001all right foreign like to call the order of the Milan Area Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Thursday January 12 2023 would everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you to everyone attending this evening as well as watching online um board members Miss Freight and Mr Farrow are excused this evening otherwise everybody else is present um except for our other student rep Mrs Powell um we will start with the an office for our new member our new board member Sarah Murray and Betty rosen-leacher they had already taken their official oath of office so we're going to do a ceremonial uh start
002with could raise your right hand I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the Board of Education of Milan area schools according to the best of my ability congratulations thank you [Applause] next on the agenda is School Board recognition month Mr gearbaugh thank you Mr Cislo for those that don't do not know January is School Board recognition month and we do have certificates that we will provide to each of the board members and I would also like to take a minute to read a certificate of proclamation from the state of Michigan on behalf of the people of Michigan Governor Gretchen whitmier does hereby Proclaim January 2023 a school board
003recognition month whereas Michigan is home to nearly 600 locally elected local school boards that work to enrich the lives of Michigan students through education and directly influencing instruction in Michigan's public schools and whereas local school board members are exceptional public servants who have dedicated and committed themselves to this Duty by governing school districts and advancing student achievement and well-being in the schools and communities where they serve and whereas during the month we join with the Michigan Association of school boards Michigan Department of Education local school districts and Community organizations to recognize and raise awareness of the countless efforts and contributions of local school boards and school board members throughout Michigan and now therefore Gretchen Whitmer the governor of Michigan does hereby Proclaim January 2023 as school board recognition month I also want to add my
004own thanks to the board members they work diligently and put in a lot of time and effort not just at the meetings where you see them present but in conversations with me in giving direction in being in the community and in being at school events and I truly appreciate all of their hard work and dedication thank you so much thank you Mr gearbaugh next up is the elections of election of officers so with each year we do have an election of the officers of the board um so I will open up uh nominations for president Mr Cislo I move to nominate Andrew Cislo for the office of president it does not need to be seconded are there any other nominations for president right now I need a motion to elect Andrew sislow for the president
005of milanary Schools Board of Education for a one-year term moved by hiking it's been moved and supported to elect Andrew sislow for president of the milanary school board of education for a one-year term any discussion Miss icon Cislo yes pharaoh oh they're not here haika yes Murray Macchio yes Rose and leacher yes motion carries five to zero next I'll accept nominations for vice president Mr Cislo I nominate Betty rosen-leacher for vice president I have Betty Rosen leacher as a nomination for Vice President are there any other nominations now I need a motion to elect Betty Rose and leacher for the vice president of milanary school board education for a one-year term moved by hiker support by machio it's been moved and supported to elect Betty rosen-leacher for vice president of the milanary school board of
006education for a one-year term any discussion Ms heiko haika yes Murray yes Macchio yes Rosen liecher yes Cislo yes motion carries 5-0 next I'll accept nominations for secretary Mr sislow yes I nominate Mrs hika for secretary I have a nomination of Michelle haika for secret for secretary and the others I need a motion to elect Michelle haika for the Secretary of the milanary school board of education for a one-year term moved by Macchio support by Rosen liacher it's been moved and supported to like Michelle heika for Secretary of the milanary school board of education for a one-year term any discussion Miss Iko haika yes Murray yeah Macchio yes Rosen liacher yes Cislo yes motion carries five zero next I'll accept nominations for treasure Mr Cislo I nominee Tom Farrow for treasure I have a nomination
007of Tom Farrell for Treasure are there any other nominations need a motion to elect Tom Farrow for Treasure of my own Area School Board of Education for a one-year term moved by yeah support by Macchio someone moved and supported to elect Tom Farrow for The Treasure of the Milan Area School Board of Education for a one-year term any discussion the psycho heika yes Murray yes Macchio yes Rosen liacher yes sislow yes motion carries 5-0 next I'll need appointment for the representatives to the Washington area school board and the legislative relations Network these are the positions that we use to interact with the other school boards within within the wasd in Washington County currently Ms Freight is serving on those do I have any interest in those in those positions I would like to nominate Kirsten
008Freight for those positions any other nominations all right I need a motion to approve the appointments as listed below for the Washington School Board Association representative Kirsten Freight and the legislative relations Network representative Chris Kirsten Freight moved by Rosen leacher support by Macio it's been moved and supported to approve the appointments for the Washington County School Board Association representative to be Kirsten Freight and the legislative relations Network representative to be Kirsten free any discussion Murray yes machia yes Rosen leacher yes Cislo yes the motion carries 5-0 all right thank you next up on the agenda is public comments it's a reminder that this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education and public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business is not to be considered a public meeting there are two times
009for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda when addressing the board you will be asked to state your name the board determines the amount of time granted to individuals or groups to speak each person shall be allowed to speak for up to three minutes and I'll ask you to finish when the timer goes off board members May question speakers but are not obligated to answer questions or make statements or commitments in response to issues raised by the public in general such items will be referred to the superintendent for advisement investigation study and or recommendation or designated as future agenda items for board consideration so when we had the public comment um you'll we'll be asked you'll come to the podium and speak into the microphone we do start with students so if
010there are any students who would like to address the board at this time uh we'll entertain any students who would like to address the board all right others I'm here representing others first of all congratulations to the new board members and I'm sorry can you say your name I'm sorry I forgot about that part I was that's two lines down my name is Michael McVeigh from Celine area schools right now in fact I serve as a trustee for Saline Area Schools and in fact two nights ago I was elected president of the school board so um I know uh Rosen Betty rosen-leacher very well as well as Kirsten Freight I came to tonight to speak about the Washington Association of school boards um I am a member in fact I'm the past president and this
011year it looks like I'm going to be the vice president of the Washington Association of school boards I took on that position because I thought it would be a great opportunity to improve communication amongst the trustees all around across all nine districts around Washington so just a couple of things that you may or may not know we have an annual meeting in March and we run one or two professional modest professional development sessions throughout the year and three or four times a year we gather for a morning coffee and that's where I met many of you before and we hear from legislators at the county the state and even the national levels we've had Debbie Dingle attend we've had Tim Wahlberg attend among others and it's an opportunity for us to speak directly to our
012legislators and to hear what's going on up in Lansing and in Capitol Hill so my hope after speaking briefly this evening is that you will feel more comfortable reaching out to me if you think you have any issues or any things you'd like to bring to the Washington Association of school boards and I know you have a lot on your plate but I also wanted to thank you for uh Kirsten Freight who serves as one of our officers with the the wasb and she's been doing a fantastic job so thank you very much everybody thank you for your comment Rachel Hobbs I read the November 2nd 2022 ACLU letter that was distributed to most multiple school districts in the state and Across the Nation it was not specific to Milan after reading the letter I
013wondered if the district had reached out to its Council for guidance on the issue if not why not you can respond to me by email I did my own digging around in my own in my research I found numerous cases that were not cited in the ACLU letter which should be considered and applied to the parents and community members that have been submitting book challenges and raising concerns at board meetings there are at least two well-established legal standards that have withstood constitutional challenges when it comes to challenges where parents are simply trying to protect their children from hidden dangers these standards are obscene as to minors and harmful as to minors our U.S Supreme Court acknowledges that obscene speech is not protected by the First Amendment you can find that in rothby United States 354
014U.S 476. in Ginsburg versus New York 390 U.S 629 the the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a New York statute that prohibited selling to minors under 17 years of age that was considered obscene to them even though it was not obscene to adults the Ginsburg Court explained that although magazine although the magazine was clearly not obscene for adults the state had acted within its first amendment balance in adopting a distinct broader definition of obscenity for minors because obscene speech enjoys no first amendment protection States under good or Ginsburg and may completely bar miners from receiving material deemed obscene for them but not for adults accordingly Most states have enacted so-called harmful to minor obscenity statutes Michigan is one of those statutes you can find that at MCL 750.145 C the Ginsburg Court explained material
015is obscene to minors if it one is apparently offensive to prevailing prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors two appeals to the purity of entrance interests of minors and is three utterly without redeeming social importance for minors interestingly enough you can go to the website for the National Coalition against censorship and find this information as well there you will also find the following guidance governments can impede kids access to material that is harmful to minors or obscene to minors that means that minors could be banned from accessing materials which is usually defined as the depiction of nudity sexual content sexual excitement and other abuses which predominantly appeal to the currency of interests of students and nudity or a excretion and is patently offensive to with
016respect to the suitable material for minors and three taken at his whole lacks literacy artists thank you for your comment thank you for your comment somebody want to finish this good evening my name is Andrea benink and I'm speaking as a parent this evening at one of the recent board meetings former board member Jan Kiger have mentioned that the presence of controversial books available in school libraries presented a parenting opportunity while that is true it is an opportunity for my family to have conversations about what we value and find appropriate and it gives me the chance to remind my children to guard their hearts and Minds it is just really unfortunate that instead of me as a parent being allowed to talk to my children on my terms and what I feel is appropriate for
017their development in regards to sensitive subjects I'm forced to talk to them before they may be ready because they may encounter explicit material in the schools as it has become necessary my family has had many conversations about what we find acceptable and appropriate given that perspective I'm wondering how the board and the book Review Committee take into consideration students who don't have families to give them guidance on such extreme subject matters is the thought that there are trusted adults in the schools who will give guidance to the students if that's the case then the concern becomes when does the discussion between the student and the staff on such explicit subjects cross the line into inappropriate conversations and how does the staff guard against the student potentially misinterpreting the conversations of such such sensitive subject matter
018I'm also wondering how the board and book committee take into consideration students who may not have capacity for fully comprehending books of this nature or students who may be emotionally impaired and how such explicit material may impact them I'd ask the board to consider that many other forms of media that our children consume are labeled with ratings or Warnings concerning sensitive and explicit material TV shows are rated based on age-appropriateness movies are rated and labeled with content information such as explicit language violence nudity music is labeled as containing explicit language videos and teaching materials shown in the classroom have limitations on what can be deemed appropriate it would be worth implementing a rating system for our books as well especially any book that is challenged and considered acceptable for our school libraries books with certain
