BOE 5 24 2021

001it is seven o'clock I'm calling this this meeting to order please stand and join me if you're able and the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence thank you official meeting notification Mr stelson yeah public notice of all meetings has been given by communication from the superintendent's office to the public to those news media who have requested such notices into the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Northwest now Express News and West Bend Daily News public notice has also been posted in schools throughout the district and the GSW data.org website as well as cable access Channel 96. roll call Mr Barney yeah Medved here hello here I'm here Paula here sadderberg here and board members Borden and reinerman are absent excused number two approval of the agenda to have a motion motion approved the agenda second discussion

002all those in favor aye aye before we move on to Citizen comments I'd like to make a couple of introductions as you can see the board has changed a little bit I was not able to stay for the entire meeting last time I was traveling on vacation got to have a good time with my boys enjoyed a nice relaxing time um I was elected to board president at the last meeting and this is my first school meeting I'd like to go through a little introduction of myself and what my thoughts and philosophies are as a board president moving forward I was elected in 2013 and have been re-elected twice at the Germantown School Board I moved to Germantown area in 1993 before my kids were born because I heard that Germantown had a good school

003district My Three Sons went through the Germantown School District from K through 12 and graduated and I'm happy to say they're on their own as adults leading successful lives I've had the opportunity to be involved in many activities in the community because of my sons joining the school board seemed like a good way to give back I never got on the board to become president but here I am I believe in transparency and that school boards are the ultimate in Grassroots democracy everyone should have a voice in public comments and emails are welcome but we must be respectful and be willing to compromise especially in these difficult times we will be limiting comments to topics on the agenda and limiting speakers time to three minutes tonight and we will not go over one hour time

004we also need to be respectful of everyone's time and I don't believe in having four or five hour board meetings and I don't believe that that is necessary my goals as a board president will remain the same as they were when I was a board member first and foremost I will always do what is in the best interest of our students first and I will also consider what is in the best interest of all stakeholders in the community we will live within our means and have a balanced budget we will continue to record all meanings and be open and transparent and all decisions that we make I will commit to include and engage all stakers stakeholders in more of the big decisions going forward my goal will be to eliminate surprises and build consensus whenever

005possible items being brought to the board first as an information only item and can only be voted on at the following board meeting that gives us time for fact binding and more public comment we will continue to be informed on the topics we discuss I will continue to focus on curriculum keeping high standards with quality teachers and staff offering rigorous classes and keep our students engaged and learning at a high level we will continue looking for more Hands-On more interdisciplinary student-led learning opportunities to develop student passions and love of learning we will develop the whole child to be problem solvers collaborators great communicators adapted to an ever-changing environment we want our students to be good citizens with good moral character and treat everyone the way that they want to be treated I believe they call

006that the Golden Rule we want our students to know how to think and learn and not what to think we want our students to be self-reliant Seekers of knowledge with a growth mindset if you haven't heard any of this before know that this is what we've been working on for the past several years I've been a part of the curriculum committee for all that time and these are the activities that we've been actively engaged in we want our students to be successful wherever their passions take them I will be working on board goals that have real metrics that far exceed standardized test scores and we'll have more to talk about tonight we have an update from Brenda talking about our three to five year plan for curriculum in the district and I think everyone will

007be impressed with what is going on and the work that is being done so thank you all for coming again we will have a clock we will allow speakers for three minutes and Brett will let you know when your three minutes are up please finish up your comments and let as many people speak tonight as possible we will end at one hour so at 806 we will end public comment first we have Marie rozano Graziano thank you hello and thank you for allowing me to give a little question and answer type scenario I'm Marie Graziano from Richfield I'm talking about item number seven that's on your agenda CRT should be banned from existing in the education of our children CRT is a taxpayer funded anti-white racism program which is exactly that racism what you are

008trying to do in the schools is discrimination the teachers Administration and others are teaching our kids to hate this cannot be accepted the school board is elected by the community and the community is now speaking out so knock it off the following states have banned CRT North Carolina Florida Tennessee and Arkansas legislators in Iowa Idaho Louisiana Missouri New Hampshire Oklahoma Rhode Island and West Virginia have drafted bills that would ban CRT which is a racist and sexist teaching lawmakers are debating and voting going to be voting on legislation aimed at CRT in Texas Georgia Arkansas South Dakota and Arizona it's time for Germantown and the state of Wisconsin to ban this hate information another issue Equity is not is the opposite of equality Equity is communism meaning that we are all have the same outcome

009in other words you're not going to own your your house the government will and they'll give you food when you need it and they'll make sure you supply you everything which is halfway where we're there now again thank you and have a great evening [Applause] Diane Peterson good evening Diane Peterson from Richfield I'm going to speak on item number seven as well on your agenda words make a difference such as school board standing committee ad hoc committee advisory Council and executive orders while searching your website for meeting in minutes I found the first curriculum medium that was posted as of April 21st of this year how and when were items regarding curriculum address prior to that ad hoc committee meeting curriculum probably is one of the main measurements in a school ad hoc committees are

010not standing committees and normally have a stated goal and when the goal is complete the committee is disbanded can someone tell us what the stated goal of the ad hoc committee is now this temporary ad hoc committee has a subcommittee named advisory Council on Equity or the nice name of ace yes a subcommittee of the temporary ad hoc committee and now that Ace has four committees as we just heard reported earlier interestingly two months before on April 19th Governor Evers said we have to make sure we're making equity and inclusion we also heard inclusion before the most important issue in state government ever said that at the Council on equity bill omski from MacGyver Institute said diversity inclusion might sound good at first but to liberals those are words and only tools first demonizing and

011then fundamentally transforming America in our way of life they give a hint at their ultimate goal when bringing up Equity yes again the word gold he continues Evers didn't come up with that idea on his own it is the same diversity equity and inclusion agenda liberals everywhere are pushing some people call it being woke Equity is not to be confused with equality which means ensuring everyone has the same opportunity Equity is the opposite like you just heard Americans have long enshrined the idea of equality believing all people are created equal with unalienable rights Equity means everyone has the same outcome an idea rooted in communism which is currently manifesting itself in America as critical race Theory lastly my research uncovered that Governor Evers signed an ex executive order number 99 relating to diversity equity and

012inclusion in state government on November 12 2019. never heard of that order 99 no wonder it occurred when he also signed the order number 90 relating to Public Health Emergency for covid you all know about that so words do matter and all these similar words just seem fishy to me thank you so much Gene Mary [Applause] welcome thank you in regard to equity and CRT my husband and I have seven grandchildren two are Caucasian American three heart Hispanic and two are Eastern European from grade school age to college their friends classmates Playmates Etc are Multicultural until recently they have known each other as cousins now they are being told that they are oppressors and victims tell me how that's supposed to work at Academy at a family gathering in today's world my family is not

013the exception we have queried the five older ones here's what they don't know of course they know Nazi is a bad four-letter word but they have no real understanding of what a Nazi was or about concentration camps the Holocaust or anything else about World War II they are given the impression that we went straight from white supremacist founding fathers straight to today without anything changes happening with slavery and thus the term systemic racism they are not taught that black slaves are the direct result of tribal Warfare in Africa where one black tribe sold a conquered black tribe into slavery nor are they taught that some wealthy black men in America also owned black slaves they are not being taught that the Three-Fifths rule was enacted as a hindrance to Savory it was not that the

014founding fathers considered a black person three-fifths of a human being you need to look that up if you don't understand that one by the way free blacks were counted as Citizens they know nothing about the Underground Railroad 40 acres and a mule the 14th and 15th amendments they don't know that black men got the right to vote before women of any color including White they know nothing about the discrimination against Irish Italian polish and other immigrants to this country nor about U.S citizens of Japanese descent who were put in prison camps in this country in World War II they have never heard of affirmative action or that socialism is based on political and economic inequality my family is more is more than Norm than the insect exception in this country today Color Race Creed nationality

015have all Blended over the years why do we want to upend that with a new version of racism yes there are still people with racist mindsets but to what extent is that the direct result of what is no longer being taught in our schools thank you sure Alex Hardin [Applause] hey hey Brian could you ask everyone to restate their name when they get up here good evening Alex Hardin from Colgate so on the the CRT topic so as it's been stated numerous times this evening conservative States and communities and school boards around the country have already pulled this nonsensical racist drivel out of their schools yet here we are in Germantown the so-called most conservative community in the state and we're talking about ridiculous things like Equity officers and equity and inclusion programs somebody got

016up earlier in the previous meeting and talked about how an equity page is being created on the website to divide students into groups and indicate that on the website I believe when I spoke at this meeting a month ago I was laughed at for indicating that the intent of critical race theory was to divide groups of people based on rice and pit them against each other it seems like I may have been more right than you thought Brian earlier this evening you mentioned that we have policies that prevent CRT from being misused yet at the last meeting two weeks ago we spent an hour talking about how Brenda O'Brien is actively trying to get teachers to implement critical race Theory and equity-based philosophy into the classroom it seems that policy isn't working Tracy you mentioned

017earlier this evening that you're not sure where CRT is being used outside of those AP classes which is funny because you were actually at the meeting two weeks ago and while I was standing here explaining what happened to Brent with Brenda O'Brien did you were staring at me like that like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears rather than taking action and listening and and doing something about this so I don't know I honestly it's it's flummoxing that we're still having this discussion in Germantown on the it looks like I have some time here on the on the mask issue you know schools around the country and around the state are pulling masks out of their schools and what's happening there must be breakouts across the country kids must be dropping over dead like

018flies because they're all getting coveted and having fatal reactions to it that's what's happening right no that's exactly the opposite of what's Happening study after study show that masks are no longer needed if there ever even were and they certainly aren't needed any longer for kids Brian you mentioned earlier when you're introducing yourself that you're going to prioritize the students I think that's great that's exactly what the school board should be doing yet they're given that the data indicate that masks should no longer be needed there's only as a matter of logic there's only one reason that our kids are being forced to wear masks there's only one and that said this board is prioritizing the whining and complaining and grumbling and threats of teachers in your Administration you're prioritizing all of that over our

