11/18/2024 Regular Board Meeting

001One Nation God indivisible withy and jusice for all okay Lynn roll call please Mike Higgins here Lorie Holland here Fred Yan here Diana Johnson here Tina Johnson here Sam AEL here David Trader here Dan bolner here Craig Wartman here okay we have a preview of the agenda Dr Burke are there any adjustments uh or necessary changes from the board or anyone else up here I have not heard any changes okay very good uh the first order business is board reorganization as uh many people may know this is my first time in the president seat um due to a resignation of the presidency at the October meeting and uh what's up oh sorry how'd that skip over that I have no idea I was reading the little yellow thing on my screen okay my bad uh

002first public comment the first public comment tonight is scheduled for 10 minutes we are going to ask that anybody here speaking on matters other than uh resolution 9354 be the opportunity to speak at the podium at this time otherwise there is a much longer public comment session that we have scheduled just before that resolution goes for vote uh I would appreciate if you you step to the mic announce your name you all have cards those cards are to be turned in after you're done speaking in the basket next to the podium it is not a sign up for those who can hear me in this room and the other room just filling out a card does not guarantee you a time at the podium we have a 10- minute scheduled now a 30 minute scheduled

003later and then a 15 even at the end of the night the board at any time can vote to extend those public comment sessions but I can guarantee you with 250 odds some people here and if you wanted to talk we're not going to get to it so at a minimum on the very first 10minute public comment this is being reserved for just those who have matters to speak to the board unrelated to 9354 does anybody want to approach the podium and address the board nothing online Tyler very good okay my apologies I skipped ahead last time closes public comment at this time number three reorganization I jumped ahead um at the October meeting the president resigned making the VP which was me at the time the president um per policy 8210 uh in the

004event of an officer's temporary absence or inability act the board shall appoint another board member to discharge that offer's duties um and that would be done by voting except for in the case of the president in which case the vice president shall automatically perform those duties of the president so board members uh it is my intention to only have an election for the VP the vacant seat and if there is any trickle down of that uh the treasurer or the clerk if they take then we would have another vote um unless someone would like to contest the presidency in which case we'll vote for that too okay very good then uh thank you for your vote of confidence or at least your nods of heads uh I am now the president officially and then uh

005I will now take nominations for the role of Vice President Tina I nominate Mike hiin okay Mike do you accept that nomination I'll accept okay Mike Higgins thank you I nominate Greg W Greg do you accept that nomination very good do we have any other nominations okay we have ballots for that Lynn please hand those out or pass them down and collect those when they're done too so that they're not passed up one short one short there it is Bob join the meeting something yeah Mike Higgins okay Mike join the meeting uh Mike was the treasurer uh we will now have to fill that position you have any nominations for the role of Treasurer Mike Diana Johnson do you accept that nomination anyone else any other nominations okay nomination I like the nomination done okay

006okay congratulations everyone yeah moving on uh to announcements and recognitions uh the first up is the whhs student board rep I understand that they are not here tonight online no not here tonight okay so we will skip that uh the next item is wasby membership yeah so just a an annual announcement this is certificate of membership from WB uh they usually send it out this time of year uh when they also send out uh information regarding the State Convention registration uh so I want to remind you as members uh that uh that is their main professional development opportunity for everybody across the state um and just wanted to acknowledge that they sent us our certificate of membership thank you Dr Burke okay next up is strategic discussion we have our enrollments projections from Rafer and

007we were going to recognize join the meeting go for it join the meeting far um so I I will keep it uh short and sweet um okay is this better there we go okay great pull this up a little more okay uh my name is Nick Johnson I'm a planner and project manager from a company called MD rawers Consulting uh we're an urban planning firm based in Madison but we work with clients all across the state of Wisconsin uh half of the work that we do is working with school districts uh to help them plan for enrollment projections and help them plan for future facility changes uh so the Watertown Unified School District hired our firm uh about 6 months ago uh to do an enrollment projections project uh and we finished that uh towards

008the end of last month got the presentation there we go perfect I will have to uh say next then uh when I need you to move to the next slide oh this is the report there should be a presentation Nancy join the meeting okay [Music] not yet rul R join the meeting sarup hang perfect thank you okay we can go uh forward the next slide okay so quick uh outline of my presentation I'll first go over some Trends in your District enrollment Trends demographic Trends as well as housing trends uh get into our housing projections that factors into our student enrollment projections then I'll wrap things up comparing our projections to the building capacities of your school buildings uh this presentation is a very condensed version of our report which was I think 60 to

00970 pages long uh that we provided a few weeks ago to the district uh there's a lot more information about our methodology uh projections and other specific nuances and complications that I I won't necessarily get in today that are in the report uh next slide uh so overall enrollments decreased in the Watertown Unified School District by about 600 students or so over the past decade uh with the greatest decreases at the the 4K level as well as the elementary school level uh the Watertown school district is not alone virtually all school districts across the state of Wisconsin are experiencing the same thing uh this does suggest continued enrollment decreases uh over the next several years as those smaller Elementary class sizes replace middle school and high school class sizes next slide uh this is almost

010entirely due to decreasing births that we've seen in the district again the Watertown Unified School District is not alone uh births have been decreasing across the the state and the nation as a whole over the last decade they decrease from about 390 births in 2010 to about 310 births in 2019 uh that's a decrease of about 19% over the last decade uh due to housing market shifts minimal housing Construction in the 2010s uh as well as large scale macro demographic change since 2019 however uh the last few years we have seen births increase slightly uh this is something that we're not seeing in every school district uh we think this is due to recent housing construction that's occurred in Watertown uh as well as the large millennial generation beginning to have children next slide uh

011the community is overall aging uh the median age in the district increased from about 37 years old in 2010 to about 41 years old in 2020 again the district is not alone this is occurring across the state and the nation however as of this last decade there's similar numbers of residents aged 65 and older so seniors as there are uh children uh about 5,900 for for each uh population which is something that we've never experienced before uh next slide uh Private School enrollment in the Watertown Unified School District has also decreased over that time frame decreasing by about 7% most of that's occurred uh in the mid2 the mid-2010s since then private enrollment has remained relatively stable next slide next slide uh housing price increases and an overall housing shortage in your community uh the

012median home sale price in Watertown as of 2024 was about $290,000 uh that's more than doubled over the last eight years or so still the median price is pretty significantly cheaper here than it is in nearby wakasa County or DNE County about 30% cheaper housing here than it is in those communities the greater toown Watertown uh greater Watertown Community Health Foundation study uh they did a housing study earlier this year that showed a shortage of about 1,800 single family homes and about a th uh rental units in the city of Watertown alone next slide uh those housing price increases uh in the exacerbation of the housing shortage has really been due to a lack of Housing Development that occurred over the last decade uh from the 1990s to 2010 so the 1990s and 2000s decade

013uh the district saw about 120 to 100 New housing units every year uh over the last decade there was only about 26 per year so significantly lower levels of new Housing Development next slide uh there has been accelerated housing Construction in response uh over the past few years about 750 new housing units have been either approved or proposed in the city uh the city has been uh increasing in interest among Regional residential developers uh some from the Twin Cities and some from Milwaukee that uh see the Watertown area really as a a great market for them to develop new housing in next slide uh it's really important in our work for us to understand how different types of housing generate students for the school district uh in the Watertown Unified School District a new single

014family home generates about .57 students so you really need about two new single family homes to create one student uh for your school district that's significantly lower than the public perception what most people think uh a subdivision of about a hundred new single family homes we'd get about 55 to 60 kids from that subdivision and this is a very typical ratio that we see uh in other similarly sized and similarly positioned school districts uh next slide uh new multiple family housing uh that's Apartments town homes condominiums anything but a single family home uh tends to be marketed and and populated by childless families uh the ratio for that is about 02 students per unit so a 100 unit apartment building we we'd really only see about two to three kids coming out of that next

015slide uh the one exception is income restricted housing also known as Workforce housing what we call in uh the urban planning world uh produces students at significantly higher rates about 03 students per unit uh here in the Watertown Unified School District uh next slide uh getting into our housing projections uh next slide a lot of our methodology to how we're get to our projections lives in the report I'm not going to go over today because I know we're constrained on time uh but by 2040 we project about 2400 new housing units in the district uh that's greater than what we saw over the past decade uh but getting back to the Housing Development levels that we saw the 1990s and 2000s uh several reasons for why we expect uh significantly more housing construction are shown

016on the screen next slide uh one out of every three new housing units we project by 2040 will be a single family home we know that that produces students at greater rates than do new multiple family units which will be about two out of every three new housing units on next slide getting into our enrollment projections next slide uh so our projections do assume a continuation of current conditions so current grade groupings at each School current schools uh I know Water Town doesn't have attendance areas but just keeping that continuing to move forward so no significant changes we do project a decrease of about 160 students by 2040 all of that decrease and more is really concentrated over the next few years and concentrated at the high school level your high school class sizes are

017significantly larger now than your current elementary class sizes your average high school class size has about 317 kids your average Elementary class size has just over 200 uh significantly smaller next slide uh after 2027 we do project enrollment to modestly increase uh due to the more Housing Development we just discussed we do anticipate uh birth to stabilize over the next decade or so more employment more commuting to Madison and Milwaukee over the next few years we project that decrease of 240 students and then after from 2027 to 2040 an increase of about 80 students next slide for elementary schools we project an increase of about 88 students in your traditional elementary schools through 2040 uh next slide middle schools a decrease of about 27 students by 2040 and high schools a decrease of about 224

018students uh by 2040 uh next slide uh next one uh comparing our projections to the building capacity of your current school buildings so assuming no future changes we project your 2040 Elementary enrollment will be between the combined Target capacity and the combined maximum capacity of your five current elementary school buildings so we project about 1300 Elementary School students with that capacity range of anywhere from 1,200 to 1400 students uh at your five current elementary schools next slide uh at Lincoln ures Elementary we project both will operate above their maximum capacity uh within about a decade or so by 2035 and then Webster and Douglas elementaries operating above their target capacity but still remaining below their maximum capacity uh by about 2035 onward next slide for Middle School uh we project enrollment to decrease there but

019then increase towards the end of the 2030s uh just becoming slightly above that Target Middle School building capacity uh where we are currently at uh and then high school we project enrollment to continue to decrease there will be more and more excess capacity at the high school level uh through 2040 as we graduate those very large uh High School class sizes next slide that's it I made it short and sweet usually this takes about 20 25 minutes and I was hoping to stick to about 10 um I welcome any questions any of you board members or any comments you have now with P who do our facility study um and worked in conjunction with our offers to do our population study uh we're going to be having three uh meetings in December on the 3D

020fourth and fifth of December where we're going to talk about where should we go as a school district next so if you're interested in those please go to our website they're listed there um and that'll be the next step in our facilities process okay thank you thank you Nick for appreciate it appreciate it join the meeting okay join the meeting wow most audience Applause love it okay uh this brings us to our second of three public comment sections um and uh have a few things to read into the notes Here uh fortunately we are expecting to and you all didn't disappoint uh however with crowd management I'm not saying there's a couple of rule changes just some Rules of Order that are always there but nobody's ever aware of because it doesn't ever really affect

021us so um this session is slated to last for 30 minutes after which time we'll take a pause and ask the board if they'd like to continue for an additional five to 10 speakers I'll accept that motion after the first 30 minutes so that clock will start at roughly 6:30 we will continue to follow that process until a majority of the board board no longer votes to continue the session we are here for board business we are not here to hear from every single person in the room I apologize uh that also goes for the people online and the people in the room adjacent to this room um to ensure we hear from as many unique perspectives as possible if your planned comments are reflected in a prior speakers please limit your comments to assert

022that or just raise your hand when you hear something you agree with uh still I don't expect that we'll have time for each and every one of you you to speak my apologies I remind you that we'll be limiting public comment speakers to 3 minutes per person to speak the timer will be displayed on the AV screens behind me uh I'll give you a 15-second warning at that 15sec when the clock strikes three I'd ask you to please cease your comments and yield to the next speaker uh we also ask that wusd residents are allowed to speak first uh if time allows non-residents will be allowed to speak again your compliance with that's appreciated I would to have to tell any speaker to sit down um for efficiency and accuracy this is something a little

023bit new note cards have been disseminated uh for you to complete prior to or after you're speaking they are not signup cards they are a roll call or a registration because we have to keep that record and I do want do not want to diminish your time at the podium by taking 15 or 20 seconds of your time filling out your name and address uh so please fill those cards out ahead of time or afterwards and then leave them with Melissa lampy in the basket next to the podium uh before you leave the room tonight you don't have to do it immediately but just please get it done regardless of that when you approach the podium you will still be asked to speak your name your address um and any uh organization that you are

024affiliated or uh representing in your spe in your uh in your when you're addressing us um so um a couple of other matters uh just to make sure we're all on the same page here uh since November 1st I and I assume most members of the board have received emails from some people in this room some people not in this room rationally explaining their position on the matter and encouraging us to support one version or another I'd like to speak on the behalf of the entire board right now when I say thank you for taking that time to send us the email when you get a 100 of them and about 25 today alone uh we don't each have the opportunity to say thank you or engaging with you at the conversation but we do

