January Board Meeting 2022

001good evening everyone this regular meeting of the world board of education is called to order please rise for the pledge [Music] mr allison please call them mrs mahomes here this is connor here mr sabolsky here here before we move into our special reports and recognitions tonight i would just like to say that it was one week ago from today that jerry kohanski passed away and um we all at this table felt that it was right and fitting to not meet last week and to postpone it for a week but we're here tonight and we must carry on and move forward but before we do i'd like to take a moment of silence and just remember jerry's passion that he had for this district and his love for the students and his commitment to his leadership

002role and to his wife mary who's always in front row and is our biggest cheerleader um i would like for you to take this time this moment and just um see it as a sign and a symbol of our appreciation for jerry's time and his effort was dedication to this district for nearly a quarter of a century and also to you because i know that you were a big part of that so just a few seconds of silence all right thank you and now we will move on to special reports and recognitions yes we have our rotary students that we're going to be recognizing um i think that both the sheep that we're going to be recognizing brandon in okay so can i have a motion please okay okay please call them help yes okay

003so uh now mr hayes if you wouldn't mind coming on up and introduced brandon and maria all right thank you ms roberto to our board uh appreciate the opportunity to be able to spotlight some of our students here this evening uh first up uh we're going to recognize maria parks senior here at the high school and when i had the opportunity to speak about maria at our rotary club meeting a couple weeks ago what just stands out my mind is the fact that she's a culturizer everything that she does she elevates she makes better she makes those around her better she doesn't just such a positive attitude uplifting spirit it's a pleasure to be able to work alongside uh students like her uh each and every day just this weekend alone she she and a

004group of other students took the reigns to lead a food drive where they made hundreds of copies of flyers went around different neighborhoods around aurora and collected um just seemingly countless lots of donations from from our community to help our local community and this wasn't something that was part of a large uh initiative this was something they wanted to do as just dedicated students and care about their surroundings so on top of that involving just about everything libero and the volleyball team and it's just an absolute pleasure to be able to like i said to work learn and grow with her so i'll let her speak a little bit more about herself and uh why she's being recognized here this evening so it's my pleasure to first of all introduce marie parks [Applause] good evening

005to start i would first like to thank the board of education recognizing me for this award being given rotary student of the month is truly an honor today with me is my mom lisa and dad scott without their constant support i would not be where i am today and i am extremely grateful for them in everything they have done for me when looking into the rotary club anyone would be able to see how these are people who want to make a difference the causes rotary brings awareness to and all the programs they are part of inspires me to make to want to make a small impact on the huge one they have already made in the past four years of high school i found myself getting very involved in many extracurricular activities some of these

006including aurora high school volleyball team student council interacts club and euchre club this year in student council i have taken on the role of being vice president not only do i spend a lot of time collaborating with teachers supervisors and other student leaders but i also work with peers and community members to organize events for our school most recently we did a school-wide food drive for our local food bank and a blood drive for the american red cross i love working at these events and knowing i'm potentially making a difference in someone else's life whether it was big or small in my past four years of high school i've taken so many fun challenging and different courses that test me as a student but my favorite was the popular literature course i took this past

007semester with miss taylor going to the class i expected there to be a lot of research and reading assigned books but it was nothing like this the class was an experience like no other there are days we let our minds escape the real world and read our self-selected books other days we'd be writing letters to second graders about our love for reading and other days we discussed books and the topics they brought to life i loved how it was such an open and safe space where i got to share my reading my love for reading with those who appreciate it just as much as i do as the end of my senior year is quickly approaching i'm making decisions about my future although they are not since down i'm planning on attending either the university

008of kentucky or the ohio state university at either of these places i plan on majoring in computer science i also plan on getting involved in many club and intramural sports to keep up that competitive drive and meet new people once again i would like to thank the board of education for recognizing me tonight i hope everyone has a great night thank you [Applause] all right i will also tell you that i am an active member of the euchre club and maria and her partner did beat me i think back in october so uh but that's fun it just shows the kind of involvement our kids have and it's it's awesome to be part of it uh next up we have uh brandon whitmer and brandon is pretty much just a jack of all trades he's

009pretty much involved in just about everything you can imagine uh and he does so with just an incredibly kind heart um earlier this year uh had the opportunity to kind of collaborate with some other local principals uh to work with the lls and having groups of students who would kind of take out some leadership roles to help raise money and do different things for that organization and brand just stepped up without hesitation is leading one of those teams he's done countless amounts of community service uh but he's also an incredibly talented artist you may have seen on social media this week at him being recognized um for a numerous awards and accolades and what stands out about brandon is his character too uh this weekend when he was recognized at the podium when uh many

010students uh who just said what they were recognized for brandon made sure he took the time to thank mr barrett and uh his teachers for all the work that they've uh done to help him grow as an artist and again it just speaks volumes to the type of young man he is and on top of that he's also an incredible uh incredibly important member of our tech team uh in our main office conference room he fixed our tv for grades so that we can hook our computer up and do a bunch of zoom meetings and things like that uh and he's always uh there whenever you need them at any and a kid you know moments notice so uh i love being able to work with brandon all the time uh it's my pleasure to

011introduce him here this evening so welcome brandon [Applause] well hello everyone my name is brandon whitmer and i understand that i'm receiving the honor of student of the month this means a great deal to me and i appreciate the fact that i was even considered for such an honor thank you to all the board members for this i'd also like to thank um my parents my dad wasn't able to come up with my mom's here tonight i'd like to thank her for pushing me to constantly be the best version of myself from as young as i can remember my parents constantly set an example of being a better person for example i remember my mom and i driving past a homeless man in the street she took me to the store to get peanut butter

