School Board Meeting - March 18, 2025

001[Music] Good evening. It is March 18th, 2025. The time is 18:03 and I'm calling this uh meeting of the Frederick County School Board to order. Madame Vice Chair, what is the pleas Well, we have a agenda before us. What is the pleasure of the board? Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the agenda before us. Second. We have a motion to approve and it has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Uh, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? We have an agenda now. Madame vice chair, what is the pleasure of the board? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the county school board of Frederick County, Virginia, enter a close session meeting for the following. To review and discuss appointments, administrative leave, leave of absence, recisions, resignations, support staff

002hires, substitutes, tutors, and volunteers pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711, 2-3711 paragraph A.1 and to review and discuss individual student matters that would involve specific students and particular information contained in their scholastic records including request for release from compulsory attendance for religious reasons pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 A.2 and for consultation with legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable litigation pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 2-3711 paragraph A7. Okay, we have a motion to go into close session. Do we have a second? Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? We are now in close session. [Music] That's pretty, isn't it? How does he do that? Scared the crap out of me. It's one of my joys

003of life. All right. I vice chair. What's the pleasure of the board? Mr. Chair, I move that the board reconvene from close session. Second. Okay. It's been a motion to reconvene and has been properly seconded. Are is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor. We need to call the role. Oh, I'm sorry, Madam Clerk. Call the role on it. Miss Martin, I. Mr. Bell, I. Mr. Sturdivan, yes. I Mr. Klein, I. Dr. Erskin, I. Mr. Atkins, I Okay, we And Mr. Share, I I move that the to the best of each board member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act were discussed in the closed session and only such public public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the

004closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered by the school board. Second. Okay. Motion's been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? Madam Clerk Atkins I. Dr. I I Mr. Sturdivan I Mr. Bell I Miss Martin I motion passes motion passes and Mr. Chair I move that the board recess recess its meeting until 700 p.m. Second. It's been uh motion to recess until 1900 and has been properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. We are recessed until 1900 hours. [Music] All right, we are returning from close or from recess. Madam vice chair, what's the pleasure of the board? Mr. Chair, I move that the board reconvene its meeting. Second. All right, it's been motioned to reconvene and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I.

005I. Any opposed? We're back in session. And Mr. Chair, we have two motions out of close session. The first, I move to approve the personal actions as recommended by the superintendent. Second. It has been motioned to approve and properly seconded. Any discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. And Mr. Chair, I move to approve the release of student A from compulsory attendance. Second. It's been motioned and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That carries. And that concludes the motions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. [Applause] All right. Uh, please join me in a moment of silence. Tonight, we would like to hold the minute of silence in honor of Faith Johnson, one of our students who passed

006away and Mrs. Jan Gazer, an instructional assistant who passed away recently. So, join me in a moment of silence if you would please. Thank you for that. Now, if you would uh uh I ask everyone who is able to stand for the pledge of allegiance tonight. We are being led in the pledge by please. I I hope I get this right. Anthony, is it Lucy? Luciani. Luchiani. Sorry. Uh four time state wrestling champion. Yes. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. Next is our consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? And yes, sir, we already did that, but I believe Mr. Bell volunteered to

007read the proclamation. That's the only thing we have left. Yep. Um, no, we didn't approve agenda. Sorry about that. Okay. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that we that we approve the consent agenda. Second. Okay. It's been motioned and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? We have an agenda. Next up is Mr. Pry. I'm sorry. That's okay. Nobody wants to hear me talk. All right. Uh the proclamation for this evening is it is public school volunteer week uh in April 21st through 25th of 2025. Whereas the public school volunteers contribute unselfishly to the success of Frederick County public schools students, teachers, and support staff. And whereas school volunteers support students and teachers inside and beyond the classroom in many ways, regardless of the

008hour and without monetary gain. And whereas school volunteers act dependably, creatively, and collaboratively to accomplish whatever tasks they are assigned. And whereas school volunteers stretch school district resources to ensure that all Frederick County students receive an excellent education. And whereas school volunteers exhibit care, model the best in citizenship, and create a climate that fosters learning and a love of education. And whereas thousands of volunteers are spending countless hours serving Frederick County public schools as chaperones, mentors, afterchool tutors, club leaders, booster club members, PTA PTO members, guest speakers, classroom helpers, and in countless other ways. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Frederick County School Board hereby declares the week of April 21st through 25th, 2025 as public school volunteer week and urges all citizens to become aware of the volunteer opportunities available with Frederick County

009Public Schools and to recognize the dedication and hard work of local volunteers serving students and staff in our schools. s dated this 18th day of March, 2025. All right, we're doing the approval of minutes now. That's all. I guess that's student. All right. Next up is student and staff recognitions and I will turn it over to Dr. Hummer at this time. All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Good evening everyone and welcome to our awards of excellent program portion of our schoolboard meeting this evening. Before we proceed, I would like to ask that everyone stay here through the entire program out of respect for each individual who is being recognized. Once we have completed all of the presentations, you will have an opportunity to leave and enjoy the rest of your evening. In addition,

010when you come forward for your certificate, please take a moment to pause with Mr. Sturdivan and myself down front for a photograph and then move to your right at the front and we'll take a photo of students and coaches if you're being recognized as a team. So with that, I'll have Mr. Sturdivan and I come down to the floor. Thank you. Earlier this month, Shirando High School student Noah Harris participated in the VHSL class 4 state indoor track and field championships at Liberty University. Noah won the VHSL class 4 state track championship in the high jump event. Congratulations [Applause] In March, students from Jameswood and Shirando high schools traveled to Richmond, Virginia to participate in the VHSL class 4 state swim championships. Sharando High School student Toby Winston is a VHSL state champion in the

011100meter freestyle. Toby is coached by Christine Welch and Alexa White. Congratulations. [Applause] In March, students from Jameswood and Shirando high schools participated in the VHS SL Class 4 state wrestling championships in Virginia Beach. The results are as follows. Jameswood High School student Hayden Black won the state championship in the 106B weight class. And we'd also like to recognize head coach Corey Krenshaw tonight. [Applause] Sharando High School student Anthony Luchiani won the state championship in the 138 pound weight class. Anthony has won the VHSL class 4 state wrestling wrestling championship for four consecutive years. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Congratulations. Next up we have the Apple Award. And the Apple Award is given to a teacher who achieves something which is which significantly contributes to their school and community, uses creative or innovative instructional techniques, or goes above

012and beyond for the student. The Apple Award this month goes to Mrs. Rebecca Dinger, Armell Elementary School Music Teacher. [Applause] A parent shared an email recognizing her extraordinary dedication in preparing students for the Vogue Children's Coral Festival held in January. By sacrificing personal family time for afterchool rehearsals, Mrs. Dinger enabled students to excel, pushing them to grow musically and develop perseverance. [Applause] Congratulations. The inspiration award is given to a staff member who did something inspirational for the students, staff, parents, or community as a whole. The recipient of this month's inspiration award is Miss Elena Bryant. [Applause] Miss Bryant is the administrative assistant and registar at Jameswood Middle School. Miss Bryant was nominated by a staff member who shared that Elena Bryant is an absolute champion for our school and truly embodies what it means to

013be a bulldog. Elena on paper is just our registar but really does so much more. Not only does she make registration a breeze, she is the glue that holds our front office together. Elena is the epitome of what it means to be a servant leader and she does it all with a smile on her face. We would truly be lost without Elena. She is invaluable, an invaluable asset dedicated to supporting the entire school community. Congratulations [Music] [Applause] Can I go ahead, Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. Please do. Next up is admin appointments. So, first up is our new executive director of finance, Mrs. Kristen Anderson. And if you can come on up please and join me in a round of [Applause] applause. Mrs. Anderson is transitioning from the assistant director position as well as recently as

014the interim which we greatly appreciate her work. Prior to her role as the assistant director of finance, she was the budget supervisor for FCPS for 12 years and a financial analyst and accountant for Fiser Scientific for four years. She has a bachelor's of business administration from Avet University and a master of business administration from Shannondoa University. Um she also is certified administrator of school finance and is certified in Virginia school business through the Virginia Association of School Officials. Please join me again in welcoming Mrs. [Applause] Anderson. It's a tough act to follow our students and staff awards. So, I'll be brief. Um, I look forward to continuing our work for in service of our students, our staff, our families, and ultimately our community. So, thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you.

015Next up, I would like to call up Bethany Krauss as our new assistant principal at Apple Pie Ridge. Give her a round of applause. Spouse moves into this role as the assistant principal of Apple Pie Ridge from her current position as an intervention resource teacher that she's held since 2021. Prior to her time as an IRT, Mrs. Krauss was a kindergarten teacher at Apple Pie Ridge for 11 years and she holds a bachelor's in education prek6 from Shepard University and a master's in educational leadership from James Madison University. Please join me again in welcoming Mrs. Krauss. Welcome. Um, so I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for um, you know, allowing me to step into this position. Um, I love Apple Pie Ridge and I've been there for a long time and

016I love the families and the staff um, and especially the students. And when I began my leadership journey, I wasn't sure where it was going to take me and a door opened up and I am very very excited um to serve that community um as the assistant principal um and and still be a part of of of that family. So, thank you very much. [Applause] All right. And last but not least, we'll call up Mr. Jay Campbell as a new program director at ENRE. Please come on up, Mr. Jay Campbell. Mr. Campbell moves into this role from his current position as an assistant program administrator at ENREP that he's held since 2022. Prior to his role as the assistant program administrator, Mr. Campbell was the senior lead teacher at ENREP for one year and a

017lead teacher and behavioral specialist at ENREP for 17 years. Mr. Campbell also served as a teacher at NREEP and DAL J for 21 years and was a POD officer at Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center for 2 years. Mr. Campbell holds a bachelor of science in psychology from Shannidoa University, a masterers of arts in special education from the University of Mary Washington, and a certificate in educational leadership from James Madison University. Please join me again in welcoming Mr. J. Campbell. Mr. Chair, member of the B members of the board, Dr. Hummer, um I will keep it brief. Just wanted to thank you guys for the opportunity to continue doing what I do, working hard for the amazing students, families, and staff of ENREP in this ext and this expanded leadership role. And again, I thank you

018for the opportunity. Thank you so much. And that is all, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. All right. At this time, we are going to allow those that wish to leave the opportunity to do so. So, we'll take about five minutes here for everyone that wishes to leave to do so. Maybe won't take five minutes. [Music] Okay. Wonderful. [Music] All right. Next up is citizen comments. The Frederick County School Board is pleased to receive public comments at each monthly meeting from members of the public which include residents of Frederick County, Virginia, including residents of Winchester City, FCPS students, parents, and legal guardians of FCPS students, FCPS employees, and businesses located within Frederick County, Virginia. Individuals speaking to the board will be allotted three minutes. Those individuals representing groups or organizations will be allotted five minutes with

019one representative per group. Upon recognition by the chair, a speaker should approach the lectern to speak to the school board. Members of the audience and speakers are expected to be courteous to others and model for students how to respectfully participate in public meetings by speaking and behaving in such a manner that addresses or that adheres to FCPS code of student conduct. Complaints regarding FCPS employees should first be submitted to the school principal or the schoolboard office. Complaints regarding individual students should be submitted to the school principal or the appropriate school official. School board is committed to showing respect and courtesy to all citizens. Comments that are not protected under the first amendment amendment of the US constitution will not be tolerated. This includes comments that are vulgar, obscene, threatening, and comments that are intended to

020incite violence or other breaches of the peace. Members of the audience are not permitted to interrupt the speaker or meeting by asking questions or making comments. Signs, posters, placards, banners, or like objects are permitted into the school board's meeting, but only if the individual possessing such item remain in the back of the room so as not to restrict the view of those attending the meeting in person. Violations of the guidelines will result in the chair ruling the speaker out of order. Continued violation may result in removal from the premises. We have provided copies of the updated policy as well as a QR code that will take you directly to the code of code of student conduct handbook. They are located on the table where the signup sheet was located. Chair has a discretion concerning public

021participation at schoolboard meetings. Schoolboard meetings are tape recorded for the purpose of clarification and development of official minutes. First on the list is Janie Derby. Good evening, community members, parents, and members of the school board. I'm Janie Derby, a resident of Bat Creek District, a seat that will be open in 2027. I'm here to speak against any proposed book ban. I believe this ban represents a serious misallocation of resources and a fundamental misunderstanding of both parental rights and student safety. First, let's acknowledge the reality of our situation. Around 22 families out of our district's 14,000 students have opted out of having access to certain books. That's less than 2% of our student population. The solution already exists. parents can opt out. Those 22 families exercise their parental rights, but what about the rights of the

022other 99.8% of families who want their children to have access to diverse literature? We talk about parental rights, but a ban doesn't enhance rights, it removes them. A true commitment to parental choice means allowing each family to decide what's appropriate for their children, not having that decision made for everyone by a vocal minority. The statistics are clear. When we look at who statistically poses risk to children's safety, it isn't the authors of diverse books or the topics they cover. If we're truly making decisions based on statistics and safety patterns, we should acknowledge that children are vastly more likely to be harmed by people in positions of authority and trust than by exposure to a book discussing gender gender identity. Not every family has access to public libraries. School libraries are sometimes the only source of

023books for children in our community. By removing these books, we are not protecting children. We're limiting their world and their understanding of it. I urge this board to respect the rights of all parents to choose what's appropriate for their own children and to refocus our collective energy on addressing the real threats to student welfare in our district. Thank you very much, Ryan Nuring. Good evening, members of the board, chairman. My name is Brian Nur, a resident of the OPEC district, a seat open for election in 2027. Why is this board entertaining policy that far exceeds the scope of its responsibilities? This board has bigger issues to handle than books, you know, like a fourth high school. But I guess now we have to worry about this so that we can be the laughingstock of even

024more school systems in Virginia. I mean, it's nothing like actually representing students and their needs, right? When policy 304P was passed, this board saw it as the best way to comply with state law and to provide parents an opportunity to safeguard their children from offensive books without keeping other kids from the same materials. So why does this board feel the need to reinvent the wheel here? because of an adult bullying them into action. Never mind the fact that you're opening the door to bullies in our own schools. I had the parent of a student reach out to me and tell me about her daughter who's bisexual and the bullying that she and her peers receive as as a result of just being kids who don't fit in. While in middle school, two of her friends

025were sitting in the library working when another kid who was acting out was told to sit with these two I'm sorry, Miss Martin. Are we boring you? Thank you. we're sitting with these girls. And another kid who was told who was acting out was told to sit with them. He replied, I don't want to sit with these Another student at that same school was harassed repeatedly for standing up for her queer friends. And in both cases, no disciplinary outcomes. With the previously passed flag policy, there are students that don't readily see many spaces that are safe for them to congregate in FCPS. This board has already made it clear that LGBT Thank you. that LGBTQ friendly spaces are not welcome in Frederick County. Now they wish to make the library a place where they can't

026even find the answers for the questions they may not want to ask. Kids who are seeking out books like the what's happening to my body girl book for girls a growing up guide for parents and daughters are probably not comfortable bringing up an issue like that to their parents or at least not familiar with some of the language to communicate that effectively. A student looking up Janet Bod's voices of rape may be dealing with an issue of sexual assault at home and may need a framework by which to process their thoughts. But this board seeks to remove them entirely because some subject matter is too uncomfortable for kids. And what are the books in the classrooms? I remember a variable library of plays, poetry, and pros that my English teacher had in his library where

027we collected scripts for forensics competitions. Would he have been put under scrutiny, the same scrutiny as our librarians? the librarians who like him are professionals trained how to do their jobs. But this board seeks to do their work for them by putting them in their place. So really, what's the point of all this theater? Is it for the safety of the minds of the children or just to fulfill a campaign promise so you can keep the $5,000 stipens? You weren't elected to represent yourselves. You were elected to make the best decisions for the kids and limiting their access. You are being put on notice here. Time. Time. [Applause] Sarah Shagass. Okay. Sorry. Thank you, chairman, members of the board. My name is Sarah Chigash, a resident of the Stonewall District, a seat open for election

028this November. I'm speaking on behalf of an expert in the field and one of your constituents. I'm disturbed and highly disappointed to hear that FCPS is choosing to punish all students for the simple-minded and bigoted existences of a small segment of the community. Removing books from shelves and keeping our youth from reading about topics that offend your puritanical sensibilities is as stupid as banning everyone from eating cake because you're on a diet. What's even worse, there's a far far simpler solution. providing a way for parents to opt their children out of reading the books that offend those fragile sensibilities. I'm sure there are already situations where parents have to sign forms to opt their children into or out of things. Internet access is one I've seen quite frequently. I think you're afraid to give parents

