001But I will say this. I feel sorry because every day you're out. >> Go in there when I need it. walk in there. >> You got that. You're really >> You have to try. >> You really have to try. >> Okay. >> You are [Music] I took away our first show. How do I know I'm first one that I don't know. >> I apologize. >> Nobody tell anything. Just advance. Should I do that? [Music] [Applause] [Music] That's just [Music] Well, I think they It's time. versus [Music] Thanks Jeff. [Music] is given that Kim I would really still spoil the helmet. Eric, >> how are you? >> Is that right? >> Heather Henry, not in the group. >> I do communications. >> Where would I be out of your way? If you're out of your way
002and people There's [Music] Where am I? [Music] names for the scourge again. I do No, right. What's the matter? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] That's a good guy. [Music] I'd like to call the meeting to order. A roll call, please. >> Mrs. Iicults, >> here. >> Dr. Hooker, >> here. >> Mrs. Johnston, >> here. >> Mrs. Lewis, >> here. >> Mrs. say, >> "Yeah." >> Um, I'd like to entertain a motion to adoption of the regular meeting agenda and its addendum. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I'd also entertain a motion to go into executive session uh in accordance with OC121.22 22 G1 and OC121 >> second. >> All those in favor? >> I uh ladies and gentlemen, we will be back after executive session approximately 6:00. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]
003Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Ah. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] aha. [Music] Ah. [Music] Ah. Hey, [Music] ah. [Music] ah [Music] aha. Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] think about it. [Music] Think about it. Think about it. Think about it. Think about it. [Music] Let the base kick. Let the base kick. [Music] Think about it. Think about it. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Think about it. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Think about it. [Music] H-h. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat.
004Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] you. Wow. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. N. [Music] Power die. Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Power. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Got [Music] you. [Music] Got you. [Music] Yeah. No one [Music] help you. network. [Music] Watch out. [Music] Yeah. Hurry. [Music] [Applause] And then I'm going to check during the proceedings to make sure [Music] you won't be able to see your phone on silent. All right. Uh, we are now returning from executive session. I appreciate your patience. Um, so I'd like to now have the pledge of allegiance. Where is my flag? Right there. All right. [Music] Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
005all. >> Um, I'd like to uh welcome everybody um on the behalf of the board of education for having you come to the meeting this evening to share your thoughts. Public comment is an important part of every board meeting and per our policy. We allow 30 minutes of public comment at each regularly scheduled board meeting with each participant to allowed to participate for up to five minutes. We want to hear your voice. What you have to say matters and it matters deeply. Our plan uh is to uh make fact I'll let Mrs. Eles make a motion in a second is to actually change our agenda around so that we actually start with public comment and then have other business. I'd like to move that we move the public commentary from the bottom of the agenda
006to the top and then followed immediately by other business. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> So, uh, Mr. Davis, would you please give the rules for public comment and how things are going to work? >> Certainly. Uh, the way I would like to do this and keep it the most organized and efficient way we can so we can hear as many voices as possible. Um, what I'm going to do is call the first three names on the list and I will have the first person go to the podium. If the next two people could go to Mr. Nichols who's standing over there, um, we'll sort of set up the on deck circle, so to speak. Um, after the first person is done, I will then call up the next person on the list
007as they're exchanging positions. That way, that person can come down and be ready to go. Um, I will be keeping track of the five minutes. Um, I will let you know when you're at four minutes, so that way you know when it's getting close. Um, have I missed anything else? >> Uh, I just would like to add, uh, and I'm really not worried about it, but I'll go ahead and say it. Uh, please, you know, state your facts, state your opinions. Uh, let's just, uh, be respectful of other people have differing opinions. So, thank you very much. Uh, one other thing I would like to ask, if you have written notes and would like those uh, submitted for the board minutes specifically, please hand those to Mr. Nichols on your way out after you finish.
008>> And I would add to that, if we if for some reason you don't get the opportunity to speak publicly because we run out of time, uh, we would invite any written comments uh, to be added to the uh, minutes uh, afterwards. >> So, Mr. Davis, you want to call up our first people? >> Certainly. The first three names I have on the list are Jeff Heineken, Ben Hall, and Scott Holafel. You could please come up. >> As an aside, we can't hear you very much. They are on. I don't know if we can move them any closer. Thank you for letting me know that. Elizabeth, can you move your computer so I can pull this a little closer to me? And I'll just shift down. >> Can you all hear me now? >> Not
009a soo. I saw a soo so >> Okay, we we're going to fix this. I've never been accused of having a mic boy voice that needed more micy >> testing. [Music] >> You ready? >> Please proceed, Mr. Hank. Okay. My name is Jeff Heineken. I'm an attorney. I'm a resident of Indian Hill and a parent of two children in the Indian Hill School District. I am against mandates. The Indian Hill School District has been recognized and has received many honors over the years for excellence in education, mostly recently the Project Lead the Way Distinguished School for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Tonight, I'd like I wish to continue this teaching for excellence and educate our community and the Indian Hill School Board on how to address the issue before us. This will take people's commitment
010to listen, not just hear, to learn, and to do their homework. The project before us is, do we make masks mandatory or optional? The lesson plan to me is simple. Be honest. Do not deceive or cloud the issue with cherrypicked information. And thoroughly do your homework. With all due respect to the Indian Hill School Board, three board members walking into a special meeting with masks preaching science, but in reality showing solidarity for a predetermined decision was disingenuous. The board president stated he was pleased to hear the community speak, yet ignored everything the community said. The board paid lip service to cries for freedom of choice, parental consent, mental and physical health issues, and two pleas from parents that their children were scared to go to school because of masks. No way to learn if one
011is not honest. Do your homework. I do not believe the board members did their homework. They ignored their own bylaws and most importantly the issues discussed in the first two consideration slides presented at the August 3rd special meeting. I will not reread the slides but will say the first slide should have given everyone a hint on who has the authority to make health decisions for school districts. The most important point on the second consideration slide, point number four, stated, quote, "No government entity has passed a legal mask, testing, or vaccinating vaccine requirement for public schools to date. This is important and I hope you will not just hear me, but listen. Based on the board's bylaws and the laws of the state of Ohio, the decision that was made by three members of the Indian
012Hill School Board to mandate the wearing of masks was outside the scope of their authority and therefore uninforceable. Let me no stop, please. This is not a matter for clapping one way or the other. This is a matter for getting facts out. Let me repeat that decision was made by three members of the Indian Hill School Board to mandate mass was outside the scope of their authority and therefore uninforceable. A simple review of your bylaws would have told you under authority policy manual adopted December 12th, 2017 section 0121. The supervision of the public school of this district shall be conducted by the board of education which is constituted and governed by code title 33 of the Ohio Revised Code. Therefore, Ohio Revised Code chapters 3301, 3313, 3317, 3701, and the Ohio Constitution are the governing
013laws for this issue, not handpicked science reports. What governing law and what law and what point number four attempted to help the board understand states the only governmental entity in the state of Ohio capable of issuing mandatory health mandates is the Ohio Department of Health. Nowhere in the Ohio Revised Code or the Constitution does a state a school board has the authority to make a political decision dealing with health mandates and regulation. Chapter 3701 of the Revised Code vests solely in the Ohio Department of Health, the power and authority to supervise all matters relating to the preservation of life and the health of the people of the state of Ohio. And they have authority in the matters of quarantine and isolation which they may declare and enforce. State boards of education only have general supervision
014of the system of public education, not public health. Governor Wine Dewine stated, "We're at a point with this today." >> Mr. Heineken, that's five minutes. >> I think you got the gist of mine. You already have a copy of my uh report and I appreciate the time. >> Thank you, sir. >> Would Mr. David Fox please come up? Try to get close to the mic. It really >> I'll do my best for you. >> Okay. Am I in the clock? >> Yep. >> Great. >> Start. >> My name is Ben Hall. I am a husband and proud father of three children who attended Indian Hill Schools. I graduated from Indian Hill as a lifetime student in 1999 and I'm the current Indian Hill Boosters Association president. My wife, class of 2000, and I met at
015Indian Hill, and I hold some of my life's best memories from my time in the school system. Last Tuesday was a day I was disappointed to be associated with Indian Hill due to the decision made by the board, but mostly due to the dubious nature of the meeting and the lack of transparency with our community. We can debate the bylaws and what they say, but the board has to and what they have to do with notices, but I think as a community, we can all share agreement that it was not handled well. Moving on, I want to say as a parent first and foremost, I can understand that there are all kinds of views on this discussion and I absolutely sympathize with those who have children who are imuno compromised. I can't imagine the stress