019ratings could be placed in restricted access and be checked out only with parent or Guardian permission which I know was something that was discussed at the last board meeting there's Middle Ground here for some of us I realize that some people from either side of this argument may not be satisfied with such a system but a policy of this type at least moves in the direction of safeguarding some vulnerable students those with intellectual disabilities or emotional impairments also consider that with the sex ed curriculum in public schools parents and Guardians have the opportunity to preview the curriculum and opt their students out of the curriculum why do parents not have the opportunity to provide permission or restrict access for even more explicit content for their children the district has a real opportunity here to show
020how a moderate compromise can be reached on another topic I hope that the board members thank you for your comment hello Sydney Smith um I just wanted start this off by saying that Gretchen whitmer's point that you guys are focused on education I think is good to keep in mind as we get started with this for that you guys focus on education by making students signed a technology acceptable use in Internet safety agreement this is for grades 6 through 12 so middle and high school um the district will remove any material which the district as at its sold discretion believes may be objectionable in compliance with the children's internet protection act and Michigan pa212 the district maintains an internet filter that protects children from okay I want you to listen to this one child pornography
021obscene materials materials harmful to minors and adults from child pornography and obscene materials at schools and libraries what's your students sign and as a former Milan student I signed um students also have to sign something that says I will tell my teachers and parents if I see any bad language or pictures on the internet or if anyone makes me feel nervous or uncomfortable online and I will not use bad language online there are several times in certain classes specifically graphic design where we would do projects having to search for images and images that weren't even against this were blocked from us websites such I'm just curious if any of you want to answer the question of why is it blocked on our Chromebooks while you freely give it to us in our libraries well not
022our libraries anymore thankfully but these students have access to this and that is not focused on education it quite literally says right here that you obscene materials if you want to point out that it's not pornography fine obscene materials you cannot tell me that this is not obscene it's disgusting so yeah I just want to say if anyone has any kids here to just maybe close their ears or walk them out because it's not going to be kid-friendly or education based like it's supposed to be thank you thank you for your comment hello Jamie mcelvaney I will be reading from books from Milan High School and I will also be holding up I will hold them up as I go we're going to get started with court of mist and fury his head lowered to
023my breast and with one bite on my nipple I was clawing at his back he sucks my breast into his mouth he reaches up and undoes my bra and undoes my bra releasing my large breasts my exposed nipples Harden in the exposed air his fingers slid into me he approved at the wetness between my thighs oh yeah he put his balls in my face his fingers prick apart my I'm so sorry that I have to say this to everybody his look his look is the reason for the moistness in my panties he spreads spreads me to expose my insides his pants fall to the ground revealing his proud length my mouth went dry I can't wait to have your in my mouth I'm going to give you the of your life he looks at the
024reason for the morning oh no he his pants fall to his ankles his impressive protrudes through his boxers he raised his hand down and pulled out my dick he quickly went to giving me head I put some lube on it and got him up on his knees and slid him in from behind he moaned and I finally I pulled out of him and finished with masturbating I crouch eagerly to my knees and take his into my mouth at first I wrapped my lips only around the tip teasing him I take his balls in my hand squeezing them gently spit in my mouth I draw a glob of saliva to the front of my mouth and drop it into hers now me I push her legs farther apart and rub the tip of my penis around
025her vagina I slide inside her and thrust as her thrust as hard as I can we for an hour and then I come inside her he starts to moan as I swallow his long shaft moving his hips slightly he begins my mouth the tingling between my legs we slide off our underwear Maggie puts her mouth over my and gives me head for like 20 minutes nothing happens so I Spit on myself and she tries jerking me off I crawl between her legs and stick my tongue on her p-u-s-s-y and start getting her head he pushes my skirt up and Yanks down my panties my wet p-u-s-s-y glistens in the light I begin to also touch myself eagerly for That Sweet release she scored some lotion on her dildo and starts herself she gets off like
026four times in 20 minutes I'm going to eat her do you know how to eat a Papa Gaines never taught you how to eat a boy one day you need to eat a he didn't teach me that but he taught me how to eat a butthole pinned in this position I draw my legs up and spread them wide the first touch of his tongue on my all the stuff I read right here was from Penthouse Penthouse and these books are from your school how is that okay hold on just one moment sorry okay go ahead sir Jacob bennick I'm just going to be finishing up what Andrew Benning was saying sure on another topic I hope that the board members attending the next big red board chat focusing on the topic of school safety take
027the time to address the repeated concerns expressed by several constitutions of how Mas prepare professionals are trained to respond in a lockdown situation I've heard it brought up numerous times that Paris have requested keys to access the buildings and classrooms to quickly move students to in their care to safety I really hope that this concern isn't brushed off any longer there are many students in Mas schools that have Mobility concerns are deaf or hard of hearing have reduced capacity for following directions under duress and many other factors these students are deserving of safeguarding in an emergency situation their pairs are deserving of having clear training and access to the buildings in an emergency to help them keep their students safe I like to end my comments for some positivity over the course of this school
028year I've had some opportunities to interact with teachers and staff at both the high school and at Simons I appreciated the office staff in each building I've been grateful for Clear communication with my ninth graders teaching as she's learning to adjust to high school norms and expectations I'm grateful for the work of the high school social worker helping to formulate an updated 504 plan for one of my students and for the collaboration of implementing that with my child's teachers I'm thankful for my third grade teachers in the TCS and the support staff at Simons because of them we've had a pretty positive transitioning to a new building I'm thankful for the flexibility of the staff at Simon's as they work to implement a differentiated learning strategy for not only my son but for all the
029students there the boots on the ground so to speak have been really dedicated to solid Communication in my experience and for that I am grateful thank you for your time this evening just a reminder that's from Andrea Benning thank you for the comment hi I'm April Nix um I'm a victim of sexual assault and as a victim I do not feel shaped her parents wanting to protect their children I was actually it's interior regardless of the context or the message as a parent it wants to protect children who are not all capable of processing the content I do feel ashamed as has been made clear these kids can access this type of material everywhere except for a school issued Chromebook so let them access it on their own time not on the school's time the
030movie Precious is based off the novel push and that movie is rated R an individual under the age of 17 cannot attend this movie without the presence of an adult but you're telling us that 14 15 and 16 year olds can access this at school I understand the content could be relatable to something that a student has gone through but I don't see how it is helpful are there any programs available to help these students I for one do not believe sexually explicit material should be accessible in school libraries but we do we do have parents who are okay with it can we at least work together and place these books in a secluded area monitored by staff requiring parental consent for all these books thank you thank you my name is Shannon I'll be
031reading from a book that is located in the Milan School library if there are any young children I suggest you cover their ears Cliff's stepmother Buck Naked perched her knees giving Cliff a I watched Cliff pull his Stepmother's head back and spit in her mouth then I watched him nail her from behind her hands break braced against the yellow wall and when it was over after he came on her back splatters of white clumps slimming down the crease of her back you my ass in a bathroom at the Speedwagon Warehouse you choked me and slammed my head against the wall and came on my face I tried jacking off to this gnarly Nicole Sheridan porno but I have trouble getting hard dick I jerk harder and harder and harder but I cannot get a boner
032straddles me I slipped her navy blue top off and squeeze her breasts they're a lot bigger than they were when we were 15. I want you inside me get inside of me Travis I sit up and put my hands on the sides of her waist and Roll and Roll her over pinning her back against the cool surface of the slide then I unbuttoned my jeans and pushed them down Laura does the same with hers then she wraps her hand around my dick and begins massaging it I lean closer to her planting my hands above her shoulders and we rub the tip of our tongues together stood in my mouth she says I draw a glob of saliva she front of my mouth and drop it into hers awesome she swallows now me I push her
033legs farther apart and rubs the tip of my penis around her vagina until she grabs the back of my neck pulling me closer do you want to come over and them too is that what you're trying to ask because if you want to then just come out and ask and maybe I'll say yes and you can come over and finish them off thoughts of my sister being by two guys one right after the other smash through my head I slipped my bloody hand down my pants I wrap my fingers around my penis and massage it until it gets hard then I begin sliding it furiously up and down as fast as I can going at it at it at it visions of Cliff jamming a rusted coat hanger between lower legs pound my head and
034my eyes pop open I clench it as hard as I can so hard that it looks like the veins are popped are going to pop out of it and when I open my hand again a white and red stream of come slides past my wrist and down my forearm but then the screen flashes and a kid probably our age appears on it hanging from a ceiling Beam with a rope tied around his neck masturbating think of fixation Dave tells Michael to turn the volume up so Michael does and with Clarity I can hear the kid moaning as he jacks his piece really hard hi my name is Lake Foster um is it getting pretty old you guys reading this stuff it's really not that bad your kids can just look this stuff up on their
035phone your kids all have phones they're not going to checkbooks at a library just to read that they're not and your kids are probably doing something like that they're teenagers what do you expect just get over yourself you're not protecting them from anything they're gonna find this out somehow somewhere these books are a lot better than a lot of things you're going to find on the internet and you know reading does make them a bit smarter you know rather than do that than you know watch porn on the Internet just saying it's the lesser of two evils so you know stop reading the porn it gets kind of annoying I'm kind of tired of hearing it [Applause] um hi my name is Izzy this book um it's called exit here by Jason Myers is here
036at Milan High School um let me read you the description of this book Travis returns home and expects the usual drinking doing drugs and hooking up with girls but because of an incident in Hawaii and an ex-girlfriend things are different because he was so high Travis doesn't know if he killed the girl he abandoned in the motel room or if she died of an overdose because she ultimately turns himself in he returns home to Minnesota where excessive drugs and alcohol lots of partying and plenty of sex are the norm Cliff with whom he shared his memorable first times using cocaine becomes a junkie and ends up killing a friend of Travis's sister in a repulsive concluding scene Kyle while high kills his girlfriend in a car crash Travis works hard to reconnect with his old
037girlfriend but after a steamy reunion he backs off when he discovers that she had abandoned Cliff's baby there are many more interconnections that involve other friends so did and varied substance abuse and overwhelming quantities random sexual situations incompetent and enabling parents guns and drug dealing it is impossible to disregard the vile things that Travis had gotten away with such as Revelation that he and Cliff once took turns raping a girl at a party the language is graphic and gritty and the writing is inadequate but static anticipating no real future for Travis Beyond jail this book was found on Mylon library's website if the librarian is supposed to pick age-appropriate books why would this book have been chosen the next page I will be reading from the book milk and honey which is also at the
