001good evening everybody did you please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for former student ryan weatherwax former student paul gaston and joseph bond's retired administrator who passed away 9621 i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic one nation nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you [Music] 3.02 spotlight and program dr watkins it's all yours great thank you and thank you so much for the opportunity to once again showcase our students and the great things that they are doing so this evening we're really fortunate to have a royce ketchum student with us miss mandy zhang and she has been working with various projects her latest one is the stemis as you can see on the screen she's also been a student member
002of our school counseling advisory committee and she also worked with her club in rck on a fire safety prevention that she she worked on with the committee but tonight she's going to be talking to us as i said as an rck student 11th grader this year and a non-profit stem initiative that she put together over the summer and she's also working with mr panzer on hopefully doing something in the coming months with our students throughout the year so without further ado i'd like to turn it over to mandy zhang thank you dr watkins for the intro um as said before i'm mandy zang and i started this non-profit organization to help students further their curiosity for innovation because i think that's really important and i think we have the first slide over here can we
003go on to the second slide um yes so at age 15 i started this non-profit stem initiative um basically creating the next generation of semis for a better future and we can go on to the next slide so our mission statement is that we're dedicated to reimagining and advancing stem education by providing um innovative interactive programs to a globally diverse community of youngstown change makers thinkers leaders and innovators and we can go onto the next one so on the first day of our summer program we taught students the aerodynamic factors and the physics of nasa rockets they learned how the fin shape and nodes of the rocket played a major role in the height and velocity of the launch and after we guided them through the process of innovation and they took that knowledge to
004construct bottle rockets and launch them into the sky and we can go into the next one on the second and third day we taught students the forces of buoyancy and created tie-dye shirts students innovated their own boats out of recyclable materials and learned that their boats will continue to float as long as the force of buoyancy is greater than the force of gravity and we had we added the pennies as weights to see how much cargo their boat can hold and the students kind of made a little competition between each other to see um just how many cargo their boats can hold and here are some more photos from day two and three these are students from smack and kill hucky central school district and our own district and on the fourth day students from
005grades k through six constructed a walkington can robot and a robotic spider that climbs walls and students in grades seven through eight worked as a team to build a moving robot board that was powered by solar power and they also learned the different shapes and designs that goes behind architectural engineering and apply the concepts to build gummy bear structures on the fifth day we taught students the forces that act on parachutes and they constructed their own that they could take home we had an egg draw contest where our students innovated a device to keep their raw egg intact after dropping it from 10 feet and they also learned that the strength and stability of certain bridges are determined by the shape and type of bridge that it is and the materials used to make them
006and here's some testimonials from parents um there's lots of parents and there's also some students that wrote some testimonials and they all had really positive reviews from our program and you can go to the next slide and for the future programs and events so i'm working with my team which is kind of a several high schoolers on creating new projects and events in the hudson valley and our 2021 fall program will be offered at the borman road branch library and also i'm working with grinnell library on doing these monthly activities and stem workshops for younger kids and i'm also working with mr panzer to host a steam day on november 8th for the elementary middle school and high schools in our district and i think that's about it and to close that off i wanted
007to say thank you for your time and commitment to supporting stem education mandy i'd like to compliment you and the program i think if we get a chance to look at the testimonials of my parents as well as students it's exciting and i think if education takes that particular approach we have geniuses in all our classrooms so thank you for your work and continue please continue with it uh eddie want to echo that and congratulate you mandy i think this is fantastic taking the initiative at such a young age and i got to tell you you don't you don't sound like a junior uh you sound like a a very professional young woman with that presentation so um there's a fantastic job i just got a quick question just to clarify are you looking at
008uh expanding when you said your team with students from other neighboring districts uh to grow this program well yes that we are working with multiple school districts across the dutchess county um i i know we have 13 districts uh is that a plan to you know for starters to include all 13 districts within within your program yes and we're also working on expanding it to beacon new york because a lot of parents from there also really wanted our program that's great i think maybe you might want to send an email to our superintendent uh who belongs to the lower hudson superintendents council and has many relationships with many superintendents in many districts so he could be a good resource to help you expand your your program with other school districts and not just within the
