SD308 Board of Education (2/10/22)

001[Music] is [Music] especially do not available can i have a motion to go back to open session i make a motion to return may i have a roll call this is here mr cakewood president mrs johnson president dr moreno mrs simonton president mrs swanson president pledge of allegiance please stand i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice can i have a motion to appoint dominic cerone as our interim board of education member i make a motion to appoint dominic cirone as our interim board of education member mrs samuelson aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mrs torrell aye mrs johnson hi motion passes six zero can you hear me now just speak loudly into

002the microphone please [Applause] okay raise your right hand and repeat after me i dominic cirone do solemnly affirm that i will faithfully dis discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of the oswego communities unit school district number in accordance with the constitution of the united states the constitution of the state of illinois and the laws of the state of illinois to the best of my ability so you repeat it i dominic cerrone do solemnly affirm that i will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of the oswego community unit school district number 308. in accordance with the constitution of the united states the constitution of the state of illinois and the laws of the state of illinois to the best of my

003ability i further affirm that i shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets i further affirm that i shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets i shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees i shall encourage and respect the free expression expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees i shall recognize that a school board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at the school board meeting i shall recognize

004that a school board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a school board meeting i shall abide by majority decisions of the school board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels i shall abide by majority decisions of the school board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels as part of the board of education i shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality of education of every student in the school district as part of the board of education i shall accept the responsibility of my role in the equitable and quality of education of every student in the school district i shall foster with

005the board extensive participation of the community formulate goals define outcomes and set the course for oswego community unit school district 308 i shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community formulate goals define outcomes and set the course for us oswego community unit school district 308. i shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework i shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework i shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law i shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student

006achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law i shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students in our community schools or schools to advance the vision for oswego community unit school district 308 i shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students in our community school or schools to advance the vision of for oswego community unit school district 308 and i shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision the board has created fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills knowledge citizenship and personal development and i shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision of the board the board has created fostering

007excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills knowledge citizenship and personal development thank you very much and congratulations and welcome to the board [Applause] here we go dr sparling will now make a comment good evening to everyone in attendance whether physically or remotely in march of 2020 all of our lives drastically changed the past 23 months have been difficult and complex for everyone especially our students many of you have lost loved ones to covet and to anyone grieving i am sorry for your loss there is no one that hasn't been somehow changed by this pandemic at all of our board meetings we have set time set aside for the public to share its thoughts and opinions on different matters with the board during public comment opposing views and issues are often expressed in

008a variety of topics we don't all have to agree on opinions shared but what is important is that we are all respectful of everyone sharing their views i respectfully ask that we remember this as people are speaking and that we refrain from making comments or interrupting others tonight the board of education wants to hear from you and we also have other school business that needs to be done we have people to hire bills to pay and construction projects that need approved we also have two informational presentations that will be of interest to the community all of these things are important for our district to operate in august of this year the board of education approved policy seven colon 165 regarding student use of face masks during a pandemic on that same date the board approved

009our district safety plan which outlined the layered mitigation strategies we are going to follow we were going to follow to help ensure we would be able to have full-time in-person learning for the 21-22 school year the face mask policy is one layer of our plan that was put into place to help ensure we were able to get through this year with full-time in-person learning which we've been able to do the safety plan is a 21-page document that outlines cleaning and sanitization hand-washing ventilation classroom layout social distancing visitors to school personal protective equipment and face coverings in our buildings and on our buses throughout this pandemic we've had to change or modify our protocols in response to the ever-changing conditions and guidance we've been given i know many of you are here to share your opinion

010on changing our requirements regarding basking in our schools the board and i appreciate all the information that has been sent to us this past week in july when the positivity rates and the number of cases in our area were very low i recommend it to the board and they accepted that recommendation that masking would be optional then as happened many times in this pandemic the metrics changed and the board also had to make changes as they adopted a safety plan that were based on local metrics as you are all aware over the past six months illinois schools have operated under the governor's executive order in regards to masking as many of you know our school district is a defendant in the downstate lawsuits challenging governor pritzker's executive orders regarding certain cove and mitigation measures including

011the wearing of masks in school buildings we are complying with the tro which prevents the school district from relying on the governor's pr pritzker's executive orders regarding masks however the judge who issued the tro did not prevent our school district from generally following our own policies and safety plans at this time policy 7 colon 165 and the safety plan require that mass be worn inside all school buildings based on local metrics however we want to acknowledge that the landscape of coven 19 has changed as compared to last fall as the community responds to cover 19 changes and metrics continue to show decreases decreasing cases we understand the importance of having a plan in place that allows for layers of mitigation to be peeled away in response the board has asked the administration to present an

012updated safety plan during the february 28 board meeting recognizing current metrics and the fact that our youngest learners have now had the opportunity to be vaccinated if they so choose the board and i look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions on the subject this evening as you can see from our agenda we will not be making any decisions on our safety plan tonight with that said this doesn't mean that changes will not be made in the near future the board and administration will remain in open communication as we work together with the same goal of keeping our schools the safest environment possible while making decisions that fairly represent the communities that we serve i thank you for listening to me for everything that i had to say and as i mentioned a few minutes

013ago as our community members are provided with their time for public comment i ask that we all show each other respect that we all deserve thank you thank you dr sparrow now i would like to make a comment one of our goals as a board is to maintain a healthy in-person learning environment for students and staff we truly believe that everyone in this space wants that as well we might not always agree on how or when we get there and that's okay listening to different perspectives and putting ourselves in the place of others helps us to grow as individuals and hopefully lessen the distance between our positions it is our desire that we extend grace toward one another as we navigate these challenging times together your voice matters and we hear you thank you now

014it's uh an opportunity for public comment so on behalf of the board of education i would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system residents interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary of to the board when the secretary calls your name i ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback tonight we will extend the 30-minute maximum time frame for public comments to 60 minutes so that the board has the opportunity to hear from more residents comments will be limited to three minutes per person to honor the the

015board's student voice priority our student ambassadors will be reading student email comments for a time period of 15 minutes please note the public comments that we've shared by email will be recorded in the minutes and shared with all board members no discussion of personnel matters or responses to questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment if your questions or concerns require follow-up and member of the administration will reach out through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you apologies in advance if any of the names are read incorrectly jonah travis stutton hi my name is jonah travis dutton i'm a fourth grade student in old post elementary i want to tell you i absolutely hate masks it restricts seeing most friends faces plus it is hard to hear

016when talking i also hate masks because they remove our rights and we need to fight for them another reason i hate masks is because it can be hard to breathe please make masks optional we are one of the only states that have such a strict mandate most other states have gotten rid of the mandate and they're doing fine just give us a chance thank you jonah christopher dutton dear board my name is chris and i'm a sixth grader at thompson i want to tell you my feelings about masks i hate them i can't breathe especially in gym they are uncomfortable i can't see anyone anyone's faces and it's hard to breathe please give us a choice everyone is sad and it just isn't fair i have weaker lungs and i think it is time for

017a change it is hard to hear classmates and teachers and if we don't wear it we are denied learning which isn't fair during summer band we weren't forced to wear a mask and everyone had so much fun and no one got sick the last week of band we were forced again and it was awful thank you chris i am a studio student at murphy junior high i do not want to wear a mask anymore i saw that the judge said that we shouldn't have to wear a mask my mom works in plainfield and they don't have to wear masks my mom is willing to homeschool me or let me switch districts if oswego's rules don't change [Applause] rebecca dutton dear board of education i am an 8th grader at thompson junior high school i would

018like to tell you my opinions and feelings about masks mass absolutely suck it makes it harder to breathe gym class is horrible you can't see your friends faces they are uncomfortable and it makes it harder to understand others i wanted to go to school without a mask and stand up for my rights but the way students who have gone without a mask have been treated is absolutely ridiculous students are getting pulled out of school and even suspended denying their ability to learn simply because they do not have a piece of cloth covering their faces during the first couple weeks of summer band masks were not mandated everyone was happy and those who wanted to wear a mask could no one got sick however when masks were mandated again around the last week of summer band

019the moon the mood completely changed everyone hated it nobody wears their mask properly anyways and not much is done about it how would it be different if masks were removed completely i'm in i'm in a musical it's horrible to practice sing and perform when there is a mask getting in the way choir is the same way singing with a mask on is absolutely terrible after school sports our after-school sports are the same way playing sports in a mask sweating in a mask is just horrible if we are healthy and have no reason to wear a mask then why should we sincerely rebecca dutton yvonne gomez by far oswego high school has had many incidents that have not been handled the efficient way or at all from staff disrespecting students to sexual assault to staff putting

020hands on students to staff failing to support and listen to students the level of disrespect and discouragement from oswego high school staff has been unacceptable to allow this behavior to continue is an unsafe and dangerous mentally and physically for a learning environment this school talks a lot about respect from students to staff and doing good and being to class on time etc but where's the students respect from the staff in my personal opinion if the staff respected students more they would care more about the rules i've talked to many students about the way i feel and i would say at least 50 or more kids agree with me i will continue to fight for a better environment oswego high school staff should get training to dean deal with mental health and how to approach escalated

