Saline Area Schools: Board of Education Meeting

001i'd like to call to order please the board of education meeting for saline area schools for september 28th 2021 at 6 31 pm if everyone could please rise for our 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 welcome welcome to september welcome to our second uh board meeting of our new academic year it's good to see so many folks here wanting to participate in a public comment from what it looks like in in the process here with the board of education so we appreciate you all being here and always good to welcome students um i think we had a brief comment from dr ledge i'd like to

002thank everyone for coming tonight and thank you for wearing masks per the mask mandate from the washington county health department masks are required in any school building in the saline area schools at any time this board of education meeting is included in this mandate and mass are required unless you are speaking in public common at the podium failure to comply is a violation of michigan's public health code and could result in a misdemeanor and or civil monetary penalties thank you okay moving forward in our agenda this is our first opportunity for public comment a member of the public may address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting please note that students will be a given priority to speak on any topic and

003we have several tonight the first public participation portion of the meeting will be limited to one half hour 30 minutes normally and limited to agenda items that means i'll take the first 10 so it might be just just over 30 minutes a second public participation portion will be offered at the end of the agenda to allow for any other comment and we will make sure that all comments are heard individuals addressing the board should take into consideration the rules of common courtesy the public participation portion of the meeting cannot be used to make personal attacks against a board member district employee or student and just to remind everybody watching the stream at home or if you don't have an agenda item our first comments we'll do students first then we'll do agenda items our agenda

004items for this evening are going to be saline high school student council continue to learn plan our finance committee our policy updates including our transgender and gender non-conforming students our treasurer and our officers policies for this evening plus any consent items that we have on our agenda thank you betty for putting these in order of received so we're going to start with number one which is a student and that is ari hayward okay great and did i print out is it ari okay perfect and uh for those of you who don't know secretary e-step has our cards and so we give three minutes um we try to be respectful of everyone's time and state of those three minutes at 30 seconds left she'll show the yellow card at three minutes she shows the red card

005start whenever you're ready and make sure make sure to toggle the mic on if you can there we go okay so i'm going to try to read through this they sent it to me in a text okay so my child is ari hayward they are a non-binary student at saline high school i would like you to think about this i want to believe that you know everyone deserves equality and if you do know that then i know you'll make the right choices but what i want to state is that depending on what you have decided you could pave a path in how the district should be our district could have a reputation of a place that is safe for all people transgender individuals aren't people who have come from come out from out of the

006blue they've always been here ever since humanity has been here but we've had to hide we've had to hide away from the world because if we didn't bad things could happen including even getting killed i know none of you want to advocate or enable the school to harass other people just because of their gender identity but that's not how a lot of other people in our community feel some people want to harass us because of our gender because of the color of our skin because of our sexual identity i hope you understand how ridiculous that is if somebody's favorite color is pink and somebody else's favorite color is orange why does it mean that the person who favors orange needs to not be included please make saleen schools a safer place for all individuals and

007be a role model for everyone to look up to for me to look up to i understand there's been a lot of talk about locker rooms and bathrooms but i would like to understand why this is an issue for discussion in the first place because all human beings need to use the bathroom does it truly matter to you if somebody chooses the one on the right instead of the left are these really issues that people need to put first instead of figuring out ways to improve our community sorry she this is in text and some of it isn't quite clear i want people to think of trans people and realize that we are genuine individuals like everybody else we just want to be able to use our bathrooms our locker rooms have access to our

008school the same way everybody else does so i asked this again please pass this policy please let our school be our school not just school for people who aren't trans or aren't non-binary thank you [Applause] all right tiffany thank you for reading ari's comments our next student is julia hedy rhode did i pronounce that correctly julia and just make sure the mic is turned on with the green light yeah thank you thank you my name is cal i'm a seventh grade non-binary student at saline middle school i heard last thursday a brief summary of the proposed policy to protect and support trans students as a trans student myself i wanted to show my full support according to a study bike lesson 75 percent of transgender youth feel unsafe at school i can't say i'm surprised

009myself and my peers live in fear of the hatred and discrimination that is so common nationally in schools just like ours however with this policy knowing that we are heard valued and supportive supported we don't have to be so scared not even a year ago i was in the closet and worried sick that i would come out to face a plethora of hatred that i would receive no support being a fully virtual student i had never experienced the acceptance that i longed for the acceptance that should be a given i hadn't seen the pride flags in classrooms the pronoun pins the multitude of seemingly insignificant decorative tokens littered about the school these small tokens are of such great value in making us lgbtq plus students feel more hopeful and accepted and this policy could multiply

010those feelings while not affecting our cisgender peers this can and will hold an indescribable amount of importance to the local trans community i'm grateful to the teachers and staff making it clear they're supportive but this shouldn't be on a teacher-to-teacher basis we need to know that the staff as a whole are accepting that they are required to use our pronouns and chosen names and that they are educated on our identities the adolescent journal of health concluded the trans and non-binary teams being called our chosen name and pronouns in multiple contexts can decrease severe depression by more than 70 percent and decrease suicide attempts by 65 percent this policy is suicide prevention i have torn myself apart wishing i could fit in but it occurred to me recently that it isn't my fault i shouldn't have

011to a friend of mine was bullied for wearing a pride flag and many of us have postponed coming out because we fear the hate and discrimination that we see both locally and throughout our country none of this is our fault i leave you with the following statement listen to the youth of this marginalized community and help us feel safe making the decision to pass this policy will help numerous students feel like we belong especially should we ask for support thank you for your comments um next we have a student manya alawar mania hi did i pronounce your name correctly it's good okay thank you [Music] okay sorry it's on my phone um dear celine area school board my name is munya ellowar i am a ninth grade member of both the gsa and upload i've

012come to you to give i've come here to give you my perspective as a non-binary teenager in saline schools throughout the last couple of years i have seen across america an influx of state and school legislation targeting trans youth it hurt me it still does uh to know that people like me are discriminated against and having their rights taken away which are necessary for each student we are only children i refer to the very recent bills that have entered state legislation in america this year alone over 35 bills created to prohibit transgender youth from being able to participate best practice age-appropriate gender affirming medical care at least 69 bills that prohibit transgender youth and young adults who are inc who are college students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity over 43 bills

013that would allow people to assert religious position as justification for failing to abide the law or provide services to people of whom they disapprove which has been used to target trans and non-binary people and at least 15 bills that would prohibit transgender people from having access to restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity all in the year 2021 alone what i intend by sharing this information with all of you is to show that this year has been devastating for all trans people students and adults children alike yes we don't live in alabama where they're banning medical um where they're planning youth medical transitional treatment but no matter where the hate is coming from we still in the community feel it and god do we fear it so i spend the school year my

014first year back in school from being fully from being a fully remote student um wondering when and how the school will attack me with and my community with what seems to be a wave of harmful and discriminatory acts against the youth of a marginalized community from my experience i know that when we aren't being actively protected we are we become vulnerable and harassed by unfair policies i want to believe that you care about your students regardless of their gender or gender identity i see that in small doses around the school when i asked if i was allowed to use the guys restroom at the school for the gender-neutral bathrooms near the counselor's office we're far we're way too far from all of my classes i was granted full permission except you know today i'll explain

015my experience in public bathrooms as a trans person has not been easy i um while i was given permission i still find them extremely difficult to use from past events i no longer feel comfortable or welcome in public restrooms especially when others are in there as well so today i decided that i was going to use the non-binary bathroom or the gender neutral bathroom near the counselor's office and it and because of it i received a tardy for class that i that couldn't be examined um but oh sorry i guess that's all i have to say thank you for your comments um our next student is jeremy camaro sulak i don't know i just have jeremy's form kevin do you have it i don't have a statement oh okay all right perfect i just have

016the student form kevin d do you want me to go to the next person and come back okay all right thank you no no problem i used to be a student in celine i left because of harassment and bullying of multiple kids of multiple pines i was bullied every day for being myself for many by many from the football hockey and wrestling teams two of them even landed themselves in the vice principal's office for making harmful gestures at me and they had all they had to do was faux apology as they got me to watch me bawl my eyes out then they continue to relentlessly bully me we need this policy so this doesn't happen to other adolescent lgbtq children they need protection and privacy please for their own protection from harm that's it all

017right thank you for reading jeremy's comments i am not seeing any other yellow forms just double checking no more students we'll move on to our adults viva rosenfeld sorry i didn't realize it was gonna be this hard this is the first time i've been able to come up to this board and speak about my child who is transgender since my children were young i let them lead the way in deciding who they are we noticed in second grade that our child was becoming gender expansive they were saying that they were not a tomboy they they were a tomboy at the beginning of third grade they said that they were a boy and they started wearing their older brother's clothes i remember going to help at girls on the run one day and a kid came

018up to me and said that season says they're a boy i replied okay what's wrong with that and they shrugged and ran on their way it was a simple way to affirm my child's identity to a kid that didn't know i followed the following year my kid was very happy and continued to tell their friends that they were a boy one day i was helping in the classroom and one of the kids was telling me a story about season when they were done i responded by saying what a silly boy they were surprised and said i call him a boy too it was such a sweet way for a kid to be so understanding and accepting of my child the summer of fifth grade was when my child socially transitioned and they got their hair

019cut and chose a name they felt better suited them it was actually exciting for the whole family to be a part of this and really see them glow with these affirmations that year i joined the wisd transgender task force and started getting involved in other organizations that support trans youth although this was also the beginning of my child's experience with prejudice they couldn't stand in the boy line friends signed the anti-trans petitions they were dead named questioned about their gender misgendered followed around and i couldn't go into my child's classroom to read a trans book season had people that they considered their friends that said god only made man and woman and they were threatened to out they were threatening to out them these were the only kids that season had been hanging out with

020all year and so now season had utter was utterly alone after that season came home and at least once a week would tell me they wished they had friends in class like they saw other kids around them for fifth and sixth grade it became a daily routine to ask csun if they were misgendered if anyone called them by their dead name or if anything else had happened with regards to them being transgender that was the point i decided we needed to leave the district it was actually quite devastating i was part of the pta at both their schools and the teachers and the school had become our family and our home we decided to do school of choice in ann arbor the kids loved their new school because it was supportive and inclusive the school

021is mindful of asking the students their pronouns and they have a gsa these are all these all create a climate of inclusivity that made kids feel safe shortly after attending their new school csun felt comfortable and proud and safe enough to be their authentic self and come out my family's experience illuminates why it's important for celine to pass the transgender and gender non-conforming students policy i'm sure if i kept my child in the district they would have easily become one of the suicide statistics the whole reason why i do what i do for my kid is because i would rather have a non-binary child than a dead daughter thank you [Applause] thank you for your comments and and i am i'm sorry to interrupt anyone that that hits three minutes we we need to just

022recognize that so thank you for your comments we did have one other student that wanted to come forward via anna yeah absolutely okay i read vegan hi there how are you good how about you um do you mind i'm sorry do you mind just stating your name for the public comment record my name is b miller okay thank you all right so um i want to say thank you to the board for um allowing us to speak tonight um any uh continuing hello my name is b i am 13 years old and a student at saline middle school i'm asking that you please pass this policy for the following reasons these are not statistics i'm going off personal personal experience when i i am in eighth grade um when i need to use the restroom

023i am non i'm non-binary so when i need to use the restroom i have to go all the way across the school just to use a gender-neutral bathroom this shouldn't this should not be allowed to happen we need more non-binary bathrooms and i feel or not not non-binary rights and bathrooms and more non-binary legislature because um we need to excuse me we need to include everybody when i was another experience was when i was simply minding my own business it was a perfect day i wasn't doing anything i hadn't been doing anything however when i when i was walking in the halls just between classes i heard when i was walking i heard some someone from behind call me the efsler this should not be happening i can tell you that every single one of

024these people on this over here like behind me whether non-binary or part of the lgbtq community or not i'm asking that you please be respectful to the small group of students and parents who feel like they need to protect their students if you pass this policy it will make many students like me and my peers to be able to to feel safe in our own school if students don't feel safe and are constantly stressing how are they going to learn i was bullied many times just because of me being non-binary i haven't been feeling safe recently there is no reason that i need to feel unsafe there is no reason that we should be having these meetings these rights and policies are basic human rights at school this is a new generation this is not

025the time of the 20th century when gay marriage was not even legal the times i've been called my dead name even though i had told them my new identity and new name they won't listen and i don't feel respected or listened to or included i want you to pass this policy thank you for your comments um next we have parent lindsay anderson hi my name is lindsay anderson i have two children in the saline school district one of whom is transgender first i'd like to thank the school board trustees for demonstrating their commitment to the district's dei initiatives by bringing the transgender and gender non-conforming student policy for approval tonight this policy will protect transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming youth and is an important part of that dei work and i'm here to ask you

026to pass it you might hear a lot of hate and fear coming from the other side tonight but i hope that you see it as a perfect example of why celine desperately needs this policy transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming youth do not experience higher rates of depression anxiety and suicide because of something inherent to their gender identity they experience it because sorry when they express their authentic gender identity they are made the targets of bullying harassment abuse and assault this is life-saving work as some of the brave students who have gotten up here to speak to already have shown you research shows that supporting and affirming a student's gender identity drastically reduces their chances of attempting or completing suicide it also drastically reduces their risk for depression and anxiety that is why supporting and affirming

027trans non-binary and gender non-conforming people's gender identity is supported by every major medical and therapeutic professional organization in this country such as the american medical association the american academy of pediatrics and the american psychological association among others passing this policy is best practice and will save lives school boards are charged with providing a safe and supportive learning environment for all students all students this policy is equitable because it takes into account the unique experiences of transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students and works to create a school environment where they are free to be themselves and pursue their education a hostile school environment leads to greater levels of missed school lower gpas and dropping out altogether this has huge ramification for these students future as you can see from the packet that i just hounded out

