Mentor Board of Education Meeting January 14, 2025

001e e e name the January 14th [Music] got excuse me for one second can I have a motion to adjourn from executive session second whichever please call the RO Miss Payne yes Miss maraza yes Miss AO yes Miss jessing yes Miss Cook yes meetings adjourned at 6:03 p.m. thank you all right good evening the January 14th 20125 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with the section 3 313.15 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 present Miss marazza present Miss Payne here miss cook here thank you and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance flag of the

002United States of America and to the rep for IT stand God indivisible Liberty Justice [Applause] for I would like to welcome everyone to the January 14th 2025 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for the review and consideration the agenda and materials 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 and the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing this 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 where the

003board 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 and 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 you will be called to the microphone when it is your turn to speak and at that time we ask that you please state your name and address your questions to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited

004to 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 and administration so that we can work to best serve our community if at the end of the public participation we do not make a statement please know this does not demonstrate a lack of care for comments shared by the community rather we want to be thoughtful in our approach 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 01691 any person doing any act which obstructs or interferes with the conduct or orderly

005progress of the board meeting will be warned Andor removed from the meeting this meeting is being shown live and it can be viewed On Demand on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Menor Ohio thank you and at this time we have District highlights and recognitions good evening Madame President members of the board Mr Wade January is uh School Board recognition month the entire Menor schools Community thanks you for everything you do to help make this school system so successful tonight students from Orchard Hollow Elementary School have a presentation for you I would like to invite the orchard Hollow Elementary principal Miss Jennifer Harris to the podium to begin the presentation good evening Madame President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade our Orchard Hollow students had the wonderful opportunity this evening on behalf of

006all the students in the district to thank you for your commitment to our schools during this board of appreciation month I would like to thank our students and their parents for being here tonight as well as our teachers Mrs Sabo Mrs larmar and our instructional coach Mrs pachelo for their help with putting this together without further delay I will now turn it over to our students who have worked hard to prepare something special for you following their presentation they have a small token of appreciation to present to each of you superheroes don't always wear capes some make decisions some Inspire students and some lead by example example today we honor the superheroes who guide our schools our Board of Education have you ever dreamed of being a superhero wearing a cape saving the day and

007making a difference in the world well guess what we have superheroes in training at Orchard Hollow Elementary our student ambassadors [Applause] you might not see us flying or shooting webs but our superpowers are just as incredible each month we teach students kindergarten through fifth grade about a different character trait like trustworthiness caring responsibility respect citizenship and fairness these traits are the building blocks of becoming real life Heroes think about it teaching caring is like spreading sunshine wherever you go showing responsibilities like lifting a heavy weight to help [Applause] others practicing respect builds bridges that connect us all and being fair is about standing up for what's right even when it's hard as student ambassadors we are like mentors guiding others to become the best versions of themselves we lead by example and remind everyone that

008we all have the power to make a difference no cape required so next time you see a student ambassador remember their superheroes in training and they're inspiring us to join our mission to make our school and the world a better place every superhero team has a mission a guiding purpose that fuels their efforts to protect Empower and Inspire our Board of Education embodies these qualities though they may not wear capes they Champion the success of every student ensure schools have the resources to thrive and make tough decisions to build a brighter future their superpowers impact every classroom and every student today we celebrate them as the true superheroes they are shaping our community with their leadership and heart let's meet our action Squad the future forecaster Mr Heath superpower strategic foresight Mr Heath is like

009a big picture thinker who can imagine the future and plan ahead for what our schools will need he makes sure Stu students and teachers have everything they need to do their best with his Visionary thinking he finds the best paths to help our school grow and succeed leading us toward a bright future the budget b Mr Wade superpower budgetary Brilliance Mr Wade is like a protector of our school's money making sure it is used wisely to help students in programs with his money smart Shield he keeps everything safe and well planned he's great at solving money problems making sure our school stays strong and full of opportunities the teamwork Titan Mrs cook superpower master of collaboration the teamwork is amazing at bringing people together and making sure everyone gets a chance to share their ideas

010with her teamwork leader skills she keeps things fair and balanced in every conversation she's a true champion for working together and building trust across the district the understanding unicorn Mrs Jing superpower companion champion of support the understanding unicorn works hard to make sure every student teacher and Community member feels important and car for with her super understanding skills she listens to everyone's Fe everyone's needs and makes sure things are fair for all she speaks up for those who need help and make sure everyone has a chance to succeed the resource Ranger Miss iopo superpower connector of opportunities the resource Ranger is a great at great at finding and bringing helpful tools and opportunities to our schools with her opportunity finder she make sure students and teachers have everything they need to succeed from exciting programs

011to important [Music] supplies the kindness night Mrs maraza superhero superpower heart of the community the kindness night is all about kindness and caring she makes sure students feel safe happy and supported with her kindness Shield she looks out for anyone who needs help and makes choices that show care for everyone she's the heart of the district's superhero team the partnership protector Mrs P superpower building of Partnerships the partnership protector helps co connect our schools with the wider Community using her con connection skills she brings together businesses families and groups to work together she helps the school district grow stronger with everyone working toward the same [Music] goals on behalf of Orchard Hollow Elementary we want to say a big thank you to our Board of Education members you may not wear capes or have superpowers

012like in the movies but we know you work tirelessly to make sure we have everything we need to learn grow and succeed just like superheroes you face challenges solve problems and always put students first our Board of Education ensures we have opportunities to dream big and as we say at Orchard Hollow reach higher to be our best thank you for making a difference we are so lucky to have you [Applause] amaz good job thank you so much [Applause] Beau e big thank you to our student ambassadors from Orchard Hollow we you have us all feeling super but you are truly Our Heroes and we really do strive to do the best that we can to make sure that you guys are happy and healthy and safe in school so it is wonderful to see you

013here we love seeing you and really enjoyed the presentation it was amazing and thank you at this time we are going to take a short break to allow for anyone who would like to leave to exit so if you're leaving please have a safe trip home thank you e e e the next item on the agenda is our approval of minutes do I have a motion so moved second do I have a second I'll second is there any discussion right sorry was that in the meeting minute minutes meeting sorry it was loud and I couldn't hear I just have one I have a correction on page uh 14 it has Mrs iapo listed twice and I'm missing from the vote uh 14 of which um thank you uh for page 14 on the organizational meeting

014um it was it had her listed twice and then I was I was missing from it I'll get that corrected yes thank you is there any more discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes Miss AO yes Miss gesling yes Miss pay yes next we have the hearing of the public on agenda items only our first [Music] speaker is Justin [Music] Simpson not seeing Mr Simpson uh our next speaker is Rachel Perry our next speaker is McKenzie mccollister I'm standing here tonight with profound concern about the escalating safety issues impacting our children at Shore Middle School and one of the elementary schools recent events including the disturbing bus altercation between a third grader and two fifth graders which was a hate crime coupled with two credible gun School threats underscore

015a critical failure in our current disciplinary system my previous Communications have regrettably yielded insufficient action my heart goes out to you Katie and Laney honey you are in fact not too white you are just perfect two students in and to the students and staff at Shore Middle School we continue to pray for your safety that is overlooked by our superintendent Craig Heath the current Reliance on restorative justice practices while laudable in its intent and Demon demonstrably ineffective in addressing the severity and frequency of these incidents research clearly indicates that restorative justice efficacy is contenent upon factors such as the ages of those involved and their genuine willing to participate forcing participation particularly when a victim is still grappling with trauma can be deeply harmful Miss maraza can further elaborate on how this forced participation May

016infringe upon the students right to free appropriate public education this is especially critical in situations where the trauma experienced by victims is significantly compounded by the forced by being forced to confront their aggressors before they are emotional ready the assertion that suspension is an unsuitable solution is inaccurate while it should not be the sole disciplinary tool it is a vital component of comprehensive multifaceted approach the current absence of mean meaningful consequences is not only failing to deter future incidents but it's also creating an unsafe and untenable learning environment for students staff and parents alike this lack of accountability places an unacceptable burden on everyone in involved many parents myself included are strongly advocating for more robust disciplinary strategy incorporating stricter enforcement of the school's Zero Tolerance policy including suspension and expulsion for serious offenses this

017isn't about punitive measures alone but about establishing clear boundaries ensuring parental involvement in addressing behavioral issues at home and ultimately fostering a safer School climate a more transparent system of communication ation and quicker notification to parents would also significantly improve the current system the lack of divisive action and transparency coupled with the ongoing safety concern compels me to urge the board to seriously reassess the current administration's approach I believe a change in leadership is necessary to effectively address these critical issues and restore a safe and productive learning environment for our children therefore I urge the board to seriously consider requesting the resignation of superintend Heath Craig thank you our next speaker is Mary [Music] Henderson Mary Henderson good evening I'm here on behalf of my daughter um she's sick tonight so I'm going to read