025get them we do read them and we do take them to heart join the meeting um your passion and involvement in the community uh the education system is impressive so again thank you I'll also the opinions expressed were roughly split so know that although you feel that there's only one logical answer join the meeting there roughly half the people who disagree with you maybe plus 5% maybe minus 5% it's not too far off of half okay lastly two things I'd like to read into the record just prior to recognizing our first member at the time number one a very a version very similar to draft a has been in effect in the district for roughly eight years no member of the current board or administrative team in front of you this evening was involved in

026its creation or adoption that may not be consistent information you've heard out in the public it is not new number two in that eight-year span dozens of students each year are supported by its existence with no known grievance or issue from other students staff or the community at large that's just two pieces of information which I've seen let's say not represented fully with that uh I ask you to please be mindful uh of those uh facts I also ask you to be pleased mindful of other speakers and with that I'll ask the first uh speaker to approach the microphone and state your name and uh address can you hear me Tyler hello my name is Annie Vander Lindon and I'll and you want my address you said n 8071 High Road Wisconsin join the meeting

027I am currently a junior in Endeavor Charter School and I would like to discuss the current predicament about letting students change in the locker rooms transgender students make up 3% of the average student body non-binary students and agender students make up the average 5% those numbers may seem small but they are extremely significant recently there has been brought up that some people believe transgender students should not be allowed to change in locker rooms of the gender they are transitioning to this issue has been brought up in the past regarding bathrooms as a student in Watertown High School I can say with full Pride that I have met very few students who are bothered by transgender students I will also say there are possibilities to create unex locker rooms and bathrooms within the high school and

028middle school the high school has some locker rooms that are only used during the evening for sports they go completely unused during the school day therefore transgender students or students who identify as anything other than cisgender could use those locker rooms to change for gym class this will prevent other students from getting uncomfortable as well as give students the freedom to express and transition who they are themselves as they are comfortable I would like to also bring up gender conformant plans it has been recently brought to my attention that gender conformant plans have been erased from our system I don't know how and I don't know how frequently but it has happened the gender conformant plan was created so that students who identify as anything other than the gender they were assigned at birth have

029the right and freedom to be who they are and feel safe at school without these plans mental health of students can be can decrease and suicide rates can increase not being able to be who you are at home or school will forever take a toll on someone's mental health and body it is quite common for parents of a transgender student to come to the school in order to set up a gender conformant plan so that their preferred name and pronouns can be used for their child at school this should stay the same I also believe that students with parents who do not support them should be allowed to create gender conformant plans that will allow them and their school to use their preferred name and pronouns even without the parents knowledge I know many of

030you will disagree with me on this but I have met people with parents who are willing to disown destroy and even abuse their child if they were to come out as transgender non-binary or anything under the lgbtqia umbrella although they are the parents of that child that child should still have the right to be safe and free to be who they are at school even if the parents cannot know finally regardless of anyone else's beliefs I'd like to State a fact transgender students are human they deserve as many rights as someone who is cisgender thank you for listening hello my name is Phoenix witty I'm from Watertown oh um I am speaking on the bathroom and support plans but first I want to start with a poem that was an adaptation from another one I'm

031not sure what it's called but birth they come for the trans youth I did not speak out because I was not transgender youth then they come for Trans adults I did not speak out because I transgender adult then they come for same-sex marriage I did not speak out because I was not marage then they come for lesbians and gays I did not speak out because I was not lesbian or gay they come for those in interracial marriage I did not speak out because I was not in an interracial marriage then they come again for blacks Hispanics Asians and Islanders I did not speak out because I was not black Hispanic Asian or an Islander they come for me and there is no one left to speak for me and while all of you are arguing

032yelling and fighting about this you refuse to stop and talk to any of us kids about it some never look for the inside view us kids are supposed to feel safe all of us thank you for your time hello I'm Autumn Foria and I'm speaking about the gender plans in our Public Schools um uh is it okay thank you um I live at 1101 Chris View Drive the radicals idea ideas and practices of gender ideology are not only harmful to students and teachers but also the well-being of the family unit in the country in 2020 some people might be aware I was struggling with the other what other people told me was being born in the wrong body in reality I was a confused insecure teenage girl implementing radical ideologies into America's Public School further

033confuses our students further confuses our students social transition is is the gateway to harmful surgeries and irreversible damage to the male and female body look at people like Pria Mosley Co Chloe Cole Laura Becker and hundreds of testimonies I heard for myself when you take them mentally unwell and put in the idea into their head that they might be born in the wrong body they will believe it but contrary to popular belief no child is born in the wrong body being trained specifically and more specifically telling children they are trans and affirming them is the easiest most acceptable and most medically profitable route to deal with long-term mental health struggles once a child begins a medical transition they are for Life tied to unnecessary procedures drugs medication and therapy trying to fix a body they

034were told was broken children who are not immediately affirmed by parents are told parents are bad people bigots and will be the biggest caly in their entire life parents who anomally affirm and medicate and transition their CH children are told of their child kills runs away get rehomed Etc it is their fault tell me again what's so Noble accepting and loving to tell children specifically ones who I cannot stret enough already hate themselves they are born in the wrong body it is unethical untrue and dangerous especially because people that are usually told they are trans are neod Divergent depressed abused struggling with their sexual sexuality and or have existing personal I have seen the horrors of the trans movement I have seen families been poured apart and people be mutilated and the mental Warfare happening

035within so please v c not only for the safety of your daughters but for the safety of all children thank you and please take my testimony to account what really hello you hear me okay it was only less than a year that the original transgender policy for wusd was discovered cannot hear can hear you pull it down that's what they always say just hold it there we go okay better hello okay it was only less than a year that the original transgender policy for wusd was discovered to inform the public the original was one that is much the same as draft a oh Tammy Cedar 8579 North 8579 Hilltop Road sorry I'll start all over again do I get a little bit more time I'm sorry okay it was only less than one year that

036the original transgender policy for wusd was discovered to inform the public the original one was one that is much the same as draft a but the most unacceptable part that the parents of the children who were P pondering transgendering for themselves were frozen out of the process and much Authority was given to the teachers and counselors of the school it was rightly struck down from the document and parents rights were strengthened and by the way draft C is not illegal it was written with the help of the school district attorney and the administration for how long the original policy was active in the district no one seems to know or I never got an answer most importantly the parents were the ones who were who were in the dark about it but now that we

037have draft a up for review and draft C to vote on I suspect that had the information not been made known to the parents in wsd the board would have passed the policy that would force the children particularly girls to have to field encounters like seing full male frontal nudity in the shower rooms suddenly coming out of nowhere before them and make them wonder what might this guy do to me how would any of you adult women on the board like to experience something like that against your knowledge and will in a locker room in a private gym but for some strange reason it is completely fine for minor females under your direction and decision to have to field this the parents in Watertown didn't know that their daughters could experience such a same scenario

038but now they know it is not an unfounded fear because it did happen in Sun Prairie just 35 minutes from here a little more than a year ago the parents are here to watch you cast your boat one particular participant of the school board said to me personally for the kids who do not want to go along with the transgender agenda they can say Hey you do you and I'll do me that sounds very good to me but in reality draft a makes that notion impossible in the incident that 25 children in W USD who desire to transgender in this District can insist to the rest of the 3,275 children who do not want to participate in their choices by saying hey I'm going to do me and you are going to do me Jo

039the meeting only draft C allows for each child to choose for themselves and have their adequate protections at the same time how can the safety of the child who desires to transfer to to transgender who by the way is important and is valued okay uh and be protected there must be the provision of a private bathroom for his or her needs the school board has the express mandate to provide security and safety to all of the children in the district they do not have the mandate to provide that each child be able to perfectly Express themselves at the expense of all others please vote for draft C thank you Michelle Stewart 1403 Schuman Drive according to the 2023 youth risk behavior survey done by students in this District students who identify as lgbtq have roughly

040double the risk of being bullied at school and suffer from mental health concerns when compared to their peers 40% of this District's lgbtq students have considered suicide 33% have a plan and 18% have attempted suicide at least once already these statistics are more than triple the amount when compared to their peers these numbers are not all that different from the 2020 1 yrbs results this is why I chose to wear black tonight to show my support for them my question to the board is what are you doing to decrease these gaps have you considered and included lgbtq student input and impact when drafting this new policy have you also considered the fact that just accepting a student for who they are decreases their risk of suicide by more than 30% what is the real reason

041for behind changing this policy because it's definitely not for the protection and acceptance of an already vulnerable population my son is my oldest son is gay he knew he was gay when he was in sixth grade he is a he is a freshman in college that hasn't changed my son has gone on multiple overnight trips the staff involved handling the rooming situations they handled it very respectfully and in a professional manner they did not need a restrictive policy in place to be able to have a conversation with my son to make sure he would feel comfortable with his roommates and I'm sure that they had a conversation with the other people that were in that room as well because that's what people do should do when including those that are different from them my son

042and his friends are not a political agenda or an ideology they are people with real valid thoughts and feelings they are already targeted by their peers just because they are different they already feel less than half the sense of belonging that their peers experience education experts all agree that a higher sense of belonging in a school leads to a higher success rate both in school and after graduation how does denying them who they are help them to be more successful and less suicidal why is this board even considering passing a policy designed to cause harm to the students it is directly impacting why is this District starting to go down the same path as other districts with how they treat their lgbtq students can this District afford to lose good quality Educators because of how

043the district treats their students like those other districts can this District afford to lose more students to open enrollment outside of this District because of how this District treats their students like other districts my son and his friends are not a political agenda that's fine that was my last thing I was going to say they are not an agenda Stacy is Studio East Main Street well if it's not a political agenda I'd like to bring up the million dollars and grants this district has received to implement these things if suicide is such a hard thing for the lgbtq students then and this has been put into place for what eight years now then why is it still a struggle if this if this was working the the last election in this city ran conservative you

044are voices for your constituents they are not allowed to dictate the words that I use words that children use they are not a special breed we boys are boys girls are girls that's the end of it how many sexual assaults and decent exposures is too many because your answer better be one or you don't belong on this board you guys have been selling our children's wellbeing for a million doll grant for years and it ends today join the meeting Lance goty join the meeting all right so um I know you're getting grants for learning disabilities too please keep doing that so that the people with learning disabilities can continue too you know um all right so my name is John Fritz um I wanted to talk a bit about I think what the main concern

045is um in favor of this and that is religious freedom um it is and I wanted to talk specifically about the um uh the teachers being able to call students by either their preferred or their assigned pronouns right now they are encour to do to call them by their preferred pronouns but they have correct if I'm correct me if I'm wrong the religious liberty to not do that correct like they as it's written they don't have to use the pronouns but the new one says that they can't so there's a requirement now so now if they're religious inclination is to call them by their preferred pronouns now they don't have their religious right to do that um religious freedom depends upon freedom of religion in order to have a choice in order to be truly

046free you must be able to either be that religion be a different religion or be no religion as long as you're not hurting other people this is what Rel this is what this is what religious liberty is the people that came here fleeing religious persecution joed Christian nations all right I think that's all I have to say join the meeting um Can good evening everyone I am an eighth grader I have been in W Watertown Unified School District my whole life until this year I have chosen to do online schooling because I do not want to deal with this problem but here I am today facing the problem today I I am standing here to protect the girls of this school district if if if I go if I go back to Watertown High School

047I I do not want guys in my bathroom bathrooms locker rooms sports or sleeping quarters that could give them the right to hurt that could give them the right that no that could give them the option to hurt any girl because you are taking our safe space I don't feel com comfortable about this I left this school because school district because I don't feel safe I knew that the school district was is going to take a bigger turn but this is unbelievable you are thinking of putting Boys in girls locker rooms bathrooms Sports and sleeping quarters I am terrified to to go back if you allow boys into our private spaces I will never come back this there there is a reason that restrooms have signs on the bathroom saying female or male they should

048stay in the right bathrooms of their biological sex when we should feel safe in the school we should feel we we should be worried about schooling but we're not we're wondering if we are s if we are safe this is why you Pi draft SE join the meeting for my time God bless you just just a second sir uh no that's you're you're up next that's fine uh remember every single time you cheer and pause you're pausing a speaker who has something to say and I still will cut them off at three minutes so you can call them out if you want to and cheer all you want but it doesn't change the time at the podium so you are limiting their speech go ahead sir my name's Alan Shing my daughter goes uh kindergarten

049here first year first thing I asked the teacher is you know is there's this uh gender stuff that's going on come find out when she responded she says no we don't have that problem here obviously that's not the case and my thing is we have to protect our kids it's not our fault that some of these parents can't raise their kids right and support them it's that simple and at the end of the day my daughter knows what gender she is at 5 years old she is a kid and I'm going to tell you right now we should not be pushing this on our kids they our kids are supposed to enjoy life no matter what and if they want to worry about that later in life when they graduate and move on at the

050end of the day that is not your thing to push on our kids so at the end of the day I don't appreciate thinking that my daughter can have a guy in a future coming in her bathroom I'll tell you right now she ain't gonna put up with that she'll defend herself I guarantee you that guarantee you that I'm not going to I will fight for whatever in the future for my daughter I will tell you that right now but this sneakiness is what it really has coming about and I'm glad we're having this tonight thank God but if I had known about that I would have been more vocal a lot sooner I'll tell you that right now and at the end of the day you know we need kids to know who they

