001i want to leave [Music] i'd like to welcome everyone this evening um i do want to start off just with a short statement it is with heavy heart to report that we have lost a former grocery pie school student on thursday july 29th juan avalosa junior passed away in a car accident juan was a past student of yoshimi schools attending waterford ocean middle school and goshen high school he was 17 years old we asked if you keep his family your thoughts as we filled with this tremendous loss please join us in a moment of silence thank you just a few additional opening remarks this meeting is a meeting the school board and public for the purpose of conducting the school corporation's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting there will be
002time for public participation as indicated by agenda item number seven the mission of goshen community schools is to inspire innovation empowering potential enriching our world and our vision goshen community schools indiana's premier louisville school district of choice item 1.4 is approval of tonight's agenda do we have any revisions to the agenda hearing them the agenda is approved as presented and item 1.5 approval of the minutes from our july 26 2021 meeting we have any additions or corrections to those minutes hearing none the minutes are approved as presented uh item two super tennis reports and 2.1 student and staff recognition thank you i have three um people i would like to recognize tonight first i would like um stern voices and miss liz martin to come up please we would like to recognize them they actually
003gave their entire summer to get this building up and going um and so today was the first day of the school year and we just wanted to recognize them for all the hard work they put in the summer a lot of time and effort went into making sure that this first day of school could happen and we just want to take a minute to recognize them hoping you do school is a lot of work and these two just put in many every single day a lot of weekends and a lot of evenings to make sure everything's ready they did a great job with the parent student open houses to make sure students were acclimated and took away their fears of coming to a new school many of them would have been the last year in
004elementary school but now they're coming to this larger school so just a really great job and we appreciate you know posting us here again this evening we appreciate uh what you've done and all the wonderful things to come [Music] um kelsey rodriguez i'd like her to come up she'll be doing that presentation for you here in just a little bit but kelsey has moved into the department of leadership for our nutrition staff and she moved right into that and kept our summer foods program going without a hitch and there's no way we could have well [Music] i just wanted to recognize let's see rodriguez for all her hard work this summer ms rodriguez is our new director of school nutrition for all scopes community schools she took this job on without much notice kept it
005all going keeping food in our students bellies which is so important handler there's nothing there no fuel so we appreciate that uh we'll go to item 2.2 which is an opening day report doctor so we had our first day of school today [Music] [Applause] it is always exciting to have the first day of school when our students come back our schools never really seem the way they should until our students are back with us so all the planning of the world doesn't make up for when the student spaces are really here um last night i drove by all of the schools just looking at everything thinking about what else we need to have ready and saw teachers cars the parking lots of every single school in our district thank you for that um principals have
006been planning all summer custodians maintenance have been working all summer long to make sure we were ready for this first day to make sure that we were ready to serve our students and families school nutrition staff secretaries bus drivers teacher aides all started their work today as well everyone in goshen community school supports the vital teacher-student relationship that is the heart of everything we do here so all employees within goshen community schools work to support that relationship between students and our teachers this year is a little unusual and that we were welcoming back a number of students who haven't been with us physically in over a year students who were in the red hawks online academy last year um have been out since the previous year in march it was nice to see all of
007the students back in our schools on the first teacher day last thursday i shared that we had no measurable learning loss measured by ilearn explorers from 2019 to 2020 that is an incredible and a true testament to the work that is done in all of our classrooms every single day so teachers pick that up again today and beginning today and then for the next 179 school days this year our teachers will make sure our students are welcome and safe build a sense of community where every student is known and valued differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of every single learner help students learn how to tie their shoes make sure students are mastering grade level and content standards help them understand the world we live in understand and develop character get them off of
008buses and onto buses safely get them into and out of cars safely that may be our biggest challenge today that's that'll smooth out as we goes on they provide computer education develop self-regulation and personal responsibility provide bilingual education occasionally check their headlights communicate progress with parents teach your students how to maintain healthy eating habits teach students to be wise consumers help students develop creativity develop their thinking skills teach world languages and an appreciation for other cultures develop collaborative skills place bandages on cuts and scrapes as needed provide counseling for academic personal growth provide career exploration teach how to access information and evaluate sources of information teach good hygiene instill patriotism nurture curiosity mindful inquiry teach students to play and enjoy music for the rest of their lives teach students to create art and enjoy art
009for the rest of their lives build self-esteem and of course teach reading writing and arithmetic along the way we do all this in a safe environment embracing equity and inclusion where every student is valued for who they are ocean community schools is a place where every single student will thrive and if you want to be part of this amazing environment we are still enrolling students now happy to have you i do have one special message for all of our lgbtq students staff and families and allies the ocean community schools will always be a place where not only are you welcome but a place where you are valued for who you are gcs will be a supportive place for all that's not a platitude that's work that we take very seriously every single day and if