018what she brought for me to do hello my name is Bridget I am here at is a parent and an advocate for change I have three daughters one graduated from Menor High School in 2021 one currently at Menor high school and one currently at Shore for 15 years I have watched this District ignore the cancerous spread of bullying among the students as well as from school staff these actions have taken away happiness and some kids have lost their lives to be clear I am here to demand action my youngest daughter has endured the most for months in a large group text she was verbally attacked and told to kill herself if she couldn't they would help her do it eventually it inevitably led to a fight at school during this time I was in frequent

019contact with Miss H and the previous Crossroads counselor if it were not for Miss wolf my daughter would not be here today during the fight my daughter was attacked by another girl who had she had never met or talked to this girl was supposed to be supervised at all times instead she was unsupervised and brutally and brutally assaulted my daughter she repeatedly punched her in the head at the base of the skull and we ended up in the ER when she went back to school my daughter had to hide because her attacker her attacker was still roaming freely why does she have to hide why do we constantly fail and fail to ensure her safety what happened to consequences discipline and accountability the see something say something policy is trash if nothing is done when

020something is said the schools are failing to guarantee the safety of our children failing at the most basic level of their job let me be clear it's not just the students as problem includes leadership when principles are modeling inappropriate behavior like male staff wearing leggings to show the girls they are inappropriate and the PTI PTA vice president and her daughter bullying my third grader it's really no wonder the culture of bullying thrives leadership sets the tone and the tone is broken I want to offer Solutions number one the parents of bullies should attend mandatory meetings if they refuse their needs to be consequences no Sports no extracurriculars no privileges parents must sign a behavior Improvement plan and participate in the child's Rehabilitation bring back real discipline lunch with Friends riding the bus hallway freedoms are

021privileges not rights if they can't behave they should lose these privileges until they can prove otherwise if parents of bullies admit they need help keeping their children in line and accountable the school should contact connect them with resources like counseling behavioral programs turning a blind eye is not acceptable show the bullies how they have hurt people and the impact it made allow them the chance to understand and apologize the crossroads program should provide empathy training number five safety students with known behavioral issues requiring supervision must be supervised at all time has here but thank you for your thoughts our next speaker is Jennifer alad what I witness in your special meeting has left me deeply concerned about the future of our school district I am here tonight to advocate for change that is desperately needed

022on this board and in our schools I will address this subject later on this evening it seems like each day brings new challenges to the Menor School District most recently an incident involving a third grade student has caught my attention leaving me utterly speechless this student was reportedly bullied and physically assaulted for being white which is a form of racial discrim mintion the punishment for the perpetrators a 3-day bus suspension feels inadequate for what many would consider a hate crime a 3-day suspension suggests to these students that these such actions have minor consequences this is not just about discipline but about setting precedent for how we deal with hate based bullying in our community bullying has long been an issue in the Menor School District but recent events suggest that the push toward certain ideologies

023students are now being this incident receiving National I'm sorry students are now being targeted for immutable characteristics like skin color this incident receiving national attention was justified had the roles been reversed it is likely the response would have been much swifter and much more severe with the board potentially holding a special conference to address the issue the handling of this situation highlights significant challenges within our school system we've had tragedies before there's even a documentary on bullying in our district when community members advocate for what they believe is right they often face opposition which can be quite discouraging to say the very least it has been suggested that those who hold traditional beliefs are the bullies this simply isn't true I can personally attest to seeing how members of the community like Annie and Rose

024who are openly conservative and religious have been treated poorly it's disgusting the constant emphasis on diversity equity and inclusion initiatives can sometimes lead to unintended consequences while aiming to include minorities there is a risk of excluding or alienating others which might not be the goal but it appears to be an outcome in cases like this this isn't the first time I've had to address these concerns at this Podium it seems like a reoccurring monthly issue if the bullied student had identified as transgender I believe the response would have been different considering the district's provision for G gender neutrality and like gender neutral bathrooms we need to ensure that our policies and practices reflect fairness and justice for all students regardless of their backgrounds beliefs or identity we must strive for a school environment where every

025student feels safe valued respected without compromising educational Integrity Community thank [Applause] you our next speaker is Gilbert [Applause] martello good evening Mr Heath good evening Mr Heath Mr Wade and members of the board while my comments are directed to the board president I hope all will take these words to Heart Nationwide public education is in Decline here in manner I don't believe we are fairing much better enrollment is dwindling behavior problems persist and philosophical moral differences divide the Community Financial pressures are mounting and once again the Menor school system is drifting away from providing the Community with the trained entrylevel students local industry so desperately need despite the best efforts of Miss iopo and Miss Payne the ideological left leaning members Miss Cook miss marz miss gesling have resisted virtually every attempt to address the

026district's challenges their excuses have been endless and nonsensical the liberal majority has failed to understand the concerns of 60% of their constituents and instead has alienated them so here's my warning of the Gathering storm people are tired especially those living on social security or fixed incomes who are facing the difficult choice between purchasing necessary medication and paying their property taxes make no mistake property taxes will be seriously challenged very soon to alleviate the current discontent I and based on the recent um parental right law that passed I propos the following let's revisit and put in place policy affording the opportunity to offer religious instruction to our children at no cost to the district and there could be multiple benefits to doing this possibly this could be an all Branch extended to those who have felt

027marginalized or elated over the past four or five years in addition it could help reduce some of the bullying that is occurring because one of the central tants of judeo-christian beliefs is to treat others how you want to be treated it is worth noting as our culture has moved away from faith it has coarsened leading to increased drug abuse suicide and violence against the innocent to all I'm not really a very quick study but after living on this plan for 63 years this is what I have learned through real life experiences when you hear the cancer diagnosis of a loved one your faith can offer you hope God forbid you lose a child your faith can offer you you hope and as a father with a family facing the possibility of a job loss your

028faith can offer you hope hope will not be found in a bottle or a pill hope and love for your fellow man will only be found when you have faith in your God and one final thought well I have everyone's attention and this is going to be a doozy there's going to be many that are going to be hard to digest this and process it because it's very Politically Incorrect our schools are not supported by the taxpayers for the sole benefit of our students oh I'm sorry your time is up our next speaker is ly Mazika thank [Music] you thank you thanks thanks Madame President members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening as the ambassadors from Orchard Hilo so beautifully pointed out January is

029School Board recognition month and I would like to recognize the proposed curriculum revisions that you are looking at for this evening the new electives for middle school for middle school students look so interesting and relative to our kids' lives and the CTE program offing uh implement it implements the new strategic plan goal of constant improvement with CTE Career Tech education programs many hours were spent by members of the staff students Business Leaders and the community to prepare that strategic plan thank you for working to to implement it additionally I see that the pervasive problem of discipline is on the agenda I hope the board will be able to arrive at a concrete plan to address this problem thank you for your time our next speaker is Ashley prerr good evening I'd first like to say

030thank you for the dedication it takes to serve on the board I know that is not easy and additionally for moving the bullying topic to the discussions we have all witnessed adults standing at this very mic stand sharing their personal views and simultaneously bullying children and families of this District peanut gallery comments and snears even during presentations the students in this District put together this is not how to lead by example this is not the place to dissect or debate another family's reality it's hard to stomach that sort of hate especially towards kids knowing the same and sometimes worse bullying is happening in the schools it's worrisome as a parent I have two kids one at Shore and one at the high school I'm well aware of how serious this has become however I do

031say that without knowing more than what's released and I understand that all information can be released as it's sensitive and legal nature uh because it includes miners I wonder if it is a like consequences that encourage the behavior to continue my suggestion is re-evaluating the consequences and adjusting to make sure they align with the behavior and get the parents more involved and aware of the seriousness get them involved in the repercussions and the rehabilitation process of hopefully guiding those children to healthier ways to express their emotions I understand that it's become harder to keep everyone happy but I think this is a topic that needs immediate attention every child deserves to feel safe that is not a question no child of any race religion or orientation should endure hate not from peers not from adults

032and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak in front of you and I look forward to seeing what the board may come up with our next speaker is Eli [Applause] PCO I'm sorry can you say that again Eli peo our next speaker is Susan snik good evening um I would also like to speak about the bullying issue here in our district district and share my experience and my opinion um just to shed some light on things um I've been coming to these meetings for almost 2 years now um at first it was so that I could learn about what was happening in our local schools but I eventually kept coming for several Reon reasons and one of them was to show support for Annie Payne who was and still is a victim

033of bullying by both her colleagues and certain community members whenever I exercise my right to speak at these meetings I speak on what the facts are and I also voice my opinion I have suggested solutions to several problems in hopes of showing you that I'm not just here to complain I really do seek to have some kind of resolution here but when I'm here I don't call people names I don't threaten them I certainly don't make personal attacks on people that have views that are different from mine yet I cannot tell you how many times certain parents PTA personnel and failed Schoolboard candidates have bullied me purely because they just don't like what I'm saying and by bullying I mean I've have been called ugly and hateful names I've been accused of saying or doing