038high school lie me down lie me open like a map and lay your finger and let your finger trace the places you still want to out of me kiss me like I am the center point of gravity and you are falling into me like my soul is the focal point of yours and when your mouth is kissing not my mouth but other places My legs will split apart out of habit and that's when I pull you in welcome you home when the entire street is looking out their Windows wondering what all the commotion is and the fire trucks are rolling in to save us but they can't distinguish whether these Flames began with our anger or our passion I will smile throw my head back arch my body like a mountain you want to split
039in half baby lick me like your mouth has the gift of reading and I'm your favorite book find your favorite page in the soft spot between my legs and read it carefully fluently vividly don't you dare leave a single word untouched and I swear my ending will be so good the last few words will come running to your mouth and when you're done take a seat because it's my turn to make music with my knees pressed to the ground um just I am in high school so if reading this coming from a 17 year old who does go to a public school like makes you uncomfortable just you might want to rethink what's in your library thank you [Applause] good evening Logan Tisdale from uh Temperance Michigan ladies and gentlemen I graduated high school six
040decades ago I went to a public school on the East Coast my hormone teacher would have his pledge allegiance to the flag should take attendance then she says sit down on on your uh desk there fold your hands be quiet then she would reach for a book on the left-hand side of her desk and she would read the Earth is the Lord's under fullness they wrote the world and Vada dwelled before he found it upon the seasons establish it upon the floods who shall Ascend into the hill O Lord but who shall stand his holy place he that clean hands and a pure heart who have not lifted up a soul in the valley and just want to see he shall receive blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the god of his salvation Psalm
04124 learned that in the public school I was a state police officer for 23 years my responsibility was to protect the lives and property of people I went back to college after I retired I got a Bachelor's degree from a Christian College I got ordained in 2000 as a pastor I worked at a Christian School for four years k-6 about 150 students I did grandparents day one day because I was the oldest person there I asked this question how do you know you have value as a person a little six-year-old girl kindergartner jumped out of her seat I said okay how do you know you have value as a person she said because Jesus died for me that's the only answer there is no other answer and a six-year-old in a Christian School learned that
042she probably got it from her parents but we backed it up in the schools that we were at because we had things that were important to the kids there to develop them emotionally and spiritually one of the things I believed is when I was doing it I was just a recess monitor in the lunchroom monitor is all I did and then I realized I had the responsibility of those kids in my hands the physical responsibility of them this was a in 2001 after 9 11. I also remember that I also had another responsibility and that was to make sure that no one and nothing became a stumbling block to them while I wear my care to be a teacher and and have a responsibility from kids is is a really a high calling on on
043teachers I have a lot of respect for teachers because they are they're six hours a day they deal with children and parents give them that response ability but also with their responsibility goes something else that they should not become a stumbling block to those children that they should nothing to do nothing that puts a stumbling block to develop them emotionally mentally and spiritually Jesus said to his disciples he said it would be better for a person to have a millstone around his neck and be cast into the deep ocean than to make one of these little ones stumble when I heard that when I read that I knew that I had a responsibility when I spent those four years in that school to make sure that I was not a stumbling block and to make
044sure no one else was you know what you have to make a decision to decide what is appropriate for kids in this school that is a big decision you have to make I would hope that you would listen to the people here today I don't have any kids in the local school here but I have grandkids and great-grandchildren are going to grow up in Michigan here I've been here since 1967 and when I went into State Police in 1968 I realized I had a great responsibility you have a great responsibility I applaud you for being elected officials but remember that respect responsibility God bless you thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] Holly blade and take a break from reading for a minute one of the things on the agenda tonight is the book study why
045Meadow died you guys are going to discuss it finally I just want to again request that you guys give it serious consideration you've already done book studies in the past and this is something that a lot of people in the community feel strongly about they've even donated their own money to buy copies and all of you have been given a copy of the book um also I just want to say for teachers and Paras and parents out there that are listening to this I suggest that everybody read or listen to this book you can get it for free at audiblebooks.com with a free trial took me a week to get through it I just listened to it in the car the policies that happen in Parkland Florida that killed 13 I believe 13 children and
046and injured 13 people they're the same a lot of very similar policies that we have here at Milan they're also very similar to the policies at Oxford the book is really good at kind of pointing out I mean we hear from from parents a lot what happened to zero tolerance when I was in school we had a zero tolerance policy why are why is my kid being bullied all the time why is my kid having to deal with other kids in the classroom whose behavior is off the charts and never dealt with that this is the reason this book explains everything to you about why it is that things are so different today than they were we get messages all the time from people that work for the district that are absolutely at just feeling
047hopeless they feel like their hands are tied they're having to deal with so many outrageous situations and they feel like they absolutely have no way to deal with it that the district will support um I talked to parents who spend their entire Drive in the mornings to the Middle School giving their little girl a pep talk because she's already crying because of the anxiety that she has to walk in that building that's what's happening in Milan schools and it's not a one-off situation if there are a lot of situations like that if your kid is being bullied pushed around harassed bit intimidated terrorized if they're also being told by the adults that they need to not stand up for themselves that they just need to try to run away or avoid it um if they
048do finally defend themselves because no one else will stand up for them and they get in trouble because now they're being told that it's a mutual situation I'm just here to tell you you are not alone there are so many people that are going through that right now also no child should have to endure going to school every day and knowing that they're going to feel unsafe and that the adults are going to be more concerned about if they get in trouble from their boss than whether or not they're protecting them from being mistreated and no parent should feel like they have no option but to send their child into that situation these are ongoing documented abusive relationships that are allowed to go on for months and if you're a teacher feeling frustrated thank you
049for your comment please read this book [Applause] Ashley St Claire this is actually a article that Stephen King wrote first to the kids there are people in your hometown who want to take certain books off the shelves of your school library do not argue with them do not protest do not organize or attend rallies to have the books Pat put back on their shelves don't waste your time or your energy instead hustle down to your Public Library where these frightened people's reach must fall short in a democracy or to your local bookstore and get a copy of what has been banned read it carefully and discover what it is your elders don't want you to know in many cases you'll finish the banned books in question wondering what all the fuss was about and how
050in others however you will find Vital Information about The Human Condition it doesn't hurt to remember that John Steinbeck JD Salinger and even Mark Twain had been banned in this country's public schools for over 20 years second to the parents in these towns there are people out there who are deciding what your kids can read and they don't care what you think because they are positive their ideas of what's proper and what's not are better and clearer than your own do you believe they are think carefully before you decide to Accord the book banners this right of cancellation remember that they don't believe in democracy but rather a kind of intellect intellectual autocracy if they're left to their own devices a great deal of good literature May soon disappear from the shelves of school libraries
051simply because good books books that make us think and feel always generate controversy if you are not careful and diligent about defending the rights of your children to read there won't be much left especially at the junior high level when kids really begin to develop a lively life of the mind but books about heroic boys who come off the bench to hit home runs in the bottom of the ninth and shy girls with good personalities who finally get the big prom date with the boy of their dreams is that what you want for your kids keeping in mind that controversy and surprise sometimes even shock are often the Wet Stone in which young minds are carboned third to the other interested citizens of these towns please remember that book Banning is censorship and that censorship
052in a free Society is always a serious matter even when it happens in a junior high it is serious a proposal to ban a book should always be given the gravest consideration book banners after all insist that the entire Community should see things their way and only their way when a book is banned a whole set of thoughts is locked behind the assertion that theirs is the only set of values valid set of values one valid set of beliefs one valid perception of the world it's a scary idea especially in a society which has been built on the ideas of free choice and free thought do I believe a defense should be mounted yes if there's one American belief I hold above all others it is that those who would set themselves up in judgment
053on the matters of what is right and what is best should be given no rest that they should have to defend their behavior most stringently no book record or film should be banned without a full airing of the issues as a nation we have been through too many fights to preserve our rights a free thought to let them go just because some prude with a highlighter doesn't approve of them thank you my name is Josh mcelvaney for the last year I've had to witness my wife suffer through reading some of the most repulsive contact I've ever context I've ever personally seen every time she finds a new book it brings her to tears and then she has to make the make the public aware so she has to read these books word for word out
054loud my wife is a protector of children and she is willing to read this God awful junk to bring the awareness and hopes that this madness this filth will be removed from the grasp of these kids every time I hear her reading one of these books I am repulsed and disgusted all I can do is sit and pray for her I pray that her spirit does not consume by this filth I cringe the same way as most of you guys do when she was reading that so I'm sure you can imagine my anger when she comes home from these board meetings and says that a board member made fun of the group let them play and said we should call it let them pray the two other board members said they think these books are
055beautiful and they would let their 13 year olds read them then another board member calls her a victim shamer and she shakes her Bible at the crowd and screaming the anger I have knowing that there are men sitting on this board allowing this to happen to something I can hardly describe men men who should be out to protect the children's Minds to Shield them from perversion at all costs but instead instead you are handing it out to them the sexual content context in these books is nothing short of pornographic and if you're fighting to keep these things available to children it's so mind-blowing that I really just sit in shock over it all how dare you let this continue the question everyone asked is where are the police this is a crime why are the
056police letting this happen what if a kid were to take one of these books that you heard tonight and use it for a book report in his class would you allow it of course you wouldn't so how dare you allow a child to bring that trash into their home would you let a kid wear these graphics on his shirt in school no you wouldn't you would suspend him and if one of us parents take these books and give them to a child at a park we would be arrested because it's against the law to distribute sexually explicit materials to minors it's against the law and you guys must think you're above the law you people should all be prosecuted and be made an example with the accession with with the exception of Miss Freight who
