001person as well as live streamed on the district's youtube channel uh in accordance with the cdc who recommends fully vaccinated individuals wear face coverings um in addition to indoor masking for teachers staff students and visitors therefore coverings or face coverings are required for all individuals that are currently in attendance here at the meeting um so we'll go to 2.0 dr lake do we have any changes to the agenda we do not all right given that do i have a motion to approve the agenda as presented second motion by matt second by kathy all in favor aye aye opposed all right motion carries uh we'll move to the pledge of allegiance and i would like to invite our crestwood elementary students and correct me if i don't say this perfectly but mackenzie catherine and catherine okay
002and liam damman come forward and help us in for those stand if you're able all right guys all right thank you all right so we'll move to 4.0 which is the actual special recognitions um crossword elementary this evening is being honored and i believe principal kit norton is here to lead us in the recognitions you hear me okay yeah oh hi there good evening everybody uh first of all thank you to our lindbergh leadership and our school board for the opportunity to recognize our most valuable resource in our school community our teachers and our students and our staff we really appreciate that and first i'd like to call liam dameron come on up here with me you can stand right here there you go liam it's here for leah so liam liam is a third
003grade student at crestwood elementary he's absolutely a ray of sunshine he greets staff and members and students alike every day with a big smile and he says how you doing and he actually sticks around for the answer when liam's he said yeah when liam started kindergarten he had a lot of challenges with language and expressing himself and he made which made participating in the classroom pretty challenging despite those difficulties students still wanted to work and play with liam because of his huge smile his warm heart and his great attitude liam has worked very hard over the last three years to improve his language skills and he is growing each and every year by leaps and bounds our ell teacher mrs bridwell shared liam is always so sweet and kind he's one of the happiest kids
004i've ever worked with and has always has a smile on his face just this morning and i mean just this morning he held the door open for our students during arrival without me even asking he's a good friend to everyone mrs pickler his classroom teacher said quote liam is a role model to our classroom with his great behavior his work ethic his friendly personality he always gives 100 percent in everything he does he loves telling stories and sharing his thoughts with his classmates say that he is very nice he's brave kind and always sharing he's a friend to everyone liam's parents are always so supportive of crestwood teachers and staff they honor they are involved in his education and make a positive impact on his learning we honor them and appreciate their partnership and liam
005we are so lucky that you're a part of our crestwood family and we're so very proud of you thanks for making every day a little brighter for all of us lindbergh community [Applause] with your name on it and says that you were the student of the month so congratulations for that and then we have some spirit wear for you as well so there you go t-shirt all right you're welcome my friend i think we're going to get a picture right in the center right by the plane right there all right man good job thank you next i'd ask mackenzie cothran to come on up here and join us at the front let's hear from mckenzie mackenzie is a fifth grade student at crestwood mackenzie we're so proud of you you are exceptional kind compassionate friend
006to others you go out of your way to include others and create a sense of belonging in our school we want to honor your incredible progress you have made since your very first step but your very first step into crestwood you've demonstrated growth in so many ways you've developed problem solving skills which has allowed you to help others navigate difficult situations mackenzie is a leader in our school she recently filled out an application to be selected as a school social media leader remember that application here's what you said in it by the way social media leaders help us promote everything that we do in our school and our friends they go out to seek interesting stories to share and promote on our platforms on our application she said i want to be a social media
007leader because it would be a good fit for me and i like taking pictures i have no experience but i'm willing to learn i'm going to try that on my application [Applause] from her classroom teacher mrs sorry i so appreciate that mackenzie arrives at school each day with a smile ready to learn she always tackles new challenges seriously and eagerly with the positive attitude most importantly she understands the power of yet and never gives up she demonstrates the growth mindset that is so important when it comes to succeeding in skills that are essential in life and in school mackenzie you are reflective and accept feedback from others to improve both academically and behaviorally you embrace the we all make mistakes and fail forward growth mindset which is exactly how we learn you've mastered being able
008to openly reflect on your own growth needs and emulate that mindset in so many areas of our school experience in addition you know how to use your resources to appropriately advocate for yourself and advocate for others you have a sense of justice and are always finding a way to make the world around you better you've come so far since your time you started with us at crestwood and we're excited to celebrate and honor you as a fifth grade leader at our school there's no limit to what you can do mackenzie it's an honor to be a part of your educational journey lindbergh community let's hear it from [Music] we mckenzie have a certificate uh recognizing you as student of the month for you and then we also have some spirit for you as well so
009congratulations and great job all right we're gonna get a picture [Applause] before we have our teacher of the year come forward but first we want to send our thanks and congratulations to mr dc for an amazing year at crestwood as our 2020-21 teacher of the year and his continued role as our missouri teacher of the year it's been quite a ride and in fact he's on a ride right now i think dc is in dc right here tonight representing our school and our district community so we're so grateful for him to be doing that so now for our teacher of the year for 2021 and 22 mrs joy long would you please come forward so mrs long is one of one of our school counselors or amazing school counselors at crestwood elementary mrs long you
