001good evening and welcome to the 25th Annual student Union's Board of Education candidates forum my name is Elizabeth kamrowski and I'm the 2022-23 president of Lancaster High School's Student Union to my right is student union president allowed for the 2023-24 school year Jennifer Jenna will be serving as timekeeper for tonight's question and answer session the purpose of tonight's program is to allow each candidate running for a trustee of the Lancaster School District Board of Education the opportunity to express his or her personal opinion in response to questions being submitted by members of the Lancaster School District voting community as you enter the auditorium tonight several Student Union Representatives had question cards that you were asked to complete if you wanted to pose a question to the candidates additionally we offer the same opportunity to the
002student body of the high school and we've included both sets of questions in this container I will randomly select these questions for tonight's program there are six candidates running for three positions on the Lancaster Board of Education board members are elected at large and will serve a three-year term from July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2026. each candidate will now have the approximately 30 seconds to introduce themselves and then we'll begin the question and answer session our first candidate in alphabetical order is Mr Glenn Jackson [Music] hello thank you everyone for being here tonight my name is Con Jackson um I have been on the board the last six years it has been an absolute privilege to be working with the district on representing many of you I'm well beyond this room so looking forward
003to having the privilege to serve for another term I'm really looking forward to answering your questions tonight so thank you for having me thank you Mr Jackson our next candidate is Mr Dan Romig thank you for having me so my name is Dan Romig I have two daughters Emily who is going to the is in the arts academy uh she loves it and I think it's a great program along with all the Arts and other academies I have a younger daughter that's ever that's my nickname for her she's going into the apartments next year I have a bsnee an MS in Engineering Management I moved to Lancaster 15 years ago and I think we need to give transparency back to the public I think we need to represent students parents and taxpayers so they can
004have a voice and I think we need to build communication with the teachers the custodial staff the cafeteria staff and the community at large that I believe personally has been lacking with the school board currently thank you thank you Mr Roman our next candidate is Tara Romig hi my name is Tara Romig and I have four kids in Lancaster School District I have Ethan who is 10 Abby who is 12. um Isabella who is 14 and Emily who is 17 and they're both in the high school um I um I served for physicians in the Moms Club of Lancaster and Depew as Administrative Vice President the events planner as well as um another award position as well I look forward to getting the questions from you and and seeing what we can do I want
005to increase the transparency I want to lend a voice to the parents who feel unheard dismissed and revers Society so thank you for this beautiful opportunity and I look forward to the questions [Music] thank you miss relig our next candidate is Mr Michael stage good evening good evening everyone thank you so much for coming out this evening congratulations Jenna on your election to president of the Student Union look forward to seeing you next year uh I've been on the school board for nine years now uh 30 years now as the president of the board and I absolutely love everything Lancaster our school district is absolutely amazing I want to continue that and I really again thank you all for coming out this evening thank you Mr Sage our next candidate is Laura scroll [Music] hi
006my name is Laura Sproul and I have four children in the Lancaster District ages 1 6 11 and 13. we love Lancaster and how our children are enrolled in Shirley Williams Street and Lancaster Middle School right out of college I worked in sales and marketing at wgrc TV and wtdcx FM radio but I'm married to a teacher and I saw his love for teaching and he inspired me to get my master's degree in education I love teaching middle school and high school English in the Williamsville School District teaching has given me tons of insight into the challenges that the educational system is facing my gut is telling me it's time to get back to Common Sense let's get back to the basics teaching math English science social studies and the Arts let's focus on better
007opportunities for our kids let's assign money in the budget for needed improvements let's instill distancing back in schools let's support our teachers and give them the resources they need my number one goal is to increase communication between the community and the Board of Education thank you thank you Miss roll our next candidate is Mr Timothy Talbot so my name is Tim cell but I appreciate everyone having me here as well so I actually live in Lancaster my wife Jamie and our two kids Oliver was five and currently in the carousel Academy halftime to ease my wife into setting up full-time to kindergarten and then my daughter was two Eleanor so a big thing for me is I wanted to be more involved in the Lancaster School District so I'm originally dramatica so a big thing
008for me was just participating in my kids in education and things like that and a big reason I chose Lancaster is because I always heard how good the school district was it's a big reason I came here I clearly owned my own business in Depew I specialize in planning and finance I have my degree in Business Administration and I own multiple professional licenses in the finance industry so my main goal with coming here is to to run for the board is to essentially work with the board work with the parents teachers students and trying to make good decisions that are educated and and sound decisions to make it whatever is best for them so thank you thank you Mr Talbot and now we will begin our question and answer session we will proceed as follows
009about 10 days of tonight's program who wish to raise a question or comment were asked to submit their question or comment on the cards provided at the tables outside of our Auditorium and then handed them to one of our Representatives I have those cards with me now and we will ask the questions or save the comments in random order we will pose as many questions and comments as time allows giving the candidates the opportunity to respond to each please be respectful at this process as we try to create the most productive opportunity for everyone here to listen to the candidates positions please refrain from Raising questions or making comments from your seats again if you have not heard your question or comment addressed you may of course contact any of the candidates directly if your