034things that I have not done and saying things that I've never said my parenting has been questioned my children whom they don't know have been pied and I've even been teased about whether or not I might have been abused as a child we have a lot of bitter immature and lost people who claim to care about these kids but they're actually the root of the problem Mentor has a a bad reputation with bullying and After experiencing what is going on here for the past couple of years I'm appalled I'm saddened and heartbroken for the students that actually have to attend these schools just last year we were able to witness some bullying on social media a boy was beating on a girl in the School lunchroom girls are having to defend their own bathroom spaces

035from boys because the staff won't protect them and we even have students that show up at meetings like this to harass fellow residents in the district and the police have had to got to get involved to make things worse we can see how grown adults bullying our board members like Annie and Rose and where their own family members are not even spared the two board the the the board and the two gentlemen up here remain silent through all this even when we make national news you guys are quiet so you can't expect kids to act kindly when the adults are the bullies themselves your saying of see something say something is laughable it is exactly why I suggested a couple months ago that when a guy comes into the girl's bathroom those girls need to

036document the incident and make a police report and then tell the school staff because they're not listening you are not listening you're not on the student side cuz you don't act there's no real consequences for the bullies in the school and we can't expect kids to not be bullies when we have it on our board and from the teachers and PTA and the parents thank [Applause] you our next speaker is Amanda Young our last speaker is Linda o [Music] Brian good evening I came before you last fall after having the great opportunity of reviewing the school discipline policy and I use those terms carefully because the fact is that policy has zero teeth to it it has zero consequences it can have all kinds of opportunity for subjective interpretation and yet you call it a

037discipline policy if you had a discipline policy and I know what I'm talking about because I have written many of them for clients of mine if you had a real discipline policy what I've been listening to over this time would not be happening but you have failed and to my knowledge have done nothing since I talked to you about this last fall obviously this isn't your priority and yet I hear from this school board at the beginning of this meeting we hope you have a happy healthy and safe school year here you know that's like me talking to the wizard of O this is absurd you are up there as the Wizards and we are out here struggling as the tweetle D and Tweedle Dums who you don't listen to and that's enough what is

038going on in the school district has got to stop and if you need help writing a policy I'm here to help you I will not charge you I will be happy to lend my expertise PE but this must stop because without consequences you get lawlessness and with subjectivity you get bias and then you get racial discrimination and gender discrimination and everything else that this school has promoted unfortunately for the past two years that I've been standing up here and talking to you but I wish that you were listening when these people are talking because what I just heard tonight is gut-wrenching it's not bad enough that kids are getting bullied on buses bringing threatening messages on social media and saying they're bringing scho guns to school is it going to take laying down a dead

039body to get your attention for God's sake now enough is enough start doing your job or get off because you fight amongst yourself as much as these kids fight amongst themselves get over over it grow up stand up and do what's [Music] [Applause] [Music] right is that is the last you had to sign up before the meeting okay so yeah only people who signed up before 6 p.m. could speak you will follow that law and met law of discipline for stes wa [Applause] up next we have the superintendent report and recommendations and just so you know I'm going to watch the basketball game because it's better than this show [Music] excuse me excuse me that could we please thank you super attend report and recommendations I know a little later in the meeting we'll have

040a board discussion around student behavior and discipline and I will have some plans to share with the group then but I also wanted to remind everyone um that we will be updating the state required bullying data from the first semester on our website here in February I want to take this time to remind everyone of the definition of bullying that we have to follow from the State guidelines there is a very high threshold that is needed in order to meet the parameters of bullying the state defines bullying as any intentional written verbal graphic or physical act that does three things a student or group of students exhibited toward other particular student more than once and the behavior both causes mental or physical harm to the student and insufficiently severe persistent or pervasive that it creates

041an intimidating threatening or abusive educational environment for the other student including violence within a dating relationship these behaviors may also occur by an act of electronic means committed through the use of a cellular telephone personal communication device or other electronic communication device in every school district that I've worked in there is always an uproar when the bullying numbers are posted because most District data indicates that are low singled digigit bullying incidents in the buildings that is because the bullying definition maintains that high threshold couple of years ago our director of communications and I worked together to to provide a more transparent way to share the data regarding mean behaviors that our building administrators are working through on a daily basis while we still post our bullying data we are also posting charts and graphs of

042the other mean behaviors to give a very transparent view of what our data shows that again will be updated in February so I want to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of what is going to presented on our website I can assure you that every instance of mean behavior that is presented to our building administrators is investigated there are a variety of disciplinary consequences that are utilized depending on the incident that took place we will continue to look at these consequences to make sure they are meaningful and serve to make it known the behavior is unacceptable I also want to say this this is not simply a school issue this is also a community issue we need to work together with our students our teachers our parents our administrators and our families to address

043this issue together we as the adults must do a better job of modeling the behavior we want to see in our students tonight we are going to brainstorm many ways to address the issue of mean behavior in the days and weeks ahead but this needs to start now by demonstrating how to treat people with respect and kindness at all times we all need to be better there are two policies we have on the agenda this evening for our first reading these are bylaw language changes that will align these policies with our practices and our policy manual the first is bylaw 010 which is eliminating the two references to bylaw 0170 which is we do not have in our policy manual and just on a a quick glance at some other districts around the area nobody

044has that bylaw anymore either so uh it's just taking out a couple of references there uh the second is bylaw 0154 which is eliminating the board policy liaison committee members from the list of committee members to appoint during the organizational Meeting those will be on the first reading a little bit later today there are four items on the curriculum recommendations for this evening's agenda that I wanted to touch on here brief briefly uh first of all are the Middle School elective revisions uh these are going to provide a variety of elective offerings in art music stem and family and consumer sciences that start the alignment process with some of our high school CTE programs the second is the CTE uh revisions that we have for the coming school year as one of the big moves

045from our framework for the Future these revisions incorporate our shift to becoming a comprehensive CTE service provider here in Menor schools we will have a complete catalog of both one year and 2-year career acmy for our students to choose from beginning with the 2526 school year we have one course Revision in social studies uh at the high school level that is our economics course um and this is on the agenda this evening as kind of the final piece to the shift that started a couple of years ago with requirement of students to complete a standalone financial literacy course for graduation previously a financial literacy unit was taught within the economics course we offered at the high school this course will now have a focus on both microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts with financial lessons integrated into

046that curriculum uh and finally the big one is the elementary English language arts materials adoption uh as we have shared with the board this fall and excuse me and early winter our curriculum department has been uh going through an extensive review process to identify the ELA excuse me to identify the ELA course curriculum and instructional materials we need to align with the science of reading requirements established by the state legislature and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce our current phonics program 95% phonic is included on the Ohio approved list for core foundational skills however our current reading comprehension program making meaning was not included and must be replaced after a careful review and evaluation process by our K5 uh Ela curriculum Review Committee that consisted of over 40 members including teachers from every building

047and grade level span as well as literacy special and administrators wit and wisdom was selected for recommendation to the board the elementary literacy steering committee approved this recommendation but made a couple of Minor Adjustments to the book list one in first grade and two in fourth grade we are going to be replacing seahorse the shiest fish in the sea with be dance at the first grade level we are replacing Hatchet which is actually in our Middle School curriculum with a blown in the woods at the fourth grade level and we are replacing Walk Two Moons with The Invention of Hugo Cabra which is also in fourth grade this pairing of 95% phonics with wit and wisdom will give us the greatest alignment with the science of reading and overall teacher confidence in its implementation in

048our district Madam 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 6 A4 so moved second is there any discussion I had one just one um quick thing the field trip the uh Science Olympia tournament that form wasn't filled out completely so it doesn't say how many chaperon or how many students normally that's clicked just so we can kind of see I don't know if you knew off hand and I don't know if I know the numbers off the top of my head um this just from my experience I wonder if it's because they don't know yet because it usually depends on who uh makes makes it that far and that's determined usually in April is it a qualification

049round um yeah so I I wonder if that we also have I I I can't speak for them I'm just speculating this is the one at the end of February um this is high school or middle school this is the end of February there's two on there the one does have it on there the does gotta yeah I don't know but you're referring to the one on uh the 28th of February yeah the one that's just missing that information okay I just didn't want to would we like to hold that one until our next and I can bring it to um our later January one yeah that be great thanks I just had one thing on on the donations there was somebody that their last name was missing I was just curious let them get

050credit for such a nice donation yeah that that was brought up in both of our uh reviews and we don't have a last name for that individual nice okay thank you Melissa yeah similarly I just I I want to call out the gift from Jim and Alysa bontempo I believe Mr Wade you said that the 30 $500 was to uh alleviate student lunch debt right correct just I don't know if you're listening B tempos but that is extraordinarily generous um thank you so much I just wanted to publicly say that we definitely appreciate that I know we've had several people throughout the year some who have um done that several times so it's very nice is there any more discussion Mr Wade please call the role do we Sorry do we have to formally remove

051um postpone that agenda item or I felt like in the discussion it was removed do do you have that noted that we re that it was the uh the agenda item for out State trips was pulled so it's number three the very first one and to clear it's only the one that we're reming the DAT just the one trip January 29 which which one then was pulled the first one the February 20 through through March 1st to Ohio University and then we'll bring that one back on Mr Wade to the January 29th special meeting we'll have to make sure that that gets on the uh Sunshine notice for the 29th okay thank you please call the rooll M Jing yes Miss Cook yes Miss AO yes Miss moraza yes Miss Payne yes motion Gary 5

052Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the following curriculum revisions do I have a motion so moved second any discussion I just want to say um being part of the um curriculum committee um you know it was very thorough in determining which of the two I'm talking uh specifically about the wit and wisdom um for the K through three and um the I'm really confident that the selection process was thorough um determining the state kind of limited us with only having two options and I think they did a really good job of taking that seriously and really going above and beyond to make sure that we um chose the best of the two um I love the proactive steps of replacing books ahead of time um anticipating um that parents

053in the community might not um think that they were appropriate and I also like that there were some safety measures that are very Pro parental rights in there for instance if if fourth or fifth graders are going to be learning um and the chapter has has real pictures black and white of War um of you know the travesties of war that um a notice will go home to parents so they're aware that that's coming so that their child is not uh emotionally ready for that that they can make accommodations so I really like that so a big shout out to barbonis to Dr glaven and Mr Heath and to all the teachers and everybody that was contributed to the process I think that these changes are really good and I know a lot of people

054didn't get to review the books because of the holiday time but I think we're going to make some adjust Ms in the future um but I think that when they look into them they're going to be really excited about some of these changes in additions I agree with you 100% Mrs iapo it was a an outstanding process with more than 40 teachers collaborating in that review to make sure that there were lots of um piloting of units and a thorough discussion of everything and Mrs bonis does an extraordinary job and she's also wonderful at explaining the detail detail and kind of what the discussions were behind various decisions the one other thing I'll bring to the uh to the group here as well we will have a couple more additional components um of our curriculum

055review process here in the March April time frame um one of those will be looking at a journalism course at the high school level that's currently being developed um and then we'll have some more CTE updates based on uh what our uh what our numbers are showing us at that point in time as well so we will have a couple more things that we will bring to the table here a little bit later on this spring about uh what'll be implemented for the 25 26 school year I just had a couple um comments and then a question as well so um Craig with this can you just kind of explain why those three books were switched out with other books because I I agree with Miss Appo I think that was a very good proactive

056approach I'm assuming it's because we anticipated push back possibly from parents about those or there's I saw there's some legal things with yeah there there are a couple things just with the content um at the grade levels that they were located at um so th those were two of the two of the books the other one um with the the book Hatchet which is a great read um we actually do that at the middle school level not at the fourth grade level so we've uh traded out one of those books just to try and keep alignment with our Uh current materials okay thank you yeah I think um I know as misso said we had two different options because of the 95% phonics I believe kind of um we had the fish tank it might

057have been and then so fish tank was the first one and then the other one um and maybe you're heading this direction to the other thing that we did about halfway through the process uh was we pulled in CK uh CK as well and and took a look at that um that would have prompted us to have to REM uh switch over in the phonic program too which you know we didn't want to have to go that route but we we wanted to make sure and do our due diligence and look at all of the programs that potentially could be available that are being used currently around uh the northeast Ohio area here too and I think um so out of those I know that those few options I do think Whitten wisdom did offer

058the best um opportunities for our students I also really appreciate like I mentioned the proactive approach um that was taken to get rid of some of those books and replace them I did look at the list of books for that uh curriculum and I found a lot of them that I've even used with my own um kids so I find it totally acceptable uh from what I could gather and I'm really happy with the process I think that was a very thorough process so kudos to them for doing that I also just to read a couple of these uh in case people are you know watching online and they're not aware we have Middle School electives that are new Junior Chef creative cooking uh art Adventures songwriting Medical detectives just to kind of name a

059few of those I was like oh can I go back to Memorial and do that again get some of those I thought that was really great for our students um and then even you know at the high school with the CTE a lot of those I mean there's so many I'm not going to read them all but a lot of great opportunities I know our CTE program is just growing and uh it's excellent so some kudos to them thank you uh I just would agree with that it's very exciting and congratulations to the team who put the culum work together thank you too for serving on that committee as well uh Mr Heath I think I heard you mention a journalism course um so that's a new course for us right it will be yes

060okay that's that's really exciting that's a course I would like to take uh back in the day but um would that be first of all is that a a supplemental or is it a straightup course that'll be a straightup course that will be offered um more than likely within the English Department as an elective understood and so I wonder if there's going to be a need for us to revisit our policy around student expression and kind of how things will work out with that do you think we need to revisit that at all uh potentially yes um and again it's very interesting with student Publications the way things are structured um if it's an extracurricular activity there's a certain set of of rights and laws um if it's part of a course there's a different

061set of rights and laws so we'll have to take a really close look at that as going through this process as well um I know when when you when you look at those uh policies there are a lot of different options that are available based on what your structure is in your school district so if we're altering our structure we may need to revisit the policy do we have a current set of administrative guidelines on that or or would we maybe want to create those there there are no current administrative guidelines because the so extensive um but if it's a case where we want to tweak policy and create administrative guidelines we can always create an administrative guideline for it as well um so that'll be something that we can look at uh depending on

062what that final structure of the course looks like great thank you I have one other just real quick I know I've mentioned it before about foreign languages and I didn't know if we were ever considering ASL American sign language because I know a lot of the schools are kind of moving towards that so is that something that we might offer in the future yeah that's uh it's funny to bring that up it's uh it's been broached a couple of different times now and um actually it's been coming through uh some of our CTE programs and and one of them is uh the the teacher uh professions program um there are some individuals in that program that are kind of leaning the ASL route and wanting us to to be able to offer that so that's

063uh that's a potential here in the future awesome thanks I would just like to thank Mrs IO and Miss jine for serving on that committee I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate your thorough review and your feedback with that um when I had an opportunity to look at the curriculum changes some of the things that struck me were things that everyone here just mentioned um especially the use of authentic texts with the Whitten wisdom program and the clear communication with the parents um before every new unit a parent letter goes home and it lays out every book that the students are reading to alert parents you know this is what's coming up if you want to be talking about these topics or if you want to look at the curriculum so it's

064not just at the beginning of the year an opportunity at any time our parents can come in and look at our curricular materials but it's actually like a reminder ongoing for each unit so I thought that was a f fantastic part of the program and definitely excited about that Career Tech so I think any more discussion or we great Mr Wade please call the role Miss maraza yes Miss Jing yes Miss aopo yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion scary 5-0 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to CER ified personnel and C2 through C4 all related to human resource matters so mov second that Miss P yes thank [Applause] you any discussion please call the r Miss pay yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo

065yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Z this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda the first item under board business is the board scholarship committee appointments um every year we are donating part of our salary I guess our our our rate that we earn um serving on the board and all of our members have participated in this and have continued to create a fund where we give $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior from Menor high school so I need two I'm looking for two members that would be willing to read through applications and we would start the application process we would open that up to our guidance counselors and usually around March we're asking for those to come in and then it is announced at the May award ceremony the beginning of

066May so I'm looking for probably by the end of March you will have the applications and then if you can meet together two people on your own time and then or you can communicate separately and you know separately and then get together decide who your person is and it will be presented in May I'd like to do that yeah thank you thank you so much I did it last year I mean I'll do it again if you know if nobody else is interested but I want to give the chance to someone else yeah I I did it too last year so okay all right so m is everyone okay Mrs iapo and Mrs marazzo thank you both very much next we have a first reading of the Menor Board of Education theola policies and because

067this is a first reading no vote is necessary is there any discussion the last item under business is a second reading and approval of the Menor Board of Education Yola policies do I have a motion so moved I'm sorry was that any motion thank you second is there any discussion who's seconded I think it I didn't but I was about to okay I'll second I was just um I was just going to ask if we can go through each one and vote on them separately separately yeah if that's okay I do not have them laid out in my notes in the order and I left my iPad at home so if you could help me with that do we want to vote on one two 3 are there any that you want to just pull

068out or do you want to do them each one by one they're kind of they're kind of like there's not like a giant group where I'm like oh so I don't like there's 22 of them so we'd have to vote 22 times um we could do I mean do you want to do the bylaws first I guess I could do that separate the bylaws and then do the policy separate from I think it's hard to separate we don't know how everybody's you know I don't know I I know it's time consum I'm I'm fine either way I'm I'm not opposed to separating them it's just we can do it's fun too speed could I Mr could I possibly borrow your computer or a list yeah because I don't have that printed out i r on

069my computer okay so so we first do I need a motion for each one if we're going to vote on SE we need a motion a second for each one okay can you just call the number so we know yeah which one you want to address so we're going to start with um a motion to approve 01421 this is regarding oath of office so moved second discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss iopo [Music] no Miss uh Payne no and Miss Cook yes I um number 01651 this is the policy update for regular meetings can I have a motion so moved second please call the any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss iapo no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes item 01 65.2 special

