the Librarians tell the class about new or popular reads these are just a few examples of school staff recommending inappropriate content I love

156the proposed revisions to the library media technology resources policy it is amazing to me how many people simply do not know how many obscene materials in our school library and that they can look for themselves without having to physically go into the school to find it there are good reasons to implement this policy the American Library Association expressively States on their website that they do not consider weeding of an item based on criteria defining a library or School District's policy to be a ban the American College of pediatrician stating that because of the harmless harmfulness of pornography on children it should never be used as a tool to teach human sexuality this policy change is well thought out eliminating the book purchases mandate allows liberians to focus on quality instead of quantity the definitions for

157pornography and sexually implicit material are clearly defined there is no ambiguity and it matches what is defined by law requirement three better defines the policy requirements for the local boards unfortunately many are vague which I believe is on purpose requirement four and six not only are the library cataloges required to be current up to date and accurate the district superintendent will be required to supply an attestation that the library cataloges are public and give an exact link but I suggest that you make sure that the library cataloges are not locked with a password thank you for spilling out the procedures for non-compliances as well as consequences as a parrent I have found that I am dismissed and cast aside by some of the school board members in many ways it seems hopeless as we take

158the time to jump through hoops to challenge books according to policies in turn we the parents are treated like we are stupid uneducated irrational bigots Etc School staff administrators local boards and especially the district superintendence need to be held accountable give parents a reason to trust the public school system again thank you thank you is Brick back in the room no okay she is oh okay hi brick sorry and then Darcy's next oh no I went to the bathroom um Katie's next I am Brook Ritter I am from Carney I have been here before um I would like to talk to you guys about not stimulating the genitals of our children you may stimulate the mind but if it stimulates the genitals at the same time you're doing wrong I am quite clear in this

159I don't know how to be more blunt I am so tired of hearing that my superintendent won't do anything because you guys won't tell them to stop giving our children pornography erotica I don't care what you call it I'm calling it stimulating the genitals if it is promoting the puant interest in our children you're doing wrong I don't stimulate my child's genitals and I don't want you to either either I'm quite clear with this right am I you nod sometimes and you shouldn't be you are the legal counsel anyways I am completely wishing if you are going to vote for this that you give me a well- defined a well uh scripted answer in which why you need to stimulate the children and their genitals because when you give them these materials you are giving

160it to them explicitly to generate sexual desire that is the problem okay that is the problem you don't get to do that and I'm sorry that you're not running again the rest of you guys good luck but um seriously what at what point do you guys think that you can give children material that the parents don't wish necessary and it's lower income areas that are going to be affected you should think about that what is this going to do to children when they're exposed to things that they shouldn't be because you can't unrate the mind you cannot unsee you cannot unkn and you cannot unread but what are the safeguards what safeguards do we have in place that say we're sure we aren't giving children things that they shouldn't be having you don't have them

161that that's unacceptable you are acting as if you are the parent I don't I don't wish to stimulate any sexual desire in my child I wish for you guys not to either would you please act as me like I think you guys are doing what I would want if you aren't and if you're worried about my kid knowing how to give a blow job what kind of job are we worried about making our children are we looking for sex workers are you educating a sex worker is that like the job field that we're giving our children I don't I completely don't understand and I don't script my answers or my speech so but seriously when our books are giving our children a detailed description on how to give a good what field of interest do

162you think they're going into you should not be thinking about our child's our children's any child not just my child any child you don't get to give this CH to children you don't have that right that is the right of the parent the parent has that right if the parent wants to give this to their children they have that right the school does not have that right please respect the parents thank you thank you Brooke Katie you're up next and then Sue good morning board my name is Katie mcclemens today I represent protect Nebraska children Coalition and today I am here in support of the proposed rule changes to rule 10 I'd like to discuss some of the positive outcomes that would come from adopting this rule change for Nebraska schools first it would provide

163for greater local control this proposal lifts the burdensome and expensive Mandate of of 150 new books in our media centers every year by lifting this mandate local Librarians could decide if if a if such a turnover of catalog material is actually necessary some years that might make sense to do that other years it may not there is a finite space within our media centers new books mean disposing of other books this kind of decision should only be uh should not be CED by a state mandate but should be made Instead at the discretion of that local librarian based on that school's needs and the community standards one of Nebraska's guiding principles of education is local control and this proposal is a step in the right direction but the greatest benefit of this proposal is that

164it helps to make the schools um helps make our schools safer for the students within their walls it is a tragedy that students and children are often exposed to sexually explicit material in our culture but we can all agree that such exposure damages the children we want to protect the space within the walls of our schools should be safe regardless of the influences outside of those walls this is an issue on which we can come together we can show United support and set a positive tone for our schools the political factions that wish to divide might sling hyperboles they might talk about banned books but this is not Banning this is curating curating for content and value exactly what every good teacher and parent does already as a geography teacher I taught my kids North

165Korea North Korea has banned books the United States does not have baned books if a student or a parent wants to get their hands on a book it can be obtained the school's job is to curate books and to provide that which is helpful not harmful you will hear some say that these sexual explicit books aren't even in our schools and if that is the case then this proposed uh change would simply act as a preventative to keep harmful material from reaching our students in the future unless one actually wants another person's minor student exposed to sexually explicit material while in the care of our schools there should be no opposition to this rule change and for those who actually do want this sexually explicit material in the hands of our students and there are

166those we must ask ourselves why what is the purpose and perhaps most importantly what is the what are the consequences of such exposure what happens when we expose our students while in our care to sexually explicit material so considering the positive outcomes of more local control and clear guidelines which would protect the hearts and minds of our students I and thousands of other attentive Nebraskans look forward to how you as a board can work together to pass this rule change for the benefit of all of our Nebraska schools thank you thank you Katie Sue you're up next and then Jenna thank you my name is Sue Greenwald I'm from Carney I want to debunk a couple of things before I start um this proposed policy change it does not have a sexual orientation or a

167race um so claiming that it's going to erase any kind of student is really just changing the subject also the 150 book um limit seems like a reasonable thing if you live in lincol or Omaha but uh let's say you live in me or Wan or Gordon where 150 books might be 20% of your library shelves this is a very onerous expensive and unnecessary limit for small schools and if you change nothing else please change that also every school does not have a book challenge policy Carney Public Schools does not have a book challenge policy so um if just because your school has it you can't speak for everyone else I want to talk about some research that you've received an email some of you may have read it some may not so we'll talk

168about it uh grandmother in in Norfork did this research she went through uh schools that she could get access to online through their their Library System 148 high schools and she looked for 83 titles of books the books are rated by booklook s.org uh for um inappropriate content and the ratings are similar to movie ratings so if you think of a a level three book would be PG-13 um and that would be a level three book is is um The Color Purple is a level three book a level two book just for reference is um To Kill a Mocking Bird a level four book would be uh consistent with an R-rated movie and um and it a level five book would be considered x-rated or adult only um the books that were found at the

16983 books that she looked for 40 of them were threes 40 of them were fours and five of them or sorry four of them were fives so the percentage of three books in the schools was 16% actually not all that many three books were in the schools um some of those quite are quite good books the percentage of four books so our rated books in the schools was 33% remarkably um the number of our rated books were double the number of PG-13 books but the most significant thing she found was that there even though there were only four books now remember there were 40 books in the other two categories 40 and three 40 and four there were only four books in the um level five category the x-rated category a whopping 49% of schools

170had at least one of those four x-rated books more than any other of the rated books and that's only four titles only four titles the question is why um clearly the more disturbing the content the more likely it is to be found on a library shelf of a Nebraska school I don't think 49% of the Librarians woke up one day and said we want x-rated books but what I do think might have happened is that they needed to have 150 books in their library and they didn't have the budget for it so they accepted donations and it it's quite possible that these x-rated books are coming through donations I don't know just speculating but that's what makes sense um if that's the case uh it would be nice to know who donated those books or

171even if if the school paid for them who who picked them how were they dispersed and what is the agenda of the people who dispersed them 49% of the high schools had at least one of four x-rated books whereas they had none not near that many 16% of the of the PG-13 33% of the R-rated so let that sink in thank you sue uh Jenna you're up next and then Judy after that thank you my name is jenor from Carney today I speak on behalf of myself as a concerned mom when I first started hearing about issues with books in our schools I'll be honest I thought I don't want to get involved with that it's probably not that bad I don't know why everyone's making such a big deal about this but I kept

172hearing about it and so I chose to listen and I educated myself and quite frankly I was shocked um I had no idea that sexually explicit material was so readily available to Children across our state in our school libraries ever since I was a young girl I have loved to read I was totally that kid who could not put a book down I'd stay up late reading I'd read um read during all the meals um I'd get in trouble and my books would be taken away from me um and some of my earliest memories um are going to the liary and picking out piles and piles of books and I think now what would have happened if I had stumbled across sexually explicit material which is available to kids today it makes me sick to

173think about this and yet it's happening we know early exposure to sexually explicit material is incredibly damaging to Children we've heard that over and over this morning and I think this is something we can all agree upon we want to protect children in our schools should be that safe space I'm thankful for Mr penner's proposed changes because it's allowed F their conversation and more education regarding the availability of these sexually explicit materials when I've spoken to others in conversation I have gotten some eye rolles or general just disinterest in the in the topic however when they actually look at the content in the books and that's the key you have to see this to believe it to be honest um the look on the their faces they're they're shocked just like I was because it

174um it's so bad you can't believe it's real I don't think people in general can imagine just how sick and disgusting the content can be yet alone that it's accessible to children in their school libraries the proposed changes to rule 10 would help bring printed materials under regulation similar to the regulations associated with filtering online content afforded by the child internet protection act and these are common sense changes and I would implore you to help protect the innocence of our children and to curate books with content that's both educational and valuable thank you thank you Jenna Judy and then Scott good morning Judy dur Sherry Jones District thank you for serving on our state board of education each one of you um as an educator with a masters in clinical mental health but most importantly