057was the only sane person on this board I could go on and on but I will leave it at this thank you hello my name is Carolyn wetzler I have lived in this district for 50 years my sons have graduated from Ireland who've gone on to University of Michigan I was a cub scout leader here I was the booster president I was a teacher I was a play director and now I'm a volunteer point being I have been a part of this community for a very long time and very involved now I'm in the schools almost every day in many classrooms and I see amazing things going on in each and every one of these classrooms enormous amounts of time and energy and love going into our students education the basics are taught every day
058by dedicated hard-working teachers and staff their Earnest efforts are nothing less than amazing I see it our students are in very good hands I'm here to thank and acknowledge these hard-working teachers and staff their efforts are nothing less than amazing our students are in very good hands I'm here to thank and acknowledge these efforts on behalf of our students and our community I applaud the hard-working teachers Paris and staff our students I see are treated with respect and dignity and their education is given the highest priority here I am proud of the staff and this Administration and are under appreciated board members they are trying to do what's best for students people who criticize and disparaged teachers and say they need to teach Basics have not been in the classrooms here because that is exactly
059what these teachers and people are doing every single day we should be praising and thanking them and that's just what I'm here to do tonight you have my gratitude and highest admiration for the incredible job that you are doing under some very difficult circumstances these people that I see go above and beyond every day and they do amazing things for our teachers doing on their own time and doing with their own money so I say thank you thank you thank you thank you are there others hello my name is George Elder this book is lucky it's in the modern schools we have been called victim shamers for wanting to remove this book after he was done he got up and asked me to give him a I said that I didn't know what I meant
060and he says suck on it then he took my head and forced my mouth on his penis he pushed me down near his penis and said I and I tried but again you're the worst I've ever done this to he said he pulled off my Underpants I watched him as he unzipped his pants and let me fall around his ankles he laid down on top of me and started humping I lay under him as he me he me hard when he came he came loudly he snorted and be bloated he worked away on me while reaching down and touched his penis he called me a he told me I was dry he began his fist against the opening of my vagina inserted his fingers into it three or four at a time something sore I
061began to bleed there I was wet now I made him excited he was intrigued he worked his whole fist up in my vagina and pumped it no father wants to hear about a complete stranger putting his fist in his daughter's vagina he started humping me again widely raise your legs he said spread them I did my legs were like plastic Barbie legs not flexible but he wasn't satisfied he put a hand on each calf and pressed them out farther he grabbed my breast he twisted my nipples with his fingers lapped them with his tongue he played with them and squeezed them and right down to my ribs nice white titties he said each part of my body he claimed as his own my mouth my tongue my breast I want another he held his dick
062in his hand he grabbed my head and put his mouth and sucked he said I took it in my hand it was small hot clammy it throbbed involuntary for my touch he shoved my head forward and put it in my mouth he touched my tongue I stocked it hard don't know how to suck dick he said his penis still limp he held into his fingers and peed on me hot wet on my nose and lips then he smelled of him the fruity nauseous and smell clung into my skin he got hard enough to plunge himself into me he ordered me to wrap my legs around his back and he drove me into the ground he came and slumped into me I lay under my heart's beating Wiley he watched me you're going to have a
063baby and you're going what are you going to do about it so you tell me this belongs this book belongs in our school doesn't want him to remove this mean we are of victim shamers if you were a young girl and suffered something traumatic you would want to be re-dramatized by reading this and knowing the classmates were reading it too this is a crime somebody needs to be held accountable thank you [Applause] hey there Trish Parker anyways I'm here and after one of the comments here I'm also one of our Cub Scout and also a troop leader for our boy scouts unit here and we have within our Scout Oath which is I will do my best to do my duty to get out of my country to help all people at all times keep
064myself physically strong mentally awake and morally straight what does it mean by being morally straight according to uscouts.org being morally straight means to live your life with honesty to be clean in your speech and actions and to be a person of strong character even talking about these books yes um we cannot be reading these on the student Chromebooks or these even just the movies itself being rated R but you're allowing the students to read these in our libraries both the middle school and the high school have these books anyways okay interesting subject about the staff my Island does have great staff the teachers are dedicated yes um not just the teachers but also the other staff the alpha staff and even the parents and when I used to be a para for my linary schools
065unfortunately I was treated like a second-class citizen if even just a third class citizen by a couple of the teachers unfortunately some stuff also do not feel appreciated there have been even teachers whether it's over at Simon's over at the middle school and the high school that have literally gone home in tears I know of these teachers and it's part of it is they don't feel appreciated by some of the other staff that's in their buildings and also from further up in the chain and just even as the parents they cannot be traded like second-hand citizens and I know from experience I was even traded below the students and that's not fair thank you hi my name is Elizabeth satterly I have a couple teenagers in the district and I used to work for the
066district um I just wanted to make a comment um one of the book episodes that was read tonight um is from Lucky Mr alter just read it um I've been reading it myself this is a really it's a tricky book to read it does have a scene like that it's very graphic it should be rape is not something to be glossed over or to be minimized and it should be hard to read um I think every parent has the right to help their child choose whether or not they're ready to read it but it should be available to those who do need that help and to suggest that a man in particular but any other person can tell somebody how they need to process something that may have happened to them like that is um
067minimizing their experience at the very minimum and really um ability belittling them as a person so I I kind of wanted to make that comment I feel like a lot of the board members are aware of that but maybe everybody in the room isn't so I wanted to share that um also lucky is a really good book and I highly recommend it one other thing that I wanted to um bring up I've had a lot of emotions about um the idea of banning books and I was looking for ways to verbalize my thoughts and I actually came across a lot of quotes by teenagers and their thoughts about banning books and so I I printed some out I'm just going to read one of them for you as a teenager I am still trying to
068find my way in this world I want to know as many other viewpoints as possible so that I know my thoughts are my own and not just a product of a limited amount of information even if these books are not required reading they should be allowed in libraries families can decide what books are allowed in their homes but trying to force a community to get rid of a book is a way of forcing one's belief on entire community removing books about issues faced by marginalized groups is a way to ignore them a way to minimize the issues faced by those groups and allow the banners to not have their opinions challenged this is a democracy that should be open to discussion and if it is then people will find others who disagree who excuse me
069if it is then people will find others who agree and disagree with them so I just thought it was important to hear um what the kids are feeling and hearing and thinking when they hear about these things so thank you thank you Annie Cruz congratulations to those that were elected tonight in your executive positions I know that's a big job to continue to to fill I wanted to ask some questions about superintendent gearbaugh's annual evaluation that's supposed to be provided by the by the board for the policy in Michigan Statute I don't know if that's been scheduled yet if it has just wanted to you guys can give some clarity onto that and then how would it be conducted since we've got new board members it'd be nice to know what that process is um
070and also I have some questions and concerns about conflict of interest not saying that there is but I wanted to know what the process was to address conflict of interest when you're making voting you know during meetings in in particular um superintendent gearbot is the uh the foia coordinator and if he's coordinating those foyas how can we be what is the what is the checks and balances related to the transparency so um if you could address that either in your comments or in an email um or include those in the the minutes of the meeting um that would be greatly appreciated and then I guess again if there's any board members that have conflict of interest you know how what is the board policy um regarding that and no the federal law regarding that and
071do you have to file any disclosures related to your conflicts of interest thank you thank you are there others all right thank you for those comments this evening I do also want to thank the crowd for their respect in listening to the comments I appreciate it next on the agenda is minutes of the special meeting of December 21st 2022 I need a motion to approve the minutes of the special meeting of December 21 2022. moved by Rosen leacher support by Macchio it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the special meeting of December 2022 those are found in the envelope for review is there oh I apologize thank you I apologize yeah this is for the the special meeting any discussion Macchio yes Rose and leecher yes Cislo yes Murray I've stained because
072I was not a member of the board during this meeting and I will from the following votes as well motion carries four zero next is the minutes of the uh I need a motion to approve the minutes of the special meeting closed session of December 21st 2022. move by machio support by Rose and leacher so nude and supported to approve the minutes of the special meeting closed session of December 21st 2022 and those are the ones that are in the envelope to be reviewed any questions or concerns misaika Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes Murray Epstein machia yes motion carries 4-0 so you can hand oh we gotta hold on yep next I need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of December 21st 2022. motion by Rosen leacher support by machio
073it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of December 21st 2022 any discussion Miss psycho Cislo yes Marie at stain machia yes Rose and leacher yes motion carries four zero next I need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting closed session of December 21st 2022 and those are also were also found in the in the envelope motion by Rosen liacher support by Macchio it's been moved and supported to approve the minutes of the regular meeting post session of December 21st 2022. any questions or concerns misaika haika yes Murray stain machio yes Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes motion carries four zero no we'll collect those all right next I need a motion to approve the bills and reimbursements of expenses moved by meringue support by haika so
074Newton supported to approve the bills and reimbursement of expenses any discussion it's like a heika yes Murray yes Macchio yes Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes motion carries five zero next up in our strategic plan area of finance and operations we're going to have a first reading of the general fund budget this was tabled at our last meeting so Mr gearbot and Miss Hendricks will lead us through this uh this amendment thank you Mr Cislo all I will do is say that you have a two-page document in front of you it was also included in your board pack the first page is the general fund budget amendment the First Column is the preliminary budget as you approved prior to us having any budget guidance from the state of Michigan the second column is the amendment
075budget the third column is the difference the second page is the description of the changes from the preliminary budget to the budget amendment and that is what Ms Hendricks will be talking through this evening with you remember that you can you have the ability to ask questions prior to tonight you can ask questions this evening or you can ask questions over the next two weeks leading up to the next board meeting which is where you will actually approve and understand your approval is only of page one the one page document the second page is really just for your knowledge so with that I will turn it over to miss Hendricks before I start I would like to say I will not be at the next board meeting I have a school business a meeting that
076I will be attending overnight so if you have any questions if you could get them to me by January 23rd that would give me Tuesday the 24th to um get back in touch with you and so that you would have your answers prior to the board meeting as Mr gearbaugh pointed out the second column is what we're talking what we're here to discuss today um when in review of our revenues coming in um it I am increasing our Revenue budget by 2.1 million dollars this is mainly due to funding that either was not known at the time of the amendment in or of the adoption in June or we knew that it was out there I just didn't know what it was going to be so we knew we were receiving state aid but we
