001and that we exit executive session [Music] i need a second second no we need to vote right now yes mr sacha yes mr bostic yes mr ball yes mr gibson yes mr parsons yes miss garrett yes and myself yes now i'll go with the codes and okay ma'am chairman i moved to certified to the best of our knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion to go into executive session or heard discussed or considered in executive session and we went in for section 371 a personnel a7 8 legal matters pertaining to a proposal of new policies eight changes in curriculum and the governor's executive order mr sakhawija yes mr boston mr ball yes mr gibson yes mr parsons yes could
002you ask the folks out there please mr fletcher to be quiet ask the sro if you would ask the people there to be quiet miss garrett yes ms compton yes we'll stand for invocation and pledge uh mr zack luigi would you care to lead us on heavenly father thank you for us to have this opportunity tonight together together to make policies and decisions to to in the best interest of our children and our community guide this board as we act tonight and and on future issues uh and keep a watch over our kids in the name of your son our savior amen i amen 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 do we have any adjustments to
003the agenda this evening dr brown i know madam chair thank you do i have a motion that we finalized the agenda thank you mr boston do i have a second i'll second that madam chair thank you uh mr secawicha we need a vote yes all in favor yes yes yes yes okay need approval of the minutes i have a notion that we approve the minutes of our last meeting that was minutes of may 6th okay so mate thank you a second thank you mr bostic all in favor dr brown that takes us to our recognitions for this evening thank you madam chair i asked assistant superintendent mr fletcher to come forward and lead us through those thank you dr brown madam chair members of the board it's a pleasure tonight to bring some recognitions to
004you first of all we'd like to recognize the winners of the svsva art contest i'd like to invite kaylee glitch shaden rose chad and rose music destiny coleman if they would come forward with their parents and the school administrators if they're here there we go come on parents family you're welcome to come and stand with your child so all right as you all well know every year we have a county art contest and we select winners in each medium for our county division level and then we also select the best out of the pre-k through five section the six through eight and the nine through twelve and those uh go on to the competition at the regional espa meeting i think that maybe was virtual this year but a lot of you saw those injuries
005and we're pleased to announce to you our best in category first of all pre-k five kaylee couch we're going to present these framed photos but we're going to keep them and we'll hang them on the wall right outside the boardroom for a year and then we'll give those back to the winners at the end of that year we'll set your borrowing just for a moment so we can get a photograph outside when we finish and our 6-8 winner was chad and rose music who dr brown was also a winner last year and we're going to give last year's photo wow um [Applause] what we have last year's [Applause] and our 9 through 12 winner was also a winner last year destiny coleman [Applause] okay i loved your pictures i loved your pizza thank you next
006we're very proud to recognize the castlewood high school golf team they play second in the state tournament this year like to ask the members of the team to come forward with their coaches and the administrator mr robertson i think is here coleman cook bailey varney maddox barnett jacob lastly jack gross abby bradley bree phillips connor robinette and heath southern nicely parents are here you're welcome to come and stand with your child so just pick one madam chairman that's a pretty good-looking bunch off with that cook guy there can i give him that can't get mr roberson if you'd like to say a few words and then we'll have your coach speak to him well i suppose i i'm not a golfer obviously but i did have the opportunity to i mean well two years in
007regular state golf tournament and uh these gentlemen were kind enough to let me ride along the cart and so i wouldn't look stupid and go where i shouldn't go and learn so much listen to these gentlemen talk about the game and talk about these kids and then when you watch these young people go out there and hit a little ball with a stick and make it go where they want it to go uh it's amazing to watch the way they carry themselves the way they represent our school is just it's amazing to watch that whole process take place uh it's not that fast-paced action but it is certainly has its own intensity so i i've been fortunate enough to watch that uh runner up this year to a tremendous state champion at george with and
008uh from what i understand they lose a good part of their team so i am planning on a bigger celebration next year so all right mr cook well mike's not a golfer yet but we're working on it he's got a good start but now we want to thank mike and his staff for their support and just being there it means a lot to the kids to see a you know friendly face like he said it's for those who don't play it's a tough game it's a humbling sport it will humble you quick and the intensity like he says it's not there as far as a fast pace game but for five hours these kids play their heart out walking maybe on average four miles on the 18-hole match and uh you have to just you
009have to control your emotions uh physical ability sometimes is outweighed by the mail like i said it's a tough game really proud of these kids what they bring as far as their character like mike says we were second in the state but we're second to none as far as their character they represent their school their families and themselves with great dignity but also i need to thank all these parents because we couldn't do this without them it being a covered year the travel most of these parents sacrificed their time their gas money to be with us every match is an away match every practice is a way so it's it was really important for those parents to really step up this year we didn't have a whole lot of expectations playing in the spring we
010normally play in the fall and so with the weather and just not knowing what that would entail as far as their ability to play but they really they stepped up and beat all of our expectations this year we did we finished second against a team that's it the last three years in a row and so this coming year we do have the expectations of when to get out i'll speak a little bit about a couple of these players all these players and then i also want to thank my assistant bob who volunteers his time and is always there to help us so have colton cook he's one of our top three players he was all district uh fourth in the district he was ninth in the regional tournament and finished tenth in the state tournament
011uh jay gross our lone senior we're going to miss him so we're still a relatively young team but jake played on our district golf championship team and we're really going to miss them jacob lasley he's a one of our other top three players he uh he had an up and down season kind of like coleman but he really played good in the district he was third in the district fifth in the region and then had a kind of a off day in the state tournament but finished good in the back nine to help us secure the second place win abby bradley she's probably been our most consistent player the last couple years she was second in the district first in the region and finished seventh in the state which also qualified her to play in