029the right to choose what their children read because I think you'll find out very quickly that most folks don't like Nazi adjacent behavior like book banning. I've heard that the board has said that this isn't something the current library software can do. FCPS libraries use the Falllet Destiny integrated library system to catalog and control their circulation roles. Flet is a leader in ILS's and I know for a fact Fall Flet Destiny includes the ability to block groups of individuals from checking out particular materials. This is a basic functionality for all ILS's. Full stop. How do I know this? I'm confident of my knowledge of how ILS's work because I have extensive experience with them. I worked for a library software company for nearly 10 years and I worked specifically with designing circulation rule logic. This

030functionality is baked into the software in the form of circulation policies, admin settings that define who's checking out what and what that transaction looks like. Settings like patron types and circulation types. In 10 minutes, probably even less than that, I could have a patron type set up that's blocked from checking out the books you're wanting to remove. You should trust your librarian's knowledge of the library software system and their ability to understand the educational needs of the students in their care. Their years of experience and extensive education make them far more qualified than any of the board members here tonight to make these decisions. These are the words of an expert that could have our entire problem solved in 10 minutes or less. This is a solution that exists without tapping into additional resources. The

031policy as it stands right now is robust, is simple, and serves the most students and parents with the least amount of hassle. and the least impact to the taxpayer. We urge you to reconsider the proposed policy. Thank you, Katie Vance. Hi, my name is Katie Vance and I'm a resident of the Shaunie district, a seat open for election in this November. I'm also the parent of two awesome kids in an elementary school in Frederick County. I'm here because I'm concerned about the proposed ban on sexually explicit books. While protecting students is important, and I recognize that you included a line in the policy about materials not being designated sexually explicit based solely on sexual orientation of characters. Thank you for including that. However, these policies are still often used to censor LGBTQ plus stories, not

032because they're explicit, but simply because they feature queer identities. The vagueness of terms like sexual excitement or sexual conduct opens the door for banning books based solely on queer characters. We've seen it happen across the country. Um books about LGBTQ plus friendships versus crushes and self-discovery are labeled sexually explicit even when they're no more sexual than stories about straight characters. This sends an harmful message to LGBTQ plus students that their experiences are not welcome or acceptable. Some may suggest that students can just get these books at a public library. But not every student has easy access to a public library. For many, school is the only place they can freely explore new perspectives and see themselves reflected in stories. Denying that access is not protecting students. It's silencing them. Banning books doesn't foster critical thinking

033or prepare young people for the world. It limits their understanding of others and their ability to navigate complex ideas. Our educators um excuse me, our educators and librarians are trained to select age appropriate materials that challenge and enrich students. Let's trust them to do that. Every student deserves to see themselves in stories on their shelves. Please stand against censorship and for a school system that values the freedom to learn. Lastly, I would love to mention that I'm the executive director of AR and we have an LGBTQ center in Winchester. I've sent all the school board members an email to come visit the stu the center and learn more about the ways you can support LGBTQ students. I heard back from two schoolboard members, one that was willing to come learn more and one that privately

034shared support. I also had a chance to meet with Dr. Hummer. So, thank you for meeting with us to talk about how we can support LGBTQ plus students. I would love for all of you to show the bravery needed for our students and come learn directly from queer youth at our center. Thank you for your [Applause] time. Ram Hannah. Hi there. My name is Ram Hannah and I'm a Winchester City resident. I'm here to pose you a very serious question. one, I mean with the absolute best intentions, meaning the intention to engage meaningfully, to engage respectfully, and to listen without judgment. I need you to trust that this is a sincere attempt at understanding. Close your eyes, if you're comfortable doing so, and picture any student. This could be a child of your own, perhaps

035a family friend or a neighbor, or a learner you've had the pleasure of personally engaging with during your time on the board. Here's the question. Would you rather have this student be addicted to pornography or would you rather increase the risk of suicide by any amount? I pose this question out of love and I'm asking it very purposefully. In all actuality, porn addiction isn't a recognized diagnosis and it certainly isn't given any merit in reputable medical circles. An increased Mr. Chair point of order. We can pause it. Um I know we had a um somebody come up try to speak before who wasn't a resident of Frederick County Winchester but she's says Winchester Winchester's on. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Continue. I appreciate the clarification. Thank you. It isn't a recognized diagnosis and it certainly

036isn't given any merit in reputable medical circles. An increase in suicide rates among youth were not given to access to sexual education on the other hand has absolutely been studied. Comprehensive sex education as violence prevention. An article published by the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care outlines the following. Quote, "Sex education teaches students to build healthy esteem and body confidence, encourages mutually respectful and equitable relationships, teaches personal safety, and ultimately promotes tolerance. These life skills act as a protective factor against depression and suicide," unquote. What might not be understood from your perspective as board members and as parents as people with decades between them and their prepubescent selves is that growing up is one of the most horrifying experiences your child can go through. This development is unavoidable of course which means our best

037course of action cannot be to ignore it. With removal of books such as what's happening to my body book for girls we are enforcing a culture of ignorance and fear for our children. I've compiled a list of real questions submitted by real young people about their changing bodies and lives. Questions that, if left unanswered, could put students in serious jeopardy. When reading these aloud, I need you to sit with a fear felt by these children. When am I going to get my period? All the other girls already got theirs. Is there something wrong with me? I'm 8 years old and I have breast buds. Am I too young? I am really scared. I am nine and I'm getting bigger breasts than I used to have. Am I growing too fast? This doesn't seem right. I

038really don't want to grow up yet. A common theme with all of these testimonies is some form of self-doubt, some form of fear. There's no avoiding these feelings, but there are two approaches. You could sweep these feelings under the rug as you're trying to do so now, or we could take a proactive approach to our children's safety and well-being. It's not a matter of taking away parents choice either. By enrolling your children into public school, you are agreeing to have them be educated on a variety of subjects you don't personally put a stamp of approval on. In the age of the internet, kids are going to have access to this information regardless. And with the literacy rates in the US, I'm more grateful these children have any interest in libraries at all. We need to

039foster the search for knowledge. Thank you. Melanie [Applause] Turner, Melanie Turner, Christy Scarboro, Christy Scarro of the Stonewall District, Really sorry. Sean Porter wanted to be here tonight, but he's too busy mooning other elected officials somewhere else. Moving on. What the hell are you guys doing? Things have never been this bad in FCPS. A kid died due to the negligence of FCPS. A teacher sent a dickpick to a student. And this picture was taken today of a pride flag in a seventh grade classroom at Aaylor. Write that down. For God's sake, get a grip on your priorities. You've embarrassed yourselves by wasting so much time at every meeting talking about how to stop me from hurting your feelings. Now you've got the lefties rolling up to complain that sexually explicit books in our libraries are

040in jeopardy. I doubt any of these people will have anything to say about the pervert teacher or the poor little girl that passed away. Instead of spending our tax dollars on that trash, why don't people send their business to downtown where one of those liberal libraries are at? I'm sure they love their business. Instead, we've got board members like Diana Klene triggered that the atrocities committed in FCPS have been leaked to the public. Lest we forget that Daryl Bell's recent concerns that the upcoming book policy will target LGBTQ books. Oh, boohoo. Here's a thought. Stop protecting FCPS and start being transparent with the parents. Currently, you are less transparent than public freaking record. Even Milholland has given us more information than you have. You were not elected to protect FCPS. You were elected to represent

041the citizens, keep us informed while educating our children, and keep them safe. But quite frankly, you've dropped the ball on all of that. I hope you realize that if things were better, I wouldn't be here. If you want me gone, make the necessary changes. But if you'd rather hold a grudge because I posted audio of you admitting to nepotism when your uncle got you a job at the sheriff's office, then go ahead. If it's a pissing contest you want, it's a pissing contest you'll get. Oh, and Diana, at these meetings, you repeatedly put something in your mouth to suck on. It's entirely inappropriate. You're out of order. She puts a lozenge in her mouth. It's inappropriate when you talk and you have a lozenge in your mouth. Now, I'll end it with this. And this

042is a little like if you know, you know thing that only a small group of people in this area will know what I'm talking about, but uh get your gavvel ready. The Frederick County Sheriff's Office. You're out of order. Sit down. Okay. [Music] Don't forget to take a picture of my car before you leave. Um, Phil, I can't pronounce the last name from Gainesboro. Are you here? I think you're not. We'll move on to the next one. Phil. Phil. Phil. No, Phil. Barry McCainer. Did I get that right? Oh, I get it. I missed that one. Dang. It is what it is. Sorry. I teach middle school. It's funny. I'm usually a little better than that. Christian Lapsley. Okay. Good evening board. My name is Christian Lapsley and I'm a senior at Shando High School.

043At the last meeting, removing books from our school libraries was a hot topic and that's what I'd like to address tonight. I want to clarify this is not about opposing any political affiliate. This is not about any political affiliation for me. It is simply my perspective as a student. I don't believe that books should be removed from our libraries. I believe that almost every book in a library holds value for someone and it's easy to condemn a book by looking at a section taken out of context. But doing so can overlook the book's overall message. Personally, if I don't agree with a book's theme, I'm not going to read it. But just because I don't agree with it doesn't mean that another student won't find meaning or resonate in the message. And I completely agree

044that there are books out there that some kids are not ready for. Which is why parents in Frederick County have the option to take their op their kids out of sexually explicit materials. Parents also have the right to request that certain books be classified as sexually explicit or they can make a student specific list of books they find inappropriate. But the voices of a of a few should not determine what I and all Frederick County students have access to. That is not democracy. The only people who should have a say in what individual students can access are their parents. At the last meeting, it was mentioned that every sexually explicit book should be removed. If this happened, books like A Brave New World, 1984, and Flowers for Aldron would be removed, which are books that

045have mature themes and should be listed as sexually explicit, but have a deeper message when you read the whole book. And I believe that removing important pieces of literature is more harmful than the explicit content of some books. And I want to be clear that I'm not here to challenge or defend any one theme or book. I'm simply saying that censorship is a slippery slope that becomes a game of where to draw the line because no matter where it's drawn, people will have issues. Instead of removing these books, I believe that a better first course of action would be to spread publicity about the system in place that parents don't know about and or modify the system in a way that finds compromise without removing books. This year, for my AP English class, I read

046a book that's no stranger to being banned for making people uncomfortable. Fahrenheit 451 has a theme of governmental overreach that starts small but leads to burning books and people. I would like to leave you all with a quote from Fahrenheit 451 today. If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to question to worry him. Give him one. Better yet, give him none. This is what will happen if you give in and start removing books from our libraries and curriculums because they make a few people uncomfortable. You'll create students who don't think for themselves, which goes directly against the portrait of a graduate put out by you guys, and they won't challenge ideas they see as harmful. Thank you for your time. I have no idea. Cleo Cleo Kio, I don't

047want to even try and pronounce the last name because I'll screw it up. Stra Cleo Strabokius. Not here. Okay. Carol Kidwell. First of all, let me say that I believe that each one of you operates from perspective of believing that you are functioning on behalf of the children and I thank you for that. After saying that, I'll tell you my name is Carol Kidwell. I'm from Opekin District. I am a member of the NAACP. Well, congratulations. You have finally decided to give a voice to a minority group here in Frederick County. And is that group the marginalized people of color in our schools? No. Is it the LGBTQ kids in our community? No. as a time at a time when so scores are painfully low when we are contemplating taking the critically needed CD and

048prek sorry I have to take this out of my mouth and prek programs out of our budget this school board has decided to give that voice to the book banning mama bears of Frederick County the NAACP calls that policy violence the impact of legislative decisions on marginalized people. Many school districts, FCP included, have banned books celebrated by black authors like Nobel Prizewinning author Tony Morrison for Beloved, Puliter Prizewinning author Maya Angelou for the I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, Alice Walker, The Color Purple, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and Richard Wright, Black Boys. These books have played a part in shaping classroom conversations on race and prejudice for years. Out of the 130 books, some books on neurosexually explicit book list, over 30% are written by black authors, have blacks as

049central characters, and are about black history. This attempt to s censor literature and silence black writers is politically motivated and profoundly unamerican. This board sits in judgment of books simply by taking a few sentences out of context. In many cases, you haven't even read the books. Mr. Atkins consistently proclaims that nothing should be taught in school if it is not part of the curriculum. Reading is part of every curriculum, Mr. Atkins. No matter what a child is reading, if you get them to read a book, make it part of the curriculum. I am proud to be here this evening as chairman of the NAACP Education Committee. I am who I am because of the books I have read. I believe those who ban books are here because you did not read them. Nancy Lloyd, they

050can lower it for you. Give him one second. They'll lower it for you. Okay. The whole thing's going down. I'm not used to speaking. With this takes 10 minutes. I am glad I did not have to follow the lady with the black hair. I did not agree with her Bulgarity. I'm sorry. My name is Nancy Lloyd. I am from the first My name is Nancy Lloyd. I am from the first ward Winchester. Sorry about that. But I'm also an employee of Frederick County Middle Schools, Frederick County Public Schools. Sorry. I am a nurse. I am a substitute nurse. And thanks to the two pe the two people that spoke on the book. I don't remember the name of it about the young ladies. I work with children from ages preschool to high school. You cannot

051believe how many girls, young girls whose parents have never taught them anything about their bodies, come crying to me because all of a sudden something has changed. Their underwear is red and they didn't know what's do not know what's going on with them. I have to explain that to them instead of their parents, which is why we need books. I should not be the person responsible for doing this. I think the parents are, but I don't think the parents take the responsibility that they need. Especially the ones like the lady with the black hair. All she wants to do is yell, ban books, and cuss. I'm sorry. I used to be an educator. I taught home economics in a in a county next to this one many years ago. I had to teach sex ed.

052Prior to me teaching sexed in the home economics division, it was taught in health in health by the gym teachers who taught girls together and boys together. I although had boys and girls in my classrooms and I had to teach them everything. I had to teach them about their bodies, about the transitions that they go through, about the differences in the people. the kids in my class. I had two boys that just came back from penitentiary, two boys that were going to penitentiary, and two boys that were going to juvie. I had five girls who were pregnant. I had people that were LGBT plus. I had all walks of children and I had lots that were darker colored than I am that I had to explain all the things that you people want taken out

053of the books. Unfortunately, I am I'm for books. I think I do not think that it is up to parents only to be responsible to get these books out of school. I think you guys and I don't know how you vote on this. I don't know where it stops. I don't know how often we have these meetings or you have these meetings, but use your hearts. Use your minds. Don't let somebody else's mind drive you. Thank you. Kathy Weiss. Good evening, members of the board and Dr. Hummer. I'm Kathy Weiss from Mr. Sturdivan's Back Creek District. I'm a retired librarian with over 20 years of experience working in various libraries. I've seen firsthand how books open doors for students, offering them opportunities for learning, growth, and understanding. I understand tonight's discussion is about banning books

054considered to contain sexual content, but I ask you to think about what these bans are doing and what they're not doing. Books are more than words on paper. They're windows into worlds some students may never otherwise see. They offer perspectives that help kids understand themselves and others. We talk about providing a safe and supportive learning environment. But a ban like this doesn't make our schools safer. It makes them smaller, smaller, and narrower. It limits access to vital knowledge and narrow students world views. Consider books discussing relationships, consent, identity, or body autonomy. These are human topics, not just sexual ones. They help children and teens understand complex issues they may face in their own lives. Removing those books takes away opportunities for students to navigate these experiences with guidance. You might argue some content is too

055mature for younger readers, and I respect that. But decisions about age appropriate material should be made by parents, educators, and students, not through a blanket ban that doesn't reflect the diversity of our community's experiences. I respect the concerns of parents about what their children are reading. However, a school library isn't a space for one parents preference. It's a space for all students to access information and explore ideas important for their education. Restrictions shouldn't be based on personal beliefs, but on what's best for all students well-being. As a librarian, my role was never to impose my beliefs. It was to provide access to diverse information. We should empower students to think critically, ask questions, and explore ideas, even those that challenge them, especially those that challenge them. That's how we we create informed, thoughtful individuals. I