028gender inclusive policies like this one work to mitigate these effects we are here tonight out of love for our kids we want them to pursue their education in a safe affirming environment and we are here to ask that the school board trustees do what they are elected to do which is to provide that for each and every student in saline thank you thank you for your comments lindsay thank you for your comments our next parent is corey below good evening my name is corey balot she her hers i want to tell you about starting high school without the transgender student policy the week before school started jay and i met with a counselor and assistant principal to talk about our options i didn't want my child to have to explain themselves to every teacher at

029every class on the first day of school so the counselor is going to send an email to all of jay's teachers then she showed us a single person bathroom by the counselor's office the one by the nurse's office one by the principal's office and the family locker room with three individual changing rooms by the gymnasium after the first day of school i asked how was gym class they said the teacher divided the kids by boy and girl and took them to the locker rooms to pick their lockers jay went to the family locker room but it was locked so they waited outside for someone to come and open it class ended and the locker room was never opened so i said tomorrow you'll have to ask them to open the locker room you don't have

030to say why just ask them to open it day two js for the family locker room to be opened there aren't locks on the lockers like in the regular locker room so they left their clothes in there without a lock and hoped that nothing happened to their stuff that evening dad took jay to buy a lock day three jay goes to the family locker room the special education students are half swimming and the three changing rooms are full jay asked away because they aren't comfortable changing the open with the other kids and teachers in there it's not a problem but they're late for class day four they talk to the teacher they're given the option to change in the girls varsity locker room well it's big and it's dark you hear the girls next door

031laughing joking and having a good time getting ready for class you hear lockers slamming and start to hear noises echoing through your big empty locker room suddenly a masked person comes around the corner with a knife you try to run you try to scream no one can hear you as you're being stabbed to death you hear the girls leaving their locker room and going to class it didn't really happen that way but we've all seen that movie so no they don't want to change in the big empty locker room all by themselves so instead they changed in the unisex bathroom down the hall by the auxiliary gym there wasn't a bench or a chair in the bathroom so they had to put their stuff on the floor they then had to carry their stinky gym

032clothes the rest of the day because they didn't have any place to put them so what are our options there are other transgender kids who have fought the pe requirement and taken other equivalents after a year and a half of covid my kid needs pe they also need to change their clothes so they can fully participate because you can't fully participate if you're wearing the same clothes that you wear all day there is an option to take pe over the summer it costs 300 it runs four days a week three to six weeks in june in july and you have to attend all the classes or you don't get credit i can raise a stink i can talk to the principal the counselor the teacher consultant gym teacher superintendent school board etc i know they'll

033all help me and make sure everything works out for my kid everyone is very helpful caring and accommodating they always have been but why do i have to go through all this why does every transgender parent have to go through all of this why does the principal the counselors teacher superintendent have to go through all this they don't make a policy and pass it thank you thank you for your comments corey um our next parent is tiffany alexander hello again so i was going to talk about something a student told me the first time i ever walked into saline high school when i was um checking out the clubs with with my kiddo but i think you've heard from the students here about how they feel unsafe so i'm going to go to the point

034of what i wanted to say which was safety a lot of trans kids go home and they have their families even if they don't feel safe in school which is terrible they at least have people at home who love and care about them i'm asking you to think about the ones that don't the ones that are not safe at home the ones that cannot tell their parents who they are the ones who are living in fear in their own bedrooms you have more than an obligation you have the privilege of being in the position to make change that some of us have fought forever to try and make you can give them a safe space you can make their school their home where they have people to go to where their privacy will be respected

035where they know they can go and say hey this is what happened to me and it won't be okay and it won't be allowed you have an opportunity to create a safe haven in a world that has so much volatile hateful people towards these kids kids these are just kids you have an amazing chance to give them something that even as parents we can't give them i can come up here i can jump up and down and shout and yell and cry and plead i can go to the principles i can write all the emails i want but you have the unique position and ability to make sure that when my child when the other kids who've spoken here when every student who's too afraid to speak here or at home walks in that building

036they are safe celebrated and embraced yes that is a huge burden and obligation but it is an amazing privilege i'm asking you to use that privilege and pass this policy these children need a safe place the ones who are safe at home need to be safe at school too they need that so they can be their authentic selves and move forward in their lives like every other child who walks in that school the ones who don't have it at home need it even more it is life and death for all of them it is very much life and death for the ones who have no other safe space you can lead the way in giving them a safe space that nobody else has thank you for your comments tiffany um i have one final parent

037that will conclude our first session for public comment all other public comment will have the opportunity in our second session dave rosenfeld hello i'm dave uh my pronouns are he him his and i'm the proud parent of a transgender ninth grader and gender non-conforming sixth grader both of who are here this evening i am here to speak in favor of the transgender policy that is on the agenda today which is something i feel somewhat qualified to do because i am intimately familiar with the needs of transgender students this is because for the last seven years ever since i first became aware that my middle child might be trans i've been educating myself about how i can best support them i sought out i've sought out all the best information and resources i can get my

038hands on in order to keep my child happy healthy and safe and after all isn't that what all of us really want for our kids now that i've had an opportunity to read the full text i am able to offer my unequivocal support for the sas transgender and gender non-conforming students policy as it is written not only is it based off of the glsen model policy which itself is comprehensive and extremely well thought out and well written it also includes several additional supports that as far as i know will be unique to celine and i couldn't help but notice that at least one or two of those were recommended by myself and other celine parents of trans kids so i thank the policy committee and superintendent lodge for centering our voices and valuing our feedback

039sometimes i get asked why trans students need special protections like this why do they need their own special policy and the answer is simple it's because as the board recognizes they are specially targeted they are especially bullied and harassed and discriminated against just because they are transgender and as a result they are especially susceptible to all kinds of bad outcomes like suicide depression school dropout homelessness drug abuse you name it some people like to think that all these bad outcomes are the natural results of being transgender but what we have actually found out and there is more and more evidence for this all the time is that they are really the result of how transgender youth are treated by others that is the crux of why the policy before you is necessary when transgender youth

040are affirmed and supported and provided protections like those in this policy all of those bad outcomes are reduced to the point that they are comparable to those of their cisgender peers one other thing i'd add is that as your legal counsel has assured you everything in this policy is completely supported by current local state and federal law and there is nothing in it that violates or limits anyone's legal rights parental or otherwise and lastly inconclusive policies inclusive policies like this constitute best practices and they improve educational outcomes and not just for trans students but the entire student body in schools where they are implemented we are very privileged to have such a great public school system in saline approving this policy will be a huge step toward improving the culture in the schools for lgbt

041students and making sas even better than it already is for all students and for the community as a whole dave thank you for your comments um that does conclude our first public comment if there are any other additional public commenters who have not filled out a form you might want to take the opportunity to do so during board business and we will start the other round after we conduct our board business um in response to previous public comment i just wanted to state that we have been receiving a lot of emails both for and against our transgender policy which we are reading for the first time tonight so we'll have that discussion um we are also receiving a lot of a lot of emails pro and con um the activities surrounding our uh sex ed

042advisory board and trustee gerby will be giving an update on that a little bit later in the agenda as part of his committee updates i also wanted to say how pleased i have been to hear from staff as they've been settling in and back going back to school that's what it's about is getting the kids back into school getting them having them be safe and allowing them to learn and be together again and um i just wanted to read a short statement from one of our teachers the climate and culture is fantastic students are ready to learn this is absolutely not limited to my classroom it is happening all over the building and that is one of our high school teachers so i wanted to thank staff who have reached out to share some of

043their first hand experiences with us moving on to item five on our agenda um revisions or approval of agenda items may be added or deleted from the meeting agenda and or the order of items may be changed at the request of an individual board member or the superintendent the agendas must be approved before proceeding further i'd like to please entertain a motion to approve the agenda as printed i move to support the agenda as printed jenny moves thank you second oh second second fred thank you second um to vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed hearing none motion carries 7-0 um as always we play students first so i'd like to turn it over to julian downey our board of education student representative uh so today for our student showcase we have an

044update from student council emma driscoll the executive council president and lanie miller a sophomore representative we'll be presenting on spirit week festivities as well as student leadership throughout the district hello my name is emma driscoll and i am the executive council president for student council and i'm here today with lainey miller to speak a little bit about the progression within student leadership across the district as well as the exciting spirit week that we have had here in saline so to start everybody k through eight at pleasant ridge woodland meadows harvest heritage and even the middle school they're all in the process of building great leadership groups so plenty of years ago when i was in elementary school at pleasant ridge we didn't have these opportunities at that time so especially kindergarten through third grade so

045this is super exciting to see the district wide growth and creative things that our younger students are going to be able to do and laney and i are the only representatives here today because the k-8 buildings are still in the process of building their leadership groups like i had mentioned they're constructing what exactly leadership group might look like for the younger students and getting all of those bits and pieces put together saline schools is very lucky to have large groups of leaders from ages ranging from kindergartners that are five years old all the way to some seniors who are pushing adulthood our young leaders have very strong abilities skills and lots to bring to the table that we are so excited about for this 2021-2022 school year it is very important not only to me

046but the rest of our student council at the high school to include all of our buildings in as much as we can spirit weeks throughout the year are going to be a great start to keep everyone connected and full of school spirit year round and there shall be many or plenty more events to come as this is one of our strongest years of student leadership yet across the district all right moving on to our high school student council's role in homecoming friday is the community-wide homecoming parade which is super exciting and fun as well as the saline high school homecoming football game and saturday is our homecoming dance every year leading up to homecoming we have a district-wide spirit week which is heavily participated in across the district to get all students and staff involved

047and excited for the football game and of course for the high schoolers the dance that follows this week is also just fun to dress up silly and to bring friends together with school spirit student council at the high school had our first dance build this past sunday collaborating to create some of the decorations to go along with our theme for this year's homecoming dance which is enchanted forest and we will have another dance build the day of the dance to prepare for the night ahead now all of these festivities and events wouldn't be possible without our student leadership groups such as student council that we not only have at the high school but we have some form of leadership groups at each school in our district everything all across the board is coming together nicely

048and we are so excited to see what's going on in the future and of course what's happened this week i hope that whether you might be seeing pictures online or participating yourself this spirit week so far the first two days i hope that you've enjoyed it and to wrap up i actually wanted to thank miss laurie dawson i know she's not gonna like this for all of her hard work day in and day out she is the advisor for the saline high school student council and she serves as such a strong leader and advisor for us so i just wanted to thank you for all that you do and thank you school board members for allowing us to come up here tonight and speak on behalf of saline student leadership it's been a pleasure and

049those goodie bags are from student council i was wondering we like goody bags do you like good fellaini do you want to say anything is there anything that you wanted to add um i think she um covered it all it's been super fun with spirit week and homecoming coming up and student council is a great way to get to like get to know your class and it's a great thing to be a part of and i know my experience has been really great on student council being a part of making a change in the school and i'm excited to work on expanding it throughout all of our schools thank you very much i'm assuming everyone's very excited for saturday oh yes very excited we i i i'm sure i can speak for everyone when i

050say it's so nice to see activities um happening and i know i know how much has been has been taken from some of the other classes um with coped the last couple of years so very happy to see all of those things getting back to a little bit of normal um anybody have any comments or questions for emma and laney i'll allow this one yeah okay thanks i had to i know i kind of broke the rule i didn't check my phone for any messages or anything i just took a picture so um anyway i'm really proud of the two of you for getting up and representing all of student council and um continuing to show leadership to the younger students um i know that i know even when when ali or when lainey and

051drew who are younger than you emma were in in elementary was just starting i remember there were two special advisors at heritage school who started at heritage and now it's taken this much time to get to the even younger grades and i just think that it's um it's an example of our compass and action and so i just thank you for bringing those highlights to us tonight thank you thank you one so one thing that i'll say about our spirit week and our activities is one bravo for for putting it on and for to miss dawson i agree but uh i love that we do it k-12 right that that our all of our schools are a part of what we do there and we celebrate all of our students and it really does build

052community and i just that that excites me and i wanted to note that so thank you and um julian i saw them saw them mention other leadership organizations within each school and i saw heritage tweeting out the other day that they now have their leadership council established so hopefully we'll be able to see some of the some more students and some more groups so thank you very much yeah michael i may not be walking or driving in the parade but i'm going to be standing in the parade and waving at everyone so i'm looking forward to maybe next year we can arrange for the school board too no pressure no i'm a parade mom on friday um okay great moving on to item number seven scheduled reports we'll um start off with our continue to

053learn plan for the 21 21 22 school year dr lotch okay thank you very much we're getting it queued up right now so the continue to learn update let's see here there we go so i'm going to give a covet update and we're about the same spot we're kind of hovering in that high phase right now um with 150 cases per 100 000 and we've been managing that really well across the district uh thanks to our well incredible community and also our incredible nursing staff and we're going to go into that in a minute here our dashboard this week looks certainly much better than the last time in that previously we had a number of kindergarten classes that were in quarantine and we are now out of that phase relatively small numbers in quarantine impacted

054by a positive student case and carrying over from the previous weeks as well and i really think anna's done a great job of keeping up with the dashboard and making sure it's reported weekly it's important information and it is really showing a trend pattern that even in this high transmission phase the district is doing an excellent job of managing covet cases to make sure that we focus in on our goal of keeping students in five days a week of in-person instruction now there is a little bit of new quarantine guidance which i wanted to point out because there's an additional option but and and we're going to talk about unvaccinated students because that at this point obviously we know that the students under 12 are in that unvaccinated phase and so this first area is