010there's any issue with us not being supportive we're not serving just let me know and we'll take care of that so all in all a really good opening few issues transportation we're ironing those out thank you goodbye to stamp well thank you dr hope and a parent of two kids i started today uh i think it's part of the course we're all learning together what it's like to be back in school but we appreciate the support of everyone and excited for what you've done item 2.3 summer [Music] so this year in 49 days you served just shy of 35 000 meals um last year we served a lot more because we started in march but compared um this year june and july to last year june and july that was up 10 000 meals um
011and then we also gave away about two thousand books um one of the teachers partnered with the library we partnered with somebody else and they gave away books as we gave away meals so the kids kind of got something extra along with their food that's a program i think it's fantastic that we've done for many years now supporting our community throughout the summer definitely helping those families that team we appreciate your effort leading that exciting future like we have this new role uh item 2.4 2022 budget online [Music] so before you is the budget timeline for next school year um yeah the idea is to present it to you in two weeks that'll be uh that'll happen and then in september we will bring the budget um for your approval before we put it for
012budget hearing and then in october we'll ask you to adopt the budget all of these timelines will comply with the regulations from the division of government thank you very much all right we'll go on to item three which is board committee reports uh 341 parts department the only thing i would report on is the adult triathlon out at the fiddler pond is where it's based and that is going this saturday i haven't heard an update on enrollment but given that it was skipped last year it's supposed to be beautiful weather this weekend again i would expect numbers from the way up so it's become a real major event for parks and for the community thank you uh 3.2 music council 24 uh 3.3 athletic council it's not [Music] the previous house and they just uh
013actually physically transferred the money a week ago for the property so they'll be moving forward here in the coming weeks uh 3.5 child care sanchez is not here [Music] okay uh 3.6 special peaceful foundation our meeting our next meeting is tomorrow morning at 7 30 focus right now is on trivia night coming up so that's the only report for that and for the next one you're going to fall on before there's no report right the legislature is not in assessing so they're not taking away our knowledge yet and lastly uh redevelopment uh we are meeting tomorrow uh a couple big topics will be some potential new developments for apartments within the city so more to come at our next meeting uh moving onto four consecutive jet items dr home two things first so yes on
014the consent agenda tonight i am happy to say that we are renewing our memorandum of understanding with the goshen police department the ocean community schools and ocean police department have worked together for many many years we are blessed to have professional officers who not only act as police officers but in just helping us understand and know our community and better serve our families and students they help us with anything and everything we ever ever asked for um a couple of officers with us this evening um officer tommy steele who is new west srl officer james ballard with us but could not be here tonight officer tara powell and officer randy belgium all of you and all of those please shout out we appreciate all the help and just ask you to renew that memorandum this
015year to go through the official consent agenda uh item 4.1 or checks number three nine three one two three three nine four two one three zero six six seven eight one four four eight six zero three six nine six zero three seven one three zero six nine zero two and eft's number four six two and five four six five five one three five four six five five three at a four point two school resource officer memorial of understanding 4.3 2021 and 22 cmr fees addendum and item 4.4 personnel anything else to comment on that or any revisions to the excitement carry none consent agenda items are approved as presented i might point out that the curriculum material fees actually um there were some that went down um just so folks know that that we we
016uh proved an addendum here but it's but it's actually some courses that merit that the fee actually went down yes all right moving on uh five out of five is action items and there are no action items on the agenda this evening um item six discussion items currently no discussion items on the agenda uh we will move on to item seven which is public comment on non-agenda items uh before we start we will ask that you do please step up here kind of in the gap here as i will call it imagine a very beautiful podium that did not get transferred over here this evening we will ask that you do limit your comments to three minutes um and we will ask that you do please stop and we do ask but respectfully that you
017do please abide by that um you did need to sign in uh before the meeting uh so i will be calling uh individuals that have signed in i am going to be alternating between lists so i have a few pages here uh so please start melissa and mitchell yes as i start my 18th year at goshen community schools i've been thinking about why i'm proud to be a goshen redhawk and also have permission from some of my colleagues to share why they are proud i am proud to work in a district that has staff students parents administration a school board and community that all work together so well we may not always agree but we all come together to do what's best for students i am proud that each year that i have taught at
018gcs i've been pushed to learn and grow as an educator it isn't always easy but i've ended each year as a better educator and my students have benefited i am proud that niat has recognized the district's efforts in this and that prairie view was a national founders award finalist last year i am proud that ocean high school consistently has a high graduation rate that places us as one of the top if not the top school in elkhart county as an english language teacher i am proud that i can remind students that they may struggle right now but the cognitive academic language proficiency takes five to seven years to develop and it will click this year at graduation i was able to watch as some of those same students walked across the stage many graduating with