019kids and that's why they're being forced to wear masks eight hours a day five days a week and and that's ridiculous so I just I hope that the board will never forget or I hope you don't think that uh we the parents will ever forget that time that the board decided to use our kids as bargaining chips against the teachers because we won't forget and we can't wait until election time Amy Bremer hi I'm Amy bramer Kennedy teacher I'm the Gea president-elect and I'm speaking on behalf of the Gea exec board mostly relevance to item number six tonight I actually want to start on tonight with some thanks because it has been a crazy year and I want to thank the support staff of our buildings the custodial staff the front office staff our fellow

020teachers administrators who all worked collaboratively this year when it was really difficult and then I also need to thank the school board because you guys have made really tough decisions this year with differing opinions from all directions and that's really tough I want to touch on a couple proposals for tonight one of them is reducing the cash in lieu of insurance reducing it and then cutting it for married couples we wonder about the savings for the district if that much savings compares to the financial strain on some of the families who will lose 400 this year with plans for more cuts for future years and all the way to 4 500 for married couples so even with the annual cost of living increases some staff will earn less money in future years than the school

021year GA did some quick research we didn't have a lot of time after last week's meeting but we have found that some area districts do still offer cash in lieu and we found different data than what was presented last week at the Personnel committee meeting so we'd like to share some of that with you if we could be given a chance and we just want to ask what message are you sending about how much you value retaining the dedicated staff that have put in years of service to the district loyal quality staff are what make school districts great and then we wanted to comment too about the second proposal tonight about the second shift custodial staff and replacing them with a cleaning service contracted and you asked a lot of the questions already tonight so

022I actually got to scribble on a bunch of what I was going to say but one of the comments was that you know first shift is seen in the building so is second shift we have custodial staff helping kids to their lacquers when they forget something a kid gets left behind a parent is running late we've got custodians helping them out they're at our sporting events at our club events and they take pride um with a job well done and we really really want to make sure in discussions tonight that we make sure that and outside company would be as proud of our district and so during of your discussions tonight of each of those topics we hope you consider the long-term implications before taking a vote we feel the money spent that reduce the

023fund balance in the last years is kind of being taking out on us right now and we'd like you to really think about your employees thank you Teresa Snyder while we understand that CRT is not being taught in every classroom we are extremely concerned that it is being pushed onto our District staff which would be woven into everyday practices to become commonplace in our schools people don't notice things when they are added little by little and pretty soon it's commonplace curriculum from mice research Mrs O'Brien direct her direct supervisor would be the superintendent so the emails and reading lists that put her in the hot seat the last few meetings were one of two things one either our superintendent agrees with her choice of reading materials and curriculum for the staff and she did this

024with his guidance and or blessing or she did this without permission and decided these things with no input which as a parent seems a little out of her jurisdiction she is not an elected official she directly reports the superintendent who reports to the public publicly elected School Board the buck stops there okay um so sadly secondly please take this as a very real warning the board should have shown us repeatedly That Money Talks well it's about to start talking really loudly while we respect and love all of our teachers and staff when nurse Tammy said that she had a group of them ready to walk if we went mask optional for the rest of this year with all due respect let them call their Bluff [Applause] please do not let a few teachers overshadow the

025vast majority of the vaccinated teachers in this District that are afraid to speak out on the side of the parents for fear of retaliation and that is a very real fear and valid from what we're hearing the highly organized passionate and motivated group of parents taxpayers and voting adults that you have heard from in the last few meetings have their checkbooks open pens in hand and enrollment forms already filled out for amazing private schools in our district kids not a school board and this is not just about masks and everybody here knows that okay the revenue and tax dollar is about to be siphoned out of this already high deficit school district is going to be a real vacuum noise in the school bank accounts in other words the board is writing checks that the

026district can't cash in conclusion please make the right decision on masks tonight and let our seniors walk that stage with smiles on their faces that we can see so okay don't let their final memories of high school be this [Applause] Krista you were Christy ewart I live in Germantown Across the Nation we have heard horror stories of marxist ideologies being integrated into school curriculum I propose that the Germantown School District adopt the following policies with a specific language that has been used by other states to ensure this ideology is not taught by any name or acronym to our students in the Germantown school district teachers and staff shall not direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm adopt or adhere that any sex race ethnicity religion color or national origin is inherently Superior or inferior

027in the Germantown school district teachers and staff shall not direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm or adopt or adhere that individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex race at this ethnicity religion or national origin in the Germantown School District teachers and staff shall not direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm adopt or adhere that individuals by virtue of sex race ethnicity religion color or nation of origin are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same-sex race ethnicity religion color or national origin in the Germantown district school district no distinction or classification of students shall be made based on race or color these are pretty basic ideas that everybody I feel like should be able to agree on with that being said training

028for our teachers and staff in regards to this hateful ideology should not be paid for with tax dollars on any level teachers and staff at all levels should not be forced or pressured or even willfully allowed to implement CRT ideologies into their pedagogic strategies please keep this divisive Theory that is derived from a Marxist political Echo chamber out of our children's classroom thank you [Applause] Judy Omak [Applause] Judy comet okay Ellen goltry can you hear me I am here today just speak again in regard to Banning CRT and all theories and programs that incorporate like-minded divisive philosophies in our school's curriculum at its course the RT is an ideology that teaches students that one race the white race Bears responsibility for the past actions against another and that the United States is fundamentally racist or

029that a person is inherently privileged or oppressive due to the color of their skin as I mentioned in my previous speech the last board meeting I am a first generation immigrant and I did not grow up with white privilege as CRT suggests one person last time stated that they don't know what it's like to be an immigrant so I thought that I would give her and everybody else here a quick lesson when you left the USSR you were stripped of your citizenship and banned from ever returning you were barred from ever having any contact with any remaining relatives I grew up with all of my needs met food shelter clothing and in education but not very much more my sister who was nine at the time was put into a first grade class as they

030thought she was dumped and she could not speak English by the time I started school I was made fun of relentlessly called the Communist I always said at the end of the very front of my school buses the one time I tried to sit further back they put gum in my hair both of my parents were very well educated however they both lost their degrees as they were not transferable I start hardly saw my father as he worked seven days per week as a maintenance mechanic while my mother was feverishly studying English she then went on to beauty school so that she could make money for her family where she was made fun relentlessly for her heavy accent I could go on but this is just a brief synopsis all of this sounds horrible to

031you all I am sure but let me tell you something none of this comes even close to what it was like in communist Russia where the country was run by the government and the Russian mob you had no motivation to excel because even if you did it was taken all away by force if you didn't comply you got beaten or killed you were not allowed to practice your religion of choice as you would be arrested you were caught if you were caught talking badly about your government you were also arrested or killed you waited in line for hours for basic human needs such as food water and clothing you lived in four to five hundred square feet with multiple family members this is communism this is CRT my family overcame great oppression as we also

032quickly came to realize that a few ignorant individuals do not Define America or any particular race what makes this country so amazing is its diversity and the different cultures religions and freedom that it represents every year my family has celebrated on the anniversary day that we came to this country my father always makes a toast and it always ends the same way he says God Bless America I can tell you firsthand what America truly represents life liberty and the pursuit of happiness lastly we do not agree with having our tax dollars spent on hiring of an equity officer or engaging any firm to conduct an equity audit in the Germantown School District we do not support these Progressive political agendas in our schools Equity is not equality equality means each individual or group of people

033is given the same resources or opportunities this is also called a democracy Equity is a radical anti-American philosophy that demands equal outcomes for everyone this is also called communism these buzzwords that directly correlate to CRT need to be removed from our school's website look what just happened to Coca-Cola research it you as the board have an obligation to this community put your fear and differences aside and do what is right for our families and our children [Applause] good evening at the last meeting can you guys hear me yeah could you restate your name Ina Turner thank you thank you you're welcome at the last meeting we were told that CRT will continue to only be taught in the true elective AP classes so I decided to do a bit of my own research to confirm

034this the research turned out to be much easier than I anticipated all I had to do is click on the district's homepage and to my surprise what do I see as the second item under the district's information's link nothing other than a link titled Equity so I hit the link and then I see a reference to an equity Council followed by a reference to this new ace committee with their first agenda item B develop a strategic plan for diversity equity and inclusion and to identify areas and issues to Target in a strategic plan for diversity equity and inclusion in the Germantown School District the group further identifies six main areas where the district will focus when addressing this issue related to equity and these are the areas in these I'm sorry and these areas are

035School Board School Board policy curriculum professional development how we saw exactly what that was all about in Brenda O'Brien's email to the teachers followed by hiring student advocacy and committee parent engagement how done can this board honestly say that CRT is not here and how can they assure us that this will not spill over to our children when it is being pushed across every area within this District sadly CRT under the current buzzword of equity is here and a full agenda is laid out clearly right under District's own website including already a chart to what that gentleman referred to breaking down our kids by they by their race and their ethnicity shame on you I ask every parent that cares about their kids to take immediate action to have this wiped out of your school

036before your kids are fully indoctrinated into this crazy ideology that divides them by the color of their skin and their ethnic background last meeting I listened to a parent go on and on about the need to celebrate every culture all our differences Etc I say how about we first start by celebrating one thing that actually unites all of us we are Americans and we live in the only country on the planet that is still free in Stripes while not always perfectly to provide life liberty in the pursuit of happiness for all if any of you think that you live in a racist country where we need to teach our children that their differences make them better or worse than other children I urge you to go to live in a Marxist socialist country much like

037the one my sister talked about that my parents escaped from then you will realize what you truly have in this country so again I say if you care about your kids get this garbage fully out of your school before it's too late and replace it with teaching our kids respect for each other loving thy neighbor and that they live in the greatest country on Earth Melissa Apollo [Applause] hello Alyssa Paolo Germantown last week 23 advocacy groups submitted a letter to the U.S Department of Education expressing their deepest concerns for the office of Elementary and secondary educations proposed priorities for American history and Civics education this letter spoke to the dangers of implementing CRT and other equity-based and race-based education within our K-12 schools this letter was also supported by 20 state attorney generals a nationwide

