001I a jacket on I know my closet I figured you were doing senior stuff I did ready all right i' like to call the meeting to order can we please stand for the pledge I algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we'll now swear in our newly elected board member Dirk renold who will be finishing out the term of Kaye McDonald thank you ready I DK Raven all do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States the constitution of the state of New York and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of board member of the swed home Board of Education according to the best of my
002ability okay roll call Hunter here um Miss Jason is excused tonight Mr rabenold I'm here can you turn your mic up I can hire certainly can it's a it's an age thing if you're hearing aids just kidding um Mr Feldman will be joining us shortly Mr liel here Mr Johnson I'm here m Mr balante here and I am here may I have a motion in a second to approve rooll so I'll move second all in favor I I may I have a motion in a second to approve the agenda so moved second all in favor I I may I have a motion in a second to approve new business item a so moved second all in favor I I a motion in a second to approve Personnel item um 1A so moved second all in
003favor I Motion in a second to adjourn to the study session so moved second all in favor I I okay now we're in the study session uh approval of the agenda do we have any comments we'll be voting on this next week minutes from the previous meeting okay Communications does anybody have any Communications I'm going to take a moment to address the recent article from the Buffalo News featuring sweet home at sweet home we deeply value and encourage our students ability to express themselves unfortunately the article misrepresented our mission and caused hurt by admitting key details from superintendent Dr janri we apologize for any confusion graduation is a special academic celebration for all students our guidance allows for personalization personalized decoration of the mort board as long as it is flat and does not hang
004down from the sides well it does say caps will be reviewed in advance we have made it abundantly clear that we do not police tassels or other graduation AC accessories again students are free to decorate their caps as they see fit and no tassels will be removed on June 27th moving forward the Dei committee will review our practices to honor sweet home and the academic Traditions while also allowing students individuality we hope this clears up any confusion congratulations to the class of 2024 and we look forward to celebrating you on June 27th moving on to finish business we have none Dr janri okay thank you Mrs bagia there we go all right thank you Mrs baglia a few items to update the board on um first uh as we reported last week we are extremely
005excited uh to announce that the district has won a $1.6 million Grant through the EPA uh with help from Senator schum Schumer's office um to convert um eight diesel buses to electric buses um moving forward I think we have a couple webinars coming up to really get the logistics and the details um of this uh but with the eight electric buses that we will be purchasing with this grant um along with the three buses that our voters approved in May we're going to flip more than 10% of our Fleet um in the next year or so uh to Electric so um we have worked extremely hard on making sure that we meet the Mandate but also do it in a responsible way uh for our taxpayers and um I know district office especially uh Mr
006Feldman's office has been working extremely hard to uncover every single dollar we can uh to mitigate the Imp of this of this mandate um so don I don't know if you have any comments but uh like I said we are extremely excited to uh to do this work um and and to win this award and want to thank the Senator's office yeah so just very quickly the EPA Grant this this second Grant um that we've been awarded uh because again the three buses that we are getting in May were was part of the nerta truck voucher incentive program this is the EPA Grant um uh clean School Bus initiative this is round three of the funding uh if you remember correctly we went out uh the first time by ourselves uh we were weight listed
007the second time we went out by ourselves uh we were denied and then the third time we joined partners with Highland bus fleets uh to be part of a um a regional application uh to allow us to partner with schools um that are more High need uh than Sweet Home is uh that allowed us to be part of a a conglomerate application that resulted in the $1.6 million award that award uh is from the onset we've got um about two years uh to do something from that standpoint uh to purchase buses uh but uh it's something that we're looking forward to and kind of working through uh as we get get going on any questions about our EPA grants yes just again a little review of what your presentation was I believe month ago or
008a few weeks ago about the busing and and the purchase of electric buses it it sounds to me like you're moving towards some mandate that will eventually come from the state is that correct it's not eventually come from the state it has come from the state yeah so by the time uh any uh vehicle purchase by the district beginning in the 2027 school year has to be um electric or uh natural gas does that mean they're they're going to obsolete or the uh um oil generated or gasoline powered buses if there a market for those is there something we so part of this grant uh you know again to get this grant that we do have to trade in um eight of our older diesel buses uh vintage it's about around uh for this round
