001all right well good evening everyone I would like to call this regular meeting of the Lakewood Board of Education to order March 6th 2023. uh welcome the board previously met this evening in executive session for the consideration of the employment of public employees we also during that or prior to that time appointed Treasurer Pro tem Ms Emily weisbarth who's with us this evening as Mr Zeeman is uh is traveling with that we are back to our regular session and would you all please join me in our Pledge of Allegiance [Music] and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and next we have the adoption of the agenda is there any motion there second I will I moved and Ms Bibi seconded the role please
002Ms Weisberg Mr Callahan aye Ms Bibi aye Ms Petrie Barcelona aye Ms katzenberger aye Mrs Shaughnessy aye thank you and next we have approval of minutes we have both the regular meeting of the board on February 6 2023 and February 21st those minutes have been provided to you all uh is there are there any corrections additions there from anyone else if not a motion to approve both approval they moved in seconded all in favor aye aye any opposed and that carries and that will take us to the superintendent's report and president Callahan vice president BB and distinguished board members it is my pleasure to introduce Mrs Denise Letty who is the principal of Emerson and she'll be sharing a board report along with her star student thank you beautiful thank you all right um well
003first of all I would like to thank the board for taking this opportunity we really appreciate it that you care so much to a here about what we have going on in our schools but B to help us celebrate a student I don't think that's something that's very common from my experience with board so thank you so much for this opportunity well um tonight we are introducing Penelope vertebra so Penelope you want to come over here and stand with me all right [Music] all right Penelope vertebra is here today representing Emerson Elementary because Brent no because although she is merely a fifth grader Penelope is living the work of our vision of a Lakewood graduate Penelope is a strong communicator and collaborator she never fails to greet you with a smile which is contagious and
004a great way to start the morning she is someone that kids like to work with because she listens asks questions contributes brings a positive attitude and has a good sense of humor Penelope is seen as a peer peer that is fair and respectful Penelope shows empathy regularly by encouraging others especially when students are in need of encouragement Penelope is a member of our new Emerson newspaper Club there she exhibits multiple facets of our vision of a liquid graduate through her participation as a member she works in collaboration with her peers to think critically about news that is important to the Emerson community she conducts interviews writes articles and helps to publish the newspaper Penelope displays a growth mindset in revising and editing her work and that of other student journalists for the Emerson times and
005Beyond academics Penelope engages in gymnastics swimming volleyball and tennis at Emerson she is on our fifth grade purple and gold classic basketball team Penelope has been part of Girls on the Run and girls on the run this year showed their Global awareness their citizenship and their empathy skills when they decided to collect money to support zelly's homes which is an organization that supports mothers and babies in need Penelope recently signed up to be a volunteer at Emerson stem night there she spotlighted the technology of Makey makey's and showed our students how to explore what the devices she let me know she had learned how difficult it is to be a teacher that night it is clear that all of our competencies found in our vision of a Lakewood graduate are growing strengths for Penelope I
006present you Penelope vertebra representing Emerson Elementary as our 22-23 star student s and Penelope on behalf of the board it gives me great pleasure to give you this certificate of recognition now I did not have a hand in this but I do know Penelope firsthand very very well as she's a good friend of my daughters and just a quick story my mother's birthday was just a couple of weeks ago and she my daughter had a play date with her and she and another friend just came walking down the street to wish my mother a happy birthday went out of their way it was not the the best weather and it just made her day and that's just the kind of person that she is so it's truly my pleasure on behalf of the board to
007extend that recognition as well um would you like to tell us and I know the folks who are here with you and there's quite a few which shows how many fans you have would you like to tell us who's here who you're here with excellent yeah well again congratulations thank you who's got the camera not only get the fire thing but right there absolutely it's great I'm gonna ask my PBIS team to come up and we are moving on to our presentation hmm so our focus of our presentation is going to be on how we have been expanding our vision of a Lakewood graduate so I'd like to introduce to you some of my PBIS team and we'll explain to you what that's all about we have Amanda Harvey our intervention specialists George Russ our
008physical education teacher and Karen torigo our PTO co-president and PBIS team member all right well first of all I put this up here because Lakewood had set goals for the district and when we saw this goal the objective of focusing on positive behaviors we were all in PBIS um grabbed hold of this goal and ran with it and in addition to you know working on positive behaviors in our school they they felt like moving forward with a growth mindset was an excellent tie with our vision of a Lakewood graduate because we know that kids believing that they can grow in positive ways will make a difference huh so last year I just want to tell you a little background in January of 2022 so not that just a little more than a year ago we
009did this inventory called the TFI tiered Fidelity inventory and with this lens then our work shifted from being fun positive things to very focused and um energy just flowed the team just came up with so many ideas and all of a sudden we had a new mission for PBIS and it was kicked off with a ton of excitement for 22-23 and I want to say already this team is making a difference in our school because kids are learning and growing and reflecting on their choices and it makes a difference with with progress so I'm gonna have one of my team members Define PBIS and I do have this sheet I passed out to the board members and if anybody wants this on the way out there are some out there too to grab um with
010PBIS um we became very specific with our definition PBIS the meaning is positive behavioral interventions and supports with this our goal is to teach common expectations throughout our building um and recognize students positively for showing the expectations throughout the building um we came up with the Matrix and on that we have the Three B's which is be responsible be respectful and be safe and in The Matrix we defined how you are going to be responsible respectful and safe in all areas of the building um we wanted to make sure this year that all of our stakeholders know what the Three B's are so students staff parents and our parent handbook all of these and all this is in in those areas so that people can be aware of what our expectations are also we make
011announcements for reinforcement for the kids daily to reinforce the different Three B's and all the different expectations in the area will we we teach and reflect on those with the Matrix as well okay so uh as Amanda just said we put together this Matrix and we really wanted to focus on setting clear expectations that were had common language that was simple to understand from kindergarten all the way up through fifth grade and so as a committee we came together and we we like you see there we put together that Matrix um if you look on the screen here we also made signage all around the building that gives the expectations for those common areas like in the hallway here we have what's expected your voice levels at a zero or a one and it gives
012you exactly what that is so as the students are walking through the Halls they can see these constant reminders of what expectations we are looking for from them um we created videos uh our teachers signed up to um create little skits on how to be responsible be respectful be safe in all the different areas of our Matrix and that is used by the classroom teachers then to help teach and re-teach the expectations all throughout the building again all this information was copied into our Emerson family handbook to make sure that all stakeholders are all on the same page families students community members everybody understands the expectations at Emerson and as we started to do some of our focus on areas and data collection we found that there are some areas that have a stronger need
013for some of these re-teaching of expectations are a little bit more of a need to reward and put those expectations out so with that we created the new golden spatula which you can see on the board you can see back hanging in the cafeteria here for our cafeteria this helps our cafeteria because it gives the lunchroom staff the expectations with the Matrix as well it also gives the students some incentives to follow the expectations while they're in the cafeteria because it's more of an unstructured area so it's it's tougher sometimes um each month there are three classes that get to win an ice cream treat at lunch and the things that we've seen that come out of it is that the lunchroom Behavior has improved and the noise level has improved and the kids get
