Lake Central School Board Meeting 10/17/2022

001please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States Welcome to our Monday October 17th school board meeting you just want to say the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on Corporation matters if you wish to address the board this evening there will be two opportunities one will be in a few minutes where we will vote on action items and we ask that your comments pertain to only those action items there then will be an opportunity for you to address the board at the end of our meeting during the public comments section only those that have signed up with all the requested information on the sign up sheet will be called up so with that we'll move

002right onto our agenda approval deletions editions Dr Morocco thank you Mr Seuss we do have an agenda before you and there are some adjustments to Roman numeral 7 D1 that is Mrs castaneda's professional leave request those additional requests are at your workstations hello second by Mrs Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes is there any correspondence this evening this is Kelly um nothing to report this evening thank you we are going to skip our liaison committee updates and we'll move right into our official School Board business topics consent agenda Dr Barraco thank you again Seaport approval for the minutes from our executive session on September 19th also seek approval of the minutes from our regular board meeting on September 19th and approval of all claims payroll and extracurricular expenditures that you

003received in your packets last week I moved to prove that minutes and the claims payroll and extracurricular expenditures so we have a motion by Dr Medlin and the second by Mr Marshall any discussion all in favor aye motion passes thank you there are no public comments regarding action items so we'll move right into our official School Board business topics regular agenda agenda Dr Rocco okay our first item is to recognize some outstanding academics from the high school and Mr Stanish from the high school administration is here to talk us through that celebration Joe foreign all right thank you School Board um I'm here to present uh these three students that qualified as National Merit semi-finalists by scoring in the top half of one percent of all Juniors nationally who took the PSAT nms QT Lake

004Central is extremely proud of these individuals who have earned that National recognition and we wish them well as they move forward into the National Merit Scholarship program they are Kevin Ara [Applause] Maria gorgievsky [Applause] and Braden Whitney good job congratulations to all of our students thank you guys [Applause] foreign next up we have Mr delater from pifer elementary he's going to talk to us about an outstanding award the corporation received for supporting Riley's Children Hospital [Applause] thank you for allowing me to be here this evening members of the board and esteemed colleagues of its central office here on behalf of the Indiana Association of school principals and Riley Hospital I have some really heartwarming news for us this evening regarding all of our Lake Central Schools each year the iasp organization asks all of Indiana

005schools to join with them and combine fundraising forces to raise a minimum of one dollar per student to help with children that are have are getting help from Riley Hospital and in raising one dollar per student each school can earn a distinction of being a red wagon school and if each School within a corporation earns that status then the school corporation itself becomes a red racket red that's hard to say Red Wagon Corporation and I don't know if you're familiar with Riley Hospital at all the symbol that's on license plates and things like that the red wagon is very prominent as a symbol at Riley Hospital because those take the place of gurneys for Pediatric patients and they have wagons that they pull through the hallways and have the ivy poles on the back of

006them and it's just heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time and for the 2021-2022 school year there were only eight Red Wagon corporations throughout the entire state uh there were four in the northern region and four in the central region I didn't say anything in this southern region region for purpose and I'm not going to knock anybody down in South but um but I want to let you know that Lake Central alone stands in Lake and all of our surrounding counties as a red wagon Corporation for the state so Dr barato Dr Morocco if you'd like to come down and accept this on behalf of Indiana Association of school principals and Riley Hospital and kids caring and sharing you can hang this prominently in central office here [Applause] and I will add for the

007record this will be our sixth plaque on the wall so thank you Lake Central [Music] [Applause] and I I do want to add a couple other statistics just I know Lake County sometimes gets a bad rap for things but based on uh 20 2020 2021 data numbers Lake County unique visits which means that every time a patient goes to Riley Hospital it doesn't matter how many times they go afterwards but they count them as a unique visit that's them as an entity um the numbers for Lake County visits to Riley Hospital equal 4 320 patients that are seen from just Lake County in Riley Hospital and it is the highest number of unique patient visits to Riley in all of the northern region whether it's Northwest North you know up in central or whatever but

008we're the highest number of we have the highest number of patients that go and visit Riley Hospital so keep those dollars coming when your schools have their fundraisers and we'll make sure that money gets approved and delivered appropriately so thank you again thank you friends oh okay next on our agenda is another update from Mr Stanish and that is regarding the Veterans Day celebration coming up soon all right thank you Dr Morocco and our Lake Central School Board for this opportunity to share with you uh everyone today here in attendance also about our Veterans Day ceremony that will be that will be taking place on Thursday November 10th Mrs Skyler and the history Club Mr Pruitt in the interact club and our veterans day planning committee have been working since early September on this incredible

009event and our goal is to show appreciation to our veterans both past and present I have Mr Tom Clark here with me today recent recently retired social studies teacher here from Lake Central High School a veteran himself he is also part of our planning committee we take a lot of pride in what we do here this ceremony is a huge part of what makes Lake Central in the Lake Central School Corporation an incredible place to be we'd like to share a few things with the school board and everyone in attendance about what is going to be going on during our assembly I brought a few copies of the invitations for you guys to kind of take a look at if you like to pass those around as well thank you Mr Pruitt actually made that

010with the interact Club so he gets all the credit with that he did a fantastic job um we'll be providing a hot breakfast for all our veterans who are in attendance and their families from 7 30 in the morning until 8 45. our school-wide ceremony will take place at 9 A.M and last until approximately 10 30. I think that everyone who attends will not be disappointed and we are working with our technology department right now too as as well to get it live streamed so those that can't be in attendance can actually watch it but not be there at this time I'd like to formally invite our school board and our central office administration to actually attend the event I know I haven't sent anything out to you guys formally yet so now I am

011formally asking you or requesting your attendance if you can there is a QR code on the sheet if you scan it you can actually fill out the invitation on a Google form there's also been emails sent out to parents and students as well to fill out the Google form if you would like to submit a photo of your veteran feel free that veteran picture that Veteran's picture will be placed into a PowerPoint presentation that will be sent and played throughout the entire ceremony so you will see the picture of your veteran that you submit so please make sure that you guys fill that out send that back to us and if you have any questions in regard to the actual ceremony itself they can be directed towards me uh and if you guys would like

012to just email me if you are going to be in attendance that's fine too or if you'd like to fill out the 50 little QR code that we put together that's fine too but that's it thank you very much and thank you to the committee thank you to everyone here for giving us the opportunity to present this to you and we look forward to seeing everyone there on November 10th [Applause] [Music] next up we have some members of the executive board with the Lake Central Education Foundation team to come up and present round 57 grants to our winners well first we would like to thank the board for allowing us to do this um this is the Lake Central education grant round 57. whoa A lot of people tonight nice to see you okay our

013purpose is is we raise money to provide grants for teachers or students or businesses people that are interested in helping students with Innovative learning projects okay okay so um this year we this round we had eight grants we gave away five thousand two hundred and twenty six dollars it has accumulated to 622 grants worth 321 902 so that's what we have given so far this grant round isn't that wonderful this grant round will reach 1014 students in our Lake Central School District okay so the first one we have is Tracy Capozzi from Watson The Treehouse Travelers for 750 dollars okay the goal of the Treehouse Travelers is for students to learn all the important reading skills while traveling through different time periods and learning about new cultures and science topics they will be working together

014to read and discuss novels with groups of students and partners of a like ability different abilities in small and whole reading groups with Tracy here the novels will take the students on a journey that will spark the love of reading while whisking them away off to different places and keeping them in suspense while each eventual ultimately encourages them to want to read and learn more the strategies they learn through this unit will encourage them and they will gain science and social studies topics and will make them stronger readers and more well-rounded students so um side note I use these in my classroom my kids they read one chapter they want to read the next chapter we don't you know so these are wonderful books very much oh yes Tracy thank you so much okay hello

015um our next Grant recipient is Lori Rosine from Clark Middle School Maurice Grant was called building School community Through project lit for a total of 747.29 this is for Clark's project lit members our literacy members who helped spread the joy of reading among the rest of the students via donations to classroom libraries book talks on announcements and summer reading raffle and campaign congratulations [Applause] our next our next Grant recipient is Molly waldir from kaler middle school her Grant is titled integration of virtual reality to impact social studies academic performance and she was awarded 642.92 cents students will be able to take virtual reality field trips and interact with the content to bring another layer of immersive learning to each unit Molly Molly oh she's right next to me congratulations no I wondered where she was

016something benefits first of all as a co-president of the foundation I'd just like to say thank you to the board members that are here this evening to help and work all the time we have our co-president Susan Schweitzer and our vice president Danielle spellevoro did I do good we also have Mike seljin who is our Treasurer and Zach seljin who helps us out do lots of running around to get things done so you guys thank you for being here this evening and Melody we know is our grant chairman but you didn't say your name so there you go yeah and you're pay to die for doing this we also want to thank the school board and the administration Rob always helps us out a lot Dr Morocco thank you very much and we're taking a

017second and we'll move right along here all right thank you all uh my uh opportunity to present her check tonight is Beth Hall from the high school she works with a couple other people Mark stribach and Holly Sweeting and it their Grant is called accessibility through virtual reality she was awarded 586.89 students will quickly learn that the sky is not the limit when they board a spaceship to explore our solar system and in feeling adventurous they may choose where to go and where they've never been before on a mission to explore the enchanted territory of deep space all via virtual reality amazing technology huh thank you I better give you your money so I'm jumping back in okay um Elizabeth Schultz is from Homan it's called give it give it a shot for 514 dollars

018basketball is a great way to work on a team it also improves gross motor skills by using major muscle groups young children who play basketball improve flexibility and endurance the students will benefit from improved fine motor skills such as hand eye coordination your consideration of this grant proposal is much appreciated in order to ensure that home and students to have updated safe equipment in which to enjoy the sport so thank you [Applause] cheese Jennifer Miller is she here tonight okay Jennifer Miller was one that didn't respond to me her Grant is what is a fraction angle for 493 dollars and then we have two people that didn't attend Jeff Edmond at Clark for student selection and further reading and Allison council at Clark for a middle school book love so and we forgot to introduce

019Janice Malco or Dr Malco is our board liaison so so thank you again guys appreciate it thank you very much for your time and our entire Community helps to raise funds and I see some faces here that work with the foundation I just wanted to say thank you very much for sponsoring and working with us we have a 5k fundraiser that's coming up honoring one of our own students Dr Dana Les who is a graduate and perhaps some of you know about her story we do appreciate everybody that contributes Lake Central is a really a good place to be and thank you for the community for helping us help our teachers [Applause] very young thank you very much [Applause] all right I'm going to move on with my final agenda and above the night and

020I do have talking points in the back if anybody wants to see what exactly I'm following in terms of the format and I do want to try to follow it for those folks who aren't here this evening but maybe either watching the live stream at home or we'll watch the recording later I think most of the people in this room are aware but at our last meeting we were challenged to look more closely at the displays in our classrooms throughout the district and we did go back and you know take a stroll around the buildings to see what do we have as far as displays or signage that could be deemed political or religious in nature part of what we received in the message of concern was that we really weren't following the current case

