Mentor Board of Education Meeting March 11, 2025

001e e e [Music] all right you got us now thank you Mr gatski good evening the March 11th 2025 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with Section 3 31315 of the Ohio revised code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting Mr Wade please call the role miss aapo here miss Jing here miss maraza present Miss Pay Here Miss Cook here thank you and please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we have one adjustment to our agenda tonight and uh Mr Heath will speak on that

002so before we begin tonight's agenda I need to make one adjustment to uh to the agenda uh because we passed the bathroom Bill policy under the emergency Clause at our last meeting we do not need to have a second reading or vote on that policy as it's stated uh under the Board of Education report and recommendations on the agenda this evening so that can be stricken so that is three separate policies that we did under emergency last time 22 60.02 single gender classes and activities and let's see my numbers 2260 no I just read that one 2340 field and other District sponsor trips and then finally 7421 restrooms locker rooms shower rooms and changing rooms I understand you may have signed up for the first reading on that policy if you did um we're just

003going to go ahead and just know that we've already voted on it we pass passed we passed it unanimously um through emergency so we have that policy in place if you do still want to speak on it though you can you can't speak at the first session if you signed up that way so sorry for the confusion and thank you I would like to welcome everyone to the March 11th 2025 regular meeting of the men are Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and material associated with each agenda item for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of Education agenda system board docs the public can access the agenda through the school district's website the agenda is available through the

004district's website for public viewing the Sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information there are two places on the agenda when the board entertains comments from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on any subject whether it be an item on the agenda or another topic to participate in the hearing of the public section interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of the meeting signups are available online through the school district's website or on site prior to the start of

005the meeting you will be called to the microphone when it is your turn to speak at that time we ask that you please state your name and address questions to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to 3 minutes the purpose of the hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board the board continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component to conducting business this is an information gathering opportunity for the board board and administration so we can work to best serve our community if at the end of public participation we do not make a statement please know this does not demonstrate a lack of care for comments shared by our community rather we want to be thoughtful in our

006approach and we will provide a response in a timely manner when appropriate in an effort to maintain an orderly meeting based on Ohio Revised Code 29712 and board policy 169.000 any person doing any Act which obstructs or interferes with the conduct or orderly progress of the board meeting will be warned and or removed from the meeting the meeting is being shown live and can be viewed On Demand on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Menor Ohio thank you and at this time we will have our district highlights and recognitions Mr Heath good evening Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade tonight we are recognizing several students for their outstanding achievements I'd like to start this evening by inviting Mr Hammond to the podium to begin the presentations good evening Madame President members of the

007board Mr Heath and Mr Wade this evening it gives me great pleasure to recognize the grade level spelling be Champions based on her District competition that culminated on January 23rd 2025 these students excelled at the building level by winning their respective spell downs and before moving on to our district competition congratulations to the following students and students as as I read your name come on up to the stage have a certificate come on across the front shake the board members hands and you can exit on the stairs at the other side all right fourth grade champion from Ridge Elementary tin a [Applause] zenovich congratulations here you go go right across through here go right in front there you go congratulations fifth grade champion from Hopkins Giana Janar sixth grade runnerup for Memorial August [Applause] Southworth

008congratulations right here sixth grade champion from Shore Middle School Tia gisler seventh grade runner up from Shore Middle School Liam stal houth and I'm going to come back to our seventh grade champion in just a minute because you're going to see why eighth grade runner up from Shore Middle School reys Clark eighth grade champion and District runnerup from Memorial Dylan Fedor and Dylan was also the seventh grade champion last year so congratulations to him and last but not least our seventh grade champion from Memorial his name is Sebastian Gil but hang on he was not only our our seventh grade Champion he was our district Champion come on up Sebastian you can make your way District Champion he's our Lake County Spelling be champion and on February 20 28 he won the tri count spelling

009be which qualifies him to compete at the scrips National Spelling be championship in Washington DC May 26th to the 30th bu right ahead congratulations congratulations to all these students [Applause] congratulations Sebastian and good luck Madame President members of the board Mr Wade at this time I would like to invite Miss Kane to the podium for the Art Award recognitions seeing none we will move on uh Madam president members of the board uh at this time I'm going to turn it over to Mr Wade for the auditor of State presentation Madame President members of the board Mr Heath I would ask that Katie Simo the northeast Ohio Regional liaison from the auditor of state's office join me on the stage hello thank you and good evening um my name is Katie SEO I'm the northeast Ohio

010representative for the auditor State's office and uh is my pleasure to be here this evening to present the Menor Exempted Village School District Bill Wade his staff as well as you the board um and the administration with the Ohio Auditor State Award with distinction for fiscal year 2024 um and this is actually the third year in a row that the Menor City or Menor Exempted city school district is actually receiving this award um so this is very very exciting um each year that you get the award is it just shows that basically you got a clean audit um everything was filed on time um and honestly only about 2 to 3% of our 6,000 agencies at the auditor State's office received this award so it is really um an outstanding award um and shows just

011all the dedication hard work that goes into it um and so on behalf of auditor State Keith Faber we want to thank you for all of your hard work and congratulations appreciate thank you yes of course thank you um I would just like to take a moment to congratulate and sincerely thank our outstanding Treasury Department who's here with us tonight um it's their hard work their diligent and their commitment to Excellence in financial reporting and accountability that earn us this award each year their e efforts Have Been instrumental in earning this award in a recognition that reflects the highest standards of physical responsibility and transparency for our community this award is a testament to their dedication their accuracy and the professionalism that they demonstrate every day in managing our district funds and operations their meticulous

012attention to detail and commitment to sound financial stewardship ensure that we remain accountable to our St excuse me students staff and most importantly our community I'm proud to work alongside such an incredible group of individuals who not only help me daily but help our staff to make sure that we're protecting our district funds so at this time I would ask that they join me on stage uh if we would have Mike vello assistant Treasurer join us on stage we would have our coordinator of payroll glendan erson our payroll specialist Julie Pepa our grant specialist Karen Brandt our account clerk Chrystal Pierce our coordinator of uh accounting Mike Bowen as well as our Administrative Assistant Rachel griffi account clerks Tammy rudler and Deb if you guys would join me on stage I would appreciate itations [Applause]

013on if you said just to Madame President members of the board Mr Wade we have Mr Tom hack board member from the ESC of the Western Reserve uh here with us this evening I would like to invite him to the podium for the osba student achievement presentation thank you very much for letting me get on your agenda tonight I appreciate that so I am actually representing uh gentleman by the name of Reno Kelli who is the Northeast region uh manager for osba he unfortunately could not be here tonight but uh it is very important that that we recognize the the various schools as they participate in things that that really uh highlight the thec ESS of different uh districts around the state so it's important that that that this certificate even if Reno can't be

014here it's important that we we go ahead and present this so I'm just going to go ahead and read the certificate it's certificate of achievement the Ohio school boards Association student achievement Fair exhibitor presented to Menor schools Allied Health that was on November 11th 2024 signed by uh Reno uh Kell and Bruce Alexander Who's the who was the region president of that time so if I if I could Reno would like a um a picture I think to prove that I've actually done this so if I could infringe on on thank you very much and I'm gonna I'm wondering if you might going to be like a selfie is it could be I'm wondering if you might be our photographer thank you I'll take a few two you're all right thank you so much you're

015welcome to being here you thank you thank you next we have the approval of minutes do I have a motion so moved second any discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 next we have hearing of the public on agenda items only our first Speaker tonight is Jacqueline McCormack oh thank you on the agenda tonight is the policy regarding the use of the Cardinal Nation newspaper Club led by liberal government teacher Steve couch who has had many complaints against him in his capacity as a government teacher and an adviser to this club here's a post on his social media from J July of 20 uh 22nd I'm sorry July 22nd quote you can't be a patriot that loves

016the constitution in this country and support Donald Trump or anyone that enabled defended or aided him at the same time pick we don't have the Cardinal Nation on our agenda tonight we have a journalism class on the agenda I believe that's what Cardinal nation is it's journalism it's not a journalism class it's an extracurricular the policy that we're discussing though is covers true I don't think it covers our I don't think it covers an employee and that isn't the method that we hear issues about an employee so I just need clarification as well is it about the issue of the employee or is is it the topic that's a problem because it is on the agenda for the policy for Publications so M McCormack is allowed to speak about that she is allowed to speak

017about the topic but we don't speak about our employees here if there's an issue with an employee we have a procedure for that which I agree we do procedure for that to the table it's not coming in front of a board meeting so are you telling her she can't speak on that I I just want clarification because I do believe that's something that we've been advised not to say so I just don't want us to get into any kind of legal I don't want to get into legal either I just think it's extremely unappropriate and unfair to our staff so you ask her maybe not to speak about it could you please not speak about our employees sure thank you okay another item on the agenda is the release time for religious instruction that Maggie

018Jenny and Lauren all pushed against when they indefinitely postponed the vote months ago now they're forced to be in compliance with the law but they are trying to make it as hard as possible to actually use the RT policy since they want to make it only available for lunch recess and study hall it's not a good idea to make a bunch of men are uh churches upset when you will rely on their congregation support in order to pass a levy once again we hit National news because of Lauren Mara's extreme liberal political views her legislative update where she pretended to be an attorney landed her on Libs of Tik talk where our United States Senator Bernie Marino was appalled and sent a letter encouraging our board to follow the executive orders she and her liberal

019colleagues Maggie cook and Jenny gesling could cost the district over $5 million funny they were so worried about our funding being at risk when it came to allowing boys and girls bathrooms and locker rooms cooks and gesling voted against a resolution to uph hold parental rights and go against the Title Nine changes to allow boys in girls bathrooms and locker rooms this resolution was given to all board members by the Ohio Board of Education when they pass a resolution on the topic I also think it's hilarious that Lauren marazza brought up how much legal costs increased and tried to place it on Annie and Rose when they actually used legal council to protect the district against lawsuits arising from public speaking policies that were not in alignment with the law when Maggie cook tried stopping

020me from speaking she could have earned the district some new litigation not tonight but a different night I'd like to know how much legal fees have incurred since Lauren's statements were made I'm sure Maggie's letter back to our Senator that didn't even address his questions was prepared by an attorney maybe Lauren you shouldn't throw stones if you live in a glass house keep making decisions that go against the community and you'll see another Levy fail I'd like to remind everyone that Maggie and Jenny will be up for re-election in November Maggie and jinny your votes are visible and you're far too liberal for Menor thank you our next speaker is Ashley Pendergast not seeing miss Pendergast our next speaker is Brandon towns good evening uh it's been a while since I've been here um this

021is regarding uh the journalism discussions and executive orders so uh for the past 4 years at the very least public comments have continued to devolve into a space of hostility rather than constructive discourse with the same device of rhetoric against anti-di LGBT students family staff minority students and families and this misuse does not Advanced our district Mission it actually undermines it effective governance remains and requires meaningful solution driven communic ation and not this performative outrage I believe emails and structured forums provide ways to have thoughtful dialogue and discussion without allowing our meetings to be hijacked um with repetition and hostility for hours on in to emphasize the emptiness of these ongoing attacks I will now be using the remainder of my time in silence symbolizing the void of substance that has filled this space for

022far too long after my silence I will have a final comment and I will leave us for the rest of the meeting for for and I urge the board to seriously consider eliminating public comments here at these meetings moving forward thank you our next speaker is Alex fish later thank you Alex our next speaker is John Sanford Madame President members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade I would like to address some comments towards Pol policy 5223 the AR TR issue that is on its first reading now that now that the law has been passed and is not being litigated policy 5223 is both timely and well-crafted IT addresses the legal requirements while remaining true to the primary mission of the board which is maintaining quality public education I know it sometimes seems to get

023lost in the shuffle but we must always keep this Mission foremost in our minds in that spirit I would like to offer three minor modifications to the policy that was written first release time should not be permitted to interfere with remedial or makeup work which some which are sometimes addressed during study hall students who are receiving such services or who are falling behind should not be eligible for release time second providers that fail to get students back to class on time should not be allowed to participate in the program that can be done with administrative stuff but I'm just saying it should be there also I would recommend that if a student is returned in time but Doles as St students sometimes do they could lose their eligibility for release time third if the providers

024take students during their lunch hour they should be required to provide lunches for the students to ensure that students are able to continue their education after lunch without being hungry religious instruction should not be allowed to interfere with student nutrition again I appreciate the timing of this policy proposal we have tonight and before and will continue to hear rash and angry calls to prematurely right policy in response to executive orders or other legislation still in development before those orders have been through the court processes these calls are nothing more than shameful political posturing from the radicalized segments of the community intended to preclude reasonable debate and to attack those that they dislike as we have already heard such as trionics are misguided and if followed would impair the board's function fortunately the majority of the

025board has to date successfully resisted the temptation to premature policy making kudos to you for not succumbing to such misguided pressures thank you thank [Applause] you Susan sedik thank you Lindsay wall thank you Lyn Mazika tall guy Madame President members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening my comments are in regarding the second reading of the revisions to policy 5223 release time for religious instruction during the school day while I personally do not agree with releasing our kids for religious instruction during a school day it is now the law and of course I know the district will comply with it there are several points that I would like to help the uh board will include in the uh in the policy in order to

026prevent an interruption of our kids academic studies they include will release time only occur during lunch recess if a student has a special during lunch or recess such as speech uh therapy or something on that line will they be released if a student is being held in from Recess for failure to complete an assignment or as punishment will they be released how will a student with special needs be able to attend what about a student that has an aid that works with them in the schools how will lunches be handled for kids especially ones with reduced and free lunches what happens if the kids are brought back to school late these are a few of the questions I have as you are all well aware academics are the primary duty of our Public Schools anything

027else is secondary I hope the board will be able to Institute a policy that while following the law also plac his academics in the Forefront additionally congratulations to Mr Bill 2% Wade for your third year state of Ohio Auditors award and thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening thank you our next speaker is Angel Beck thank you our next speaker is Miss mjus Melanie mjus good evening sorry I'm only 5 feet tall a little a little tall um I'm speaking tonight on the agenda item for the executive orders and some of the false information and accusations that have been circulating in the community based on Miss marz's um legislative report from the last meeting I want to make two points for the community members and the board to be aware of first um

028I would suggest that everybody listen to the March 2023 board meeting um I believe it's around the 2hour and 35 minute Mark um it's during a discussion about Federal funding uh for school lunch programs being tied to Federal guidance on Title 9 protections um during that discussion Mrs Payne um said a number of things including um if we choose to do something different which clearly implies that she did believe the board has the ability to not comply with uh Federal guidance uh during that discussion she also mentioned that the federal funding was still less than 1% of the District budget and made a point of saying that no school had ever lost Federal funding for not complying with Federal guidance so I'd strongly encourage people to listen to that meeting and hear those remarks yourself

029uh secondly I really want to point out that it's very clear that the public statements that Mrs aapo and Mrs Payne made against Mrs cook and Mrs marazza are retaliation for their unhappiness and not getting the board positions they wanted again this year uh but I do want to make the point that it's not just board members who are the topics and subjects of these retaliatory actions um there's been an example of a pattern of these retaliatory actions that have been taken against numerous people who have spoken out in opposition to Mrs iopo and Mrs Payne or have simply done things that they didn't like the targets of these retaliatory actions have included multiple employees in the Menor School District a Menor resident who teaches in another District a parent volunteer and myself both by

030having my my employer contact conted to complain about things that I have said and uh family member of Mrs Payne repeatedly accusing me on social media of things that were verifiably false in an effort to defame me uh Mrs aapo has also clearly stated that she looks up people's political affiliations when they email the Board District employees have told us that they are afraid to speak out against what they are seeing and experiencing um for fear of retaliation and I'm sure that this will all be denied and um probably be threatened to sue um they'll threaten to sue me which happens quite a bit um but I do have properly obtained public records that support these claims and I'd be happy to share them with anybody who would like to see them because as Mrs

031iapo once said to a Menor resident I also keep records I also want to point out to the community that Mrs aopo and Mrs Payne continue to restrict comments on their social media so that they do not hear opposing views and they did that again um with their comments about the executive orders I bring this to the attention of the board and the residents of Menor tonight so that you are aware of what's been happening and to be aware of what the goal is which is to intimidate and silence people who disagree with them while this may be the current approach that's being taken at higher levels than the government to S silence and punish the opposition it has no plates on the school board and does nothing to improve the quality of Education in

032this District Mentor deserves better thank you thank you I do have a couple comments since I was directly mentioned in that um just for clarification I've never I don't even know where you works I have never contacted your employer um second I just want clarification for the public what uh that March 2023 board meeting absolutely watch it it's uh quite interesting because that what she's talking about is a resolution that I put with another board member to protect girls from having boys enter their private spaces like their locker room or their bathroom that's a safety issue and I I stand by my decision unfortunately it was not passed um it also was matching the Ohio Board of educations resolution which we were all provided in January of that year um to uphold parental rights and

033push against Title 9 expansion to allow boys and girls bathrooms and private spaces and locker rooms so just wanted clarification on that our next speaker is Amy Freeman right uh good evening Mr Heath members of the board um Amy Freeman we have uh two students who have graduated from mentor and we have a current Junior um I wanted to speak about the agenda item for perhaps establishing a journalism class and I have a couple of comments about that and some questions the first question would be is the district thinking about merging Cardinal nation into um a journalism class and if so I would Advocate against that for a couple of reasons um as you all know our students very ambitious right they're loaded up with sports part-time jobs activities clubs um heavy course work we

034have students traveling back and forth from uh their CTE programs and I think that if we could keep Cardinal Nation separate as a club we would have a greater opportunity for students to participate in the school newspaper as opposed to the participation in the school newspaper being limited to any students who can fit that journalism class in their schedules and secondly I would see the purpose of a journalism class versus the purpose of a school newspaper being two different things like for example your syllabus for a Jour journalism class I would think would include media ethics law law and media um maybe some of the logistics and business aspects of producing something in print um probably some public relations uh interviewing techniques Integrity of quoting you would have quite a bit to fit into a

035high school journalism class Beyond um just using that for the purpose of publishing a high school newspaper and where your high school newspaper right now our Cardinal nation has a very organic feel to it it's definitely something that is produced by the students and you can see there's learning involved um you can see them trying out different ideas and I think that you know it's a program it's a club that's advised by an AP teacher um and it just produces something that really feels homegrown so I would recommend if we are going to establish a journalism class that we just don't go ahead and fold Cardinal nation into that that the two could remain separate okay thank you thank you our next speaker is David LMA David Lima Lichfield Drive board president cook board members