019honors even talk honors i have seen these students become doctors teachers manufacturers involved parents and in general they are positively impacting our community i'm proud our freshman orientation is amazing time for students to figure out their schedules and meet their teachers we've done open houses at all of our buildings to also help our students and families feel at home in our schools i'm proud despite the pandemic we did not only continue our various clubs sport to music programs but we thrived we had numerous athletic music groups and clubs go on to state and national levels i am proud that our staff and students pulled together last year to make sure our buildings stayed safe and could be open as much as possible through social distancing cleaning and masking students were very helpful throughout the whole
020process and we couldn't have done it without them i'm proud that one of my friends had their stepdaughter come here and before she struggled with her confidence and academics but here she blossomed and she said the people here are nicer they work harder to help me understand no one made sure i understood before now i am proud that a high school senior last year used to hate reading but began to enjoy it because a teacher took time and energy to work with him on book selection and curating his interest i'm proud that students are comfortable sharing what they have learned and how they have learned and they've learned that just because you weren't good at something last year doesn't mean that you can't do it now i am proud of you new schools that students
021parents and staff and the board have a growth mindset and we always push to achieve more and most of all i'm proud that goshen community schools is a place that accepts all students and not only accepts them but values them for who they are and know that each one of them can thrive thank you for your time greater please good evening rob raider 908 south 10th street building um the reason i'm here is uh this youth drag thing that just doesn't seem to go away um i was first alerted to the fact that we were going to have a youth drag program and uh contacted the mayor and the councilman and shared some of my concerns uh then it was revealed that the organizer of this youth drag show which is what was my primary
022concern uh was a teacher and so i contacted dr hope and mr well and we we had a meeting not too long ago and um i don't know i felt like my my words were twisted and to say something that i didn't uh intend to say because i'm well i may not i may have feelings one way or the other about the ocean pride event i'm really concerned about the youth drag show and i i expressed that at the last meeting that that is a perfect um place for somebody to groom a victim for sex trafficking or pedophilia um and so i i i'm concerned about our youth i'm concerned that a teacher organized this thing and i'm concerned that the school doesn't seem to want to either disavow the teacher or the event and
023i'm not after anybody i just don't want this event to go on i don't want our children uh exposed to this kind of thing and what was the result when we had a visit from antifa who assaulted some residents in the in the park so virtuous and wholesome uh certainly wasn't a part of it and really folks here we have it this is equality versus equity you know if you're if you're politically correct or if you're elite the rules don't apply but if you're a normal guy like me living on 10th street well you have to follow the rules otherwise you receive the punishments of uh of of privilege you know if i were a police officer or a fireman and i had a a party and i signed for it and something went wrong
024i would be liable all i'm asking is that we disavow as a school corporation either the teacher or the event because that's not virtuous a youth drag show doesn't doesn't promote anything virtuous in fact i would argue just the opposite if the goshen school corporation does not uh disavow that then it's really just tacit approval you all are saying from my perspective it's no big deal let's have more of that again that's not anything that promotes virtue with our youth you know there's an irony i see the little time keeper no offense if i go over i'll get a reprimand or something you know a stern voicing the time's up hit the road but that would be more than than this teacher has received and the gravity is certainly unequal hello good evening everyone i
025do believe this i have on purple but i do believe this um i also see a sign back here that says students before politics absolutely believe that that's why i'm here um so you get to be part of my classroom you all know that i was a former teacher so you get to be part of my classroom and i thank you for coming to class today and i want you to pass up your homework like just like a teacher would do and we're going to have a pop quiz because i've talked to some of you individually about this and i know you don't know a whole lot about the topic so that's how we're going to have it question one what encourages group thinking that individuality two what seeks to modify student values beliefs and
026behaviors to accept new social storms norms three what collects massive amounts of bent mental health data by third parties which is outside the reach of parents four what requires sel to find financially sustainable five what desensitizes children to sex by curriculum that grooms them for trafficking and pedophilia six how can schools distribute obscene pornography materials to minors in indiana if you answered sel to these questions you're correct if you didn't do your homework you got some learning to do and i've had people in this very group tell me i really don't know a whole lot about that you haven't doing your homework and you don't know these things you shouldn't really have a vote on the board if you don't know what you're talking about you've got to know your material guys you've got to
027study it's like buying a used car you look under the hood you check the mileage you get the tires at a minimum truck and test drive it but he used car salesmen being named darren came to town and said we had a huge problem for which there was no data that was presented it looked pretty at first and the engine sounded good so we put six thousand gcs students in and took it for a spin we bought a lemon pretty soon the car broke down because the board didn't do their homework on this important uh issue the carl salesman laughed and walked away with money in his pocket we get ripped off and we go on to another search for a used car otherwise it's known as using kids for lab experiments do your homework
028class the next generation is depending on you and you will be held accountable not the superintendent he works for you and i told you guys that last time you have got to do your homework as a board you're the responsible parties and both the parents and the voters will hold you accountable thank you for your time send a high check good evening board city high check 5791 county road 115 goshen i'm here tonight to talk to you about two things one science to the law first of all science i would like to put to rest and put tools in your hands to end the endless debates on vaccine vaccines masking all of that social distancing please please if you can let let's put this to rest i would request of the school board to please