056urge you to consider the lasting impact of removing these books. Instead of banning, let's focus on dialogue, open conversations between teachers, parents, and students about curriculum and book availability. Let's trust our kids to process complex material with the support they deserve. In the end, banning books isn't the solution. We need an environment that encourages learning, curiosity, and the freedom to explore all kinds of ideas, whether they're comfortable or not. Thank you for your time, and I hope you'll stand with me in opposing this band. Pamela Hughes. Hi, I'm Pam Hughes. I'm a 42-year resident of Frederick County uh Back Creek District. I a proud ally and member of the NAACP. I taught Spanish at Daniel Morgan for 20 years and I'm happily retired. My two adult children went through school in Frederick County from kindergarten

057all through high school. I'm moved to speak up about the very idea of banning books and I have concerns about books being banned due to explicit sexuality. This broad sweeping category of censorship allows multiple books to be banned at once without ever having been read. Where is this fear coming from? Learning about other lifestyles and understanding other backgrounds can only spark empathy and tolerance. Sexuality is part of life and students have unlimited sources at their fingertips. But through novels, students can experience consequences of consequences of good choices and bad choices. Have a chance to see the world through others eyes and experience those emotions. Their eyes were watching God. Zora Neil Hursten. The bluest eye. Tony Morrison. I know why the cage bird sings. Maya Angelou. The color purple. Alice Walker. These books were written

058by black women about black women and deal with sexual abuse. Banning these books uses sexual content as an excuse to disproportionately challenge or ban the works of black authors. These are works of American literature and have been deemed appropriate for teens for many decades. And they are books that you will never see on the shelves of an elementary school library. We hide these stories. We become complicit in the crimes they contain. These injustices happened and to censor them is equal to a whitewashing of literature in a country where one of our core values is that everyone is created equal. Black author George M. Johnson, writer of acclaimed memoir All Boys Aren't Blue, offers an insight. You sometimes don't know you exist until you realize someone like you existed before. Students deserve to have choices in

059what they read and to have reading material relevant to their lives. Students need to read more. Last month, new data was released showing that nationwide, more than a third of eighth graders in the nation tested below the basic level, meaning they could not pick out the main idea of the paragraph that they read. Students need to read more. And I don't think it's fair for a few parents or board members to decide on reading material for students. Librarians and teachers bring a wealth of training and experience to schools. They know Rebecca Rager [Applause] Rebecca Rager Um, my name is Rebecca Rager and I live in the Gainesburg district, a seat open for election in the fall of 2027. I'm here tonight to surprisingly talk about math, which I hate. Um, because the math in your

060intended new policy doesn't add up for books. Out of the three options proposed by Dr. for Hummer's team. It seems as though a majority of you are leaning towards the most restrictive plan, a plan that would appease the families of a current 29 students out of 14,597. That's 00019% of the student body. I did math. Not even 1%. And your argument is that you're doing this to fall in line with the Virginia state law, except the current policy already follows said law. I understand Dr. Hummer's intention in tightening up the policy when bringing in books to make sure they are appropriate. Um, in his updates, I also hear a trust that he has for the librarians in our district. What I don't understand is the board's position, which is set to undermine the parental rights

061of the majority in this district to pacify a few that already left. Uh, nor do I understand the board's seeming disdain for our librarians as the subject matter experts in their area. I would quit if I was them. So, I've been calling to the schoolboard meetings since November and have been emailing regularly as well. Before that, I trusted that the school board worked as it was designed to, but I was wrong. Instead, what I've heard in these meetings and through emails is, "Read a book. We're the adults in the room. Children don't have a right to intellectual freedoms. It appears you haven't been viewing our meetings." This said in response to an email I sent after speaking at the last board meeting. Please do consider for running for school board because throwing this out instead

062of actually addressing the issues is definitely the way to be the adult in the room. and my favorite, have the day you deserve. So, I've watched as you've dismantled safe spaces for our LGBTQ children, denigrated librarians, and ignored teachers who have stood here and told you you're doing it wrong. But you continue to do it. We as parents are consistently told to be active in this process, attend board meetings, send emails, and so on. But a lot of that energy seems to be wasted as it's pretty clear most of you don't actually listen. where school boards have been historically nonpartisan, we're now told by sitting board members that we are correct in our accusations that they listen to everyone, but they make their policy based on those whom they have mutual values. So, I'm asking,

063what is the point of having parents input when at the end of the day, it doesn't seem to mean much to most of you? In closing, I came here to talk about math and your book policy n. But the thing is, nothing with this board adds up. I watch each month as emails are sent, opinions are read, and the schoolboard continues to ignore that all in favor of old men standing here talking about fudge packers and other parents cherry-picking books and making Nazi salutes. How many of us do you need to hear from in order to step aside from that hatred and cruelty and create a policy based on your entire constituency? Thank you. [Applause] Jack Tensley. Say again. Jack Tensley. Is that another one of those? No. Oh, okay. Um, Heather Powers. Good evening.

064My name is Heather Powers and I reside in the Opekin District. I'm also a Frederick County Public Schools teacher. I'm here tonight to express my concern, frustration, and anxiety that is currently prevalent among teachers and students in our schools. At my school, about once a week, a teacher is pulled from their classroom and escorted to the office to be questioned by administrators and police about some sort of accus accusation that has been made. This was instigated by the arrest of Brian Sullivan a few weeks ago. Since then, parents, teachers, and former students have taken to social media to make all sorts of allegations about teachers, which in turn become cases for investigation. Teachers disappear from their classes for weeks with absolutely no explanation. Their students now have multiple teachers. Grades are not being submitted. All

065of which interferes with their consistency in learning and raising concerns about what happened to my teacher. The more this happens, the more it is feeling like a witch hunt. My colleagues and I just commiserate together and wonder who's next and will it be me? As far as the students, they are operating on the lowest level of Maslo's hierarchy of needs. In one instance, an administrator came into a classroom and the first thing a student said was, "Is she going to jail?" Referring to her teacher. Every day, I get bombarded with questions about such and such a teacher and did they get arrested? Are they coming back? We heard this is what happened. Is it true? These students are worried and so are teachers. Trust is gone as teachers point fingers at other teachers. Students now

066feel empowered to threaten teachers with turning them in. Just today, a close colleague of mine was summoned to the principal's office to explain a comment that was made months ago. It was an innocent innocent statement that a student turned around in order to create trouble. We know teachers are being removed because we witness it happening, but nothing is ever said before, during, or after. Teachers just mysteriously disappear, email addresses put inactive, and then a few days later magically reappear. Usually the students know more about it than we do and rumors run rampant leaving us all unsettled. It also makes me wonder how many we haven't heard about. Trying to teach while worrying about every word you say, every facial expression you make, and every assignment you give is an impossible job. We feel very alone

067and unsupported. Our administrators are so busy trying to put out fires that they do not have time to support teachers with their daily concerns. For the first time, I am wondering how much longer I can do this in these conditions. Your students and your teachers need help. We need to have some conversations. We need to feel like there is transparency that is so often touted as a priority in this school system, but not often visible. While I understand the need for confidentiality, we need an acknowledgement of what is going on and real examples of how teachers and students are being supported and protected and how we can move forward from all of this. We need to feel like we can come and express our concerns without fear of retaliation or retribution. I am asking for

068an understanding, listening ear and due diligence to rectify this scary situation. Thank you, Leslie Spencer. My name is Lesie Spencer from Gainesboro. I'm here to advocate for nature, gardening, and farming to be integrated into the campus of our new high school. I'd also love a cozy rural design that looks like it's been in the community for ages. I think more people want this, too. If anybody wants to stand up behind me, please do. This needs real community support. Abundant food and nature in the school can be an incredible gift that brings our community together. It can supply many career opportunities for students that offer a better work life balance. It promotes self-reliant gardening and stronger families. My family lives on a nature farm and I see how this benefits us and our friendships. I understand

069regenerative agriculture and the need for healthy green spaces throughout the county. It has inspired me to work towards saving farmland in Frederick County which has kept me busy or else I would have been here sooner. I found God in a beautiful garden filled with neglected fruit trees. After months of cleaning trash and overgrown beet trees, I uncovered 50 fruit trees when I only known knew about two. For 10 years, no one had sprayed or fertilized. This was the one of the holiest moments of my life. I know God gives generously and I want to help replant abundance and be connected to blessings and miracles. I want to involve the architects right away so that they can include these ideas. A school like this could nurture generations and help preserve its rural foundations. Nature in schools

070matter. It enhances cognitive function and test scores while reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. Activities like walking in green spaces and interacting with soil provide significant benefits. Studies say that children exposed to nature have better bone density and improved immune systems leading to forest schools. Powatin has embraced this. Reacher said that nature in high schools was so great they questioned their ethics keeping away from control groups. This will help attract and retain teachers who appreciate a county life. Um a history class can learn about our valley's wheat bread valley's bread basket by growing wheat. A health class could break bread together during a picnic at the forest edge. An English class could read aloud by a meadow filled with bird songs and butterflies. Creating these memories in schools help preserve wonder, especially during the teenage years,

071and helps extend it into parenthood. I'm eager to help my community. Please let me know how I can support you. [Applause] Sorry. Nope, you're fine. Take your time, Jennifer Smith. You did a really good job. Good evening. I am a parent for a James Wood High School student. Um, give me some grace. I get a little nervous when I get up here. So um re last week my I received an email in reference to an assignment that was provided to my son. Um it was addressing a DNA assignment and I asked my son about it because the email was very vague from the school. So I had a conversation, we talked about it and it didn't seem like such a big deal. Later on, I found out in talking to the principal that the teacher

072has been absent from the school. Now, I understand there are topics that may be sensitive and I know a lot of people are talking about books and topics and censoring information, but I would like to take a different direction on information that's provided. These kids in high school are being trained to be young adults. They are being taught college level classes. They are being trained to be nurses, EMS, and all these other service jobs that are out there, police officers, and everything. Um when you limit information that's difficult to understand that does happen in the world but while training these kids to take these positions and then censoring a teacher who posed a question in an assignment that gives them the opportunity to understand what goes into a a job such as learning how to

073match DNA or to um deal with law enforcement and things like that. you are just because someone may become uncomfortable limits these kids' knowledge of what these jobs require. So to not step up and support a teacher and say maybe we could have worded that differently. We could have take that assignment. We could get permission from the parents in the future should they want to be a part of that. then I think you need to to realize either not allowing students to learn educations that require these skills or to allow kids that opportunity to be a part of this information. And I think it's a shame that the teachers good teachers are not being supported. They are not being given the opportunity to be maybe that wasn't the best approach but we will address it

074and move forward. They shouldn't be removed after everything that's happened in the school system with teachers who have unfortunately broke the law. Students don't need the instability and the teachers do not need the instability of being afraid of what will happen next. And that's not fair to any kids. They're all here to learn. The teachers, most of them are wonderful teachers and everybody needs to be given the opportunity. [Applause] Paige Feliciano. Hi, I'm Paige Feliciano, a resident of Frederick County in Gainesboro District, which seat opens in fall of 2027. I come here to speak as a homeschool mom. I have the privilege of choosing materials for my children um to ga to engage with their education and this freedom allows me to tailor their learning to our family's values. However, I'm deeply concerned about the

075growing trend of censorship in public schools and the far-reaching consequences it's going to have on the children, families, and our society at large. Censorship is not just about removing books or materials. It's about limiting the ideas and viewpoints that children are exposed to. The reality is education is about more than just reading words off of a page or memorizing facts. It's about learning to think critically, to challenge assumptions, and to explore a variety of perspectives. Books, classrooms, discussions, and lessons are windows to the world. They open children's minds to different ideas, cultures, and viewpoints. When we censor content, we close those windows and deny children the opportunity to expand their minds to develop essential critical thinking skills. I firmly believe that students should have access to a variety of literature and materials that can spark

076their curiosity and cur and encourage intellectual growth. If parents take issue with certain materials, it is their responsibility to have those important conversations with their children. It is not the school's job to parent or to shelter them from the ideas simply because they challenge personal beliefs. Education is about open minds, not narrowing them. Censorship often arises from the fear that some ideas are too controversial, difficult, or inappropriate for children. But shielding children from tough subjects doesn't protect them. It limits their ability to understand the world around them. Whether it's learning about historical events, tackling social issues, or exploring different cultural perspectives. These difficult subjects help children develop empathy, critical thinking, and resilience. These are the qualities they will need as we they move forward in life, particularly as they grow into active, engaged citizens in

077a divi a diverse world. Additionally, censorship can disproportionately affect marginalized voices. Books that deal with race, gender, or identity often are the first censored. When these books are removed or restricted, we deny the children the opportunity to see themselves represented. We deny our children the chance to learn about experiences different from their own. By censoring diverse voices, we perpetuate a narrow and incomplete view of the world, which harms all children regardless of their background. I understand that all all content is suitable for every age group. And I don't believe that every topic should be introduced to young children. However, censorship should be should not be the go-to solution. Rather than banning or restricting materials, we should encourage open dialogue between parents and educators about the content um contents appropriateness and why. Parents should feel empowered

078to engage with their children about the materials they encounter while educators should be trusted to guide students through difficult topics. Thank you, Tristan. Good evening members of the school board, Dr. Hummer. Good evening to the Johnson family. My name is Tristan Kabasa and I'm a resident of Frederick County and I stand before you tonight not only as a concerned citizen, but also as a community leader of Kameu RCville. I've listened to the Johnson's family experiences and I've witnessed the systemic failures that have contributed to their struggles. We are here tonight because we believe that our schools should have safe should be safe havens, places where every child can thrive regardless of their medical needs. Faith Johnson's situation is not an isolated incident. It highlights a critical gap in our educational systems ability to accommodate students

079with complex medical conditions. We cannot allow our students or our schools to become places of exclusion or barriers to a child's right to education. Faith's law is not simply a piece of legislation. It is a call to action. It is a commitment to ensuring that every student with medical needs receives the support and accommodations they require to succeed. It's common sense. This law proposes mandatory training for school personnel in managing complex medical needs. The establishment of clear protocols for medical emergency. The creation of individualized health plans for students with specific medical requirements and an increased collaboration between schools, families, and medical professionals. We're not asking for special treatment. We're demanding equitable access to education. We are demanding that our schools fulfill their fundamental responsibility to protect and nurture every child. I urge the school board

080to number one acknowledge the urgency of this matter. Number two, commit to working with us to implement the necessary changes. And number three, support the passage of face law. We as a community are united in our determination to ensure that no other family has to endure the hardships faced by the Johnson's. We're here tonight to demand change, to demand accountability. And to demand justice for Faith Johnson and all students like her. Let us work together to create a school system that is truly inclusive, compassionate, and dedicated to the well-being of every child. We have provided you copies with the petition you've seen floating around representing the overwhelming support of our community. I ask that the school board publicly announce their support of Faith's Law by the end of this week. Thank you. Byron and Danielle

081Johnson. Oh, I'm sorry. Good evening. My name is Brian Johnson. This is my wife, Danielle Johnson. Uh my wife Dia and I are the parents of Faith uh Johnson who tragically passed away on February the 22nd, 2025 after her uh G2 GJ GJ2 became dislodged on February 18th, 2025. uh while at uh Enreep School in Frederick County, the loss of faith has deeply affected our family in ways we could never anticipated, leaving us feeling shattered, disoriented, and filled with anger. Part of how grief have impacted our family uh um has caused my wife to start carrying faith toys around wherever she go. She sleeps with uh her clothing to comfort her at night. Experiencing the loss of your four-year-old child, enduring the unsuccessful unsuccessful efforts to revive her, ensuring she appears dignified for her funeral

082and ultimately seeing her in a casket. This is a profound profound trauma that I hope no parent ever has to have ever has to face. It's unimaginable to send a vibrant child off to school only to comfort such heart-wrenching sorrow. Uh we won't get into the details of faith passing as there according to our knowledge two investigations that's going on at this time. Uh one by CPS for medical neglect and also a criminal investigation by the Frederick County uh sheriff's department. I believe that this in incident could have been prevented had there been adequate trained and compassionate staff in place. We we seek to understand the measures you are implementing to ensure honesty, transparency and timely reporting to parents and child protective services as you are mandated reporters uh as well as prompt communication with

083emergency emergency uh medical services. Additionally, we inquire about the relevant training provided to support children with disabilities, particularly those who don't speak with words, and what steps are being taken to ensure the safety of our schools so that children return home in the same condition in which they were sent. Yes. Family, family, have you established uh a system for timely communication with parents regarding incidents of this nature? Um, and uh, do your do your staff plan to take accountability for what transpired on that fateful day that our daughter passed away? Thank you. Thank you. Gary Arback. It's a tough one to follow. Thank you, chairman, members of the board. My name is Gary Hourback. I'm a resident of the city of Winchester. Um, as a student from Shirando pointed out on your sign here, there's

084things that you want the graduate to be. And I think a lot of those things come directly from being active in libraries. The um, especially social and cultural empathy, a way that people can learn about other cultures and other people through uh, reading. I think that's just amazing. The librarians in the public school libraries do much more than check in and out books and tell kids to be quiet. Sh. They play a crucial role in promoting human rights, equity, of su access access, and ensuring that all students have the resources and opportunity to succeed in their education. These librarians serve as stewards of intellectual freedom, advocates for diversity, and facilitators of inclusive learning environments. One of the most important ways librarians contribute to human rights in a school setting is by ensuring equitable access to

085information. Every student, regardless of their socioeconomic background, race, or ability, should have access to the same educational resources. Librarians work to create and maintain diverse collections of books, digital resources, and educational tools that reflect a wide range of voices, cultures, and perspectives. And this ensures that students see themselves represented and can explore topics that interest and challenge them. By providing access to these materials, librarians uphold the right to knowledge and personal development which aligns with the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Librarians also foster an inclusive environment that promotes equity and education. They provide resources that cater to diverse learning needs, including assist of technology for students with disabilities, books in multiple languages, and materials on a range of cultural experiences. By offering resources that are accessible to all, librarians help create an

086environment where every student can thrive regardless of their background or abilities. In conclusion, the school librarians play an essential role in promoting human rights and ensuring equity of access to educational resources. By providing diverse, inclusive, and accessible materials, they empower the students to become informed, open-minded, and engaged citizens. So, why do you want to remove the librarians and their judgment by passing a policy that no one wants or needs? and why decide that appeasing a few parents is better than serving the students as a whole. There are a lot of people here who are against banning of the books. Um, anybody here against banning books? Thank you for your [Applause] time. Amy, is it Billink? Did I get it right? You did. Oh, thank you so much. Hello. Good evening. My name is Amy Hilink.