016added to this situation and I want those parents to know that I certainly understand their viewpoint while at the same time respectfully disagreeing with your decision. What I am asking is that those parents that are here to support last week's decision consider the other side of the discussion as well. I assume if the shoe was on the other foot, you'd want a choice to be able to wear a mask. We may disagree on masks, but we're all parents and I hope we can all agree that we as parents should be the ones making health choices for our children. It's our job as parents in this community to protect our children, but to also not let this divide us as our community is too powerful in Indian Hill too great a place to be bifrocated when
017our children need to be united in our support for them. I'm not a scientist or doctor, but it's clear to me from family experience wearing masks for the last year in school has had a negative effect on my children. They've developed high levels of stress and anxiety leading to motor ticks that we never saw before masks. They now complain about feeling like they cannot breathe at school. They complain about headaches when they get off the bus from having masks on all day. They have trouble sleeping because of the headaches. These negative side effects have caused them to fall behind in their studies while creating social anxiety with their peers. As a parent, I can't in good faith stand by and let this continue. Our kids deserve to be heard from as well. And to ignore
018the impact these masks are having on mental health from limited social interaction and increased stress and anxiety is downright offensive to parents with children suffering from mental health problems. Not once has there been any extensive consideration to the mental health effects of masking other than one board member last week stating masks had no mental effect on children. I found that offensive as someone who has experienced it at home firsthand and cannot believe that a statement like that would be made diminishing mental health concerns. In his address last week, Governor DeWine stated individual choice is the most important thing. Parents should choose for their child, not the school board. Our school board did not even bother to lay out parameters or benchmarks for why they made the decision, nor give us guidance on what ben benchmarks
019will need to be hit for them to lift it. Are we going to do this for a year, 5 years, 10 years, indefinitely? In conclusion, I love Indian Hill Schools and have my whole life. I volunteer my time and our family donates financially to help ensure the current students and future Braves have as great of an experience as my wife and I did here. Indian Hill has been a special place and we're lucky to be a part of it. We need to stop the divide and act as a community on this by compromising with each other for mask optional. It's a win for both sides and it's unrealistic to keep our kids in these masks forever and also unrealistic for the kids if they choose to or have compromised health not to be able to
020wear masks that they feel will protect them. Again, I'm sympathetic to parents whose childrens have physical challenges that make contracting any virus a serious situation. However, that does not mean we must all comply with mandates that we don't believe in for our own children, especially when they lead to the continued mental detriment that we're experiencing. How's that fair? Do physical risks outweigh mental risks? I know that may may be unpopular to some, but please remember we're parents, too. And we should be able to mutually respect that all of us as parents deserve to be able to make our decisions for our children without pressure from others who don't agree with our point of view or even worse, interference and mandates from a school board that doesn't appear to be interested in hearing from all of
021us. Thanks for your time. One. Okay. >> Thank you, sir. >> Ken Frasier, please come forward. Hi, Scott Holzafel. I should have given Jeff some of my minutes. I actually don't have as much to say because I think it's a kind of a cut and dry issue. Uh but as a way of introduction, uh alumni class of 91, also a member of the Indian Hill Foundation. um know many of the people in the room. I've been heavily involved in the society from fundraising for home of the braves uh making awareness around uh the levy that was recently passed and this community meant a lot to me growing up. I convinced my family to move here. It's a big part of my life, has been and will be going forward. So, this issue is very important
022to me. So, I'm also a father of two sophomore and a seventh grader. And once again, I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. like Ben, very disappointed in how this original decision was made. It gave the appearance of a lack of interest in the parents opinion, and that should matter more than anything. After all, these are our kids. Large decisions like these should be made with the input of parents and not based on gut and intuition. As you revisit the decision from August 3rd, there's a few things I want you to consider. First is that choices have already been made. So, at the beginning of the pandemic, and we all know this story, as a society, we wore masks. We sheltered in to protect the elderly, to protect ourselves. We continued to wear the mask
023and follow these actions until there was a vaccine. And then we continued to do that again until the vaccine was readily available. And that's where we are today. We have three readily available vaccines that you could go out and get on a moment's notice. So that tells me that everybody ages 12 and up has made a decision how they're going to deal with this vaccine. For our family, it was the right decision for us to get fully vaccinated, and that's the choice we made. However, others have assessed risk and they have personal beliefs and they've chosen not to and I'm fine with that as well. That is their choice. For those concerned about the Delta variant, whether vaccinated or not, they can choose to wear a mask and balance the risk as as it es
024and flows. Again, personal choice. It should not be dictated by the board when we as parents are fully capable to make the determination for ourselves and our own kids. And my last point is the data. When you look at the data in the state of Ohio, and I won't go into this exhaustively, it's it's infantessimally small the opport the chance that they get hospitalized. When I say they, I mean the kids under 11 who do not have the choice of a vaccine right now. So this data was pulled as of uh August 9th. And so for kids ages 5 to 10, the case rate is 3.28%. The hospitalization rate is 03. There's been one death and so that makes the death rate 0.00001 pretty small. If you look at the next age group 11 to
02513 it was blended in the Ohio data the case rate is 5.02%. Hospitalization rate 0.4%. Death rate zero zero. If you want to group that with ages 0 to four, if we're concerned about that, the death rate is 0.00003 and the hospitalization rate is again 04. This is no greater than any risk we probably take driving our car, getting the flu, the regular flu. So, I feel like we're making a decision where the chances of getting this are so small and it's impacting our kids in many different ways that are not even measured by death and by hospitalization. So, with that said, I appreciate the time up here. Hopefully you take our point of view into consideration making your decision. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Dr. J. Adam Mezer, please come forward. >>
026My name is David Fox. I have been with DHL for 34 years. We moved to Indian Hill when my son Jake, who just graduated, is going to Purdue this fall in the second grade. Can >> you get a little closer to the mic? Our experience has been outstanding on many fronts. This one presents a challenge that therefore I feel the opportunity is is needed and to be taken advantage of to to speak. Two components to my my uh my comments tonight. Number one, I'm going to read on behalf of Peter Cleamp and then I will speak make a couple comments on behalf of myself. Peter and I are very good friends. We have children that are of the same age and of the same interest. So my name is Peter Cleamp. I am a parent
027of one child who will be a freshman this coming school year. As you know, I have had three of my other children graduate from Indian Hill Schools, all of which had a positive experience. I am writing that you uh please remove the mask mandate in our schools as soon as possible. The decision to wear a mask should be that of a parent and not the school board. I have gone along with the mask mandate in the past. However, I feel that this is time for me to take a stand against it after seeing the adverse effect that wearing mask is having and causing to our children. I feel that there is insufficient data to support that mask requirements effectively present prevent the spread of corona virus. Further, there is scientific evidence that children do not
028readily acquire CO 19, spread it to other children or teachers, or endanger parents or others at home. In the rare cases where a child does contract CO 19, it is very unusual for the child to get severely ill or die, unfortunately. So, why require that our children wear masks in school? We have all seen the effect that wearing mask wearing of mask has had on our children. My own children have even said to me that not only are masks an annoyance but a distraction which impairs their ability to effectively learn what is being taught to them in the school room. Students need to interact properly with their peers and covering their face results in our children's inability to properly communicate. It inhibits communication and our children's social development. Further, we all know that facial expressions
029are an integral to human connection, particularly for young children who are only learning how to signal fear, confusion, and happiness. Covering a child's face mutes this non-verbal form of communication and can result in robotic and emotionless interaction. The science is clear and thus the question becomes what is the benefit of wearing masks for our children? Is masking of children more about seeming to be doing something even if it's ineffective or possibly even harmful? If the possible harms outweigh the negligible and questionable benefit in such a low risk group, then why must they wear masks indoors and even outdoors at school? Masking children with z with near zero risk of transmission and illness for CO 19 is not necessary and simply does not make sense. I respectfully request that the school board reconsider the mask mandate
030in order to preserve the mental health of our children. Our children today deserve to have a positive school experience free of unnecessary and oppressive pandemic restrictions that dramatically diminish their school experience. Thank you for your time, Peter. Cle, now I just have a very quick two two comments. Please, >> you're on one one minute, right? >> One minute and I'll get through it. Thank you. From my perspective and other parents I've spoken to spoken with since your decision last week, I'd like to understand from the school board what you know that other major schools in southwest Ohio don't with regard to mask not being optional. Specifically, MadiRaa, Mason, St. X, St. Ursula, Milford, Loveland, Sycamore, Deer Park, and I could go on. In conclusion, I'm asking you to make masking a choice. I am full