029ask those that are requiring of you urging you pushing you to mask students and to social distance and to vaccinate would you ask those putting the pressure on you to prove the science let's just take masks for instance could you please ask the county health officer any state agency any governing body either federal state or local to simply provide the science that is what people are asking for and i'm sure by now we'll have it um that science would be with this criteria you can add to it but the criteria would be one that it would be peer reviewed two that it would show the mitigation or the elimination of the passing of a virus three by means of a cloth or ear loop mask those are the three criteria you can add more once
030they have that right here that peer-reviewed science given to you could you please post it and give it to the public we've been waiting for that so now that we've dealt with part of the science the same applies to vaccines et cetera um isolating the tsar's code two virus for instance has not yet been accomplished if they could do that that would be good as well the second thing would be the law the law would be the constitution what we what we live by in this nation we don't live by cdc governance cdc is not a governing body they do not pass laws that is why you hear the words guideline that's why the governor of the state uses the word executive order because he's with the executive branch he does not legislate he simply
031signs the laws after the legislature whom the constituents have voted into office after they pass those laws so because the cdc does not legislate because executive orders and these other words guidance all of these things they are not law and i know you know that is representing and governing an actual educational uh institution you would be keenly aware of how the government works so i would ask that you would also hold your oath of office you esteemed that because you took an office to uphold the constitution and now the cdc the constitution of fifth and fourteenth amendment said no person shall be deprived of life liberty or duke or property without due process of law so we are a land we're not governed we don't do the collective good that is a communist phrase we
032are governed by the rule of law and the rule of law is what stands that's what gives every one of us the backing that that we can um that we can live without turning thank you [Music] i will ask that when people are speaking please keep your comments respectful that's all i ask is uh janet ledolski she's outside with my granddaughter at the moment i can wait for her i'll go to another [Music] uh brenda milty miller sorry i can't quite sorry i apologize [Music] good evening my name is rhonda miller president of parents indiana i'm here tonight to stamp these concerned parents and community members i want to go on record letting the public know that social emotional learning critical race theory and comprehensive sexuality education all go hand in hand and cannot be
033separated to say you're not teaching crt or cse is unfruitful and disingenuous and quite frankly is an insult to the intelligence of your community social emotional learning is cultural marxism directly tied directly to karl marx and our organization has the proof in fact we have it all all of the evidence that ties all of this back to the liberty counseling initiative and the gates foundation as well as critical theorists used as referenced by the indiana department of education there is no escaping truth we downloaded everything from the indiana department of education before they hit it i am here tonight to let the public know that elkhart county was given national recognition on implementing this marxist agenda into its schools we have the emails meeting minutes timelines and the radical training involved we have all of
034the evidence proving that by implementing sel you essentially declared war on the children of goshen belfort county indiana and the nation i'm here to put you on notice that our organization will expose each and every marxist given refuge in our schools and to those marxists from antifa and blm we will not bow bend or break consider yourselves warned my apologies [Music] uh eva carpenter [Music] eva carpenter 904-3 i'm eva carpenter i'm a mexican-american mother of five girls i have girls in elementary medal in high school i demand you to don't teach crt i demand don't teach crt address your comments tell us you are going to destroy their minds by teaching them racism my kids don't see me as a brown mom and their dad has a white dog i'm just mom and my husband
035is a dad i send my girl to school to learn math and english but not to learn about sex and racism please do not teach crt there is everyone wants to come to united states please do not teach this in our schools there is not system racism in united states there is not system made racism in the united states please do not teach crt please kids listen listen to the prepare for parents search work you need to learn about crt thank you jeffrey shoots okay before the next speaker comes can we say that you need to speak to the board not to the audience yeah so please do address the board directly [Music] all right [Music] um hola [Music] thank i have lived in washington since 2011. 10 wonderful years 1107 south 7th street and
036my daughter has been part of the school district since kindergarten and she is beginning this year high school so it's wonderful so first of all congratulations for building i was impressed in several of the meetings so the planning so it's wonderful to see it come to fruition uh just for the record i'm a college professor i teach abortion college and i do not speak for the college here okay so please don't say russian college is sailors this is not myself just looking for myself as a parent of a kid that's going to heist um just to say that i'm proud very proud of our worship college i come from auckland california you know when you move from california to the midwest there are a lot of misconceptions and a lot of jokes about it in
037bolivia i was happily surprised to find that in washington special have a wonderful community the education is fantastic it keeps getting better you know the division of the elementary school with this intermediate school is beautiful so very proud of that i'm proud of a lot of the graduates from washington schools i see many of them at washington college and years later i started working in the community i'm always surprised to find a lot of nurses you know just a couple of days i also do some uh interpreting in the hospital i found one of my students i couldn't recognize him so i'm saying hey professor knight who are you oh i was in your class in 2012 or something so it's i think we're doing a wonderful job and just a couple of things uh