021situations and understand the way of students thinking ashton pope hi miss studer i was told to contact this email if i was wanting to say something about the mass situation okay so one oswego naperville and aurora are the only cities that wear masks in school and not even in schools like all over the country no one wears masks so why are we the ones who need to wear masks in 2020 when i was going into sixth grade the board had said that if you are vaccinated you are allowed to not have a mask on then we had e-learning all of the first semester last year even when other schools were well not just in the district but other districts still went to school when schools were back in person they didn't have to wear a

022mask raquel saraco i'm a big believer in free will in people's choice i find it unsettling that our school oswego high school is the only school that is continuing to mandate masks every other school is allowing their students to feel comfortable with whatever choice they decide and when my school is not doing the same it makes me feel as if they don't value our freedoms i understand some people are still afraid of the virus or have loved ones that have health conditions and are afraid of spreading it to them but those people can wear masks and get the vaccines they want people don't even wear their masks correctly therefore it is useless on a day-to-day basis anyways you should never force anyone to do anything they don't want to do this pandemic has been going

023on a little over two years and we need to stop being so afraid coronavirus is clearly not going anywhere and will always be a thing just like the flu or any common sickness i hope this week of high school does better and listen to the judge thank you caleb fortson einstein stated that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes is the very definition of insanity for two years we have socially distanced and worn mass and still covered numbers escalate for two years obsession of preventing covet has been a priority and not discovering ways to treat covid due process and the right to be are the very things that set us apart from all other countries mass should be an individual choice some people say well why isn't wearing a seatbelt a

024choice well studies prove seat belts do more harm do more good than harm and then through due process laws were enacted for courts to follow disciplinary circumstances for offenses of not wearing a seat belt we have worn masks and socially distanced along with excluding fellow students myself included from a learning environment without a positive coveted test all because there is a chance of us having covid despite our efforts to socially distance and wear mass covetous covets still spread so why are we still wearing mass why are we putting unfounded stress on children if the preventative measures are not working vaccines boosters mass socially distancing have happened for long enough if it worked numbers would not rise the omicron variant is much milder we are told by our federal government but could it mean herd immunity

025is working and as people are put into an environment with covid our bodies have adapted causing a less serious virus the theory of evolution was taught to me the fundamental idea of evolution is adaption we have been muzzled long enough it should be an individual's right to wear a mask not a school board or administrators without a medical degree making personal choices about our right to be thank you for listening caleb fortson brandon lane hello i'm a student who is currently attending oswego east high school i'm emailing you regarding the mask mandate at schools in our district this monday some students protested the district's mask mandate i was compelled to contemplate doing the same however i did not a decision in which i now regret i witnessed other students harassing these brave masculist students with

026profanity and putting up signs throughout the school our school contributed to the harassment by segregating all of the masculist students and keeping them all in one room as you know i and many other students and parents are upset with the current mask situation we believe it should be up to the person to be able to decide whether they wear a mask or not i hope this contributes to the overruling of the mask mandate in our district thank you for your time and consideration aj weber hi my name is aj weber and i'm a sophomore here at oswego east high school i'm writing to you today to give my opinions on the mass topic for the district 308 school board meeting to start i believe the district policy on when to require a mask is outdated

027and unintelligent this policy needs to change due to the fact that this virus has changed so much since the month of august we are never going to get down to the level of transmission in the area that the district wants to see there is always going to be a student out sick and we cannot keep on waiting for this virus to go away which is never going to happen students know more than anyone how infuriating it is to wear a mask eight hours a day five days a week for months on end it is uncomfortable it is frustrating and it irritates my skin you may have noticed half the students in the school have either kept it below their noses or below their mouth because of how uncomfortable it is to wear all day long

028so ask yourself this question what would what would change not requiring masks the only thing that would change is the happiness and well-being of most students we would all have the freedom of choice thus this leads us into the topic of the temporary restraining order i believe at least until we see what happens with the appeal mass should be optional for all students and staff other surrounding districts have gotten their freedom back and i believe we need to do the same i am sure we all have heard by now the illinois mask mandate is expected to end on february 28th however the governor is keeping the mandate in place for all schools throughout the state i believe that this was a very selfish decision by the governor of illinois he is clearly trying to win

029in his legal battle and does not care about the comfort and well-being of students and staff though the governor wants to lift the school mass mandate in the coming weeks i believe we should follow other districts and do it sooner technically as of this moment the governor has no authority to mandate mass for schools because of a downstate judge declaring it illegal after all why keep us in a mask when we were the lowest risk age group while it is being lifted for everyone else in conclusion we have all gone through so much these past two years and i believe district 308 should follow other districts and make mass optional for all students and staff because it's time to move on sincerely aj weber good evening my name is eric eichorn i'm a sophomore at

030oswego east high school i'm sending this email in regards to the mask mandates that are being enforced in the district i would like to start by addressing that i understand other people's views and opinions on the mandates and i fully respect their decision to wear a mask however i would like to share my views we have been living with coronavirus for over two years now and we've been living with the flu for many more years not once were we ever told to put on a mask by the district when flu cases were in full swing the masks were originally put into place to limit the spread of the coronavirus and while the numbers have gotten under control since the beginning of the pandemic there's only so much we can do to keep covid from spreading

031around the required case transmission level uh to lift the mask mandate in the district is 10 to 49.99 according to the district email and while we are currently far above this level what is going to bring us to the required level we've been wearing a mask this whole school year and not once have we seen a significant decrease in cases in our district so why the mandate it's clearly not proving effective now so what is going to make it effective in the future we need to learn to live with this virus we've been living with the flu for decades and while the flu was a very dangerous virus in the beginning we have adapted researched and become immune to the flu it does not seem to be fair that students who are still young and

032healthy for the most part are being forced to wear a mask when the rest of the state is starting to ease their restrictions according to abc news the mortality rate for students under the age of 25 is one percent and the one percent mortality rate with students with existing health issues such as asthma or heart problems and masks can be helpful to the group of people who are at higher risk but the general population does not need to be forced to change their life for the smaller population to conclude i just wanted to share my opinion i was taught in an early age to speak up if i believe is if something is inaccurate or unlawful thank you for your time sarah winter hi my name is sarah wainer and i go to lakewood creek

033elementary school i am a third grader i do not like wearing masks at school it makes me feel uncomfortable because i can't breathe i get upset because i can't see my friends faces or my teachers when my daddy told me that the school wouldn't let us take off our masks i cried and now i don't want to go to school i love school pe is hard when we have to wear our masks we get sweaty and i feel like i can't breathe in it i have been getting dots all on my face because of wearing it for so long i miss playing with friends without wearing masks i miss seeing smiling faces around me thank you sarah weiner natalie arias board of members and district administration my name is natalie arias and i am a

034sophomore at oehs i have a sister in eighth grade a brother in fourth grade and my mom is an elementary special education teacher assistant i've been concerned this entire school year about covid and the safety of our schools my entire family is in three different schools every day first i want to say thank you to each of you for working so hard to do what is in the best interest of the entire school community and not making decisions to please one group or another there most likely isn't a way for you to do that anyway second i was happy to hear that it was advised that it was okay to continue with the district safety plan regarding masks i know that there are decisions working their way through the courts but i would not feel

035safe attending school in a building with around 2 000 students without masks being worn by everyone especially as there is no other option for me but to go to school in person finally i want to make sure that you know that there are students and families who want to follow the guidelines from medical experts their guidance has not changed masks should be worn universally in schools please continue to make any decisions regarding mask policies with their recommendations in mind our entire country is still in a high rate of transmission for cobin 19. please continue to do what is best to keep my family and all of district 308 families safe thank you for your time vincent drain to the board of education secretary i am a sixth grade student at binaristic junior high school i

036am writing to express my stance on the current in-school mass mandate we the students are frustrated over being masked for the last two years we understand the intent was to keep us safe initially but just as the virus has evolved so has the understanding of massive mass effectiveness and unfortunately has become a political means to control our civil rights and ability to choose what is best for ourselves we have been told to stand up for what we believe in and this is our opportunity to do just that now is also the time for the school district and our teachers to stand up for us i suffer from anxiety and the mass make it a lot worse please help the kids mental health we have been through enough i am tired of constantly being asked and

037reminded to put on or pull up my mass it has caused me many days to not want to come to school and created a divide between me and my teachers i want things to be normal again as well as i am a hockey player at a club with 500 plus players we have been playing and traveling together massless we have been the perfect scientific test case that we can remove the mask and be safe does the school board also not see that all of us kids have been playing together massless outside of school and it makes no sense that when monday comes around a mass is miraculously going to keep us safe this is america the country of freedom help us uphold our constitutional rights thank you very much vinnie drain ava murray yes i