012the girls state championship which was all classifications class one through six so that was a big honor she she went up there and represented herself and represented the school well bailey varney she's a freshman our only freshman on the team and she really came up big in her state tournament she played in a regional tournament and our state tournament and was our uh third best scorer for the state tournament which was big for us getting the second place win bree phillips she was in a regional she was our fourth place scorer for a regional tournament and it really played good in the state tournament and uh she's also she's just a sophomore so she comes back maddox barnett he's only been playing a few years got one of the best swings around looking for big
013things for him he played in our district championship team uh honor robinette he really uh came on uh from the beginning of the year to the to the end he secured himself as our fourth place scorer most of the time and played he was sixth in their uh district tournament and i think was our fifth place scored in the regional tournament so heath is our other junior along with coleman and he's played with us for three years played middle school with us is another tough competitor it's we can only put six players out there count four scores so sometimes me and bob we get uh we get we make they make us look bad but uh no really uh just appreciate y'all uh having us here recognizing this and again just so proud of all
014these kids and their accomplishments father if you want to say a few say other words how proud i am of this group they really put it all online for us this year and appreciate everyone thank you guys well the board has a presentation for the team presented to castlevan high school golf team by the russell county school excuse me presented to casper wood high school golf team by the rosa county school board in recognition of winning second place at the 2000 2021 vhsl group 1a state golf tournament june of 2021 [Music] congratulations [Music] congratulations thank you for what you do congratulations thanks for what you do thank you for what you're doing all right and our last recognition are the employees of the month i'm proud to bring to you the teacher of the month
015elizabeth collins from castlewood elementary i'll ask her and miss banner to come forward and sports staff employee of the month tiny shortridge school nurse at honaker high school and she's here at mr bush i didn't see what she's on there it's great have some epistles to read each of these ladies had several recommendations and i'd like to share them with you first of all for connie shortridge tiny is a wonderful nurse and an amazing person she goes above and beyond every day to help take care of everyone on anchor high school is blessed to have her as the school nurse even when exhausted she comes to work and as much as and works as hard as she can to take care of everyone else before she transferred to honaker high school she was a nurse
016at honaker elementary school when my daughter started school it meant the world to me to know tiny was there for her if she needed anything and my daughter still adores tiny another nomination connie is so much more than homeker high's nurse she does her nursing duties exceptionally well but she also goes out of her way to help everyone on staff if you need help she's going to jump in and help you if you're working on anything and she's nearby she just steps in and makes it easier for you and does whatever she can to get the task accomplished during these coveted times she runs everywhere keeping us healthy and safe screening students doing her daily motivations diabetes checks and just making it a safe place to be she does all this while wearing a smile
017on her face and making you feel cared about tiny makes honeker high school a better place and then another one tiny goes above and beyond for the faculty and children at home acre high school during this year with kobe 19 with the cobin 19 pandemic she's worked tirelessly to keep her school safe she's worked hours way beyond normal schedule to ensure we are all safe at one acre high she also helps with anything needed around the school and it's been a true blessing to us i highly recommend tiny shortridge for employee of the month so congratulations [Applause] and miss collins i have several to greet from her now a lot of hers are from students and they they maybe don't write but little snippets but i want to share them with you she's the best
018she makes work really easy she lets me hang out all right she is the best ever i used to hate to write although all that changed when i met her she's the sweetest person you will ever meet she's amazing at her job she really cares about her students she really goes out of her way to make sure her students have everything they need for school and out of school she's funny nice a good teacher and i learn a lot from her i love her she is sweet and caring and all around just a lovely person she's caring and will work things out for you and she will always understand congratulations [Applause] [Music] thank you very much okay dr brown delegations on the agenda uh yes ma'am chair we received phone calls for individuals that would
019like to address the board and again we do have delegation on the agenda available at the end of our agenda for anyone here tonight that would like to speak the first gentleman is lester watson mr watson with us lester watson okay lester watson all right toddy okay thank you good evening uh mr chairman members of the school board my name is todd gackey uh pronounced like khaki pants but with the g as my wife likes to say i am with the family foundation of virginia and i've come all the way from richmond virginia to tell you about some very dangerous policies that we're concerned about and my remarks are on behalf of the family foundation as well as the founding freedoms law center which asked me to make a few comments on their behalf they
020are the legal arm of the family foundation the founding freedoms law center has brought a suit against the virginia department of education to put a stop to the model transgender policies and to make them have to go back to the drawing board and make some significant changes make some significant corrections that their policies so that their policies do not violate law we anticipate a decision in the near future so it is not wise for this board to adopt these policies but regardless of what vdoe provides as guidance school boards have a primary duty to protect the safety and security of the students under their care the bodily safety and security of our children and of the public school students here in russell county the ability of parents to protect their children and not have their
021parental rights violated should be the highest priority however these video policies would force all children into dangerous and compromising situations in locker rooms bathrooms changing facilities overnight sleeping accommodations this isn't hyperbole this is happening in localities around the state these policies also violate the fundamental rights of parents to direct the education of their children and the care for them by allowing by allowing the schools to withhold information from parents about their children is about very sensitive matters the school board also has an ultimate duty to follow the us and the virginia constitutions to make to take precedence over any virginia state law and federal law this includes not violating the constitutional rights of students teachers and staff and the virginia department department of education's model policies as fle fl of the family freedoms law center's