038poll conducted by parents defending education last month reported that 70 percent of respondents said it was not important to teach students that their race is the most important thing about them while 74 percent said that they opposed teaching students that white people are inherently privileged and black and other people of color are inherently oppressed the majority of our country is against this material and it is growing by the day to respond to Mr Pollock's comments you said give us the chance to do whatever research we need the board first voted to ban CRT on April 12th and part of your campaign while running was to not allow CRT or other radical theories in the schools it is now the end of May have you not been researching and educating yourselves on this topic the whole

039time or are you using ongoing research as your excuse to keep kicking this can down the road I personally have sent you each a list of 50 well-vetted sources that provide you with thorough analysis of CRT and I have also provided you with alternative curriculums that are free of charge from the Bill of Rights Institute the 1776 unities and foundation for individual rights to education to piggyback after Mr lol's comments we are already failing in Reading Writing and arithmetic as I stated last meeting our high school students have a 51 math proficiency and a 57 reading proficiency that is a failing grade by any other measure how much further do we need to fall we are setting up the next generation of students to fail miserably we already have budget issues and we need to

040stretch a dollar why choose to spend the limited resources we have an inequity director or consulting firms Mequon Thiensville recently paid forty two thousand dollars for an equity audit instead of spending similar funds why not invest in our students and get tutors and after school programs to help bring up these failing math and reading scores so the ace committee is concerned that our staff doesn't reflect our students percentage we should not be hiring teachers based on their race gender ethnicity or other immutable characteristics we should not be solely focused on filling racial quotas we should be hiring teachers who have the best skills to be educating our students regardless of their race gender or ethnicity and I do not believe that we have a shortage of applicants to teach in our district we are a

041desirable School District lastly based on the es committee's presentation today and based on the emails I have exchanged with individual board members it remains unclear when the as committee meets and how other members of the community can attend these meetings if the ace committee is going to expand their presence within her schools and meet with various student bodies there must be complete transparency posting their agendas ahead of time free access for all community members to attend these meetings and minutes from these meetings posted within 48 hours thank you [Applause] Rhonda Doms Fonda hello thank you for letting me speak since I did not receive a response from the board I'm going to read an edited version of the letter I sent to each of you in April of this year after the meeting I attended

042first of all thank you to everyone here in the auditorium and the folks that were at that meeting in April who's had the courage to stand up against intolerance disrespect bullying and threats it was a shocking meeting I moved to Germantown two months ago so I'm new to the happenings here and dismayed to hear about the struggles at the high school I have five grown kids and one child finishing High School my family and my extended family is multi-ethnic we've followed and continue to strive to follow Martin Luther King's principles when we think of principles we realize they are the best of the best goals to always strive for one of our country's founding principles was that all men are created equal we have not lived up to this the story of our country is

043a story of failures and struggles to live up to this we put it on plaques but we didn't live up to it we put all sorts of principles on our statues we humans here put principles on pollsters and pictures in our homes yet we all know that we fall short but all men being created equal meaning no one no institution not you no policy can change the equal worth and dignity of a person that is true so we must not throw it out just because we have failed living up to principles is a messy process it means our own ways of applying them are constantly open to challenge and nuance and we have to be good listeners it sounds messy and confusing that our ethnic kids avoid Milwaukee area where they sense expectations about belonging

044to a group identity rather than to themselves as individuals it seems some people believe their group identity is more important than their individual identity our kids just want to be themselves and belong to their family and friends who take them for who they are their ethnic appearance in my ethnic appearance do not divide us when I was at UW-Madison in School of Nursing in 2011. my graduate project was on self-determination Theory it focuses on the essential need individuals have for autonomy not to be coerced for competence and a community that supports them no matter how they choose to live is in Unique Individuals I want to see that kind of of Education in this country I'm going to summarize in conclusion because I don't have enough time fair for all the foundation against intolerance and

045racism report in response to the U.S department of education's efforts to promote CRT in conclusion American history and Society are multifaceted and complex they cannot be reduced to a single narrative that's too easy it's too easy and there's been too much bullying and cruelty going on at these schools and any of you have been on the school board for too long have been silent about it you're right but now you're going to use CRT as your quick virtue signal it's too easy you've got more work that needs to be done time [Applause] foreign if we could stick to topics that are new and that we haven't heard yet we are going to run out of time and not everyone will get to speak so if you could shorten up your comments that would be appreciated

046Sarah Larson uh just a couple comments on several of the agenda items first of all masks I'm asking that you revisit my motion from the April 12th meeting and make masks optional for the remainder of the Year effective June 1st we need to start returning to normal sooner rather than later um the other thing is visibility for parents to what happens in the classroom as much as kovid has been a challenge it also has been a blessing because some of the virtual has really shown a light on some of the things that take place and so I ask that this District take the lead and have all of our curriculum classroom lesson plans resources reading materials placed on our district website and this would hopefully increase parental involvement Bridge the district and Community confidence level

047and avoid unwanted public exposure or surprise of a teacher using materials that the administration had not approved concerning CRT and the ad hoc curriculum committee tonight I wanted to mention as a board member it's one thing to say that we have a great community and great engagement but until covid on one hand we maybe had this many people at five meetings and they didn't show up at follow-up meetings to continue supporting a topic and supporting it so yes we have engaged parents but they have short attention spans and busy lives and so I think for those here who feel passionate about this topic and want to see what's going on you can't just show up to one or two meetings you have to be here and be engaged it isn't a once and done and

048so then that also brings me to CRT isn't an equity program and it should not be used as such it may not look like it's being used at all in the district but it starts to become dicey when we talk about professional development and I think you look at the pedagogy that they start working into that and so I would strongly encourage that if we are going to have any professional development for the teachers perhaps the board should sit through those training sessions first or one better we've got this beautiful facility why not open it up to not only staff but the community as well if we are truly trying to broaden the perspective there's no doubt then if parents don't wonder okay are the teachers being taught to indoctrinate the children further if they're

049going to some other separate training sessions so I you know seesaw offers free events I don't know why they couldn't come and just present to an auditorium like this and now the other thing is I'm a realist and you probably are going to end up sticking with allowing CRT in the AP classes so I encourage you to put the guidelines on our website as to what is CRT in this district and what it is not foreign Ty Peterson hi my name is Brandi Peterson I'm a parent in Germantown and uh one thing we haven't really talked about is uh Germantown has a real student expectation and discipline problem kids are allowed to continue bullying others without consequences that deter future Behavior Germantown school district has to be willing to deal with students who do not

050change their behavior I have first-hand experience I've pulled my daughter out of Germantown in the past four years twice and she's currently out so unto you I if you did a survey of parents of bullying behaviors that have not been dealt with and that continue I would be interested to see the uh the results um that is something that's big and a lot of maybe some of the things that have happened that are racially insensitive and horrible maybe those wouldn't have happened had some kids been dealt with I really have a problem that I'm kind of going I'm just not it's not flowing here but I really have a problem with using the word Equity um if Germantown is concerned with Equity oh wait I'm sorry I'm like um I heard a really good line

051this week about uh I was watching a educational video and it said if you want with it equality you want equal outcomes but if you don't have equal performance you have to lower the standards and I don't think Germantown wants to do that this is ridiculous we need to treat every as guarantee if my daughter was a minority she would have been treated differently no doubt about it um I also am against the culture climate survey that the ace committee said they wanted to give at the resource hour my son will know not to take that survey look at the resource for it the look at the place that they got that from this is the stuff we need to look into where did that come from look at the source and then let us

052know Jody grab Jody Graf Germantown thank you I really don't even know what to say anymore I've written so many speeches and I'm I'm so tired I can't believe that we're here really talking about skin and that while we do that our kids are having their mouths covered in school which is which really upsets me I'm all for further transparency I would love to see that Brian thank you I love the idea of Ace being fully open to the public because I feel like we're all begging to participate we want to be part of that and at the curriculum idea that Sarah had of having speakers present to all of us so that we can all participate and support you in what we all want for our kids is is excellent I very much question

053why at the 5 30 meeting when it was presented that these books are going to be brought into Elementary School and if the teacher likes them they can have further training why does the teacher need further training on friendship and these simple things there there must be something more behind it and I appreciate that these books are going to be put out for all of us to see it and that is key I was also set at 5 30 that legislators should be making decisions on CRT nothing could possibly terrify me more and you said that the parents will keep everything in check here we are trying so hard to keep things in check please we don't need to talk about banning CRT we need to talk about banning anything that is discriminatory and segregating

054our kids and that includes whether or not they're vaccinated whether or not they're masks The Masks need to stop now it's all about complacency we cannot have this anymore it's it's very simple I'm not anti-mask I'm not anti-vaxx I'm just pro-parental freedom that is what we need here still vote for Freedom please vote for masks to be a choice effective tomorrow and with that to not have the quarantining have contingencies if a kid is healthy they are welcome to return to school and the parents may continue to make responsible choices on monitoring symptoms thank you [Applause] Melissa thiermann thank you Melissa thiermann Germantown I'd like to ask our board to make massive Choice starting now change the guideline regarding quarantines for close contacts that are healthy and choose to be mask free and do not

055promote an experimental vaccine for ages 12 and up let schools provide quality on biased education and let parents do the parenting you have already voted to make Mass a choice and starting with summer school there is no reason Mass should not be a choice starting now please vote to make Mass a choice regarding the previous decision to make close contact quarantine parent choice but only of the close contact was wearing a mask a healthy child who was in close contact with a student who is positive for Colvin should not need to miss face-to-face school if they choose to not wear a mask there should not be separate standards for Mast versus unmasked children I also strongly believe that teachers staff and the Germantown School District district as a whole should in no way be promoting

