001lumber schools board of education meeting number 1536 is now called to order meetings are now fully open to in-person as well as live stream on the district's youtube channel as a note in accordance with the health advisory issued by the st louis county department of public health and the city of st louis department of health on july 1st of this year face coverings are required and are required to be maintained on your face fully for to be in attendance here even if you are vaccinated we'll move to 2.0 uh dr lake do we have any changes to the agenda we do not okay that being said do i have a motion to approve the agenda as presented motion by mike second second second by megan all in favor say aye aye aye opposed motion carries
002uh now all those who are able please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge and allegiance the republic for which it stands all right thank you and we do we are missing a few uh board members this evening for various reasons some had commitments to travel and uh or work commitments uh so there's four of us here we do have a quorum so we're able to continue on with tonight's meeting 4.0 special recognitions tonight we are recognizing the 2020 central office support staff person of the year so dr sparks take it over i want to know how much time you all have tonight because i could speak forever about colin davit so colin come on up and join me colin is our blended learning coordinator so he works within the teaching and learning team
003and if you are ever watching us on zooms and you see a picture of a young man in a military uniform that is colin david and it is one of the key elements of who he is as a person he is a servant leader he works to serve our teachers and our students in support of a blended learning environment that really enhances their learning opportunities so that's one thing i would say about colin the second thing i would say is he is one of the most innovative people i know he is continually asking the question what if or why not or but could we he might even put up his finger just like that and say but could we so he's always questioning trying to move things forward thinking outside of the box about how
004we provide great learning opportunities for students and because of his work we have grown astronomically over the last year with regard to our canvas development and that is not all that he does but it is a great example of what is a small seed with a few people and grows to have huge impact so colin thank you for having great impact on our kids every day and a shout out to your family the davitt family for being here woohoo [Applause] as tara said congratulations i'll just quickly share when i came into the district i said to colin why don't you do a little research on this canvas learning management platform and that's all he needed and he took off he's doing trainings for other districts and he's a really a go-to guy for for that
005learning management platform and when the pandemic hit we were like middle school was still going to be a year out and we had to accelerate that and colin's work being able to get us to that point was a yeoman's effort for sure so colin we have a certificate for you and then we also have a 25 gift card for you um so congratulations buddy and i will say to add anybody who's not familiar with collins because so much of the work he does is behind the scenes most of it a lot of it like even now he's extraordinary so he had so much value this district and and so thank you for me as well and all of us and congratulations well deserved so we'll move to 5.0 consent resolutions and combinations we have none
006and then 6.0 is citizen communication regarding agenda items we don't have any listed here in regard to agenda items so we will revisit that in 12.0 so 7.0 is communications board secretary christie watts is not here this evening so jen miller will start with the calendar of events all right district offices continue to be closed on fridays for the next month um on august 9th through 12th we have our lindbergh teacher institute for new teachers to the district and our boe advisory committee on finance meets august 17th professional learning for all staff takes place august 18th to 20th august 19th is meet the teacher night at our elementary schools and our next board of education meeting will be at 7 pm that same evening all right thank you 7.02 is reported meetings that's where any
007of us here who have been into a parent meeting state meeting any other meeting in regards to the work that's done up here uh can report on that so if anybody has anything i know in the summer the load is pretty light so we'll move on to 7.03 which is announcements and we do have one from dr like sure so through conversations with the board we um and just looking at our work in general about the flow of paying our bills and getting all of that ready for board meetings the cadence of our work we felt like thursdays moving our board meetings to thursday nights and we're going to move that to the third week of the month on thursday starting in august so we just wanted to make sure everybody knew that but that
008will be posted and published on our agendas but just to allow us to do our work and the cadence we need to to give us the time that we need to get things in place to do our work so we'll be moving those to the third thursday of the month all right thank you 7.04 is the review of the upcoming board of education meeting agendas jen all right so our meeting as we said earlier is august 19th we have three program evaluations title 1 transportation and community education we will also be looking at our annual homebound service contract the tuition rate for the 21 22 school year we have re-adoption of a few policies and a second reading on policies from this evening thanks okay thank you 7.05 we do not have any member appointments