010are a compassionate and professional who always goes above and beyond to help our school families when they need it most this past school year it was difficult on so many levels one of the biggest challenges we faced was ensuring our students and staff members felt connected to our school especially our students and teachers in that virtual learning environment mrs long you saw this need within our school and took a major role to ensure our arc students and our staff felt and remain connected to our school community you thought outside the box and developed creative ways for our families and students to thrive you hosted lunch bunches and opportunities with art students to help them nurture valuable relationships with each other this summer you even created and developed opportunities for former arc students to visit crestwood
011to help with our transition back to in person learning this year you're always helping our students and our staff throughout the day we know you're very busy balancing two schools and appreciate all you do for our students mrs long volunteers in the community she helps deliver supplies food and materials to families in need she always go out goes out of her way to meet students who might be struggling and are partnering with parents who are struggling to know how to better support their children she is deeply rooted in equity and justice work has an incredible passion for seeing and meeting the needs of our students with diverse backgrounds so that they are seen and they are experiencing a true sense of belonging at crestwood mrs long does an amazing job working with parents and staff
012in iep meetings so joy you're constantly striving to get better and help our entire community you're loved by our students and just and you know just the right words to say when they're needed the most it's truly an honor to partner with you and to serve the students and staff of our and families of crestwood elementary library community let's hear it up for our teacher of the year this is joy long for recognizing you as teacher of the year and then we also have a 25 gift certificate to our spirit store so you can pick something up congratulations [Applause] thanks joy [Applause] so now for our support staff person of the year and i'll have instead of looking at me you can look up on the screen and see mrs sally dalman uh before i
013do that though we do want to acknowledge and honor mary core who is our 2020-21 support staff person of the year we really appreciate you your voice for the voiceless mary and your caring professionalism thank you mary she's here tonight too our 21-22 support staff person of the year is sally dalman sally serves as our technology building assistant and sally she's not able to be with us tonight but we'd like to tell you about some some things that people said about her sally worked in many unplanned hours this past summer coming in whenever she was asked to ensure that we were able to successfully transition to one to one last year she dedicated days weekends evenings she stood in the rain all post locked down to ensure that our arc students and in-person students had
014what they needed to be successful she fills in and jumps in to support our students for lunch and recess duties she is always willing to go above and beyond she's volunteered at our school events and gets involved with activities outside the school day sally has amazing relationships with students that's the most important thing that she she really gives to her school she treats them with love respect and care sally continually pursue pursues learning to improve her skills so that she can continue to provide technology support to our school in a new in new and innovative ways a quote from mr ian fairley our new design lab teacher quote i can always rely on sally whenever i have any questions about any form of technology she's helped me in countless times with the internet with internet
015issues ipad apps and device requests i know that i can reach out at any point of the day and have my issue solved that very same day even if she's off the clock we won't tell that to hr but that's what she does since technology is such a huge part of my class it's awesome to know that i have someone who never hesitates to do anything she can to help out sally has been and continues to be a huge asset not only to my class but the entire school lindbergh community thank you to sally dalman [Applause] all right thank you kid and congratulations to all the recipients you know that's one of the great things that we do here is acknowledge uh the wonderful things that the staff and teachers are doing and you know
016the students and and really you know that's that's what we're here for um so it's great to see so at this time we'll take a short break so everyone who was here for the recognitions and doesn't want to stay for the business part of the meeting which is amazing and captivating but we understand if you would like to dismiss yourselves and head out for the evening all right we'll move on to 5.0 which is resolutions we do have one consent resolution this evening that's the american education week which is november 15 through the 19th and this is the 100th annual observance of american education week so that's that's amazing do i have a motion to approve the resolution honoring american education week so moved motion by kathy second by who's second bye mike okay owen
017famer hi hi hi pose all right motion carries thank you and we'll move now to 6.0 which is citizen comments regarding agenda items uh looks like we do have a couple on agenda items so um i'll call your name and bring you up just remember that you have a three minute time limit and we ask everyone who's speaking and everyone in the audience just to be respectful we we like this time in the meeting and we like to hear what people have to say but we just want to keep it orderly and respectful so um the first one is poppy gardener at the july 13 2021 meeting i reviewed the scientific method and gave the board an assignment i asked for proof that mask work providing scientific proof i look forward to your findings at
018the august 20th 2021 meeting i reported an incomplete because the information the board provided was not scientific just guidelines guidelines are not necessarily science based i think guidelines are based on emotion perception a belief an agenda and possibly propaganda i believe guidelines are used to get we the people to accept the guidance even if flawed or false a method of her control mass do not i repeat mass do not stop viruses from entering the body period science proved this is a fact so we have an illness with a 99 plus percent recovery rate and children are the least likely of all age groups to die from the flu also known as coven 19. so why the mask i have three simple questions for the board and i expect your response which will be my topic