036Mr Mr Heath Mr Wade the current flurry of executive orders many of which are on hold or have been rejected outright by the courts may impact local school boards like our own some executive orders Target education and threaten the accessibility of resources for our students all students need the development of skills and knowledge to prepare them for a fulfilling and productive life the objective of Education these political motivated orders that serve to intimidate their targets are public schools center around diversity equity and inclusion casting them as discriminatory when in reality they provide the foundation for accessibility accessibility for all students policy decisions that this board may consider merely based on the issuance of an executive order that may later be found to be unconstitutional would not only be premature but irres responsible I urge you

037not to create policy based on these frivolous executive orders that serve to threaten and intimidate much to the detriment of our students this board and our community thank you thank you our next speaker is Andrea Bliss not seeing Andrea our next speaker is Barbara holshouser not see Barbara our last speaker is Ellen Freeman hi I'm Ellen Freeman I'm an 11th grader at Menor high school and I'm a member of cardinal Nation I'm here on behalf of our club to speak to you all about the journalism class first I would like to thank Mr Heath Mr Crow and board member maraza for already collaborating with us when it comes to this new class our main concern right now is that as you can see I'm the only member from our club here and that's because a

038lot of our club members are currently at a combined Orchestra and Manheim concert at St beads um which I think is perfect evidence of just how busy we all are currently there is no member of cardinal Nation who would be able to fit this new journalism class into our schedule and So currently if the plan is to just turn Cardinal nation into a class which based on our previous meetings with Mr Heath and Mr Crow it sounds like that is the plan it would essentially be depriving all of us of that educational opportunity to write for the school newspaper I also understand that there are possible plans to grandfather us all into the class so that maybe we would all get to still write for the class even though we weren't in it um and

039I suppose to an extent that could work even though I'm a little concerned about the logistics of that but that only helps us who are currently in the club we all have a lot of concerns about every future student who's going to get to walk through Mentor High and about their opportunity to be a part of cardinal Nation as it stands if it were turned just into a class with no extracurricular component only students who could fit the class into their schedule would get that opportunity to exercise their right to free speech and free expression through the school newspaper and I just don't feel as though that that is the most beneficial to our students as a club Cardinal Nation would love to see the creation of a journalism class to further those educational opportunities

040but we also ask the board to consider keeping an extracurricular component with the class and allowing for students to be able to engage with one or the other or both this is not unprecedented in any way currently marching band students can engage in just concert band which is a class during the day they can engage in both marching band and concert band or for students who are in CTE and CCP programs and can't be there during the day they can just do marching band both the class and extracurricular are operated by the same teacher but it is completely okay for students to do just one or the other and at the end of the day they contribute to the same program and we would really like to see something like that happen with the journalism

041class we completely respect that the board wants to create this into a greater Educational Opportunity by creating a class but we don't want to see future students get deprived of the ability to create incal Nation because they can't fit it into their course load so the Cardinal nation is just asking you all to prioritize student free speech and help continue the club in some aspect thank you so much thank you next we have our superintendent report and recommendations thanks for speaking Ellen that was phenomenal uh I'm going to jump uh straight into the the consent agenda uh I've got comments prepared I'm sure we've got uh some questions about some of the different things uh as we go through the consent agenda and then also when we get into the board business later on uh

042so I'll leave my comments until those times um so uh Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items 6 A1 through A4 so moved second is there any discussion please call the RO Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss AO yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5-0 Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the brain pop subscript subscription renewal so moved second any discussion yes I don't know if um are we going to go individ ually with all of these and or just do it into one individually okay um I have some concerns and I had I brought it up to U Mr Heath last week that you know in looking

043at Brain Pop um while it has a lot of really great um benefits to it it does incorporate some and integrate Dei principles into both its content and organizational practices so given the new state laws that are um we going to be upheld to and executive orders depending on what happens there it feels like we're going to be spending a lot of money I think this was $26,000 um where we might only be able to pick and choose what parts of brain pop we can use so um in in the spirit of wanting to save money and um be resourceful I have concerns about using some and there's a lot of them in here um that have a lot of those things that I think we're not going to be able to use which state

044laws were you referring to just want to be clear parental rights oh yeah M they do have um I Echo what Rose is saying uh I do when I first got on the board I had some concerns about Brain Pop then I still have them now I did speak with Mr Porter when I was on the new on the board about these brain pops um some of them were about black lives matter some were sexuality gender identity um pronouns in relation to you know gender identity and given the parents Bill of Rights it's been my stance all along so it would be odd for me to vote for something that I've stated in the past that I don't think we should use District funds for those types of political activism um courses and I understand

045that we are advising you know not to use that but to Rose's point to spend that much money on something that we don't get to use the full subscription of seems like it's a poor decision um and then also I just don't think that those decisions align with our community and when we're seeking support I think it's really important that we uh get in alignment with them so just a couple of things to address that as well I'm obviously we're we're going to be going through a series of subscription renewals um probably over the next couple of months too as we're looking at all of our uh resources for the beginning of next school year um one of the things I we share with everyone as well uh obviously we're talking money situations too um

046so we're going to be cutting about $2 million uh each year over the next 5 years to make sure we meet the goals of our 5-year forecast um so we are looking very very closely at each one of our subscriptions um to take a look at the usage rates um to see what uh is included in those subscriptions um also looking at um what access our teachers have what access our students have and uh we're working closely with a lot of these vendors to limit those areas that we know do not necessarily meet some of the criteria that we're looking at here in our community um brain pop is one that uh is one that's utilized heavily um we do have some safeguards in place uh also uh as we jump into um our our

047parents Bill of Rights policy here in April along with some of the administrative guidelines that we're looking at from the controversial issues uh policy uh from the alternative assignments uh for opting out uh students that uh that don't their parents don't want them to participate or in one of those activities we we've got a couple of things in and guard rails in place to make sure that that uh indeed is something that continues to take place in our classrooms um within that administrative guideline we've actually uh created a rubric um that teachers will need to go through as they're looking through some of the resources that uh they're pulling into their classes um so Rose I'll I'll kind of toss in the the Achieve 3000 and the new Zella conversations too um since those will

048be coming up here as well um obviously in those situations there are uh leveled reading uh articles that are are presented to students uh we we want to make sure that our our teachers continue to vet with those uh articles are prior to their use and make sure that they're compliant with our policies um obviously that parental Bill of Rights policy will uh will be the next one that comes into play that there's going to be a lot of things that tie into that um those administrative guidelines around 2240 and 2240b uh which we mentioned with the controversial issues and the opt out students um those will be important things for us to consider too and we will have that language here ready to go uh for our first reading here in April uh the

049administrative guidelines will be able to Institute um almost immediately because we want to make sure that uh we've got those uh those in place uh we started that process here today just kind of talking through some of this with our principles during our principal meeting uh we also talked about it pretty extensively in our administrative team meeting with the district um just making sure that we've got all of our ducks in a row with how those Logistics are going to work um for these different initiatives so um we are looking closely at our our subscriptions those that uh are not being heavily used are going to be some that uh we will not be bringing to the table uh Brain Pop happens to be one that uh we do have a lot of usage uh

050from so that's the reason it's here this evening Mr Heath I had a quick question the administrative guidelines that talking about because we don't have like a specific policy right now that states that we will not you know allow access to these things what policy are you attaching those guidelines to so we'll have two separate things we'll have one that's going to be for uh policy 2240 the controversial issues 2240b which is the alternative assignments for outt out students and then once we have our discussions around the parents Bill of Rights policy if there's additional administrative guidance guidelines that we need with that once we get that law p or that policy passed we can add some additional things there um I will include some of the administrative guidelines in the board update here this

051week so you guys can start to see some of that uh some of that language here ahead of time um and again those are things that can be uh instituted immediately um my plan is after this evening with um when we talk about the religious release time I'm going to be doing an update uh to all staff since we have a workday on Friday um with all of these updates so that um everybody's ready to go with uh the religious release time um and then also uh making sure that we're ready to go for uh the April 9th starting time for the uh parent Bill of Rights piece okay and would you consider um just because you mentioned that the administrative guidelines would be attached to the controversial issues policy would you consider gender identity

052sexuality BLM topics like that white privilege under the controversial issues would you consider it a controversial topic so we'll we'll have to take a look at all of those individually um A lot's obviously going to be dependent on what um what's coming out of some of the executive orders what's coming out of some of the uh the new um uh federal laws as well and we're going to be uh making sure that like literally we pulled a lot of language directly out of um the house possil language that um that we have for those uh administrative guidelines as well so you'll see a lot of that language directly in there with those definitions but we also know we don't need to rely on those the law and the executive orders to make to to be

053um protected to make some of those we can make those decisions based on what our community is asking for too is there any more discussion about Brain Pop please call the r Miss chesing yes Miss Cook yes Miss Ao no Miss maraza yes Miss Payne no motion carries 32 Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the Frontline education subscription renewal so moved second is there any discussion please call the r Miss chesing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the IE observation license renewal so move second any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss Cook yes Miss A Alo no Miss maraza yes Miss pay no

054motion carries 32 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the gr Hill achieve 3,000 literacy renewal so moved second any discussion Mr Wade please call the RO Miss jessing yes Miss Cook yes Miss aopo no Miss maraza yes Miss Payne no motion carries 32 Madam president members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the new zela subscription renewal so moved second is there any disc question I just wanted to uh Echo obviously I said this about the brain pup but a teacher had sent this to me today seeing that it was on the agenda and she had access to celebrating pride month introduction to the lgbtqia plus community and its entire um like lesson for the students so under the same reasons for Brain Pop I can't

055support this one either I would guess I would just like to make a statement in general then that I feel our teachers are professional and they they can make decisions um using their professional judgment I don't feel that they are doing anything wrong and indoctrinating they can choose things that relate to um their content and we do have a current policy with controversial issues now that we can apply um and parents can opt their students out of assignments so I can I feel that these resources and I use some of them myself are very valuable and there are many aspects to it and what our teachers are using are valuable to their instruction Mr Heath the um rubric that you referenced in Brain Pop would that be similar to what would be used with any

056of these subscriptions any any supplemental resource U teacher going to have to use that that policy and that or that set of administrative guidelines in that rubric um and again that'll be copied in in what I share with you here on on Friday as well so you guys can take a look at that uh we won't publish it obviously for maybe another week or so but because I want you guys to be able to see it um and then that can be tweaked as needed as as we kind of move through the the legislative and legal process here with some of the other uh executive orders that we currently have and if a teacher had a question about any particular topic or item that's part of a subscription they would check with their building administrator

057yeah so there's a whole procedure spelled out it would start with the building level principal if there are continued concerns there it would go to the curriculum department and then if there are continued concerns there it comes to our administrative team and then ultimately my uh final decision and when those legal changes go into effect will there be a communication with staff to guide them through that process so that they understand their rights and responsibilities in terms of selecting supplemental materials for their students yeah and that'll be part of our communication to all staff on Friday thank you so much I just had a couple more um comments so I think the rubric is a great idea but if it doesn't include that these topics are truly controversial then it really doesn't do anything so

058um which I think is pretty clear from at least sitting here for the last four years we've heard people both sides of those issues all of these issues um you know sexuality gender identity BLM White Privilege those topics I would definitely think Common Sense would say they're controversial um but if that's not included in the rubric then the rubric doesn't really do any any good um so I would have I'd like to see it and and I'd like hopefully that'll be clarified when you see that on Friday yeah and I'd like to have consensus from the board that those topics are truly controversial so that they would then apply to the policy um but I don't think had any consensus on that yet I deem it as controversial those topics um so that's all I

059agree is there any more discussion on newella please call the role Miss jley yes Miss Cook yes Miss aopo no Miss maraza yes Miss Payne no motion carries 3-2 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the photography Services agreement with Prelude photography so moved second is there any discussion please call the role Miss Appo yes Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5-0 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the freckle subscription renewal so moved second is there any discussion please call the RO Miss Cook yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo no Miss maraza yes Miss Payne no motion carries 32 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the photography Services agreement with

060Shutterfly Life Touch LLC so moved second is there any discussion please call the role Miss Appo yes M Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C4 all related to human resource matters so moved second is there any discussion who who was the second sorry me thank you Mr raid please call the role Miss Appo yes Miss maraza yes Miss jessing yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5-0 I'm also recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff so move second is there any discussion I just want to say I'm happy to see um coach Chris is going to be assistant principal

061of Memorial that'll that's an awesome addition um and then sad to see um but Bittersweet for Miss berwig to leaving Hopkins next year so she'll be missed Mr way please please call the All Miss jesley yes Miss maraza yes Miss AO yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next we have the Board of Education report and recommendations and the first item under board business is the approval of a Menor Public Library trustee do I have a motion to recommend Teresa Akerman as their venor Public Library trustee so moved second is there any discussion Mr R please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5- Z next we have the

062approval of a board member in service attendance at the 2025 State Legislative conference do I have a motion so moved second is there any discussion I just I um had a question so when we approve this since it's not tied to a specific member if we approve this in service then any of us could attend correct yeah so that's that's what we need to discuss now um so because it's our legislative conference I would recommend that Mrs maraz attend because she's our legislative liaison and if anyone else would also want to attend that's what we're here to discuss I I think Rose it would be great if would go as the legislative alternative yeah I think the um I was I had already actually looked at that um before I saw that it was going

063to be on the agenda and it it doesn't specifically state for you know legislatively asons it is for all board members yeah yes it's for it's for all I mean that looks interesting I think and that's a great opportunity for us to sit down in front of all of our legislators so I think anybody that can attend I think that would be definitely worth it to beill sit there given what's coming with the budget yeah I would I would just like to suggest that maybe we limit it to two just for cost purposes and if we go with legislative we on an alternative I think that that's reasonable but um you know it is a cost for us to all attend travel um you know there's cost incurred we I know we all go to

064osba but as far as this conference I mean free for discussion but I was just thinking maybe we would limit it to two I think it's part of our role is being updated on legislative issues so I don't have a problem with whoever wants to go I'm not saying I'm for sure going but um I would like to have the opportunity if time allows and I think it does look interesting so um I wouldn't want to take that away I don't think we've ever done that with any osba um courses that you know limited it so yeah no I I think that it's very valuable for anyone to attend but we do need to know so that we can be registered and we can decide with our cost so I think just as a method

065of transparency if if more than these two would like to go then we should speak up now well I would I would like to attend I just don't know I have some personal issues going on in my family right now so I'm not sure medically if if I'll 100% be able to go but it's very likely that I'll be able to go so Mr Heath is there a deadline I've got a double check I I think there was a deadline to pull one off um which was today but I'm not sure if there's a deadline to add I think we've got two registrations right now okay and Mr was planning on going I I think was that what was discussed yes yes I was going to attend so what were what will our costs be

066looking like if we all end up um going uh that would be 1 two 3 four of us CU we're we're talking the Fe is person and then there's an over night yeah we have a we have a fund specifically for these types of areas so the board approves that every year at the uh organizational meeting do we have enough to um account for this and the capital conference later this year yes okay y I mean I just want to bring up the point to we do send more than just the board to Capital conference as well so if we're going to start limiting here we probably should limit there as well so yeah I I'm I'm not opposed to anyone attending that wants to go just to be clear I just thought you know

067we are we are being careful now and and if everyone wants to go they you know they certainly can but my motion was was really to limit it to two just for the cost MH so your motion we people I would like yes I guess I would I'd like to motion to limit it to two just just for this conference because of in light of the issues um wow and and anyone could go on on their own but I'd like to limit it to two for this conference I think it's quite interesting that you're trying to limit this conference where we get to sit with our state legislators to just two when we've never done that in the past it seems like you're quite trying to block folks sitting up here from going well I

068don't think we've ever gone to this conference before have we yeah so this is I mean this is a new conference all the more reason we should exactly all the more reason to I'm just saying there is no precedent so I think she's trying to set one is what she's saying well I let's just put it let's just approve it for everybody and then go home and check with f see who can make it you know it might be a moot point I mean yeah we're arguing over nothing but I don't think it's fair to limit I agree so how many am I looking for five five we can just approve five and then and then get back to Bill I'm happy to give I can give somebody that's fine Mr Wade I do think

069it's important for you to be honestly um you know this is budget season and I can't see you but um I think it's important to have you on hand for specific questions around our budget um if we're talking to legislators you know knowing about you know the details around our cash balance um knowing how the changes in the budget are going to affect our district in our 5year forecast I think those are really important to have you on hand for happy to attend I think it's important that we all engage with our legislators particularly during this budget season I would agree with that Mr Wade um are you part of is it kaspa what because osba is you know it does include different different what is it uh other for for CFOs and superintendent what

070is the one for superintendent as well there's a different one Bassa Bassa they're Bassa we're oasbo oasbo okay so oasbo do they offer something like similar to this we partnered with osba for this events okay so oasbo and osba are putting this on corre which would make sense for you to go as well because if you're you know part of oasbo okay because osba is I mean the intention is that it's for Schoolboard members so I don't think we should be blocking any Schoolboard members from going I think it would be wise for us to have as many of us that could go that's fine I respect that um Mr Heath could you please just email us as soon as you find out what the deadline would be um so that anyone on the board

071that is interested in attending can you know give their um reply as soon as possible okay so if we could go ahead and vote then to um approve attendance I didn't hear a second on my motion so we're going to let that die and we're just recommending attendance for board member in service attendance at the State Legislative conference um do I have a second for that second I don't know that we need any more discussion no all right Mr Wade please call the role Miss maraza yes Miss jessing yes Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5-0 next we have a first reading of the Menor Board of Education Neola policy and because this is a first reading no vote is necessary but I know that there were um we want

072to have some discussion on so this is the release time policy this is a policy 5223 release time for religious instruction during the school day do I have any discussion I have some um comments I just wanted to make um in reference to this a couple things just first I would like to motion to strike through some of the verbiage in here specifically the last option where it says any private entity providing religious instruction during the school day must agree that it will not provide participating students with any material snacks clothing candies trinkets or other items for their return to school the district will not release students for religious instruction release time to any private provider that fails to adhere to this prohibition so I would like to strike through that also um and then

073I'll give my reasons in a minute I just want to make sure I have this okay so we have a motion on the you want to go ahead and we'll vote on that so well it's a couple different things so that's one of the Amendments I'd like to amend several different sections so I'm going to just do it all in one Amendment one motion do you want to vote on them separately or do you want to vote on do them all at once unless I mean once there's discussion can I get a copy of this policy Mr Heath I'll send it to you right now thank you um I'd also like to change where it makes all gr all courses um as Core Curriculum and I would like to change that because I don't believe

074all courses including electives our Core Curriculum and it doesn't match our policy handbook but I'll get into that in a minute um I would like to change it to the board deems English language arts mathematics Science History government and social studies as Core Curriculum could you repeat that so I can yep yep it's um so I'd like to change it to the board deems English language arts mathematics Science History government and social studies as Core Curriculum English language arts Math Science Social Studies history so Math Science History government and social studies and repeat that back one more time English language arts Math Science History government and social studies yep as Core Curriculum and then I would like to strike through where it says release time instruction shall be limited to lunch recess Andor study hall