056the experimental covid vaccines this includes any future guidelines that would discriminate between vaccinated and unvaccinated children I realize that every parent needs to make this decision for their children I for one will not allow my children to receive an experimental vaccine because there are far too many unknowns and children have a survival rate of 99.998 percent the risk of the experimental vaccine by far outweighs the risk of getting them sick or them getting sick from the virus itself why have all these separate guidelines for all the different scenarios there should only be one guideline for close contact quarantines despite whether a child is wearing a mask or not or vaccinated or not healthy children should be in school face-to-face period separate guidelines will only create more separation and discrimination in our schools thank you [Applause]

057Maureen Fitzgerald Maureen sorry Maureen Fitzgerald I have a son in Germantown High School I worked in education for 15 years in a variety of positions including elementary school classroom teacher curriculum um on curriculum committees as well as a K-12 instructional coach when I started my program to learn about education the dean of school of education offered up a quote that he said as long as my class continued to keep that in mind we couldn't go wrong with our students and it's actually the Margaret Mead quote that Brian said earlier which was students must be taught how to think not what to think as different curriculums go in and out of fashion textbooks come and go the basic tenets of that remain the same in order to teach students how to think students need to be

058exposed to a variety of ideas openly examine these ideas challenge them poke holes in them and then share their findings and conclusions with others in open discussions well CRT poses as a way to expose students to new ideas and new ways of looking at their world it actually doesn't CRT does not present itself as one of the many ideas or viewpoints but rather the only idea and viewpoint CRT does not allow students to poke holes in it or examine it it tells students if they don't accept its assertations there is something wrong with them they are fragile they are threatened and they need to sit down and be quiet CRT tells them that their voice does not have an intrinsic value that their value depends on solely what their social identity is or what the

059melanin level of their skin is when we were looking at different curriculums no matter what district I worked in we always compared the curriculum and the mission statement of our school I'll remind you the district mission statement of Germantown is to empower and Inspire every student to success CRT does not have a place here as it does not do that [Applause] scale trap I'm sorry come on down he has signed up by the way okay well thank you and uh thank you President medveden congratulations uh on your new position and uh that was not necessary to uh to move me ahead of the uh the others but uh I'll take advantage of it uh I I'm at Germantown resident Ridgefield Court in Germantown and in full disclosure and transparency I also serve as the state

060representative for the 24th Assembly District which includes all of Germantown I want to thank you all for the work that you do as elected officials also you you come forward to give your your time and effort and uh and it's a very challenging position that you have taken on so I'm here tonight to offer some assistance to you I did watch here the April 26 meeting on the live stream and your administrators did you a great disservice when there you have someone presenting in front of you with a one-sided opinion of someone who's already on the staff as a teacher telling you what the curriculum should be introduced and and why that is a disservice to you those opinions should come from outside staff that people are already on staff and we hear about their

061beliefs which we heard that night one teacher saying America is structurally racist but we already know where their mind is and what they believe and that's going to extend into the classroom and that's a problem so the cancer is already in the system and now it needs to be addressed I will just want to let you know that there is in process right now in the state legislature three bills to ban critical race Theory and the curriculum all right I do want to recognize the person who spoke who was terrified of legislators making these decisions that's a very rational thought and that's what I want to finish with is the the relationship with the state government and your state legislators school districts public school districts are state government they were created by state government as

062many other levels of government are local County and the state government dictates many things mandates many things and I know that's uncomfortable to uh to local leaders however that is the system that is set up right from the budget which we're deliberating on right now to the curriculum which is a CRT bills that I just mentioned so I want to partner with you in that effort but that is the system and we have to work with it but uh in the finish I want to offer to you the staff you it's hard to be a part-time person uh you don't have staff you don't have the time but you do have two staff full-time people in my office that are already on your payroll and everybody else's payroll in this room that you can use

063as a resource so I ask you to do that I'll be reaching out to you further on this particular subject but please take advantage of the people that are already at your service and they can do some research for you gather information and help you to make the important decisions that you're going to be making in the near future thank you [Applause] Dan Dan if I could just quickly I know we've been playing phone tag and trying to get in touch with each other I welcome a chance for us to get together and have a conversation um as soon as possible yeah and today thank you you all received a letter from me previous to this and the number of you did reach out and connect with me I appreciate that so I'm happy to

064to be on the agenda if you see and see it that way to meet with you I've met with the administration already and we'll continue to reach out to do that as well thank you you mean Hendrick Heidenreich Janine I have a signature here I'm not sure I can read this looks like last name Cleveland possibly I cannot make out the first name Kelly Beecher good evening my name is Kelly betcher I am a mom of two boys within the Germantown School District working on a third one that's up and coming um not not in Me God no help me um I was asked to read a statement that was prepared by someone else again tonight I did not prepare my own words for this evening so I'm just going to read this for you

065regarding masks masks Should Be A Parent's Choice everyone's been so obsessed with following the CDC guidelines and you know what what we should do so let's talk about this hospitals in our area follow CDC guidelines because they care for the most vulnerable population that are at their worst but the majority of our children and the majority of our community are healthy at the lowest risk for Contracting covid and experiencing those severe symptoms children ages 0 to 14 have a survival rate of 99.998 so essentially zero risk ages 15 to 44 survival rate is 99.9931 so again we're looking at essentially zero risk the data shows that CVC cases spiked at the same rate and level in masked and unmasked States if the masks are really working as well as the CDC claims shouldn't the data

066show the low numbers in those states that are masked and is this the kind of data we need to look at outside of isn't their data that we need to look at outside of the CDC to get the perspective without blindly following we went too far in the name of caution because two weeks to flatten the curve and it is what it is but now it's time to rain it back in the CDC also gives us General guidelines in the community to determine if that makes sense for our population and it really should be up to each parent to determine what is best for their children and within their household let's be clear the CDC is not the end-all be-all just the same as we should get multiple quotes and opinions for things like bus

067companies we shouldn't exhaust resources while knowing there are extensive Alternatives as well as doctors who do disagree with the CDC I personally interjection have family that is very much embroiled in research with covid in the vaccine that will very much dispute the CDC um whenever we make decisions about our children's health and well-being we can not only go based on the opinion of the CDC they're constantly changing their guidelines let's look at what's not changing they have their exercise recommendation 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week plus two days of muscle strengthening um you know for kids they look at 60 Minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day um and they shouldn't be wearing a mask while doing this that is detrimental to their health the CDC also recommends eating a

068variety of fruits and vegetables and protein-rich Foods paying attention to portion sizes and calories so by those rights we should take a look at school lunches because I'll tell you my kids come home and tell me they eat a mozzarella stick mozzarella stick stuffed into a breadstick that's not a quality lunch um and so are we going to look at these guidelines because we have that option basically we're asking for choice the CDC has their guidelines we're asking for choice because those guidelines don't seem to make sense anymore thank you thank you [Applause] Monica Curtis hey my name is manga Curtis I grew up in Germantown I graduated from Germantown High School in 2005. my husband and I have two small children in the Germantown School District first I want to ask the school board

069to reconsider putting high school and middle school students in the same buses it was this it was that way when I was a student at Kennedy and in sixth grade I was physically assaulted On The Bus by three High School boys this happened twice both times I reported it the first time it was ignored it wasn't until my father called the middle school vice principal and threatened legal action that either School bothered to get the police involved that could have been avoided if we were just bussed separately second I think we should keep Mass mandatory for elementary school at least for the full semester right now we only have vaccines available for kids ages 12 and older let's keep the mess mandatory for elementary school until a vaccine is available for all school-aged children and

070give parents ample time to get their kids vaccinated none of us are none of us are enjoying this please don't none of us are enjoying this but let's just keep trying to keep our kids safe thank you thank you we are currently out of time I have three people left um if you could just let us know what your topic is and what you are in favor of or against uh Darian Kling you could just say it from there if you'd like so you're against Iowa sourcing thank you Renee wellnick and I can't thank you Carrie brookbacher thank you okay thank you [Applause] thank you all since most of you spoke on topics that will be on the agenda tonight we'll be reacting to your comments hopefully with some answers to your questions later on

071item four approval of the minutes May 10 2021 board of education do I have a motion motion to prove the Board of Education minutes from May 10th second any discussion all those in favor all right that passes number five reports and information items a people Services teaching learning five three to five year strategic plans Mr salesman yes thank you so last um last time you heard the three-year plan from Business Services Mrs altendorf and Human Resources uh Mr norwalkin tonight you'll hear Mr Lam speak about people services and Miss O'Brien about teaching and learning Mr Lam all right thank you Mr stelson you do have a copy of the action plan within the board packet so I'm just going to essentially highlight do some summarization there are three different goals within the plan and the

072first goal pertains to services to our students with the first objective being primarily about access for students with disabilities to be educated in settings along with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible and some of the action steps include looking to build upon the current Continuum of Service delivery models that we have across our special education and regular education environments we know that there's an increasing number of students with internalizing behaviors such as anxiety and depression so looking to research select and Implement a variety of different intervention curriculums that would meet their needs and some of these items here are based on survey information from specifically from our parents including a shared goal among parents and staff for students to increase their levels of Independence so working towards additional greater self-advocacy for students with

073disabilities uh the second agenda I'm sorry the second objective pertains primarily to collaborative practices and expands Upon Our opportunities for staff parents support staff all of our related service providers to collaborate amongst each other and some of that involves creating common planning times within the schedule for them to meet with each other some of that also includes continuing to promote family engagement by providing resources to parents and more opportunities for parents to participate and the third objective focuses primarily upon professional development and training staff to directly align Service delivery with the targeted student needs and helping with our onboarding process for our new staff that are hired to the district that they may be getting the ground Begin by hitting the ground running and looking to develop a within District staff network of subject matter