019topic of the discussion at the next meeting one board members do you wear a mask at your office day job when sitting at the desk super spreader events family gatherings what two why are you mandating mask in school three board members if i choose not to wear a mask in class what will be my consequences from the school authorities what legal doc documentations must my parents for provide to identify your legal consequences for forced maths math squaring four i was wondering do illegal alien border crossers need to wear a mask in school time will tell who was right on this issue and i trust those in positions of responsibility and authority will embrace the truth god bless america and god help the students of lemberg school district all right next speaker kristen gardner hello it
020is my understanding that the board members do not receive compensation for sitting on the board i am asking these questions be responded to by each board member how many children do you have enrolled in the school district wearing masks what is each of your personal motivations for being on the board what benefits do you receive for being on the board do you intend to run for another term and why if school choice legislation passes and parents control the school vouchers are you prepared for a potential exodus of students currently under your control my hope is to have responses for each member this information will be valuable so parents can have a better understanding of the board members the reasons for their positions and identify those deemed necessary to remove and i'll give you guys the
021list of the questions all right thank you for addressing the board and we'll continue with the meeting 7.0 is communication so i will start with calendar of events uh secretary watts okay so the most exciting thing we have is that tomorrow october 22nd and monday october 25th there's no school and i'm sure students are excited in staff and hope everyone enjoys the weekend we have several board advisory meetings coming up we also have a superstar among us and that's dr lake with his virtual listening and learning tours and the next one will be october 28th and the following october 20 27th and then october 28th we are also off school november first and uh something that was started two years ago i think is the lindbergh schools foundation community breakfast and this breakfast is held
022to support our students through the lindbergh schools foundation and that's november 12th we have two parents speaker series coming up november 2nd and november 16th and then on november 8th at our next board meeting after our regular board meeting agenda has been adjourned we will have an educational meeting and for candidates who might be interested in running for the school board we have two positions that would be open in april all right thank you next report of any meetings so any state meetings or other meetings any parent group meetings or anything that you'd like to report on that you've attended no meetings okay um so we'll go to announcements we do have uh one announcement and it's regarding the board of education information citizen and candidate filing dates um as stated we hold the candidate
023information session immediately following the board meeting on november 15th interested residents are encouraged to attend and learn more about that also it's important to note that the filing dates have changed so filing will open at 8 a.m on december 7th and close at 5 pm on december 28th so please check the official filing information for specific on that and the ballot order of candidates who file on the first day of filing will be determined by a random drawing so you know historically in the past you had to be first in line but now it's just a random drawing regardless of when you uh come to sign up on a period but of the first day uh candidates who file in the first day then will be in order when they file after the first day
024all right and then 7.04 is the review of the upcoming board of agenda or board meeting agendas so from that to you so as i stated our next regular board of education meeting is november 18th at seven o'clock and our tentative agenda includes an audit report business items such as hr financial reports and tendedly tentatively also we have four records for um record items and then as we've stated twice um afterwards we'll have our candidate information session we have no uh member appointments tonight so we'll go to 7.06 so that's the october msba report so count hello everyone and welcome to the missouri school boards association's board report for the month of october we thank you for the opportunity to share some news and information during a few minutes of your board meeting we begin
025with a look at the mental wellness challenges facing many of our teachers and school district staff the continuing covet 19 pandemic has been stressful for everyone but especially for school personnel addressing mental wellness issues among staff has become a major priority for school districts rachel jones is the manager of trauma informed treatment for the missouri department of mental health she was a featured presenter at a recent school safety academy sponsored by msba's center for education safety and she says it's important to create a supportive culture for teachers and school district staff through what she calls team care team cares about how the whole building is supporting the workforce how are you tag teaming are you checking in and out with people are you bugging up with someone so that you have an outlet that's an
026adult who's safe who's appropriate that you can vent when you need to you can ask for help when you need to you can tag out if you need to um some school districts are really great about creating that team atmosphere to help people in the moment and to help them prepare for what the day might bring to them and even to decompress or debrief after a particularly stressful day or event jones adds teachers and other school staff also need to take care of themselves as individuals now teachers individually need to be doing all the same things that we would recommend children do get regular sleep drink plenty of water eat food that is healthy engage in activities that you enjoy that have nothing to do with your role as a teacher so surround yourself with
027supportive friends and family and neighbors and that can build up your strength to go into a school every day and handle all of those things that you won't be able to control if you've got a good baseline and you're feeling healthy and well you'll be able to manage the stress so much better msba has joined with other state education groups as part of a mentalist think tank to develop a plan to provide additional mental wellness assistance to those in k-12 education throughout missouri the general assembly has changed state law related to school board candidate filing for this year filing now begins earlier ends earlier and is shorter now closing between christmas and new year's day candidate filing for the april 2022 school board elections will begin on december 7th and end on december 28th contact