175a mama and a Mimi I'm representing many family members and professionals and supporting the proposed changes to rule 10 thank you Mr Penner my dear my dear beloved Grandma bum bum instilled in me as a little girl a deep Lifelong Love of reading and she always said sweetheart you can go anywhere with a good book and I did our own daughters all of reading and now our Grands are falling in love with stories and books as well I am the last one who wants to ban or burn a book I do want developmentally appropriate content that is carefully and thoughtfully curated in our classrooms please help me understand the educ ational value of sexually explicit sexually violent unspeakable acts and content that is easily available sometimes required in our taxpayer funded schools the Educators in

176my family continue to be horrified at the real possibilities of children who have experienced sexual trauma reexperiencing that trauma through a book found in their school library or even in their classroom or children who have not been exposed to sexual trauma become traumatized for the first time how do you how do I teach explain rationalize a sickening violent rape scene between a father and his little girl to our little eight-year-old who can't get enough books in her hands right now so I implore each of you we can all agree we can unite on this we can for the safety the well-being and the mental health of our kids our classrooms must be safe spaces for every student with equal consideration and equal protection please vote Yes to the proposed changes and please remember the words

177of my bum bum who said you can go anywhere with the good book but right now I ask you where are we asking our kids to go thank you thank you Judy Scott you're next excuse me Scott Thomas Freemont Nebraska uh Thank you Kirk Panner for bringing this uh I came here I didn't know who Kirk Penner was so I had to learn all that on the spot but let it kind of wash over you you feel that you feel kind of dulled by this having listened to two hours of this type of testimony sexual predations towards children that's the insular cortex it's a discust mechanism that's what causes you to kind of tune out distance yourself from what you're hearing it's like it kills a piece of your soul and you'll never get it

178back the two hours not the soul I mean but uh you know I I I recognized this issue is not without a human cost and I had somebody approach me outside I went to see our state senator Cal speak and I had somebody approach me outside of the meeting or outside of the speech and say um you know why are these people against us and I said nobody's against you uh these people want what's best for you and he said but they don't know me and I think that's the core issue right there is we know the these things aren't open to subjective interpretation we know what things are good for the long-term success of children it's it's an objective issue not a subjective one and so I I'm the US idhr Regional director so

179the US Institute of diplomacy and human rights I'm the regional director for the state of Nebraska and I run Village in progress we do 1948 udhr casework exclusively that's all we do so I came last May to our city council meeting because our pastor's wife had brought an issue with one of these books that was in our City libraries there's a couple different things that you have to understand about this um article 25 of the 1948 udhr entitles children to special protections by government article 26 entitles them to proper education so there are prerequisites by international law required here um and I went and I spoke and I said said what I see here in our society that's occurring is there was a book that preceded this by 30 years called do I have a

180daddy and on the back of the book it says you know Johnny falls down at school and Lisa teases him and says you don't have a daddy you don't have a daddy and he goes home and he ask his mother do I have a daddy and she says you like all other little boys have a daddy but being a daddy is a hard job and a lot of daddies give up and they run away and it's okay for you to not have a daddy because your mommy loves you and cover the spread I think that is a precursor to this book that we're seeing now in our society or these books that are praying on children and something required for those predations is that you remove the protective factors from the child's life that would

181be the biological parents we know that so across the street not across the street across the city we got 49 Senators right uh in our Nebraska legislature and our unic camel they're not all experts in these particular areas so they take legisl Community testimony from different experts in different areas that's part of the 1948 udhr to that's Article 28 and entitles you to a functional form of government and so we don't have that right now somebody called in the question why aren't there arrest being made I called for that last May at our school at our uh city council meeting and I I could name the three cops that were in the room nobody was being arrested so we don't have a competent functional form of government if that's the case and we all agree

182that these books aren't appropriate for children that you wouldn't give them to your children so I uh filed last Thursday for my candidacy for the Nebraska legislative district 15 so that we can restore that restore responsibility responsibility to our government thank you for your time I have M Mr Thomas Mr Thomas I have one question for for you ma' you you mentioned a title and I I didn't write down fast enough who you were the United States Institute of diplomacy and human rights I'm the regional director for the state of Nebraska I'm also the founder and director of village and progress and my mother's the principal director here she's in the audience 30 years in public education 50 thank I'm going to hear about that later thank you for having me is that all okay

183thank you to everyone who came and testified today um we do have submitted written public comments there are 175 of those they are attached in the electronic meeting agenda for the board and the public is able to review those as well agenda item six do we have any items okay is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda a second okay it is moved and seconded to adopt the consent agenda per board policy there is no discussion on the motion to adopt the consent agenda with the recording secretary please call the role Penner yes Jones yes Ricky yes ner yes Gobles yes Morrison yes T Meer yes Co John's yes eight yes the affirmative has it and the consent agenda is adopted at this time the board will break for a lunch and we will

184reconvene I have had requests from board members to take a 30 minute break is there any objection from other board members to reduce lunch to 30 minutes okay we will reconvene here at 12:35 thank you all right the board will re reconvene in one minute so please take your seats okay so we are now on agenda item seven the standing committee reports the next item of business is um the rules and regulations committee meeting Lisa chair fricky will report on behalf chair Lisa fricky will report on behalf of the rules and regulations committee meeting do you need a moment yes I do okay okay okay sorry about that um the rules and regulation committee met yesterday morning and members that were present were Elizabeth techm Kirk Penner and uh Lisa bricky me committee members reviewed

185the rules report nde staff discussed the revisions to rule four regulations for textbook loans to children enrolled in private schools in Nebraska and have initiated the process of revision 4 in response to lb 705 which was the Christmas bill that had everything in it from last year and nde staff presented potential educator certification changes committee members discussed and presented issues and potential Solutions we'll con um will continue discussions in the future we're looking for alternative paths to get people in the classroom without taking away the quality of teaching so nde staff discuss um revisions to rule 17 regulations governing the approval of alternative school classes or programs for expelled students and have initiated the process revising rule 17 in response again to lb 705 in 2023 nde staff discussed the repeal of rule 22 regulation

186governing the master teacher program andde staff plans to prepare rule 22 for repeal in response to again legislation committee members discussed the proposed future revisions of rule 10 related to section six library media technology that committee Kirk pener presented in February the committee recommends moving this item forward to the full board for Action today and thank you are there any questions on the rules and regulations committee report item 7.1 point B Kirk Penner do you have a motion on item 7.1 point B I do I move to direct the commissioner to propose revisions to rule 10 related to the content of library media and Technology resources and the required number of library media and Technology resources after the current revisions are adopted by the governor can you pass that is there a second on this

187motion I second it is excuse me it is moved and seconded to direct the commissioner to propose revisions to rule 10 related to the content of library media and Technology resources and the required number of library media and Technology resources after the current revisions are adopted by the governor is there any discussion on this motion I'd like to start if that's okay since I brought it up go ahead I've got a little PowerPoint here just so you can see on the screen what I'm talking about yeah there you go okay very good so um thank you Dr four my motion today is to Simply move forward rule 10 is sitting on the governor's desk and what I'd like to do is move this framework of what I presented in February it's not set in stone

188take that back as a Baseline and and work on it to try and talk about the minimums that we're purchasing for our schools and we talked about that yesterday with Lisa in the committee and we've got 25 periodicals being purchased every year does that where did the 25 come up with you know do we need 20 or does that just need it does it may not mean to be zero right now I have it totally taken out but is there somewhere where we could meet to uh to make the rule or the Mandate more 2024 regul uh ready so this PowerPoint I'm going to talk a little bit more about the second part of it but really what we're trying to do is get this what I am trying to do is get this back

189into the rules and regulations committee to discuss the minimums and to discuss the sexually explicit material in uh our schools today so again I'm going to read off the little paragraphs here that I did my motion today is simply to move forward and work through the rules process to remove obscene indecent and sexually explicit content in our schools this content is already defined in Supreme Court case Miller versus California and Nebraska State Statute but is also regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and the children's internet protection act sipa adults showing sexually allowing social excuse me sexually explicit content to be available to minor children should be concerning to all of us we have the authority the State Board of Education has the authority and this is just a slide talking about State Statute and giving

190us the ability and the authority to regulate Library facilities and um and its materials and the Nebraska State Statute dictates rules standards and proced procedures of accreditation for libraries facilities and materials accredited Nebraska schools are required to meet quality and performance-based approval or accreditation standards as prescribed by the State Board of Education the State Board of Education already dictates specific numbers of instructional units content and graduation requirements through rule 10 I'm trying to do this all by myself here so forgive me here these are just examples of the 40 instructional units that we require what in mathematics we have to teach geometry we already do a lot of this from the State Board of Education because we have the authority to do this and this is the graduation requirements here we also provide curriculum guidance

191to schools through edreports thatorganicmom to our minor minor children in my opinion is not a local control decision in fact as was mentioned a little bit earlier it is unlawful to provide minor children obscene material in Nebraska and this is the reference to 28813 and also revised Statute 28808 where it talks about providing to a minor harmful to miners and this is continued harmful to miners any book or pamphlet um taken as a whole is harmful to Miners And so that is all uh in Statute in the state legislature already there the question that I think we saw today in some of the comments is how is sexually explicit content allowed in our school libraries why aren't people being arrested well there's an exemption there's an obscenity exemption for Nebraska and I know Senator Albright

192is trying to write that I don't know if she'll get it done this year but for sexually explicit content such person's activity consists of teaching in regularly established or recognized education institutions that is an allowable defense so that's why the sexually explicit material can get into our schools due to the obscenity ex uh exception so if you want to see a law in pictures this is just simple sexually explicit content is legal in the school building but outside of that school building it is illegal according to State Statute due to the exemption I've seen content has been defined in Miller versus con California court case in order for the content to be considered obscene all three of these bullet points have to be met it's a three-prong test that has to be met and I'm

193going to hand all this stuff out so if you can just kind of take a look at it you know you got to have uh paintly obvious it's got to be uh prant interest we heard a little bit about and reasonable person would find the material and performance taken as a whole lacks serious literary um artistic value indecent content is used by the Federal Communications Commission when the three-point test for obscenity in Miller versus California is not entirely met no indecent content is allowed on broadcast TV between 6:00 a.m. and 10 p.m. due to the fact that children are likely to be present I am waiting for the FCC which prohibits indecent content on the TV between 6:00 a.m. and TP and 10: p.m. because children are likely to be present to approve any show