055talking about when a student were to test positive in traditional classroom or bus settings there's three options for quarantining the traditional quarantine where students stay home for 10 days the new option is quarantined at home for seven days and get a cova test in day six or seven allowing to a return quicker and then we've also been experiencing by many parents the in-school quarantine option as long as students are asymptomatic they attend school while wearing a mask and our nursing staff is doing a terrific job of testing those students three days a week and making sure that they are able to keep in the school setting now they do have to quarantine from extracurricular activities for 10 days and parents submitting a consent form that's all part of that but what we're finding is it's

056giving another option for parents to keep their kids in school safely when they are identified close contacts there's also this additional option for close contacts even in the cafeteria option which which has been a little bit of a challenge because obviously the students are engaging in activities in the cafeteria where they're unmasked and it's obviously a riskier activity that would be the traditional quarantine for 10 days at home but by having this option of quarantine at home for seven days it is getting students back to school sooner even if they're unidentified close contact within the cafeteria setting here's a chart we just received from the cdc and i think it really shows that they now do have data to show that the districts that have started the school with mask requirements are 3.5 times less

057likely to have coveted outbreaks or in this case if we were to be without masks we would find 3.5 times the rate of outbreaks and i think that's important data because now that school started there's a lot of data to compare to okay so now we're going to get into some of the teaching and learning part uh we're going to reiterate this slide we've talked about this slide often and that we have some goals that we are looking to meet from the district in key points as we come back um from the previous year in a choppy school year and that is reinvigorating our focus on the on the sas compass personalized education educational experiences focus on the social emotional support of our student and working towards real world real real world experiences in the

058next few slides we're going to focus on what each a highlight of what each building is doing and what each program is doing and i hope you will see that a lot of these goals are being reflected in those slides so we talk about what happens in this school at our liberty early childhood special education program and our young adult program you talk about young adult program they just had a great time at the saline fair it was inclusion day on september 1st a big success and another one of our partners is new to you again a store in celine that is put together by the wrenchers who have been giving back to the community they're connected with the young adult program and it also serves to help young adult programs with these pre-employability schools

059we talk about real world experiences for our students that's very important our early childhood special education program housed here at liberty has been doing a terrific job that's for our students that are ages two and a half through six and those students are working on developing communication skills and motor skills in this play-based environment and you see they're focused on this fun farm theme as you as witnessed in some of the pictures here at willow meadows highlight is this ilab it's one of the specials at woodland meadows it also is a special at the other three elementary schools this has been a particularly neat activity i've seen it in a number of the buildings where students are designing these lego boats and they're testing designs on how much weight they can carry they're looking at

060water displacement and teaching in a real hands-on environment there as we look at harvest this is a really neat interaction where they have a young fives kindergarten and third grade buddy system program you know developing these friendships across grade levels mentorship is really important for our students whether it's at the elementary level middle school or high school level and we need to leverage that we have so many outstanding students that participate in leadership roles we want all our students to experience that at pleasant ridge i've had discussions previously about what do the kids like most when they go to the media center checking out books the importance of reading books and reading hardcover books soft cover books is really important for our students we talk about building and uh in using hands-on materials with plato

061also looking at how you can incorporate legos with some of the book themes we have and it's really neat to watch this playing out the importance of literacy in our buildings at heritage school a great example of leadership in action the fourth and fifth graders taking leadership responsibilities on a team we're seeing great success in our music programs we have had a relationship at heritage for some time now with a community credit union we talk a lot about the importance of financial literacy both through our junior achievement programs but also through the true community credit union where they're giving students real life experiences on banking and and skills within a credit union and then also you're going to see this theme that we've been highlighting hispanic heritage month in classrooms and throughout buildings and heritage

062is doing a very nice job with that we move on to our middle school lots of hands-on learning going on in our science classes that's very important again the theme of music in full effect also our clubs and organizations you heard previously from our student reps at the high school level we have a lot of that going on at the middle school level builders club that's basically key club at the high school that's where a community service organization where students are giving back and working within the community and a strong debate club our alternative high school is really a good example of how they are using the compass to its full extent they have base class lessons on a regular basis that are talking about things building resiliency fitness social emotional support then they move

063into nutrition and wellness class they use the courtyard here all the time growing a garden producing food through it and then integrating dei supports in a novel study they're doing right now and afghan refugee and his baba sort of the wise man or grandfather and then again you're seeing personal finance real applicable skills that students at the alternative high school need now to give principal melcher credit she has revived and revitalized this program over the years in that it is alternative instruction we're looking at different ways to educate students not just taking students from the high school and doing the exact same curriculum because these students need something else and finally at our high school points of pride our video news production organization is outstanding we have an outstanding facility for that we saw a

064hornet nation the other day with our chad tough orange out and we just recently on saturday had a chad tough run which many of us myself included participated in the rain but it didn't dull the spirits at all and then we look at our southwest washington consortium always getting back to hands-on learning that's what it's about there and then we talk about hands-on science labs choir rehearsing for their fall concert again spanish talking about hispanic heritage month and our student chefs getting back to prepared meals so we're very excited about all the activities and learning opportunities happening at our various buildings and i just wanted to be able to share that with everybody any questions that was that was great i love hearing and seeing things that are happening in our buildings it's excellent and

065i just wanted to echo one thing that you you touched on when talking about pleasant ridge as our libraries and our media centers um i i'd like to give a shout out to our middle school uh the kids are very excited to check out books again and and um and that's another piece of feedback i've been hearing from parents as well is how excited the kids are to really get their hands on books and i'm very very excited and during the open houses those media centers were some of the best places to stop and see the kids excited so appreciate that mention uh any questions or comments for steve really quick question dr lotches i couldn't give any warning on this the test that the the kids take to get out of quarantine it's the

066fast test or the slow pcr test well they're testing androgen testing that the nursing staff is working through and they're in it when they have a now a regular cycle of when they're testing students and they have that very well organized all right thank you very much um i know we have a lot of guests in the back and we've had we have a few chairs that have opened up so if you're comfortable please feel free to to join us up here i know it's hard to stand for a long meeting moving on to our next scheduled report we have our finance committee update with our chair uh trustee valenti thank you the finance committee met today at five o'clock just before this meeting and uh we went through a few different items one as

067we like to do we looked at specific line items uh individually to see how it's going one of the items we looked at today were our legal costs uh to make sure that uh what what the trend is what is how has it been going nothing stands out is out of the ordinary typically over the last five years it's been under a hundred thousand dollars per year that we're spending on legal costs money well spent we want to make sure what we're doing is in compliance with the law so we use two different law firms depending on the specialty of that particular issue but we looked at that that was one of the things we looked at we're comfortable with that next topic we also talked about is our annual audit that's going on by

068the public accounting firm plant moran that we use that plant mirandas most of the school the the largest auditor of schools in the state that's ongoing right now at this time we have received no word of any material issues we expect to get their final report in october or early november but nothing is showing up right now we also had a report uh from assistant superintendent owsley about the esser funds these are the federal covenant money and state coveted money that's coming in and all the work that goes into that there's a fair amount of tracking that has to go on there accounting for it getting clarification of how it can be spent what time period it can be spent and it doesn't all just show up at the door and say here it is

069you you get to spend it on whatever you want it comes through very very dribs and drabs you have to apply for it you have to make sure everything is being spent correctly so there's a fair amount of work that goes involved with that next probably one of the most important topics that we always look at is our student count and the state per pupil funding are the two most important things to our general fund that determines it student count uh we looked at that preliminary numbers right now show we're about where we were a year ago but down a little over 200 from two years ago we're keeping track of this the the official count will start uh next month um so we're obviously we're very very keeping close tabs on that as to

070where we are have we leveled off at where we are now last year this year or will we regain back the 200 plus students that we seem to have lost over a couple years or is this just simply you know a one-time thing that we won't experience anymore something that we constantly look at very carefully so just let you know there that affects our budget update on our bond projects these are the long-term spending we know that what's been ongoing is the middle school gym boilers that that expenditures have been taking place looking forward we're doing an evaluation of the roofs at all of our buildings to see what needs to be done when and we're going to get a bidding process that will take place in the coming months as well to see what

071what needs to be done there the other thing uh i was not here at the last board meeting i wish i was but i see here that the board approved a one-time covert rigor compensation bonus if you will uh with the uh support personnel and the the teachers this is uh if i was here i would have supported it it's well well earned well deserved uh and uh so i'm glad to see that anything else that we wanted to touch on there or amplify i would just amplify with regards to um with to with regards to student head count that we are seeing decreasing class sizes overall so for example the class of 22 2022 compared to the class of 2028 etc that we are seeing those class sizes go down which is accounting for

072some of that attrition as well right okay anything else on that if not our next meeting will be uh just prior to our next school board meeting that's it great thanks dennis good to have you back um moving on to item eight action items i'd like to please entertain a motion to approve the middle school gym and boiler project at a cost of two million nine hundred and eighty three thousand seventy one dollars and zero cents to clark construction company and one hundred sixty nine thousand three hundred dollars to king scott associates so moved mcvay thank you michael support thank you dennis um as all of you might remember we had a very uh in-depth presentation from them at our last board meeting um so i don't believe we have any other discussion but just

073wanted to double check okay excellent and we'll move to vote all those in favor please say aye aye opposed hearing none motion queries 7-0 i'd like to please entertain a motion to approve the y-5 through 8th grade courses to comply with the pupil accounting manual as submitted by kara davis teaching and learning team lead so moved candace thank you second i'll second jenny thank you and kyra i know you're here i don't know where you are there you are if you'd like to say a few words please about this one absolutely thank you good evening so for this this summer as we approached this school year and offered some courses for our virtual students we were speaking with monica hill our washington enemy school district people accounting specialist and she recommended that we approve the

074district's young five through eighth grade courses for the language and the accounting manual to come in line with the grade promotion commentary that's in there um so this is very similar to what we've done with our high school classes in the past and we are thinking that moving forward what we'll do is go ahead and include young fives through eighth grade course approvals with our cadence of the december course approvals for our high school so that it's one package every december for the upcoming year where we highlight any changes that are made great thank you any questions for kara on anything that was in the board packet okay all right seeing none we will move to vote uh candace thank you for the motion jenny for the second all those in favor please say aye

075aye opposed hearing none motion carries seven zero um moving on to discussion items item nine on our agenda policy updates secretary e-step chair all right um so we have a usually i can hear myself um so we have um three discussion items tonight um three updates including the transgender and gender non-conforming students policy draft this is the first reading to the board although it was brought to the policy committee in april i believe um so and i believe on the policy agenda probably every um every meeting um and so um i just want to preface that by um we've been working on this for a really long time collecting a lot of feedback um from students in the school from parents um of transgender children i don't know okay yeah can you hear me okay

076um and uh also uh admins staff we've gotten legal guidance um and um and so we've incorporated all of that and we're super excited to present to you um our draft um okay and then i'm gonna have my goal sorry i'm kind of bouncing around um do the treasure policy which will also be new um and then officers which goes along with that so he did great work and research on that so i'll let him take that um after we go through the transgender and gender non-conforming students policy this isn't oh that'll be real um so this is a first reading um that does not mean that uh i'm reading it all um the board has been able to view this policy and give feedback to us the committee and we went over that feedback

077during an open session at our policy meeting and and so we um did not make any changes and um to our initial draft that was approved legally through our legal team um and gave some reasoning for that but um we can open it up for discussion um once i've gone through some of the pieces um so i'm gonna give you kind of an overview of um the policy and items that are in there not reading at all so the purpose of this policy is to foster an education environment we're all students you know what i don't want to do this but i'm going to does that better okay so foster an educational environment for all students that is safe welcoming and free from stigma and discrimination regardless of sex sexual orientation gender identity or gender

078expression also facilitate compliance with local state and federal laws concerning bullying harassment privacy and discrimination ensure that all students have the opportunity to express themselves and live authentically um we included a statement uh saline area schools and the board of education recognizes that lesbian gay bisexual transgender lgbtq plus students nationally and in michigan are targeted with physical violence and experience a hostile school environment more frequently than their peers supportive environments that acknowledge and affirm a student's identity is a protective factor that improves health and educational outcomes title ix legal statute so a lot of this um whenever we talk about law um there are many court cases um and our legal team uh you know uh gave us um some of that information um and so um but title nine it falls back back to

079that and um we are doing what is legal and we are doing what um if if we pass this um oh excuse me um so uh okay so title nine of the education amendments of 1992 specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federal federally funded education programs and activities the united states department of education's office of civil rights has issued guidance stating it will enforce title ix to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance from the department this was affirmed in june 2021 that that sex act does include sexual orientation and gender identity and there's guidelines that are being put out and support for school districts across the country and also for students who would like resources so the u.s department

080of education's office of civil rights um is uh has information out there on that as well um so let's see bullying harassment and discrimination we have several sections here you're able to view it in the board packet online a lot of this is based on our policy 2266 nondiscrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities policy 5517 anti-harassment and policy 5517.01 bullying and other aggressive behavior towards students so the language being consistent with those policies have been incorporated here and are consistent so that's important to know but further it is you know specifically um how that impacts transgender students and so um so i'm like trying to do an overview but i want to go into all of it so that will take us all day so privacy and confidentiality um talks

