001seven o'clock and i am calling this meaning to order um i want again for most of you who are in the room thank uh the members of the pride of paradise choir in the direction of tamara duncan did a beautiful choral performance and um if you all would rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance and ms minnick if you will lead us please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all may we have roll call please mrs matura here mrs greenberg here mrs bacon here mrs case approval of agenda dr bails items approved by consent will not come up for discussion during the meeting but will be approved when the
002agenda is adopted this is possible since members of the governing board receive the agenda along with backup materials at least 24 hours prior to the meeting and have time to review and consider all items prior to the agenda being adopted members of the governing border audience may ask that an item be removed from the consent agenda and brought to the floor for discussion at the appropriate place on the agenda i'd like to offer the agenda as posted thank you dr bales does any member of the board wish to move anything from the consent agenda to the approval agenda does any member of the audience wish to move anything seeing none mrs case may have a motion please sun lived all those in favor please say aye aye aye motion passes governing board statements just mrs
003case i hope you have all had a restful thanksgiving and i want to wish you happy holidays happy hanukkah and a merry christmas and a very happy new year over the past few months there have been discussions related to a summer reading assignment may i say this is not the parents fault they have been rightly concerned with the chosen assigned summer books written procedures of the district policy was not followed these parents have been trying to protect their children teachers need to follow policy policy is written to protect the students teachers parents and district it was not followed thank you [Applause] does any other member of the board have any seeing none next on the agenda is awards and recognitions mr trogy good evening president greenberg governing board dr bales members of cabinet and attendees
004both in person and virtual tonight we have two recognitions to share with you our first recognition is the horizon high school girls volleyball team they defeated millennium high school to win the 2021 arizona they defeated the millennium high school uh to win the 2021 arizona interscholastic association 5a state volleyball championship uh judging by that i don't have to ask you to join me in congratulating head coach valerie mckenzie assistant coach joelle smythe and students jade willis lauren pierreck taylor johnson ann mirth vandenberg abby dudley sarah wadsworth skyler garton kyrah hall grace greenlee cayden young kendall murphy eden dreischer and emily hogg let's have a round of applause our next recognition is the paradise valley education support professional of the month pvsca president michelle cortwright will have the honor to make the presentation president greenberg um
005governing board dr bills and cabinet it is my pleasure as the president of the paradise valley support employees association to recognize ashley chappett she is a campus assistant instructional aide at eagle ridge elementary school and many people don't understand what a campus assistant does and they are kind of a jack of all trades the kids will see them in the morning crossing they will see them at lunch time doing duty and then all of a sudden they'll pop into their classroom as an instructional aide or a para so you just never know when you're going to see them and one of the things that was said about ashley is ashley is the happiest esp i have ever met she is a ray of sunshine to everyone every morning when she does her crossing guard duties
006she greets everyone with a big smile she's the first person most of us see including parents and students and it makes a difference when you're greeted with a welcoming smile she makes a sizzling hot job outside look enjoyable she takes the time to laugh and build relationship with kids she knows that her job makes a difference she spends a lot of time working with students on their reading so that they someday can become literate and be able to read and write just like everyone else she knows that her job is important she attends workshops and taking university courses and she would like to someday be a teacher for in the paradise valley district our district is known for growing its own and ashley is one that i think we will see for a very long
007time thank you very much miss cartwright next on our agenda is call to the public say please let me read some comments here because our meetings are made available to a virtual audience paradise valley unified school district has implemented a process to collect virtual public comments members of the public wishing to submit these comments to the governing board for this meeting we're able to do so by completing the public comment form located on the home page of the district's website in order to be included in tonight's meeting members of the public were encouraged to complete the public comment form by noon today it is important to note all comments related to board agenda items that were received by today's new deadline were provided to all governing board members and the superintendent's office in advance of
008tonight's meeting these comments will not be read aloud during the meeting we would like to thank our community for voicing their thoughts and providing comments for tonight's meeting and we received a total of 17 comment submissions remember excuse me members of the public present at this meeting wishing to address the board on items not listed on the agenda completed speaker cards to be recognized during call to the public due to arizona open meeting law the governing board cannot discuss or take any action on items not listed on the agenda members of the public who have asked to speak on agenda items will be recognized to do so at the appropriate time during the meeting we appreciate your input but please understand that board members may direct questions or comment to staff and other members of
009the board because in total we received over 50 cards each speaker will have a minute and a half for their remarks please state your first and last name prior to sharing your comment and i understand we do have some individuals outside who are giving us cards so what i'm going to do we've got the call the public in alphabetical order i'll call somebody's name i'll call the next person if you're in the room please let us know and if not one of our members of the staff will go out and make sure you're here the point of this and every board meeting is to accomplish the business at hand and to be able to do so openly and collaboratively to that end everyone attending the board meeting whether speaking to the board or not is
010expected to observe our meeting rules as well as rules of politeness propriety decorum and good conduct and so the sorry the first card is from fred isles and the next card is courtney berman i'm dr fred isles and um thank you very much for the report about the offensive pornographic book that parents complained about and how it was removed from the curriculum but we never really heard about what happened to the the teacher or the person that you know uh promoted it and we still haven't drained the swap and it looks like some of you are promoting the teacher and so the law in arizona for the ars revised statutes is furnishing harmful or obscene materials to a minor occurs when a person either knowingly or recklessly furnishes or provides and makes available to a
011minor a harmful or obscene item dr bales thank you very much for listening to the concerns of parents by sending a letter to the horizon high school community addressing the ap english reading assignment on so you've been publicly shamed by ron ronson as a member of the community i am shocked that an adult book would be given to a child but appreciate your apology for the assignment it's my understanding that parents are upset because the district policy for signing a book not on the approved list was not followed and thank you for uh making that clear for us today i understand that some flexibility for ap teachers on these policies are in place to protect all parties including children and teachers district policy clearly states that parents must be notified if there is an explicit
012material in an assignment and an alternate reading assignment must be given the violation is a class four felony and failure to report a violation of this statute to the class six felony thank you very much [Applause] as i said excuse me the next card is from courtney berman and following that will be jessica berman hello thank you for your time my name is courtney berman i'm a senior at horizon and i'm in support of keeping both amazing teachers and our wonderful principal in school my freshman year i had mr morgan as my english teacher i have nothing but kind words not only was it my favorite class but we read a book called speak i don't know if anyone has heard of it it's by laurie anderson it has a very mature theme it's about
013a girl who gets molested um mr morgan spent multiple days prepping us for this book he explained the importance surrounding it why we were reading it and continue to provide us with thought-provoking conversation and support while we read this book i think it's important to discuss discuss difficult materials in school books have been banned before this isn't a new thing of mice and men catcher in the rye the great gatsby and fahrenheit 451 these are all considered some of the best pieces of literature and i think it's important to build a strong foundation like this for students our staff and teachers at horizon have done an amazing job providing conversation and background information to students how can we be expected to succeed in life if we're being withheld from valuable lessons because they are quote
014unquote too and appropriate thank you for everything you continue to do and as mr o'connor would say make sure you're showing your pride courage and respect and let's go huskies [Applause] thank you the next card is jessica berman and following jessica berman is sandra christensen hello my name is jessica berman thank you for your time my name is jessica and i'm a student at horizon high school i am in support of all of our amazing staff at horizon growing up in today's day and age there is a lot of gossip and rumors on social media the book so you've been publicly shamed shows examples of how people have been exposed and shamed on the internet i believe that it is important to inform and discuss issues like this with students this book is a great