075times established at each School building so now I'm going to give you the reasons why okay one one moment so I can have this motion ready um strike through repeat that last for me um I'd like to strike through released time instructions shall be limited to lunch recess and or study hall times established at each School Building strike through release time instruction shall be limited to and then do I have to wait until what line is this just Happ oh the bottom of the page limited to lunch recess yes yep that cuz those look like they options um I've been kind of well do you want me to go over the discussion yet or do we need a second first we need a second I second that okay now can I have the floor back

076just explain why I'm doing wanting these changes sure can we just slow down for just a second for me please cuz I got to get all this in the minutes correctly so you struck any private entity providing religious instruction during the school day must agree it will not provide participate students do do dot right yeah that option I'm not choosing that option so it's strike through it right here yeah the second is um the other option above it that's in green strike through that whole thing that it's at the bottom of the so yep got it so the other one you're striking through as well where is where did you want it where's the curriculum piece in this that's in the new language in uh that's in green it's like the middle of the first

077page it says sh students shall not be excused from a Core Curriculum subject course to attend release time instruction I'm okay okay with that um but then when we go on to say the board deems all graded courses to be Core Curriculum including but not limited to courses that have state approved learning standards because then we're covering music and all the other things that are El you want to strike that and change it to the language that you had correct and the languages the board shall deem yeah I got that thank language arts Math Science History government social studies as Core Curriculum okay and then let me know when you're ready and then misso second got yeah all right we're into discussion on that okay can I uh give it I have the floor still

078so I can explain okay um so a couple different things the first thing that stood out to me was the bottom of that um second page where it says you know if you go to religious instruction you can't come back with anything a lot of times whether it's religious instruction for Christianity or there could be religious instruction for any sincerely held religious belief they're probably going to have something that they bring back whether it's a flyer um something that they worked on that they colored something you know that they wrote and or even I mean it could be you know something like the Bible and I don't think we want to get into the you know nitty-gritty about you can't bring that back especially when there's some constitutional basis there that we have to really

079be careful with so I think we're kind of digging in too deep into that one um with that language I think it's too restrictive then the other change about it um making all classes basically cor curriculum I just don't think I think that's inherently wrong I think it doesn't match any other language that we see um for instance in the let me see I think it was the student handbook but it was the middle school program of studies for 2024 25 26 all those we have um this for example the sixth grade program we have two sections we have like and it doesn't say core but we have required and then we have electives and I think there's a clear distinction between the two we have chorus under elective we have band under elective art

080under elective so it's odd to me that this is the first time that we're going to call everything core and it seems like the purpose of that is to really restrict people from using this um this policy or this bill that passed the intention of the bill was to allow for freedom of religion um even during school hours so I think that these changes go inherently against that bill and the intention of the bill um I also the reason why I picked out that language for those core classes is a lot of it's from this the required program guide for our middle schools and I'm sure there's one for the high school as well but um it also matches as many of you know I do homeschool my kids I know it's been brought up

081before but and in order Ohio Revised Code does require even homeschoolers to to sign off and we do send it to the superintendent for him to sign off in the beginning of the year and it lists the classes that they deem as necessary and those classes that verbiage that I gave you matches what's in our sixth grade you know middle school programs and does match that language from the Ohio Revised Code that requires even Home Educators to include those core classes in their curriculum so those are just my reasons why I wanted to make those changes I know we have at least six Church six churches in the area that are involved in trying to use a program like a policy like this and I don't you know from discussing it with some folks who

082are in that committee um and some of the church leaders I think this would be very restrictive and it wouldn't be received very well yeah I I seconded the motion because I mean I have a lot of reasons similar to Annie's to why I don't I think I don't agree with some of the language but really basically what we learned last month when we did the bathroom policy is less is more and so I think that same um message should apply tonight to this I it's it's really too restrictive and um you know we had a 5-0 vote last week last month um be because we didn't want to to strike that overly detailed language because it lesses more so I think we should just you know be consistent and um and and I think

083we're covered I mean the old policy we could have covered with just changing May to Shell and we would have been good so I just think you know I I don't think we need to have all that language I can depending on you know I can argue that beyond the reasons why like Annie said but just just from a policy language standpoint I think less is more and we can this policy would be nice and strong without with with the strikings that that we're talking about is there any more discussion for the motion that's on the floor I disagree 100% if we are paying subject Specialists to teach K through 12 scope and sequence curriculum whether it's stem the Fine Arts any of the physic physical education I think those are important that we meet

084the community's expectation of their investment in our students well-rounded education I think it would be virtually impossible to manage something that is all over the map how does a teacher let's say a stem teacher where her student or his student is going to be out weekly or intermittently how does that student get to benefit from that same sequential learning I think it's just in a negative for our students there's a chunk of time in the middle of the day that would make some kind of a cohesive coherent um religious release time for those families who wish to have it and bringing back Flyers T-shirts snacks trinkets whatever it might [Music] be that's been roundly criticized in lots of articles that have been written regarding various um other District's experiences to the extent that some retracted

085the policy that they had that was supporting it originally prior to the law being changed and being required to have religious release time so I I feel that the policy as it's written is fair and clear and gives any of those entities that wish toing provide religious instruction for students to have um a reasonable Target for their timing and it also makes sure that you're not going to have kids coming and going throughout the school day I think it would be just uh an undue burden to our office staff to make sure that they're tracking students who are coming and going it needs to be confined to a a predictable and reasonable amount of time that it's not just a disruption that could be any time from 8:00 in the morning till 3:30 in the

086afternoon can I ask Jenny is your issue with them leaving at all or when in the day they leave when in the day required how is it less of a how is it less of an a convenience if they leave during lunch and recess versus if they leave at the end of the day or before I always thought end of the day would be fine but they they I mean just not not not I mean coming back but what is the difference of when how is it less of an inconvenience means that during the lunch periods the lunch and recess periods are in the center part of the day that would be the only time that the whoever is going to be responsible for making sure kids are called down signed out and then signed

087back in that if if you've ever been in an elementary office and you watch you know kids have to leave for a dental appointment there's just a lot going on I think it would be grossly unfair for the office staff to have these regular movements of students any time during the day any day of the week if it's confined to that piece of time that's reasonable that means that they can make sure that they've got the lunches and coats and all that other stuff accounted for most importantly students signing in and signing out that's our core legal responsibility is to track and have uh an accurate record of attendance and who's in the building in case of an emergency whatever it might be I can't imagine why anybody would want their child to miss out

088on graded curriculum that offers them expansive opportunities for for growth and learning across a variety of disciplines well we don't get to make that decision because it's the law and the parents just have to decide um but what you're saying if with signing out no matter what someone at the office is signing everyone out whether it's at lunch and recess or whether it's later so I think the important thing with this policy is to make it we don't want it too restrictive and then let the churches and the individual buildings principles figure this out because this is brand new we don't know but the fact that you're making it virtually impossible for it to happen and that's not what the law was intended so you know we at this point it's a law we don't

089get to um dictate whether we think it's going to be inconvenient whether we think it's it's needed whether this we think students should miss out on music that's the parents decision and it's law that's settled our job no sorry I have to stop there I have to stop you there because that's not true the law is that we are to collaborate let Mrs a finish thank you um so I think what we have to do is we have to remember that that first of all the move to change graded classes to core classes is only being done because of this this law it's only being done for this policy um we know that I mean obviously electives are important and we we we need them we W love them but there's a reason that they're

090not considered core with odw okay there there have been districts um Tom used to be at Riverside I think you were on the board when they had some Financial issues and they couldn't have specials um and that's allowed because it's not considered core um changing those to core classes is disproportionately affecting students who want to take advantage of that and that is not the intent of the law and I think we just need to be you don't have to agree with it we can we can take it step by step administrative guidelines could eventually um help if we see run into problems but to right off out of the gate to make it so restrictive is is opening us up to lawsuits so so now now I'm going to have to correct you the laws

091that we have to collaborate it is still up to the board to decide if it's lunch and and in fact Mrs cook didn't you speak to a LifeWise representative at the conference Capital conference yes I did and what did they say about the timing they preferred didn't they say they preferred lunchtime they said that they preferred and it was most common for lunchtime study hall and recess so it's possible it was possible and they said most of their districts did that so it is it is also up to us to decide how this works that's what the law says that we collaborate not that parents get to decide when to pull out the kids so to be clear no I you're not I'm not saying anything you didn't you're not saying anything I didn't say

092okay yeah okay I if everyone has a chance to speak and then we can go around um I have to disagree with some of those edits as well it is the law to have religious release time and and I will respect that and and we can follow a policy but our main duty is to educate and I want to protect the instructional time and I think that by limiting it to lunch recess and study halls we're protecting our educational time and still allowing religious release time for anyone that wishes to do that I respect that parents have the ability to take religious release time it you know I hope that it's a Val a valuable addition to the program but I don't want it to infringe upon any of our instructional time um and I

093I feel that our taxpayers as we are paying teachers um to go through these to provide these classes and we want our children to be well-rounded and to have the ability to be a part of all of these lessons and I I don't want to infringe upon that lunch recess and study hall is appropriate and it is it is reasonable and many districts do that Mrs cook um would you just because you said you don't agree with all of them are you okay with striking through where they can't bring back anything since you said not all of them so which ones do you agree with what edits do you you agree with I agree I don't agree with any of your edits um I don't agree that they should be bringing back snacks um candies

094trinkets now do if they bring back a material from from the church and it stays in their bag I I find that reasonable you know like worksheet they did a Bible a lesson and it stays in their bag I I would be agreeable to materials okay so you would be you would be to strike the word materials at least AG in agreement to strike materials okay I would be okay um I guess I don't know how that works but guess it's if you're agreeing to that I think it's better than nothing in that section um maybe that would be a separate motion so um I just wanted clarification on that and then just a couple other points um I do think this is pretty res restrictive I do know that some of the folks do

095use uh recess and for LifeWise I've had extensive discussions with them um and as you know my church is involved in the one for Menor so I'm pretty kept up to date on what they're trying to accomplish and I do know that some schools have like right across the street they have something that makes sense that would be recess and lunch but I think that in our situation ation with us having so many buildings I don't think we should be so restrictive because it could prevent us from allowing people to take advantage of of this policy and I think that goes against the intent of the bill which is to allow parents to have that religious you know Freedom um I like I said I'm supportive of not pulling these kids out during their core

096classes I do have some concerns as to why we're choosing this language um I know that I was emailed you guys were probably emailed it too uh parents against LifeWise group they are recommending language like this so did the OS the oea who fought actively against the bill passing um there's a pretty left-leaning group called honesty for Ohio education they also are recommending they have a whole toolkit where they're recommending verbiage just like this with the goal to restrict folks from using it so um I guess Mr Heath can you because I know this this is a board discussion but you chose these options so can you go over why you chose these options sure just a couple of things that uh that we discussed number one we wanted to maximize the instructional time uh

097and number two we wanted to make sure that we didn't limit the amount of time that potentially could have been limited with some of the options that are in there for example the number of days per per week quarter semester year we took that out and if an organization wants to do this 5 days a week knock yourself out um that that's allowable that's why we thought okay where's again what I always try to do here is find where that middle of the road piece is we want to maximize the instructional time and we want to make sure that we are not restricting what the intent of the law is and that's why we didn't put any of that uh that language in here okay those were the two big things Plus and plus the

098work that we have done already is is trying to identify what times during the day so that as soon as organizations uh as soon as we pass this and organizations are reaching out we've got a document we can go straight to and say hey okay here's this grade level this building at this time and how do you how do we want to work with them um and I think a lot of that we we talked in our principal meeting today about this a little bit too and um you know it if there are things that I can control as much as possible coming through my office that way it takes it off the buildings um I want to be able to do that that way it's consistent across the board too okay um the only

099changes that um may be a little bit different from one building to the next will be the check in checkout procedures and we'll work uh with principles over the next month to get those uh details hammered out who was the Wii when you said we is that like the the principles cuz you said we discussed it is that the principles or admin group admin team so District admin team first and then we presented it to the principles okay um the only last comment I'll have um I understand if we have different opinions I can respect that but uh I actually attended an osba class wasn't this past year it was the year before and they talked about Hope and the whole entire class was about how hope is the biggest influence in success um and

100I know programs like LifeWise I'm say not this this policy is not just for LifeWise it's for you know anybody that wants to take advantage of it but programs like that have shown to um be really successful in lowering bullying incidents and you know some of those mean behaviors that we have talked about before and I also think that as the osba class talked about hope hope in something bigger than yourself um is something that these kind of programs and folks who want to utilize this policy could take advantage of um we could see a positive outcome so that's all I understand we have different opinions but okay so we we have a motion in a second on the table to with the three edits that Mrs Payne proposed can we vote on that and

101then we could have further discussion okay please call a roll are you clear is everyone clear about what we're voting to strike yes okay thank you I'm sorry I didn't jump the gun I apologize Miss Payne yes Miss aapo yes Miss Jing no Miss maraz no Miss Cook no motion fails 2 three um I know that I had some questions um possible edits I I'm I'm not sure I I know that I asked Mr Heath um and some of these questions I I heard some of our community members as well um when we're looking at release time instruction shall be limited to lunch recess and study hall times I'd like to hear a little bit about considerations for students that receive remediation enrichment um especially required like IEP minutes therapy times um you know the

102legally required special education times if that is scheduled especially at the middle school high school level if that is scheduled during their study hall times um how would we handle that would would that take precedence or are they allowed to be released are they just waving their therapies or their special at time and if we had students that maybe were doing a like a a Lunch Bunch with a social worker during lunch or maybe they were being disciplined like they had an in school suspension would would they leave for religious release time on those days or how would that be accommodated yeah we we talked a little bit about that today as well um for the most part we shouldn't have too many issues at the elementary level uh from a special education remediation uh

103intervention type uh standpoint uh from the opposite end anything from an enrichment standpoint it shouldn't be an issue there um at the middle school high school level there because there are so many different periods built into the day um there is some flexibility there uh so there wasn't a straightforward answer that you know we use study hall time for those remediations it all depends on the student um so a lot of the conversation that we had today around these topics um really it's going to come down to who the individual student is and and how we might need to um arrange schedules to make sure that again we're not limiting their participation um and uh we're also making sure that we're meeting our legal requirements from IEPs V Force whatever it may be um so

104again hate to say the answer depends but it depends on who the student is um obviously we want to make sure that we're we're following the law and following our policy and if we're allowing that release time during uh a study hall then that that would still be granted if we need to rearrange schedules to make sure we're meeting IEP minutes that'll be something that we can look at on an individual basis um from a the the only issue that we haven't really resolved yet and again this may take place on an individual basis you know if we're dealing with a student discipline issue and and they've received the lunch detention uh we're not 100% certain how we would handle that if it was a religious release day uh for for them um so again

105it will kind of depend on on how we uh we arrange that um we can start to play around with some of that in our um administrative guidelines once we finalize what the policy language is going to be um just as we're working through Logistics but those are some things we can handle administratively on a individual basis can I to ask a followup um so you said at the elementary level it won't be much of a problem but I know we got lunch punch programs I know we've got remediation taking place so can you walk us through how that would be administratively resolved if for example you had said you know just throughout the example of you know parents want to do this every single day you know have at it so how would you

106resolve that we typically are not using a lot of Lunch Bunch type things at the elementary level for that's why I so that that's it shouldn't be a huge issue um again it'll be handled on an individual basis um the uh there are different times built into the days uh especially when we're working through some of the uh minutes that we have for our math instruction program with open up and also with the science of reading components now that are added in there obviously we've got a lot of support and Remediation within those blocks of times now um that are very specific for for individual students um again if there's something that they're involved with during a a lunch period for for whatever reason then we'll work through those on an individual basis as well

107is there any way we could build in something to say that will prioritize you know um academic or behavioral progress for the student I mean can we do something along those lines I'm not sure i' put it in policy but maybe an administrative guideline language yeah okay I just have a couple more points um and Craig I'm assuming the same the same um recommendation stands as as last month as less is more in policy yeah that that's why we've eliminated quite a bit in here with all these options well I mean I think that logistically if you keep the this language in here it's not doable especially if you're talking lunch you're going to be eating up time just getting that child lunch and then you have the issues if if they have if they're

108hot lunch and it's it's it's just it might not work out maybe it will maybe it won't but to put this in there I think I would rather see that we limit it to once a week than limit the time because you know the the whole purpose of the law is to is to give families this opportunity and if we make it so restrictive that it's impossible for churches to accommodate us then our legislators are going to have to go back and and and restructure that and we don't want them to have to do that um you know you keep you say we want to maximize instructional time and we will and we can that's that's why we you know we we have these specials and we we trust parents to say you know what

109I art is wonderful I would also rather my child uh see my child benefit from being taken out learning about God or whatever you know whatever the religion is and they always I'm sure will incorporate music art physical activity these things are usually really really exciting especially for the littles um making keeping this language in here is INF an infringement of Rights and then we're going to run into some liability issues because you're making it impossible for for for families to take take advantage of the law and the you know the unintended consequences of having such a strict policy like this is going to be that we are going to lose more students to private schools and we have to get on board and start competing with them so I I mean I just think

110think like like why let's not treat this policy because it has to do with religion any different than any policy less is more and then we can figure out you know I trust our principles and our and I trust our parents to to know what's best and maybe we do end up saying like the best thing for this building and this schedule is is lunch and recess but why why put that restrict us and put that in our policy I would have to argue that putting that offering less extracurriculars and putting less emphasis on extracurriculars doesn't make us more attractive as an option for a school people people often say to me men are is so lucky for all of the extracurricular opportunities that we have and and that's why they're choosing to go here

111over other schools that don't offer the same number of classes and the same opportunities so I would argue against that um you know we We are following the law we're offering up an opportunity it's protecting our instructional time and um I I had another thought that goes along with protecting instructional time um if release time is you know we set we're setting designated times it's lunch with this policy would be lunch in recess if we land on this what happens when a a provider doesn't bring a student back and it and now it's into reading time or math time um because they're 20 minutes late or something like that is is there a I see in this policy we have the district will not release students for religious instruction release time to any private provider

112that fails to adhere to the prohibition of the the Trinkets and bringing things back but what if they just don't bring them back on time do we have any pro are are we able to cut ties with the group is there a warning I mean I'm not talking about you know there was an unforeseen accident on the road or there was road construction but like a constant regular you know they missing time coming is there a way to deal with that situation obviously there's no language in the policy right now that speaks to that but um and and I think for for everything that we're talking about here and the the nice part about the timing of all this is where yeah this will be implemented on April 9th it gives us a couple of

