001yes mark's here we're good can we call the august 8th board meeting to order roll call please mr sturgill yes miss nazario yes mr ballard here miss washington here mr ferguson president pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to okay recognition visitors here and she brought friends okay before we have the first hearing of the public i want to read a statement i want to share a quick word tonight to many students their families and members of the community in attendance tonight in anticipation of the board resolution in opposition to any divisive concepts legislation including house bill 322 hospital 327 and house bill 616. in particular i want to thank you for this very visual reminder that these laws are about much more than the hot topics in the news today but they're about people they're
002about our children please know that board meetings by design are not conducive to deep conversations between large groups of people as a result during the public comment section we typically do not respond instead we listen therefore please don't misinterpret our silence as anything other than listening for those here tonight and those watching from home please know that we will be learning we will be leaning into these discussions more deeply with our faith-based leaders with the intent of sharing what is and isn't being taught in our schools through it all we will endure all our children know they are respected valued and loved in lorraine city schools we look forward to sharing additional information as those conversations take place with that being said we'll have the first hearing of the public good evening board members community
003members i'm julie garcia i am the president of the lorraine teachers union i am a community member graduate of lawrence city schools we know that the board supports the teachers in this initiative and we are saddened by members of the community attempting to turn lorraine schools into an unwelcome learning environment for the community that we serve many of our students rely on their teachers to feel safe and accepted and look to them for guidance during turbulent times this resolution isn't about teaching students how to be gay turning students gay it's a resolution to protect the teachers and allow them to have open and accepting conversations with students about difficult and important topics in an age-appropriate way punishing educators for having these conversations sends the message that lgbtqia students are not valued seen or wanted in
004our schools a place that for many is the only safe place they know many lgbtqia students face danger hate and fear of retaliation for being their true selves even within their own homes they often see schools and trusted teachers as a second home that is the only place that will protect them bills that attempt to ban the discussion of supposed divisive topics could also have a negative effect on the education profession which is already facing a recruitment crisis at a time when it has become increasingly difficult to attract new and diverse educators to our classrooms some ohio lawmakers are sending the wrong message to the state's education workforce to ensure adequate staffing levels for our students to receive a world-class education we want lorraine city schools to recruit the best and the brightest candidates this
005resolution will send a message that lorraine city schools is a safe and welcoming environment for all students and educators school is meant to be a place where students learn and experience different cultures peoples and opinions we want our students to be well-rounded individuals who form their opinion and beliefs and while never not everyone will always agree we aim to foster an open environment that gives everyone a voice oppressive and uninformed rhetoric is the same rhetoric that was historically used to breed prejudice fear and hate towards communities of color lorraine is and always has been a unique community and we take pride in the fact that we are made up of different ethnicities backgrounds creeds and orientations and we should strive to continue to do this for all people the lea remains staunchly opposed to all
006forms of discrimination on the basis of one's race color age national origin sexual orientation gender identity religion or disability thank you [Applause] foreign sorry i'm writing all this information take your time cindy thank you okay good evening members of the board of education and visitors parents teachers and other people who are here this evening my name is cindy kramer i'm a long time lorraine resident and i'm also a lorraine high school alumni i have 30 years plus education in school transportation i was a member of the ohio state board of transportation and i came this evening to speak to the board about several concerns that i have and some other people have asked me to come and speak and express my concerns and either get questions or answers this evening from the board before i
007begin i just wanted to check with the superintendent to see if he might be discussing anything later in the agenda regarding the busing situation because i don't want to take time if you have some answers and you're going to be saying anything we're good okay i'll try not to be too long but i have a lot of people have been calling me so i have several questions here um one of the biggest questions and concerns that i know that has been raised throughout the community is the fact with the company coming in and the problem with maybe there might not be enough buses ready to transport the children to lorraine schools i read and did some investigating because i have a little experience in this regarding getting the buses inspected by the state if you
008don't know the state highway patrol has trainers and inspectors who take care of those things and that is set up periodically anywhere from june until august before a school district starts with the kids i worked for lorraine city schools at one time when there was busing and we had contracted it out so the way that we did it is a little bit different i understand that from when it's being done now but my concern is that the company has come in and i see there's a lot of buses in the parking lot but they've come in and there are a lot of buses that have not been expected because they said that they didn't know the rules and regulations in the state of ohio for the buses if that's not true i apologize but that's
009the feedback i'm getting and that concerns me because being a 30 plus educator in the state of ohio and working for eight different school districts in the state every school district whether it's the transportation director the superintendent maybe the assistant or board members know what the rules and regulations are for the buses it's not a secret ohio has it all mapped out exactly what can and cannot be done with the inspection i understand this this bus company is from cincinnati which as far as i know cincinnati is still a city in the state of ohio so they should know what the rules and regulations are to get the buses up to par and get everything approved to be passed it is a process it takes a while i understand that because i work through it
010but here you are a week to two weeks before school is going to open and you don't know what's going to happen i also understand that some buses have been purchased and i believe it's a figure about two million dollars that was purchased or used to purchase some buses but there's been no explanation are those road ready are those going to be available i have questions about the routes have the routes been worked on is there a liaison person who works with lorraine city schools and be working with the subcontractor that's the way it was done years ago when i was here it's not done that way all throughout the state of ohio but my concern in those of others is if those routes are done great yay hooray at least routes are done and