015way to show kids that things like this do really happen and accompanied by the help from our teachers and staff discussing and explaining this to us we can learn to be critical thinkers and positive forces in society i thank all my teachers and horizon staff for teaching us that along with other valuable lessons such as pcr thank you for listening [Applause] the next speaker is sandra christensen and following her is cody coates thank you governing board for hearing my comments today um i would like to talk about um my thanks to teachers today so i wanted to give a shout out for some of my son's amazing teachers pinnacle peak prep he had an amazing teacher that really made a great impact on him mrs um estrada and at horizon high school i wanted to
016give shout outs to miss rudow miss clue and miss winslower they are fantastic teachers and i just wanted to to thank them publicly i know i've been coming up here through a lot of the different governing board meetings and i just wanted to say that i am not against teachers i've been volunteering in this district since 2015 when we moved here and i love the teachers and i love the students and i've gotten to know a lot of them um so this is not about parents versus teachers it's about following district policy as dr ailes and miss case has mentioned so i'm not going to hash through the same information that that they um spoke about but um i just wanted to let everybody know that i just do appreciate dr bells and and speaking
017with the parents and um all the wonderful people that have come from horizon high school um i do love this high school and my son loves it and we just we just want policies followed and i thank you for your time and go huskies [Applause] the next card as i said is cody coats and following that will be hallie coats haley sorry okay oh there's the dot good evening my name is cody coats i have five children four attending school in the pv school district three of which attend horizon high school a senior a junior and a freshman sorry together they have had the privilege of being taught by rachel prince jay prizek and brian morgan our family has a strong christian faith with more conservative convictions i am here in support of the entire
018high school horizon high school staff my children and books my daughter haley was so affected by the negative negativity recently surrounding the book so you think you've been publicly shamed she took it upon herself to email the book's author john ronson haley received an email back from him within 24 hours as well as the publisher here is the publisher's statement and i'm going to go fast because i cried john ronson is a widely respected journalist whose books have been translated into 30 languages and whose ted talks have been viewed by more than 30 million times his new york times best-selling book so you've been publicly shamed is currently taught by hundreds of educators across america and is widely used by teachers librarians social workers and pastors to teach compassion and communication skills and to eliminate
019the lifelong damage that results from a reactionary shaming culture as the london times writes certainly no reader could finish it without feeling a need to be gentler online to defer judgment over the past five years communities in arkansas ohio alabama and more have selected this book for their annual one community one read programs many american colleges have chosen this book to be the mandatory first year read of course every school and every community is free to make their own decisions about what books to assign to their students the books like this one message [Applause] following haley will be betsy cohn my name is hayley coats i go to horizon i'm a senior the following is a statement from john ronson the author of so you've been publicly shamed i am very sorry all this has
020happened and i wish everyone on each side of this conflict well let me tell you a little bit about so you've been publicly shamed it was the first book written about the dangers of what has been known as cancel culture this is the perilous world our teenagers are growing up in the world they're entering the book urges readers not to leap to conclusions about whoever is being torn apart on twitter that day but instead be patient and curious it stresses the importance of empathy and compassion and shared humanity over instant judgment i don't think there's a more important message for young people to learn especially in this era of poor polarization excuse me and suspicion i'm especially sorry that this is happening because i take pride in the fact that my books are well regarded
021in many different communities among christians and conservatives and centrists and liberals and progressives it's because within each of those communities are many people who care about being kind and ethical to our fellow humans especially when they're suffering from the psychological trauma of a social shaming plus we're all terrified that at any moment it might happen to us this book offers comfort and advice to the fairly shamed and guidance to the would-be shamers about more thoughtful ways to consider the complexities of every human being i'd like to quote to you something that matthew hozier the leader of gateway baptist church shared with his congregation and online followers about the book norah feinberg will continue this and quote the pastor thank you very much [Applause] so following betsy cohn will be william cook hi my name is
022betsy cohen i'm here because i have three children in the district um including a sophomore at horizon and a recent graduate um quickly i want to interrupt my thing to say how impressed i am with the the students who are speaking out today i think that anyone who is thinking that they need our protection by banning books is fooling themselves um let's be clear censorship is unconstitutional the supreme court ruled in 1982 that school boards cannot remove books from a school library just because they don't agree with their content pressure on school administrators librarians teachers from religious and other groups to censor is becoming widespread and it is worth fighting against punishing teachers and the principle for this summer read sends a powerful message the wrong message that censorship is acceptable in paradise valley so
023it doesn't align with a policy it doesn't align with certain religious beliefs whatever the reason it terrifies me many members of my family perished in the holocaust and i'm not exaggerating my fears when i tell you that this is how it starts instead of sticking up for policies please let's stick up for people [Applause] following mr cook will be carrie cunningham hello everyone my name is william cook i have two daughters in high school here in the district where they've been since pre-k over the years they've benefited from many wonderful schools many wonderful teachers and frankly many wonderful libraries where they've read voraciously from both easy texts and frankly some very thought-provoking ones as well i'll keep my comments here brief to both the board the administration at horizon and especially all of the speakers
024to follow me two thoughts one anyone speaking here tonight or looking into the breakdown in process and protocol should consider whether they have in their own lives at work or elsewhere ever made an error um it is as if i may paraphrase the uh or paraphrase the advice let he or she who has never made an error declare that perfection of themselves first before they spend too much time complaining about an error that was made by someone else um errors do not need to be vilified in order to be learned from secondly for any speakers tonight professing their outrage at this particular text i would appreciate them declaring what amount of the text whether the whole thing half of the book a quarter of it a page of it a paragraph perhaps on what basis
025they're protesting the content of this book and at the balancing of material in there that may be questionable versus the thought-provoking discussions that the rest of the book can instill in the students of the classroom if each of the speakers here tonight could let us know those that would be appreciated thank you [Applause] as i said the next card is carrie cunningham and following ms cunningham is lisa farr hello my name is carrie cunningham 32-year teacher in paradise valley 32 years good evening governing board and cabinet members i am here tonight because there is something very important that you need to know i'm not here to tell you about masks or scl or crt or book lists or whatever the bandwagon of the week is i am here to thank you thank you for making
026well-informed decisions that consider the needs of the thousands thousands of students in our district i know this hasn't been easy at these board meetings i have listened week after week as some have yelled degraded and disrespected you enough is enough i am here tonight because there is something very important that you need to know pvusd parents teachers and students support you thank you [Applause] after lisa farr is alison feinberg uh lisa farr first i do want to say that the district has lost a significant contributor in losing this i'm sorry i'm just so frustrated right now uh miss stephanie brown uh that was a huge loss for this district and um you know we generally only hear supportive comments from mrs brown or mrs case and thank you for your comments today mrs case i
027do want to say that mrs brown was a true advocate for parental rights she placed the educational needs of our students at the forefront and i find her departure extremely concerning for this district and she will definitely be missed next i do want to thank dr bales and dr holmes for holding horizon staff members accountable who willfully disregarded district policy i would also like to thank the horizon teachers who did not walk out on our students in protest they are heroes for staying in the classroom and it's truly a shame that the majority of the teachers and parents here speaking out do not understand the facts they do not understand that this is not about book banning it's not about that we aren't trying to ban books or censor books we're trying to get following