038would i would love to hear the rest of those ava murray hello this is my third year going through covet 19 as a student and as one of as the one going through the constant mask wearing i thought i should have my say i didn't i do not love masks but they protect us as a whole and i enjoy knowing that i am at a lessened risk of getting coven 19. if we did not wear masks imagine how many more coven 19 cases there would be currently in the springfield area we are at 2880 according to the cdc if we didn't wear masks imagine how many more cases there would be instead close to the five thousands i'm not sure but i do know this even though wearing a mask may bring a bit of

039discomfort it protects you and the people around you if you don't care about your health and safety think of your kids and friends and wearing a mask protects them as well just think about that before you go around shouting your beliefs at the world thank you have a great day hello i want to thank the parents that are being civilized about this whole matter to the parents who are yelling and being immature about the matter i would like you to know that you are setting a bad example for your children do you want to raise children that are unruly in public do you really think that yelling and threatening people is going to help you get what you want i'd hope not because if that is the case i don't want to see how the

040next generation turns out i think that the phrase kill them with kindness applies in this situation do you remember when kova 19 first started and people were going on walks together and being good people in general i do understand that everyone is sick and tired of covet 19 but you can't end it with sharp words and rude actions but we can't help each other through this so please be kind and stay strong have a wonderful evening thank you emily corvatt greetings i'm an 8th grade student at chauber who supports the idea of masks being optional at school first of all masks are uncomfortable when they pull on my ears all day and are uncomfortable around my face and i am distracted by how the mask may be sucking into my face when breathing i generally

041find it harder to concentrate while wearing it secondly it is harder to understand what people are saying when wearing masks most of the time we end up having to get closer to people when talking to understand what we're saying which defeats the purpose of social distancing there are also many problems with miscommunication such as students not quite picking up on teacher instructions as well as teachers not quite catching on to what students may be asking or answering additionally masks make it very difficult to socialize since most of a person's face is covered by the mask it is hard to see how they are reacting to what i'm saying and with all of these difficulties i feel like i've become less social and extroverted than i used to be because of a lot of the times

042i just give up on the idea of talking to people finally nobody seems to wear masks correctly at school anyway and most importantly the people have immunity to the virus by being vaccinated and or naturally infected overall having us wear masks all day probably doesn't make us all healthier but it does make it more difficult to learn and act normal sincerely emily cormat [Applause] yes i will give the names of two people so two people can move up closer to the front the first one is brian pope the second one is laila yahi i hope i've said that right bring the microphone closer please brian pope and leilahi can i go first does it matter okay my name is layla yahi i wanted to talk today to express my disgust with this state and specifically

043this board i'm a mother of three in this district my daughter my oldest is seven and has never had one normal day in her life i want everyone here to absorb that she has never had one normal day of school in her entire life she completely missed kindergarten and that's okay because we didn't know but now we do she missed memories i didn't realize were so important until they were never made now she's experiencing first grade and making best friends having never seen their faces except for 10 to 15 minutes during her snack i would like this board to present the evidence that these masks are protecting our children one shred of data anywhere in the world that this proves that proves this and defends your lack of reason all i see is hypocrites i

044guarantee everyone here has resumed their normal life is going to parties vacations whatever they want to do and then we all walk into school on monday and act like these kids are riddled with disease and they're just spreading it unless they have some mask muzzling them again according to the real data children with no comorbidities have the lowest hospitalization rates and death rates and we've known this since 2020. i'm appalled at the notion that i'll have to explain to my kids why i allowed them to be abused for political purposes it's obvious that this district has other motivations in mind and our their education is just simply obviously not priority number one the pandemic is over this virus is now endemic and we need to live with it if masks do not become optional soon

045my family is moving um there are 40 other states in this union my kids can live a normal life and oswego illinois is not worth it state representative batnick is next [Applause] state representative patnik if you'd like to come up members of board in regards to the district policy 7165 regarding student masking and the district safety plan i questioned the district's legal opinion as the temporary restraining order deemed null and void many more rules and emergency changes beyond the governor's executive orders district emails from july through august specify the district accounting for updated isb idph guidance and per the tro on page 11 quote idph did not mandate the covet 19 vaccine nor did it issue emergency rules pertaining to vaccines or masks the governor did and then is be promulgated its emergency rules to

046carry out the governor's orders end quote thus the isb idph guidance was created based on and to support the executive orders which are now null and void as a result of as as a result of judge grisha avoiding the updated definitions policy 7165 in many parts of the district safety plan are in violation of the idph act and our due process rights in the event my legal understanding is incorrect i still question the wisdom of the board reverting to a safety plan that does not account for updates in the cover 19 pandemic specific to masks i know you mentioned earlier that that's to be done shortly however medical experts finally began stating in december what many of us have known long ago is that cloth masks are little more than facial decorations and begin recommending

047higher quality masks like n95s the kind the bite administration is now distributing but the problem with those masks is the cdc also states on their website n95 masks are not designed fitted nor recommended for children and have ever been broadly tested on children to determine efficacy therefore there is nothing children are approved to wear on their faces to statistically significantly lower the chances of infection from covid19 or any other airborne virus if you'd like to see any additional studies i emailed the board on saturday with a link to the brownstone institute listing about 150 comparative studies and articles on ineffectiveness and harms of masking but finally i am appalled at the district utilizing an inequitable exclusionary and divisive policy for those not named on the temporary restraining order you created voted on and deployed an

048inequitable opportunity and outcome for students without the choice to wear a mask versus those on the tro you are excluding students from class and from learning for close contact tracing yet those on the tro suffer no such fate the tro didn't create this situation you did by reverting to and implementing the safety plan fortunately you also have the choice and the power to reverse this harmful choice even before february 28th and i pray that you do so with utmost haste i'm happy to discuss anything further with you at your convenience and thank you for your time [Applause] david piazza will be next david piazza uh thanks for letting me speak as the uh board had said i'm state representative mark badnik this is a wonderful board meeting for me to to come to um the

049i'm sorry the woman who spoke first what was your name yes laila uh leila you directed something about towards the state and that's why i'm here i'm kind of here to i think a lot of what i've said and i hate the math thing too to talk but a lot of the anger that's directed towards the school board a lot of a lot of a lot of the anger that's been directed towards the school boards really should be directed towards the state and that's why i'm here so hey ladies and gentlemen please let him speak look you want to talk about your frustration my wife is a is a special ed teacher i have five kids i have two in school my oldest daughter is a speech pathologist you want to know what it's like

050being an elected state official representing 109 000 people and not having one hearing for two years about the upsides the downsides any of the mitigations when you're going to do significant mitigations to the state an equal amount of heavy transparency is required and we haven't had that and we're asking the board to do things it's not just the epidemiology of it there's issues with mental health that we've talked about there's issues with esl learning there's special ed issues there's all kinds of issues they don't have the ability as a board every school district in the state does not have the ability of a board to call in all those people but for two years i have not had the ability to do that at the state level i have not had the ability as a

051state rep to to hash this out and to come up with the plan so in in august completely agree you know they were put into situation because we didn't codify any of this under the law this went to the courts so now we're dealing with this because of what happened what happened with the courts right there they're being put in a position to make a decision on something that i feel that we should have had to put a vote on i'm telling you that i would have had the ability i would have had the desire to put an ability on to to put a vote on any of the mitigations i want that because the state has the ability to call in enough of the experts to call in everybody not just the epidemiologist what

052you're calling everybody upside down side of everything i want to do that that said we're in the situation that we are in now and i'm pleased to hear that the board is going to review their plan they were forced to put a plan in on their own that should have been done at the state level i'm glad they're putting in a plan this is different as you mentioned this is different than it was at the beginning when you when you when you put the plan in place in august there's vaccines we we know more about n95's ability even even to get those sorts of things there the omicron hasn't been as dangerous as some of some of the other variants have been that said i would hope that we do an expedited review of your

053current plan i applaud the board for having a plan i think one of the i think one of the hardest jobs in politics thank you sir representative bandnick we appreciate you being here today we are sticking to the three-minute work you got it thank you very much stay around for a while for anybody who wants to talk to me joanne johnson is next joanne johnson 19 years in this school district five children first graduating class of oe second graduating class of oe i got one more to go please listen to this carefully everybody isaiah chapter 49 verse 25 but thus saith the lord even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered for i will contend with them the contendeth with thee and i will

054save thy children god gave us our freedom it was reaffirmed by our founding fathers and the constitution of the united states it was not given to governor j.b prisker anthony fauci isbe any teachers union any school board nor the school administration we will all have our judgment day that we cannot get away from i believe 100 percent you are making a horrible mistake and the fact that you said right off the bat without hearing anybody's words not our children who act absolutely said it best i'm going to cut my speech in half because they already covered it for you to say that you're not going to vote tonight completely tells us what we mean this is all political i did not sign my rights over to anybody to determine my child's medical treatments a pcr