194that has just one SE one scene of a guy kneading his fist against the opening of a girl's vagina inserting his fingers three or four at a time heck it's just one scene the rest of the show is fine yet local school districts allow the book lucky which I just quoted to be available to the same minor children the FCC is trying to protect schools need to protect our children from this content just like the FCC let's see today let see where I got I have the definitions of sexually explicit this is the reference I referenced this last board meeting State Statute 281 14630 2 and that's continued and it tells you exact exactly what Nebraska State Statute defines as sexually explicit so we have some objective definitions that we can use to help solve

195some of this and that's that's my intent here we also have today in every Nebraska school that wants to take advantage of discounted e-rate funding must apply web filters to block pictures that are obscene considered child pornography or as harmful to minors this rule is part of the children's internet protection act passed by Congress in 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene or harmful content on the in on the internet so we already have this in place in local school districts on web based based software but that's it stays there and so they you have to block it there but if it's in a book or any other type of form of material or marketing or whatever it is it's allowed and I just have a couple examples I'm going to spare you

196a little bit of it the following are examples of sexually explicit content found in Nebraska schools it is not not all inclusive because not every school library could be checked due to the inability to access their online online catalog I won't read the entire text but we'll read a portion of some of these books The Bluest Eye a bolt of Desire ran down his genitals giving it length and softening the lips of his anus he wanted to her tenderly and that book is currently located at these schools lucky he began this is I mention this he began to knead his fist against the opening of my vagina inserted his fingers into it three or four at a time currently located at those schools all boys aren't blue he ran he asked me to turn over

197while he slipped on a condom and on himself but this was my ass and I was struggling to imagine someone inside me and he was large currently located at these schools and I need to give you an idea here this these were all checked February 20th and these are the online catalogs of these schools so if it's not currently in the school they need to update their online catalog so I will give them that out there a little bit and tilt I move my middle finger slowly along the Slick strip discovering the nub hidden beneath my pubic bone the S source of the building throb unhidden my finger started starts to move faster currently located in these schools and then one last one and this is a court of mist and fury and a court

198of thorns and roses and it evidently is a series holy naked I watched him un button his pants and the considerable length of of his sprung free my mouth went dry at the sight of it I wanted him wanted every glorious inch of him in me and and don't just think this is exclusive to large school districts this is all all over the state and I'll I'll show you that what I have discovered and what I have discussed in this text but this continues to be this continues to be allowed and what is happening is graphic picture books are finding their ways into schools some experts believe sexually explicit content does not exist in our schools While others justify its existence I think we heard both of that today in public comment so this is

199expert Marsha Stewart BS and Ms in education in lifelong Nebraskan yes there is a reason for children to have this type of material available they are not being exposed to this content in a school library but rather it is available if it's needed it's called educational material and that's Chris hayner president of Nebraska School Library Association the change in rule was UN necessary because books in school libraries already go through a vetting process no we don't have pornography in our school libraries and from the executive committee of the Nebraska state Librarians Association as a reminder certified school librarians have been trained explicitly in collection development which includes selection and deselection of resources they already use their professional expertise and established best practices to choose items that support curricular needs as well as student interests to

200help support students achievement and build lifelong Learners and de educated professionals like librarian Librarians with degrees know their work better than you she's talking to me they know the material that is appropriate for all ages and they are doing their job in providing a priety of books it is not my place or yours to tell them we know how to do their job they are the ones with the degree and George iub from Nebraska examiner with safeguards and policies in place in almost all local school districts and the expertise experience and stewardship of media Specialists and Librarians further intervention would be unwarranted so here is a slide where sexually explicit material is located in my opinion the vast majority of Educators in the state do not like this content in their schools in my opinion

201the vast majority of principles in this state do not like this content in schools in my opinion the vast majority of superintendents in this state do not like this content in the schools I believe with many other aspects of Education that is regulated by the state board of education schools are looking for guidance without a doubt there is sexually explicit content in some Nebraska schools content brought in by adults and made available to minor children my ask today is to vote in favor of this motion to start the process through rules using the authority given to us by the State Constitution State Statute and to use the definitions of obscene indecent and sexually explicit already defined by case law federal legislation State legislation and federal regulations ultimately the question is why do adults feel the

202need to present this type of content to minor children and and I'll I'll end on [Applause] this I would I would ask that you guys would sit down so that we can continue the board meeting thank you ultimately we talk about hey there's a recourse of hey if there's something found in a school book but we always have to find it or in a school library we always have to find it first and if we have to find it first we've kind of it's kind of backwards you need to stop it from coming in because it's harder to get out because a you have to find it first or a child has to bring it home or you have to hear about it before you can find a way to go through the board so

203the question is how do we keep it from getting into the school libraries and I think I really think there's an objective way that we can all agree on to find a way to stop this and to do it through the rules and accreditation to see if we can do this and make it happen so that is all I have uh to say today thank you any further discussion still in the discussion part of this motion could you please repeat the motion that we are discussing is I move to direct the commissioner to propose revisions to rule 10 related to the content of library media and Technology resources and the required number of library media and Technology resources after the current revisions are adopted by the governor I think that you know when we look

204at these we we know that they're not appropriate right for certain ages and whatever however I think that there needs to be a process that occurs in um in this in other words um I know in some schools a lot of schools in Nebraska that um teachers or Librarians have um rated books about maturity level and that sort of thing and I also know from my personal experience that if a student brought up a book that was rated um as I can't remember how the person in the audience rated it but you know what I'm saying um that it was uh highly suggested um and had material that their parents might not want them to read so uh the school then presents them does not check out the book keeps the book at the desk

205and sends the um and some of them even call parents but sends them thing the uh permission slip home um to uh have a parent prove that um I know that teachers in classrooms are required when they teach uh many of them I can't say all of them Kirk okay are required to send home uh permission slip to parents if they're reading a book that they're worried about or watching a movie that they're worried about uh some cont in in it might be offensive to um to uh their family and so what happens is um uh the parent has to sign off and I had to have as a teacher if if I was going to teach something or watch movie that um maybe have had something in it that a parent would find objective

206not to the degree of some of the things we're hearing here okay but um I I think there we could create processes rather than um telling them they can't buy $150 $150 worth of books I mean Librarians need new materials every year and I remember Kirk that they were always struggling to have enough and I worked in this small school okay in western Nebraska so um when they were talking about western Nebraska versus Eastern Nebraska I was like well some of us have done both both ends of the state so um I I think that you would find more support from educational leaders Librarians media Specialists I I don't think they're going out and finding books that are offensive and saying okay this you know uh this doesn't have any literary merit won't help them

207grow up none of that that's not happening what's happening is there's one portion in a book one little place in a book and the other rest of the book has uh teaches some pretty special wonderful things okay okay you can disagree with me but keep it quiet so I can think okay all right so um what I think is that we need to as a board create a process this is a process that we go through in the state of Nebraska and you must have a signoff sheet to teach a book um to a class okay in the class if a parent doesn't want you to teach that book then you have to have an alternative and teach that student or those students the alternative and uh I know teachers that have done that I

208just think that just making a blanket kind of thing here with things that are um uh not not generally blanket I mean the rest of the book might be wonderful and teach a whole kind a whole a whole bunch of lessons so um and my other question is who decides you know who decides we're looking at extremes who decides what is obscene okay just questions just ideas bring you to you you say you're looking for a way for consensus um to make it better and so those are some of the things I wrote notes down about some of the things um um we I said we should be creating safeguards as a state board for this happening not just blanket uh you can't do this you can't do that um um and of course I

209said the thing about saving money that I don't think that and the definition of accessible means that all kids can get it get their hands on it right they can get their hands on it or they can go find it um Without Really um looking for it and I thought the lady who spoke about lady chatterly's lover I remember that going through our whole class you know in ninth grade if you do this book you know that kind of thing spreading around it and I don't think many of us went to look at it or read it it was Way Beyond what we were going to go read anyway um but accessible is a word that we have to be careful with too um who curates and what's the difference between curating and banning just

210ideas that popped into my head um I'm I'm trying to be very civil about it and make sure um that kids aren't being harmed by by information but most of the time I think think I also agreed with the woman who spoke who said I'm worried about social media and what they're getting from that and um we're we're unable to regulate any of that but we could do some regulation that were reasonable with this Lisa I just have a question part of your paragraph that had an exemption uh about allowable parts of the body or whatever I would imagine that would be with the Sciences like sex ed and if not um I don't know if the legal council can help me understand is that what that exceptions for but I i' really like to

211know um about stat I we it was up on there so I took it was right so it's open to what I read was open to interpretation and I want to know is it is that meaning sex education in class or is that with books or is it a combo I need somebody to tell me that that knows can you engage your Mone I'm sorry it's an allowable defense if you if you're a public school in order if you want to use that and that's the obscenity exemption that Senator Albright is trying to get rid of would it be helpful to have Deputy Commissioner holstead come up Deputy Commissioner holstead oh and we also have another legal mind yes can I respond to that because one thing I don't I don't like is misinformation that's

212that's not fair to anybody a defense to a crime is not an exception to a crime okay so if I decide that uh I want to go out and harm someone um there's no exception because that person made me mad that's an exception if someone comes up to me and I feel threatened by that person or they have a knife or they punch me and I decide to defend myself then I can say I am in selfdefense that's a defense of the crime I can still be charged I can still be accused um I can still be found guilty however I have the right to put on a defense to say yes I hit this person but this is the reason for which I did it it does not create an exception now the same

213thing is what's being portrayed here that if someone does this or presents this information and is charged if the prosecutor can prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that that person did that they will be found guilty however all it does is provides the teacher or the educator an opportunity to express this is why I did it this is why it was taught that's my defense and ultimately the jury gets to decide if they're going to accept that defense or if they're going to find the person guilty of a crime so not an exception that's not what this is and I'm I'm just getting a little antsy because the lawyer and me is you can't just switch out words and adjectives and verbs in the law and say oh it's all the same it is not the