028allison feinberg will be nora feinberg hello i'm alison feinberg i stood here in may as the upc recipient of the jerry l morgan award i've been active as a volunteer in the district for many years my husband and i are products of public education our family has been enrolled in the pvusd since my oldest daughter now a senior at horizon was in kindergarten at sonoran sky elementary school there's surely been ups and downs over these many years but on the whole i have been confident that my kids are getting an excellent education in this district i'm particularly proud of pvusd's commitment to gifted learners the arts go choir and diversity offerings for the last 13 years my kids have interacted with extraordinary educators and administrators i have volunteered much of my time to support these
029people i have never complained contemplated leaving the district until now i have friends all over the valley who choose to send their children to parochial or more traditional schools and i commend them for that because they're making the decisions that they have to for their children i'm not privy to exactly what was transpired with regards to questionable books the book was a really good book by the way and the timeline of teachers and administrators being reprimanded and asked to leave their positions i understand that a lot of this is at hr issues that i am not privy to and i'm not going to know but i do not appreciate that my daughter's ap english education was disrupted by all of this i see this as a knee-jerk reaction to the media especially everything after we've
030gone through in 2020 i just don't see how these public actions on behalf of the district are equitable so next is um i'm sorry nora and following will be sadie feinberg hello my name is norah feinberg and i am a horizon senior i'm an english i'm an ap english student and i did read the book i'm continuing off of what haley coates was saying about something that matthew hozier the leader of the gateway baptist church shared with his congregation and online followers about the book so you've been publicly shamed shame is powerful it can destroy people and as ronson concludes the threat of public shaming is creating a new conformity in western culture we see we see ourselves as non-conformist but i think all of this is creating a more conformist age look we're saying
031we are normal this is the average we are defining the boundaries of normality by teaching apart the tearing apart the people outside of it bronton's observations are of clear interest to the gospel preacher the message of christ covering our shame is likely to gain increasing resonance in a culture that increasingly understands and fears social shaming in this climate the promise that hope does not put us to shame because god's love has been poured into our hearts should find real traction it is a message that people need to hear and this is a conclusion from ronson thank you for listening i hope you will reinstate principal inet i wish you all the best i wave the rest of my time and thank you very much [Applause] the next card is sadie feinberg and after that is
032toby fox i believe it is hi my name is sadie and i'm a sophomore horizon high school so far my sophomore year started turning into the dystopian fantasy that i only ever read about in books we were just on the news teachers were being suspended there were over 50 substitute teachers at school the day before thanksgiving break the well-being of students was disrupted with transparency with no trans with transparency about teacher absences from the district students were worried about their future with finals in two weeks an ap test next semester students academic and college at futures were truly put at stake i felt as if my future was being threatened and i would never get the proper education that would prepare me for the rest of my life i for one am not for book
033banning it's scary wrong incorrect and out of this world bizarre i haven't had the opportunity to have any of the ap english classes yet but i really hope to have the chance the students can tell that the entire english department at horizon loves teaching and puts so much passion and love into their jobs i support the horizon staff 100 and really hope that we can go back to the safe and educated world that we all want to be a part of i want to thank horizon staff for their amazing job at educating all of the huskies and creating a safe environment for us to learn it thank you [Applause] following toby fox is kerwin franklin good evening members of the governing board my name is toby fox and like so many others i'm a product
034of the pv school district and i'm also the parent of three current students including a student enrolled in ap english at horizon high school it astounds me that in 2021 we're having a debate about removing books from the curriculum due to explicit content and punishing teachers who make the assignments the concepts that others object to whether we like it or not have been part of our history and culture since the beginning of time yes it's explicit language and content but it's used to illustrate a broader point rather than shock for merely shock's value it's meant to educate and inform simply put you have to understand history in order to learn from it take it in context this is the exact discourse i would expect from a college level english course the book in question at
035horizon was assigned to high school juniors precisely because of their abilities to synthesize the materials and by virtue of being in an advanced placement course removing books from the curriculum based on content is a slippery slope what makes some books appropriate and others not over the last few weeks i've listened to some in our community demand that teachers be fired that they be arrested for distributing pornography and they were referred to the ag's office for prosecution i find this to be deeply offensive and counterproductive reading has taught me many things including how to stand up and speak for what i believe in and i stand here this evening because i unequivocally support the teachers and administration of this district and specifically the teachers and staff at horizon high school [Applause] following kerwin franklin is david
036hickson hi um i as i mentioned previous i have five children in the pv district two of which have graduated and gone on to very prestigious universities stanford and brown and they i'm very blessed that they didn't have to read material like this i think there's some misinformation right now on social media that i want to clarify and that is that we are not trying to ban books we want to expand their minds and have children access resources expressing many different viewpoints cultures and ideas we don't want books removed just because we may disagree or dislike certain ideas ideas theories or philosophies however at the end of the day they are children and we entrust them into your care there are also laws preventing teachers from providing minors from harmful materials such as pornography explicit
037descriptions of rape gratuitous sex between teenagers incest and bestiality save it for college age there are so many literary choices available valuable academic time should not be wasted on these materials parents and teachers can teach critical life lessons without assigning books that are not approved by our very own curriculum team following mr hixson will be henry hill good evening thank you dave hixson um just want to start with thanks thanks again to dr bales thank you for reaching out to us i believe you're on our side i also want to extend thanks to this district my family's still in this district because we firmly believe the majority of the teachers here are very good teachers my fifth grader she absolutely adores mr haynes and we got to see firsthand last year during the lockdown when
038they're teaching or when they were at home what a great quality man mr haynes is but with all that said i have a eighth grader going into high school next year and i don't need to be to have her exposed to a book and let me remind people here that this book contains language about a man loving his dog so much that he has sex with the dog to try to get it impregnated that is absolute filth and that does fall into the category of pornography and that is absolutely unacceptable and this has been happening apparently this is the second year now that this book has been in place more action needs to be taken these teachers do need to be fired we don't need a toxic environment like scottsdale where they can't even fire
039their own board member thank you following henry hill is joseph hill governing board and dr bales thank you very much my name is henry hill i have a junior at horizon high school who is in the ap english course has read the book i was going to talk about how my wife and i make sure we understand their assignments read the books that they are going to be reading talk about some material with them what i want to do after having conversations with some of the other parents outside waiting for the meeting is really focused on the fact that where i think this really goes if we take all the noise away is about process so i just ask you be fair in the process of determining what happened who is responsible and what is
040really equitable and fair as a judgment take the noise away and just focus on the process part and i think we can all agree that that will get us to a solution that everyone can support thank you [Applause] following joseph hill is lisa hobart all right i'm going to keep this brief and short as my fellow teenage students have already said most of what i want to as a horizon junior currently taking ap language and have had mrs parizek and currently have mr morgan and as well as having read the book itself i have greater authority than mostly every parent in this room personally i can attest for the character and loyalty from mrs parizek mr morgan and our principal mrs inet i only they only want what's best for their students and will do
041whatever they can we students were given the option to read this book over the summer as its contents would benefit us as people as the book shows the dangers of public shaming which let's face it teenagers are always on social media and always have to deal with that and know about it and i just want to point out that the irony that this book has been completely taken out of context it's been chance it's transformed but the teachers that pub that uh gave it to us as students to read and sort it's been it's transformed both the teachers they gave that assigned it in the book itself into monsters and it's going going completely against what the book was meant to teach us in the first place thank you [Applause] following ms hoberg will be