055test is a medical procedure a a mask is a medical device n95 mass just read the back of it it'll tell you how effective it is with coronavirus it is not effective at all mrs simonton i just want to get it on the record just in case nobody heard it she said that we cannot serve anybody up there because she said so and it is going to happen during the week when the board members do not have an office at the district so i will be standing at the front there and i will lay down each person's letter of intent from me to file a claim against your surety bonds for breaking your own you swore an oath to uphold the constitution the constitution of illinois as well as to serve these children it has

056been proven that you're hurting our children david piazza will speak next sean keener will come up ma'am can i ask that you take your seat [Applause] ma'am can i ask that you take your seat [Applause] [Music] can i ask you to take your seat thank you you let mrs marino know i expected her not to show up because she is a coward and couldn't even face us david piazza is next sean keener and after that tom and jackson the ninja good evening my name is sean keener and i'm a forensic science teacher at oswego high school i am in my 20th year at oswego high school and have been a part of many changes in the district i would like to speak about what i have experienced in my classes in our hallways and speaking

057to many students and several staff throughout this past year and most recently the past few weeks as a veteran teacher in oswego i've had the opportunity and privilege to teach coach and mentor many generations of students this past year i have observed a significant decrease in student participation and even larger decrease in student motivation a noticeable increase in student frustration and more mental health and anxiety issues than ever before yes the pandemic has a major impact on that however many students have mentioned to me that they feel wearing a mask in school that they connect cannot connect with friends teachers counselors and other students when wearing this expressionless eerily quiet distant looks make up the majority of students i have in class while similar comments have been stated by teachers i have spoken to this

058concerns me deeply that this is affecting our youth more than we know my son attends a local school where mask mandates have become optional and he has been chosen not to wear his and his comment commented that he and his friends appears are much happier more productive and overall feel back to normal if you walk down the hallways at ohs you will see dozens or even more students with masks below their noses and some under their chins although our deans and staff try do try and get them to put them on correctly it is just too many to manage it has also caused some tension among students and staff as many are tired of being told and honestly tired of wearing them all day this is not a recent occurrence either and yet we have

059not seen a large increase in coveted cases covet is not going away anytime soon it is another virus that we will have to adjust to and continue to manage as we move forward but effective education quality mental health and happiness of our students and staff is also a forefront for you to consider some things to consider is the ability of our students to get the vaccine with a booster and having 93 percent of one of our most vulnerable groups those age 65 and older being vaccinated in kennel county also data shows that omicron is much less severe than infection from prior variants despite its transmissibility the last point i would hope you would consider is the questionable effectiveness of cloth masks in its most recent update the cdc stated that cloth masks provide the least

060amount of protection from the virus most students that i see in the classes and in the hallways have a form of a cloth mask a data table from the wall street journal titled why cloth masks might not be enough as omicron spreads shows that a cloth mask provides 20 minutes of potential protection from a person not infected and 27 minutes of potential protection from a person wearing a cloth mask who is infected this potential protection is only true if the mask is worn correctly every minute of the school day seeing a student smile is more powerful now than ever and i truly believe it can create an uplifting environment thank you so much so in conclusion i'm asking the school board to reconsider making it an optional [Applause] tom and jackson will be next and

061kevin johnson kevin johnson may come up so go ahead uh my name is tom nanegay and right here are two children that decided to not wear a mask on monday at thompson junior high the first two days they were sent home with unexcused absences the third and fourth day they were in school suspension these kids chose that they did not want to wear a mask it is a personal right and this is jackson uh jackson's uh letter that he wrote and sent to the board and i knew they probably wouldn't get them to get to them all but here is his letter the reason i don't want to wear a mask as an american citizen i have my rights to kindly say no to a mask the mask is ruining the way i learn the

062mask makes it hard to hear from certain distance i have a hard time because of my adhd it gets me distracted by twisting the strings on my finger if the mask is too tight it can get uncomfortable and it can hurt at gym we have to wear one and if you get sweaty it can cause acne many masks are thin material that might not even work and when you put the mask on it can leave a hole at the top and bottom that is letting the germs to get in all of the same germs on you will stay on the mask and give you a higher chance of getting coveted this is why we should have a choice if we want to wear a mask or not other school districts have the option to wear

063it or not why can't we america is a free country meaning the citizens should have the choice to wear a mask or not this is why america should have a chance to kindly say no mr batnick i know you just mentioned oswego and they're in the choices that they're making and the things they're doing but i ask you what about yorkville what about whedon what about batavia what about saint charles what about elgin they chose to protect our kids thank you kevin johnson will speak next i have a hard time reading that name i think it's steve schindler okay you may come up who's speaking now kevin okay my name is kevin johnson i speak to you i want you to hear where i come from i'm an executive of a fortune 300 company who's

064ch i just want you to know where i'm coming from i'm a president or a senior vice president of nac and a fortune 300 company our company has chosen not to wear masks due to legalities around them so i want you to pay attention to that but more importantly i think the kids have spoken the adults have spoken i'm more afraid of what's going to happen after this because it's going to end at some point but the what i'm hearing between the adults that are very passionate about their children in this room today a lot of similarities but we're concentrated on the differences i'm responsible for 3 000 plus people every day i deal with mental health issues every day and a lot of it's from the pandemic a lot of it's from how their

065children are behaving so i want you to hear this and i wish i could make this for all of you that are here i love you all i have my opinions i love your children the board you have a important job to do the police have an important job to do but you guys we're together in this the masks do not work i got more evidence than i'd care to share other states have gone about doing the right thing do the right thing and then we can start repairing the relationships that we've killed with this pandemic so many friends so many people i respect have been torn by this pandemic that's more important to fix than talking about trivial mass that don't work and we all know that come on it doesn't make any sense

066whatsoever let's get together and discover how we're going to get through this how are we going to show that love to one another that's important none of this is important right now to me none of it it's torn up my family my daughter is scared the death of taking her mask off because she doesn't understand the facts i try to educate my children on facts what the hell is wrong with this education system that doesn't deal in facts so just to end know that i love you all every single one of you i don't give a about your opinions everybody's allowed to have their own i love you because you're people i love you because you're passionate about your children the fact you're here let's decide what we're going to do to get along that's

067all i ask steve schindler will speak next and layla irizarry may come up i almost don't want to follow the johnsons all right i am going to finish for joanne if the following action does not stop within 24 hours of this notice i will move forward and file a claim against your bond and bobby dufkis principal assures agency a marsh and mclennan agency number one immediately cease the enforcement of the illegal executive order 2021-18 eo 18 or any subsequent order to come which requires school districts to make the use of mass for students and teachers mandatory who occupy their buildings number two immediately cc enforcement of the illegal executive order 2021-22 or eo22 or any subsequent order to come which requires persons who are both unvaccinated from covid19 and work in illinois schools to provide

068weekly negative results of an approved coven 19 test in order to occupy school buildings number three immediately cease the enforcement of the illegal executive order 2021-24 or e024 or any subsequent order to come which requires that school districts refuse students and teachers admittance to their buildings for specified periods of time if the student or teacher is a close contact of a confirmed or probable coven 19 case and number four stop coercing all forms of coven 19 propaganda concerning how dangerous this is to our parents and our grandparents to our children we've all seen you be served it was all handed out you now have your 24 hours notice layla will speak next and tim you hughnan may come up jim h leila will be speaking next and jim hughnin i'm not sure i'm saying that

069right can come up next good evening my name is layla and i am a sixth grader at chauber junior high i'm a gifted honorable student band member and student athlete i've been an sd 308 student since kindergarten today i'm here to talk to the board about my experience at school this week and how it has affected my mental health i've spent three days in iss for not wearing a mask this week i've had a lack of education most teachers have not sent work for me even after being asked to by email i have missed one one-time class opportunities in some classes i have not been a part of group projects i am not being kept informed about what i'm missing i've been given random busy work that does not match my subjects for example worksheets

070about states i've also experienced intimidation by staff i saw a teacher sternly grab another student in iss by the shoulder i've been pulled out of iss to have conversations with my principals off in my principal's office i've and i've been alone and they're left in there waiting for her to talk to me for at least one class period smoked i've spoken to i've been spoken to with stern scolding type voices followed by apologies only to be spoken the same way later many students support me but are scared to be treated like i have been some too some students have been unkind have been unkind and have unkind things to say they've been mocking me calling me miss no mask this week has been hard on my mental health i've been alone while isolated anxious when

071pulled into my principal's office sad to hear about how my little sisters are being treated in iss i'm fed up and confused about why i'm being unreasonably disciplined compared to my friends and family in nearby districts thank you for listening to a very small portion of my story i'm pleading with you to please make a change and let me make my a fair choice for my tim will body next and joshua monk munch may come up good evening school board members my name is jim huginnon i'm a 20-year plus member of this school district and we recognize you as being victims in this pandemic also but following suit of a criminal governor issuing a emergency orders are a violation of our federally protected constitutional rights you are aiding and abetting a felon he will be