051are but the end of the day parents that can't raise them right is not my problem for my daughter to deal with it's that simple and this vote needs to protect our kids boys too because I'll tell you right now I have kids I race with at the racetrack they are freaking teenage boys that don't want to deal with girls come in their bathroom makes them uncomfortable in a day if you don't know who you are if you can't sit down or pee or stand up just go in the family bathroom not our problem it's that simple so hey that's all I got to say my name is Madison lja and I'm a student at the water time or the Watertown district and I've been going here for almost 3 years and I'm in eighth

052grade transgender people have never been a problem to me and as long as it doesn't involve me but having to stand up here and talk about it it really hurts and I believe that a girl and a boy should be able to feel safe in their bathroom locker room or anything and I just don't want to have to talk about this um I'm a believer of God and I think the instances of rainbow have been taken out of hand if I bring up a rainbow I want it to be God's promise about floods not about the lgbtq community and I believe that a girl should be in the girl's restroom and a boy should be in the boy's restroom same with swimming we have to swim here at the middle school and I don't think

053a boy would feel comfortable with a girl in the changing room and I don't think a girl would be comfortable with the boy in their changing room and if you aren't allowed to go into that locker room and feel safe that's a problem and thank you for your time hi there Nick Richards I represent uh as I'm a youth pastor for Calvary Baptist Church and I represent about 80 teenagers who can't be here tonight to talk um just want to say thank you for the opportunity today we're all expressing opinions about how we can build a community that truly respects and values every individual first and foremost I want to express my love and support for all of our students our families and community members I believe wholeheartedly in treating everyone with dignity compassion understanding

054each person deserves to feel valued and safe and at the same time I know there are varied perspectives on how we approach certain topics and public spaces such as restrooms locker rooms in a way that ensures everyone's comfort and safety My Hope Is that we can engage in thoughtful conversations to find solutions that honor the privacy and safety of our children I believe in extending kindness and love and respect to each individual regardless of their background Identity or experience as I said I'm a youth pastor with over 80 kids in our group and in supporting our youth I believe we must prioritize safe private spaces especially when it comes to maintaining our bathrooms and our locker rooms for young people in particular it's essential that these spaces are arranged to provide Comfort security safety during

055such formative and often vulnerable Years first and foremost it's an issue about safety bathrooms and locker rooms are places where students are most vulnerable both physically and emotionally allowing biological males into these spaces creates opportunities for misuse and potential harm equally important is the matter of privacy we live in a society that values dignity and respect and students deserve environments that honor those values taking safety rights from our kids and forcing girls to share intimate spaces with biological males and vice versa regardless of their gender identity infringes on their right to privacy this isn't about excluding anyone but ensuring all students needs are met appropriately lastly we have to prioritize the protection of fairness in sports we desire to ensure girls have equal opportunities in athletics and allowing biological males to compete in girl Sports

056threatens this fairness by introducing inherent physical advantages that undermine years of hard work and dedication by female athletes while we must approach this issue with compassion we can do so without compromising on safety privacy and protection for our students I believe that this starts by supporting draft C and I thank you for your time and consideration I hope we can find compassionate ways to honor each individual's dignity while also holding to the importance of separate spaces that align with one's biological sex as a measure to protect our youth by fostering an Environ where everyone feels both respected and secure and I believe we're taking steps toward a more caring and thoughtful community in that way uh my name is Doris Wright I'm at 147 South Concord uh in Watertown um I am a mom I

057have a student uh at the high school and I am also an employee of the district um I love my job I love serving these kids and I go out of my way to treat each one with kindness and respect um and whichever way this goes I will continue to do that I want to voice my concerns regarding the transgender guidelines the school district is considering and voting on this evening I want to strongly encourage the board members to vote Yes to draft C I truly believe it would be best for everyone involved our daughters and granddaughters would be safer and I like to think that the transgender young people people would be safer too I hate the thought of any bullying that could result if we allow this a drastic change in our schools

058allowing biological boys to participate in girl Sports completely disrespects young athletic girls who are working hard and striving to do their best in their sport of choice during the teen years girls may be playing just for fun or finding out they're good or talented in a particular sport or they may be very gifted and giving it their all whatever the case we know that teen boys are already about 50% stronger physically and having them in girl Sports would not only be unfair to the girls but could even be dangerous it is such a slap in the face it is such a slap in the face to girls everywhere to take away their rights the teen years are already a very awkward time the last thing girls need is to have a boy in their bathrooms

059and locker rooms we've also heard horrific stories in the news of trans fluid boys who have raped girls in the bathrooms and locker rooms our community should want to avoid this at all cost we must protect our children and very often it is our Our Girls as parents Guardians and Educators we shouldn't promote surgeries that are mutilating or children or promoting drugs that will block or hinder their puberty years and quite possibly destroy their future many gender dysphoric young people regret these drastic measures as they become adults many are detransitioning and telling their stories on YouTube as the adults in their lives now we can encourage them by being there for them listening to their fears building them up as the adults in their lives let us be responsible and do right by them and

060protect our children it's not really equality if it takes the rights away from half the student body the parents and the staff thank you very much ma'am uh pause please pause uh we're at our 30 minutes board uh do I have a motion to continue for 10 more speakers second voice acclamation please I any any against one one against surely join the meeting for those second ma'am uh I appreciate you're excited but if you want me to accept all the cheers then there are going to be some cat calls so if you want the speaker to have the floor then keep it quiet across the board one for we're all into together so I don't want to have to limit anybody but you're all cheering expect some negative comments too just letting you know the

061rules of the game good evening Watertown school board and thank you for your service to our community thank you for your service to our students of the Watertown Unified School System my name is Angela Morris and I've lived in Watertown for 36 years I'm thankful for the schools that are shaping and molding our future business owners and professionals and working members of our community recently one of our Watertown coaches posted a need social media a need for basketballs the current budget did not allow him to purchase new equipment so he put out a plea on Facebook the community friends and family all responded and he posted a photo later of the new basketballs that he was able to purchase for the junior high teams of this very middle school but I wondered why can't we

062afford basketballs for our students in our budget and that was sad to me so my question to you tonight is we heard that we're going to have diminishing student numbers and if we can't afford basketballs for our Junior High teams what budget line could possibly be impacted by your vote tonight in looking around this room I understand it's divided but it appears that we have some very concerned community members they want their children safe so what if they are were to extract their children from Lincoln or shur or Riverside or Watertown High because of their concerns what will be the budget impact if we lose students hypothetically if losing just one student is equivalent to losing $10,000 what would you cut from the next budget perhaps more basketballs a few band instruments and a field

063trip if 10 students were to leave the school system what would you cut equaling $100,000 perhaps a few a few par professionals whose help in the classroom is immeasurable and whose presence positively impacts student learnings what if 15 students left to the tune of $150,000 would you dispense of teachers to balance your budget if just five students per school left for different schooling how would you deal with a loss of say $400 ,000 would you cut extracurriculars would you cut football swimming office Personnel Chromebooks school security systems what would you be forced to remove I understand and I plead with you every person is valuable and no one should be bullied and we hear you we hear you but please Schoolboard consider your decision haste is not the best course of action please listen the

064safety of all students all students is of utmost importance your vote will impact our students and thus our entire Community for decades to come please vote C uh hello my name is Lon Williams I'm from Watertown here uh can you hear me my name is Lon Williams uh from here from Watertown everyone here familiar with this book right here this is the human anatomy book that is taught in these schools you go through it there is nothing in here that has to do with whether you can take parts off or put it on it is taught two ways that's it please stop interrupting me I don't interrupt you don't interrupt me here's the other book here here's another one this is the Biology book this is of this entire planet how it is made how

065many of you are familiar with this all of you God made us and we made the book okay how many of you are familiar with this all of you on the sorry sir Lop stop the cross talk what I want to know you will be gabbled out please stop the cross talk you will be addressing the board and only the board you do not address other speakers thank you my question is where was the vote where we were going to go against this instead of the agenda that we're talking about tonight where was the vote to allow it to happen it goes against exactly what we are teaching our kids in these schools I have the same fear I have five kids in the school district I have a huge problem with it we are

066putting our minor children in adult situations at this level why right here this is why or is it this one what you guys teach that's all I have to say hi my name is Lily copet I just graduated in March um I work for the Watertown Unified School District with kids I there's only XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes that's biology that's what you are there's nothing you can do to change that there's nothing that's ever going to change that that's where you goity matter people deserve and notx that is not God bless you God bless you may God have mercy on you can I we can't afford basketballs can't afford basketballs how do you afford baskets you you stop the clock good okay yep no good time to restart thank you ma'am I see no

067reason why little girls that go to school start school need to be scared to use the bathroom like I said I just graduated and I would be scared to go to the bathroom um you see me I'm not a small little girl I'm not six years old and I would be scared so that has to say something to one of you I mean one of you has to have a daughter look at any guy in this room pick one to walk behind her into the bathroom so um my last thing is if you guys choose to pass this may God have mercy on all of you because it's a big mistake hi um I'm been a resident in Watertown for three decades oh sander M um Navy veteran proud American and Christian I have a

068daughter who is a freshman here in the high school when I heard to this meeting vote was going to happen and the subject of the vote I knew right away I had to speak up my daughter's rights and safety were both at risk and I would not sit by and let it happen the first course of action I took was to go up to the school district offices and ask for a copy of the agenda any list of proposals being offered three days before the meeting and the agenda was not out yet inexcusable fortunately fortunate for me I ran into the uh one of the board members hi um and uh we had a nice discussion for about 45 minutes the talk was very enlightening that person told me uh we're talking about affecting 25

069students out of 32 3300 basically to think that this will only affect 25 students is extremely naive at best it will in fact affect all of the students deeply and the community at large he informed me about a few of the options for bathroom redesign that were being considered one of them was a full stall private room with a common washing area what kind of cockamamy garbage is that I asked him um how much it would cost to retrofit all the bathrooms and all the schools here in town the look kind is face pigs volumes to me and now I heard about the the basketballs how are you going to redo a bathroom when you don't have money for basketballs um since when should we appease the 25 at the cost of the 3275 my

070daughter as all girls in our schools have rights as well one example would be say a girl having menstrual issues and walk and a boy walks in what kind of trauma would that cause her if if my daughter was uh standing up here with me what would you all pushing this seal social emotional learning a agenda say to her and her right to privacy say a couple of uh couple breaks up boy and girl and the boy follows her into the bathroom what would you guys say to her his or her parents I wish that the superintendent would have also informed me that of the nearly $1 million a district has receiv received in 2017 to push this social various social justice issues if you read deep into the SEO agenda is meant for you

071will notice uh mental health issues not social justice agendas how can anyone claim to be for der diversity equity and inclusion when all reality they only mean when someone believes exactly as the liberal agenda says they should it then turns into division exclusion and intolerance please even though I hear you have already made up your minds on which way you will go please vote for option C good evening I hope I can speak uh I hope I can speak uh the rule of reason the world of reason is being ignored here how many of the incidents that we've heard have actually occurred within the Watertown School District in the last five years the admission of uh people of different sexual orientation using the bathrooms and having uh an interchange with someone coming out of a

072stall how many of those have happened how many persons have uh changed identity if their trans being on an athletic team has happened any why should we change if it's not broken don't fix it there were various students who came up here tonight and gave their Impressions their fears of what might happen but how many of those incidents actually happened would a trans student who walked in and also talked to you be accepted in the same way we you are Christians what does Christianity mean it means you love your neighbor as yourself regardless of that sexual orientation regardless of the color regard regardless who they are it's not broken don't fix it I'm here to speak forcefully on selection a now let's get into another part of that Title Nine if you adopt this section

073c it'll be against Title 9 which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation does the school district want to get involved in litigation does the school district want to get involved in exposing itself to liability if they adopt this policy I would say no as a voter we have enough uh shortness of our income that we're considering referendums probably in the spring so therefore I would urge you to support the current situation it's not broken don't fix it and thank you for your service on this panel and your vote tonight good evening my name is my name is Jim dwater I'm a resident of Watertown 213 North Church Street um I'm a dad I'm a blue collar welder I'm a Christian man I got lots of chees for somebody else a little bit ago I'm not

074going to get those though because a lot of people know who I am already I'm here to talk to you about you know C policy C I'm here to talk to you about how it's exclusionary I'm here to talk to you about how all of you folks know how we're doing financially it seems like a lot of people behind me don't seem to know how we're doing financially because we're curious about basketballs but everybody in front of me is very well aware that we will be going to referendum we saw an awful lot of people holding up signs for C how many of those folks are going to be voting yes to pay more money for the school it's not an awful lot from people who don't okay well I guess we will find out

075but it's a lot of people that don't go to the board meetings normally that don't show up that don't show an interest that only care when they get riled up on Facebook I don't know this has been out for months it's been months readily available for everybody to hear about we have been hearing about policy a policy C policy s policy S2 for months I've been going to every single meeting and I've heard about it from most of you now I'm going to try and appeal to the five of you who I don't think have made up your mind yet or if you have made up your mind you're at least leading towards reason we should not vote on a policy that is going to bring us in it's going to bring us liability for