022lawsuit alleges clearly violent violate in numerous ways rights of privacy parental rights free speech religious exercise due process and equal protection as well as other state and federal laws passing these policies will create endless conflicts and it will result in endless litigation not to mention innumerable harms to students in all grades already teachers in virginia have been fired over policies just like these that cannot work in which they could not in good conscience according their sincere beliefs affirm false realities through the use of preferred pronouns here in russell county if you adopt these sexual orientation and gender identity policies these same issues will happen right here so we urge you please do not adopt these model policies thank you for your time thank you so much [Applause] all right madam chair we have jessica with
023swift hello so most of you know me i am jessica white um i do have two kids that go to one goes to hanukkah elementary she'll be in high school next year and i have a 16 year old that is at home high so i'm asking for you guys to stand strong and protect every child in the county um and not just a certain group by not adopting the department of education's trans transgender issue policy i feel this policy threatens our kids physical safety and the privacy rights as you know the policy forces every k-12 school to allow a transgendered child to use the bathroom of their choice without questioning from school staff for instance a boy identifying as a girl can use the girl's bathroom or change in a female locker room and this
024can be done without notifying any parents that terrifies me having a daughter going to high school we need to say yes to protecting our kids and no to being forced into adopting sexualized political agendas that do not reflect our community needs as a parent of teens attending our public schools i'm deeply concerned about my child's right to expect physical safety and privacy in vulnerable areas such as locker rooms restrooms and overnight trips and you know as well as i do the use of cell phones and it's not always a transgender child that you're going to have to worry about it's the door that you open for other people they can go in there and film i mean these girls are changing clothes using the bathrooms i just think it's very unsafe um we hear a
025lot about transgender rights and i think we can all agree that every child should be protected from harm regardless no one ever talks about the harm done to very young girls who feel powerless to accept physical privacy and the presence of a biological male not to mention young men who do not want to change in front of a biological girls for instance and i don't know all the schools how you guys have them but i do know at home acre in swords creek elementary you have pre-k through seventh grade ultimately during lunchtime kids are renting a need to go to the bathroom you can easily have at the elementary schools a third grade girl going to the bathroom and a seventh grade male who chooses to go into a female bathroom there's not going to
026be supervision in there and how safe is that going to be for that child she's going to be scared probably not going to know what to do a lot of kids are going to refuse to go to the bathroom which is going to have health issues um can you imagine how powerless and scary that would be i am concerned our schools have more to lose from costly sexual harassment lawsuits or other types of litigation that arise from these situations then they risk from refusing to adopt the policies being forced in our community so again i ask you to protect all the kids just not one certain group of kids um we need to be proactive and we need to work together um and i hope that you guys are willing to stand up i know
027most of you so i think the people that i know will do that i expect you guys to do the right thing [Applause] amanda good evening i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today i am amanda hill and my daughter is going to begin the pre-k in the 22-23 school year i also currently have two nephews and one niece that is at home acre after reviewing the virginia department of education model policy in response to house bill 145 which is the transgender students in virginia public schools i've discovered this policy not only falls short for the protection of students but it wrongly takes away parental rights i am directly asking each of you to not adopt this policy and here's why in the event my niece who is entering high school this year
028find herself in a situation of being sexually confused or dealing with the situation of another student's sexual confusion this policy demands that no school official or teacher can tell her parents this policy lists abuse as a concern because of this and i agree abuse if truly is a concern then the proper agency should be contacted such as cps but this policy is trying to govern from the exception and remove the parent from a situation when a child needs her mother father or guardian more than ever the policy gives instruction on how to hide sensitive information from parents about their own child and this puts the child at more risk than providing protection i don't know if you've read the model yet you can find that is actual excerpt on pages 12 and 13 under the
029student identification section um it demands that information be kept from the parent if requested by the sexually confused student as well as a means of privacy this is an unacceptable requirement that a child's parent is not aware of their well-being which could cause greater harm the policy applies to k-12 now i think we can agree that no situation no child no child's maturity level and no grade is all the same so our uniform so adopting a uniform policy would be irresponsible and that is not what is best for our students in russell county parents not only have the right to know what is going on personally with their child but the concepts that children are being taught and what they're experiencing in their daily environment this policy promotes that gender can be assigned rather than
030being connected to chromosomes and dna which crosses the line into mandatory promotion of a centralized political agenda so again sorry i'm emotional about it so again i am asking you not to adopt this policy for the treatment of transgender students sent by the virginia board of education because it truly is not a policy that will safe guard every child's heart mind and body i feel confident that you the board can find a compassionate way to protect in a legal way as he spelled out to protect every child including those with gender confusion without sacrificing parental rights and child safety safety i greatly appreciate all that you do for our school children and i appreciate the opportunity to speak thank you [Applause] all right madam sure we're ready for section g that you send items for
031boards consideration okay if you have an opportunity to look at the bills and the accounts do i have a motion that we i make much recruitment approve the bills thank you mr bostic a second i'll say thank you thank you mr parsons all in favor any opposed okay dr brown that takes us to the resignations and retirements yes man chair i have a small list for the board's review and approval tonight i have a motion that we approve resignations and retirements madam chair i'll make a motion to approve the resignations and retirements as presented thank you mr sacra have a second second thank you mr gibson all in favor any opposed okay dr brown uh yes ma'am chair with the new hires our staff's been very busy principal's been busy with the process of interviewing