074experts to provide some in-house consultation to their colleagues across the district goal area number two pertains primarily to compliance and accountability and using compliance information for continuous Improvement looking to help everyone remain current with changing state and federal guidelines and preparing our staff for cyclical audience audits even when we're not in the middle of an audit process to maximize maintain or exceed the performance on the indicators that we are that we are held accountable to and then goal area number three for net pertains primarily to Commitment of resources we do know that the needs of our students continue to increase and so this looks at ways that we can increase our Revenue either through or through a combination of things such as being mindful about how we document resources the language we use in our

075IEPs as well as strategically coding costs with the business office so that we can maximize our reimbursements from other sources and to also apply for Grants where we may be eligible for them we're looking to continuously work more efficiently with the resources we have while also looking for opportunities to increase resources where we can so that's just a an overall summary of of the plan thank you any questions from the board for Mr lamb that's so much a question I suppose uh more of a comment um because anytime I see a few of the words used here strategic plans uh goals objectives action steps uh obviously there's always a bit of a moving Target there's always a bit of evolution throughout this the the process but one thing that a couple of comments one is

076anywhere that that we see mention of of parents I'd like for us parent workshops specifically I'd like to make sure that we spend a little more emphasis on making sure that the community is aware of these things and that you know whenever they are scheduled that that they that we make sure that that communication goes home to them the other thing I'd also like to see built out a bit more because specifically whenever I see goals action steps and objectives are great but we need measurement we need some sort of uh of identification as far as how are we meeting those goals how are we implementing these action steps and seeing results so that if it's working we can share that with people if it's not working we can start to course correct and adopt

077or adapt I should say these different plants that we're putting in place but okay Miss O'Brien sure the three-year plan for the teaching and learning Department includes a cover page that provides a one-page overview the key areas in the planning for the next five years and these three areas include engagement in learning the curriculum development as well as professional development and then the just the subsequent pages of this document provide the details within these three areas the indicators are also on the cover page and I would really like to align those to the board goals as well so that we have alignment between this document and the board goals the budgetary implications are also listed on the cover page and then within the three areas there are more specifics around the essential success factors as

078well as the whole Child Development that Mr Medved mentioned earlier this evening so it gives some specifics around those areas as well as our ongoing efforts with our writing initiative and then the content areas of reading as well thank you questions being none we'll move on Item B covid cost report Mr Southland yes I'll hand that over to Mrs altendorf um Mike Nowak from the HR department as well as myself will once again be going through the covid report through April 30th we have two more reports for this uh school year um as you can see on the reports the cost for covet expenses are decreasing so I will again go over the top portion which are the consumables and supplies and then Mr Nowak will be going through the bottom which is the personnel

079and then near the bottom shows our total expenditures the two cares dollars or Esser dollars that we've received already and then the balance of the funds that would come out of fund balance as of right now so in sanitation and prevention we've spent 239 dollars I'm not used to small numbers like that 239 dollars in the month of April and then 1455 for the sanitation of our buses between routes and then will have Mike Nowak go through the Personnel section thank you on the Personnel side we see uh trend lines that seem to be consistent during April there's a slight increase in use it in-house Subs as well as long-term subs and I would point to you know situational needs for those both those increases but they're not significant in nature and they're consistent as

080I said with the trend lines that we see we've seen any questions see none we will move on item C website and District at update Mr stewson yes I'm going to have Angie Packer talk in just a second but we are we've been we means Angie has been working on a new new website and this isn't a cost savings and it's not a cost increase but it's going to make us more efficient and going to provide more opportunities for parents to connect with the district especially with the app and you could you could go home now because you can't do it in here because the Wi-Fi is not good enough but go to the App Store and download the you'll see Germantown school and you'll be able to download that app um and you'll have

081easy access to find teachers lunch menus all those good things so um and that will go live on May 28th so towards the end of this week if you normally go to the website you won't notice anything different from the web from the um the the address the www.gsd.org will still be the same you'll just it will look a little different and I'll show you um hopefully so now have Angie talk about a little bit and then we'll talk about the app yeah if you can go to the PDM of your other no she's making a difference I just wanted everyone to see the app first the company we're partnering with on doing this is really pushes the mobile aspect of communicating with families so everything that you need on a day-to-day basis is going

082to be in your hand and you've got the it's Germantown School District wi and you can download it now keep in mind like we said the site itself is not live until Friday is what we're shooting for um so you might see some things that are not quite finished up yet but you'll get this welcome screen and then go ahead and click so when you first log in Germantown School District you see at the top that will be what your default will be but if you go down to the lower part of the app of the screen there was a little school and you'll click on that and that's where you can add if you want to subscribe to specific locations say you have a kid at middle school and high school you can select

083those feeds we do ask that you keep the Germantown School District feed our subscription as well because when you get to the next screen and you're working on the different levels of the app so go to the next one you are only going to be seeing the content related to that location so if you've picked the high school everything that you now interact with on the app from here on relates to the high school it's going to be the high school's news feed it's going to be their calendar of events it's going to be their menu to navigate the app you're going to use the menu button down in the lower corner and if you click the next you'll have different options available depending on the location so the high school because it has more

084activities and things sporting events it has more options within this main menu that you will not see at the district level or at some of the elementary schools but each of these correlate to content um within the app so click again so this is what a news feed might look like for the high school we've got daily announcements news stories um things that might resemble a Facebook post that are just short little informational tidbits if you open the calendar you're going to have a running list of what's going on at that location this is just events this is not sporting events this is graduation this is exam schedules this is there's no school today if there's a location provided it's simple click to get directions within you can choose Apple Maps or Google Maps on

085an iPhone I don't have an Android so I'm not sure if it's just Google Maps there go again you're going to have the directory for that location accessible right from your phone you can filter if you want to not see all 300 people you can filter by function or department when you click on the person you'll get the ability to dial Direct or email next you'll have your daily menu for that location at the bottom is where you'll link if you're one of those families that needs to know nutritional content for a particular diet you'll get that down at the bottom of that menu and then one more I think we've got all the documents forms menus schedules are able to be stored in a document repository or whatever you want to call it for

086each location if you're not seeing something in a particular location say you're in the elementary school and you can't find medical forms take a look into the district level because that might be where we're keeping it so if you want to go back to the website so just a quick question I know a lot of families like to print out the monthly food that would be in the food and nutrition folder at each location and you'll still have that PDF with the daily menu or that you can have your kids so if you go up a little bit so we can see the top menu so similar to what we just saw on the app if you click on the menu button at the top of the screen those circles that I just pointed out

087some of the things for are going to be accessible you're just going to see it in a web version of it and then your traditional way of organizing the content on our current site has just been sliced and diced in a similar fashion for this new layout so if some of these are links some of these are Pages unfortunately it doesn't indicate that unless you're just hovering over and you'll have to look and see what the what the URL is so there's your live feed we don't have many stories flowing in here yet some of these are just test stories and some of the other schools are already starting to populate their content so when you go there you might see some new stories that you weren't even aware of so if you go to

088like Amy Bell they might have they're I don't think they have too much up there yet but they have their newsletter and maybe some little information all of these blue buttons are quick links so these are going to be helpful to find things a little quicker again this is on the website version not on the mobile version but not useful of your menu available to you you click back and you're back on the website thank you and thank you for all your work on this yes this looks really good does this allow for push notifications like this push notifications it has text alerts we're going to be test alert after school gets out so everyone will get little schools out text alert um so we can make sure that works before we cancel who we're

089using now for things like that if people find errors please send it my way we have been building this for a couple months but until people use it and we can get some feedback of How It's Working if you're you know things aren't still able to be found I'd appreciate the feedback back to let me know that people are finding the things but like we said the app is available now it's working some people are some schools are using it and as the schools themselves get used to this new method of delivering information will start to use it more and more as we get to understand what it's capable of okay thank you any other comments yeah a website refresh has been long overdue because it's almost impossible to find anything on our current website

090and having an app makes it even better because our current website is not mobile friendly so right much appreciated Mike I I really appreciate your adding that Wi on that Germantown School District because we do get calls for Tennessee yes yeah there's many many German towns in in the country and um you know sometimes when I try and look at a neighboring District's website or somewhere in Wisconsin it doesn't say wi and I don't know if I'm at the right District or not so thank you for that okay the United D board meeting schedule 2021-22 Miss 3000 yes so in your in your packet um for the board meetings looking into next school year starting in July um and still everything was on the kind of the second Monday of the month and the fourth

091Monday of the month but um one one piece for conversation um tonight that no decision has to be made but um uh Brian and I talked and one of the ideas for real honestly for greater transparency is to have our committee meetings on the second Monday of the month and then we could be more specific about the things that we'd be talking about on the fourth Monday of the month so that agenda would have would list clearly list the items that were coming forward from from the committee meetings and if there was a a reason or a situation where we needed a board meeting um for a time sensitive matter we could still have that on the second um the second Monday of the month so um I the one the one area that I

092had a question about was Finance to get their vouchers in by the third Monday but I spoke with Brittany and she said that's not an issue because they'll just everything's just backed up by two weeks but it wouldn't wouldn't be an issue there so it's a it's a change it's a it's a new thought that's why we just put it on so so you could hear about it and then chew on a little bit and it's something we don't we have till July to to get started with things so um I don't know if there's questions or comments yeah yeah I like the idea because a lot of stuff that we do we work on a divorce level because it was Advanced from committee so this gives us an opportunity to talk about it at

093committee and have two weeks if we need to do more research before it comes to the full board Mike I'm resistant to change like a lot of people transportation for example redrawing lines for school districts nobody wants change but I'd be willing to try it looks like it might work and if it doesn't work we just revert back to what we've been doing after a few months yeah Brett and I really like this idea I think it streamlines the process a little bit having one full board meeting and I have a committee meetings we're already scheduled basically to work on those days so it makes committee meetings a little bit easier and you don't have the time constraints and you're not pushing it right into a forward level you have plenty of time to consider

094issues helps with transparency I think all the way around this is a good idea so if we can make this work I think it'll benefit everybody any other comments I I absolutely agree uh with Tom I obviously being newer to the board going through some of these things for the first time uh there's a bit of a learning curve but when I would be in the audience there would be times when I'd kind of Wonder you know that it just came up in the committee and sometimes 10 minutes later there are the boards acting on it and not that that's a bad thing but sometimes it did seem like maybe maybe there should have been a little bit of time to chew on and I think this this gives the ability to do that but