028the msba legal department if you have questions about school board candidate filing this year be sure your school board is represented at the msba fall delegate assembly to be held on friday november 5th in conjunction with the msba annual conference in kansas city the delegate assembly will be voting on position statements that will form the basis of msba's advocacy efforts during the coming year every msba member school board is entitled to at least one voting delegate at the delegate assembly and there's still time to register for the 2021 annual conference held in cooperation with the missouri association of school administrators the event is the largest gathering of school leaders in missouri each year and will be held at a new location in downtown kansas city from november 5th through 7th several specialized pre-conference sessions will
029be held on november 4th including workshops for board secretaries board presidents board member certification and an entire series of sessions on school safety during the safe schools and colleges forum during the conference itself november 5th through 7th there will be four general sessions featuring some outstanding speakers and more than 100 concurrent sessions on a wide range of topics ranging from legal and legislative updates to school safety seminars some sessions designed specifically for rural school districts and presentations from school districts on innovative local programs we'll also be conducting regional meetings during the conference where you'll have the opportunity to meet with your colleagues from your area of the state and discuss issues of common interest registration information is available on the msba website that's it for this month's edition of the msba board report thanks for
030allowing us to have some time at your board meeting and so long from columbia all right thank you colin we moved to 8.0 special reports from our cabinet members so joelle will start financing facilities i don't know finance we met this month but facilities we did not okay that's what i thought um finance we meet on the tuesday before the board meetings and we get information out to them our financials and budget amendments on the friday prior so this date change has really been helpful in getting that information to them earlier we went over all the consensus items on the finance and we talked about our debt there's an item on the agenda tonight that we're refinancing some debt so that was a topic that we've got into pretty heavily and then we went over
031the finance sections of the workshop data that was presented today all right thank you dr mckinney hr hr did meet we talked about the substitute teacher pay rate increase that's on the board's agenda this evening we also talked about ideas the group thank you for that came up with some brainstorming ideas for how to address you know mental wellness among our staff and make sure we're supporting our teachers and staff in the buildings and so that was also a point of discussion thank you dr sparks here are three committees teaching and learning actually did not meet in the span between these two board meetings we meet again on tuesday so i'll have an update next month the technology board advisory had two topics of focus esports and the the continual expansion of esports and i
032just have to put out a little plug our esports team just beat the reigning national champions this last week so some really exciting stuff for our students and we'll continue to expand programming and esports a lot of enthusiasm around that and what's appropriate for moving forward and then we also had a presentation from our co-pilot students really going over what is a part of the copilot website and starting to gain feedback about how to make that website even more robust to support our families so we've got some great exciting things happening in terms of the development of that for student life that meeting was last week and had conversations around athletics and community education programming so getting some feedback regarding those two topics as well as we've been spending some time talking about digital wellness
033how do we support digital wellness through our district website as well what kind of supports do we want to put there for families to be able to access and have as a resource and then finally we're starting to delve into some social emotional assessment tools for work with students so begin that conversation as well all right thank you move to 9.0 which is our action items by consent we have items 9.01 to 9.1 when anyone want to remove any of these items for individual consideration okay hearing none do we have a motion to approve consent items 9.01 to 9.14 noting that they're not in 907 and 908. motion by mike second second second by matt um so take this time if you have any questions that you'd like to ask or comments before we go
034to a vote okay hearing none all in favor aye aye opposed all right motion carries uh individual action items we do have one in 10.01 which is the bond refinancing debt service fund go to market resolution so joelle yes as a best practice in the finance department and as a leadership team we continue to look at our debt and interest rates i mean the economy changes and rates change we do have um some 2014 general obligation bonds which were actually to build russell is what um and some other projects in the district the interest rates are at such place and these bonds are callable that we can refinance just like you would do on your mortgage to save money and interest we can refinance these and right now based on the rates today which we
035don't think will change much by the time we issue this refinancing we're looking at about a 10 percent savings in our debt service on this issue which is right at four million dollars so that four million dollars is in the debt fund again it's not in operations we would love to have that four million dollar savings in operations but it is in the debt but um saving money and debt is also good as it's like building equity in your home so when you have less set to pay off the equity for the school district is there for future bond issues this is the first step did a multi-step process and this is just the board approving a go to market resolution and then we'll start working with our bond attorneys and financial advisors on all
036the details that go beyond behind such a thing right uh do i have a motion to approve item 10.01 as presented so moved questioned by christie second second second time megan uh any questions regarding the motion all right all in favor aye opposed all right motion carries uh 11.01 reports uh for the record looks like we have two for the record item these items are being presented for by information only 11.0101 is the green live plan board members can contact any of the cabinet members with questions on that and the p-a-t evaluation you want to contact dr sparks if you have any questions on that particular for the record item 1.02 we have no items three we have a review of it looks like four policies of first reading review so if you have any
