001I mean that the mics are on okay well welcome to this warm July day this is our July board meeting this is the first my first board meeting as board chair I want to welcome everyone I was hoping this room may be a little more air-conditioned but we'll work on it as we we go along I hope um so I'd like to call this meeting to order um I would also like to welcome some new board members I know we just kicked off with the new board orientation um I know this is an exciting time of year with uh new new faces joining this board and I just really want to thank everyone for for volunteering and running this year to join do you want to just take a moment to do an introduction maybe
002say who you are and and what town you're from um I want to start to I'll search my left Annika do you want to start sure Annika hole Cumberland Tim Valenti North Yarmouth great ER Cumberland thanks everyone um we have one student Sophia who will be joining she's out July which a lot of students should be thank you Tommy for coming in July um so we welcome her to the board and we have an open position right now that's working to be filled in Cumberland that should hopefully be joining for our August meeting which is our board retreat um so thank you um we today's agenda which is up on screens we have done our call to order we don't have a recognition in our July meeting and then we move to approval of minutes
003um so we will start our agenda there um I move that we approve our meeting minutes from June 20th 2023 all second I just ask that we approve our board meeting minutes from June 20th 2023. I'll second great any discussion I had a question just about um just some of the the vote counts just to confirm if people didn't if I'm trying to remember what Vanessa she her vote how that got counted seven minutes if she didn't vote I believe she abstained from the vote so we did not count her on the vote okay yeah we usually listed uh list members who have abstained um so I just want to make sure yes I'm having some tech issues I guess right now um but uh so for minutes um if somebody has abstained we usually
004note the abstention okay um in the minute so I just want to make sure that it was done I think that was my only question I don't know if anyone else had questions which one were you questioning about though because like which vote in particular I didn't print that copy as I recall Vanessa voted no for the school board officers correct and Jared abstained so I agree with the minutes I I also agree with the minutes yeah and it was noted in the minutes that for example Jared abstained from that vote so that was noted in the person or persons who voted no um were in parentheses yep okay great thank you any other questions all in favor okay and new members feel free to abstain if you wanted to since that you weren't at
005the last meeting that's okay to do that so I saw that not everybody voted so okay great Tommy were you abstaining too yeah great so the next on the agenda is public comment um I welcome any members of the community here to to come to the podium thank you please say your name and um the community that you reside in thank you a lot of veiled Cumberland Center Cumberland Town Council please give me uh the time that I that I need to make my remarks uh the town manager Bill Shane is on vacation this week he asked me to come down here and speak with you regarding the vote I know that's on your agenda for this evening for scheduling a vote and I think that there should be in your packets his letter regarding
006the timing of that and so given that you have a letter I'm here just to reiterate that we urge you to put the vote to the public at a regular scheduled voting date if for no other reason it's cost savings uh second reason is absentee ballots we would like you to conform with that if you can a couple other things that I'd like to to bring up had a whole Litany of things that I was going through in my mind today and uh too much time in the sun has added to my my brain I like to uh welcome the new members I'd like to urge all the new members to get on the finance committee uh if you haven't already it's probably one of the most important things you'll do as a school board
007member is to understand School finance and how that affects and particularly construction finances these are very important issues and everybody needs to get up to speed on that so if you haven't uh put your hand up for finance committee please please do we had a meeting with the Town Council here last week and we talked about what the issues were before the the town and the number one issue is the school and specifically the proposed new construction and the tax implications of what that will mean to Cumberland and by all means North Yarmouth also so part of the discussion that we had was what can we do to mitigate that and the conversation quickly revolved right down to can we have a zero budget for five years that's a big ask for a a small
008community with a small budget but that is a consideration and it's not not to be taken lightly that that's the direction that we will be headed in and those are the discussions that we'll be having uh so we're uh my wife likes to claim or talk about the three silos North Yarmouth Cumberland and the school board and sometimes we think of them as as just separate entities and that you know in some regards this is treated as a private Academy well it's not it's it's part of two communities uh when I was chair I initiated what I call face time with the chair and the vice chair of the school board the Cal tumbling Town Council and the North Yarmouth select board I can tell you that we did not accomplish anything but we did