070meetings do I have a [Music] motion so mov second any discussion please is call the r Miss marazza yes Miss gesling yes Miss aopo no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes before we move on may I ask why the no votes because I I'm just interested in hearing why we wouldn't vote on what what problems you have with these policies so we could all be transparent with that yeah I think we talked about it I didn't want to blame and go into the whole Spiel again of what we talked about at the organizational meeting so a lot of it I think is derived from what we spoke about there I know we had a pretty intense lengthy conversation especially around you know erasing he and she from our policies and replacing them with um non-gendered

071you know so so I didn't want to get into the whole thing again because that was pretty contentious um but if anybody's interested feel free to watch the organizational meeting and and my stance on it which I'm assuming Rose has the same stance okay so so to be clear it's not the policy it's the gender language the he there are some policy ones as well that are issues too so it's it's a that's why it's easiest just to kind of go down understood and I have no problem with that if if there's an issue with the actual policy are you going to comment on discussion there or we to just assume it's the gender um let me go back to the one and we can just talk about it as we come with it I

072just should we just do them all at once and I don't know how I I'm okay with doing the not all of them but doing some yeah I don't know I I don't I can't speak for somebody else because I don't know how they're going to vote so I think the easiest is to just do it okay if you have an issue other than gender other than using they or the noun instead of HE she if you would just please tell us in your discussion but um are we on 0165 Mr uh 0164 I believe the notice of meetings Okay um we are now um to approve policy 0164 notice of meetings do I have a motion so moved second discussion please call the role Miss gesling yes Miss maraza yes Miss iopo no Miss

073Payne no Miss Cook yes policy 0165 board meetings do I have a motion so move second I I'll second that so Mrs jine you motioned okay I'm sorry I thought I heard sorry and and I seconded um any [Music] discussion please call the role Miss gesling yes Miss Cook yes Miss iapo no Miss pay Miss marazza yes Miss Payne no policy 0166 agenda items so move second discussion I'll I'll just say that for some of these in addition to the erasing of the HEI I I felt like they I didn't see it necessary to replace what we have so that's if just for transparency that's it's usually it's one or the other or both so um I just wanted to let clarify that thank you are we ready for I'm sorry please call the rooll

074Miss jessle yes Miss maraza yes Miss aopo no uh Miss pay no Miss Cook yes policy 0167 point2 executive session so moved second discussion please call the RO Miss jessing yes Miss moraza yes um Miss aapo no Miss uh pay no Miss Cook yes policy 1130 conflict of interest do I have a motion so moved second discussion please call the role Miss maraza yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes motion carries policy 3113 conflict of interest do I have a motion so move second discussion please call the r Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes misso no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes motion carries 32 policy 4113 conflict of interest moved second discussion please call the role Miss maraza yes Miss gesling yes Miss iapo no Miss Payne no

075Miss Cook yes policy 6110 Grant funds do I have a motion so Mo a second discussion please call the role Miss gesling yes Miss maraza yes misso no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes motion carries policy 6111 internal controls so moved second discussion please call the role Miss Appo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 policy 6112 cash management of Grants so moved second discussion please call the rooll Miss gesling yes Miss aapo yes Miss marazza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 um policy 6114 cost principles spending federal funds so moved second discussion please call the rooll Miss Jing yes Miss iapo yes Miss moraza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z policy 6220 budget preparation there are

076no changes to this current policy do we need to vote on this with no changes only if someone wants a motion in second to have it actually voted on this is the one I didn't recommend making changes to okay it appears that there's we're F on that one policy 6320 purchasing and bidding so moved second discussion please call the role Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss iapo [Music] no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes motion carries 32 policy 6325 procurement of federal grants and funds some moved second discussion please call the role Miss Appo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 policy 6460 vendor relations so moved second question just to be sure we're voting on The the revised correct yeah any discussion I'll just

077add um this one because it did have to deal with Senate Bill 29 alignment which I completely agree with that verbiage um but once again it's the pronoun issue so I just wanted to make that clear for meeting minutes that I do support the uh changes for Senate Bill 29 alignment but I I can't agree with the um pronoun change I Echo that any more discussion please call the rule Miss gesling yes Miss maraza yes Miss aopo no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes policy 6550 travel payment and reimbursement relocation costs so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss jessing yes Miss Appo yes uh Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes policy 7310 the disposition of Surplus property so moved second any [Music] discussion please call the role Miss jessing

078yes misso yes Miss moraza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries can I skipped this next one because I say okay um we had 753 0.01 cellular telephone allowance this was one that Administration was not recommending so if anyone would like to motion to change this or see none I'll move on policy 8310 public records so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss jessing yes Miss marchad yes misso no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes motion carries 32 okay next we have the legislative report Miss vaza thank you uh so we have uh no updates from the state board or the odw today they don't have any rules open for public comment at this time so we get to jump right into State House updates um in December I first have

079to give a shout out to a couple of folks in our district um the Senate Workforce and higher education committee heard invited testimony from superintendent Craig Heath and Dr Joe glaven as well as some other reps from Lake County um who are on the Lake County Workforce training collaborative and they went there to speak about our CTE partnership Hub which combines the efforts of local businesses Community College Lakeland as we know and our school district to um help students become prepared for jobs in the local economy so thank you both of you for going down there to do that it really seems like um I know I've said it before but that we're putting men around the map for CTE so that's really exciting uh the 136th General Assembly opened on Monday January 6 we

080had 99 elected State reps uh sworn in and 33 state senators to the Ohio Senate uh they mapped out their scheduled sessions for through the end of June so the next six months or so uh and both the Ohio House and Senate voted on their leadership uh we have Speaker of the House Representative Matt Huffman we have the minority leader again is Allison Russo um for the Senate we've got the Senate President as Rob McCully minority leader again with uh Senator Nikki Antonio so that's leadership um the bill introductions began this week uh it is likely that property taxes we're told are going to be an area of focus for both the house and the Senate um especially with the recommendations that came out of that uh joint committee from last year uh the next

081thing that's going to happen uh both Chambers will will return the session um for the week of January 20 20th uh and what's going to happen next is the banal budget so the way this process will work is essentially the governor will introduce the executive budget with his priorities uh that'll happen no later than February 1st um and then it gets presented in the house finance committee uh and the house finance committee will you know they'll make their changes to the executive budget they'll kind of create its own version um they'll set up subcommittees to work on different areas so of relevance for us would be like the the Finance subcommittee on primary and secondary education um so that Committee in particular will work on school funding for 26 and 27 um and then once

082the house finishes their changes and it goes over to the Senate um Finance chair there will develop the Senate's version of the budget uh just like the house does and then the Senate education committee will work on the school funding formula and other uh education expenditures um and they'll probably wrap up their work in sometime in May or June um so by June everyone will have had eyes on the budget and had their input in on the budget um and they'll based on you know their own legislative and fiscal priorities um so at that point a conference committee is convened and then they get together to try to work out all the differen and get the budget into a shape that the um that everyone basically can um can agree upon and at that point

083it then goes back to the governor and the governor can decide to sign it he can veto it or he can line item veto if he wants but he has to do it by July 1st and that's when the new fiscal year will begin so just kind of wanted to give an overview of what to expect in the next six months all right so we have some Bill activ excuse me law activity these are now laws they were signed by the governor um House Bill 7 28 uh briefly retired teachers who are re-employed in positions covered by the state retirement system are eligible to seek election to that retirement uh board that takes effect on March 19 House Bill 70 requires school schools to adopt a policy um regarding the administration of overthe counter medications

084also takes effect March 19 but we're already compliant with this one um and then there's House Bill 8 which has uh been talked about quite a bit it's got a lot going on and I think it's an agenda item for us coming up but to summarize very quickly uh House Bill 8 requires a policy to adopt a policy on Parental notification on student health and well-being um it to adopt a policy on instructional materials with sexually explicit content which is defined as quote any oral or written instruction presentation image or description of sexual Concepts or gender ideology provided in a classroom setting end quote um also requires a policy on release time for religious instruction during public school hours um the entire law goes into effect at the end of March with compliance uh beginning

085specifically for the religious release time on April 8th um and then everything else we have to be compliant by by July 1st um lots of dates to remember but those those definitely are ones we're going to want to keep in the front of our mind um House Bill 3:15 um this was I thought relevant for us because it includes the ability for townships to extend tax increment financing districts known by this board as tiffs for 15 additional years so that's a change and we might just want to remember that going forward um Cate Bill 208 was about um allowing military children to have open enrollment wherever they are um it also included a bunch of other things though and ended up getting um a lot of other aspects to the law tacked on before it

086got signed including um you know things about home education groups and peace officer interactions it's pretty extensive um Senate Bill 234 is going to require schools to adver advertise the National Suicide and crisis LifeLine Telephone number to students so we want to make sure we're compliant with that house bill 206 um this was the late introduced um Bill about expulsions uh so this makes changes regarding what superintendents can choose to do to uh expel a student from public school based on actions that endanger the health and safety of other students or School Employees um and then tact on to this bill at the very uh you know the latest hours was an increase in funding for school choice program Administration by $4.1 million in fiscal year 25 that law will take effect on April 8th