011buses will be sent out if they're not done that's another concern that i had because in my working over the years in transportation i was a 12-month employee i worked the whole entire summer some districts like that some don't but if i didn't work a 12 month in one of my districts i came in for the month of july i took some vacation in june maybe in may i stretched it out because july is the month when you get the routes done as soon as august 1st comes you need to have those routes ready for the parents so the parents know where their kids are going to be if you're using routes that you've used pet through past years from wherever it might be throughout the city those are okay but what about your new
012kids what about the new little kids kindergarten kids are coming in what about your special ed kits do you have special buses ready for them do they have wheelchairs do they have seat belts do they have any aids that are going to be on the buses with them there's a lot of questions that haven't been asked and since i kind of know a little bit about it i was asked to come and put these concerns and questions to the board and try to find out what's going on because parents are really concerned i haven't met any parent who is mad or angry or ready to yell and scream and holler carry on that'll happen when school starts and the buses don't show up because i remember getting those 300 calls a day and working until
0139 or 10 o'clock at night trying to answer those questions for people it's the same everywhere through the state of ohio but you need to have competent people who know the rules know the laws know what your plan b action is going to be because you had a plan a that didn't come to par so you need to want to set those kinds of things out i'm not here to tell you what to do i'm here to give you information i might have and maybe advise you or at least write some things down if you're not familiar with what's going on busing is a whole nother animal compared to the education in those areas when you're teaching your kids and the teachers stepping in and educating them so please think about some of those concerns
014i really don't know what you're going to do now because i'm afraid it's going to be a big fiasco and i feel bad because i know it doesn't have to be that way as i said i've worked in eight different school districts in the state of ohio all by choice because i was asked to come can you come help can you fix this and i like living in different school areas i loved it when i worked down close to columbus because i could go to all the ohio state games and my husband could come down and that was great but it's really important if you don't know anything about transportation please try to find out it's not just a thing where the bus comes down the road and picks up the kid and if you're
015not there the bus is going to take off and leave you there's so much more about this that you really need to know so please find that out the other thing i wanted i was interested in is if the school district is going to do the routing if they have already or if they are doing the routing if they're not is that contractor that you've hired are they in charge of the routing and do they have a software program when i first started in transportation over 30 years ago maybe closer to 35 or we didn't have software programs we were still doing it the old handway where i had maps all over my whole office and i had to put little pins and i had to route things and do it that way there are
016software programs out there that are very very reasonable training is is simple it's a piece of cake i used to have my granddaughter teach me how to work my iphone because i had no clue so it's not that difficult but that's something important that's key in today's world and with technology you need that maybe i'm talking about it and you already do i don't know but it's just something that i think is very very important special ed concerns me that was always my top priority working with a special needs supervisor because those buses have to be equipped by need they need aids when you switch with companies some companies don't realize that they don't get into the aspect about what is wrong with this particular child what does this particular child need what are the
017the aspects that go into that they're just bringing you the buses and they're not a lot of them aren't equipped for this so i know i'm probably coming a day late and a dollar short with all of these concerns but because i just read about this and heard about this within the last week i just wanted to come forward and see if there's any questions that you have or you need because there's a lot of people who are concerned and really want to try to be helpful with this the other thing regarding the drivers i i saw down at the old west gate shopping center on 21st street there is a big sign and and the company has gone in there and they're recruiting bus drivers 21 an hour is outstanding to be paying your
018drivers i've worked in some districts where they make 30 or 35 but um that's their business and what they do what my other concern is are these people they're going to be hiring do they need to be trained they can't be trained in a week they can't be trained in two weeks sometimes it takes a good six weeks for them to betray they have to have a cdl license with school bus driver assistance necessary for that so there's a lot maybe they'll get lucky and they'll be other drivers who will come from some of the other schools that are around here and they already have their license but please be diligent about this just because you hire a person with cdl license with class b endorsement doesn't mean they're road ready they need to take
019a test they need to have a physical they need a drug an alcohol test or else they're not edgeable to drive in the state of ohio same thing for your van drivers i understand there might be some purchasing of vans i was fortunate enough to work down in columbus in my one school district and i served on the board state board of transportation and i helped write the rules and regulations for bus transportation in vance the majority of the vans are used to transport special needs kids or for special programs that might go on in different buildings throughout your district you have to follow those rules they need to take a test the license is good for six years once you get it but again you need to be drug tested you need to have
020a physical and alcohol testing and all of your drivers whether their bus or vans need to attend three safety and in services a year for transportation those have to be filed through the state now it's done on computers so you just go in and you file all of it just like you do all your state reports i know a lot of you are familiar with state reports you just go in and boom boom you're done but you have to watch what you do with the drivers there's a lot of great drivers out there but you need to pay a little bit of attention those are my concerns and some of the people that i know and i have a lot more but i'm not going to go on with more because i think you kind
021of get what i'm saying okay so i'm here if you have any questions or if um i hope to see something come up in the newspaper that's going to help with the busing because i hate to see you open school and i think i think special ed is starting early or maybe it's the younger kids i can't remember what i've read exactly in the paper but i just hope i hope you're ready because otherwise it's it's going to be really difficult thank you i hope we are too thank you just wanted to remind everybody that traditionally we give three minutes to uh to speakers i'm giving a little leeway tonight but uh if you could keep it around that time maybe we could move hello um my name is regan ameller i am a teacher
022here at lorraine high school i've taught around the state of ohio for six years and i've spent about a year here at lorraine through this year it's become my home it's been kind of the school that really has made me feel heard accepted loved and valued and i just really want to let everyone know that although i've been here for a year unfortunately my boyfriend lives in brook park so that's where we're living um i i am lorraine is also my home it's my work home it's the place i go to be with my students and kind of try my best to make sure they turn into great people one of the things we kind of have to do in order for them to be great people is teach them about people that are different