009so we'll go to 7.06 which is the msba board report so we'll now watch the july msba report hello everyone and welcome to the missouri school boards association's board report for the month of july we thank you for the opportunity to share some news and information during a few minutes of your board meeting we begin with a look at the federal funding available to missouri school districts designed to address the impact of covet 19. missouri is set to receive nearly two billion dollars under the american rescue plan's elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund sometimes called s or three ninety percent of that money will be distributed to local education agencies mostly local school districts deputy commissioner of the department of elementary and secondary education dr kerry monzees told school board members attending the recent
010msba igniting great ideas summit school districts can use the money to address a number of key issues related to covet 19 including the need for additional instructional time for students anything you can do to enhance your your learning opportunities outside of the traditional school year whether that's summer school or some type of intensive tutoring after school programming i don't know that communities automatically think that has to be sustainable moving forward we've had more and less summer school over the years so here's an area where you can make a short-term investment hopefully it's sustainable but even if it's not every minute you get with a student that you don't have now is important so to the extent you can advance those programs in your district i think it's going to have a huge return for you
011and your your students monzy says school districts must submit a multi-year plan for using their allocation of sr-3 money to the department of elementary and secondary education by august 23rd however he says those plans may be adjusted in the future he urges school boards and administrators to be transparent and engage stakeholders on the use of the federal money the department of elementary and secondary education has submitted a plan to the u.s department of education for the use of its share of the sr-3 funding deci's priorities for the funding include investing in the educator workforce resources for learning acceleration and addressing the digital divide speaking of the digital divide a new poll released by the national school board's action center shows two-thirds of voters nationally say lack of adequate broadband and internet access outside of school
012buildings is an important issue to address the poll reveals voters attitudes about their children's educational experiences during the pandemic and also conveys the challenges and opportunities voters see facing our public schools past msba president rhonda gilstrap of the blue springs school district is one of seven members of the national school board's action center board of directors and she reported on the poll results at the msba delegate assembly meeting in springfield on june 18th voters are significantly more likely to have a positive view of public education when they think of schools locally as opposed to nationally learning loss among students is a huge issue for voters as we continue to grapple with coven 19 pandemic additionally voters say the top challenge their local public schools have faced during the pandemic is students having quality broadband and
013internet access at home to attend school online support for increased funding for public education is strong voters are opposed to taking away taxpayer dollars from public education to go toward private school vouchers and there is broad overall support for personalized learning and increasing access to internet and broadband the bipartisan poll was conducted in april and reached 1 000 likely 2022 voters nationwide the national school board's action center provides national grassroots advocacy on issues important to school board members and public education nancy masterson a school board member from the camdenton r3 school district is the new president of the missouri school boards association masterson became msba president at the conclusion of the 2021 msba igniting great ideas summit held in springfield june 18th and 19th she has served as president-elect of msba for the past year
014she spoke to those attending the second general session of the igniting great ideas summit this year as in years past we will need to light the tinder of your enthusiasm to press forward when needed to do what is best for all children the year ahead looks challenging we must be persistent well informed yet professional kind and unshakeable when addressing the needs of our students with legislators and the press ray murphy of the richards r-5 school district was elected president-elect by the msba delegate assembly ruth johnson of the raymore peculiar school district was elected vice president of msba linda dougherty of the nixa public schools will serve as immediate past president for the coming year registration is now open for the 2021 msba annual conference in cooperation with the missouri association of school administrators to be
015held november 5th through 7th in kansas city the event will once again feature numerous breakout sessions and workshops many presented by school leaders from districts throughout the state along with a great lineup of general session speakers all in the new location at the kansas city convention center and don't forget the 2021 safe schools and colleges forum sponsored by msba center for education safety will be held this year on november 4th in conjunction with the annual conference in kansas city that's it for this month's edition of the msba board report thanks for allowing us to have some time at your board meeting and so long from columbia all right 8.0 special reports there are no items there for this evening 9.0 action items by consent we do have action items uh 9.01 to 9.11 would anyone