095also I think the general public sometimes doesn't realize that there's something coming up or going on in in the way that we we release the agendas on the Thursday or Friday before sometimes people are panicked they need to be here they feel they need to be here this way they can if they can't make it on the committee night they can always watch the feed and be ready for public comment or emails or whatever they'd like to share with us for the board meeting anyone else what about public speaking right now it looks like we have two times per month uh you know enough we're going to limit it to an hour um what do we do for that uh second I'm actually hopeful moving forward we'll limit it to 15 minutes well it might

096be might not go 15 minutes for a while it looks like I don't know well we'll see we have a lot of stuff going on right now obviously um and we'll allow the hour um but again I'm conscious of people's time people have families people have things to do we have to go to work in the morning this is not our full-time job I think we need to I understand that I fully understand that okay please please this is our time to talk we gave you your time to talk um I have emails that I read from everyone I've heard most of what everyone had to say tonight and so is the rest of the board we're we're open we're transparent our phone numbers are on the website you can call us you can email

097us we're ready to hear what you have to say we're we're not against you believe me we're on the same team I hope your water correct okay we're moving on e committee assignments everyone has the list of committee assignments and if anyone has any questions or concerns please bring them back to me and we'll address them any comments on those notice Bob doesn't have many assignments no this is great what's going on oh he's got a couple oh let's get Brian you said my retired I believe Personnel committee hey discussion in action regarding restructuring of cash and Lube benefits yes uh we have two motions coming forward for this particular item the first is a positive recommendation to the board for the 2021-2022 school year to reduce cash and move from 4 500 to 4100.

098that comes to a board with positive recommendation does not require a second to have discussion yeah as you may have seen in the background this is uh estimated it'll save around fifty thousand dollars I'm just checking the other uh the other motions on here any further discussion all those in favor aye opposed that passes all right our second motion on this item is a positive recommendation to the board approve reducing the current cash and new benefit for spouses receiving 4500 by 1 500 each year starting July 1st 2021 which will eliminate the benefit totally in two more years in addition eliminate the benefit for new hires with spouses in the district effective immediately okay that comes with the board with a positive recommendation does not require a second do we have discussion yeah Tom um

099there was some discussion at uh committee about having this end in three years rather than the current plan which ends it in two um I guess I'm I'm in favor if we're going to be reducing someone's take-home pay I don't want to hit them all too fast I understand it's a benefit it's not part of their salary but it's money that probably a lot of the employees that take this benefit have been having as part of their family budget so I'm going to make a motion to amend the motion from committee continue to eliminate the benefit for new hires with spouses in the district effective immediately but to reduce the amount of this benefit to 3100 next year 2000 for the 2022-2023 year down to one thousand for the 2023-2024 school year and then starting

100with the 24-25 school year this benefit would no longer be available I'll second that okay we have a second Bob any discussion Tracy he said 3 100 for this year 3 100 for this year which is essentially a reduction of a thousand from the new rate of 4100. okay let me go through this again because then I don't understand uh so starting July 1st 2021 there the benefit would be 3 100 for the upcoming school year then 2 000 the following year then one thousand the following year and that it would be eliminated okay I'd actually prefer if the July 1 2021 rate would be reduced to match the current offerings that we we just approved of 4 100. and then go from there so that the cash in lieu that we just approved was

1014 100 for this upcoming year that this would also be reduced to 4 100. the administration brought this forward with the expectation that there would be some savings to fill the budget deficit and if we're really not reducing it any more than the current or the new rate then I don't see how we're not really gaining anything this year well I I mean I understand it but I think there's also a level of fairness to if you want to say treat everybody equally in the sense that we're reducing both that we match up with the 4100 that we already did I can understand that but to me the benefit is cat and Liu were said another way cash instead of insurance so if you're already on the district's plan and you're getting this extra cash

102it almost seems like you're double dipping I'm in agreement with Tracy on this one I would rather grandfather the married couples in and um make their amount of cash and live the same as the other people in the district um just because you happen to have a married couple in the district I don't think you should be treated any differently than a teacher who has a spouse working somewhere else so all we've already know on this one further discussion seeing none all those in favor aye opposed no that passes moving on to B yes action regarding the elimination of life and disability benefits for support staff working under 35 hours per week so this will be handled in two separate motions as well long-term disability was discussed at the committee level the life insurance piece

103is coming straight to the board because it wasn't to honor agenda so committee brings forth with a positive recommendation to the board starting July 1st 2021 to eliminate long-term disability for support staff that work between 17.5 and 40 hours okay that comes with more of a positive recommendation does not require a second any discussion yeah two two items for transparency you have a spouse who works in the district who is considered support staff so I will not be voting on this particular item in addition the committee's recommendation or emotion I believe needs to be updated because it referenced 17.5 to 40 hours um but it should be 7 17.5 to 35 hours okay so moved okay Bob makes a motion to amend that any second second Tracy second any discussion see none all those in

104favor aye you're abstaining aren't you abstained well I'll vote for that change okay um that amends the motion okay now we need to mow done in motion all right um all those in favor aye opposed I love staying for that okay bad passes moving down to D or c um nope the second part of B uh would be um regarding the elimination of life insurance benefits for support staff that work between 17.5 and 35 hours per week effective July 1st 2021 okay and that will need a motion and a second because we did not bring that forward from committee oh so moved do I have a second second any discussion see you none all those in favor aye aye opposed I will abstain that passes all right uh item C discussion in action regarding the

105elimination of longevity pay for support staff so the recommendation from the Personnel committee to the board is to eliminate longevity pay for support staff effective July 1st 2021. okay that comes at war with positive recommendation does not require a second do I have a discussion yeah yeah just for clarity this is not reducing pay for anyone they will essentially be locked at the pay rate that they were at it will just eliminate the longevity pay increases which are separate than the CPI increases that the board May Grant correct okay any further discussion see none all those in favor all right opposed I will abstain that passes keep going all right item D discussion in action regarding the elimination of Mentor stipends the committee brings forward a positive recommendation to eliminate the 100 Mentor stipend effective

106July 1st 2021. okay that comes at the board with a positive recommendation does not require a second do I have discussion see none all those in favor aye aye opposed that passes go ahead all right item e discussion action regarding the elimination of stand-in administrator stipends um we have a positive recommendation from the Personnel committee to the board to approve eliminating the stipend for standing administrators effective July 1st 2021. okay that comes with more of the positive recommendation does not require a second a discussion sounds good yeah as I said in committee I'm I'm against fully eliminating this stipend especially at the elementary level where they don't have multiple administrators in the building on a daily basis and I think if we're asking someone to do the work of two people they should get some

107sort of benefit from it maybe the stipend amount isn't the correct amount maybe it should be something different but if we're asking them to do the work of two people on certain days I think they should get something I guess the only exception might be if someone is has aspirations to be an administrator then this might be some on-the-job training for them but overall I'm I'm against this particular motion I would agree because there is some level of responsibility that's required with this as well any other thoughts yeah I know during the committee uh meeting last week Mr stausel and you had some um Dialogue on this on on what the plan B would be if we have the administrator out of the office out of the school yeah I mean it just in in

108previous districts depending on the situation but a lot of times The Minister's somewhere just else in the district like if we're having a leadership team meeting and if we know someone's going to be out for longer periods of time like I would could sit there you know or be in the building or one of the other District level the ministers could be present if we know no in advance but that's not always possible either so do you wish to table it and bring it back with adjustments Tom you can move forward I'm just not in favor of it and I don't know what how it would be adjusted to make me in favor of having someone do the Java too and only getting to pay for one yeah I agree I think taking another swing

109at this one might be a good idea um but we'll bring it to a vote all those in favor aye opposed no no no that fails continue to yeah um that is all that committee brings forward at this time okay thank you item seven ad hoc curriculum committee thank you discussion regarding you go ahead thank you uh the ad hoc curriculum committee meeting did occur earlier this evening with a few different reports and discussions uh there will be nothing brought to the board tonight for consideration however I do just want to mention a few things uh we started off with a brief discussion of applicable policies regarding CRT I think I had the numbers correctly it's 2240 and 57.80 we did follow up with a bit of a discussion uh regarding CRT how how it

110may exist in the district different things that that could be considered regarding uh for for instance sending a letter home for the AP courses and having it be an opt-in rather than what is used for the human growth and development class which is more of an out process just for awareness purposes as far as the the ace reports we we heard on a couple of different topics regarding higher hiring student advocacy uh community and professional development uh within those particular areas like like I mentioned there's nothing coming forward but I do want to mention a few items and of course people can refer back to the to the live stream that we'll share with regards to student advocacy there was a discussion regarding a survey that would be used as a baseline measurement the recommendation

111or at least one of the points mentioned was that there were some questions that would probably be removed just because it was more staff related than anything else and of course we we would also review that and also make a adjustments or suggestions for possibly additional questions that we may want to ask or remove other questions that we may not want to ask there's also a mention of something called The Listening Library that involves some free books that promote diversity anti-bullying acceptance and other topics with regards to this if if we do take under consideration approving that or incorporating that we would make it available the book lists available on the website so the parent parents can review and that there was a mention that these would not be considered curriculum books uh as far

112as Community I know there was some questions or comments earlier during public comments regarding transparency within the ace itself on that Equity page that's currently out on the website I do want to point out a couple of things that that were mentioned earlier that will be included within within the next several weeks let's say regarding the committee members those meeting minutes as far as as the transparency there or at least providing more transparency as far as that's concerned professional development one last thing here Mr stausel and mentioned the investigation of restorative practices canvas fit in our schools those types of things as well as some non-curriculum books that would be provided by C6 and working with the Germantown Community Library as well right as well okay Mr stelson would you like to add anything no