014really excited to be able to win this ice cream treat so each each child gets a ice cream sandwich we're continuing to work on this it's a work in progress and we're probably going to tweak some things going into next year and make it even better for the kids in the cafeteria so we've talked about how we've set our expectations and we've created our matrixes and so what are we doing then to you know reward the students for following r3bs so we did came up with the idea of creating Ranger bucks um and basically what that is is we have these little they look just like it is right up there at the corner of the slide it looks like a little dollar bill has a little tiny Ranger on it and we pass those
015out um somebody is walking down the hallway at a voice level zero you catch them thank you so much for being so responsible thank you for being respectful and you know um being aware of the learning that's happening around you it's really important that as we're handing out these Ranger bucks that we're being very specific as to why they're receiving them um so we also did something to at the beginning of the uh at the beginning of this whole process we kind of put together like a kickoff assembly so that the students would really understand what the ranger bucks were and what they then would be working towards and um it was a lot of fun the kids had a great time um again the idea of the the ranger bucks is to just reinforce
016the expectations that we're looking for in all the different common areas and um if you look on the picture up there there's a couple of our students who received uh Golden Ranger bucks which is about to be talked about here in just a moment uh for going above and beyond uh the normal or building expectations and the golden tickets are for those students who go above and beyond like Mr Russ said um outstanding efforts the students get a golden ticket and they get to come down to the office and exchange the golden ticket for two Ranger bucks then they also get entered into a monthly drawing and each grade gets drawn and they get to have a principal reward from that drawing and as you can see in the picture they get to have a
017treat with Miss Letty that particular day but it's nice they were really excited to be able to be part of that drawing thank you and also we have Incorporated it into our school store also the help of Our Stars Rise program the students in the Stars Rise program are coming up and working at the school store they're helping sell the items on the cart they're helping restock sometimes they also go to the different classrooms the the um smaller grade classrooms like K1 have the traveling cart that comes into their own their room so they get to go in there and help participate with that as well so first as a parent I was very excited to be invited to join this team especially because school behavior in schools affects everybody's kids um whether your child
018needs extra support or not it affects every single child in there so to be able to have a voice as a parent and also be able to relay the voices of the students as well and we'll talk a little more about that as well but in order to hear the excitement of my child and bring that back to the team in order to tell them Hey listen I hear this item at the store is not doing well but they want more of this right and it's direct feedback that I appreciate also being on the PTO it's great because we're able to tie in then all of the other parents as well and in order to make this a more sustainable effort too because we need these items we can't expect the school to constantly be
019sourcing these items so how can the families help by even we've put out some asks right over around Christmas time we put out some asks saying you know as you're going through what's in your house or you're getting new things in um you know donate to the store and it really does um Drive their excitement behind everything um it's amazing how much they have bought into the store into the golden spatula that I hear about it constantly and um and it's great because my child's like are we allowed to trade tickets are we allowed to buy and sell I know some people are hoarding tickets and I'm like that's great in my mind that means that they care about it right like my child is so invested in this and one day she actually wants
020to have her own store so like she's actually asking me questions about like how do you figure out the pricing how do you do this so it goes beyond just the positive behavior reinforcement um we have it's great too because like I said we can take all this feedback go back to the PTO team and say Hey listen the school needs support you know in this and it doesn't actually mean that just us purchasing but other ways that we can Source things as well um and it just helps to grow that relationship even more and then also as my role on this team I go back to our PTO meetings every single month and we Port out and what that does is it allows a direct connection now to the team unfortunately we can't have
021every parent on the PBIS team but if anybody has a question or a concern they can come to me and I will happily relay it back and then relay any answers out back to them as well so here's our book machine that we got that we love and I was actually doing some um principal Award with the with the coins until we put them on the cart we put them on the cart so that the kids could buy them and they got really excited about that so that's why I shift to like morning donuts and and playing Apples to Apples with them um so this picture you know it was just so cute the cart came into kindergarten kids pick the coins and I just scooped them up and I and I took them to
022the book machine you know to get their books it was awesome so one of the things that we were really excited about uh as part of the Ranger store was having experiences for the students so things that were no cost um that we could just do right here in our classrooms uh throughout the building our teachers were very creative came up with some really great ideas right here this picture is actually from my class this is a kindergarten group and one of the girls used 100 of her Ranger bucks to buy a PE Choice day for her entire class and so they were so excited they she chose to do scooters and so that's what what they got to do for that day and those are some of the things that the kids can take
023from the experiences um that also is a cart of its own it just kind of rolls around in the experiences and like little certificates layout on the cart um some of the favorites it seemed to be reading to Mrs into her kindergarten class A lot of the kids really have enjoyed purchasing that one uh helping in the library helping to check out books when it's their class Library time um again like I said picking a game in PE or music using the teacher's chair um a lot of just things that you may not have really thought about but um the students the teachers thought about them and the students really bought into it and have really enjoyed them so what we're so excited about with this is like the relationships that's building like you know
024it is it's Priceless to us so I just wanted to show you some photos this is um buying centers for the kindergarten class extra Center time these kids picked for their classes here's the librarian for a day music game choice for the day these kiddos picked to read Mrs intahar's class we did expand this because Mrs into heart is like I have to teach [Laughter] um there's checking out books this is hot hot item the scanner um some extra bonus computer time time with teachers right the relationships pizza party with Mr Shields and there's the teacher chair so yeah we are growing our experiences and our relationships with our kids um we're growing our ideas of student involvement and feedback we're going to add a little survey a really quick survey when they come through
025and at the ranger store like how satisfied of a customer were you and you know just making a quick would you mind filling out a survey before you leave and it'll be their choice and so we've done so much like since January of last year all this is new that just took so much and this team has just been on fire and it's been so great for our kids we're actually applying for a state recognition the first one's bronze they won't let us go for gold yet so we're gonna have to go bronze but we we've we've applied and said we're you know we're in the process of putting our name in it's in and now we're in the process of applying so um but we have our eyes on silver and gold in the
026future but anyway thank you so much any questions that I can answer for you yes think one of the things strikes me about this there's a lot of wisdom there's a lot of careful thought obviously going into it but I think everybody's having fun with it and that may be the the the the final piece you know in the puzzle because it's it's not just you know educationally sound behaviorally sound blah blah blah but it's got some joy to it too so it brings us a lot of Joy so thank you I I just want to thank you for especially as the presentation went on for I mean for everybody emphasizing the relationship and relationship building that not only occurs it sounds between the adults but between the different grade levels and the different students
027and and just thinking so much about how um I don't know I guess if we're a kid well certainly for an adult but if we're having one of those rough moments or rough days just knowing that there's a bunch of people that care sort of just helps you get through and you're what you're talking about is instilling a culture of just sort of caring that this responsibility respect and safety that's that's being distributed or displayed functionally is creating caring spaces for like you talked about your daughter your student and things like that and knowing that so I just want to say thank you for thinking about like looping that all back to just the interaction that we have with each other so thank you um and to piggyback on what Emma was saying it seems