009county just the suggestion okay great job are there any other comments well thank you very much mandy good luck in your junior year yeah mandy we're very proud of you great work thank you dr bonk all right thank you hey 4.01 a public comment on agenda items ladies and gentlemen we're about to list the public comment aldosterone does not require us to hold a public comment period we are chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from the community members about their concerns and issues the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designated to be a debate or dialogue please do not expect board members to respond to your concerns and questions tonight we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient
010time to process and research issues if need be we will have the proper staff member get back to you as appropriate i also want to point out that under state and federal privacy law we are unable to address any comments or questions about specific students or school personnel we would ask you to go to the appropriate administrative channels a total of 30 minutes the beginning of each board meeting is set aside to allow the public for public comment on agenda items only public comes the beginning of the period is limited only to items on the agenda persons who wish to participate in public comment portion of the meeting are asked to provide their name and the specific agenda item about which they wish to speak individual commons and agenda arms limits three minutes and are
011welcomed if you wish to address items relating to our school district they're not on tonight's agenda and the common period is provided at the end of the meeting for that purpose in the interest of civility related to a school district that are not on tonight excuse me in the intercivilian and respectful different points of view clapping booing or any disturbance of destruction during either public comment period is not permitted at this time common related agenda arms are welcome alberta are there any comments from the community that were written and they want us to listen to yes um i do have some comments uh board members for agenda items okay okay this comment is from gordon cook regarding agenda 8.02 mass mandate and 5.01 superintendent update i am writing to encourage the school board to adopt
012the proposed man mask mandate policy it is important that we do everything we can in our community to slow and stop the spread of covet which is currently very high in our area especially among the unvaccinated population that most of our children are part of i also request that the school board amend the proposal by adding to a policy directing the superintendent to actually enforce this mandate as well as enforcing an existing requirements within the schools and reviewing guidelines to ensure the district actually follows them or informs parents which ones are not being followed i would like to ask the superintendent to please inform us during his update how many teachers are unvaccinated and please confirm to is that they are all well tested as required by the state mandates we are over a week
013into school and all faculty are required to be vaccinated or tested weekly if the district has not made this mandatory or not done it please explain why since the state website is not active yet how many total cases of covert have there been so far not just the ones you email us about all was that an agenda any of that agenda related because this is all rel agenda related yes so vaccines are on the agenda no but the resolution is on the agenda which talks about masks go alberta next the next comment is from maureen stefano mask mandate is her topic your proposed resolution about requiring everyone at public meetings to wear a mask isn't the only option and certainly is an overreach of this board's governing authority and duties you could have simply instructed
014children under 18 to dial in remotely in addition the governor's guidance always allowed adults to decide about mask wearing if vaccinated so you should not have dismissed everyone at the last board meeting only children have should have been asked to leave another issue is that virtual board meetings work as well as remote learning does for most people when parents have an issue that want to be able to speak to to someone in person at this time it is appropriate for the board of education to acknowledge this and consider an endgame to the mask mandate or at least stay out of it you have the pictures on wcsd facebook page of a retirement celebration from last late last june of 95 staff members where the board president doesn't even have a mask on and is shaking
015people's hands what has truly changed since last june vaccinated people are as safe today as they were last june will next june be all of a sudden appropriate not to wear a mask again and why isn't the resolution tied to a logical metrics like cases in the school this is about rules for thee and not for me thank you that's the end of the comments on agenda items thank you very much and uh those two individuals uh 4.02 recognition comments by board our education members is anyone who wants rec make any comments peggy yes all right i did want to speak about uh mr lumia and my attendance at the new york state school boards association board officer training up in albany when latham it was very valuable they discussed roles and responsibilities of board
016officers how to be more effective how to work together as a board more effectively superintendent's evaluations and they also discussed the state initiative on diversity equity and inclusion and they explained and it was brought out that diversity is not just a matter of race there are many kinds of diversity we have many different ethnic groups in every community in new york uh whether it's irish italian german chinese uh african american native american filipino and uh etc etc and that every racial group also has diversity within it that we're also speaking about the diversity of people with different abilities and talents from different socioeconomic groups from uh many many many areas and the idea is to recognize the diversity and make sure that everyone has an equitable opportunity in education equity is not exactly the same