038to let's just say a response because this is not a debate you uh it was a little surprise because uh i grew up in lima cru i went to college in 1978 to 81 and we studied marxism every day so i know my sister's very well i don't think i have found any narcissists in russia so far i don't think about any the college or anyone so i would like to be pointed by this narcissist because i would like to ask them first what was our point when he writes what he write about would be interesting to know what it's all about i know a lot about it for so far one month so far english so that's an interesting thing i also wanted to say you know that you know about ruining the youth
039we have been worrying about that for a long time soccer chase the greek philosopher was accused of ruining the youth right because he liked to ask questions say no no no don't come there you just ask questions you're gonna ruin them he was killed for it he was healthy because he they thought he was winning the youth i mean jesus himself were in society right no you don't dare speak against the church and the no that's terrible killed also you know we were the youth as well when prince was invented the prince was invented said oh please don't read though don't read anything you know i'm gonna write the use so which you're concerned about but thank you very much carpenter [Music] hi i'm greg carpenter from kindleville indiana i just wanted to talk a
040little bit today about racism you know the idea of sem or ctr or you know however you want to call you know arose by any other name i like to call it die i've heard something inclusion equity it's easy to remember die i think that's what it's about i'm 59 years old i don't think i've ever met a racist in my life really now it's obvious that it's very pervasive in society because school districts all over the nation feel the need to teach racism or crt or under any other name or white privilege or diversity inclusion equity however they see this need and yet i just can't find it i haven't seen it now i know it exists and i i know it's everywhere in our communities well not in this community it's on tv
041that's where you find it and what i find very interesting is i almost only see it in law enforcement it seems to be the most obvious and most apparent area that you see racism manifests itself is police brutality against black people and yet when you start looking at this i started examining this look everybody's heard of george floyd right everybody knows what happened but if you look it's almost this racism almost exclusively man itself its medicine manifests itself against young black criminals who resist arrest and if you eliminate all the young black criminals who are resisting arrest you end up with almost nothing really look do your investigation um i looked at the statistics i found out that you know it's three times more likely for a black person to die going to the dentist
042than by a police officer if you compare the interactions of black people with dentists and police officers three times more likely to die going to the dentist that's where the racism is stop teaching scl and start teaching all the students dental safety just be honest statistically speaking you cannot find racism you just can't it doesn't exist um but we know it exists because the statistics proven right did you know that black family income is only 60 percent of white family income and you know what's actually starting about that it used to be comparing black individual income to white income but when it reached almost parity to push the narrative to continue the the sham they switched to family income you know what has happened since 1940 20 less than 20 of black children were born
043into single parent homes today it's 70 percent of black children are born stop teaching that systemic racism is real it is not black lives matter thank you please refrain from coming that's [Music] not marianne torres [Music] my name is mariana corres and i'm a over the past two months there has been a group of people who have taken a stance of protecting all students not some all but while saying that they are here to protect all students they have spent their time continually spewing hate against different marginalized groups including the lgbtqia community while this group may think that they are just talking about staff or gay people in general our students will absolutely hear it as them speaking directly to them do you know that lgbtqia students are actually five times uh more likely to
044attempt a suicide than their straight peers this group talks about protecting students while spewing their hatred about marginalized groups that include many students in our school system who will hear this hate internalize and personalize it i was a student at gcs just a couple years ago and i know exactly what it feels like to feel like you have to stay in the closet and hot to be accepted by the people around you i was not brave enough to come out as square until i was in college because hearing others constantly speak negatively and hatefully about my community made me question who i was and led me to feeling confused and alone thankfully i had a very supportive family and group of friends to uplift me during my struggles however not all students have families who
045are going to accept them many students are rejected by their families and seen as outcasts and outsiders students who come out and are rejected by their families are 8.4 times more likely to attempt suicide than those with supporting families and communities to truly protect all of our students we have to accept and acknowledge that some students are at higher risk than others to the people who want to protect all of our students think before you spew hate the things that you say can and will harm students if you continue this power trip of hatred if you really want to protect all students stop targeting and harassing the lgbt the lgbtqia community in our schools show that you actually want to stand up and protect all students equally like you say and stop hurting our students
046when we have the power and the ability to be inclusive we have a responsibility to our students to create safe and accepting environments for them to learn we cannot sit by and let another generation of students feel unaccepted and unwelcomed in our school system and i would just like to remind the school board that hate speech is not free speech and it should not be accepted at these needs thank you [Music] this great essay [Music] first i'm going to say the new school is beautiful um thank you for the staff here tonight [Music] putting everything all your hard work to get the school day going um [Music] now on to my topic is transportation i work in middlebury in the trailer factories i got off work at 2 30 school gets out at 2 25.