010question is selected when your name and address is read please stand so the candidates can address you with their with their answers question one is from Ted Morton on 11 Callaway the question is do you support males that think they are female to be in female sports and locker rooms we will begin with Mr Glenn Jackson so how are you thank you for the question um and thank you Elizabeth for for doing this I know it's a hard hard job so thank you um here's what I focused on when I think about experiences of our students um at school I think about bullies I think about how hard it can be a student that doesn't feel like they belong you know we create inclusive spaces where students can see themselves and be them themselves so
011they can aspire to be something that they truly want to be in life so whatever we can do to create the spaces where kids can have experiences where their voices are heard is something that I focus on so that's that's what I would tell you when I think about creating those experiences for students at this school in any District it would be number one first and foremost how do they feel like they belong and build an inclusive space thank you Mr Jackson Mr Romig thank you for the question Ted so I believe that people born as boys should be in boys sports people born as girls should be in girls Sports I believe that there's a unfair Advantage for boys those that are born as boys to participate in girls Sports I don't think it's
012fair I think it takes away from the opportunities of the girls that work so hard to try to accomplish goals and stuff like that and for somebody else to be able to take that away from them in my opinion is unfair I believe the school board should be focused on all the kids including half the population of the kids which are the girls thank you Miss Romig thanks so much for much for the question I also believe that if you are genetically born a male then you have to be in the mail Sports and if you're genetically born or female and you should be in females wards whenever you become 18 years of age and you are an adult and you can make that decision well then you are more than welcome to do however
013you wish and feel to do at that point in time I just feel that adolescence is such a the variable time in someone's development that that you are experiencing so many hormones so many physical changes so many emotional changes it's it just Ebbs and flows and so I feel I agree with Mr Jackson the fact that bullying should not be tolerated however I feel that there is an unfair Advantage if a male who identifies himself as a female is in a female sport then it takes away from the hard work that all the females have done um and that's how I feel thinking thank you Miss Romig Mr Sage good to see you and thank you for the question so I think the most important thing that a school district has to think about is
014the well-being of our students so that is going to mean a lot of things right so each individual kid is going to need a lot of different support depending on what their needs are right so first and foremost that's that's number one right and then of course you know kids are going to be involved in sports and competitions right those are very important to keep kids engaged right so lots of kids absolutely need those things to thrive at school so I'm at mini bands I mean need Athletics right and if our young female athletes are good enough to play on the on the boys teams and I think they should wholeheartedly be able to do that right when it comes to uh transgender females right there can be some competition issues right the school board
015really does not get involved with those the state does right the state level takes care of those policies the school board really can't have a policy that supersedes the thank you Mr Sage Miss roll I went to school to be an English teacher because I love children it was my goal at the beginning of every school year to make connections with with with each and every student regardless of the religion gender or color of their skin Making Connections demonstrated to each kid that I genuinely cared about them as a person of course this includes kids who identify as trans but that does not mean that I believe that boys should be on girls teens and girls should be on voice biological voice should be on voice teams my daughter is now on the track team
016I do not want boys changing with my daughter in the locker room I can't back down I'm feeling like that as a mom I love children and our goal is to protect children all children all children need their safe place girls who have to change both voice in the locker room have lost their safe place boys and boys locker rooms girls and girls locker rooms that's how it should be thank you Miss roll Mr Talbot appreciate the question I think for me it's a little different because I'm going at the end so I get to hear what everyone else says before I get to answer um but you know I think it's a very difficult difficult conversation to have because like Mike fits that there's a lot of stuff already in place by New York
017state that dictates a lot of this stuff and I think it's very it's a very difficult conversation because there aren't going to be people out there that rely their whole lives on Sports and I think that it'd be very difficult for me to tell someone their perspective on it hey you can't do something but that being said in some situations it could offer an unfair competitive Advantage so I think is as far as as far as I'm looking at it I think just making a safe space for those people and having the conversations that need to be had but it's also important to understand that the world is always changing and that sometimes you need to you know adapt and understand that hey we're going to make these changes but we're going to do it
018in a certain way that's best forever so thank you Mr Talbot question two is from Dean Miller on 267 Lake the question is how much have you received in donations to your campaign what was the largest donation and what state was it from Mr Romig [Music] so I don't have the exact number but I think it was about a thousand dollars or so I think I got most of that for my family in Pennsylvania um and because I just sent out a an email request my biggest donation was my mom a big supporter go mom um she's in Pennsylvania uh the second biggest contribution would be from my brother uh he's in Colorado that was for 200. um speaking of finances I think you know me giving these finances here I have no problem because
019I think that's transparency I wish the board would be transparent in their financial Endeavors so that I am here giving you and telling you what my financial statements are the school district is overfunded by you know by 50 60 million dollars um [Music] there's a couple comments that were in this findings that they overestimated budgetary Appropriations by an annual average of 13 million these practices resulted in real property tax levies that were higher than necessary and until this year for the last 13 years they've tried to tax us as much as they possibly could thank you Mr Romig Miss Romig thank you so much Dean for the question um I I have also received a thousand dollar donation from family um the rest of the donations have come from Lancaster residence and surrounding areas as