214same a defense and an exception are not the same and so that's what's being brought up Lisa and it's just I'm really I'm not even work get worked up easily but I'm shaking at the misrepresentation of this because it's just not right thank you for the clarification I appreciate it I I forgot a couple things Kirk I looked at my my notes here um we talked about local control a lot today we heard lot about uhca control and so running through my mind was um giving parents and teachers in the school systems the power to go through and rate the books or as they purchase them um and uh uh decide what's going to be in their library and that seems more logical uh to me if you're talking local control because what it sounds

215like to me is that we're talking about giving the control to to people above us and not in our school system and my example uh was To Kill a Mockingbird one of the finest books that has ever been written and uh you could ban that book according to what we're seeing here and no no you couldn't no no the definitions are already there I mean we can we can we can Define it however we want and ultimately the lawyer that's going to decide this is attorney general Mike hilders so it needs to go back to the committee go through all this just like every other rule going to do it the right process take it to the Attorney General's office he will make the decision on that and then bring it back to the governor

216okay that I still think we're taking away local control I'm trying I'm trying to find out why we why we're having sexually explicit books for minor children brought in by adults I don't I have yet to get one I don't have [Applause] it well in the end parents have the control too if it's there Sher Sher Jones please yes I guess I just want to highlight that by taking this policy to the rules and regulations committee for a discussion we can iron out the legalities and the specifics of the numbers of books and whatnot so I think what we'd be voting for today is just do we want to take this back to rules and regs go through the process that I think so many appreciate and want such as um public comment written comments

217like some of the changes take place work through the rules and reg or the legalities fine-tune it and then go from there so it's just to bring it forth to the rules and rs committee that's what we'd be voting for Lisa I just want to make sure my fellow board members who want to speak have a chance before I speak again because I do want to say something but either one of you want to go before I do no okay well first of all I think we can all come to a consensus that we all care about kids we all care about students that's number one and also I think a majority of us do not want pornography in our libraries having said that we have federal law we have state statute overarching what happens

218with anybody in the state of Nebraska right the law is the law if so it just um um Librarians maybe what we need is an alignment of policy and the way that the parents can get some action if something is refuted you know they don't want it in their libraries I just think that having the local school district librarian and I think I have to thank all of you for bringing this forward to have this discussion to make sure there's alignment across the state as to uh policy everybody should have a policy in their school about acquiring books everybody should have a policy about how to um refute what they don't believe in another part of this bill is that bothers me is the idea of losing accreditation if somebody has uh a a book

219the way you have this written if a parent has a book that they don't want in the library right the first step is what in your plan superintendent principal right and then if they don't get satisfaction after 14 days what happens they come to the board and after that what happens the board makes a decision it goes to a hearing M no that's what you hearing that it doesn't talk about it agree it I agree but it talks about a record maybe that's the word I want but I thought I saw that it comes to the board to make a decision it's all stuff we can we can iron out if we can take it back to committee you have to have teeth with rules in my opinion you have to I can't see of

220the 244 schools in the state in Nebraska and some each of those might have a case at some different time about one book that ends up in front of us to make a decision and that could lead for lack of accreditation for an entire school district is that correct that's the way it reads that's that bothers it's it's the I mean it's up to the the State Board I mean there's a lot of things you can do on that but it's the State Board uh so uh I too my insides are pretty upset I am I have been hesitant I wasn't even going to say anything today but uh I'm very emotional about everything that I've heard today and I'd like to add I'm disgusted um because uh there is no one in this room

221and you said the majority of the people I don't know anyone anywhere who wants pornography in our libraries and who wants to groom children and all the things that were said today we have real grooming going on for children in chat rooms and churches and some schools and many families and we know that to be a fact and I had a teacher who' taught for 40 years and told me that the book lucky when she read it she was being uh raped by her relative and didn't even realize like it was that book was what and I haven't read the book so I don't know enough about it but that book was what gave her an awareness that this isn't right that there's something wrong and she went to her counselor and it it was

222helpful to her now what what were as I said there's real grooming happening and there's uh real pornography being presented and those are the kind ofver sations I wish we could be having about kids access to Tik Tok and the internet and chat rooms and uh all the things that where there is real concern but one of the speakers today the words that really sent me uh to be emotional like I am right now is and I felt like this was probably the most honest speaker here to today but he said the books on those lists are not natural and that's what this is about this is about othering people and everything I've read the 60 Minute story Sunday night everybody points out that these book bands overwhelmingly target books about race racism gender sexuality

223books by black author authors and lgbtq authors all right I'm just saying those are the facts that are out there and that's sadly what is happening there are kids in our schools that need supports that are different from everyone that's obviously still here today I have always believed in local control and I still do but and I definitely believe parents need to have control over what their kids are learning and what their kids are reading but there is never a time where I believe that a small group of parents a very loud vocal parents should be deciding what all kids read There is local control in the state for a reason uh CH parents have every opportunity and right to decide what their kids are reading um and I I'm sad because I said this

224last month you know we went through a whole year of listening to parents leaders experts teachers across the state to determine our rule 10 changes and this was never brought up there was a whole year this could have been brought up and I feel like this is an extreme waste of our taxpayer dollars because we had a chance to make these changes a year ago but instead now we're saying and I don't I don't know what the motive is and I I I like Kirk so I'm not going to think any ill motives for sure but but I don't know why this wasn't brought up a year ago and why we're talking about it today and it wasn't brought up because I mean our schools across the state didn't feel like this was a change

225that needed to happen many of the school boards are recalling those board members that are bringing this up because they realize those school officials realize that this is targeting certain audiences in the school there are some kids that need access to these books and and I will just say that uh I know in my district what I'm hearing are that this I I do need the audience to not have a conversation with the board memb MERS thank you if you want to engage with a board member after or send an email that would be appropriate way to engage with the board members thank you uh that's all thank you over there Jacqueline yeah I I I like deor I wasn't going to say anything but py you're so brave to go first you inspired me

226um okay if we if we if we say that one parent can go to the school board and say I don't want this book in this school then we are giving more than local control I mean it can't be that if it happens to that one parents decides what all the kids get to learn and do no we have to respect the fact that Educators together have have experience and knowledge and education now I'm done go all right get comfortable um so I'm I'm talking I'm speaking to the board members here first let's talk about procedurally um we're voting on a request to for the rules committee to review a rule we do that all the time anytime we have a rules committee meeting we talk about rules we have a process of when a

227rule comes up for review we have timelines for when we know it's coming and we also have a process where if a board member wants to pull a rule to review it in that committee we can do that it is not the process or never been the process that we have to get a full board's vote to be able to discuss a rule change not true everything that's being discussed here well let me go back so that then gets me to the question are we really voting today to say yes let's go back to committee and talk about a rule which we do all the time or is this a bait and switch of I know what happened last time at the last board meeting when I proposed these changes and the board member said

228they were not in agreement or I don't have the votes for those changes thus I'm going to create a broad rule because who could vote against something that we already do um but really with the underpinnings of I really want to discuss all of these things that I brought last time that's what I feel is happening today and it's not genuine and one thing I don't like is people who aren't genuine if that's what you want to vote on and that's what we want to discuss put that up for a vote today and let's vote on it but don't come up with a new rule that was just I I checked my computer in my agenda I didn't see that motion here in my agenda items I also didn't see that nice PowerPoint in my

229agenda items either so when we talk about procedures and we want rule local governments we we want local school districts to follow follow rules and procedures that we have maybe we should start by following our own okay so give your board members the material ahead of time so I can have an opportunity to prepare accurate response to what I just saw because I didn't now in high school I never read The Bluest Eye so one thing I was doing on my computer was looking up what was The Bluest Eye about it was about a child being raped by her father incest so let me tell you about my experience as a public defender because that's my background I worked as a public defender I have you can Google it or look up on Justice I've

230I've represented people charged with first-degree sexual assault on a minor I have and I will tell you nine out of the 10 cases that we saw at the public defender office were parents or relatives raping their children it was not a kid who saw a book and read a book and then went out and committed a crime that's not how it happens The Grooming starts at home most of the time and so all of those cases were not things that happened at school or started at school they were things that started at home and those child children then become Predators for other kids so while I can respect this it's very hard for me to hear people say let's take books out of our library that deal with incest let's not teach kids about incest

231and why that's wrong and how that harms kids and why that's not natural so that a kid who that is happening at home now does not even have a resource or understanding of why that could be bad no I'm not going to stop I'm going to keep going and I was respectful to everybody up here who spoke and I didn't speak while you were speaking now that's one that's like four issues but I'm going to keep going in if we're talking about the actual issues um that were outlined in that book or outlined in The Proposal that we talked about last time Librarians all the Librarians I have heard from have said we don't want you to get rid of the limits on the 150 books I don't even know why those two are together

232today if we're talking about pornography and we're talking about book limits we can talk about them separately if 150 is arbitrary and 100 is the number bring in the Librarians bring in the superintendent let them have a conversation about what that number should be but I didn't see any of them here today saying here's the right number I didn't see any superintendent or local school board members saying that's too much of a financial burden I haven't seen anybody over at the legislature asking for more money because they can't afford books if that's a genuine issue I'm here to talk about it and I'll talk about it any day of the week but to combine books and number of books purchases with pornography not right you have to separate the those two and let's talk about

233it then if we want to get to the meat of what is actually in The Proposal Lisa asked a very asked a question that I had is there going to be a hearing what are the due processes that are involved that sure the Attorney General can make the decision but I can tell you right now it doesn't even make sense because it refers to a record and to have a record you have to have a hearing and nowhere in the procedure does there even list a hearing okay so if we want to talk about getting something right and actually again giving people due process a procedure we could do all of that in a committee we don't have to do that in a public public setting we don't have to do we could but if

234we're going to do it bring it back let's talk about it let's talk about that right now and why that's wrong but to put this in front of the board and make and because what we want to do today let's be honest we want to take a Bo vote so people can vote publicly and then say they voted no because they want it po ography in schools no I'm voting no because one it's not our procedures and how we do things two we weren't giving the given these materials ahead of time to actually be able to respond to whatever was prop just outlined the the way it's written is bad it's a bait and switch between what came out last week and what came out this week not sorry last month and this month and