028like a lot of the um rewards and ever and programs are student driven like a lot of the which I think is a great way to go because it's more meaningful to them is there anything like going through this over the last year what has surprised you about what the students have advocated for or that you wouldn't have thought um I think well for me like what they're what they're doing with the dollars are it's just funny I mean they really do trade or you know they've gone in on things like if something costs if something costs like 75 tickets it's like 25 25 like you know it's um so like the the economy of it is interesting it's an interesting thing um other things that surprised you I think I think it was funny
029because along those lines too one of the things that my daughter also questions is are people allowed to sell their own stuff to get Ranger butt to somebody else and and that just I was saying like I brought it back it's happened they brought Candy after Halloween and they have sold it without our without us knowing like two major books while I know you know the the administration the teachers are like oh and they're like cringing a little bit it just shows as a parent like that's total buy-in like every all the students are so into this and they're also really learning about economy I mean it's fantastic yeah yeah and we don't we don't the teachers don't manage their money it's funny like they they give them a baggie or something and that's it
030it's up to them and they you know they keep it so that was a risk on our part but yeah it works I love the concept of earning they're earning money and then spending it to improve the lives of all the people around them and their friends I mean that's such a good message and I think I would like this posted in grocery stores and public bathrooms because um there's a lot of adults who could do better in some of these categories well I can I can speak to the Joy my my children are are are so happy here and are and are just thriving here a fifth grader and and a kindergartner and same with their friends and uh this is truly a special place and a wonderful community so the last thing I
031just wanted to add is that I thought one of the sweetest things I've seen is that I had a student who was short a few dollars and a friend loaned them some of their dollars so that they could make their purchase and finish up their school staff shopping experiences no but it was very sweet it was very sweet and that's a that's a great example of I know you gave so many examples of how you're working the vision of the Lakewood graduate throughout the day but when you hear those you know stories of students doing things on their own it's being embedded we're providing them the enriched environment so that they can make those choices in the future so thank you so much this was fabulous very fun appreciate it a lot goes into Elementary
032education so I also wanted to share as part of my superintendent's report last meeting just as a reminder we did do a presentation um Mr Ross and Mrs Holland of our Communications Forum facilitated committee and along with that presentation there it is on the website for anyone to watch but it was sharing about the decision making of the Elementary schedule and when we talk about the scheduling we're talking about a special schedule and so it does make me think and I know there's many people that may want to speak on this but an example of high school and if you think in the last 20 years how many course changes have we had over the years and why that is and it's because evolution curriculum changes the needs of our students change and we ensure
033that we constantly try to provide the best environment but one thing I really spent a lot of time this past weekend thinking about is our vision of the Lakewood graduate and and why we put that in and so I started to look back at the research pieces of why we really thought that we needed to go out to all our constituents you know all of our stakeholders throughout the district and talk about what are the skills abilities and habits of mind that we want our students to really walk across that stage feeling strong with it it's because the learning isn't over after that they need to continue to persist in this ever-changing world and so I went back and I looked at Decades of research that have demonstrated the need for educational strategies that recognize
034the connection between children's social emotional cognitive and academic academic development as well as their physical and mental health and so and that is what our our vision was developed on the science of Learning and Development refers to Growing bodies of research for the fields of Neuroscience psychology and other Developmental and learning Sciences which tells us an optimistic story about the potential for all learners this finding shows that the brain continues to develop throughout life as a product of relationships environments and experiences and I you know that resonates with me because I do hope that just because I'm 52 years old I still have a lot of learning to do and I could still learn to maybe be an artist or I could still learn to do yoga or I could still learn probably not sing
035I'm sorry just because I don't have the voice for that but I could learn to get better and so but I could learn an instrument today too if I persist and I learn and I have time and so findings from this work have serious implications and Powerful lessons for improving education the foundations of the U.S education system were built more than a hundred years ago and were designed to select and sort through segregation unequal school funding and tracking rather than promote development and help every student access opportunity and reach their full potential and so with that the new schedule does allow all of our students access to diverse learning opportunities it allows them to have physical education art music design learning and digital literacy every week throughout the entire year it'll um opportunities these opportunities
036that will allow them to feel successful and thrive in multiple disciplines throughout each week and as I said throughout the year and that's what our vision of a Lakewood graduate represents it represents all kids the whole the whole child and so I I did want to share as I always do my door is always open my phone is there to be answered for questions I will be happy to meet with anyone to discuss further about the co-facilitated committee that did represent elementary teachers specials teachers and administrators they were all part of that decision making and I went to and I think that is all I wanted to share this evening thank you super Princess Wiki um at this point in the meeting and folks are all welcome to stay we we would excuse anybody that
037may want to step out at this time um we'll move on to the regular business of the board and then uh further on in the agenda we'll have an opportunity um for uh public comment as well I know some folks have left here already but just pause for a moment um that said we'll move on here the next on our agenda would be the items for our vote at our next meeting and the first there being the the finance report Ms katzenberg thank you um first regarding Investments uh purchased and matured for January 2023. um they these outstanding Investments earn earnings for regular board funds for the month of January total 132 520 bringing our fiscal year-to-date earnings to 780 89 317 dollars for the month of January 2023 general fund receipts totaled 6 million
038292 thousand dollars and general fund expenditures totaled 500 or 5 million 872 000 um unrestricted State funding and interest income are the largest contributors contributors to positive year-over-year variants interest income is projected to exceed a million dollars in financial year 2023 compared to 123 000 for financial year 2022 interest rates continue to rise which allows for significantly higher investment income um current uh annual projections are showing a positive variance compared to the November forecast in terms of expenditures salaries and benefits are showing a slightly negative cash flow variance however that is offset by positive cash flow variances in both purchase services and other expenses utility expenses are the largest contributor to the year over year positive variance year-to-date positive variants and um current actual production projections for the year are showing positive variance compared to
039the November forecast and the inclusion of Esser funds and the financial impact to both short-term and long-term strategies and initiatives in both personnel and non-personnel costs are reflected on the current forecast at this point we are we project that our cash reserves are sufficient through the fiscal year 2026 um and uh all accounts has have sufficient funds to cover the increase in Appropriations um in compliance with the state officers auditor's office in the County Fiscal office Ms Weisberg anything Dad thank you uh next would be building sites and major purchases for which I don't believe we have a report this evening and then moving on would be the education report of Ms Petrie Barcelona thank you yeah sorry Mr Shaughnessy right right yeah uh thank you uh we have five items to consider under the