081about um some of the the ferpa laws and being able to protect students personal identif identifiable and medical information and kept confidential in accordance with applicable state local and federal privacy laws and affirming that transgender and gender non-conforming students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and decide when with whom and what private information to share and i think we'll probably maybe come back to that item media and community communication that says that the district and the school staff will um provide a point of contact so a designated spokesperson who has been trained specifically in diversity equity and inclusion and so priority is protecting the privacy of the students and making sure that our spokesperson is trained and understands um you know anything related to um protecting students who

082are transgender and gender non-conforming um and able to uh speak appropriately to that in the future the policy committee uh would like to maybe um look at um or with dei as well um about um other issues as far as like the the designated um spokesperson but that's that's in the future so whenever topics you know things happen that were we're able to have somebody who um who's sensitive to um things that are going on and being able to respond appropriately names pronouns and school records so every student has the right to be addressed by name and pronouns that correspond to the student's gender identity regardless of whether the transgender gender non-conforming student has legal legally changed their name or gender schools will allow the student to use a chosen name and gender pronouns that

083reflect their identity so one of the recommendations is that school staff privately asked a transgender gender non-conforming student how they would like to be addressed in class and then in the school's communication with parents and guardians and so let's see and so records um you know being able to um again goes into the the uh ferpa piece um and uh being able to have records that reflect these students the students identity that they want to be referred to as and identify as without providing you know information to um you know a staff member that is their birth name or any sort of you know birth certificate medical records that sort of thing that could out the student as transgender um that that's information that through ferpa would be private and confidential um access to gender

084segregated activities and facilities this is regarding restrooms locker rooms changing facilities students shall have access to those facilities that correspond to their gender identity schools may maintain separate restrooms locker rooms changing facilities provided that they allow all students to eat to access have equal access to those facilities and consistent with gender identity um and then the students are the ones who determine which facilities are consistent with their gender identity um if there's a student who's uncomfortable using um a shared gender segregat segregated facility regardless of the reason upon the student's request they'll be provided with a safe and non-stigmatizing alternative i i do want to i know this has come up over the years at least some of us who have been on the board and maybe you all have been tuned in but we

085have um we have come out and and said that this is what we do in the district already and so i'm happy to say a lot of these practices are here in this policy are things that saline area schools has been you know doing so i do want to point that out that it has been that has been the case and um obviously title ix says that this is what we're doing and um and um so yeah physical education classes and intramural and interscholastic athletics so all students shall be permitted to participate in physical ed classes and intramural sports in a manner consistent with their gender identity that includes interscholastic athletics and this is subject to the michigan high school athletic associations constitution and guidelines and so that that is who we are under across

086the state with the athletic association and um and so they have process in place for you know students who are transgender gender non-conforming and and would like to participate in sports based on their gender identity and so they are supportive of our students in the state who are transgender non-binary gender non-conforming and there's actually i know one of one of our students shared that there have been so many laws or bills that are sitting out there across the u.s attacking our transgender youth and i you know we have one in michigan that is sitting in the education and career readiness committee and it it will um you know it's it's sitting in a committee and um it would ban um transgender um boys from participating in um in uh yeah anyways it's very it's obviously

087like sex segregated and goes into that um and uh the michigan high school athletic association actually has come out and said that they don't support this bill and so i think that's really important to note that these guidelines have been in place and they support it so all right other gender-based activities rules policies and practices so as a general matter schools should evaluate all gender-based activities rules policies and practices this includes classroom activities school ceremonies school photos i did give an example of that to someone um so um and and i don't i don't think that celine does this but um i know my high school did back in the day um but segregating um for example like uh graduation um having um the girls wear you know um a certain color right yellow and

088then like blue and then um so uh that would be some like something that would be segregated right um and so just looking at kind of kind of those things um or you know uh must wear a dress to prom or you know um it all falls in with with title ix and things that hopefully um we we have looked at um already but um you know making sure that um we're aware of that and and being considered considerate of that let's see so this is the section that the committee added underneath of this and so i'll go ahead and read that it specifically relates to our you know our compass and the outcomes that we we have for our students so saline area school supports students and becoming ethical and responsible citizens students demonstrate

089this attribute when they see beyond themselves to the needs of others contribute to their community promote equity take responsibility for the environment and demonstrate respect empathy and compassion so this is the sas compass under ethical and responsible citizen so this is language that we've had i don't know how long now um and we we talk about and you know we we cherish right as a district and um so um you know that this fits within this um policy and um we you know want to um put that uh you know uh put our our um compass to i know we do across the district um you know put like put it into action and so um we want to to make sure that that's in here and um exist well beyond the compass hopefully the

090compass won't disappear [Music] um so um and then with that research shows that lgbtq students who attend schools with curriculum that is inclusive of lgbtq people history and events experience a better school climate and improved academic outcomes curriculum serves as a mirror when it reflects individuals and their experiences back to themselves at the same time curriculum serves as a window when it introduces and provides the opportunity to understand the experiences and perspectives of those who possess different identities and this is through the glsens for supports and glsen is what this policy is based off of dress code we do have dress codes in the student handbooks um and um so just you know um again i think title ix um you know hopefully we've we've looked at these um i think they've changed over the

091years but any such dress code may not be based on gender students have the right to address in accordance with their gender identity and expression including maintaining a gender-neutral appearance and so schools should not enforce the dress code more strictly against transgender and gender non-conforming students than other students students transitions student transitions you know it says that schools shall accept the gender identity that each student asserts there is no medical or mental health diagnosis or treatment threshold that students must meet in order to have their gender identity recognized and respected and it talks about you know students um initiate you know their process is their own and unique process and the schools are there just to support them and their needs training and professional development so the district shall conduct training for all staff members

092on their responsibilities under applicable laws and this policy including teachers administrators counselors social workers and health staff i don't know why board members aren't in there but i think we're in the top there we put it in there so information regarding this policy shall be incorporated into training for new school employees the superintendent or designee shall implement this professional development to build the skills of the staff members to prevent identify and respond to bullying harassment and discrimination the content of such professional development so it has a list of items especially kind of the items that we talked about that would go into the professional development and some of these items are things that we may already have and it will be easy to incorporate into like our current trainings and then other trainings um will

093have to be developed you know if if the policy is passed and so um yeah and then publication it will be distributed annually to students parents guardians and staff also student codes of conduct disciplinary policies and student handbooks and websites definitions so these definitions relate back to what's in the policy these are glsen which is a national national organization specializing in lgbtq youth support and so that's that's their definitions also defined here is bullying this is straight from our policy 5517.01 bullying and other aggressive behavior towards students so that's all defined there and so it's again consistent with our current policies um because that was something we wanted to make sure that was um in there and reflected appropriately so all right and so again our board members have had the opportunity to to give

094some feedback um and so we can have an open discussion on that i do want to the board received asked for additional items which was the what the committee got back from legal which was legal changes suggestions and so they receive that information and also the attorney client privilege which has all of our you know our legal backing up legal basically and supporting with what policies we already have and saying that this is a solid policy so we are legally compliant and so yes so i want to open open it up um so sorry with the legal legal um extra documents that we we gave you all um i don't want to speak to those because it is confidential attorney-client privilege um and we're not lawyers [Music] um or you know so so i just

095yeah oh sorry dennis no offense [Music] oh my goodness um so um so yeah i i um i don't know where i was going with that because now i'm like i offended the lawyer um so i i don't want to talk about those specif so anything outside of our committee draft um i i we can't answer with you know confidence as far as um you know bringing in other items you know we trust trust our legal team and um so if there's any um so tonight we can discuss um there will be a second reading october 12th um and hopefully a vote um but yeah we want to give your get your feedback um and if there's any like concrete revisions suggestions um we will deliberate that and comp like we would make the change

096like agree with or disagree with here on any sort of um concrete changes that we may or may or may not want to revise okay all right thanks susan um and thank you to the policy committee which includes candace and michael i know this has been months of of work and we appreciate um diligence on all policies um so i'd open it up to questions from the trustees dennis yep well as an attorney i do focus on the legal part and and i i will talk about the legal issues here because when we got this i did look back as all of us did we looked back i looked at the research on current rulings and some people might be surprised but one of the rulings just took place last year at the u.s supreme

097court sometimes viewed as a conservative court in bostic versus clayton county the supreme court held the title vii which addresses sex discrimination employment also prohibits discrimination against an individual on the basis of the individual's homosexual or transgender status this is a protected class according to this current u.s supreme court can't get any higher this policy is conforming with that let's also look at michigan falls within the sixth circuit court of appeals down in cincinnati they actually also ruled on a case very specifically in a case called dodds in which the court there held that a school district that sought to exclude a transgender girl from the girls restroom was not likely to succeed on the claim because title ix prohibits the discrimination based on sex stereotyping and gender non-conformity the highest circuit court governing michigan

098has ruled that you can't discriminate on that and to exclude a transgender girl from the girls restroom was not likely to succeed therefore is allowed looking at this looking at the totality of u.s supreme court sixth circuit court of appeals people might be surprised by it but this policy is in conformance with that and i think a lot of people might not understand that thank you thank you dennis i also go to the law first start there right if we're if we're doing something make sure it's compliant and enforceable appreciate that we are not paying your hourly rate though for all of that i might pay you to do this work for me volunteer uh volunteer position there uh so thank you dennis um yeah danny just want to echo uh what's what um president

099stephen has said and and also what um uh trustee mcveigh has has expressed to to the policy committee just thank you for your work i know that this has been months and months and months of work and that you've been very diligent and thorough in your in your work around this uh one one piece that i just wanted to to raise is that our our work as a trust as trustees or as a board of education is to set policy and that the practice that follows this policy falls under operation so that would be a superintendent or buildings administrators and so some of the questions that we have that um that we're getting from the community um would best be answered from um from our superintendent so uh just in the future i'd love to

100to know a little bit about how this will roll out in measures for safety for our students so not tonight but at some point i know those are some of the questions that we're getting around safety and implementation so great thanks jenny it yeah i'm happy to open it up to um superintendent watch if he would like to make some comments on that sure i can respond to trustee miller in terms of you know we mentioned before that we've already as a district been working on creating spaces general gender neutral for all gender changing spaces at the middle school all gender spaces at the high school for changing and then gender neutral facilities restrooms while still maintaining you know some of the more traditional sense of bathroom usage one of the ways in which we

101are confident that we can expand that a little bit at the high school level is we have the opportunity to take some current staff gender neutral bathrooms on each floor of the high school and simply add a door to the hallway which would then create a spaces on each of the three floors so that we wouldn't need students to travel you know to the high school commons area to use a gender neutral facilities so those are some of the things that we have in the works to better support our students in this area and then we'll continue working on that moving forward thanks steven i know that the board sets policy but it is the operations like jenny said that that really carried us out and i know that you've been talking and working closely

102with the admin team so thank you um comments questions and julian feel free to um if you have any comments from a student perspective as well i don't want to put you on the spot but but you're welcome to share as well yes you're giving it to me i would just echo the idea that this is a lot of work and this was you know legally compliant and it is a lot of feedback and a lot of energy went into this and i just want to applaud the effort to the team and on this so that's all i want to say about it thank you brad i've got three things to say um and i appreciated the the work of the rest of the committee and a ramadan boatswain who wasn't here who did earlier

103work so we made it may have seemed like months and months but thank you candace for joining and jumping right in um this policy i did not rush to embrace it at first i was very hesitant i was saying okay let's hear it out let's read the details deep deep dive uh and at this point i have to say that i'm this policy provides a lot of guidance for administrators and teachers it also provides professional development for teachers and staff extraordinarily important it provides for the safety and well-being of students both physically and emotionally and it's not only gender affirming but it's humanity in affirming really um [Applause] the policy uh and i have to say to to everybody in the room the policy committee has read the letters i don't know we're up to

10454 or something like that now and every now and i shouldn't say every now and then there are a lot of sometimes repeated points and questions and and needs for clarity that i know the policy committee will take under advisement uh questions about well what specifically are these gender-based activities and what do you mean by the use of pronouns and uh what about parental awareness these are questions that still require a bit of clarity and and and polishing and uh we are listening to everybody when they ask and raise a question and i want to tell you just how serious we are about that and the last thing i want to say is that one parent tonight said that the district had the chance to make a safe space i wish i'm looking at you

105tiffany i wish that any policy could be so powerful as to erase fear and concern and bullying just like that but it's not and and to remove fear and stigma and that's not the case but i do have to say that this policy does go some distance towards making it happen and i appreciate the work of the board in supporting this and the community and supporting it and we heard your stories pro and con and we're listening very closely and we are thinking about our students first michael michael thank you for acknowledging the emails that we've been getting yesterday and today and and that we hear them and that the policy committee will take some of that feedback into the next policy committee meeting to discuss various points that have been raised so thank you

106for acknowledging that and your other comments candace or julian yeah i i won't repeat all that michael said he said a lot of what i was thinking so um i just want to thank the policy committee for embracing me um and and susan you know even though i came in on the fourth quarter on this um susan i just want to commend you for the time and effort that you put in to really drive this forward um i i am happy to be a part of something that i know will will help to create a safe space in this community so thank you to the policy committee all right thanks candace julian i don't want to put you on the spot but if you'd like to say something okay excellent um i just had a

107couple of things the first thing that i wanted to do was thank the students who came um came to speak with us tonight and any students who reach out on email on any topic when we say we are student-led and student-focused that is absolutely the truth i wish we could hear from them more often and so i appreciate them i also appreciate how hard that must have been to come forward tonight and and to come forward anytime and i think about all of those who didn't come forward and don't feel that they can come forward and so i'd like to acknowledge those voices that aren't necessarily being heard here um i did want to ask the committee i know a lot of research has gone into this one parent tonight spoke about hearing voices in