072arrested for crimes against humanity and he will be prosecuted okay so now that you've been warned of what's going on in your refusal to vote tonight we the people are formally servicing you a notice of termination for violation of oath of office we the people of oswego school district 308 are representing our best interest in particular the best interest of our students that have been silenced violated infringed upon abused and provided dishonest information regarding the unlawful and unhealthy mask mandates through the ordering of forced compliance you have instilled fear in our students and been detrimental to their health and happiness this is because of the decisions made by this board regarding the instituting and enforcing of oswego school district policy 7165 students use of mask during a pandemic we the people of school district 308

073fully assert our god-given unalienable rights the constitution of the united states the constitution of the state of illinois the laws of the state of illinois as we terminate you from our elected governor body for violating the oath of office you affirmed to uphold failure to comply with the notice is given and the demand stated by we the people including the following federal and state rights infringements in the federal and state criminal offenses committed by the instituting of oswego school district policy 7165 we the people of the school district 308 officially and undeniably as the governing tax body order school board members to cease and desist all activities regarding your respective board positions effective 210 22 at 10 pm we the people lay claim that the following federal constitutional protected rights and laws have been breached

074broken and infringed upon by the instituting and enforcing of school district policy 7165 first amendment right to assemble freedom of speech right to religious freedom 18 usc 242 deprivation of rights under color of law 18 usc 241 conspiracy against rights 18 usc 245 federally protected activities 18 usc 1001 false statement of entries 18 usc 247 obstruction of person and free exercise of religious beliefs usc section 514 fictitious obligations usc 52 century rights act discrimination in a public place u.s title section 12101 unlawful to deny entry to person with a disability we the people are aware that pursuing action on the following federal statutes is lawful and appropriate course of action for securing justice 42 usc 1983 civil action thank you sir joshua will be next michaela humilty will be next sir can i ask you

075to please mr hugin and you're using other people's time now please thank you joshua hmm i call a recess for 10 minutes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh c um you should [Music] oh stop putting politics before kids testing so i would like i would like to remind everyone testing testing i would like to remind everyone of our policy 8 colon 30 the school district expects mutual respect civility and orderly conduct among all individuals on school property or at a school event no person on school property or at a school event shall including visitors students or employees perform any of the following item 11 impede delay disrupt or otherwise interfere with any school activity or function item number 16 engage in any conduct that interferes with disrupts or adversely affects a district or school thank you

076i want to i'm just saying we want to hear from as many of you all as possible and so the least amount of the least amount of interruptions will allow us to hear from as many of you as possible so please i'm asking that you give everyone the opportunity to be heard that came here to be heard because we really want to hear what you have to say and so what we what we what will happen is we hope that we will continue in the in the in the manner in which is civil and respectful and so as long as we're going in that direction we'll continue to hear um those who came to to speak and if we have to recess again we will adjourn our meeting for the night thank you joshua will

077speak next and michaela you mean humidity may come up good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board i appreciate the opportunity to address you and to address all the residents of oswego today my name is josh mench i'm a father of three young kids two of whom are in are in one of your elementary schools i've got a first grader who's never for a single solitary day of her school life but in a classroom without a mass i've got a third grader who when she meets a new friend at the beginning of the school year has to meet them bond with them connect with them form a friendship with them based on seeing three inches of the other kid's face from the bridge of the nose to the top of the eyebrows how do you

078do that how do you do that even as an adult but much less as a little kid i want to stress from the outside this isn't an issue that's about left versus right or conservative versus liberal or democrat versus republican it isn't about politics or ideology it's about basic human decency and frankly at this point it's about fear and it's about facts and this district this state and even this board are wildly behind the evolving science and data on these topics many of the 500 largest school districts in our nation never even had mass mandates and of those that did more than 60 have dropped those mandates since october just in the last week democratic governors in new jersey delaware connecticut oregon have all lifted mass mandates in schools or set a firm deadline for

079doing so in the coming weeks and increasingly public health experts are speaking out too dr wen public health professor at george washington university and a leading cnn medical analyst said last month quote close masks are little more than facial decorations end quote when it comes to omicron and we know exclusively that's what our kids are wearing in schools facial decorations she wrote an op-ed earlier this week dr wen and she said circumstances have changed cases are falling rapidly quote masking in schools can now move from a government-imposed mandate to an individual decision end quote dr gianna noble an emergency physician at the university of california at san francisco said and i quote in the same op-ed washington post four days ago if we want to preserve trust and respect for public health we need to

080pivot when the data tells us that we should she called for an end to mass mandates she said quote to say that masking doesn't have any harm to children goes against decades of child development research so if the board wants to actually follow the science moving forward and i suggest you do it before february 28th you can't hide behind metrics anymore that dr sparlin admitted earlier you adopted months and months and months and months ago when we didn't even know what omicron was we didn't even know it existed we thought it was a villain from a transformers movie but now we do know about it and we should start acting like it it's endemic we all know that and it's time to learn to live with it the harm posed to developing kids by continued

081mask wearing at this stage of the pandemic especially far outweighs any of the de minimis benefits of masking kids and i finish with this i think it's fitting that we're having this board meeting in the performing arts center of one of our local high schools because at this point masks on kids in schools it's just that it's performance it's public health theater and it's time you close the curtain on mass mandates now thank you michaela will speak next michaela and nathan brown can come up hello i would like to say thank you to our board of education for allowing me to speak tonight my name is michaela hamidi and i'm a junior at ohs this is cassie larusso bree king and kaylee la chapelle i would like to speak tonight on the events that have

082unfolded this week at oswego high school due to the temporary restraining order that judge griscow put in place i would like to say thank you for denying me the right to go to class on monday i would like to say thank you for denying me the right to use the bathroom without an escort i would like to say thank you for denying me and my fellow peers the right to use the vending machines when we are hungry for denying us the right to use a drinking fountain and denying us the right to go to our lockers thank you for not allowing us to leave a room we were placed in but we are not in trouble right i would like to say thank you to the teacher who was monitoring us stating we were incompetent

083and stupid for wanting to stand up for ourselves and our rights thank you for putting us in a room with kids who are actually being punished but we were not in trouble right thank you for teaching us that we need to believe in ourselves and we need to stand up for ourselves but when we do we get denied the right to our education i would most of all like to say thank you for denying us the right to sign into our classes online even though we were being held in a room by your staff for not wearing a piece of fabric on our faces a piece of fabric that is proven to not stop the spread of cobin 19 virus a piece of fabric that studies have proven is actually harming our bodies in the

084long run science daily released an article from a study conducted at swansea university that stated scientists have uncovered potentially dangerous chemical pollutants that are released from disposable face masks the research reveals high level of pollutants including lead antimony and copper within the silicone base and plastic fiber fibers of common disposable face masks yet we are still being forced to wear these masks all day every day right we are being forced to wear a piece of fabric that is causing children to have panic panic attacks because it spikes anxiety due to the feeling of being restrained and not being able to breathe governor jb pritzker released a statement saying that on february 28th the mass mandate will be lifted from everywhere but schools so it is up to you to make the choice as our board

085of education we beg of you to lift the mandate and give us the right to choose these are our bodies mash to be our choice as of now we are one of the only districts around that are still enforcing the mandate over 200 schools are now masked optional yet we still are not so for all of this thank you thank you for forcing us to not have a choice thank you for teaching us that standing up for ourselves gets us punished thank you for denying us the right to our education thank you [Applause] [Music] after this next speaker we will be at 60 minutes and we have 15 left okay sorry okay nathan will be next elsa clawson can come up hi there i'm nathan brown i have three children two at trauber and one

086at south berry and hard my phone's not you ever have a hard time turning your phone onto their mask on it's the absolute worst um hey so look first of all i want to thank the teachers all right the school board has put you in a terrible position i know you're all working hard and most of you are are twitter with a smile some of them are losing their patience i'm sure like the young lady was just saying sir can you talking to mike yeah you bet sorry it's a little weird said you want to talk to the people too all right so listen anyway the board has put the teachers in a terrible spot right um look call for a vote tonight you know amend the policy it's very simple you don't need you've

087heard all of it amend the policy tonight find the courage to stand up against the mandate now listen i wrote that before dr mourinho decided not to show up tonight okay i don't care still have the vote it doesn't matter you have a quorum make it happen tonight february 28th is too late listen all right this is not about masks it's not about masks this is about choice a family's choice on what they feel is best for themselves countless americans have fought and died defending our freedom to choose it's the ability to choose that makes us inherently american and who are you to strip that away i'm not a doctor or scientist man i'm just a dad i'm a coach the fact that my second grader cannot see her teacher's face or friends faces on

088a regular basis she has meltdowns because she has sensory issues about wearing the damn thing on her face and then my son's face he turns bright red when running up and down the basketball court gasping for breath it's gotta end it's gotta end now hey unfortunately you know you find yourself here in this position it's a very difficult position likely one you did not expect to find yourself in but but you know listen this is supposed to be about protecting others however i'm fine i'm sitting here and i'm feeling like it's it's something about control it's not about protecting others it has to be about control it's the only thing that makes sense look i'm sure you are all very very intelligent people so i don't have to waste your time talking about the science