020well um that are passionate about what we're what we're running on which is transparency um it's you know giving the parents a voice and you know we just want to increase that transparency from the board I've learned a ton so much just in the last couple months of running I knew a lot before but I know so much more now and and there's a lot of people in this community that that feel slightly different um than the current board does so that's that's where my donations come from and I and I I hope that I can do everything that I can to use those funds wisely and I hope that the current board does that too with the budget thank you thank you Ms Romig Mr Sage uh thank you for the question uh Dee
021I have not received any campaign donations at all I'll leave that time for everyone else thank you Mr Sage Miss froll hi thanks for the question I hope the question was asked in the spirit of fundraising and hopefully we can give this our ptos to raise money and motivate that because there's certainly a lot of projects that they raise uh I don't have the exact numbers I wish I had brought my sheet where I account for them and I don't want to misquote myself and say something wrong I know it on his last sheet I wrote down a couple hundred dollars um what I would do is boil it and you can find out exactly what I donated and that will give you the exact dollar amount so I'm not misinterpreting what I was saying
022because I don't have those exact numbers with me and I did not bring them tonight I'm more concerned though um not so much about that little bit of I might have raised for this campaign I'm more worried about the 50 million in reserves that is that that we have unaccounted for that we want to know how we should spend in this District because that's the root of the problem this information and I don't want to be part of the misinformation process if I miss quote exactly how much would donated to me I want to be part of transparency I want to be part of the honest process we have all these reserves how do we want them to spend them as a community where do they want them to go do we want these funds
023to go to sports Fields do we want these funds to go to a playground at Lane Street do we want to look into getting bathrooms better parking those are the things that I think we should be worried about not the little bit of money that we might have raised for our campaign the 50 million dollars my apologies I didn't bring my sheet with me and again on my apologies thank you Miss roll [Music] Mr Talbot I also have not received any money in donations just my personal perspective on it I try to do as much as I can to give back to you know places that need it and I'd rather people donate that money to places like that um you know I'd rather you know fund this myself if this is a goal that
024I have so thank you thank you Mr Talbot Mr Jackson uh my parents are outside of Washington lacrosse game and I was not as lucky as you Dan to receive anything from them um but no I have not had any campaign contributions just to support from the community thank you Mr Jackson our next question is from Jennifer Jennifer virgoli on 204 Central Ave and the question is Lancaster is known as a destination District what's your plan in ensuring our district policies are welcoming to trans and gender expansive children miss Robin thank you so much Jennifer for the question I truly appreciate it um well I believe that everybody should be included if somebody feels like they are transformed [Music] those who want to play a sport okay I've already answered the sports question so I'm
025going to go ahead Lancaster is known as a destination District what's your plan in ensuring our district policies are welcoming to trans and gender expansive children especially those who want to play a sport okay again I've already answered the question about how I feel about playing sports so I'll go ahead and answer the first part of the questions that the other parts already been answered um how I feel that Lancaster can be welcoming for the trans community in the lpgtq is to be all-inclusive um just because I might feel that somebody who identifies as trans should be used their genetic Sports Locker Room that they were born to doesn't mean that I'm against lpgtq it doesn't mean that I'm against trans people it's just that we should be all inclusive to everybody who feels as
026they do and that goes across the gamut I don't think that we should isolate lbtq trans and all that I want to be all-inclusive and a voice for everyone and to respond to their parents needs and cater to the students accordingly thank you thank you Mr Robert Mr Sage thank you so much for the question Jennifer I think it's really really important that not only do we support kids especially our lgbtq kids right they need a lot of support they need not just support though not just inclusion but they need to be celebrated right they need to feel that from you know their friends they need to feel it from their family they need to feel it from the community [Music] um so you know that's really going to be the step forward um you
027know just to feel included is is great right but you know celebrate as well thank you thank you Mr Sage Miss froll so we all play various roles and one role that I cherish the most is the role of them all I love kids I love all kids I love kids who identify as whatever they may be I recognize how unique and special each child is I answered the trans question before I believe boys will want to have boys jeans and she's not being girls longer so I'm very clear on that but I would use the same skill set that I use as a mom that we love all to serve the children in Lancaster we play to our children's strengths not their weaknesses we focus on positive motivation each child is a puzzle and
028we are all the pieces to that puzzle the parents the teachers the counselors we all work together to help that child I had the privilege of teaching students in the City of Buffalo where I met students with very unique backgrounds and I learned that we need to meet the needs of our kids so the end goal is that every student graduates from Lancaster High School with the skills they need to be successful happy and motivated to be a good citizen who contributes to society that's the goal thank you Miss roll Mr Talbot appreciate the question I think maybe I have a little bit different of a perspective just being a little younger I think that I put a big priority on mental health and I feel like that's a big starting point for those individuals