031of support of those who choose to wear one and I would ask that you respect our choice not to. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you, sir. >> Danielle Lions, could you please come forward? >> Good evening. My name is Kevin Frasier. >> Please go close to the mic. It's just it doesn't it's not picking people up well. >> My name is Kevin Frasier. Our family has lived in Indian Hill for over 11 years. We have three kids in the district attending Indian Hill School this year. I'm here this evening to advocate for mask being optional and a parental choice. My time will be very brief and will focus on the legal problems presented by a mask mandate at Indian Hill and the decision that was made on August 3rd. Jeff at the beginning
032referred to the Ohio Revised Code and I'm going to talk about that as well. First, under the Ohio Revised Code section 121.22 subsection F, you failed to provide adequate notice of the meeting held on August 3rd. For everyone here, the Ohio Revised Code of Laws and Administrative Rules sets forth requirements of public officials to take official action and conduct all deliberation upon official business only in open meetings unless that subject matter is specifically accepted by law. Therefore, your decision on August 3rd presents serious questions as to compliance with Ohio Rise Code section 121.22 22 subsection H regarding open meetings and open decisions by public bodies such as this one. On this point, I would ask you to note the decision made last week in the Hamilton County Court of Common Please, which found that the
033Mountalthy School Board violated this exact law and after three board members voted in a coordinated manner and the community became outraged. Also, I think it's important for everyone here to understand there is pending law set to invalidate entirely your mask mandate decision on other grounds. Ohio Senate Bill 209, which ban masks mandates in Ohio schools, is set for a vote in the coming weeks and has a high likelihood of passing. Also, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs our federal court district, currently has a pending decision brought by parents asking a school mask mandate to be invalidated based on, imagine that, or imagine this, the first amendment of the United States Constitution, which also has strong support and stands to invalidate this mask mandate. To summarize, we believe this board failed to
034give the stakeholders of this community clear notice of the August 3rd meeting as required by the Ohio Revised Code. There are also great questions of board member collusion in the decision made on August 3rd in violation of the Ohio Revised Code. Finally, you made a decision which has a high likelihood of being invalidated in the coming weeks, not only by the Ohio Legislature, but the Sixth District Court of Appeals. With all these significant legal challenges with your August 3rd decision mandating mass, we ask that you please, please, please reconsider and allow what is legally correct and ultimately fair for everyone here in the district. That parents have a choice whether to mask their children or not and make that choice optional. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. >> Nick Adair, could you please
035come forward? >> My name is Adam Mezer. I stand here as a Christian, as a husband, as a father, as your neighbor, as your friend, as a essential healthcare worker. I've personally seen over 10,000 patient visits over the past 18 months from pediatric to geriatric. I've counseledled thousands of people, hundreds of families through the pandemic. I'm here to tell you we support freedom of choice and the decision to mask our children. The biggest health crisis facing our children this fall isn't a respiratory virus, but a mental and emotional health crisis. I've brought some stats to share to elaborate on this. This was pulled off the Ohio dashboard from the Department of Health this morning. In our school age children from 0 to 20 years of age, over the past 18 months, there have been roughly
036158,000 cases, confirmed COVID, seven deaths in this cohort, all of whom had pre-existing medical conditions. That represents a death rate of 0.00004. Masking our children will not lower this number. The concern then becomes, well, our children could be asymptomatic carriers and bring the virus home to their family. So, if we look at the Ohio dashboard numbers from this morning from 0 to 60 years old over the past 18 months, that would represent the majority of parents, teachers, and administrators in the district. Roughly 883,000 cases, 1,600 deaths roughly. This represents a death rate of 0.0018. to frame it differently, a recovery rate if you're 60 years or younger of 99.92% in the state of Ohio. 1600 deaths sounds like a big number, but to frame it even differently, I went and looked at the suicide rates
037in the state of Ohio. We don't have 2020 data. The most recent is from 2018 and 2019. If we look at that same cohort, 18-month average of deaths from suicide, 2430 deaths over an 18-month period on average. If we break that down to our school age children, 0 to 20 years of age, 18month death average from suicide in the state of Ohio of 351 deaths. This is the public health crisis we're facing. This is the public health crisis that masking our children will perpetuate. And sadly, it's hit home in our districtly closer to home than anything from CO has. I'd encourage all the board members to look at the social and emotional learning standards set forth by the Ohio Department of Education. They've identified four domains that are critical around this area. In fact, there's
03818 pages of core competencies outlined. If you're not familiar with them, please look them up because this is the metric we should be filtering this decision through. masking our children will get in the way of the majority of these 18 pages of stated outlines for our social and emotional development of our children. With that being said, there's currently no federal or state mask mandates in place from the public governing health bodies. This is a decision best left in the hands of our public health officials, not our school boards. Focus on the academic, social, and emotional well-being of our children. Leave public health and safety in the hands of the elected public safety health officials. Please support freedom of choice in this matter. Do not mask our kids next year. Thank you very much. >> Thank
039you. >> Emma Dowling, could you please come up? >> Good evening, Board of Education Superintendent, community members, parents, and guardians. My name is Danielle Lions. I am a parent of two Indian Hill students. I'm also a teacher who puts student safety and well-being in the forefront of my mind. As a middle and high school teacher for 20 years in a school district where masks are optional, I have always valued the ed that education is a community effort. That students, parents, teachers, and administrators are key stakeholders in this educational community. and that each stakeholder holds a unique and valued position within our school community. Freedom of choice and bodily integrity are key factors of growth and development. Masking causes a student to lose their sense of identity and freedom. Forcibly masking children is a degradation of
040their humanity. Masking suppresses their Facial expression and body language are integral aspects of our communication. Students need to hear what their teachers say and communicate effectively with their peers. Masking inhibits the learning process and breaks down human bonds and relationships. It is of the utmost importance for us to educate the whole child. The well-being of a well-being of a child is highly dependent on the emotional connection with others. For many, mass create a threatening and unsafe environment where emotional connection becomes difficult. They do not see school as a safe and secure environment that it should be. As a teacher, I can tell you many students are struggling mentally, socially, and emotionally. They no longer want to come to school. Working with high school students, I don't know how I would get them to comply with
041a mass mandate without risking the relationship status that educators work so hard to cultivate. Asking our administrators and teachers to be mass police places an undue burden on them as it breaks down the mutual respect and trust. With mask optional, students and parents are free to make their choice, mask or no mask. They have the freedom to make the choice as cases rise or fall. They can change their mind from one day to the next like I've seen so many parents do. Mask at the zoo, no mask at cheer. Mask at the ball game, no mask at practice. Respecting parents and students right to choose is a key component to children feeling safe and ready to learn. Parents and students should be able to choose based on what makes them comfortable in their environment. Mask
042optional means that everyone wins. As our board, you have been elected to represent us, the stakeholders of this community. You have taken an oath to the Constitution and the Ohio State Constitution. Your actions on this board are not to be misappropriated by you to impose your own beliefs. The Indian Hill community has clearly stated they want mask optional. The majority of parents and students have indicated in a petition that they want mask optional. The teachers were surveyed and they want mask optional. The superintendent presented that he wants mask optional. The governor has stated it is for the parents and the community to decide. So, here in Indian Hill, we have students, parents, teachers, our superintendent, and the governor all stating they want mask optional. After watching the August 3rd board meeting, which was called on
043short notice, it is obvious the board met with one clear objective to decide on this important issue. It's also apparent that the school board struggled to make this decision without key local data and stakeholders. This made it difficult for the board to come to a confident decision. We all have struggled with this pandemic for a year and a half. It has not been easy. But like I always tell my students, doing what is right is always hard. We would like to respectfully request that the board do what is right and vacate this decision. A decision that was made in haste without key stakeholders and relevant data erodess public trust. We ask for an open meeting to be held with proper notice to allow the community stakeholders the fair and honest opportunity we deserve to share
044our thoughts about our children's lives. In that meeting, the board should present relevant time real time local data to drive its decision as it has always used in the past. And finally, we res we we respectfully request that the board outline a plan to get our students back to face-to-face learning as soon as possible with clear benchmarks for achieving this common community goal. This is the community's opportunity to rise above differences and do all the hard work that needs to be done for our students. Those on the board who can do this will earn the respect and admiration. Go Braves. >> Thank you. Is that >> um we have reached 30 We have reached 30 minutes. I would entertain a motion from one of the board members to extend the public commentary by 15 minutes.