113uh Tracy did an excellent job okay um I went through some of the policies that we talked about in the committee and I'll leave it out there since it's been recorded and people can view it I won't reiterate all of that um but I welcome people to go take a look at that and understand the two policies that I brought up in the motion controversial issues in the classroom and student parent rights I think it's very clear that the district is looking out for our students that we want transparency that we want our parents to be engaged in the process we're not in any way wanting the things that people talked about tonight and I speak for myself on the board but I don't think anyone on the board wants any of the things that

114you people talked about tonight that we know are happening in other districts we are doing all we can with curriculum with um with our board directives to stop any of that from coming into this District so I hope you understand that I want to make that very clear here um any other comments like I think uh the material for the curriculum committee should have included uh printouts of the policies I didn't actually know that those policies were going to be included I don't think tonight I found out about it through emails okay but uh I think uh you know if we're going to discuss those they should have been in the in the material because there really was no material in the curriculum committee uh agenda tonight you know we had the agenda and that

115was it nothing else that's a good point and that would encourage people to read the entire policy it's on our website all of our policies are 2240 and 57.80 and I would encourage all the parents to read through the entire policy because I think it is very informative talking about what the rights of the parents and the students are and how we are going to be handling there will be more to come Brett and I are working on how to handle all controversial issues we're not singling out anything we're covering all the topics so hopefully that clarifies things for people any other comments okay moving on to eight finance committee Mr Lowe yes the finance committee met earlier this evening before the board meeting and before the public speaking section and it is a public

116meeting just for if anyone's questioning it we approved uh May vultures or was it April vouchers me okay and next item finance committee is a little bit out of order with respect to the board agenda so I will go by the board agenda I will translate maybe next time we'll keep the items in order if we can please um the finance committee brings forward to the Board of Education with a positive recommendation to approve the 2021-2022 student fee schedule Brittany went through those in finance so I don't think there we need to go through them again no I think we're good okay if anyone has any questions that comes to the board with a positive recommendation does not require a second do we have discussion so you none all those in favor opposed that passes

117okay uh item 8B the finance committee brings forward to the Board of Education with a positive recommendation to approve the 2021-2022 facility use fee schedule and again Brittany went through that in a fair amount of detail the changes in particular and I think we're good unless you have anything you want to say Brittany no not unless there's questions I'd like to thank Brittany publicly for going through the both these items it's been a horrendous amount of work for her Brittany started July 1st of 2020 with the school district so she has a has had quite a job learning you know what was all here when she arrived so thank you Brittany for that okay that comes to the board with a positive recommendation does not require a second do we have discussion see none all

118those in favor all right all right pause that passes okay next item is 8C uh the finance committee brings forward to the board a motion to move a motion to move to the full board with a positive recommendation for altendorf that's Brittany altendorf to negotiate with GSF company and move forward after negotiations to Outsource the Germantown School District's second shift custodial staff for cleaning services with said company okay that comes to the board with a positive recommendation does not require a second do we have discussion Tracy uh this one I've wrestled with for a few days now uh knowing that my own personal experience with Outsourcing that I'm actually currently going through and the difficulty that that can happen with with that sort of arrangement certainly we've as we've all probably received several emails with

119some concerns from parents regarding background checks and and how we will manage and make sure that the that the expectations are made known uh whichever direction we go with regards to the service level agreements that we would establish I certainly can appreciate the savings since we one of the main goals for for this year written Unwritten is is a balanced budget and that that is something we absolutely need to do uh for this community um I'm struggling with it though because while I can appreciate the the savings for this coming year maybe you can share with with us some projections regarding what what would be expected because I know with GSF and maybe I could be reading this incorrectly so please correct me if I'm wrong under the miscellaneous projected annual increase not to exceed

120five percent when I read something like that I assume it's going to be five percent so um rightly here so while we may be saving money this coming year what's the trade-off in years two three four by going this route um so the motion tonight is for me to start negotiations with the with the whatever for the vendor the vendors chosen tonight um so I would negotiate something along the lines of that we would have similar to our transportation contract which would be equal to CPI or not to exceed two percent or whatever whatever the dollar whatever the percentage is I don't agree with the five percent that's one of the reasons that I I did not vote for the company initially I do not agree with the five percent increase so um in the

121negotiations with the contract that would be reduced otherwise I'd be coming back to the board in regards to background checks I did speak at the finance committee and I believe you were here I just do you want me to repeat myself otherwise um we will either write in the contract that we get to also do the background checks or we do the background checks or we are purview to the information that's pulled from the background checks yeah I would think we need to be clear on how those background checks are handled and we definitely need to be participating in those um I think I agree with your comments Tracy a lot of what you said is true I struggled with this as well but looking at the significant cost savings and the fact that the

122vast majority of our employees will continue on just having to work for another company and some of them will even benefit from it in a in a in a way um I'm gonna have to support this one because it is um a significant dollar savings and we do have a right with a company to insist that our buildings are clean and we can fire a company easier than we can fire employees if they're not doing the job um so I am supportive of this one any other comments I'm in support of it because uh you know we do have budget difficulties and I'm trying to make balancing the budget easier you know for a business administrator rather than more difficult so yes I support it I think we will keep the company that we select

123on a short leash and um you know if things aren't going well we will make changes uh yeah thank you Brian I too support it um 302 000 is significant um the question I would have is uh if we don't go down this path uh no one likes change uh where would we get the 302 thousand dollars and I I've got some ideas but I don't think anybody wants to hear those ideas so I support this okay anyone else Tom yeah Brittany I just wonder if there's been any thought on keeping our own second shift supervisor so to speak just so we had a Germantown employee that was essentially in charge and then have the company provide the custodial staff underneath them we could do that um or or I mean there would be a

124supervisor position through the company I believe they have two they have one for the district and then one for um one more that the late the leader at the at each school so that position could be taken over by the outsourced company otherwise it would be uh don Erickson or myself as we oversee that department to make sure that everything is up to the standards of our district all right thank you and Brittany you'll make sure that on the t's and C's the terms and conditions that you're going to do all you can to protect the district with I think I believe at the committee meeting Tracy mentioned service level agreements that will have things that we can measure and and if they fail that there's hopefully there's going to be some penalties assigned so

125okay no further comments all those in favor aye opposed that passes okay board item eight d uh the finance committee brings forward a motion to move to the full board with a positive recommendation to award the public Paving a contract not to exceed seventy thousand four hundred and seventy three dollars out of buildings and grounds fund 10 budget to perform the asphalt maintenance at Germantown High School okay that comes at the board with a positive recommendation does not require a second do we have any discussion my understanding is that is the entire parking lot and including the new areas there yes all Lots okay and we're extending the lot a little bit too are we the Lots stay in the same size we're just adding additional student parking we did open up student parking to

126the sophomores this year and we will continue to do that as we haven't in the past it was just for seniors and juniors so adding more spots will allow more students to park okay sounds good all those in favor aye opposed that passes okay and last item uh Britney went through the uh her April variance report we're in a little bit better position on spending this year than last year and a little extra money coming in she also mentioned um I think it was end of June a 10 million dollar temporary loan I'll be coming to the finance committee on the board on June 7th okay so early in June to make ends meet until the state aid comes in in August and that was it okay thank you item Nine underfinished Business Transportation discussion

127only um I had this put on the agenda because again for transparency I don't think we did a pretty good job of explaining why we made the decision that we did to change the busing schedules and busing routes and combining schools and all the things that we did um so opened up the board if they want to describe why they made the decision that they did and then I'll go through some of the things that Brittany and I talked about why we came up with the um the decision that we did Mike I'll I'll start it off I'm on the transportation committee meeting and I our transportation committee um the the Savings in the bus routes I believe it was seven routes we eliminated the savings there is about the same or a little bit

128less than the savings we just offered Brittany to go ahead and negotiate for eliminating our second shift custodial services so we had a lot of buses that were running empty and we needed to cut some routes it was going to happen it just had to happen we couldn't afford to run as many buses as we were running so Southern routes eliminated um and as far as safety is concerned I understand it trust me the cameras on those buses are not fake they're all real uh every minute of every bus ride is recorded so um the students if they don't know that they should know that and they need to behave themselves if they don't we will get the video from the bus service and we will take appropriate action and it won't take a legal

129threat from a parent to get us to act on that um that's really about all I have hope I covered covered it reasonably well I think one other thing is MacArthur comes up often and I only responded to one email on that because the complaint was that the school was starting later the school is starting 16 minutes later and I did not get a response to my email asking why the 16 minutes later start time was such a big issue so I hope I wasn't disrespectful you know in that email but I did not think that a 16 minute later start time was that bad so that's all I have Brian okay and one of the couple things I wanted to talk about the start times was one of them and originally I posed the

130motion because I think we're going the wrong direction as people presented to us the stats show that older kids are Elementary or middle school and high schoolers our benefit more if they start school later unfortunately our extracurriculars don't allow for that to happen we had a real tough time with and I know the transport committee chair is not here so I think Mike for filling in for him we had a tough time trying to figure out how these routes were all going to work out but in discussions we um some of the things that we considered is with the combined K-12 routes in 6 through 12 happens in [Music] 16 school districts in our area and no student will be picked up prior to 6 a.m which is also our current practice with the new

131system no student will be dropped off after 4 45 PM which is also our current practice MacArthur students will receive breakfast at the same time as they have done in the past the start times will not change with the 16 minute time change at MacArthur students bus length should not change but they could arrive home 16 minutes later than the current practice no student will be on the bus longer than their current student is today so the Times Really Don't Change other than that shift to 16 minutes later um and the other schools a little bit earlier but 60 Minutes is the longest change in time overall and the cost savings again were pretty significant Brittany did you have anything to add on that no I don't have anything to add I tried to respond

132to all the the emails that parents and I had Communications aren't going to be on the phone with some other suggestions that the transportation committee could look at in the future if we want to regarding our hazardous Transportation plan as well as group stops instead of individual stops so if the transportation chair would like to look into those I'll bring them back to the committee sure I appreciate that we have to make tough decisions and unfortunately for us right now just about every decision we make upsets half the people you know so we can't go one way or the other without upsetting half the population in the district so it makes our lives really difficult we try to make the best choices we can um this to be fiscally conservative and do what's right for