037questions you can contact dr mckinney regarding any of those items as well so we'll move to 12.0 which is citizen comments regarding non-agenda items so we will hear comments right now from anyone uh who would like to step forward on a non-agent item remember it's three minutes per comment we have a total of 30 minutes for this portion of the meeting when i call your name please come forward make sure that you're speaking on a topic or bringing a topic that hasn't been addressed or a new portion of a topic that's already been addressed so and reminding everyone just just to be respectful as people come up and speak so the first person is leah davenport all right so good evening my name is philia davenport i'm a woman of color a mother and an
038associate professor i have seen the list of the books that some parents wish to be removed from not only the curriculum but the library there seems to be a pattern with the majority of these books their connection to african american and lgbt stories and experiences you may think that we do not matter or that we do not exist in your school district but we do i will not tolerate i will not stand by and watch you erase my people's truths my people's stories we are more than slaves and domestics we are doctors educators lawyers writers entertainers mothers fathers sisters and brothers we are part of this community this city this state and this country if you think having these books available is going to cause emotional trauma and harm to your children then take away
039their phones their access to the internet television film or basically human contact many of these books or plays are autobiographical and create a bridge or connection to students who do not see themselves or their stories being told they see those they connect with go through trauma and not just survive but thrive i see my story in some of these books my story as a 16 year old was filled with trauma and it would have helped me to see someone like me thrive in a story versus depicted as a slave or a maid maybe if i had that i would have known at 16 that i wasn't alone i did not have the nuclear family or the american ideal family of the 1950s it wasn't leave it to beaver but i wouldn't trade my story for
040anyone else's but i also won't have it disregarded either here is a quote from one of the books on your list to band fences by august wilson some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in so look at yourselves truly look at yourselves and tell me are you building a fence to keep me out or let me in all i have seen experienced and heard is that you would prefer to erase me so thank you thank you for welcoming me welcoming me into your community all right thank you uh next is forgive me if i miss pronouncing these names mary corey good evening so when the challenge books come before you the school board i ask you to keep these statistics in mind two out of five
041lb lgbtq children have seriously contemplated suicide females aged 16 to 19 are four times more likely than the general public to be sexually assaulted nine out of ten young people of black or mixed ethnicity have witnessed racist language at school this is the reality of what our youth face today many of the books being challenged are first-hand accounts of what the author experienced growing up when we say these books are inappropriate we are telling our children that their experiences their life is inappropriate many times these books are the first time a child sees themselves and realizes they aren't alone that others have had similar journeys to theirs when we ban books we are planting seeds of bigotry as educators our job is to prepare students for life in the real world these books teach affirmation
042tolerance and compassion they allow students to become aware of the world as it really exists and apply that knowledge to real life the school's job is to serve all children we cannot leave children in the dark with restricted and narrow world views these timely topics teach empathy and help our children define their own values and opinions these books are not required readings our children have the choice to read them or not as parents and in our home our own home it is our right to instill beliefs that align with our values at school however what takes precedence is the safety of every child show our educators that we value their insight into the merit of these literary works we trust them to handle these sensitive topics with care and concern most importantly show our students
043that our actions align with our commitment of maintaining an inclusive community let limberg stand out as a school with character where every child is treated with dignity and valued for being their authentic self let's commit to our children that they won't end up as a statistic thank you all right thank you next maki ronaldo i'm making randleman tonight i want to talk about safety and before i start i would ask individuals who are under 18 years old to leave the room or stay with the parental consent the reason why we are all here is our children the citizens parents administrators and board members have common ground which is our most precious gift our future and the biggest task we are entrusted with our children i praise the effort that the school has been doing we
044are creating safety procedures building entrances we follow science and guidelines while facing almost impossible situation we are finding solutions to keep our education going i watched the lindbergh speaker series about staying safe online i appreciate the work that our idea is doing with the devices of the students our students devices are safe since it filters out pornography or explicit adult content security auditor software scans for nudity cyber bullying suicide and violence these filters and scans are crucial for safety of our children policy klb says the board has the ultimate responsibility for library materials to be used by the district while the administration is insisting to follow the outdated library policies you the board members have the ultimate authority on this please exercise the power that the community entrusted you with you can take all these
045books off the shelf right away let's oh it's all about the children and their safety let me be clear that this is not about librarians or book diversity but rather about the content that is established as federally defined pornography in our schools these books are available without any parental guidance or content consent an issue clearly raised to the board in august picture is worth more than a thousand words if this pornographic material was online it would have been filtered out let's do the same in the library that is my urgent call urgent call to action for the board thank you i thank you our next speaker is stella timmon hello liverpool my name is stellated and i'm here to talk to you about the group of parents who want to get rid of books that