045>> So move second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> Good evening everybody. My name is Nicadair. >> Sorry. Mike Wentz, please come forward. I'm sorry. Mike Wentz. >> Yeah. >> Can you step up to the mic as best you can? I know it's hard. I'm an alum of the class of 2020, meaning I was a senior last year and actually got to experience what it's like going to school with mass. I find it a little concerning that I'm most likely the first high school student opinion that you guys have heard on this issue, but I digress. So, the first thing I'd like to talk about is mental health within high schoolers. So, last year or throughout my experience talking to friends and peers, our social or our social events and everything we could
046do within school was just completely stripped from us. And I know most kids, including myself, aren't a big fan of school. And the only way we can get through it is by talking to our friends and our social interactions with our peers. And the mask and mandates that were imposed on us last year completely stripped that from us. Not only could we not see each other's faces, all the time we had that were able to spend with each other was taken from us. And at lunch, we had to sit with plexiglass dividing us forward to a table. Uh it was actually pretty pretty draining. It was mentally draining not being able to talk to your friends all day. practically sitting in a bubble for eight hours. I don't know how 14 and 18 year old
04714 to 18 year olds are supposed to sit in a classroom all day without talking with one another. And it it created a a pretty big mental health problem. I'm not going to lie. You know, a lot of kids felt trapped at school. A lot of kids felt exhausted. And that's why a lot of kids went online. They couldn't handle sitting in a classroom all day doing nothing. At least at home, they had a little time to themselves and they were in the comfort of their own home. no mask. And myself included, I went BVA the third quarter and it was just such a stress relieving decision and I don't regret it at all, which is pretty sad because my senior year is supposed to be a pretty fun year and probably the best year
048of high school and the mass and the mandates completely ruined that year and I really hope these upcoming seniors don't have to experience what we did. You know, I only had one taste of what an actual senior year felt like and that was prom. Unfortunately, we were have we were allowed to have no mask at prom until walking out of prom, we had to wear masks. And one of my friends decided to not wear one. And a teacher physically grabbed and assaulted my friend and yanked him to the side. And you know, that wasn't the first case that I saw a teacher either touch a student or yell at a student for not wearing a mask over his or her nose or having it below their chin. Um, I kind of found it disgusting when
049I saw my friend physically grabbed by a teacher and I just hope there I just hope that that can't continue. I'd also like to talk about the effectiveness of masks at school. So, as much as Indian tried to keep masks on us at all times, every second we got, we would take it off every chance. Bathroom, take it off. hallway, pull up below our chin, you know, lunch, we didn't have to wear masks and although we had dividers, you know, kids would just kind of peek around it. So despite the best efforts of trying to keep masks on us, you know, kids aren't going to follow that. And at the same time, we're a small boot, we're a small body of students. You know, a lot of us hang out with each other outside of
050school. None of us wear masks outside of school. A lot of kids participate in clubs and sports. And you know, we never wore masks practicing. We wore them in the wait room, but barely. We just pop them off. I don't understand why we'd wear a mask, especially if students are vaccinated, if we're just going to take them off the instant we get the chance. Um, thank you all for your time. >> Thank you very much. [Applause] >> Debbie Simmons, Kalen, please come forward. Hello, my name is Emma Dalling and I am a rising senior here at Indian Hill High School. Thank you for having me this evening. You only get four years in high school. As I enter my senior year, it will be the third full full or partial year interrupted by mass and
051social distancing rules. It makes me sad to think about another year of potential canceled activities and disruption due to maskearing. I never realized the joy of seeing my fellow students smile until it was taken away last year. School became a cold and unfriendly environment and became a place I did not want to go to. The fun of school was gone. I'm speaking on behalf of all of those who have had the opportunity to be vaccinated and who do not wish to wear a mask for 8 hours a day. Not only did it prevent proper engagement among students, but it also affected our learning. It was uncomfortable and mentally grueling. It was sometimes very hard to hear the teachers as well when they teach. Also, I am very shy by nature and maskearing made me even
052less likely to share in the classroom. Further, it was a constant distraction. For example, teachers constantly had to stop teaching to please maskearing was always interrupted course activities. I realize not all students are able to or wish to be vaccinated and I see no problem in them choosing to wear their mask. We should support them in their decision. But I strongly believe that maskearing should be optional and the choice of students and parents. This would best accommodate all students at Indian Hill. We do not know how the Delta variant may spread. We may at some point be forced to wear a mask again, but that time is not now. 25 of our local surrounding school districts have left this decision up to the parents. In addition, as our governor, Mike DeWine, has not issued a
053mass mandate for schools, I do not believe our school board should either. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Dr. John Zerby, please come forward. Wow, I have to go after those students. Um, good evening. Um, my name is Mike Wentz, 1985 Indian Hill graduate, past booster board president, and current foundation board member. Uh, first, this is my first ever school board meeting. Some might say, "What took so long? Get involved already." Um, well, I am involved, but I've long trusted our school board to have the best interest of our kids front and center and also to have an accurate pulse on the community they serve before big decisions are made. So I feel compelled to speak here tonight. Secondly, I'm happy to be part of an involved community that can effectively and in a civil
054manner express our concerns, especially for the health and safety and well-being of our children. I'm here to speak from the heart about risk and reward on a personal level. Why do we not send our kids kids to school wearing helmets and covered in bubble wrap? Because that would be silly. Of course it wouldn't. But one day it might prevent a concussion or a broken arm. Or it just one day might save a life. We make calculated decisions every day that evaluate and mitigate risk. We wear seat belts. We wear bike helmets sometimes. We all take a variety of risks every day from how we obey speed limits to if and when we let our kids play football. We all personally make these choices for ourselves and our children based on our own family specific needs
055and desires. I think everyone in this room would agree that mental health is every bit as important as physical health. When a person or student is hurting physically, most often you can see it. When a student is hurting mentally or emotionally, too often you cannot see it. Nearly every child psychologist across the country has seen significant spikes in children and teenagers needing their services at two, three, and even four times the frequency of just two years ago. I don't think any of us really know what kids are going through these days. We'd like to think we do. We try to know, but many kids are struggling with some kind of emotional stress. Some we know about and some we don't. This has always been the case, but it's clearly worsening now. And unfortunately, sometimes it's
056really bad. Too infrequently, a family might be lucky enough to get some kind of sign or be contacted by caring friends or something happens and you notice something before something really bad happens. This describes our family. We got lucky, really lucky. The distance between everything being okay and not being okay is sometimes razor thin. God only knows how many of our Indian Hill students are struggling with social and emotional issues. We'll never know, nor should we really know, as these are personal matters. Some might say, "A mask is a piece of cloth. What's the big deal? What can it hurt?" Well, in life, sometimes the little things matter. A friend smiling and another passing in a freshman hallway. A teacher's smile of appreciation for a student's efforts. Personal interactions at school are supremely important. It
057might just be one simple intera inter interaction that turns a really crabby day into a decent day for one of our most vulnerable students. And nobody can deny that our Indian Hill teachers are the heartbeat of our school. They are the closest to this issue and truly understand how important meaningful student teacher interaction can be. I can't imagine a teacher that doesn't want to see their students expressing expressions of joy or even struggles so they can teach more effectively. Uncompromised, effective teaching at the highest level is what Indian Hill has always always been about. Our teachers voted face coverings to be optional. I truly believe they know what's best for our students. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. [Applause] Brian Cober, please come forward. Go ahead. >> Good evening. I'm Elizabeth Kalen. I'm an Indian
058Hill resident and mom of two in the Indian Hill Primary, a son entering kindergarten and a son entering second grade. I'm also a proponent of a mask optional return to school. Today I want to speak on mental health issues related to all day masking, especially for the little ones. While there's little data on this relatively new situation, I ask you to acknowledge basic physics, anatomy, and parental experience today. First, particularly for the compacted pediatric airways of the primary students. All day masking presents many issues. to name a few. Increased airway resistance during exhalation, increased carbon dioxide in the blood, breathlessness, exacerbation of anxiety, it causes exhaustion, it causes fatigue. I have seen all of these as have many parents. Moreover, masking particularly for the little ones causes great emotional distress in my home and in
059many others. led to outright dread of school in the morning. Dread, distracted learning, fear of social socialization, misunderstood direction from faceless authority figures, apathy, disconnect, anger, and incredible frustration. Overall, this puts our most impressionable children in the starting blocks, loathing school, missing foundational social and language development at a critical and delicate stage. Personally, I'm a natural-born rule follower, but I will tell you who's not. An incoming kindergartener, my kindergartenner, who can't breathe in a completely new setting and building around completely new people. We're setting up our primary for failure, and it's sad. I'd also like to address the August 3rd meeting. A board member at that meeting, Miss Singh, indicated at the meeting that she had just completed international travel days before. Now, I referenced the CDC's website under the headline after international travel. It
060reads, "You may have been exposed to co CO 19 on your travels. You may feel well and not have any symptoms, but you can still be infected and spread the virus to others. You and your you and your travel companions pose a risk to your family, friends, and community for 14 days after you travel." Goes on to suggest masking and six-foot distancing whether vaccinated or not after international travel. Now, Miss Singh obviously looked at the CDC information upon her return, decided still to attend in person, but wear a mask, disregard the six-foot measure. Uh, so she accepted some of the CDC information and disregarded some. And you know what? Good for her. She she decided for herself what was best for her. And this is all we're all asking also. We are able to make
061the decision for our own families as to what's best for us. And we ask for mask optional. Mask optional all win. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Um we are at their 45m minute limit. Uh I would entertain one final extension of 15 minutes. Would someone like to make a motion? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I would like to say something. So, I know everybody's here with their concern and we would love to hear from everybody. >> We can't hear you. >> Yeah. Take your mask off. >> I just want I just want I just want to hear the other side, too. >> Yeah. Um is uh we just we have to do it the way we've always done it. Vicki, we've got to do it the order that they
062signed up. So, uh even though the people at the end might be the positive people, we're just going to listen for the next 15 minutes. If you have only cannot use up all your time, I'd appreciate it so that we can hear from everybody. But uh please go ahead. >> Okay. My name is John Zerby. I'm a um physician. I'm a practicing internist. I see patients every day. I was a GAN medical director for 30 years where I did crisis management. Um I had great training as a uh young physician and I've, you know, we've never done this with masks ever in a hospital setting. We would do it in the O. We would do it if somebody had an infectious disease. We never masked healthy people before. They've done in other countries, but not
063here. So, I'm I'm against the masking kids specifically, for sure. The uh the risk of them, you know, we've already quoted all the data. So, I I can be real quick. My oldest grandson is John Joseph Zerby the third. They call him Jack. He's named after me. Uh he's the love of my life. I picked him up every Thursday during CO and he would get in the car. I'm half French so we kiss on the lips a lot. So Jack would give me a real wet kiss cuz his mask was just soaked and it smell it was a feted smell. It was I took it home and told Amanda mom said you got to wash this thing right now. So it was full of infection. I know that cuz I've smelled infection for 40 years.