113months to kind of see how this works here at the end of this year and we can make adjustments to any policy language or any guidelines as we're going through this I think we need a starting point you know we don't have to have everything perfect from the get-go but we need a starting point so that we can get this implemented in in an efficient way that's that's going to maximize the instructional time without limiting the amount of time that is available for the religious release time in the in the students day um so that's why we've got the proposed language there so again it's not in there right now but obviously if we're dealing with you know kids coming back 15 20 minutes late every single day we're going to have some issues um

114and we'll have conversations but again you know much to all of the other scenarios that we've talked about those need to be handled on an individual basis administratively thank you can I ask go ahead Jenny when I had a conversation with the LifeWise representative at Capitol conference I asked how it would be feasible to have all of the Gathering signing out Transportation having the program event Gathering everybody back transportation and sign back in to complete that in 45 minutes I don't care if you took a music class A fizzed Class a stem class whatever it might be that's the extent of the time that's why I said why wouldn't you have your program at the end of the day at as many Faith Traditions have done for decades my children went to their uh religion

115classes either in the evening or on Saturday mornings some faiths do Sunday morning whatever it might be and they said no that was perfectly fine that 45 minutes at works okay but if you're saying now well we don't really have to assign that grab or importance not gravity but importance to CL classes that are considered an elective and social studies history and government are all social studies I I don't know I would you make it an hour all morning all day Tuesdays whatever I just think this is important to prioritize the learning program that has been carefully developed with subject Specialists across the curriculum that benefit our students and prepare them for academic success and if we have a policy which meets the requirements of the law that every student whose parent wishes that child

116to be released for religious instruction this is how it would happen I think it confined the disruption in the school offices to at least uh a reasoned window because for example if you're taking all fourth graders out of one elementary school they're not all going to be in electives at the same time that it doesn't usually work that way and teachers have their plc's and and how that all works there's just so many moving parts that I think it's an undue burden to try to intrude into curricular time whatever that might be and is that fair to the student who missed all of the music rehearsals for the program that they couldn't be a part of because they never learned the music or they can't be in the stem exhibition because they never did the

117project because they didn't have that opportunity so I think it's fair and reasonable for a public school district to focus on our primary responsibility to make that the priority and to make sure that we accommodate the law in a reasonable way and I think this policy does that I just wanted a quick question uh Mr Heath could you talk about how the lunch situation would work if kids um have to buy lunch or they get Freedom reduce like how how logistically will that work that'll be part of our administrative guideline work um some of that will be dependent on uh what day of the week and what uh what time period during the day um there could be some grab andgo options as well depending on who uh who we're dealing with so um that'll

118be something once we figure out the the the individual students uh the grade levels the timing will uh will work with our nutrition services to to figure out those details so grab and go would be something like they you know get a box lunch that's left at the office for them and they take it with got thank you I just had a couple um more comments um when Mrs cook I don't think that that was Rose's intention I think you kind of use this drw in fallacy by arguing against something that she wasn't arguing about um so when you said you know that she didn't want extracurriculars that we offer so many different things I think we would still do that we would still offer all of that and I don't think that course offering

119would change I think we'd still have those electives and um which is funny that we're calling them electives and extracurriculars when in the policy we're making them core curriculum so it just shows that there is a difference between the two um so I I do think that she wasn't trying to make that Rose wasn't making that argument at all she was making the argument for the policy and the intent of the policy to not restrict it um will we then once we if this policy passes as is I know tonight's just the first reading uh Mr Heath because this is the first time that we're calling all of these things as Core Curriculum won't we have to update our handbooks and everything else that state electives and call those Core Curriculum as well it's possible

120I thought it just said graded courses does it say course curriculum or Core Curriculum it defines Core Curriculum specifically graded yeah just to clarify I was saying yes obviously parents send their kids to Menor because of all the amenities and electives that we have but parents also make decisions on where to send their kids based on religion and faith and so that was my point if we offer this then it's more attractive and maybe some parents would consider staying here um you know also I I I don't know how many teachers you guys have talked to but teachers won't mind having a few less students in their classroom for one period especially because we get a lot of complaints about overcrowded classrooms so you know I don't think you're going to find any teachers that

121are upset about that um and then just because to all of your points so many moving parts that has to be figured out all the more reason not to have such restrictive language um in it and and you know again we can work this out but let's give it a chance you're by making it so restrictive you're basically I mean I'm it's going to make it so we either are going to get sued or our legislators have to go back and and make it more restrictive and they're trying to rely like make maybe it does end up being what you're all talking about and just La recess but why would we put that in there I just think that's that's a liability and to your point um Rose I do think that when you brought

122up the private education and how we're losing students there I do think that's a valid point to make because in the last from you know 2019 2020 we have uh saw an increase in homeschooling by 62% private schooling 26% our enrollment has gone down by 12% with talks in the state house about how they're going to readjust you know um funding for for public schools I just think it is a good point to make and I think it's something that we have to be really cognizant of is there any other discussion on this policy okay see none um let's move to our next item the so the next item on the agenda was the second reading which we know passed unanimously last time so we're going to go to our legislative Report with M maraza

123thank you okay so lots to report on the state house is very busy lately um so just first a couple of updates from the state board uh they have some Draft rules open for Teacher licensing and um permitting so today is actually the last day of comment on those it may have already ended at 5: but but you may have time you may actually have till midnight on those the odw um both director Steve dhan and Jennifer stump of the odw presented on Department priorities and school transportation to the Senate educa education committee last week uh the odw also has rules open for public comment these are open until March 27th and the the um Draft rules are about the Ed Choice scholarship program so if you're interested in having your say go ahead to

124their website and do so all right State House update so first and most importantly the banial budget also known as House Bill 96 um it's looking at its final push in the house right now um and in fact March 11 12 and 13 um is uh there are hearings and I'll get to that in a second but basically the legislature is planning pretty much an accelerated budget timeline this year it's pretty fast um with amendments due March 14th and a substitute Bill expected on April 1st an omnimusic um so like I said right now there are hearings in the house finance committee so this is the last push in the house you still have the opportunity to um Advocate to the house education committee they're still hearing testimony right now um You can submit written

125testimony if you feel like advocating for your public school funding you can do so until 10:30 um tomorrow uh you can submit written testimony and if anyone's really interested in doing that I did post the witness slip on my Facebook page for um the school board so you can go to my Facebook page the slip is there instructions are there we would love for you to Advocate um for public school funding so um again April 9th is they're looking for passage in the house and then it will move on um to hear testimony from uh let's see April 28th until May 16th they'll be hearing um uh in the Senate education committee hearings in the Senate education committee and then moving on to the week of May 26 public testimony in the Senate finance committee

126and then we are looking at a June 12th date uh for when the Senate passes their version of the budget it'll go into a conference committee from there all right so that's the banial budget of course sounds like some many of us we're going to be going down to Columbus next week is when the legislative conference is so we'll be interacting with our legislators there and also advocating for public school funding pending legislation all right so there are some bills moving that I'm going to highlight there are a ton of them I won't go over them all um but we'll start with the Senate education committee they had their first hearing on Senate Bill 113 this bill would ban diversity equity and inclusion in all public schools the Senate education committee also had the second

127hearing on Senate Bill 34 this would require Public School boards to select at least one of the bills listed historical education documents to display in every single classroom the Senate Ways and Means Committee had a hearing on Senate Bill 66 which would change the 20 mil floor calculation by including income taxes emergency levies substitute levies and all inside millage um Revenue sources that have historically been excluded from this calculation um and they heard opponent testimony on that bill lots of different organizations including osba um uh testified against it uh the house Judiciary Committee heard sponsor testimony on House Bill 79 this would increase the penalties for assault if the victim was acting as a sports official or if the assault were committed in retaliation for the victim's actions as a sports official so think referees

128um or coaches even uh so that uh will bring the penalty for assaulting a sports official closer to the same protection afforded to uh excuse me bus drivers teachers and administrators which was interesting I didn't know that there there would be a difference so um it will also bring Ohio up to speed with 21 other states that already have this type of protection in place they also heard sponsor testimony for House Bill 88 this would require public schools to incorporate instruction on fentanyl awareness and Abuse Prevention for grades K through 12 and it would also require school boards to designate one week of the school year as fentel poisoning awareness this week just a few bills I'll highlight in new legislation that would be directly relevant to US House Bill 153 is a companion bill

129to Senate Bill 107 this would require um State and School District board members to be nominated by primary election and to appear on the ballot with a party designation um House Bill 154 would require School District approval of residential Community investment Area Property Tax exemptions so not rids but cras uh and House Bill 155 which is a companion bill to Senate Bill 113 this bill would also ban diversity equity and inclusion in all public schools that's the end of my report so there's two two Dei bills is that right yeah there's a one in the Senate one in the house that's correct and then that was interesting the did you say for um local school board Races they would put an r or D next to your name yeah that is the house bill there's

130a the Senate Bill 107 I think might be a little bit different in the language um that one was introduced first um but yes and I think that one that one had said uh I don't think there was anything mentioned about primaries in that one I feel like that one was just the that's okay it wasn't required it was like you could you can put an r or a d or an i next to your name okay um but you you you weren't forced to so this one's a little different it makes it required then yeah yeah I don't I don't know that either of these will be in place in time for this election because there I think most of us know there's a school board election this year um so I don't know

131if they're going to be in place for this fall but we'll see thanks sure I had a couple just two updates um I didn't know if you mentioned but the house bill 96 the budget includes um no use of cell phone the whole day not just Bell the bell I thought that was pretty interesting I did see that yeah um so beware kids um and then the they're supposed to be extending proposing to extend the school year by 53 3 hours okay thought that was I wonder if we'll get more information about cuz I know osba had had come out with some a stance about this about governor governor dewine's um what you just mentioned him including no cell phones throughout the whole day and osba took a stance uh against that so I hope

132that next week if we go we can get more information probably from them on as to whyne yeah do you know if the cell phone was like they can't have them in the building or they just have them I don't yeah there are several mandates that were attached to House Bill 96 so it's it's yet to be seen whether they stay um and you know I I plan on talking about funding while I'm there next week but you know mandates might also come up great thank you so much we now have our um student achievement report Mrs dling thank you spring is nearly here and and Mentor students are closing in on the start of the fourth quarter with their teachers guidance and encouragement they continue to be engaged Learners here's a sampling of the

133opportunities and events from the past few weeks scheduling for next fall is nearly complete and there are personalized Pathways for every high school student with this array of options each can select the right one to meet their needs and interests some students have chosen advanced placement courses and some are working toward earning and honors diploma with an expanded selection of new and continuing courses in next year's career academies we're making tremendous strides in meeting students interests in 2024 our first round of Career and Technical education program acceptances saw 64% of applicants accepted with 57% securing a spot in their first choice program however this left 16% of our 10th grade class weight listed now with men are transitioning to a comprehensive CTE model next fall the impact is remarkable as of today 95% of students

134who applied for a program have been offered a seat in that program and an incredible 83% were offered placement in that first choice the number of weight listed students has dropped to less than 2% of the entire 10th grade class these career initiatives along with redesign design course offerings for middle school students aligned seamlessly with the district's strategic plan our goal remains clear to ensure every senior graduates with a personalized road map before investing time and money in post-secondary education Science Olympiad is the Premier stem competition in the nation for 40 years this rigorous extracurricular has trained secondary students to tackle standards based challenges for four decades with the help of their dedicated coaches Mentor has fielded its teams of competitive problem solvers the Science Olympia 2025 Northeast and Northern Ohio Regional Tournament was held

135last week competing against schools that included Solen Mayfield shardan Beachwood and hawen the Cardinals impressed us all by scooping up Metals in the Scrambler electric vehicle and anology categories the Menor High team placed fourth overall Shores team placed fifth overall and Memorial placed third overall all three teams qualified for the state competition next month the Congressional app challenge was instituted 12 years ago to encourage students to creatively build their coding skills menah High Jr Aisha farooqi entered our district US District 14th competition this year and last year she took top top honors both times her 2023 entry was called punet to predict likely blood types of Offspring and this year she entered the recycle disciple to use a smartphone to scan the symbols on products making it easy to identify which items can be successfully

136recycled she credits Mr butter Mr Butterfield's AP Computer Science class as being a helpful springboard to her success engineering is at its core problem solving for the Menor High annual cardboard canoe challenge Project Lead the Way students were allowed two weeks two rolls of duct tape and all the recycled cardboard boxes they needed to design and build a boat capable of carrying at least one group member across the pool on February 21st the teams traveled to the Menor Community Rec Center to race their boats testing to see if their ideas worked there were many successes and if few spectacular failures but each student loved the fun and engaged Hands-On learning mission to sail to Victory the popular Mad City Money Team competition was back for 2025 thanks to the support of our generous Community partner

137Cardinal Credit Union Menor high students competed in a simulated Game of Life where they navigated a set of challenges to budget their way to success scholarship money was awarded to the top team first place won $2,250 second place won $1,500 and third place won $1200 congratulations are in order for our Allied Health students and their instructor Mrs Ingram for the first time all 19 seniors passed the rigorous certified nursing assistant exam this lure is a high bar and their 100% success exceeded expectations in addition our Allied Health students went to the HOSA Regional competition recently and 15 of them qualified for the state HOSA competition in Toledo in April speaking of state qualifiers there was excitement in the air as academic and athletic honors were noted for an array of students from Mentor High in

138addition to HOSA there will be CTE students representing Mena for Mentor for Deca and school skills USA contest at the state level among our honored winter sports athletes are the varsity hockey team who qualified for the state tournament for the first time in school history they defeated University School in the Regional Championship 4 to nothing the cards had a strong start in the state semifinal But ultimately lost to Upper Arlington who went on to win the State title our Cardinal team was the Greater Cleveland High School hockey league Red Division champion the 2025 Baron cup one Champions and the regional Champions the boys wrestling team had three wrestlers qualified from the district level tournament to the state tournament this past weekend Liam Lloyd finished fourth overall in his weight class and Jack deau was fifth

139overall in his our third wrestler Ben McWilliams did not place the team won the Greater Cleveland Conference Team title for the regular season in girls wrestling Laura Harold qualified for the state tournament after finishing second at the district level unfortunately she did not place at the state meet in gymnastics Coral Bush qualified as an individual on the balance beam event at the state meet she scored a 9.125 on the beam and was 13th overall in the event in boys and girls indoor track the boys team finished 10th as a team overall Billy Dennison was fourth in the 3 200 M run Matt panowski was fourth in the 1600 met and the 4X 800 relay team was runner up and had the eighth fastest time in the nation Kylie Coleman was 10th in the 60 M

140Dash and 15th in the long jump finally the men are swim teams Dylan tacket competed in the 50 meter freestyle and Marian Collins competed in the 100 meter breast stroke to send these academic and athletic atic competitors off with the best wishes from their classmates and teachers there was a rousing cardinal Pride clap out through the halls of Menor High last Friday as a community we're proud to have so many students represent us through their hard work discipline and good sportsmanship 18 students from mentor Shore and Memorial Middle Schools participated in the Ohio music Ed Educators Association district 7 honors choir students representing 16 different schools worked with Dr Christopher Clark from the Case Western Reserve University music department they performed a combined concert at Shaker Heights Middle School on February 26 the district hosted

141a Showcase in honor of Black History Month the event featured art writing and other work by Mentor students highlighting an important tradition of historically black colleges attendees were treated to a pep band performance from uid and Shaw High Schools as well as our own fighting Cardinal Marching Band drum line also on February 26th The Ridge Elementary third graders held their annual folk dance night under the direction of Mrs Amy Houston the students perform traditional dances from around the world even inviting their parents down to join them for the Cupid Shuffle kindergarten registration for the 2025 26 school year is underway for children who will be 5 years old honor before September 30th of this this year students who are registered by May 1st will be able to participate in the May kindergarten day meet and

142greet at each Elementary School they'll also re receive a free class of 2038 t-shirt once they're signed up February and March have offered many chances to celebrate music here at the Fine Arts Center a concert by the Menor High orchestras treated the audience to Mozart and More in preparation for their large group adjudicated event last weekend the choirs from the middle schools and high school presented a beautiful Festival program the impress impressive program of challenging music delighted the audience a February concert featured music from The Shore Middle School bands and in honor of March 4th the M Menor High bands entertained the audience with an array of musical marches there was a Susa selection of course and 11 other special pieces including The Foundry and lat SRE it's spelling be season as we heard congratulations

143to Menor own Sebastian Gil the memorial 7th grader won the Tri County Showdown on February 28th and will be representing our district at the scrips National Spelling be in Washington DC at the end of May the 20th annual talking Art Museum was held at Sterling Morton on February 26th the fourth graders under the guidance of art teacher Jackie's PR patrino and their fourth grade teachers presented a walkthrough opportunity for families students created a unique collection of paintings and attendees watched as the artwork came to life with students sharing background information on their artists this is a wonderful annual event that requires research teamwork art production and public presentation skills selected work by the secondary fine art students is beginning to appear around the district as the competition and exhibition season gets underway this is just

144a preview of The Bounty of work we can expect to see in the weeks ahead last month the memorial Middle School drama students presented an adaptation of the Beloved French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast this coming weekend Shore Middle School will present their spring musical into the woods here at the high school men theater is thrilled to present its latest production 9 to5 the musical set to Captivate audiences from April 18th to 21st here at the Fine Arts Center tickets are available online through ludus and it will be the fun finale to their 101st season we look forward to an additional law enforcement presence on our campuses as security officers join resource officer Jack Skelly in protecting our students and staff we were thrilled to host the Menor school's Food Market again on February

14527th in collaboration with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank United Way of Lake County the city of Menor and heinens together with the help of community volunteers and students we successfully distributed over 12,000 pounds of fresh produce to community members in need this marked our 21st Food Market bringing our total impact to over 229,000 lb of fresh produce distributed last month inner city manager Ken philipak presented the state of the city address reaffirming the value of our city school partnership in lending reciprocal value to our community on February 21st the Menor High concert mixed choir traveled to the College of Worster yester for an exchange with the Worster chorus this afternoon workshop on the concert repertoire a campus tour and in culminating collaboration with the Worcester chorus they presented a combined rehearsal and Joint evening performance

146the director of the Worcester chorus Dr Lisa Wong shared we would be thrilled to host Menor again in the future and we deeply value the districtwide support that Fosters your outstanding music program in my experience working with High School Coral programs across the state of Ohio I can confidently say that you possess a true gem [Music] I [Music] thank you so much thank [Applause] you at this time we have the chief financial officer's report and recommendations Madame President members of the board Mr Heath uh our monthly report on our district finances against our uh 5year forecast based on our projections kind of moving forward uh year to date our current Revenue collection is indicating we're about $634,000 to the good beyond what we expected uh and expenditures are showing that we're about $731,000 below giving