087we also of course have Senate Bill 104 which was signed in November um that uh effective date is coming up on febru February 23rd so I well at least that's the datea I have I know we talked about like 19 20 21 23rd is what I saw so I'm not sure if that's what you heard as well Mr he all sorts of dates all sorts of dates I'll talk about it okay great um so I think that is the end of my report uh we've got a lot going on new general assembly we'll see where it goes thank you very much sure next we have the student achievement report Mrs Jing thank you so much winter break was a great time for families as we marked the end of the first semester and students across

088the district are actively learning as a third quarter is well under way here's a sampling of the opportunities and events from the past several weeks the newly expanded career academies that Mr Heath mentioned for 2025 26 will give Menor high students a wealth of new and continuing course options one of the great benefits of this approach is to offer them exposure to an array of career Pathways the full CTE Expo will be held for students during the day tomorrow and families are ALS also invited to attend in the evening from 6:00 to 8: many if not most of these careers will require additional postsecondary education but students can gain essential insight into their interests and aptitudes others help students decide if that field is a good fit before pursuing a college degree or paying tuition

089for further training after graduation the college credit plus information night will also be held tomorrow evening right here to cover the application process some coursework offers workplace Readiness to get a student's foot in the door where further education might even be offered by the employer admission to the CTE programs is competitive and students must apply by early February to secure a spot these CTE initiatives align with the district's strategic plan framework for the future and the goal of having every senior ready to graduate with a road map before investing time and money in postsecondary plans ideally each will choose to enroll and list or will be employed as they step out into the world in State education news as we heard from uh previous speakers uh thank you to our superintendent Mr Heath and Dr

090Joe glaven for all of their hard work in an important state level initiative to benefit our students and community in Columbus they met with our legislators repres representative Jamie Kender and Senator Jerry Sereno along with Lake County Commissioner Richard regovich and Lakeland president Dr s ausa they spoke before the Senate Workforce and higher education committee providing testimony on behalf of the Northeast Ohio Workforce collaborative this is our district partnership with the Commissioners in Lakeland they said in part we urge the Ohio Senate committee to continue supporting initiatives that prioritize Innovation collaboration and targeted investments in Workforce Development together we can ensure that Ohio remains a leader in Workforce education and economic competitiveness we're proud of all the transformative efforts underway in our County which exemplify Innovation collaboration and Strategic investment in preparing our students for

091their Futures we were excited to host our sixth annual and career bound College inter turn and job fair on December 19th this unique event for current college students and recent college graduates to connect with internship and work opportunities right here in our community through this event participants could secure a local 2025 summer internship or even a permanent position thank you to trusty the mascot and the Menor Police Department belflower students had a blast learning about bus safety in a fun schoolwide assembly assembly some of our special education students made a trip to the Lake County Farm park again this year the annual H holiday party with Menor rotary is a great Hands-On learning experience and fun for everyone we thank the rotary and the student volunteers who make this memorable event happen the Menor High

092School orchestra presented their Winter concert on December 12th to a delighted audience the program under conductor Mr Matt yoke featured familiar Melodies as well as classical pieces including one by finnished composer Jean seelas well done the December 12th men High Winter concert featuring the choirs had a special program of seasonal music directed by Mr Adam Landry Pebble in the water a poignant composition in honor of classmate Jack Sawyer had its public Premiere the evening closed with the honored tradition of everyone joining together for the Hallelujah Chorus December 17th was another evening of beautiful music so showcasing the five Menor High School bands an enthusiastic audience enjoyed their Winter concert offerings including holiday music to capture the spirit of the Season Bravo to all the student musicians and their hardworking teachers it's always a treat to

093visit classrooms to see what our students are working on Mrs Van Curran's family and consumer science classes at Memorial rewarded visitors with a delicious twist the food truck challenge is their culminating project each group designed a logo a menu and baked a special sample cookie representing their business it was nearly impossible to choose the best treat from all the tasty offerings as the students shared their creative ideas you've got to love the Spirit Week Vibes and special activities in all of our Menor schools in December and the gingerbread man was out and about visiting elementary students that last day of school before break another of our key learning programs is mentors integrated preschool these Early Childhood classrooms provide a rich language-based learning environment so all little ones could develop their skills withth early intervention if

094and where needed with guidelines from the Ohio office of early learning and School Readiness children with special needs are integrated as much as possible with their typically developing peers as the individual needs of all our preschoolers are met the Menor High wrestling teams holded their third pin for a purpose event here in the Fine Arts Center on December 20th this is a fundraiser started by recent Mena graduate and wrestler Nick Blackburn to help support families battling cancer the Menor High wrestling teams understand the importance of working together to win Nick said but we also understand the significance of giving back to our community over $5,500 was raised to help support four families in need do you know what a biome is Fox 8 meteorologist Alexis Walters learned the answer as she tackled a number of

095well WEA related topics with fifth graders at belflower elementary when she visited for a live broadcast last month men Public School scho CTE programs have given many students important career skills to carry forward but there are some that make a life or death difference a special goal was realized recently when yosen Porter recalled that ever since he was a young kid he dreamed of being a hero someday the 19-year-old ukl High graduate and former student at our metor fire academy used his training to help save the life of a man involved in a near fatal motorcycle crash in uid every year our students are invited to Showcase their talents in the National PTA Reflections program this year's theme is accepting imperfection original work was accepted in these categories music composition photography Visual Arts literature Film

096Production and dance choreography work was submitted to each student's teacher by January 8th entries are judge local loc Al with top Works advancing to State and National levels we look forward to feedback this spring and thank our PTA for all their hard work to bring this opportunity to our students Menor high was proud to have a PTA Reflection State winner just last year Cherry Lee received the first place State Award of Excellence based on the theme I'm hopeful because this Friday December this Friday the 17th at 11 p.m. Menor theater will present its fourth annual student review a night of Hidden Treasures most of the songs and monologues are from lesser known shows that are sure to inspire and uplift the audience all tickets are just $10 and will help support the theater program in

097its 101st season they are available online it was a great day for Mentor at the power of the pen District tournament at monacello Middle School in Cleveland Heights last Saturday 17 area schools were competing two Shore students Emma Nunes and Rebecca Williams and three Memorial students Audrey West Anna burby and Dylan Fedor earned writing medals sweeping five of the top spots there was a great energy and support from both the teams and parents it was a morning of music for the folks at Vista Springs assisted living on Auburn Road from the Menor High School orchestra Association the res residents of Vista Springs enjoyed a beautiful concert by a string octet from the Menor High Orchestra these dedicated Young Musicians gave this gift of music to the delighted residents their time and talent were Priceless as

098the strains of Mozart filled the hallways families can receive expert tips during a free program about early literacy for kids at noon on January 23rd at Menor Public Library's main branch the session will look at the key roles that parents and caregivers play in Reading Readiness this is the first in a series of uh helping children succeed from the Educational Service of the Western Reserve our family engagement coordinator Trisha zrich will be part of these programs designed to strengthen school and family connections the topic for the February uh 13th session is bullying and the February 20th session we'll discuss chronic absenteeism registration is requested due to limited space so just visit the Menor Public Library website winter time is a great season for Learning and doing thank you thank you very much very well done

099at this time we have the chief financial officer's report and recommendations thank you madam president members of the board Mr Heath uh present the financials for December when we look at our summary for the uh end of the month um our current year-to date Revenue collections indicate that we're about $33,000 less than we have projected at the November forecast update again um on $110 million that's pretty immaterial uh we're about $323,000 favor able so we're under spending by about $323,000 almost $24,000 and that would have a net impact of about $291,000 uh on the cash Reserves at this point as we go through so projected to deficit spend um at a reduced rate of 2,625 something5 um revenue for the month was down about $684,000 compared to last year um the majority of that comes

100in the form of a uh reduction of a prior year expense uh that we didn't have this year and our revenue for the year is about $1,552 41 more uh the majority of that coming in the form of local tax reimbursements in state revenue uh that we have received increased values at this point when we look at our expenditure side um actual expens expenses excuse me for the month were up $939,000 um that is due primarily to the fact that we had a bill come in that usually comes in in January that we got in December so we paid that off so that explains the kind of the fluctuation uh from last year um which then again puts the same reason why we're about a million and a half $1.4 million more uh for the

101year at this point uh we'll see that kind of work itself out from a timing issue uh probably over the next few months so again our revenue is trending about $33,000 less than we expected and our expenditures are about $323,000 uh 987 almost $324,000 uh below where we expect and that's with that extra extra payment uh that is a month early at this point um happy to answer any questions uh the month financials that go through December Mr Wade I want to follow up on a discussion point from our last meeting which we just discuss legal fees so first of all thank you for submitting those to us via email um we had talked about taking a look at how the fees have looked over the last several years so I appreciate you putting that