235so for all those reasons we can say that's the reason we voted no it has nothing to do with anyone wanting pornography in schools so for all those Reasons I'm voting no on this and I would encourage everyone else who actually if you do care about a procedure if you do care about local control if you do care about all of those things then vote no on this and when we have a rules committee meeting next month the rules committee can take up any piece of this that we want to Madam president so I will go to to py First not paty Patty because we haven't heard from you and then then we'll pick up Lisa and paty okay um I've been thinking the same kind of thing that Jacqueline part of what Jacqueline you

236just talked about in terms of I mean number one I I agree that none of us want to have materials in schools that have no value right and that are just sexually explicit and really don't benefit anyone right I don't think any of us would disagree with that but I'm also wondering if if the place for this because we're acknowledging that there at least in some people's opinions there are materials in school libraries maybe in classrooms that are are not appropriate right that's kind of what the question is right so I think we I don't want us to ignore this I guess that's what I'm getting at but I also agree that I won't vote Yes on this for a number of reasons but I'm also trying to look at so where's our starting point

237then to really try to address this in a way that will be Ben beneficial for number one all of our students but also be helpful to to teachers to Librarians to superintendents because they're all part of what's happening with this and this may sound like a suggestion that commissioner you would not like to do but I sat here thinking perhaps because I think there needs to be more data I think there needs to be more conversation in order to come to some really Sound Solutions so my thought was you have a great superintendence councel that perhaps the starting point is to have conversation with them and and get ideas from them about what's really a way to address this is it through providing us providing guidelines is it rule Chang is it because I see

238that there is a potential for a lot of different ways to try and approach this but I I'm not going to vote Yes to take this back just to bring it back again in the same form that it is I appreciate everybody's input and I I too have problems with sections of this as I mentioned the accredit taking away accreditation of an entire school with 244 schools involved in potential problems and I think that Patty's idea of is this the right place that as Jacqueline said this is kind of disjointed in a way in parcel and piece that doesn't belong alog together so taking it back to the rules committee discussing it more taking it to the superintendent advisory board would be a bad idea it rushing to do something today when there's so much

239more to this that we didn't see in advance or uh listening to the audience we're we see you know it pornograph pornography doesn't have a place in our schools yes absolutely but we need to be careful what we do moving forward we need to do what's best for kids life Librarians need to be involved in the process with their expertise it's going to take a team effort to get where we all want to be and that's taking care of the best resource we have for the future our children do you want to respond to that and then I would like an opportunity to talk at some point so go ahead and respond so I just forgot you both reminded me of something else when the slide came up I don't have a copy of it

240or I would read from it um about a three-part test the Miller test it said all three of these have to be met okay and so another concern that I'm having with this is one one person or people or group are saying oh we have pornography or of seen you know things in the schools um because I just read this line but one of those parts talks about what's the overall theme what's the book about you have to look at it holistically and um I was telling my board members at uh lunch the first thing I read about I think intercourse was in uh the Bible about I think it was Ruth um where Naomi tells tells her to go lay at the man's feet after he's nice and drunk and um afterwards he says

241thank you for coming to me even though I'm an old man and then I think the King James version describes that he then in puts himself inside of her and then she conceives a child go go read it go read it it's go okay but go go read it um I I actually grew up in the church so I know know the Bible but my point is if one were to say because there was a sex scene in the Bible we should keep it the whole book out of schools I think a lot of people would go crazy because that's not the whole point of the Bible that's a an excerpt from the Bible and so my my point is that even in these books that were read today and I don't know anything about

242any of them I've never read them but it it bothers me that people can start Cate categorically saying something as one thing without really but acknowledging the three-part test but not really applying the three-part test so you can't can't can't kind of have it both ways um and so I again that's another reason why I think legally this is not sound um we have some problems with it and I think that it it needs more work and I'm happy for us to look at is there a solution but what we have right now is based on opinion it's not based on a legal analys Anis of of the Miller case can I sure so I guess I just want to say I don't understand why I mean why there is this suggestion that we T

243I know that anyone can bring it back to the rules committee and but I don't understand why why we would and why we're telling our commissioner to go talk to superintendence about I have a problem and I if he does but we've already taken those steps we've already talked to our superintendents about the rule 10 changes that went through a very lengthy process everyone in the state had an opportunity to weigh in our our rules and regs committee spent a great deal of time on it and so I'm just like we have a lot of important issues to be working on and are all across the state I'm reading articles about school boards that have gone through the list and they have stood up for what's in their Library so we already know how the

244majority of superintendents in the state are going to respond but we can go through the motions again and we can we can ask the commissioner to do work that's already been done and we can ask the staff to do work that's already been done and we can waste taxpayer dollars redoing work that's already been done but I don't understand why we would that's all we're talking here thank you okay I'm I okay this this okay so I haven't shared my thoughts okay with with my fellow board members yet and I'd like just just an opportunity to do that um I called Kirk I because I had gotten an email um before this was even it was before it even came to our February meeting I had got an email and there were concerns and so

245I called Kirk I said okay here's here's these concerns help me understand um because he and Sherry and I and Patty were all at the Nera meeting last last spring one that we're going to next week where there were superintendents there who said quit requiring us to buy so like like quit giving us this number and so so I know where that strikeout came from and so I went to Kirk and I said what like like I emailed that superintendent because he's in my district and I said okay here's the discussion please watch the board meeting and let me know what you think think and and he went to his media specialist and had a conversation and came back and said well I actually don't get rid of all the book purchase um but maybe

246reduce it a little bit let us have that that that freedom to choose um because some years we might might want more books there might be fewer books but maybe reduce the number down from um and so um it's it's only up to 150 a minimum of 25 so so giving them some of that freedom and so I so I went to Kirk and I said okay what do you think about that can we can we work with this um that was one issue um the periodicals some schools um you know they're available what I found and I'm not expressing this very eloquently was the concerns initially it had been struck that the school that the library would not be open all day and these were concerns that when I went to Kirk he was

247like you know I'm just trying to start the conversation let's start the conversation I'm willing to work on this and so so I really appreciated that and and I think that that's part of what what I hope all of our board members feel comfortable doing is coming to each other um last night I thought am I you know what am I going to say am I gon to say um so so I so I typed this up and I'm I'm GNA read it because I'm I'm not um I just want to read what what I got so after I received over 150 emails from Nebraskans since the introduction of these proposed changes I've done a lot of thinking and I've considered opinions and I've tried to gather some factual information in our certification process library

248and media Specialists have to demonstrate extensive knowledge concerning our library system they are catalysts for this well um for a smooth well-run Library where our students go to gain and learn valuable skills and the role that they serve in the districts is undeniable media Specialists however have limitations they are not counselors doctors or licensed mental health practitioners their expertise doesn't extend to commenting on the effects of a subject matter contained within Library resources on students mental and emotional health for that we need a different set of experts there's a large body of scientific evidence-based research on the effects of sexually explicit materials on the developing mind minds and emotions of students we've heard some of these from people today some who are experts and some who like Me Maybe did a quick Google search um

249I did that I Google a lot of things um and I found that there were even studies on the National Institute for Health's website so my thought is if we truly care about the Mental Health crisis and I know we do I know each one of us do and it's affecting youth I feel like it's imperative that we follow the Professional Knowledge and expertise of the mental health specialists and that to regard their expertise will result in an exacerbation of the Mental Health crisis and that will be at our hands to exacerbate it so my thought is I believe that this Board needs to move forward with continued discussions on revising rule 10 in order to to play our part in addressing the Mental Health crisis that continues to grow within our schools any other

250board members want to comment now yeah Pat I guess it's it's a little concerning to me when you said you heard from one superintendent about what he wanted to have happen and that initiated a rule change that has had no public input from anyone else that again goes against what we have established as procedure that's that's concerning to me um so I guess I would just make that point I think if you talk about addressing the Mental Health crisis in schools you're talking about a very complex situation that includes many different causes and symptoms and solution Solutions that's not all tied into the kinds of materials that kids are being exposed to and that seemed to be what you were suggesting sorry I'm sorry if that seemed to be what I was suggesting I was

251saying that these type of materials can exacerbate the situation py short and sweet $150 today would buy let's say each book is $10 25 books boy that's a big addition to a media center let me tell you I don't even know small schools if that would be a big addition especially if you had books that were damaged and thrown out so that seems like uh just a little tiny problem alongside a huge problem maybe I misspoke it's not $150 it's up to 150 books oh is it yeah yeah it's the number of books and and that was just the question was um you know we're requiring book purchases because apparently we can't trust our local superintendant that they will keep the library on the budget but on the other hand we can trust our local

252superintendent concerning content so which is it do we trust our local superintendant to purchase books or do we not trust them do we trust our local superintendents to keep harmful content out of our schools or do we not I agree wholeheartedly with paty uh you asked for my reaction to your comments one is if there was a rule concern I would have hoped that as the president you wouldn't have just called Kirk you would have talked to other board members and potentially to the rules committee as the former chair of the rules committee and that we would have followed the processes that we talked about when you were the rules chair and how we could better work together and it wouldn't have been a conversation with just two board members that was my initial reaction

253my second reaction was a lot of the books that we're talking about to Kill a Mocking Bird uh The Bluest Eye those have been in school since I was a kid probably before I was a kid maybe when my parents were a kid and so to say that our children's mental health is getting progressively worse into Thai Library those library books that were written today or I'm sorry read read out loud today to that is disingenuous I don't think that those we we can talk about mental health and in fact I tried to I was the one person who said I wanted I shouldn't say one person back when we were talking about health standards I continuously said it was important to continue the conversation about health standards because embedded in those Health standards were

254mental health and we need it to talk about and address mental health so if we want to talk about mental health I encourage us to dust off what was good about our health standards and the mental health components that we were trying to add and not necessarily talk about library books but let's talk about our kids and their mental health and and and really bring that back to the Forefront if that's the issue that we want to talk about but it seems really convenient to start conflating things when it when that's what we want and and the other thing about purchasing the books um to me to say what do we trust a superintendent with when we talk about teacher licensing a lot of people have been saying why don't we look at other ways