077didn't know how much we budgeted for 400 dollars per pupil we received 450. all of that is included in the first section so um just to give a little bit of explanation for some of the large swings the state revenue is being increased by 794 000. um almost half of that is for uaal which is part of the retirement expense that the district is responsible for but the state gives us the uaal money up front in our state aid payment and then three days later we have to turn around and get it back to them so it's an increase in the revenue but as you'll see on the second page it's going to also be an increase in the expenditures however it's spread by a category we also had carryover in our at-risk and our
078special ed Grant or Adult Ed Grant those numbers are also part of that 794 thousand in the Federal line the increase of 673 000 is made up in part with a section 11 team Monies which we knew we were getting last June but we didn't have our spending plan approved yet so it was not included in our budget there's also a piece of that that is child care stabilization money that was given to our Child Care Program but because the program itself falls under our budget it's reflected in here and the increase for the transfers coming in are our one-time payments from Washington ISD as part of our act 18 receipts so between all of the changes that I made to the revenue budget whether they were increases or decreases we had an increase in
079Revenue I'm anticipating an increase in revenue of 2.1 million dollars as far as the expenditures I am increasing the expenditure budget by 1.2 million um that will include any of the carryover dollars that were listed in Revenue up above it includes the adjustments for insurance rates that we became aware of it includes adjustments to our facilities expenses for items that have Arisen since we first adopted our budget I also included a 30 increase to our electricity budget based on the information provided by the Consortium that we work with misick originally they said to anticipate a 40 increase they followed that up about a month later with a better Outlook to increase by 30 percent so that is reflected in here but I will continue to monitor those expenses to make sure that that number is
080appropriate so by increasing the revenues by 2.1 million and increasing the expenditures by 1.2 the district appears to be in a better in in better shape our revenues are over our expenditures by eight hundred and seven thousand which means instead of using two million dollars in fund balance at this point I am estimating we will be using 1.2 million are there any questions on that if you look at the second page I did probably go through more detail going over the first page than I have in the past but there were some huge swings and I wanted to point those out if you do look at the second page it gives more of a description as to how the revenues were changed and how why the revenues were changed and why the expenditures were changed
081you will see that there are offsetting grants of 800 000 that would be an increase to our revenues and our expenditures and increase to our revenues and expenditures for the mipsers uaal piece there was a change in our foundation allowance as I said from 400 which we budgeted to the 450 which we received and there were changes in the way the special ed program is funded through the state and that is leading to an increase of 200 000 to our revenues and there are Minor Adjustments throughout if you look at the spreadsheet that I use to create this there are thousands of lines that make up these numbers so this is a condensed version um for the expenditures we had a number of expenditures that came up for facility repairs we had some backup lighting
082issues at Simon's we had to replace or repair the HVAC system at the high school we replaced some of the light poles throughout the district they were having issues with being old and not necessarily being in the best condition um are con Consortium tuition has gone down because our enrollment of myelin students in the Consortium program has decreased so we are recognizing a slight savings there we do have a student who requires hearing impaired support so we are Contracting for that so that is was not known in June so that is an increase to this budget I have listed the elimination of one high school and one elementary teacher both of those eliminations were based on teachers choosing to leave the district the elementary teacher retired we evaluated the class counts the class sizes and
083it was not deemed necessary to fill one of those positions so we did not lay anybody off for that position also at the high school level we had somebody who chose to leave the district and we arranged we made arrangements we moved a teacher from one subject into that our FFA teacher left we moved another teacher into FFA and based on class sizes we did not need to replace the teacher that moved so none of the eliminations of positions as I have them listed here are due to layoffs they are due to the fact that staff left and we evaluated the class sizes and the student counts and determined that at this time they were not needed to be filled um so after this budget amendment I am anticipating that our fund balance well as
084as of our audit our fund balance was 4.9 million with the changes made in this fund balance I'm estimating that our fund balance at the end of the school year will be 3.6 million dollars are there any questions so just the notice the the third largest expenditure increase here is the 30 increase for electricity and so what's that based on I took last year based on the information provided through Misa they said it would be an increase over last year so I'd look to see what we paid for our DTE bills in total from last year and bumped that number up by 30 percent okay make sure I I don't mistake anything but I want the community to understand when we say that we passed our budget in June without knowing how much state aid
085we were going to get we are required by law to pass our budget in June but the state legislature is not similarly required to pass their budget by the same time thereby allowing schools to know what their budget should be correct correct we were not aware of our foundation increase until the middle of July I believe which was well past the June 30th date where we had to have a budget approved foreign so we have time to ask Mr gearbon the senderick's questions thank you for letting us know about the time frame in regards to that are there any other questions or concerns so we'll be voting on this at the next meeting thank you next I need a motion to approve the purchase of 277 passenger buses from Midwest Transit instrument B iff by
086haika support by machio it's been moved and supported to approve the purchase of 277 passenger buses from Midwest Transit equipment as described in attachment B we'll have some discussion in regards to this Mr gearbomb yes as you know we normally recommend the purchase of one school bus each year there are have been occurrences in the past where we have asked you to purchase two buses our goal is to keep the fleet safe um I I have a listing and I will share this with the board a listing of our buses how many miles they have on them the model year that they are um and kind of where we are with a few of them and and when we will be probably trading those buses in um the reason that we are coming to you
087this time to ask for two buses is the the International Bus company that makes the buses that we use and understand it's it's both financially and um responsibly easier to use one type of school bus um financially as you know when your vehicles break down the first thing that the mechanic does is plug your car into a computer and it does a diagnostic system the same thing is true with our buses but each bus has a different software and different requirements to do that so maintaining one type of bus in the fleet allows our mechanics to only need one software package to be able to evaluate those buses it's also easier for our mechanics to work on buses when they're similar it's also a lot easier for us to keep Parts in stock so that
088we can do quick repairs when we're not having to stock parts for numerous types of buses so International came out and basically announced that in December of 2022 they are going to start retooling their entire plant to produce a Next Generation School Bus that means that there's a possibility of one to two years when that company will not be producing buses if we were not able to purchase buses for one to two years that could cause a difficulty in us being able to keep our Fleet up to date and safe for our students so with that our dealer that we usually purchase our buses from under the state purchasing bids came to us and asked us if we were interested in purchasing buses and how many did we want they have some in stock so
089we were able to purchase those these would be delivered in July and would be purchased out of next year's budget my recommendation is that we do purchase two buses in July one would be our normal purchase and there are funds built into every budget for that and the second bus would be used uh would be purchased using the fund balance that we have designated for a bus purchase the goal would be that hopefully then the next year when we don't need to purchase a bus and wouldn't be able to purchase a bus that we would possibly be able to backfill that fund balance so that we again have a fund balance available we also need to look at the size of the fund balance and my time as superintendent in 15 years buses have gone
090from costing about seventy eight thousand dollars to costing approximately a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars back when we put the fund balance aside for a bus the buses were at about ninety thousand dollars that's the amount we have in the fund balance as you can see from the bids that we got this year buses are currently selling for about a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars um so it would we would have to use a little bit of additional general fund money to purchase a second bus because the fund balance is not quite large enough um we have downsized our Fleet by one bus two years ago we we traded two buses in and purchased one bus it is important to understand that the life expectancy of a bus is approximately 10 years and we currently
091have seven buses that are 20 years or more old so if we don't continue to purchase at least one bus a year and possibly two a year we will end up with a fleet that um is not going to be safe for our students just reading off some of our older buses and the mileage that they have on them we have buses with 201 000 miles 190 187 000 187 183 000 miles um one at 202 000 miles so we use our buses our Mechanics Work hard to keep them safe um the bigger issue at this point honestly is not the engine of the bus it's actually the undercarriage of the bus and the structure um rusting and the mechanics have brought me over and showed me some of the issues that we're having and
092to a certain level they can rebuild that and weld in additional support but remember we have to pass a state inspection of our buses every year and there are only certain things that you are allowed to do and at some point the bus is no longer legal to run um so I hope that provides some information as to why we're recommending the purchase of two buses and why it's critical that we continue to keep our Fleet up to date my understand I remember in the past I think there was a we had a lull in the time that we purchased buses so such that the way that Fleet lands that it is also something that we need to consider that's true um prior to me becoming superintendent we did have a few years where we
093did not purchase buses and so we we've got a little bit of a gap you know if we always purchased one we kind of kept that cycle rolling we might not hit a bump in the road but that is going to come up a little bit as we've got a a chunk of years where we didn't purchase buses and that's going to start to to hit us and that's something that we can that we're hoping to address by by purchasing the buses that we recommend to you each year other questions or concerns right it's been moved and supported to approve purchase of 277 passenger buses from Midwest Transit equipment as described in attachment B asica yes Murray yes Macchio yes Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes motion carries five zero next up in the Strategic
094plan area of learning and environment of culture is a potential book study so I need a motion to approve a future book study of why Meadow died by Andrew Pollock Pollak and Max Eden moved by haika support by Rose and leacher it's been moved and supported to approve of future books to book study of why Meadow died by Andrew Pollock and Max Eden discussion so as it was pointed out during public comment the community did provide us with copies of why Meadow died in regards to some school safety issues and that's what we're going to be considering as part of this discussion and this would be yeah so a few we would discuss this at future board meetings if we decided to do a book study on this on this book are there can you
095tell me because I haven't been a part of a book study with the board how how did that operate in the past um so I mean the only book study that I was aware that we've done was the last one that we did was uh which was safe is not enough the butter schools for lgbtq students it was recommended by a board member for us to uh to do the book study on that book and we went ahead and did that book study over the course of many months about a year ago and that's so we would read one to two chapters and discuss them at subsequent board meetings and so that's why I think if we did that for this book we would we would do the same consider it read one to two