046have black brown lgbtq plus characters from lemberg high school's library the books talk about how the people need to fit in the world and have fought to make our world accept them so i think it would be wrong to get rid of them first of all books that talk about black and brown people are a part of our community and we can't just get rid of them because some parents don't like the content we all have the right to hear and read different stories about people uh who are special to our society secondly i would like to talk about the lgbtq plus books i myself can't stand around while parents are trying to get rid of these books i am a part of the lgbtq society i am genderqueer so i couldn't just stand by
047when my mom told me about this i was angry that a group of parents want to get rid of books because of how someone identifies or who and how they love it is foolish and completely unfair to consider this just because they don't agree books like these helped me see that i was needing a changed on how i looked at myself they have shown me that i can be comfortable at school or anywhere stories like these also show me that everyone has rights it doesn't matter what skin color you are or where you came from these people changed our society and they changed it for the better we learned about these people to learn about what they did to make black brown and lgbtq plus people feel better about themselves these books aren't the problem
048the parents who are trying to get them banned is these would harm our school by not considering the fact that we have so many black brown kids at our school and on top of that lgbtq at our school let's save these books and keep them let's let them keep our employees our teachers and our students uh thank you for listening sorry thank you uh diane dragon good evening it's dyslexia awareness month this is the fourth year of attending board meetings and requesting adequate intervention for children with reading disabilities this district is still significantly lacking in services training and basic understanding of dyslexia i am not exaggerating when i say in every single iep meeting i attend in this district there are significant legal violations every single one your absolute refusal to meaningfully train your staff
049in basic idea law and to understand how to read educational assessments understand goal setting and data tracking is embarrassing if not bordering on deliberate indifference your staff does not have the knowledge they need to ensure ssd is acting in the best interest of our kids and within the bounds of law courts around this country have lost patience with schools failing to teach kids to read schools are losing class actions state complaints and individual due process cases routinely now last week a significant victory was handed down to parents in nevada in the clark county school district for a series of violations identical to what happened routinely in this district violations i have seen happen in this last month in this district clark county now owes those parents approximately half a million dollars and that's not counting
050the attorney's fees which will still be calculated you are on notice you cannot hide behind ssd or their incompetence the ruling handed down by a judge was a fellow federal public defender like myself i can only assume part of what went into that decision was his knowledge of the absolute devastation caused by shoving a child through a broken educational system and pushing them out into the world marginally literate the judge held that schools violated the child's rights to a free and appropriate public education by refusing to consider the concerns of parents by ignoring outside evaluations and by refusing to discuss during the iep the types of programs that would be available to the child in the district he held methodology is a key factor in the iep it must be used with fidelity and consistency
051it cannot be mixed and matched it must be research based it must be systematic cumulative and rigorously implemented he specifically required orton gillingham methods be named in the iep when necessary ssd routinely says they do not have to discuss methodology with parents we deserve to know what programs will be used with our child all that is after in most schools is spire it's og light at best it's the hamburger helper of reading intervention a little bit of everything a lot of nothing and very little meat your coordinators are recorded stating fidelity guidelines for fire are mere recommendations they pride themselves in mixing and matching it's not working the data shows the children inspire are not improving i'm aware of how our dyslexics are treated are you thank you um next john lieber i've been a
052resident of sunset hills for about 30 years raised two of our three children my wife and i in the lindbergh school district uh i know a couple of gay people very nice people smart intelligent and support the community the issue is not anti-gay anti-lgbtq the issue is content in some of the books in the library at the senior high school where the books were introduced without parental consent or involvement quoting from some of the books um i guess i'll call it an app i'm not real computer literate but it's a call grinder grindr where to meet people like you and it says grinder has an age minimum of 18 years old now this is in the library how many students at lindbergh high school are 18 years or older this is an adult book not
053a child's book and another book calls out that if if you are a young reader i'm i'm hyphenating some things here you may not be ready for the content in this chapter then simply skip this whole chapter now how many 14 15 16 17 year old young adults as soon as you see that they're going to skip that and go on to something else give me a break impossible another portion of the book the ins and outs of gay sex we thought you all we taught you all about straight sex who taught my question is who taught you about straight sex where they the the writer implies that if we're not supportive of gay sex that we have been institut we're institutionalized homophobics this is absolutely absurd and the name calling is does nothing for
054anybody uh i think there's got to be a legitimate discussion about children's issues i was a boy scout leader committee chairman of boy scout troop my wife and i for a number of years and dealing with these young men they have issues dealing with their own emotions and matured development not being involved with girl scout program i'm sure the same thing occurred there the point is there's a lot of things goes on in the minds of these young people anyway okay i guess i'm done all right thank you all right next is uh deanna broadmoor hello um a lot of interesting comments tonight um i want to stay i'm here because i want to talk about the u.s history curriculum in the high school i'm not here to talk about critical race theory [Music] but