012and bread to make sandwiches to eat i handed it to the man and watched him cry as he told me he had kids to feed but no money even as a child i saw that when you help one person you help everyone currently at the high school i'm heavily involved in our interact club in nhs where i volunteer often whether it be through our local senior home or a local elementary school some of my best memories of volunteering through these clubs are from my times at the local senior home some seniors have few visitors so putting a smile on their faces and assisting them means a lot to me i'm a member of our drug free club also international club and save which stands for students against violence everywhere my favorite classes here at aurora

013high school has been apr this class has forced me to better manage my time and work harder than i have in the past it's emphasized to me that great things come from hard work after graduating i hope to attend either ohio state or ohio university and become either an english or math teacher for high school students my dream would be to come back to war and teach you one day thank you all for listening [Applause] thank you students thank you for appreciating always an encouragement to hear from the younger generation moving up through the ranks we love hearing about what motivates you and your aspirations so thank you next on the agenda is board recognition that's brand new to plant dead sea okay well as as many of you know january is school board appreciation

014month and i would like to take a moment to recognize the board for their leadership and service to the kids in the community of aurora for the board members you'll see are on the edge that we have a number of posters from uh layton each of the leighton students uh signed uh all of those so if you were an account you'll have over 650 names up there just thanking you for the service that you've done for them and wishing you congratulations you also have in front of you a couple of things there's a special um card and sweet treat from miller and when you open the park you'll see what i mean because there's literally little fingerprints from our kindergarteners there we also have some other cards from uh first of all there's a certificate

015of appreciation from the high school board association that will be in front of each of you as well as a handful of cards from miss macarthur's in this heffernan's first grade class and then there's an envelope with key writing on it that looks like it's from a second grader that works for me so we really wanted to just take a minute to also share a short video that uh this is meant to put together along with the craddock staff uh which we'll have right up here it's just three minutes and i think you'll enjoy it so if you don't mind let me switch to that let me try to start this again yes [Music] hey [Music] for you all right again thank you thank you [Applause] all right next we will move into the hearing

016of public on agenda and non-agenda items this period of the board meeting is allocated to hearing public comments on both agenda and non-agenda items the board and administration do not respond to board meetings to questions from the audience nor will they comment individuals wishing to comment should register on the comment sign up sheet which i have in front of me that you all saw as you walked into the meeting tonight the public comment is a maximum of 30 minutes and each speaker will be limited to a total time of three minutes the board treasurer will keep the time and each person addressing the board is requested to provide his or her name and address upon being recognized by the chair the treasurer will include this information in the board meeting minutes so the first person

017on the list is dave edmonds let me come forward up to the podium younger generation now you're going to hear from the older gentleman members of the board my name is dave edmonds [Music] side at 376 radiant drive i lived in aurora for 50 years i have no students in the aurora system but have three adult children matriculated through the system in the 1970s and 80s the education they received served them well both in higher education and in the workplace there have been much much discussion and disagreement before the board with respect to masking policies well this may be a legitimate subject for community concern i come before you to see with what i consider to be a higher priority for your institution specifically certain portions of the curriculum being taught in the middle of

018high schools of our system you're aware of the curriculum and parental involvement issues being raised around the country in loudoun county virginia virginia from an editorial election and closer to hole in hudson the uh have been well documented and are indications of the level of concern in which these matters are being elevated on a national scale inappropriate subjects such as critical race theory 1619 project and other distorted views of our country's history are being taught today in other suburban systems additionally sexual orientation matters are being improperly encouraged without parental involvement again in other systems i exchanged emails regarding these matters in june with dr paul milcitic dr milcitation was a prompt and directing his responses and i thank him for his time and courtesy this exchange is not withstanding i have reason to believe that

019some classroom instruction may maybe being presented source to influence influence students to the instructor's position on societal or political subjects in my view instruction must be presented with legitimate information and data on both sides of an issue we must teach that our students to think for themselves and come to an informal decision based on factual presentation tc political ideology or societal societal subject matter so as to convince students in one position does not serve the student or the community well we must teach students how to think not what the thing three minutes the ability to think analytically and practically is one of the most important subjects or skills that primary and secondary education system can provide for the students in summary my message is to the board the administration and to parents collectively you need

020to know what's being presented in the classrooms parents can pray their sons and daughters the lord and administration need to be in the classroom and reviewing course syllabuses in areas of my concern your school system is an expectation regionally and statewide let's keep it that way thank you for the opportunity thank you 681 creekside drive and father of two leighton students i want to start by extending my condolences to the kohanski family the members of the board past and present to the teachers staff and administration worked with him during his time dedicated to building and preserving the world-class educational opportunities we have in aurora i did not know him personally but his work speaks for itself we have all benefited from his commitment to service and we will miss his leadership and steady guidance there's

021no good way to transition to the topic that many of us are probably here to talk about today but in some ways related and we'll get to that later i last spoke in a member about the need to have some humility as it relates to how we treat each other i called on the community to resist the urge to point fingers and to simply respect the decisions that families make for themselves and our children even if those things differ i spoke a bit about my belief that we have far less control over the virus than we think and what has transpired over the past two months only reaffirms my belief i want to remind everyone what we now know cdc has said two things one cloth masks are not very effective at stopping the transmission

022of covid two everyone will eventually get coded what we have done is delaying the inevitable so with those two facts we must now accept that children have suffered more than any other group these past two years unnecessary stress fear the increase in self-harm and educational setbacks will be felt for decades not because of covet but because of our reaction to it and a certain unwillingness from some to return to normal there is a world that exists beyond the walls of this room of your classroom and beyond our schools there's a reason it's called community spread and not school spread because there is a world that exists where an increasing number of people are living with living their lives without thinking covet is the biggest threat to them thanks to the power of social media it's