032and replacing staff we have a list for the board's approval for tonight okay do i have a motion we approve new personnel thank you miss garrett have a second so thank you mr parsons all in favor any opposed okay dr brown manager tonight we have one action night and the two information items for the board's consideration the first one is a document that came to the board through the virginia association of school superintendents and the virginia school board association in partnership and it is a resolution dealing with the tasks of the superintendents in the commonwealth of virginia for this past year and i asked assistant superintendent mr fletcher to share recognition of 133 virginia public school division superintendents as superintendents of the year for 2021. whereas in order to ensure the health and safety of
033all virginians school across the commonwealth closed on march 13 2020 due to the covet 19 pandemic and most have provided virtual instruction since then as in person teaching and learning evolved and whereas individual school divisions retain the autonomy to decide whether or not new instruction would continue and the format in which the instruction would be presented and whereas stable and consistent leadership by the local school division superintendents has been vital in serving children through this pandemic and whereas school division superintendents are responsible for the health safety welfare and education of each child by creating while creating school cultures even within a pandemic that serve all children regardless of their circumstances and whereas public school division superintendents utilize guidance from the centers for disease control virginia department of health virginia department of education local health departments
034and local case data in fulfilling leadership responsibility in their community like no other time in their careers and whereas local school division superintendents work collaboratively with with their school boards educators parents and community stakeholders in providing technology resources curriculum content emotional support and meals to children during the pandemic and whereas traditionally vass superintendents of the year have been selected via a diverse panel of education associations after reviewing an individual superintendent's ability to demonstrate leadership for learning communication professionalism and community involvement and whereas all 133 virginia public school division superintendents have extraordinarily exhibited these qualities while leading their school divisions and communities through the 2021 school year and whereas the vass board of directors agreed on january 7 2021 to suspend the traditional selection process of determining a single superintendent of the year and unanimously agreed
035to recognize and honor all virginia public school division superintendents as superintendents of the year for 2020-21 and whereas vass is appreciative of the virginia school boards association supporting this resolution and the honor provided to each division superintendent by having his or her respective school board present this resolution to the superintendent to be recognized within the community for which he or she serves and leads now therefore be resolved that the russell county school will school board does hereby recognize dr gregory a brown as a virginia superintendent of the year for 2020 21 as designated by the virginia association of school superintendents okay do i have a motion that we approve the resolution i'll make that motion thank you mr ball do i have a second second thank you mr parsons all in favor no no i
036i'm kidding do you need a roll call vote he didn't come by and shake her hand no that's not been approved yet we just don't die any opposed no but i'm staying because i don't know the other 132 superintendents i mean how can i vote for somebody i don't know and i'm not thank you madam thank you thank you dr brown okay dr brown would you care to give us the coronavirus update please uh yes ma'am chair a lot of things have happened since our last board meeting executive order 72 7th amended has went by the wayside all 100 plus pages of it when you look at the amendments it's been replaced with executive order 79 which is four pages so we're very optimistic moving forward as our data continues to improve the information we
037received this today showed 4.4 positivity rate hospital stay down to 52 individuals so that's that's very encouraging for our region in the end we hope that that continues as we move forward things associated with the coronavirus and the pandemic and stimulus funds the esther 3 funds have been presented to russell county public schools 8.1 million dollars for various projects that are associated with the pandemic and improving conditions of different things associated with such has been awarded part of that requires that we have an opportunity for public input that's been placed on our website if you'd like to click on that and say a few words recommendations things to consider in addition to that we had to install the first version if you will of our reopening plan for next year so that's available as of
038today as well so again i'd recommend all stakeholders take a look at those documents realizing again that's very early in the process when we talk about starting school in august but again it's the first step toward that path so we're again we're excited the path that we've been on and taken again since march uh 13th you know to today it's just really incredible uh parents have been very supportive and we appreciate that the job the teachers and administrators have done is just phenomenal we are in the process of gathering sol tests uh results from sol testing and were encouraged the instructional loss that we were anticipating is there but it's not nearly as large as we initially thought it might be so we're really encouraged by that we have a very robust summer school in
039place so that we can start addressing the instructional loss of our students and hopefully when we start the school year in august we're well on our way to closing that gap so we're again we're really excited really appreciative of the teamwork that's going on here in russell county and it goes beyond just our employees again to the parents to the students you know there were times that we had some issues with students needing to do what they needed to do and not but again we're appreciative of where we're at today and i can tell you we're far ahead of many school divisions thank you dr brown we have the first reading of policies uh yes madam chairs a member of the virginia school board association russell camp public schools periodically receives vsba policy updates to
040be examined by our school board members for implementation in rose camp public schools policy manual policies under consideration can be seen under the policy tab on board docs and those will be available to the board members now through you know our next meeting and staff request any feedback and direction on those with our july meeting thank you dr brown and if you wouldn't mind sir would you on your computer show how those policies can be accessed sure for everyone well you go under the policy tab and you have active draft and retired and some of these things are not available to to all okay they're tired and so forth and again the draft i'm not for sure exactly if the draft's available we'll we'll check in on that if not we can see if we
041want to make that available but with the draft we have these policies and these policies again these are the three policies under section a up for consideration these are the three for section b section c happens to have two and so forth so these will actually come up for vote next month yes yes so the board will have the the month of june to go through all these policies and examine them provide questions if you'd like answers from myself or from uh legal counsel and then again it'll be before the board with the july board meeting but just to be clear since we've talked about transgender 13 of these have to do with that or have the code the state code law yes there's 13 policies that i mean if people look they need to