064So the masks are not right and we're we're trying to protect them. I get that. If this were a year and a half ago when we didn't have the data, I got it. So, I I was okay with that. Today, we have the data. We know that these masks that Jack wears don't work. We know that for a fact. Nobody can prove to me that they do. And then, you know, so just I'll save some time for the person behind me. There's 26,000 school bus crashes each year. 10 deaths. Do we wear seat belts in school buses? I've never figured that out. I didn't wear them. They don't wear them now. So, the risk of a kid dying in a school bus crash is higher than a kid dying from CO. So, I don't, you
065know, we don't wear seat belts, so I don't think we should wear masks. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Elizabeth B and James Day, please come forward. Hi, I'm Brian Copper, 7712 Lane. Um, have three boys. My oldest graduated in May. Uh, I have two boys still in the school system. I've got a 16-year-old who's entering his sophomore year, and I've got a 12-year-old entering his sixth grade year. First of all, I'd like to thank the board for everything that you do. We have a great school system, a great school district, fantastic teachers. Uh, Beth and I have only been here a few years. We feel very blessed and honored to send our kids to Indian Hill School and be part of this community. So, thank you to everybody here on what you do
066for our schools and ensuring we just have a fantastic environment for our kids. I work for a large health care system. I'm going to try to keep this brief cuz a lot of smart people before me, including the students. You guys did a great job, by the way. Uh, kind of covered a lot of these points. I work for a large health care system and unfortunately been closely following and been in the trenches with this virus since early of 19. We all agree this has been an extremely difficult time for all. I feel extremely sorry for all those that have lost loved ones due to COVID and currently people that are batt battling the virus and you know my thoughts and prayers are currently with them. We all agree as a community that this has
067just been awful as a country as a world as a nation. Uh and uh it it's just been awful. But I I believe we need to strike a better balance with where we are with the virus right now and and I think we're very unbalanced with how we're starting the school year. I'm having a very difficult time answering the question my 12-year-old's been asking me like, "Dad, why do I have to wear a mask to school?" And it's a simple question. And as much as I've been in the trenches and the healthc care side of this and all the data that all the people presented, I've heard it and I and I follow the stats, we all do. Um, I can't really answer that question for him. Dad, why do I have to wear a
068mask? is is a is an answer because the CDC made a awful recommendation uh recently not based on data. Okay, and that's not a good answer. Um again, I can go on and on. I don't have a good answer for him. We need to strike some balance on this. Uh the virus isn't going anywhere. There's going to be other variants. There's going to be Delta Plus. There's going to be sigma. There's going to be omega. This isn't going anywhere. But we have to strike a better balance with this in in our community, in our society as a whole. I mean, we've asked a lot from our kids since since early 19. We've asked a lot. Remote learning, miss sports, limited social events, mask all last year. We've asked our kids to do a lot, and
069they have stepped up to the plate. My 12-year-old gets his second shot next week. What else do you want him to do? What else can my 12-year-old do? My 16 is full. My 16-year-old is fully vaccinated. What else would you like them to do? There's nothing else they can do. And it's not their fault for this recent spike. We know who's responsible for the recent spike. And it's not our kids. It's for unvaccinated adults. Do your research. We should not punish our kids because of unvaccinated adults spreading the Delta variant and jamming up our hospitals. That is not our kids' faults. They have stepped up to the plate. Please respect that. Please quit punishing them. Please stop instituting these punitive laws and rules about what they should and shouldn't do. Please factor that in. I
070sent everybody here a Wall Street Journal article link uh yesterday. Very well written about the other side. Please consider that. There are other sides. A lot of people spoke about the mental health side of this. It's real. I lost a sister to suicide years ago. Mental health stuff is very very um uh under the radar and it's not spoken about enough. These are real problems. Mental health stuff hits home very much to me. Please factor that in when when hopefully reversing this decision. It's time to strike a better balance with this virus. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Jennifer Ceden Burns, please come up. >> Hi. >> Try to be really close to the mic, please. >> I will do my best. >> Thank you. >> Uh, my name is Dr. Elizabeth Ber. I'm a
071resident of the district, parent to a rising sophomore and a rising sixth grader. I'm also an outpatient or a family medicine physician caring for both hospitalized and outpatient. uh patients including COVID patients and children. And as a physician, I would like to share some facts. Last week, a record 1,599 children were hospitalized with COVID. That's more than any other week in the entire pandemic. 50% of the children hospitalized with COVID by the end of June had no known pre-existing conditions. This is not a pandemic that spares children. One death in a child is too many. They aren't supposed to die. It is also true that the Delta variant now makes up more than 80% of cases in Ohio and that it has an infectivity rate more than twice that of the original strain. So in
072the initial infection, an infected person would pass that disease on to two to three other people. With the Delta variant, we can count on that disease being passed on to eight to nine other people. There's also recent data that shows even vaccinated individuals can spread COVID to others. When we are exposed to a virus, it takes hold in our nasal passages and replicates there. Once we get enough virus, we have symptoms. But before we have symptoms, we can when we cough, sneeze, talk, or sing, we express virus particles in a cloud of respiratory droplets and those float through the air. As the secretions evaporate, the particle gets smaller. When someone's wearing a mask, the particles are big enough that it stops those particles from escaping. Masks work to protect others, not the person wearing them.
073To be successful in reducing transmission, everyone needs to wear one. We know this works. It's what allowed quarantine guidelines to be revised last year, provided everyone in involved in an exposure was masked. We also know in-person school is incredibly important and universal masking gives us our best chance at maintaining that. We need only look at schools who have already returned with mask optional guidance who have already had to pivot to online learning for everyone because of the mass quarantines and infections in Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, even Indiana. Multiple expert societies have recommended universal masking. we've heard the CDC referenced, but also the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Medicine, the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and our Ohio Department of Health. Additionally, I emailed all of you a letter signed by
074more than 100 residents of of our district, including 60 physicians and physician leaders who are parents of students in the district. I am a physician who is also a parent. At the beginning of the pandemic, when we didn't have the protection of vaccines and we didn't have a guarantee of adequate PPE, I showed up to work every day and took care of patients because I took an oath to do that. But I worried every day about bringing the virus home to my mother who I rely on for child care or to my children. Thankfully, most of my family have been able to get vaccinated, but not my 11-year-old, who I call my outside child who dreams of being a professional soccer player, who would be devastated by the effects of long co and whose family
075would be devastated if he died. At the beginning of the pandemic, I worried I was the greatest risk to my children for infection. Now, I worry that it's my school and my community. We are responsible for the well-being of each other. We are responsible for the well-being of the children who cannot be vaccinated yet. We as a community must act together to protect our children. At Indian Hill, we teach our children that being a brave means taking care of ourselves, taking care of each other, and taking care of the environment. [Applause] >> Please, >> my ask is that you all do those things. Take care of yourself. Get your vaccine if you're eligible. Take care of others. Support universal masking in our schools. And protect our most vulnerable. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Jenny
076Wilson, please come forward. >> My name is Jamie Dye. I'm the father of uh incoming third grader Olivia Dye. Uh here is how this meeting should have gone. The board has approved a mask mandate. Since then, the Delta variant numbers have gotten much worse. By the time school starts, they will be much worse. Do you not understand this? For God's sakes, this is a math problem, >> sir. Please. >> This is a math. I'm sorry. This is a math problem. This spreads twice as fast as the old co. We had the first one. That was the practice round. I am not a lunatic. I am a student of math. If you look at the curbs, it is very simple. The Delta variant is very different. If you tell me that masks don't work, here is
077a story for you. In a typical year between 150 and 200 children die in this country of the flu. In this flu season there was one. There was one child instead of 200 because we took proper precautions. You cannot tell me that masking does not work. And here's the thing. I don't want to wear a mask anymore. My daughter doesn't want to wear a mask. I want them to stay in school. This is how we do it. We prevent the spread. It is a 4-week indoor mask mandate. It is not a sentence for the entire year like Cincinnati public schools. It is a 4W week indoor mask mandate. And then we come back in a few weeks and we talk about this again. We're asking for four weeks of an indoor mask mandate. We should
078be talking about what we can do for the children that don't want to wear masks or have severe problems wearing them. That is what we should be talking about. It's that simple. You guys have wasted the time here. We could be talking about face shields or other alternatives. >> I'm talking to you. >> No, please. >> Fine. Whoa. Please. >> You have the right to talk. Thank you. You're right. He does not need to be attacked. The board and I really appreciate you making your statements and and then we'll >> the board has made the right decision. Please work with us. You want to talk about a mandate? >> Excuse me. >> Mike DeWine has had kidnapping threats. That is why there is no mandate. It has come out today. Governor Whitner faced it. >>
079Excuse me. >> The Department of Health is afraid because Sir, >> people could kill them. This is not insanity. We saw it on January 6th. We have seen it with other people. >> If sir, if you have anything else you want to say to the board as public commentary, great. Otherwise, I don't really need the meeting to go this way. >> I thank you for your time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Nick Frell, please come forward. >> This will be our last speaker. Every other speaker is going to have to submit your comments because we just really we cannot continue. Um but please you will be the last speaker. >> Okay. Um I'm sorry. I I I know my group wants me to speak but I really feel like am I the last speaker or