017as equality it's making sure everyone has a fair shake for example they gave the example of children trying to look over a fence at a baseball game and different uh well if they're all standing on the ground the tallest one can see but the shorter ones can't if you make sure everybody has a box they can stand on or if instead of a stockade fence you have a chain link fence then everybody can see and take part and uh this is uh in the food tradition of the america which has always been a uh haven for many people from all around the world um sometimes we have not lived up to our ideals and treated everyone equally or well but that's always been the aspiration and that's the idea behind diversity equity and inclusion peggy
018i couldn't necessarily better that's why i asked you to make a guess to get a summary thank you very much thank you anyone else great summary peggy thank you i'd like to make a couple of comments i want to congratulate the dante future farmers of america club for being highlighted locally in an article written in spread and it's in the special dutchess county fair edition of the southern and northern news congratulations to the students for being crowned grand champions in senior al pando and grand champion and junior alpando those who receive best in show in various categories did a club at the first meeting and already there were 37 students who are very much interested as you may know this academic program at john jay could lead to many fields of study such as business
019of farming animal science and other aspects of science the board of education also like to congratulate the members of the j robots that is the robotics club for receiving a 20 000 grant from the dutchess county play create program we wish you continued success last but not least i'd like to thank colonel markey for conducting the 911 ceremony prior to the john jay football game want to thank him for presenting the flag commemorating 911 thanks also to county executive mark molinaro and state seven suse arena for their participation and with that are there any other comments uh john mr morgan thank you president lumia um i also wanted to uh recognize uh retired colonel uh glenn markey uh the father of uh of two district uh graduates who are both in college right now um
020for organizing the september 11th um never flag presentation um i thought it was an outstanding presentation and i also just want to recognize that um based on where um elaine and i were standing we were right near the the john jay student section um and i i think um it really reflects how well done the ceremony was um uh that that the students were so extremely respectful um without prompting from from the faculty that they they self-policed um so to speak being being respectful and and understood the the gravity of the of the presentation it was extremely well done thank you any other comments thank you john uh 6.01 does anybody want to remove any item from the agenda john can we have the superintendent report 5.01 oh you're right please super um but i
021did have a comment go ahead i just want to make a quick comment i just wanted to uh uh congratulate uh last the first two days of school was a challenge with the buses but i wanted to congratulate dr bonkin the senior staff the bus department especially the students and the parents um we got through it really quickly and ever since monday everything has been running much better so thank you i know there's a lot of bus drivers a lot of new situations but thank you for working so hard over the weekend to get things back really quickly get back things back to normal thank you keith excellent i wish i thought of that myself and with that 5.01 superintendent report that the bunk it's all yours good evening president lumia vice president kellen members
022of the board of education and members of the whopping your central school district community um i bring you my report tonight from two perspectives the first perspective is the educational perspective the second perspective is the public health perspective needless to say we had a very positive start to the school year throughout our 15 schools within the district it was great to see all of our students back in the classroom and boy were they happy to be there and we were happy to have them there on a regular schedule five days per week the staff greeted our students warmly and i'd like to thank all of our staff who work tirelessly over the summer to prepare for the 2021 school year 2021-22 school year i also want to be very very clear this is not last
023year yes we are having some issues and i'll talk about those in the public health perspective but in addition to being in person five days per week on a regular schedule we continue to have all of our extracurricular clubs and activities functioning we know those are vital for our students in addition to in addition to our athletic and our performing the fine arts programs prior to the start of the school year the district held three superintendents conference days and for those who wonder what that means they really should be called district days they're really not superintendents conference days but nonetheless we had principals assistant principals directors and lead teachers focused on professional development on creating student-centered schools in which creating welcoming and supportive environments and providing targeted instruction and interventions for all learners was at
024the forefront of the sessions the sessions incorporated the district and board goals of accelerating student learning while addressing academic recovery and learning gaps and placing a strong emphasis on the social and emotional well-being of our students from a public health perspective since september 10 the district has had 15 positive covet cases which have impacted our schools in speaking with the department of health we can rest assured that our schools are as safe as possible and that we are currently employing the required mitigation strategies that are currently required as the transmission occurring in our schools is very minimal we remain committed to providing the safest environment possible for our students and staff to be able to continue our regular five-day in-person instructional schedule as we have done during the course of this year and last year