009it's 2014 and earlier um so they have to meet a certain mileage uh requirement over the course of the grant time two years but um this uh Grant with the with the tradeing of the diesel buses uh we really essentially get $200,000 a bus okay so we're trying to get a jump start on what do you think is mandated somewhere in the near future sounds like 2027 is pretty close yeah it it's it again it's not is it will be mandated it is mandated so by between 2027 and 2035 uh we have to flip our entire fleet to either electric or natural gas okay there is a there is something I saw recently from a company I think called Highland Fleet which will take that whole process over so this is the one that we've
010just partnered uh with Highland Fleet to get this grant so we are already partners with Highland Fleet okay so uh can they run that on their own outside of having us uh so we are partners with uh they will be a critical partner for us going forward Mr rabold uh we have partnered with Wendell Architects uh locally to help us do an electrification plan that details how to go from really Ground Zero to flip our Fleet to to entire electric buses uh along with charging stations and things along those lines so Highland uh Fleet our current bus provider Matthews buses uh and Wendell along with the district in nerta in National Grid we're all Partners in this and we're all moving forward trying to find as much funding as we can uh to to help
011the district uh make this switch okay just to clarify uh have we ever explored just job in the entire thing outside the district we can lease the busing terminal we can lease buses elsewhere and have a company just run the whole program not have to worry about the mandates coming they worry about it is there a cost study I guess my question is has that ever been an option we looked at uh we have not looked at that option no okay we've we've operated uh we currently operate under kind of a hybrid model where we do a significant amount of our own transportation for our kids to and from sweet home schools any kind of private parochial run u based upon our shortage of drivers uh we we do contract out so we don't entirely
012do our our entire run inhouse we do farm some of that out and For Those runs that particular bus company whoever it is at the time will be responsible for electrifying their own buses okay that's good thanks Don no problem any other questions um we also uh want to thank our uh student act team um particularly Cameron Smith and Dem Marian stone for uh leading the way in our challenge to change 2024 event on May 22nd at bedes uh we had over 200 students uh in attendance that day um recognizing social identity um having safe conversations um and talking about how we can improve uh our school and our district um through the student voice um and so I know it was a it was a hugely successful day um we want to thank Mr
013Baker for being a keynote speaker that day um mares Burton uh closed us out with one of his poems again um and our students got to knock down the brick wall uh of barriers uh to being who they are so we just want to say uh particular thank you to uh Joan bis our assistant superintendent um for kind of leading uh the effort with our Dei committee um and leading the effort with our um student act team but it really was the ACT team that uh facilitated the day's events uh planned the event um ran it mced it and uh so we were super proud of of the way our students um uh worked that day together uh to make positive change in our district so um thank you to all that were part of
014it I know many of board members um were in attendance as well um district office was in attendance and it's just a great day a great celebration of who we are as a district uh Mrs Jason I know she's absent tonight but she did ask uh for an update on our clubs and variable uh extracurricular activities at sweet home I'm happy to say that we are um at pre-co levels um for our clubs this year we operated 117 clubs in the in the 2023 2024 School District um I want to thank our teachers um who uh have an idea and then pitch the club and then get that club accepted um really you know to have 117 clubs that means um there are a lot of advisers that are involved in making this um these
015giving these opportunities to our students uh the lists are long and varied uh there seems to be a club for almost everything in our district uh but the most exciting thing about this is that um number one we're at pre-co levels for clubs and number two we're we're slowly trickling more Transportation um into the mix so our students can participate in clubs and have a ride home after school so very happy we want to um again thank our teachers thank the vaa committee uh for facilitating this work uh and and know that um every Club is on the table uh again in 2425 and hopefully that number continues to grow uh I know I brought this to the attention of the board um last week but the Board of Regents is considering major changes to
016Athletics with the purpose of uh opening more more Sports to more athletes in all school districts throughout the state currently there is a 60-day comment period um taking place uh for the regulations and I know the board has the regulations um with them uh they are intended to provide athletes of all genders equal opportunities to plan and participate in extrac class activities promote equality between separate male and female athletic programs and encourage mixed gender sports teams uh the regulations are intended to establish excuse excuse me requirements to participate on a team must be the same for all genders uh for any inter School athletic competition inter mural or extra mural extraclass athletic activity in any sport including a sport where there might be a heightened risk of student athletes safety um so I will be