147us a net positive impact to our ending cash balance of about $1.4 million reducing our deficit to about 1.6 uh our actual revenue for the month was up uh this year in comparison to last year uh by $6.4 million that's because our advance from the county was back back to what it had been historically um and up about $6 million from the prior years um compared to the last year at the same time again obviously the big difference there is the fact that our Advance was uh much higher than it was last year uh again current revenues collecting about $634,000 more than projected and the most of that is coming in the form of uh our investment earnings being up um still receiving uh better than projected Returns on our investments when we look at

148our expenditures our expenditures were up uh slightly this month uh in comparison to last year uh at the same month by about $300,000 um but overall for the same time period through February we're down about $464,000 again coming in about $731,000 lower than expected uh the majority of that coming in the form of uh General supplies and all their expenses coming in much lower than we were predicting at that time happy to answer any questions on the current financials through the month of February I'm sorry can you repeat I missed the $6 million difference uh just go over that for me one more time the auditor gave us a larger Advance this year than they did prior year okay but when we get that $6 million it all washes out it's not yeah yeah it's

149when it comes it's a timing issue really it's just that the advance was larger than it was last year so it doesn't mean we're going to get $6 million more from the county when everything's so it's not a windfall for example no no windfalls thank you just wanted to clarify zero windfalls I I I think this would be the appropriate time for me to see if I can get religious release time during board meetings though not worth the effort you did try to get out of that com though and we I did try to get out of the conference such luck I figured you guys are good on your own without me um I'm going to ask the board uh to approve items B through F I'm actually going to pull g off and do

150it separate just because it's not a regular item that would fall on your consent agenda so we don't have any issues uh so again if the board would approve items B through F at this time so moved second is there any discussion please call the rooll Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes those motions carry 5 uh the resolution accepting the Fairfax Elementary School and Menor High School roofing project bids so moved second is there any discussion I would just like to note out that uh the bids that we are hopefully approving here shortly were $480,000 below budget that's good good combined yes okay combined correct thank you please call the role Miss Cook yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes

151motion carries z uh resolution to certify the tax rates from the county auditor in the budget commission soov soov second I'll give it to Jenny then I'll give this p a second is there any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 um the next 11 resolutions are acted on separately uh to comply with the revised code again this is a result of some changes that were made a few years ago with regards to tax complaints uh and again for the board and the community we only um appeal tax complaints when they been lowered and they're more than $50,000 on Commercial properties we do not have anything to do with residential just to be clear these all commercial properties we've

152done the proper notifications uh of notifying anybody that these would be on tonight's agenda um so I'll just do them one at a time uh our first tax complaint um can I get a motion to move please so moved second any discussion please call the rooll Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 z uh item J for our second tax complaint so moved second any discussion please call the rooll Miss Appo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries uh item k for tax complt so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss Appo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook motion carries item L tax complaint so moved second any

153discussion please call the role Miss jesn yes misso yes Miss maraza yes Miss p yes Miss Cook yes motion carries item M Tax complaint so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss pay yes Miss jessing yes misso Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries item n tax complaints so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss IO yes Miss pay yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries item zero or o excuse me tax complaint so moved second any discussion please call the [Music] roll Miss Jing yes Miss iapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 z uh item P tax complaint so moved second is there any discussion that M March me no Mrs P oh my gosh sorry misso

154Miss Payne okay misso yes Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5-0 uh item Q tax complaint so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes Miss iapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5- item r tax complaint so moved second any discussion please call the role M Jing yes Miss pay yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 in our last tax complaint item s so moved second any discussion please call the RO Miss JN yes Miss Payne yes Miss Appo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 that concludes my section of the agenda Mr Wade could I ask about how long is this going to take for them to

155assess for us how when will we know uh it could it depends okay sometimes it takes a couple months sometimes it you know takes years oh okay CU there's there's a variety of processes depending on how far it gets appealed I see thank you okay I would like to just request just a short break could we great a break from couple minutes okay thank you is it 5 minutes yeah five minutes okay thank you e e e thank you for your patience we have one item under unfinished business this evening um Mrs maraza has requested that we discuss a dialogue workship yes I've been I feel like I've been threatening it for month so now it's time I I feel and whenever there we go okay let me put my glasses on all right so

156I put together a couple of SL slide presentations for us I'm going to try to go through them pretty quickly um for starters um I want to talk first about uh conflict in our school districts because I think this is the reason why we need dialogue workshops I know there's been across the board this board here um an interest in dialogue but I I think I have a great way for us to move forward but first let's talk about how we got here so or not how we got here but why we are here so I do believe it is because of conflict um and I came across this really interesting study that um sounded really familiar to me in a lot of ways so this study was conducted in 2024 by a number of

157researchers at all of these different universities the link to the study is actually down there on the left hand side um but if you just Google the costs of conflict the study should come up um so it was released in October of last year and I did get a chance to talk to Dr John Rogers about the study who was the lead researcher um very fascinating stuff lots of stories about districts just like ours having lots of conflict um lots of um lots of problems lots of long meetings and what they did with this study is they actually Quantified that conflict and showed the fiscal impact of the conflict on the district so what they did is they collected data all throughout the um previous school year they measured the amount of fiscal impact um

158across 467 districts in the US and this is from all over the US districts of all signs um and rural suburban and um Urban they did an additional deep dive in um several school districts with 42 superintendents so these are you know long interviews where they asked them lots of questions and shared anecdotes um and they defined three three levels of conflict essentially so it's high conflict districts mid sort of mid-range and then also low conflict and each level had um of course a fiscal impact that they were able to quantify um high conflict District sounded a lot like ours um conflict occurred pretty regularly um at many different meetings it was often accompanied by violent rhetoric or threats so that sounds a lot like men are to be quite honest um 28% of the

159surveyed districts were experiencing high levels of conflict that's a pretty high number um when you think about the number of districts 467 that were surveyed so trying to move this forward but here we go all right so you can see here in this chart they have the low the moderate and the high I just sort of outlined the high conflict District costs this this shows both direct costs and indirect costs and how they hit the district so at the top you can see you know different kinds of costs so whether it was security or media that they had to create social media that they had to manage legal fees which we've mentioned up here community relations Schoolboard relations or government relations and then just other costs and they do go into detail about each of

160these categories and what other was as well so but there are direct costs there are indirect cost and regardless of what kind of cost of course it was hitting their bottom line and you could see these amounts are quite large when you're looking a high conflict District luckily you know Menor I think has managed well we've Managed IT we've managed and we're managing um but I think there's a Better Way Forward which I'll get to momentarily but you can see these costs are pretty astronomical and in the next slide they actually um these are directly from the study by the way they actually uh show you colle collectively what the and and how it's Quantified this enormous cost $460,000 more than that more than $460,000 um is actually what high conflict can cost a district

161and they base that on I think it's like yeah 10,000 students in a district so they do have a formula they they um map this out for you very clearly it's not a long study either it's very readable so I do encourage you to check that out and the way they describe the culturally uh divisive conflict um one it's got a negative impact on staff uh it stresses them out it causes mental health issues uh it impact superintendent well-being absenteeism and turnover um and that asterisk there if you can't read that down there it says um oh it mentions in a study that superintendent turnover has increased from 14% to 17% over the last four years years um and that wasn't in their study they actually cited another for that and then it also uh

162costs a district about $80 per student per year that's unrelated by the way when we talk about like the cost to educate a student that is totally separate from this um so they estimate $80 per student per year it also creates as they say a diversion of energy and focus away from the educational process um so that's like your opportunity cost so if we're if we're if we're busy talking about culture Wars we're not focusing on for example how to I don't know renovate a space for example can I ask a quick question is this are you have a motion for something is this something you're pres I will get to it um so the conflict also requires districts to allocate resources for increased security Communications um and efforts to correct correct misinformation legal fees

163a host of other expenses and staff time so essentially decrease ing conflict can help a con high conflict District save hundreds of thousands of dollars and improve the well-being of staff and administrators and improve trust and engagement with the community that was the conclusion of their study so what does this have to do with Menor schools how does it relate to what we are doing here luckily we're not spending as much as some of those other high conflict districts but we are seeing inflated costs one of those costs is around security thank you very much to our officers who are here we pay them to be here of course um and we're happy to have them here uh however that does cost the district so cost for security have increased by 237 1.5% since 2018

164that is a classic hockey stick graph the school district attorney fees we've brought this up before here as well um those have definitely incre increased since uh 2020 by 83% um the uh fiscal year 2025 costs are of course incomplete but to date we're at $36,988 um I did point out the superintendent search right that year right there and then Mr Wade also pointed out to me when we spoke over the phone that also was a year for Union negotiations so there was a big increase there nevertheless we still see a big increase overall the number of board meetings not as big of an increase here but we did see again when we have turnover in leadership um that's going to cost us money that's going to cost us number of meetings and of course

165when we're meeting more frequently you all are paying us to meet more frequently right uh we don't obviously we don't get paid Goobs of money but we certainly do get paid to be here so the costs of uh paying board members to be went up 50% during the superintendent search year again that was also a year of Union negotiations so account for that as well but overall we've seen an increase of 13% since 2019 so what can we do how can we decrease conflict so um I do want to add just one other thing too um that I thought of after I put the presentation together the community survey that we did in 2024 I believe the overall performance um rating for the board was somewhere between 40 and 45% um approval rating that's not

166good do you know how many people were included in that survey Community survey yeah I think it was only like 2,000 Mr Heath do you remember cuz we have about 50,000 in Menor so it wasn't really a good I don't remember the number of like nevertheless if 2,000 people think we're doing only 40% of them think we're doing a great job that's not good enough for me I would really like to see that improve so what can we do the study's authors recommend that educ educational leaders and the broader public work to diminish the opportunities for conflict we should uphold Norms of respect evidence-based reasoning and civil deliberation that Embraces the well-being and dignity of all I nor normally I don't read from the PowerPoint but I think these are really important and that we

167model the behavior and also provide students with a powerful lesson about who how those who think differently than one another can still work together on one of society's most important Endeavors that is educating the Next Generation now for me this has always been really important I know I have floated this out there many times um I think you know dialogue is something I promised to the folks who voted for me um so I'm delivering on that promise now we've been experiencing high levels of conflict uh for years now even before I was on the board and so I do believe something has to change and I think that the community has told us in multiple ways they're pretty tired of it too and they want it to to change so I think as leaders in

168this community that it's incumbent upon us to set that example for for civil discourse that will allow us to move forward in more productive and constructive ways and I do think we owe that to not just our voters but to the community at large and most importantly to the people we serve our students so that being said here is what I'm proposing can I go to the next presentation thank you okay so I've talked about braver angels in the past um they are a nonprofit and they are um all over the US they have a Northeast Ohio chapter here and we can oh I have the slide thing so I can move forward um I actually thank the uh individual who oh there she is Nancy Miranda is here she works with braver angels um

169and if she um if any of you would like to talk to her about the organization before she scoots out for the night I'm sure she'd be happy to do so but they are a nonprofit and they offer free services to the community including the school districts and uh they do really amazing work they really um put a lot of folks in a room and they help conversations happen not only do they help conversations happen but they really teach people how to talk to one another in healthier ways right so their their mission really is to depolarize the us as they say um they try to get folks to help uh one another understand each other's points of view um and engage each other even though they might disagree um to look for common ground

170and find ways to work together uh they support principles that bring people together rather than divide us they have almost 15,000 members across the US 113 local alliances and 380 braver Network Partners um and I'm not going to go too much into their Partners but what I really want to focus on is this I think this is so very special their um their partners are folks from all over the Spectrum right they they actually vet their Partners especially their funding partners and they find you know they find folks that are not partisan right they actually make sure to have balance so if they're going to have one um Foundation that is maybe left leaning they make sure to have another Foundation that is maybe right leing so they really work hard to find that balance

171so that all sides are represented and when they do have these events and these Community discussions they have both sides of the political Spectrum represented as well and I think that is so very important in communities like ours so what Miss Miranda and I had talked about we've been talking for a long time actually since July and um she has walked me through a lot of their different workshops that they offer they offer workshops on all sorts of different topics in all sorts of different ways even to high school students so if this was something that our um high school would be interested in taking on for our students who are you know interested in discourse skills that would be really amazing as well but I was thinking more along the lines of either a

172presentation for the board or a community Workshop perhaps in a setting like a Cardinal Cafe um this Workshop uh Nancy and I agree are probably the best fit for us um so skills for disagreeing better um brings folks together and again teaches them how to talk to one another in less polarizing ways teaches you how to listen to understand teaches you how to kind of understand where you know your partner is kind of coming from there's a lot of interactive work that is done in this setting and they lead the the um workshop and again it can be more of a presentation for the board but I do think a community Workshop would actually be most effective um with us so today what I am I'm actually finished there's some really good information here too

173um they have surveyed their participants in the past and these majorities are really important so the majority of participants feel they better understand the other side they feel they they they themselves are better understood by the other side and they feel better prepared to apply the skills to another conversation in the future so those are directly from participants so they don't it's not only you know that they work with school districts because they do that in Ohio but they also in all over the country they have worked in um other areas of the country with school boards as well um but we would be the first board School Board in Northeast Ohio that they would work with um but they also work with universities um the uh Cleveland Catholic dasis with uh senior centers U

174libraries leadership Minos so they're kind of all over the map because truly these are skills that are applicable to people everywhere and I think that we would benefit quite a bit from them so their goal once again not to change people's views rather to just change views of one another and again to teach folks how to disagree better so I'm going to back up to this slide here because this is the one I want to suggest for us and I want to hear I guess up for discussion how how the board feels about this I'd love to make a motion to move forward with planning something but I want everyone to share their thoughts and what they think and how we could maybe move forward with this or of course any questions I love the

175idea of us finding a way to do better we've made some attempts and it hasn't gone terribly well but I'm always open to trying again I think you know you reference to the community survey that's the most response we've ever had for any survey the district's ever done my understanding with those 2,000 roughly um respondents and the length of our meetings and the clashes that we've endured and the social media ugliness it just I find it sad and embarrassing for us as a community and I would like us to do better and so I would be very much in favor of maybe using one of our Cardinal Cafe Frameworks if that would be something that would kind of make sense um that we could see how we might make some positive progress great I had

176a question with with the Cardinal Cafe format so would that be open to anyone in the community that wanted to participate yeah there would be no cost it would justone this is all free yes I don't know if I mentioned that but braver Angels is a nonprofit and they offer these workshops for free but I also thought you know um that guiding Coalition in our committees with a strategic plan I know they were really enthusiastic about the work they were doing we could invite them as well that was a great um you know representative uh group of our our population that we you know we all had input on too so I mean I'm open to whatever I just want to try it so is your motion to do a community group I think so

177I mean to me that's that's what would be most effective but I don't feel like I mean I don't I don't want to make that decision unilaterally obviously can we ask I mean we've got some people here obviously we've got this side we've got that side we've got some people in the middle can we ask to just see you know raise your hand if this is something that you'd be interested in for the community we had a couple oh yeah cool oh well I mean I again like we hosted and the folks who really want to move ahead together those are the ones who will move forward together and and make this community better I I would be interested in learning how to listen better I really would so I think that you know to

178your to your point and we we know that you know the study is is valid there is a cost to conflict I don't know exactly what our number is but I know that there's a cost to conflict and um sometimes that's just public opinion cost too and I I think that our school deserves to you know understand both sides to hear both sides and and to make decisions based on that and if that helps us get there definitely willing to give this a try great I'll just add a couple comments um one of the comments learn that you had made is if we're busy talking about culture wars we're not focusing on academics and I don't think that is true because so much of what's going on in the culture on both sides is woven

179in to what we're seeing that we have to then vote on at the table so um and I think that's probably why you know in my past four years I've had osba definitely weaponized against me for those classes that were called you know board Retreats um because the the message there was just agree with the majority you know they don't want you to have a dissenting vote um in fact my very first board meeting when I voted against something the next day I got a from the president not Maggie um previous board president from our she's no longer on the board and she basically yelled at me for voting no and then shortly after that we had a board retreat where uh the main message of the retreat was you know agree with the majority

180and once there's a decision Let It Go the problem is that there's so many decisions that are made that are morally and ethically very strong on both sides so I think that's where we struggle and that's why these decisions have um the board decisions where there's three2 splits have caused you know division in our community because we're both kind of I understand your perspective I I think you understand mine we're just at you know diabolically different ends on some of those things so I don't know that it would help us as a board if there's Community interest I'm not against you know against offering that to the community especially since it is free um but those are just kind of things off the top of my head that I was just thinking about well I

181I guess to follow procedure I'm going to Second your motion and then we'll just continue with discussions so um is what is the motion yeah what is the motion so the motion was to to move forward with scheduling um we have a motion to schedule something or well I I don't want to do it on my own uh if we we want to move forward with it we can vote on it um to organize a braver Angels Community yeah and and I I you know I think Cardinal Cafe is a great setting but if there's another idea about where to have that take place on all ears I don't know that we really even need AEM motion we never had motions for Cardinal Cafe yeah so no no it's it's really just to move forward

182with scheduling with bra braver angels I don't want to I don't want to schedule on behalf of the board without the board's permission I think there's at least consensus among I mean you seconded it so makes sense so your motion Mr Wade um is to my motion is to um move forward with scheduling a workshop with braver angels okay that includes the board and I will second so wait so now it's including the board I thought it was Community oh no this is the whole point is that the board is engaged in this that we are the we are the folks here at the meetings who are um have are experiencing the conflict clear it's not a board meeting right I should have asked that right it's not a board meeting so the board doesn't

183have to ATT I guess not I mean I would be really disappointed but then it would be a meeting if we had the whole board there yes yeah we'd have to notice it you have more than two people at this I would highly suggest wait hold on let me ask a question though because we all show up at events all the time like we all go to you don't know but we're talking about board business so then it would be an open act no the workshop isn't about board business the workshop is you sit down um Nancy leads a workshop and you talk about a conflict that has abs absolutely nothing to do with Schoolboard business absolutely nothing so it's a skills building workshop right you're working on um you know I pick red and

184you pick blue I'm going to tell you why red is important to me and you're going to tell me why blue is important to you and we're going to work through that conflict together using literal skills that they will provide you with well we can't do that without talking about what our conflicts no you're not supp NOP you're not supposed to talk about anything to do with Schoolboard business that's the idea because otherwise you can't learn the skills right you can't learn the skills to disagree better if you're in he conflict and passion about the topic right so you remove you remove the passion and you talk strictly about an unrelated topic th that's where you sort of that's your interactive kind of play area to learn the skills um to disagree better Madam president