029and I think that the biggest thing a school district can do is make a safe place for those people whether it's just to feel included or be understood and I think there's a lot of sometimes confusion on that stuff and it's there's not always an easy place for someone like that to go and I think having a a school that can make it okay for someone and to be diverse or be different just because when they leave the school they're going to run into people that are different than they are so having people feel okay and comfortable I think is the number one priority there and just making sure that they're okay talking about you know how they're feeling so thank you thank you Mr Talbot Mr Jackson thank you for the question um one
030of the experiences we just had recently the last few years was that the district's creating CCI culture climate facility and what I appreciated around the district the administrators the teachers as well as the students is they started from within so they didn't go and have somebody in the speech on how to do this which is which is a hard thing to do and actually doesn't work instead they started where they work so they asked their students they asked their administrators they're asked their teachers how where we start and they created these groups and every one of the schools where kids could have a safe space to have hard conversations so look to that to say start in those spaces those safe space you've already created injection perspectives maybe you do not have seek it out
031as times change and make sure that you continue to learn and grow with the folks that you already have here in Lancaster in the district so that would be my answer thank you for the question thank you Mr Jackson Mr Romig thank you for the question that's actually a great one I think all kids should be treated equally and fairly I think all kids should be free from bullying including those kids that are on the wrestling team I think all the kids should be treated and actually be given the opportunity to succeed including the kids on the softball team including the kids on the baseball team that don't have the equipment that they want including the kids in Williams Street School that don't have a playground I think by treating kids fairly and with honesty
032integrity and being able to actually bring them in and have conversations with them I think you're a welcoming Community I don't believe that you have to segregate any group of any kids to say that there are any more special than any other kids I think all kids are special I know my two daughters are the greatest things that ever happened to me and I would do anything for my daughters and I believe that that should be the way that you treat every kid no matter what color creed nationality origin if they're LGBT or not anything they should be treated fairly equally and with respect thank you question four is from Ella curl a senior at Lancaster High School the question is what is your opinion on the recent trend of book Banning in public schools
033especially when it comes to folks that some people claim would have to do with the critical race Theory and sexually explicit content Mr Sage this is a really great question and of course thank the senior for me for asking that question so it's really important that one we understand that school boards do not get involved in individual books right so we have Educators Librarians that look at those books I think it's super important though that everyone be able to see themselves represented in books right so if you grow up you know your whole life and you think man I've never read a book that describes me or that has me in it or someone like me so I really really discourage any talk about banning books or even limiting books thank you so much thank
034you Mr Sage Miss froll before I speak I'd like to ask any children to please leave the audience or close their ears before I speak for any parents who would like to do that thank you sir I'm gonna read you an essay from a book you can't tell anybody okay you said you promised that you're not going to tell anyone I promise you then grab my hand and make me touch it it was the first time I had ever touched a penis that wasn't my own I knew that was happening wasn't supposed to happen cousins weren't supposed to do these things with cousins but my body didn't react that way my body on the inside was doing something too skipping down there was so much excitement running through my body this was much more than
035losing my virginity for once I was consenting to the sexual satisfaction of my body this moment also confirmed that sex could look how I wanted it to look and that it could be passionate and kind but most importantly fun and satisfying his body felt great in my mouth this is a book on high school shelves for our children but you be the judge if children should have access to this content without parents at least being made where parent consent forms this is cousins having this sexual relationship this is incest Mr Sage says students need to see themselves represented in literature do our students need to see themselves represented having an incestuous relationship which is illegal with their cousin in literature that is what I questioned am I so wrong for questioning that because I spoke
036at a board meeting asking that very question I question books I didn't advocate for any solution I didn't even use the word okay thank you Miss world that's all the time we have thank you Mr Talbot I think this is going to be a topic that's going to be brought up from every board meeting regardless of what happens from this point on and I think it's important to have the conversations on this stuff because it's going to happen again I'm not a fan of banning books from any school library but what I am a fan of is having conversations you know with with your kids with the board members with to talk about this stuff because again this stuff isn't going away it's important to have the conversations about it and it's very difficult to
037take from a small paragraph out of a book what other book the value provides not saying that that book should be in there what I am saying is that we have the conversations about that and get this stuff in place to decide hey should this be here should not be here um you know I I haven't read the full book but you know it's my takeout thank you thank you Mr Talbot Mr Jackson my daughter sees the library that was a joke um let me just say this I I agree Mr Sage that people will have to be able to see themselves um and the other thing I believe in deeply is it's a slippery slope who gets to choose what to ban uh so I don't it's I don't believe that's us as a
038board I've got to put trust in the district and Trust in the teachers and Trust in Librarians to do their jobs the way they see fit we're here to trust and build that trust and keep that communication and pipeline open that's what we will do but it is not for me to decide what your kids get to to believe and read thank you Mr Jackson Mr Romig thanks again for the question this is another one I want to sort of anticipated actually so it's interesting that the other candidates have said that they don't want to ban books because this is a quote directly from their website that being said there are plenty of books that don't make the cut to be included in a school library for many different reasons we have a committee of