096chapters consider it on the agenda as we have time to to consider it okay so but that as far as I'm aware I think that's the only um that's the only book study that we've ever done while I've been a board member we did one other those children our schools or our schools those children okay the same process thank you um so I already read the book um and I and and looking forward to reading this book with my fellow board members and discussing it in the community and I would encourage the community to read it along with us and help facilitate some discussion about you know what's happening here what happened in Parkland and see where we land other comments um I did want to share a comment that um a Community member spoke
097to me about and and gave me permission to share without that person's I just choose not to share that person's name but um one of their suggestion was they said has the board thought about just so that we cover as many facets of school safety as we can to think about kind of dividing and conquering um that person's suggestion was could a couple people read one book and report back to the board could a couple other people um you know read another book on school security so I I said that I would of course share that which I thought was kind of good idea too but you know we just have to get valid recommendations of which books you know I mean you can go on Amazon and look up anything but we don't know
098you know we'd maybe have to get some recommendations from um some people who do this professionally so um I just want to share that comment I thought it was I thought it was a good idea just to kind of like I said cover a lot of bases and and share a lot of different perspectives or there might be things that come up in one book that aren't even mentioned in another that we may not consider so just putting that out there I didn't have any specific books to share but just wanted to put that idea for the comments all right it's been moved and supported to approve the future book study of why Meadow died by Andrew Pollock and Max Eden maseka Marie yes Macchio yes Rose and leacher yes Cislo yes motion carries 5-0
099next this brings us back to public comment it's a reminder this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business it's not to be considered a public meeting there are two times for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda when addressing the award you will be asked to state your name the board determines the amount of time granted to individuals or groups to speak each person shall be allowed to speak for up to three minutes and I'll ask you to finish your thought when the timer goes off board members May question speakers but are not obligated to answer questions or make statements or commitments in response to issues raised by the public in general such items will be referred to the
100superintendent for advisement investigation study and or recommendation are designated as future agenda items for board consideration are there any students who would like to address the board other public members Jamie mcelvaney the law 722.675 states that disseminating sexually explicit material to minors is a felony a person is guilty of disseminating sexually explicit matter to a minor if that person does either of the following a knowingly disseminates to a minor sexually explicit visual or verbal material disseminating sexually explicit matter to a minor is a felony punishable by imprisonment or a ten thousand dollar fine sexually explicit verbal material is a book a pamphlet a magazine Printed Matter reproduced in any manner that contains an explicit and detailed verbal description or narrative account of a set of sexual excitement erratic fondling or sexual intercourse sexually explicit visual
101material is a picture photograph drawing that is that depicts nudity sexual excitement erratic fondling or sexual intercourse or a book magazine or pamphlet that contains such visual representation act 33 of 1978 States persons exempt from this are a teacher this is the law that the schools hide behind a teacher or administrator at a school that disseminates sexually explicit matter to a student as part of a school program permitted by law which is sexual education classes books that are needed to educate the children in a school program permitted by law these books sitting on your library shelves are not part of a school program permitted by law you are breaking the law you are hiding behind the ACLU letter that was mentioned earlier that I've broken down in the letter it states that they are alarmed
102at the efforts to ban books no one is trying to ban books that's a lie removing books from a school is not Banning books they can go to Amazon and buy them all day long they're claiming these books are highly acclaimed highly acclaimed by who the authors their fellow authors Librarians and the Ala and other liberal groups an acclaimed does not mean age-appropriate they also say we urge you to affirm your commitment to public education and the First Amendment and the welfare of all students public education doesn't need sexually explicit books the First Amendment doesn't give adults the right to disseminate display or exhibit sexually explicit material to minors the First Amendment doesn't give miners the freedom to view sexually explicit material and the welfare of students would be protecting them from sexually explicit material
103not giving it to them the letter also states that denied to deny students access to important info about lgbtq people human sexuality racism and other topics students have a right to learn about in an educational setting no one is wanting to remove books about lgbtq people or people from different races they want to remove sexually inappropriate books kids do not have a right to learn about human sexuality through sexually explicit library books human sexuality is taught in a highly regulated class approved by the state with an option for parents to opt out it then says restricts this restricts opportunities to be introduced to new ideas and information okay I had more but I'm just going to say that you said that because of this ACLU letter you're protecting your school by not removing these books
104I have the Thomas Moore Society writing a rebuttal letter to this alcu fear campaign it will be ready by tomorrow I'll make sure you get a copy of it so you can stop hiding behind the statement that you're protecting the school from lawsuits I promise thank you for your comments you should be protecting your school from or not from the ACLU but from us [Applause] um thank you for agreeing to do the book study uh there are a lot of people that are really grateful for that um so I do appreciate it and also wanted to clarify that for the people that were talking about the teachers um when we come up here and talk about these books we have this is not about teachers a majority of these actually we get a lot of
105people a lot of teachers who've told us that they also agree with us and they're not comfortable with these books being around because they also have to be around and listen to the students talking about it which is really awkward as well so um Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe there's three copies of this in the high school but that's not really what's concerning what's really concerning is that there is a copy in Paddock Paddock which is kindergarten first and second grade Dante who loved kissing dogs who loved kissing his parents who loved kissing boys who even loved kissing girls and I suspected he liked masturbating too I thought masturbating was embarrassing having sex with yourself is really weird autoeroticism he said you're gay vato you know that what the hell was
106this guy talking about I was gay because I didn't want to shoot up heroin and then I said yeah I'm gay and I want to kiss you and then he got a really disgusting look on his face and said I ought to kick your ass I wondered what it would be like to be drunk I mean really drunk when I get back this summer I'm going to take you swimming and drown you almost drown you then I'll give you mouth to mouth and revive you and then he got mad and called me all sorts of other names and he said he was going to kick my ass all the way to the border and who the f did I think I was thinking that I was too good to shoot up or even smoke cigarettes
107and didn't know I know didn't I know that nobody liked me I wasn't exactly afraid of the little son of a and I said why don't you get someone else to do drugs with you I figured the guy was lonely but he didn't have to be an about it kindergarten first and second grade this book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is in the Middle School So speaking of people that claim to be normalizing pedophilia this book is about a pedophile the confused mixture of his memories of Pauline and the doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him and a bolted desire ran down his genitals giving it length and softening the lips of his anus surrounding all of this lust was a border of politeness he wanted to her tenderly but the tenderness
108would not hold the tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear his Souls seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her and the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made a hollow suck of air in the back of her throat removing himself from her was so painful to him he cut it short and snatched his genitals out of her the Dry Harbor of her vagina so when the child regained Consciousness she was lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt trying to connect the pain between her legs with the face of her mother looming over her why do I have to die the little girls the little girls are the only things I'll miss do you know that when I touch their
109sturdy little tits and bit them just a little I felt I was being friendly I didn't want to kiss their mouths or sleep in the bed with them or take a child Bride for my own playful I felt and friendly not like the newspaper said not like all the people whispered and they didn't mind at all and they'd eat ice cream with their legs wide open while I played with them it was like a party and there wasn't nastiness and there wasn't any filth and there wasn't any thank you for your comment there wasn't any groaning just the light white laughter thank you for your comment me in your middle school this has nothing to do with Banning books [Applause] Annie Cruz just really quickly um there's word from those that are watching online that
110audio is being cut in and out and the volume is being turned down and also internet is is um thank you so much for addressing that I really appreciate it just make sure you guys were aware that's all thank you yeah regardless of the internet uh the technology department always makes a copy that when it's uploaded it'll be the entire copy as how yeah I apologize for what's happening now um but when when the video is posted it's a it'll be a it'll be the entire video yep yep aye Doug Charles um it's a lot of quoting passages here so let's get our dad to drink wine and then sleep with them and preserve our family through our father that night they got their father to drink wine and the older daughter went in and
111slept with them he wasn't aware of it when she lay down or when she got up the next day the older daughter said to the younger last night I slept with my father let's get him to drink wine again tonight and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family through our father so they got their father to drink wine that night also and the younger daughter went in and slept with him again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up so both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father it's so easy to take things out of context and we can keep doing that all day foreign [Applause] yeah you're right we could but that was totally ridiculous can I have your name
112sir my name is George Wilkins and for any one of you to sit up here and talk about how that is okay to have that kind of book in your school for kindergarten and first and second and fifth graders and somebody come up here and start reading the Bible and say that that's all right no it's not the same thing you know it I know it you are to protect those kids you're to protect their minds help them grow how dare anyone if you say that any of that's okay if you can stand up and tell your kids that then you should be ashamed of yourself and and somebody here in this District should be calling the police tomorrow and having you arrested for criminal charges for child abuse and you know it foreign [Applause]
113this book is currently in Milan schools it's called push I've been knowing that if a man puts his dick in you gushes his white stuff in your booty you could get pregnant I'm 12 now but I've been knowing about that since I was five or six maybe I always known about and dick daddy put his pee pee smelly thing in my mouth my if it never holds me I see me first grade pink dress with dirty sperm stuff on it I feel Mama's hand between my legs moving up my thigh I can tell mama is in the room now because of the smell Mama's hand goes creepy spider up my legs into my daddy slapped my ass you're as wide as the Mississippi he tells me he me he me and has a child with
114me my PP is open and hot and stinky down my thighs I'm seven and he is on me almost every night first in my mouth then he intercourse me I think my daddy stinks the white drips off his dick lick it lick it I hate that but then I feel the hot cha cha feeling when he's me my clip swells up when I think of daddy he pumps my in and out and I come I go to this bathroom and I smear on my face a girl who's had her father's dick in her mouth knows things that other girls don't know my hand is going up through the smell of mama and my hand is pushing daddy's dick out of my face Mama pushes my head down on her I can't talk no more I