016want to remove any of these items for individual consideration okay hearing none do i have a motion to approve action items by consent 9.01 to point eleven as presented motion by mike second thank you bye megan all in favor say aye aye aye opposed okay motion carries i'm sorry in those consent items we had a gift of 2 000 from the crestwood sunset hills rotary club uh for uh lindbergh character development character education and i just want to make sure that we thank them in this public forum because so often these gifts uh you know come into the district are often to the district foundation and so few people know that they're happening and yet uh there are groups and there are people out there who believe in lindbergh and give and give financially as
017well as of you know their own time and volunteer work and so forth so we want to thank the crest with sunset health rotary thank you absolutely thank you mike so we'll move to 10.0 individual action items so we do have one item here uh regarding asbestos abatement to be included in prop bars so joelle yes we have one item it's a competitive purchasing item anytime a competitive purchase exceeds could exceed a million in this case we don't know what the cost of the asbestos removal will be in the old section we're doing the new section right now so the old section but we know there will be some so it's potentially over a million dollars and we wanted to go out to vendors in advance of needing those services to get a fixed rate
018that would apply to each instance where we didn't have to go out to bid each time so we can keep the project moving along so we did put it out to competitive bid 19 different vendors weren't invited and we had two respond and we're asking the board to approve us to go with the services that were fixed unit pricing and a quality bid all right thank you so do i have a motion to prove item number 10.01 uh for asbestos abatement then we're supposed to include pop prop r lhs so moved motion by jen second second by mike all in favor say aye aye opposed okay do we have any questions first before i approve okay motion carries okay we'll move to 11.0 on 11.01 we have one item for the record uh that was
019the limburg media services program evaluation uh this item is for information purposes only and if you have any questions you can contact dr sparks with those questions and for review of board policies we have two four six eight eleven board policies for review and if you have any questions this is the first reading and then we'll approve those in august so if you have any questions contact dr mckinney with those questions on any of those policies all right now we move to 12.0 which is citizen comments regarding non-agenda items uh so when i call your name please come forward state your name and the engine item on which you wish to speak if you're speaking on the same top topic of another individual we ask that you share new information and not repeat information that's
020already been shared the board takes all these comments under advisement and we'll respond at a later date so i'll start with uh our first sandy which is jason frye good evening uh the lindbergh equity and diversity coalition lead would like to welcome dr mapp to the lindbergh community we are thrilled to have his leadership in our district and we look forward to partnering with him lead is a group of parents staff and community members who seek to disrupt biased practices and systems to transform the lindbergh community our work over the last few years includes encouraging a district-wide equity committee the development of a d e and i coordinator thanks again to the district and the board encouraging more diverse classroom and building libraries organizing a community-wide black lives matter march in june 2020 hosting a
021virtual family event called pajama jams for justice or pajama jobs for justice presenting a series of free wii stories trainings open to all community members and organizing a book drive for culturally diverse books to be added to area little free libraries we also maintain the public-facing lead facebook page with nearly 800 followers and the private action-oriented lead action page with 130 actively engaged members representing every school in the district while we are a community group with a passion for equity and social justice within our schools we are not affiliated with the lindbergh school district we are encouraged by the creation of this de i position but lindbergh has a long road ahead to truly transform our community we have heard from many of our black and indigenous people of color members bypoc that lindbergh can
022feel like a very lonely and sometimes hostile place leed has been a point of connection for many bypak families in our community and we hope that we can extend that space to dr mapp and his family we recognize the enormity of the task that lies in front of dr map and his colleagues and the utility of having allies in the district to champion this new position leed is here to support these efforts and garner community buy-in through our continued outreach and relationship building we understand that the work of making our district a safe and equitable place for all students is the responsibility of every lindbergh parent and staff member and certainly not just dr maps alone we are looking forward to the path ahead thank you all right thank you jason um our next speaker