023easy to see that some of the loudest voices mandating masks for all are not mandating masks for themselves or their children outside of school during large parties or social gatherings you want your child to wear a mask in school that's fine with me do not force a decision on all children and staff and then act differently the moment the final bell rings should not cannot tolerate that hypocrisy for the sake of normalcy and to protect the health including the mental health of our students encourage the board here tonight to vote to continue to mess make masks optional put this issue behind us and begin to focus on more pressing educational issues which leads me back to mr kohanski's legacy and the impact on this community not everyone agreed with them and that's okay but from

024what i can tell his commitment never wavered through doing what was best to educate our students that must always remain the focus of this board this district and our students have thrived because that board was unified on this one purpose to this board do not lose that focus do not divide yourselves there are bigger issues than masks and our students and community expect you to plan for and resolve them please do not let us down please preserve the school district that mr kohanski so many others have worked hard to achieve thank you next is melissa fontanella hi my name is melissa fontana i live at 680 morgan trail and i have two teenagers at the high school i am going to be responding to the revisit of the optional masking policy i agree with the

025board boat to make masking optional for k through 12. two years into this pandomic if masking barked then we would not still be in the same situation there has not been one single conclusive study in the entire world showing you that mass work a conclusive study as we learned in sixth grade science class means that you have a control group you have a control group meaning that you have a group of students some masked some not masked in the same setting with the same vaccination status and the same testing methods and that has not been done anywhere so any claim stating that masking works even by the cdc we're not justified by any data now let's talk about the mask for a minute the cloth mask as the other gentleman mentioned are virtually useless they

026don't work surgical masks the kids put in their backpacks in the cars they don't wear them correctly their nose hangs out there's air gaping in in the sides and they have all kinds of bacteria and contaminants on them so they're not even used properly when they are used properly they protect three microns and higher as far as as far as particles go omicron is one particle so it's not even protecting against the variant that you think it's protecting against so they're wearing them for basically no reason at all viruses mutate that is a known fact and as they mutate they become more contagious and less deadly so a year from now we're going to have covet it's going to be like the common cold you can't keep masking our kids a parent's job does not

027end when the kids walk into the school doors we're choosing to wear a mask or not wear a mask is our choice masks do have known health consequences for children they cause anxiety depression acne rashes they aggravate asthma and let's not forget about the younger generation where there is a 364 increase in speech delays at the beginning of the pandemic it may have made sense to wear math we did not know much about proven 19 but now two years later you can't have a one solution fits all zero to 17 year olds cannot be treated like 65 years of age and older that is absolutely absurd instead of mandate nia maybe you would want to focus on alcohol consumption the vaping problem and the increase in suicides that go on in in the teenage generation

028instead of putting a face diaper on our children thank you [Applause] next is angie franklin uh good evening and who day my name is angie frankman uh i live at 230 ironwood circle i'm also a teacher and hartman middle school 8th grade teacher science teacher and i want to start by saying how sad and heartbroken i was to hear about jerry jerry forever has worked hard for this city in more ways than just the school board and mary right behind him and his heart was always for the kids and for what's best for the kids so he's going to be missing for sure um i am asking the board to reconsider their uh mask optional policy um and ask them to reconsider a policy that would allow us to pivot if we do have outbreaks

029down the road we know there will be more variants we know there will be outbreaks within this is within our school system and currently the policy as it stands would not allow us to respond to that i want to reiterate at the middle school level and the high school level a mass optional policy virtually means no one wears a mask i have maybe four five kids in each of my classes that wear a mask and every time we go to the optional policy i have to kind of remind the kids why some of us continue to wear a mask i have one child who has a father who has had a heart transplant i've got another child that's got a mom who's got cancer and undergoing chemotherapy i have heard kids within my room that

030are immune compromised so they continue to wear their mask and i have to kind of tell the rest of the kids hey please respect the idea that some of these kids are going to continue to wear the best but i want you to know if it's a mass optional policy most of the kids at the middle school in high school do not wear masks even if maybe their parents would want them to because they just they just won't do that so i just asked that the board consider a policy that would perhaps be more like what mr roberto was using for that would allow allow the school system to respond to an operator thank you [Applause] well i know that first name is charlotte i don't know how to pronounce last name hi my name

031is i'm in eighth grade at hartman middle school cover 19 and the rules of pie too have affected many things we had to miss sixth grade camp in 2020 we had to quarantine and go online multiple times throughout our seventh grade year and now the washington dc trip was cancelled my class of 2026 is the only class that missed both of these opportunities in our middle school year some cons of the mask are that you constantly are breathing in your own carbon dioxide all day long it's difficult to breathe in and causes communicating with others to be difficult causes dizziness headaches and much more a personal experience that i had not too long ago is that we had to wear a mask during the pacer test it's to test your cardio endurance how is our

032test going to be accurate when we cannot even breathe correctly i received a lower score on it than all my other scores over the past few years when it was over i got sick and was so dizzy i felt like i was going to pass out and got sick in the bathroom i didn't i am an athlete i play multiple sports and do strength training for those sports the pacer test has never been this difficult for me i believe math should be optional i have nothing against people who do wear masks and who are vaccinated because that is their belief and that is their choice but it is also my belief and my choice not to wear one and not to be vaccinated just yet when masks were mandatory kids were constantly being told make

033sure to pull your mask up or keep your distance even a girl in my class told me you're the reason why people are dying because your mask is not up all the way i can't even talk to my friend without being told to separate farther away from them or that i am putting people in danger it is sad disturbing and affects so many kids on an emotional level including myself we shouldn't be forced to do anything that we do not want to do it's called freedom [Applause] next is alex and i don't know it's t-s-c-h-u-d-y what is it alex judy i'm at 8 20 rock creek drive i have a 13 year old 7th grader at hermann and a almost 17 year old junior in high school you guys have taken care of statistics and