023than them whether it's a different religion a different gender a different sexuality or a different race or the other millions of things that they could have that's something that we need to talk about a lot of times these kids that are in these marginalized groups have to deal with a lot of things that are really not okay in my class part of my sophomore curriculum was to read of mice and men in a mice and men the character crooks is a black man working on a farm he is almost exclusively referred to as the m word and his name is also crooks because they beat him so much that his back is crooked that is something that can be very difficult for children of color to read to know that that is truly something that
024not even just during slavery but even during the 1930s and 40s was still something that was happening in our country it makes them uncomfortable and they will always feel uncomfortable seeing that word read on the page knowing that that's how people were treated curly's wife doesn't have a name she's not important enough to have one name's curly's wife because she's only defined as her relationship to a man in this text and while that may make us women feel uncomfortable reading it we read it and to me hearing that there are people out there that refuse to allow children to read books about a gay person's experience or to in texas call slavery involuntary relocation to kind of numb the word and make it sound less bad than it really was that's really upsetting that people
025can be so intolerant to me i can't believe that somebody would feel that way allow kids to read books like of mice and men or role of thunder hear my cry where these characters are hurt for who they are and make other kids feel uncomfortable because it's apparently important to american literature which it is but we should also be reading books that are important to american literature from other people that are not just white men john steinbeck who have a story to tell that is something that is not just a white man's interpretation of a historical event that happened and to me hearing these bills like 616 hb 327 they really um not only just upset me but they offend me as a teacher that people would truly believe that something that i would do
026um is to force your child to believe anything that they don't besides just acceptance you don't have to you know i talk about neutrality in my class you don't have to love the person next you don't have to be the nicest person ever you have to be neutral if you don't appreciate those types of experiences it's not my job to tell you not to what it is it's my job to tell you to be neutral to that other person you don't believe in gay people whatever you have that religious aspect of your personality you don't have to be obsessed with gay people the next day and watch all these gay movies and be perfect but what you should do is be neutral don't talk to them about any of this stuff if you don't feel
027comfortable and i really think that that's an important thing that our kids need to learn and to silence other voices silence other people in our community that identify in very different kinds of diverse places that just upsets me and thank you for opposing hb616 it is appreciated for me as a staff member to know that that's where our school district is taking us um that we're on the right path of acceptance and not of kind of shoving down anything that we don't want to hear so thank you guys um so much and thank you to the kids that are here you rock [Applause] we've got writer names right my name is bartholomew gonzalez i am a south view alumni graduate from class 95 born and raised in lorraine um i was a typical lorraine kid
028i thought oh my gosh i just want to get out of here i was like lorraine doesn't have anything to offer and so i joined the navy i joined the navy and had the best experience in the world and it wasn't until i realized after experiencing what the rest of the world had to offer this is the best place you can ever be when you realize the reality of what the world is actually like and so i'm coming with experience i'm coming with a heart of 100 percent working together because this has been the international city not because of the the fact that it's titled the international city but because we have had so many different groups of people learn to work together where i did not experience that anywhere else i've been i've traveled
029to singapore japan thailand hong kong i i've seen what it looks like when people have tried something and it's failed i was like console i'm coming with that to start off because that's my personal experience i was like now this this resolution i'm not we're not here to highlight that and talk about it we just disagree that it wasn't written by us for us to relate to us it was taken from somewhere else because it worked in somewhere other place and we're not against it we just we're not ready for it right now school is about to start it hasn't been communicated it hasn't been talked about we did not sit down to make it up for ourselves so that we can say what it should look like for lorraine not toledo not columbus not
030anyone else i'm not disagreeing with everything that they're saying i was like we're not here to go against you we're here to work with you we don't want to be that school that shows up on the news just because everyone else is doing it we're here to make our community better and so do i disagree with house bill 616 from what i've read in the last three weeks because i've done a crash course it's not bad i don't see anywhere in there it just listed other things that were considered hate speech and some of the things that we're talking about today were in that list but it's it's it's not what everybody says it is and so i'm a little confused when i went and i read it why everybody's making this big commotion the
031only thing we want done today is the resolution that's on a table hold off because what we've noticed as a group is that there are other issues that we want to focus on and so for us we just want to be here to let you know that we're here that we have a voice and that we want to make a difference and we're representing not only ourselves but we want to represent our community because we want to work with you guys we want to work with the community we want as i met with a lot of people in the last couple weeks because we're all on the same page but there's a disconnect and so for us i want to be not for us for me i don't want to be reactive and do something
032because we have to do something i want to be proactive and fix it so we don't have to come back and do it again that's the goal and so as a community member i'm going to say hold off today and let's just put it on put it on hold lorraine city schools we're getting ready to start i was like i know we have other policies and procedures in place um the anti-bullying policy that i think we should look at we should encourage we should keep on making that better and so we weren't here to oppose it we're here to get more ideas so we can work together and so from my standpoint even though um i read a couple of the stuff and that i'm not going to sit here and represent the other another
033group of people i can only say from my experience there's just too many questions still there's too many holes and i can't move forward and encourage it i can't suggest that we do this and run it through just because of a time limit that's my only concern and so in the meantime i would love to sit down and talk with people i haven't met yet just so i can get on the same page with you so that we can understand how to move forward and so thank you [Applause] appreciate your passion i'm not sure if it's working or just need to get closer because it's hard to hear in the back um with your mics too so just thought i'd let everyone know um okay good okay um my name is mary miller i'm also