055i will say that my husband and i feel that the history curriculum that's being taught at lindbergh and this opinion is shared by other parents it's being taught through a lens that resembles critical race theory ideology and the reason that that's concerning is that the underlying message of that ideology ideology is that the united states its constitution its capitalist structure and its interlocking economic political educational and justice systems and other systems are built on and perpetuate a society of the habs and have-nots the powerful and the powerless the oppressor and the oppressed and the natural conclusion is that america is fundamentally bad and that's the message that i feel is being taught to our u.s history students um so in order to determine whether or not my gut feelings were accurate i literally spent countless
056hours looking at every single slide within every single slide deck viewing all the embedded videos the paradex the google doc links reviewing related assignments and all other resources that i could access starting from the first day of school until the present and ultimately based on that research my husband and i concluded that our concerns were in fact warranted i have had numerous exchanges with high school administrators in an effort to address these concerns but each attempt has been met with an adamant assertion that u.s history is being taught in an objective and balanced manner and that's why i'm here um this corrosive and divisive ideology manifests itself in the u.s history class not so much in the content but in how it's delivered i think um the contact is factually accurate for the most part
057but there are opinion and judgment statement statements woven throughout the presentation that when viewed individually um might seem harmless but taken as a whole gives a weebs a very different story and boy three minutes goes really fast so thank you that's merely sour l-a-w-s spells laws lorenz alonso watts chamia that was your 2017 campaign slogan you were elected you asked us to vote for laws but you and this administration are not following the laws missouri law 160.516 says the school board must approve and adopt the curriculum used by the district board policy if says that the board will review and approve the curriculum the year prior to being used so funds can be allocated to purchase materials to support the curriculum i could not figure out how the activities and lessons in my child's class
058agree to the american literature curriculum the teacher syllabus states the course is an in-depth study of american literature nothing follows that curriculum i began asking questions and the board approved curriculums on the school website became inaccessible and still are after weeks of emails the head principal finally sent me what he called a living curriculum and said it would be approved this december this is not in line with missouri law or board policy some parents noted their child should be reading lord of the flies for example but is instead learning about voter suppression in my child's class they should be reading the great gatsby but instead a recent activity included the plight of illegal immigrants there was no perspective from americans living in border towns and how illegal immigration affects them nor was there information presented
059on how illegal immigration lowers wages for lower and middle class citizens the information offered was limited and one-sided limited information is a form of brainwashing board policy iia states that staff members are expected to promote objectivity and critical analysis there is no critical analysis of various sites to an issue are not presented the missouri school improvement plan states that the library will support and enrich the curriculum our school library's new purchases seem to focus heavily on the trauma that marginalized groups suffer the majority of books are realistic or speculative fiction and tell stories of people who live under systemic oppression which is part of marxist critical theory this is limiting and focusing student book choices to a false narrative of systemic oppression that is not based in reality so i don't see this in a
060board approved curriculum the oppression focuses focused purchases of our school libraries may be an inappropriate spending of taxpayer funds most importantly going forward the living curriculum that i did receive was very vague almost meaningless for parents the requirements of a curriculum under board policy if requires that the curriculum includes things like lessons activities themes books materials supplementary and enrichment materials next month the administration will be presenting curriculums to the board parents deserve transparency as to what their children will be learning in school these new curriculums must include as much detailed information as possible and meet board policy if or they should not be approved and for the board especially laws i suggest you review the rules on using a living curriculum and bring bring our district's classrooms and library spending back in line with the
061curriculums that were board approved at least one year prior to being used thank you thank you next we have joy long hello i decided i was coming tonight anyway so i i am going to speak to you now as a parent um i really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak um in addition to being a staff member i'm also a lindbergh parent i have four children in the lymburg school district one at the high school two at truman and one in elementary still my last year i understand that some district parents are very upset with some of the work that we may be doing around inclusion equity and diversity and some other concerns i can understand but i do want to speak to you to encourage you to continue this work and also
062just thank you for hiring dr matt um to to lead the work my children look very different from me all four of my children joined our family from adult with adapt through adoption and all of my children are african-american they have been in limburg since kindergarten they have received an amazing education that's really why i was excited to join lindbergh as a staff member after being a full-time parent because i knew i would have amazing colleagues because my kids had amazing teachers um this school year i've been really troubled by some of the things my children have experienced at the secondary level in middle school and high school on four separate occasions that i know of um during the first quarter of this year my children have been called the n word directly or have