040education report this month uh the first item is we do have uh special transportation services and this has to do with the fair bus law and state transfer Transportation guidelines we have some additional students that were added since October uh 2022 so just this past fall receiving parental Transportation reimbursement for this current school year so we have those two two student schools noted the second item is we do have before us a resolution to approve an out-of-state field trip in this case it is a field trip to Washington DC and Gettysburg Pennsylvania uh the students here are Lakewood High School students in the class of 2025. they will have this opportunity to visit DC and Gettysburg not unlike the class of 2024 who has a trip I think just a few days before this oh
041no and I'm sorry this is next year this is in 20 2024 who have a trip this year these are students who were in eighth grade when trips were canceled or did not occur and so in this case as class of 2025 they will be able to participate in this same trip or experience albeit a little bit older and the trip in this case is planned for June 7th through 9th 2024 so I apologize this is not this year it's the following year but we have that in place now uh the third item we have is a resolution to approve Ohio schools Council governance policy uh change or changes and in this case the board of directors of the Ohio schools Council referred to as osc is requesting that each Board of Education of the
042member districts approve this resolution which will provide the superintendent of each member School District with the authority to modify supplement or amend osc policy and agreements because of the osc significant growth over the past 35 years the board of directors of the osc believes that this resolution which is also approved by the USC board of directors and the osc assembly will enable the osc to best serve and meet the changing needs of the member school districts throughout Northern Ohio so we have that before us the fourth item we do have one resolution to approve a club and in this case it is one club for Lakewood High School and Lakewood High School will soon have an Amnesty International Club uh the purpose of which is for advocating for human rights through the you know through
043the structure of the Amnesty International program and finally we have gifts to the schools in this case we have let's see here for the month of March 2023 we have uh one gift of note um Miss Linda Bibi who right next to me uh donated um some resources to be used at Garfield Middle School for their trip to Washington DC so thank you Miss Bibi for your support in this case of Garfield Middle School and that concludes the education report thank you Miss Peter Barcelona next would be policy for which there is no report and then moving on to human resources and Community Services Ms Bibi right we have a number of certified appointments coming up 21 deployments certified 11 appointments classified three coaches advisors non-employees um 10 more coaches and advisors not employees and
044then community recreation and education 33 appointments these are the summer Aquatics appointments in addition we have a resolution three resolutions to amend the superintendent's contract our superintendent has done a Splendid job she's a great leader she's highly respected in the community and we are interested as a board in in retaining her services so what we have before us is an extension of her contract for a further five years beyond the term of the contract she's currently serving and hopefully she will stay with us and in her leadership position Beyond those years and we certainly do appreciate the work that she does for us and for the community and then finally we have a resolution to approve the appointment of a member to the Lakewood community recreation and education commission the commission has has interviewed and
045met with candidates and are recommending the appointment of Mr Paul Porter as a commissioner on the Lakewood Rec education commission and that will cancel my report thank you and we would now then move to the communication portion of the meeting and I begin with the Board of Education comments Woody my colleagues care to speak at this time um I would just say I received um three emails and as well questioning some aspects of our change in the elementary specials um I understand people get have some concern but I would just hope that their questions can be answered as they maybe review the presentation to the board last our last meeting and um know that just one question that I've been asked and the answer is no music teachers will lose their jobs because of this
046change that was a concern that some people had so just to put that out there but we do read these communications listen to them and consider them I would also say that over the last year I've had a number of questions from people asking if there couldn't be more opportunity for art for phys ad for Library time activities and this meets those parents requests as well so those are the communications I received thank you um similar to what Mrs Shaughnessy said you know we've received some emails I've also engaged in uh conversations with many members of the community in different times um while there has have been some concerns expressed I'm also happy to say that I've had a larger number of people Express how excited they are about the changes their children are excited
047about the changes um that they uh like the opportunity for all of these things to be part of their Elementary education um you know one person was specifically emphasizing digital literacy and how that continues up to through high school and Beyond so it's uh there's all five of these elements are important and when people have asked me questions or expressed concerns I've directed them to the report and presentation that Mr Austin Mrs Holland gave it Horace Mann a couple weeks ago because I think that's really helpful and to understanding that the committee that put these that recommended these changes to the elementary specials put a lot of thoughtfulness and care and research and discussion and um just really a lot of effort into making sure that this is a solid decision and I just really
048respect the time and effort they put in and and thank them for that thank you president Callahan um without being too redundant over well I'll just note that um I have uh not just read but but heard from folks um with with regard to specials and and the um the changes coming overall and just know that uh there there isn't a single Voice or a single opinion about what's happening there are um a lot of a lot of people I've heard from are very excited or optimistic about what the um what the school day will look like or the school week will look like for elementary students and there are many others who are apprehensive or concerned about what what it looks like so just know that um but that's also again to I guess
049just note that the I trust the process that occurred with regard to how the experts in our district assessed information and ascertained what might be a good proposal for this district and so uh just with that with that I'm actually going to turn to just couple other sort of neat things going on I want to congratulate a lot of athletes who've concluded a lot of great Winter Sports Seasons both of course at the high school but also at the at the younger ages this sort of time in March is a really exciting one where a lot of great things occurred in February culminating seasons and some new ones are are starting I just want to note for any any so inclined the Lakewood High School Barnstormers group will be putting on the musical Anastasia you
050may be familiar with it this Thursday Friday and Saturday evening up at the Civic and so if you like musical theater or you'd love to see that sort of production back on stage come out bring your families invite your friends that sort of thing to see let's just say Broadway caliber type things on our own uh our own on our own Civic stage and then finally I just want to say best wishes and good luck to um to Folks at Spring break time next week so we'll have a pause in what's going on in the district and so I just hope that families and supporters of the district have a have a good good safe time and that for our professionals our Educators and others who who might need a little pause too that they
051they come back refreshed and ready to finish out the school year at the end of break so thank you um first of all I was going to mention Anastasia too I'm looking forward to it but the process I know there's I've had the emails as well I've talked to several people the the I trust that our historic use of co-facilitated Committees of committees involving Administration and teachers to to look at curricular matters has worked in the past and I think going forward it's working well as well because I mean I personally really value the quality of our music program and I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind that we have one of the Premier programs in the state but I also think that particularly on the elementary level children have a right to
052explore to to get a sense of what the possibilities out there are and by having art for example only every other semester or getting a chance to go in maker space and play with robots and learn about computers that we're we're saying to kids well you know maybe these aren't as important or maybe your love of these things isn't as important as as other things I think if we had all the time in the world we'd have time for every one of these plus my hobby horse which is foreign languages in the in the elementary school and we do it all but we can't do it all we don't have the time to do it all so we have to be as creative with the limited time that we have and do the best that