042eddie jackson good evening president greenberg governing board dr bales and cabinet my name is lisa hoeberg and i have two but uh similar but somewhat um separate but related points so i'm going to speak quickly i'm a parent of an open enrolled junior at paradise valley high school all my husband and i want is for our son to have the opportunity to engage in an education that meets his individual needs and interests i'm going to assume that that's the core of what all parents want for their children and we all have hundreds of educational options to find that match i know because prior to middle school we looked into many of these options private charter and several districts in the end we chose pv schools just as i assume all other families here have and
043it has been the right choice for us perfect always no not always not a hundred percent but definitely the right choice let me go on by using an analogy so if educational options were buses imagine 100 buses in a parking lot and have i'm sorry an option imagine 100 buses in a parking lot and we've all chosen to board the pv bus we can get off and board another bus anytime we want on our pv bus are families that all have different backgrounds and world views and each has every right to those it's fair that we're not all going to agree on everything from when and where to wear masks and what curriculum is best for our individual children so what date in august school should start or how dress code should be enforced but
044what we cannot do is let our differences fundamentally divide us we are all on the same bus my second point is related to that bus heading for a cliff in less than 80 school days i implore every family here [Applause] so the next card is eddie jackson and following will be barbara jennings good evening i'd like to start off by thanking superintendent bales in this cabinet for taking action regarding this incident about the inappropriate book um and i've been standing outside for a little bit and i've been hearing lies that are being told about what has taken place here number one this book was not optional i have in my hands right here the assignment that was given out in june that did not give an optional reading book it was required number two this
045book violates policy and law you didn't have a choice dr bales you did what you needed to do thank you okay so we need to stop a lot of the misinformation that's going out there and you know i wonder how many of these people have actually read this book so what's the plan for tonight i asked him skyler shrugged same as always they f he finishes we clean up everyone goes home they talk about what you can do to the model you can pull her hair you can grope her you know what you can spit on her this is what we want to teach kids thank you for protecting these kids dr bills so the next card as i said was barbara jennings and following that will be denise camber again i want to also
046stress i'm so sad to hear about stephanie brown leaving she was a good equilibrium to our board i also want to thank you all because i know it's been an extremely difficult year for all of us for our students for the parents for covid for everything but i've been in the school district since 2004 my kids are spread apart and so i've seen a downward trend and it's alarming to me um bringing in pervasive sexual material and i know people are saying oh well you know it's you got to look at the content or what's what the purpose of this was for but you couldn't use a different example something that was less perverse some of these i mean people used to value the innocence of children we're supposed to protect our children our children
047go to school not to be not to support culture but for it to be a safe place to get away from culture to get away from perversions out in social media not for it to be reinforced in school school should be about learning learning english math science that's what we we just want you guys to teach and we love our teachers we do and my son has had great teachers and none of them walked out that day and i was so thankful to every one of them but we're going down a morally difficult um not a great slope and i hope it changed following miss camber is lee kimball good evening i do want to thank you for taking action on the teachers and it's nothing against the teachers i think great teachers are very
048important but there's something called accountability and actions have consequences and obviously these protocols that are in place to protect parents or excuse me to protect the children were not followed therefore the teachers are being held accountable and as far as what i've heard and i don't know they have not been fired and it's not up to us as parents to make that decision it's up to you as the board and we will trust what you do if these are excellent teachers then maybe it's a warning sign i don't know that's up to you guys but teachers need to be held accountable and children can't think that people can just do whatever they want on their jobs people can't just go rogue so i do thank you and this is not about banning books and some
049people have different values so only giving one book with this if some people want their kids to read it fine but we should have a choice and again thank you for pointing out that the protocol was not followed because i think that is the issue here is following the rules thank you [Applause] following lee kimball is raquel kimball good evening i'm lee kimball um i do have a daughter um i was going to say a few things differently but after mr hill's comments i really appreciate it it does come down to process it comes down to protocol and accountability there's certain rules for a reason we follow rules for a reason in life as these students and i appreciate these students being out here and i appreciate them voicing their their beliefs as well this
050is america this is the best part about it um is that people can have all their beliefs um i am truly grateful for mr hill's comments about getting everyone together you're gonna see both sides screaming and yelling on both sides but it really comes down to policies if there are certain policies then i expect those teachers to follow those policies i expect them to be able to allow us to know if there is explicit material if they just let us know i don't think you would see the madness that's outside right now i think if you just let people know and are transparent about the information then parents can make a choice i'm proud of these parents that actually said they've read the book this is awesome i wish i had the time to do
051that i don't i do want to let these students know though i did have ms parizek i did get a five on my ap test okay so and so mr hill's son i think i have a little authority too i've been here a while as well um but you guys are going to do great um i only see good things coming from this i bleed green and gold i've said that before i stand by it i want to see horizon to succeed it's been in the news for too many wrong reasons recently including today but i appreciate you guys learning to be able to follow policy and whatever that is i hope we follow thank you [Applause] following raquel campbell is nicole klutwick i have been proud to be next to him for the last
05220 years 21 years and i was glad that for the first time like oh we have the same last name i could have put cardenas but it's kimbo and i was grateful to be next to him i appreciate mr hill too we have a good conversation outside and we both came to understand that a lot of the issues that we're having it comes to protocol and it comes to rules and i wanted to share with all of the parents that are here this is from the paradise valley school district website is sensitive titles definition sensitive titles are text that may include sensitive content such as violence profanity drinking or drugs sexual reference racialist slurs despite the sensitive content this text has been placed on the literature list because they hold educational value and contain key
053things that are crucially important to students awareness of the world and its diverse perspectives and then it gives the district guidelines the title will be listed on the syllabus at the beginning of the year and the teacher will obtain a parent signature the teacher will make the principal aware of the title that will be taught the teacher will notify all parents in writing via campus messenger email note home of the sensitive nature of the title a sample letter can be found in the teacher's resources below this communication should be sent one to two weeks before teaching the novel at this time parent student has the option to opt out the teacher will have an alternative title available for any student who opts out and the student cannot be penalized for choosing this option there you
054go thank you following ms klutwick is jennifer cronin i just want to first start out thanking you guys all for i know you're unpaid um mr rails you're paid but not really for these hours and i know you guys have been getting so many emails and so many requests and so many and so we i just want to thank you for all of the work that you do and for all of the support and the heart that you give into the district um and i do thank you here's the thing is my stomach churns um over the division that's been brewing in the community and online and and ironically in social media um the books about not rushing to judgment on social media and we had so many people saying that people were banning books
055people are firing teachers because of a book the principle is fired because of a book and we have none of those facts i still don't know why miss annette's contract is not being renewed i don't know if it has something to do with the investigation into mr cross i don't know if that has something to do with this book i don't know if it's something completely unrelated so um i just so ironic that we are called not to rush to judgment and yet we have so much gossip and rumors just kind of spreading around um and i'm just also kind of tired of people telling me what i think um so it was ironic when i was out there and talking to people and asking them if they'd read the book people who referred to
056me as us and them um and and people told me yes and i said did you read chapter seven and eight well no not that part um chapter seven and eight the entire thing is about sexually explicit kink um thank you next is jennifer croning and following is jessica landon jennifer craning i just want to thank you miss case for the comment that you made tonight to try to clarify this situation and i want to say that i'm sorry that all of you have had to deal with the situation it was completely avoidable that the teachers if they had would have followed the policy that none of this would have happened there are many amazing teachers in this district high school teachers honors teachers advanced placement teachers my students have had several at their high