021law or guidance in some cases of the Indiana State Attorney General and so we wanted to look closely at all of that information um a review of that did you know remind us at central office that you know our classrooms are not an open public forum okay we have different litmus tests for what should be in classrooms compared to certain areas a Town Square Etc and I want to say this early in this presentation that we still firmly believe that our staff members have decorated their rooms to make students feel welcome it's been said to me that's too simple Larry that's too simple of an explanation but I still firmly believe that however it is in plenty of case law that classroom decorations are considered non-verbal speech and so our teachers while they can put

022any sign in their yard they want for any cause that they want as a classroom teacher you know the courts have said were paid to teach the material not express opinions and create our own lessons okay student displays on the other hand if you look at case law on that it's a lot broader unless the student's shirt or the message that they are displaying is causing a significant disruption to Student Learning or student discipline the school has to determine that it is not a violation of what the state would say should not be displayed so as we move forward we look at it and say okay we got to be intentional in what we have displayed mainly because our students are a captive audience they don't have a choice we have a a state that

023has a mandatory attendance law and when you sign up to be a student in our schools we should have classrooms that cannot be seen as indoctrinating our students So based on that our displays should be neutral displays involving political or religious perspectives as I said earlier could open us up to a being an open Forum which means then some of the other hate stuff swastika flag stars and bars things of that nature would also be eligible to be displayed um and so the conclusion you draw from the analysis in Indiana is that all messages must be considered for political or religious content you don't have to go too far west to get a different message okay that pride flag in Illinois is not considered a political message in Oregon it's not considered a political message

024in Indiana it is um so the results you know in us having to look at what we display and trying to determine where exactly does it fit so what do we do to adjust to this in order to follow the guidance from the law case law the Attorney General opinion we are permitting only classroom displays that are neutral politically or religiously now our staff was notified last week to remove items that support black lives matter Pride Flags specific lgbtq messaging and religious messaging at the same time you know staff must continue to be diligent in addressing and reporting violations of Lake Central's various non-discrimination policies so at our principals meeting the week after this came up my number one concern I shared with our admin was how will we support students who saw that little

025symbol on the wall or on a teacher's desk as a welcome mat how will we give that same level of comfort and I shared then and I'll share it again now that our staff probably needs to be more diligent than ever to not let kids get picked on for any reason color of their skin the way they dress the color of their hair they're too tall they're too short they're too skinny too heavy I believe and I have full confidence that our staff can use this situation as a springboard to celebrate kindness to call out meanness and to can you continue to be welcoming because they already are and that's why students like our schools that's why students like our teachers because they trust them and then for those who are concerned who say I'm

026glad this stuff is going away and our teachers do evaluate their staff they're in classrooms regularly informally and formally and so they will continue to observe to check that but with 550 different staff members and 9 200 different students things can be brought up many times by students and so discussions do occur and it it can in many ways be beneficial to the learning process um so what else can we do well we have to study this a little more and I think our people are pretty creative but we have a board policy 2110 that already says that all are welcome here it already says that each individual has dignity and worth students are our number one priority and perhaps we can amend it to add something all students are welcome and all are respected

027we can adapt that policy anytime we want to include stronger language but in the end you know it is the actions and the words of staff that are the most important thing for having our students know they're cared about do I think that some symbols are comforting yes I understand that but currently based on everything that we've researched in all of the legal opinions we've gotten we will not win this argument in in a court in Indiana um so really it comes down to how can we use this situation to become a Kinder Lake Central that's what I'd like to see I think that's what a lot of people in this room would like to see one other note I want to say before I turn it over and I know that a lot of

028people are going to come up and make comments and we welcome those here at the end of the the business meeting is that if we do board policy revisions we generally talk those over at a work session but it never gets voted until it comes before this regular public meeting so when we list a board agenda we individually list those policies so before any action would get taken people if you if you watch the agenda you would see it coming and when we take action at this meeting it is an action item so you would sign up on that first opportunity to speak and weigh in before the board would hear the proposal from me and then make a motion and then vote so that's all I have for right now and I will turn

029it over then to Mrs mucha Director of Human Resources we are recommending the following Personnel items be approved but I do want to draw special attention to the retirement of Nancy moroviak who has 39 years of education so congratulations do we have a motion we have a motion by Dr Malco second second by Mrs Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes thank you my second item is for transportation benefit change to increase by one personal business day for every bus driver we've improve the transportation benefit change we have a motion by Dr Medlin second by Mr Marshall any discussion it will it will now match what the paraprofessionals get I think all in favor aye motion passes thank you thank you move right along to our director of primary education Dr

030Bracey good evening I'm just seeking approval for the professional leave request in your board packets move to approved motion by Mr Marshall second second by Mrs Kelly any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you our director of secondary education Mrs Castaneda thank you for my first item I am seeking your approval for the professional leave requests the revised copy that you received this evening motion to approve we have a motion by Miss Kelly second second by Mr Marshall any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you and for my second item I am seeking your approval for the field trip requests move to prove the field trip request motion by Dr Medlin and I will Dr mail cow will second that all in favor or any discussion excuse me all

031in favor aye aye motion passes thank you director of student services Mrs gramala my only item tonight is to seek approval for the professional leave requests included in the board packet move to approve motion by Mr Marshall second Miss Kelly will second that any discussion I was wondering what what is augmentative in alternative communication I in low Tech Mrs Hall is watching me answer this question um hi and low-tech methodology to support students with speech and language development so students who might be non-verbal how can we support them and give them a voice and a functional mode of communication so some examples and can you give me some examples sure um low Tech would be a picture exchange Communication System where A student uses a picture to request what they want all the way up

032to high tech which is a those would be technology devices that here we tend to use a methodology called Lamp which allows students to use a device to speak for them and generate spoken language very good I appreciate that explanation thank you so much all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you our director of Business Services Mr James thank you Mrs sues um now is the the culmination of the budget process that we started two meetings ago so my first couple of resolutions will deal with adopting the 2023 budget so the first resolution in your packet is to seek your approval for the budget Appropriations and tax levy as presented move to approve I have a motion by Mr Marshall second by Dr Malco any discussion all in favor aye motion passes thank you

033Ms next item is to seek your approval for the 2023 capital projects plan move to prove the 2023 capital projects plan we have a motion by Dr Medlin I will second that any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you my next item is to seek your approval on the 2023 School Bus replacement plan also move to approve motion by Mr Marshall second by Dr Malco any discussion Mr James am I correct in Remembering these are mostly propane uh we have been we average around 10 bus new buses a year and we've been doing approximately seven propane and three gas just because we need the traditional gas vehicles to go on some of the longer distance routes where we can't necessarily rely on propane tanks to be found so um yes but we

034are transitioning more and more buses to the propane route all right thank you all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you my next resolution sets the amount that we will annually transfer from our education fund to the operations fund uh just a little history that once the funding changed in 2019 many things that used to be paid off our old general fund were statutorily moved to the operations fund but the funding mechanism did not change that all the money comes into the ad fund so we have to transfer money to the Ops fund state law doesn't want you to transfer more than 15 percent of your tuition support there this resolution will transfer six million dollars during calendar year 2023 from education fund to Ops fund and those would represent approximately nine percent of

035our our funding so our secret approval on that resolution motion to prove motion by Mr Marshall second second by Mrs Kelly any discussion all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you uh next I seek the board approval to apply for the common school loan program from the state of Indiana we use these funds to replace technology Chromebooks and smart boards throughout our school district so I seek your approval for that motion to approve second by Dr Medlin any discussion and every year when we go through common School fund loan approvals I always suggest that we add the staff to support the unique and effective implementation of the equipment yeah yep we have the tech trainers that specifically do that at our buildings and we have the technology assistants that are signed to each building

036as well so um yep they are there to support our staff and our teachers thank you all right all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you I seek your approval for the three professional leave requests in your board packet move to prove the three professional leave requests I have a motion by Dr Medlin and I will second that any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you um next I seek your approval on the donations that were listed in your board packet motion to approve the donations donation excuse me Mrs Kelly and do we have a second I will second that I have a second but I approve those donations thank you motion thank you uh all in favor aye motion passes thank you uh now I just want to

037give the board and the public uh just a a summary recap of our ADM count our ADM account is our student account that is taken in the middle of September that basis of that count is uh what is used for our funding I mean our education fund um comparing the fall count here in 2022 to 2021 we are down 134 students district-wide to a total of nine thousand zero ninety four um but just diving into the numbers a little bit more um what I do is I kind of look at the cohorts of each at each class you know how does this your seventh graders compare to last year's sixth graders and so forth and our current junior class at the high school is about 25 students less than they were last year sophomores and

038the 10th graders are about 15 less than they were a freshmen however pretty much every other grade has more students than it than they did last year um and so you look to say that well then how are we down 134 students well the answer is because we had 844 kids graduate and we had 600 kids come in as kindergartners and so instead of being down 244 students we're only down 134 because we've had 110 more families and kids coming to the school district and wanting to be here and moving into our district instead so um we're we're down our high school numbers this was a big class of 844 last year our current classes at the high school are all under 800. we don't really see much change in the incoming classes they've been

039in that low you know 500 600 kids amount but with less kids graduating maybe that Gap will be less and we can absorb it but the good thing is that we see this with our demographics and based on that we can project going forward and know what our position is going to be based on that so uh any questions on that okay um finally my last item is uh we're at the end of the quarter the third quarter of budget year 2022 and so at your workstation I've included two nice spreadsheets for you um the first one is if you look in the top left hand corner it says the cash flow for our education fund January through December and again this is for calendar year 2022 because that is our budget year um this

040is through actual activity through September and if you what everyone looks to is the bottom right hand corner which shows the positive and the negative of how did our Revenue compare to our expenditures and currently we are projecting to be plus about eighty thousand dollars to the good which out of a 66 million dollar budget we're right online because we are not in the business to increase our cash reserves we want to put all the money we get from the state into our classrooms and support our teachers and our paraprofessionals in class so um we've been averaging pretty well and again even though we were down students our funding actually is increased this school year because of the amount of money that the general assembly put into the funding formula during the long session a

041year and a half ago and so before I move on to the next sheet does anyone have any questions okay so because of what I've explained yeah we get our money from the state but we also get money for our taxpayers that goes into our operations fund and we also have our referendum fund and we have a rainy day fund and really all those funds work together now and because of uh as I mentioned earlier we move money from the one to the other to really get a true reflection of the school district you got to take all four of those funds together because they are just important as I said our our referendum fund goes to help pay for teacher salaries so just looking at the education fund itself doesn't do it justice that

042rental fund pays for our sros it pays for uh counselors and social workers for our kids and so forth so it's important to look at that money when we look at the school district so the last um the second page I have for you combines all of those four fonts together to see how the district is operating and currently um right now we're looking at our expenditures exceeding our Revenue by about almost about 186 thousand dollars again out of a 94 million dollar budget we're right online there of um we want to be as close to the margin as possible to support our teachers and staff and all of our employees because this incorporates them all so we're running well there financially we're in fine shape and so I would turn it over to the