255to you know certify teachers and reduce some of our burden because ultimately it's up to the school district that hires the teacher we trust them don't we so we can't talk out of both sides that's one thing I don't I don't do I I am me here I am me when I walk out this door I'm the the same I'm the same in the committee but it seems like we want to change arguments when they're convenient and and I don't think that's right yes we if we say we trust our superintendents to hire who our teachers are then we trust them to hire the teachers who are going to buy the right materials for the classroom and we trust them to manage their budget and that's why we don't oversee it or ask for a

256copy of it so yes I I do think that Kirk so I can you can speak all you want two years ago I brought this as a policy um as a policy matter and got it shot down 7 to one two years later I brought it as rules I I'm I'm trying but everybody on this board except for Elizabeth and and Sherry were here and I brought it as a policy and so I can bring it as policy and have it shot down I can bring it as a rule change change and have it and do what we're doing here today I can bring objective ideas FCC um ideas here we can get these added and this stuff we got we still have TV here one TV guy here he can't show some of that

257stuff on TV tonight but we can see it in our libraries so it's just it's just simple stuff and so the process I'm trying to find out a process to get sexually explicit material out of our schools there might not be one and to me that's concerning and so that that was what I was trying so I appreciate the conversation today um but there are concrete ideas in that PowerPoint which I'll be handing out after this to everybody so they have it including I have audience uh copes as well so you can see exactly what I said exactly what I referenced so there's no misquoting or misinformation or anything of that nature but ultimately my my my goal is to get it back to the rules committee do the rule process and ultimately the attorney's

258General's office will tell us whether it's legal or not and then the governor will or will not sign it but we need to get 10 off his desk right away thank you I guess I have to disagree with you Kirk that there isn't a process for getting books out of our libraries uh that our parents are not happy with because every single School District has a school board uh those school board members can be voted out if they aren't uh responding in the way that uh the parents want them to but what we're finding in Nebraska is that those school board members uh are defending the books that are in the library because they understand what the student populations are and they don't want to discriminate against any students uh uh they want to respect

259the needs of every single student in Nebraska we are finding that those candidates that are running on book bands are not getting elected and they are getting recalled and I I just think that it's a disservice to Nebraska that we keep talking about this when there are clear processes in place if people don't like the books in their local library uh for their school they have very clear steps that they can take uh and it isn't up for up to us to make those those specific decisions uh we've always said I mean each school district is different they have different needs they have different population each local school district should be making those decisions themselves in my opinion okay so I'm just gonna I'm just going to read the motion again um I move to

260direct the commissioner to propose revisions to rule 10 related to the content of library media and Technology resources and the required number of library media and Technology resources after the current Visions are adopted by the governor is there any more discussion on this motion Lisa we've all had a chance to speak and we have a a process in place as a couple of us have have addressed and at the local District between the librarian who's the specialist parents in the community superintendent and local board by having this awareness here today of how people are so concerned it's a wakeup call if we have these things in our library they shouldn't be and I hear all the time from constituents we believe in local control we believe in local control well let's make sure the policy

261in in the local district is updated so that they can take care of situations listen to parents listen to The Librarian listen to to make a decision if a book should be taken out or not that's all I have to say there's a process like what Deborah said that's in place tigar may I make I'll make just a few comments um they're so scattered but to start off with a vote Yes to me it's just we're going to go through the proper channels now so if we we'll go through the proper channels process has been an issue so vote Yes to me is that we go through the proper channels so I can appreciate that there's some comments that I just need need to respond to because it's been said a couple times no child

262needs access to sexually explicit materials no child needs access and I appreciate data but I don't need data to tell me that sexually explicit material should not be in our schools so I do appreciate data um I think unfortunately porn doesn't disappear if you read the whole book I wish it did but it doesn't disappear if you read the whole book and I think superintendents are waiting for some guidance from the State Board of Education and those are just oh and diff and this is very important to me difficult topics can be taught and I appreciate that you know issues of prejudice and poverty and homelessness they can be taught without using sexually explicit books and I welcome that and that's scattered all those thoughts but that's how I work so okay is okay is

263there are there any board members who would like to have a final comment on the motion I move to direct the commissioner to propose revisions to rule 10 related to the content of library media and Technology resources and the required number of library media and Technology resources after the current revisions are adopted by the governor that's the motion are there any more comments on this motion I'm G to read the motion one more time so the motion that we are discussing and is to direct the commissioner to propose revisions to rule 10 related to the content of library media and Technology resources and the required number of library media and Technology resources after the current revisions are adopted by the governor will the recording secretary please call the role Morrison no teg Meyer yes Co

264Johns no Mary no fricky no Jones yes Penner yes Gobles no three yes five NOS the votes are three yes five NOS the opposition has it and the motion is lost at this time the board will take a 10-minute break we will reconvene at I've got a headache the meeting will reconvene in one minute uh okay board members if you can return to your seats commissioner's not back oh the commissioner's not back announcing that we'll wait for everybody to return to their seats we are going to reconvene with the essence of time on our minds um it is now 207 and we will take item 7.2 Sher Jones will provide a report from the planning and evaluation committee meeting thank you you board president Tech Meer the planning and evaluation committee met yesterday on March

2657th 2024 the members present were py Co Johns and Deborah ner and myself Sher Jones the committee reviewed the pro proposed revisions of position statement S3 on early literacy nde staff provided an overview of adjustments made based on committee input the committee recommends the approval of this item the committee discussed the upcoming approval of non public schools for the 2024-25 school year under rule 14 regulations and procedures for the legal operation of approved non-public Schools nde staff answered questions related to the approval process nde staff will return in May for approval the committee received an update on Statewide assessment contract for High School nde staff provided a timeline regarding the contract for ACT nde staff will return for discussion in May and approval in June the committee reviewed information on the process for developing a

266model dress code policy nde staff answer questions regarding the statutory requirements as well as a tentative timeline and stake inner stakeholder input nde staff will return in May to discuss further the committee received information on the approval of educator preparation programs for the 2425 school year nde staff answered questions related to a number of appr programs and accreditation process nde staff will return for discussion in May and approval in June the committee also received information on the approval of interim program schools for the 2425 school year and again nde staff will return for discussion in May and approval in June so lots coming up for discussion and then approval in June finally the committee received information on the approval of ESU Educational Service units nde staff answered questions related to their cred accreditation process nde

267staff will return for discussion in May and approval in June and this concludes the planning and EV evaluation report are there any questions on for the committee chair yes Lisa just a quick question um Sherry you mentioned um ESU accreditation does that ever include an on-site visit do you do you know I do not know I will um next month maybe okay yes I can find that out for you okay thank you unless someone on the um someone here knows an answer that may I refer that to you I didn't hear the whole question butus I have a red light there you go oh only me technology but um esus all 17 are accredited my question do we have on-site visits you know once a year once every other year whatever and I can wait

268till next month and I will find that out for you it's not a hurry up kind of thing I was just wondering Sherry I promised you that I would not ask questions so I'm going to make a comment if you could take a note and answer it next time the uh the description for your discussion item says approval approve nonpublic schools however in the attachment I only see a list of approved private schools I don't see a list of the accredited private schools so I'm just curious is the description wrong or do we need another list in the attachment that that's it I and that was a statement not a question she can answer it okay I'll check on that okay and I I actually have a question too and I would like more information

269on the um process of approval for educator prep programs for 2425 school year um it says that we'll return for discussion in May that will be to the full board is that correct Sherry yes I believe so okay because well I have a lot of questions great thank you any other questions on the chair report Madam chair not a question but just I just wanted to clarify something because I think it can be a little bit confusing um in sher's report she talked about revisions to the position statement SC S3 on early literacy and that is what it's called now but it's if you look through the revisions it's being brought into foundational literacy so that's what the action item will be thank you for that clarification any further questions for the plan evaluation chair

270agenda item 7.2 pointa is there motion on item 7.2 pointa yes Madam chair I move to adopt proposed revisions to position statement three S3 foundational literacy I'll second has been moved and seconded to adopt the proposed revisions to position statement S3 foundational literacy is there any discussion on this motion I would Madam chair i' like to point out just a couple things share with the with the committee and with um constituency a couple of things that I especially appreciate about this statement is the emphasis of the importance of providing um instruction in those five areas the um phological awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension so emphasizing that is important and which will hopefully in turn lead to training programs and higher education that will prepare our teachers well in those five areas so that is

271my hope that it will kind of be impetus for doing that in our higher um higher education facilities and also that it includes the importance of the role of family that that plays in developing their children's early literacy so those two components were especially appreciated and thank you for your work um Allison denisty any other discussion on the position statement of foundational literacy the motion is to adopt proposed revisions to the positional statement S3 foundational literacy with the recording secretary please call the role Neri yes Gobles yes Morrison cojon yes freaky yes Penner yes TM yes Jones yes eight yes the affirmative has it and the motion to adopt proposed revisions to position statement S3 foundational literacy is adopted item 7.2 pointb is the discussion item of approving non-public schools for the 2024 2025 school

272year board members are there any questions or discussion on this item I think Ryan wants to answer May it's a discussion it do you miss Morrison do you want your question answered this month or in mayone okay any other discussion on this item lightning speed item 7.3 is the budget and finance committee chair paty cojon will report on behalf of the budget and finance committee meeting we had a very long meeting the budget and finance Comm committee reports that at its Thursday March 7th meeting members present were py Coons Lisa fricky and Sherry Jones the committee reviewed three action items supporting all three for full board consideration the first action item was to approve the reappropriation of Esser Statewide set aside funds for specific projects nde staff provided an in-depth review of these funds explanation

273for the need to reappropriate funds how the recommended reappropriations were determined and answered questions from the committee the second action item was to continue PK through third grade Leadership Academy cohort which provides training to Elementary principles Head Start directors Child Care directors and other work others working with young students the third action item is for a contract to create Early Childhood educational videos that could be used for many years to instruct Early Childhood teachers on many different aspects related to their classrooms Additionally the committee reviewed 13 other upcoming action items including the two annual audits that have been completed upcoming early childhood education grants accepting funding from Nebraska community and family found foundation for assistant to Le lead diagnostic examinations funding recommendations for the 21st century Community Learning Centers Grant programs School Safety and Security