108the in the policy and hearing some of the feedback so i was just wondering if the committee could talk a little bit about the michigan department of education and the individuals you're working with there whether on talking about correlation to law involvement of parents facilities the linkage to anti-bullying like what has the research been with the mde um them being the subject matter experts right and also the transgender task force and the involvement with parents who who know this firsthand um which i do not so if you could speak a little bit to kind of the getting those voices into this policy with the michigan department of vet and the task force well so i'm going to so the michigan guidance michigan guidance was put out in its guidance um and probably outdated too it's

109in some some realm right and it was lgbtq specific um and so um you know i think there's been a lot of law to kind of back that up some of those items as well so so yeah we did you look at that and review that steve did a lot of reaching out um to our constituents so i will let him uh speak to that specifically yeah that's accurate with um as it relates to the legal points in adding additional elements in this policy to meet the some of the updates from the latest administration and federal federal guidance is absolutely correct so it is in line with where mde would support a policy like this and has some advancements beyond that in terms of working with our local transgender task force i've been in meetings

110along with our previous superintendent scott graden for well over a year more closer to two about the importance of supporting transgender and lgbtqia youth and have been listening and hearing stories about our own students and so the the belief is that this policy would certainly provide more supports and if that's what our district is about then we certainly encourage that we would be passing this transgender policy in the near future thank you both any other comments or questions yeah candace yeah i just want to comment on something that came up during a parent meetings about this this topic and some comments that we've been receiving about the engagement of parents in the process and something that really impacted me on this topic is hearing about the number of of students who are homeless who have

111um taken their own lives because of not having a safe space to go home to and the school outing them in some way without really having a safe space to do so and counseling the student through that process and ensuring that that they are engaging the parents in a safe way so i just want to wanted to mention that that we were really careful in this policy to not take parents rights away that's that's not what this is but just ensure that there's a process around that so that the student has a safe way um to do so so that i just wanted to mention that we were really careful in that process thank you for that clarification yeah jenny just one last thing that i wanted to bring up and i know um secretary

112eastep you brought this up before in um in a different situation but it happened again tonight and so should this policy pass as members of the board i would request that we reopen the public comment policy to uh to allow for for um people to use their chosen name instead of their legal name um tonight a a student was called um by their dead name and corrected us at the podium and uh i i don't want to see that happen again and jenny just to be clear um the names that were read were handwritten on the on the forums exactly because it calls for their legal name and so i think that that that's the where i'd like for the policy just to be looked at that when we're on forms requiring students and and

113um public commenters to give their legal names got it we're asking for them to use okay i was hoping i didn't do no no no no no it wasn't your fault it's the policy so we need to reopen the policy it was not your fault no okay thank you for clarifying thank you for clarifying and clarifying for everybody so they understand perfect i think that um you just did a perfect example of the the sec sorry you talking about that policy and us changing it is where the other um gender-based activities rules policies and practices so right there you you know you um it's something you recognize and that we need to change um you know i think that's uh you know i i feel i filled out forms and um being um a queer

114woman and having three children um you know it's it's um i remember coming to school and having to um you know fill out like who's the mother who's the father right because that's what it says um and also just recently um came across a document that um actually asked for um the the birth mom or birth dad information so um it was um you know and it was just a matter of pointing it out but yeah that does that does because i'm i'm an adoptive parent as well so in foster care so um that kind of took me back or i'm like wait a minute and i know pronouns that being on documents is important i know we have some work to do in the power school and i know that they are working at

115the state level to change um some of those items in there that not only with students parents who are filling out information um and you know not able to put like um their um you know um pronouns or identity and and so um that's just yeah speaking of practices and everything on our dei committee i've seen and read emails from them and i appreciated it and was excited to see that support from the committee and i think a lot of this um you know looking at these practices and you know i think working with some of this will come up that you know they can look at and identify some some of those practices and um so i i want to acknowledge them and all the hard work um that they are doing and will

116be doing and their support as well i think that's super important so we have a dei advisory committee this year and then possibly october 12th we'll have a transgender and gender non-conforming students policy and i'm excited [Music] all right thank you just to clarify jenny because you brought up a good point i looked at the form it says printed name required it does not say legal name so i if it's somewhere else please let us know but anyone should be feel comfortable to not use their dead name on on this form please thank you yeah that's great um i just wanted to um address that because uh this should be a safe space so thank you for bringing that up um and thank you for everyone's participation in that discussion um moving on to policy

117update number two treasurer michael you're gonna take that one i'd be delighted to take this now unlike the other policy i think i can read this in uh 38 seconds who's got their stopwatch i know brad there's always one kid in every class when i say i'm going to do it in 45 seconds so just before i start before i start uh as i noted earlier there were two holes there was a major hole uh there are 10 uh sorry not is it nine or ten nine nine districts across washington county all of them have uh treasurers except for one and that's that's us so uh i reviewed what their what the roles were of their treasures and uh came up we with a tight 14 and they after talking to uh superintendent assistant superintendent

118owsley we got it down to a tight four and thanks to candace she uh trustee jones she added a clarified one i think you added here we go are you ready now brett all right okay the treasurer shall serve as a member of the finance committee or may serve as chair of the finance committee duty and perform duties including signing district documents the board may prescribe in its bylaws relating to the administration of school district funds in collaboration with the assistant superintendent for finance verify that accurate and transparent periodic financial reports are made to the board review as part of the finance committee student counts trends of revenue versus expenditures and the current fund balance amount and finally serve as temporary secretary when for any reason the secretary is unable to perform his her duties

119and responsibilities and that's it in a nutshell 40 seconds that's great and and i think you're taking the next one and it only adds two words so i don't think we have to read it we're good um well let's discuss it first yeah so any any comments questions on the treasure position that michael just read all right that's a first sounds good the only thing i would add and i did give you this piece of feedback since we are talking about pronouns tonight um it says his her so you could possibly entertain um adding day depending on who might serve in that role i almost said there but i thought i'm just going to read what is it um okay great no other well and if we were to uh pass this it would automatically

120trigger the next policy along which is to each january uh to elect a president vice president as well as secretary and a treasurer and that's it and that's the only change to the officers um we've discussed uh parliamentarian but we're leaving that for another day another year another battle another another another time okay excellent thank you to our policy committee for leading that portion of our discussion moving on to administration board updates dr lotch okay thank you i did want to point out that uh some of you have seen a news release in the niche.com saline area schools is rated the fifth best school district in michigan i'll temper this by saying that these ratings fluctuate from year to year and there are many factors that play into this including socioeconomic status as we've looked

121at throughout the years however this is really good news to demonstrate how well our students staff and community are doing and working together to continue to learn the factors they use for these ratings are academics teacher quality teacher quality culture and diversity which we continue to work on parents student surveys on overall experience health and safety resources and facilities clubs and activities and athletics and yes it's been tough these past this past year and a half but our students our staff and community are really resilient and we'll keep moving forward trying to get better at what we all do the next update i have is about our culturally responsive instruction we're moving forward with athletic training what does that mean well we're still keenly aware that racism is part of society and in every community

122including celine and we want to be as proactive as possible to providing our students with the skills they need to combat it to that point shannon washington our culturally responsive consultant has been working with andrew parish our athletic director to offer a professional development series for our athletics teams regarding how they can be leaders around diversity equity and inclusion and that will kick off in the near future in addition shannon as we spoke about during a presentation at the last board of education meeting is organizing a professional development series for all our parents and community members which the primary focus is to define and discuss what culturally responsive instruction is and what it isn't and dates are now finalized we'll have a session one november 9th through 11th there'll be a second session january 11th

123through 13th and the third session february 15th to 17th in the near future we'll start advertising widely so that we will encourage that um all uh uh community members are are able to participate in in one of these sessions thank you all right great moving to julian uh yes so i'd like to start off with a quick statement so i'm the student representative therefore i represent all students kindergarten through 12th grade no matter sexual orientation gender identity race age economic status culture or anything of the story sort i will stand by and support you i will listen to and entertain all ideas from all students however for each discussion there is one side one ideology and one area i will never dignify with a response and that is the words of the oppressor every student

124that steps into saline high school deserves to be treated with respect be protected by law and code feel comfortable and most importantly feel pride and honor in their identity each student is a hornet no matter their identity or background and i will always support my fellow hornets [Applause] so moving on to uh activities going on in the schools for kindergarten through fifth grade as said in the student showcase today they're building student leadership alongside student council they're building safety patrols video announcement clubs are starting to meet and they're just they're just started in working to be up and running obviously it's still early on in the school year and especially the younger schools um you know if if you're coming from a younger grade and you're all of a sudden you know fifth grade or

125third grade or whatever it is that's like the biggest kids in the school it's tough to be building leadership coming off of you know a year and a half of fully virtual so they're working on doing that as well so kindergarten through third grade fundraising fun runs are beginning to take place heritage held a successful fun run pleasant ridge and harvest are upcoming and the next fridays and then at the middle school and high school steam programs they've started training for competitions and then middle school has just started getting going and meeting and practicing and such that is it thank you julian very very well done thank you uh trustees are you pointing at yourself sure so i get to talk about sex ed so important topic uh so the sex ed advisory board it

126continues to meet on an ongoing basis and uh i'll tell you that currently the scab is continuing to discuss the adoption of positive prevention plus curriculum and it's an abstinence-based comprehensive model and it's for our life skills students in our district and uh this is in alignment with our current michigan model which is also an abstinence-based curriculum for our general ed students and so i'll stress again that the curriculum that we're looking at meets a very targeted group of our students and uh so having said that i want to acknowledge the the work of of the team of the members who are there it's been a three-year process and i also tell the board that we anticipate that within uh we will be making a recommendation to the board within within a month or two

127uh we don't want to we want to make be diligent in the process and we want to make sure that we kee you know that we do it properly and uh so we will keep the board and the superintendent updated but that's where we're at with regards to the sex ed advisor reward that's that great thanks brad anyone else we know what's going on in policy i'm teasing you i've just been so busy that i yeah but yeah i don't have enough brain space for talking about committees candace for you yeah yeah i wanted to mention uh hispanic heritage month and really acknowledge that and mention that there is a website hispanicheritagemonth.gov that has a number of resources for families for teachers for everyone anyone individually to get engaged and there's a number of events

128that are being hosted by the smithsonian and library of congress that are really interesting there's art showcases many of it is you know many of them are virtual which is nice so we can all participate um i also just wanted to commend uh the district on really continuing to keep dei at the forefront and the trainings that are going to be happening for for athletes i think are really important i have been reached out to by a number of families of color who are experiencing racism continuously in in the school system that it hasn't gone away it wasn't just one incident so i really appreciate that this is a top priority that these sessions will be happening uh these culturally responsive instruction sessions so that families can really understand what that means and and engage

129in that so i just wanted to to share that great thanks candace um i just had two quick things i wanted to say i'm just going to build off of steve's rankings rankings are great for a school district especially when they're as high as celine so very good job um our our students and our staff are why we have a ranking like that so i want to publicly acknowledge them i also want to publicly acknowledge that we were named number one for athletics in the state of michigan it's an incredible honor and i know how hard our athletics teams have been working during covid to keep the students playing it's an incredible outlet for students that said i am very proud of all of our choices that we have made available to the students at

130the high school the middle school and even our elementary schools for any types of clubs athletics music programs i'm very very proud and look forward to more accolades in all of those areas i also wanted to thank saline area schools and the pittsfield police department for taking care of run tougher chad tough this past saturday a cause that is near and dear to me um dipg which is a pediatric brain tumor has a zero percent survival rate targets children up to 11 years old and we lost one of our own several years ago when chad passed away at age five and i am infinitely thankful and appreciative and proud of how this community comes together as one each september um this was his would have been his 11th birthday and it also is the uh

131the anniversary of the week that he was diagnosed and imagine being a parent um and hearing that your child has a zero percent chance of survival that's pretty pretty rough um so thank you for the schools always supporting this incredible cause and run and supporting each other as as we are stronger together so appreciate that any other word comments okay excellent moving on to item 11 our consent agenda the following are offered as part of the consent agenda the motion noted will allow for the authorization of all listed items without discussion unless a member of the board requested requests that any one or all be considered individually a approval of the board of education regular meeting minutes of september 12 b approval of the board policy committee meeting minutes of september 15 2021 c approval

132of payment of the general fund accounts payable of september 28th 2021 the amount of 1 million 735 thousand 819 dollars and 10 cents item d approval of payment of bond series 3 accounts payable of september 8th 2021 in the amount of 28 884 dollars and six cents e receive and file our finance and human resources reports f approval of early graduation requests as submitted by superintendent launch angie approval of overnight and or out-of-state field trips as submitted by superintendent lodge item 1 field trip number 15 capstone service learning trip i'd like to please entertain a motion and move to authorize all of those items on our consent agenda i'll make the motion brad thank you for the motion second support susan support thank you all in favor please say aye aye opposed hearing none motion

133carry seven zero in closing items on our next agenda agenda dr lotch right that would be another continue to learn update and second reading of the transgender policy all right perfect this is our second opportunity for public comment i won't read all of our instructions from before but the same procedures apply please a member of the public may address the board briefly thanks buddy address the board briefly for up to three minutes or request to be scheduled on the agenda of a future meeting i'm going to quickly i have a stack i'm going to look at my new stack i'm going to make sure we don't have any students because one student did write on a white form last time so i just want to make sure all right looking good thank you for all

134this feedback okay we will go through all of these and i will start an order of received well we do not have any students commenting so um if i'm wrong please please state that now okay um susan if you can do the timing again that would be great our first parent is david hayward thank you for your time this evening and for all the valuable work that all of you do for our community my name is david hayward um i'm the parent of two children in the district a non-binary tenth grader at the high school and a daughter in first grade at harvest tonight you're considering adopting a policy to protect transgender and gender non-conforming students i'm speaking to you now as a gender non-binary person myself as well as the parent of a child