047um i got a call a quarter till three from my wife saying my son was calling me to be picked up from school um it's his first day at this school he was really excited by the time i got a hold of them it was i got here about 10 after three um as far as he's we've known in goshen schools if you live within one mile of the school you are not a lot or you don't have a bus to take home it's walk you ride your bike or you have someone drop you off and pick you up not all families can pick their kids up from school uh his plan today was to walk home at the time i got a hold of him he was still here it's something that i don't
048know what needs to be done to allow the students that live within a mile of this little walk he attended model we live a half a mile from there we're one mile from this school um walking but the mile radius is as a bird flies so that encompasses even a larger area i just hope that we can figure something out that allows them to the students that need to travel home because their families cannot be there to pick them up um we're actually in the process of moving um by the end of the school year we will be living right across the road um from my understanding even living across the road he would not be able to walk home because this is a non-walking school which is very concerning um my understanding would be
049he would be transported to model elementary by bus where he would walk home from there so he would walk or be bust a half a mile from here to now walking back a half a mile and it would just take [Music] a few hundred feet that's four grounds and so the school board will look at this and find some common ground to where students are able to walk home because it's going to put a new stress onto the parents that need to figure out transportation that both parents work is impossible thank you for your time yes yes uh my apologies of the application schools for what you look through today i'm going to ask you to just stay in touch about the mencap right there right after this meeting i'm not upset about anything it's
050just one of those concerns that as i said earlier anytime you're not being served just call out we'll make sure pretty much amy rainey [Music] hi during the last school board meeting the vision statement caught my attention make gcs indiana's premier global school of choice when i moved back here in early 2017 ocean was not even the top four school districts in the county let alone the whole globe but i was optimistic so i decided to take to the internet and do a little research u.s news and world reports now ranks ocean second in the schools in elkhart county oceans soared past fairfield by 83 spaces and middlebury by 21 spaces statewide i researched i learned test scores and istep sports from 2018 to 2021 to see the data for myself to my surprise goshen
051was only slightly improved in academic sports now fifth out of seven for elementary schools and fourth in high school in the county how has goshen soaring to pat soaring past other local schools when their academics are still lower i found the u.s news had changed their ranking system in 2019 to add rating for equity goshen scores very high on equity scales goshen has seen increases in ranking and several rating systems since 2019. a light bulb went off are these equity programs nothing more than a clever shell game for school administrators of poorly performing schools to cover up embarrassing academic failures in the face of school choice movements is the real goal of equity programs to help minority students succeed and become more academically successful or is the real room for administrators to make it appear
052as if they're succeeding without actually improving academics will it serve the best interests of minority students to give them a better education so they can succeed long or is it enough to use popular buzzwords and change the grading scale to make it look as if we care i'm a mom of a child of color she's worthy and capable and she deserves a quality education i can't send her to a school system that thinks that she's less intelligent because of her skin color equity programs are racism wearing a fancy new dress and god help us all if we can't see that for many minority kids education is their ticket out of poverty how we dare we take away their best chance to succeed in a misguided attempt to assuage our own guilt by watering down curriculum
053lowering credits required for graduation and changing the rating scale i have the power of school choice i'm speaking up today for all the moms that do not have the power of school choice equity programs are not about children they're about bonuses and career advancement for administrators and school board members they're about destroying school choice movements to keep poor and minority students locked in lower quality public schools for the benefit of administrators teachers unions and politicians emily area well good evening i'm here to express my appreciation to negotiating schools for the 13 years of education given my two sons i have one son who's a senior in college and another who just graduated from goshen high school this last spring i remember when my husband and i were trying to decide where our oldest son was
054going to go to kindergarten and a good friend of mine said what i love the most about sending my kids off to school is all the different adults that they're going to get to interact with and learn from and be nurtured from and at the time i didn't think much of it we made our decisions and went on from there but as i was thinking tonight about what has been so important about my kids experiences here it has been the teachers the administrators they have interacted with and i have a couple of quick stories that i want to share my oldest son was in high school we went to one of those regular old parent-teacher conferences it had been a long day for me and my husband i'm sure it had for the teachers as
055well and each teacher that we went up to we would say our son's name they knew who he was they could tell us a story about what he was up to or what kind of a project he was working on and i could tell that they were passionate about their subject an english teacher a math teacher a science teacher a spanish teacher i was very impressed by that our younger son has been involved in music throughout his time here at ocean community schools and he made the decision his freshman year to join men's choir which is at 7 20 in the morning two mornings a week and he did that all four years even though he didn't need to but he enjoyed it so much at his open house in june after we packed everything
056up there's about a dozen students left we're about to leave and all of a sudden you heard singing and a crowd of these boys who had been in men's fire we're seeing together not because they're going to get a credit or a grade or because there was anyone there to um because they were doing a public performance simply because they loved to be together they loved to sing it was the same teacher that taught them all four of those years and then finally both my boys were very involved in sports and uh my youngest son was in tennis all three years the values and the expectations that their tennis coach gave them i remember the first year when my son was a freshman i thought oh boy is he gonna be able to meet these
057standards and each year high expectations and those coaches um lived out those values at home and we've lived out those values with our kids so my husband and i are so grateful for the dedication the passion the caring and the strong values that goshen community school staff will share with our sons and i don't want to be all pollyanna and not say that it has not been perfect at times there have been challenges we've had to go talk to different teachers or administrators and we have always felt heard and at times we have seen changes happening as well we have said so thank you very much boring arnold main street um i wanted to read uh purple for parents has an indiana education instruction parental non-consent form but first i just wanted to say something