009have coffee every Friday morning and that face time was invaluable because we got to know each other we got to uh you know talk about what was going on our families and if nothing else that kind of uh uh ability to to meet and greet and get to know people is so valuable so I would ask that you folks uh spread yourselves out and pick us Town counselor pick a North Yama select person and and spend time with them because as we work together on a lot of different issues that understanding that that friendship is so important uh going back to the to the budgetary concerns we're going to ask you directly you know to look at your operating budget for the next five years can you hold it to zero probably not but can
010you sit down and consider that and have that discussion of what that might look like the the implications of a 75 to 100 million dollar school as huge to these two communities and the costs they are in uh The Five-Year prognosis is is not a a bright spot uh you know if we look at uh property values and compare them to her 15 years ago when they stagnated uh people that have a home and have their kids in the school system they can take and capitalize on that that increase in valuation and that at the end of their duration with their children going through the school system they have the opportunity to cash out at a considerable gain over what they did when they bought it we're looking at a revaluation and we're we're we
011keep postponing it because valuations are going up 15 every six months and so any valuation that the town maybe do it really has no value in in a year's time we look back at our demographics and we're looking at what what's what's changing in our community it's not the new construction so much it is the turnover rate uh people are moving in you know a family moves out and a new family moves in on some level that's expect that's expectations because you that that's that's healthy too you know we're looking at adding some affordable housing some Workforce housing some elderly housing and all those things affect our community some of them affect the schools some of them do not but I guess what I'm really here to say tonight is that we have to have
012dialogue we have to have regular dialogue and it is it can be one-on-one and I think that's important too but I think group dialogue group discussions of the challenges in front of us and how we approach them how do we uh how do we manage them importantly is is this a story is is what will make this a successful building project great thank you thank you good evening Scott Jordan Cumberland first of all congratulations to the uh the folks that just were elected Madam chair I have some documents I'd like to provide to the board if it's okay so you can reference or superintendent border okay and I do see that there's a lot of people in the audience I would like just maybe to ask I think we typically do three minutes as a
013I think we should go longer that was that was a lot longer than three minutes yeah and I um thank you thank you if I can have five no more than five I think we have a lot on our agenda tonight ma'am I I hear you loud and clear but that was far more than three minutes I think you would agree thank you so is that a yes or no I I think we've typically is what's been typical oh three three minutes that was because of covid we're not we're no longer in covid this is the only time we have to do board business and so I appreciate everyone here tonight and I want to give the opportunity for people to speak if they're here to speak thank you ma'am thank you the current education
014system in our country our state and our community is completely upside down I assume many can appreciate that where School prayer is manned but pornography and drag shows are absolutely allowed you can't teach the Bible but you can teach children that men can get pregnant and that kindergartners are allowed to pick their gender while this Administration might think that the district knows what's best for our children I can tell you they don't but you know who knows what's best for our children the parents can somebody please explain to me how this district is able to push pornographic books such as genderqueer which I provided pictures for and indoctrinate our children into a particular lifestyle while they're still discovering life and who they are and how this is acceptable by our Administration why are these sexually
015explicit books being pushed about this particular lifestyle our district needs to explain what educational value these types of books hold and why it's so important for our school district to defend it or even want these books in our schools what organization within this Administration is pushing the Cyber sexualization onto our children our District's children deserve just to be children and the school's Focus needs to be on the core academics math reading science not gender not sexual identity and not race has the msad 51 Administration even taken into consideration that exposure to sexually explicit materials may lead a child to normalize and become desensitized to high-risk behaviors shaping a child's expectation in relationships blurring boundaries and increasing a child's risk of victimization once their innocence is lost it can't be regained for children without an understanding