135who happens to be non-binary i grew up attending a school district very much like celine in terms of size and demographics it was obvious from the time that i was four years old that i was what we would now call gender non-conforming although in 1985 that idea wasn't on most people's radar by the time i was in second grade bullying was a daily experience for me and one day my mother went to talk with my elementary school principal about the situation i'll never forget what my principal told her while i sat there and listened he said we'll do what we can to stop the bullying but with a kid like that you have to expect it those words didn't leave me for a long time and i got the same message from every person in

136that school and in the rest of the schools that i grew up going to that there was something wrong with me that made other people justified in hating me and bullying me so later when i was in middle school i never even bothered to tell anybody after i was assaulted in a public restroom by a grown man not in my school but in my community ironically enough he wanted to make sure that i knew i wasn't welcome to use the restroom of the gender on my birth certificate i never bothered to tell anybody because i had so completely internalized the idea by that time that that's just what someone like me deserved i say this to make the point that school policy matters and the message that you send from the top matters you have

137the opportunity to tell every transgender and gender non-conforming student in our schools that there's nothing wrong with them that their lives matter that their teachers and administrators see them for who they are and welcome them that they don't deserve to be bullied humiliated and harassed every day so i stand here tonight proud and grateful to live in a community where our schools are ready to do the right thing when i was a 10th grader like my child is today i never dared to dream that i would live to see the day that a trans or non-binary student like me could go to school openly and could turn to their school for support and protection rather than abuse as a parent i am overjoyed to know that my non-binary child's future in school and beyond is

138so much brighter than my what mine was when i was their age but even so and especially hearing everything we've heard from the students tonight i'm still anxious um thank you for bringing this policy for consideration the sooner it can be enacted the more good it will do in the lives of our most vulnerable children thank you thank you thank you for your comments david our next parent is angela olsen okay uh again my name is angie olson my pronouns are she her i'm a resident of the city celine a parent of a 20 20 graduate also a celine graduate myself i've been doing advocacy work for transgender students for several years now and you know working with the transgender task force in the washington county and livingston school districts as well as in our

139own community here and i want to thank the board uh for the and the administration for having difficult but necessary conversations these past few years for really listening to students and especially those who may be marginalized and i want to thank the policy committee for all the work that they have put into developing the transgender and gender non-conforming students policy while saline airy schools has been doing a lot to support transgender and non-binary and gender non-conforming students in recent years i continue to hear from students and families about you know bullying and other challenges um obstacles to getting supports and things like that and having a policy like this in place can be really helpful it spells out how the students are supported how they can seek that support and create a safer and more

140affirming learning environment several studies have shown that having support either from schools communities or families greatly reduces the risk of suicide for transgender youth and while i think making changes that are truly life-saving is reason enough to to have a policy like this it also has you know studies have shown that students who feel safe they perform better academically and that's something that benefits our school system our other students and our whole community at large celine has a really good reputation as you've mentioned high ratings off all the time for our schools and this is something that just can i think can help continue that reputation because when students feel safe and supported they do better and i appreciate all the work that you've all done to make our schools more diverse inclusive and equitable

141to further build on that reputation thank you [Applause] thank you for your comments angie our next parent is lisa slawson dear board of education i'm sorry i couldn't be at the board meeting but i wanted to still take the opportunity to speak to you on the transgender policy adoption i was on the board in 2010 when we considered amending the non-discrimination policy to include language that was supportive of our transgender students students teachers administrators city leaders clergy and community members were overwhelmingly supportive of the inclusion of this language however a single teacher in the district was upset by this idea and contacted the american family association identified as a hate group by the southern poverty law center the result was intimidation tactics calling board members and inundating the board with thousands of mean and at

142times threatening emails the week we were to vote on the issue several emails were received among the thousands and these were threatening to harm me and several student members of the gsa we knew they were serious because they mentioned us all by name we did not pass these changes to the non-discrimination policy we failed our lgbtq students staff and community members it is one of the biggest regrets of my life tonight you have the opportunity to start the process of doing the right thing for our students you can consider the hard work of our policy committee and you can protect our most vulnerable students your most important job is this do what's best for kids all day every day full stop protecting transgender kids is one of the most important things you will ever do

143as a former board member who has been in your shoes let me say this listen to your policy committee listen to your staff listen to your students listen to transgender parents don't be intimidated by naysayers who to yell but what about all kids or parents rights or my religion or this isn't needed or is covered by bullying policies this is noise with the healthy helping of political rhetoric which cannot influence your decision these people's kids their own rights their religion etc are all protected by a myriad of policies and state and federal laws they are not in need of protection but transgender kids are protect these kids you will never regret it thank you thanks for your time sincerely lisa slawson thank you for um thank you for reading those comments our next um commenter

144is krista mitchell good evening i first want to thank the policy committee they've thoughtfully put together a sound policy for students who are trans and non-binary my request is that every board member supports this policy with a yes vote i personally helped pass our city's non-discrimination ordinance i was part of the team that wrote it that was a start and this is an opportunity to finish some very important work supporting this policy would protect children who need protection we heard from some of them they are in this room i urge the board to support these students and codify this policy thank you [Applause] thank you for your comments our next parent is darcy berwick good evening i just wanted to take a second first to thank the students at the high school celine edge for

145my lovely celine pride t-shirt it's a great place and they have more t-shirts if anyone needs them so i wanted to start with uh saying that i appreciate that the teachers and admin are doing everything you can to ensure that our kids are in school full-time this year i'm as a parent much happier and my child as a student is also much happier we appreciate all that you're doing and so i i spoke at a board meeting a few weeks ago and i actually felt that what i had to say beared repeating so you have heard this but i'm going to say it again for emphasis is that my expectation is that your decisions will continue to be highly informed and data driven tonight you're considering a policy that provides protections for some of our

146most vulnerable students are transgender and gender non-conforming kids experts have been telling us that our lgbtq students who are at a higher risk for being bullied for experiencing mental health issues and for suicide are safer when they are accepted for who they are as human beings when their school is protected by enacting supportive policies please lean in to this advice and when the experts tell you that our special needs students should have a sex ed curriculum geared to their level to keep them safe because they are at a higher risk of sexual exploitation than lean in to that advice i suspect that everyone in this room has their own opinion and you should listen to us please take our input into consideration when making your decisions but please please give real weight to the multitude

147the aggregate aggregate of recommendations from the experts in their fields lean in thank you for your comments um our next parent is laura washington hi thank you to the board of education for giving me this opportunity to speak to you this evening my name is laura washington i'm the proud principal of saline middle school as well as a parent in the district community member and co-chair of the deiac i am in i am speaking this evening to say that a policy for transgender and gender non-conforming or gender expansive students would be an excellent addition to the policies of saline area schools which would affect saline middle school students as an administrator it is my primary job to keep students safe it is very powerful to be able to open the policy manual in student handbooks

148and shows students where they are directly supported this policy complements our student handbooks by defining transgender gender non-conforming students gender expansive and the fact that there are disciplinary actions and potential educational opportunities for students that have caused harm to our lgbtq plus students who both locally and nationally are one of the most vulnerable populations this policy is saying that as a district and a community we see you and we hear you while it is true that saline area schools does have an anti-bullying policy in place this gives our students who identify as lgbtq plus a recognition that is long overdue thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your comments our next parent is bridget sparks and i said parent i it says teacher i actually have a kid on top of that

149i'm used to saying parent go ahead bridgette thank members of the sas board the following members of the saline area schools equity teams and their allied colleagues believe that each and every student is entitled to a safe and supportive learning environment and reaffirming our commitment to supporting all gender identities i can't breathe we urge the district to approve of a transgender policy that supports all of our transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students studies consistently show transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students are more likely to experience harassment from their peers and increased risk of mental health issues these experiences impact not only students self-worth but also their educational success and this is simply unacceptable in short we believe that affirming the rights of our transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students through this policy is a legal

150and ethical obligation under in support of equity for all jen denzen jamie vollrath melanie scott bridget sparks holly neeb jen nelson jennifer santavanti ireland vanek adam rodriguez brian lantman rachel alissa laura odom natalie freeburn kirsten zamatis amanda webster chris traynor leanne reem kennedy willett laura tolis rachel youssef kelly voigt karen block terry pickett brenda ezell elizabeth lombard cindy larson jason pickett edgall nicole toth leanne meyer beth grigonis jason gumnick gretchen marshall jacob tarabic tareberg cathy mucio katie stacy jeff pike jared falkowski allison mayer bill elliott brett parichek katie nadler julie myers caitlin gasparovic marianne vreeland natalie anderson bianca collins cara wetzel jesse spicer drew denzen jason schmear paige pierra saying that wrong zachary ornelas shelley venema aaron grigorie victoria droider john fox and i'm still getting people added to this list daily thank you bridget

151thank you for your comments our next parent is roy f grove it's going to be unpopular with some people i feel compelled to speak the truth i don't hate anyone i don't despise anyone i wish the best for everyone i see many defects in today's transgender policy proposal one thing is crystal clear if the schools fail to correct these defects and plows ahead with it something else is a higher priority than the education and well-being of our students here are examples of some of the defects in this proposal let's start with the very foundation of the proposal intense feelings are the be all and all and thus cancel immutable facts therefore facts are not really facts at all if that doesn't derail education i don't know what does next this proposal claims that intense feelings

152define you and universally affirming those feelings will maximize a student's happiness and success this ignores underlying physical factors emotional factors and human psychology and will often reduce a student's happiness and success example affirming the proclaimed body image of a student with anorexia a condition where there is a mismatch between the mental body image and the physical body will most certainly not maximize that student's happiness and success how do we know really know that applying the standard to transgender person where there is a mismatch between the mental body image and the physical body is beneficial think about it in a transgender person's mind by definition something is fundamentally out of whack that cannot ever be fixed since it is impossible to change their biological sex does affirming that disparity which cannot be fixed improve or darken

153their outlook i don't know does anybody know this proposal just marches right ahead assuming that it improves their outlook and yet we hear about the highest suicide rates the stakes are too high to just make an assumption third this proposal opens all facilities bathrooms changing rooms and locker rooms to everyone totally obliterating many students and parents profound right to privacy modesty purity and human dignity the magnitude of this betrayal and violation cannot be overstated this environment profoundly fails to support acknowledge and affirm students with various identities especially students with christian jewish and muslim identities fourth opening all the facilities to everyone is also a cruel action against countless girls and young women who are victims of sexual abuse and assault which number as high as one in four girls before they turn 18 according to

154some estimates opening all facilities to everyone also increases the risk of actual sexual harassment and assault as well as false claims of sexual harassment and assault i empathize with students and parents of students with intense emotional struggles and wounds i want all students to achieve their greatest potential this proposed policy fails our students and our parents we have to fix this before moving forward thank you for your comments um our next parent is cheryl girvin hello everyone i uh sent this letter earlier today so i'm going to read it word for word which will explain why it sounds like a letter my name is cheryl girvin i'm a resident of the city of saline i have a 17 year old son who is a junior at the saline high school we have lived in sling

155for 15 years i am writing in support of the transgender and gender non-conforming student policy i am in favor of this policy and the protections it will offer saline area school students who identify as transgender and gender non-conforming all people deserve the right to feel safe to be their authentic selves in particular all students attending saline area schools deserve the same right while attending school and school functions this policy if adopted by the saline school board will be one of the most important factors in ensuring that these students will thrive and be successful the adoption of this policy by the board will send a very powerful message to those it aims to protect as well as the entire student body students who learn that acceptance inclusion and protection is the expectation from our leadership teaching

156staff and community at large will evolve into a more inclusive accepting and kinder generation this is one of the most important lessons our students will learn during their k-12 education insulin i implore you to consider my request in adoption of this policy should this policy not be adapted we will have failed our students and their families according to the cdc's suicide mortality in the united states 1999 through 2017 report there has been a significant increase in suicide rates over time for 10 years suicide has been the 10th leading cause of death in the u.s in particular lgbtq youth are impacted suicide is the second leading cause of death for all young people lesbian gay and bisexual youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers and nearly half of

157all transgender people have attempted suicide many before the age of 25. the trevor project the world's largest suicide prevention organization for lgbtq young people estimates that at least one lgbtqtq youth between the ages of 13 and 24 attempts suicide every 45 seconds as an award-winning school district who is recognized nationally and locally for its academic and athletic achievements adoption of this policy needs to be yet another reason for applause i urge this board to adapt this policy to create a safe environment to those students at greatest risk saving lives thriving students and inclusive community are essential to the success of any district may selene be such a district thank you thank you cheryl thank you cheryl for your comments and and um just a reminder we have a very large stack so if we can

158try to um please look at susan when she has the 30-second and and close our thoughts i know this is um some of the topics we're discussing tonight are are challenging um but we would like to hear from everyone so thank you so much our next parent is justin kuhl a couple hours ago we recited the pledge of allegiance to our flag our nation is under god and we pledge allegiance to him so why are we acting contrary to what we say the great american experiment has been the longest lasting constitutional republic in history but politics and fear of litigation have crippled this board in the city of celine into submission you do not have our kids best interests at art you are beholden to the teachers unions and to the wealthy donors who campaigned