087I live in Aequin District and I am a member of the Winchester area NAACP. Thank you. Please thank you for allowing us to speak today about the censorship of LGBTQ plus books in the Frederick County Public Schools. Books about and LGBTQ plus people are fast becoming the main target of a wave of school book challenges. A small but vocal minority, as you've heard earlier, is driving this wave of book challenges, silencing diverse thoughts, voices, and limiting access to stories that reflect the real world. When we allow this in our libraries, we let fear dictate education rather than fostering knowledge and empathy. In the award-winning documentary, The ABCs of Book Banning, an 8-year-old black boy, Ridley, is asked about the banning of a book he loves from his school. That book is And Tango Makes Three

088by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Ridley says the 8-year-old. It's about two penguins who were gay, and even though they had their differences with the other penguins, they could still have child and take care of it. They could do pretty much everything but lay an egg. I just don't understand why they banned this book. They are still people. They are still human. Children see the truth. Our children understand what they can understand. They need to have this in front of them. and they need to learn and have critical thinking and think bigger. Our differences should be acknowledged and not erased. Banning books is not about protecting children. It is about controlling narratives. Knowledge empowers while censorship instills fear. Parents have the right to guide their own children. But removing books from schools takes that choice

089away from everyone. The board must stand against fear, defend the freedom to learn, and ensure books are not hidden away, but are proudly protected from censorship. Thank you for your time, Barb Weber. Good evening. My name is Barbara Weber and I live in the Opekin District. I'm a retired teacher. I taught at Armal Elementary School for 22 years, a member of the Winchester Area NAACP and a very concerned citizen with regards to the banning of books in Frederick County school libraries. I am also the grandmother of three beautiful little girls. I do not want minority conservative voices to tread on my granddaughter's freedom to become the women they want to be. Bookbands can be about oppressing girls, especially girls of color, queer queer girls, and non-binary people, by making them believe that their stories aren't

090worth sharing, their aspirations aren't worth pursuing, and their identities aren't worth celebrating. Bookbands are a part of a larger manufactured culture war to keep young people from understanding that there can be a harmful system of oppression. And to be clear, every student pays the price for this so-called parental rights battle. But girls, and especially black and brown girls, are disproportionately affected by these bans. And they're the ones whose futures will suffer the most. When girls don't see their identities from their race and religion to their gender and sexual orientation depicted with honesty and nuance, they feel unimportant, invisible, and insecure for years to come. Five out of 12 of the most frequently banned books include depictions of sexual violence against girls. It's important for girls to understand that when this happens, it is not their

091fault and that they are victims of their abusers. They need to see that proper response from their friends and loved ones and the community at large is one of love and understanding for the victim. Pretending that these types of encounters never happen by banning books that include them does not help girls. It harms them. With the prospect of coming of age with fewer rights than their grandmothers, American girls are in crisis. Last year, the CDC reported that 60% of female students experienced persist, excuse me, persistent sadness of hopelessness with nearly a third of high school girls reported that they seriously considered suicide, double that of their male counterparts. But there is hope. Stop the book banning. When you offer girls books that tell them how their differences make them special, they believe it. When you

092share stories that show that their dreams are possible, they pursue them. Thank you for [Applause] listening, Mike Kidwell. Hi. Uh, I'm Mike Kiddwell and I'm from the OPEC district as well. Uh, I'm here as a private citizen, though I'm a member of the NAACP. Uh, and I'm here also to oppose any plan to ban books from our school libraries. I think you've heard enough about banning books from school libraries tonight by all the speakers that have gone before me. Making lists and banning books from school libraries is at the very top of a slippery slope where free speech in America is put at maximum risk, especially for our children. The points have been made numerous times. There's a reason why the board should not adopt this or any book banning proposal. In our country, we

093have a first amendment and it guarantees us five freedoms. I believe the centerpiece of those five is free speech. Over all our history, our own Supreme Court has often examined this first amendment. It has ruled several times that it found things that were exceptions to their protection of the First Amendment. Four of them I I've identified here over the past 60 or so years. Uh and they contain speech that does one of these four things. In the first case, speech that's not protected had to show a clear and present danger to society. In the second case, fighting words were no longer protected. The third case, any advocate any advocates that any advocates that over the violent overthrow of the government were no longer protected. and finally promote any speech that promoted illegal drug use. None

094of the books that we've heard listed here tonight fall under any or even close to any of those four reasons for lacking protection. All this speech in these books that we're talking about is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. If you still decide tonight to remove after all this testimony to remove the books that you've put on your list, I feel it's important where you put the onus for protecting children from explicitly sexual content where it belongs with the parents, not with you guys. Make them or have them opt in to prevent their children. And I think that's a current policy. So I don't even understand why we're fixing something that's not [Applause] broken. And then there are those people. Thank you for your time. [Applause] You good? You good? Okay.

095Emily from Bat Creek. I can't make out the last name. I'm sorry. Thank you, chairman, members of the board. My name is Emily Borl, resident of the Bat Creek District. Um, and I'm here to share some comments of a parent who teaches in FCPS on the behalf of that parent. Um, I already know how the majority of this board feels about C, but is it important to continue to bring this issue forward? And I would like to thank Mr. Bell for consistently supporting this important need in our community. I believe that every child, regardless of their background or economic status, deserves to start their day with a nutritious meal that fuels their ability to learn, grow, and thrive. Numerous studies have shown that students who are wellnourished are more focused, have better cognitive function, and

096perform better academically. When children are hungry, their ability to concentrate diminishes and their energy levels drop, leading to struggles in learning. Providing free breakfast and lunch ensures that every student, regardless of their household income, has access to the nourishment they need to excel. I know that nine of our schools currently receive free bills through this E program and students at other schools who qualify under income requirements may apply for free or reduced meals. However, the process can often be stigmatizing or create barriers for families, especially families of our English language learners. By offering free meals to all students at all of our schools, we eliminate any sense of shame or embarrassment associated with participating in these programs. It also streamlines the process and ensures that no child falls through the cracks. Food insecurity is a

097real issue that many families in our community face and even middle class families are struggling right now. While numbers may show our county is getting richer, that only magnifies the economic divide between the rich and the poor in our community. The economy is suffering and many, many families are struggling right now. Offering free meals to all students is a way to alleviate some financial stress for our families in our community. As an educator, I have students every day who tell me how hungry they are. Just because you say from the dis that all kids can eat free doesn't mean the message reaches those families who need to hear it. In addition, is it fiscally responsible to knowingly incur debt rather to address than address an issue proactively? For those of us who claim those of

098you who claim to be numbers people, I would argue that this is not an ethical way to address a budget issue. Are you ready to see that debt substantially increase? We should be taking a proactive stance on taking care of the whole student and meeting their needs. Um on a personal I'd like to share other people shared um that books can be a door or a window. Um another powerful aspect of books is that they can be a mirror and there are kids who need to see a mirror. They need to see themselves. My um queer students uh they come into my my eighth graders, they know they're queer, but they need to know that they're accepted, they're valued, and their voice is important. Thank you. Carrie Carmichael. I'm Carrie Carmichael and I live in

099the Shaunie district. A seat open this fall. I have a child in FCPS. I attended the last instructional meeting and I researched the proposed book policy. Under the current policy, if people have an issue with a book, they can submit a request to the school to have it reviewed for appropriateness. Depending on the outcome of the review, a book can be removed. This policy clearly already works. In fact, the hateful bigot who comes to these schoolboard meetings to spew vile slurs has successfully used this policy herself to get books removed from some of our schools. The revised policy sounds on the surface like a great idea. What a no-brainer. What parent wants their children reading sexually explicit books? But if you read all of the Virginia Code 2.2-2827, 2-2827, which I did, you'll see that

100parts of it are vague enough so that, for example, a book about the lived experience of a rape survivor that includes a description of sexual contact could be labeled as sexually explicit and then removed from the library. How do you ensure that this policy is fairly applied? Although you've been less than transparent about this effort, I hear that you plan on having librarians and administrators review the current list of sexually explicit materials and decide one by one if a book should stay or go based on the Virginia code. Hopefully, this proposed review of the list by librarians and administrators would prevent important educational, historical, and cultural books from being removed from our libraries. But is this really the best use of their time when we already have a policy that works where people can challenge

101individual individual books and get them removed? We don't need a new policy and based on the comments from a couple of board members, I fear that any new policy could be used to get rid of books that a board member objects to for religious or political reasons. I would urge you not to change the current policy based on a few board members and the approximately 1% of parents who are presumably driving this action. Thank you for [Applause] listening. Chelsea Back Creek District Little stuck here. Good evening. I'm Chelsea Dykis, resident of Back Creek District, a seat open for election fall of 2027. My senior year of high school, there was a push to ban books that really resonated with me. And at at the time, I was really mad. I was about to go to

102college and live all by myself. I was old enough to sign up at the military recruitment table in the school hallway without my parents' consent or awareness. Yet, I wasn't ready to read sexually explicit material. We should enable natural curiosity rather than implement the most extreme restrictions to appease a few. And I do mean a few. Only 29 of our over 14.5,000 students have been opted out of accessing these books based on your current policy. If you truly believe in parent choice, then why enact a policy that takes the choice away from the over 99% of parents who don't support this? And let's be clear, we're talking about high school libraries as our elementary and middle schools already don't contain these books. We're talking about young people who will shortly be held responsible as adults.

103It's silly to expect them to somehow immediately magically understand these difficult and sensitive issues as soon as they become adults when we take away their access right until up until that moment. Many will face sexual assault before you seem willing to let them even read about it. If only not knowing about something prevented it from happening. But that's not how it works. Instead, it leaves our young people even more vulnerable. Recently, several of you encouraged kids to come forward when they encounter abuse. And I couldn't agree more. But when we take away the opportunity to understand the context of these situations, how empower powered do you think our kids actually feel? When we've shrouded these topics in shame and robbed their agency by default? How can we expect them to firmly and repeatedly say no

104and then open up about it afterwards? If parents want to limit their own kids learning, that's their prerogative. And the current policy already allows that. To suggest going to a non-school libraries is just plain irresponsible, especially when those libraries are facing the same book bans and defunding like 30 miles down the road at Samuels Library. It is your responsibility to ensure access and tools to prepare our kids for their lives ahead. So do that instead of whatever this is. Thanks, [Applause] Andrea McKinley. Not here and Vanessa White. Good evening. I'm Vanessa White from Winchester, the Stonewall District. Efforts to censor books under the guise of protecting students from sexually explicit contact are contact are not about protection. They're about control. Virginia code does not require the removal of material. It provides guidelines for parental notification

105and alternative options. Out of the 4,568 students, only 29 have opted out of accessing these materials. That's less than 2% of the student population. As we've already heard tonight, um the board is not acting on behalf of the majority of families. They are bending to the demands of a few while imposing their own moral agenda on the rest of this community. This is not about the welfare of students. It's about adults deciding that they know better and using their power to dictate what students are allowed to read and learn. Several board members have openly um admitted publicly that students have no right to academic freedom and no right to choice because they are not adults and they don't deserve the right to access information freely. Education is supposed to empower students to think critically and

106explore the world around them, not strip that agency away. This is also not about standards or academic performance. Schools with the highest reading scores in the nation are definitely not banning books. There is zero data to support the claim that access to sexually explicit material harm student performance. You cannot use sexual material as a scapegoat for poor reading scores. And why is this so dangerous? Because this school district has a documented history of sexual misconduct among faculty and staff. Open conversations about consent, healthy relationships, and sexual health are some of the strongest tools for preventing abuse. Predators don't target schools where students are taught about boundaries and consent. They target schools where sex and sexuality are treated as shameful and offlimits. Silencing conversations about sex creates an environment where abuse abuse thrives because students are

107unprepared to identify or report predatory behavior. As a Title N specialist and a sex educator, I can tell you that when I ask students where they learn about sex, the overwhelming answer is pornography and the internet. Over 60% of teens report relying on pornography for sex education. Do you really think the material in your library is worse than the education you are forcing students to get from pornography due to a lack of honest, accurate resources in school? We're talking about The Great Gatsby, Hamlet versus pornography. If you don't want students to learn about sex from pornography, then you need to provide them with real information. Books written by educators, survivors, and experts. Censoring books about sexuality doesn't protect students. This isn't about protection. It's about power. This board's use of power is an abuse of

108power and our students deserve more. Mr. Chair, Mr. Bell, I would like to make a motion for a brief recess, no more than five minutes. Second. Second. Motion's been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? We'll recess for 5 [Music] [Applause] minutes. All right, thank you for that brief recess. Um, up next is reports and I will turn it back over to the super to reconvene. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. Can we get a motion to reconvene, Mr. Chairman? Oh, go ahead. Go for it. I move that we uh reconvene from recess. Second. Second. It has been motioned to reconvene and has been seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed?