023is poppy gardner my name is poppy gardner why are we here to discuss the mass wearing mandate being considered during school attendance i want to thank you for the opportunity to inform you of my thinking my thinking is based on my school education family education and plain old paying attention to my world you the members of the board have to make a decision lucky for you i'm here to help you with your great opportunity the great opportunity is to demonstrate your value as trusted trusted advisors and leaders you know the people in charge first a definition of the word propaganda propaganda is a propagation of false information by people in charge i suspect you were just following the advice or opinion of the people in charge of you your bosses who are these people it
024should be the parents and students of the district right so here is a great opportunity you have demonstrate to your parents student customers your value by showing proof that maths actually work same for the jet propaganda i request you use science a class we are taught in our school district do your research of existing information that are based on scientific proof method not opinion let me remind you about the method it has three parts one the clinical trial results two peer review of results three repeat the results i already know what you should find viruses are small enough to pass through mass commonly worn by the public mass are ineffective in a propagation of false information what you should find is that bacteria is large enough to be collected in the mask so we're breathing
025unhealthy contaminated air my purpose is wearing a mask is like using the same piece of toilet paper for a week nasty i request the board research and the facts and publish your findings for all your customers to review one that supports your decision in conclusion i believe we can apply mark twain's observation to the whole mass social distancing pandemic issue he said it is easier to fool a people than to convince them they have been fooled i predict the pandemics fear suffering hospitalizations and deaths we hear about and react to is simply propaganda the propagation of false information by people in charge i ask you to do your research to convince yourself if you have been fooled or convinced me i've been fooled based on scientific proof thank you for your for your attention to
026my thoughts and i look forward to grading your homework assignment at the next meeting all right thank you poppy for coming up and speaking and what grade are you in six thank you very much um and i will say uh we generally trying to have a policy of not responding to the speakers i know it's encouraging a sixth grader had the courage to come up here and speak but if we could just uh sort of lighten the tone a little bit and and let people speak and the the purpose is for them to share information with us and for us to absorb it and respond so if we could please do that i would appreciate it the next speaker is diane dragon good evening there's a lot of interest in one area of curriculum tonight
027and a lot of time and effort and a ton of money is being spent to make this school inclusive and welcoming to students of all types and all backgrounds you have all read books and articles and hired experts and consulted with other districts on equity and inclusion the public was even invited to listen in you have 277 kindergarteners 53 percent of the class are all at risk for reading failure 53 of our kindergartners score in the bottom 30 percent of the nation you have 263 first graders below benchmark 52 percent of the class is below benchmark you have 109 second graders at risk you have 86 third graders at risk 735 kids in k through 3 are at risk for reading failure on our basic reading screens where are the book studies on literacy where
028are the experts or the special sessions your current english language arts curriculum lucy calkins is banned in several states banned it's against the law it's defunded for failing to teach so many kids of all types to read yet we will keep this failed curriculum in our schools for at least another year none of you are participating in the ela curriculum committee that's ongoing right now no parents are allowed no videos are being broadcast or occurring it's an invite only it's secret the exact same people who purchased our current failing curriculum are choosing what happens next the same people who thought it was a good idea to remove grammar and handwriting instruction are in charge we have 735 kids of all colors and backgrounds attending this school who are not being taught to read illiteracy is
029isolating it breeds inequity it ensures inequality let me read you a quote from one of my clients that he sent to a judge who was sending him to federal prison he had an unremediated reading disability and was being warehoused in special ed when he was in school he wrote that small structured classroom was my initial step towards incarceration it served as a fortress to isolate me from others and hindered my progress isolation brought paranoia and made me an easy target the small setting cut me off from the kind of knowledge my life depended on jail in prison was eminent this is not a gentleman that was incapable of learning to read it was a man who was once in a child in a school just like ours a school with poor curriculum and failed literacy
030policies he learned to read in prison i'd prefer and i think everyone in this room would prefer that 735 kids are taught to read before they get to prison science has clearly shown us what all kids need to learn to read proficiently please stop ignoring the science of the peril of our children thank you thank you next we have maki random tonight i call the board with an action please define three words with practical examples and post the definition on the website it would be healthy for our community to have official and clear definition given by the board oh thank you i was wondering with my accent what are your definitions of equity and inclusion nationwide equity suggests equal outcome and indirect conflict with the equal opportunity equity aims to eliminate oppression actually board documents