115still got milk in my breath but not for the baby because car I'll be sucking on it I give him titty I never get dried up because Carl always sucking on me before I love that I slid my fingers of the sweet sink of another child and now down to lick her thighs he was on me but then he reached out to Precious starts with his finger between her legs this is good for her he says he takes off her Pampers and try to stick his thing in her what tripped me out is he could almost get into precious she must be some kind of freak baby this is in your school you think this is appropriate [Applause] hello Rachel Hobbs again I'm just gonna wrap up what the the other half of my um
116first public comment it is clear that there are Supreme Court cases that specifically provide that certain speech is not protected by the First Amendment which include obscenity and child pornography it can certainly be argued that the material that the material of these books so that's another keep going I'll stop the timer um the subject to these book challenges does fall Within These two categories in summary when it comes to content that is obscene to minors and our and or harmful as to minors such material contained in the challenge books and Court including pornography kids do not have the same verse to write the the same First Amendment rights as adults the Ginsburg Court also relied on not only on the state's independent interests as the well-being of its youth but it was also consistent with
117the recognition of the principle that the parents claimed to have the authority of their own household and direct the rearing of their children and the basic structure of our society and that can be found at Ginsburg at 693. I have a few other things I do appreciate you guys agreeing to do the book study um that is maybe finding some Middle Ground we've been requesting that you guys do something for a long time so thank you um I do also want to um point out that at one of the board meetings it was mentioned or it was stated that fun home which is a graphic novel with obscene pictures was originally donated from a third party to the GSA Club at that point the book was not a library book and this action per state
118statute is clearly unlawful and this should be investigated um I also want to know and you can provide this in writing is if the district uses the database ebsco welcome Betty and welcome Sarah thank you [Applause] Tracy Parker again so I was also informed that one of the teachers for the high school had one of the assignments for the senior class and it was just to observe either a city council meeting or school board meeting but they're getting more than just a government lesson they're also getting another lesson on top of that uh let's say sexual education um maybe that should have came with the morning level next time thank you Sydney Smith um I'm glad you guys are doing the book study I will just note that uh hopefully after that maybe the book
119will let you know that uh Paris still don't have keys that they were promised to have before school started it is now January and they still don't have keys um not that that's a school board issue that might be more of a something Mr gearbaugh can address in his superintendent comments um I would also like to address some things that are not quite accurate about what we're told to you um if they can access these materials elsewhere why are you providing it that's not education they can also find pot elsewhere are you handing it out they can also have sex elsewhere that doesn't change the law that's still statutory rate um and then finally there are middle-aged women here saying that these books are just so good just so complex uh just difficult though haunting
120and then saying give it to immature teenagers to read because it's good for them does that sound like education that sounds dangerous to be handing out materials that are difficult for them to read to immature teenagers yikes it's such heavy content there are several sexual verses in the Bible these are not as explicit as these books and we also saw how using the Bible to fight this ended last meeting so maybe we shouldn't use that um and finally some of you have a clear stance on this issue we are well aware of that those of you who don't grow up take a stance be courageous because you know that this is wrong and don't force these children to grow it because you refuse to [Applause] good evening I'm Daryl Lam so I'm bringing 42 years
121of Police Service to Monroe County this is disgusting this is sick if a citizen brought me this and told me that the neighbor handed this to their daughter or son I would prosecute them to the max this can all be alleviated by you people each one of you I'm talking one person we're talking 10. people are held accountable for this and it's each one of you that are being held accountable all I'm asking for is to you make the right decision alleviate these books from your shelves and it's all going to go away thank you [Applause] hi I'm Mike Charter and I'd like to say I know we live in a republic or democracy however you would like to use the words and I think today maybe you've seen oh hold on let me I'm
122going to pause here can you just bring the mic up a little bit they just does that work for you I just they can't hear you just it's a simple point just step a Little Closer yeah that's a sweet spot here thank you am I right here that's perfect if this is a republic or a democracy whatever term you'd like to use what have you seen tonight thank you Ashley St Claire I'm going to quote on Tuesday and I'm going to argue with facts and I'm going to talk about who's really pushing these books on kids is it the district that has taken the time to set up a system that parents can sign up for to be alerted for when and what books their children check out because it seems to me that the
123district's just trying to help make sure that the parents are staying informed as to their children's choices is it the school board that took a book from the general circulation that now needs parental consent to even look at let alone check out of the library because it seems like you guys are actually trying to make it harder to get for kids to get their hands on those books could it be the teachers that don't have any of these books as required reading I think the teachers are just trying to get the kids to actually do their homework and participate in class or is it just a librarian who keeps a book on a Shelf I emailed the district to see how many times these books have been checked out because surely if they are being
124pushed onto our kids they must be flying off of the shelves and it turns out your kids are not reading these books let's start with the book that the board just pulled from the shelves fun home it was checked out one time in 2022 and one time in 2021. identical has not been checked out of the library since 2019 and because so many people got bees in their bonnets over Miss kyger bringing up the Bible the Bible has only been checked out of the school twice since 2016. now it does get interesting though when you get to the book push between 2010 and 2020 that book was only checked out 12 times in 10 years one time in 2021 and seven times in 2022 so it kind of is showing that the parents who keep
125coming to these meetings are peaking the interest of the student body it seems like the people pushing these books on kids are the very adults yelling at school board meetings about them compiling them into easily accessible public lists and reading them aloud on their public Facebook pages for everyone to hear and enjoy it's almost like if you tell kids not to read something they will [Applause] foreign [Applause] go ahead Eric Rice um going on what she had to say these books are only being checked out because of there's parents that that are talking about them here I did not know that any of these books were here until I had to come for to watch these government meetings the why are they pushing it here when if they don't talk about them they wouldn't be
126read there are multiple times that these books have only been checked out by one person a year there's and if the parents really didn't want their kids reading these books then all the parents have to do is tell the kids that they shouldn't have this type of book in their house written at all then if the kids actually listened to the parents they wouldn't worry about it they wouldn't check them out thank you foreign the lovely Boys by Alice thibold is in the middle school and the high school here's some verses from that book take your clothes off Mr Harvey said I want to check that you're still a virgin I fought hard I fought as hard as I could not to let Mr Harvey hurt me but my heart as I could was not
127hard enough not even close and I was soon lying down on the ground in the ground with him on top of me panting and sweating having lost his glasses in the struggle I thought it was the worst thing in the world to be lying flat on my back with a sweating man on top of me to be trapped inside the earth and have no one to know where I was Mr Harvey started to press his lips against mine they were blueberry and wet and I wanted to scream but I was too afraid and too exhausted from the fight please don't but he grew tired of hearing me plead he reached into the pocket of my parka and balled up the Hat my mother had made me smashing it into my mouth the only sound I
128made after that was the weak tingling of bells he kissed his wet lips down my face and neck and then began to shove his hands up under my skirt I wept I began to leave my body I began to inhabit excuse me I began to inhale air in silence I wept and struggled so I would not feel he ripped open my pants not having found the invisible zipper my mother had artificially sewn into their side big white panties he said I felt huge and Bloated I felt like a sea in which he stood and pissed and I felt the corners of my body were turning in on themselves and out like a cat's cradle which I played with Lindsay just to make her happy he started working himself over me he was inside me he
129was grunting I was the mortar he was the pestle a young girl being led through the streets she was taken to a prior where she was wound in a sheet and placed up on a platform built from sticks the bright fire that consumed her brought my mother into that deep light dreamlike Bliss the girl was being burned alive but first there had been her body clean and whole he raped her in the bushes and then strangled her that time as he grew conscious coming up out of the stupor that he often clung to he heard noises he excuse me he turned the Deep he turned the dead girl's face towards his and has the voices grew closer he bit down on her ear I felt a marvelous draft on the inside of my thighs he
130brushed my nipple with his thumb and I pulled his head toward me we kissed the water came down between our bodies and wet the sparse hair along his chest and stomach I kissed him because I wanted to see Ruth and I wanted to see Holly and I wanted to know if they could see me thank you for your comment thank you [Applause] good evening Kirk Demars I wanted to come to defense of some books tonight as well um I think there's a group of 66 books that uh I do believe are being disparaged and taken out of const a context and uh I originally didn't plan to address it because I wanted Jan Kiger to write off in the sunset and enjoy her time but uh her taking a scripture out of context but since
131it was brought up tonight I think it's appropriate that we we addressed the book or group of books of the Bible so I want to share some other scripture that I think is a little bit better to hear on your ears that I think is really more what the context of the overall Bible is really about so we're we're in Romans chapter 10. if you want to pull up your Bible app if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead you will be saved verse 10 for it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it is oh it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved okay um this seems like a pretty easy fix
132to me from what I'm hearing tonight if we boil it down to um couple sentences we have one side that believes we have some obscene material that's not appropriate for for minors to view and we have one side that clearly believes no one's checking these books out anyway so pretty simple conclusion right let's just remove the books nobody's checking them out anyway right [Applause] are there others all right next up is a student board member representative comments is Powell Miss Farrell Miss pharaoh is Powell sorry my computer died I have to use my phone I think it's on um I would just like to point out that you guys should save the dates for the Mamma Mia production that is um March 10th 11th 17th 18th at 7 pm and March 12th at 2PM the
133auditions were held yesterday I saw some of the kids lined up and they looked very happy and it looks like a very good group of cast members as well as the high school's Winter Dance on February 11th um Paddock Simons and the middle school all I did not find any events that were posted on their website um however on the 12th the girls varsity and JV Basketball will be playing against smcc JV at 5 30 varsity at 7 at the high school um the 14th there is a wrestling tournament um boys swim goes against Holland Christian at Holland Christian High School at 12 30 p.m on the 14th as well and on the 16th boys and girls bowling will be playing against airport high school at flat rocker Lanes at 3 30 pm um and
134then tomorrow there is a JV and Varsity Boys Basketball game versus smcc at home at 5 30 and 7 P.M there's a hockey game versus Chelsea at the Arctic Coliseum at 7 30 pm congratulations to the girls basketball team for their success this past week and a congratulations to the Milan Deca club for their success at the DECA District competition today anything else great thank you um superintendent cabinets Mr gearbox thank you I do have a few things to share this evening um first I would like to share and I appreciate the board approving the purchase of buses because the fact that we keep our Fleet up I am holding a certificate from the state of Michigan for a 100 percent pass rate on our school bus inspections with the Michigan State Police and I