034a 1995 south view high school graduate bart and i were not in the same class because i graduated a year early but we have lots of the same friends and um you know similar ideas i would say when it comes to most things however this is not a new problem the resolution that's on the table tonight is really just pushing back on things columbus and nationally that have occurred there's obviously been a movement brewing where you know people should get out and fight their school boards and you know no crt and all of the buzzwords and the things that people like to latch on to sometimes without better understanding of why these issues come about or why you have to push back on them and the current board obviously been voted in by the public
035from you know our citizens chose you um to represent us and what we feel is right so you know you made it to the table you were there because we put you there and um thanks to some actions of several people in the district you now have that option to work with the superintendent the board this the community prior to that um we were left with you know one person in charge and um so you know it's great that we can have this now it's great that we can do this we can work together um but we have to protect our students and that's everyone who walks in the door we're not saying who they are and what they are they're coming to the door and we have to say you're safe here you're welcome
036here we're not going to allow for people you know to persecute you regardless so that's my sort of take on this it is ambiguous and i know some of the resolution states that there isn't in house bills you know the house bills listed they're not particularly clear on what you know the stipulations might be um no one's adding anything to my you know understanding we're not adding content we're not adding like curriculum that's directly in opposition of these bills or these groups who um you know it's nothing new at that we're doing tonight this is just reiterating how we feel and what we're going to provide for our students and i for one um having two kids in the district and having many other family friends and children i've coached coming you know up through
037the district and going to high school and middle school where it's very rough for them regardless so let's not add any other obstacle or you know feelings of hate is really the only word i can kind of come to you know put on this so totally support the resolution and time is of the essence if there was time to work on things you know that would be fine but it has to be done there you know before this resolution or before the house bills are voted on in columbus so we'd love to have all the time in the world to work on things but sometimes you just have to work with what you're given so thank you for working with what you've given and have a great evening thank you um my name is tanika
038pozick and i'm actually just going to read what was given to me it's on behalf of a friend of mine her name is desiree shores so i'm just going to read i know we have three minutes so i'm going to try to read it quick um good evening desiree shore she is a parent of two lorraine high students and a member of this community i just want to speak to you tonight with the request that you not vote to ban hb616 that is up for bo up for vote i apologize i'm so nervous in the ohio senate as someone who has been a full-time child care provider for most of the past seven years to eight children none of whom are her own she can say that no one understood none of the children understood
039anything about heterosexual heterosexual love and relationships whether it was the kids with both parents in one in the house or just a single parent the kids never asked about relationships between men and women or the lack thereof if children that young aren't thinking about the heterosexual relationships right in front of them they aren't thinking about the homosexual ones either she put my own children at grade levels k through first grade had an aunt that was in a relationship with another woman they would visit with their aunt spend the night with her with her cousin spend a lot of time with her aunt and her partner never once did they ask why the house looked different than theirs didn't inquire and her kids really do like asking questions um they weren't thinking about heterosexual or homosexual
040or bisexual or pansexual or whatever the preferences are um they were just enjoying the people in their lives and they loved them and they trusted them and i'm sure there are a lot of people in this room who have their own varying opinions and strong convictions about both sides of the bill so i just she if she were here she would stand before you and say that um she is a sister of a once bisexual and an aunt of a pansexual nephew the cousin of a transgender man and a pansexual woman and a friend of multiple members of the lgbtq community i stand before you as a christian i am a christian too but she is a christian as well my christian faith tells me to love my neighbors as i love myself and to
041do unto others as i would have them do unto me i live by those golden rules and i show respect and honor and protect the dignity of every person when i come in contact with them i'm not here because i don't think we should say gay to our kids or that they shouldn't be taught lessons that are relevant to the world that they're being raised in a world that is very different than the one even i was raised in and can only imagine and look at the different generations here today but our children are growing up in a world where they have to go through lockdown drills and fear of not making it through school a school day alive um that's making me emotional um i have two children of my own so sorry they're
042living in a system that overloads them with standardized tests and often pays more attention to the statistics than the children themselves and a system that keeps cutting funding to the arts where many of them were born to thrive and they live in a society that constantly bombards young people with images of what they should look like what they should wear who they should be and tells them how many views they get affirms their worth as a human being in a world full of the pressures of social media and ever changing political and social climates why can't we just allow them to be innocent for as long as they can when so many children enter kindergarten behind in reading skills and we as a district are still pulling ourselves out of the hole we have been
043in for so long and struggling to just achieve attendance goals why is the focus on being allowed to teach sexual orientation to the little ones is even a conversation hb616 as it currently stands isn't saying we can't say gay as so many divisive headlines state it is saying let the kids be kids and let's and start teaching them these subjects when they become develop developmentally relevant and appropriate those years between preschool to third grade should be focused on the foundations of education at fourth fifth sixth seven eight-year-olds the majority of these children aren't thinking about orientation gender preferences or preferred pronouns and they shouldn't be they should be learning to read write and to master basic math skills they should be learning how to make friends follow a routine respect authority figures and follow the
044rules why open the doors and add confusion where it doesn't need to be i completely i understand and completely agree with having those conversations with the older students and addressing these issues as the children mature become more aware of themselves and the world around them hb 616 currently leaves room for that to be done however our responsibility to these young people is not just about what they are taught and when but also what we protect and shield them from and when with that said i'd like to close by reading a short excerpt from the hiding place the triumphant story of corey ten boom a holocaust survivor and so seated next to my father in the train compartment i suddenly asked father what is sex sin he turned to look at me as he always did