031and definite decisions are lined up with this this definition your advisory student life committee created the inclusive decision framework in february this year its second point says to consider systems of oppression you approve the professional development of grading for equity on march 9th this year and up to 485 educators had a training on april 23rd consistent hard work and good habits will not be counted in grading when the method is adapted what is the systemic oppression in current grading is grading for equity supposed to eliminate oppression by high scoring students is our community oppressed by high school receiving and hardworking people is this what you mean by equity another word is diversity i suggest all the community members to watch board workshop from april 27th diversity is not there anymore only equity and inclusion diversity
032is abused in the context of culture race and sexual orientation only but in educational system there should be an acknowledgement of diverse abilities and needs removing middle school challenge classes in is an elimination of such acknowledgement in january 2020 equity committee updated at the student life committee it states that the title of honor might not be for young students as middle school students so equity committee conducted elimination of challenge classes it is an elimination of diverse needs of students please define what kind of diversity you are leading our district mr president you stated last month that our district does not implement crt it means you do not treat us as an oppressive community so please back your statement with actions board of education it's time for your leadership please define equity inclusion and diversity please
033remove any ideological decision that believes in oppression i refuse that my children will be seen with the lens of oppression they are not oppressed or oppressor not by race not by religion not by values and not by academic academic abilities we are equal in this community thank you thank you next laura falstage okay hi um unlike many of the people who have addressed you over the past few meetings i am alumni from the class of and though i was a lindbergh student from fourth grade to graduation i have also lived in various neighborhoods in the st louis area from dutchtown to baldwin for those who are new here st louis is not your average city for cnn cbs news and the fbi we have been in the top five most dangerous cities in the us
034for the past 20 plus years we are currently number two only succeeded by detroit yes people here are a little rough around the edges and will say all sorts of things i was a target many times while limburg and have proof from a few of my yearbooks just because someone said something mean it is still free speech like it or not we cannot let others words hold us back rather we should realize that what someone says is only a reflection of them st louis is a vocal city where else has the quarterback of a pro football team had to ask the fans to stop booing please wake up to the city you live in when a child can actually read and write they have language skills to utilize in their defense allowing their feelings to
035control them because they heard a derogatory or even racist word is not going to help them to paraphrase denzel washington's character and remember the titans coach boone this world doesn't care how sensitive these kids are they aren't going to do you aren't going to do them any favors by patronizing them you're crippling them you're crippling them for life if lindbergh is concerned about diversity why did it opt out of the desegregation program in 2011 even though that program continues to this day and is scheduled to continue until 2023 in my freshman class alone 26 percent of students were black and per public school reviews website you currently have three percent in the entire school and i'm only mentioning one demographic instead of virtue signaling your students time would be better spent making sure all students
036can read write and think for themselves not what the establishment wants them to think i have heard the rhetoric that former classmates learned in college and it is very disturbing i used to feel stupid for not going to college but now i am very glad i chose to gain job experience instead it gave me a real education about the world around us not the narrow pc view many colleges spew i want to challenge you to watch can we take a joke and no safe spaces both documentaries i have free links in my notes they speak for themselves also before white teachers and board members teach many white children about racism please listen to what other black celebrities say about racism denzel washington cam newton little wayne just to name a few there are many more
037in my notes but i chose those names because who doesn't love movies and music these people share an interesting and valid perspective another thing that is much more important than anything else is providing a safe environment for education i have personally seen two teachers from the district on the news about inappropriate relations with students a previous 30-year administrator currently being investigated and comments from previous students about at least six other students from my time at limburg and after if limburg can't protect the students from its teachers and take appropriate action when needed all of your other decisions are invalid and pointless thank you next best fits morris good evening recently it was reported that 30 percent of graduating seniors couldn't perform math and 25 couldn't read at grade level furthermore on a separate study 50