017meeting with Mr schumo tomorrow these are not these are the proposed changes that might be voted on in September uh by the Board of Regents but I'm going to meet with Mr schumo tomorrow with Mr Feldman we're going to talk about making sure that we have um um procedures for student athletes and how they um make a team and that they're consistent across the board an anticipation of some of the changes um that may be coming and I hope the intention of this um of these changes is to open up more opportunities uh for students to uh participate in athletics so uh we'll be monitoring very closely um and we will if if anybody's interested provide um the um ini U proposed changes to anybody that wishes to see them uh but right now there
018is a comment period open I also want to thank oh I'm sorry just gonna put you back up yeah sorry piggy back on that a little bit I saw something again on the news local news recently the board of regions is now going to change graduation requirements sounds like they're going to downplay region diplomas and add some other things that are kind of from my view a little scary yep but uh so there's a lot of stuff coming at us yes St that kind of going down this one particular path anyways okay we did have a um a superintendent um meeting last two weeks ago uh and we did have a member from State Ed present to us uh there will be recommendations coming from the Blue Ribbon commission to the Board of Regents some
019of those changes could be a change in how reg exams are administered um but there there's more it's opening up CTE Pathways um for students opening up different Pathways than just the regions pathway um and making sure that there is something a pathway for everybody um in in schools so uh most of them I think you know are positive and and work that's been talked about for years and years and years uh but we're waiting to see what the final recommendations are thank you I want to thank New York State Assembly person Karen McMahon um we received word last week that um she will be uh facilitating a $25,000 Grant award um to the district um that award is going to help fund Afterschool programming for our mckin vento students um mckin vento is the
020federal law uh that oversees homeless students in our district um and how they are uh supported and so there are many homeless students um in our district classified in under the mckin vento law and uh we do provide after school programming for those students um and this award will go along way into uh making that happen so again thank you assembly person Karen McMahon um for your efforts and securing in that grant for sweet home uh last week or two weeks ago we the Shays held their um award ceremony for uh High School Musicals throughout the regions and sweet home was a big winner um I would like to congratulate senior Derek Woodford who was named an All-Star cast member uh senior Ariana minhas who was the stage semi-finalist and we received the award for
021outstanding costuming and execution I want to thank Dr Adams and Mrs Williams for uh overseen costume and execution award um if you got to see The Adams Family it it was an outstanding um production it was also great to see it in our new Auditorium uh with the new lights the new sound system and it just really enhanced um the students and and what they were able to do on stage so really proud of that performance um and really proud that we're offering uh a stage and a theater um that is worthy of all the work that goes into making uh High School Musical so congratulations Derek Ariana um Miss Adams Miss uh Dr Adams Mrs Williams um for your efforts and and recognition and the entire casting great job uh it is been reported
022to the district I think that we said we had what um since my time in The District 17 or 18 different audits of our um of our practices and policies in Sweet Home uh in a short three-year period um while all of those audits have come back clean there's always a recommendation or two uh to help us improve and uh there's always seems to be a uh corrective action plan uh that we can put in place well I want to congratulate Christy sjck and her and her and her people down um in our food services department because we were recently number 18 audit since I've been in the district uh took place and um it came back perfect um and the practices over at our food services that just doesn't happen uh that is a
023first for me in my time as an administrator um and I just want to thank chrisy that their their department is serving over 4,000 students a day uh private parochial schools as well as sweet home students um and and for that many meals and breakfast and lunch going out of food services every single day and our and our um uh Department there to receive a perfect audit is just unheard of so I just want to say congratulations and thank you to she's here tonight and deserves to be recognized for all Ro great and then finally um graduation it is June we are it is fast approaching June 27th 6m UB Center for the Arts we have 272 graduates right now um slated AC go across the stage on that Thursday night um it is a
024celebration of uh of what we are and who we are at sweet home and we can't wait um to honor Hunter and all of his fellow classmates that night um at at UB so uh that slide will be up again next weekend our next week at our meeting um and just want to say congratulations to the class of 2024 finally my I think this is my last one mon but shout out to our Heritage Heights teachers once again uh Jill gnali Lindsay Perry Mary Rayo Debbie zor Jessica spe and Stephanie bielman uh they'll be traveling to Ghana this summer on an educational mission tour they've been preparing all year long last time I was over there they were all preparing to get their shots to go over to Ghana uh I got word that they're