053we can do and and I do think that the research and the number of people who spent a lot of time coming up with the solution to these dilemmas um I think we have to go forward and and and Trust the process I also had in coming in here tonight an intention to to make a personal statement as I've now I I re unfortunately I think sometimes read the New York Times and and there's a lot of talk in this country right now about banning books and censoring School curriculums about changing historical facts to make them more pleasant about not allowing children the experiencing of reading books that might make them cry somewhere in the middle of it I read Black Beauty at an early age and I think it affected me forever but maybe
054that was a good thing I personally would be I am committed let's put it that way to having our children have the broadest possible experience that they can have and to learning about history because if you don't know history you can't fix things you can't change things you can't make things better and and I think that for me as a as a school board member that's an important part of my mission is to make sure children learn about the world so they have an opportunity to make it better so that's me thank you Miss Bibi um I'll be I'll probably be redundant so I'll be I'll be brief um but I too have have referred those questions that have come up uh to that presentation of Mr um uh and Mrs Holland um and stressed
055that that co-facilitated process which as my colleagues have said has worked uh so well in the past and and I believe has worked well here I have talked to several um folks who sat in on on that uh on that processor on that committee who are who are pleased with the outcome and also stress that um in in one case I had a lengthy conversation the other evening that you know didn't go exactly as that person had wanted but they were happy with um how they came to that conclusion and with the overall you know with the overall outcome or they were satisfied with it um as a parent of kids with different interests and just a wide range it's just amazing with three three children and how different they can be you know the
056the idea of year-round art around PE and Equitable specials uh really resonates with me I want to stress um our superintendent talked about the phone you know being accessible and you know she takes quite a few meetings um and and I frankly and we've kind of uh joked about it too I don't know how she fits in so many folks who do want to meet with her so the doors open I know that because I know oftentimes when I do refer people your way you do sit down with them and and she's being genuine when she when she said that um and then I just wanted to a Saturday night uh shifting gears a moment the athletic boosters night at the races I just wanted to recognize many people in this room were there um
057you know the the attendance from the just the Athletics um supporters and from the community from parents uh and from staff there were so many administrators coaches uh teachers who were there really a successful event a fun social event and a way uh to raise some funds so I would like to recognize everybody who worked so hard to take so many volunteers I had an obligation that made me a little bit late my my uh my wife volunteered as well and so we got the email uh the summary of all the volunteers and it was long and so I just want to recognize all those all those folks that that work so hard at it um and I think with that we will unless there's anything to add from you know when I had finished
058my conversation or my my report I was looking for something else that I wrote down like because I've heard from um some that you know either through the emails or any phone calls or people I've discussed about a change in programming at the middle school in high school and I wanted to State as we had before is that there is no musical changes at the middle school or high school and that is is not our thought process behind this obviously we've shared with the why but I did want to get that out there to ensure that people understood I believe there's at times half truths or Miss um statements that aren't fully developed are being stated that may be causing the confusion thank you with that we've moved to public comments and we do have
059a list of people who have indicated they would like to speak so we'll call them up in the order that they're on here I think a few more are heading my way we would ask that given that the number of people who are here to speak that you please when you step to the podium please state your name and your your street of residence if you wouldn't mind and then also if you could limit your comments to three minutes I would remind people that it while we welcome we're glad you're here we want to hear you um that it's it's not typical for the board to engage in dialogue in these types of of questions but it is typical for the board to follow up as appropriate in the appropriate ways either through the administration
060or through the appropriate channel so again we welcome you and we will call you in the order that that they appear here on these sign-in sheets and Kelly flemos McEwen would you like to to start if you're still here and still intending to speak foreign hi I'm Kelly flamos and I live on Ramona Avenue and I've been a Lakewood resident since 2008. I became a mother in 2009 I have three kids in Lakewood schools my sisters both moved to Lakewood after me so they have kids in the schools too so I'm speaking for them I'll just tell a story about my daughter Ruby she's 13 she's in eighth grade at Garfield and when she was five we signed her up at back for Suzuki violin and she hated it so um we stopped and now
061she's in eighth grade and she loves violin more than anything else going on in her life she's in the honors Orchestra and I'm just I know that um she wouldn't be playing violin if it wasn't for her attendance in in Lakewood schools we couldn't have afforded it um I don't think without that that exposure to music during her K through fifth grade years that um I think that it was building before the intense instruction she's gotten in middle school and I would hate for my sons to not have that same exposure and I fear that this new schedule um I I guess the digital literacy is the thing that drives me crazy because for me it's like if it digital literacy requires critical thinking so how do we build critical thinkers and I don't think
062having a digital literacy class which removes their opportunities to do gym and move their bodies and have healthy bodies which makes healthy minds and then and missing out on extra music I just I don't think that we're getting that Lakewood graduate that you guys are talking about I just I don't know if we even have a chance to change this it seems like it's done and I'm bummed because I'm not one of the people that thinks it's a good idea and everyone that I've talked to and it's a lot of people are on the same page as me so I don't know thank you Michael Campbell thank you so we have uh Emily flamos and John Sweeney hey guys um I'm John Sweeney my wife Emily flamos we have two children that go to Roosevelt
063they're here with us right now we live on Richland um the one thing that I kind of this is my first school board meeting but the one thing that I've noticed I guess up until this point was preaching health and culture and I think it's somewhat ironic that those are the two things that we're about to remove from our children's future I grew up I didn't grow up in Lakewood but I definitely grew up with Jim all year long I grew up with music all year long I play the piano I play guitar I played the violin in school I learned how to play the trumpet in school okay these are these are things that should continue to be a part of our kids lives removing music is removing culture removing that is what separates
064us from apes it's it's really sad and disheartening to hear this even our superintendent here I was hearing her talk about yoga and vocal lessons and you know those are all the things that we're that we're removing our children right now childhood obesity has tripled since the 80s and we're just making our kids more stagnant it's already hard enough combating the foods that are being supplied not just at the school level but just in our grocery stores everything is changing and to remove phys Ed it's it's setting our kids up for health issues and so if our community is based around Health art and music I it seems like we're setting our kids up for failure I I completely and full-heartedly disagree with everything that's happening I just wanted to add something about the physical
065education I agree with everything that everyone has said about the music being reduced I don't support that but um I'm also a dietitian and I have a restaurant in Lakewood and I also work for the children's hunger Alliance I'm in charge of all of the high poverty districts in Northeast Ohio and going and offering support to improve their food programs and the the research is out and obesity and overweight is an issue in our country and reducing physical education by 25 will not serve our children they are in their desks all day long and they really need to be moving their bodies so they can have a better chance at living healthy productive lives and so I really hope that you consider the research that is out there about overweight and obesity because I don't
066think that physical education has been decreased as much as what is being proposed yet in this district and you will start to see um a problem in your students it's it will happen and so I would strongly suggest that you read the research that is available to you about obesity in our children okay thank you next we have Laura and I apologize I think the last name begins with a p um come on up hi I'm a mom of a high schooler and my daughter's here with me today and I just I learned about the um changed I was shocked actually to learn about the change in the music program at the elementary school I feel like this is one program that really distinguishes Lakewood and I mean I I'm a writer and editor I