038percent of first graders couldn't read at grade level yet our focus in our district is equity which means equal outcomes shouldn't we focus on making sure all students are learning you have said the district is not teaching crt here is some evidence you are lindbergh and has and continues to use radical ideologically driven and disgrace splc teaching tolerance and the later iteration learning for justice as a resource for curriculum training and surveys splc is a known proponent of crt lindbergh has in just the past two years been in contract with three different equity consultants spending thousands of dollars to train teachers and administrators those consultants include eec and crossroads who trained teachers and staff recently the third core collaborative whose 47 thousand dollar contract our board voted unanimously to approve last month without parental input
039in addition to the equity consultants our district had 485 teachers undergo training on a new grading system called grading for equity this program cost 5500 what does equity have to do with grades so that's four different equity training programs in the last two years amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars and this month our new diversity equity and inclusion director begins his job at ninety five thousand dollars a year plus benefits furthermore our district has been busy changing curriculum and redesigning our children's schedules middle school no longer has challenge classes why not and there's a plan to combine ela and social studies into one class are those classes no longer important enough to merit a standalone class what will they be doing with this newfound time get ready for a whole lot of social emotional
040learning sel will be woven into nearly all classes in flyer time this is where students are taught how to think and feel about everything and we've had surveys given to students without forewarning parents to allow opt-out surveys that ask personal questions such as race gender sex and religious affiliation and prior to april 21st one could go to the lindbergh dei page and find 14 references and links to crt promoting materials such as robin d'angelo's white fragility the danger of silence teaching materials from zen education project social studies excuse me social justice resources advancing racial equity what white colleagues need to know teaching about race racism and police violence the current lindbergh school district inclusion equity and diversity webpage no longer include these references and several others the the site has been scrubbed i don't have
041time to list every infraction but i assure you all lindbergh is indeed embracing sierra thank you best they just do it with the flowers speaker marylee's tower board you deny that critical race theory is being taught at lindbergh but under board policy af you have not clearly provided to patrons of this district the purpose and expectations of these concerning programs you are dodging the issue and not being transparent a theory need not be taught to be applied in practice critical race theory is the framework that is guiding the selection of consultants materials activities and policies of this district under the umbrella of divert diversity equity and inclusion the missouri constitution's purpose of education is to diffuse the essential knowledge and intelligence necessary to preserve the rights and liberties of the people implementing this means you
042treat children as individuals instill their god-given individual rights and teach self-governance to preserve those rights instead the district is employing activities and spending funds and funds in direct violation of the purpose of public schools america is a constitutional republic based on universal moral law designed to protect the property of the individual so why is the district pushing group awareness in our children through collectivist practices such as group work democratic citizenship restorative conferences and equitable outcomes memoirs are an author's critical interpretation of what has happened to them their lived experiences and is designed to pull out a person's emotions to hyper focus the reader on empathy and to encourage activism so why assign our children memoirs to read instead of autobiographies our district's social emotional lesson violated federal protections of pupil rights and interjected on the
043parental role to develop their child's identity so why teach our children about an immutable identity based on race gender religion sexual orientation and other categories why because this is neo-marxism implemented through critical race applied practice or crap these crap programs are designed to teach our children to identify respond and transform america because oppression as design as defined by the frankfurt schools critical theory this is an unlawful funding of an ideological sect missouri constitution article 9 section 8 says that school districts should not use public funds and aid of any sectarian purpose a sect is a philosophical or political group especially one that is regarded as extreme or dangerous the radical critical legal scholars that devise critical race theory fits the definition of a sect by spending public funds to implement implement a cult-like theory with
044the goal of establishing marxism you are misusing public funds disobeying the missouri constitution and making taxpayers liable for your misfeasance and if this continues you will ultimately be guilty of malfeasance and subject the school district to legal liability so do your job stop the group think ask tough questions of this administration to determine the origins of this dei agenda and its relevance to the missouri constitution's purpose of education and explain to the taxpayers how you justify this under our constitution and statutes or better yet stop approving and funding dei thank you [Music] next is linda braun hello um thank you for opening the workshop to all of us and that was really helped me to just understand a little bit more of what's going on with that so i have just some i guess questions