025going to be having dinner with the president of Ghana uh as well and it's just an exciting um Adventure they've done a ton of fundraising to bring supplies over to Ghana that those supplies have been shipped over there uh to meet them when they get there uh but to those six teachers who are giving up a lot of time over their summer uh we say thank you um and and spreading the sweet home way across the globe uh it's just an incredible uh gesture on their part and we wish them nothing but the best and success um as they travel to Ghana this summer and that is my report questions thank you thank you okay upcoming events we have all of our end of the Year celebrations at all the different schools in addition to
026the retirement celebration we had the volunteer reception tonight um and obvious ly graduation that brings us to open the first open session per board policy 1510 this Open session is for topics related to tonight's agenda as per board as per board policy 1510 we hold two open sessions at each meeting the second session may be used to address the board sorry the first session is limited to comments on the agenda for tonight's meeting the board recognizes the importance of maintaining an open dialogue with community members so in doing so community members choosing to speak and at the Board of Education meeting are bound to the terms outlined in this policy and must conduct themselves in a in a matter consistent with this policy the district code of conduct and all laws and regulations that govern
027the the operation of the board of AD speakers must be recognized by the presiding officer and announce their name address and if appropriate group affiliation non-district residents must include the name of their business or how they do business with the Board of Education statements should be made to the board president not individual board members participants may not discuss specific individuals or issues that fall under executive session speakers must be at least 16 years of age and are limited to 3 minutes speakers may not transfer their time to another participant the total amount of time for each part public participation is 30 minutes all speakers in this Open Session session must state which item agenda item they are speaking on do we have speakers tonight seeing none we'll move on uh we'll be voting on all
028the new business next week we have our class placements Madam Madame board yes Madam president is that proper Madam president when did you change that policy to be that lengthy um I don't remember if it was earlier this year or late last year just curious thank you thanks uh monthly Financial reports will be posted uh the bids for milk juice science supplies art supplies funding of the reserve funds donations for water bottles to the athletic department the school resource officer contract construction M manager sorry uh the proclamation of 1,15 years of service for all of our retirees it's amazing uh the district safety plan the code of conduct our liability insurance and the budget transfer just have one quick question um Mr Felman about the budget transfer I know it's a much longer list this
029time and I know you've already explained it to me a little bit but just so everybody else on the board has a little understanding what what all these things are because it's much bigger than usual sure um so I'll first start by saying that we've really kind of the last month or so kind of um uh put more stringencies on the expense side of the budget we've really kind of examined are our spending and we've really only kind of pushed through things that are are necessary um this budgetary transfer as you know there are there's a policy that allows me to do a budgetary transfer up to a certain amount Dr janest to do a certain amount higher and then you all uh need to approve uh the budgetary transfer uh anything above $50,000 uh
030so we felt as though it was best to do this kind of as one large uh budgetary TR transfer uh that is detailed uh in quite um it's laid out in quite detail rather uh in your board packet uh it's it's about $2.3 million this is money that would have otherwise been a surplus in our budget um but it's really used to uh cover the costs of the new teacher retirement incentive uh the contract calls for a new teacher retirement incentive uh for our teachers U that are retiring from the district we have 25 teachers that are retiring from the district uh and based upon their sick time acral uh we're going to pay out 25 sorry teachers as well as uh one administrator and a handful of service employees uh and based upon each
031of those collective bargaining agreements uh we're going to um uh hand out uh about $1.6 Million worth of retirement incentives uh secondly uh Dr janest talked a little bit about the m vento students uh we've seen um an uptick in our mckin vento students since the start of the year we started with about 26 27 mckin vento students we're up to about 46 mckin vento students the legislation says that uh excuse me that we are required to transport the kids to and from school uh and just because of our shortage of drivers Those runs have been contracted out which has resulted in about uh an additional $700,000 in um contracted transportation that we didn't foresee uh and then lastly uh with our our latest Capital Improvement project being bonded uh we did see a small
032increase of about $280,000 uh in um uh Debt Service so all that together uh was about $2.3 million and we felt as though that this was the best way uh to kind of do this uh so that we were transparent about what we were doing uh we knew it was coming uh we budgeted carefully um but we needed to move some money around uh to cover those expenses thank you Mr Feldman I'm gonna ask just one question Don if I could sure the um I forget the the not designated fund balance the thing that we have to say the unassigned fund balance un assigned fund balance thank you is this above and beyond that this Surplus that you're talking about well this won't know it won't be a surplus any longer because we're I'm sorry