057schools and their teachers have followed the policy i've been notified in advance of books um we've been given the option to choose another book i've appreciated that i've always gone along with the book that the teacher had suggested but i've appreciated the opportunity to have another option if the material was concerning to our family this isn't about banning books this isn't about censorship this isn't about making a mistake at work this is teachers that chose not to follow the district policy and there is going to be a consequence for that in order to maintain trust between the schools and the families we have to be able to feel confident that you're going to follow through on what you say you're going to do this policy gives everyone a choice a choice to to read the
058sensitive material or a chance to a choice to opt out and i just want to thank you for for giving us this choice and holding the teachers accountable thank you [Applause] miss creating my apologize for my apologies for mispronouncing your last name um following um ms landon is michael laney hello uh my name is jessica landon um i would like to first of all the first thing i'd like to say is i'm really happy to see all these teachers parents and students here um the first way we make change happen is to stand up and fight for what we believe in regardless of whatever side of the issue you're on so i thank everyone for showing up it just goes to show how much we care about our students i have two students that go
059to quail run elementary i'm not here to discuss this content of the book although i am disgusted but i would like to talk about bringing back some normalcy for our little kids i have a first grader and a sixth grader they can't sit by friends at lunch they have to socially distance we've been touring middle schools as my son is about to go middle schools don't have that policy so our kids have to sit three to six feet apart at lunch they can't turn around and talk to each other it's just they couldn't do their alphabet parade for school they're missing out on so many regular activities and functions and for what now i'd like to make a comment you know how many of you guys were watching football over the thanksgiving weekend probably majority
060of us in this room and if you notice all of those people filled stadiums side by side touching our kids can't even do anything remotely close to that and that's following michael laney excuse me will be alanette leviton thank you for this opportunity i would just like to say that at the beginning of this meeting it was wonderful to hear those children sing because it um it got rid of the contention in the room if only for a few minutes um i'd also like to say thank you to lori melissa cody and alison um for the discussions we had before this meeting it was it was wonderful talking with you and it um it helped me realize that the comments that i brought to read today i'm not going to read because we don't need
061contention in this what we need is for our district to do the right thing and and which they're doing and make the committee and investigate it and go from there and it's okay to have differing opinions that's what this world is about um what we need is peaceful discussion with each other and friendliness i've had four kids in this district two of them which are still in it um my daughter wrote me something before i came here and i want to read it keep your words positive because your words become your behavior keep your work keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits keep your habits positive because your habits become your values keep your values positive become because your values become your destiny destiny so please let's just try and work together
062stop being contentious with each other i've sat in the back of the room and watched one side clap for the other for their side and the other side clap for their side let's just be peaceful ms levitton is wendy muller hi i'm elanit levitan and i'm here i'm a mother of two kids in the district and i'm here to support the teachers and the principal i would like to continue what this father just mentioned that let's focus on the positivity that our teachers and principals have been bringing to our students for all these years teachers they're there first for our students every day they're welcoming they're teaching supporting creating laughing leading they're available in the morning before class their lunches they give away their time around the clock they really work hard they are passionate
063about what they do and they make a difference in our children's life and that's what we need to remember if there was an error that occurred like what some people are mentioning here we all make a mistake we need to accept it we need to move on it is an unfortunate situation but we need to learn from it okay what kind of message are we sending to our children that errors are not acceptable in our society and if some parents have some issues with the protocol they should go to the school and resolve it in a school level they're going to the media and they're closed causing us the district a very bad name a very bad reputation what do you think you're doing i mean think about this we want to continue having a
064strong district as we've always had going to the media what kind of a solution do you think you will get out of it thank you [Applause] following ms mahler is jennifer ariza hello my name is wendy mahler i want to thank the school board for miss case coming out and saying that protocols were not being followed i understand that this is the second year that the protocol was not being followed i also do want to give thanks to all the teachers who did show up at school on tuesday that actually did their job and taught and did not do a sick out those are the teachers who support our kids the ones who showed up this is about accountability this is about what's right and wrong we all know that what was in that book
065i could not stand here today and read it to you right now because on youtube it would be banned per fcc rules it is that bad so thank you for following your own policies and procedures looking into this and making the teachers or principal or whoever is accountable accountable that's need that that is what needs to happen and we appreciate your time and concern in doing what is right for the children thank you [Applause] following ms ariza is anita perkle hi my name is jennifer ariza and i'm here just as a concerned community member i just challenge each person in this room today to do a little bit of research i personally have volunteered with victims of sex trafficking and the number one um indicator of or lead into sex trafficking is actually pornography and
066so i challenge each one of you to look into that before making decisions about material that's going to be taught to children um this is what pedophiles also do they groom children with sexually explicit material and just get them used to it it becomes normal it's not normal and it's not okay and sex trafficking is one of our biggest challenges here especially in phoenix arizona phoenix arizona has the largest sex trafficking um support uh community of rescuing boys and girls and so that's my challenge to everybody here today is please look into that thank you [Applause] uh following ms perkle is craig pribal i apologize if i mispronounce i've lived in this district for 12 years my husband was a public school student in this very district this year my daughter chose to make horizon
067high school her home and let's be honest this isn't about a book or district policy in the last year the concerned parents of this district have made school board meetings a place of division these parents have marched out a superintendent and tried to recall board members on this board over mass mandates their goal is to attend school board meetings tailor arguments shame community into community members and individuals force resignation scream crt which is not a thing ban sel which is not crt refuse science refuse mask mandates their bandwagon playbook rings like this email administrators and parents start a brush fire of angry parents force the administration to respond to controversy read aloud from books and lesson plans or internal documents that confirm their bias adopt language that is caustic i find their behavior disingenuous it's
068not about the children this is disruptive to the students the educators and the administrators that are in this district az is is in the sixth year of continued teacher shortage following mr pribel is lindsay writes hello my name is craig priblum the father of two children that attend mercury mine elementary school i have many issues with how this district is handling items such as critical race theory which encourages racism and the issue today i found the email that was sent on november 18th absolutely mind-numbing numbing i'm disgusted we are still being required to muzzle our children at the schools in this district this has gone on long enough my wife normally picks up our kids but when i have a chance it makes me sick to my stomach to see mass children why was this
069board decided to implement separate requirements for middle school and high school students versus elementary school if this is if this measure is leaning towards the implication of vaccine mandates for students in this district prepare for a massive protest and uproar it is true that maxim vaccine mandates have been in place for years for certain diseases these vaccines have been proven safe and necessary the current vaccine was desperately released less than two years ago and has not been proven safe and was rushed you repeatedly deflect that you are just abiding into the guidance of the maricona maricopa county department of public health many other districts in maricopa county are under the same guidance but don't require the muzzle yet the board in front of me chooses draconian enforcement in conclusion covet is a threat to some