025we will continue to update the entire wappingers community when a positive case that impacts one of our schools as i is identified and with that i would like to thank the community for their support of our district and the support of our students thank you thank you dr bond for your comments and now again 6.01 consent agenda resolution does anyone want to remove any item from the agenda i don't see everybody so i can't tell all right anyone okay seeing none uh peggy okay uh could i all right i need the agenda resolved that the board of education does hereby approve the following consent agenda items as stated two six point zero three six point zero four six point zero five six point zero six six point zero seven and six point zero eight motions
026moved second [Music] unanimous carrie no carrie didn't vote yet yes you voted just now right unanimous all right 7.01 new york state board association area 9 director election you know peggy okay resolved at the wampanger central school district board of education does hereby select uh blank as candidate for the new york state school board's association area 9 director we need to decide on which candidate we need please select one candidate from the list below for the position of area 9 director on the new york state school boards association board of directors the two-year term will run from january 1st 2022 through december 31st 2023 the deadline for ballot submission is 5 pm on thursday september 30th 2021. the two candidates are john redman of florida new york and john burns of ellenville new york uh
027the board received letters of for the from the two candidates all those in favor of john redmond uh wait a minute um mr i'd like discussion mr lumia go ahead peggy okay i'd just like to say i do not know mr burns but i do know mr redmon and he's been doing a very good job on the new york state school boards association board he's quite responsive whenever there's been a question uh by board members from his area he's followed up on them regularly and here's the comments for the other candidate we both read their their summary they sent us letters and hope all of us read them and with that being said all those in favor of john redmond please raise your hands hi michael mcfarlane peggy kelland john hi hi uh keith odams
028jim spencer okay all those in favor of john burns uh eddie marie and carrie so uh john burns john redmond would be a the candidate so voted upon all right 7.02 peggy resolve that the board of education of the waffle central school district does hereby deny the bus stop appeal request for student id 1114869 and student id 1117365 motion john morgan secondly keith autumns all those in favor quick comment yes sir i think the student ids both should start with one zero one rather than one one just for clarity c it's written correctly but i i did i say it wrong i'm sorry it's okay one zero one four eight six nine there one i think we all know it was up on the screen but the zero committed all right all those in favor
029aye michael mcphone unanimous carrie unanimous 7.03 buses stop appeal peggy we saw that the board of education of the wapita central school district is hereby denied the bus stop appeal request for student id one zero zero nine three four one motion discussion emotions all those in favor michael mcfallon i i uh carrie no okay okay uh uh eight eight to one next appeal uh 7.04 thank you resolve that the board of education of the wuppinger central school district does hereby deny the bus stop appeal request the student id one two four three eight motion mary peggy's second all those in favor michael mcfaul and i okay all opposed all opposed carry opposed okay once again eight to one uh okay 8.01 designate board members to to a report on building tours i'd like i'd like
030to appoint two people who are part of the capital improvement committee uh marie johnson as well as uh mike mcfarland uh to take notes doing a brilliant tours and uh report back to the board all right any questions yeah jim all right i just said are we are we there's no voice on those dates i'm sorry uh we said i said that's the question i'm not well as i brought to the board yeah marie okay um just i know several of us have rearranged our work schedules for this i know that you go into the buildings on a regular basis i know you had a recent conflict happen but a lot of these principals have been preparing for this because they've been given this notice i know that um there's been other things ordered to
031accommodate us um and it is kind of short notice it's i just feel like we should go follow through i know dr bonk is only going to be able to go with us for about half the day on the first day but i mean we do have mr lokima who is definitely a solid second um to fill in and mr bros is going to be there so i just feel like we should follow through with where it's at at this point i agree with that any any objection to that jim well i i kind of disagree um i think it's important for dr bond to be with the group to hear our our concerns firsthand um and you as well uh mr president um i i don't see an issue with pushing it off a
032week or even two i know that there's um there's a regulation that we have to be shown the schools on a by a certain date but i think we can push it off a week without um going past that date alberta one of the last days that we can actually building tools without uh the statue doesn't give you a deadline it's just within the school year well i have all those in favor of going what if i know a lot of people they may schedule that they schedule that you know those building tours but they took days off from work so uh i'd like to yeah i took i took days off but i'm going to switch it around because i would rather be there with dr bonk and you and the entire group i