045when answering a question but to my surprise he said nothing at last he stood up lifted his traveling case off the seat and got and set it on the floor will you carry it off the train cory he said i stood up and tugged at it it was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning it's too heavy i said yes he said and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load it's the same way corey with knowledge some knowledge is too heavy for children when you are older and stronger you can bear it for now you must trust me to carry it for you i read that for desiree shores [Applause] i don't know all right so i wasn't sure
046if i was going to come up or talk there's obviously a lot to unpack as far as this situation goes this issue goes and and i really do appreciate where people are coming from in terms of a religious standpoint or any reason where you may have a concern and i do believe that the school should make reasonable accommodations to facilitate conscientious objection of content that being said as people have already referenced several times one of the biggest benefits that we have as the international city something that i benefited from as a virtual lifelong resident of lorraine a product of lorraine city schools is the exposure to a diverse cast of people i'm a white guy in case you didn't notice but it and it's real easy we're tribalistic by by instinct it's really easy to
047arbitrarily define what is yours what is normal and to typically then view others outside of that as lesser and that is something that that takes hold that's how prejudice it's how hatred has risen up in in so many different arbitrary ways so i'm i'm so grateful for the experience i had in lorraine city schools where and in lorraine in general where those erroneous patterns weren't able to take hold funny enough one of the areas where uh it was probably probably short change in that regard would be when it came to lgbtq community members that was still taboo that wasn't talked about and within reason i did have negative ideology kind of set in or at least an apathy set in and it took time as an adult working around members of that community to become
048more informed and to kind of undo for lack of a better word the damage or the disservice that i had when i was younger so it was an opportunity that overall i'm very grateful for my time in lorraine schools but it's something that i wish i had had more exposure to on top of that when we're talking about the the burdens that are on children that's not inaccurate and unfortunately in a city like lorraine teachers are already going way above and beyond teaching and trying to help compensate for any number of issues that our children and their families are dealing with socially economically etc they're just harsh realities they are too heavy for children but they are the reality we can't change that when we talk about lgbtq it's the same thing it is a
049reality that we have to face and that we should at least empower our teachers to address when they are willing and able to anything less of that would be a disservice to our children to the best of my knowledge nobody's talking about teaching it in a curriculum when we talk about the ages that it should or shouldn't be done i can appreciate that to a large extent and yet there are documented situations of transgender homosexuality kids feeling different knowing that they're different at a at a very young age younger than five it's it's documented so as much as it sounds good to say oh we don't need to worry about it until later on that does apply to plenty of kids that doesn't mean it applies across the board and we should empower our teachers
050to address those respective students if and when the situation arises and that's my understanding what's being done with this resolution so i i i think that's all i want to say for well one other thing i guess there is a religious component to this and when when you talk about christianity there was a time when christianity was this shameful hated group it was something that was talked about in secret it was a it was a very dark period and i i find it ironic among other probably harsher things for people from that demographic to consider inflicting that same fate on any other demographic and that's really what we're talking about when we're saying you can't talk about these things you're coming whether you're based on religious or really all the more so if you're basing
051it on religion that that flies in the face of your own experience of your own history where you guys are now fortunate enough where you are able to speak freely and we do that we have prayer groups i'm fine with that however to to even consider inflicting that on some other demographic a marginalized demographic with horrifying rates of suicidal ideation suicidal attempts is it's deeply disturbing so i do support the resolution hopefully this is reasonably coherent thank you [Applause] hello so i too am a lifelong lorraine resident i have one graduate two currently attending lorraine schools one in middle school and one in elementary my younger two even my oldest but my younger two especially are in an age where i have absolutely no idea what their sexual orientation is going to be um it's
052something that if they were in class and it was something they were curious about or they felt like they trusted a teacher enough to come to them if they were afraid of people like the opposition that have spoke today um they may not want to speak up so i want them to be able i want them to be comfortable to do that um with a teacher and an admin position a volunteer somebody that's trusted within the marine city schools and i have i find it hard to believe that some people in the opposition have actually even read house bill 616 because it absolutely does speak on teachers discussing homosexual relationships specifically now what if that teacher is a homosexual what if that teacher has a man and has a husband or is a woman and
053has a wife is that person not allowed to speak on their spouse on their children on their life on their on that on themselves is that is that not okay okay and then also i want to remind everyone that this is not a parochial school this is not a religious school this is a public school okay and there are places for people who have such sheltered ideology that they don't want their kids to know that gay people exist this isn't one of them and i'm very grateful for that also because another reason why i don't think that many of the opposition have actually read bills house bill 616 is because they are threatening to defund us even further so it's kind of funny that that was even brought up if if a teacher or school
054district someone within that school district is caught speaking about those parts of the bill that are restricted they will take our money it is in the very end of the bill and they will defund us even further so i can't even imagine how you can be okay with that and for you to bring up funding like that just doesn't make sense to me but whatever um i wanted to say that i'm in support of this bill 100 against house bill 616 house bill 327 and i am very grateful for the open minds that are at the table today [Applause] uh once one second please uh we went past the 30 minute would the board like to vote to extend this or i mean we do have another second hearing of the public after we do
055business okay do i have a motion to extend i'd like to make a motion that we move the second hearing of the public to right now rather than at the end of the meeting when it's after the fact second we have a second so um the motion to uh okay uh mr ferguson yes miss washington yes mr sturgeon yes mr ballard yes mrs aria yes just to make this a little more user-friendly how about we sign in ahead of time so we'll have to stare at you later so again when parker's done signing in if you're interested in speaking please just go fill your name for those of you that don't know me on parker veronica i just graduated a few months ago currently now an employee here at lorain city schools parker you're a