109We have now reconvened and now I will turn it over to Dr. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I greatly appreciate that. Before I jump into to my soup reports, I I want to ask everybody to keep Mr. Frank Funes in your thoughts and prayers. He's dealing with some um medical emergencies right now and and please uh please keep him in your thoughts. Um we all wish him very well and um if you if you please please just keep him in your thoughts. Thank you for that. Um, so, so next up, I I want to I continue to be so proud of all of our students and their hard work and their accomplishments for the students that we recognized earlier today, as well as all of our amazing staff for the great things

110that they do on a dayto-day. Recognizing our students is a way to keep us grounded in our why and keeping the main thing the main thing, which is our students. They all work hard to achieve their goals and in order to achieve excellence, we have to provide them with excellence. With that being said, I also want to thank our amazing staff for their tireless efforts every day to provide our students with exactly what they need to be successful contributing members of society. Their tireless and unwavering dedication to our students does not go unnoticed and we greatly appreciate all of their work every single day. I also want to thank our school board for recognizing our dedicated volunteers. As you all know, we get a lot of volunteers every month that are willing to come in

111and help support this amazing school division, but they do it for free and that's pretty impressive. So, thank you and thanks to all of our volunteers for all of your support. Lastly, I want to thank the school board for recognizing the passing of one of our students, Faith Johnson, as well as one of our instructional assistants, Mrs. Jan Geyser. Losing somebody is never easy, especially when it is one of our students and one of our staff members. It's very hard. It is very tough. And we are all grieving. So, please keep the families in your thoughts and in your prayers and do not hesitate to reach out to anybody if you are having a hard time with the grieving process because it is never easy. With that, Mr. Chair, that is all I have for

112super reports. Thank you. Okay, next up is the citizens budget advisory committee report. All right. If I can go ahead and take this one as well as the staff come on up here and the advisory committee, if you want to come on up and I'll introduce you. So, um, Mr. Chair and school board, I'm very, very excited to announce we have our first citizens advisory committee that we've added on this school year and they are prepared to present to you their presentation, which they will do once a year. So this is our citizens budget advisory committee report. So they are prepared to provide you a report. The whole intention of this is to provide you where they currently are with their work that they've done with Mrs. Anderson and her team. And like as I

113mentioned to you, this will be something they will present once a year. So I want to thank you all for your hard work and your dedication to our school division and community. And I'll now hand the microphone over to them. Thank you all. introduce each other before you. Okay. Hey guys. Um I am Sonia Marfatia Good um with Back Creek and uh I am just the member. Um this is Sheila Duval. She's the chairman. Sherry Alexander is the secretary and Chris Grassmuk is vice chair. And Sheila will take over. Somebody has to take over. All right. So how we came to be the superintendent made a request to the community to create the advisory committees. We submitted our resumes. We were chosen by the school board and the districts. Our goal is to be the

114voice of the community to understand what the community wants our schools to invest in and to communicate it to the board. We meet monthly to accomplish these goals and we have set what was it the third Wednesday of every month informal budget priority survey. Our goal was to expand on a current budget priorities. Um, we created an informal budget priority survey which would convey a few things. What the district they reside in, if they have school-aged children or not, what their priorities are, and a free form to explain further or list items not listed in the previous questions. Between all of our contacts, we did receive 92 responses. But I would like to say something before we dive into that survey. I would like to address an email that this survey that was sent um

115back to us. There are four of us and we all sent this to our peer groups. I will say that I have never met any of my committee members. Thank you. Um so our group is very diverse enough and being in different social circles and districts when this was sent out. I would also put in that the goal for this was based on things that we brought up at schoolboard public hearing meetings and taxpayers speaking about what they would like to see. Also listening to the schoolboard members on certain things that are needed or not needed. This was not a widespread survey, but in future we would love to have a large one done to see what we get and the responses based on concerns that we hear from our community, not what our boards

116in our district want. We did not have long before something needed to be presented and we got together to make this one. So, here is our results. You must be a Frederick County resident to answer the survey. What district do you live in? If you don't know, use the link to enter your address. And there was a link to follow. So, out of the 92 responses, I don't know if you guys can see them. Um, I think that's a pretty good majority and different districts. I think you guys Yeah. Um, do you have school age children? That was something that we wanted to know. Um because not all our residents, they are taxpayers, but not all of them have children in our system. So I feel like that was a good half and half percentage

117out of the 92. Um where would you like to see Frederick County public schools to focus on their budget priorities? Again, these were picked by things that we heard our community say, um, what was kind of talked about at some board meetings. Um, and different suggestions of ours as well. Um, so, and looking at the statistics, again, this is only 92 responses, so this isn't everybody. We would like to have more. Um, but I think that's pretty substantial to what people are talking about anyway. Um, and from what we heard tonight, so that's pretty good. Um our conclusion is you know short period of time. We had little time to get everything together. So hopefully next year will be a better report. Um but we have a lot of work to do and we do

118believe we are on the right track. That's it. Mr. Chair, if I if I may add but yes, by the way, great job. Great job. Thank you. So Mr. Chair, if I if I may before we open up to questions for you all is first off, thank you all so much. greatly appreciate all the work you're doing with this. And per our policy, these this these committees are required to report out once a year, but because we just started with this committee, we definitely want to make sure this committee presents before you all adopt the budget. So, you can gather feedback and input to make informed decisions. The reason that was after the budget process is because of course you all we all prove this late because as we were working through that policy and

119then we just want to make sure for next year it'll get ahead of you guys. So, I just want to make sure that's why it's a little seems like it's a little off um off date there. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. Great. Well, I appreciate y'all stepping up and doing it, and thank you very much. Oh, absolutely. No questions. Actually, actually, I have not not a question for you all, but a question to the staff. Is there a way that they can have access to the distribution list to get these surveys out more? So, our distribution list, because 92 responses is awesome, but I'd love I'm like you guys. I'd like to see more you guys and ladies, I'd like to see more data. Um, so I think I think they should have access absolutely

120that help with that. So that we can we can do that. Perfect. So yeah, absolutely. Also too, u I I've read all the resumes from each of you and I think all of us did and so we picked you all to be on different comm not only this committee but the rest of the citizens advisory committees. Not because we agree with everything that we know you're going to say. I know Sonia and I disagree, but I would like to think we have a mutual respect for one another. So that's one reason why we chose you all to be on these committees. We may not always agree and we did not choose people that are going to keep us in some kind of an echo chamber. So we want your true unbridled opinions and I think

121that giving them access to that email list to our email list that we have is a way to do that. Definitely. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. I want to say thank you guys for volunteering your time. I I know it's not something you know you get off work and you just want to you're just itching to come out here. So thank you. Thank you for doing this. you know, it's, you know, it shows um a lot of character for coming out and, you know, like Miss Klein said, we might not always agree on everything. Um, but I I definitely appreciate you guys getting this stuff out ahead uh of any other committee so far. Um, and you know, I I just I know it was kind of rushed for time. Um, but

122um I think I sent an email back to Miss Sonia. Um, I just like to see some some more questions on there because while I I don't disagree with any of the responses or the questions that were asked. I just would like to see some more uh questions because you hear other folks out here in the community say, "Well, why are we doing this? Let's cut this. We could save money here." And all the other stuff. Um, I'm not advocating for cuts of any kind, but it would be more represent more representative of, you know, some of the other people's concerns out there as well. um that way we can also uh get our thumbs on that and maybe we can advocate better for those areas. Um so I appreciate everything you guys are doing.

123Sorry, can I say something real quick if that's okay? So that's why we had the free form because we knew like we don't know what everyone else is thinking and so with that free form, we did have some responses. Um I think only one person responded saying that they trust the schoolboard member to do what's in the best interest for the county. um and a lot of the variety of um the um I can read it just a few uh I don't want to take too much of the time but you know the the focus was on increasing teacher and paraprofessional pay um more funding for fine and performing arts programs um focusing on STEM and humanities protecting the libraries more funding for fine arts diversity equity and inclusion 500 5,000 bonuses for administrators not

124just teachers um again fine arts and performing. Yeah. So, better language immersion and career prep courses. So, it was a variety of responses which I truly appreciated. Keyboarding classes for elementary school. I love that idea. Um, increasing the number of school counselors, psychologists, and social workers, ensuring adequate funding for special ed programs and services. So, I mean, the the concern across the board is teacher retention and salary um and supporting our libraries. One did say, "Invest in improvements in air ventilation and air filtration to reduce the spread of airborne viral illnesses." So, I can appreciate that. Um, you know, a lot of these um comments were um good and varied and you know, we didn't see anything negative, but again, we're like we just reached out to our circle. So, um, 92 responses. Yeah. I

125mean, I'm just think that's great for starting out, honestly. And you didn't have access to our list or anything. So, we we definitely appreciate that and see the hard work that went into it. Um, yeah. Is I guess kind of looking forward uh to next year's budget and everything else, how how is this going to work? because obviously we need them kind of upfront and reaching out to the community before we set our budget priorities and everything else. You guys are a great tool to have in the toolbox. Um I mean you're talking to a lot of people and and can help us out. So I definitely appreciate that, but I want to be able to use you guys as effectively as possible. Um yeah. Yeah. So as I mentioned, Mr. Atkins, that's a great

126question. And as I was sharing with you earlier, it is not timely this year because of when it was approved and it'll be way ahead of the budget process for next year. So are you thinking like maybe in the fall? Do we have the what is the month that they present? I think it's January if I'm not mistaken. It's either January or Febru February. I would have to consult with the policy. It's in there. It's early in the year. You would have it before you guys approve. Yeah. Before I make my recommendations and approve the budget. Okay, cool. Just trying to look at it. Just as our meetings are public. So, and the minutes are up. Um, you know, so if anybody wants to to reach out to us, they're more than welcome to because

127they there are public meetings. We meet here. Yeah. And that would be great because we want more feedback, right? Yep. I mean, you guys are the taxpayers, so we want to know where you want your money to go. Sounds good. Where do we go? How do we contact you? We'll talk after. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Applause] Next up is unfinished business, but I don't think we have any unfinished business, right? So, now we're moving on to new business. Uh, up next is the discussion regarding the creation of new student athletics advisory committee or no, we're tableing that. Nope. No sir, it's number one is uh the finance committee budget work session. Yeah, the committee report. It's not on my number one. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I

128have the finance committee report from February 27th of 2025. A budget work session of the finance committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on February 27th, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 4:40 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Mrs. Anderson reviewed board members questions from the previous meeting. Next, she shared the estimated state revenue for the House and the Senate and discussed the funding needed from the board of supervisors based on estimated state proposals as well as the operating fund baseline budget adjustments. She also discussed important dates of the remaining budget timeline, all FCPS funds, the school nutrition fund, the school textbook fund, and the debt service fund to include principal and interest payments, funding sources, uses of funds, and

129financing examples. Mrs. Cybert shared information on the capital projects fund, the private purpose fund to include expenditures and restricted activities, the consolidated services fund, and the construction fund. Mrs. Anderson discussed the health insurance fund to include how it is funded, sources and uses, and the on-site healthcare clinic. She also shared the special grants fund and the Northwestern Regional Education Program inrep operating fund and textbook fund. The meeting adjourned at 5:16 p.m. Additional details regarding the information covered at the committee work session are included in the minutes provided to board members. Are there any questions from board members about information shared at the finance committee budget work session held on February 27th, 2025? All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are no motions out of this meeting. We need to adopt the minutes, right? Oh, thank

130you very very much for keeping me out of trouble, Madam Clerk. So, um, Mr. Chair, I move that the board approve the minutes from the finance committee budget work session on February 27th, 2025. Second. I have a motion to adopt the minutes and it has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Next is the buildings and grounds committee. All right. Uh, a meeting of the building and grounds committee of Frederick County Public Schools was held on March 10th, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 4:35 p.m. and a copy of the minutes have been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Mr. Davis discussed the CAP highlight or list highlights. Mr. Kenny uh gave an update for the capital improvement

131plan, CIP projects. Mr. Lee reviewed the modular classrooms at Jameswood Middle School, the relocation of the waterline easement at uh Middletown Elementary School, and the lot uh consolidation at Shando High School. And Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Baker shared uh information on the top of Virginia Hockey Alliance floor tile replacement request. The meeting adjourned at 5:16 p.m. Additional details regarding the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members. Board members have any questions on what was covered at the building and grounds committee meeting held on March 10th. All right, seeing none, we have one, two, three, four action items coming out of this meeting. Um, all right. First one, the relocation of the waterline easement at uh Middletown Elementary School. I move that the board approve the request to relocate the water line

132and fire hydrant at Middletown Elementary School as shown in the exhibit presented. I further authorize the chair to sign the deed of water easement and uh vacation of water easement in uh substain substantially the same form as presented. Second. Okay, we have a motion's been properly seconded. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in fig in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Item number two, lot consolidation at Sharando High School. I move the board approve the request to submit an application to Frederick County for the lot consolidation at Sharando High School as shown in the plat presentation. Uh I further authorize the superintendent to execute the paperwork necessary to submit the application for the lot consolidation to Frederick County. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All

133those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Carries. All right. Uh, Top of Virginia Hockey Alliance floor tile replacement request. I move that the board approve the request to allow Top of Virginia Hockey Alliance to replace the hockey rink floor surface at Jameswood Middle School at their own expense with no financial construction, maintenance, or other two pages there. uh involvement uh from Frederick County Public Schools. I further move that the board authorize the chair to execute the agreement in substant substantially the same form as presented. Second. All right. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Uh Mr. Chair, Mr. Um, with this one, um, I I don't know if you'd like to come up and and say your piece and try to get some some donations or or

134anything for for the hockey rink. Okay. All right. Okay. I didn't want to I I wanted to put you on the spot. As I understood it, this is not costing the county. This doesn't cost the county a dime. They they are a 501c3. Um, they they take charitable donations and it exposes kids to sports. So, I'm all about doing this and it's not costing taxpayers anything. So, um yeah, good deal all around. Um so, yeah, good with it. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Oh, and last one. Uh I move that the board approve the minutes from the building and grounds committee meeting held on March 10th, 2025. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying

135I. I. I. Motion carries. Next we have the instruction committee. The instruction committee report of March 10th, 2025. A meeting of the instruction committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on March 10th, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 5:44 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Mrs. Knight gave an update on the strategic plan. Mrs. Swagger shared a summer school update and a library processes update. Due to time constraints, the committee tabled items four and five of the agenda. The meeting adjourned at 7:03 p.m. Additional details regarding the information covered at the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members. Are there any questions from board members about information shared at the instruction committee meeting held on March

13610th? All right. Hearing none, I would like to move the board approve the minutes from the instruction committee meeting held on March 10, 2025. Second. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. And next is the excuse me, finance committee budget work session from March 17th. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's me again. Finance committee report from March 17th, 2025. A budget work session of the Finance Committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on March 17th, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 4:07 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Mrs. Anderson reviewed the contract awards to Miller Sports Construction for the Milbrook High School tennis

137court and the Sharando High School track surfacing as well as the contract award for temporary staffing services. She also shared a fiscal year 2026 budget update. Miss Curry discussed the community eligibility provision and Mrs. Anderson reviewed the school nutrition fund. Mrs. Cybert shared information about additional state funds for 2025 and Mrs. Anderson discussed the full-time equivalent positions request. The meeting adjourned at 4:53 p.m. Additional details regarding the information covered at the committee budget work session are included in the minutes provided to board members. Are there any questions from board members about information shared at the finance committee budget work session held on March 17th, 2025? All right, seeing none, we have several action items, so bear with me. There are five. So, first I move the board approve the contract award to Miller Sports Construction

138for the Milbrook High School tennis courts in the amount of $45,930. Second. I have a motion that has been properly seconded. Any discussion? Uh question, Mr. Chair. Should this be a roll call vote or is this fine to be We can, but it's not over 500. Not over 500. So, okay. I mean, that's fine. Whatever you want to do. Don't worry. We'll we'll get there. We'll get there. I know. 500. Any Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Carries. I move the board approve the contract award to Miller Sports Construction for the Sharando High School track resurfacing project in the amount of $230,000. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I.

139I. Any opposed? And madam clerk, stand by for the roll call on this next one. I move the board approve the contract award to Maxim Healthcare Services Holdings Incorporated disregarded entity of marriage as Healthcare Staffing Inc. for temporary staffing services for an amount not to exceed $1 million. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion hearing? None. Madame clerk. No. Okay. Uh, Mr. Bell. I. Mr. Sturdivan. I. Mrs. Klene. I. Dr. Erskin. I. Mr. Atkins. Hi. Motion passes. And Mr. Chair, I move the board approve the request for full t full w four two full-time equivalent positions for two data lab school teachers. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Motion carries. And finally, Mr. Chair, I move

140the board approve the minutes from the finance committee budget work session held on March 17th, 2025. Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Next is the discussion of creating a new advisory committee student athletes. All right. Um thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so I was out talking to um one of our local community members, Chris Ran, a member of the NAACP as well, and uh talking about he had some concerns about the um athletics going on in the schools and and being able to have representation from the community and uh the athletics department. Um when I had that discussion with him, he uh brought up the fact that we have these new advisory committees. Um he seemed like he

141was interested in uh joining that and we could uh get some input from a lot of uh the folks out there in the community whether it it be for fundraising for um the athletic departments such as the boosters. um it they could um help coordinate the trips uh schedules uh you know kind of whatever that that committee would take on. Um not to take anything away from our ads or anything like that but just like um our finance um committee came up it would just be another tool in the toolbox. I think it would uh help to keep uh good positive relations with our community and um keep us more informed on something we don't really look at as often is our athletics. Yeah. Okay. I think it's a great idea. So, can we can

142we put that up for a motion tonight? I I would recommend know that we it can come back next month in April because it would require amending 608p and we would want to add that as well as provide a description and just make sure that the policy reflects what the board is hoping to do, but we can have that ready to come back in April. Okay. I think more than happy to do that. I think you'll find support on the board for it. I think it's something we would be need. All right. Next is sexually explicit materials policy. All right. All right, Mr. Chair. So, you all have the option there in front of you. We also made it available um to the public as well. U I wanted to discuss a couple things before

143I hand it over to Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Knight to go through this particular policy. I first want to thank the board for um the meeting that we had the other day as we work through the different options uh as we work through the different recommendations that you all had made and had and we are here to discuss this new policy that is presented before you. Couple items to to remember with this particular policy is it is dictated by state code. Um so we can't go below the recommendations. We can always go above as that came up at the the last meeting. So to keep that in mind. The other aspect too is that there's two aspects to this policy. The first is is the instructional materials aspect and then the other of course is

144the library books which I think is the topic of conversation. But the reason I mention that is because the instructional policy aspect of this is not going away. It can't go away because of the state code. So anytime a teacher is presenting any information that is part of the curriculum that is sexually explicit in nature, they do have to provide parents notice. They do have to make sure that the parents have the opportunity to opt out, which we do. And we also provide the students with alternative materials if it gets to that point. So I want to make sure that that is very clear. That is not up for any discussion. It hasn't been brought to me for to to make any changes or adjustments to that. Just want to make sure that we're clear

145in regards to the differences between this particular policy. The the last thing I I want to mention before I hand it off to to my my team is this policy has only been in place for about two and a half years. Uh, I think we all seen that Virginia was a little bit behind in regards to how books and instruction materials were provided to parents. Um, so they were a little late to the game with the implementation of that, but it's only been in place for two and a half years. So when the state comes out with information respectfully, it's here is the new code, implement it. And when you ask them how to implement that, it was implemented. And we we have to figure those pieces out as we navigate and work through that.