089the science that clearly says that masses aren't working the science that says that in public places on february 28th we can remove the mass but not in schools not for the least vulnerable that makes no sense we can't that makes no sense guys but look like i said i don't have to waste your time because you guys are a very intelligent people but i have to ask what is about control is it about money is it about blind loyalty to a party it's about a union or even a beautiful corrupt politician named jb pritzker the fact is this is no longer about the medical science this is strictly an exercise in political science thank you very much elsa claussen is next and dina whittle may come up my name is elsa claussen and i'm a

090senior at oswego east high school since the fall i have complied with the executive order which requires all individuals under the age of two and who can medically tolerate a face covering to wear a face covering when in indoor public places while i don't agree with it i never protested or caused a disturbance but when a ruling by sagamon county judge raylene grishow on the temporary restraining order that would prohibit enforcement on face mask vaccination and kova testing mandates came out i was thrilled thinking that i no longer had to wear a mask when i walked into school on tuesday and wednesday without a mask i was punished with an in-school suspension then i was confused the masks were inconsistently enforced during the executive order so why was the staff enforcing it because of a

091simple board policy if i'm sitting in a classroom it is required that the mask covers my nose and mouth but at the indoor homecoming dance for juniors and seniors almost no students were wearing the mask at all at basketball games almost our entire student section wears it below their nose or even lower none of this is in force i wonder why all this is okay but if i don't have it at least wrapped around my chin i'm somehow a germ and i will make everyone sick the science shows the inconsistencies too as of february 4th 2022 the cdc proved that cloth and surgical mass are far less effective in stopping the spread of covet 19. if this is the case and the goal in school is to keep everyone safe why are these masks allowed

092i'll answer that because it is too difficult to enforce and pass out n95 masks to everyone in school that seems to be a common trend at the school when rules are too difficult to enforce they are either changed or ignored look at what happened to social distancing and contact tracing they are practiced to a far lesser extent than it was originally if at all if you think my ideas are too extreme or radical because they don't conform you can thank the staff at oswego east high school for teaching me how to think critically and independently my college prep stats class taught me how to interpret data and recognize how and when stats can be skewed or biased my psychology class taught me about the solomon ash experiment that showed that 76 percent of people conform

093to group pressure even when they know it's incorrect my ap government and politics class taught me that our country was founded out of necessary rebellion by a group of average men who were fed up with arbitrary and tyrannical laws my ap us history class taught me to follow martin luther king jr's footsteps and protest peacefully and respectfully while frustrated i did my best to treat staff with complete respect even after being placed in isi and lastly programs such as slip howell and track and field have put me in positions of leadership and taught me how to speak up for myself and for what i believe is right i am here not only to represent my concerns but also a large percentage of the students at oswego east high school who are silenced or cancelled for

094their beliefs i have always respected all opinions and would never ridicule a student or staff member for their choices including continuing to wear a mask if they were optional all we are asking is to have the choice is to leave the choice of masking up to individuals students and staff please make sc308 mask optional thank you dana riddle will speak next and taylor and jackson may come up hi i'm deana riddle um from plano just want to say that um i have spoke to three cardiologists and i keep hearing that you guys are all about the safety of the children but i tend to think differently um what the we all know the masks don't work first of all um you know make it make sense the cardiologists say that what happens is you are

095not breathing normally like you're supposed to breathe so you're not getting the oxygen to your extremities into your organs and it does long-term damage to these children and yourself and what i do see um everywhere i go is it's you know the people like you up here who you are afraid the kids are not afraid you're afraid so what i say nutritionally is if you're that afraid then start exercising lose some weight do all the things you're supposed to do eat right you know and and yeah instead of taking it out on the kids and i say unmask the kids that's all taylor and jackson are next and cynthia rook may come up hi my name is taylor schumann i go to thompson junior high i'm in sixth grade and wearing a mask is not

096easy you go to every class you have to wear a mask and you like when you stop doing it just because you want to make a difference you get all these looks me and my friend walk past hallway to go to a room where we were placed and talked to several times waiting to they wanted to change our mind but they could try multiple times but we have our rights and we're not going to change our rights and so like i said we got so many looks and most of those were from teachers and one of the assistant principals that they looked that they were disgusted at us one of my favorite teachers was even threatened with his job if he was taught if he talked to us so i have my rights and you

097got you can try to change it but it will not be changed cynthia rock will speak next or oh sorry i'm sorry um so we sorry we have to go in a room for eight hours a day and if we don't have any work we just sit there doing nothing but if we want to go to the bathroom we have to go to an all genders bathroom you might as well put a cat litter in there for that and we can't get our own lunch when we eat lunch with our mess down and i just don't think that's fair thank you cynthia rock will speak next and kelly gillen gillenwater can come up hi my name is cynthia rook and i'm a parent of two children in sd 308. first i'd like to say to

098all the journalists who are here this evening i do hope that you are finding yourself speaking to the many children who spoke tonight into the wonderful teacher who was brave enough to speak up i would love to see their voices represented in the newspapers tomorrow not that gentleman that's that was rude and spoken did they go off oh okay all right sorry um not the gentleman who was rude and spoke over everybody tonight he does not represent us the people who represent us are the wonderful teachers parents and the amazing students tonight who've said everything that needs to be said i had a speech here written tonight i don't even need to say anything we you you've heard everything from the kids that you need to know i will say this i do remember being

099here maybe about six months ago several times i've been here over the course of the past couple years um and we were a smaller group much smaller group then and you told us that we were just a small group of people we were made to feel like our opinions didn't matter and that we were somehow some sort of fringe movement there's no way you can ignore us tonight i think maybe we heard two voices that were pro-mask mandates listen to the people who are here these are your constituents we elected you to listen to us we're here tonight please do your job that you were elected to do for the community i don't know why i can't speak well into this mic um so please take a vote vote tonight do not wait any longer

100our kids cannot tolerate the physical abuse and the mental abuse please stop it our children are literally begging you thank you kelly will speak next and logan oster may come up i'm kelly gillenwater as of today 698 days have passed since you sent our children home and locked them out of their education two weeks we were told had you told me two years ago today that our children would be abused and neglected i would have said no way they're all court mandated reporters they won't let this happen instead you have according to the illinois board of education policy you are charged with employing a superintendent and other personnel making employment decisions dismissing personnel including determining whether an employee has willfully or negligently failed to report an instant of suspected child abuse or neglect as required

101by 325 ilcs 5 and establishing an equal employment opportunity policy that prohibits unlawful discrimination according to statute 105 alcs 522-12 preventing or interfering with a child's attendance at school whoever by threat menace or intimidation prevents any child entitled to attend a public or non-public school in this state from attending such school or interferes with any such child's attendance at that school shall be guilty of a class a misdemeanor every single one of you including the police officers in this room myself and several others are court mandated reporters and to my knowledge none of you have filed charges against the governor pritzker or yourselves your staff the police officers refuse to go and do well checks on students when their parents call they're being told they're not allowed in the building this is not okay the

102cdc ada fape and the department of child family and services just described our the definition of child abuse and neglect as an act or series of acts of commission or admission by a parent or caregiver examples clergy couch teacher that results in harm to a child any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death serious physical or emotional harm sexual abuse or exploitation an act of failure to act which presents an imminent risk or serious harm what you've been doing to our children is also referred to as munchausen syndrome or factitious disorder as defined by the mayo clinic a serious mental disorder in which someone discusses deceives others by appearing sick purposely getting sick or by self-injury i also want to state to you something

103every child is entitled to due process and every individual and i know if none and i've talked to nurses and i've talked to special ed teachers every student is guaranteed their day to have it be evaluated nobody has written a plan that forces a mask on any child thank you logan will speak next and dylan oster can come up good evening my name is logan and i'm a 6th grader at plank junior high i would like to share with you a little bit about my beliefs and experience in school in the last four days in regards to our school of matte policy on masks i believe students should be given a choice to wear a mask or not the amount of bacteria that grows in the mask that we wear all day is gross and

104it makes it difficult to breathe through especially during classes like gym or when we have to speak a lot in class also i miss seeing my friends faces every day i don't think it's right to force us to wear something we don't want to wear just because others are scared of getting sick from a virus that has caused less than one percent of deaths among kids you are you are breaking the judge's ruling and we shouldn't have to wear hamas any longer i have a right to due process which means that you have to get a court order to provide that i am denying a health hazard in order to require i need to wear a mask every day this week i've been an in-school suspension because i have politely refused to wear a mask

105we have started with our desk three feet apart on monday on this tuesday we each have a wooden walls put around our desk on wednesday we came to find our desks on opposite sides of the walls opposite sides of the room and the walls put and they still put the wooden walls around us we aren't allowed to talk to each other and the teachers don't talk to us either it feels like they're purposely isolating us from each other to intimidate us and make us feel alone i just want to go back to class to see my friends and get an education and i have a right to do without my mask my last thing i want to say mass suck dylan will speak next stephen landrum may come up my name is dylan i'm a