070adults no one is disputing that but not to our children every adult in this country has had ample time and opportunity to be fully vaccinated if they haven't then that is on them that's their fault and it's not our children's fault i expect this board to take action and make masks optional you constantly state you care for our children but these policies don't reflect that thank you as i said the next card is lindsey writes i hope i'm pronouncing that right and following will be angela ratliff lindsay's not here okay yep when you're ready yeah okay hi my name is lindsay um also known as karen someone designated my name is karen outside for clapping for one side or both um i am a parent of two children at horizon high school there are juniors
071and seniors um i have a big issue with things that have happened i came to horizon i went up the chain of command as an ally i started coming here as things were not happening in april about march or april and i'm still here as an ally however i'm getting more and more frustrated and annoyed as the things that have happened continue to happen um the book happened we all know about the book today students walked out of our school and as a parent i was not notified the only email i got from our new principal was about covid positive cases at school i called multiple times to inform them that kids my daughter called me and told me that's the only way i knew about it uh i called them and told them you
072need to inform parents i'll give you a heads up they're planning on doing it again tomorrow you guys are not keeping our children safe there are many people here from horizon i appreciate all the support everything everyone's saying we've been part of the school district for 12 years as an apparent and now an employee i am pretty frustrated with the systematic failure of protecting our children this is not about our kids nobody has had our kids best interests at heart except for the parents who seem to not matter as much as our kids i suggest a student survey of anonymously um for satisfaction thank you very much your your time's up you may follow up with mr long so next is angela ratliff and following is marcy cerny good evening everyone i'm a little bit
073nervous about being here tonight because i am a horizon employee i i'd like to just tell you a little bit about us our school uh we're a family we're a family and lynn dianetta's our trusted leader she has been since i started there four years ago and we love her with all of our hearts she's the most kind and compassionate person i know and i really want her back i ask that you extend the grace to her that she has extended to so many over the years but i'm actually not here tonight just a petition for linda and i'm not here about a book i'm here as a concerned parent of three pvusd students i'm concerned about the culture of this district it's becoming politically motivated and a small group of aggressively loud parents are
074making so much noise that you're bending to their demands they speak to the press yet district employees are asked to give a pre-written response to the press if approached the press is only hearing one side i actually debated a protester outside tonight who is protesting against the book that she admitted she never even read she was protesting because she heard that it had graphic content she then proceeded to tell our high school students here that she was molested and raped by her uncle ironic that she exposed our students to the graphic content that she is protesting against and this is the culture overtaking these board meetings i ask that you quantify the complaints and make sure the individuals have this following the sardine is stephanie scanlan hi my name is marcy sarnie and i wanted
075to thank miss case for your comments tonight those are very much appreciated and dr bales as well for meeting with the parents and for taking action um regarding regarding this reading assignment i believe this non-approved reading assignment is not a parent versus teacher issue it's an employee following protocol issue if i intentionally went against a known company policy at my job i would immediately be fired furnishing pornographic material to a minor is not only against district protocols it's against the law who assigned this non-approved book that is the person responsible here apparently there was a reading assignment last summer as well that was assigned by the same teacher from what i've been told and that was also not on the approved list and today it was announced there's a math teacher at horizon that was
076having an inappropriate relationship with at least one student so materials with pornography and bestiality and teachers having inappropriate relations with the students it's no wonder there is a lack of trust from parents in this district it is not acceptable to blame the parents or to misrepresent the facts to the community to gain support we all know serious consequences are needed for true change when mistakes are made parents demand transparency and accountability thank you [Applause] following ms scanlon is megan starr good evening my name is stephanie scanlon just wanted to come here as a concerned citizen i have two grown successful children that went to school in phoenix and i now have two young grandchildren i've always loved teachers and kids i helped out a lot at the schools when my kids were growing up i'm
077not for censorship but i think kids need to have better choices to be exposed to kids have all these nasty choices just outside of these walls like pornhub and all those other kind of sites but schools should not over sexualize kids and desensitize them to the explicit material over cycles over sexualization of kids can lead kids to selling themselves online being trafficked mistreating others and no self-esteem let's help our kids be proud of themselves without being overly sexual sex sells but it has no place in our schools thank you [Applause] following this star is heather varela good evening my name is megan starr and the benefit of having a last name that starts with s is that really everyone has already said everything the downside is that you then rapidly rewrite your comments trying to
078say something relevant so just as a first note i want to say how impressed i am with the compassion and the courage that our high school students demonstrated tonight they are an impressive impressive note of what our teachers and our school district can achieve and then i also wanted to say that so many parents have spoken about the process and the policies tonight i would encourage the district to make those processes and policies transparent and available to everyone the last time i checked a few days ago the website that had these policies was only accessible with a pv learner's account so that a regular parent cannot get into it and that website i was told contains policies from the governing board that are outdated citing the policies at 4.3.1 4.3.3 which apparently we haven't used
079that type of numbering in years so i would encourage that to be updated and made available and transparent to parents so we can see what the policies are and then last i noticed in dr bale's uh november communication that there is [Applause] following heather varela is christy weems hello dr bales at governing board first of all i just want to say uh thank you i know your job has not been easy for this past year and i respect what you are here to do um i am here because i am a parent of two paradise valley school district children my daughter graduated from shadow mountain last year and as a freshman at the honors college in nau and my son is currently a sophomore at horizon high school and is a student in mr morgan's
080ap english class i'm here to talk about the impact that this has had along with all of the other upsets that our children have had over the last year on their mental health my son is a good student but he is not exactly a motivated student um mr morgan is one of the few teachers that does motivate him they have interesting conversations they talk about relevant topics these are the things that we are cultivating in the minds of our students i do want to raise that the american academy of pediatrics the american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry and the children's hospital association recently declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health and what we are trying to do is help to equip our children to deal with the world in which they
081live the world in which they live says that social media is a problem and they have to be able to deal with it so teaching this in a guided environment with a teacher who cares about them like mr morgan is a critical for our students to be able the next is christy weems not here uh next is jesse williams and then following will be heather wozny thank you um the fact that it takes all of this here um to get and keep this kind of trash out of the hands of our minor children is absurd anyone who can't see the basic natural right and wrong has little to no business educating this should have been stopped from the first parent email i mean that that's just basic this this violates policy law morality common sense
082pick your favorite and comparing this the removal of this book to nazi germany book burning is an absolute joke it's not being piled high on some sort of mountain where you'll never be able to read it again there's the internet there's libraries there's amazon it can be bought it can be read at leisure it doesn't have to be in a classroom and not being in a classroom doesn't make it banned and i think it's probably the only appropriate way forward to have it removed from a class and left to someone's own time is the only way that doesn't hinder one or force another but with this words words won't quiet us anymore we need we need actual appropriate action anyone behaving this way breaking laws of this nature with our kids should be fired and
083prosecuted thank you nexus heather woznia and then the last call in the puddle card is rainy zambrano heather can you hear me okay um i'm a parent of two pv students i understand that times are tough for everyone no matter what we need to unite and stand up for our excellent pv teachers and staff our teachers work hard for our children our pv students these are the teachers that work nights and weekends for our children all our teachers and staff today it is horizon need our support they really need it from you the governing board and dr bales please stand by them now and always thank you so much [Applause] hi my name is rainey and i just want to thank you for your time um just to be perfectly clear this is not about