146Um, so when it was implemented, there were there were three things that we did, which is pretty standard across the the Commonwealth, is one, you review all the books that are in your library. And I think we've heard that we have over 15,000 books. Nobody has time to read all of those books. So, we had to review those books to make sure that if they were sexually explicit, we were flagging them as such. And then we were doing that in our system called Destiny. The second aspect of what we did is we tapped into our staff, tapped into our librarians, tapped into our teachers to ask which books did we miss to make sure that we were capturing all those books so that we can label them as sexually explicit. So as you could imagine

147right there in those first two tiers because the state did not provide any guidance and there is a spectrum of sexually explicit information. It it covered the gamut there. So it covered books that maybe mentioned one sentence. It covered where it mentioned numerous pages. So it does cover that that spectrum. So there might be some books that are currently on the list that just mentions a sexually explicit information where other books might go a little bit deeper. And I think to provide that context um will help with with making an informed decision with this. The third one, which we appreciate our partnership with our constituents and our parents and with you and our staff, is that part of that policy, it clearly states that if anybody has any concerns with a book that's in a

148library that might be missed or it is labeled as sexually explicit they don't believe needs to be in a library, there's a process to that. So, with those three tiers, we are working through that because it's been 2 and 1/2 years. Um, but I just wanted to provide those three because I know there was questions about maybe some books that are on that list. And that's probably how some of those books made it on there, which we work with Shante, Mrs. Knight, and her team to make sure if there are books on there that we have to have that conversation of are they sexually explicit or not that we still we have those conversations. So, I just want to provide some context, Mr. Chair. So, thanks for allowing me to do that. I'm now going

149to hand it over to Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Knight as they'll go through the new policy that's there before you and answer any questions that you all might have. So, thank you, Mrs. Jordan. Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members. Um, there there was a proposed draft that noted the changes to our current current policy of 304P and those edits were made primarily based on the conversation that uh board members had at the instructional committee on March 10th. As you'll see in the draft, there's also just some cleanup things such as changing, you know, um lower lowercase to capital K to capital letters where it should be and things like that to provide consistency. Um after uh you and the public were provided a copy of that upon further review, we did decide and recommend

150that with the proposed language we had, we changed the um changed it up a little bit and you should have a copy of option two. This was provided to the public today. There's copies provided as well as to you this evening. The primary difference that I want to highlight for you is that with um under the sexually explicit content provisions, there was a paragraph that spoke specifically to the library materials. It was initially housed under the title sexually explicit content of instruct of materials. But we decided as Dr. Hummer noted there is a difference between um instructional materials and supplemental materials. So we thought it would be more clear um if we move that paragraph under supplemental materials which is further down in the policy. The only other thing we added to this option too

151is that we included a specific reference to the code section that um is 22.1-16.8 that refers to the review process that Dr. Hummer has mentioned that the code requires for school divisions to provide notification to parents regarding instructional material. So, we just added those few additional things to provide further clarification based on what we understood the board's direction from that instructional committee. With that being said, um Dr. Homer also highlighted that we have a lot of processes in place regarding sexually explicit content. You will not see that in this policy because as we know policy is more big picture. our regulations are really the meat that provide the clarification and the logistics of how this is carried out. So under 304P we do have five regulations um that address textbooks that also address supplemental materials

152um which includes the selection process for sub supplemental materials. We have steps for reconsideration of education materials as well as if um processes regarding specifically sexually explicit content um that is found within materials and that would include processes where we identify the materials. We update the list and maintain a list of those materials for parents to review. And then also we have a process where parents can request to add materials to that list. we have a process to for requests to remove them. And so those are housed in the regulations and based on um the direction we received from the board, we are currently reviewing those regulations to see where we can clarify processes, bring maybe um uh more meat to the process and more steps. I know um Miss Knight addressed some of those

153process, specifically the selection of materials for the libraries that we will look at the regulations and add that into the regulation piece. But what's before the board to tonight for consideration is the changes to policy 304P. With that, I'm happy to answer any any questions that the board has. Miss Jordan, it's my understanding and I thank you for explaining the whole procedure versus policy because there is a lot that is not in this policy that will be part of the procedure. It's my understanding part of the procedure is going through all of the sexually explicit books. And to Dr. Hummer's point, this has only been in place two to three years. And as we've discovered on this board, there are a lot of books on there that probably shouldn't be. Hamlet, Grapes of Wrath, As

154the Cage Bird Sings, books of that nature wi and uh Fault in Our Stars and others just smattering. It's my understanding we are going through those books with our librarians expertise and members of Mrs. Knight's team to really determine if those books should be on the sexually explicit list. Is that correct? Am I correct in saying that, Miss Knight? Well, under your direction, we are absolutely willing to do that. We haven't started that process. The librarians have done some preliminary weeding. that's a part of their typical cycle. But once the decision is finalized about how to move forward with this, then we would take direction from there. Okay. One thing I would like to see and and I'm I'm stealing Dr. Erskin's thunder a little bit. So Dr. Erskin, please feel free to jump in.

155Dr. Erskin was kind enough to reach out to several of our librarians and sit down and have meetings with them to get their their personal perspective. And then he shared his insights with me. And one thing and again step in if I'm not paraphrasing this correctly. One thing he determined when he would ask these librarians of wh why is this book sexually explicit? Where is the page reference? They did one of these. They shrugged. They did not know and they couldn't point to where the librarian probably previous to them in their in that position found and determined why that book was placed on the sexually explicit list. The one that comes to mind that you and I discussed was a fault in our stars. the librarian couldn't find out, did not know why it was

156on the list. So, are we going through that and actually determining why these books are on the list? Well, again, that's something we absolutely can do if we'd like to, but moving forward, the process that we've included that would be updated in the new procedures slregs would include an opportunity to prevent that from happening or at least limited through the new process because librarians will be noting uh why that book was selected, the rationale, and if there was something else on there that identified or flagged it as sexually explicit. Okay. I don't know about the rest of the board, but I would like this board member would like to see that level of detail and I think this board member would like to see it go through Mr. Bell's committee so that it's public knowledge

157and everyone sees what we are seeing. Um, absolutely. In fact, Dr. Erskin and Mr. Bell encouraged me to put that process into action and report back on how that would look if we actually took books through that new process. And so, we agreed that we would move forward on that. Excellent. And I have one more question. Miss Jordan, just want to clarify this policy that you drafted. Thank you for your work on this and you and your team. It does not include the elimination of sexed. Is that correct? Correct. That would be instructional materials which would be covered under the the first the sexually explicit um content for instructional materials. It also does not include the removal of LGBTQ books, does it? Um, no. It is specifically for books that meet the definition of sexually

158explicit content that is found within the materials. Okay. And this was published to board docs attached to this meeting tonight for the public to read and review before they came and spoke tonight. Is that also correct or am I wrong? Yes, it was attached yesterday on board docs. Yesterday on board docs. Thank you, Mr. Jordan. Mr. Chairman, uh, Mr. Please. Just a a point of clarification for me. Are we Is Miss Knight giving us a presentation? I didn't want to us just to keep going with questions if we were going to cut her off. We've agreed to provide that presentation at one of the upcoming instructional committee meetings following your decision this evening. Great. So, Mr. Chairman, if it if it's okay with you, I do want to just make a few comments about this

159um since we're kind of in the weeds in it. Um first, librarians are teachers. Uh and I I want to be clear about that. Um, many of our librarians have been English lit teachers or they've been English teachers. And um, I think it's especially important to understand that librarians, while they might not be in a they may not be in what we think of as a traditional classroom, they are educators. Um, many of them have to go through additional schooling and additional um, uh, qualification to be able to do the difficult job they do. The reason I bring that up is is twofold. While the board has a responsibility, in my opinion, to differentiate between sexual and sexually explicit um materials, one of the things that we really rely on our librarians for um is

160to based on the environment they're in, elementary, um middle or secondary, to make informed choices based on sound professional judgment about what goes into our libraries, which so I really appreciate that um new book acquisition process. that's being worked on. And um I'm excited to see that and for for Mr. Bell and I to be able to see that in instruction. One of the rubs that I have with the policy as it's been presented uh to us tonight is on page five. There is a um single sentence in this that will prevent me from from voting for it. And it's this supplemental materials containing sexually explicit content as defined in Virginia code section and herein shall be prohibited in any school. What that effectively does is if Sally Citizen gets a a book on the

161sexually explicit list, regardless of where it whether it merits being on that list, when Sally Citizen gets that book onto the list, um once it's on the list, we are obligating ourselves to automatically remove that book. I want nothing to do with that. Moreover, I think that even if unintentional, we don't want to strip the board of its rightful role in challenging books and reviewing books. We need to remain committed to what we've said from the beginning about move removing gratuitously sexually explicit things like flamer from middle school libraries. Right? That is something that's one of the few times I think almost all of us agree that there was a line crossed there especially and yes I did I' I've been reading more in the past two weeks and I have in a long time

162um because I don't get a lot of pleasure reading time. I've bought so many of these books and read them in addition to the ones that I read as a Frederick County school student um some years ago and um we have work to do because there are things Iron Man is not sexually explicit for goodness sake. Yeah. Um, so I appreciate the work that went into this. I cannot ethically support a policy that would remove any step or any idea of due process between identification and elimination. Um, also I want to make sure that our librarians hear this and I can only speak for myself. teachers, librarians, administrators, you absolutely are not being pressured by this board member to knee-jerk react out of fear for your job or your professional standing. Please do not feel

163obligated to overreach and start accepting emails from unqualified people telling you to remove books from libraries. Librarians deserve to have supervision from people who are trained and credentialed as librarians. I realize that's not always possible in budget context, but it is important. Um, and so I just want to go on the record with that. I am absolutely open to to changes if they're made. Um, but I think that we would be causing a world of hurt um to adopt this as is. Um, Miss Jordan, just to Dr. Erskin's point um that since he read on page five, supplemental materials containing sexually explicit content as defined in Virginia code uh 2.2-2827 and herein shall be prohibited in any school and classroom library. Does that does that go to his scenario where a citizen can just come

164up and say this is or is it defined by the Virginia state code? It would have M how it's currently written is it would have to meet the definition process and that goes or sorry it would have to meet the definition of the sexually explicit which is referenced here um as is defined in the code and that's where the regulations would then um speak to the process about how we identify those materials that are sexually explicit. Mr. Atkins, can I just interject a clarifying question? Yeah, go ahead. So are we not already removing materials from libraries? Is that not true? No. because I because I want to make sure that we're on the record with this. We have already removed books from shelves that have not been through the challenge process. So if what you're

165saying is accurate, we're not following our own regulations and our own policy. That's unacceptable. Wait, are we removing have folks been? We absolutely are. So So Dr. Erskin, a couple couple pieces to this. The first is let's go back to the original question here. Part of the policy is that if a parent comes forward and wants to make a book sexually explicit because of the content, there's a process for that. I think that's essentially what you're referencing into what what Mr. Atkins is referencing. So there is the process. So there is the process. There were recent books that have been brought to our attention that were not age appropriate for that specific level and they were only located at a middle school that they were not age appropriate for that middle school. So that is

166why those books and and for one of those books it is still at the high school because it was age appropriate for the high school. So it was removed from the middle school because it's not age appropriate has nothing to do with the content and it remained at the high school. There was another book that it was only located at one middle school and it was not age appropriate for that school. Had nothing to do with the content. It was not age appropriate. So that is why that it was removed from that particular school and that shelf. I don't that's not what I heard Dr. Erskin say. So let me just clarify. Are we removing any staff at any level? Are they going into libraries right now and removing books unilaterally? This is the first

167I've heard of this. Is that happening? Well, no. Well, well, we have librarians who have started weeding some of their collection based on their belief that they needed to do that. And where did and that's that belief comes from whom? Well, I can't tell you where the belief comes from, but I think there is some concern over recent comments about what was happening in our libraries. Um, and I know three books in particular, to Dr. Hummer's point that were identified and were moved from the shelves because they did not meet the age guidelines. So those were the only ones and again to his point they were left at the high schools where were where they were appropriately marked for the right age. But outside of those three books um it's come to my attention that

168some of the librarians did start weeding their collections. And where are these books uh being placed? That I'm not sure but I can absolutely check in for you. But we didn't ask them to begin to do that process. I think they were just trying to protect. So they've unilaterally started doing that in in reference to what's been going on here. I think out of just some concern just speaking up and defending them. I've met with them several times and they are incredibly hardworking um and very much deserve that their professional reputation is honored. Absolutely. And when some of these things started raising concerns, many of them were I think there's a a degree of insecurity professionally about what was happening and some started to look at their collections and take another, you know, just take

169a second look trying to get ahead of it. So, okay, can we can we snap snapshot, if you will, snapshot the book list right now? It's it's it's iced. It's it is what it is. and then go through the process that I mentioned with the if the board is on board with this going through the process of each of those and saying is this one does this one truly meet the definition of sexually explicit material and if it doesn't it's off the list by the way for those of you who didn't have a chance to read it which based on some of the comments tonight I think there's some I think there's some mis misinformation out there or it hasn't been read sexually explicit material includes corpilia europhilia stom masochistic abuse things like that can

170we go through. So just because just because excuse me, you had your opportunity, it's mine. Just because it's on the list doesn't mean it should unilaterally be removed by our librarians. And to echo what do Dr. Erskin said, they're professionals and in their professional opinion. I understand. I get it. They want to protect their professionalism and their reputation. But right now, this board has their support. And what we're asking them to do is to go back and look at these books again because to me it seems like there's been some knee-jerk reactions made on certain books and that needs to be evaluated with keeping in mind the Virginia VDOE definition of what is sexually explicit and what is not. Mr. Chair, actually Miss Knight, if I may, Mr. Chair, if I may. So, so thank

171you, Mrs. Klein, for that. One of the things I also want to mention too with all of this conversation aside about removing books or not removing books, we did acknowledge the fact that the the current process which is a process for books getting into the library, we need to firm that up. Sure. And that is something that we are in total agreement on because we trust our librarians and they are a big part of that process. But the criteria, as we've discussed, can definitely be firmed up to Dr. Erskin's point earlier. And for some of these librarians, they've inherited these libraries. And I want to go back and that's why I started this conversation with where we've been in Virginia and where we are now that up until 2 and a half years ago. And

172again, it wasn't deliberate. It was it was because of that's how it was. Books were just being added, right? And if you look at some of these books that were recently, as Dr. Erskin has mentioned, because we we can see when they were added, they were added back in 2021. and in 2020 which was before this process came to be. So when we've had conversation with our librarians so what Mrs. Knight said and hopefully they said the same thing to you Dr. Erskin is they want to do the right thing and I've had a lot of conversations with them as well and as we've just talked about there is a lot of pressure right now in regards to what they should be doing or not doing. They just want the proper guidance to make sure

173they're doing what they should be doing. But as I mentioned earlier, as they go through the libraries and as because they're expected to do, there might be some books in their 10,000 books of how did this book get here? Why is this book here? And they may have made a a judgment of maybe this book should not be in this library as as Mrs. Knight mentioned through the weeding process. That is why we need to firm up that regulation. firm up that process about how books get in and how books get out as well as we unilaterally handle if these again per the will of the board how we handle sexually explicit books in the library. Mr. Chairman, so I just want to uh clarify one point. So um there is a piece of this