033know uh another trustee or two had issues so i'm willing to switch around i just think that we shouldn't do like small little ad hoc groups we should we should be one board going and seeing it at the same time that's just my my opinion if i can just comment uh trustee spencer just just so the board is aware since it's been brought up uh i have a very very important meeting with the dutchess county superintendents at that time which is very very important to ensure consistency among our districts and then i have a very very important meeting with the dutchess county department of health as well where we meet weekly and we have discussions as to public health issues of concern so i really really need to be at both of those meetings um
034and i i'll leave it up to the board as to how they'd like to proceed i completely understand dr bachmann that's that's why i suggested moving it off to a day that you could be there and not you know i just want you to be there as well as uh mr lumiere um thank you and since we're bringing it up was there anything that was ordered or the principals made any arrangements that couldn't be first day of good that's the first day there's food that's gonna there was there will be order so but that's not i don't think that's making a big problem to change the date okay peggy are we talking about changing both dates or just one date uh and i was also wondering how many people might find it impossible to do
035it the next week next week for sure i i can share with you that i have meetings with the department of health and the county superintendents every wednesday so i need to be blocked off from about 11 30 until 2 30 to do that i i don't see that changing in the near future we should do it i can make the morning dates two different days of the week where you want you you're not blocked maybe a monday or tuesday or maybe a thursday and friday thursday and friday is probably better there's no way i let's take a vote keep it as it is how many people want to keep it as it is please raise your hands can we do it can we split i'd like to keep it the way it is but
036if we have to can we do one day this week and one day next week well i was just possible i think it's all it's free thursday i'm not sure whether what the future arrangements are so i really don't know i can i can't i can't commit myself to it either day at this point at least at the bank we'll be at the thursday right you can make it thursday we've got the bunk i can make it wednesday morning and i'm available all day thursday again those are two meetings i absolutely need to be at based on what's what's happening uh throughout the county and throughout the district uh dr bug in that case could we instead keep it this wednesday and thursday that have thursday the full day and wednesday the half day so
037that it would accommodate you uh that is absolutely fine with me if if the board would like to do that i i'm certainly fine with that that's fine i think that's a good idea so change the days full day thursday half day wednesday all those in favor of that raise your hands please keith aye michael mcfarlane michael i come carrie yes all right unanimous solomon i would like solomon i'm sorry i would like to thank you i'd like to thank you for making that change thank you very much very nice peggy 8.02 mass requirement resolution peggy whereas the new york state department of health commissioner of health commissioner issued findings of necessity on august 27 2021 requiring the universal masking of all teachers staff students and visitors to pre-k through 12 schools over age two
038regardless of vaccination status unless such individual has a valid medical exemption until such determination is modified or rescinded and whereas the interim new york state department of health guidance for classroom instruction in pre-k through 12 schools during the 2021-2022 academic year issued september 2nd 2021 stated that the interim guidance does not apply to community-based activities where students are not present now therefore be it resolved that the board of education of the wappinger central school district believes it would be most prudent and most responsible in regard to its stewardship to the health and safety of the school community as a whole to extend the universal mask requirement through board meetings committee meetings and all indoor use of district facilities especially since students are frequently in attendance at such meetings and activities and directs that all board
039members and individuals who attend board meetings community committee meetings and any other community-based activity held inside district facilities to wear a mask face covering while physically present except for those who have a valid medical exemption as documented by a medical provider motion no move second i cannot hear second jim spencer discussion marie all right so i get that the governor has made these requirements of during school times and of anything that involves school activities um but the community me you know sometimes the community rents out our buildings uh i know we have dance studios etc that rented out our buildings inside um outside stuff obviously that doesn't count um i'm a little concerned that we might be imposing on other people's businesses based on a directive that was sent to us as a school district
040well according to if i make it go ahead uh i'm just going to make a comment then you can answer according to the document that was provided to the wabash central school district of the new york department of state of health let me just read you one thing regarding masks it says in accordance with the commission determination issue pursuant to 10 new york crr 226 so all students personnel teachers administrators contractors and visitors must wear masks at all times indoor regardless of vaccination states people with medical or developmental conditions that prevent them from wearing my mask may be exempted from mass requirements as documented by medical provider i i can go on and on and on but uh and so far extracurricular activity i'm sorry marie uh i'm not i'm not arguing school based i'm