042know what they're looking for sure as far as the policies are concerned the the comments that we've heard tonight uh dealing with uh restroom facility use and so forth uh and and even pronouns those things are not in these policies for approval the only thing we're dealing with here is again pre-existing policies and really just code reference issues so again for example mr gibson when you look at one of the policies that's available we'll see ac the non-non-discrimination policy you see that there's been a change for the board's consideration they've dropped uh disability comma status as a veteran and replaced that with military status and then as far as the transgender policy is concerned the only thing that we're looking at is here at the bottom and that's just simply a reference that that policy
043is uh falls under this non-discriminatory policy this policy is pre-existing already matter of fact all 13 of the policies that you speak of are pre-existing that refers to a law yes okay yes code of virginia 22.1-23.3 yep so this may be a good time for me to pose this question if it's if it's already a law and it's mandated why do we even vote on it well uh i'm just because what what what do what can we do against a law that's fair how can we vote you want me to read the entire statute or just the part that directs the school boards well but it just you can read it's let me just read the statute to you that the title of it is treatment of transgender students and policies and the code reference
044is 22.1-23.3 and without going through the whole code which goes through and what the policy should contain at the very end of that statute which was passed by the general assembly this year it says each school board shall adopt policies that are consistent with but maybe more comprehensive than model policies developed by the department of education pursuant to a to sub-section a and sub-section a directed the department of education to come up with the model policy so it's a directive it's not a law it's a law telling the school board that you have to do something and that was enacted this year so again why do we even have to well the vspa provides these policies and again the vsba is not an agent of the department of education nor an agent of our legislator
045we contract with the vsba to do the work to construct that policy as nearly every school division in the commonwealth does so the policy that you're speaking of every school division practically is doing that so the policy work that was done by the vsba is actually for us not for the general assembly or for the department of education we contract with the sba as being members for them to provide us with that service so so what it what if i vote no when we do this well next month there's 13 policies that have to deal with that and i think mr carson says well again all 13 policies are already in place they're already active policies the only thing that they're doing is simply saying that this would also apply toward our students that fall
046under the transgender uh guidelines if i vote no i mean i don't know how the state has more authority over me on the way i vote well the responsibility of the school board by 22.1-79 states you have 10 responsibilities and those 10 responsibilities four of those are specific to your job to be follow ensure that the laws of the land basically are being followed so you as a board member are are charged with being a policy maker for russell county public schools but the policy making component is associated with legislative action and laws so really the issue here is if this is something that that folks want to change the focus really isn't here with the seven of you the focus really is with the legislators wampler and uh cain and so forth those individuals
047are the ones that make the laws provide the laws and give us the laws you are charged by your oath and by the code of virginia to follow through and create policy that supports this laws so really we don't correct the policy we just rubber stamp well the policy again you contract them to do it you don't have to we can bring the policy here and have you know pat and create the policies for us as well uh so again we are contracting that service of esba's working for us in the construction of those policies but but we can't say no to the policy right you can vote yes or no if you if you wish that's that's your prerogative uh but again the responsibility of a board is to create policy that supports the
048laws of the land in this case in the state of virginia i guess you all are policy makers so long as the policies are not consistent with the law i will say that this statute is a little unusual there's not many statutes that actually direct you to adopt a policy it's more something that you all do in your discretion but this is a an acting state legislator directing each school board in the commonwealth of virginia to adopt a policy consistent with that statute of consistent with federal law and so that's what you've been directed to do so you're policy makers but and so there is some discretion in some places but it cannot be inconsistent with law that's dr brown yes ma'am miss whit and the audience has a question could we ask questions appropriately
049it would probably be best to just have a section for delegations right yes if you don't care jessica thank you yes all right madam chair that takes us down to section j with our sales tax maintenance reports and expenditure reports okay dr brown our sales tax for um april 30th was four hundred and forty three thousand thirty one dollars and fifty six cents an incredible increase again madden share over last year and adm was three thousand three fifty three is that correct yes madam chair okay do i have a motion we don't need a motion okay we've had an opportunity for the maintenance report an expenditure report future agenda items uh again madam chair we'll have a coronavirus update again next month and we'll be moving the policies forward for the board's discussion okay we
050have delegations not on the agenda this week sure can you hear me yes ma'am i don't know if everybody can know okay so my question is i do understand it's a law i think it's a stupid small but i do understand it's the law um here's what i'm gonna tell you about regardless of beliefs because i'm not going through that in the mix if you choose to adopt this i can promise you that there's not going to be a need for you or the board because the majority of it i'm prepared to go to my delegate because i've learned today that they both voted in agreement with this wall um so my question is what's the next step are you going to decide how you're going to proceed with this law because i mean there's
051a lot of stuff that you don't have on your policies that you have to put in place so are we putting this if things in place you're going to talk about them in the next month because i want to be here because it affects my child and i i mean i feel like i know you guys are doing a great job and i feel like that the most most of you i know that your heart's probably in the right place i know that one shoulder you got the right place the next shoulder you've got well that you have to carry out it's going to be a hard thing to make a decision it's going to come down who's got the courage and i wouldn't be the other terms but i won't and who can stand
052up um we're not known for a lot on this side of the state but i do think it's time as a board regardless of the law that somebody's got to stand up um whether it be you all i mean if not we'll go to the next board um i think if one one board one would stand up you would see so many more follow behind you i have no absolute desire for any child to feel mistreated or because they're confused i mean i want every kid to feel loved and cared and have the same rights and responsibilities but when you look at one group and say okay you're transgender i'm gonna give you a lot of this and that and you put my child down my child is not going to school if you open