056trained professional as i am um i would love to firmly express my support for the resolution in my opinion the bill is blatantly racist homophobic and goes against everything we stand for and say we stand for here lorraine high inclusivity a safe place all these things that we preach and equity and all of those things that's the exact antithesis of what this bill is um for me personally i attended catholic school for a number of years and after transferring here about halfway through my freshman year i can say it has impacted me phenomenally and that comes from in large part some phenomenal teachers who open my views on many many things and what this bill does is it blocks that it blocks that ability and it puts teachers at risk for creating safe space that's
057really all i had to say i just wanted to extend my support for the resolution uh my name is donovan wysocki i'm a student here at lorraine high it's my first year sophomore i'm sorry i'll be junior next year um next week i'm also in full support of the resolution i'm queer myself pansexual non-binary um and people should know that queer people exist they should be able to talk about it freely and that's that's kind of it [Applause] a little shorter good evening my name is mrs rios i'm a kindergarten teacher i'm here at lauren city schools very proud to be for almost seven years now and i just wanted to just just reiterate to all the board members and leaders of our school that we're not asking you to pick a side i think
058that shouldn't be we don't we're not asking you to pick a side which one's better or who knows better or who's right i think from the beginning we were just so thankful that you were able to listen to us we might not understand the reasons on either side and that's why we can't ask you to just pick one side like we said we want to work together and we want to propose something that is fair to everyone my concern is that if as adults we're trying to have this conversation which i'm very proud everyone has been very respectful and um and sharing but i am concerned that even as adults if we're sharing and we're talking and we're already using words as calling others hateful or phobic then i am concerned how are we going
059to lead these conversations in the classroom so that no group not one or the other feels isolated or condemned or ashamed we don't want no one to feel that way we want them everyone to come to school with the ability to learn and feel loved and feel accepted but without my concern is that are we really trained to have these conversations without pushing one idea idea or the other on our students i don't think they need that um we can i think we could still be supportive we could still be loving we could still be accepting that is what we believe too and so um i don't think that we are just today i don't think that we can lead those conversations in a way where both sides are honored in the same way and
060so that is my concern and that's why we have to be very careful on how we're going to lead that and how everyone is going to be held accountable to have conversations in a safe way where no one feels marginalized no matter what group you're in because again we're not going to always understand we might think we know we might think we understand but we really might not and so again let's do it in a safe way let's do it in a way that is fair to everyone so everyone feels accepted and loved and everyone has a safe environment um to be educated without creating the devices in our classrooms and so that's just some of the concerns i wanted to share and just again reiterate that we are just asking for common ground if
061someone does not feel comfortable talking about something or teaching something then no one should be obligated to do so and i think that is fair based on what we always say for our schools that everyone is welcome here if that is true then we should have common ground so everyone feels the same way so again i'm not asking you to pick a side i'm just asking you to propose something that is more clear because our resolution is not clear it does specifically say teaching and i do not want to and that is my choice and i will still do a heck of a job in my classroom and i will prepare my kindergarten students for success every single day and i will love every single one of them and you have my word that doesn't
062matter where i stand my kids don't have to know my opinion they need my um they need my love they need my acceptance and they need me to show up every day to give them the best that i got and that's what they will receive thank you so much [Applause] hi i'm stacey vora and i'm a teacher here at lorraine high i think and i wasn't planned on speaking tonight i'm going to speak because i keep hearing as if we are going to teach lessons in the classroom in every single room no one is asking any teacher to speak about anything that they feel uncomfortable with and trust me as a teacher who was taught transgender gay lesbian students for years they're not going to ask you if you're uncomfortable they're not the teacher you're
063not the teacher they're going to go to they're going to go to the teacher that they know is comfortable talking to them about these things and the biggest concern that i have is there are other states that have put in similar house bills where schools are being disciplined because they had something transgender in their library they're being disciplined because the school district gave them a pd on lgbtq topics or on diversity i'm not saying that every teacher in lorraine should be talking to their kids about things if you're not comfortable talking about something no one should talk about something that they religiously or ethically feel is wrong but i don't want someone to come into my room and say ms voor i've got two moms and so and so said xyz about it which happened
064last year and not be able to talk to that child i don't want a young man to come in and say that gay guy is looking at me again if he keeps looking at me like that and not be able to take him aside and have a conversation with that child when we're talking about these situations we're not talking about teaching a lesson i'm not teaching a lesson on lgbtq but when my student comes to me asking a question i want to be able to answer them or seek the resources they need without punishment and that's all this resolution is about thank you [Applause] okay mr president could i make a statement please as a member of the lorraine academic distress commission that worked diligently with my esteemed colleagues to return local control to lorraine
065city schools it is an important aspect to keep the local interest of our community protected with our locally elected board of education and a superintendent that would work for the betterment of the children of lorraine with that i want to express my gratitude to the board of education and dr graham for continuing to attempt to get out in front of some of the inaccurate perceptions that we see across america and in our state that attempt to disparage public education last week i had the pleasure of having a conversation with tim ryan a candidate for u.s senate in ohio at an educator roundtable event about combating the damning words we often hear from certain entities about the attempted indoctrination perpetuated by our schools and i brought up to him how recently our former president slammed american
066teachers for what he labeled our marxist far left woke agenda saying we teach children to hate america we teach critical race theory we promote sexual orientations with our students and the department of education should be disbanded i am disturbed educators in our country are continually attacked disrespected and accused of doing things that are frequently not true this might just be one of the many reasons why our nation is facing a greater teacher shortage with each passing day mr ryan complimented lorraine's board of education and in his opinion he felt the best way to combat deceptive accusations are to push back with the truth and the basic principles of what we stand for as americans as educators we continue to strive to do what is best for our students and our communities i commend this board