041talking about people want to borrow or want to let rent buildings and the way this is written somebody that rents our building for the dance studio to put on a recital which is not part of our activities all they do is they pay us a rental fee and they pay the janitor fee for them to clean afterwards so it's not hours but the way this states is we we dictate how they're doing it so i'm just a little concerned i mean are we going to suspend all community rental of our property until further notice is that what we do don't those don't those folks have the opportunity to rent somewhere else that don't have those stipulations i mean if they don't like it they can go somewhere else well and they also and they also
042have the option to comply right right i agree peggy yes uh our church has requirements for masks and uh vex or vaccination and uh yeah all the groups which rent our facilities including day care centers dance groups uh you know a number of community organizations they all comply with it as long as children are not able to get vaccines yet because they have not been approved for children and children are in our buildings every day and participate with the activities afterwards we have to be concerned about their health we do not have also we cannot uh uh at this point require custodians to work extra shifts to do the complete sanitizing of areas that have been used i know um i hold girl scout events in the school buildings and uh we're perfectly ready to
043comply with any of the requirements from the school district because we want our children to be safe uh eddie eddie sorry told him no i was unmuted all right i'm just following up on on my email i again i you know when it comes to any activities i i don't as i stated in my email they're not really of a concern i i do feel it's a bit of an overreach for community uh based activities yes they could go someplace else i get that but you know if they're you if they need to utilize the building it can be their responsibility you know for their event whether they want someone to wear a mask or not when it comes to cleaning they could be charged an extra fee to cover if there's any additional cleaning
044that has to be done buildings are cleaned anyway over the weekend i would say top to bottom it shouldn't just be because the area was used or not used if the buildings are scheduled to be what you know fumigated and you know sprayed or whatever that's the entire building um if there's no kids in the building on a friday night or saturday or if the pta doesn't want to do a virtual meeting and they want to meet in the cafeteria and they don't want to sit there for an hour or two and they're vaccinated and they don't want to wear a mask and there's no children there i don't see why we have to take that position the guidance you know we say we're going to follow the guidance the guidance changes now we're not
045following the guidance i understand we're taking it a step further and i get that completely on any activity during school after school or at night that that that kids are in the building i get that if there's no kids in the building and someone is utilizing the building we have some um you know religious organizations that do some things there's no children involved we have pta meetings no children involved um and other types of activities who is going to supervise and monitor those events you're going to put the burden on that particular group in the community someone shows up or comes you know i don't want to wear a mask anymore who's forcing that person to leave that particular you know event are we putting that bonus on the person renting it out what if
046the person doesn't want to leave to me we're complicated we're losing a little bit of control from that standpoint because it's not an activity that involves the school district okay so that's just where i feel personally it's a bit of an overreach for us to start dictating how those individuals should conduct themselves thank you first then jim spencer next thank you all right uh now as i said i held girl scout events in ketchum and at the same time we're having events there there are also groups that uh extracurricular activities that are being held there for instance play rehearsals may be going on in the auditorium while i'm meeting with the students in the uh in the library there may be a pta meeting going on in the cafeteria are we to have different roles
047with different groups of all meeting in the same building also we do take the responsibility to enforce the school rules in the library it says very clearly no food or drink and so i make sure the girls do not eat snacks in the library when we meet in the library and i do not chew gum because that's the rule for that facility that we are using and groups do this all the time they accommodate to the facilities where they're working who uh for the foot of all i remember when they first came out years ago uh with no smoking and there are a lot of people who complained about not smoking in various places but different facilities said no smoking and so different groups had to comply when they were meeting in those facilities whether
048or not some of their people smoked i know this was actually an issue with uh certain groups where they had a lot of people who smoked a lot but what they wanted to meet in that facility they had to follow that rule jim before it became a law generally jim uh peggy took the words out of my mouth okay well um uh uh carrie so i i'm not a gambler but i i have family members that like sports and they gamble on things and you know they take the under they take the over sometimes i guess this is the vernacular they use um i guess for me i guess what i'm wondering is you know why are we taking the over right i mean everything that we've always discussed has been cover our backs fiduciary
049you know liability so on and so forth it was mentioned um and not to call anyone out but to follow the guidance right so follow the guidance so so why the overreach why the over um the virus lives for how long on a surface um does it go around uh doors outdoors and through rooms um i haven't been on the board long but i haven't seen many children attend the meetings um the other thing that we're not considering is if children were to attend the meetings um which again i i can't remember how many kids um you know they're with the family member that they don't put the mask on with any way they're in a space there's six 10 12 feet um and then if i could just kind of point out that governor