084book burning but banning censorship but i ask you if the movie industry is able to put a rating on these on their movies why can't we do this with our books um i just recently found out my son read the book speak and somebody mentioned it earlier it's about molestation i don't think it's appropriate for a 14 15 year old child to be reading about molestation and rape and things like that bestiality in that other book um so you've been shamed those are illegal acts is it why is it illegal but it's legal to teach i don't think so according to ars 15-102 it mandates a governing board to develop policies and procedures for parents to learn about a course of study and review materials would draw their children from hormone harmful materials opt into
085sex education be given advanced notice and up their children into any sexual content in any classes other than sex ed so i ask you why is this not being done i didn't get anything about the book speak um so i just want to say that and thank you for your time thank you actually i was just informed that there was another card that apparently did not make it into the pile i'm not sure what happened um yeah emerson mcafee if you could fill out a cart after you do your thing if you could fill out a yellow card first we'd appreciate it um i i want to first thank the board for being here tonight along with my fellow peers and educated parents and staff members i'm a senior at horizon high school and i
086came into the district my eighth grade year after leaving the district for my freshman and sophomore year i returned my junior year to horizon high school i had the pleasure of being in mr morgan's english class last year i had thoughtful discussion discussions and learned way more than from him that i can summarize in 90 seconds i have nothing but respect for mr morgan and want to publicly thank him for the time that he has invested i am in support for keeping all three teachers and reinstating our principle i am so blessed to be in such a supportive and loving environment at horizon once again thank you for your time [Applause] thank you very much that includes call to the public and we appreciate all of our community members families coming forward and addressing us
087next on the agenda is superintendents commons as mentioned and noticed uh there's a vacancy on the board and i want to express my deepest appreciation to stephanie brown for her service to pb schools uh during the last 11 months and tonight i'd also like to give our community an overview of the process pb schools will be taking over the next several weeks to fill that vacancy more information can be found by clicking on the learn about the governing board vacancy button located on the home page of pbschools.net over the next several weeks applications will be accepted and shared with the members of our governing board as well as the maricopa county school superintendent steve watson while our board will make recommendations it is the responsibility of the county superintendent to make the official appointment the
088person appointed to fill this vacancy will serve until the next election taking place in november of 2022 interested parties should visit pbschools.net to download the application there are a variety of ways in which a member of our community can succeed and each of our own individual journeys leads to different definitions of what it means to be excellent and tonight i have the opportunity to mention just a few ways members of our community continue to show excellence ryan d diefendorfer the band and orchestra teacher at paradise valley high school was a recent recipient of arizona families silver apple award honoring excellence in education ryan was nominated by student noel robertson give him a round of applause catherine mckeever a member of our volunteers in paradise program was honored last week with the daily point of light
089award this award honors the power to do good every day using one's heart hands and mind to help strengthen communities congratulations catherine [Applause] you can read or watch more about these two fantastic individuals by visiting schools on twitter at pbschools we hope you'll be able to enjoy the sounds of the season with our k-12 student choral performances on saturday december 11th from 9 a.m to 11 to 3 30 p.m on the main stage at desert ridge marketplace the performance schedule is on our website please join us in partnership with the maricopa county department of public health pb schools is announcing that on saturday december 18th from 9 a.m to 2 p.m and on saturday january 8th uh 2022 from 9 00 a.m to 2 p.m there will be a free covet 19 vaccine event for
090anyone five years of age and up events will take place at these respective weekends at north canyon high school located at 1700 east union hills drive in phoenix for more information call 602-506-6767 this information and more is also being added to our website as this is our last governing board meeting for 2021 i'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a happy new year thank you thank you dr bales next on the agenda our first item for approval is consideration approval of administrative employee non-renewal action i'll turn it back to dr bales tonight we recommend the non-renewal notice of linda net as principal for the 22-23 school year in accordance with ars statute 15-503 ms annette was informed of this recommendation on friday november 19 2021 and we recommend approval thank you we
091have received a few cards um for folks who want to speak uh to this and as i said earlier it'll be 90 seconds and the first card is from lori berman and following will be devin ellis thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight i'd like to give sorry a huge shout out to the teachers and staff at horizon sorry it's been tough but with our pcr we are resilient tonight is not about the book that is a topic for another time tonight is about the process and the events that led to the horizon staff being on leave based on the agenda item it is obvious what is happening thank you for returning our amazing teachers to our classroom now you have one more job to do return our principal mrs net has been in
092our district for 41 years don't discount that i understand that there are details that we the general public are not privy to i respect that however if there was an error made it is resolved by getting her back to school it is not clear where the ultimate responsibility lies where the error was district level administrative level or parent level possibly all or none of the above regardless what is happening now is exactly what john ronson describes in his book about public shaming destroying lives don't make this a reality in our district show everyone that pvusd supports our teachers and staff we are creating world-class thinkers we need to show equity throughout our community this is the time to prove it get her back to school thank you [Applause] so the next card as i said
093was is devin ellis and following will be henry hill good evening thank you governing board for giving me the opportunity to speak and for being here tonight i just wanted to take a few minutes to talk about linda inet and what a good principle she's been at least in my view in my time at horizon when i was applying to schools four years ago to find a place to work i was interviewed at three separate schools i chose to work at horizon because of linda annette she had a dedication to education that put a focus on what the students need above all else while i've been working there with miss with linda's help i've been able to offer classes in calculus 3 and 4 classes in ap physics and ap computer science some of these
094classes were not offered before i came there but with with linda's help she recognized that these are classes the students could use and classes that i could teach and we work together to make sure the students get what they need i think that linda annette has is a fantastic principle and i think that non-renewal of her contract would be a big mistake thank you thank you so after mr hill is lee kimball governing board dr bales henry hill again thank you for allowing me another opportunity to speak as i said i have a child who is at horizon high school another one who's rising as a as a freshman next year i really do hope that she will also have the principal i need there when she gets there what i mentioned before what i'd
095like to re-emphasize is i really do hope that whatever process you're going through is fair and appropriate and that whatever judgment you come to whatever actions you take are not only appropriate to what you find but proportionate to it i think we can all talk we can all look back the last two years and know what a strain it's been for everyone we've mentioned during i've seen during your meetings you're discussing what the paid what the parents what the students what the faculty what the staff what the administration has gone through i don't claim to know what happened but it would not surprise me if some of what we are seeing and what's been discussed here is not a component of how worked over everyone was after last year we have all had a lot
096of stress we all need to take a breath and please just be fair with how you do this uh this additional disruption happening at the high school at this point i think would be detrimental to everyone there and really not help support and bring i won back in the way that we need the students to come back thank you [Applause] so lee kimball is next and following liu kimball is raquel glad i can get up here again um so i love miss inet i'm going to be honest with you i know miss inet for many years and she is the one that has been through the process so for those that don't know the process has been going on for two years about these books every time i reached out to her she did respond
097did it not get followed through this last year yes so i hope that this book or this situation with the ap english department is not the reason why she is being fired because i think that would be more of a scapegoat if there's other reasons that we don't know about that's fine but i think this is a learning opportunity for the district and for you guys as a council to be able to be more transparent so people know i know there's certain rules you have to hr policy and things that have to be done but i think that we need to be fair i think we need to be solid i've had all my girls well my last one will be an eighth grader coming in next year as a freshman we love the school
098i want to see great people continue to do good things were there mistakes made yes should there be punishments yes just like any time a child messes up in their class trust me all these teachers will tell you there's consequences when you make wrong actions but does that necessarily mean firing i don't know what the process is you guys have your process i'll respect that process but i hope that we understand that we try to do the right thing by these kids by the people that we're being served by at this school but i do want to throw my sword support there thank you raquel kimball is nicole klutwick a lot of people today saying i open and roll and come to the district guys i bought a house in the neighborhood next to horizon