058as i was watching all this um i wonder how the lens of critical race theory would see two white men in power telling the brown mexican one how and who to speak to remember you're judged by what we're going to teach our children anyway this is the consent form that they have for parents that they can fill out it says i do not consent to my parents my child's participation in any instruction curriculum or discussion which is derived in whole or in part from contains information from or references to the following sources national sexuality educational education standards future of sex education fosd initiative sex etc advocates for youth cancer psychists sexuality information and educational council u.s planned parenthood the kinsey institute indiana youth group glsen which is gay lesbian straight education network gay straight alliance
059castle collaborative academic social emotional learning competencies or evidence-based sel programs blm crt critical race theory or 1619 project indie pride i do not consent to my child being given instruction or information on or being subjected to discussion of any aspect of human sexuality including following abortion birth control contraceptives sexual activity of any kind whatsoever including but not limited to vaginal oral or insects sexual orientation including but not limited to variant of homosexuality including but not limited to lesbian gay bisexual fear or questioning identities transgenderism or gender identity gender identity including but not limited to gender as social construct gender binary gender spectrum gender reassignment surgery gender dysphoria false gender pronouns gender expression or cross-sex mormons any referral of my childhood counselor medical professional social worker within or outside the school for purposes of discussing sexuality
060or any of the topics listed here any of the material any written material of reference to a referral to any of the outside agency group individual organization relating to sexuality including but not limited to those less listed in section one any reference to or participation in any personal personal analysis evaluation or survey that reveals or attempts to affect my child's attitudes habits traits opinions beliefs or feelings concerning curriculum political affiliations religious beliefs or practices mental or psychological conditions sexual behavior or attitudes sexual activity sexual orientation gender identity or illegal anti-social self-incriminating or demeaning behavior for your time sometimes your child is not allowed committed to partaking i didn't get it finished thanks terry hartman hello my name is did you say terry hartman or mark i'm sorry i haven't started the clock yet thank you
061the other mrs hartman that spoke earlier in five days will be 50 years with her [Music] i was born in goshen we graduated with high school in 1970. so uh i've been around the block many times and uh my wife has a real passion for uh kids education and i'm sharing that passion with her she's a former educator and i want to read a quote from the castle.org website board members if you don't know what castle is you probably should be learning about it stands for collaborative for academic social and emotional learning any indiana school that teaches sel uh uses cancer and they're the organization that formerly coined the phrase sel social emotional learning and this is from the cancer.org website directly it's an article framework briefs equity and social emotional learning a cultural analysis
062and the title of the paragraph is how did we get here situated equity and sel in a cultural and social and historical context rational ethnic and class issues continue to vex american society cultural analysis suggests the issues of racism derived largely from an over-emphasis on the accumulation of wealth within american culture historically this cultural cultural value prompted some to exploit others for personal advancement white elites promulgated racialized cultural stereotypes recruit poor and working whites into a hierarchical economic system that exploited them but also empowered them to oppress and further exploit people of color meanwhile these stereotypes inculcated within people of color a sense of dehumanization and willingness to accept marginalized steps many current economic health and educational iniquities can be understood as remnants and variants of this foundational set of political social and psychological arrangements
063therefore it is critical to understand the issues of equity and sel against the backdrop of these historical and contemporary racial ethnic socio-economic tensions and possibilities so if you if you believe uh casa.org uh information from this paragraph which uh is the standard for sel people of color have educational inequities today because white people and their in their in their terms white elites oppressed and exploited people of color what will it mean to a minority student to tell them that the reason they have a learning problem is because of white people and how is this the fault of a white classmate the more you learn about scale the more you find it's a vehicle for promoting a radical racist and socialist agenda that has no place in our schools sarah turner good evening i come as
064a former staff member of working with exec in the preschool program now i'm a christian and i really saw this work as part of my christian faith welcoming and celebrating these children the way that god made them and giving them the tools that they needed to grow as individuals to learn as individuals now we know the needs of an autistic child aren't the same as the needs of a deaf child or a child with cerebral palsy or a child who was born at 26 weeks with chronic lung disease and who is at risk of severe illness or coped it was a privilege to get to work with an amazing team and to meet the individual needs of these children and now i know this isn't a consideration much in goshen schools these days but in
065many of our neighboring districts there are many amish students that schools recognize that they need to serve in a different way than the rest of their students during e-learning days or when schools were closed to mitigate covet spread the schools aren't going to expect that amish students are going to learn on computers at home they realize that they need to change how they serve these students and meet the needs of this community and now i'm sure that no one here would have an issue with any of the ways that i've just mentioned that schools meet the individual needs of the students indeed it's a gift to be able to have students from different backgrounds and different abilities in our schools so i commend the work of goshen community schools and its diversity and equity initiatives
066continuing this work that you've been doing for decades already recognizing that what raises achievement and promotes community in our schools is supporting teachers as they fully welcome each student as they are from all different backgrounds helping them identify their own goals and giving each individual student the tools that they need to succeed i am proud to be a member of this community and i fully support the district's ongoing work to support diversity and equity in our schools thank you [Music] officer in bethlehem pennsylvania in 2015 only 56 of third graders were scoring read proficiency he asked which four in ten students don't deserve to learn to read in the falls which four in ten students in goshen don't deserve to read bethlehem is not an outlier across the country kids with millions of kids are