033I can't hear you so this is this won't be a surplus any longer uh because we are actually expending this money um but if it were a surplus uh this would be money that we would designate into our Reserve accounts uh but because we are expending it it doesn't impact the unassigned fund balance at all or our Reserve accounts okay so again you're not moving something from one part of the budget to these Reserve accounts no that happens in August we'll do that in August with any other um funds that we do have remaining but this is moving money within the budget that was approved by the uh by the district residents um a year ago May so we have a a number 96 million 886 588 that we need to get all of our
034expenses under uh and this is just moving money within that budget to cover these expenses okay okay any other questions or comments good okay moving on to informational items Hunter you can start all right um myself and Erica Chan met this morning with Dr janri and Mrs Paglia regarding our graduation policies um productive conversation I would say uh understanding you know district and student points the contention in clarifying those points um besides that um provided the district with a statement signed by students and alumni um regarding said policies that's all I have thank you thank you Mr renle well it's good to be back I guess I uh enjoyed the uh little ceremony prior to this I think about all the time and the volunteers this district has it's really quite amazing and uh try
035to think about what motivates them other words the heart of a volunteer the heart of our volunteers up here is really pretty special so I think we're we're uh we're we're we have a pretty nice District we got a good group of folks so that's all I have thank you Mr liel yeah um I just wanted to mention I attended uh will Bridge uh leadership um uh day last uh I believe it was last week it may have been two weeks ago but um they did a really great job nice turnout um and uh having three kids at will Ridge it was a little bit of a you have to make sure you get to every kid's classroom so that's always a little bit of a of a rush um but um you know just
036a great job by the by the by the students and and what's so neat these events is they're organized and put on by the students um so that's uh and they just um you know do a great job um second thing uh we had an audit committee meeting uh today and that was primarily to set kind of the framework and the agenda for um going forward for the next year in terms of um the the items and and and whatnot um so that was pretty straightforward and um also attend at the yri County Association School boards the annual dinner where um you know the district was recognized for its participation in Partnership um with uh with Amhurst and uh so that was nice and for the Northwest um Amhurst Community Center which I'm sure you
037know all of us were there and then also Scott receiving the lifetime um Achievement Award and as I mentioned uh couldn't think of a better person and more deserving because um you know I not sure how much the Public's aware of this but Scott does significant amount of work has been on the board for a long time and uh this brings a lot of history and uh perspective with that history so um congratulations Scott and appreciate um and uh you know the other thing I just was wanted to mention regarding um you know Dirk mentioned about the statement being longer um for uh public comment I would ALS I would say that um this year we've had a lot of issues at times and in other years I just think it's important for the public
038to understand we don't comment um it's not that we're not listening or hearing it's just that um you know best practices is if we start getting into a a back and forth that's just going to extend the time business is not going to get done but we do I want to assure everybody after these meetings we discuss all the comments we hear uh we take it to heart um you you know and I think uh it's just important for everybody to understand that and also you know we've um uh have a saying with my family and my business is don't let perfect get in the way of progress so you know we understand we're not always perfect but I think we are um making progress and sometimes it we hope it's faster than than it
039is but um you know we are volunteers with nothing but you know the interest of the students in the district and our community members at heart so um you know I just think it's important because I know you know again when we have people commenting they sometimes if we're not responding it feels like I can understand this just in my own relationships that sometimes it feels like you're not listening and I can assure everybody we are listening and that's um that's it on my so even though it was very long it wasn't supposed to be intimidating it's really really really open for comments if I can say that thank you thanks Brian Mr Johnson I want to thank Brian for the kind words and I want to thank the board and our administrators who are
040here tonight for uh being there with me with for that celebration and to get our uh collaboration award for the community center it was great um being retired I've had a lot of time to attend stuff and I still haven't finished writing it up so I'm going to Def fertile next week sounds good thank you Mr balante um I also attended the the Erie County Association of school board um dinner um we will congratulate Scott again um before the meeting I intended the volunteer reception um we had a baseball banquet um the other day at banet that worked out well um for us and for for the players um I just wanted to congratulate all of our spring teams our all league players our all Western New York players our scholar athletes which I'm understanding