099because i wanted my kids to go to horizon i need that to sink in we bought a house on the neighborhood next to horizon for my kids to italian horizon to attend horizon high school we love horizon and i know a lot of people had told me it's not the best there's so many things in there oh your daddy made it but she had to compromise no guys i like to look at the good a horizon has been good to us and this is what my heart is breaking because all this wouldn't happen if somebody would take action the time when i sent the first email in 2020. this is not the first mistake guys and i hope that you understand that i have hear some prayers say my daughter get an alternative title she's
100a senior my daddy is a junior there was not an alternative title for the junior class for whatever reason it was they they added two months later only because somebody emailed me signet actually was me i emailed me signet and i told her there is not an alternative title and she immediately gave me an alternative title on july 5th that's what i respect miss annette through all the process she was the one that was always quick to respond there was a mistake and there is accountability unlike my husband if there are things that we don't know what you're making the decision about me net that you're making these decisions there had to be consequences but so following ms klutwick is michael laney um some of what i was going to say has already been said
101um just there's rumors swirling um it would be so nice if there was transparency people knew why decisions were made um what the rationale is and i just want to reaffirm i i also like um ms zinet and i think she's wonderful um that doesn't mean that if she did something wrong i don't want accountability i don't know what that accountability is i don't know what the emails are i mean was she told to communicate to the department head did she department communicate to the department head were the teachers told was all of that communication done if so don't make her the scapegoat um it sounds like it would if that's the case it it's something that needs to be addressed in the entire group um and that doesn't mean firing people it just means
102accountability the same as we do for our children when they make the same mistake repeatedly what we don't correct we condone and um it's only going to be a policy if you actually hold a policy to be um followed so thank you [Applause] following mr lainey is chloe wrencher thank you again for letting me speak my father was a teacher he was let go after having tenure for various reasons nothing because of what he did and so i understand what is going on here from a personal level i also understand the concept of forgiveness and i understand that because i know i make mistakes myself and i would want other people to forgive me when i make mistakes that doesn't mean i shouldn't be held accountable but i understand the the concept of forgiveness um
103i may not agree with missiness political views or if she likes milk that's irrelevant i think she does a great job as a principal i think she's super responsive super responsible and i hope that the committee that you put together and the decisions that you make follow proper procedure and the evidence and i hope it comes out to a an outcome that we all like and i just admonish this again to be kind to each other and to be peaceful with each other and to talk with each other because we can find common ground with each other thank you [Applause] and chloe rancher this is the last card we have hello good evening governing board thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak i'm a sped teacher at horizon high school i applied to
104horizon not only because i was alumni but because of linda inet she not only was a sped teacher herself but has developed programs that have helped and support our department her eyes horizon high school wouldn't be what it is without linda and her amazing leadership the non-renewable contract would be a true shame to horizon thank you [Applause] thank you very much um miss case may i have a motion to approve so lived is there any discussion does any board member if not um mrs may we have a roll call vote please mrs matura hi mrs greenberg hi mrs bacon i just want to make a statement quick statement before i vote um i like the rest of you do not i'm not privy to any of the any of the hr stuff that's happened what
105i do know and what i do have faith in is dr bales and dr holmes mr long and the recommendations they're making they rarely make a recommendation that i don't agree with and so i because of that i vote aye mrs case i vote i thank you the motion passes next on the agenda is number two public hearing for the 2122 district annual budget revision one dr bales thank you president greenberg in our ongoing efforts to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and transparency ms berrigan our assistant superintendent for business operations will conduct a budget hearing followed by a recommendation prove the first budget revision for 2122 ms bergen thank you dr bales president greenberg and governing board members uh as an effort towards our financial transparency as well as uh to the fact that there is a
106statutory requirement to revise budgets in december if there are any changes and we do have changes in adm both planned and a little bit un predicted in our decline in enrollment and that has affected our m o budget as well as our district additional assistance budget which is no surprise we did adopt the budget at a little over 263 million and our december revision is just under 240 million for maintenance and operation and then for the district additional assistance budget we do have a little bit of an increase of 136 000 the differences there are primarily due to an a decrease from the budget adoption of 2015 adm we always budget for higher than expected adm so that we do not lose any capacity for the m o override so that's the part where i
107say there's that projected or planned decrease in the budget we don't actually fully uh plan expenditures for those amounts in the budget but we do put that amount in there so that we don't lose that capacity that's been done prior to my time and will continue to be done so that we don't lose any capacity on the override the actual budget or the actual uh expenditures that we've budgeted for for adm are uh put at twenty seven thousand eight hundred twenty five adm but our current adm is approximately twenty thousand twenty seven thousand one hundred and seventy one so that was the unexpected decrease that we are seeing of about 654 adm and when you wait that total weighted student count out it's a little over 930. that amount uh is a little over four
108million dollars those are reductions we will have to take into consideration for this year and if those students don't return we'll have to take those into consideration for next year as well we'll talk more about that in the work session next week as i share the additional budget information moving forward the four million dollars that we need to plan for this year there are some safety valves within the district where we can pull that from we do still have the opportunity to change some of the pieces that have been written into the sr3 grant moving forward and could certainly take it out of there we do have some funds in medicaid as well as budget balance carry forward an indirect cost should we need to dip in into any of those areas just some additional
109pieces of information there's the increase in the district additional assistance and there was a decrease of the adm that does help plan for that budget but also our expenditures from fiscal year 21 were less than what we had expected and because we can carry those balances forward for fiscal year 22 there is actually a slight increase in the district additional assistance budget that we have for this year i would also share that the initial review that i've looked at uh reflects that there's little additional cost savings from the unfilled positions that we have so we have a number of unfilled bus driver positions we have some positions where teachers are needing substitutes but when we are filling those positions the cost for that actually balances out when we have to have a teacher do a
110six-fifths schedule or something of that nature or we have our bus drivers working overtime which is then at time and a half that ends up actually eating into some of the potential savings that we would have for those positions not being filled we'll continue to look at that and maybe see if there's some flexibility within that moving forward we will have another budget revision in may by may 15 of each year we have to do a final budget revision so that'll include our final 100-day numbers for adm and we will see where we land at that point in time but i'm happy to answer any questions you might have this evening thank you ms bergen mrs case may we have a motion to approve the budget revision and then we'll open it up for questions
111download does any member of the board have any questions seeing none miss chisholm i mean we have a roll call vote please mrs matura aye mrs greenberg aye mrs bacon aye mrs case aye thank you next on the agenda is ratification of vouchers mrs case may i have a motion please some moved and may we do this by roll call vote please this is matura aye mrs greenberg aye mrs bacon i abstain as i do when asba is a payer in our vouchers mrs case aye motion passes thank you very much and last on our agenda is acceptance of gifts and donations we thank all of our donors and appreciate your support of the district and i'd like to give a shout out to the shadow mountain high school class of 1981 who gave 2
112400 for the image 360 projects for campus beautification at shadow mountain and mrs case may have a motion to approve some lived and may we vote by roll call vote please mrs matura aye mrs greenberg aye mrs bacon aye mrs case aye motion passage unanimously and i just want to say thank you to everyone who was with us today thank you for um speaking from the heart and um as dr bales noted this is our last regular board meeting of the year so i wish everybody a joyous and restful winter break and mrs case may i have a motion to adjourn sun lived all those in favor please say aye aye aye motion passes we are adjourned