043board in case anyone has any questions so I guess I have a question so the 186 000 negative does not concern you um no because you know it's pretty out of 94 million dollars that's pretty close to as we're going to get and so much is an estimate um as when we're preparing a budget you know we just 10 minutes ago prepared the budget for County or 2023. none of us saw eight percent inflation in our cost of fuel and our cost of food a cost of school supplies for kids and so the fact that we've been able to um take those extra costs in and still be able to run pretty close to the margin and not be eight percent down um it's this team working together working with our teachers and staff to

044still provide that education process but you know as close to the margin we know we're going to take a hit a little bit of a hit but we're weathering the storm too okay so very good and I knew you would have a good explanation so thank you for that well thank you that's all I have any other questions questions all right so now we'll move on to our public Comics comments portion I would like to remind everyone that public comments are for the board to consider the time is not set aside for back and forth debate if you ask a question and we are able to answer you that will be part of your allotted time all statements shall be directed to the board president and no person may address or question board members individually

045each person signed up with information requested on the sign up sheet will have three minutes to address the board you will be alerted when you have 15 seconds left and we ask that you wrap up your comments the public common portion of the meeting is limited to 30 minutes unless extended by the board once we are at 30 minutes I will ask the board if they wish to continue to hear public comments please we ask that you refrain from personal attacks or derogatory statements about any student School employee or anyone else whether in attendance or not when we call your name if you'd please approach the microphone and address the board and please state your name and address and then we'll hear your comments so our first uh speaker is Ryan Neff foreign [Applause] Lake

046Road St John and uh I'm a father of two daughters in the school system I have been happy with their education not only with the curriculum but also the values that they're being taught with compassionism understanding accepting and becoming well-rounded human beings the teachers administrators counselors coaches and Club sponsors have all had a hand in the development of my daughters becoming who they are the phrase that takes a village to raise a child originates from an African proverb and conveys the message that it takes to people many people to provide a safe healthy environment for our children the concept of this Village is the notion that caring for children is a shared responsibility amongst many therefore we as parents cannot do it alone and I am fortunate to have a school system like Lake Central

047to help my daughters grow into strong kind Independent Women part of that education is learning to accept people for who they are and learning to become an ally and a friend to those who have been bullied discriminated against because they are viewed different have we forgotten what it says on Lady Liberty give me your tired you're poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe breathe free a progress pride flag or a BLM poster has shows the marginalized student that they are safe and welcome and able to breathe free it shows these students that we accept who you are the lgbtq plus and minority students have traditionally higher percentages of being bullied poor mental health and suicide is it imperative that Educators and peers make these students know that they have a safe place and they are

048welcome this past week the teacher has been instructed to remove Flags posters and materials that are deemed political and religious from their classrooms it was sad it was the same week as National Coming Out day and the fact that these materials have been removed sends a message to lgbtq and minority students that they are different and we could not discuss you in school should be a safe place for all students it should be a space where we learn about different cultures ways of life a place to advance young people to well-rounded human beings that make a difference in this world having these materials up in the classroom benefits all students promoting acceptance and respect teaching them about diverse people and families in the world students support are able to empathize connect and work along with

049diverse groups of peers they understand that they're being taught by by these same uh minorities in lgbtq communities and it teaches us to be a Ally and a friend saying that these materials are not a political statement that's incorrect it's a humanitarian statement sexual orientation gender identity and race are separate from political affiliation these 15 seconds moving on we need to respect our Educators and be an ally with them these are the same people that provided a safe space at the potential school shooter last year we need to stop coming to at this board with selective discrimination complaints all right thank you [Applause] and I'm sorry if I pronounce your name wrong uh the next speaker Alexis horgash [Applause] Alexis horgash 9241 Marquette Street St John Indiana I would like to express address the recent

050decision to remove remove posters flags and other items that allow students to express themselves and promote acceptance and positivity printed on page four of the Lake Central High School handbook the foundation for Lake Central School corporation's vision is commitment Pride service Integrity respect ambition Excellence responsibility and tolerance what is tolerance according to the Oxford English Dictionary tolerance is defined as the willingness to accept or tolerate someone or something especially opinions or behaviors that you may not agree with or people who are not like you below this level of foundation is Safety and Security each student has the right to feel safe in school however how are students given the chance to feel safe when they do not feel accepted the decision to remove said items can have a negative impact on a student's self-esteem feeling

051of acceptance and a potential to cause academic line without the foundation of this Vision the pillars would not be able to stand alone which would lead to not being able to achieve the top of the pyramid which is stated to be a College and Career ready graduate we are at school for 6 hours and 54 minutes from 7 15 when the bell first rings to 209 when the final Bell Rings we are to go from class to class we are provided lunch and are expected to stay inside of our rooms unless allowed to do so by faculty and if we don't we get a consequence such as a detention or a Wednesday school on top of that we are now to sit in a classroom with the with bare walls this is a schedule that

052sounds much like a prison with bare concrete walls being a contributing factor located on the Lake Central School corporation's website a belief of Lake Central is a positive School environment is essential for learning how are students able to learn if we do not feel safe and secure in our school environment as we note that some students may not see an issue with their learning environment we must also see that other students have some concerns about this another like Central belief is students are our number one priority if we choose to only focus on the students who do not have an issue with what is and what is not on our school walls are though opposing students being placed on second priority if each student is valued and respected like the next the right for a

053student to identify it and express themselves should be valued and respected as well posters promoting colleges and academic Partnerships are displayed all throughout Lake Central High School College and Career Readiness is often expressed in the lchs handbook it is also said that high school is meant to prepare students for the real world which is 10 seconds which is which is referring to the responsibilities of high school if we are preparing our students for the future we must teach them that it is okay to not be accepted and by who they are to identify as thank you thank you Kalia saldara [Applause] Kalia Saldana 670 Gatlin Road Schererville Indiana 46375 so um I came here today with a speech I'm not saying that speech so um I'm gonna move this closer because you probably can't hear

054me you'll hear me breathe though um I have gone to the school district since first grade um and I have never felt uh so not accepted until now well I did I've been bullied for a really long time never told anyone because the two times that I did come forward Lake Central staff showed me security footage of what happened to me and did not do anything about it so every morning if we are told that is it is okay to ask for help and that we are not alone they tell us that every morning over the announcements how come when I went for help nobody saw me nobody helped me under the harassment rule um I do not remember which module it was but it states that any sexual referencing towards a teacher or staff

055member will be punished by suspension and maybe even expulsion but when the same thing happens to a student it can go unpunished or at the most with the detention I don't see the difference in a person whether they are old enough to understand what is happening or whether they are too young to know foreign I want you to know that because I feel that that is important because I know other people who did not report how they were feeling or what happened to them my freshman year I was pushed down the stairs so much my legs began to scab and Bruise how come there was no teacher to help me when that happened how come there was no teacher when people called me slurs about who I love and how I am where were they

056where was the punishment and the reprimanding 15 seconds students if Lake Central School Corporation values their students as much as they say the topic at hand is indubatable thank you Alicia Paul [Applause] foreign Calhoun Place Crown Point um thank you to the board for allowing me to speak tonight I would first like to talk about the poster brought before you at the last meeting I am urging you to not take action based on one person's beliefs or opinions the poster in question was deemed offensive and honestly I find that interpretation incredibly offensive the poster reads as you all know in this classroom We Believe science is real black lives matter love is love feminism is for everyone humans are not illegal kindness is everything a lot was mentioned about the black lives matter organization however

057the statement that black lives matter is a fact science is real it was mentioned that because of kovid that isn't true covet and how that was handled does not change the fact that science is real I didn't hear an issue with feminism is for everyone I'm sure there's no bias there as the board all non-partisan members please do not allow political extremists dictate what is appropriate in our schools in the Lake Central code of conduct you have your own beliefs listed just like that poster it reads sorry I'm so shaky it reads each individual has dignity and worth students are our number one priority we must continually improve and strive for excellence everyone can learn people learn in different ways and different rates teachers are critically important in every student's education school provides a foundation

058for a lifetime of learning the total School environment affects learning self-esteem is directly related to learning educated citizens are essential to a Democratic Society that is what it says on your website I don't see any of those statements say one person's opinion should dictate our classroom's environment you your students are a captive audience that is what you said Dr Barraco and you are forcing teachers to tell their students they are not their allies they do not have support at school a pride flag is not a political statement thank you thank you Peter Paul [Applause] hello Peter Paul 8677 Calhoun Place in Crown Point thank you thank you members of the board I am here to raise awareness about the impending future for Lake Central School Corporation if continued disingenuous outrage is yield to two across

059the U.S special interest groups have organized to push their views by running for school boards even if they have no children in the corporation as well as local government positions you can see it already happening across the country school board meetings across the U.S have turned from polite albeit a passionate discourse into screaming yelling chaos it has already happened here believe me posters are not going to be the end in the past year over 1600 books have been banned in the U.S schools Librarians have been fired sued and have had at least 27 police reports levied against them this is the true goal of the movement steadily demand their personal beliefs be adhered to until police until Public Schools more closely resemble private and or Christian institutions you will hear buzzwords designed to frighten and

060enrage parents like marxists Communists and pornography to demand change under the guise of Parental choice is the school board beholden to every demand from every single parent where does it end can an atheist come in here and yell loud enough until no Christian imagery is to be seen on or near school grounds I know I don't personally have all the beliefs that every teacher and administrator has and that is okay if my children see or hear something at school they know they can come to their parents and ask are we not talking to our children [Applause] in the real world our children will be exposed to different views and cultures don't you want our school to reflect a real world democracy where people of different backgrounds come together and are inclusive of others and their

061ideas learning to live together peacefully we all want what is best for our children as you on the board they want that as well is inclusiveness acceptance and tolerance that horrible please try to view this from the students that are here and with whom the poster applies to are we telling them that they don't matter that they are different and not accepted I'm putting my trust in this board's decision it's an ability to be compassionate and caring enough to listen finally I live with this with the new policy in place are we going to change the name of Easter break that's religious thank you [Applause] Abby O'Neill [Applause] Abby O'Neill 6628 Falcon Drive Schererville Indiana thank you I'm about to tell you I'm sorry I've been uh I am Central School Corporation was in second

062grade and I am now a senior on August 13th 2019 I walked into my photo class I decided to see that it finally a high school student and I'm ready to meet my new teachers as I walked into Miss Carrie why to keep Chris's room I noticed that and she wasn't like the rest of my teachers that I've had before she had photos of her family and friends her achievements and most importantly it's just some random random decorations that made her class her class one has always been so kind and generous to me and my fellow peers the only time she has really talked about her Pride legs is when she's talking about herself or when we usually ask as a sponsor for the gay straight Alliance Club she deserves to have those flanks in

063her room so she can always applicated to represent that they are not alone and since ever since she's been told to take down all the stuff in her room it just hasn't felt like her room like like I walked in freshman year all the stuff that she had like from the past like last year is all gone all of the photos of Miss Vera Putin is gone and just everything that she's achieved August 10 2021 I also walked into my English 10 class obviously obviously not excited for your new school year but when I first got my schedule I didn't recognize this new teacher and neither did my friends so going into that new school year without any opinions on a teacher is kind of scary because you don't know if they're going to be