045that i would love just have a little bit of clarity on and so a lot of what mr cobb and mr crown apple were talking about was belonging and to me belonging is somewhat of a feeling you know you get a feeling of belonging and so if i could get a clear some clarity on what you know how you might define that and the opposite of belonging was othering and what does that mean to other someone and then who is determining what belonging looks like and othering looks like is it the teachers or and how do you how would you come to that realization that this is belonging and this is othering and then i guess um also i've been watching and some interviews of mr cobb and mr crown apple um on youtube by
046jim knight and um they were talking about where diversity training had failed was where there wasn't accountability or action and as you saw in some of their models that they had action you know the word action on there and um they also talked in the interview also about enforcement and so to me i was just wondering um what is being enforced and what are you accountable for is it for othering people not making not um in some way not knowing um yeah so i i'm just i'm just trying to think it through myself you know what does this really look like for the teachers and the students i'm just not sure and then um i guess uh mike tuschlis he asked the question about um if there was conversations could we um agree to disagree
047you know like could we have real conversations about um hot topics or maybe not hot topics and where where does this all merge you know the belonging and the othering thing and being accountable and enforcing something that's you know i was just hoping that it wouldn't go to the point where um there was you know we can't have critical thinking and good conversations and do and then i guess there's another bigger question do all these things belong in the framework of the schools you know so that's um some of my thoughts on what's going on and just hoping to get more answers thank you [Music] next speaker is martha duchamp i recently finished reading belonging through a culture of dignity and would like to offer some observations despite the administration's assurance that this book lacks
048political bias its contents don't support that conclusion with assumptions that quote the very structure of society is racialized unquote affirmations that self-care is an act of political warfare as well as the exhortation to reshape not only the school culture but society at large it's clear that the material is rooted in social justice dogma understandably with social justice scholars as its authors this is to be expected the promise of the book is that once everyone in school feels like they belong equity will be achieved and performance will improve in proposing this utopian school environment the author sidestepped one fundamental reality there can never be a utopia if it's to be inhabited by individuals exercising their innate free will it cannot have escaped the board's attention that the use of this book for professional development training has
049brought the culture wars into the board chambers within this context selecting this book can be perceived as taking sides regrettably adults who wish to push preferred agendas are blurring the boundaries between community activism and curriculum in the classroom frustration over how district leadership is responding to the fallout from these culture wars is dividing the school community everyone is talking but no one feels heard this isn't healthy for our community and it's certainly setting a terrible example for our students we shouldn't be using classrooms as proxy battlegrounds for our adult conflicts nor should we make our students casualties of our inability to find common ground we can and should do better if you remove the dogma and social justice buzzwords from the book what you're left with is a repackaged version of character values with eight
050national schools of character lindbergh has already prepared the soil for improved school culture the way forward is to chart a slightly different course amend the contract to focus training on the section in chapter 7 that covers listening skills by zeroing in on the improving a very specific area essential to effective teaching the likelihood for improvement inside and outside of the classroom increases additionally the insightful meditation from educator heim ganat on page 203 would be a welcome presence in any classroom with these tools in hand lindbergh can improve school culture while assuring adults on all sides in the culture wars that they are heard and respected thank [Music] you next speaker is uh orlando pardo hopefully i said that right hello so i'm not orlando um but he is but we we're going to switch because
051we have different information to share and it would make more sense for you kim mcgregor i'm kim mcgrath okay i'll flip flop thank you thank you board um so my name's kim mcgrath um i'm an international educator and a volunteer director of the victims of communism memorial foundation's st louis commission so i'm here in particular to share some information on the educational resources that are available to the the lindbergh community so victims of communism nationally is an organization uh that is devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and pursuing the freedom of those still living under under totalitarian regimes where an educational research human rights nonprofit organization so voc national agents for some background info was founded in 1993 by a unanimous act of congress written into law