076a join the Mee at the same time that we're going to be going up for referendum we don't have the money for this we just don't the most knowled ible and qualified person that we have in the district right now is the person who drafted policy a that's a fact it was right there it's all been right there again you will address the board or you'll be removed that's it we have business to conduct this is not a public meeting session this is a board meeting last warning thank you it has all been available for everybody to be there I know that for a fact because I've been been there at all of the meetings I've talked to so many of you we have people crying out about force and compelled speech but none of

077you has ever felt the need to come up to me and call me James not one almost every one of you calls me Jim why because that's my preferred name and it's the one that I give you no one questions that nobody wonders whether or not that's really the name I was given on my birth certificate that's not compelled speech that's just common courtesy that's what it is there's nothing wrong with calling our students what they want to be called my daughter deals with the bullying every single day she deals with it in a world where I don't feel like she should be where I don't feel like it's safe for her to be open about who she is right now and it's because of the people behind us the last thing I just want

078to say is that I'm appreciative of the things that you do as a board I appreciate all the work and effort that you've put into trying to navigate this really sticky situation and I'm really disappointed in the Watertown I'm not from Watertown I'm a resident but I'm not from Watertown and until tonight I didn't really know what it was like to live in water Tucky but I certainly know about now thank you my is Diane Regent and I live at 509 South fth Street in Watertown the purpose of law is to protect our rights if rights are based on feelings or opinions then we are constantly change then then they going to be constantly changing because feelings and opinions are not reliably stable our Constitution and the Bible claim that rights come from the Creator

079you are here to rule on whether or not the freedom and safety of children who feel they're in the wrong body should override the rights of those who believe their genetic identity is compatible with the rest of their identity please consider the safety and freedom of both groups everyone has a special purpose and special worth because we are made in the image of God we will all be judged One Day by the choices we make in this lifetime I'm going to pause at that I am a parent here in this school district and I have two boys in school and I don't want girls in their restrooms because I don't want my students my son my two sons to go against God and be tempted by girls in their locker room you're all boys you're

080all men and you're not going to any of you could ever tell me that you wouldn't be moved by a necked woman in your locker room or a girl with a boy in their locker rooms I don't I don't see what the need is we are all born in the right body thanks so much for taking time to honestly listen in the light of the fact that your choice matters for all involved now and later my name is Kayla Coots I live in Watertown and I have three children in the Watertown School District Two in high school one in elementary um I speak to you today on behalf of our kids because that is what this is truly about as a parent of a child who has explored her gender identity in middle school and

081had a resulting Mental Health crisis that involved hospitalization and suicidal thoughts and actions transgender suicide rates are alarming 46% of transgender and non-binary youth seriously considered suicide in the past year with 14% attempting suicide compared to 7% cisgender youth joined the meeting today I share a story though of a theoretical transgender boy he's known since he was young that he was different and for the last few years he's been living as his true self just another one of the guys his family supports him but they've recently moved to a new school now everyone at the new school only knows him not who he was but he still wakes up every morning anxious and Afraid not knowing what to expect a few hours into classes and he's got to go just like everyone else he asks

082his teacher for a bathroom pass and when he gets to the bathroom doors he stops where does he go to all his classmates he's a boy if he goes to the girls restroom the girls would freak out he'd have to explain everything and then everyone would know if he goes into the boys he's terrified he'll get in trouble if the faculty see him or he can trudge all the way to the front office and use a designated bathroom and how long would that take to have to do that every time what if someone else is using it and how oh sorry what if someone else sees him using it and the embarrassment when the class clown or bully points out how long it takes him now rinse him repeat every day every time imagine when

083he hears his dead name during the last class of the day and his worst fears of realized he's been outed to his classmates that fear from this morning is Justified Imagine The Bullying that's likely to ensue 49% of lgbtq plus youths through ages 13 to 17 have experienced bullying in the past year those who did reported significantly higher rates of attempting suicide he reminds himself that he is b or sorry baseball practice after school and at least he can feel free there hang out with his friends let everything go playing the game he grew up with only to realize a second too late this too has been taken away from him the one thing that made him feel normal even helped with his mental health and let him recover from the stress of the day

084is now gone now this is just one day in the life of a transgender child at the end of the day why transgender children are more suicidal than peers their age transgender rights are life-saving more than half of transgender and non-binary youth found their school to be gender affirming and those who did report lower rates of attempting suicide I urge you to vote to protect them help our kids live normal lives truly just help them live uh hello my name is Jessica van Beren I am at 700 South Fifth Street in Watertown here I've got uh two kids at the high school um and up until tonight I was really proud of the Watertown School District because I have a transgender child in the school district so I can I feel like I can stand

085up here and be really confident in the policies that have been in place up until today um absolutely fantastic support from the student from the staff from the schools to just allow the empowerment of these kids um there haven't been any incidents there's no problems these kids want nothing more than to be left alone and to be included as who they are um they don't want to go into any bathrooms and rape little girls that is not what they're trying to do um and I would also probably point out that there's actually not a magic force field on the current bathrooms that prevent anybody from the opposite sex from just walking in if they wanted to be a predator so a magic policy isn't going to stop a predator that wants to be a predator

086um the policy that we're discussing here is about supporting kids that are outside of the norm and are trying to just be themselves um I would ask though who is this policy really trying to protect because it's not it's not trying to protect trans kids so let's not try to pretend that it is um I would say that if protecting trans kids is the goal then um that's it's that it's not going to work because now if if if policy C or whatever is approved I'm GNA have to protect my kids from all of the hate and vital that gets taught by all of you all at home um that's what I am terrified of we talk about bullying we talk about how people how people um want to talk about Jesus we can save

087the Jesus talk because that's not what I learned about Jesus um so spare me on that um our teachers and the teachers and the staff and these schools are the ones if you actually knew how these policies were in place and the the amount of work and time that went into implementing them and supporting these kids you wouldn't have a problem with it if we just educate ourselves a little bit before we just got angry um you might have a different opinion about it um and the last thing that I wanted to say is that just because you don't agree with it the existence of transgender people it's different than sex it's different than Anatomy it's real just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not real and I don't think that's up for

088debate with with the board hello my name is Jean Schmidt I run two transitional homes for men in Watertown my Ministry owns the former Hardware St store strip club and climing and we have a meal each month for the poor I still believe the God who created heaven and earth created male and female amen and I want to support the 450 girls in the high school that aren't transgender that should have a private bathroom space for those girls I want to support join the meeting gals that should not have to worry about a boy that decides one day he's a girl so he gets the Privileges of being on a sports team he gets the Privileges of using the girls bathroom if you're worried about a lawsuit from the lgbtq community you better be worried

089about lawsuits from traditional family communities they have a voice and today they far outnumber the small percentage of transgender community that goes to the school my heart gools out to those kids we help them when they're homeless we help them when they need food but I'm not supporting conflicted students a small percentage to tell the 99% this is the way it should be you are elected officials for a school board to uphold decency morality values that once made America strong I say we need them back again and so I urge you all not to think this issue is 50/50% it's not it's probably 90 10% in this room and I want to urge you vote so that our school district doesn't have multiple lawsuits girls assaulted we do not have uh families conflicted that want

090to teach their kids right and wrong and have biblical values finally our strip club was the home of the worst sex trafficking in Wisconsin I don't want to see one daughter or grandchild and I'm speaking a lot for the girls even though I had three boys I don't want to see one assaulted in a bathroom I do not want to see a parent have to deal with that and as far as kids conflicted with their gender identity we still have good churches and ministers in town we'll be happy to help you thank you that was the next 10 uh Tyler I understand you have three online can you uh I don't want to say pick one at random pick the first one that uh raised their hand and let them speak okay Steph uh you're

091online um you have the uh Podium thank you okay caller number two Megan hold let me get you there you go you you got the camera too okay you have to say your name and then where do you live I'm Jacob Wagner and I live on oakill road we have five um students in the Watertown school district and our family and we've got two boys and three girls we know the difference in our house between boys and girls and we would like to see it stay that way and the school district that the girls feel safe in the lock rooms and the bathrooms and that they don't have to worry about boys walking in or vice versa the other way around so that's pretty much all we have to say about that thank you Mike

092okay uh board we extend that another 10 speakers uh I'll now take an motion for another five Sam second second second Dan okay roll call please Lynn Mike Higgins Lorie Helen yeah bred Y no Diana johnsona Johnson no Sam o yes David Shader no Dan wolner yes Craig Wartman no five five NOS five NOS rest of the speakers I appreciate your attendance sorry you didn't make it to the mic you appreciate that we have board business to conduct uh there's going to be another speaking session at the end of this meeting which will be run very similarly uh where we will continue for three to five speakers a piece uh but that will be at the end of tonight's proceeding so again thank you for your attendance and waiting in line you appreciate that we

093have business to conduct thank you okay and before we move on to the actual board debate uh I would just like to thank all the speakers who came up and if you didn't yet drop your uh a card in the basket please do so um and Melissa is there going to be a spot besides the front of the podium that they can find that is it going to be in in the hallway or anything like that they'll just have it come in here and drop it in here yeah right okay we'll just drop it in here uh if you haven't dropped it in but it looked like most people were doing that and also for all the speakers I appreciate uh that almost every one of you to a te kept it at three minutes

094which the board greatly appreciates as well do your other speakers so thank you on that with that um uh we are up for a resolution um you we read the resolution first or is it uh available on up above us want a motion on that first I have it here okay motion okay uh the motion in front of us is uh 9354 uh be it resolved at the Watertown Unified School District op draft C of the administrative procedural guidelines for gender support plans as discussed during the November policy committee meeting do I hear a motion so move so move Craig second Diana thank you discussion Tina obviously I mean there are strong feelings about our proposed G transgender administrative guidelines and this may be a topic not understood by some but it may be a

095topic that isn't consistent and and it may be a topic that isn't consistent with your personal Le however we are a public school and have a duty as a nonpartisan position to not govern with personal beliefs and to follow the law I stand strong and unwavering to stay with brown for these reasons we need to follow the law of title mind we are in the Seventh District and need to follow the laws of the seventh if we choose a different draft we are breaking the law not following these regulations from the Department of Education we Face the possible loss of our federal funding we strong financial implications for the district when a lawsuit is brought to the district their insurance company will cover us to s a claim however to continue pursuing it will not

096be covered by our insurance company I'm on the policy committee when we started this in August we were open to other options however shortly after learning more I fully supported the administration and our attorneys work in draft Aid just like when you're a kid and think chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows and we learn as we get older that's not how it works just like being on the committee and better understanding of administrative guidelines are developed by the administration not a board process the administration developed previous guidelines in 2018 not the board the administration and staff have done a great job in working with all students they've done a great job with the transgender guidelines and I will continue to support them directly thank you Tina uh and I forgot to mention uh we have

097this slated for 30 minutes board uh it's been the norm of our board to use that as a reference we haven't uh typically followed that down to the the T but I'm going to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to speak obviously first some discussion some Q&A and if we feel that there's either no progress It's going to require two-thirds vote to either call the question or or closed discussion so I don't know if I'll have to ask for that after 30 minutes I mean the goal is that you know we'll still have productive discussion during that time period I just want to make sure that those of you who are familiar with Rules of Order that we'll be enacting that if necessary but uh if we go over a little bit over 30

098minutes it's not going to kill anybody here we've done it before so uh before before we move on uh if you as a school board member can do some mic management there's a mic in front of you if you can move that closer if you choose to speak or we also have a handheld mic that we could pass around it was hard for people to hear that's okay okay anyone else Sam I mean yeah I I I could speak uh I turned it on already yeah I uh speak um at least kind of in reply uh let me start by asking a clarifying question Jared was draft C created in conjunction with Administration specifically you and with legal counsil yes okay I just wanted to make sure because I was at that meeting but I

099wanted to refresh my memory so that is indeed the case both of these were drafted with Administration sponsoring is something that the school board has done for many years um just wanted to point that out and uh no I don't think I have anything else to say I just wanted to clarify that one point Thank you any other comments does my voice sound soft like Sam's did I have a lot to say but I want to respect everyone's time so I crafted the following statement and kept it under three minutes I practiced as an elected board member it's my responsibility to listen to the needs of the community as well as to uphold and enforce the policies of the district the laws of our state and nation and to ensure the safety and education of

100all students I cannot support guidelines that don't do that draft a was crafted by the superintendent and follows the law and Title Nine with the executive order to include gender identity unfortunately it doesn't meet the desires of a large number in our community who outwardly expressed their displeasure for the notion of biological males in the female bathroom or locker room draft B was then crafted to address this but draft B isn't for up for discussion tonight surely join the meeting um draft C was then created but in draft C there's violation to policy 5360 that specifically protects against discrimination by gender identity this is not a new policy it doesn't say anything with Title 9 it was crafted back in 2015 and last revised in 2020 which means it's not connected to the executive order

101that was enacted in August of this year whether you agree or not it is policy and it's our job as a Schoolboard to ensure that policies are followed additionally there are practices in draft C or processes in draft C that don't make sense to me as an educator how then can we p as a board pass on to administrators the administrative guidelines to enact these in schools how can we put our staff in a situation where following the guidelines set forth by the district puts them in a situation where they could potentially be sued for not following policy both drafts is currently written could open up the district to potential lawsuits draft a meets the requirements by the executive order attached to Title 9 will that Executive Order be lifted in a few months and