159for you to sit there celine is not ann arbor's little sister as much as you'd like to see that come to fruition jesus said it would be better to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin think very hard about what you're doing to our little ones two thousand years later you've given our kids the gender-bred person which facilitates your desires to push your extreme left-wing ideology into k-12 classrooms the sick pedophile father of gender theory john money would say gender is a social construct well i'm here to tell you that it is not less than 0.1 percent of our nation has gender identity disorder 0.1 from 1997 to 2018 there was a 4 000 increase in people who

160have this disorder why my theory social media popularity and the trends that come with it of course this doesn't apply to all trans kids but a lot of them why aren't we raising our children on biblical principles to love one another as we love ourselves but you'd claim that would be a violation of the separation of church and state a fictitious argument to keep god out of schools i can't imagine what it's like to be the parent of a trans kid but i have a lot of sympathy for them this issue like everything else is caused by our sin nature we are fallen human beings trying to operate our lives without god and eventually this is the kind of stuff that happens the suicide rate before and after transitioning and cross-sex hormones is the same

161about 50 so what do these kids go through why do they go through all of this for for for nothing if it's not even able to produce an effective remedy if i can speak to anyone going through this right now i would tell you i will never force my beliefs down your throat much like what's happening to me right now god is close to the brokenhearted if you reach out and ask he will answer jesus said i am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father but by me seek him in his word the bible the word of god is alive and powerful sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword cutting deep piercing penetrating to the division of soul and spirit and is the discern of thoughts and intents of

162the heart nothing in all creation is hidden from god everything is naked and exposed before his eyes and he is the one to whom we are accountable to the board we see your intentions and they're wrong take the masks off our children and stop pushing gender theory to appease your overlords and turn our kids into communists nothing i said here tonight was out of hate or malice or ill will i just want everyone to meet christ and i'm not afraid to tell people they need him just like me thank you for your comments our next parent is kevin camero [Applause] sure let me catch my breath for a second all right uh good evening and thank you esteem members of the board of education my name is kevin camaro sulak my pronouns are he him

163his i have a 12th grade transgender son and i have a 2019 graduate from saline high school i must say that i'm overfilled with joy seeing the overwhelming support for this policy overwhelming support an actual data verified data supporting this policy my transgender son suffered traumatic physical and emotional abuse his assailants acted with clear intentions to bully to harass and to hurt a comprehensive policy like this would have helped to protect my son and many others from this bullying and harassment the policy clearly lays out to students and their families what their options are and what supports are available or will be in place for them this includes measures that will help to create a more inclusive affirming and safe environment the policy explicitly permit prohibits discrimination bullying and harassment based on a student's actual

164perceived gender identity or expression the policy also explicitly protects siblings and friends of transgender and gender non-conforming students i again would like to thank the board for considering this critically important policy and the policy committee who've worked on this for months many of us know what it's like to work on an initiative like this for over two years transgender and gender non-conforming students face significantly greater levels of discrimination than their cisgender peers and a majority report experiencing physical verbal and sexual harassment this leads to a higher anxiety depression and suicidal ideation this policy does not let me repeat does not change the rights or privileges of other students if anything it likely strengthens them with the emphasis that's put on anti-bullying harassment discrimination this also does not turn students that are transgender or gender non-conforming

165or fluence them influence them to be but rather allow students to be safe to be seen and to be included unfortunately previous generations have not been in for have not been afforded these protections that improve health mental health and overall being supportive policies like this one align with the federal guidelines for title ix as well as several federal and supreme court rulings that condemn discrimination which we already heard from trustee valente thank you i appreciate your time our next our next parent is lauren gold hi i'm a local pediatrician a celine resident and the parent of three kids in saline area of schools i'd like to thank the board for considering this policy in the committee i'd like to thank the families and most importantly the transgender students themselves who spoke tonight i think they

166teach us all a lot about unconditional love and meeting your child where they are which is something i strive to do as a parent as pediatrician every day i'd like to rebut a couple of comments made so there was a comment just made about uh there being no difference uh based on whether or not policies like this one or gender affirming care are uh uh instituted that's the word uh so and i can get the board this information but in april uh there was a study published it was the first randomized controlled study so you know not all studies are created equal right uh just like not all schools and school districts are created equal we like to look at randomization and you have to get rid of confounding factors our science teachers could talk

167more about that so you can't just pull any junk study and then use it as fact but a little group called the journal of the american medical association surgery published a recent study in april finding that gender affirming care is associated with improved mental health outcomes among transgender people it was authored by researchers at harvard medical school and i'd be happy to share that with the board if it's useful in making decisions certainly the american academy of pediatrics comes down quite clearly on this and i was so excited to hear so many names of so many of my kids teachers talking about their support for this and it will really be the teachers on the front lines of making the kids feel at home in the classroom and modeling the kind of behavior as well

168as us parents and so i want to model to my sons who so far are cisgender kids explore some of the kids may not feel the same tomorrow what is important is showing our kids that we are open showing our kids that our love stays showing our kids they can be who they are right now if that changes later that changes later you know people change but we want to show our kids that we are supportive of them in that moment further i don't think that this is going to make anyone less safe there's no evidence that having gender-neutral bathrooms make people less safe we have them in many places there are handicapped bathrooms there's absolutely no evidence that this makes anyone less safe i'm just trying to think there is nothing that i know

169of also as a jewish american in judaism that goes against transgender students thank you thank you very much um our next uh next speaker is tay shull a former student good evening my name is tay i use they them pronouns and i'm a former saline student who graduated back in 17. growing up in saline i felt out of place i didn't have the words to describe how i felt so i assumed it was just me looking back i can identify that i felt out of place when i went into the bathrooms into the changing rooms or even being grouped with the gender i was assigned at birth and those places are the times that i felt the most out of place because my friends didn't add those associations to me when i was with them

170when i finally told my family about my name change and my pronouns i was very nervous and honestly thankful that i was on my own so that if they didn't take it well i didn't have to deal with it thankfully they did take it well i have friends that are still in saline when one of their parents told me about celine celine's new transgender policy potential i decided to look into it and honestly i love it the policy is student focused and it's written to try and help students feel more comfortable so it's easier safer and more enjoyable to learn in the schools i love how it says that in schools teachers and staff would be required to use the student's name and pronouns but if they're not ready for their parents to know it

171requires teachers to use students legal names and assigned gender pronouns that sort of policy will likely lead to more students being comfortable trying to figure out who they are or be more comfortable in a place that they have to spend most of their week i am so thrilled for this policy and hope that celine uh that you guys are proof of it thank you thank you for your comments our next parent is a fifa corrigan all right hello and thank you for welcoming me here to speak um i come to you tonight with a story i grew up in celine and my sister at the tender age of 11 had a body perception disorder known as anorexia she refused to eat and got down to such a dangerous weight that she looked like a skeleton

172and was hospitalized for weeks this was in large part provoked by teasing she endured in the saline schools where she was teased for her weight her skin tone and her name we're a muslim family and we all had traditional muslim names and so she she grew to hate herself and reject her own body and the damage damage was lasting and she wanted to struggle for decades i tell you this personal story because i want you to know that i understand the impact of body perception disorder not feeling right in your own skin i see gender confusion as a body perception disorder personally much like the one i knew and experienced in my own family i sympathize with the children and their families who struggle in this way the school's transgender policy however boldly defines gender

173on a sliding scale and is confusing to children it tells them how they feel about their gender is the reality many in celine including myself do not view gender in this way my views of gender are part of my faith i'm a practicing muslim okay my friends and the leadership of our catholic church in town see gender as i do as do my friends in leadership in other churches there are many many others in the community who would disagree with how the school district would choose to define gender in this policy part of our job as parents is to help our children understand themselves including their gender how this policy defines gender would put the school at odds with families as my own minority families not only does it start with a flawed definition of

174gender this policy demands that our school district hide critical and personal information about children from their own parents according to this policy a child can decide they want to be a different sex and the school will help them in living out that reality and that decision by allowing a child to use a different name dress as a different gender and even counsel the child about their gender encouraging this duplicity in the school environment to hide any information about a child from his or her parents is absolutely shameful and a clear violation of the school's duty to be a partner with families in educating and protecting our children another problem with this flawed definition of gender is that any child can use any locker room or bathroom they want to simply simply by professing they believe

175they are in the gender on the door it is a clear violation of the child's privacy rights to be seen in a strait of undressed by the opposite biological sex regardless of what that child might believe their sex or gender is it is an indecent and unfair to expose children to someone of the opposite sex especially in a school environment where such exposure can cause long-term psychological harm i believe we all have good intentions when it comes to our children however good intentions are not sufficient to make good policy i believe that by endorsing the idea that gender is fluid the school board is creating a great injustice to families who believe differently and they're putting in place policies that are deeply harmful to our children i also know for my sister's example that if

176we had told her she just needed to continue losing weight to be happy she would have died she needed to come to accept her own body on her own terms and we as her family needed to support her by telling her the truth fifa thank you for your comment thank you very much that's all right i appreciate your time thank you our next um our next parent is darcy berwick i struggle um speaking this tonight and i do wanna i tend to try to find the good and in what we're doing here but i'm also fairly frustrated i guess with the gaslighting that's happening with some parents and so i want to tell students and allies and parents that what i'm going to say is is triggering so that if you need to leave the

177room please do so i have heard from some parents that they just want what's best for all of our kids and i don't that might be true for some i don't believe that's true for all of them the petition that circulated through our community a few years ago contained comments from my neighbors fellow community members and business owners and extended to grandparents and others outside the district the comments that they made i'm going to read some of them and i think that that is a reflection of who these parents are if the goal is to teach compassion maybe the schools should start introducing the bible back into school rather than pushing a specific agenda this was a sneaky attempt to brainwash the children and you should be ashamed of yourselves young kids shouldn't be exposed

178to this most kids outgrow their gender dysphoria by puberty and would have been better off not being transitioned this is not sex education but indoctrination into a life contrary to the biology of mankind this school is committing child abuse if a child has gender confusion let the parents in school recognize this and seek psychiatric help it is a mental illness i have two sixth graders and in fifth grade they had the not so fortunate experience of having to deal with some controversial topics the first day of fifth grade these controversial topics are two children i was very displeased that both my kids teachers did not inform parents of the controversial issues happening in class my kids come home with questions and they should not have to ask these until they're older than fifth grade this

179is an agenda to destroy the family this is sexual abuse this is against my religion and is evil she it is welcome to hold the experience with him her itself nobody cares this is ridiculous i'm a religious man and have taught my children from right from wrong this is offensive this is the devil's work please don't make america a sodom i didn't get to the second page thank you darcy thank you thank you for your comments um i so first apologies for anyone that i'm interrupting we're just trying to keep it to the to the three minutes so we can be equitable and and hear everyone i'm hearing that we might need to recess uh yes no for a brief restroom break if we could so um we do have enough that it's going to

180take us probably another 45 minutes um so if i could please entertain a motion for recess so moved thanks candice second second brad thank you all in favor say aye hi hi opposed seeing none uh hearing none motion carries 7-0 we will be on a minute bio break thank you brad and susan if you can come back to the table please you okay we are returned from recess uh thank you very much um i did tell just just so everyone's aware i did tell our student representative julian that if he needs to exit at some point he can we want to be cognizant of his having school and possible homework tonight um moving on our next parent is melanie scott i'm sorry teacher our next teacher okay thank you there we go sorry as a

181teacher a parent and as a leader of the saline high school upward program i'm here to support the policy for transgender and gender non-conforming students it is our job to serve all students make sure every student is treated fairly make sure the schools are safe a safe place where no one is bullied because of who they are make sure that every student has an equal opportunity to succeed we must be a district that is committed to inclusivity a district where every student feels safe a district where racism sexism homophobia and all other forms of bullying will not be tolerated according to glenn eight percent of americans personally know someone who is transgendered ninety percent of trans people report experiencing harassment mistreatment or discrimination on the job 41 percent of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to

1821.6 percent of the general population we do not want our transgender students to be one of these statistics we do not want our cisgender students to be a contributing factor to any of these statistics we must do our best to make sure every student has the equal opportunity to succeed and feel safe thank you thank you for your comments next we have resident keith koble hi i'm keith cable and with my wife pam i've been co-pastor of saint paul united church christ for the last five years i want to thank you for everything that you're doing to protect all the students in this district and i'm sorry on behalf of the entire community for any flack that you've gotten for trying to do that i'm here today because i'm in support of the transgender and

183gender non-conforming student policy that you read through this evening and then hopefully you will pass i'm urging you to pass it because of my christian faith i'm here tonight to say that there's nothing in the hebrew scriptures or nothing in the christian scriptures that would in any way shape or form keep transgender and gender non-conforming people from full participation full acceptance and full protection in any community but this is not a parochial school is it the only reason i'm saying this is because the bible is my wheelhouse and it has been for over 40 years isaiah 56 verses 1 through 7 matthew 19 verse 12 acts chapter 8 verses 26 through 39 all talk about in very specific ways transgender and gender non-conforming people anybody who would like to have a discussion about the bible

184you can come and see me because i do what i do i'm also somebody who likes anecdotal stories as far as naming goes out of my own personal history there were people in my family two great uncles who were born back to back their birth names were bernard oscar and oscar benjamin the family story goes that uncle benny chose his name and then uncle oscar chose his so that he wouldn't be like that now their names were reversed by their choice and another person that i know who went by mo when i asked her what her name was she said well she said yeah i am i am marilyn um and then nobody ever called her the f name the f name was florine nobody even knew that that's what her legal name was so

185she chose to go by that name and that's what she liked to go by am i done sue thank you i was i was confused because you had the yellow one up yeah next we have a shannon brewer parent good evening my name is shannon brewer and i have three kids in the district it seems kind of silly to me that i'm engaging in this little act of political theater tonight because let's be honest most of you know who i am and i know who you are in fact we all know many of the people here tonight and yet we'll go through this charade of getting up and introducing ourselves like who we are and what we're about to say isn't already well known as you know from the many times that i've spoken here