080is the next person coming the last speaker? >> She you are the last speaker. I am the last speaker. Okay. Um All right. So, um for those of you who don't know me, my name is Dr. Jennifer Cedon and uh my family moved into the district in 1968. Uh my three older brothers and I graduated from Indian Hill in 78, 81, 87, and 89, respectively. Like many graduates of Indian Hill, I moved back to the area after graduate school and now live in the house that I grew up in. I have four students in the Indian Hill School District. The youngest is six and a rising first grader and the oldest is 12 as of today. As of 2:45 this afternoon, he had his first shot and we had a family celebration. Um, my husband
081and I are vaccinated. My husband is a nurse. Back in November, he brought CO home to our family. Um, it went through all of us. Three of us have long CO. My 12-year-old son participated in cross country practice this morning for the first time and he actually made it through practice which was amazing. And he used to be an amazing athlete and today it was amazing that he ran for 30 minutes. Sorry. And that's not even why I'm up here to talk. I'm up here to talk because I'm a psychologist. I'm a child psychologist and I work on the child and adolescent inpatient psych units. I want to be clear that I'm not here as a representative of Children's. I'm here as a parent and as a professional that's worked in the area for over
08223 years. There are several variables driving an increase in mental health issues associated with the COVID situation. Um, I have them on here, but I'm afraid I'm going to run out of time. And so, the least of them is masking. Um the isolation associated with 18 months of or with lockdown with 18 months of sporadic quarantining when they or classmates friends they know are sick with a virus that they're afraid is going to kill them or their friends or their family. Uh those are the things that are driving the anxiety and depression that I've seen. Um I'm not going to say that no one has had a rough time with masking. I don't know that. I just know what I've seen clinically and masking hasn't come up. Um Yeah. And I realize you're laughing because
083I don't Well, I don't really know why because I've lived it. I've been living in like I just like Libby. I went to work every day. My husband went to work every day. I wasn't able to see my kids or be with my kids because I was trying to protect them from this virus. Anyway, my clinical experience has been consistent with what I've been able to find in the medical literature. The one study I've been able to find in the medical literature addressing masking suggests a decreased ability to recognize facial expressions in those wearing masks due to the fact that the lower part of the face is covered. Although this result was found, it has yet to be replicated. And the conclusions drawn were that any detriment to the affect recognition could be mitigated through
084other experiences such as unmasking while not in school and specific intervention in affect recognition through through social skills groups >> time. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um I I really know this is super passionate super passionate and I am sure we have other speakers that would certainly like to uh say what they want to say. I would request that those speakers submit their comments written to the board. Um I tell you we will read them. Uh I would say to you all some people were like Eddie I sent you an email along with all the other board members. I read every email most of them never asked me to do anything other than remove their mask mandate. So, I don't respond to all those. It's not because I'm ignoring you. It's because you didn't
085ask me to answer anything or have anything like that. So, um I will read each and every comment that is made, positive or negative. Uh but I would request that you submit them to Mr. Davis either tonight or tomorrow. Uh and if you didn't sign up, you still can submit them. Uh but just please give us your comments. Okay. Um we need to go on to the other business of the board which would be uh u to talk about this. Um I would uh with the board members consent um I think we'll do we have a conversation about the mass mandate. Is that >> Nancy? Would you like to start with your thoughts on this? >> Yes. Uh I actually believe that >> trying to get really close. >> I know I I actually believe
086that because there has been so much discussion and because the other meeting that we had was supposed to be all about everything about returning to school and we really only addressed one issue. I would like to make a motion to resend the vote that was made on August 3rd um in favor of having further discussion and voting again this evening. That's my motion. [Applause] >> So, wait a second. >> Hang on. >> I'm I'm I'm trying to open I'm trying to open up for the board to have a discussion. >> Robert's rules ordered. She can propose a motion. If someone seconds it, then we can have a conversation about that motion. Okay. So, she has the right as a board member to make a uh motion at any time. Does anybody care to second that
087motion? >> Nancy. Hello. >> Yeah, you got it. >> Um, can you uh possibly restate that so that there's a clear understanding of what you're doing? Yes. I'm making a motion to resend the vote from August 3rd and to continue the discussion as a board in this public meeting. >> I second it. >> Okay. Now we can have our conversation. I know everybody wants to clap, but it's just slowing us down, please. Um, can we uh Nancy, could you uh talk about why you feel uh the way you do about that and then other people can also comment on it uh and then we can take a vote. >> I believe there's a lot more for the board to discuss. We never talked about um any metrics or data that would lift the mass mandate.
088Uh we don't have any trigger points. Uh last year, if you remember, we had the benefit of the yellow, green, red, purple, green, blue code, and that was something that we tried to follow and it gave our administrators guidelines. Our job as a board is not to micromanage our superintendent and the administrators. Our job is to set parameters within which they work. And so I would like to for that reason have a further discussion. I also think there's the um the guidelines and and mandates about quarantining need to be further explained and discussed so everyone understands the risk and benefits of a mask optional or a mask mandate. So I'm just hoping for further discussion. >> Okay. Um Elizabeth, since you seconded, do you want to say anything? I think that we from the very
089beginning I thought we were perhaps rushing into a decision. This is a decision that affects everyone and data is rolling in every day and we have to make a decision that um serves the community and I think it deserves more discussion. Mrs. Lewis, do you have anything you'd like to say about this? >> Yeah. Mrs. Singh, >> I think we can >> Yeah, really get as close as you can to that mic. >> Okay. I think we there's no harm in discussing the guidelines but I think if we need to do that we have to do it before school starts because I think on April uh sorry on August 3rd when we made a decision there was lot of data and lot of research that we all looked into that was provided from Mr. Kennedy
090from uh different sources that we all got it and it's not that this decision was uh taken personally or like you know we thought that yes this is what I I believe in no there was lot of science behind what we decided >> Nikki what we're discussing is whether or not to continue the the >> I said yes we can discuss we cannot I don't think that we are talking we are talking about two different things we can We first we first have to take a vote on the motion. >> That's that's >> I'm okay with if we are taking a if we are looking into the guidelines. Yes. But I I don't think I'm going to support about changing the decision. That's my take. >> Okay. Well, we haven't made that motion or the
091motion is just to um have further discussion. >> So, the motion is to reverse the decision of last week and to have further discussion. Um, so, um, I am, you know, I've sat here and listened and, uh, I know that people that don't agree with the decision that was made a week ago, uh, don't think that we made decision, uh, based on data, but we did. Uh, the Delta variant is here. Cases are going up at a please, please. Um, cases are going up at a amazing rate. Uh CDC has listed Hamilton County as substantial transmission and I actually believe it moved today to the highest level from substantial I'm getting some things. According to Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, the number of children diagnosed with COVID has gone up 400% in the last
092month. I'm sorry I raised my voice. I apologize. I shouldn't do that. Um, there's 189 cases of COVID diagnosed this week by Children's Hospital. Excuse me, last week by Children's Hospital. There are six children admitted to Children's Hospital with COVID and three are in the intensive care unit. It is here, guys. The number of in Florida is much worse with all the children's hospitals down there completely overwhelmed. Okay? and it's continuing to get worse. There have been 357 kids who died of COVID as of July 29th. One seriously ill child or one dead child is too many for me. Masks do work. There was a lot of stuff said about mask and CO2 retention and all of that's garbage. That's been proven to be inaccurate. Masks do work. There is no question about it. And
093you if you would like I can you know afternoon give somebody the CDC uh stuff. Masks don't cause low oxygen levels either. Uh mental health we just had someone who actually does mental health for a living tell us that the mask is not the problem. It's the missing school because you're quarantined and being isolated at home is causing the problems. If we don't mandate masks, we will see quarantines and kids missing school. Anderson, Indiana allowed the kids to return to school and after they returned for less than one week, they had 100 kids out with quarantine. Uh we have to protect the immuno compromised kids. We have medically fragile children in multiple grade levels in this school and their protection. I as a board member must act in the best interest of every kid, not
094just some kids. >> House Bill 244 unfortunately prohibited us discriminating between vaccinated and unvaccinated. I couldn't agree more that vaccinated kids might if the numbers start decreasing be not wearing a mask. The data uh people that are professionals and I've actually reviewed the data CDC AP American Academy of Pediatrics Cincinnati Children's medical our medical advisors from Tri Health that we have that advise us Hamilton County Public Health Ohio Department of Health. >> Dr. Hooker, can we pause a moment? >> Please remember, we're all members of the same community here. It does no good for us to clap and argue and boo. >> We need to hear what's being said and speak civily. >> Okay? No, let's not have we're not here to have a debate, guys. >> We need to proceed. >> So, anyway, uh
095I uh I would uh totally disagree um that the decision was rushed. I think we don't need to resend it. And I do not feel that um we need to have further discussion. We need to re-evaluate this in four weeks. Uh and hopefully things will be getting better. So I would call for a question >> for a vote. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Wait a sec. >> Excuse me, sir. >> No, you can't. One com one comment I'd like to make is we >> we are talking mask optional not no masks. I want to be clear about that. Also, also the recommendation we would go with would be I believe what I would propose is exactly what the health department has said is that they strongly recommend maskearing for unvaccinated individuals. The quarantine guidelines state that