053the bathrooms to whoever and i can promise you that and if you guys don't stand up i'll go to the next step um because somebody's going to listen and somebody's going to stand up and it all depends on who's got the courage to do it first right that's right and and i know all of you are amazing people i know most of you think the world of you but if you don't have the courage election year does come and we can find people that do have the courage to stand up so i just want to know what's what's the next step when are you going to be talking about adopting this law because i don't want it to be wishy-washy and you say well it was on the agenda but nobody really knew i want
054so how do i get that answer ain't it any next month we do this it has to be before the school year we'll be on the agenda next month yes okay so we just need to come back again yes ma'am thank you i'm sorry i'm sorry i do appreciate the opportunity to speak with you pastor james nunley here at cedar point baptist church locally here in lebanon i have many students here in public school system and i have some talking points i was asked to fill in but specifically around this very issue this policy if you're aware if you've read through it it mandates that all school employees and students must use transgender pronouns or face punishment for discrimination without any protection at all for deeply held religious beliefs that's part of this you adopt
055it you vote for it that's what you're doing that mandate directly threatens the constitutional free speech rights and religious freedoms of our students and our educators all in one lung this mandate includes forced use of recently invented gender neutral pronouns why do we need to invent something if it's right this policy makes it clear that failing to use gender-neutral pronouns can result in serious career threatening charges of harassment and discrimination disclosing the child's transgender identity to parents can also result in a charge of harassment so even well-meaning teachers could jeopardize their careers by refusing to hide key information about a child from parents furthermore absolutely no documentation or substantiation of student circumstances are required for this enforcement despite the fact that you are permanently changing student records and imposing serious penalties on staff we've already
056seen in the state of virginia two teachers lose their jobs as a result of these types of policies just last week louden county suspended a teacher after he gave testimony on the transgender issue policy at a local school board meeting such as this the school district is now being sued by a religious freedom legal group and rightly so a french teacher was fired from his job at west point high school in williamsburg virginia for declining to refer to a female student with a male prone we're costing jobs here for people such as you and i the bottom line is this we're asking you to stand strong to protect our students and our teachers religious freedoms and free speech rights please don't put us on the path to becoming like loudoun county russell county shouldn't be
057forced to adopt the same kinds of policies that are already trampling on people's rights in loudoun county our policy should reflect the values of our own families and our own community it is possible to find compassionate ways to protect every child including kids struggling with gender confusion without trampling on constitutional rights and we have entrusted you to do that no matter what legal end that is you were voted on to do that and we ask you to do that thank you um we have here a petition that was signed by 396 educators and it simply states regarding the transgender bathroom bill the racial equality teaching agenda and the mass mandate we absolutely don't want this garbage talk to our kids but this directly involves them um i just wanted to and i apologize i come
058from a psychological background i have a master's degree i have been a therapist in the school system i've been a psychology associate in a super max prison okay some things tonight i understand i don't want anybody to use the bathroom whenever it comes with my little girls because i think of the pedophiles and the sexual predators that i had to treat in prison that whenever they were this age is whenever those behaviors started if we allow to introduce this we are allowing other doors to open and that's not something that i'm prepared to do if that means asking a teacher to give up their bathroom for transgender students i don't want to single out transgender students either do i fault them for who they are no do i understand it no do i think it's
059right no but do i think that they should have something different yes but don't force it on my kids don't force it on boys don't force it on girls [Applause] however it should not be black or white there is a gray area and blatantly put working with sexual predators for so long and working in law enforcement you see these things firsthand and i do not want to allow those things because bullying has increased the rate of suicide has increased whenever all of these other things have been allowed in and it has pushed mental health way over the deep end along with virtual learning the mask mandate that the kids are having to do causes their anxiety to skyrocket and this is coming from a parent of a child that has narcolepsy with cataplexy who already
060has a hard time staying awake in school nonetheless she's trying to be taught on virtual and everything else and i know i'm going on a tangent i apologize but they're getting fussy and i want to get it all out while i can but these are things that are directly affecting our future leaders our future students that are going to be up here one day taking your jobs that are going to be into the school i love dr seuss there's nothing wrong with it i never saw a problem with it whenever i was a kid and neither did my kids okay these little bitty things i understand changes need to be made however so many things are going way overboard and we're opening the door for a whole mess of problems that is going to be
061coming so i please encourage you if you have to take action if if katie's right excuse me just happened if she is right that something has to be done i encourage you at least to make changes that can benefit both sides of the fence [Music] and i didn't get your name oh i'm sorry my name is rachel hicks rachel hicks yes thank you so much for coming good evening my name is brandi hurley and i'm going to ask her for some respect because i have a very divergent view for many of you and i patiently listen to all of yours and the point of view that i have to say is this whether the russell county school board or anyone in this room agrees or not children in virginia can and do receive gender therapy
062and treatment in this state it's legalized virginia courts issue ids and birth certificates that change gender that's a fact that russell county has no control over lawcaster public schools attempted to require a transgender student to use a separate bathroom as a result the board was sued by that student for violating that child's equal protection rights under the constitution they lost in fact when it was appealed once more it went to the fourth circuit and the fourth circuit held that the child suffered a legally cognizable um harm because the school treated that child as an other very publicly branding that child with a scarlet letter t judge nguyen on the fourth circuit noted that the board was fully capable of providing a child privacy as to their genitals in the bathroom whereas the board could not