039teachers and Librarians that approve or deny books and many do get denied so a lot of people would say that's Banning books all I'm saying is there needs a process in place to make sure that sexually explicit material is not in the libraries for our children fifth graders and sixth graders should not be reading those types of books that are on the shelves if they want to give it they can get it from Amazon Walmart Target the local library or anywhere else they do not have to get it from the school library so I am 100 opposed I have exceptionally explicit material in our school library it doesn't belong there and it should never be there thank you thank you Mr Romig Miss Romig Anna thank you so much for the question I totally commend
040you for being a senior and standing up and to have a question as Brave as this that means a lot um as far as like the whole book Banning thing I'm not advocating to banned books I'm at I'm advocating to increase the communication between the school teachers Librarians and parents um I will be honest until two months ago I didn't know that these type of books existed in the middle school or the high school and I'm shocked even the middle school has a book called later gator that talks about a talks about sex you know oh I can go on the pill or I'm on the pill and tomorrow it's going to be okay to have sex you know loving to 13 year olds um you know and I I've also heard the argument about
041context oh we've got to know the context of the book there's got to be a lesson there I'm sorry there's not enough rainbows and butterflies at the beginning or in the beginning of the book with it at the end of the book to make that okay in my opinion um as far as like like I said I don't want to ban books and you know I'm very supportive of the Librarians and the teachers and the administration and everybody involved I felt that we could work together to get this done we can provide a form very simple to do at the beginning of the school year just as they do if you can use like pictures and photos of your kids in in public in public location like the Lancaster being such why can't we have
042a form that says oh you know thank you Mrs all the time thank you I appreciate it [Music] our next question is from Amelia Molnar a junior at Lancaster High School the question is what makes you different or stand out from the other candidates Miss roll lucky number one well I think what makes me different is that I am the only certified teacher who is running for the board this year and I think that is giving me so much insight into the challenges that teachers face daily what are the struggles what are the highs and lows in teaching I think that I can be a voice for them um I my background in education I've spent a lot of time in the classroom I know what it's like to discipline kids I know what it's
043like to be under the gun for lesson plans I know I have any hours you spend working outside the classroom but I'm also a mom with four kids I for heavily involved in the district and I can give you voice her parents I'm a taxpayer I pay high taxes I but I expect to get what I pay for we're not seeing that right now we have this humongous Surplus that is unaccounted for I want to see more money spent on our students I want to see things come to fruition why my children are on the track team while other children play on sports teams I want to see changes happen in Lancaster which will not happen in this world that's all the time we have Mr Talbot so I think the biggest thing that sets
044me apart from some of the other candidates is just my position where I am with the kids in the school district so my son is in the carousel Academy he'll be attending kindergarten next year and the biggest thing for me is having kids that are currently going off the school district biggest thing that I want to see with the school is that can you continue to grow my big take out I think life is that the moment you settle for you think that something's as good as it will ever be is when you've given up so my main goal is to always keep improving if you think you're good you can always go better so thank you thank you Mr Talbot Mr Jackson where is Amelia um so I I won't tell you that I'm
045better than anyone else and I and then it separates me necessarily but I think my superpower is um I tend to listen very well and meet people where they're at uh and it's something that uh early on as a kid I had to do that and then it became something that I realized what was really beneficial how do you get into a room and have some really hard conversations with people agree to disagree and continue to move forward as friends as family so something again I think the great pride in is having really hard conversations with people and and then continue to learn and grow and evolve as a human being thank you Mr Jackson Mr Roman thank you for the question again so I I think we actually probably have a lot more similarities
046and differences I think a lot you know everybody on this here is willing to give a lot of time this is an unbeat position so I congratulate everybody that's even running for the board as well as Mr sage and Mr Jackson that's actually been on the board for a long time I think that takes a lot of a lot of time and effort I think uh for this question here's more the differences of opinions that I think um so for me it's the transparency and actually giving the information back out to the public as to where how and why the budget is spent and I understand that there's a budget form and there's budget meetings but a lot of times I've been looking at those and they're more very high level they don't give the
047rationale the reasoning of why they actually do a lot of the things that are done I think another thing that I would do is I would give a lot more power to the taxpayers to spend the money that they want to I would put a vote or a request for a vote for the Williams Street School playground as well as better Fields the first time I was there I put a motion whether or not it gets passes other matter but I believe the taxpayers have a right to spend their money thank you thank you so much for the question what I feel that I can bring to the table and I didn't say this in my intro but I'll say it now I have a bachelor's degree from Penn State I'm in Psychology my favorite
048class was adolescent psychology that's you know 11 to 18 years old so you learn about the brain development the physical you know the development as far as everything that goes into that and it's a it's a big time period it's it's a big change one of the biggest changes that you can experience in your entire life with that being said I feel that the parents you know need a voice and I feel that I'm a Great Peacemaker as far as like listening on both sides of the aisle regardless of whether I agree with you or I'm not I will listen to you I will hear your argument I will Advocate you know if if there's any sort of common ground that we have you know I I will definitely be there in support of that