034all that part but i just want to talk about how my kids feel being matched all day my daughter's excitement for school lessons dramatically she's tired she's fatigued she has so many issues especially anxiety she had to see the counselor every week multiple times last year because she had to wear a mask every day and when we found out that mask optional started again at the end of this move her excitement to go to school get up in her energy level and with my son my son gets threatened into tension every time he's talking and his mask comes down below his nose a little bit um he had a someone in his face pointing their finger telling them he's going to get a detention um this isn't good for our children he got covered he

035literally had a little headache and very light congestion for a day and then he was perfectly fine also the case with all his friends that got it all my daughter's friends that got it to keep masking our kids forever and ever over something that is less than the flu we just can't keep doing this and i'm talking from experience of the difference i see in my children and i can't take it apart so that's all i want to say thank you so much next is eric moyer all right good evening everyone i'm dr eric moyer i'm a cleveland clinic physician and the father of first fourth graders athlete i reside at 805 south sussex court i felt compelled to say a few words today because of the recent spike in hospitalizations that overwhelmed area hospitals

036prompted the cleveland clinic and other area hospitals to put out an ad in the paper the public to do more to reduce the hospitalizations there part of the plea was aimed at vulnerable high-risk patients urging them to get both vaccinated and boosted another part of that plea the one that i will focus on here today is the plea to the rest of the community to do more to protect these vulnerable people i've been checking in on the adult icus at least once per week over the past month or so and the pattern is clear here these hospitalized adult common patients are all very vulnerable either over 65 or with high-risk conditions like diabetes obesity cancer and diseases of the heart lung liver and kidneys most of them are completely unvaccinated and a few are incompletely

037vaccinated a few very unfortunate patients got all the three recommended vaccine doses but they were all receiving high-dose immunosuppressive therapy that prevented their immune systems from properly responding to the vaccines so what can mostly young healthy non-vulnerable students parents and teachers do to reduce the chances of vulnerable people in their community for being hospitalized like this now they can certainly try to convince these vulnerable to get both vaccinated and boosted but what is more under our control is minimizing the amount of covets circulating in the communities around these vulnerable people at this point we know there are primarily three things we can do to reduce the amount of covets circulating in our communities number one is vaccinating ourselves number two is not just masking but masking effectively as others pointed out and number three social

038distancing being young and taking good care of our bodies is great for our personal health or personal protection but unfortunately it does not reduce the amount of covets circulating around our most vulnerable gaining natural immunity may offer personal protection and young and healthy to develop only mild symptoms but allowing covenant illnesses to happen like this in huge fast-moving waves is causing these overwhelming hospitalizations in the vulnerable that our hospitals as great as they are simply can't handle and the result is profound harm to both the patients and the hospital caregivers three minutes starting i'll wrap it up starting to effectively mask out after community spread has already spiked in our communities around our most vulnerable does not effectively prevent these spikes and hospitalizations i believe this is a lesson worth teaching to our kids the

039importance of preventing or protecting our most vulnerable through selfless acts to help protect the most vulnerable in your community please this is asked please get vaccinated and get boosted and wear effective masks even if you aren't forced to even if your personal health doesn't depend on it as cleveland clinic ceo and president thomas thoma helicopter recently stated we can overcome the pandemic through selflessness thank you [Music] [Applause] next is tony size good evening tony zios 131 eldridge road i'm the father of a sixth grader first off i'd like to acknowledge that most of you worked very closely with mr kohanski and i'd like to express my condolences for you and for the loss of a colleague and a friend who leaves a lasting legacy here for our schools onto the matter at hand here today

040at the december board meeting a few members expressed concern about the timing of the mass optional protocols adoption it was a no no worthy point that should be discussed this protocol was voted on during a time where there was an uptick in cases nationwide so why now why would we implement this protocol at this time we've arrived at an important inflection point in addressing a pandemic and it's time to examine a perspective that has long been neglected since we've had to react to this new threat but now we urgently need to confront the long term and ask when does this end we know a new variant will be around every corner and we've already learned that masked will not be the answer they weren't the answer until now they won't be moving forward as others

041and people like dr saint john in the last meeting pointed out the scientific nature of a virus is to adapt and mutate through variance with every new one becoming weaker than the last as has been demonstrated by the omicron variant remember the saying let the punishment fit the crime let's translate that to 2022 let the precaution fit the risk and let's put the hysteria aside and look at the actual risk according to the cdc the odds of an infected unvaccinated person requiring hospitalization is one in 100. and that was reported prior to this current variant which is known to be weaker than the last for those who have compromised health or at risk or even if you're just fearful of the virus take every precaution you feel necessary to protect yourself and your family no

042one is arguing against that but this is not the board or the district's place to force our kids to hide their faces and live in fear indefinitely when we know there are much more dire consequences our children are facing such as the devastating mental health pandemic that the response to this virus has triggered i'm proud of the board members who are leading not cowering through this turbulent time stay the course stay consistent and stand by the protocol that was voted into motion last month thank you [Applause] um i don't know your first name what is your personality julia okay here um um my name is eris and i will be talking about the masked mandates and having the option to wear them now this is my second speech and since my last speech many things

043have changed from having the masks as an option to not to have them on and then the cycle just keeps going going back and forth again we need to have this stop somewhere we children should stand up for our rights and still be respectful and cordial to one another's decisions we have to take control of ourselves and have our god-given rights back thank you [Applause] and our last speaker this evening is tracy kanoff can you hear me now okay um i have a child at harman and i have a child at the high school and i want to start by talking to mary and extending my condolences to you your husband was a wonderful man and to the school board i'm very sorry that you lost a very dedicated good team member uh i promised