185I I I guess from the person who's responsible for the policy and kind of governance of the board it would behoove what I still hear though is a work session type okay topic that would be similar to what we did with osba just now doing with braver angels inviting community in is fine regardless I would still highly recommend Sunshine that we Sunshine it to be safe okay not to state that we're not talking about board business but when you're doing professional development in the past we have followed that I mean we could get a legal opinion but no I I respect that so can I weigh in real quick absolutely um before I still don't know what I don't know what the motion is because I have to move forward the motion to schedule bravver

186Angels workshop and then I think we threw the board in that as well correct yes I want the board involved as well okay thank you MH wouldn't it primarily be for us to work through this exercise we could you know Sunshine notice it because we'll all be together but the intent is not to discuss Ward business or revisit things that have caused conflict in the past but to learn a better strategy for speaking thoughtfully and more collaborative with each other to deescalate some of the tension exactly I think I'm struggling with this because the if we're talking about blue versus green or topics that don't even relate I think we can all get along with each other just fine when we're not talking about things that are very very near and dear to our heart

187I mean if we're talking about boys and girls bathrooms and locker rooms I'm going to be at a 10 out of 10 you're going to be at a 10 out of 10 to defend the other side whatever that this is so different I don't really see the value I think our problem isn't dialogue I think our problem is decisions that don't align with our community and I just don't know that this is going to fix our problem I think we're going to still have conflict because we're just on opposite ends we can be more respectful of one another I think when we speak I think um you know that's been an issue not just up here but out there um there's things like that that we could work on but I don't think that this

188is going to solve the divide in the community or up here sorry Rose I think you were next that's okay that's that's fine I like hearing so um I appreciate the senent I think you're trying to you want to I think you're a doer and you want a problem solver Miss merchz you want you want to fix what's up here but um you lost me at violent rhetoric and threats because that's not what I'm seeing up here you know um first of all I don't think we have a high turnover I think our faculty especially our um administrators I mean they've been here for a very long time I don't think that's a problem in our district um I think our problem is an inability to read the room and and we are not a

189divided community and like Miss Miss Payne just said we don't we are we have problems in up here because we can't make decisions that reflect out there so um you know I'm I think if if it's free and anybody that wants to join in is fine um but as a board member I'm not I don't see the value in sitting there um and spending time to to in a way be lectured that I'm not falling in line because I these are major we're not arguing over you know little things and we're not micromanaging we're arguing about these big things that you know no amount of um of um I don't know counseling or is going to is going to change that for me so um I I think it's nice to offer it we have

190the beautiful Paradigm it's nice to offer it to anybody that wants it and it's free and that's valuable but um I I don't see the value in it doing as a board that's unfortunate to hear that you don't see value in working on skills on how to work together I mean that's disappointing what I will say is for one I didn't I wasn't talking about turnover for the entire District I was talking about leadership turnover and um you know luckily we have a superintendent here um I'm so glad that we have the fiveyear contract under our builts um but we did have a superintendent who left um so and and our assistant superintendent is also leaving so you know when leadership turns over my point is it costs dollars right and as far as violent

191rhetoric I have to share just a few things that have that about me one parents need to start talking to Schoolboard members in the parking lot I'm thinking it might be the only way it is the only way these are things said about me there's more the people that think that pornography should be in schools should absolutely be in prison or in a wood shipper I agree I vote for the wood shipper make the wood chipper great again this is also about me there's more all we have to do Gunther Eagleman says is set one example under a picture of me harsh and Swift yes said Libs of Tik Tock period said a Community member so if you want to tell me that there's no violent rhetoric I'm here to tell you you're wrong that's

192not board violent that's not up here this is the community and this is a result of our meetings we can't control what they we can't control what they say if you don't want to participate in making things better that's disappointing that's not what she say I think that's a very that dialogue right there you guys like you just said if you don't want to participate in things making things better that's not the correct dialogue to use with somebody who has a simple disagreement with I'm applying this to all of us Annie all of us I'm saying this is a group project and we need to work on it this community deserves better they put me here to ask for better and that's what I'm doing I know we've never tried anything like this I get

193that and that's hard but we can't keep doing this this can't go on this community can't take it our students watch this all right they see us doing this this is a disappointment to them and those are my kids out there too I want to do better for them and I want to do better for these people so so I I hear what you're saying but I think like those comments what were those from the libs of Tik Tok things it's from multiple sources okay so we all get that I mean I had a sexually she said she didn't so no I mean I said well who didn't you said you one at a time please one at a time you said you didn't know about any violent rhetoric sorry Mrs P yeah um Louise

194oh gosh um so you know I think that it's it's more difficult than than this this training this session I think that it is like Rose said it's our decisions are not in alignment with the community um and so we're hearing those and and you do have those outliner liers I don't think everybody talks like that I mean I've seen sexually explicit things said about me and Rose on one of Maggie's posts then people wonder why we don't allow comments well I don't want that bullying Behavior going back and forth on anybody I don't think it's productive I think you know that's productive this class could be um just just to clarify I didn't say anything no no not I'm sorry not not from like somebody else and I know this person has actually had

195to have police reports against him because of his violent disgusting rhetoric um I just I I'm apprehensive because I think our decisions are the problem I don't think it's our dialogue could we do better yes but we've had three trainings board Retreats where we've talked about these things so I don't I don't know that this would fix anything um I think it's good to offer it's free for the community I also don't know that people who are saying those things about you those things about me are the people who are going to show up they're not they're going to continue because they're just you know it's unfortunate it's vile it's um you know attacking people's kids is vile as well like you can't you can't reason with people like that because they're not going to

196be the people who are going to show up they don't even you know say anything at the board meetings most of them are people who are keyboard Warriors so while I appreciate you know the sentiment of this and I could see it as like just a Cardinal Cafe let people come and you know see um if they want to take advantage of it great it's free but I don't know that us as board members have to be tied down to it because I don't know that I see the value yet I'd like to research it further well I I think we've we have Fair points on both sides and I'm not sure we're going to have resolution so there is a motion in the second on the table can we can we vote if we

197want to move forward on this now and all right please call the role Miss maraza yes Miss Cook I have a quick question sorry are we voting just clarification point of clarification are we voting for board and Community yes okay um Miss aapo no Miss Jing yes Miss Payne no only because I don't think the board should have to go to it um but I agree with it for the community just not it in minutes yes I agree same okay thank you next we have new business and the first item under new business is a discussion on policy 5722 policy 5722 is school sponsored Publications and Productions and um Mrs maraza has um some discussion on this as well yes thank you for adding it to the agenda Madam president oh okay so we have

198heard um from a couple speakers this evening already about the student newspaper um and I too as Miss Freeman indicated have spoken with the young journalists the student journalists who work on that paper so um listening to them um really made me think quite a bit about not only the paper and the class CU these these two agenda items our next one is going to be about the journalism class are kind of tied up together so I think we might do some drifting back and forth since they're so interrelated but if we could just focus on the policy first our policy uh 5722 uh was introduced in 2021 I think it was with our last revamp before I joined the board of all of that policy so it kind of came in with that sweeping

199big change of all of the different policies and so but after speaking with uh the students who take who who are in Cardinal nation in that extracurricular um and and and hearing their concerns Bas basically what I heard from them is that they feel restricted and unable to publish freely um and and they really point to policy 5722 as the reason for doing so um I do think they have a good point I think you know what they told me they put together a wonderful presentation um many students stood up and shared slides and instances and and I have read their articles I think there's some very talented kids in that group um but but basically what they shared with me is that they they feel that their um student expression is being restricted um

200and I think that it is important to afford our student journalists with more freedom of expression um and of course not without oversight but here's why our current policy on student journalism is what's known as a Hazelwood policy which was founded on the 1988 Hazelwood case in which um the Supreme Court of the United States gave school districts broad sweeping authority to censor student journalism a policy like this is uh it specifically allows schools to prohibit student speech in in um School sponsored student media that is quote anything other than uh neutral on a matter of political controversy um and from our directly from our policy it it it's it calls student media non-public fora so basically um while student it says while students May address matters of Interest or concern to their readers and

201viewers as non-public forums the style and content of the publication can be regulated for legitimate pedagogical School related reasons basically school officials have um the ability to restrict um anything they see in there for any pedagogical reason um and and another thing that's happening according to what they told me is there's basically one person who reviews all content and that does tend to bottleneck as well and I do think that the the class you know moving over to a journalism course is going to help alleviate a lot of that of course so I do think that's moving in a positive direction nevertheless I do think with ch you know changing to a journalism course we are going to need to adapt this policy to fit that course and the the policy we have right now

202is not going to work for that course so right now we're censoring student speech as long as we can claim it's quote reasonably related to legitimate P pedagogical concern um that's led to a number of Articles either being delayed or completely eliminated um so I do I do find that troubling students who are interested in pursuing careers in writing and journalism should have the ability to explore and exercise their rights in the space so they get a sense of what it's like to truly write to inform or persuade through writing they are already demonstrating an interest to engage in civil discourse with their peers they're showing an interest in engaging in topical conversations happening right in their own communities and buildings and my question is why aren't we letting them their ability to do so

203now under our current policy is pretty limited freedom of expression through school sponsored media is a fundamental princip in our Democratic Society granted by the First Amendment a robust and free student press is critical to the development of informed and civic-minded adults what are we teaching students by restricting their speech that they're not entitled to the same rights as everyone else until they turn 18 we are essentially priming them to disengage from public discourse sending them the message that they aren't allowed to express their own opinions in their own newspaper unless their principal tells them they can for a board that frequently touts its own First Amendment rights it seems hypocritical that we deny these same rights to students we purport to serve if we don't allow them to learn how to engage in Civic

204discourse now they'll be no better off than we adults are today I think we'd benefit from more clarity and flexibility in our policy which is why I'd recommend changing policy 5722 to adopt the 1969 Tinker standard that is based on a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that students speech is protected in schools unless it would substantially interfere with the operation of the school or invade the rights of others this would mean that our student papers are designated as a forum for public expression to be clear what I'm envisioning will still be a enable us to include oversight and regulation that prohibits content that is not protected that is to say content that is obscene lious slanderous or likely to incite others to commit illegal or disruptive acts other districts such as Mayfield managed

205to do this with their own student newspaper with a much more flexible policy and administrative guidelines Willoughby Eastlake uses an older Neola policy that establishes the student newspaper as a limited public forum which gives students controlled over the paper but still restricts content for its uh for uh restricts content excuse me that is unprotected so uh the instructor or the adviser can also create their own requirements for editorials and opinion pieces making it clear that their editorials are opinions um and you can also build in restrictions along the lines of you know editorial guidelines basically give guardrail for the writers and I imagine this will happen in the journalism course as well but you know it reinforces that hey this is a student paper we are not taking a position on these issues facing the

206community or these political candidates there are definitely things you can do to build in those guard rails so but the overall ask is I'm asking the board to see if there's interest to revisit this policy in an upcoming meeting I'm not suggesting we change it right now but if we could discuss it in a future meeting especially in the context of this new journalism Court that's [Music] it oh I guess I have some comments on that um I do think that so the policy that we currently have we're actually currently violating it so we do have to do something because right now um which I think is why the journalism class was being recommended because we are currently violating our current policy because um in our current policy it says the board expressively prohibits the

207use of social media related to student Publications and we know that the adviser of the group does place these all over Facebook um and Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it now so that would be a violation of this policy I do think that um well I know that it does Place students at risk by putting them on social media so a few years back there was um a student who spoke with Mike and she talked about you know her side of things and then uh she was quoted in this student um LED you know newspaper article and she was pitted against the pride group from Mentor High and the Lake County allies group and because of that then being shared online on social media she received hateful harassing messages to you

208know through social media um from grown adults and they I mean they were really really terrible um so I think that that's a risk that we're and maybe that's why the policy says that I would assume that some of this is you know backed by legal um language as to why it's in that policy in the first place then I do um think we're it says only District approved social media as defined by bylaw 010 may be used to host School sponsored student media in accordance with policy um there it's not like on our official Menor Schools page that it's being posted um it's being posted by the adviser on different areas of social media so we're in we're in direct violation of that as well um so the board authorizes the administration to engage

209in Prior review I think we do have that now I don't believe we did previous to I think this last year was it Craig since you've been on um as superintendent you made sure we were applying that yeah cuz one of the things when we made the transition in niola when we had our um extensive meetings going through policy language that was one of the things that came out of the board discussion as well okay yeah um I think you know in my tenure here I have had several complaints about not necessarily the the student writing it it's more um you know apprehensions that are had because of the topics we heard a speaker tonight bring it up um being linked to you know somebody who does have a leaning One Way um so I

210don't you know I I understand why we're trying to move over to the journal journalism class um maybe if we do decide as a board because it's going to be you know probably voted on eventually if the board decides to keep the student um Le articles I think that having like a co-advisor just to kind of even the field out and make sure it's not just under one person maybe having two people with two different perspectives politically would be really helpful um and maybe then we wouldn't need the administrator review after that so just a thought any more discussion I just want to make sure that students have an opportunity to participate that doesn't require being enrolled in a class yeah that's the next agenda item so that's that's when as we're looking at this

211policy it sounds like Mrs Payne you you are also in agreement that relooking at this policy would be a good idea that we should look at some options and maybe it's a I don't know if it's administrative guidelines or if it's policy um but we should be revisiting this well I I agree with the language that's in there right now I don't think we should use social media but I'm open to um like the student that spoke tonight I understand her perspective I you know I don't want people if she said no one from Cardinal Nation can use the journalism class that's concerning you know we have to I feel like we have to do something to so I think the journalism class will be our next discussion but if we what I'm saying is

212if we move the Cardinal Nation to the journalism class like we're intending to do that's I think where this they're having an issue because then they can't even partake in it if I'm understanding that correctly right now I'm just asking to revisit like look at the policy and and make some changes to it that's all we're talking about right now well I I would say we're in violation of the policy so something has to something has to change um while I may agree with some of this verbage that I mentioned not saying the whole policy uh I think if we are going to change the language because it's a Neola policy and Neola does back their policies that are given to us like this if we make additional changes we will have to consult with

213our other legal um so I know that I was on it was Mrs jine and and I that looked at this policy as the first review and then it you know went to the full board and I remember this discussion because we wanted Protections in place we wanted there to be limits quite honestly we wanted to have an administrator looking over things to make to really to protect children was what our idea was we didn't want them writing something that would be lialis that would get you know into trou for Reon that jeopardize a future job or a scholar or you know something like that without imput of of someone else so that was our thinking behind it um realizing now that it could be limiting Free Speech they could have a case on that

214um I'm I'm open to looking at options I I think that this is still legal you know I I'm fine with looking at options especially as it fit fits into a new course now when we were looking at this we were thinking of it as the Cardinal Nation newspaper not just limited to that but that was kind of our primary focus and we thought it needed someone kind of checks and balances but now that we have a journalism class I I think it's interesting to look at it from a different lens and maybe just see different options so you I don't want to put words in your mouth so just are you thinking of still moving Cardinal Nation over to the journalism class but then having something else where students can write like editorials or

215whatnot is that what I'm just now I'm just talking about policy I'm just talking about like a review of policy for the journalism class we know we're having a journalism class that's already on our just a review of policy of how it would fit for the journalism class but I do have thoughts about that when we okay get to that next topic I do want to point out it's not just I think this also is relevant to like Productions as well it is um so yeah it's actually a bigger umbrella we should be clear that we're we're talking not just about Cardinal Nation here it is it is truly a policy discussion that I'm asking us to take up at the next meeting yes is the proposal that students would produce a newspaper that's in

216print rather than electronic that no I'm no that's not no I'm asking oh sorry thought you were looking at me oh me am I proposing that it would be um cuz that's not cost effect I just I think it's not wise to have like the actual advisor posting these things instead of like a designated page as well like I just don't know and I also don't know that like that one student that I'm talking about who was harassed then because it went all over I think that's why we have to make sure that it's um that there's you know maybe a CO like two people looking over it I just think that we have to make sure they're balanced so that the community one doesn't perceive it as we're pushing one side of the politics

217you know we've had that we've gotten emails about it whether it's this side or that side um so I think just having like a more neutral approach and making sure it's balanced is what I'm I guess saying so you're open to looking at new policy with we may we may say this is the best yeah we can I'm open to talking about it because right now we're violating the policy so we can't continue to violate the policy now that we know that we're violating it we have to do something I don't know what that something is though okay so if you could give us some options with maybe either different Neola policies or um administrative guideline policies that might better align with the journalism class so let me just kind of summarize a couple of

218things for us here uh first of all you know we do have the policy in place again kind of aligned with the Hazelwood case as opposed to the Tinker case um the proposal for the journalism course is something that I had brought up a couple years ago uh with our administrative team because uh quite honestly this is um the the first district that I've worked in where the student publication whether it was a newspaper a magazine an online publication of of whatever sort um was not tied to a class um that's how a lot of things were done in central Ohio was tied to a curricular course um so that that's why I had presented that as a an option for us um number one I think it it provides the instruction on basic journalism

219principles and ethics that maybe is not currently part of this extracurricular activity that we currently have um I I want something that's going to be aligned with some standards that allows our our students to learn the the other part to this um because if I know I shared uh all the policy language with you uh probably I when that was first brought up maybe in January so it's been a few weeks now but uh I think there are 13 pages to that uh that policy language option that Neola provides us so as we start digging into this and it makes sense to review the um the policy while we're creating the course I think we need to uh work closely with the with the administrative team at the high school um I think we need

220to work closely with the teacher that's going to be teaching this new journalism course because um again journalism standards are housed under uh the English department so we've identified an English teacher that has volunteered to teach the course as well uh which I think will be a good thing for us um and they're working through that framework now um I know we had a couple of conversations here or a couple of uh public participants earlier that uh were discussing uh the course itself and kind of the limitations with um not being able to fit into a schedule um and and obviously you know as we're making this transition into a course we'd have to work through some things with our students that are already currently writing for Cardinal Nation um but the the idea as

221we make this transition is that they would start in that journalism one course that would be more of something that ties into their um their class schedule on a daily basis and then if they wanted to continue writing then with a journalism 2 three and four course that would be more of an independent study that didn't have to be tied into a specific period of the day for them that would still allow them to um to write articles and submit articles for Cardinal nation that would run through that teacher um at that level and then you know whatever other administrative guideline safeguards guard rails that we want to put in place um you know how that looks to to make those final decisions on publishing uh the articles with that and be part of what

222we would have to decide uh from a policy discussion standpoint but again I think both of those things working together as we're going through this process uh I think will be an important thing for us um I'll again try and Link that into the board update this week so everybody has all of the that optional language again and and I I guess I would encourage us to to take a close look at those different options that are there think of it in the context of this being run through a curricular um class that we that we would be offering at the high school level um and then we can start having some conversations about what options and what uh what direction we want that uh entire policy to take um we will work administratively here