063hide the outward physical appearance of the child this county has spent plenty of money reaffirming the u.s constitution since the 2018 reformation of the 230 year old second amendment and the attempted first amendment re-ratification this past winter it is foolish now to mount an unwinnable war on the u.s constitution but even more so shameful that this board has clapped to these discriminatory comments as a social worker for the county in 2018 i had a traumatized foster child who merely dabbled in painting his nails and wearing makeup the student body largely didn't care your children and your neighbors already accept these children into their communities however there were a minority of students that said thanks to this child like i hope to see the day you hank see him loudly on a school bus that day
064that's that student called me from the um school board office no it was a trans the trade school office suicidal because it was another day that he had to cope with who he is because of his choices he didn't even transgender he didn't transition he merely painted his fingernails and other students chanted we hope you hang that's not speculative unlike these arguments that legitimately happened to a child in this school board a foster child who already didn't have anybody to be his voice i asked the members of this board to follow already established law and president that protects transgender students because this county cannot afford another legal battle but also i asked this board to stop treating living and breathing children who already face an entire world of hurt out there as second-class citizens thank
065you thank you miss sickle i'll be very brief i believe this sign says protect every kid nobody in this room is expressing a desire to discriminate bully and nobody is you know accepting the bullying of anybody nobody but when you when you say you get up here and you say that you're protecting one group of kids that's exactly what you're doing you're discriminating against one group of kids so it's it's very disingenuous to get up here and make an argument that we're we're here to protect every kid not to segregate or to move one child from here to another the other comment that i would like like to make tonight is where do we draw the line in russell county what if the governor makes some kind of law that says you have your child
066has to take this medicine which we very well might see this upcoming year with this vaccine where do we stand and when do we draw the line and say we're not doing that i don't envy your all position i don't it is an impossible position to be in but somebody has to have the backbone to stand up and say enough is enough thank you [Applause] madam chair thank you members of the board my name is jerry stinson and i'm a citizen of russell county and i thought brown didn't uh speak with you uh the reason i'm here tonight and uh a big pardon of everyone here because i believe there's another argument that's well entrenched my comments are to the race program which may or may not already be a mood argument this i'm here
067to read a letter from a young man who is a family friend he is out of the area and cannot come here and read it and represent himself tonight so yes sir speak lift the mic up here just a little bit so a little better sir hopefully yes sir uh so i'm here to read on his behalf and this is a letter to the school board and he read he says members of the board my name is thomas holbrook i'm writing you today to explain why i believe the decision to reduce race program funding for private school students is both incredibly unwise and unfair i graduated two years ago from a small christian school in castlewood called the learning center with aid to the race program's full funding i've been able to pursue and acquire
068one associate's degree in administration of justice as well as another associate's degree in general studies by the end of the summer i maintain a 4.0 gpa with minimal cost to me i plan to move onwards to vcu to which i've already been accepted acquire bachelor's degree in medical laboratory sciences and eventually become a forensic science toxicologist vcu as many of you know is an expensive school but i've worked very hard and managed to save enough money to cover most of my education there however had it not been for the full funding provided to me by the race program my hopes and dreams of achieving a debt-free education would be impossible therefore is with all due respect that i beg of you not to reduce the funding there are plenty of other students out there like
069me who need this just as much as those who attend russell county's public schools i believe wholeheartedly that we should be treated as though we were not less important or less valuable to our communities thank you for your time and attention and i thank you for your time and indulgence thank you mr stenson [Applause] and at that point i would like to thank that's not only the russell county school board associated with the race program we would like to thank our russell county board of supervisors without their funding we it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have happened and they would have been good partners with that uh program and it helped a whole lot of our students hello thank you for the chance to speak again just uh sure i i've come from hanover county
070okay i know that uh it seems strange someone coming all the way from richmond area but i i have four kids you know i have two in high school i have one in middle school and one in elementary two boys two girls and i have the same they're all in public school and we have the same concerns i get to see what's happening in richmond i get to see the policies that are being passed and it's very concerning for me as a parent at the same time our our campaign to protect every kid is just that to protect every kid and policies need to be passed that elevate every student that provide protections for every student regardless of whatever identity or classification and the unfortunate thing about these policies these model transgender policies is they
071seek to set aside a certain subgroup and then place a serious uh risk to the bodily privacy of young girls in changing areas or undermining the parental rights you know what shouldn't a parent have the ability to know what's going on with their child in school and not have school administrators and teachers withhold information from them i do agree with uh with legal counsel in one respect that this is a highly unusual bill that was passed she she is absolutely correct because they are trying to push and force policies on this school board on every local school division and this is going to be played out in the courts and that's what the founding freedoms lawsuit is to do is to weed this out because there were over 9 000 comments public comments on these
072guidelines the majority of which were opposed so all of this is going to be addressed in the court so as a dually elected body it seems appropriate to wait and to see what the courts have to say on this because if you enact these policies then you're going to have to go through and create all kinds of training policies and and things for the teacher so they know how to handle certain situations and once it's in it's in but here's your chance to stand up and say i'm going to stand up for the constitution the u.s constitution for virginia constitution which trump all state laws and that's going to be decided in the courts in the coming months so i wanted just to encourage you these also to make one last point these are model