174that I think is still right for discussion is this phrase of developmentally appropriate that I'm hearing thrown around a lot. That's what we pay librarians to determine. That is literally their field. The reason I bring it up is this, and this is one example, and I'm sorry I have to keep using it, but it's the easiest one because I think most of us are familiar with it. John Green's book, The Fault in Our Stars, is recommended by every professional librarian's organization, conservative, liberal, and in between, as being a seventh grade book that is a that is appropriate for 14 years old, seventh grade and above. Half our eighth graders are 14. That is one example of many especially of other John Green books for goodness sake where I think that librarians well not I think

175I can tell you for certain because I've seen the directive put in writing take it out of your library um those the ones that are happening regardless of what the the the impetus is I want to make sure that we're putting a stop to that so that our librarians are not still being pressured to do this until the board has come to a firm decision on what comes next is is what I'm asking. Mr. Chair, if I may, I have a few comments to make about this. Can I get back to my original question? I know everybody stepped all over my question, but what's your question to to uh uh to the legal staff? Um does this sentence that Dr. Erskin read mean that we're skipping our process? is that some a parent can just

176come in and say this this book's sexually explicit, we remove it from the shelf or does it still go through the process? A a parent or a community member can't come in and tell a librarian or any staff member that this is a sexually explicit book. You have to remove it. We have regulations that outline a process about how how that how to identify a a book or any material to determine whether it should go on the sexually explicit content list. So it would still go through that process. Correct. No, a parent can't come in or anyone for that matter can come in and just say remove it. I as a board member can't come in and do that. Correct. Correct. And if I can, Mr. Chairman, if I may. Yes, sir. Um, so I

177have been thinking about this particular policy quite a bit. Um, first I believe that the Virginia law in 2022 requires only requires schools to notify parents if instructional materials with sexually explicit content is indeed in the libraries or in the schools. But it is stated that this law doesn't mandate or allow for book censorship. And the biggest problem that I have is that I believe we do have a process and it sounds like that process would still continue. It's the word prohibited in any school and classroom library. I I just I can't get my I I can't I can't support that. Um, I have a daughter and a son and I allow them, my wife and I allow them to read whatever it is they want to read and then afterwards we have a discussion

178with them about it and ask and have them ask questions. Now, I realize that every parent doesn't do that. But it seems to me that since only 29 parents have come forward to opt out of these books, which is less than 1% of our far less than 1% of our student body, it seems that we're we're we're jumping the gun on this and only listening to a very small portion of our county as far as what we should do with this policy. Um, I've I sit on the educa or the instruction committee. I've had the uh pleasure of going through one particular book. Um, and I read it and the instruction committee voted to move it to the full board and the full board voted to keep the book. Um, that's not to say there

179aren't books in our libraries that should not be in our libraries based on age, but I'm a firm believer in our Bill of Rights. And while the Bill of Rights, we talk about liberties, it's also uh protection there. The Bill of Rights is to protect us from things like this. And I find it difficult to agree with this policy if it's taking books out and preventing me from making the decision for my daughter or my son to be able to read a book that I don't have a particular problem with. I think we're taking that out of the hands of those people with the current process that we have. Parents can bring books forward. Anyone can bring books forward. You can come here and stand up at the deis and curse to the moon and

180back and bring a book forward like uh some of our constituents or actually just one of our constituents has done and we'll take a look at that book and we'll make a determination on it. So there's multiple ways to do this and I think that we're making a much more convoluted version of what already is successfully working in our schools and in our county. So I can honestly say without equivocation that my vote on this entire change would be a no. Mr. Chair, Mr. chair. Um, so when this policy came into play, um, a couple years ago, I was on the board 304P, uh, myself, uh, Miss Martin, um, and Mr. Lake was here earlier, uh, all voted this in. Um, I was actually a no vote on it, uh, this pol the policy as

181it is currently because I didn't like the opt out version. I wanted an opt-in version. one, it lets all the parents decide, right? I think uh um earlier Mr. Kidwell brought that up as well um about the opt-in uh analogy right there. So, if you have an opt-in, that child goes to check out a book from the library, it might be on a sexually explicit list. That parent needs to then get permission from their parent. Still gives parental rights. And even when I got on this board with all the mask and everything, I was all about parental rights. let your let your uh let the parents choose for their children. Um and much in the same way I feel the same way about this. Um I and it's going to be a hassle and yeah

182I I see that we had 29 parents or 29 students affected excuse me with the uh opt out version. Um but to Mr. Bell's point um a lot of parents aren't looking at it. I think some a couple of the folks out here brought that up as well at that point. So I I would, you know, push to leave it as is, but an optin version. So parents, you got to do your jobs, too. Uh, you know, it's on us, it's on you. Um, but it would be an optin. And then anything that is that falls with the new Virginia code of sexually explicit materials that we legally can't have in the schools, we would remove anyway. U but anything else would be an opt-in. Mr. Bell, you say you want to have conversations with

183your kids after they read one of these books. God bless you for it. I think that's awesome. I think this would force parents to have that conversation as well with their children um when they check out some of these books. I personally I think all these books are disgusting. I think you most of you people out there are perverts. Um but well hey you had your time. I got my time. Sit down. Enjoy the cheap seats. Um but no I I can have an opinion too. Um but I think you know some of the stuff some of these books that came up here and been presented before us are disgusting. They're disgusting. You know, they're talking about raping each other in schools. Can kids be kids? Can they just read a book? Mr. Chairman, I'd

184just like to um point out there's a lack of order in the room and I'm just respectfully ask that you'd remind the audience of the rules. And that is I mean, but no, I'm I'm good. I'm good. But I would I would push for the opt-in version um of this. That way it keeps the parents informed, keeps them involved. um the whole way. Um I could go with that or I could go with the policy as presented. U Mr. Chair, one one thing to add to what Miles was saying. While my my vote is no for the current new version of this policy, I would not be opposed to an optin keeping the existing policy that we have. I know we discussed that um and the challenges that technology currently can present for for our

185staff with that, but that's certainly something that we can overcome uh much easier than censoring a a book. That may be something that helps a a a young person in the future with some horrible experience they may have. So, I'm not opposed to the opt-in version um as long as we keep our current process. Mr. Chair. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Atkins, Mr. Bell, I hear you just and I will acquies to an opt-in, but this board member personally thinks that these books have no place in our library where kids can access them at any time. The optin is just to check them out and take them home. has nothing to do with any of the spare time that they have to go and flip and peruse through them. And I am laser focused on student achievement.

186I've ex I've had only four emails in favor of this and I've answered each one and I've brought this up on each email. I am laser focused on student achievement. Tell me how sexually explicit material helps advance student achievement. How does it help kids get into college? Get Okay, I want to see it, Carol. I do. All right. Tell me how tell me how these books including corpilia stom masochism new ex extreme um oh gosh where is the correct terminology nudity. Tell me exactly how that helps advanced students. That's the problem that I have with this. Furthermore, there's 91 of these books in Milbrook. There's 86 in Sharando and 81 I believe in James Wood. Is that approximate? How many books are in these libraries? Each one we we heard the number of 10,000 roughly

187total in all three high school libraries. Well, I think one has about 17,000 books and then some have a range of anywhere between 14 to 17 for the high schools. Wow. Each 14 to 17 each. What's the circulation and checkout rate of these books? It's low, isn't it? Exactly. What's the point in having them if our kids aren't interested in it? Wow. Apparently not. According to the data, this board member thinks every single one should be removed. I will acquies because what I am hearing is an optin. I don't like it, but we achieves consensus on this board. We don't always agree. So, I will acquies to that or or Okay, we could have further discussion. All right, that's an option as well. Let let me let me weigh in on this. Um, I ran

188on this. Quite frankly, I don't have a problem taking a sledgehammer to every one of them and throwing them out. That's me. But let me speak. Listen, I listen to you. You're going to listen to me. Some of these books in this and I looked at the list. Uh, I'm not going Sonia, I can't remember your last name. I looked at the list she had up on her on her on her Facebook page there. Four of those books were from Ellen Hopkins. are the most banned book. She's the most banned author in the United States of America, I think, or one of them. I went after one of her books, Crank, last year, and I filed that the the the paperwork after I was told I couldn't do anything about it and and instruction committee

189voted me down. Mr. Bell and Mr. Atkins, that's fine. And I quite frankly, I looked at Crank. I thought it was poorly written. That's me myself. There was another book that's on this list, knocked out by my Nunga Nongas, part one and part two. After reading the book, which some of you say I've never read any of those books, which is a bald-faced lie because I have read some of these books, I found out that the author was British and some of the things that she did didn't translate to American very well. So, I withdrew my objections to that book. I've read the Odyssey. I hate Shakespeare. I read it once and I don't want to read it again. I've read some of these books. So, don't say that we didn't read these books. My

190whole thing on this, I ain't trying to be the book police. I authored two books myself, so I'm not trying to stop anybody from reading a book. But when the code says sexually explicit, any picture, photograph, drawing, motion picture, film, digital image, or similar visual representation depicting beastiality, elude exhibition of nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct, or so mastic abuse, corpia, europilia, or fetishism, and I had to look some of those up, so I must be naive. If that does not have a place in our libraries, I have no problems if somebody wants and one of the things I heard was, "Give me the book, The Fault in Our Stars. I didn't read the book, saw the movie. Give me the book. Tell me why it's on the list. If it's if it's doesn't have any

191of those things in it, I don't care. You read it all day long. I'm one of the 29 that opted my children out of the out of the sexually explosive book thing. I I'm not here to be the book police, but I don't think that things that are dictated in that code section need to be in the library for children. That's my personal feeling on it. I have no problem with compromise, and I compromised on the Nunga Nunga books. I told them I withdrew my objections because I found it wasn't what I thought it was. Um, but quite frankly, I I don't have an issue with what I'm hearing. But if it has those spec specific things in there, it doesn't need to be in our school libraries. And if you've been to some of

192these board meetings, there's at least one individual that comes up here and lies about what I said and what I've done continually. And and those lies get circulated on in emails and in the newspaper. And I have done what I've said I was going to do. And I have been and I haven't got a whole lot of support. I get it. Nobody wants to take a sledgehammer to it. That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. But as long as it doesn't cover these things, I don't care. You can have it in the library and read it. But there needs to be a process to tell me. I I think Dracula was on the list. I read Dracula. I don't even know why it's on the list. Flowers by Algenon. I'm not really sure

193why it's on the list. I looked it up and I still don't know why it's on the list. I think that's a great story. So, if it doesn't have this crap in it, then I don't care if it stays in the library. I want the crap that's on this code section out. That's all I want, Mr. Chairman. Yes. So, I just want to kind of want to reiterate one one piece of this. Here is my hesitation. If we say that once something is on the sexually explicit list and it got on there correctly and all of these other needles get threaded, we promise we won't remove it until it's gone through all these processes. Here's the problem. We already know there are things that got onto this list, good, bad, or indifferent, that shouldn't be,

194right? And that some of it's honest mistakes. I don't think it was malicious at all. The problem is that this would obligate us once something's on that list in a way that I think opens us up for something that goes a step further than what we wanted. like you, I agree that things that are gratuitously sexually explicit, the things on that list have no business in our school libraries. The problem is that we are we are confusing sex and sexuality. Um, and that um and that continues to be I think there's actually commonality between both sides on this issue. Um, I'm just trying to find the bridge respectfully. Well, again, I and I I agree with you. And then in the email you sent out, I as I said, I wholeheartedly agree with the things

195that you had outlined in that email, but nobody can tell me that our kids need to be reading about beastiality and corpia or europhilia. That does not belong in the library. And if there's a book in there that's that's promoting that, it needs to go. If it doesn't, fine. I don't care. Mr. Chair, yes. Uh Mr. Chairman, I think that what was presented to us tonight is perfectly all right. And as long as we're following the Virginia code, that that's acceptable. I think we need to to have some flexibility. We can't just say, well, once it got on the list, well, we can't take it off. That's stupid. Okay. Yes, we can. If we find that we need to go back and fix something, we can go back and fix it. And also the optin

196is wonderful and I don't know why we can't pass this tonight and add that to it. So what is the pleasure of the board? Are we wanting to table this until we work out the details of what we want to do? I think that would be most prudent thing instead of acting on something that's halfway done. I mean I I've heard the comments and I understand the comments and I am not against what you all have said for the most part. But I think it would be prudent to just table this, hash it out, citizens comments, and some of you have emailed us. That's great. And that's why you come here. We have these uh uh uh committee meetings. Please come. You can, you know, but I think that would be the most prudent thing.

197Is that agreeable with the rest of the board? Mr. Chair, if I may, um, just based on what you all are saying, whatever you decide, I would like to make a recommendation as we talked about earlier is to let's let's take a look and deeper dive at all these books that are on the list. Yes, that's right. And we can dive because again, it's 91 books at a maximum. I think it's 80 one and 80 at another. So that's about 250 books to let us review those books. It is going to take us some time to get through those books, but so please bear with us. We can still continue to follow up at our instructional committee meetings, but let give us an an opportunity to take a look. Let's talk to our staff, talk

198to our librarians to see exactly how long that's going to take. We can report back to you sooner than later and then we'll continue that process. I know we promised at the next meeting we would take a book through that process so we would kind of talk through that. But as we mentioned, since this has been implemented only for two and a half years, and thank you Dr. Erskin for acknowledging that a second ago, there's going to be mistakes that are made. Nothing was done maliciously. Our librarians are doing a fantastic job. they want to do what's right for our kids and our community and we're very appreciative for all the work that they're doing. So, let's give us an opportunity to do a deeper dive in all those books and then we'll we'll go

199from there. We'll also work with them um cuz as we said earlier, things are very sensitive right now and and we get that hyper sensitive and they just want to do the right thing. So, that's why they went in and and did those things. But, we'll we'll work with them to make sure they feel supported and then we'll we'll come back to you, report back and then we'll go from there about those books and then updating a policy or what have you. That would be my recommendation and then we can have conversations of opting in and and if we want to remove those specific books you mentioned uh Mr. Chair, but let's get a let's get a deeper dive into these books that are on the list and then we can go from there. That

200would be my recommendation. As long as I don't have to read Shakespeare, I don't care. Um Mr. Chair, I just a point of clarification. Um so the books that are on that list, you said we can remove them. They would You mean they would go through the process as it currently stands? Uh not the fullblown pro. I mean, we can, but I I would advise us to kind of go back. Let's have a conversation. And Miss Knight, please chime in here because I'm making this recommendation based on what I just heard. Um, and to really dive into what this this looks like and more so not not to remove the books, Mr. Chair, but but to to kind of pinpoint why the book is labeled on the sexually explicit list. Yeah, I was going to

201say yes to try to maybe rightsize the list because the list was built um through a number of recommendations that may or may not have been exactly aligned with the guidelines. My only hesitancy is something I heard one of the board members or even some of the members of the community say, I'm just worried and wondering about time and capacity and uh because some of the books are on the list because the librarians cannot read every book and the process that we currently in have in place when it comes to the removal of of a book that's in question requires that you read the book. So, I'm wondering how we will get through that volume of books without having read them in depth. um because it is possible by just screening or scanning that even

202a book then could still be overlooked. So, oh well I had advocated last year that we had a a committee like we've had maybe I've been advocating that for over a year now and it's kind of been poo pooed down the line. Nobody's wanting to do anything about it. I think the citizen community on this subject would be very beneficial. Yeah. I I welcome the partnership from our community to support an endeavor of this nature. I'd love to talk with our librarians about what that process could be like, but I definitely welcome additional help. And um Mr. Chair, my my other question is about how the current policy has been rewritten and I'm wondering does this go to the scrap heap or does this stand as is? Um I know we since we're not making

203doing having any action on this tonight, our current policy we have remains in place. Correct. And I do encourage you that any parent who believes there's a book in our libraries that isn't appropriate, bring it through the process that currently we have. And we're not saying we don't want to hear what you have to say. Bring it through the process. If you want to come up and curse us out, do that, too. Bring the book with you, read from it. We can we can have a good old time. But, um, what I'm saying is, you know what? What happens to this right now? Well, Mrs. Jordan's wanting to weigh in so let her weigh in. Go ahead, Miss Jordan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Bell, to your question, if the action from what just