067value the Arts I sent my child to Lakewood schools because of the strong arts program I am glad to hear that there's going to be more art because I think you know more visual art is important but um I was just saddened really to hear that the elementary school students won't have the wonderful music program several days a week you know my daughter plays the oboe and you know she has really blossomed in the music program um I did not have that opportunity when I was growing up I did have plenty of opportunity for science classes so um I just want to like just give a plug for the Arts and I hate to see any of that go and I wonder if there could be more interdisciplinary um you know rather than cutting back
068whether there could be more interdisciplinary um curriculum you know stem could be incorporated into the music program into the physical education program thank you the next two were a couple of maybes so Marina Marquez did you still want to speak to us um so I have Marina Marquez and then I had a we have a gene Goldberg not yet no thank you no we did not we've got quite a few so I may have got them in uh in a different order we'll we'll get we I assure you if your name's on the list we'll get to you we're not going anywhere hi I'm uh Gene Goldberg and my daughter Marina Marquez um the first time I saw the music program I'm a retired teacher I was blown away and I said everyone has to
069have this program with that said and being a retired teacher um art programs often fall victim okay and you all know the years of research have proven that Arts are crucial to children's education especially leading academic skills okay and I'm going to read something very quickly that I'm sure you all know in 2005 study on the impact of a comprehensive Arts curriculum in Columbus Ohio public schools found that students and the arts program scored higher on Statewide tests in math science citizenship then students from controlled schools this effect was even greater for students from low income communities in the analysis socially and economically disadvantaged children with significant Arts education had better academic outcomes including higher grades and test scores and higher rates of graduation and college enrollment than their peers without Arts programs and I
070know you're not cutting the Arts programs but where do we start we start at elementary school to build the correct habits okay so um one of the things that I wanted to just point out was that music stimulates all parts of the brain and the research has proven that it might even alter brain development so it stimulates brain's attention systems improves memory and the list goes on I have a laundry list here it sharpens communication and social emotional skills and that's what this is the buzzword now in education and someone said something about communities if we cannot connect to our culture and we can't connect to our communities and we all see it okay so um one of the things that we did in our system was we started to write grants and things to
071help us with um in introducing stem but we introduced it into interdisciplinary way so thank you [Applause] so thank you for giving me the opportunity my name is Marina Marquez I have two children in Lakewood city schools one here at Emerson in the fifth grade who has taken up the violin and a funny story with that is that when he met the instruments he came home and told us that they were going to let him play the bagpipes well there are no bagpipes to be played so he was pulling our leg and I was grateful that that wasn't the case however he picked the violin was very grateful for that my daughter because of Lakewood city schools music program Luna she has gotten a full ride to Cleveland cim Cleveland Institute of Music she's in
072the string Symphonia there and she attributes it you know she wrote her essay I was gonna she asked me to read it because she's at cam tonight for cello practice but the other piece of this is um this this essay I was going to read it to you but because of time I'm not going to but when she first started with a cello Mrs malchuk was here and she was given the saddest cello that the district owns I believe and she calls it the Chiquita banana cello because nobody wanted it it was the bad most battered cello but she played it and she grew to love that cello so um during that year this is when covet hit when we went into lockdown and she was fortunate to have that cello home with her to
073learn on her own during that time to play the cello and then Mrs mulcheck reached out to her checked in with her and said you know how are you doing with the cello and Luna said I love it I'm you know I really I'm learning I'm teaching myself some things through the internet but it wasn't enough so Mrs mulchuk said well I'm going to help you out so Mrs mulchuk did she she got she connected her with an instructor a private instructor that really helped Luna flourish and that's what led her into this great program at the Cleveland Institute of music and she's flourishing and she loves it and she's deciding as music as her her college career like her future career because of this music program this music program is just so important starting
074in in elementary school but I also wanted to give a shout out to Mr Ross who because of the of the sports and and the PE and and the importance of that because you need both the Mind Body and and soul you just really need both of those to balance everything out and it's just really really important this music that we just I just I'm devastated to hear that the younger Generations are you know that it's going to be cut that from their from their daily um you know routine and I and and what as Miss Bibi was saying music is a second language you know it is a second language and that's the second language that they're learning in in elementary school that they're not be they don't have access to other than that
075that is the only second language um that they're being offered in um Elementary School so and I that's well my time is up so I'm gonna go sorry thank you I believe we have uh Dr greenoff um Chuck did you sign up to yeah I'm I'm struggling on your penmanship here so uh all my students will uh that then it's me okay so I'll start with an anecdote and anecdotes proved nothing so then I'll go on to the real thing uh my sister had a perfect score on the SAT and I didn't um well actually she had a perfect score in math um and I was far south of that and she played the violin and I didn't no that's the anecdote so that's over with now uh you were very uh honoring of your
076process of coming to this decision you you believe that it's been a sound process and I wasn't there but I know that any process is only as good as the premise under which it operates the premise that there is like this uh need for equality that you divide up these things equally and everybody has an equal chance for everything is a flawed promise premise the premise I believe that we should be operating on is what's developmentally appropriate and optimal for the developing brain of children at that age so let me give you some research on that okay brain plasticity is the the malleability of the brain and it decreases after age 10 but as Mrs Wiki said we can still learn things after age 10 but it does decrease after age 10 and for music
077after age seven or eight so uh This research by the Journal of Neuroscience in 2013 uh titled early musical training and white matter plasticity in the corpus callosum evidence for a sensitive period there's no sensitive period for digital learning there's a sensitive period for music okay training during the sensitive period in development and development may have greater effects on brain structure and behavior than training later for a musicians so the early training is vital okay the corpus callosum is literally the information superhighway of the brain it's a thick band of fibers connecting the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere Thomas Jefferson played his violin while he wrote the Declaration of Independence because it stirred neuronal activity okay um so they the the other research this is of course semi-correlational but other research has looked at
078uh tensor tracking okay so we're not just in a in an era where we know there's a correlation between music education and all kinds of other things because maybe more affluent people can afford to get music lessons for their kids we know now that there is a cause and effect relationship between neural activity and music so I believe just to return to the premise and my time is running out that it is flawed to to go by the let's divide up things equally when you I think the better premise to operate on is what's optimal for cognitive development for children and there is voluminous and is pretty well settled signs that music is the single best way to stimulate the overall infrastructure structure of the brain which is the building block of everything so I
079believe that you should reconsider this entire decision with this research in mind thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] thank you Dr greenoff and um next I should I just wanted to add that these these two speakers right here Dr greenoff and up next we'll have uh Mr Mr Robert Sedlak are just two of our Educators and community members whom I hold in in the highest of regard so with that uh Mr Sedlak uh sitting here for a few minutes listening to everyone I regret that I didn't have a number of conversations with you folks I know all you folks very well uh about this Firestorm and it really just didn't come to my attention until a couple of weeks ago so that's my mistake I'm not sure that revamping the music program in Lakewood schools