186before my family and i moved here about five and a half years ago this is our sixth year in the district and as i've learned in that time there are a couple of things in saline that are certain as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west the first pointed out by niche.com is that saline schools are amazing our students dominate in academics athletics music arts drama culinary arts robotics you name it but the second thing is that every time the school does anything or the district does anything to support our most vulnerable students whether they're transgender students special education students or students of color the same general group of people will come out and protest against it every time and then because of that people like me will show up to

187support the programs because our most vulnerable students need to know that the community as a whole has their back and if anyone is wondering whether the community as a whole supports the transgender student population and the policy being unveiled tonight or the special needs students in the sex education education curriculum proposed for them or our students of color i encourage you to consider the makeup of the people sitting on the dice tonight we've heard before at these meetings about the silent majority represented by some of the loudest protesters here yet the candidates they supported for the board of education lost decisively so it's clear to me that this is not the voice of a silent majority but rather a very very loud minority now in this country we rule by majority with respect for the

188minority and as a board you've done a commendable job of listening to and respecting the opposing minority voices i appreciate your commitment to the principle of respect for the minority but when the dust has settled please don't confuse decibel levels for majority opinion the majority of celine supports our transgender students rights to live authentically inside and outside the school we just don't shout as loudly about it thank you for your comments our next parent is kristin hoffman peevler good evening board it's late and you have heard from the most important voices in the room in my opinion you've heard from students you've heard from parents of transgender students you've heard from people who have grown up in a time when they couldn't be their authentic selves i'm here to lend my support to them saline

189area schools prides itself on its mission and vision to help grow lifelong learners who have the skills to navigate our robust diverse and complex society to better serve its mission sas has created four strategic frameworks to guide decision making and implementation across the district i commend you the board for their your policy and decision making within these frame book works to take actionable steps toward an equitable school community where teachers staff administration and students can learn and grow together tonight the board of education has done a first reading of the transgender and non-conforming gender non-conforming student policy by adopting this policy you are creating a safety net for students staff and our community a safety net that gives all stakeholders guidance and structure to support students health and well-being when you put in writing that

190saline area schools support students of any gender in being their authentic selves you're not just making decisions about bathrooms or locker rooms you are saving the lives of our children you are standing up for every person that interacts with saline area schools so they can know that they are seen and heard and accepted and embraced essential worthy and loved it is time for this board to enact the student transgender policy it is time for action students teachers and administrators need your leadership to stand up and speak out for our transgender and gender non-conforming students it is time for you to build this new framework so we can all come together to keep our students healthy happy and safe thank you very much thank you for your feedback um next is pure elijah hogan so thank

191you i just want to correct the pronunciation the pronunciation of my name which is actually leah that's all right um my mic wasn't on and i apologize that's all right um so thank you for the opportunity to speak and support this evening of the transgender and gender non-conforming student policy i am a parent in the saline middle school with of a student in the saline middle school and in that role had an opportunity to either meet or work with many of you on a personal level and i appreciate the time that you've spent and continue to devote to ensuring that the values that are articulated through the saline area school's compass are brought to life and enacted throughout our buildings and classrooms throughout the school year so my feeling is that this policy is a

192clear articulation of evidence-based policy and practice that will ensure that every student feels safe in our schools as you all know and as we've been hearing all evening the data that says this schools are better environments for students when they ensure that students know that they cannot be bullied based on their gender identity ensuring that spaces that enable all children to have facilities that support their basic needs will ensure that everyone's needs are met celine has some of the best schools in the state because as a community we have decided that excellence expressed through the core values of critical thinking communication collaboration and creativity form the foundation of the life skills that we want students to take into their adult lives wherever it is that they decide to go this policy reflects months of deliberation

193and research and work that exemplify those core values adopting this policy will send the message to students and families that this community is inclusive and supportive of all of its residents the basic protections that it addresses are critical to students both who know and who are still coming to understand their gender identity holding space for them ensures that they can experience a safe learning environment and know that they will not be stigmatized targeted or harassed for just being who they are and obviously the side benefit is that they're going to actually show up and not be injured by their classmates this is a right as well as a freedom that we should all enjoy safety at school is a right and a freedom that every student should enjoy thank you for your time thank you

194for your comments our next parent is dave rosenfeld okay hello again i'm dave my pronouns are he him his contrary to what some folks constantly try to claim those of us who support inclusive inclusive policies like the transgender and gender non-conforming students policy are not doing so to advance any type of agenda other than the agenda to protect our and to protect and support our kids the only ideology we demand of our public school system is a secular one beyond that we expect that our professional educators will employ best practices and prioritize the safety of all students so that all can learn and thrive in a supportive educational environment it's as simple as that we are not asking teachers to teach or promote any liberal ideals or political philosophies transgender students who come from conservative

195right-wing religious backgrounds require the protections and supports contained in this policy and will benefit from them just as much as those who come from more liberal families like mine i personally have met plenty of very conservative parents who may have felt one way and then after they found out they had a trans child themselves to their credit started feeling very differently it just isn't about politics or ideologies at all it's about humanity if there's one thing we can all unite and rally around i would hope that it would be the desire and need to protect and support all of the children in our community the best that we can thanks for your time thank you for your comments our next parent is corey balot hello again i wanted to thank you the school board and

196especially the policy committee and dr lodge for all the work that you have put into this transgender and gender non-conforming student policy you've definitely proven that you have our kids best interests at heart i didn't have enough time earlier to describe exactly how stressful that first week of school was and that i was in communication with the teacher and the counselors and the teacher consultant daily but i do want you to know that five weeks in everything's gotten better the locker room situation has cleared itself out jay's worked out their routine where if there's people in the locker room they grab their stuff they run up they don't run but they go down the hall change and bring their stuff back the people who are in that locker room are familiar enough with them that

197they'll even take their stuff so that they can get to class hopefully on time and put it in the locker for them they have been laid a couple of times but they haven't gotten in trouble because the teacher understands the situation and i am so so happy to hear that the high school is creating more gender neutral bathrooms on each floor because the current single person bathrooms are they're just not in that they're so far out of the way so i'm just so relieved to hear that and i also appreciate the teachers that did ask kids pronouns they didn't require that they gave their pronouns it was just a state a question if you would like to share your pronouns to share your pronouns i don't know if you know how important that this is

198for transgender gender non-conforming students to hear their teachers ask this question it tells them that their teachers care it tells them that their teacher respects them and intends to use their name and pronouns it also saves them from being misgendered in front of the class and then having to explain their pronouns are different from what the teacher had just said the bonus fact is that this is optional the students are not required to give their pronouns so those so that also validates the students who either aren't ready or just don't want to share their pronouns and that's okay so in closing i again thank you so much for your work and dedication to our most valuable assets our futures our children thank you for your comments next is parent tiffany alexander disordered mentally ill diseased

199out of whack and defective those are the words we've heard tonight describing children in the room adults using those words in front of children in the room that's just in the short period of time but it may come as a complete surprise i'm glad that they relayed that to you because that's why this policy is necessary because that's how they feel they talk they're talking about my child my child is defective they have never met my child i don't want their sympathy i am proud of my child my child is an artist they are creative and smart and strong they embrace their school and they have chosen to stay here even though we've given them the option of going elsewhere if they feel uncomfortable my child is amazing and my partner is amazing i don't

200need sympathy i don't want their sympathy and they don't have empathy or they wouldn't be sitting here telling you that my child and the children in this room are defective out of whack is not a term that should ever be used to describe children no child is out of whack if you support an anorexic into anorexia they die you support a trans child into who they are and they live they thrive they flourish my child is not diseased defective out of whack mentally ill or a pedophile my child isn't any of those things my child is perfect just the way they are and this policy lets them know that their school believes that they are perfect just the way they are that is why it needs to be passed because of the things you heard

201in this room today these kids are hearing and feeling in their classrooms in their school and sometimes at home as we can see that's why this has to be passed diseased defective i'm going to use my last minute to a thank the policy committee i am so grateful for the work that you've done and to thank the board um especially uh the lawyer um bringing up that this is the law this is the law that's the way it is and the most important words that i heard of a board member here tonight was that this is not just gender affirming this is humanity affirming and i think those are words that are going to stay with me every day of the rest of my life and i'm going to share them with my child thank

202you for your feedback um our next parent is shannon beeman thank you everyone i appreciate this so much as a fellow elected official it's i've had my share of long nights and appreciate you taking the time to listen to everyone here today i also appreciate the time that's been taken into this policy from the legal side to being student focused all of that is just it's such hard work and i know it's hard work and i want to thank you for doing that i believe everyone here tonight is here because they love a child that's why we're here we love our kids and love is strongest when it's a verb when it's an action and this policy puts that into action and so i just want to thank you keep this brief and really appreciate

203all the work you're doing and all you've done for our children thank you thank you for your comments um i wanted to ask if there's a parent in the room named alex sir you're next if you could please state your last name for the record that would be wonderful my name is alex i'm a parent of a celine student and several future students god willing first of all i want to start by saying that sounds like there's a lot of hurt and a lot of sadness in this room and it's it's really unfortunate that anybody has to feel that way and bullying of any kind should not be tolerated i want to start off by saying that i love my community and i love my family enough so to be away from them at dinner

204this evening after i was working all day and at this point my wife put all three of our children to bed so i'll be in trouble for that later but you started the meeting earlier and you read a quote by teacher about their experience and school started and how everyone's happy and energy was high and respectfully that doesn't really fit in with the accounts that these students shared earlier this evening and the parents that they gave here tonight another parent mentioned earlier mentioned that there's hate from the other side as i reflected on that we shouldn't have sides we should focus on being one community i want to i want to challenge everybody to reflect on the school experience that they had going through school i would really challenge anyone to sit here and say

205they didn't get bullied for one thing maybe it was a bad haircut maybe it was the way they dressed maybe they were overweight 20 of kids in in michigan are considered obese maybe it's because they had braces maybe it's because they prayed and gave thanks before they eat their lunch the most recent gallup poll shows that about five percent of our united states population identifies with the lgbt community and in michigan it's less than four percent what about being a christian or a muslim we don't require others to assimilate to their beliefs and read the bible or the quran we didn't pass the policy to require all students to eat more get braces stop learning or get bad haircuts i do not support this transgender policy that doesn't mean that i don't support a transgender

206policy but i don't support this one why do we pick and choose what groups we accept and make concessions for and which ones we do not i as a parent do not believe my children should have to see children changing or in restrooms with other genitalia at any age if a kid is not comfortable changing in a locker room with a transgender person they can request a separate room you mentioned that earlier so right now as we heard from students who are transgender again if we took roughly that five percent into account they mentioned they don't have enough bathrooms as it is right now or they're making it late to school so if there are kids who are uncomfortable in the opposite situation and they're the majority of the population how are they going to

207make it to school in time superintendent you also mentioned that you're transitioning staffs staff gender neutral bathrooms for additional standard bathrooms then why do we need the policy to allow transgender into gender specified bathrooms this also makes me worry about where the policy ends it's students now where does it go do teachers and visitors and adults who identify with the opposite gender will be in restrooms with my children i may not agree with your position you may not agree with mine but if we don't stop screaming at each other and instead sit across from each other and talk and compromise this community will be further divided my wife and i and my children accept all people although we do not accept this policy thank you thank you and alex thank you for your comments could

208we have your last name for the record i'm sorry miller thank you very much [Applause] um our next parent is raelynn davis you guys almost got away with me not let not listening to me tonight until your discussion on this policy i have sat here in this room for three years and i cannot feel a bigger slap in the face than what just happened for this discussion as parents on both sides we came here to hear your thoughts your opinions to talk about the issues that both sides have you sat here for 20 minutes congratulating each other's on their work and and we have set here now again three hours i have ten kids at home my husband has had to put to bed to listen to this and you guys don't have the decency

209to talk this out where as a community we can listen and hear your thoughts and things are discussed um i'm sorry that this this really was a slap in the face and i don't know how you guys plan to get the trust back in the community for these other issues if you guys cannot at a public meeting say your thoughts and opinions and answer the emails and have a rational discussion in front of us i have never spoken against this policy as a whole i have watched it from the beginning there are things i think need to be worked out i think this is an opportunity to bring the community together to have a policy that provides safety for people but provide equality for all if the the transgender kids have the right to to

210choose their pronouns and when to share it my child should have the right on whether or not they want to share their pronoun and their grade should not be affected and they should not be forced by a teacher to say it out loud in class which has both happened this year in this lean district parents should be more involved and i think maybe a counselor there's issues i agree i'm an engineer put the set of requirements find the pros and problems come to a compromise i think this policy can do it and and yet you hear guys are trying to look at a group of people who just want discussion and to be heard and say you don't care about us you don't care about the kids you don't care about being in equality for

211all and that is what we're asking and so thank you for for this time thank you for your comments um that concludes our second portion for public comment tonight um i wanted to thank everyone here in the audience and everyone that has has left who might have commented earlier um i know that these are important and difficult conversations for some and and some were sharing some personal experiences so i wanted to i wanted to thank you for that and um reinforce that we afford respect to everyone and um give them their three minutes our next meeting of the board of education for saline area schools will be held on october 12 2021 at 6 30 pm i'd like to entertain a motion please to adjourn the board of education meeting of september 28 2021 at

21210 09 pm so moved jenny thank you second support michael thank you all in favor aye opposed hearing none motion carries 7-0 we are adjourned at 109.