049the parents have I've been you know talking to people for months now and a lot of parents feel just thank you Mr Sage uh thank you so much Amelia for this amazing question right so I think the most important pieces I get where I kind of stand in the district right so we are the least important people in this District right so um Elizabeth and Jenna are here as leaders of the Student Union right they're the real leaders of this school right they're the most important piece of this whole house all the students right then you've got the teachers and the administration and the rest of the staff right the board of education is really down at the bottom and the most important thing we can do is celebrate the students celebrate the teachers and
050the administrators and the uh the staff right and you know we've had a lot of mentions of you know um interesting comments so far this evening but I can tell you with 100 certainty that we have the number one District uh in Western New York in New York country uh and I'm really proud of that thank you thank you Mr Sage our next question is from Sarah murrayman on six or evenwood drive the question is since some candidates believe in medical Freedom if elected how will you protect kids like my son who has an autoimmune disorder should another pandemic occur Mr trumpet so I appreciate the question I think the biggest thing that we have to account for when in any type of public school is the perspective of everyone and the biggest thing I
051kind of stick by is you know just because someone's perspective is different than someone else doesn't make it wrong you know but it may not be right for someone else so the biggest thing I would say with any type of thing like if something like that does happen again I hope it doesn't but if that does happen just making sure we're making a decision that's right for everyone for all the students because there may be someone who is not in a position to get a cold because it could be life-threatening and just making sure that we're making the decisions for that as well so you know I think this I think that ends up falling on the state when it does the board but just supporting whatever the kids need to make a safe environment
052thank you Mr Talbot Mr Jackson it's a little bit of an extension of what Tim said and I'm a type 1 diabetic and there aren't many of us um it sounds weird but but here's what I would hope I would hope if something affected or we were affected by something differently that that respect perspective was in the room so we can make sure that we're keeping a space where folks could affect and make sure that we're capturing what's what's best for all so it goes back to CCI do you have a room and a space for someone that can gather those perspectives and seek out perspectives that aren't the same as yours thank you thank you Mr Jackson Mr Romig thank you much for the question I appreciate it uh it's actually a topic over
053here as well so first of all the New York State actually does have a lot of the legal parameters what a school district has to abide by and obviously the school board is beholden to what the state mandates or directs so that in the Palm card that we hand out for the medical freedom is if it was up to the individual students or parents for how to proceed a lot of the likely their maskings or different things like that then I would say would be up to the parents if the state does not mandate things I would think for and I'm no expert on immunos division of kids so I would look to see what the experts would say and how to arrange their program in order to make sure that your child or children
054are safe in that environment I would like to say that when we say medical Freedom we're not saying that they shouldn't get polio vaccines or measles vaccines or anything that's been around for you know 50 60 70 years I still believe in all those I believe they prevent and stop the diseases from spreading and stuff like that my concern more is future things that are more the newer types that are untested at this point Thank you thank you Mr Robert Ms Romig thank you so much for the question I I like Dan also was looking forward to this type of question um we have been labeled as anti-vaxxer to you know oh get rid of the vaccine get rid of the polio the methods and all that stuff and that is just not the case
055those have been tried and true um what we're looking for and we understand that you know New York state does dictate a whole lot of policy in this area and we totally respect that what we're advocating well what I'm advocating for is for if there is a parental choice on whether you know if they are able to mask or not mask or you know whatever is further down the line for that schooling options that I'm 100 on board with A Parent's Choice if that is possible thank you thank you Miss Robert Mr Sage all right uh Sarah thank you so much for the question uh I I am not a doctor I know nothing about medical Sciences anything like that so you know when you come and you're a board member you know the state
056does mandate certain things right and the decision really for the school board is how do we make sure that we have kids in school learning right so that to me is the number one thing I just want to make sure the kids are in school learning right um I'm gonna you know you know always go to The Experts when it comes to you know whether or not we should wear masks or you know if if you know vaccines are appropriate you know I can't make those decisions right I don't think the school board should um and you know we we don't really so you know last pandemic we didn't make any of those decisions our decision was can we get kids back in school and have them learning again thank you so much for the
057question thank you Mr Sage Miss Pearl hello so I believe that we want to be inclusive of all students especially with kids who might have compromised immune systems if another coveted situation should arise I would Advocate working with parents on a case-by-case situation every situation is unique every child situation is unique so maybe that means working with a parent and the doctors and deciding okay the child can come to school but they have to wear a mask every day maybe we continue to explore options of remote learning for the parents who would want that option because we might also have teachers or pregnant teachers who would prefer to teach in a remote situation so maybe we can still have classes of remote learning for students who have a compromised immune system and it would truly