106fourth grader at boulder hill elementary i just want to say right now that masks suck why do you enforce why do you force us to wear these masks why don't we have an option in wearing them we should have freedom of choice we should be the ones choosing whether or not we want to wear our masks or not we have i have done in-school suspension all this week in a room by myself some of the teachers who have supervised me interact a bit rarely does anyone even ask me how i am doing or if i need anything i would like to resume classes again without max and continue my learning i would like to resume my freedom and so do my classmates they want no more masks and i want their freedom and want their

107freedom of choice back and so do i i am standing up for these for those students who are too scared of getting in trouble so let us get back to our old ways without math can resume our freedom and right to do an and right to an education stephen landrum will speak next and donna saviki may come up go ahead donna oh i thought there was someone before me okay um i'm donna sawicki um i'm a parent of two high schoolers at ohs and i'm also an ostego township trustee i've had several things to say but i'll start with the students that are speaking tonight and the ones that have been in school suspension it is like breaking my heart because this is so unfair um i can't help but not think like segregation um

108this is going against like we talk about equity that is the huge thing promoted and talked about right now and how is this even teaching equity and i want to talk about um one of the things i was originally going to say is just what's going on in our community right now and which makes it worse with what's happening with this in school suspension and how it's not fair because um so um i know firsthand that right before christmas covid cycled to the entire cheer team at ohs without any rhyme or reason people tested positive regardless of being vaccinated or not i can tell you that the majority of those that tested positive only had a headache and some some congestion a couple had a mild fever but recovered quickly in my opinion i can

109confidently say covet is very mild in children and adolescence as we move through christmas break and into the new year it seemed that almost everyone i talked to had some kind of encounter with covet especially parents and students at ohs so much so that i feel that everyone at ohs has either had covid or been exposed to it again vaccination status did not seem to matter whether people got it or not and i know some that were fully vaccinated and boostered that were sicker than people that were not vaccinated so how do you explain that i also want to mention then that oh first it makes me question if our numbers are lower because we have reached herd immunity from exposure and not necessarily the vaccine either way at this point it makes the mandate

110seem pointless recently i have been in the school to drop off lunches and attend several basketball games i have seen staff with masks down on their chins i have seen kids with masks on their chins as they make made tick tocks in the halls most of the basket most of the basketball players have their masks down on their chins which i can't blame them for because they can't breathe through them while running up and down the court coaches are pulling down the masks to shout out plays i know my time thank you christina hayes [Music] and christina hayes after that would be chrysanthelandowski may come up croissant lewandowski will be up next a lot of the things i wanted to say were already said by others so it's a little bit choppy i apologize for

111not being fluid in my speech um the american federation of teachers president randy weingarten had an interview where she had spoken and said that she was theoretically in favor of masking of a masking off ramp but only when the spread was low enough that there was no just dissemination or transmission in schools or when the vax rate was at least 80 percent but cobit 19 is not going away entirely anytime soon there will always be the possibility of one student transmitting the disease to another healthy young people or at very little risk of severe illness and whether they choose to get vaccinated is really no one's business but their own she went on to add how do we make sure that everybody feels safe repeatedly if you wait for the rates to get where everybody

112feels safe all the time will be waiting forever the appearance of safety appears to be more important than the facts indeed one of msnbc's other guests dr lucy mcbride said that mass mandates are doing more harm than good this is not march 2020 there are vaccines for those who want them those who want to one-way mask can do so using a well-fitted kf-94 kn-95 or n95 it does a good job of protecting the wearer and is not dependent on the behavior of other people we need to lift this restriction as kids are suffering from learning loss from the lack of social connection to their peers there is no convincing evidence in the real world that masking children in schools makes a significant significant difference in transmission in schools she said many students have gone two

113years without regularly seeing the faces of their teachers and classmates when wine garden is speaking and needs to be heard she understands that it's better to remove her mask and did so during a recent conference appearance why would this be any different in the classroom for everyone this virus is now at an endemic stage we need to learn to live with it our children must be free the district will end up on the wrong side of history if this continues this debate is really about keeping district adults feeling safe versus what is best for the children the harm masking has done and continues to do to our kids including impairing their social emotional and educational growth and as a heads up to the district adults the masking and restrictions are the reason for the uptick

114in negative behaviors that they've been so upset about lately so let's be done with that already ashley gentile i had one more sentence at the end i'm sorry um other districts are dealing with kids bullying on both sides after the masks have become optional so maybe we could start a program going forward to help them learn in peace together the next person to come up would be michael donovan i'm chris antolundowski oh i didn't see you come up okay okay it's a continuation because i did email you guys and no one responded so um we would like an explanation why you just missed the judge's ruling without the parents input first and also for failing to tell us we're in the law it authorizes you to create on an unconstitutional mandate policy 7165 parents never

115signed or agreed to the policy we also never agreed to the governor's mandate this is why a judge with common sense ruled in our favor of our constitutional rights it doesn't matter what you believe or feel what matters is what is legal however in the end what this board did was to take away our freedom to choose and this should scare anyone much more than kovit i wish that you would open your eyes to the reality of the mess the politicians in illinois have made the shutdowns in mask wearing have done more damage to people than the pandemic itself wake up and trust in god okay okay since i can't read all this i'm gonna go with this part all the judge's ruling puts all schools and districts and their and their staff on notice

116as to the legality of their policies any school district continuing to enforce these illegal policies after her ruling are exposing their district board members administrators and teachers to potential significant financial risk civil rights claims foreign violating constitutional protected rights would possibly now be covered by the school's insurance policy leaving the district board members and administrators teachers personal assets exposed not only violating due process right is a serious issue this is why almost 300 districts in the state have switched to fully mass optional policies and abandoned vaccination testing policies on their own volition their lawyers are surely advise them of this risk it's possible you may be continuing with illegal policies in hopes that the appellate court disagrees with the trial court but that is a serious gamble because if you are wrong i am putting

117you on notice right now sorry that the district as well as every board member administrator teacher involved is going to be sued by me for civil rights violations against my children that is from tom davar you know who he is ashley gentile will be next and hi my name is ashley gentile and i'm shaking like the leaf right now but um i am a mother of one child we have a daughter at fox chase and i am representing myself and my special needs daughter excuse me this has been really difficult for us i'm going to go ahead and just read my email that was sent because no one responded to it and it has some extremely poignant facts in it excuse me my daughter has been we moved from a different district to oswego specifically

118for the education here we had a i'm sorry my daughter i am speaking up for my daughter today because she can't because she doesn't have a voice she literally doesn't my daughter has a speech disorder called apraxia and it is a disconnect between her brain and her mouth what she needs is to see visually see the way that people make a sound a single sound because of this she has made very little progress in school she cannot even as an eight-year-old make a blend sound of an sh because she is not able to see visually see what is going on with a mouth when it needs to be made additionally i myself have been in a classroom i myself have been a substitute teacher's assistant and i myself have seen the abuse done to children

119both physically and verbally the mental abuse that's been done to these children i have seen a teacher and a teacher's aide who have physically required a child to wear a mask even though this child had the exception i have physically seen with my two eyes that every time this child took off their mask the teacher had a plethora of mass available and they immediately put another one on her they physically had to hold her down to put it on her this is completely unacceptable and this is not going to happen to my child anymore you guys have the right tonight you have the right tonight to make that decision please stand up for our kids thank you for your time michael donovan is next and raul diaz may come up i thought the kids were

120going to be a tough act to follow guys i i had a lot planned i had it all written out credit to the teachers in this district from what i've seen from the students tonight they expressed this perfectly there is no upside to these masks there is no benefit to these students in fact quite the contrary they are being harmed by this they are having delays in their education they are acting up more i know plenty of teachers and the district has gotten significantly worse throughout doing this my question to you what is the benefit of continuing to persist with bad science that does not have a positive effect on anyone [Music] why do you persist you can take the vote tonight every other district around here has figured this out stop hurting our children

121please i beg of you make the vote happen tonight thank you val will speak next and scott hansen may come up my name is raul diaz my son is a junior at ohs and well i'll say masks should be a choice not a mandate but so he was forced to participate in online schooling uh last year when he was uh exposed to covet right they made him stay home he had to sign in and do the online courses this year he suffered a concussion earlier in january i thought that it would be it made sense to me that since he had everything in place for him to participate in in classes and he couldn't be there physically um that he would just log in and participate in online courses they or the school told me

122that that was not allowed because it's not covet related it didn't make sense to me um i reached out to the school the nurse told me that it was a state policy he reached out to the state the state told me that it was a district policy and that's why i'm here it doesn't make any sense for children who have the ability to participate in their daily classroom remotely to not be allowed because it's not covert related if they have a valid medical condition that precludes them from being able to attend in person why are they not allowed to just sign in on a daily basis so that they can continue to receive their education because i mean i thought that's what this is all about right the kids are learning and continuing to progress