223between now and in our April meeting to figure out exactly what um our recommendations might be based on the practices that we would put in place um the the one thing I will share with the group is that we do not currently have any administrative guidelines for policy 5722 and Neola does not have any template guidelines for us to follow either so if we were to create something it would be creating something on our own um the other the other part to all of this obviously you've got the optional language that is listed in theola and if we're able to piece those things together together um from a legal standpoint we would be fine with Neola if there is any deviation from that then we'd have to consult legal counsel on on what it is

224that we might try and uh put together from a from an overall policy uh language discussion then can I ask a follow-up question when do you think the I think it's a really good point to kind of take a look at the course Plan before we make policy so when do you think that would be ready we're still thinking April right now is going to be our time frame um they've been working on it now for uh probably 2 and a half months um our curriculum Department in collaboration with Mr Crow okay um and then uh like I said they've had conversations with the English Department they've identified a teacher who's willing to teach the course um so we're we're fairly far along at this point it's just uh putting that final framework together um

225once we get the framework in place they'll spend some time over the summer getting like the the daily lessons figured out from there um really the framework's the big part right now and that should be ready by April I guess it would be maybe important to work with that teacher too on creating the pl because I I want it to make sense for the for the course as well yeah absolutely okay is there any more discussion with that I'll just to weigh in I'll just defer to Legal because I think that's this policy is what's in there now protects us you know we have to have some kind of we need our administrators to be in church but well I'll that's I'll leave it at that okay great um the next discussion is journalism class

226discussion Mrs Mar also brought this up now we can dig into that yes we've spoken about it a lot we have yeah so um I I really want to thank once again miss Freeman who I think is still here yes for speaking and again for putting together um such a great presentation for me and I know they delivered that to Mr Heath as well um so I share the same concerns of course um when this shifts over to a a class I do think it's going to limit I mean it will there's no doubt that it will limit the number of students who can participate in writing for the paper um I think offering the supplemental alongside uh the course makes sense um I think that would allow um lots of different students whether they're

227AP or whether they're just sort of taking it up as a hobby or trying it out um to see if they like writing um I I think that we have to keep that open for students to engage with it's a you know I think a lot of a lot of them take very seriously but none of them um what they told me none of them would be able to take this course um because of their packed schedules so and again she mentioned it it's great that they would be grandfathered in but what does that mean for future students so I want to make sure this opportunity is available to Future students but of course also to them as well um so I'm I'm hoping that we can consider U maintaining the supplemental alongside the class

228um we would then have those two people um that Mrs Payne mentioned kind of overseeing the paper in tandem um and really it would come down to you know the students are writing the paper but they would have those two folks over sighting and two heads are better than one as I heard somebody say already um so that those are my feelings about it uh you know curious to hear what other people think too I've also had a couple students um most recently at state of the city stop me and they were from Cardinal nation and and said hey you know I have a concern about this it's moving to a class and and their concerns there were many um first they told me you know how and I think this is very interesting that

229none of the students who are you know really passionate about the newspaper and enjoy it very much have time for it in their schedule so that that is just telling to me and I cannot anticipate that that would necessarily change in the future for future students to suddenly have room in their schedule we have a lot of classes that are offered a lot of our students have very mapped out paths from the very beginning of their freshman year they know what they're taking each year and to your point um I I and I think it's a it's a good point that you might be able to take classes as more of an independent study um however there's a big difference between the amount of work that you're taking as a class versus a club and

230when you're writing for a club you could hey I'm really busy I'm not going to make this meeting I'm not going to take on an article this month but when you're in a class you have workload to do and you're already taking on a workload I had um another point that students made to me was some of the students are very concerned about their GPA they want to they're worried about class Rank and and for us that means honors classes AP classes CCP classes are weighted which changes your GPA so if this class doesn't have a weighted option then it would actually hurt them to take a class that's not weighted so you know considering that as an option I I do not I I love that we're going to a journalism class for um

231you know the the side of it of a career because we we will have students I would hope that want journalism as a career and and I think that that's excellent for them and and even just anyone that just wants to write but to not have it as an extracurricular that is that is troublesome to me I I think that everyone should be able to write and pop in and out um without needing to have that requirement of the class it it's as far as having an an adviser I like the model with you know like marching band has when you might have the same adviser as you have the class teacher I think that it's important to have more than one person reviewing but I don't necessarily think it needs to be two different

232teachers it could be an administrator um I'm I'm okay with that I I just I think that we need to have an opportunity somehow for an extracurricular to be in place and if that's the same teacher is also the supplemental I mean we couldn't Force someone to do that or it's a second person um I I'm fine with that it's really not about a per a specific person it it's really just about having the opportunity for the student one way or the other I think I'd feel more comfortable with um like a whoever's whoever would we had in mind for the journalism journalism class um I'm assuming they probably have certain credentials right for that class uh it would be more of like a language arts or something like that um I would feel more

233comfortable offering both things if there was somebody who's you know got experience in the field doing both I think that would be really important I could I could I could be interested in that if that were the case yeah that's smart we want someone that has yeah that you know that schooling yeah the professional side of it absolutely so I know we can't really vote on anything right I mean this is just us offering our thoughts a discussion yeah and so I know Mr Heath this is ultimately your decision um what are what are your can we hear your feedback I'll take all of this and and have that conversation with our curriculum group that's working on it right now okay thank you appreciate you hearing us out all right next on our agenda we

234have executive orders and Mrs Payne and Mrs iapo requested that we put these on so I'm going to open it up to whoever wants to speak first I'll go first okay so just a recap um for anybody watching or that's I'm sure most people know but last week Senator Bernie Marino cons um concerned out about our District's handling of the executive orders reached out to the board for clarification with $5 million in federal funding at stake he recognizes the Trump administration's commitment to enforcement I'm glad to see that Menor isn't just a blip on the radar that he truly cares about us um he TR truly cares about Ohio education and wants to protect our district from losing critical funding due to um just a few board members you know acting against the community's interests

235um his question to Miss Cook was valid and one I was eager to have answered um until recently the board was told we plann to comply with all executive orders but I was surprised to learn that that had changed once again politics are in play and we won't comply with any executive orders under Court challenge something that the we know that the Democratic Party has actively pursued against Trump's order so they're just filing Court challenges left and right um we're not attorneys so it's not um our place to delve into the legalities of the executive orders here at the table um I think when miss mzza you went beyond your role as legislatively aison with your comments last last meeting um and and given that the remarks were seen by over half a million people

236as you mentioned with the libs of tic tac it's no surprise that our district caught the attention of a us or youit US senator um you know for me I I I what I'm gathering is that we are not planning on um complying to any executive orders that are being challenged um you know we know that based on our discussions and guidance that we've received um it's generally advised that districts do follow executive orders unless an injunction is in place so you know I think that even like I mentioned earlier tonight even regardless of executive orders we we there's enough evidence to support that our community does approve of the tenants of of of Trump's uh president Trump's executive orders and that there's no risk to the district legally to follow them um so you

237know and with all the state laws that we have the risks that come from ignoring executive orders in our current financial status I don't think we can afford to play this game I think it it's for us to say we will comply unless there's an an injunction and give the community give our taxpayers the you know just just the knowledge that we are not putting our district at risk and that we are hearing them um and again it these things you know we talk about the the that you know some of those um brain pop some of these things that we're renewing that you they do have some of this stuff that's going to interfere with House Bill 8 with parental rights with some of these executive orders and some other laws so you know

238we already we you've already said we we've got a rubric lined up so that we can make sure that we're protected and and that teachers don't don't use any of these things why go through all of that when we already know it's not something that the community wants and just you know say to the community rest assured unless there's an injunction we would plan on following all of our executive orders so um you know well and and and I know I know Jenny you don't like my Facebook posts my our press releases but it's important like I had some people say you know act like um this was this was causing you know a divide and this was just you know this was just rhetoric but to me it's it's it's a campaign promise that

239we said we are going to make sure that we are fiscally responsible that we are doing what we can to fund the this district and so so when I hear oh gosh we are out there and now a an US senator and I I I I I wish I had and my dad had the PLL that some of these people think that we have that we got Bernie Marino's com uh phone number but um that's concerning I would be concerned as a constituent if my board members didn't reach out and make sure that um hey is what are we doing are we are we complying so um just just to clarify that I think you know when we sit at this table we're not lawyers when we sit at this table and we make statements

240that could potentially put our funding at risk that's irresponsible and so I think to defend our statement was to say we're not we don't I'm not I don't I'm not we we haven't even had consensus up here about um executive orders this is that's why we wanted it on the agenda and that was that was our plan all along so um you know I obviously I know we're a 3-2 and obviously um I I know how this story ends but how does it really end when it comes to um a future Levy how does it really end um you know come November when there's elections we need to do things now and you know I understand I know what everybody feels like who are not happy with some of these executive orders we had four

241years the other way and we we warned that that pendulum was swinging so we have to do the responsible thing and follow what is going to fund our schools so that our students and staff can have all these wonderful things we're arguing about journalism class is not going to be here if we can't pass a levy so that's my piece so I guess I'll I'll go next since it was put on there by Rose and I um I Echo everything that Rose said I think that it's if you know it's we have to be transparent and while I appreciate the letter Mrs cook that you had you know with some help writing that and sending it out I appreciate that but I think it wasn't you know if we're truly not going to follow executive

242orders any of them that are challenged we need to communicate that to the public because they deserve to know the truth um I was also surprised when I don't even know when it was last week or what not that I found out that we weren't going to follow any of them that were challenged um so I mean I would like us to issue you know some kind of board statement even just tonight saying if that's what we're going to do the public deserves to know that or if we are just going to follow executive orders but not ones that have injunctions which that makes sense right I mean I understand that um and that's a temporary thing likely you know I think we need to make that statement I think the public deserves to know

243what our stance is on it and as Rose had mentioned I think we see the pendulum swinging back we see the two Dei um bills anti- Dei Bills moving through the the state house we have the executive orders we have the parental rights um parental Bill of Rights bill that already passed so I think we you know in conjunction with the the votes from November and how that turned out for our particular community I think it would be wise to to become in more alignment with the community and get rid of some of this stuff regardless of the executive orders um I also had a question for Mr Heath I know we were talking previously about you know some of the books that have been previously challenged and like uh the transphobia deal with it

244and become a gender transcender that said you know you are transphobic if you only believe if you believe there's only two genders um the Colin Kaepernick one that calls Trump supporters primarily racist and white supremacists books like that that are you know placed in front of KR sixth grade or whatnot those have been challenged they've been retained with a board majority um I voted against them just for transparency are those books that you believe with the par parental Bill of Rights or these executive orders that should be then removed so a couple of things because again we've got one executive order that we're we're waiting on the recommendations from the Department of Education the Department of Defense the Department of Health and Human Services and the attorney general and that's what that executive order stated

245and that was that one ending radical indoctrination in K12 schools that one does not have an injunction uh levied against it at this point so right now we're just waiting for those recommendations and we'll follow what those recommendations are um what we're currently doing right now is we're going through all of our materials all of uh uh anything uh in curriculum books whatever it may be that may be aligned to some of the um pieces that are included in that executive order just to have our ducks in a row ready to go when those recommendations come out those are supposed to come out um by April 29th it was 90 days after the uh after after the executive order and that was uh done on January 29th so April 29th is the date that we're

246waiting on for those um so we're we're doing our due diligence right now just to get prepared for that um the ones that are currently under injunction are the the ones ending radical Dei programs and then that dear colleague letter that came from the Department of Education um both of those have injunctions right now so again we can do our preparation work in the background with what potentially might be coming out of that but that one is currently on hold so I want to make sure we're very clear with with the executive order piece that we're talking through right now um again currently we're we're working in the background making sure that we get all of our um all of our I all of our our materials in place so that if there is something

247that needs to change quickly we can do that now with that being said also we've got all of the house bill a initiatives that are going to be taking place beginning April 9th so those are the things we're working through different recommendations right now um and that'll be part of the conversations that we have with our teaching staff uh we had that conversation with our administrators here today um so there there are several things that we're we're already working through right now to make sure that we're um going to be in compliance there uh some of them are related to materials some of them are related to notification systems really overall I think we're in really good shape um there there are just some things that um we'll be taking a close look at from

248our material standpoint I I found it um interesting When I Was preparing for the Brain Pop discussion I had an old email from Mr Porter and we were going back and forth about you know what's accessible and what's not accessible and at that point that was like three years ago um they had blocked actually blocked there was a you were able to block it the pride videos Pride 2020 Pride 2021 um and then a few of the other things so it it's I feel like we're not being consistent because if we're putting books that reference you know some of the concepts in the pride with lgbtq and with um you know gender ideology and sexuality and and K through fifth grade classrooms and then but yet we're blocking them from Brain Pop I just want

249to make sure that whatever we decide to do that we're consistent and also transparent so Y and and again we we're looking through all of our different programs materials whether it's digital or hard copy to make sure that we've got everything that we need to have identified to uh to move done at that point in time is it your recommendation that we then follow all executive orders um unless they have an injunction yeah that's that's accurate so even if they're challenged we should be following them right it's just injunctions specifically right so right now the the ones that are falling under that injunction are the ending radical Dei program so th that's the stuff that's on hold right now and that's again what what we've kind of said about those uh executive orders here over

250the last month as things legally have been challenged and and it changes fairly fairly quickly so um so yeah I if there's something that's that's falling under an injunction you know it's on hold if it's something that is not under an injunction then we're following yeah we will always be following the federal and state laws okay just for clarity I have a question because you mentioned House Bill 8 a couple of times tonight and you mentioned um being in compliance on April 9 but that's the effective date the compliance the plan we have to have is July that's when the policy has to be passed by July the the implementation takes place April 9th so what's the difference if the policy has to be ready April 9 you're saying we're implementing it April 9 as

251well what's the July date then yeah the July date is just the the the time frame that the state law indicates that Boards of Education have have to uh adopt a policy for um the actual implementation of the law takes place April 9th the effective date though that's so in other words we have to be creating a policy compliance by April 9th I'm sorry we have to be in compliance by April 9th but it says not later than the first day of July following the effective date of the section the board should have the policy so but how do we how do we do the how do we do the work without a policy just like you were going to do for the bathroom right you wanted to comply without a policy so here we're

252complying by the April 9th but and we have till July to have a policy and everything's outlined in the in the law so and and again follow exactly follow what's in the law and then we create a policy based on what you did that see I don't know just seems silly but I mean if that's what we're doing that's what we're doing but but it's just requiring the Board of Education to have a policy okay just seems backwards do we do we need to have a work session before that I think that might be a good idea actually no okay no no okay can you report we have a board policy in place for and we'll have a first reading in April we'll have our second reading in May but based on the state law

253the requirement is that districts are in compliance by April 9th so can you share the plan with us this Friday and that will be in the board update here this week with all of the cuz literally I took the the law and I wrote everything down but I tried to clean up the language a little bit because there's a lot of legal ease in there but you know what is it that districts are required to do it's this this this and this and again a lot of those things we've already got in place because it's a lot of things with parent notification and and opt out Clauses and those sorts of things which we already do and there are a couple of things that we'll need to uh to clean up but those are things

254that we're already working through right now and and on April 9th we'll be ready to roll thank you for clarifying thank you so what I'm hearing is We are following laws we plan to follow laws we will follow laws we're we're in line to follow the new laws that are coming down I I guess I just don't understand the rhetoric [Music] around why that we're not following laws and that we're jeopardizing Federal funding because no one has ever said that we've consistently said we're following the laws and we are not putting our federal funding at risk I I personally would never put the federal funding at risk if it is something that I agree with or I don't agree with I would never put the federal funding at risk well I'm glad I'm glad to

255hear that because it was unclear it was it was we had a convers well because we were told one thing and then that at our last executive session you had mentioned something that if it's challenged we're not following it so that was where it was like who wait a minute when you know when did that happen so I'm glad to know that for the record we plan on following all executive orders unless there's an injunction yeah I think that's good and we are okay good I that that was unclear but do you feel that we're not I feel like we were I was told before that we weren't there was a challenge you wen't told that by me in that executive session in s you said I said that I no absolutely not I I

256was there as well and I do I do remember that it was in a discussion about the executive orders and then you just made us just like a quick comment well you know there are some challenged ones that we shouldn't be following something like that it was very quick it wasn't like we had a big discussion so glad to hear it all right so can we put that to rest we are following laws we're not jeopardizing federal funds is there other things that we need to talk about with executive orders tonight well that kind of Segways into the next um okay right so our next discussion is policy 230 which is responsibilities of the superintendent I think I I requested that to be on the agenda with rose so if I could have the floor

2571230 thank you yes so um Mrs Payne and Mrs aapo would like to discuss this policy and who would like to start I'll start thank you so this is really going to be easy after the discussion we just had so under B it says provide that all aspects of District Operations comply with state and federal laws and regulations as well as board contracts and policies I would like to motion to amend that to say um state and federal laws including executive orders that do not have an injunction and regulations as well as board contracts and policies just out of transparency you know for the community I would like to motion that change I'll second that state okay you got to re you want me to go slower I'll go slower okay are you ready are

258you sending it oh he needs the the policy langage okay but you said state and federal laws including so under B with state to so state and federal laws and then changing it to in like parenthesis including executive orders that do not have an injunction and and and then the rest of it and regulations as well as board contracts and policies so I'm just inserting so yeah so what I'll do is I'll say what you know state and federal laws comma including executive orders that do not have an injunction comma yeah that's just the that's just the motion that I want is to amend it to include that language you're you're adding you're basically adding the comma including executive ERS that do not have an injunction you got it Y which should be pretty easy

259because we all just discussed it so this might not be a as big of a battle as I thought it might be so Mrs P have you spoke with our legal I did speak with legal um in reference to well yeah a couple different things but um yes I did talk to him about executive orders um and those did you talk specifically about that change in the language um I didn't State exactly how I was going to say it but it was I think we all got the update from legal as well and I think this verbiage would be in alignment with what what he sent us so um okay I would appreciate just him looking at that before we made a change on the floor but so we could do a I mean we

260could the amendment's on the floor we could vote on it and then you know this this isn't the first read this the next one would be the first reading so he could talk to yeah if you could and just at like your weekly one no need for like a separate so so at the next meeting we could have this on for a vote for for the amendment for first reading MH are you okay with that thank you that I got it okay I actually do I swear to God did you can you update it in that yeah yeah okay did you email that document to me yeah got it thank you thanks all right do we need any more discussion on that um no but Maggie I have um a new business that's didn't make