064really strict or really friendly when I walked into Mr Lee's class he agreeded me and then when I finally sat down I looked around his classroom and noticed a little bright flag hanging from his cup this that year I noticed that he's there's no sorry this year I noticed that he got in a bigger Pride like and hung it up right next to his door so other people don't feel alone but as same as what he also had to take it down from previous events so both of these teachers have welcomed me into their arms and haven't forced anything on me or my classmates if I've noticed thank you for listening Jerry Maldonado [Applause] my name is Jerry Maldonado I live on 8425 Pine Island Drive good evening board members I stand here today to

065speak on behalf of the students who cannot make it today I'm here to talk about the disgraceful events that are preceding I'm here to talk about the attack on us students who stand proud of who we are I'm here because I'm very upset and very hurt by hearing that the pride Flags in my school must be taken down because of one concerned bigot who has no involvement in the school by you acting without reason has caused you to not only upset me but many parents many students and many faculty I learned freedom of speech when it comes to my sexuality and freedom to express who I am in a respectful manner are protracted rights nothing was wrong with my lgbtq expression before this bigot attacked us I as a Latino should have the ability to

066express who I am the same way everyone expresses themselves being gay or not and be respected we are all human we all have our own beliefs and for someone to objectify us for our own beliefs is not okay by you even considering and proving to have having the flags that and our pride be taken down throughout the school is shameful you are acting extremely shameful and disrespectful going against all the school's rules you require us not to act like as a board your job is to protect us students and make sure we have the things we need to grow mentally and become amazing humans these actions will make us as a student body be more aware of these ongoing board decisions so our rights are not ever trampled again now that this event is not

067forgivable and we as students and parents will not forgive you for these idiotic decisions we are truly hurt by this our pride has been stripped from us and all you've done to show that even a higher power does not stand by us in these events all of us have fought hard and long in this ongoing war of hate that devours our world we've made it hard and far and hard we've made it long a long journey and for you to take this decision into action has just led us back to the beginning of where we stand thank you Dallas type [Applause] how far away should I stand to the microphone thank you Della styfe 9630 Sheffield Avenue Dire Indiana I know there is a current controversy regarding certain things hanging up in classrooms and I

068want to ask you a simple question how are Pride Flags political and or controversial why are teachers at the high school elementary and middle schools forced to take their supportive flags and signs down or face having to resign I want to put something into perspective for you imagine you are a young lgbtq teenager and you walk into a classroom and you see a sign that says hate has no place here and beside that sign is a small pride flag that you can see clearly from the teacher's desk this shows the young teenager that this teacher is someone they can confide in and share their identity with for many there is no fear surrounding sharing one's identity but for an lgbtqt that isn't that simple I want you to imagine that the teachers are scared they

069take those things down and all of a sudden this lgbtq student does not know if they have an adult to confide in to see teachers who are so confident within their identity having to take those things down is doing nothing but hurting those kids according to the Trevor Project lgbtq teens have a four times more likely suicide rate than their straight peers this is not because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but they are placed at a higher risk because of how mistreated and stigmatized they are in society do we want to contribute to this mistreatment and stigmentation instead of standing against it I am happy to share any of this research through email if anyone wants it but research isn't everything I can also speak from my own personal experience I know the

070importance of having teacher or adult to confide in and how these relationships can save lives how are those teens going to know they are safe if the teacher cannot express their tolerance the lgbtq plus Community is not political it is centered around identity it is centered around loving who you want to love there is no reason teachers should not be allowed to have these things up in their classrooms according to the Court case Tinker versus Des Moines teachers and students do not lose their first amendment rights when they enter the school building so long as it does not become a distraction if students do not complain about the signs to school administration then it is not a distraction to their learning how are teachers First Amendment rights being protected can teachers get into trouble for

071having those things up in classrooms at Lake Central Schools where would this end and ultimately how effective can an educational institution be if students do not feel supported in who they are listed on the Lake Central School corporation's website we have belief statements included within our mission statement I'd like to end by reminding everyone that we believe each individual has dignity and worth a positive school learning environment is essential for learning teachers are critically important in every student's education and students are our number one priority thank you hi Blankenship foreign Street Schererville Indiana today I want to talk I want to take a second and share my experience as an lgbtq kid at Lake Central High School I can't speak for everyone but I want the board and Dr varaco to understand another student perspective

072of the current situation freshman year I walked into kerrywood way to keep Cruz's room and our pride flag let me know that it was a safe space for me it was it's it's hard to put into words how scary it is to be a queer kid in high school it feels so isolating seeing the flags in her room and knowing that there is at least one safe space where I could go at school change my high school experience forever I remember the moment I came out to miss Whitaker Cruz and Sarah verputin the acceptance they showed me told me that I had a place at this school and this is coming from a kid with the most supportive family I can ask for my dad is even on the list to speak tonight and even

073with this overwhelming love and support from home I was afraid to express myself in high school so I can't imagine how important this symbol of acceptance is to students who can't who cannot be themselves at home for students who could feel unsafe expressing their identities to their friends or family being lgbtq plus is not a religious or political issue it is not it is our identity it is who we are we cannot change our height we cannot change our skin color we cannot change our sexualities we cannot cannot change our identities taking down Flags isn't going to make queer people less real it's just going to make them feel more isolated and alone thank you [Applause] I'm Neil Blankenship 223 Lace Park Street in Schererville and I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight I come

074as a parent concerned about the force removal of Pride flags from our classrooms I believe the unintended consequences of this policy could be much worse than any perceived dangers posed by these supposedly ominous collection of colors I would hope that most here would agree that the highest priority of our schools should be the well-being of our kids a recent National survey conducted by the Trevor Project shows the lgbtq kids experience higher rates of bullying and violence they are much more likely to show symptoms and anxiety and depression lgbtq kids consider suicide at a much higher rate and they attempt suicide at a much higher rate than their straight CIS counterparts these risk factors are not higher simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but because of the stigmatation stigmatization and negative treatment that

075comes with them in fact the suicide attempt rates were lower for LGBT youth when they felt high social support from their family when they felt they lived in a community that was accepting and most importantly for our discussion today when they found that their school is LGBT lgbtq affirming as far as Pride Flags I can honestly say there's a straight CIS male I've never encountered or seen any flag of any kind that has made me question my sexuality I would be interested to hear from anyone who may have had a different experience but the reality is that um that's not how sexual orientation or gender identity work I would hope however that seeing a pride flag might help anyone who sees it understands that it represents a group of real people who deserve real support

076and respect I would hope that any lgbtq people who see it would feel supported and respected and more specifically I would hope that any non-lgbtq students who see it in our schools would know that it represents a group of students who are dealing with all of the same struggles that they are but in many cases many additional struggles as well I would hope that any lgbtq students who see it in our schools would feel like they are in a space where they feel included and feel safe as mentioned before many lgbtq youth are in higher risk situations many may not feel like they can be accepted that they are by family or in our community our schools may be in some cases the only safe spaces they have it's not political it's about acceptance and

077inclusion specifically for some kids who need it the most if we care about our kids all of our kids we must consider the negative implications of these decisions thank you thank you Natalie Genovese my name is Natalie Genovese 8176 Knickerbocker Place St John I'm a senior at Lake Central this year it also marks my third and final year in the place that I've called my home my Publications classroom I come to school every day looking forward to Stepping through the door if you won 20 security Cruz do I call what is a human that I associate with the classroom within those classroom walls is where I feel the safest in the school building and I'm not just saying that because of the circumstances I'm seeing that because in these walls she has taught me so

078many valuable life lessons one being to always speak the truth truth just happens to be one of the four of the Indiana High School press Association core values the other three being courage freedom and integrity being here tonight as part of a high school's Publications Department I feel me and others that are here tonight represent the voice of the Lake Central students Miss wideki Cruz used the pride flags hanging in her room photos of her wife and kids posters and about kindness and inclusion and most importantly a sense of comfort for anyone seeking a safe space in the school building now her walls are bare because why would any teacher want to express any part of themselves if they can't express who they really are and being part of the lgbtq plus Community is part

079of who she is and I don't love her any less because of it she's a leader a teacher and a friend but more importantly she's a human being who deeply cares about her students no matter their race ethnicity or his sexuality being in the lgbtq plus Community is not what defines her being a good human is what defines her she's someone that I can go to for anything and she will give me sound advice I focus on Watts tonight because she is my teacher but I'm quite sure there are other students here in other classrooms with teachers who have items of self-expression and have the same feelings as I do about Miss Kerry widdicky Cruz never one says she ever pushed me or any other student to study or learn anything about the self-representation items

080she contains in her classroom having these things that I just mentioned is simply an act of nonverbal speech which Americans have their First Amendment right to the freedom of speech by definition self-expression is being able to express one's feelings thoughts or ideas which in turn nurtures a bond between a student and a teacher there are many any LC students of the lgbtq plus Community who have formed a bond with Wad and who come to her classroom for acceptance and to feel included as part of a community at the last board meeting critical thinking was brought up isn't critical thinking being able to read a sign an article or see a flag and be able to decide for yourself if that is something that you believe in I can tell you as a whole I can

081tell you as a whole open-minded students of like Central do not have a problem with self-expression I believe that this is the parents pushing yet another piece of their political agenda on the schools your actions are doing more harm than good to our student body in closing it wouldn't it be better use of our time to focus on the things that bring us closer together as a society than the things that tear us apart look forward [Applause] I am Brooke forward from 933 Quinn Place Dyer Indiana I wanted to start by thanking the board everyone here and everyone watching online and I hope that you would not only listen to me but respectfully listen to everyone else because that's what I've done for you guys I stand in front of you today as not only

082as educated journalist and student at Lake Central but this is my senior year in Lake Central I've been here since I've been in kindergarten being a journalist I've covered many different experiences and wrote from unbiased point of view the Indiana High School press association's four core values are courage Freedom integrity and Truth let me tell you about how these four values have been foundation for who I am today and who I will be tomorrow courage is defined as the ability to do something that frightens one I've been building this part of myself my whole life become a journalist meeting new people and Lifestyles stepping out of my comfort zone are all things that allow me to grow for example standing in front of you all today I'm speaking up to be the voice of the

083many silenced people that have been affected by the events that have taken place at the last school board meeting the poster as you all know reads science is real black lives do matter as Mr Dr Rocco did say which is true all lives matter black lives matter science is real feminism is for everyone humans are not illegal and as everyone that has been discriminated against knows kindness is everything I hope that if you do not agree with my words that you could hear me out because I have for you this has brought me to my next core value of freedom I know there's legality behind this but I believe that is our teacher's job to teach us the ways about life that are not like our own and give us the outside concept that we

084do not know ourselves I know personally in my classes in the curriculum I've been learning about different religions cultures languages historical events and the validity of science for as long as I can remember not once have I had a teacher exclude discriminate or suspect any of these topics is our teachers duties as our teachers to provide us with the knowledge that they we need to progress into adulthood you'll be sending your children to college and they will be facing these factors anyways we as students are the present the learning and the future every poster I have seen at my high school are inclusive and inviting since last board meeting I've watched my teachers be restricted and censored the most welcoming caring and encouraging teachers have been asked to strip their rooms of signs that may