067of education for their proactive approach in such areas as teachers not carrying guns in the classroom and their approach in dealing with house bill 616 322 and 327 as districts focus on how to deal with divisive concepts current events sexual orientation historical examinations of race and diversity and discussions of wide-ranging topics and without fear of punishment for teachers that goes along with that with today's resolution i believe the lorraine board of education is taking the lead and saying we are going to respect the diversity of our community and our schools and that they should not be driven by fear but by true perspective of common sense and what is best for the students of lorraine thank you before we close this tonight i just want to re reiterate one paragraph here for those here tonight
068and those watching from home please know that we will be leaning into these discussions more deeply with our face faith leaders with the intent of sharing what is and isn't being taught in our schools and i would like to thank everybody for coming tonight and appreciate your opinion and mrs ward thank you it was that was elegant that so many people thought we were forcing something on it i'm going to say something very very briefly and i know this is not my time to talk but i know folks should be leaving here in a couple seconds and um i just want to say stacey as always uh you were a step ahead of me and said it better than i was going to but those were the the phrases and the words that i was
069latching on to we're not obligating anybody to do anything that is against their spiritual beliefs but we want to make sure that our kids when they come to the lorraine city schools they know they're not only loved but they're accepted respected safe and supported in who they are and we also want to make sure that our teachers feel safe in supporting our children and the way they feel best there's nothing in the resolution that dictates that we'll practice any differently than we have been well my off and on for the past seven years we just want to make sure that folks know where we stand so thank you very much okay can i have a motion to approve the minutes so moved second roll call mr ferguson yes mrs zario yes mr sturgill yes mr
070ballard yes miss washington yes this is your new old business uh be none uh report recommendation of the treasurer i have item 8.01 for approval so moved check it roll call miss nazario yes miss washington yes mr sturgill yes mr ballard yes mr ferguson yes report recommendations of the superintendent personnel matters and first of all i want to apologize uh when you ask me if we need any visitors in the audience we have councilman mitch mcfarlas out in the audience i apologize for missing earlier i don't see very well and there's a lot of people so so thanks for coming mitch um also a couple announcements here real quick uh first of all wednesday night and again it's really not being able to see very well uh wednesday night we have our back-to-school event four
071to eight at black river landing everybody's welcome uh we have some a lot of school folks would be there games free food free school supplies um uh celebration of new school year and again just a chance for everybody to get together and hug it out and mary can hear me i know you said the microphones won't work we're good okay thanks um so i'll film yelling into my mic that's why we'll make sure the folks in the back in here most of our students start on august 17th but check the website because we do have staggered start we did that last year for our sixth graders and our freshman it worked out great so it's a tradition that looks like we're gonna keep and again somebody mentioned the arts getting cut and because of funding
072pieces in the past we'll be full-blown with the arts this year expanded fine arts music theater dance and robotics so again our goal is to engage our children in all the ways they want to be engaged in the school district uh we'll also provide free school supplies um busing service and if cindy is still here i told her i wasn't going to do much but i'm going to address most of her questions because that's the basic piece of what we're doing um but uh we do have uh high school students will be transported this year uh in previous years it was just pre-k eight uh so our high school students will have access to more transportation um opportunities in the past uh but right now the update on where we are uh we have they
073the auxilio's buses are the buses that are on our front lot right now um there's 41 of them and i believe as of today they've had six that have been approved now i think the way it was phrased earlier is do they know what they're doing the buses were purchased in other states and most of them came from michigan and michigan and i have different roles um and the way it was explained to me the there's a checklist of things that have to exist and have to happen and have to be done in a certain way and i think that michigan has 58 pages and we have 135 pages so there's more expectations when you come to ohio the highway patrol was here last week and when they were expecting to do a lot of
074buses they brought in inspectors from all over the state and um auxilia wasn't ready to present any more buses so it's six and i believe the state highway patrol plans on coming back next wednesday for them uh based on conversations i've had with many many many um we needed a plan b so we did purchase 2.4 million dollars with the buses and vans that should be enough to transport our students binding buses is tough right now but we found somebody in the buses were all not brand new but pretty close and for a school bus for all intents and purposes brand new most of them are 20s and 21s with between 25 000 and 60 000 miles on them school buses last for 30 years and get hundreds of thousands um so again we've got
075our own fleet if we need it we're still planning on auxiliary doing the work if not we have a plan b and we also have a plan c that if that doesn't work so we are doing some things but in the postcode world things are different and again this is not going as quickly as we had hoped candidly but to answer some of the questions which are we do have our own router our routes are done we do have a routing coordinator and a transportation supervisor that has been and will be in charge of all routes moving forward and our current transportation director and our current business manager combined to have about 25 years worth of transportation experience all with the parma city schools which is about twice our size um and i think that
076if i'm looking right in the camera which one i'm looking into joe all right this one the bus bus drivers uh the information of 21 an hour was not accurate i believe it's 24 an hour so if you are willing and able and want to come help out um we'd love to have you so please reach out to our human resources department or look online and our software we do evidence transversal traversal okay so um i like the board to consider for approval items 9.01 to 9.08 personnel matters just observation i see two more of my former students on there and several lorraine city schools graduates welcome home keep them coming that's right are you making a motion i will i will move to accept i will second welcome mr ferguson yes miss washington yes
077mr sturgeon yes mr ballard yes mrs azaria yes and just one quick story on the staffing side of this we hired a teacher who came in to jump in ross if i'm messing this up uh flew in from arizona who just graduated to interview for a position here fell in love with the city just brought his suitcases and found a place to live and you just wait for his first check to get a car so i mean but the way he phrased it was um he found a home and he fell in love with lorraine in just that short period of time and doesn't want to be anywhere else so again that's a statement to the folks we have in this room and in our community and uh and i know a lot of folks