102gender identity no longer be included in Title 9 who knows but we can't we can't vote today based on something that may or may not occur in the future draft C already violates board policy the way I read it draft C can be modif can draft C be modified so it doesn't violate board policies I've tried multiple times in these past few months to share ideas on how to change the verbiage in draft C so it wouldn't do so my suggestions were not used i' be happy to go through this document one more time I have notes here if that's the desire of the group but as both drafts are currently written I don't like either of them and I feel my hands are tied and there's not a good way to vote much has

103been said that uh this hasn't been a problem I would tend to agree that this shouldn't have become the issue that it has in fact if it wasn't for the fact that these guidelines were surreptitiously created locked away in a computer server confidentially kept from the from parents the superintendent and the Schoolboard since 2006 2016 and never a public discussion had I would agree with you on second thought this whole room full of parents beg to differ if this conversation were held in 2016 parents would have been able to speak up then and put this issue to rest then school board members don't live in a vacuum things get back to us trust me it's completely disingenuous to say that there has never been an issue simply because you agree with the outcome of a

104particular practice compromise C is the compromise if it were up to some people boys are boys and girls are girls and that would be the end of it instead the committee has a desire to had a desire to look at an alternative that allows for gender expression to be able to be called by preferred names or pronouns even have their preferred name to be announced at commencement and listed in Skyward it also allows for accommodation to be made on a caseby Case basis how is c not in compliance with the seventh circuit if anything C allows the administration to find a creative solution to have those accommodations comply with the seventh circuit uh that trans gender students be allowed to use a bathroom of their choice according to their asserted gender identity what the seventh

105circuit did not say is that other children had to be attending that private space at that same time think about it how could it if we can't force CH a child to use a private space that they're uncomfortable with then that applies to all children equally a child and a parent of a child has a reasonable expectation that they're entering into a private space where the opposite biological sex isn't present compelled speech Peter vlaming from Virginia Jessica Tapia from California yui mandaria mandere of Florida Vivian gity of Ohio and many others like David blotch from Vermont what do they all have in common they are teachers whom have one lawsuit have lawsuit across this country over the very issue of compelled speech one of such settlements was an amount of $575,000 other cases and there

106three of three specific uh Landmark decisions um for free speech does not allow a govern government to cerse an individual to speak contrary to their beliefs on a significant issue of personal conviction Chad wenberg willly versus Maynard in 1977 stated that the right of Freedom join meeting protected by the First Amendment against State action includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all in fact compelled speech is one of the most settled issues of this particular draft with Landmark decisions over and over again instructing a teacher to use preferred names and pronouns is tantamount to requiring teachers to disavow their religion if the district is unwilling to find or make an accommodation that serves everyone equally also Chad parent teaches that their child join the meeting that there

107are two biological Sexes and two biological genders it is the 14th Amendment right of that parent to direct the upbringing and education of their children under their control and that's the Child's First Amendment right to adhere to that belief and refrain from speech that child should never be disciplined for the deeply held religious beliefs or convictions the English language the English language doesn't belong to marginalized groups it belongs to everyone for the same reason that the first amendment protects the rights of those people who refuse to stand for their Pledge of Allegiance it protects all who refrain from speaking as well they don't have to capitulate to the same world view any other uh Mike yeah knows I probably did not think join the meeting G to do that I can talk pretty loud uh

108but anyways anybody that knows me knows I didn't prepare a speech I didn't prepare or write anything down I just rather to have a conversation right uh I start with Diana and I kind of agree with her when I look at a andc there's not a good choice there's not a clear choice I go back to my phone that has blown up quite a bit in the last uh couple weeks and there was no Clear Choice there despite what this room says I promise you it was almost split down the middle uh I didn't count it but you could you can say all you'd like sir I got the floor now so anyways despite the rude Interruption I'd like to continue now I have children that went to this school as well they've been here

109for my kids have been going to school here for 20 years is and not once have I heard any one of them come home once saying that they got a problem with somebody trying to get into a bathroom or a locker room that they were going into including girls my youngest girl I promise you I taught her to defend herself just like the uh uh gentleman that said earlier never once did she come home to me and say she had to now when I read this on a it says student support plans may indicate that the student will will use the locker room consistent with gender assigned at Birth it doesn't say that we can open it up to anything immediately right it also says that it's going to be on a case-by casee basis

110if we read into this I can tell you that there have been some trans gender kids in this school and there hasn't been an issue to my knowledge as of to date I put some full trust into the administration that is in place they've done a great job enforcing what they need to do that side the T passed out over on this side um Sam and I are the new members of the board and one of the first things I was handed when I became the member of the board was a flowchart of the hierarchy of this District we have a superintendent who oversees all the schools and the teachers and so forth we have nine board members each with a vote Who oversee the superintendent and at the end we have you people you

111are our bosses and I think you spoke loudly tonight about this issue and what this community wants so I've been listening to everyone tonight and I appreciate all of you who come out and spoke and I've been staring here if you've noticed I've been looking up if you noticed I'm sorry uh I have been looking up I watching because I've been sitting here and I've been staring at both of these drafts the whole night and you can say what you want about compelled speech Craig but safety is my number one concern and it says here student support plans may include the student will use the locker room consistent with the gender assigned birth a private locker room or other alternative which may include an addition of a privacy partitioner curtain use to a nearby private

112restroom or office or a separate changing schedule so either you're in the B you're in the locker room of the gender assigned at Birth or you're in a private restroom private locker room that seems pretty safe to me unfortunately that's draft a draft C says in caping with the district priority to preserve student private privacy and safety and unless otherwise required by law students he use restrooms lock rooms and other facilities on District property and in District sponsored events consistent with their biological sex all right student Andor parent request for an accommodation to this guideline shall be considered by a team of dist staff on a Case by case basis in consultation with the support team we don't give spec we don't get specifics there there's no specificity we don't we don't say it's you're

113in the one by your birth or you're in a private one we can we just leave that up to the district to make that decision will that's dra join the meeting I like the specificity that's in draft a either you're separate by gender or you have a private option draft C there's wiggle room there I I and I I I am concerned this draft C is much better than it was in October when I was at the last policy meeting but I still don't think that this is fully baked I think there is still language that needs to be tied up because I still think there's loopholes that can be used against the district that that do not address safety enough uh so I I don't know which one I would vote for tonight and

114to be honest with you if I had a choice I would send it back to committee to do it right the first time because you've had four months to do this and you still don't have the right policy uh that's uh everyone except me I'm not necessarily trying to stay entirely on the sideline but uh last time I read my job description as president it's to administer the meeting and weigh join the meeting um so I will continue to try to do that unless uh no one else wants to speak rebut or have additional comments on the subject uh yeah I would just like to clarify I think when we were discussing uh section two subsection D of draft a when it's talking about the maintenance of separate locker rooms and restrooms um the specific

115wording there it does not state that students will either use the bathroom that is consistent with their uh gender assigned at Birth or a unisex restroom or another alternative it says student support plans may indicate the student will use the restroom consistent with gender assigned at Birth okay that's my rest restro and the language okay so I I apologize um yeah no thank for clarifying for me I think sorry Sam I apologize just a second as many of you know we're normally in a boardroom with better microphones it's unfortunate that we're in here and not entirely every single person miked up at a minimum the public never speaks during board deliberations ever now I am going to give everybody on the board a Kudos because you're doing a great job reading with the microphone and

116reading from a script when normally this is a lot more informal so this is unusual for us as well so this is by no means a disrespect for Sam or a disrespect for Fred or the people who want to have a discussion we follow Robert's Rules when we can but we're also fairly informal group who's had plenty of time with each other to have questions asked and answered so I'm going to give everybody up here a fairly wide birth I will not give the public a fairly wide birth because your situation hasn't changed you are still supposed to be mute while we are talking and deliberating so um I appreciate it because like you know speakers all over the place so no no thank you um so one more warning to the room please does

117not speak the board is delivera I can't be any more clear thank you uh thank you David um yeah I just wanted to clarify that section of uh of draft a um yeah that's uh that's that's it thank you for clearing that up FR anyone else okay I had a hint at a motion to refer back to committee although none was made um I will revisit that if that's what the uh full board wants uh my two cents on the subject is reflection of all of yours I see that c has come a long way I see a lot in C that isn't as uh bilateral or excuse me unilateral as it was when it was originally drafted I still see gaps between what our insurance company has told us we can and can't do

118should and should not do as well as most recent legal advice which is punt they said whatever you think about the law today in two months it's likely going to change now maybe not in two months there's probably going to be some resolution that comes out or some edict or some directive and then it's going to take a long time to trickle its way through the court so who really knows when that's going to be and there's not a single board member up here who wants to be up here at this time who hasn't had their heart rate at 115 for the last three days who hasn't fielded a 100 emails and a dozen phone calls sometimes people are nice to us sometimes they're not we try to be nice to each other and make

119the best decision we can and I think we're doing a pretty darn good job of working together when it's not that easy that being said I'm interested in making a motion to draft C adding section eight called limitations join the meeting that motion would read or excuse me that section would Now read not withstanding any of the foregoing nothing in this guideline compels or requires District staff contractors or service providers to act in contradiction with wusd policy or in violation of applicable law it's one sentence one section it's not perfect that is a motion to amend Fred has seconded it we are now open for discussion and I will read it if you want me to is please okay I will notwithstanding and this is again Section 8 limitations which would be the last section

120in the document yep not withstanding any of the foregoing nothing in this guideline compels or requires District staff contractors or service providers to act in contradiction with wusd policy or in violation of applicable law you got it fast or slow you got uh notwithstanding any of the foregoing nothing in this guideline compels or requires District staff contractors or service providers to act in contradiction with wusd policy or in violation of applicable law so we have a motion and we have a second I believe that opens it up for discussion it is designed in my mind to cover up I'll call it the warts of C the spots because C I'm not saying was thrown together see there was a lot of thought to it but the law is ever changing and we know it's going

121to be Ever Changing furthermore precedents in court cases are ever changing right now applicable law is the seventh Wisconsin law more specifically we also have good guidance from our insurance companies on our uh attorneys however there could be a new court case next week and I can tell you the sentiment I got from the room is if you're concerned about basketballs the one last thing you want us to do is get sued and lose a half a million dollars because we can't defend ourselves we know what the insurance company has told us they told us where the thin ice was and they said don't skate on it C gets a little bit too close to that thin ice in my opinion I want to pull us back from that edge I also want to turn

122this back into an administrative guideline which it was intended to be from the get-go I have no issue with Sam and Jared working on it I think in August I was the one who proposed it seemed like a good idea and I still believe that the board should be involved in that but when you read the policies that we're going towards not that are currently in effect but we know there's a distinction between policies and guidelines and guidelines are specifically housed and owned by the administration they may have the approval of the board but the board does not normally write them and I'm not saying there once again I was a proponent of Sam sponsorship and champion of this that doesn't bother me I'm saying is that there's too many components of it that once

123put into action in the buildings are going to require interaction between Sarah uden Haven the principls come back to the superintendent find out how the gender support teams understand it there are going to be modifications and this board should not micromanage those modifications this has to be a living breathing document because the last one was as is is every other administrative guideline okay so this is not new for this District new is having us make significant changes to an administrative guideline as a board my goal is to protect the district and to protect the kids hopeful that those those one sentence in a new section does both of those things that's my goal and yes I wrote it I still I still got a microphone uh so David a question I got for you real

124quick is would you find it wise to run this past Insurance again to make sure it does cover I I'll I'll say it the warts I'm not opposed to to making changes uh I just want to like you I want to protect children and I want to protect the district I I I don't want to see us getting sued so would it be wise before we make that change run it through or have you already I got this one hand this feel better um no I have not run it by uh any District Council now could we yes then it'd be to refer it back to committee or either that addition or other changes Fred alluded to some that he might like to be like seen Diana still has some queued up you know my

125concern because I said it at last policy which is I don't want to continue to be talking about this policy for the we did it for the last four months I'm not so sure we want to do it for the next four months however the last we heard from our Council was H delay it if you can delay it past February you're going to be in a lot better ground and I talked about that thin ice well maybe that thin ice will be thickening maybe the maybe it'll be Open Water either way we're not going to find ourselves without a boat so sorry uh Craig hello all right I'm I'm open to that that Amendment um I think I think there has to be something in there that provides some flexibility from a legal standpoint

126but um uh the insurance I just wanted to clarify something the insurance provider reminded the district uh via their memo that of its right to settle a claim that it believes cannot be won that's nothing new if they choose to settle it then the board will cross they'll the board will be made aware of that decision and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it so there's several things to uh considering that they didn't say they wouldn't cover us U I hope I didn't insinuate that they like to use here um the the first paragraph and I think we all have it the public may or may not I'm just going to read from the second paragraph for those who have it in front of you and this is the insurance company's letter to

127The District in August um specific to the most recent inter ration of Title 9 the new regulations prohibit schools from adopting a policy or engaging in practice that prevents a person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with the person's gender identity the Department of Education has made it clear that public school districts must allow transgender and nonbinary students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their identity that was the ruling in Title 9 the rest of the document explains a lot OFW this is what happens when you do and this is what happens when you don't and you're right Craig not following them does not mean that we are not covered I didn't mean to give that implication it just means that if we choose to pursue it and