204based on this discussion, the recommended action would be that it be tabled until later to a later time, there would be no action on this policy or on this draft. So, the draft the policy that we currently have in effect would remain until we bring it back. In addition, based on this conversation, what I would recommend is to give staff time because this is one policy and we have five regulations, four really specifically more to this. What I would recommend is that we work with staff to get the process honed based on to to reflect what the board is actually hoping to do and then the board can take a look at changes to the regulation also in light of changes to the policy. So we can look at it as one cohesive package if

205that makes sense. And so that would I would just add to what Dr. Hummer said that that would be another thing for the board to consider is so not that the board would act on the regulation but the board could make a vote on the policy based on what it sees in the proposed amended regulations. Mr. Chairman, could I just ask Miss Knight um one just one um ask of the process and and it's a respectful ask. I know I'm putting you on the spot. Could we please involve at least one or two of our librarians and not through not through someone else? Can we invite at least one or two of our librarians to like participate in that conversation about process um just so that they're directly involved and not having to go through

206somebody else? Um absolutely they have been invited directly. I've met with the librarians myself exclusively both in person and I know you haven't. I'm sorry if I implied to you. They have been involved the entire time and brought along the way. In fact, I asked for an email to go out to them this evening just to remind them that we support them. We're rooting for them. We're cheering them on and that in fact I invited them to come tonight. So, so absolutely without a question I and plan to include them. Um my only other thought is I'm just trying to get clarification myself. So, for example, if the book list currently stands across the high school bands because again there's only one and by I don't mean band b I mean ba n bands um

207middle school band high school band middle school has one existing book on that on that list and high school has 180 something I can't remember what it is if we determine through this process of reviewing and re and reweeding or whatever we're going to do and say we whittle that list down to 00 books. Is the intent then to take that list and say, "Well, yes, we agree and confirmed that it meets the definition by way of state code and now this list would be banned or is it that we now have just firmed up our list, ensured its accuracy, and this this would be the list that if you vote in that direction that parents would have to either opt in or leave the policy as it stands and they would continue to opt

208out. I think that's where I am trying to understand what I think that's something that we can I if we wanted to just table this do we need a motion for that or well hold on let's Mr. Chair if I may if I may thank you Mrs. tonight for for stating that what what I heard you all say is that you are split right now between this particular policy and to consider opt-in. But before we even decide what direction to go in there, what I'm hearing loud and clear is you want a better understanding of the books that are on that list. Yes. Not necessarily to go through and and make a decision to remove books. I'm not hearing that. Not yet. What I'm Right. What I'm hearing is is they want to know why

209is book A on the sexually explicit list. So not a full review to say if it's appropriate or not. Is why is this book sexually explicit because on page 12 it says A, B, and C. Not that if it's appropriate for school, why is it sexually explicit? I heard that loud and clear. That is correct. What we discussed on Monday of last week, which again I to what you said earlier, Mr. Chair, about the the committees, we didn't not we didn't disagree with committees. it was even to have one committee centrally to funnel 250 plus books. That's a large overtaking. That's going to take a long time. What we did talk about last Monday is to work with schools of developing their own committee. So, what I'm recommending and what I would like to do

210to Mrs. Knight's point about time is we want to go back and talk with the the librarians and the schools to say, can we create a committee to involve the constituents of that school to review these books? not to determine if they're appropriate for school or not, but to determine why is this book labeled sexually explicit. That way, we're not going to send it to one committee. It'll be three committees at three schools so we can get this done more efficiently as long as there's parent involvement. Absolutely. And we totally agree with that. And and by by doing that, we'll also get a good taste of that particular process. And it might go well, it might not. And if it doesn't, then we can have a conversation of doing one main one centrally and funnel

211things through that. or it might go well and we'll just continue to funnel it through that at each of the schools. Again, we talked about that last week. I just want to throw that recommendation out there as well. But I want to be very clear. We're not going in removing books and giving them a truncated list. It's what are these 91 books and why are the each of those 91 books sexually explicit at each of the schools. Want to be very clear on that. Yes. And with that with that evaluation too, this board reserves the right if it still is on the sexually explicit book list and it fits everything that the Virginia state code outlines. We reserve that right to remove those books. We are empowered by Virginia state law to do so. That

212is out. We own the libraries as a board and the librarians work for us as a board and we work for the constituents. And Exactly. And as much as you all may not like it, this is a conservative community and we represent the conservative community that voted us in. All right. I order. We we we listen to what you had to say. Now that that part is over. Yeah. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um just a question for Miss Jordan. Miss Jordan. So, I intend to table this. Um, I'll make a motion to table it here in a second, but I wanted to get some clarification before I do that. Um, will I need to table this to a certain board uh like a certain a certain uh month? I I wouldn't recommend a certain month

213because just based on what trying to implement what the board has directed. Well, that I was going to ask you that and I was going to go to Miss Knight and ask her how much time does she think she needs. Well, and also if I can just add, the board is welcome to make a motion to table this to to a date to be determined later or the board could just not take action on amending this policy. Um, and so if the board doesn't take action on amending this policy, then there's not there's really nothing that we have to do at that point. But it's completely up to the board's discretion how the board would like to move forward. I would suggest that we don't take action on the policy. Sounds easier. Second. Okay. Yeah.

214Is that a that motion? The proper motion. I that it's actually technically not here. I'll make the proper I'll do the proper verge. So, um I mo I mo I move long night. I move to not take action on this policy as currently written at this time. Second. Okay. A motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any be a party pooper, Mr. chair. Sir, so to not take action um that is taking action. So the motion the motion would be the table to to move to to table to a later time. All right. All right. So it's been motioned and seconded. So we all got to vote next there. Well, there has to be a motion to amend. All right. Um I would like a Oh, no. You have to because you're it's

215your motion, right? It is my motion. Uh no, it can be anybody. All right. I make a motion to amend. Her motion motion amend to amend it to what? To table it to amend it to tableabling this to another date to a different to another date to be determined. Yes. Second. Okay. So the motion was made properly seconded amended properly seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That is that. All right. Next up is board member comments. Uh oh. Right. Lord, keep it straight and to the point. Mr. Chair, I will keep it straight and to the point. I have comments. I want to make it abundantly clear to everybody. This is not an LGBTQ issue. This is not an African-American issue. Clearly, you all

216have not read the policy. Carol, I love you. We disagree and we get along and we respect each other. But seriously, this has nothing to do with the NAACP. Nothing to do with it at all. Period. It has nothing to do with LGBTQ rights. Nothing. Nothing in this policy alludes to that. In fact, there's actually a sentence in there that says that it specifically addresses sexual preference. We are not making any actions towards those. We acknowledge that there are people in our community that have those preferences and students do need to be able to look at a book and see themselves. That's 100% agreed. It doesn't have to go into the detail of sex at all. So, we are not getting after those books whatsoever. So, that's my comment, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair,

217if I may. Oh, please. So, first I would like to thank the FCCLA for giving me cookies. Um, secondly, I'd like to say congratulations to all of those who came uh this evening hours ago to be um recognized and honored. And for those newly appointed, welcome and thank you. And then I would also like to thank Leslie whom I've known for quite some time for bringing up an idea that I think is just wonderful and I hope that we can figure out how to do something with it. I can't make any promises, but it's a grand idea and I I absolutely support um trying to figure out how to make it work. So, thank you so much and thanks for sticking around. Yeah. Um, as far as the books are concerned, as you can see,

218we don't all believe in the same thing up here. That's called democracy. And it's a good thing. And we're not calling each other names. We're not calling each other out. We're not taking pictures of Mr. Sturdivan's car. And and we're not we're we we generally get along and we work towards consensus as Miss Klein had stated. and I appreciate that very very much. Um, so I'm not going to go any more into the books. What I am going to go into is is something that I am very disappointed in. As hard as our staff works to put together a budget, to get all of the information to the board of supervisors to provide as much clarity and openness as we possibly can and we go and show up to a meeting and we get told

219that we're wasting our our constituents money's be money because we're purchasing calendars for them. I think that's very nitpicky and irrelevant to the bigger picture, but that's my personal opinion. And then come to find out, we go to another board meeting, or I should say Dr. Hummer does, and we find out that the commissioner of the revenue and the treasurer have two different sets of numbers. And this kind of makes me concerned, and Dr. Mr. Hummer has assured us in the last finance committee meeting that the timeline is intact. Correct. As of right now, what they reported to us. Yes, sir. But we don't know exactly what if what it is that they're going to be able to give to us, if they even know what they have. And you know, there's been some uh

220name calling and and things going back and forth. And I just want to say I'm concerned about the needs-based budget. And I say needsbased budget that we have for our students for 2526. Now, it's interesting to me that a board member of the supervisors sometimes comes to our meeting and tries to take down um our uh chairman just because his daughter works for FCPS. Who cares? Second, I also find it interesting that that same board member is the one that brought up the calendars. To me, it would make more sense to pay attention to your own board and figure out what the treasurer has and the commissioner of the revenue has instead of worrying about us buying uh calendars, whether worrying about who's being hired, worrying about what what's in our schools, what's not in

221our schools. Um, you know, I was thinking about calling for the resignation of a certain individual, but I'm not going to yet. Um, but I think that it's important that the board of supervisors know that they should take care of their own house before they try to take care of our house. So, I would appreciate if they would get their act together. And maybe a recommendation I'd like to give to them and only because it affects us here as well in the schools is to maybe hire an auditor to come and audit their books and find out exactly what kind of situation is going on and a third-party auditor. That would be my recommendation. I would further recommend that they don't lower the uh property tax any lower than 48 cents. I mean, we're going

222backwards and they wonder why people want to move here. Well, if I lived in Louden and paid what they pay in taxes or Fairfax, my behind would be here quicker and you can say sunshine. So, um I think that they need to look within. I heard that. I think that they should look within before they look without and get their own act together before they deal with us. And I I just share these concerns because what we're asking for is what we need to run our schools. Is what we need to do a good job for our students and for our staff. It's what we need to create good constituents for the future of our county. That's what we need. So with that, Avita Zane. Any other All right. Uh Mr. chair. Um I just

223I know we talked a lot about books, but there's a couple other people out here who had some other things going on. I first want to say thank you to all of our um some new staff members, but um we've only got one at stage, so thank you, Miss Anderson. You're kind of forced to be here. Um yeah, got you chained to the table. Um so, but thank you for for sticking with us. We appreciate it. I I know budget cycles are it would have scared me off. Um but then uh one of the other questions was uh I think uh Miss Spencer uh farming space at the fourth high school, please come to uh some of our um fourth high school meetings, our uh CIP meetings and um and we'd like to take a

224look at it. You know, um I'm not saying it's a yes. I'm not saying it's a no, but let's see where we can go with it. Um I'd like to see the plans for it. you know, talk about how we could fund it. Uh, all the bells and whistles in there, you know, get a good plan together and maybe it's something we could make happen. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm all about looking into that. Um, everything else was about books, so won't keep beating on that. So, but if anybody's got any more questions, comments, keep sending those emails. I've gotten it from left and right. Um, you know, we just want to kind of find a happy medium for everybody to protect kids and and but still not infringe on parents rights at the end

225of the day. Um, other than that, I've got nothing. Mr. Chairman, Mr. I promise I will keep it as brief as I can. First, um, thank you to everybody who stuck around and participated. to the young man from Sharando High School. I admire you and I wish I was as well spoken at your age um as you are. Um, yeah, something I just wanted to call out here is that this is this is the book issue is one on which I know a lot of people are passionate and if we're going to listen to each other and if we're going to move the ball in whatever direction we're going to move it and we want to try to bridge build a compromise. I would suggest respectfully that perhaps calling people unamerican um and assigning and

226ascribing motive um to people who you need on your side is probably not a good strategy. Uh when it comes to our budget, I would just want to reiterate what Mr. Bell said about we presented a needs-based budget. I have yet I've worked for a lot of superintendents in different school divisions and I've got to tell you the level of transparency and openness and um willingness to answer critical questions um that I see from Dr. Hummer is still at the top. Um and and I think that's one of the reasons that our relationship with the board of supervisors is improving and I'm excited to see how that continues to grow in the future because I wasn't until I spoke because I I really do think that it can be collaborative. Uh, Miss Leslie, thank you

227for what you said about um the the importance of the outdoors. As somebody who grew up um I would not um have grown up as healthily as I did um if not for um direct involvement with my hands in the dirt um and planting things and watching them sometimes succeed and a lot of times fail. Um so I might come to you for tips on that, but I echo what Mr. Atkins said about please participate in those citizen opportunities, especially when it comes to green spaces because we know how important those can be to success for kids in high school. Um, that's it. Okay. Um, I I'll just I should probably keep my mouth shut, but I have a problem doing that sometimes. There was one thing that was said tonight that kind of irked

228me just a bit. I don't know if I think it was Mr. Nur that said it was about the stipen that we get here on this board. I'm going to tell you right now, and and this has been said to me before, if you think any of us are up here making bank, you are out of your mind. I get paid $492 a month. And do you know what I get for my $492 a month? Today, as a prime example, a lot of you spoke about freedom of speech today and and and the First Amendment. I have a Trump uh a magnetic sticker with Trump with his thumbs up that's been posted on Facebook like two or three times already, but we won't go there. It's already been said. I'm sitting at a traffic light

229going to pick my son up at the mall cuz he's job shadowing. And behind me, I see someone double fisting, flipping me off. At first, I thought, now at first I thought it was something different. and and and then I started hearing fuf Trump all the way they followed me to the mall. So yeah, that freedom of speech thing, it should work on both ways. And there are some people on on both sides of the aisle that are complete jackasses. Excuse me. So if you think $492 is a lot of money to make, I've been followed. I've been stalked. I've been threatened. I've been harassed. People have come to my house. I've had people come up here and call me a criminal and lie about me. And I've had things written about me that were

230completely false. And and I can't remember the lady's name, Miss Was it Sour Powers? Talking about the teachers. I went to three schools. I held three uh what did I call them? listening tours for the staff of Frederick County Schools. And out of the three listening tours that I had, how many showed up at the one you were at? Nine. One time, nine. Nine staff members bothered to show up at Jameswood High School. The other two, nobody showed up. I couldn't even get in the door the last time. I had to beat on the door before they let me in. So I I I agree that some of the teachers are in shell shock. I get it. But when allegations are made, unfortunately, that's the world we live in. We take things serious here. I

231support the teachers and I defy any teacher that says I don't support them because I've been in those schools more so than anybody else because I have more time to do that than than most of these folks. But I've been in almost every school. I've talked with teachers. I've showed up when they weren't expecting me to show up. So, so I I I get it. But when allegations are made, we have to take them serious. And I and and if you're reading social media, I'm going to tell you right now from my own perspective. I've the the Facebook page, what's happening in Frederick County, Winchester, I've read all these things about this teacher, that teacher, 99.9% of the crap you read on those pages is wrong. Somebody on there said that I was incompetent. I

232thought that was a miracle because usually it takes somebody about a week to realize I'm incompetent. It they just want never met me. So, I'm just being a smart alec. But let's face facts. Don't don't point your finger at me about my $492 I get a month and think it's a gravy and a picnic. I've went through a lot of crap over the last uh uh uh since July. Well, no, since I got on this board because I didn't do what one person in this county demanded that I do. So, it ain't no picnic being up here. I only did this because I thought there was that that I was supposed to be doing this and I did it. And the people that were sitting up here before me laughed at me and like, "Haha,

233you can't do that." Guess what? They ain't laughing no more. And I'm not trying to be a jackass here. Again, forgive me. But I'm just telling you, it ain't no picnic being on this side of the aisle. And and some of these people that come in here and want to curse and rant and rave. Yeah. It ain't no fun. Live in my shoes. you know, but I I have to walk everywhere I go. I have to videotape in case somebody comes up. Um I had to put cameras on my cars. I had to put cameras on my home. So, this is no picnic. And then going back to this book thing, yeah, I ran on it, but everybody on this board, whether we agree on everything, uh we don't always agree on things. There's a

234lot of things I believe that they don't agree with. That's fine. But these folks bust their butts to do the best job that they can. And I've read all the, "Well, they suck. They're incompetent. They don't know what they're talking about." I'm telling you right now, these are some of the smartest people I've ever met in my life. And they do a great job. And all we care about is making sure our staff is taken care of and that our kids are taken care of. And that's the bottom line. So that's I'm off my soap box, but come si come live in my world sometime if you think it's easy. That's all I got to say. And with that, board member comments are done. Next school board meeting is April 22nd, 2025. May I have

235a motion to adjurnn? Mr. Chair, may I make a motion to adjurnn? Second. It has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Nope. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Where are