261it to the agenda unfortunately but oh that's okay no that's okay did you send that to me and I missed that or um I went I sent it to um Mr Heath but um it's it's um in regards to the Refuge Club so let me just give a little backstory The Refuge Club is a student L Christian Club at the high school and it's open to everybody of all backgrounds and faiths it there's two amazing teachers who have been advising this club for quite some time and each meeting is it's student L is led by the student leaders um this year there are three student leaders and it's my understanding that this club is the only club that does not pay their advisors a stien um so it I don't know why that is I

262I did do a little bit of digging I did ask um Mr Heath a little bit about it um it should be noted that the so I I was told that it was because they there was no request made for it so um I did a little bit of digging and found that they there in the in the past and it was before you were a superintendent um and I do believe it was before even Mr Crow was was principal um two to three requests were made and they were denied on the basis that it's a religious group and that they couldn't be paid which is not true so um Tech technically if stiens are given equally to all Club advisers which is what I saw and the Christian Club remains student L that it

263can it is it does qualify so and actually denying the The Refuge Club advisers of stien solely because it's a religious Club is actually um could potentially constitute Viewpoint discrimination under the Equal access act so I want to remedy that and um I know there was talk about that MTA has to figure out if it goes on there but I know I don't I don't think it has to be part of the MTA negotiations as supplemental to actually give them a stipend correct couple couple thoughts um there are other clubs in this District that don't have stens one two all of our stiens are negotiated okay how many can you name a couple that are that are not paid that don't give a Sten off the top of my head I can't I could as

264a former High principal I mean we had I had clubs started all the time that the kids would start and then they'd go and find an adviser and as long as they found an adviser they could then be an official Club I mean Menor High School's got hundreds of clubs um so there are some that do not I mean just to be clear so and then all other stiens though are negotiated there are certain stiens at each level then that are determined through faculty Council um each building has or each level has a certain number right um so some of those are paid through that and they stay the same or they rotate from year to year depending upon the faculty Council that makes the determination but even those stiens are determined by amount and

265how many in the contract okay cuz so that that um I think it was the teacher committee or whatever that that I think the principal has five in the contract that he can it's not the principal though it's the faculty Council so the faculty Council but there's the principal sits on that but he or she not alone never I mean you it's a little concerning that that's never been included as one of them but we've got I mean we've got Anime Club getting paid we've got we've got a whole slew of I just feel like and these advisers for the record did not complain and did not mentioned this to me my daughter's in the club and I I just assumed they got paid and when we were looking through the um the MTA contract

266I noticed I was like oh it's missing and then I one thing led to another but and I would suggest that we maybe you know I did and I'm going to withdraw my request for executive session to talk about contract negotiations I would say that this would be something that we would want to talk about in executive session regarding contract negotiations so that we're not violating collective bargaining and having discussions about what we would be negotiating in an open session but it has to be part of that to for any stien doesn't fall under anything else we don't have anything else that we have paid that's not considered a statement correct so like being on a like the reading committee or anything like that when you have teachers doing committees they get paid a but

267the board then has to then approve they approve the rate but it all determines back to the contract but those are things that we're requiring teachers to do and there's a rate for that okay well I'm just con concerned because that's that's not good that we' you know that's very seems very I can appreciate your concern but I would just say this have the dis discussion in the bigger Realms of okay we'll do that next ex session and having negotiations yep okay and then my other my other thing was the um that didn't make it on the bylaw Amendment um you know with the whole Bernie Marino letter I found out that he sent you a letter Mrs cook and the your response went out without the board without our knowledge I found out there's

268people seeing it on social media so um I just think that it would be and I have a couple bylaws here that we can maybe look over and the and just I know it's late so um if if you guys want to write these down or I can email to everybody to just look I don't know where it needs to live but I think we need clear language about how the board president communicates with the rest of the board when it comes to receiving or responding to any business of you know of the board president or the board as a whole just in a timely manner so we're all on the same page a couple thoughts on that um I received the letter from Senator Marino and I immediately contacted our um superintendent and requested

269to speak with our legal counsel because you know that's that's a serious thing I wanted to make sure that we were drafting things carefully and that we were you know truthful and and following everything that we needed to follow um and I would expect that any one of us would would have done the same um they I did draft the letter with legal counsel and sent the draft well actually our lawyer sent the draft to every member on the board and at that time the board was asked if they had any concerns to let Mr Heath know and then I had another meeting with with our lawyer to say you know okay based on the draft that he and I first made how do we want to proceed with it and at that time we

270changed some of the wording and I sent it out and out of an abundance of caution to not have any appearance of an open meetings act violation I did not send the letter to everyone else but asked that it was sent to you there was a time Gap that wasn't out of disrespect for anyone everyone had seen the letter with only minor edits um and knew of the letter and even had an opportunity to speak with our legal team on the letter so I think that the contention that You Were Somehow victims in this is false I don't know that's un well excuse me I'm I'm still talking because you know I I saw the I saw the rhetoric out there that that I was somehow hiding things or it's an open meetings violation or

271and and quite honestly I was responding initially when the letter came to me it said what is your response on behalf of the board that was the question that was posed and per our bylaws as the president of the board I can speak on behalf of the board not without our permission not without our consensus no that the bylaw doesn't say that it says I can speak on behalf of the board and and the what my response was that per our policy we follow all of the laws of the state of Ohio and of the federal government and of the Constitution so I don't need to gather everyone to say are we following the laws because we took an oath that said we're going to do this we all took that oath and it's one

272of our bylaws so it's our it's our board ethics it's our policy it is our oath that isn't that shouldn't be a reach to say we're going to follow the law I understand that you took issue with it and so my work words were very clear to make it that it came from me and it was my letter and you did receive a copy of the letter yes there was a time gap of a couple hours in between that doesn't mean that you didn't receive it and you did see the first draft and even had legal counsel on it okay I'm not hashing this whole thing out but we do you do not speak on behalf of the board you speak for us when we all come as a as a consensus to you're the

273you're the the the face of the board in essence two you were calling law you you weren't calling executive orders laws there was a lot of and a lot of people misunderstand that so um it wasn't it wasn't super clear and you know there's no open meetings act for you to send us an email Mr Heath sends us emails that go out to the public the school in advance all the time so all I'm asking is that you know we are all on the same page because one of you don't have more power than any of us and it was addressed to you if I got something from somebody I would I would send it to Mr Heath and and the board right away just so everybody's on the same page so that's what I'm

274asking for so I if your feelings are hurt that we were you know it should have been sent to us I mean I shouldn't see it on Facebook on your Facebook page before I see it you know before I see it in my email so um I I'll give you the uh policy the bylaws it's 0122 point1 it would be a possibility um um 0149 or 0173 and so hopefully everyone can have a some ideas and then we can discuss it at the next meeting have it on the next agenda just so we're not I just want to um there's a point of clarification I want to make I don't believe that there was any malice Maggie on your end by not copying us hearing your explanation makes sense and that that you were trying

275to you know um be be cautious um even though the letter said CC I get where you're coming from on that I think just seeing it on social media and then seeing that we were not cced in reality was where like the confusion was but I get I totally understand what you're saying now so thank you for clarifying that I appreciate that um I do want to just clarify that the original letter that that was going to the executive orders are we following them are we not are we following challenged ones or just ones with an injunction so I'm glad that we had that clarification tonight I wish that would have happened prior to being contacted you know by the senator but is there anything else okay um at this time we will move on

276to hearing of the public our first speaker is Lynn Mazika Madam president members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade again thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening when I'm shopping for clothes there's often a three-way mirror in the dressing room it's fun to see the infin infinite number of copies of me but it's an illusion I don't live in a world where everyone is just like me I'm sorry can you please pause the time is there a problem know I was justy to explain the thank you I'll explain what I was talking I I'm sorry we we have a speaker and yes twice you have her tce yes so there's you're you have the opportunity to speak on two different segments thank you Miss MAA thank you please continue but that's an

277illusion I don't live in a world where everyone looks just like me and I enjoy the diversity in this world I encourage it and I encourage the inclusion of the diversity of our species and I encourage each and every one of us to be treated equally I oppose any policy that limits diversity equity and inclusion in our district thank you for the opportunity to express my opinion over comments from the audience I apologize for the disruption and thank you for your comments John Sanford Madame President um couple times this evening I'm before I get into my comments I wanted to just say a couple of times this evening we have heard the electorate is being referred to as a monolithic block be aware we are not a monolithic BL not all of us agree with

278the bigotry that's coming out of DC however last month following my comments about nepotism both Rose and Annie interrupted proceedings to tell me I had misinterpreted their comments and I should listen to the videos so I did upon closer review of the videos it appears that Rose was ignorant of the concept of nepotism and how it might apply to her personal situation her comments were more in the vein of wanting to work with her father without being aware of the conflict of interest issue that makes sense he is her father and he provided 40% of her total campaign budget 7,000 out of 177,000 to quote Rose I know there are a lot of newsletters that my dad would share with me as such Mrs I Apollo please accept my apology for suggesting that you you

279intentionally encouraged and expected your father to engage in unethical unethical Behavior or encouraged the board to take advantage of such ethical lapses Annie on the other hand clearly knows about nepotism she opened her comments in January 2025 by saying that she was sure that Senator Sereno would treat everyone fairly she then went on to blatantly contradict herself and express the intent given the chance to engage in nepotism while supporting Rose she said quote I think it's laughable to think that she wouldn't have some kind of special access to her father I would hope that me as a mother that I would give my child first dibs before any other child If I Was A legislature and they came to me with questions because that's your kid and you're going to treat them differently I mean

280I would hope that most parents would treat their kid differently than any other kid with access to them and I see it as such a benefit how are we not going to use that to our our advantage end quote an he clearly appeared to expect Senator Sereno to be unethical and encouraged the board to take an take advantage of that elapse in ethics if that was her intent then she clearly lacks the integrity and ethical Compass we would want to see in our board members if that was not her intent then she owed Senator Sereno and the board as well as myself and the community an apology for her ill-considered comments thank you [Applause] I guess I will have a couple comments um I stand by what I said at that meeting I do think

281there's an inherent difference when you're talking about your child versus somebody else that you don't know and that's all the the connection that I was trying to make with that so um the monthly attacks on me are are a little different but um I just wanted to clarify that so our next speaker is Angela Beck hello my name is Angela backck this is the first meeting I've actually come to I usually watch your meetings from home but I'm here on a totally different topic a lot of your comments and things you talked about tonight are very important but at our house there has been something going on that I want to address this evening I have two children in this District they are in fifth and sixth grade and I'm here tonight to talk to

282you about body shaming as I look around the room I don't see that any of us look exactly the same we're all different the children in our district they're awful we need to do better my one son he is 5'7 he is 200 lb he wears size 11 shoe he is in sixth grade he has been made fun of to the point that he gets off the bus with the biggest tears I've ever seen he's the nicest kid every teacher he's ever had has said they would like to have 40 of him he would do anything for anyone if you break down the side of the road he's going to get out with his dad he's going to help if you're walking by our house he's going to say hello to you I have another

283child who is 5'4 and 110 lb and very tall and lanky he has made fun of because he's thin as you can see none of us are the same and I don't understand what we can do as a parent and educator to stop the body shaming I had a phone call from a mom two days ago her daughter refused to go to school because she lost her name she was now called the fat girl that's what they address her as it took us 3 days to get that child back into school but we did it but she begged her school not to reprimand those children because it was going to make matters worse that cannot happen we have to do better I'm asking you for guidance to help this stop I will be at the

284next meeting I believe at the end of the month to talk about this again but you also look to us for guidance and I sit here tonight and I see so many arguments about so many things and we're supposed to be here for the students my son went to school and the child who was bullying him was told to move he chose to move one table away and the school allowed that I knocked on that parents door I introduced myself and I said we have a problem here the situation got worse my child finally came up with an idea on his own he moved nine tables away he's made new friends and he did this all himself at the age of 12 because the school I feel failed him we failed him I need your

285help I need these students to understand we're all the same will you help me with that thank [Applause] you our next speaker is Bridget Henderson hi everyone my name is Bridget I'm here today to remind you of the bullying issue that has yet to be resolved I've come to the conclusion that you're all too caught up in your own perspectives to see the simple changes that need to be made changes that'll save lives you aren't alone in this I understand I had a similar issue when my daughter graduated from your high school she weighed 89 lbs even with my multiple degrees and extensive nursing experience I couldn't see the situation for what it was my daughter's life was saved by a stranger he pointed out that she was anorexic and there were places to get

286help so I'm going to be the stranger that you so desperately need I'm here to help you fix this problem myself and others have come up with a plan to help you enact meaningful change we're having a community meeting about how to fix this and discuss the plan everyone's welcome to come the meeting is on March 30th at 1:30 p.m. at Tommy Boys on Tyler Boulevard I know all of you really do care and you're concerned about this and I look forward to seeing all of you there I just ask one thing you leave any prejudices you may have at home it's bad for to be a bully when that's the very issue you're trying to address also a side note the person that saved my daughter's life wasn't the people that saw her every

287day in the school dwindling away to nothing dying a little every day it was an actual stranger I had never met in the 2 years that she was sitting there turning into a stick not one teacher voiced concern I really think that this is because of the toxic culture of complacency and malignant neglect that you guys allow to thrive in your schools either teachers are afraid to say something or they just don't either they're burnt out or they just don't say anything for whatever reason it's a broken system I really think the entire culture is broken and it trickles down to the kids and these kids are miserable they're picking on each other and you're allowing it your system is allowing it to happen there is no such thing well I'm sure there is but

288B consequences aren't always bad when I was a senior in high school I stopped caring I stopped going to school said something stupid to my teacher and I landed my last half of my senior year in in school suspension I promise you without that in school suspension and that important consequence I wouldn't have graduated high school I wouldn't have become a nurse I wouldn't have helped SA all the lives that I've saved consequences are a good thing if you guys just take and blanket consequences you do this you get in trouble that's your answer there is [Music] no there is no leniency like I got into a fight and I got jumped I got suspended they got suspended it was fair just you guys have everything in place that you need to make this work

289it's just not being utilized correctly that's all thank you thank you Madame President before before we keep moving wall sorry Mr Wade before we keep moving I want to thank these uh two parents who just spoke and just I want to invite you all to the Cardinal Cafe on March 27th during which we're going to be talking about school safety and bullying so please do come I I heard you about your meeting on March 30th I will try to make that as well um but I would really love to see you there too if you can make it it's at Paradigm sorry did mention that I'm sorry Paradigm yeah that's okay that's all right sure what time I think it's at 6 p.m is it online uh we we don't live stream those but we

290do record them and then put them on the Cardinal um TV channel but it's so much better to have folks to talk to there I'll be there Mr Heath will be there we would love to have you 6:30 is the time thank on that one and we'll send out a flyer here probably in the next maybe next week sometime um with the information on that one good evening um I first would like to thank Lauren uh maraza for obvious viously spending a significant amount of time preparing for tonight's meeting and having um a lot of constructive uh ideas and uh stuff that is promoting moving forward as a district and for our students so thank you very much for doing that your presentation was phenomenal I was very disappointed to see that there were two

291board members who were not for your proposal uh to participate in dialogue and learn how to work together better because it's much needed currently um there are board members who have made it extremely clear that they are anti-teacher and anti- student they continuously pick apart policies and vote against them because of pronouns or language tonight you voted against policies uh you voted against the renewal of subscriptions that our teachers and students use every day for their education because they might include what you call woke material that's insane and disgusting so what you guys are doing by voting against this stuff and constantly belittling the other board members up there and posting about them and and tearing them apart you're creating an unsafe environment not just for them not just for the rest of the board

292and our superintendent and staff but also teachers we have teachers who are constantly receiving emails degrading them and threatening them because of your rhetoric it's wrong and should stop I think it's interesting that tonight Dei was brought up multiple times the Banning of diversity equity and inclusion which is interesting because Jerry Sereno your dad Rose is co-sponsoring a bill to do just that ban all Dei in K through 12 schools but it's so weird because I SAR you also just I thought I heard you anyways I thought I just heard you ask for Equity did you not and also possibly oh in inclusion but also you were doing that while advocating for diverse religious groups in the school what that's weird maybe it's because do you know what Dei means what it stands for it's

293okay to be diverse it's great to have equity and we should all be inclusive you guys should try it thank you our next speaker is jacn McCormack thank you our next speaker is Alex fish he thank you for passing testing Madam sorry Madame President members of the board thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening good evening my name is Alex I lived in Mentor since 2007 I went to brentmore for integrated Preschool Hopkins for K through 5 memorial for 63 and Menor High School I was going to say this earlier but I chose to pass and merge into here so we should be keeping the Cardinal Nation newspaper separate from a perspective journalism course as for Cardinal Nation I was there for the inauguration of cardinal Nation back in December 2021 and

294a conc regarding RT what about um weird schedule days such as um State Testing days and then the original reason I came to speak here was um followup from January uh meeting and two parents that commented their concerns for their children first I would like to apologize in advance that I was unable to ask those questions last month due to the Senate bill one testimony at the State House better late than never I guess I also stated that I was bullied to the point where I didn't want to be live anymore and where I attempted suicide on April 4th 2021 as a result of this and other factors as well as a school walk out 7 months later on November 8 2021 which I spoke at following that I came to ask how are the

295ad hoc committees doing and are they going to be at each building and then just and then also from January's meeting Madame President just after the bullying discussion but just before you went on hearing of the public you mentioned something about a meeting with Menor city council like a joint meeting or something is this going to be similar to the May 7th 2024 meeting you can answer that later or after I speak and then following Mrs marz's presentation during unfinished business thank you for that brave braver Angels presentation and and as well as thank you to our Menor police officers and SRO Skelly and especially for them being on standby for the Mentor Schools board meetings lastly Madame President since I'm addressing anything and everything to you thank you for responding to my email from

296last week following clarification to a general V policy as well as thank you for being a brave and fearless leader for and for your professionalism and thank you for staying within compliance with laws policies at L thank you and let's have a strong finish of third quarter and have a safe happy and healthy spring break thank you and have a good night and go cards [Applause] o sorry Mr Fish to answer your question the council um the Board of Education joint council meeting would look similar to the one that we had in um previous years and do we have a set date on that yet is I know you had to council and we were waiting for them so we're still waiting and hear back on the date on that and and then one other

297quick answer to your question Alex um the ad hoc committee is not meeting at each building but we're bringing administrators from different buildings to the group so that we can discuss things that way thank you our last speaker is uh April flag not seeing miss flag that concludes the public [Applause] participation okay no no all right we we had proposed a possible executive session that we are going to be withdrawing um do I have a motion to aure so move second Mr Wade please call the RO Miss ping yes Miss jessing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes me Jour at 1027