133the taxpayers in the community and also for our students and parents and not make your lives miserable that is not our goal at all so I just wanted to talk about that Mike just one one more question and I think this is for you Brittany the savings that we see eliminating the seven uh bus routes does not include the savings that we will see in fuel charges uh savings that we see on the bus routes you're right it doesn't include the fuel charges Etc so since January 20th diesel in gasoline I believe is up a dollar a gallon you know that's where we're at right now we're at a dollar gallon more than we were so the not running those seven bus routes will also save us money because the district pays for fuel at

134cost and and that's something that the bus company doesn't really deal with other than they store it for us uh you know in their tank uh while you know after the fuel purchase so there's fuel buys that you will see uh on on monthly vultures now and then sometimes they're there sometimes they're not because I think they buy 10 000 gallons at a time so anyway something that we hadn't talked about there is a fuel savings that I've been thinking about and I just wanted to make sure that I was clear on that we we don't know exactly what that number is because you know we don't know where fuel is going to but if the last few months are an indication it'll probably be up two gallons or two dollars a gallon in the

135next few months and uh so so what we've done here eliminating these seven routes has much more benefit than what it seems on the surface okay thank you that's all I have on that unless anybody else won't say anything okay thank you moving on to new business discussion updates possible action regarding return to school report including mask wearing for the remainder of 20 20 21 school year sure the just jumping to The Graphic that we we look at every other week some of the Burden rate in the in our area communities these two the Germantown Jackson um are in the moderate moderately High um but it's the lowest they've been in a long a long time Colgate is up probably double what it was last time but these other ones have have decreased in Burden

136rate Washington Ozaki Health came out with some statements last week made on May 20th I don't think they really help us very much they're just um this kind of same information they're still recommending correct use of masks physical distancing things that have been in place for a long time um our cases in our elementary and middle school and high school have reduced in the last two three weeks we thought we might see a spike after the two proms which we didn't the Junior and the senior dance and we just we haven't seen that the decisions uh for tonight um you know really is what are what's the outcome of the use of mass for the remainder of the school year which is June 10th um some things to think about you know is it different

137for Max for vaccinated staff and 16 plus students who've had the opportunity to be vaccinated um some after May 25th if they got it right away when they were available 12 year olds also just things to consider districts around here have done different things they've done some some of them who have gone mask optional other ones have gone masks in motion which just means if you're sitting at your desk you don't need your mask on if you're moving from class to class your mask is on there are an increasing number of school districts that are lifting their mask requirements almost every day we see it in the in the school news bulletins that get sent out some some questions for the the board to consider if they were making a motion is when it would

138begin if you're if they're making Mass optional or mass emotion or whatever that may be why don't we begin what grades and what about large group Gatherings uh the end of the school year we have um like fifth grade celebrations would we bring all the fifth graders together we've got eighth grade end of the year promotion uh dances and obviously High School graduation which puts a lot of people in the field house so all those things just to consider question Tom I've heard from several parents throughout the district from our last meeting since the last meeting via email multiple parents tonight this is what they're waiting for I make a motion to make masks optional throughout the school district effective immediately do I have a second look at that go ahead second we got two

139seconds awesome um I don't know if we need a friendly Amendment or not on that because there was also discussion earlier that we might want to eliminate the close contact quarantine this is an issue I think that parents can handle themselves at home so if there was something you can't that's not in the it's not on the agenda that's the problem Mass was the only thing listed in the agenda correct right now the quarantine is it's optional for the parent it's already optional well what how it's written right now is that if they were Within um three three feet in masks then that's optional for the for the parents okay it's just not listed unfortunately it's just not listed in the um in the agenda to vote on Just Master what was listed right okay

140so I'll uh I'll drop that and I think we just go with uh what Tom said Bob has a second Tom has the motion hey no I've got the second okay Mike's got the second all right we'll give Mike the second any further discussion yeah I'll just say some things you know we've we've been on this journey way too long um we saw it coming over from Asia Pacific and we took guidance from the CDC and we did that to mitigate risk to the district um that was oh my gosh a year and a half ago it seems like way too long we've learned a lot since then um the vaccine is out there um I've got the vaccine um my company is going to be pivoting relatively soon and our on social distancing and

141mask wear you're seeing more and more businesses do that in our region in our community in our state in our country um the metrics are very good I'm very concerned about the impact that masks have on mental health for our kids so I support this and I'm also concerned about those that will not like this decision tonight well you can mask up and I would hope that I and I would hope that and this is maybe the messaging that we need to have in our schools that if you see someone with a mask that's okay don't judge them you know be be considerate maintain social distancing I think we'll get there Tracy I just have two points to make I think it's probably pretty clear that this this is a good trajectory um the actually

142one one point here first off we had made the arrangements at semester for people to come back from virtual and they did so because they saw that things were working with masks or at least it seemed to be because of the masks and the other mitigation that that we have in place uh we're making this decision at 9 15 at night immediately I have a feeling that there will be some parents within that group that have have changed their minds and will be fine sending their kids with masks but I have a feeling that there's going to be some that may not want to go down that path and may want to flip back to Virtual so a suggestion would be maybe not immediate but give a day for parents to react to this so

143that the administration Can field those phone calls or those concerns and try to do their best to accommodate those students the other point that I would make too is is kind of a reinforcement of what what Bob said if if parents or kids choose to wear the mask I really don't want to hear about people giving those kids crap and if if we do fear that if we do hear that with some of the comments earlier with with bullying and those type of things to me that clearly falls under that policy and so therefore we we need to hear about it we need to escalate it we need to react quickly to it if we're gonna if we're gonna put policy out there and encourage folks to read the policy we need to enforce the

144policy so those would be my my two points that I'd make tonight [Applause] yeah I I understand your point where you're coming from about a giving notice but we've already made it optional for summer school we've already made it optional for next year um those parents can certainly keep their kid at home almost every grade has a virtual option in my my kid was sick today thankfully his test was negative but he was able to sign in and do all of his classes so I and I've been sitting here all meeting with this on because I'm trying to follow the rules I'm ready to take it off okay I'm gonna go on the record I've already went on the record and said that I'm not in favor of making a change at this point we

145only have two weeks of school left the CDC did not say that K-12 was okay to remove mass and we told parents as Tracy said that we would keep them in place for the rest of the year um I like the idea of a compromise I think the suggestion that Brett made where you have mass in motion we have cohort groups throughout the district for the entire year and those kids in the classroom they can remove their mass by when they're in their hallway and they're cross traffic or in their enlarged groups I think they should still wear a mask the other problem we have is that kids cannot get vaccinated even if they wanted to so we have an issue with that as well I agree that we're close to herd immunity at this

146point if not already people have either had it or had the vaccine and I think the vaccine's been out long enough that anyone that wants it could have had it um so I'm just I guess I'm on the fence I'd like a compromise but I think I'm in the minority here and people are going to have their masked off [Applause] Mike I uh that said I just wanted to mention I was in the district office uh last Monday and I didn't see anyone wearing masks no one and this board did not authorize anyone in the district to not wear a mask so it's already going on and uh it's kind of why I asked in part for this to be on the agenda for tonight you know let's quit the charade no one in the

147district office except for one person I hear is wearing a mask let's make it effective immediately and just move forward okay any further discussion all those in favor aye aye aye opposed that passes no uh Hey frame frame was it unanimous was it unanimous correct okay good all right moving on to new business B discussion and action to prove donations Mr stausland yeah so that's the board to approve a donation of 250 from the dental professionals to the high school choir program and approve the donation of 250 from Emmy Bell student Arabelle Arabella Fox who did a card design uh Tammy Bell and Arabella want to uh won the contest and approve the anonymous donation of 750 to County Line to be used to help students with outstanding fees from struck fees from struggling during

148the covet pandemic I can't believe all these people are leaving I mean we've still got good stuff to talk about people are giving us money correct all right I will make a motion to thank the donors for their generosity and approve the donations as listed Bob second any discussion see none all those in favor hi that passes thank you for the for the invite [Applause] moving on to D discussion and action to prove sixth grade coordinated Arts course Brian can I get clarification just on mass on bosses optional optional thank you optional throughout the district thank you very much um I think we got it we skipped sorry C discussion in action to prove summer school contracts that's our missile Prime sure these are the summer school contracts for this summer 2021. I just want

149to inform the board that there are a few more High School contracts than in the past so we are going to be offering the following Credit Recovery courses face to face this summer world and American history English 9 and English 10 biology physical science geometry and algebra so just to let the board know that those are the face-to-face Credit Recovery courses going to be offered this summer motion to prove the contract as presented second any discussion see none all those in favor hi that passes okay now moving on to discussion and action regarding sixth grade coordinated Arts course again that's Mrs O'Brien sure the previous board meeting this is Mr Silver and I presented a preliminary background on making changes to the coordinated Arts offerings for the sixth grade beginning with the 2021-22 school year

150the proposal is to Sunset the tech apps class and in its place put an intro to Spanish course as well as an intro to Foods course the outline course outlines are in your board packet for your review and just want to reiterate that most of the equipment is already in the schools and that one of the foods courses just includes a budget for consumables for the food that would be needed thank you I'll entertain a motion I'll make a motion to approve the courses as presented beginning with the 2021-22 school year second have a second any discussion all those in favor aye that passes item 11 closed session the Board of Education will entertain a motion to convene in close session pursuant to to s 19.851 e f and g Wisconsin statutes as appropriate to

151discuss Gea negotiations plunket racial pra issues legal services and Personnel issues the board may take action in closed session if necessary or appropriate to entertain a motion to revene into Open Session to take further action if necessary and appropriate and to entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting for the reason stated second roll call both yes myself yes yes we are in closed session thank you all for coming drive home safely