044myself i wasn't gonna cry so um let me get to the matter at hand which is um [Music] i decided to take a slightly different approach and that is i went to what seems to be the current cleveland bible for all things covet which is the cleveland.com website and i decided to take a couple of just the highlights that come out every day um because uh covet is obviously very near and dear to everybody's heart here's the update from january 20th covet 19 omicron surge appears to be over in northeast ohio reports julie washington in the 18 counties and two hospital regions that include cleveland and akron the number of private patients is down 24 percent while dropping just one percent in the entire rest of the state the decrease has even been stronger within

045the five county regions of cuyahoga lake lorraine and everything that surrounds us here's the update from january 24th for the second consecutive week daily coveted 19 counts in ohio hospitals including those in intensive care fell an encouraging sign that the omicron surge is coming to an end at least in northeast ohio the daily coven 19 patient count in ohio hospitalizations dropped every day this past week week over week the count was lower on saturday 5 376 than it was on january 15th down 909 patients here's the update from today the ohio department of health on sunday recorded five thousand two hundred and twenty four new covent cases the smallest daily tally in seven weeks the daily count of newly reported coronavirus chases is regularly above 19 000. so i'm not a scientist i've done a

046ton of research on this but it appears to me that the news is telling us that the cases are decreasing i've seen a tremendous change in my children over the last two years i believe that the children and the parents have the right to choose whether or not they should be masked and i encourage you as board to honor jerry's memory and his last official vote which was to make masks optional thank [Music] [Applause] you we're now going to take um we're going to change the order of the agenda as it stands now the revisit of the optional masking plan was scheduled for the end of the meeting but a decision was made earlier today to just revisit it now so that those of you who are here for just that reason can go home

047you're welcome to say if you want to through the rest of the meeting but we'll be done with that person if you'd like to leave so um to recap it seems like you all know this but last december 20th this board voted four to one to approve an optional masking plan effective january 25th with the option to revisit it on the 24th and then we did not meet last week so um it's still on the table if um if anyone here wants to revisit it i assume that you do and if so you have the floor yesterday yeah i would like to say something and i want to thank everybody for her for your comments today and um for being brave enough to stand up in public so thank you if you can hear me

048okay um uh when the vote happened in december um it was my understanding that we moved it out so that we could have an opportunity to talk about it so thank you for offering that today even though it's not into effect um my concern for the for this being written as uh it is a procedure is that um we are taking away mr roberto's ability to administer the district in the best way that he sees fit from his safety officer perspective and should there be another surge [Music] in cases in the community i i would hate to but i understand the option would be and mr roberto please i invite you to give your thoughts here um if there was some kind of surge his only option is to go virtual or to close a

049school or close a grade level and i don't know about you but i do not want to wish that upon the students and teachers again that that back and forth of being virtual or you know not being with their teachers and their their friends and so the only option is that because there is no other mitigating factor that would that would allow the masks to be put back on to potentially stop the spread i would just prefer that we have the option that we give the option back to mr roberto with the new odh guidelines that are that have come into place to come up with a new plan of when masks might be required so that we don't end up having to send everybody home and mr roberto would you like to find about

050that certainly yes uh so i i guess as mrs dosing mentioned that uh the ohio department you're aware the hot department of health has changed the requirements for contact tracing so um that was saving a lot of time for administrators as they're nodding their heads over here and their and their nurses so our coping numbers aren't down and um had we been following the uh the plan that was in place our opening plan we would have come out of the required masking as a friday because of our numbers and as superintendent of schools just like those board members up here uh i'm expected to take into account views and concerns for all the members of our small community and as a result it is important that we are empathetic and able to balance you know

051those concerns my biggest concern is the impact on the district if our over numbers were declined and from my understanding the latest changes to contact tracing from ohio department of health the porsche county health district would monitor if we were to have an outbreak cluster and they would determine if contract tracing would need to be taken place and the potential to uh require math so um i think as we've gone through it to no surprise you know i would recommend continuing following the plan but at the same time i do understand the board's position and i reiterate that i do serve at the pleasure of the board and so of course i'm going to follow the protocols that the board will ultimately put in place based on and if i could just say one more

052thing um [Music] i really hate that we are where we are i hate this too i hate that we are two years into this thing and we're all exhausted we're all fired and and i want to thank you pam for reminding us in the last four minutes to remember that the youngest kids are the ones that are being impacted by this choice and i really really understand that and i respect it i and i again i hate that we are here and i hate that we are at each other's throats and that we don't talk to each other anymore and that neighbor against neighbor i don't like that we're in that place but i think what my my only argument is i'd like to give the administration the ability to administer the school district when

053it comes to safety and i believe that that belongs in the hands of mr roberto and um i also believe that we if we were to adopt well my motion would be to rest into this right now just because we would be in mass optional anyway given the plan that roberto had in place before mr roberto hadn't said before it's sort of a move point of this at this juncture the odh has voted has changed his policies so it's time to revisit a new plan let me just give mr roberto a chance to come up with a new plan and um and move on from there so those are my thoughts well your comments are based on the premise that you believe that cloth masks work and we no i don't you don't believe that

054no i believe effective masking works okay strong good good well-fitting masks right but children cannot wear better benefiting masks my children do well most children would not and no institution wants to be in charge of making sure that every child is wearing the proper three layer and 95 mask or whatever it is that just simply would not work i think even the teachers would testify to that they can't even keep cloth masks up over their nose um i i also i'm certain that if we were the board could be called for a special meeting and make any decision that we wanted to regarding masks or anything else um i think as i've stated before i think the zero covid mentality has done immense social damage to children and i think that any district that whose

055goal is filled with students who are stifled and repressed and i think that's especially true of the little ones i know many kindergartners first and second graders um and this is normal to them i mean they don't even know what it's like to see a teacher smiling face and to be able to talk at lunch and to not have plastic shields up and not have assigned seats to be able to go on field trips and stay in a concert without a mask and i just think it's time to prioritize normalcy which i said before and then i was misquoted in the advocate what i said was it's time to prioritize normalcy and um i just think that we need to stay this course for now we'll keep watching the numbers and if if there's another