067struggling we recognize this in motion indiana don't we one excuse that inextricators have long offered to explain before we performance is poverty and i had a recent conversation with a local principal and i sort of bought into that however silva found out that even though the steel industry had busted in bethlehem the wealthy schools weren't reading very well either so we didn't know what to do so he signed a new director of literacy kim harper so the theory of influential learning of reading is a little bit like using the context and visual clues to read words the theory assumes learning to read is a natural process and the next exposure to text the kids will read the problem is sciences from scientists from around the world have done thousands of studies on how people learn
068to read and conclude the theory is wrong one big takeaway is that reading is not natural we're not wired to read from birth people become skilled readers by learning the written text is a code for speech sound primary readers learn to crack the code skill readers rely on decoding feel conceived contextual guessing approach is in the handbooks and materials used by teachers luisa mote a founded reading expert 17 said the contextual guessing approach is what a lot of teachers in bethlehem have learned their teacher preparation programs we never looked at brain science we never looked at how the brain works and since the starting point of reading is sound it's critical for teachers have a deep understanding of this michelle basically teaches english as a second language in bethlehem said that when she was in
069college learning to be a teacher she had taught almost nothing about how kids learned to read sort of like physicians not being taught about nutrition candy melon first grade teacher had been a teacher for more than a decade her first reaction to learning about this this brain how the brain works was shock why wasn't i taught this and then guilt what about the kids that i had teaching teaching all this year so that leaders adopted a motto when we know better we do better motion when we know better we do better a veteran has been teaching elementary school for more than two decades says she used to think reading was just all together for kids if they were supposed to print but the science of reading training she knows better my kids are successful and
070happy and believe in themselves she said i don't have a single child in my room that has the look on their face i can't do this and one of our words one of our values is empowered that is how we empower our kids by making them successful yes so in 2015 before the new training began more than half the kindergartens in the district tested below the benchmark score meaning most of them were heading into first grade at risk of breeding failure the end of 2018 the science-based training 84 kindergarten extent exceeded the benchmark score at three schools it was 100 um thrilled he was cautious we've hit a home run goshen needs to hit a home run think outside the box don't go with the flow i is an average citizen found this research article
071about how the brain works we don't have to take that six hundred twenty-five thousand dollars that we got from lilly and from from um gates we can do things differently we have a brand new building we have a cfo we can spend some money on teach kids to learn phillip crawford good evening board members i'm here tonight um as a member of the ocean there's a lot it's been on my mind the last month or so but particularly the last week um and as i've stated before i believe in three things god family and country i believe god is the most important thing in our country and world today and i believe family was instituted by god as many of us in this community do believe and our country i believe we recited at the
072beginning of this that we are one nation under god and i will stand until i am blue in the face and until i am dead on that dragon and i also believe that education was instituted by god and i also believe that education was built on the foundations and the morals of this country that are godly as found in deuteronomy 6 4 that we are to teach children the ways of god his ways based on the bible amen and black lives matter crt sel lgbtq agenda do not fit that criteria and i stand on behalf of the christian community and god himself tonight to refute these ideas and you know what there's the left agenda is so strong in this city i heard somebody mention that goshen is not a christian city i hear to
073say hogwash and hogwash again to that because this city was founded upon christian values christian views and morals go look it up online it took me 10 minutes to find three articles that this city was built on morals values and godly uh standards and i refute anybody who says anything else and we need to stand up for our kids because we don't want them to become marxists to become racist to become anything of the sort because that's not the american way that's not the christian way and that's not the way god created us to be and i just want to stand on those facts without compromise and i will not back down [Music] so my name is terry and i'm here tonight as a former goshen community schools teacher and current parent um i've been
074a lifelong teacher since graduating with an undergraduate degree in spanish education and a master's degree from the university of salamanca in spain and throughout my education career i've had a lot of professional development regarding learning and the brain and current educational research indicates that children are more receptive to learning when they know their teachers welcome them care about them and support them as the parent of a current gcs student i know that the goshen community schools administrators initiated and then invited staff and students to participate in every student succeeds council to collectively explore better ways for every student to feel welcomed cared for and supported within the goshen community schools family i fully support gcs in this endeavor like to thank everyone uh i came up and spoke tonight and i appreciate everyone doing their
075best to stay within the three men allotment that is appreciated to everybody uh we'll move on to item eight which is closing items um 8.1 any miscellaneous items from the board tonight miscellaneous administrative items i have a couple of items tonight so first i am pleased to inform everyone that one of our own teachers goshen high school teacher jen yoder who was here this evening a top 10 candidate for indiana teacher of the year she joins terry hussey who joins terry hussey who was a top ten finalist for indiana teacher of the year junior high jen was hired in 1998 as a special education teacher she taught special ed until moving to engineering technology in 2017. when she taught special education gen had led several initiatives including local special olympics the girls basketball team during
076halftime and the boys game every winter she developed g science print shop business for her students to run and she ran the campaign to spread the word and the word thank you for that jen understood asks ghs students and staff to sign the banner pledging the end of the r word and this banner still hangs from high school today in her role as an engineering technology teacher jen co-sponsored the super mileage program she's also taken steps to grow the department by starting technology student association and is running a ths engineer tech twitter account um she also started first stem summer camp this summer with a few of her colleagues mrs yoda offers yearly projects like pumpkin drop cardboard boat race that just came under a lot of student interest and make that learning relevant she
077collaborates with the city of goshen on a number of problems each year as well so we just wish mrs yoga the best of luck as a top 10 candidate and i know that you will be indiana's teacher a year and a couple reminders to all the parents and everyone in the goshen community make sure you're stopping for the school buses when you see those red lights flashing the stop sign comes out watch for students and parents walk into school watch for bicyclists and then slow down in the school zone school started today we wanted to stay here thank you dr ho um 8.3 german do i have a motion please second sight holds fair please say hi