128they want to settle we have to do it on our own which I think you and I that's how we both read it um and I'm they're they're insurance providers now they got a attorneys they're not our attorneys so they're looking out for their bottom line I get it why their attorneys advised us to do that at the same time they're probably not dumb attorneys okay they they know where the money is likely going to end up in that situation and they don't want to end up in anybody but ours pocket they don't want to end up in the uh plaintiff's pocket so from that I read this and I'm like that makes sense that's the way that I read it so once again I'm not trying to give deference to this but it's a

129pretty well-written document I'd like to call a question on the amendment that's a two-thirds vote to call the question on the amendment um yep roll call Lynn yes okay roll call vote on the amendment and I'll read it one more time if I can find it um Section 8 limitations not with understanding any of the foregoing nothing in this guideline compels or requires District staff contractors or service providers to act in contradiction with wusd policy or in violation of applicable law if there's no additional questions uh on that the don't have a called question on that do yeah that was a called the question yeah so that's a roll call vote Lyn yes yes Chad join the meeting okay so draft C is still on the table for consideration the there has been no motion

130called on that it is still open for discussion and I lost track of time so I don't even know if we're at the 30 minutes okay okay [Laughter] um yeah closing discussion does need to be seconded uh but I didn't know if there was a cross talk over there that you guys were still if somebody one another get another word in okay yeah okay oh she called okay Tina called the question do we have a second okay second um so roll call vote needs 2third to stop discussion on draft C we are voting to stop discussion on draft C we're not voting on the merits of draft C we're voting to cease discussion on draft C which requires a two-thirds vote okay motion carries roll call vote on adoption of draft C yes yes yes

131and the motion carries next item of business next item of a business please is that you right good because I don't know what I'm gonna say uh we're going to take a five minute recess yeah yeah no that's that's actually in my Roberts rules that I'm learning you can take a pause yeah I don't know so uh board members as we uh move forward uh many of you know that through a couple of different committees uh and at least one subcommittee we've been talking a little bit about the need excuse me uh newspaper reporters can you uh step outside please Josh yeah you on it have the newspaper reporters do the or the uh the the media outside please well whatever I'm switching to ABC any no okay okay um as was talking earlier um

132we have discussed at a couple of different committees and at least one subcommittee um the possible need to go to a referendum we've talked uh most recently about the need for a $7 million recurring referendum that would add approximately 70 cents to the mill rate if uh you are in support of that um and there is a why what and how uh about the why the need um what we're planning on doing and how we're going to go about doing that in your board materials uh there is also a sample rough draft ballot language as to some of the things that we were discussing in fiscal but if we do intend on going into referenda uh our first mission is to let the public know our intent of seeking referendum all that statement will be

133uh is a resolution about our intent and what we're intending to do that alerts the public that we are having serious discussions about going to referenda in no or excuse me in O excuse me in December um we will then be bringing uh finalized ballot language for discussion both at the fiscal committee as well as the board uh next meeting in December um that has to be passed uh 70 days prior to the election in order for us to have uh ballot language that will go on the ballot so with that um we're entertaining a motion or any questions or discussion around our intent for referendum yeah CL clarification on this for the most part this is just to notify the public of in the final language will be crafted in December is that correct

134Jared okay yeah so at this point that's not the motion this is just the Strategic discussion portion of it um and we will open it up for discussion during the uh resolution so this is just Jared's presentation of it and there will be uh I think additional information later in the agenda uh Tyler how we doing on uh those microphones that are on the table are you you took mine away or the other one still working or what's our status okay good I just wanted to make sure okay okay pass the wireless hold on to got it no I no I just wanted to make sure that when we get to the I'm just wanted to make sure that we had the Rules of Engagement here I think everybody in the room can hear us

135but the people online still probably can't and if there's anybody in the annex they might not be able to either so uh just wanted okay okay so I just wanted to make sure we knew who we were talking to yeah okay uh Lynn what's next okay I got to get to reports here just a second uh superintendent report it's back to you Jared excellent Tyler if you could pull up the report so um just wanted to start off with this nice little picture of uh these wonderful ladies on the right hand side these are past and present uh Service uh nutrition services leadership team uh they uh meet to discuss all things uh nutrition services related um great group of ladies and I just thought was a wonderful picture and it also tells you um

136we have a lot of people who support our students in many things um they present uh um a lot of discussion and options and ideas for nutrition services and so I want to thank them for their service um some celebrations uh I want to talk a little bit about uh something that makes a a big difference in my life um I've got many family members who have served in the military and uh we uh had celebrations to honor them on November 11th for Veterans Day uh and the RMS band and choir and Orchestra performed for our veterans and guests and as sure as students honored their special guests with a couple of songs as well uh I want you to know that our whs sophomore uh Braden K was presented at sh as uh was

137present at sh to perform Taps um on his trumpet and did a wonderful job uh just want to say that uh I appreciate uh that we honor our vets in this school district and that's a big part of our community go ahead Tyler a couple celebrations uh Us world and news report uh has um given a couple of distinctions uh the whs has received this res res uh excuse me this recognition for over seven years um and it's a high recognition being one of the best schools high schools um uh recognized by the US News and World Report um also um it recognizes uh all of the schools uh that are in college board and AP honor rooll recognition um as you know we have many many many AP courses and a number of students

138who take those courses and do well in them and you have to do that in order to get recognized at the high school level uh us n and World Report also awarded Webster uh Elementary Lincoln stem um best schools uh badges for 2025 for placing among the top 40 of elementary schools in the state with a Webster finishing in the top 10% I want to congratulate all of them uh and all that they do uh as they move students through our our system so congratulations opportunities uh remember that our uh State Convention is uh registration is open um we are scheduled to have that um professional development event January 22nd through the 24th 2025 um it will be held again in Milwaukee at the be Center uh registration forms were emailed to board members in

139November 5th um and they should be returned to Lynn no later than December 11th uh so that we know and we can make accommodations for your stay if needed at a hotel and to get you registered for the professional development event so this is just a reminder of that opportunity thanks Tyler um I want to make you aware of uh something that we're going to support this year um our community for a number of years through the Main Street program has done what's called the women's only weekend or wow um why is wsd joining this event this year Well you you know as well as I do one of our main goals is to um support our community uh as well as um communicate better we're doing this option to do both support our community

140our local businesses as well as uh those people who are going to go through those businesses on the women's only weekend but we're going to do so in a way that also markets our school district at your uh desk spot you have a little sheet of paper about this size uh this piece of paper talks about uh registration for our 4K and 5K programming it talks about our facilities committee meetings happening on uh December 3rd through the 4th and it also uh gives them a link to our new strategic plan um we're taking that as a marketing opportunity a way to really communicate with people but also support our businesses so um again that's uh an opportunity coming up on uh November 22nd through the 24th this weekend I'm also on Wednesday going to help

141stuff all of those um as well as other uh items from other businesses into those Swag Bags for uh all the ladies so um congratulations uh to wow for organizing that event that supports all of our businesses and we're happy to be sponsors of that event also um we had some of our uh first of our several B uh Burke briefings again I didn't name it but I'll own the name um this last one was held uh November 7th at marport there were approximately 23 people in attendance uh we talked about uh strategic planning facilities a referendum Partnerships and celebrations um the next of the briefings is held January 20th uh and March 3rd both at Watertown Public Library at 6 PM those are for the community today I also shared a briefing uh with

142our Rotary Club as well as our high school BLT team uh that's the building leadership team at the high school so uh we are um working again within our pillar of Comm increasing communication not only to our community but within our staff and uh those support organizations that support us like rotary um just uh again uh an opportunity for everybody in the community and not only that but our board uh we have a staff session uh staff only session on Tuesday December 3rd to talk about our next step in our facilities planning process um and then Wednesday December 4th and Thursday December 5th are uh are optional for our um staff but also um inclusive of the community um one will be at Riverside on December 4th uh Riverside Middle School here and one at

143sher's Elementary uh there'll be large group discussion Child Care is going to be provided for everybody who wants to attend uh and we're going to take you on uh optional building tours after we have our discussion about facilities and our facility study and discussion about where we want to take our facilities into the future last is just some important reminders for you uh no school on December 20th uh early release for all students December 23rd through the 1st is winter break a lot of committee and board meetings coming up we got one on November 20th which is a board retreat that's this Wednesday uh December 3rd Educational Services the fourth policy review the reason I'm saying these is because um just like November December meetings are uh in advance um uh on December 9th human

144uh resources December 11th fiscal management um planning does not have a meeting and our regular board meeting will be early on the 16th any questions it's my report thank you Jared next up fiscal management report Mike all right fair enough uh gez now I'm really yelling uh so we met last Wednesday uh and everybody was present uh for committee members we also had uh Fred uh Dr Burke uh Sarah and Kevin suko and Stacy rle uh was there virtually uh we had an sr3 update the committee was provided with a breakdown of how S3 funds were utilized good news all all the funds will be spent and claimed by the final deadline and all the funds were utilized under board approved categories uh WD was was fortunate in being able to utilize These funds for

145many new and additional projects rather than covering regular operating expenses as many districts needed to do uh referendum planning discussion uh we had a summary of the referendum results from November uh 24 election overall number of districts going to referendum uh continues to increase and a passage rate for November uh was a staggering 78% uh the committee reviewed the what why and how sheet and considered sample ballot language the commit recommended moving forward with an intent to go to referendum resolution at the November board meeting and will revisit ballot language at the December fiscal committee meeting uh rawers we saw them come tonight uh Sarah provided a a high level overview of the report completed by rers some key points included the following uh new housing developments uh have been stagnant in the district over

146the last decade there are several new housing developments uh being proposed and are being built the only population growth in the district over the last decade has been in the age group of 65 and older enrollment for the district is projected to continue declining especially at the secondary level until 2040 enrollment at the elementary level may become steady and begin to slightly increase around 2035 and into the 2040s if all factors uh remain the same rawers will be in attendance at the November board meeting to provide a more in-depth presentation of the report uh there were no questions regarding any other monthly reports uh future agenda planning the long-term facilities plan is on the agenda for December as well as referendum ballot language uh we did go into close session uh to discuss construction management

147RFP recommendations uh we reentered open session at 650 and we adjourned at 6:53 next up is Ed service which turns out to still be me um Jenny presented uh several components to our directors first of all a meeting was held on uh Tuesday November 5th uh chair and all members were present along with other distinguished guests director's report covered Elementary litery 4K update whhs math update uh and then we had presentations on teachnology um we had a lengthy discussion on the whs course book which included um some I don't want to call them major changes some swaps and uh Mr Dom's Department uh those will result in a resolution as it requires board approval for those changes and they were recommended and then lastly we had some changes to the LA system um some questions

148for principal Kerr and at the very end of that uh I don't want to say there was confusion let's just say say that uh we need alignment in what we're trying to get out of the LA Day program um I'm not saying that things are arbitrary but it probably needs a revisit and uh the ed Service uh let's see uh where do we put that that's in the note somewhere uh but we're going to revisit that with uh Mr Kerr at uh some point in the near future just to go ahead and make sure that we're all on the same page and what we were getting out of LA and what we expected to deliver so I'm pretty sure just one resolution and that's the uh curriculum changes uh was there another one with that

149German or did I miss that no nobody remembers I remember I'm online sorry uh the one resolution includes both the yep that was it and then we uh adjourned and next meeting is next month next up is we at uh humans yeah Human Resources Tina we had our HR meeting on Monday November 11th and um we of course went over the usual consent agenda of which there is a resolution tonight um regarding that we had um the majority of our discussion regarding calendar work group and this is something that um we've been talking about over the last several months um Margaret had put together a team um of Staff who was very dedicated to the options I'm very very proud of the work that that they all have done and the time that they have

150taken they have taken this on their own time all of the board members of course had the opportunity to be a part of that um if they so chose um and so um out of that you will see a resolution tonight um for um I'm so sorry the the committee went through information they um put out several Sur surveys to um staff families staff families and did we do the community too I'm so sorry I should have just read right from the thing um and so the recommendations came back we're with a modified traditional option for both the 2025 26 school year and 26 27 school years you will see a resolution for that modifi traditional means that basically means that um there will not be a full week at Thanksgiving so you will they

151will have school on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving and they will be out before like the 9th of June okay so and those are reflected in the calendar I just wanted to highlight those were the really two major changes correct me if I'm wrong anyone um uh let's see and then we did also discuss as far as like the committee had also put forth work into um alternative schedules and things like that and then also talking about like okay early release Wednesdays but we know that that's a bigger discussion than what the HR calendar handles and so um that will end up going back for some feedback and things like that Administration ed services something like that so um we talked about the exit survey process proc as far as that's concerned if you're interested

152in that the detailed notes are in the HR um committee um something new that we will be doing is that we will be doing um uh an exit survey report in July and January of each year um the open benefits enrollment is underway and it sounds like that is going smoothly as far as that's concerned um future meeting planning for December is going to be consent agenda employee Wellness committee up update support staff salary update that we had done a rehaul on and substitute Staffing report um action items the resolution that we have here um and then um Mar will work with the calendar group to develop a survey schedule um for the non-traditional calendar options and Beyond exit survey information will be added to our regular um rotation next meeting date is December 9th