041is quite a few which is very good I me baseball team had 10 out of 17 players were named scholar athletes and we had two coaches um coach Carlson and Coach vas who were named all league coach of the year so congratulations to them that's it thank you I stole your thunder not quite because the girls lacrosse team had 19 out of 20 that were named scholar athletes no competition there none um the only thing they I attended a a good handful of things I also was at uh the board dinner where Scott was so graciously honored for his lifetime of um service to this district and to these students and we couldn't be more proud to have you as a colleague here at sweet home so thank you um other than that I attended
042the Heritage Heights PTA meeting yesterday they are in good shape ready to roll for next year they had all their events planning and they were ready to go so they're good with that said that brings us to the second Open Session would anybody like to address the board please state your name address um Jenifer poock she her hers um my address is 733 Edgewater Drive thank you um just before I get started I prepared this a couple days ago so while some of the events may have changed since I still would like to proceed with what I originally plann to say um happy Pride everybody I am the proud mom of three students who have attended sweed home high schools and schools um I'm here to address the board about the district being prepared for
043the future the slogan for this district is every student one Community ready for the future based on recent chain of events I feel the board and administration think about how to progress our de and efforts to benefit every student and support one Community to truly be ready for the future Ashley had the support of most of the staff um oh excuse me for those who may not know me um I am the proud mom of two LGB btq plus kids Ashley was the first openly transgender student at the high school that I am aware of moth is my senior who'll be graduating later this month Ashley had the support of most staff we are thankful for the people within the administration that were reasonable while providing accommodations that Ashley requested um Ashley graduated and was
044able to wear the four tassels school colors French Club trans and rainbow for Pride I said moth has had some other struggles through their times at sweet home since sixth grade Mr Baker is aware because we had a lot of conversations with him again we're fortunate to have some of the support of the teachers however um after Anthony day left other members of administration have maybe been less responsive and there have been some situations that crept up that maybe weren't dealt with as best as could um we've already discussed you know the public article about the rainbow tassel um but based on our experience over the past 10 years and with the most recent issues when the students were told they couldn't wear them the actions of the district did not demonstr that sweet home
045is ready for every student nor that they are indicative that they're ready for the future it's not just a tassel it's an outward expression of who these students are as people it should never be referred to as an accomplishment these kids are who they are and they have the right to express themselves the issue is roughly affecting six to eight kids I'm skipping that part after requesting the explanation um I was told the board wants everything to be uniform however gold for girls and Navy for boys is not uniform in fact by requiring two different color gowns the district is imposing a gender bias is not creating a safe space who are non-binary and do not identify as male or female this needs to change Research indicates that gsas decrease the likelihood of anti-lgbtq plus
046behaviors and aggression in schools increasing individual well-being and education outcomes for lgbtq youth as well as provide a safe space for youth to authentically be themselves and explore their identities participations in a CSA is related to a strong sense of connectivity within their community and improves overall safety in their environment regardless of whether a student is lgbtq plus themselves participating in their GSA is just is just having a GSA in your student creates the culture of Acceptance in 2019 it was reported that 86% of lgbtq plus students were harassed or assaulted in school and that 84% of trans students felt unsafe at school because of their gender not to mention that for lgbtq plus students of color the rates of harassment and violent were significantly higher 2 and five lgbtq plus students of color will
047bullied and harassed based on their race ethnicity in addition to their gender expression the Trevor Project is a leading provider for suicide prevention and lgbtq use in 2021 42% of these youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year in including more than half of transgender and non- bioneer youth we can combat statistics like this with our social emotional support structures that affirm lgbtq plus identities such as gsas these youth have access to space that affirm their sexual orientation and gender identity reported lower rates of suicide attempts all this information is available on the Trevor Project in their study from 2021 glisten an American educational organization ends discrimination harassment and bullying based on sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression to prompt the lgbtq culture of inclusion and awareness from K to 12 in schools
048found that 50% of students who have a GSA in their school that have lgbtq plus accepting peers compared to 30% who do not have a GSA um lgbtq students have rights in New York state that are often unaware of at their age and I will explain those protections to make it simple under agenda the gender expression non-discriminatory act discrimination based on gender bias or expression is prohibited in all areas covered by human rights law including education similarly sa the sexual orientation non-discrimination act prevents discrimination based on actual or perceiv sexual orientation to those in the same areas most of the important that the ACT protects those lgbtq plus students is Dasa dignity for all students act all Educators in New York state are required to have a Dosa certification and in public schools in our