080at the grade level at the school grade school level is appropriate in lieu of the following considerations number one music programs are some of the finest in the state of Ohio our music programs continue to win Awards Statewide bringing recognition to the Fine musicians that come through our schools those Awards and auditory comments are not happening in a vacuum that's isolated at Lakewood High School they are coming from a very deliberate pathway designed by the music department at all grades levels and has been developed and refined over many years number two the inherent positive brain development that is fostered and nurtured by music education both in music composition and performance as well researched by many prominent organizations in University and points directly to starting at an early age Lakewood currently now has that structure in
081place the deliberate attempt to dismantle and subvert music programs in the early grades is irresponsible on our part number three arguments and arguments have been made about replacing music in the early years with stem and the Arts and digital literacy I will speak to stem first currently in the middle schools in high schools there are very robust programs in place Project Lead the Way of which I am part of that team I can attest to the significant contributions made by that curriculum at the high school level when graduate students return to Lakewood High School during the winter and spring breaks Mr homack and I hear constantly the success of our pre-engineering students the word like for example at Ohio State University you want to know how to do that go down to the end of
082the dormitory Hall and go where the Lakewood kids are because they know how to do it if Administration feels the need to refinance or I'm sorry to re-enhance stem at the lower grades I could spend many hours denim straight demonstrating how simple machines electricity Building Bridges and safe ballistic devices could be woven into a math classroom [Applause] I will skip over art other than to point out that the high school program at the high school is unbelievable in regards to digital digital literacy I will simply ask the question do our children already spend too much time in front of the computer screen I think yes is the need really that essential an English class in the lower grades can weave assignments into their curriculum that will require some guided research I.E digital literacy and I
083read this on my own and I did it in like two minutes all right one more thing I understand that the and I didn't know this grade school doesn't start school till 9 00 A.M there is no way you can explain that discrepancy to me when every other grade school in the county starts a period earlier time wise I will be contacting some of you for further discussion thank you thank you next we have a the detmars Jennifer is a yes and Willow a maybe thank you for allowing us this opportunity this evening to give you a little feedback I am a parent a very proud parent of two musical students in Lakewood city schools Willow is in the Lakewood project he's in the symphonic orchestra he wants to be in chamber next year he's
084going to try um I have seen so much growth in him socially and emotionally and he's probably get mad at me for saying this but he is twice exceptional if he had not had Mrs Mullinax and Dr Hankins I don't know where he would be right now he has learned leadership he has learned the social skills he did not have he is who he is he's a self-advocate he is confident All Because Of Music now the other side of that is that I'm also also a nationally certified stem teacher I teach in another District that is State endorsed steam we are the only Steed Public School in Lorraine County stem at the younger grades need to be integrated into the core content stem as a separate class is not effective for Young Learners they need
085to do circuits electricity with the fourth grade standards they need to build wind turbines and learn about that and get that Hands-On learning with the third grade science standards I'm also a gifted intervention specialist for grades two to eight and I'm very versed in how you can do transdisciplinary units with project-based learning and having all the standards and bringing out the stem and bringing out your community members who are experts like this terrigo hi I knew I saw you um my only thing my thing is I have equal passion for music Performing Arts Visual Arts and stem I'm a complete geek a complete dork my kids love tinkering and sadly the middle school program stem program didn't do it for them they did more with me on their own than they did in their stem
086classrooms I'm sorry but I'm really excited about the high school program because that's exactly what my second son needs I'm getting him right into intro engineering but anyway I think that we need to do more of bringing stem it through authentic connected experiences than a standalone classroom because that Standalone classroom they really do not see the need for it at that young age it has to be made real it has to be made irrelevant it has to be authentic and it has to be them creating with a purpose going and building a robot and driving it around means nothing but if you are working with NASA and developing something for the International Space Station and you are presenting your ideas to The Experts and they're giving you feedback and you're tweaking them like our fifth
087grade students do at my school it's better learning thank you thank you foreign [Applause] next uh Birch Browning good evening I'm Dr Birch Browning I'm professor of Music at Cleveland State University we live on Cohasset we moved to Lakewood because of the music and arts programs here my PhD is in music education and I congratulate all of you who presented research earlier because you nailed it good job Chuck I will also stipulate that I'm not here to advocate for additional bagpipe instructions thank you I'm sorry but your process was flawed the survey question was do you prefer the current schedule or one that would have re related art year round with the potential addition of stem learning on a rotation the survey didn't mention that there was a chance that music would be reduced by
08860 percent along with other changes in the Arts and instruction physical education I'm not an expert on survey research design but I do know enough to tell you that that survey would have failed in an introductory research course the question was incomplete and misleading I will also suspect especially based on the comments from the crowd tonight that if you ask them they would like to their children to have more instructional time in music you would have gotten about the same positive response because it's great I watched the presentation from last week and I'm enthusiastic about all of the interesting things they're doing but I still think the process is flawed perhaps the first shirt survey should have asked parents to rank and comment on their priorities for specialist instruction that could have been used as
089a baseline to start the conversation about changing schedule I do know that several alternative schedules present were presented to the committees or to the committee and dismissed for having technical errors and they were not allowed to readdress those problems a better process would have been was after the committee weighed a wide variety of scheduling options the options could have then been presented again for public comment with more detail about the other unintended consequences parents could also be surveyed again to determine if the outcomes of the committee process match their priorities as I understand it the faculty contract is up for negotiation next year and the do yours and that there may be some changes in the way the buildings are allocated for elementary schools so I would propose to you that you do a more
090comprehensive re-evaluation of the curriculum and don't forget about the unintended consequences I've been in public education for 35 years as a teacher first public school in Florida and now in higher education and always it's the decisions that are rushed that have unintended consequences and the people who suffer are the students and the faculty members who have to pick up the pieces and we know that they will because they're dedicated to their students thank you thank you Dr Browning next we have Judy fesco hi I'm Judy Fusco and I'm a retired music educator in Lakewood I live on Chase three very good boys who went through the schools and were also musicians in their own right too and uh Dr Browning just addressed some of the things that I wanted to say too and a couple
091other things the course of study currently is based on having a hundred minutes of music and to take that and you're going to reduce it by 60 percent where do the cuts in that course of study come from who will rewrite it how will that happen um the students who by fifth grade hopefully are ready for band or orchestra or choir are not going to be to that point because they will not have had the instruction that was prescribed in the course of study so the domino effect is going to happen middle schools they will not be ready for Band program the choir people Miss Wiki you said you wished you could be sing better that's one of the things that we do as Educators music educators when children are young they don't care then