135would like to note that this is we only have certificates back so far but we have over 20 years of 100 percent pass rate for our buses and that's because we continue to purchase buses and provide our mechanics with the supplies and materials and parts that they need and our mechanics also do a tremendous job of taking care of the fleet as do our drivers and everybody else that works with those vehicles and I just want to thank them all it's a pretty heavy lift to have over 20 years never receiving a yellow or a red tag on a bus receiving 100 green tags so congratulations to our transportation department I hope that everyone had a relaxing and safe holiday break in New Year I will say that it's exciting to be back in school
136in 2023 and believe it or not we are almost to the midpoint of this school year a reminder that we do not have school this coming Monday January 16th in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr day I wanted to let everyone know that Lisa mellinger the director of our early childhood programs resigned in late December Lisa made the decision to move to the west side of the state and return back to her hometown the interview process for a new director of Early Childhood programs is well underway and we hope to recommend a hire to the board of education at either the second January meeting or the first February meeting the staff that worked with Lisa in the office have done a tremendous job for the last couple of weeks keeping that program running I want
137to thank Mr McMahon and and Mr Des arbo for also providing some supports when those folks had some questions just truly a team effort to to step in and help keep that program moving and truly to all of the staff in the pecc all of the teachers and and support staff that work in that program that have kept it going and are looking forward to having a new director in the next couple of weeks I want to personally thank Sarah Murray and welcome her to the board and I also want to welcome and thank Betty rosen-leacher I know she's been on the board for a little while but now she's here in an elected seat and I welcome both of them and look forward to working with them over the next years the next big
138grad chat with the board of education is scheduled for Tuesday January 17th from 7 to 8 30 p.m in the Middle School librarium to comply with the open meetings act the big red chat will be hosted by three members of the Milan Area Schools Board of Education the main topic for this big red chat is school safety while each big red chat has a main topic it is important to remember that comments and questions on any school-related topic will be accepted I'm the last item that I have and this will go out in a message to the community and we'll be on the website tomorrow the Milan area schools sexual education Advisory board or sieb meets regularly throughout the year at their recent meetings the group received reviewed and received new materials for teaching Paddock
139elementary students about body safety the new curriculum was developed by and would be presented by the Washington area Council for children the materials include eight 20-minute lessons they are all along the lines of I am the boss of my body and in the first week they do poison fire and gun safety home alone and getting lost car and Street safety and stranger safety during the second week they talk about private body parts the body safety rule what to do if someone breaks the body safety Rule and the no go tell process these materials were presented to the Seaboard which has a very diverse makeup and there was a unanimous decision to move forward with asking the board to approve those materials it's important for everyone to understand that those materials cannot go to the board
140until there have been two public hearings the first open hearing on these materials will be at 6 pm on January 23rd in The Paddock cafeteria if you're interested in attending please do so um the Washington Council will actually be there and will be going through the exact material that will be used in the classroom so you'll be able to see all of the materials in their entirety we will then have a second open meeting on those on February 8th in conjunction with the school board meeting and the goal is to have the board approve those if they see fit at their school board meeting in February again this came as a unanimous recommendation from the C board we appreciate all of their work in reviewing it it's also important to understand that if these materials
141are approved each year there would be a evening presentation to parents about the materials there are also very well written letters from the organization to send out to families so that they understand and as always families would be able to opt out of those programs thank you Mr yerbaugh assistant superintendent comments Mr McMahon yeah I have two comments tonight I just want to share with the board that I have submitted and I received nine reimbursement requests for the training courses that you attend they are reimbursable when you complete a course um I'm well the district's notified then I get to submit a reimbursement request so they're covered so I appreciate you guys attending the trainings and getting the paperwork submitted through the system to me um and they've been reimbursed so nine of those last
142semester and also want to share with you that our title III application has been amended and submitted um it was amended because we got carryover funds so you submit your initial application then they recalculate some funds give you hopefully more money which in this case they did and the total amount of the amended application is just over 7 500 so that's submitted now away for approval thank you um next up is board member comments I have a few things uh first up is board committee assignments so I've asked the board members to submit their ranked choice of the five committees that we have um of what what they'd like to serve I'll take those results next week and then make assignments inform them of the assignments and the uh the chairs so please board members
143let me know if you have not already your rank choices for board committee assignments also the other thing is we will continue to have the sponsor of board members of schools so if there's a certain school that you want to sponsor to help out be be the board member rep for that school let me know and we will make those assignments as well um in regards to a few of the couple public comments in regards to Mr gearbaugh's evaluation um it has been postponed because of the student disciplinary hearings that we had in December um we do have it currently tenant will be scheduled for February it will follow the same format that we had before where we'll have the Scott morale from Michigan area School Board Association um facilitate that evaluation Mr gearbaugh will
144let us know if he wants to have that evaluation take place in closed session as is as this is right we will be taking the feedback that was received in the uh the survey that was sent out at the end of the school season school year last year in regards to that the requirement is that it that his evaluation be submitted annually to the state of Michigan by June so that is we will make sure that that evaluation is taken care of and submitted to the state of Michigan by June um I do again want to reiterate what Mr gearbox said about the big red chat please come out in regards to that if you have to listen to some things regarding school safety and if you have other questions or concerns it is a
145great way to have two two-way communication with the board um in regards to the conflict of interest policy I would refer you to the the district website the policies there is a conflict of interest policy zero one four four point three for board members where you can read that in regards to the policy for conflict of interests um also there's policy po9130 in regards to um uh challenge materials so if that's always anybody's uh you if you do have a challenge in regards to these books you can submit a challenge through that policy in order to have that go through that process so I just want to remind people of that uh those are my comments for now others yeah Miss Murray students and the staff that I care about so much and in this
146new capacity and that I'm honored and look forward to working together and I wanted to also thank the board and Mr gearbox for your warm welcome thank you thank you Miss Murray others Mr Cislo yes I'd also like to thank the community for putting their faith in me to sit on this board I'm there's a lifelong educator it's an honor to be able to sit on this side of the table and support students in addition I just want to mention for the for the community that in regards to new board members and superintendent evaluation we are required by law to attend a class through masb regarding the superintendent evaluation I was able to take that earlier in my time on the board but I'm certain that Miss Murray will be doing that as well yeah
147just in regards to that so um there are classes that are held by masb um if there is one obviously um Miss Murray will attend that as soon as possible um but just in regards to the evaluation she'll be participating as an observer as part of that process anyways as we go forward so but if if she is not trained she will she's she's not going to participate anyways she's going to participate as an observer um nope um first I want to welcome Miss Murray to the board and I look forward to working with you I also want to thank everyone that attended tonight and and spoke up I especially want to thank the students that spoke up tonight um I know it's not easy but I think that your viewpoints are very important in
148this entire discussion I also want to clarify something very quickly I did at a previous board meeting say that all boys aren't blue was a beautiful book I also did say that my my high schooler could read that book she's not 13 in fact she'll be 15 next week I also was very clear from this generators of board meeting that I would not allow her to read the book push because I didn't think she was mature enough to read it and that I as a parent would exercise my parental consent and tell her not to read the book I agree with Miss Bennett there is a compromise here that we can work towards so that we can address the concerns of those who don't think that children should be able to read these books and
149those who believe that these books provide important windows and representation for some of our children that's exactly why I proposed early on our new policy here at the at the schools where as parents you can sign up and so that you will get a notification from the school every time your child checks out a book and then you can exercise your parental choice and decide whether or not your child can read that book it's also exactly why at the last board meeting that I made the motion that the book fun home would be removed from the shelf and would be segregated and required parental consent before that book can be viewed or checked out by anyone in the district comes very [Music] and have honest discussions about these books when the following language is routinely
150thrown at you disgusting shameful pervert groomer and they're all agreeing with it and various other names The Playbook seems to be that if I can't convince you of my point of view I'll resort to name calling and try and get you there and once you reduce someone to something as horrific as a pervert or a groomer The Next Step becomes very easy and it incites some to actually resort to physical threats so here okay here come here are some of the threats that the members of this board received after our last meeting and I'll give everyone a heads up that this language is Harsh and it very well may be triggering for some because it doesn't build physical violence and rape this is one I received on December 23rd the subject is porn you stupid
151you best removed those books from the library like ASAP dumb you are all you are brainwashed perhaps too many vaccines this is an email that a fellow board member received on December 23rd the subject is Satan you are a piece of and you know that you sold your soul to Satan I hope one of those parents kicks the out of you I bet your liberal dumb asses stay away from vaccines it's quite obvious it has warped your brains burn in hell this is an email that a fellow board member received on January oh I'm sorry I mean from December 26th the subject is you and a homophobic slur that begins with the word letter F that I don't use and our trash I pray your families are raped and murdered by the trash crossing the
152border and you find them in the act then they do the same to you after making you watch them finish with the others you are scum comments on Facebook suggests we are going to hell the tarring and Feathering us may be an option that should we be sued and you heard tonight criminally charged or Smitten by God himself then after all of those emails we are mocked on Facebook because we are concerned for our safety not only tonight but other nights as well none of this solves the real issues that our schools are facing us board members are dealing with death and rape threats instead of curriculum safety our students Mental Health their preparedness to enter the world when they graduate and how to recruit and retain to Quality teachers I encourage everyone to stop
153with a hybrid hyperbole and and the name calling and quite frankly the incitement of violence and let's focus on the students their needs and how we can come together to solve these issues our schools and Community are facing thank you to everyone and I think those laughs from the audience say a lot more about those individuals than it does me thank you any other board comments yeah I have something I'd like to say as an elementary school teacher for 30 years now I had to have a difficult conversation with my principal this week to let her know that I was being threatened to be raped and murdered and that since I work in her school