058be unsafe for them to come to school but the hope is that that will never happen again but if it does that we do work with the parents and we try to make a safe place for those students thank you Miss World our next question is from David zielinski address 17 West Lake Forest the question is do any of you currently have any affiliation with persons in any of the district bargaining units if so when the time comes will you've seen your vote for acceptance and proposed context Mr Jackson can you repeat the question again do any of you currently have any affiliation with persons in any of the district's bargain units if so when the time comes will you abstain your vote for acceptance of proposed contacts Mr Romig what was the word you
059see bargaining units is that correct yes okay yes I assume that means like the union and stuff like that I have absolutely no contact with anybody that has any votes in the union whatsoever thank you Mr Robin Miss Romig I also have no contacts thank you Mr Sage yeah I have no relationships or affiliations with any anyone on any of our parking leaders thank you for the question thank you Miss roll no relationship or affiliation so thank you Mr talbo well I think it's only right there the last person here um I feel like those directed me I have no problem answering uh yes my uh my relative in the district and I have no problem at all abstaining from that I think that a big reason I chose to come to the school district
060was because of her so you know I wouldn't I would hope that me being in here just like everyone else up here as a parent for as long as she's in the district whether that be a short term if she decides to retire it up but um but yes so thank you thank you the students have also prepared some questions in case that we need some so the question is what is your stance on Mental Health Awareness in Lancaster and how would you take extra steps to improve the social emotional education for Lancaster students Mr Romig so just like my answer from last year I believe this was a very similar question I'm very supportive of having support networks for anybody that is having issues social emotional types issue I know that the pandemic that
061we just came out of because of the masks and the distancing and not having the the same kind of school district feel meaning they're not in school so they're not around their friends they're not around their you know teachers that they love and stuff like that that it definitely has impacted them and I believe that any child that needs additional support to help them through these difficult times after the pandemic is totally warranted and we should make resources available to them thank you thank you Mr Roman Mr Omega thank you so much for the question um I feel that the the school should all should be a safe place and that we should definitely contribute to the mental health and and nurturing that as much as possible on an individual basis um I love our
062guidance counselors and so you know I I want the students to feel welcome to go and talk to them if they need me say that they're having issues at home or something then they can totally go and speak with them as a safe space as far as like the social environment I think that we need to have more social Gatherings as far as like more field trips more let's get Outdoors let's go let's start going to Darien Lake like we used to with the build trips and everything so the more that we can get in that you know group environment social environment and engage in that and Foster that I think that's only going to nurture the students especially coming through this pandemic that we just came through where it kind of deprived that social
063environment away from the students and so I really want to nurture that and Foster it thank you thank you Miss Robert Mr stage yeah this is a really great question and such an important topic right mental health is the most important thing I mean maybe physical health is is number one right but mental health is is right there uh at the top right um one thing that I'm really proud of is this district is continue to I mean we've hired social workers and psychologists um and you know continue to meet even more of that right we're seeing more and more mental health issues so this is a very important topic to me and something that I want to you know see uh continue with you know additional social workers and additional psychologists so that everyone
064is taken care of and that might even be a hard task thank you thank you Mr Sage misspell so I think we need to clearly communicate to our students that their voice matters that they matter as an individual it seems like more and more students are struggling with anxiety and depression and one of the reasons for this should not be because they are getting bullied at school we need to protect our students we need to put our students and their needs first as a teacher I always felt that it was important for every student to feel safe at school it was it's our responsibility as teachers to show the students how to demonstrate love and respect to all and teacher I know that I could always learn from my students they taught me just as
065much as I as as I could ever taught them I want every student in Lancaster to feel cherished to feel respected to feel like we care about them as individuals and that means addressing concerns so for the district that needs working in collaboration with lots of people and it's bringing in the right groups it means informing parents what's going on it means touching base on connecting all those dots between the parents and the teachers and the counselors thank you Miss World Mr Talbot so again just being a little younger I think I bring a little bit different perspective because when I was in high school um you know I could start to see stuff changing a little more than it has in the past and I'm a very big proponent of mental health I think
066there's a big stigma around it but you can't talk about your feelings which you know my brother-in-law got married on Saturday and I cried like a baby so you know I think it's very important to understand that each person is different and that it's okay to talk about it and I think the biggest thing that every student struggles with now is if you have mental health problems or you're getting bullied There's No Escape you go home and social media there's you know you can't you can't escape from a lot of this stuff so I think the biggest thing that I would love to see is having support resources that people can access outside of school hours for people that need it so you know again haven't done a ton of research on what Lancaster has
067done for that so far but I think it's important to have the conversations with with students that understand that each student's different and that you know you can talk to someone about it thank you Mr Talbot Mr Jackson listen I I would I would go further than Mr sage and say I think it's probably one of the biggest threats to society when I say that I mean around the world um now post copied um we have to be able to talk about it and as it pertains to supporting the students as the resources continue to move in that direction we've got to continue to make sure we reach the skids to do that and then I take a step further and say it wasn't just the students that were traumatized throughout covid and before that