085be taken the wrong way from the wrong people I can tell you from personal experience that I've been beautifully exposed to many ways of life Pi flags are non-verbal speech but they are required I know it may seem that it's political but it's not these are people's lives these people identities and it's not your political Playhouse this is people's lives you will be you'll be shown this no matter what if you're in these walls or not so why censor it many teachers have been told to take down their things some choosing to do it beforehand because they knew it was coming these items have been in classrooms for years with no complaints I leave you all with one last thing today my last two core values integrity and Truth The Golden Rule a concept we've

086been taught since kindergarten the speaker who brought the poster to the poor detention's last meeting believed that these messages decreased our critical 15 seconds I disagree in order to correctly think you must know all sides of the world like Central I hope you think about this in the last 15 years you've built a community that is loving caring and encouraging by taking it away you were ruining everything you've built thank you guys for listening Haley Kentucky [Applause] 11448 Valley Court St John Indiana one of Lake Central's core beliefs as stated in their handbook which is passed out to every student at the beginning of the year is that harassment including what now limited to threats extortion racial or ethnic slurs and initiation activities is prohibited profanities threatening remarks posturing and obscene language or gestures by

087students struck toward another student are not allowed this is general rule number 31 something that in my personal experience is not enforced properly I have seen heard and been the subject of bullying based on things people cannot control I am an open person and I do not and will not hide parts of myself that are not under my control to appease people who refuse to accept others differences in my freshman year of high school I had a backpack with rainbow straps on it on many occasions as I was leaving the school in front of multiple security guards and officers I was harassed several different times including being punched because of Simply wearing a rainbow someone even attempted to cut the strap off which led to my backpack breaking and being rendered unusable now I ask

088according to rule number 31 in the student handbook is that harassment does it count as a serious offense if I don't know who the young men were who did those things to me not allowing Pride Flags or teachers openly expressing their allyship does damage if this rule stays put one day there will be another freshman and that freshman will be harassed the same as I but the difference is that freshman will not have a safe space they will not have a teacher they can go to and talk about it with because they will not know what rooms are and are not safe spaces that's why this rule will damage so many young adults while I understand the concern regarding parents not being conscious of what is shown to their kids in schools students still have

089authority over their own opinions the flags and positive statements are not there for a class lecture but to provide a beacon for students who seek a community Sheltering their children from lgbtq plus people or people of color will not do anything for the child except create a larger issue something that isn't being taken seriously enough because people won't see past the bright colors or simplified statements and they fail to acknowledge the history of Oppression and violence against minorities that led to what these flags symbolize in the present day you are not just taking down a flag you were taking down a sign to lgbtq plus students that they have been recognized and related to despite what they may go through at home or at school having one simple piece of fabric up can make a

090difference and sometimes the difference can be life or death multiple teachers have been made to take down Flags arguing equality for people of all Races which is an inalienable right of all citizens of this country via the United States Constitution the black lives matter and lgbtq plus equality movements are not arguments that should be debated by anyone regardless of their political party multiple books in the English curriculum argue Racial equality including A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry why the Cage Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and the hate you get by Angie Thomas reading these books is the exact opposite of Sheltering like Central students so why should teachers be forced to take down signs possibly a symbol of Hope for people of color when they are reading those books in the first place

091these issues are not seconds these issues are not political arguments these issues are human rights and basic human equality so if general rule number 31 says that Lake Central does not tolerate harassment of any kind why would we even consider worsening its effects by eradicating any trace of Refuge for hundreds of young adults it's time and I'm Maldonado [Applause] Maldonado 8425 Pine Island Drive Crown Point good evening board members my name is Anna Mall Donato I am the proud parent of a gay Guatemalan Puerto Rican Latino son proud parent to two strong educated Latina daughters proud wife of 30 years to a Puerto Rican latino man grandmother of a afro-latina granddaughter proud mother-in-law to an African-American son-in-law proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrant parents and a proud Guatemalan immigrant girl who became a naturalized American citizen

09232 years ago I wear this with pride I am here tonight to defend the right to State science is real black lives matter love is love feminism is for everyone humans are not illegal and kindness is everything I am here to defend the right of my son that the Supreme Court of this beautiful Nation ruled in 1969 that students do not shed their constitutional rights of freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate my son is very disheartened upset and emotionally distraught that the school he needs to feel safe included and welcomed would allow such bigotry my son feels discriminated I will not stand by you see in June of 2021 the U.S Department of Education confirmed Title IX protects students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity turns out federal laws

093are handled by the office for civil rights and they tell my son and me he has rights that the ACLU will help him protect I'm not happy that a board can be so easily intimidated bullied and tyrannized by actions of a dogmatizer Mr Barako shame on you for caving into this bigotry you were supposed to protect your team you were supposed to protect my child's freedom of speech without fear of reprisal without fear of him expressing who he is you lost my confidence and all I need everyone to understand this is not a mass mandate fight these are civil rights violations my son's freedom of speech will not be trampled by some boarding dogmatizer looking to pick yet another fight I leave you with this board members fight for my son's First Amendment rights fight

094for my son to be able to say and be happy of who he is fight that this immigrant Latina mother of a gay son doesn't waste any more of your modern taxes thank you my United Nations family is the new America and we will not sit down okay hi my name is Jada Jones 1507 Churchill Drive and today I didn't come prepared with the speech because this is not my first time speaking about it this will not be my last time either and it is saddening to me that I have to speak about this black lives do matter you see my life as a political organization why is that being tried why are lgbtq plus flags being tried why is that a thing why do you have to do that like people here they want

095to express themselves when I first walked into my teachers rooms Mr Lee and Miss snuff I saw Pride flags and I was happy to see that it felt comforting to me I met new people as well that are lgbtq Plus members and they made me feel safe as a black person that goes to LC I do not make majority of the school I make up minority of that when I walk into a classroom every day I think to myself am I the only black person in this classroom sometimes I do feel unsafe I have been said things too people have said racial things to me and that nothing has been done about that I see black lives matter when I see somebody has a flag up I feel safe and I feel like that is

096a space that I can talk in that I can feel comfortable in and in the real world what are you gonna do when you see a flag up what will you do when you see that flag will the parent complain about that then can they complain to a multi-millionaire company can they plan during pride month about that flag what will you do then at this school it is hard to feel safe sometimes so just seeing that small flag up there it feels comforting to me I again did not come up with a speech like I said before this is not my first time and that is so heartbreaking like I saw my peers crying I saw my ice was crying myself I could not stand for this the fact that it's being tried to me

097is insane and I just came up here to say that that's it thank you Aiden from Kerry Court foreign Court good evening Lake Central board members and Dr vraco my name is Aiden Ace I'm a senior here at Lake Central High School when I first heard about this threat taking of taking down anything not related to the curriculum of our own high school of my heart drop my first thought wasn't about me it was about the people who expressed themselves in and out of the classroom my mom has been a part of the lgbtq community for as long as I can remember with her being a lesbian she brought one of the best stepmoms I ever could imagine into my life they as two gays parents raised me as well as any other parent in

098this world having specific views that others don't agree with doesn't make someone a bad teacher bad parent or a bad person in the classroom the teachers aren't using these things that could be quote unquote distracting to teach the younger Generations the main reason these teachers have these types of things up in their classrooms is to make their students feel comfortable in the classroom I've had Mr Lee for two years and he's never once brought up being gay in the classroom unless it is for unless it was to tell his students a little bit about himself last year I had Mrs wad she was one of the best teachers I've ever had she taught in a way that motivated people in so many ways Miss Watt and Mr Lee have preached just to be yourself even

099if you think that it is wrong or even if Society tells you what's wrong just be you that is one of the most valuable lessons I've learned through school both these teachers set such a good example on how to teach this new generation creating an atmosphere where kids feel safe makes teaching so much more valuable and interesting by not allowing teachers to express themselves through posters pictures Flags anything we not only separate our school from creating a better atmosphere in the classroom but we also violate the First Amendment rights of these teachers and students so let's make changes to what classrooms look like let's make them better for everyone in this world and most importantly let's set future generations of kids and teachers up for success and anybody and I mean anybody in this world

100look at the most influential person in my eyes Pitbull once said every day above ground is a great day remember that Jen Wilson [Applause] Jen Wilson I'm having my daughter read for me because she's much better at it but we're from 1534 Mockingbird Crown Point Indiana thank you I'm here tonight to give voice to the quiet majority who does not shout each other down the ones whose moral courage comes from treating others as we would treat ourselves the ones who remember what community is and how it strengthens us all I stand before you as a product of our schools as a parent and a former teacher I did not learn about public education from cable news or from outraged postings on Facebook I learned from the old-fashioned way by personal experience and careful research and

101by approaching questions with an open mind many of us in this room benefited from schools not afraid to offer well-rounded curriculums schools where teachers could answer students questions about the world around them without fear schools that expose us to ideas that we did not encounter in our homes none of that made us turn against our own Heritage and traditions instead it helped us better navigate this complex world we live in in calmer times none of us would want less for our children I'm so grateful for all of our public schools have to offer LC has over 200 courses to choose from options from AC AP and dual credit classes to trade and industrial courses during covid LC did their best and offered in-person or online classes our teachers worked two jobs at the same time

102and yet some people felt the need to sue our district claiming they didn't listen to parents the louder voices claiming to speak for a majority based this opinion on a survey that was given weeks before the school year started and was limited to parents with kids 12 and under I did not get to vote nor did many others their statement simply is not true now some parents cite conspiracy theories and claim to be fighting the leftist agenda they demand the removal of Pride flags and want certain books pulled from the shelves because it is so offensive so then I ask if teachers have to remove everything political and religious from their rooms then why do students recite the pledge every morning and why must we remove Pride flags for their offense when we haven't even

103changed our mascot and haven't entered the tradition of having a student dress up as an Indian in a headdress which is something actually offensive to minorities I'm asking this community to find her better selves let's trust each other and the professionals that work for our schools we must talk about difficult topics or we will not progress as a society we can teach our students to think critically but when it comes to the values identity and character of our children parents and teachers can try to shape them into the molds that we want but at the end of the day the choices beliefs and morals of our kids are entirely their own there's a true majority out there with strong moral values we do not shout and are not afraid of differences we work hard we

104build institutions and then trust them to provide growth for all 15 seconds our Public Schools make us proud resilient and offer our kids the chance at an even even better life than our own to those of you who think America's angriest political battles should be fought in school boards I want to ask do you really think that makes our schools better thank you thank you Joanne schramz [Applause] Jillian schrands good evening Jillian trans 1004 Richmond Court Dyer Indiana first I'd like to say thank you to the administration and board as I know the last couple of weeks haven't been easy while I strongly disagree with the administration's new directive there's no denying the consideration and time that what was put into it my primary objection to the new directive is that it's an overreaction to

105the complaints of a minority group and a broad Strokes policy that doesn't differentiate between a teacher's expression of political opinion which is clearly not allowed in public classrooms and visual representations of the diverse identities that make up our student body if the if the poster in question from September 19th was found to be political because the wording expressed an opinion we believe then the scope of the administration's response should have been limited to posters that clearly represent an opinion but instead of stopping there the directive removes all symbols reflecting the identities of our lgbtqia plus students I object to the administration deferring to the anti-gay minority and allowing them to determine for our whole Community what's political I want to be very clear our students identities are not inherently political inclusive displays such as Pride