123um i don't understand why that is a policy that the district has in place and that needs to be looked at it needs to be restructured it needs to be amended to allow that particular circumstance so that children who can't go to school can continue to learn from home and i i that's i just want to make sure that it's on the record so that i can pursue it further if nothing comes from it tonight i'm definitely going to keep on digging for answers trying to get the board or whoever else to look at it and give me some kind of solid answer as to why he can't i mean as it stands now he is back in school but it took that long he missed like three weeks total and and he's even truant

124now because for whatever reason it's just i don't know why the school keeps marking the maps and when he's home you know with a valid reason but besides the point um again i think kids that have a valid reason to be home medical reason to be home should be allowed to log in online to participate in their school and this whole caveat that it has to be coveted related is just unacceptable and wrong so that's it [Applause] good evening board and everyone my name is scott hanson i am a parent of three children in this district and i'm a public school teacher myself in a neighboring district who has recently gone mask optional we um this this school year approximately 40 of our staff and students were covid positive at some point during the school

125year and it's safe to estimate that roughly 50 percent of our staff and students were vaccinated i would imagine and this is a much smaller district where i teach i would imagine in a district of this size you know if you were to do the math there those numbers are relatively proportional if not larger so the data that we should be looking at is who's really in danger who are we still protecting um we've all either been sick or we've been vaccinated and it's time to move on with our lives so on behalf of everybody here we ask that you make the decision for the community moving forward thank you thank you all for your patience and now we will move to um comments by members of our board and i would like to go

126out of order and start with our student ambassador report they've been here a long time and they've got to be at school tomorrow so please the floor is yours thank you since our last board meeting colton and i had the opportunity to meet with dr sparlin last week to discuss the current status of the student advisory committee work particularly with the review of the second student survey responses that evaluated the knowledge students had on sexual harassment within our schools and reporting procedures we discussed our future steps and evaluated the progress of our committee project as well as our committee as a whole so the student advisory committee was able to meet with dr waller this past week and began disaggregating the data from that survey that was administered this past january um while we were

127just in the beginning of sifting through the data we have found we have continued to see the importance of the issue to the student body it the data has shown that students are being affected and have noticed trends themselves as a committee we work to continue to separate data based on several identity factors to better understand exactly what we are looking for and how that information will shape our progress moving forward the whole process has really been an enlightening to the fact that student voices tell us so much about our district and has revealed the willingness of students to share their voice when given a platform to do so thank you very much now we'll have board member comments go ahead i wanted to take a moment tonight to thank all of our students who

128have both emailed in their comments and came here to speak tonight and i know that it was a really hard thing to do to decide to give up those one-time events and all of the different education to take a stand for something you believed in and it doesn't matter who agrees with what side of what but i'm finding that i'm pretty darn impressed that our kids are able to take what they believe in take an action step and understand what they're going to miss out on when they do that so thank you very much for speaking up for yourselves tonight and for showing us what you know i think you did a lot of argumentative essay writing there so she should be some kind of english credit perhaps i don't know um aside from that

129you know this is a really difficult time i think for everybody and it's nothing different than what we've seen over the last two years we all say that the only constant throughout this entire pandemic situation has been changed and i know dr sparlin had talked earlier that we'll be reviewing these things as well and i hope that we do because we do need to take a look at where things are going to go what will be safe for our community and what will the burden of removing one measure of safety take and give us as another burden but i think overall my favorite comment tonight was the one that said you know what when this is done we need to be working on how to build together because we do we need to spend time

130with our kids and help them understand and respect that now that we have an individual choice whatever day that happens whatever month that happens or a year that we will work together to teach our kids how to respect each other's choices and to still be able to be friends with people even if they don't make the same choices as us that's pretty much all i wanted to say but thank you for speaking your minds and thank you for doing it in a respectful way where we could continue our meeting i really appreciate it okay anyone else um i'm in honor of black history month i'd like to recognize scientist dr kismika corbett dr corbett age 36 is currently an assistant professor of immunology and infectious disease at both the harvard t.h chan school of public

131health and the harvard red cliff institute in 2019 she was lead scientist at the vaccine research center which is part of the national institute of health and is credited with discovering the genetic code for the covet 19. respected scientists agree that corbett's work will have a substantial impact on ending the world worst respiratory disease pandemic in more than a hundred years dr kizzy corbett's discovery makes possible the viral protection we enjoy today and will help defend against other new viruses and i also wanted to just say that dr moreno was not present tonight due to illness and that however she wanted to express her sincerest apologies for missing the very this very important meeting all right item 6.3 is the superintendent's report so good evening board i'm going to keep my comments brief this evening

132uh mrs hamilton as you just said the month of february is black history month black history month is an important opportunity each year to formally acknowledge the incredible contributions of african americans throughout history and today the cultures traditions contributions resiliency and profound courage demonstrated by african-americans have and will continue to shape the story of our nation we are proud to celebrate black history month to honor the legacy acknowledgement to the challenges faced both in the past and today and commit to working together for a better more equitable future providing opportunity for all tonight during our presentation of division 308 community partnerships i think you'll see how the comments i just shared are interconnected to the work we are doing not only through increased community partnerships but through the student learning goals and support for student

133learning throughout our district that's my comments for this evening thank you thank you dr sparlin um we do have a board committee report for policy policy and legislative committee is this going to be ally or oh um all right what yeah so i think we can hold on to those until we review the policies if you guys have any questions i mean unless there wasn't there wasn't a lot of big stuff on there so that's it okay thank you go ahead dr sparrow sir i'm sorry but public comment has passed thank you for your comments i make a motion to adjourn go ahead dr sparling item 7.2 is an informational you want to go through an informational presentation we had a motion on the table i made a motion to adjourn and i seconded it

134did you second it mr doyle roll call okay before we go to a vote can i have a question mrs similton hi mr gatewood before before i do that i thought we were going to finish the several items on our or we still had a couple of items we wanted to to get through pain of the bills the personnel report and the roof so i would probably then let's make them i'll make a motion that we go to action items okay so do we have to kill this for information so you need to you need to finish the vote on the adjournment and then make a vote to go to the items okay so all right so okay so start over nate i'm gonna say nay so we can get this mr gatewood no mrs

135swanson no mr cyrone no mrs toriel no mrs johnson hi i make a motion to adjust the agenda to move to item eight approval of consent agenda second second yeah i have to refresh mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mr sirone aye mrs doyle aye mrs johnson okay so that gets you to the consent agenda now you have to vote on the consent agenda can i have a motion to approve the consent agenda i make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second aye mrs swanson aye dr moreno oh sorry mrs doyle aye mrs johnson aye mr sirone aye mr gatewood aye motion passes 6-0 i make a motion to move to item 10 action items can i have a motion to approve the bills for payment you have to so i please

136a second oh sorry to move to item eugene seconded mr gatewood aye mrs doyle aye mrs johnson aye mr cyrone aye mrs simultan aye mrs swanson latonya motion passes motion passes six zero 10.1 can i have a motion to approve the bills for payment please do you have that it's my computer won't refresh sorry go ahead lori i make a motion to approve item 10.1 bills for payment to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 29 million five hundred and forty five thousand four hundred and sixty nine dollars and seventy two cents as presented mr cerrone aye mrs johnson aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mrs torrell aye mrs simultan aye motion passes six zero 10.2 approval of partial roof project at oswego high school can i have a motion to approve

137the partial roof project at oswego high school please i make a motion to approve a contract with j.l adler roofing for the base bid and the three alternates for two million two hundred and thirty eight thousand six hundred and ten dollars as presented second mrs doyle aye mrs swanson aye mr cyron aye mrs simultan aye mr gatewood aye mrs johnson aye motion passes six 6-0 uh 10.3 approval of board policies second read can i have a motion to approve the board policies presented for second read please i make a motion to approve the board policies section 2 school board 2 colon 20 2 colon 110 2 colon 260 section 4 operational services 4 colon 160 4 colon 170 section 5 general personnel 5 colon 10 5 colon 20 5 colon 50 5 colon 100 5

138colon 150 section 6 instruction 6 colon 50 6 colon 120 and section 7 students 7 colon 70 7 colon 80 7 colon 180 and 7 colon 345. second mrs swanson mrs simultan aye mr ceron aye mr gatewood aye mrs doyle aye mrs johnson mrs johnson aye motion passes 6-0 uh 10.4 approval of personnel report can i have a motion to approve the personnel report please i make a motion to approve the personnel report as presented second mrs simonton aye mrs johnson aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson mrs doyle no mr cyrone aye motion passes 4-2 anything else we need to do today okay can i have a motion well if i could just explain um for everyone to understand that it is illegal under the open meetings act to make a vote on an action

139item that was not on the agenda so unfortunately for respectfully there's no way for the board to take an action on that matter tonight um but as dr sparlin said they will consider it a future date i make a motion to adjourn the meeting second most motion passes we are adjourned do we need to table the other items first though you'll be able to do that okay [Music] we're