049state are required to have a Dosa coordinator I'm confident that you all familiar with this act Dosa protect students from discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation gender identification and expression meaning that these youth have the right to refer to by their chosen name pronouns and use of facilities and express themselves in a way that aligns to their gender identity alongside these New York State specific there's Federal cloud in their favor the title seven of the federal civil rights act United States of America was passed as part of the educational Amendments of two 1972 it prohibits sexual discrimination based in any school or other education program that receives funding from federal governments on June 15 2020 US Supreme Court held discrimination is based on the individual status of gay or transgender constitutes
050sexual discrimination within the meanings of title seven of the Civil Rights Act um um presented with all the information above it's illegal to deny anyone their rights aside from the legalities it's imperative that with the well-being of all students that we encourage a culture of support acceptance and respect in our district um many of you may be aware of my family struggles over the past seven years I am here to standing telling you that my family is part of that statistic we are fortunate that we are here today my child is non-binary and is a real person and it has been through receiving end of bullying from students and faculty with the faculty Rec refusing to call moth by their preferred name the issue was escalated and that we were defeated the the level of
051judgment placed by an adult who is supposed to be a role model is unacceptable tenure or not the behavior is not and should not be tolerated reported by CNN nearly a third or 28% of gen Z adults in the United States identify as lesbian gay bisexual transgender or queer a larger share than older generations and according to news reports by prri a nonprofit that conducts research on religion values and public policy the diversity Comm should take steps to celebrate all the different types of people within our community you must educate yourselves first before you can educate our kids our if our initial reaction is to freeze and not be ready to make a change how do we move forward if we don't get comfortable with being uncomfortable now will we ever the thing about allyship
052is it starts out as advocacy for one purpose but quickly leads to broader discussions on taking actions and realizing the intersectionality across marginalized identities allyship means taking actions that others may be afraid to take on their own it means listening standing together and being the person that isn't afraid to take that scary First Step even if you are scared it's better to do take that step scared than not at all you may think this all started over a tassel but in reality it's so much more people are so much more people should be seen not viewed if you aren't willing to be part of the solution then you're part of the problem thank you thank you anybody else my name is Moth rivers or moth pook I reside at 733 Edge waterer drive I will
053not be as long-winded as my mother but I would also like to speak a little part of my mind I use the them pronouns and identify as non-binary when I came back when I came out all the way back in 2018 I was prepared to deal with the rude comments class Ace would say to me what I didn't expect is that 6 years later the board of people meant to keep students best interests in mind would be some of my biggest bullies even though I've gone by many different names over these past two years two things have always been certain to me one I am not comfortable with my gender assigned at Birth and two I like both men and women so why do I tell you this why do I stand here today in
054front of you letting you all know my life story because it's a defining part of who I am and my identity I have always tried to be athentic to myself despite what others have expected of me I'm a senior in the class of 2024 currently graduation is rapidly approaching which should be a time of Celebration and excitement has been a time of frustration and disappointment while I understand graduating is about the whole graduating class we all walk to Stage as individuals when I heard that the rainbow tassel would be given to us I was over the moon and wanted to continue what my sister had started before me however when we learned the information that we would not be allowed to wear these tasks at graduation waves of anger and sadness hit me all at
055once I do not have any academic accolades to show off like some of my other peers so having this tassle felt like a part A felt like a little part of me to show off and it was Monumental my identity should not be something that's controversial or takes away from the uniformity of my graduating class my identity should not be something I have to hide in others to make other people comfortable and in your own words Sweet Home is one Community ready for the future and queer people deserve to be represented in that one Community I will continue to protect students rights to their individuality and advocate for equality among the student body thank you for your time thank you anybody else okay seeing none we will move on uh next up is Personnel teaching
056and administrative and service we'll be voting on next week if anybody has any questions okay can I have a motion in a second to adjourn to Executive session for for matters related to the employment history of a particular individual and its student discipline we will not be returning so moved