102together for us and so quickly um so with the numbers that I saw um it looks like since fiscal year 21 we've seen mostly increases year after year and our legal fees specifically um for a certain firm that we use as our sort of our board attorney um as well as the district attorney uh the biggest jump I saw was fiscal year 22 to 23 there was a jump in legal fees of 64.7% um and then this year we're already um we're what halfway through the fiscal year and we're already 12% higher than we were um last year so it's looking like you know that trend is going to continue I kind of I what I'd like to do is are are we able to report out on these legal fees every month as a

103matter of course I'm happy to yeah we can easily do that great great great so I I don't know if I need the motion for that or can you can we just say you'll include it in your reporting every month if the board wants me to include it every month I'm happy to include a report on legal fees okay most any any objections to that and then I wonder um is it I guess the the the way to save on these fees I'm open to suggestions especially from you Mr Wade um great at cutting costs um but from what I understand you know working through Craig you have a a standing since there's no way of substantiating like hey this is from X Y and Z how do we know exactly where the majority of

104that's coming from I know there was a big uptick when we did our superintendent search I think even when we did the Neola transition there might have been some stuff there as well also we'll use him when we're doing negotiations negotiations you're right which was 22 I think correct and again this spring too yeah is there a way to substantiate it further uh I've requested I'm working on trying to be able to get a breakdown I I wouldn't say that I would say the uptick is a conglomerate of many different variables uh board requests as a whole um I would say issues that have been experiencing from just the nature of the Dynamics of the community with the the political divide that we're seeing and it's causing greater scrutiny and having to seek legal counsel

105to make sure interpretations are correct or when they're incorrect how to rectify um policy interpretations things of that nature so you know I would say that the increase and the the best way to not spend un legal don't use legal the novel idea I just saved us a whole bunch of money we don't ever call the attorney and we never have to charge for them um our attorney only charges um for the time used they don't charge us an hour every time we call them I mean just to be clear there are some firms who right don't do that ours does not that's good to know um I am in the midst of gaining uh based on another request the hourly rates of others thank you I can tell you I've seen rates as low

106as $225 but they have retainers that I've seen rates as high as $400 ours is 330 just to clarify do we have a retainer as well or we don't we pay for time used thank you so um truly the easiest way to save money on legal fees is not to use the attorney so if you want my opinion that's my that's my stance do you and I guess the meeting the weekly meeting that you have with him Craig is that does he include that in billable is that how does that work that's billable that's billable too um but I would say I know from sitting in at a lot of those meetings that many things are saved until that meeting so that you can be as efficient as possible with the use of that so

107you know where some people might say that that could be that's a regular meeting you know that's being done um I would say that sorry that I keep forgetting about the right side over here um that that's a much more efficient use than kind of going back and forth because you can quickly discuss what's the issues are and kind of get to resolution quicker got it thank you I just to kind of follow up on that I know um you had mentioned some of it is substantiated like just to give the public an idea of what that looks like we had um I think it was a year into when I was on the board with uh Mrs cook we had a policy that we were trying to abide by that didn't let people record

108during board meetings and we had to stop a meeting and I suggested contacting our attorney because I had learned that that is um a First Amendment right so we did have to contact him in kind of situations like that that we may not have had to do it in the past but because of the you know yeah just the nature of the the dynamic in the community I mean I guess that's the type of thing I'm referring to you know it's um the you know we have questions about bathroom use right like that's one I know that's come up on just calls that I've been on just to make sure eyes are dotted and tees are crossed and that you know things yeah whether we all agree or not are being you know legally followed

109to the the best ability so that we can move forward as a district right so it sounds like there are some things that are out of our control as things come up but there are many others that maybe we could do better and negotiations is a classic example right we have we we're going to be going to negotiate with both of our unions this uh spring so there's going to be time that we have to spend on that that is required that we see every two to three years so you see some bumps yeah depending if you were to look at it from a longer standpoint you would see those bumps naturally based on when negotiations occur as well makes sense so I think as a board one thing we could do is run our

110questions through either Mr Wade or Mr Heath and they can pose them for us at the Tuesday meeting and get back and the exception to that would be if we had a specific legal issue that we wanted to discuss that was associated with Mr Heath or Mr Wade then the the board president does speak to the to the lawyer independently you know if we if we it was an employment issue so I know we don't have policy but it could be a good way for us to manage some funds okay is there any other discussion all right do I have a I uh Madam president members of the board Mr Heath I ask for action on items B through G and addendums that can be all acted on one motion so moved second any additional

111discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss jesn yes Miss pay yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Z next we have unfinished business and the first item that we have is a discussion around the bathroom use for the new um law that's coming into effect so so I'll go ahead and kick it off um during our principal's meeting today we we reviewed the single occupancy facilities um we have in each of our buildings to identify those restrooms that will be designated as available for any student wishing to use a single stall facility when the new law takes effect on the week of Monday February 24th and again there're still flicting dates on that I've seen the 24th in several occasions and the 25th on several occasions we're just

112going to make sure we're in compliance but by that Monday that way it it's an easy thing to start the week off with uh we also uh discussed the overnight trips uh component I believe uh Mrs IO uh had asked about that uh in a previous meeting as well uh so we did uh make sure that our principles are aware of uh the compliance issues with the law there with some the uh sleeping arrangements with those overnight trips that we'll be taking here um this spring um I've also started the conversations with our athletic director about the locker room facilities um opposing teams will be using during contest held on our campus uh we'll be looking closely at what facilities will be available each evening for the opposing teams to use in the gym whether

113that's the basketball locker room the wrestling locker room and or the physical education locker rooms uh for the boys and the girls we will make sure that we try and get something finalized here in the next week or two as we're looking at those schedules uh moving forward here late in the wintertime um I know one of the questions that had uh had come up was uh can we just simply redesignate a locker room facility at a specific point in time during a day um and based on what what we're hearing right now we don't believe we'll be able to do that um which again what we currently do is we have the opposing boys basketball team typically using the girls fizzed locker room um during the game nights um we are understanding at this

114point that that's not going to be uh permitted even if we were to redesignate and uh change our signs around um during those contests we're not going to be able to do that to comply with the law so um so that's one of the reasons that we're going to have to make sure that we've got our um facilities designated um to to figure out how we're going to accommodate the opposing teams when they come uh one of the ideas that we've been uh tossing around is potentially having our students uh student athletes change um into their uniforms uh prior to the opposing teams coming and then using maybe a classroom that's close by the gymnasium um during halftimes of those games so that they have a place to go and then the opposing team also

115has a place to go so we're working through those we hope to have that finalized here in the next week or two uh the the other thing that we're looking at uh when we get to our spring Sports season we do have a boys in a girls locker room available out at our Stadium uh for opposing teams to use so uh we should not have any issues with compliance when we get to the spring um because we are identifying those single stall facilities for our students to use in our buildings it is going to be my recommendation that we have a board policy that uses the specific language from the law passed in the state legislature uh again I think Mrs iopo you had asked if uh I was going to make a recommendation for

116that board policy at our last meeting so that will be my recommendation um in uh in my last communication with our niola representative he indicated that they will be releasing a legal alert and a new bathroom policy with the next update uh which is scheduled for the end of January uh here this month uh there will be at least one current policy and an administrative guideline that will be revised to reflect the uh changes from Senate Bill 104 with those bathroom Provisions so that is is our update on the bathroom bill at this point in time are there any questions that I can answer just a quick question um since it sounds like Neola will have a policy ready by the end of January we have a a meeting scheduled for the end of January

117and from earlier today we're already adding something on there would we be able to put that on there as a first reading that we come February we could do the vote and then you know that that's going to be one of those things that will work out those details as like literally as soon as we get that Neola policy language we will review that carefully um this may be another one that we want to make sure that our legal team is taking a look at as well um again the guidance that we've seen from different law firms around the state right now uh to uh protect districts is if you are adopting a policy make sure that it is using the exact language from the law that was signed so that um you're not straying

118too far from that uh intent of the of the law so that the policy is directly aligned there um as soon as we get that I will probably put out a special board update um so that I can share that information with all of you as soon as we get it um and let you know what our next steps are based on the first reading through that and then uh if we can put that on either the January 29th special meeting um and or do a second uh uh meeting in February we can knock that thing up before um that uh comes into effect on Monday February 24th um and just to because we were talking about legal fees so earlier um niola we do pay them for these updates but in this situation we

119are also paying our Law Firm because we just want them to double check it or yeah depending on what the language is that comes back from niola if it is not specific language coming directly out of that law we may want our uh our board uh and our our attorneys to take a look at that just to see um we'll be able to tell that fairly quickly though once we get the Neola policy the nice thing about Neola is they actually have a team of attorneys um that that look at everything and and write those policies so uh typically niola is not going to put us put us in a position that is going to jeopardize the the board or the district from a legal perspective and if we let's say we didn't run it

120by our um attorney if we go with a Neola provided policy then they actually their attorneys do cover us is that correct correct okay thank you I think you answered most of my questions so thank you um my last one and this ties into what we're discussing under new business tonight is the discipline guidelines for this um so I don't know if you if you say that one more time discipline guidelines for then for this um for the bathrooms and is that something that's being worked through or just going to just tie it into all of our other yeah there there probably will not be a policy there won't be policy language addressing the the discipline but the we're looking at um in subordination being that uh that code uh out of our code of