274related grants information accepting information accepting funding to continue support of Statewide family engagement centers an aware Grant contract and Amendment a new idea part C project for immigrant and Refugee families contracts for the support of children who are deaf and heart of hearing contracts for State complaint investigators a special education uh technical assistance project contract and the authorization to contract the micr credential courses supporting leadership development how about that Lots last the Comm reviewed the monthly board travel expenses noting no concerns this concludes the budget and finance committee report passi Coon's chair thank you paty are there any questions on the budget and finance committee report okay seeing none I have an agenda item 7.3 pointa monthly board travel expense reports are there any question questions on the reports in item 7.3 pointa seeing none

275agenda item 7.3 pointb this is there a motion on 7.3 point B C B approve the reappropriation of Esser Statewide set aside funds for specific projects does somebody have that motion do I I'm sorry okay I sure do I move to approve the repr proportion no reappropriation of Esser Statewide set aside funds for specific projects second got saving my bacon it is moved and seconded to approve the reappropriation of Sr Statewide funds excuse me Statewide set aside funds for specific projects is there any discussion on this motion paty first of all I wanted to um let you know that uh Lan car and the people he works with have um created a way to use this money um reappropriations means that they went back and all the money that was not spent on projects that

276was left over and put it all together um to uh use before is no longer able to be spent and so um these projects are are funded already okay and I just wanted them to know that and to thank Lane for all his work and the people he works with yeah I I apologize for missing the committee meeting but um when I see focus on acceleration I just wondered if you could provide or Lane could provide a little bit more information about what that really looks like second let me see if I can find would we like Lane Car to come to the front um yeah Lane come up I've got I've got notes on it but I bet you can do a much better job than I can I didn't see back there that's

277why I didn't call you up right away good afternoon Lane Carr from the commissioner office can you repeat the question for me please Patty yes I I just wanted a little bit more um definition or explanation of the area of focus on acceleration what that really what you're thinking that will look like got it so the five buckets of our Esser or priority areas of Esser one of those was and has been the focus on acceleration which the way that we've been conceptualizing that is around where are our students and where do we want them to be right so with these projects that we see here um uh it's things like ensuring that we have access to those data the map assessment um the growing readers assess uh additional supplement the project that was approved

278and then uh additional projects that really support uh career in technical education one does that answer your question okay great maybe before you run off Lane I just I do want to give a personal thank you to to you and the staff for for really looking at the board priorities in reallocation of these funds um The Six Million toward um that foundational literacy professional development will will do great gains to help us meet some of those goals so thank you all of you Pinner that's not the topic hello it's it's been on has it true fake news no um in in the report it said that we had and this is probably okay that we had asked the legislature for money in the bium for the $2 million to pay for I think it was

2792 million for map yeah um and we we did not get this in our deficit budget request and so the the one thing I was curious about is did we get anything from our budget deficit request or um how much of that need was met and how much went unmet and if this was addressed in the committee meeting or if it's in notes just send me an email and I'll say thank you I'm I'm going to be looking at Deputy Commissioner holstead as I answer this question Deputy Commissioner if I error please come up and get it correct but I would say that everything that we asked for U minus that one topic is moving forward and we believe it has a high likelihood of being funded so we're very pleased with the process on

280everything else getting a nod I just wanted to um highlight Lane one of the things in this uh proposal um it I think we're a bunch of agencies let me think host educational planning conference for government agencies facilities schools serving systems involved youth uh in the summer and fall of uh 24 because we all of those entities work with the students and if they're communicating I can't think that better things are coming because that's been a concern over the years with the at risk youth so I appreciated seeing that among all the other stuff any further discussion the motion is to approve the reappropriation of Esser Statewide set aside funds for specific projects with the recording secretary please call the role Morrison no Ricky yes Jones yes Gobles yes cojon yes ner yes T Meer

281yes Penner yes seven yes one no the votes are seven yes one no the affirmative has it and the motion to approve the reappropriation of Esser Statewide set aside funds for specific projects is adopted is there a motion on item 7.3 Point C yes Madam chair I move to authorize the commissioner to approve a contract renewal for the implementation of a cohort of the prek grade three Leadership Academy I'll second it is moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to approve a contract renewal for the implementation of a cohort of the prek through grade three Leadership Academy me is there any discussion on this motion see none the motion is to authorize the commissioner to approve a contract renewal for the implementation of a cohort of the prek through grade three Leadership Academy with the

282recording secretary please call the role T Meer yes ner yes Morrison yes Co John's yes Penner yes Gobles yes Jones yes fricky yes eight yes eight yes the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to approve a contract renewal for the implementation of a cohort of the prek through grade three Leadership Academy is adopted is there a motion on item 7.3 pointd yes I have the motion Madam chair I move to authorize the commissioner to contract for video creation and production for early childhood education I will second the motion Patty we would be stuck if it wasn't for you it is moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to contract for video creation and production for early childhood education is there any discussion on the motion yes Madam chair I just would

283like to make a statement um to support my vote although I understand how this video may be useful um I believe that the outcomes can be met in other ways and it are being met in other ways such as online sources Mentor teachers set step up to Quality coaches higher ed training programs Etc and so I'm just looking at it as this is $500,000 which maybe I can um save our save our constituencies although so just my comment um Melody you offered us um a justification for this and I thought you did it eloquently if you'd come up please she over there I'm Melody Hobson I'm the administrative office of early childhood and um I um I think what I was talking about with the the budget committee was that this is an opportunity for

284us to be able to um to use some some film that that um allows um first of all that coaches could use but also that can be used um in less um Personnel intensive ways coaches don't go to Every program um but um this would be something that would be available more broadly and we could use it in multiple ways what um one of the things I thought was exciting microphone please may I was if you tell them about Dr Gilliam and his expertise sorry madam president um yeah I was trying to remember what I what I said yesterday um um Dr William Gill Dr William Gilliam Walter Gilliam for some reason W William Gilliam just rolls off the tongue I don't know why I've done that before so my apologize to my apologize to

285him um but uh Walter Gillum has a long history of um providing technical assistance and creating training and um has a lot of contacts in the world of um videography and he's done he has a great history of this and uh in conversations with him they he is willing to provide the expertise uh necessary for us to um get really high quality video um in multiple multiple settings in highly resourced and very low resourced communities um and then he has the um the expertise to to be able to um index and file the videos so that we can get the most out of them that we could that and and has the the Staffing to help him do that so I was very very pleased that he's very interested in this um I think that

286we can get we can use these for a long time I think the longevity of their use is one reason that we we should do it and the fact that it can move around the state and be used uh in many many different ways and I think it's a really good idea um and I think in the end we would spend more money with presenters and um experts coming in all the time and I I just think that would be more expensive than than using this especially when we have his help I I the the goal is to have um videos that like that we can repurpose um that we can use either for you know if they if we are in um a a coaching one-on-one situation or a group coaching situation or asynchronous

287training that we can build as as time goes by um or video Based training so I think that there's a lot of use and our hope is that we um we can get as much out of this for a number of years that you know we hope to reuse it a lot I think you even uh included board members who may want to look at certain um videos um to update their expertise in those areas yes I have a question when you say a long time I mean you know is are we talking about five years 10 years what's the longevity you do think and the relevancy of these videos um I I don't know that I can project I'm I I would say at at least five years that would be my my best

288gift yes possibly 10 I think um actual interactions uh are are are probably Timeless what tends to date videos really truthfully is um if you have if they are obviously very old and you know you you you see things that are maybe from the 80s or 90s people don't necessarily want to to to pay attention now now but I think we've got a long way to go if we the 0s were 40 years ago yeah so I forget that I know it's hurtful every time I say that but it's true it should be just like last year um so as far as I mean you've mentioned um Walter Gilliam and just for those who don't know who he is he works for the Buffett Early Childhood Institute would we have sole proprietary use of these

289videos or would we own them in conjunction with the Buffett Early Childhood Institute we would own them in conjunction with um they would be things that that um we also would have access to some of the videos that he has already done and then um they would have access to some of the stuff that that that we are doing we are actually some of the projects that we are working on that we would like this video for are is some joint work that we're already doing so does the cost for these videos is it 500,000 or is it more it is and then and yeah so so so the funds are coming I mean I I read where they're coming from it's but but it's the so I'm just clarifying the Buffett Early Childhood Institute

290is not contributing any Financial funds they're not contributing any Financial funds they are contributing Staffing and um and their expertise they have to identify some people um on on the buffet Institute staff who would be able to like code video and index it for for for use in in like like the same the same scenario the same set of interactions could be used for um a couple of items in training for a program quality assessment training or it could be used to highlight something for social emotional um training about you know positive interactions or it could be used in literacy so so they are putting significant amount of Staffing into it but what we have not asked for a um a budget of that because that could depend on whether they get gradu graduate students

291or full-time staff so they have a significant amount of skin in the game I guess would be the colloquial term y thank you any other questions yisa videos um with the expertise that's going to be headed by Dr gilam I think will make them worthwhile to be distributed and used throughout the state and since early childhood is a concern there are 11 counties that don't have daycare in Nebraska we're down to nine oh we're down to nine see progress already just the talk of the video okay so so one of the things that that I want to make clear is that um it we have a range of educational levels of our providers across the state and so some obviously are not going to need these but some probably will and some may have not

292ever W never seen the practices that that were I mean they do what they do what they think is best but they may not have seen examples of of some high quality practices that we'd like to have them recreate I also think that when you say Dr Gilliam from the Buffett Foundation is going to give a plus plus Department of Education is going to give it a certain amount of ethos Melody I think that it that will make it last longer than if it was just you know someone that nobody knew and then I did volunteer my acting Talent um when you go to fil it if you needed it so that would save a few bucks okay right any further discussion all right the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract for video

293creation and production for early childhood education would the recording secretary please call the role kubbles yes ner yes cojon yes Jones no fricky yes T Meer no Penner no Morrison yes five yes three no votes are five yes three no the affirmative has it in the motion to authorize the commissioner to contract for video creation and production for early childhood education is adopted okay agenda item 7.3e is a discussion item except the 2023 annual compr comprehensive financial report audit board members are there any questions or discussion on this audit it is a discussion item and what we're working to do is propose to you as a discussion item the same language that it will appear when it appears as an action item okay yes Lisa one of the things that was mentioned yesterday is the