073policies this is not regulatory action you had the law that created that required the department of education to create model policies so it's up to you to decide whether or not you're going to accept them as written and as the virginia school board association has has presented to you or are you going to change them or are you going to stand up and say i'm going to protect families and parents and students and teachers and protect every kid so that's a question before you thank you thank you so much hey my name is tamitha haas for tammy i have two granddaughters one's in belfast one's in the primary school i have a nephew that's honest for elementary and then i have a kid that's going into the seventh grade my two granddaughters are not going
074to be able to protect yourself if you'd let this pass that should not pass to let them use the bathroom with the girls or vice versa i can guarantee you if you let it pass we're going to jerk all of our kids out of school and then you are going to lose your job i already jerked mine out once he knows it i won't it won't break my heart to jerk him out again i will homeschool him or you all can send a teacher to my home because i will not let him come to school or my grandkids go to school with this if it pass thank you missus [Applause] hi i'm michelle vance i'm not here as a parent i'm here as a grandparent uh basically what we are asking for you to do
075is to stand with your community we i know everyone here just about we're all here to stand with you you're not standing alone we will be behind you but we can't do it without you it's time to let northern virginia know our opinions matter [Applause] good evening board my name is nathan kaiser and my daughter is at the living high school and uh my other daughter is at the learning center in castlewood which i would encourage everyone if they do pass this that you go and roll there because they're an excellent school but but i would encourage each of you to to take counsel with the family foundation and their legal arm on what you should do because i think this is absolutely wrong i think we're affirming a mental disorder in this that's that's
076my personal opinion up until about 10 years ago transgenderism was listed as a mental disorder gender dysphoria so we need to that that doesn't address the issue that you're up to right now because katie's right it's a law you've got you've got to do something so that's why i say seek counsel with them because they're the direction that we are encouraging you to go and whatever they say we can do is what direction you need to go now that said there is an illness there is a disease there's a virus that's infected our schools it's infected our elected offices they selected our communi infected our communities and it's not coronavirus it's progressivism and that's exactly where this comes from it's where the mass mandates come from it's where the virus comes from it's where critical
077race theory comes from it is in every aspect of our lives now and you know why because we sat back and we let it get in here [Music] [Applause] it's not their fault guys it's our fault so get up off your seat get involved and elect some people glenn younkin find somebody to run against will morefield because he's the one that either didn't didn't vote or voted to pass this stuff this transgender junk yeah though the dif there's there's about 15 different bills so he voted president on some another anyway get involved i'm the republican county chairman please come talk to me let's get you involved find out what you can do we have to get people representing us in richmond that way they don't put these people in the spot of having to pass
078junk and put laws into place that are just that are insane let's just put it that way but thank you all i hope you pray about this i hope that you seek counsel with people who who represent our local views and our local values because that's what matters and i can assure you if you do not do that just like miss whit said if you do not do that it's my personal agenda to attack every single one of you that don't go along with us and our board of supervisors and any other office in russell county because we're going to have the most conservative county in the state thank you my name's andrew hensley and i'd just like to go ahead and ask you you can go ahead and move this meeting next month to
079the government center because we're going to pass we packed it once we're going to pack it again and if you don't have the backbone to stand up for what's right in russell county then you you've got a month you can resign if you can't look at your neighbors in the face after you make a decision next month then you've got a month to resign you don't have to make a decision and an abstention to the vote is no is a vote for it in my mind and the rest of the people in here so let's go ahead and get this meeting moved next month until everybody can sit down and we can be comfortable and we can all discuss what's going to happen and if you can't make the tough decision then you can you
080can resign you've got a month to figure it out thank you my name is justin reynolds i got a daughter that goes to calpers elementary school a lot of people here have mentioned a lot of stuff about kids with their mental issues what's going to happen when you approve a hire that's already got these mental issues and they can come in here and go in any bathroom they want to you take a 30 45 year old man acting like a woman going into the girl's bathroom what what's what's he expected here can anybody for that what's the odds of something happen and those hands isn't going to be on we've already had discussions about the bathroom before uh you know the year uh there's literally two people to come into the bathroom at a time
081and my little girl come home with cleaner pants at least three times a week for the first few weeks of school two three weeks of school now is that acceptable watch what's more dangerous somebody wants more sanitary three kids into the bathroom or a little girl having a urine inside our pants for how many hours a day can you explain which one would be more sanitary well i mean listen please address your comments to the board of people sir mr lee you taught me well from history what i mean what what's the issue i mean you know what's this she's going to arise out of out of this right here you know me if you go i don't know how well y'all scream the teachers when they come in but take the drag queen and
082see it from a few years back when they come in reading to students i can't remember what grade it was just elementary but why would they stick to the cracks again in one of our schools and getting to harm several of our kids once bad but you know how many gonna take before a little girl comes forward and says something you see on facebook all the time um you see a bunch of democrats and a bunch of liberals talking about we shouldn't shame women for not coming forward right then when it happens they wait years down the road we've seen that with the donald trump scenarios and senators and governors and stuff and you're gonna put these little girls and little boys in positions to where they don't come forward for many years and i
083ask that y'all just keep that in mind when y'all go to vote us thank y'all madam chairman um i'd like to make a motion that we go into executive session with our attorney for uh legal legal advice on some something and also for a restroom break sure i need a second i'll second that uh you'll need a we'll need to go through the same thing on reading it there what code are you i'll need to go under okay consolation with with attorney council right a proposal new policies changes in the curriculum and the governor's executive orders that's fine i hope okay i have a second and i'll go with 370 182 personnel well i'll cover it up all in favor yes yes and i would invite uh audience to you know stay we want to
084know [Music] right