106Flags or statements of support for secular human rights which reflect the identities that make up our school population are not political it's the parents in the community who are playing politics and it's my kids and our kids that are caught in the middle and support for this decision the administration is citing mayor V Monroe which is specific to teachers verbally communicating their opinions to students on topics during class time that's not what representations of identity do and a recent case in Oregon that was decided last month in which the Newburgh School Board put a policy in place restricting political and controversial displays in classrooms was struck down successfully by the ACLU due to their State's Bill of Rights which is nearly identical to Article 1 Section 9 of the Indiana state constitution the problem with

107Lake Central's sweeping ban on all lgbtq posters and flags is that it's not based on what's best for our students the 2019 National School climate survey found that lgbtqia students who could identify supportive staff through things like posters and safe space stickers were less likely to miss school had higher gpas and were less likely to say they might not graduate high school in summary they had better academic outcomes isn't that what we want for all of our students I'd ask the board and administration to revise this new policy and to limit the definition of political to materials that clearly communicate a teacher's opinion or bias and not simply restrict all posters flags and Decor that reflect the diverse identities of our student population here at Lake Central thank you Kathy kaneki [Applause] good evening Kathy

108kaneki 11448 Valley Court St John Indiana thank you uh good evening my name is Kathy konecki and this is my second board meeting my first is when my daughter received the perfect score on word Masters in third grade um I'm a resident of St John a wife to a lifelong educator and football coach a public education 8th grade history teacher and a proudly essential parent of three children who attend Watson Grimmer and Lake Central High School our children are involved in multiple things theater sports clubs and bands through the school district and we enjoy supporting all students in their extracurricular activities I wanted to speak tonight so that I could do something I'm sure not too many people would want to do I want to apologize I want to apologize to the Board of Education

109the administrators the teachers and the students of the Lake Central School District my apology comes because for two years I have watched school board meetings I have talked to teachers students and administrators and I've told them how thankful we are for their job well done but I never spoke out I have sent emails and joined text change but I have never come here I'm embarrassed because I care about our district yet my yet my absence speaks volumes the truth is I was ashamed of the parents and the community members who have dominated the board meetings with their rants misinformation disparaging remarks and awful Behavior towards the school board Administration and teachers I was I was so ashamed that I did not want to be associated with them by being in the same room instead I

110talked privately with District employees friends and community members where I found that the parents who were the loudest were in fact not the people who should be representing our community they are in fact a minority of of the district population it was not until my daughter came home distraught this past week that I finally decided I'd had enough I'm done letting other people speak for me I'm done letting others dictate school policy and atmosphere based on fear and uneducated assumptions I realized that as an educator and parent I had a duty to speak out and speak for the people who have been degraded for long enough we hear from these loud community members all about what they are against they are against Mass inclusion social and emotional well-being accurate teaching of history and equal representation

111for minority students and staff it is almost like they hate public education 15 seconds I'm done hearing what these people hate about public education I want to shift the focus to what is great about public education the inclusion of all students the critical thinking the social and emotional well-being of every student and the teachers staff and administration and board members who go above and beyond for every student to feel welcomed cared about and valued thank you Indian Coletta right my name is Indian paletta and I live at 9818 Forest Street Dyer Indiana thank you and I come tonight to speak to you guys not as a member of the lgbtq community that is a straight Ally you know all my closest friends like a lot of them I think they're all uh I think a

112lot of them are part of the lgbtq community and you know I could see the way that they are feel represented they feel represented by all these flags are in like Mr Lee's room or like wad's room and that's beautiful like straight up that's beautiful and I love that because I as like a proud Mexican man I know what it's like to be proud of who you are and like that's how I feel when I see the Mexican flags up in like Mr Perez's room or whatever because that's awesome you know and we need more of that and the fact that that has been eliminated like because of outdated and irrelevant laws hidden somewhere in some old document in Indiana like that's not what's best for the students and you guys as the board need

113to decide what is best for the Lake Central population and this is not it straight up that's not it foreign so I humbly ask you as just me as just Indian paletta for you all to go back and to think about your decision you know like I'm not saying you're wrong I'm not nothing against you guys but you know read the room [Applause] and so the majority is spoken and I have spoken the night's coming to a close you know and I just got to say you know I feel like the community showing out tonight has been wonderful you know and I appreciate everything everybody has had to say and I have I'm genuinely shocked it's because like the school board meetings in the past like I've watched them they're not pretty you know and

114I watch these I feel disheartened it's because this is my school as a student here this is my life I come here that's seven in the morning like half asleep and I spend the whole day here and you know I want to feel comfortable in this environment and I want to feel like the government of this environment has my best interests in mind and with this past decision I don't feel that way and you know like I believe that we as a student body I believe we like together as a school with administrators and of course you guys at the top at all I think we could all move on from this I think we'd all learn from it I think we could all learn to make better policy decisions and work for a better

115future together and that's all I have to say thank you thank you Lauren Bridgeman thank you hello hi Lauren Bridgeman I am a Clark Middle School teacher and I'm here on behalf of lcta which is the Lake Central Teachers Association tonight thank you um with a message for Lake Central students so teachers decorate their classrooms to share a little piece of themselves with you that sharing is a way to start a conversation to find and Foster human connection points to create a community Cubs are socks obviously Cubs my students now I hear a Purdue posters quotes and artwork are also ways to share stories of successes and struggles Triumph and tragedy as well as interesting facts and compelling ideas the message is communicated on classroom walls and bulletin boards simply remind us that we are

116all human sharing a space time and place together in a moment no matter how different we are you our students are part of those connections and those moments students we are here for you we support you we see you you are amazing and you belong despite the messages you are hearing from a very small percentage in this community this tiny portion of our community wants to see a classroom messages judged and removed even if they get their way you are worth much more than a poster a picture could ever say you always have been they may take the sayings and messages from the walls and halls but they cannot take how we the teachers and staff see you with every wave in the hallway every greeting every fist bump you will know that we are

117here care for you here to help you and nurture you're becoming we are in this with you when it comes to creating a supportive environment in school we are your biggest Advocates and no one not even a few can take away your worth or Time by restricting and rejecting sayings quotes and pictures on our four classroom walls a challenge for our students and our community when devices divisive issues like this pop up it is our responsibility to ask ourselves the question of who who benefits from removing the ideas posters artwork and quotes who benefits from controlling the exchange of ideas in a classroom and perpetrating the notion that students somehow don't have the capacity to critically think or process various viewpoints who benefits from using this community's classroom as a place to gain control by

118inventing a purposely divisive emotionally charging galvanizing issue to incite and activate others another question is why are they acting so defensive and so afraid even if it means marginalizing those in their path including you our students our staff and our community members as I stand here tonight talking to you all it has never been more evident that inclusion is what what's at stake no matter students race sexuality or gender we will never allow one student to feel marginalized left out or unsupported because as teachers it is our mission to make every student feel valued and heard and we will continue to do that as teachers in this Corporation regardless of what unjust demands may come our way thank you thank you Tim true [Applause] Tim true Kate prashan hello good evening my name is Kate

119pershon I'm at 8694 Tapper Street in St John thank you I'm a Lake Central graduate and parent I would like to start by thanking the teachers in this District who often at their own personal and professional cost in any way they can can they continue to make it clear to all of our kids that they are loved and welcomed in their classrooms so thank you I'm not only standing here for my children I'm here for all Lake Central kids all of them our school corporation is composed of black and brown children gay lesbian transgender and questioning children Muslims seek and Buddhist children immigrated and undocumented children children with physical mental and Social Challenges many many people in our community including me love respect care about and protect them we expect the same from their school

120district my kids have been fortunate here they have not been discriminated against they have not been harassed judged or excluded but if they were I would want them to know where they were safe and with whom they were safe especially at their own School I would want them to immediately know who they could trust safe inclusive signage is everywhere in the community including school districts across the country and here in Indiana they are desperately welcomed by all people who do not fit into a cultural box in their environment a child who sees these symbols feels that they can be themselves in that space they can relax and they are free to learn in that space as themselves every child deserves this the key word here is learn these signs are not detracting kids from learning

121and actually I feel it's the opposite I feel they're encouraging all kids to learn I am here to show that not everyone in our school Community feels the same way about the inclusive signage that caused such a terrible stir at the last school board meeting these signs in question along with others were prematurely removed from the classrooms and challenged by someone who did not bother to educate themselves about how prevalent and Forward Thinking inclusive safe signage is in our communities especially among our young people and our young social cultures our kids are more diverse than we give them credit for and even if your child was not represented on that sign I can guarantee that most of our kids love and care about other students who are they are classmates teammates co-workers and Friends the

122message we send by taking these signs away is that not everyone is welcome and our school and our community this is the message that will emanate from Lake Central and discourage new families from coming here I wish Lake Central was more forward-thinking to do this the same as other school districts Perry Township Washington Township Muncie Franklin Fort Wayne who proudly boast diverse inclusive statements on their District sites this is not a political issue or religious issue this is a human rights issue and human rights are for all people in a public school in a democracy thank you thank you Louise Talon thank you very much for being here this evening my name is Louise Talent 2723 Sycamore Drive Dyer Indiana my words are simple students are the most valuable resource on the planet and I

123know very much how hard you all work how hard the custodians work how hard our bus drivers work how hard our food service individuals and employees work and each one of you on this board are administrative office at central office every single one of you I know how hard people in this District work and how they are very dedicated to the most valuable resource we have thank you thank you you want to do this [Applause] hello Laura dubish St John Indiana um parents as you all know can you hear me I think I have to make it higher just tilt it up how's that better okay um well first I would like to thank Dr Morocco for addressing the concerns of so many many parents recently as well as following Indiana Law this is not

124something that the parents are dictating any portion of the parents This is Indiana Law um well Dr Rocco referenced the law from tadrakita Attorney General you can look at it yes they did not follow the law on that but that's not why I'm here um so I wanted to thank you for that it's progress on a separate topic I'd like to address something important I think everyone likes to have the truth so they can draw conclusions accordingly at least I would hope this to be the case there seems to be a big disconnect in the interpretations of what occurred regarding LC's math decision in August 21. uh-huh and it's relevant because of some Facebook Twitter talk please yeah let's let's uh not shout out and try to drown up the clock for a second Terry

125please everybody was quiet up until this point and you may not agree with what the speaker is saying but let's respect and be quiet until it's done thank you thank you and it's interesting which side is the beliefs it really is uh our side was quiet so there's a disconnect here so everything I'm about to say I have the documents and proof The Mask issue was resolved on August 2nd meeting and voted unanimously 5-0 to return to school mask optional I have your own board meeting minutes here whoever wants a copy come see me message me and I'm happy to give the board a copy so I have the attachments I also have an August 3rd email correspondence between superintendent Morocco and board members it states there is no misunderstanding mask optional return to school

126I have that email here as well my purpose is not to rehash all of this my purpose is the truth is important I think the teachers wanted the truth I think parents on both sides wanted the truth everybody wants the truth as for the county level it was yellow on August 2nd and it was yellow on August 6th and it was yellow for four weeks four weeks more I have the county data sheets right here as well to prove it so there was no need at all for an emergency meeting that disallowed public comment you were advised that it would turn orange any day but that Source was never verified which turned out not to be credible there was no difference in data of masked optional schools and now that we have all the data