052by bill clinton a memorial was established in the in the nation's capital uh by president george bush in 97 uh and then this year the the foundation will be opening the world's first comprehensive museum on the history of communism that will also be located in dc so nationally the org does a lot of research has many events including the roll call of nations event which just happened attended by delegations ethnic human rights organizations from around the world so it's really a melting pot of of people uh here in st louis the voc st louis is the is the first ever local commission so what we're doing is hosting events workshops webinars information sessions we're a volunteer run organization we've done informational campaigns candidate surveys for views from political leaders all with the goal of education
053so that brings me to the resource that we have available which i've shared with some of the uh staff here it's essentially a curricular resource it is uh it is a free guide that's available and it provides uh information on the history of communism ideology legacy and history so it's a really great uh supplement for busy teachers to help students understand communism from the bolshevik revolution to the fall of the soviet union um so given what we're seeing in in the streets of cuba that's another reason that this type of resource is important for for students current research does indicate that americans are unaware of facts of the history of communism including the number of deaths and only 50 percent 57 of millennials believe the declaration of independence guarantees better freedom than the communist manifesto
054so there's lots of research indicating that students need this information and along with a number of our volunteers we were very uh impressed with lindbergh's presentation on how a topic like communism could be taught in alignment with the program learning outcomes and also missouri state standards so that's an amazing example that has been put forward by by this district so i wanted to share the resource that's available along with a free training that happens every year in the nation's capital it will be online this year and the deadline to register is tomorrow so our website is victimsofcommunism.org stl please feel free to visit and i do have some handouts which i'll share with the group as well thank you next orlando thank you very much good evening my name is orlando i'm a cuban writer
055a freelance journalist in my country and i have lived in my country almost all my life so i do not declare myself as an anti-communist important to mention that because it would be like declaring anti myself all of my friends relatives neighbors in the country while i was what i wanted to do my career my literary career many of them are members of the communist party of cuba but as part of victims of communism basically what i want to share with the with the board of school is the importance of not seeing the communism as just one more idea one more ideology but when that ideology takes place and takes the place of the whole intellectual spectrum it's very difficult to really distinguish right from left i have learned what is like right from left
056in america i am now involved with washington university in san luis i was offered there to teach literary literature i have been publishing books in america so i'm also now a american citizen by naturalization i'm very happy to be here but i am very aware that the dangers of believing that because my country is a lovely country americans are welcome there and we love americans but i think we also deserve what i have here now my friends my colleagues not not to mention those who have been in jail i was in jail in cuba but no trauma no resentment and i insist no anti-communist ideology i think it's very important to be aware of the multiplicity of the wide importance of having an open mind my belief regarding a speech that we don't like is
057more speech not censoring a speech and also the notion that the state government is not unfortunately for some but it's not the source of wealth it's not the source of rights if not the source of morals and in a way it's just something that should be administering because we cannot be all of part of the government and so when that notion takes place the whole country the conclusions and then my last minutes is a country which is still lovely country because i love my people uh where any different idea where all the debates that are taking place in america some of those debates have been mentioned here would never take place a country where a socialist like bernie sanders would be in jail or maybe shot and try maybe sounds terrible to mention but a
058country where uh certain visions of society will be considered evil and therefore will be out of place so my with my testimony i would like to conclude here about well the importance of getting some education but i know that you can get this thanks that all the freedoms of speech and the possibility of accessing information on your own so i value that very much and it's something that millions of cuba which i insist love americans and and i welcome you to cuba do not have that chance to educate themselves in cuba so let's take advantage in america of the possibility of knowing more thank [Applause] okay i want to thank everyone who came up to speak and again we don't respond publicly to the citizens comments but we will at some point in the future
059respond in writing that takes us to [Applause] 13.0 which is recess we did already conduct our executive session so there's no need uh so we'll move to 1500 which is adjournment do i have a motion to adjourn board meaning 1536. so moved motion by jen second second second by megan all in favor say aye aye opposed motion carries board meeting 1536 is adjourned you