096if a person is unmasked and or unvaccinated and is exposed, they have to quarantine. If a child has a mask on, whether they're vaccinated or not and they are exposed, they don't have to quarantine. So, it really comes down to each family and each child's um decisions on what they decide their risk and benefits are. And if the health department really believed that an un unmasked child was passing to another masked child, they would make it so it was last year that everybody had to be masked. They have not mandated that. And we can argue all day long why or why not, but that's the only um entity that we have to rely on as to what we're supposed to be doing. So we but the health department is who governs what happens in schools
097when it comes to contact tracing and quarantining. >> So Mrs. Lewis, you had a point you wanted to make. >> I just wanted to say that >> to speak really close to the mic, ma'am. real close to the mic otherwise we can't hear you. So what I wanted to say is um the second part of what um Miss Eichel said which is that we need continued study and we need to evaluate things on a daily and weekly basis and we need to evaluate our community response is an important consideration for all of us. And so a as far as I'm concerned, we really should schedule another meeting to have discussion about where things are at that point in time with further information that is developed between today and that point in time. Um, but I
098know that's not your full motion. Yours, does that >> right, we need to vote on the motion that's on the table, which was to remove the mass mandate and then have further discussion. We can have a second motion if that motion fails. We have to deal with the motion on the table. So, um, if we could take a vote on that motion. Mr. Davis, >> welcome. >> Mrs. Eichols. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johnston. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lewis. >> No. >> Mrs. Singh? >> No. >> Dr. Hooker? No. >> So, Mrs. Lewis, did you have another motion that you wanted to make? >> Well, I was um just talking about what Mrs. cycles was talking about is I think that we are to look at dates to try to have another
099work session and discussion about where we are given additional data and after we've had an opportunity to read all the public commentary which we haven't had the opportunity to do so as as we sit here tonight. Um and I don't know if Mr. connect can reach out to our board members and try to get something on the schedule uh early next week or early the following week. Um >> do you think two weeks would be good to gather information and uh get everybody's public commentary together? >> Two weeks would be the 24th on a Tuesday. >> Uh >> no, because school will have started. No, I think you should do it. >> I think you should probably look at next week before school starts. Yes. >> Okay. >> So, should we um can I make
100another motion? Could I make a motion that we recent >> I think we finished voting on this one. >> We've already voted on that. That motion's over. So, if you want to make a motion to have a meeting in a week. Yeah. Go ahead, please. Can I make a motion to have a meeting in sometime early next week before school starts to um readress uh the situation and uh evaluate the data given at that time so it's current with the schools starting? >> I think that's fine. Uh can we just say Tuesday? Can you make a motion? You can't do that. >> I I I go back to my original point is I think that Mr. connecti has to reach out to each of us individually >> and look at our calendars. >> Okay. >>
101I have no problem doing it on the weekend or any day that works for all five of us. >> Okay. >> But I don't think sitting here right now. >> So early next week. Just leave it at early next week. >> This weekend or early next week? >> Okay. Can you make that motion that way for schedule meeting either this weekend or early next week? >> I'd like to make a motion to schedule a meeting for this weekend or early next week before school starts. Sure. >> Could I have a second? >> Uh, can I clarify that or can I ask for clarification? >> Are you asking to set a meeting for a work session specifically to discuss um the what I'll call the return to school policy, which is not necessarily just the mass
102mandate, but return to school. >> Yes. >> So, if we could clarify that motion that Mrs. Johnston made um then >> would you clarify that please Elizabeth? >> Yeah. >> And then I second it. Sorry. >> So we we're clarifing Miss Lewis. >> Yes. >> All those do we need a roll call? >> Yes. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Johnston. >> I. >> Mrs. Lewis. >> I. >> Mrs. Eicolds. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Singh. >> Hi. >> Dr. Hooker. >> Hi. >> All right. Thank you very much. That it concludes the other business. We're now going to go back to our regular agenda, which I would love for you all to stay for, but you're also welcome to not stay for. All right. Uh, correspondence, recognition, and announcements, Mr. Kcki. And I'd get as
103close to that mic as you can, sir. Maybe. Uh, Mr. Kcki, why don't you give people about three minutes to exit that want to leave? You don't think so? Okay. All right. Thank you, members of the board. Uh we have a couple of uh recognition announcements tonight. First and foremost, the um Indian Hill School District would like to celebrate a member of our class of 2021. Uh Noah Dunley finished ninth in the Skills USA national cabinet making competition. He also won the state competition and was a top 10 national finisher over the summer. In addition to being a graduate from Indian Hills High School class of 2021, Noah also graduated from the Scarlet Oaks construction framing and finishing program. We'd like to celebrate our students who are in their career pathways and uh want to
104congratulate Noah on everything that he accomplished this summer. [Applause] >> Mr. Kcki, I thought that was wonderful. I saw that in the Indian Hill Braves news and uh I just thought it was super that we're celebrating other successes other than just academics uh because we have so many. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I'd just like to make an announcement about our strategic plan and the engagement of community stakeholders upcoming. There will be a postcard that will be mailed out and should arrive in mail boxes the week of August 30th. This will be an all call for community participation for those interested in our engagement uh sessions that will commence throughout the fall for our strategic plan on the IH promise. Next up, I'd like to ask Mr. Nichols to come up and we will move
105forward with a short operational update. There has been a lot of business that's been taking place this summer as we work on building our bright future. So, Mr. Nichols, >> thank you. Mr. Kcki, I do have some updates for you. Um, we're excited. The school uh year is going to be beginning next week and uh we're really looking forward to it and uh after the passage of the bond, we have had done we've done a lot of work this summer. And so I just want to give you a quick update on some of those items. Number one, the the modulars that we created in the back of the building. And if you haven't yet, I encourage you to go on our website. I believe there's a quick video that gives you a little bit of
106an overview of what they look like. Um we are moving into those currently. We got our final um uh inspection passed this week and so we are ready. Our teachers are already in there uh making those classrooms look wonderful. Um we've gotten really good feedback. Um I think if you had a when you get a chance or or if you watch the video, you'll see the classrooms look very similar um to what we've got now. And uh they really are um in many ways a better situation than what they're moving out of. So we're we're excited about that. >> The the roof doesn't leak. >> The roof does not leak. of the rooms are climate controlled individually. So, um I think the teachers will really appreciate having a a really great space to teach their
107students in. So, we're we're working on that. We've been moving furniture across the district. As you know, our sixth graders are going to be moving over to the Sawtooth at the elementary school and uh they've been making space for them. So, furniture is all completely moved over there. They have been working on their classrooms as well. And then um here over the next week, we're going to be um finishing the final phase of uh a moving of our district utilities. And the best way I can explain it is the middle school being the original building on campus. We kind of had to unplug everything from that building and plug it directly into the high school. So we've been doing that. Um utilities, fiber, um water, all those things are being moved over so we can
108have that direct connection um for them. So that process should be complete um this weekend. So we're looking forward to that and and again that will get us ready for school. Also, you may be aware we've been working through an energy savings project and uh that's exciting as well. We've replaced lighting across our district with LED lighting, which obviously is a cost savings to the district, but it also um is going to give some greater functionality to our teachers. In uh all their classrooms, they have dimmable lights now. And uh so when you're showing a video or something that um you need to bring the lights down, you can do that. Um certainly they could close the blinds, but uh sometimes you need light. Students still need to write maybe while they're watching something like
109that. So we're excited that we've added that capability. Um when you get a chance, if you're a maybe a volleyball fan, um you might go into our gym here in the near future at the high school and it is air conditioned. Any of us who attended graduation a couple of years ago and sweat profusely through that uh will be excited. Hopefully we get perfect weather forever for graduation. But if the weather does not cooperate um we'll be able to go now into our high school gym and it will be climate controlled. And uh that'll be great for lots of activities that we do here at school. Um, we also completed, actually last winter, but I thought I would bring it up, um, the ionization um, filtering that we've added to all of our schools. And
110we did that for the primary, the elementary, and the high school. So, again, just making our air even cleaner. Um, obviously with everything going on right now, that's important, but it's important forever. And so, we're doing that. We also have our HEPA filters, which will not only go in our classrooms, but we'll have those out in our modulars as well. And then we added a chiller to our elementary school which gives us again uh it was time for that chiller to be placed replaced but it was great timing with the energy savings project and certainly a more efficient piece of equipment for that area. And then um finally new construction and I'll just continue to thank our construction partners every chance I get. Um our architect MSA and our construction partner Scansa as well as
111uh Mike Mendenhal and his group who uh represent us as an owners agent. Um, we've got a lot of exciting things planned. You're probably not going to see too much just yet, but starting in September, um, they'll be clearing out the building, um, and abating it. We do have some, uh, minimal asbestous, which wasn't harmful to students or to our staff while we were in there, but once they start demoing the building and disturbing it, it would be problematic. So, they'll be getting rid of that in September. And then you will start to see in October uh, demo. And my understanding is we're going to have some live video of that. So tune in at your your leisure when you have a chance. Um it's probably better appointment viewing than whatever might be on TV.