016of a healthy sexuality exposure to pornographic material such as provided especially violent pornography incest and rape can be extremely traumatic asking children how they sexually identify what their pronouns are providing referencing and displaying sexual and explicit materials can in his harassment sexual harassment especially if it's offensive to one creating safe spaces displaying Flags posters that only identify the lgbtq students and excluding students who don't identify as such is discriminatory and exclusive our District's inclusive and Equity policies and materials are placing one protected class over another and is excluding protected classes which is a direct violation of the Maine Human Rights Act which we are all equal under God in the law this District's decisions impact the health and well-being of our community students which can cause irreparable damage to their academic Futures I implore this
017Administration to lead by example and stop the state-sponsored child abuse in any case if anyone is confused by my statement the state of Maine's Department of Education is very clear with many school districts such as ours promoting things such as child on child oral sex pedophilia a grown man grabbing the penis of an adolescent cartoons of adult women engaged engaging in oral sex which are in these books that are in our high school library I haven't found the time if they're in our middle school yet as for the transgender movement in this country and in this statement in this community if there's a movement that's demonic in this transgender movement there are only two genders mailing I appreciate your time go to the doctor and get cut up you can go down to the dress
018shop and get the data three minutes you can go and get drugged up but at the end of the day you're just a drugged up dressed up made up man or woman it's time for the grown-ups and men and women of faith in this community to stand up unafraid and tell the truth thank you for your time Scott I'm not leaving until one of two things occurs you either call the police or you tell me the next steps on what you're doing this community we're tired of it what are you doing tonight to remove these books from our libraries public comment section of the agenda we open up Bob you're not a member of this board Bob sorry I do not acknowledge Bob fail their response but to ask them to respond in session is
019out of water I do not acknowledge Bob Vale he is not a board member Scott I will take a look at the materials that you've passed out and those books that you have given the information to the board and find out more information Jeff that's not acceptable I've done that with you already nothing has happened that those books have been well I'd like to at least give you a response on the specific information that's not acceptable Jeff that has been up in our Middle School those black and white photos have been up in our middle school for our fourth and fifth graders to see they should not be knowing about sexual orientation and gender identity that should be left up to the parents I'm not leaving this Podium tonight until you either provide me with
020next steps that are acceptable or the police is called I've had it and so have many other folks in this community Scott is this the place you want to do this right now in this I've called you I've emailed you I've had conversations with you in person I've done it with the principles and we get the same thing everybody is accepted we all know we're accepted right but this is especially the Forum pushing the books on our children you're telling our Junior High School students to wear shirts and go out and take a picture and then they're taking a picture in a rainbow as a rainbow that's unacceptable Jeff you guys won't do anything about it if I was to leave right now you're not going to do anything about this you haven't for two
021years I'm willing to pay the sacrifice for others because you won't do anything about it and we know it because we're the silent majority in this community but if I can save one child from what's going on I've done my job so okay with that this is uh the meeting which we are to do our public business we have some really important things on the agenda tonight and our kids are not this is far more important than a new school would anyone like to motion to adjourn tonight's meeting I would concur with Mr Vale you're out of order and we have other people and other concerns thank you for talking how do you know that their concerns aren't the same as mine do you know that yesterday I'd give them opportunity right yeah and and
022as soon as you address my concern then I will leave why don't you allow them to offer their public comment and thank you I appreciate that you are one of the bigger advocates for this movement in this District you will do nothing to support our children you will do the opposite I'm asking for you guys to meet us in the middle and talk about this move the books out review the books take them out of the library and look at them has anybody on this board looked at genderqueer one time I have and you're okay with oral sex you're okay with anal sex it's your interpretation of it no it's not just mine I moved to adjourn this meeting second I will sit down I will sit down I will sit down and let others
023speak I we have a motion in a second all in favor of adjourning tonight's meeting and will be larger in numbers this is what you think not for violence because we're not about violence but we're tired these are our children not your children your children might come here you can look like that my son is not your son her son is not your son I'd like to call for a vote to adjourn tonight's meeting I second that again okay all in favor that's that's the majority of the board so that's that's what the board is going to do they're going to meetings