127the data is easily accessible then there was from Mass mandated schools your emailed the comparison using school specific data for the height of the biggest covid case wave on February 3rd of 22 between Crown Point and LCSC there was a virtual seconds there was virtually no difference LC had six percent more cases but also exactly six percent higher population I have that data as well I sincerely hope that moving forward board members will not just be receptive and seek the truth but we'll analyze the data given to them by concerned parents and base their decisions on it thank you okay thank you can I please have permission please chairman Lena Miller Luna Miller can I saying that right Lena sorry I get to follow that so that's great um Lino Miller 9695 Genevieve Drive um

128I wrote something but I'll keep this really short the kids have done well enough representing themselves here tonight the only thing I'd like to discuss is the at the last board meeting when this was all brought up there was one individual that was called out by name for comment we all know why we're here we're here because there's an election in three weeks and no other reason these signs have been up in classrooms for years they didn't care it wasn't addressed where the sign originated from whose classroom it was in the only comment they wanted was from one board member who was up for re-election we all know why we're here so I'll leave it at that the real reason that I came up here tonight was just to say something to these kids we

129will protect you not from nonsense like a poster not from yourselves because you are amazing but from bullies not just narrow-minded peers that walk these halls but from shameful bigots who walk around with a mouthful of scripture and a Heart full of hate that wish to erase you so to these kids just know they can take down Flags they can try to push you back in the closet but please just know and remember we see you you are loved and we got your back thank you Teresa I.E theresae okay come on Sherry true good evening good evening um Dr Rocco I'd like to thank you very much for ex actually looking into my request of figuring out if the poster was inappropriate or not and I appreciate that you taking action against it um for

130probably over two years now I've emailed the board with no responses I've sent you several emails and I've never ever got a response except from you Dr Morocco after I've asked you for a follow-up and I appreciate that so when everyone says that our voices are heard in this District it's not a comforting fact when I send emails to the board and I never get a response and so when people say you don't this isn't the right place to bring something up in a public forum well it is because you have not addressed my concerns privately over the years that I have brought them to you and so if you are not going to address my concerns as a parent and as a taxpayer I understand that there's different sides of issues but it doesn't

131mean that I don't have the right to come here and express my opinion and I just like to end with this is the parents Bill of Rights you have the right and expectation to question and address your child's school officials via letter electronic communications in-person meetings you have the right to attend public designated meetings with proper notice and meetings provided you have the right and expectation to question and review curriculum taught in your child's school by questioning your local school board and administrators during public comment periods of publicly designated meetings you have the right and expectation that the academic curriculum taught in your child's School aligns with Indiana and federal law you have the right and expectation to participate in the selection and approval of academic stand standards of the state of Indiana you have

132the right and expectation to access educational materials and curriculum taught to your child in the classroom you have the right as a candidate to run for your local school board you have the right to make decisions regarding vaccinations and ammunitions for your child you have the right and expectation to make medical decisions on the behalf of your child you have the right and expectation to receive your child's student health records and you have the right to receive special education services on behalf of your child with a disability so I would just like to say that these rights are given to us by the law in Indiana and I appreciate that you guys are following them now and I hope that we can have open dialogue more and I hope when I email you in the

133future that we can discuss these things and we can get them resolved in a timely and appropriate matter thank you thank you Angela Spencer 9475 Genevieve Drive St John Indiana um I think I want to like thank everybody for coming today because these kids really put a lot of thought into their speeches tonight and I can definitely appreciate that coming from a mom that's a junior that has friends in my backyard that are every nationality and and every gender um we're not here to to dispute them not in any way shape or form what we've always wanted from this board is to come together for agreements we've never gotten that when the masks came out we actually attended a meeting and we were shut down there was there was no open dialogue there wasn't any

134any honest conversations um points were not being heard um that's not what else she should be about we should be listening to these kids we should be listening to the other kids we should be coming together unified as a district we're the fourth largest District in the state of Indiana and this is what we have I mean Dr varaco this is this is what you are developing right now you are developing a decisive room where it's one side versus the other and that's not what we are about we're not about that we need to come together I get that I get that we should be able to love who we want to love we should be able but that's also in the same token that ha there has to be a line drawn when these

135kids go into class it needs to it needs to be about the education right now I'm looking at the at the Department of Education right now our core 40 we're below State average right now honors graduating we are below State and we are below other schools like ours SAT scores we're not even there ACT scores we're getting our butts kicked by Crown Point so what can we do what can we do to come together and make it a safe environment for all students every single one I don't want to see this girl crying because she was getting bullied and the administration did nothing about it so what can what can we do to come together as an agreement to get back to the academics to get our kids graduating with honors what is your what

136is your action plan going to be foreign but the flag is not defining you you and the relationships hold on you all right that you develop defined you a flag please address the board please 15 seconds well I'm just saying you the characters like their relationships that they develop in the classroom that's what defines a person a group doesn't define a person BLM doesn't define a person you define yourself and the and the relationships that you create time you define yourself thank you Melissa Ramos [Applause] good evening Melissa Ramos my pronouns are she her I reside at 1746 burgundy Street in Schererville Indiana thank you I'm the parent of a seventh grade grammar student my third and youngest to go through the Lake Central system I have co-authored and facilitated a number of diversity and

137inclusion training sessions for faculty staff and students throughout the Purdue system where I work this fall I spoke on the phone with Terry mucho and asked if the district offers or requires diversity inclusion training for anyone and I was told the program had been put on hold since the pandemic I've also heard nothing since at this time I'd like to publicly reiterate the offer I made to Ms mucha during that call I offer my time and knowledge in this area on a volunteer basis to revive a diversity and inclusion framework offering to all of Lake Central because clearly it's lacking earlier today after school my latinx transgendered child told me about a minimum of 8 to 10 individual peers who had bullied him in the course of one school day today this happens on a

138regular basis the data is clear lgbtq kids are depressed they are self-harming they are suicidal at a significantly higher rate than their straight peers removing the affirming symbols that make a public school a safe space for these guys is the same as bullying and it's enabling further bullying thank you protected classes now we're trying to talk now we're going to talk about federal law protected classes are things like race religion family status ability status what I'm talking about today sex and gender gender identity gender expression is a protected class in itself these flags are not a political statement and the parent who and as the parent who complained would have the school board believe they ensure diversity and inclusion a sense of belonging diversity is a reality not an issue to be debated lgbtq people

139are protected by federal statute but more than that we are failing our children if we're not encouraging them to actively include all people aren't we if you feel otherwise if you think I'm wrong then perhaps public education is not the best choice for you 15 seconds because at the public schools civil rights my child and everyone's child civil rights supersede any of your ideology put the flags back up do better Elsie Robert Starkey what blanket here in that I don't have anything to talk about this topic that everybody's so passionate about so so I don't expect any Applause um this is I wanted to give a brief update on um what the town of dire is doing Robert Starkey 509 Northgate Dyer Town Council president um I'd like to acknowledge Alan Brooks Alicia Myers in

140here thank you guys for coming out um let's see here I have four quick topics I'll go with the schools that we have in Dyer for bibbage the southwest corner of the intersection at heart and 81st has been a hazard for years Frisco buses and drivers Dyer has partnered with Lake County to purchase an easement we worked with NIPSCO and Comcast to move the utilities so we could widen that intersection if you guys have been down there you'll see it's some new uh work down there makes it much safer for the school buses to go by in 2024 2025 we have a plan to add a lane down 81st on the north side of it to help with traffic coming out of bibbage so that's what we've got going on in bibbage um protzman we

141are currently completing some repaving work on Jackson and 211th these streets are behind protzman outside of Door L oftentimes that's used as a a rear exit for the children to just go into the community so what we're doing is we put some some new Ada ramps on there we're marking the entire area making it no parking putting up some pedestrian signs just to make that area on the town side safer for the kids to exit into the community um Dyer Parks we'll be partnering with the protzman HSA in their efforts to swap out the mulch for a pour in place surface our goal is to have the dyer parks department purchase that in bulk to lower the rate for everyone so we'd like to do that for prodsmen at kaler anybody who's driving down 30

142right now knows what a pain the construction is we are working with the state on an indot project to install brand new Ada Crossings in front of kaler um again the the traffic's awful but once it's done that'll be good um a future note I haven't seen I was up there I haven't seen any of the council members for any of the other communities in here and so again that's why I think Alan and Alicia for being here uh next up after what I'm assuming will be more comments you have a future items section I think maybe at some point adding a bullet point not every month maybe not every quarterly but at some point to have the municipal leaders come in here and talk about how we can be better partners with the school

143district and how the school district can help the communities um so that's that's my version of an update of what Dyer is doing for the the dire uh the schools in dire on a personal note 15 seconds oh I'll be I'll beat like 20 but I'll talk fast on a personal note new three minutes on a personal note uh you guys been listening to this pick up your pencils I've got a couple names I have a first grader in Crosman and I want each of you to acknowledge miss Mom miss Morales Miss Jail uh Miss Kessler the administrators where's Peter it's still time thank you they're making the difference thank you Dante gremolian foreign if we haven't learned over the past three years to not take blanken's statements such as trusts of science or we

144are doing what the national board of education and or County Health Commissioners telling us mentality board members Educators politicians and the like are going to have to do some serious soul searching for what they allow to happen over these past few years I Say Never Again the issue of political and religious speech is a complex issue that includes the school board's decision to mandate mask we say this and we talk about how do we ever think that a piece of cloth would divide people it did science is proving that masks were not working and we're learning from that we've heard trust to science over decades and it proves to be wrong over time so I hear students here that are politically engaged and I celebrate that they have the right to do that and I

145encourage the teachers that got all of these students here to encourage these guys to contact their local politicians I want to commend the board for talking with legal doing what is right according to your fiduciary responsibility in doing that but that being said for these students here that are outraged talk to their parents talk to those that can vote and make a difference with your politicians that being said it only turned a mask into a quasi-religious de facto political symbol that sends a message along the lines of I believe kindness is everything or I believe in safety above all else for those who do not believe that kindness and safety are virtues above all else being forced to wear a mask is no different than asking an atheist if we were forced to wear a

146cross when the people on the school board finally realize this things have to change and so as I look at this you look at school boards around the country to remove A Book Like To Kill a Mockingbird which depicts racism and bigotry in the harm of perverting the foundational belief that all men are created equal before the bar of justice and the consequences of doing what right and living proud of that you are allowing The Grooming of children in some of these libraries across the country whether you want to say that or not these are facts that really do exist and so your fiduciary responsibility is to allow my child to come in and to learn math to learn Reading Writing to learn the the gift of critical thought and all that being a side

147differences apart whatever we want to say of these political organizations BLM lgbtqi inclusivity diversity is they are politically motivated and so the job the job or the the job of the board here is to glean discern and understand decisions that require critical thought and how do we come together as having different political opinions and ideologies and doing what's right by the students the students if you want to do something contact your legislation thank you Vanessa Welty [Applause] [Laughter] hello Vanessa Welty 888 Hanley Court Crown Point first I would like to speak directly to any lgbtq students in attendance I just want you to know that you are seen and supported there have always been people like you and there will always be people like you you are fortunate in the fact that you are growing