063been around when someone was yelling in their vicinity on one occasion a student in one of my children's classroom colored his skin brown with a marker and then said i've unlocked a new word now i can start using it and began to say the n word repeatedly these instances were really upsetting to my children as you can imagine in some instances they did advocate for themselves and said to the students you know what you're saying is offensive i'd like you to stop and they were told it's a free country i can say what i want um i could tell you lots of racist comments speak to my kids through the years but um my time is short i feel that four times in a quarter is just too many um i also know discrimination is
064a worldwide problem and is not just a limber problem but we can't pretend it doesn't exist here um i believe this generation of children has the potential to make even greater strides towards unity than those of those of us who have gone before them um but we do need to continue to the work to help our kids see the amazing strengths in each other instead of perpetuating division i believe that that is really what our equity and diversity work is designed to do i've observed dr mapp to be what i call a servant leader he's in our schools consulting with us on issues he's high-fiving students on arrival and dismissal they know him um and he's been training our staff i thank you for prioritizing this work by hiring him and i ask you to
065continue this work because in doing so i believe you honor all of our students thank you thank you uh next laura falsich okay i'm going to kind of improvise what i wrote here a little bit um at the july board meeting i asked why lemberg had opted out of the desegregation program in 2011 though it continues to 2023 i have still not received any type of answer as to why which actually would address exactly what was just mentioned if there were more you know if the desegregation was still going on and we had the kids bust in it would be a totally different situation that would not be happening as much i do not believe because it did not happen when i was here we are at a very important crosswords road crossroads that will
066be written about in history books um i i think it would be a great idea to seriously consider what side of history you want to be on um as far as the the books that we were that are being mentioned it has nothing to do with race or it has anything to do with sexuality it's the sexuality that is listed in the book the pornography that is in the book the pictures that are in the book if they could if we can edit out those paragraphs about those experiences that are not appropriate for the children keep the rest of the book that's fine that's not the problem the problem is what is being said to young children considering that lindbergh has had um let's see here as a school with a history of teachers having
067inappropriate sexual relations with minors as well as questionable conduct made public concerning mr wilder dr jones and another teacher that i don't remember his name but i saw him on the news years ago the book's in question and any similar material are not a smart move it only grooms the children and opens the door for more blurred lines for teachers and predators psychologists have stated that early exposure to adult theme material can lead to addiction depression social anxiety premature sexual interactions with peers grooming by adults for sexual interaction confusion about healthy expression of sexuality putting oneself in precarious situations sexual assault let's see here ruining a reputation by posting revealing photos of oneself on social media or sexting isolation from peers whose parents may feel the need maybe feel the child as an unsavory influence
068doing harm to others self-injury suicidal ideally ideation whatever and and or attempts desire for increased stimulation other high-risk behaviors as somebody who is diagnosed with depression in sixth grade and has dealt with it my entire life i understand what they're talking about with the depression and suicidal thoughts and such especially that it's you know mental health awareness month kind of ties into that as well i realize that lindbergh is going to do whatever it likes but for lindbergh to ignore parents and alum concerning these topics as well as reading scores removing class rankings oversexulations of kids sexualization of kids with constant references to gender and binary status and all these things even in a math app i mean as well as these trad these books please remember there you know there are things that can
069happen from that now i'm not trying to threaten anybody but [Music] in the consequences could be in the form of funding parents are already pulling their children out of limburg which will eventually hurt the school financially i have to cut you off because i can't okay yeah thank you though uh last speaker jessica huff good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is jessica huff and i will be reading a statement on behalf of the lindbergh equity and diversity coalition also known as lead the limber equity and diversity coalition has learned that 15 books in the lindbergh high school library have been challenged by a group of citizens for removal leed does not support the banning of books we believe that for teenagers the accessibility of diverse literature including materials
070which adults in their lives may not be comfortable with is vitally important it is essential that the materials in the library are of a wide variety so so that the needs and interests of all students are supported at the different stages of their personal development it is also important for students to read about and understand lived experiences that are different from their own of course everyone is entitled to their opinions about a book but they do not have the right to limit another person's access to information our librarians have a professional obligation to ensure that all members of the student body have free and equitable access to a diverse range of resources that are inclusive this past tuesday dr jeremy mapp director of inclusion equity and diversity for lindbergh schools gave an informative presentation on
071how inclusion equity and diversity work will be implemented in our schools we appreciate dr matt's acknowledgement that each student must be treated with dignity and respect and the importance of fostering a culture of belonging for all this cannot happen when books in our library about race and identity are no longer accessible to students as lindbergh begins the review process on these challenged items we ask that you keep the entire student body in mind thank thank you so that concludes uh speakers or folks addressing so thank you everyone who did come forward and address the board and we'll continue with the remaining agenda items uh takes us to 13.0 which is recess uh we've already conducted our executive session so there's no need to move uh to the 14.0 so we'll move to adjournment you have
072a motion to adjourn board meeting so moved motion by matt second second second by kathy all in favor post all right board meeting 1541 is adjourned thank you