056surge we'll decide what to do but i don't know that masks will be the answer [Applause] yeah i mean everyone knows where i stand everyone knows where we all stand i could rattle off another list of schools that are going masculine like i did last time new ones on the 26th you know ode ended the contract tracing the 28th jaga public health recommended masks in school be optional so hopefully we'll see a trickle-down effect um you know if we all in agreement that the cloth masks don't work it didn't change our numbers or any other surrounding schools numbers you know when the omicron you know heads or whatever before break we had you know higher numbers within masks we were in masks after break we had lower numbers and that was happening all around so

057i just um like i just don't see the end game i guess i guess i would ask you when would you think it would be a good time well as of right now mr roberto's plan would have had masks be optional at starting friday and that is a good plan but there is a plan in place to put them back if they're as a mitigating measure against having to close the school it's not i mean starting masks be optional anyway underneath mr roberto's old plan so that would be my my choice is to go back to the old plan so there's at least a trigger mechanism in place should we need it i disagree i'm against that idea because of what um julia said that this business of on again off again is it's just

058not good for the children you know they they i think that we've had over the course of three school years and it hasn't been three full school years but um it's been children have been touched in three separate school years where they have had to suffer the side effects they're the ones who have been harmed as the side effects of covid with these with these masks and everything else and i just think that there was a time in the beginning and someone said this in their comment when it was hard to to not take all these measures because it was mysterious and scary at first but we know so much more now than we did we have vaccines we have boosters we have uh therapeutics and so again i just think it's time to get

059in any student and teacher that anyone's obviously the kids are not being made fun of for wearing masks it's actually the opposite um uh in the younger grades um and i could say that personally you know so but they're not they're not if the kids want to wear masks if they want to wear n95 the other kids aren't making fun of them i've not heard any any stories of that my all the kids that i've been around of all different brand levels they're like whatever you know we don't care they that's fine they're still they're they're friends you know i mean they don't and they don't they're fine with that they don't care and you know obviously the teachers can wear that or a 95 and that's fine kids don't you know what i mean

060it's just not it's not an issue so if someone feels that protects them then by all means you know that's totally fine and like i said the kids are not um i know at the beginning that was some concern you know if my kid's the only one in the mask whether or not because there are a lot of kids still wearing mask small buildings and like i said the other kids are they're fine with it now surf fest when everybody's wearing them because it does protect the person who is sick from spreading it and um mr roberto has shared that data with us and has shared a number that's where the parent choice comes in if if i don't send my child in a mask and someone else is sick i mean i guess i'm

061taking that risk they could get anything strap the flu whatever but that's my choice it is a choice to potentially spread a disease to another student my child is compromised they don't have a disease and if they're sick i keep them home like always [Applause] no but we weren't very masked great right i mean you you can sit next to someone your child could be sitting next to someone that has a strep throat that has lice that has anything we don't know you don't know that so if you want if if somebody feels like a mask then that's fine you know i mean like i said that's not there's no judgment but we never someone signature could have all kinds of things and someone sitting next to them maybe hasn't had any vaccines ever their

062whole life and that you don't know that you know what i mean so no one was worried they were going to get you know something from them so i'm saying like it's just it's out of control i think i just have the issue with the absolutes everybody likes so then things in boxes they absolutely like remax don't work i mean they work i mean all police officers paramedics surgeons we've been wearing them for years research shows and it's not a hundred percent right it's not absolute nothing is 100 even now calling put on your hands they can put on there it's not a hundred percent but it is a barrier so the more bigger your head and then absolutely it's not parent choice the absolutes that everybody likes that i'm just saying i think it's

063joy your choice it's your choice put it on your face is there any more to discuss say something that's it [Music] no no no i'm sorry this is the board's meeting that happens to be in public you're welcome to listen but not participate okay all right so now's the time if you want to leave do it now um [Music] oh well as it stands the mask optional plan stays in place because it exploded four to one and we're not opting to change it [Applause] okay now we'll move to the approval of minutes from the december board meeting may i have a motion please seconds are there any comments or edits to the minutes hearing none mr melson please call the roll mrs carl yes this is wallace yes mrs yes all right now we'll move

064on to the superintendent and assist assistant superintendent's [Applause] [Music] report right well paul and i wanted to use this month's superintendent and assistant superintendent reports to focus on providing the first semester updates on our district goals uh you are getting a copy of these goals with the updates in bold and those although we will not be covering all the goals tonight we want to be sure to give you an update in writing of each of them paul will be addressing some of the more curricular related goals and uh for the district and i will be providing updates on some of those goals that are related to school cultures so as you know the royal city school district uses the metaphor of schools as a greenhouse when describing the schools this metaphor fits because their training

065growth should take place in a greenhouse end of school so we believe the success of the university school district will ultimately be measured by how healthy how strong and how deeply rooted the individuals are to leave our schools in order for these roots we established a strategic vision that functions as a guiding light and includes six competencies which serve as the students roots those competencies as you are aware are balanced with the resilient innovative collaborative empathetic and being a critical thinker and they are the foundation of our district goals as well as you can see any sheep so the first goal update i wanted to address falls under the competency of balance which alludes to not only social emotional awareness but also the school culture of considering the whole child in order to empower all

066learners it's important to eliminate any barriers to learning they might face so that is why we are in the process of honoring our educational environments in order to identify areas of refinement and reinforcement the audit basically is going to help us to find blind spots as we review five areas including physical integration social emotional engagement opportunities to learn instructional excellence and engaged inspired learners once the audit is complete our next steps will be to review the data by building um by building and then as a district in order to develop the next steps therefore potential goals and professional development to empower all learners these goals will be developed over the summer and put in place for the 2022-2023 school year the second area of school culture i wanted to address comes from the goals was