092they sing that's what we do I don't think anybody is going to look back later in their life about I wish I'd had more digital literacy no you want to sing and you're not the first person who said that my husband was told by someone to mouth the words and not to sing We Inspire that confidence and that cooperation in our classes and as it goes along there are so many you're if you take a look at the website I just had to look at the Lakewood city schools website every story every picture pretty much on the front page is about the Arts it's about what's been happening the musical who got one's at contest why are we going to jeopardize that because of this change in the scheduling the other thing I'd like to
093say is that in previous times I worked on a levy committee from 2013 a levian bond issue and you did come to the community and say what do you want what do you want to see in your schools what do you want to happen and the overwhelming answer that came back was do not touch the Arts programs and right now I would agree with Dr brownie that was a very flood survey because I think if a lot of people had known that you were going to cut something to add this I don't think the answers would have been the same so I would also urge you to come to the community and come and see what people really want to prioritize thank you thank you we have Clara Engen if I'm saying that correctly and
094I think that she is our last but we'll pause and and make sure we've we've gotten everybody after after she concludes so so my name is Clara um I live on Warren Road this is my first school board meeting um I moved to Lakewood in 2021 specifically because of the music programs um I'm a violinist um I teach ironically Kelly's daughter and I also see some other parents of some of my violin students here I'm a private teacher I also teach in the public schools you know the private lesson program there and I am certified in the Suzuki method of music education which is often called the mother tongue method and so miss Bieb you mentioned that foreign languages are your hobby horse and so I just wanted to share a little bit about my
095experience as a teacher um I'm not nearly as well researched as some of our colleagues here so thank you guys for your um your contributions but I can only speak from my experience as a teacher I just had a conversation earlier today with a parent who said I have a three-year-old daughter who I want to be in music as soon as possible because I started music in my teens and it was a Lifeline for me in terms of my own creative expression and I wish that I had it when I was younger and so he's starting his daughter with me as a three-year-old um on the violin um and so I can see when I work with my middle school students the foundation that they have from the Elementary programs here sets them up for
096success to be able to play an instrument playing the violin is really hard it's really hard there's a lot of motor skill things that kids have to do in order to do that and for them to have the musical background that 100 minutes of musical instruction and explore time in their Elementary classrooms sets them up to understand the language of Music better so that when they're ready to pick up the instrument they have the skills that they need they don't have to learn how to match pitch they don't have to learn how to sing they don't have to learn you know all of these other skills that need to be under there before they get to the motor skills of playing the instrument um so that's my contribution for the night um thank you very
097much [Applause] I believe we captured everyone who signed up and indicated an interest in speaking is there anyone who signed in that maybe wasn't interested at that time and has perhaps changed their mind and would like to speak um what would be our process on that I mean in terms of so we should be um okay um I think we have a couple here and I I guess I would just ask that as the superintendent has pointed out it's not typical for us to do that um I board members would you be open to us I I don't believe they're on the list I would ask that you all just be respectful right not to set a person I would ask you all to just be respectful of the time please state your name um
098your street of residence would would be acceptable and please adhere to the to the three minutes but I would say that it it's typical for us to to ask uh for those who would like to speak in front of the board to sign in uh so that we can better control the process so thank you hi thank you very much for letting me speak um my name is Tracy Logan I um my daughter went all through all through uh School uh in Lakewood um we now live in West Lake she now does go to Cleveland State University uh for music education and I'll tell you when she was in fourth grade she started playing the clarinet and wasn't for Harrison Elementary and her music teachers there she would not be doing music she would not
099be pursuing music education just to this day and she as a fourth grade she said mom I know what I want to do the rest of my life and she's doing it and if it wasn't for the music programs in this school she would she have she may have no idea what she want to do with her life so I wholely heartedly and like I said I don't live in this District any longer but I'll tell you my daughter did wonders with the music program here so I think it's a huge mistake thank you very much thank you I saw maybe one or two other hands I'm Jane I go to Lakewood High School I am a sophomore I'm in the Wind Ensemble I play the oboe um it really breaks my heart cutting these
100programs um sorry I'm like a really emotional person but um I flourished in these programs these music programs and I um I made friends and I um I went through the original Special schedule before um even if guys have changed it and I loved it I loved having that opportunity of music and I don't think cutting it is going to help anything I think it's going to um cut students that are going to go into music in Middle School in high school and I think that's going to be um really awful I don't like um I think our stem programs are very good at the middle school and at the high school and I don't think that like digital literacy and stem in elementary needs to be like a separate class I think it needs
101to be um enforce more in math and science like I know what I learned in science I wish was more Hands-On rather than um like which I wish was more stem um so I wish like the stem programs would be incorporated into the um science classes rather than taking time away from the music classes um so yeah thank you [Applause] yeah thank you again for the opportunity to speak I'm a Lakewood alumni through and through I went to K-12 here I truly believe in all of the education would you mind for the record stating your name and oh I'm sorry your street of residence unfortunately I don't live in Lakewood anymore I grew up on Bunce Road it's hard to buy a liquid in this economy but my house in Lakewood Lakewood um anyways I
102really believe in the education provided here I was a big participant in the music program I still remember the education that I received from Carrie Smith in music where she encouraged us to learn piano I would come to music class the next day trying to play something for the class and it was just it really sparked a desire to play more music in me the great instruction provided after that enabled me to play in honors orchestras um Ohio University Orchestra the best of which was the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra where many of my peers had received instruction and lessons from members of the Cleveland Orchestra and I was able to play with them just with a Lakewood Public School music education um professionally I'm an engineer so I believe in stem and the things that
103you guys want to do also a member of gen Z so I believe in social emotional learning and mental health so I appreciate that you guys want to diversify instruction and just one thing that I wanted to note Mr Callahan you mentioned that you were excited about the increased equity in the instruction at the elementary schools and as my former teachers have brought up unfortunately Equity does not always mean equality and much to the dismay of anyone who has tried to learn a musical instrument or music in general is it's very difficult and it requires a lot of Hands-On instruction with professionals who know music people who have studied gone to University and really know how to play an instrument how to teach music specifically and it can't be subbed in in other classes like
104something like engineering could be um so unfortunately I mean it's it just takes more time to teach music and I think it's really important that that starts early as all these other great speakers have said and I think that it will really gut the music program which is just heartbreaking to me because it did so much for me I don't play music professionally now but it's still a big part of my life and I don't think I'd be the engineer or the person that I am today without it so I really hope that you reconsider thank you thank you all who contributed to the comments this evening um thank you for being here I believe that will conclude that portion of the meeting and I we do have one more item of a business before
105us we have uh one item is Bibi we have Google requested on one reading for five classified resignations and I'm going to move approval of this resolution on one reading which will need a roll call second it's been moved to and seconded Umar at the role please aye Ms Bibi MS mizzy treat Barcelona aye Ms katenberger aye Mrs O'Shaughnessy carries and thank you and um is there any other business to come before the board with that we would entertain a motion to adjourn been moved in second at all in favor aye and the meeting is adjourned thank you all thank you