153thank you Tina next up planning all right we got a lot to talk about um minutes yeah not gonna hold it we got three different meetings all right well you should have planned accordingly um so strategic planning we had a lot going on in planning this month where we didn't we barely kept it to two hours um strategic planning update I'm not going to read everything to you there's a lot of key information in there um but basically Jason bull the director of innovation technology data and strategy did a lot of updating regarding next steps to that planning process so take a look he is going to outline for us year one in action steps which would be forthcoming secondly regarding referendum planning um did some work talking about the referendum work subcommittee met you

154got that information earlier today you kind of saw that presentation so there's my subcommittee report woven into that board development I shared a number of items that came out of the last board retreat in terms of action items Etc one of the main things that um came out of that I just lost it was the superintendent evaluation we had talked about the possibility of using executive session for that I will look into that but I don't know where that's going to go in the present time we have to look at where we are now and the committee went along with my request which you would have seen in board dos to shorten our board our superintendent evaluation process from three days of ass summative to two um you should have gotten an email from Lynn

155to solidify the date so if you haven't done that we need that Asa P because we're on a timeline to get the summative done so that way Jared can take care of getting the goals written which then leads us into our next cycle remember from the time we do our summative until the time he writes the goals what's fair a we a couple weeks a month to be able to write those effectively and then for us to find a date on the calendar we don't want to get goals settled in March and April we need to get those sooner as opposed to later so if you haven't gotten those dates back to LY please do that today or tonight or tomorrow probably not tonight any more so tomorrow big discussion around the extending our work

156with the Donovan group and what we had heard loud and clear at the committee level earlier on was we wanted to see the product that came out of the ref excuse me out of the Strategic plan we've now seen that and so short version the committee REM recommends extending this to the agenda tonight for for full board recommendation to extend our work with the Donovan group to support planning on referendum not just just the Strategic plan additionally another part of a subcommittee which I'm going to weave in here was Collective commitments um Dan partnered with me as a subcommittee and Craig joined us to work on um Collective commitments will be shared with the entire group on November 20th and that'll get kind of a a board stamp of approval at that point in time

157so we're not going to go into discussion today that'll be more so on the 20th and then I already talked briefly about the superintendent evaluation um that I'll get more information forthcoming and then we'll give you more of a timeline there but if you're looking for that revised timeline take a back look back in board documents or sorry board yeah board documents God it's getting late holiday social um we've done a holiday social in the past and that kind of went with HR last year but talking with it really is housed more in planning so working with Lynn we will be doing a simple holiday social this year with our administrative team from the ESC as well as our principles Etc and it's just going to be basically cheese and sausage cookies very social nothing

158real structured so just to really meet and greet we've got new staff new board members and kind of building that relationship piece and then if you can see there are seven action items that um we're working through right now many of which are done already but that'll help keep our foot to the fire thank you policy Craig we met on Wednesday November 6th all committee members are present and about a third of the ESC and as well as Diana and Sam we discussed the uh transgender guideline uh for students the GU I'm sorry the administrative guideline regarding transgender students for um uh for about 45 minutes Jared was asked to help facilitate that discussion and we're thankful for um both Sarah Oden Hoven and Jared's involvement with helping us navigate through that process Neola policies

1596000 group group two we had discussion we over 10 different policies there uh one specifically uh 6320 David had some questions about some verbage being refined that is not on the agenda for first read tonight and I'll probably come back for the next uh uh policy committee meeting on December 4th all of the other policies in the group four which is one looks like job related expenses then policies 3 3431 and 4431 regarding employee leave those are also up for first read and superintendent Burke will continue to work on property and operations policies as many as possible for the December policy committee meeting the next meeting meeting is December 4th thank you Craig um next is the consent agenda 9349 uh it includes the minutes the committee summaries personal Staffing approval of Bills first and

160second read of policies as referred by the policy committee do I have a motion on 9349 motion by Fred second by Sam any additional discussion on resolution 9349 okay uh what do we call that when everybody votes at once acclamation there we go we good on that everybody acclamation vote on 9349 all in favor I I opposed motion carries can't do an acclamation on that on bills oh damn it sorry okay let's do a roll call ly yes yes yep yes and the motion carries next up is uh resolution 9350 this is the whs course of study course editions and updates uh this were all run through the ed services committee uh do I have a motion motion BR second is Sam any discussions or questions on this motion Tina okay you want to grab

161a mic if you can thank you so I sorry that was mindblowing um okay that joke um I had had questions um regarding the courses and things like that um that were as far as like the proposed and the pathway and things like that because some courses I know in the um uh some of the courses as far as the Technology and Engineering sector hadn't run in you know over five years and so I'm like okay well what's why why do we still have those as an option listed because as kids are looking at the coursebook and they're planning that out it's like oh well just kidding that's not really an option so you really can't plan um but so then there was an updated flowchart that I was sent and so I don't know

162if that's something that needs to be included with this with the resolution or is that something that will be included with the course book hello okay uh this what you're voting on tonight are the course uh changes that were proposed at ed services you are going to also then um next month um is what we have it slated for the whole course handbook will go through ed services and then also to the board level and you'll be voting on the final course booklet that's where you should see some of those changes that you're talking about okay thank you and Tina was that related just to the uh ped course uh flow chart that you had that re question regarding yes okay and Jesse did bring to ed services I don't think that was actually part

163of the minutes but he had that a to augment the discussion can you hear me okay so um might not be available now but it will be in the coursebook in December per principal Kerr Y and I know you know that but I just wanted to say it because yep maybe somebody else didn't hear it no problem okay any additional discussion on 9350 okay roll call vote please yes yes yes yes and the motion carries next up resolution 9351 the 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 District calendars um as referred to the board from the R committee do I have a motion motion second that was a second from C Craig there you go thank you um any discussion or questions on that Tina good job working with the committee on this and Margaret putting this

164together I wanted to Echo those same comments I thought I really appreciate the hard work uh that the HR committee did on uh the and the calendar committee I think it was that was uh it looks good and it's always been kind of a something I always comment on in the past so I think you did a great job thank you I'm not arguing or thinking it's bad is we having the next two year oh next don't we usually just do one year so I just didn't know for clarification if there was a reason for that okay I think I missed no that's a great question totally valid question and I think that um you know came from Dr Burke as far as like you know can we give the families two years to plan

165as far as that goes um and then that also gives us the opportunity to be able to take a look like are there any one-offs you know like are we just going to school on Friday you know for something as far as that's concerned and to be able to give that room for planning yeah one one of the big things that we heard from our community is that if we could plan ahead more uh and show uh thoughtful planning that um that would go a long way and so that communication to us uh we took and um ran with with a calendar um and then um as we move forward uh looking at that then we'll be still reducing a calendar every year it'll just be for that one out right and then I'll give

166families way more of uh heads up to any changes that happen we did also um go forward with two years of the modified um traditional because the survey results came back so strong and support of that model um had it not come back so strong in support of that model we would have done you know one year and then you know kind of gone back and and seeing what the second year was going to bring if does that sound right Margaret okay and and I'm G to have to make you find modified traditional please yes as I did in my report sir um modified traditional again means that um the last couple years at Thanksgiving we did a whole week off and then whenever graduation like this year graduation I think is like June 14

167don't quote me on it dear God but it's in the teens okay and a lot of the feedback was is that's really late and so modified traditional means that everything else is pretty much the same with the calendar we're not changing the number of days that we're going to school it's Monday through Friday we're not changing the hours of the school that in respect is traditional modified means that they will have school on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week and then we will be out the graduation will occur prior to the 9th of June those were parameters of the HR committee thanks you're welcome any further questions I can help answer thank you I was familiar with traditional as being preo so if it was modified pre you know that would have traditional is it

168yeah just want to say okay uh any additional questions okay roll uh this one you said I can do a consent on voice acclamation please all in favor I opposed motion carries next 9352 and to move to referendum the language of the ballot is um the how do you want to call it the proposed the tenative the initial language uh and I'll read this into the record is the question will uh is currently tentative as shall the Watertown Unified School District Jefferson and Dodge counties Wisconsin be authorized to exceed the revenue limits specified in section 129.99 of Wisconsin statutes by $7 million beginning with the 2526 school year for recurring purposes consisting of operational and maintenance expenses and I will add that uh fiscal uh still is considering tweaking this by inserting the word instructional

169somewhere but that is a discussion for a different day the discussion today is that we are in agreement that this is the notice of intent and uh I'll take a motion on that motion right second bik um and you're asking me to read what it actually says the motion is be it resolved that the Watertown unified dist uh school district of Education approved the district move forward with a $7 million operational recurring referendum in April of 25 okay any discussion Hana I I don't know where is appropriate to I know there's still discussion happening and things like that um I fully understand and know that we do need to go to referendum because funding doesn't keep up with the demands of what we need so I I totally get that I know that it's funds

170for operation um but I would um as far as the method and how to get there um I know that we're looking at buildings and you know what all of that looks like um I think that a lot more work needs to be done as far as that's concerned to be able to you know I'd rather us consolidate some building Space versus cut operations you know that kind of thing and so I didn't know if that's appropriate here or where that is I know I mentioned that at planning but I don't know where that where that further discussion fits yeah so that's very appropriate um and uh at fiscal as well as in our subcommittee uh we had some uh good discussion around you know how to um go out to the public uh first

171of all we know that uh we are in a deficit model uh right now uh we had a a reference in 2018 um that was a 5-year referendum um we built up some AA available resources through that but now we're uh spending at a larger rate than our resources are available um currently we're near $6 million uh deficit a year um as we operate so the thought behind going to a operational referendum was to make sure that we um took out a referendum for uh exactly what we need uh so that way we can secure our operations as they exist now um and then uh further develop our processes to look at um getting into a better fiscal model by looking at some building reductions and other things as we start losing more and more

172open or more and more enrollment into the school district um because we know we're going to have to do both we we can't just survive on an operating referendum if we uh wanted to stay in the same model and we were asking for a referendum to stay in the same model we would be up to about eight eight and a half maybe even 9 million a year ask 7 million a year is asking for what we need and that's also coming with uh Some Cuts we're looking at a half million dollars worth of cuts into next year just to try to stay fiscally uh responsible in that model uh we've been fiscally responsible for a number of years last 10 years our revenues have only increased by 5% our expenditures have increased quite a bit

173more than that um we have taken a a 5-year referendum back in 2018 and strugg it out at least seven years um going into our eighth year uh we're doing everything we can um we we've deferred maintenance on our buildings we've deferred curriculum we've deferred a lot of our professional development um to help our teachers become even better uh and we know we need both the committee um both committees uh as well as the subcommittee um are are recommending we go forward with the first thing which is to secure our operations then the second is to talk about how we can get into a better model so hopefully that answers your question okay we had a motion in a first any additional discussion roll call please yes yes yes yeah yes yes motion carries next

174is 9353 the Donovan group contract extension um I'm not sure it came out of committee I think this is more of a is this planning planning plan planning okay planning the uh contents or the the details of that agreement are attached to your resolution uh do I hear a motion so move Tina right or Diana Tina second Diana got it discussion yes so I had voiced my concern at the committee about this particular contract I was not clear as how the committee looked at any other particular cont contct providers I felt that this was a rush decision despite the fact that we had brought forth concerns about that earlier when the conversation first occurred and um I I I don't know that I can support moving forward with this particular contract extension at this time

175thank you Craig additional discussion roll call vote please yes no yes yes okay motion carries at least I did the math in my head I think it carried okay seeing nobody in the audience who's interested in 9355 we're just going to go over and skip over that resolution oh I'm sorry uh yeah yeah I did that yeah I I just did a Beatdown yeah uh motion 9355 construction management service contract sove yeah so second so move uh we have a motion from Mike uh the document is to uh award is this award yeah to to engage JP Cullen and the long range facility uh planning for the district um both I believe maintenance as well as any repairs Capital needs no I that only took a minute I got it yeah I got it that

176was it all right good any questions fiscal referred this is that correct yeah yep uh did I and I had a motion on that I need a motion Craig second BR okay now discussion I just to comment on this that I want to give a shout out to Kevin you guys did a lot of good due diligence on this and appreciate the work you did to bring this together we're voting on the organization not the specific plan yeah so um what we're what we're doing here um we went through a a long process by which we took bids uh interviewed candidates um and are looking at a construction management firm in this case we're putting uh Collin's name first they were uh the the top bid uh and went through a great process and like

177I said a rigorous process Uh Kevin uh you and Sarah Duncan in our business office uh really put together uh a top-notch program to try to find out who we can have come alongside our our um architectural firm which is p to um find bid uh and and look at different options to present to our community and and lead a discussion within our community about where do we want to go next um I shared earlier in your last question um Miss Johnson about talking through uh first meeting our financial obligations our current needs for operation and keeping the doors open with the programs that we have intact now we have to talk about where are we going to put those programs and how are they going to thrive um are they going to thrive in

178the same buildings we have now um and what is that going to cost us or are we going to restructure somehow in our current capacity to look at moving forward and what best facilities needs will support our programs in the future um and hopefully in a long future and one that puts us maybe into AI a better fin financial position later on uh and so we're really looking at a lot of different options that are going to be presented this construction firm Cullen uh has worked with us for uh a number of different referenda in the past there have a number of people on their team who uh live in our school district or the surrounding area and I think they're going to be a great team for us as we move forward um I