068and priors were building towards mental health as a challenge I think we've got to make sure our teachers and administrators also have the care that they need as it pertains to Mental Health thank you Mr Jefferson thank you to everyone who submitted questions to our candidates at this time we begin to close our form with each candidate having a one-minute clothing closing statement we will begin with Mr Jackson [Music] I am um so listen uh I I want to thank each and every one of you Elizabeth I want to thank you John and thank you to the Student Union you guys did a fantastic job not just today but also last week so let's actually let's give them a round of applause um is closed down for adults we could um so great job thank
069you I want to thank you for for allowing me to have the privilege to to represent um all of you and Beyond this room uh with the district I would be privileged and honored to continue that privilege um but again you have to come out and vote next Tuesday and thank you for all your questions thank you Mr Jackson and next we have Mr romik thank you I'd like to appreciate everybody that showed up here asked questions uh hopefully this was very enlightening to everybody I think there's a pretty clear divide relatively speaking on a number of the issues that are probably what's brought a lot of people here it was definitely a lot more packed than it was last year so the big items that I would like to see changed is the transparency
070of the board more details on where these funds are being spent give the taxpayers some rationality where their money is going and give them some input as to where they want to spend their money do they want a William Street playground do they want softball fields do they need mental health just giving them the ability to actually have a better say in their their funds I would actually also allow sexually explicit material out of the books we've already covered that one so I'll go to that one and also make sure that the bullying doesn't have it because it doesn't happen to just one group of people what happens to everybody across the board every school experiences a lot of bullying and I think it's wrong I would say that I was bullied when I was
071a kid I'm a white guy so it can have anybody and I think it's wrong for anybody to be bullied if it's if it's a kid in a school or it's a teacher or anything like that they should not be bullied and I also don't believe that you should tax at the highest possible level unless you're actually having those funds go somewhere instead of a big slush fund thank you thank you Mr romick and next we have MS Romig thank you so much Elizabeth are excellent hosts by the way very impressed um I just want to let you know that that times are changing I mean as we've seen in the past five years just five years look at how how much the world has changed um it's time for a change I mean there's
072a lot of people that aren't heard from the community that are ready for additional transparency and you know a better use of the budgetary funds um you know in a little bit more communication between the teachers and the students and just getting back to even where we were like 10 years ago 10 years ago is an amazing time in Lancaster School District and it still is don't get me wrong I'm just thinking that we can do even better I love Lancaster with a passion in my soul that's why I'm sitting here on this board doing something I never knew that I thought that I would be doing so I just really asked for your vote on May 16th and hope to see you then thank you thank you Ms Romig and next we have Mr
073Sage Elizabeth Jenna thank you for hosting this evening all of you thank you so much for coming out and asking questions uh so like a few people have mentioned May 16th from 7 A.M to 9pm right here at the high school in the auditorium and the uh in the Java gym is our vote uh I would love your vote I am also supporting Mr Jackson and Mr Talbot I want to see the the district's um you know really of the highlights that our teachers our students and our administrators have done over the last nine years has just been amazing and I want to see that continue to go right anyone interested in the budget we're having a hearing just like we do every year right after this so you know 7 P.M to whenever you'll
074hear a lot about our budget which is 1.6 million dollars under um under what we could have gone out with right uh so I really really think that Lancaster is amazing right and I want to see it continue to go in the direction that's going thank you thank you Mr sage and next we have Miss bro I spoke at a board meeting in November I asked the board members to please just anyone to call me back zero out of seven called me back when I specifically asked me to as a parent I found this profoundly disappointing so my number one goal is to create increased communication between the Board of Education and the community the community has lost trust in the district they have lost trust in their Board of Education who is supposed to
075represent the voice of the people let's reveal the trust with the community let's give the taxpayers let's give them parents let's give the teachers let's give the students their voice back let's let the people speak for this community let's let the people decide how the 50 million dollars in reserves will be spent let's put that money into sports teachers Harkness the academies let's continue our awesome music programs let's give more and excellent opportunities for our children these are our tax dollars let's spend it on our kids thank you Miss Raul and finally we have Mr Zelda it's Whole Foods in this whole thing it's been it's been awesome it's been an experience for me um you know I just want to impress everyone will come out here today regardless of what your beliefs are and
076all the other candidates because we all care enough to be here and I think that's you know saying itself it's one of the big reasons I chose Lancaster is because the fact that everyone's so involved shows that we care so for me I'm a big proponent of you know putting into work I've been attending all the board meetings I've been you know doing whatever research I can to learn as much as I can that way if I am elected that I can do the best job that I can so I appreciate everyone taking my time to be here I encourage you to avoid and vote avoid we can't talk today I guess uh go vote to make your voice serve on whatever your beliefs are and you know I appreciate everyone coming thank you thank
077you Mr Taylor on behalf of the Lancaster High School student union I would like to thank the candidates and the attendees for their interests in our schools and their future our hope is that this evening's Forum was informative and helpful good luck to all the candidates and please remember to vote on Tuesday May 16th right here at Lancaster High School in the Java gym from 7 A.M to 9pm this concludes our program thank you and have a good night