148up at a time of Rapid change our society is putting in place legal protections for you most notably the Supreme Court decision obergefel V Hodges which made same-sex marriage the law of the land I know I don't have to tell you that discrimination that still exists but I have seen a seismic shift in a positive direction since I was a child stay strong Live Your Truth and be happy you will find your tribe if you haven't already next I would like to speak directly to any lgbtq teachers or staff in attendance I just want you to know that I trust you to teach and work with my children thank you for choosing a profession that can often be undervalued nobody goes into teaching to get rich they do it out of love for Learning and

149a love for kids I know most parents are grateful for the essential work you do every day I have three sons who have been educated within the Lake Central School Corporation from kindergarten at pifer through High School in this very building I am confident they have acquired the skills character and temperament necessary to live happy productive lives my husband and I have worked hard to make that happen but so did many LC staff members and I want to recognize that finally I would like to speak directly to the board and Dr varaco I'm very disappointed that teachers and staff are being forced to remove rainbow Flags they are non-invasive they are a non-invasive message to a group of people who had been historically marginalized and I personally find it laughable that anyone would find Roy

150G Biv offensive but I also realize that you are being forced into a no-win situation if you were to allow the flags to stay you're probably exposing yourselves and the district to yet another round of frivolous lawsuits which would waste even more taxpayer resources I'd like to I'd like to let you know that this topic is personal for me growing up my favorite uncle Erwin was openly gay when you have someone who you love in your life who is gay it is extremely difficult to watch them be on the receiving end of hateful homophobic Behavior Uncle Erwin was kind generous successful and Brilliant but none of these qualities or accomplishments could Shield him from the intolerance in others and this has instilled in me a great deal of empathy with the lgbtq community and empathy

151I see 15 seconds sorely lacking in other folks even today they can make you take down some of these flags but they're not going to push you back in the closet Jennifer brother [Applause] good evening my name is Jennifer Prather and I live at 4919 Heron Drive in Schererville thank you I am specifically talking about the poster that was mentioned at the last board meeting um and I will be following somewhat closely a script I believe that one weakness of the poster is that it shuts down Socratic discussion and critical thinking it declares We Believe by not allowing each student to choose which of these statements he or she agrees or doesn't agree with it promotes Collective collectivism rather than individualism the second weakness of this poster is that it is vague in attempt to

152gain Universal support while maintaining that students let me see maintain student ignorance of the true nature of these ideologies so um this one specific one is the um black lives matter this poster combines the raised fist along with the slogan black lives matter the race slogan has a sordid history as and is connected to communism and Marxism and I do have the the documentation the articles that that support of this and I I'd like to go off of one article that said how how one woman's yard sign can become a rallying cry for allies and the first the first point is the story behind a simple list of beliefs that turned into the most enduring symbol of anti-tr anti-trump resistance so this version of the original did originate and was birthed the day after Donald

153Trump was made president of the United States and according to this article as a political Creed it is more bold and memorable than anything the Democratic party has come up with in the last four years that I don't know and although this um this poster States in this classroom originally it did stay 15 seconds in this home we we believe and so I do believe that um if you want to see the article you can but it is a political Creed and therefore the poster should be it's timed thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you my name is Mike Miele kovachovich I'm a first generation American citizen my parents legally moved here from a communist country and I'm watching America go down in fire okay my parents taught me about communism socialism Marxist everyone

154who came up to this microphone doesn't know what clue about Marxism until they come up or experience it themselves now for for the sign that was in a poster I was quiet for all you guys I expect the same respect for me taxes pay for school they don't you don't send your children to come here to express themselves you send your children to school to learn an education so they can be functioning adults in society so they don't need a pillow or a safe space to cry if someone picks or says we don't like how you did your report go and you're going to cry in a corner so first okay science well you guys said science isn't real you didn't believe masks I provided documented proof from legal uh 3M corporation that mass do

155not stop viruses okay so there's our science isn't real BLM it's a Marx Society ideology all of you on the board should be ashamed of yourselves because all three members founders of BLM have openly expressed that your Marxist organizers how come you haven't seen the videos you guys are you guys are in charge of our children's education and you are the most uninformed people I've ever seen in in this area Okay so BLM okay so to say black lives matters what about Serbian lives matter I don't see a Serbian month and Nikola Tesla provided everything here where's the serving lives matter or where's where's the serving lives month okay I know we're not yelling racism in America there's no racism in America how do I know because I'm a first generation immigrant son and I

156have to watch news how a black person in Chicago has to put bleach and wear a red hat so they can stage and and say that all Republicans and current servants are racist that's BS okay we prove that there's no racism okay when you guys say love is a love that means you're supporting pedophilia if you are under for more unfor if you are if you are unformed if you are unformed pedophilia uses a slogan Called Love Is Love and now they are trying to push minor attracted persons if you're unfamiliar with this term as people as Leaders of in our education I expect you to look it up I was quiet please respect me I'll be done very shortly when you guys say feminism is for everybody the feminist movement pushed abortions that killed

157black babies all across this country why is there a Planned Parenthood in every black neighborhood okay the doctor the book according to America okay fine well what about the time them booing me no one can hear me ma'am Cindy 15 seconds the position who pushed for abortion wrote a book called aborting America all right are you are you serious that's why I'm mad is 15. you still have 10 seconds 15 seconds 10. the doctor who pushed the abortions under Roe versus raid his name is Dr Bernard Nathanson you could try to find his book but I guarantee you it's going to cost you it cost me over 200 it's called a boarding America written in 1979. he said he was wrong and he's the one who pushed it thank you it's time Amy Barry thank

158you my name is Amy Berry I live in St John can you hear me my name is Amy Berry I live in St John uh that's a Tucka act to follow uh actually everybody is a really tough act to follow I thought the students did a really great job thank you uh as you can tell from my shirt I am an ally so I do disagree with the decision that's been made to remove posters however I also agree that you're in a tough spot because of the laws and that's really evident by what has been shared so I think I know how this is going to end but I would just encourage anybody who's in this room especially seniors who might be 18 there is an election coming up and everybody needs to vote not

159and I'm not just talking about there's only one person on the board that's up for re-election and I don't know how she feels so it's not even against you or for you but I'm just saying in general the only way that we're going to change the laws in this state is to vote so that's for everybody in the audience to vote vote vote and really thank you for your time and I know this isn't an easy position that's been a lot over the last few years especially with kovitz so appreciate your time um but yeah everybody did uh great tonight so with that we'll move on to board comments in consideration of future agenda items Dr Michael we'll start with you [Laughter] well I would agree with the last speaker it was it was good

160to hear the comments it's frustrating as you know to not be able to fix it so everybody's happy but that's the way the world is today and um I I thank you young students for coming out and expressing your views I think that's really good and and that's what happens when we give students the opportunity to be strong individuals and we guide them and I know some of that guidance has happened to school and it happens at home and it happens with your friends so um thanks for grabbing that opportunity a very very very special date is November 5th that's a Saturday morning that's when the Education Foundation is doing a walk in support of Our Heroes did you oh it's a walker run I thought she was telling me time I was going to

161get mad about that one okay so November 5th is at Lake Central High School and it is honor of Our Heroes now the hero that we started this with last year is Dana Les she was a student at bibbage kaler graduated from Lake Central Pharmacy student at Purdue she's one of the two gals that was um basically gunned down when she was at the hospital doing her Pharmacy internship at his Hospital on the south side of Chicago so from that love that we have for Dana and she loved running that's why this all happened the Rhonda honor Dana but now we're expanding it into any Heroes so if your grandfather was in the military and you want to honor him come bring him or you can just walk and do it in memory of him

162or in honor of him so think really deep think about your Heroes it might be teachers after what I've heard tonight it might be teachers so again reach out it's not an expensive walk run but it is the morning of November 5th that's a Saturday and I believe the next day is the fallback day so you have an extra hour to rest right okay thank you thank you Dr Madeline first of all I'd like to think just about everyone who spoke tonight it is really impacted me in my thoughts I did prepare some thoughts for the evening I will keep them very short personally I was extremely upset at the last board meeting when a parent took issue with inclusive signing promoting kindness that was posted by a teacher Dr varaco responded by saying that

163black lives matter and Nicole Kelly said that she believes that kindness is everything that made me happy however I was not elected to this board to push my personal feelings I was elected to work with the board as we are a voice of five not one and to keep an open mind which I'm certainly keeping my mind open tonight as well with the best interests of students at the Forefront always therefore I had to listen to what Dr varaco said during tonight's meeting and consider it as well as the advice of our lawyers many of you have rightly argued posting black lives matter in lgbtq Rainbow Flags is not engaging in politics but instead walking everyone to class I personally agree with you unfortunately Indiana courts have a record of not agreeing Dr varaco the

164administration board staff and teachers across the corporation want every student to feel welcome that's the best reason for Lake Central to develop its own messaging we can be created in united in this effort to promote caring and kindness through Lake Central posters we will not let hate rule our school love and inclusivity will prevail [Applause] Kelly I have a few things to say um first and foremost I want to commend the students who are courageous enough and brave enough to come out here and speak it's not easy to get in front of a crowd and speak um the next thing I'd like to say is we want all of our kids to feel included safe and respected could you speak up we can't hear you sir I can't I can't move it any faster or

165any closer closer thank you um so anyways to recap I want to commend the students that were brave enough to come out here and speak not an easy thing to do we want all of our students to feel included safe and respected in our schools and in our community it is my hope that all staff and students will continue to support each other in the absence of flags and posters in the classrooms it is unfortunate that a group launched a campaign against this type of acceptance but it is what it is and we have to follow the statutes and the guidelines that the states give us with that being said I would like to make a suggestion to our teachers specifically our art teachers to possibly add a poster project to your class I was

166quiet why everybody else spoke please give me the same respect back to what I was saying um let's try to come up with a symbol that doesn't have any political or religious connotations to it that will promote inclusivity and something that when our students enter a room they see it and they know they have a safe place a safe teacher to talk to and they are accepted thank you thank you Mr Marshall thank you Madam Secretary can can everyone hear me I have to stretch out on this microphone it's got a very short cord I like to reiterate a lot of what my fellow board members have mentioned um the one important aspect of the evening that really has hit home to me is a sense of pride a pride in hearing a lot of

167the speakers tonight because they resonate with my personal beliefs what we have to finally realize and come to some conclusion as a school board is do we emphasize personal beliefs or do we follow case law legislators are are esteemed attorney general who I find myself disagreeing with more and more each day on some of his pronouncements uh or do we just continue to go the direction that we're going uh I appreciate the comments that have been made this evening I think they're important and you've just reinforced my sense of pride in all of you thank you for coming out thank you and I have to agree with my fellow board members and I appreciate every single one of you coming out tonight and to your parents are raising great humans thank you and with that

168we'll turn it over to Dr Morocco for Board calendar and future activities thank you our next meeting is the eve of the election November 7th we'll be back here that night thanks all right motion for adjournment motion to adjourn second all in favor