112So take a look at that. Um but those those are kind of the highlights of uh what's going on in the district right now. >> Thank you very much. It's just wonderful. I appreciate your guidance through all this as well as our wonderful partners. >> Well, thank you. And I'd be remiss if I did not thank our facilities team. They've done an incredible job this summer um getting all these areas ready as well as our custodial crew. They have just done some amazing work and they've worked around everybody. So, we really appreciate all their efforts. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Thank you, Mr. Kaki. Can I add one more announcement? >> Uh, can I go first? >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Thank you, Mick. Just want to uh again for those who have not seen the
113release and were not able to review this uh we completed a historic bond sale on July 29th uh securing uh under 2.32% interest on 71.45 million worth of bonds for the stakeholders in our community. Um this was a historic low in the state of Ohio for public school financing for our facilities project. Um, and I want to thank Mick and all of the uh advisory team for all the work they did on that. I just think it's important to restate how important that uh activity was this summer so that we can literally begin building. >> Mr. Davis, >> that was my thunder and it was stolen. So, >> wow, guys, this literally is saving the taxpayers millions of dollars. So, be happy. So, thank you. >> Moving on, um Dr. Hooker to the superintendent's report
114if that's okay. >> Thank you. >> Uh item A is approval of our updated athletic handbook. This is an annual approval uh that I'd like the board to consider. Uh item B is a resolution declaring the impracticability of transportation and offering payment to parents in lie of transportation. Again, this will be the first part here uh asking you to consider that approval. Item C begins our personnel actions for tuition reimbursements, professional meetings. Uh under items one, approval of classified staff contracts. Item two, approval of non-certified contracts. Item three, approval of certified staff contracts. Item four, approval of classified substitutes for the school year. Item five, approval of supplemental personnel service contracts. This is for fall uh activities. It's very lengthy there. Uh item six, we have a couple of retirements andor resignations. Uh and item
115seven, tuition reimbursement approvals. I would ask the board to entertain a motion to approve uh number seven, items A, B, and C 1 through 7 at this time. >> Would somebody like to make that motion? >> Before Before we go further, there are a couple items on the addendum. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. >> No, thank you. Would you go over those please? Mr. Kcki, do you have it? I've got it. If you don't additional >> Thank you. Sorry, Mick. Uh item C, we have an additional approval non-certified staff contracts and salaries under item two and additional retirement resignations as well. So again, um looking at that addendum items also um moving for AB and C 1 through 7 at this time. Would anybody like to make that motion? >> Second. >> Is that Mrs.
116Lewis that Okay. Mrs. Lewis did it. Mr. Davis and seconded by >> Mrs. Lewis. >> I. >> Mrs. Johnson. >> I. >> Mrs. Iicults. >> I. >> Mrs. Singh. >> Hi. >> Dr. Hooker. >> I. >> Mr. Davis. Under my report for this evening, um I have to approve the amendments of the June 22nd, 2021 regular meeting and the August 3rd, 2021 special meeting. Item B is to approve the financial reports for the month ending July 31st, 2021. Item C is to approve the reports for fiscal year 2021 annual commercial paper reporting requirement. Um this is a state mandate. anytime we invest in commercial paper. Um we did do some of that in fiscal year 2021. However, with the the rates as low as they are, I'm not sure that'll be something we'll be able
117to move back into this fiscal year. Um that is a mandate by Ohio Reise Code and it's required that we report it to the board. Item D is to approve the following construction contracts. Uh Ray Hamilton Company, uh we had some additional moving services we needed. Uh $6,400. Cincinnati Bell relocation of fiber from middle to the high school 41,000 the handover insurance company builder's risk insurance 129,500 Moes Engineering for professional commissioning services 209,386 and item five is the construction guaranteed maximum price GMP number two for the middle school abatement and demolition package 1,424,288 $8.80. Under item E is to prove the following contracts for 2021 2022 school year. There is a contract with the Cincinnati Center for Autism for one student school year 20 21-22 $63,000. A uh and a contract to enter into an
118agreement with Five Seasons Family Sports Club uh swim team pool usage as well as some uh tennis usage as well. $15,000 per year. The children's home upper and lower school educational program for one student $184 per enrolled day. The Moes Group replacement of the multi-purpose synthetic turf field Tomahawk Stadium accept the base bid only through United Purchasing Cooperative $418,495. uh Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a private duty nursing services for two students, $7144 per hour for an RN and 65.84 per hour for one LPN. That's per student. Then one item on the addendum is to approve with Griffin Sports Equipment a scoreboard for Tomahawk Stadium $144,530. Under item F is to approve the school year change funds for the athletic department and the cafeteria as well as change funds needed on a temporary basis throughout the
119school year. Um as you know we went uh cashless last year and all of our departments. Um we did not use we we made this resolution last year did not use it at all. Um for this year we took the cafeteria fund from 700 to 200. uh they did state a need that occasionally students came in with cash and had no other options. So they needed a little bit of change to be able to manage that. Um we are currently working with the athletic department to decide uh what they need for the school year. Um we just ask that you you uh authorize up to $2,500. If they don't need that, we certainly won't put it into circulation. Item G is the approval of uh fiscal year 2022 permanent appropriations resolution. And then finally, item
120H is a resolution to purchase school buses. Um we will be purchasing three. Uh two of those will be on our annual um capital plan and one of those is a replacement for a bus that was um involved in an accident last year that the the bus was totaled and no longer serviceable. So those are the three buses we will purchase the school year. >> That concludes my report. >> Does any board members have any questions before we vote on these? >> I just have a quick question. So uh >> sorry uh for the bus that got total was it insured? >> It was. >> So did we get something back from the insurance company? >> We did. We actually will get the uh the cost of the um to scrap it and then the
121the the insurance company will pay for the replacement of the new bus with all the specs that were on the old bus for the current year. >> That's good. >> So we'll get equal value with the exact same specs on that just at a newer year. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> And one more thing is uh on the addendum number six, the Tomahawk Stadium scoreboard. Was this the one that was donated by one of the parents or >> It was this was a donation from the Wiler family, >> right? >> Uh >> we just have to approve these Nikki when we spend money anytime even if it was donated. >> Yeah. Since it's over uh 25,000, school board needs to approve it. Yes. >> Just wanted to clarify. Thank you. >> Any other concerns or
122questions? If not, I would entertain a motion to accept items uh a second uh A through H of the treasures report >> and then E in the addendum >> and the addendum. Thank you. >> So move second. >> Mrs. Iicolds >> I >> Mrs. Sing >> I >> Mrs. Jonathan >> I >> Mrs. Lewis >> I >> Dr. Hooker >> I >> thank you >> Dr. Hooker. Uh item nine is a Neola policy update. This will be the second reading. Uh we conducted the first reading prior on the procurement and use of asthma inhalers in emergency situations. I'd ask the board entertain a motion to approve that at this time. >> Yeah. Just to clarify or remind people this is so that a child that's never had their own inhaler has an asthma attack, the
123nurse can use the one that we buy to give it to the child. We just have to approve it. >> I would entertain a motion to accept. >> So moved. Second. Mrs. Iicults >> I >> Mrs. Sing >> I >> Mrs. Johnston >> I >> Mrs. Lewis I >> Dr. Hooker >> I there being no further business I would entertain a motion to adjourn. >> So moved second. >> All those in favor? >> I thank you everyone. >> Thank you everyone. >> And thank you all members of the public for being here tonight. Exclusive coverage on the Indian Hill Television Network has been a copyrighted presentation of the Indian Hill High School video department.