294manual input of data um they were it was noted something with that and I asked um Bryce if what we did last last month with the computer updates that we approved would that help that and it was a it was a positive yes I mean really it it will help so just knowing that um anything that can help the staff uh get things done I think that's great and this is part of that okay seeing no further discussion agenda item 7.4 I will report report on behalf of the executive committee meeting the executive committee reports on its March 7th 2024 meeting and weekly meetings since the February State Board of Education meeting the committee recommends adopting the legislative positions as recommended by the committee in item 7. 4.a on the March 8th meeting agenda after

295discussion in committee on items 7.3 B and 7.4 C the committee recommends no separate action and to adopt recommendations provided on these bills in item 7.4 pointa the committee had two information items on its agenda the first was a discussion with nde staff on developing legislative and Regulatory priorities for the next legislative vium the committee intends to continue this discussion with the board at a work session in May the second information item was related to the commissioner's appraisal process so this is a timeline I'm going to give you the commissioner will complete his self- review by April 1st and board members will be able to complete their review between April 5th and April 15 this timeline is available for all board members in the executive committee agenda this concludes the executive committee report are there

296any questions on the executive committee report can you tell me where that timeline is found I'm not seeing it with the executive committee agenda okay it was there it was there yesterday maybe I'm just missing it yeah okay so it's in spark under the committee meeting under the committee not on the not on this board meeting agenda thank you for that okay any other questions or discuss s okay is there a motion is there a motion on item 7.4 pointa I move to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee it has been moved it has been moved and seconded to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee is there any discussion on this motion pat patty yeah I I just had a couple of questions looking through this um

297you know in in the past and maybe the thinking has changed about that and I'm just not aware of it but typically when we have seen bills come that are related to our legislative priority areas we usually are proponents of those but I've seen in this document at least one if not more that have a tagged legislative priority but they're neutral and I'm wondering if there's you know what kind what kind of guideline are you using as a committee that helps you make that decision to go with a neutral rather than being a proponent um well we we discuss it and and we take a vote I'm curious which ones specifically um I was looking at 1282 that's the provide for Youth Renewal centers for high-risk youth I any of the committee members can answer

298because sometimes it's hard to remember we discuss so else I'll say uh and and feel free also but uh there's all you know at the face value that is meet our priority goals and I did at first support it and then there was further discussion about uh just other uh repercussions from it and so that one I think I don't know if it came out neutral or but in general just so what what is happening is a practice and not necessarily a rule but but uh you know we're we're too too neutral on a lot of these things and so it will come to the full board if it's one that is going to be on the floor or is going to be in a committee I mean we we want the full board to

299decide on those if if the committee is uh not able to come to a majority uh agreement yeah that that I understand right I recognize that that's the way you're operating with that but I just wondered you know clearly the way you're deciding whether to be a proponent or neutral has changed a little bit so I just I guess I just want the board to all be aware of that um and if I'm understanding correctly the two that you had on the agenda as separate items are no longer separate items is correct so so we had committee discussion um on those and I'm just trying to refresh my memory both of those um lb 1398 and 10:13 I know that 1013 we heard from the senator that it was in committee and would she did

300not anticipate it coming out of committee and so we didn't think that we needed to as a board vote on that um so you took off of your list no there still I will still read those but we just recommend um you no action they'll still come there on the next page and then the other one and 1398 um I having trouble that's the one relating to special education programs and support services was that one still in committee that was not going anywhere yeah yeah not going anywhere I believe that neither one of them were and so we didn't think think that our recommendation to the board was then to not take a stance on ones that will be that will die in committee this year okay but I coming back to your original comment

301I don't think anything has changed those priority areas are still uh front and center uh at all of our discussions and very important part of the the discussion I believe oh and I'm sorry I didn't mean to imply that they weren't an important part of your discussion just in how you end up had changed a little bit um I guess the other one that I I would like a little bit more explanation on is 1027 that's one to change your Provisions that the commissioner talked about earlier in the meeting in his report you know for um those schools that elect not to be accredited or approved approved and my concern with that is on the surface when you look at it it appears that what we're doing is making it easier for those schools and

302anytime and and it may just me be that I don't have all the information that you had but when I see that that's always concerning to me because I don't want us ever doing anything that is just done for the sake of making something easier and then having it affect quality so if someone could just kind of help me understand I'll take that that's a really good question and one that um not speaking for the committee uh but I think there were a couple of things that were concerning when it in the original version of that bill and one of those was that we were afraid we would lose track of students because there was no annual reporting mechanism in in particular on that the rest of it we thought was really um I don't

303want to say made it easier for us but it did make it easier for us but I also don't believe it diminished any quality that the department would have uh I think the impetus for the bill was the backlog that we have really with exempt school um responses uh and and so I think that was a part of it we looked at it I would say with a little bit of a side eye originally be because we were trying to figure out is there something here that that's going to hinder the department in the end the senator listened to us um made the change that we asked and I think made the made the bill better made the reporting mechanism easier for students and families also made it easier for the the department to respond

304in a timely manner and didn't do anything to um affect quality from a department perspective okay did I read it correctly that it no longer are testing requirements in existence part I'm not I don't I don't remember that piece of it I think I think that's the case that that part was El Limited eliminated so certain items were eliminated that have never been in practice put into use by IND okay and so basing it on what has not been utilized that that was the bill to take that out and I and I just think that it's um the process I think has been streamlined I don't think that we're saying we're making it easier but I'm I'm sitting here looking at an email of a family engaged County me that because of the backlog they

305um have they were turned into the county attorney for treny and now their child must meet with a a treny officer and the backlog it was on our fault and so you know this family has has endured Financial hardships and mental and emotional hardships because and and even though the letter was then produced in January and then again in February they were already in the system and the legal system said it's too late you're too late and so they're Unfortunately they have no recourse against that and so this thought process was this would help our backlog so that it wouldn't be our fault in the future um because you know there's like those words like dereliction of Duty um you know I I I talked to the senator and I was like can um can

306this be a my Su nde because and he's like well I'm not a lawyer I don't know I'm like well I mean so these are concerns that we need to alleviate some of that so so we did but we did have extensive discussions so thank you for asking about that one and I I definitely support doing what we need to do to get rid of the backlog because that has been a concern for some time so it's not it's not that that I'm questioning at all um but it also really clarifies that part of what we were doing was making the this consistent between what we have practiced or not practiced so that that's helpful for me to understand that so thank you we are still on the motion to adopt the legislative positions is

307there any further discussion the motion is to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee with the recording secretary please call the role tagm yes ner yes Morrison yes Penner Gobles yes Jones yes cojon yes fricky yes seven yes one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to adopt the legislative positions as recommended by the executive committee is adopted agenda item 7.4 pointb um it's listed on the agenda as an action item request for separate consideration of board position on lb 1398 change Provisions relating to reimbursements for special education programs and support services relating to option students the executive committee recommends no action on item 7.4 pointb and I do believe we Ryan am I correct that we returned this to the previous item yeah so it just would stay neutal okay

308so it'll remain neutral because it was in that previous document so we do not need to take a separate vote on it following in that vein agenda item 7.4 C was it was an action item has been returned to the previous um item but it is the request for separate consideration of board position on lb 1013 create the family engagement grant program for certain schools and once again again we recommended no action and it was adopted in bulk on 7.4 pointa agenda item 8 additional business yes Lisa did you get enough people for your panel and gney next week well since we have people yes what we have and you would be welcome to attend um I just work with your um your board coordinator but currently we have Dr Maher speaking and then Penner

309Sherry and I will be there oh good okay because you were you sent out an email a while ago so good yes um I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to look at the Timeline related to the commissioner's appraisal so I don't know if it how detailed it is but because we won't have another board meeting before we start that process um if that's not in the timeline if it is just disregard this but you know it might be helpful to just review a little bit what that process really will look like how how will the board members get the information and is that all on the timeline it is and my my my computer is just a tad slow um so I was going to pull it up so so what will happen is

310you will receive um an email from Katie corfield and that will come after the commissioner has already done his so he has for March 25th to April 1st to do his self assessment on Friday April 5th Katie corfield so be looking for her email she will email all the board members with a copy to the commissioner um letting us all know and so you will have from Friday April 5th to Monday April 15th to complete the commissioner's annual performance appraisal and you will return that back to Katie she'll be monitoring to make sure she gets all eight of them back if she's if we're getting close and she hasn't received yours you will receive a reminder email um we turn those into her the last date is April 15th also the purple child day for

311military so we should be and tax day so you should remember that um then one week following Monday April 22nd Katie will email that final performance appraisal report to the executive committee the executive committee will have it from Monday April 22nd and then on Friday of that week April 26th she will email it out to the rest of the state board so we will have that you'll have that in your hands before you come for the May meeting do you have any other concerns no okay thank you sure no no problem any other additional business okay the next items on the agenda are items 9.1 and 9.2 and those are information informational items and written reports for the board agenda item 10 good of the order this section of the agenda is attended for board

312members to offer in informal observations of the work of the state board board members may make brief announcements about attendance at future events for the purpose of a informing other board members no business or motions or suggested actions of the board may be offered at this point in the agenda nor should the board members engage in substantive discussion about other agenda items or introduce new agenda items paty um this is not something future but just I wanted to let all of the board members know that this past week for the national state school board Association I did I was asked to do a presentation to kind of highlight some of the work that Nebraska is doing with high quality instructional materials and I wanted to share that with you just because there were only three

313states that shared what they're doing um so it really speaks well for the work of the Nebraska Department of Education and what they really wanted me to highlight most was the Nebraska instructional M materials collaborative so I I did share that information thank you for representing us like that Lisa she did a fantastic job and answered questions very well that that were we're asked so see no further comments thank you to those who attended in person and who tuned into to the broadcast the next meeting of the State Board of Education are scheduled for May 2nd and 3rd 2024 in Lincoln Nebraska the March 8th 2024 state board meeting is adjourned