067falls under the empathy category on your sheet it's the second goal which discusses designing learning environments so if we believe kids come first and we do the learning environments which are designed to go beyond a curricular delivery model one that prepares young people for life to be developed as a result we have developed five specifications that all touristy school staff should consider when designing lessons or activities or even meeting agendas earlier i mentioned the competencies which are our strategic vision uh these competencies examine what areas in which we want young people to grow but the design specifications that you're getting now are how we as a staff are able to get to that point so as you can see in the design specs there's five areas that we focus on when we're thinking of designing

068or developing lessons so some of the things we ask teachers to consider are honor the identity through relationships you can kind of read a little bit about what we mean by that we want to put kids in a situation where they have an opportunity to collaborate so because learning is social to get them to think uh differently uh that is an idea of nurturing innovation and to honor the process learning as a process rather than just as an outcome or a product is what specification 4 is all about and really moving you know those points and grades might help find a spot moving beyond that to understanding uh and look at the continuum of learning beyond just points and grades it's that big piece and again you can kind of dig into each of those

069but what we've done is not every lesson would necessarily contain all five of the specifications but as one designs lessons all five really should be kind of considered as we develop our plans so these design specs lead to classroom environments and experiences to help young people develop the competencies within our strategic vision so we have uh help staff begin to make the connection between these design specs and how the new votes 2.0 evaluate teacher evaluation process during both staff and our plc meetings are connected the design specs also tie into the ohio departments of education's each child our future vision that the state has for school districts by considering these five specifications when designing lessons and activities some people are being exposed to better pedagogy in a nurturing classroom environment that is more student-centered and

070will lead to growth to more growth as a learner which will ultimately lead to overall learners being future ready for division so this shift in pedagogy is going to help meet individual student needs and that's where paul will next address some of the curriculum focused goals for our district so all right thank you mr romero um so as mike mentioned uh you talked about the culture pieces uh if you look at my report um focused on two particular particular areas under resilience uh it's gap closure and under innovative it's not curriculum and mike alluded to sort of my two-fold areas which is essentially um you know trying to find those areas uh that we feel we need to help our students the most and then creating those two uh student-centered environments so um just to

071connect this to some of the things that i know you're familiar with uh from before you know each year we get reports from the state of ohio the report card and one of which is the aml right which is essentially just different subgroups and if they're reaching their targeted levels of achievement the problem with that type of data though when i drew a medical analogy for you guys it's after the fact right it's not on time it's it's not necessarily wanting us to be as responsive as we want to be so i mentioned in there that we have a variety of ways to keep a pulse on student learning uh formative assessments we have summative assessments we have benchmark assessments every sort of progress monitor along the way um you know we use that data

072with our teacher teams with our plc's with our rti and tss processes which includes you know our principals our reading math coaches our ti coordinators and so you know that's that's really how we make sure that we are we understand what our students are and how we're responsive and how we adjust throughout the year well we made um you know a variety of additions changes uh this year uh which i'm really proud of the hard work that's gone into this in multiple models in our district we've had benchmarked assessments um that we've used in the past uh the cba for for our math learners um james webb there's a variety of ones that we've used before but we are making um an increased effort to be more diagnostic in order to do that we need

073to have better and more detailed information and so the example that i gave you uh is really in some of our lower grade levels but in ela we're using the hegerty phonemic awareness assessments um that is new uh to really drill down into some of the basics of reading isolating words and sounds blending phonemes segmenting words and really um getting clear information on the beginning of the year and then following up with assessments afterwards to see how our students are progressing uh in math we've created some new benchmark uh checkpoint assessments also to drill down into some of the details and you can see that report basics like number structure and condition and subtraction kind of forwards backwards and so we have increased the amount of data increase the amount of information in the detail

074of that so that our teachers know exactly where our students are how they're progressing and therefore how we can be responsive to make sure we're differentiating along the way we can't wait until after this four years over we need to be constantly monitoring and adjusting as we go so i'm really proud of a lot of hard work and sort of collaborative effort that's going on in the lower levels lower grade levels so that's sort of the first piece but the next part of this aligns well with that we've been trying to shift you know really since i've been here for five six seven years to try to be a more student centered environment and that's that's ongoing but there's some specific things that we've done this year we've adjusted our math and reading frameworks which

075were um sort of created by our teachers with our mathematics specialist kara marie lynch is math and jen miller is our ela specialist so we've we've adjusted those we've worked on adding different components adding different resources at the k-5 level we've continued with the theme of increasing voice and choice and having some of that authentic reading in the classrooms um you know i mentioned that kind of flowing up through harmon as well um it's one thing i'm really proud of of our heart and math teachers is they uh asked to do a a book study building thing in classrooms they've really dove into that we've done professional development morning math meetings actually they start at 6 45 believe it or not 6 45 a.m the earliest meetings in the district it's a little painful for

076everybody but they've been very very productive and um you know they've uh implemented a number of new strategies that really engage uh students to a higher degree allow them you know to reach out learners so those are just some of the examples and i did sort of want to give a little pat on the back shout out to our specialists and principals and teachers um really proud of the efforts that we've made this year you know coming off the dynamic last year it was a little frustrating because we're so focused just on safety and i felt like held us back a little bit because we had to be so concerned that and i really feel good about the momentum we've had this year seeing some of the progress of our students and seeing some of

077all this this hard work and this focus on teaching construction payoff so in the short term but you know certainly in the long run too the students progress through grade levels so i will stop at that point and see if the board has any questions on that too i have a question what did you say about phonics because i have a question about that did you say that's being measured so um there are yeah so the phonemic awareness assessment uh breaks down different you know the basic components of fines and have we found during the pandemic that children are digressing in that because just i'm not trying to start something again i just i'm wondering how a teacher can teach phonics i know i know several elementary school teachers who are still wearing masks even