078mentioned they've been here and left and came back and been here forever and short time it's been a home and i feel the exact same way i've here off and on for seven years um couldn't buy a house quick enough and and thanks for saving me a c but uh it's just a good story about people appreciating who we are i like to make a motion to for the board to consider for approval of items 10.01 to 10.32 operations matters second roll call miss cesario yes mr ferguson yes mr sturgill yes mr ballard yes miss washington yes court recommendations other matters i've done you done any new business committee reports and requests from board members you need to step in here in the public the next board meeting will be item 13. uh i make
079a motion for item 13.01 approval of a resolution in opposition to any divisive concept legislation including house bill 322 house bill 327 and house bill 616. wait a second second and i have us like to speak for a minute i'm very passionate about this and i i i'm not the only one in this room and i appreciate everyone on i hate to call it sides because i don't think we're on opposite sides um i think we're expressing things differently um this resolution and and i've read it and worked to edit it with some people and it was run through the osba um is in opposition and in protection of our students and our teachers there is nothing in here that is going to change the curriculum in any way shape or form no teacher will
080be expected to instruct at all in any issue that is mentioned in this rather it protects them if the issue comes up or is brought to them age appropriate i heard several times and i am 100 percent in support of that concept and if someone finds something that is being aged inappropriately or brought to a classroom inappropriately i bring it to us and i will lead the charge with you so that we make sure that we are conducting our business correctly you are correct young students are not thinking about heterosexual or homosexual relationships young students are kids young students sometimes ask questions when they do they deserve answers and this is only to protect our people this resolution is the golden rule do unto others as you would do on it had you would have
081them do unto you we are not trying to force anyone to accept a position or at a loss for a word but we are not trying to support or to expect anyone to go anywhere they are not comfortable that is not the purpose of this intent of this resolution no one in this district at any level should be teaching alternative lifestyles any more than they should be teaching racism which is addressed in another one of these resolutions that is inappropriate this is inclusive intentionally inclusive we are not trying to be divisive the intention is totally the opposite we want to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table and is comfortable at that seat and we are not expecting to put anyone in a position where they have to act against their beliefs
082that is very important i am very very very passionate on this subject for a lot of personal reasons i grew up in lorraine i retired from lorraine schools i still reside here and i feel your passion and i want you to understand that your passion is noted and we agree with you we don't want to put anybody in the position that you are referring to and with that i i heartily move that this resolution be so be passed i i would like to make a couple comments um i i uh this resolution came kids first kids need to be welcome kids need to feel safe kids feelings kids safety kids need to feel that first we need to make sure they feel safe and welcome first if you are an adult in working in the
083building and you are uncomfortable when they come to you then please find somebody else that feels comfortable talking to them if you don't know how to answer their question if you don't know how to if you don't feel comfortable answering them please find someone else a social worker a counselor another adult i i support staff i support teachers i hope you guys know that by now that's how i got to the seat at the table but kids have to come first i i i sort of agree with mr ferguson but i believe kids have to come first i also want to say that i sat down with i won't name names so we don't call people out but i sat down with many people in this room um in a couple times and i made
084myself available i gave you my phone number and i gave you my um my email and i said please call me please call me let's try to work on this and so i did try to make myself available we did run this by osba we are doing what what the nation is doing not just columbus not just ohio but this is an alignment of what other states and what the nation is doing we are trying to protect our kids we are trying to protect educators we want to make sure that every single person feels included and is safe to learn about history and to be themselves and i appreciate all of your thoughts and i am i thank the board for making the motion uh and sec and thank you mr ferguson for seconding the
085motion i just want to say quickly when one of our teachers tonight say i want to be able to talk to my students that makes me sick as a teacher once that a teacher can not talk to her students and that can happen in ohio and that is sickening knowing that so many of our students have that relationship with our kids and that is the only person that our kids can talk to so when a teacher says i just want to talk to my students it makes me sick that that can be taken away from them so i'm hoping that this message gets down to columbus and i'm hoping other schools will follow along that we can get that message down so we don't take that right away from our teachers which then will make
086our good teachers who want to talk to our kids that we need here in the rain said i hope they don't leave this profession for that reason because they are scared of losing their license if they talk to a student sorry for getting emotional once again salah at the polarization that's going on in this room is what's happening on a national level and the real division i guess polarizing point fight should be done in columbus that's where it's really being done to us in pitting us against each other what i think i heard and bill you addressed it with us furthering the conversation within this community where should it happen prior because i'm hearing people say that they don't have a voice on how we arrived here i know you did open it up for
087people to talk and we've been to houses we've had private meetings and we know this is a very hot topic on all sides and nobody here is here to win or lose or to pick a side as i think miss rio said um i hope that you all in this room continue to come because we need this kind of input from our community because you said they you guys entrusted us to do the job but we have to know what you're thinking and how you're feeling on all sides to do a good job where everybody's voice is being heard so i guess we should put that on us on you dr graham to make sure that even after this vote is taking harvard falls tonight we do a better job or we expand our way
088of making sure that we're communicating before the cake is baked with the community you can't bake the cake and then say what kind of cake do you want because it's already out of the out of the bag then not accusing you of doing that at all but um let's make sure that as we're picking the ingredients everybody has a voice and we still may not all agree we probably won't agree on this kind of a topic but at least everybody feel as though they're being heard and i think that would go a long way knowing the community like i know this community thank you thank you all for coming i just want to say one thing more that i'm glad we have parents that care i'm i'm glad you showed up there's people there's people
089that should be here that aren't okay and at least you care enough to come and that's uh i think we wanted that for a long time okay so thank you roll call please miss washington yes mr ferguson yes mr sturgeon yes mr ballard yes miss nazario yes okay next board meeting will be august 22nd 5 o'clock here do i have a motion for a german yes so moved miss washington yes miss cesario yes mr sturgill yes mr ballard yes mr ferguson yes you