179know that because they team with us on apprentiship students and uh other things that they do for our school district as well which came out clear in um that uh interview process so with that um I really hope you guys approve them uh to move forward and come alongside with us uh in our plan to look at our facilities and see what our future holds any additional questions okay we had a motion on the first uh roll call Lynn yes yes yes yes and the motion carries welcome thank you yeah okay this is uh now the time for our last of three public comment opportunities this one's slated for 15 minutes uh we will be following all protocols from the prior session um as they are still in effect so um if you're interested in

180speaking please please approach the mic fill up the card oh there is no mic we'll get you one thank you great and uh um I appreciate you sticking through this all uh so fire away when you got the mic thank you thank you my name is Sarah zarling I live on College Street here in Watertown I have I'm a single mom with two boys here at Riverside um I'd like to say the appreciation is definitely very Mutual um in fact I just want to convey that I don't underestimate the work that you put in to serve our community and our students and so I do appreciate you taking all this time out of your families and your lives to try and help to make our school district and our community a better place um I

181am here to speak in support of draft a um I it's my fault for not being timely and sending an email or getting ahead in line faster to be able to say this sooner um but I want to share a personal story um where it pertains to the issue of the restrooms in this policy um so I was sexually assaulted in a women's bathroom at a restaurant here in Watertown while I was out to dinner with my boys it was not a a guy trying to pretend to be a girl to come into the bathroom it was simply a man who thought he had a right to come in there and do that to me um and that's the problem I'm not worried about boys trying to pretend to be girls to get into bathrooms

182I'm worried about grown men coming into the women's bathroom because they think that they can violate a woman I think if we really want to um worry about keeping our girls safe then we need to be teaching boys that they don't have a right to do that to women um and yeah that's very simple to me um sorry I lost my train of thought I did want to just briefly touch on the pronoun issue that is just not a big deal to just call somebody by their pronouns that they prefer or whatever name they prefer um and then I guess I can say too that I do understand um I guess just from a 2 plus 2 equals 4 standpoint and I am also a fitness instructor so I do understand um the physical advantages

183that um boys and men can have over women obviously being a victim of sexual assault I understand that as well um and so I feel like you know the answer is not to continue to divide our students and to create um I guess hostile or divisive environments for them but to rather maybe try and um create programs like sports programs that are co-ed or ways that um help to welcome everybody as they are um and yeah I'm sorry I'm I'm pretty spent at this point so I that's mostly what I wanted to say so thank you hi good evening and thank you uh for staying so late um my name is Monica burkard brist I'm the Episcopal priest and pastor at St Paul's Episcopal Church here in Watertown and prior to being ordained by way

184of full disclosure I'm also a licensed attorney and I spent most of my Adult Career specializing in federal civil rights law at the federal court level including with mostly here within the seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that you referenced earlier tonight join the meeting I appreciate the opportunity to spend just a couple of minutes with you because I didn't want you to adjourn tonight thinking that the only messages you ser and saw tonight are reflective of the entire faith community of this city nor of many people that did not come up come tonight and appear because of the crowd or who got turned away at the door because you met capacity um I am also a pastor I'm a pastor of young people and I have also seen firsthand the trauma visited upon many of

185our young young people who are lgbtq and or children of any type who feel they are different or who feel they are treated differently and I know every day all of you as board members and the staff and the teachers and the administrators of this District care about all of those children and on behalf of all of us who were here tonight I'm sorry you were subjected to some of the behavior that you were tonight I think this community is better than that and it saddens me that that's the kind of public meeting we had I also want to say that I think you spent a whole lot of time on a solution in search of a problem um and unfortunately I think your timing couldn't have been worse because we are coming off a

186cycle in this country where we have spent months being barraged with ugly and misleading ads social media images and a AI generated things that have frightened people and people are understandably anxious and and understandably and reasonably concerned about the welfare of their children and unfortunately some of them have been seriously misled and that was reflected a lot tonight what I didn't hear were facts facts about the policy you've had in place for eight years and what was wrong with it in the sense that I heard nothing about incidents about complaints about sexual violence or sexual incidents involving children and transgender people uh young people in our school system Our concern should be for the safety of all of our children and the reality is that our girls in our society are much more at risk

187of harm from men and boys than they are from any transgender people and the transgender young people of our community are much more at risk I'd like to end on hopefully a bit of a high note I realized I only have 24 seconds left I hope we learn to treat each other better going forward mostly I felt sad about the way the people behaved at this meeting tonight we need to learn ways to respect the differing interpretations of faith we have in this community and most of all we need to respect each other's humanity and I hope as Leaders you'll continue to set that example thank you hi I'm Barb Weiss I live at 1118 Riverview Lane in Watertown I did not speak earlier because um I am a graduate of Watertown High School I'm

188also retired staff member from waron high school and I have two adult children that graduated from this District but I'm not currently a parent and I felt the parents and students that are current should have the mic at the at the beginning however I would like to share a little some of my experiences as staff member I happen to be a morning person which meant that I often got to school very early I was often maybe one of the first staff members inside the building because of where my classroom was I went through a lot of I went through past many lockers because I'm at the end of the second floor on the Second Story on more than one occasion I had to take a Post-It note off of locker that was a homophobic slur

189now think about that that is a something that can be done when no one sees you and I had to do it more than once that was done in secret there are many other incidents that unfortunately don't happen in secret many of our LGBT TQ students are very much harassed during the day at the high school and I'm unfortunately think that what you did tonight is actually going to encourage that and I'm asking Mr Burke and the administration that is sitting here and the the staff of the um Human Services and the guidance Department make sure they are checking in with our lgbtq students on a regular basis because I'm afraid what may be happen to them at the moment and I'm afraid that for our community because as several people said the suicide rate

190for lgbtq students is higher and I am going I'm afraid that at some point we may be grieving in this community and that is something as a Christian I don't want to have to do because they're an lgbtq person and I hope that when we talk about caring about all students that includes our lgbtq students Now quickly um a number of years ago before the pandemic my husband and I were traveling in the South we were at a restaurant which had one restroom for everybody and I was amazed the doors behind you for the kitchen are how all the doors were held were hung on the um various stalls everybody was using the same bathroom or restroom in this case there's no B in it um and then the the um wash bations were just

191along the wall so I was washing my hands next to a gentleman but the you could not I don't know who invented the doors in the bathrooms personally I think they're terrible no matter whether it's Single Sex or not but if you hang them like a regular door it wouldn't be an issue thank you hello good evening my name is Jim dunwater I'm resen Watertown you guys already know that um I have some mixed feelings about the way the vote went tonight um I'm definitely happier that the amendment went through than if the amendment hadn't gone through and that's for certain but there is one thing that really concerns me and that's that as it was was so eloquently put earlier this evening there are no magic horse fields on our bathrooms that keep Predators

192out there just aren't policy is not going to do that but what policy might do is embolden those that so pushed for it and that's what I'm concerned about one of the gentlemen came up this evening and talked about people that don't know how to raise their kids right but I can tell you that my daughter is not the one who's bullying people for being members of the lgbtqia community no she's one of those members who gets bullied on a daily basis and the the the children of the people that so push for this policy are the children who have that same mindset pushed on them at home they are the same people and I'm not saying there's no value to any of this you know everybody has their own opinion and I guess that's

193okay but it's not okay to take that to school and to make my daughter feel like she's less than because of it it's not okay for that to be spread to any other students here in Watertown and my fear is that tonight by voting for this piece of policy this board has chosen to embolden that community in such a way that it will put my child and other children of the lgbtq community at further risk not at risk at further risk I am already dealing with suicid ideation in my household I am already dealing with a child that does not want to go to Watertown schools it's hard it's hard to deal with every single one of our us parents is trying our absolute best to try and do what's best for our kids and

194right now I am not certain anymore that Watertown schools are right for my children we talk about losing children left and right and I know I only account for three soon to be four kids in the district that's still three or four kids that's still three or four kids worth of funding and the worst part is that's three or four kids that get lifted up and pulled out of their classes who now have to adapt and overcome even more because of what's going on I appreciate that each and every one of you appeared to to Really mle it over and think about it and work through it I really do but I'm not entirely certain that the direction this board went tonight was a positive one I hope it is but I'm not certain thank

195you good evening my name is Chris O'Brien 806 South Fifth Street Department first thank you for your service to the town and uh it's not an easy job but thank you for doing it I was a town council member myself in Connecticut before I moved here uh so you guys especially when you're dealing with children's a lot of important decisions to make and opinions to away um first I want to say uh sort of the conduct of the of tonight um the doors were locked at 6:15 um this is a public hearing a public meeting um public meeting at least to attend I understand it's not a public hearing but public meeting to attend uh this room and the Overflow room are at capacity I asked one the police officers hey I got friends trying

196to get in can they get in know the doors are locked I understand of course you know fire code you have to have only certain number of people here but this is a school how many rooms we got here um can we open up more rooms and even if you can't broadcast into those rooms people can perhaps wait there out of the rain and wait for spot to open up or go on their phones to watch the meeting from there secondly about uh you know conduct of the audience um I used to go to uh the legislature in Connecticut and they would begin a meeting by saying uh asking for no expressions of approval or disapproval from the audience might take that as a suggestion maybe I I I haven't been to too many other

197public meetings in withc but it seems to be the culture from one board School Board to another in different talents too maybe about holding up signs for you know I I have to hand and it to everybody especially the students that came up here expressing one of you for another uh in front of so many people but it's intimidating it's intimidating for a lot of people uh maybe um take that as a suggestion for for the future uh out of respect for others and hopefully the audience would hear that too um a little bit of time just my thoughts on this uh I'm a paramedic I've uh I've lived I've had a residence here in Watertown for seven years but been moving elsewhere in Connecticut Texas so two cases I'm going to tell you did

198not occur in Watertown or the area I uh picked up a female who was transitioning to a male and a separate case of male transition to a female uh the female was suicidal that day the male was not suicidal that day but he was certainly very close and uh so much compassion for these for these kids they were in their early 20s the female said she didn't fit in at her job her work her school she seemed to have some good supports within her family Mill was the opposite he had a uh gay partner who having a lot of trouble with he was rebelling against his mother as well and I asked him and said you know what medication is he getting he's getting both testosterone and estrogen and she was doing the same thing

199estrogen and testosterone and he was getting his medications from a well-known public facility but no mental health support at all and you know when a child runs into the street and we did a lot of compassion for them and wish could follow up and hope they get the help they need we have a lot of compassion anybody in this room I know if they saw a child run out to the street they would grab that child and pull him to safety if anybody we knew was going to engage in drugs or uh or self harm or suicide we would intervene and I think that people want to feel special they want to feel included and and noticed and that's why I think a lot of these young kids are are exploring their gender ideology and

200they have the right to do that but we need to guide them we need to correct them and bring them back on the right path so thank you for your time good evening my name is Shane walker uh I wanted to begin by personally thanking you for the board for having this meeting and for their sacrificial service to our community you guys are amazing there were people here to clap I would ask them to do so now but that probably would help thank you um I have four children three have graduated from the Watertown High School my family moved from Baltimore Maryland to Watertown in part so our children could participate in the public school as a family we are traditional Christians which means we hold to the historical understanding of sexuality as expressed by

201the old new and New Testament and generally held by all historical religions in our time in Watertown I have had multiple interactions with the principles and teachers in the high school and middle school over events which appear to be designed to push out traditional religious families allow me to share some examples I had to remind a teacher that he was not allowed to make participation in extracurricular activities dependent on practicing on religious days according to school policy the federal and state law and Supreme Court decisions my eldest son at age 12 was forced to watch a PG-13 movie even though he asked to go to the library in the high school he was assigned reading in an English class that defined all parenting as bullying even good-hearted and well-intentioned parenting this reading curriculum and website

202hosting the readings implicitly related all support of traditional sexuality to Nazism the assignment also required my son to actively protest against any Authority in his life that supported traditional sex sexuality and my best efforts to be a parent each time I contacted the school we had meetings or email exchanges that terminated in the school or the representative apologizing um but nothing really changed the teacher apologized for not knowing that Christians consider Sunday a day of worship the principal was sorry my son was publicly shamed and forced to sit and watch a movie Forbidden at home the principal in the English Department were sorry that the assignment had accidentally slipped through they had no idea how such a thing could happen I have asked that political and religious bias training be provided to the staff but

203as far as I know that has not occurred the general impression that I received from the Watertown public school system is that they are aggressively attempting to convert my children to an understanding of sexuality that our religion forbids and that our families holding to our beliefs should be marginalized as retrogressive religious grouping because of our experience our youngest child now attends a public charter school outside of Watertown I am not here to support any policy proposal which is why I did not speak I didn't come to talk about a or C I'm here simply to ask the board to please make decisions that will allow the Watertown Public School schools to be a safe place for the entire Community to receive an education I don't want another apology I would just like for the rules

204to be followed for everyone thank you thank you all speakers do we have any online okay and I'm going to say before I adjourned I too would like to um express my thanks for all the board members you set a fine example tonight I appreciate it well done and uh let's do it again in a better circumstance next time do I have a motion to adjourn motion Fred second Mike all in favor dar