078during this optional time but they at least now can pull their mess down if they want to teach something specific and what were they doing before that right so they would try to have have um you know be very clear with their speaking uh you know and be behind the dividers but with those specific aspects of reading and even with uh global languages even with ell students yeah it was very challenging i mean there were there were quite frankly there were gaps and there were some um you know concerns in terms of students not a level sure we we had more of that than we've ever had here certainly there it was a greater need in other districts but yeah i mean we are in place right now we're trying to recover from that and

079we have it that'll be with us for not just this semester that's going to be with us for years but our job is trying to close that gap sooner rather than later so um have you have you taken any assessments away or we only added more testing to the system um these uh in terms of these assessments these are almost all required um the only ones that we added were the ones that i mentioned in terms of the math checkpoints and the um awareness and once a student reaches a certain level they don't necessarily need to be recessed reassessed the good news about some of these assessments too and i understand where you're going with this is the concern about you know over assessing a lot of the assessments with the younger partners like the

080fnp and um even the cba uh the math uh their assessments but they're almost like interviews these are teachers sitting down with students asking questions and then seeing how they're responding taking you know running records taking data so it's not threatening it's not like we're sitting them down in front of a computer standardized test like two hours it's a conversation and then really see where the students are where they're skilled what their strengths are if there are some deficits or issues that could potentially address so it's it's it's a very non-threatening uh you know situation do you feel like you have the support of the teachers and principals assessments and they're helpful yeah this real need has really come from our reading and math specialists and our principals and our teachers um asking for more

081information and trying to come together to figure out how we can really drill down and have better data to help with our student progression great i'd love to see the data for next year you know when you've got a couple of data points yeah absolutely and yeah as i i think you've been with someone for me before they'll definitely be sharing some of that and if you ever have um other questions you know you know share something thanks okay thank you for that thank you for the handouts thank you mr palace uh thank you mrs mahalos um this evening i just have the uh one resolution for your consideration that being the financial report for the month of december and in december our expenditures exceeded revenues by about 3.9 billion increasing our general fund cash

082balance to 10.3 million six months into the fiscal year uh revenues were 7.6 less than projected and expenditures about less than one percent less than projected on the revenue side um really not a whole lot to talk about uh december is a month where i'll get my school foundation and uh um some miscellaneous uh likely interesting fees and that type of thing not a whole lot of big revenue for us on a normal basis on the expenditure side um in the employee retirement insurance benefits category uh we spent seventy thousand three hundred seventy six dollars in workers from workers compensation premium payments uh just as a comparison last year we spent seventy one thousand five seventy four so pretty much on online with uh what we have been spending with uh uh overall also december

083is one of our was one of our three pay months our personnel service costs were uh higher than what obviously what they normally would be and then our purchase services included the second half payment of our property insurance uh in the amount of fifty four thousand dollars in the liability insurance for another 22 400 so so about 76 000 insurance payments which is about half of our our yearly premium so thus far for the fiscal year revenues are about 41 500 less than projected and expended shares about 193 000 less than projected so we have a favorable variance a little bit over 150 000 dollars halfway through the fiscal year thank you exhibit d1 is a resolution to approve financial statements and reports can i have a motion please any comments or questions yes right

084under action items we have a resolution to accept gifts and contributions we're thankful for an anonymous donation of twenty two thousand dollars i have a motion for approval move share seconds any comments or questions mr watson please call mrs carr yes this is dolzy yeah this is mahalos yes mr sabolsky yes all right and then we have eight personnel issues which without objection we'll take together i'll just read through the titles we have a resolution to employ a long-term substitute teacher resolution to employ licensed substitute teachers for the 21-22 school year a resolution to employ support staff resolution to employ a support staff substitutes resolution to approve changes to the employee manual resolution to approve leave of athlete of absence requests a certified staff member a resolution to approve the introductory appointment of support staff

085and the last resolution is to approve our resolution to accept resignations so that is uh e1b1 through e1 8. may have a motion for approval second are there any comments or questions i just only because it's my first time through this do we typically change the employee manual at this time every year is it something that happens every day so often yeah i think it every so often probably a good description as we go back and revisit it there are things that uh kind of changed over time and so it would be something you know maybe every couple years it's been quite a while actually since this has left been changing because i think it was about 2013. so it was time to revisit and revise okay and the and as i understand that these

086are employees not not teachers teachers have their own yes good clarification so there are uh certified employees which would be the teacher contract that we would use their master agreement and then their classified employees which fall under oopsey which is another union agreement and this will be everybody else and that said and did the changes come from a committee or have been looked at before they came to us so that people think that they're good changes i to me they seem fine but i don't know if they wanted something else yeah so we don't have a committee per se set up but it's through conversations with those employees and uh things that have worked with administrators and things that we'd like to see change based on those things so uh and we kind of ran

087some ideas past the those areas that were impacted by it did they have a way of um suggesting changes so that it doesn't we don't wait yes so some of the changes came from them yes exactly it's like hey can we revisit this and then they'll point it out and we'll go back and revisit it okay yeah thank you all right mr hawson please call your mom mrs dulce yes mrs connor yes mr sabolsky yes mr smallhold yes exhibit e1c is a resolution to establish student fees can they have a motion second comments or questions i have a question it looks like it's all the same except maybe for some additions that are highlighted in in black garden black yes they are pretty much all the same including our kindergarten tea which is probably the

088biggest one that you saw in there i think the uh i think the student parking fee did not end up being changed is that correct did it get changed okay all right that's the one that i was not sure so that's about ten dollars which is actually um yes this is dolce yes right and uh we have no discussion items for tonight right and are there any board items [Music] yes this yes