050hockle hopeful she made the mandate right and she made the mandate during school hours and so on and so forth and then she stood in a school building if i could just reference that no matter the vaccination status regardless of the vaccination status um she stood with her crew over masked children so there was conflict there it's conflict with a rule and a mandate she made and i think that what we need to consider here is seriously that overreach but also how about its time to try to listen to the community that's coming out they're coming out why don't we instead of overreaching leave it where it is and then we won't need sheriffs and marshals and all this kind of stuff that animosity is building that hostility is building because we're not appealing to
051that side not even once so follow the mandate and leave it be uh john i i think carrie is a hundred percent right in pointing out the the in in my opinion uh the hippocratic um behavior of of the governor to say that you shouldn't be around school children without having a mask on um no matter the vaccination status and then to go ahead and have a picture taken um with without the mask on i think she's absolutely right to do that and that's why i think it's important for us to make sure that we are consistent and not being hypocrites and and i think that the policy is flawed and it and it begs for people to say oh so you can only get covered when there's instruction going on but then afterwards you
052can't i think also as as fiduciaries um the the the risk of there being a fine if because i believe that if we do nothing people that are vaccinated don't need to wear masks but people that are unvaccinated or supposed to wear masks and we put the burden on ourselves to try to differentiate who is who and i don't think as a fiduciary number one we should expose ourselves to any fine nor should we take on additional expense to allow people to use the building to try to enforce a policy that's that's difficult to enforce and that begs for confrontation to enforce so i i i hate to sit here and say oh we should all be wearing masks and make make it sound like i'm rah-rah about that because i i don't care to
053wear masks but when i'm required to i do and i think we should be consistent 24 hours a day with how our buildings are treated and we're required during school hours to to be one way and i think we should expand it to 24 and i support the resolution because it's more consistent than than the governor's policy that that seems to um fly in the face of reason that oh during these hours it's this way and during those hours it's that way i guess i just want to know is it about control or is it about public safety what is it really about bottom line personally i think it's about public safety safe not controlling control look discuss ultimately how many of us agree with the resolution as written please raise your hands michael mcfaulin
054aye michael john lumiere hi john morgan yes keith odom yes jim spencer yes peggy kellen yes all those opposed older knows please raise your hands carrie kale eddie slushower and marie johnson wrestle your passes next item uh 9.01 your members may request additional discussion items and requests for information are there any requests so i think the meeting was done it's okay darren's mic is on by accident okay no problem you see none 9.02 motion to request uh no that's not necessary either uh 10.01 comments from public alberta okay i'm getting there one second okay this comment is from yulina vows regarding enrichment program we would like to inquire about enrichment programs in elementary schools based on our experience they simply don't exist we understand that at one point wcsd had enrichment teachers so why did
055that program stop what can the district offer to talented and gifted students no during normal school hours also why is there no policy on skipping grades traditional classroom enrichment is not enough for a gifted student thank you okay give me a second to move on next one is from maureen stefano regarding start of year thank you dr bonk and his staff have done a tremendous job getting our kids back in full time this year they have been very responsive to all of my questions about quarantining and i appreciate all of their efforts and all of the teachers and staff at all of the schools our kids need to stay in schools and they are doing everything they can to keep them in person full-time thank you to everyone [Music] and the next comment is from
056gordon cook regarding health protection in the schools mr bonk's statement that the school district is doing everything it can to protect our students is observably false 15 cases in a week is not low spread of coven given the population of the school community that would clearly meet the criteria for high transmission the school is not following recommendations and is failing even as some required protections the district did not conduct mandatory testing of unvaccinated teachers and is not making a significant effort to make testing available to students windows or buses are not open students are sitting a to a table unmasked in cafeterias students are snacking and eating unmasked in classrooms at three foot spacing faculty and staff are not wearing masks in shared communal office spaces duchess county is currently in a high transmission area
057and the district is not following recommendations regarding sports and extracurriculars during high speed con high spread conditions it is obvious that the district is doing absolute minimum it can get away with and that's the end of the public comment that means that i make a motion to join a meeting first i'd like to thank for the comments and i'm sure that uh so some of the first comment will be addressed by the superintendent hopefully soon with that being said make a most of a journey meeting second favor raise your hands hi thank you very much thank you everybody okay