121conduct that we would be following can I st up questions actually one just popped up for me is don't do we already have a discipline lary uh process for people who go into the wrong bathroom I mean don't we already have that somewhere or I mean isn't so for example we we don't have anything from a from a policy standpoint right now no not policy but if somebody use the incorrect bathroom I think you had mentioned this is many meetings ago that that is handled from a disciplinary perspective yeah I everything's going to be handled on an individual basis based on what uh that situation is but would it be any different than what we would have already done see what I'm saying no because again we're still probably looking at insubordination as being that

122that code that we would be addressing with with those situations so we wouldn't necessarily need like a special set of disciplinary procedures is what I'm asking no I I think uh what that's going to entail really is having more conversation with our building level administrators to prepare for um that week of of February 24th if there are issues that uh that are coming up um they know how to address those right away so it's it's going to be more conversational than you know putting pen to paper and crafting exactly what's going to happen um because again we deal with so many things on an individual basis um insubordination is you know you know you're not following through on a on a request sure correctly and uh and that's something that can be addressed pretty quickly

123and easily and so what are we doing to prepare the student body for these changes I'm going to guess that most of them have not much of an idea what's going on yeah so um again what we did during our meeting here today is I had those principles take a look at our entire list um they are going to be identifying those uh that are going to be designated uh for single stall occupancy uh we are working on some signage right now that will be um for each of the facilities that we designate um the the guidance that I provided our principals today was at each Elementary School I want to have at least one facility uh typically that's going to be in the clinic um at the middle schools we would like two and

124at the high school we actually have already identified four two in the clinic and two in the media center uh the next steps there are to get those signs made and and indicate those and then working through the communication plan with with our stud students so that they know um what is available to them and then what about the stadium I know that came up in another conversation we had I heard there's a locker room um two different locker rooms but what about a single stall facility yeah so there's a couple things with that that we're trying to figure out right now um one is what are the uh requirements of us um just even when we're hosting an event uh you know like a basketball game do we have to have a single stall

125facility available uh for use at that point um so we're going to have to get some clarification on on what our responsibilities are as a district for that um out at the uh at the stadium obviously we've got one uh uh uh we've got one girls locker room one boys locker room uh we also have our wait room out there that has uh uh I believe it's a single stall facility in there um that will have to take to look at as well and if we need to identify a single uh use facility out there we will certainly do that for spring thank you Mr Heath you were talking about signage so those would be designated like family bathrooms yeah so um signage you know kind of that standard sign where you see the both

126the male and the female uh symbols on there often times they also have the uh handicap s uh symbol on there as well yes uh so we're going to take a look I I'll be perfectly honest when I went around to the building and and we're looking at some of those single stall facilities there were some of them that just weren't handicap accessible either so uh we may have to alter signs a little bit based on what we're seeing and what's finally selected that was my next question is do we have handicap facilities that um would be like family one stall facilities or you know do we need to adapt anything for that um you mentioned we we talked about this stadium and then also in spaces like here at our Fine Arts Center and

127Paradigm would be other ones to just keep keep sense of where we have Community but like you said you're looking into the responsibil community events yeah and uh I think we are in good shape at uh at Paradigm uh because we do have some single stall facilities there um we are good at the service building as well um the the one area that we're we'll have to take another closer look at is actually the board office um right now the those facilities are are multiuse or multi-occupancy um but a a lot of them are like okay maybe one stall and one urinal in the boys uh uh restroom facility and two stalls for the female so um if we wanted to and we've got a couple different uh possibilities there uh we could uh certainly

128designate one of those as a family uh or single occupancy uh facility if needed so the single restroom facilities at Paradigm uh will they be now designated family as far as yeah actually over at Paradigm it's already there and actually that's the the sign that we're going to try and emulate in the other locations that is perfect thank you so much for being on top of this um proactively looking at all of our occupany occupancy facilities um I I know that you mentioned making sure that Administration knows you know when are that February 24th the Law changes and making sure that we are communicating with the students are we going to be communicating with parents and is there a plan to communicate with students that may be more intimately affected yeah yeah so uh we'll

129be working through the communication plan once we finalize all of those locations because it may be a little bit unique for each building depending on where that um facility is located um so it it may be a series of 10 different communication pieces based on the building that we're we're looking at um so that'll be the next step as soon as we get the uh again we just met with the principles here this morning to to finalize those they've got access to our spreadsheet right now they're going to look at their spaces designate the one uh at each of the elementaries the two at at the middle schools and and we'll get that information ready to roll and then that will uh lead into our communication plans well done thank you I just had um

130a couple comments I think Mrs cook covered the one question I had I know a few um years ago we had talked about the issue of boys going into girls' bathrooms biological boys going into girls' bathrooms and that whole um situation and I know Mr Heath you had mentioned at that time we had about 30 possibly um students who were transgender or identifying as a different gender that would have access to the bathroom so that's I think to Mrs cook point you will be sending out communication to them specifically it'll be Universal obviously but if uh if there are individual conversations that um would be a better uh approach we will certainly do that as well okay and then um just to clarify because I know Miss maraza brought up um the discipline procedures currently

131and I just want to note that it it is a change because we are now having to do things different than we did in in the past in the past we did allow biological boys to go into the opp you know the girls facility as long as they identified as being a girl um so now we're not allowing that effective February 20 whatever the date is correct um so that that is that is a change um and then that would that change then we would do you said in subordination MH okay now is insubordination are there any other ones for insubordination that are actual laws that if they're violated because this is an actual law so if they're violating the law I think there needs to be a heftier yeah I we we have other

132other issues with insubordination I know you know if a student's just not complying with a a reasonable request we're dealing with an ins insubordination type of issue and again depending on what that situation is a certain the level of discipline would be levied um you know with this one obviously in subordination is failing to comply with a reasonable request now that's following a state law so right obviously that's going to be dealt with okay okay thank you all right any more discussion for this issue all right thank you next we have our house bill 8 updates okay with this one um I spent some time over winter break uh pulling the lunch and recess times for each grade level at each Elementary building and the lunch and study hall time at each secondary building to

133prepare for any requests uh that we receive regarding the release time for religious instruction uh we are working through our procedures around the parent requests uh how the the students will check in and check out what that process is going to be for each building uh and and we again brought that up at our principal's meeting today uh to to take a look look at again the exact timing on everything uh with lunch and recess because I want to make sure that I didn't miss something uh so the principles are looking at that spreadsheet right now uh we're also working with our District Administrative team next week to really go through those procedures to make sure that we have all of our things ready to go in time uh for the implementation of that new

134requirement um and the timing on that based on what I'm seeing right now is April 8th um based on the 9 days after the governor signs the bill um the the other piece with this obviously Neola uh is looking at the policy language there as well um they've again indicated that uh they should have um that language in the update that they're going to be sending out here in the next couple of weeks here by the end of January um and and I asked the question I said is it just going to be as simple as taking that template and Shifting the word May to the word shall or is there going to be more to it than that and and the answer was there's probably going to be more to it than that um

135and there's also going to be some add additional changes uh to other policy language based on all of those components that are part of uh house billt 8 as well uh that was signed by the governor last week um so obviously when we get that update here in a couple weeks we will make sure that we go through all that language um and get that information out to the entire group here uh as well obviously the one will be around the release time for religious instruction um but there will be some other components uh coming out of house bill eight8 that was signed so we'll make sure that uh whatever policies they're recommending uh we'll take a close look at those again first we will get those out to all of you as well and

136uh we should be in in really good shape as far as uh having some time to review that before that April 8th implementation uh deadline there Mr Heath thank thank you for being so proactive I appreciated the timelines for the religious release time so we can have some idea I'm assuming that you're having some conversations to help us draft clear policy right now with Administration with just how that might look going in and out of the building and you know making sure that attendance is taken and how um who would be in charge of that what Trying to minimize disruptions and I know you're mentioning lunch so you know with that lunch kids bringing lunch I'm assuming they're packing their own lunch but if we had maybe someone who is buying a lunch how are

137we going to work that out is free and reduced lunch a possibility there I've heard some Rumblings that that's some kind of a violation but I don't know that that is true or not for federal funds to be encumbered in that way and also you know how Hospital 8 is beyond the religious release time we have the sexuality piece and then the mental health update piece with um providers contacting parents on the change so there's so many different levels with that I'm kind of thinking about different maybe different policies but perhaps not that I'm scheduling it yet but perhaps a work session on that that we would clarify all of those things yeah I obviously a house bill at when it was passed had a lot of different Provisions in there and and again that's

138uh you know the one thing that we were focusing on first and foremost was the release time for religious instruction um so we'll make sure that we get that language done first and foremost um after that then um and this is again why we reached out to niola right away um I think the week before break uh our representative may have been a little bit tired of me because it was one day I asked a question and then oh the next day they actually signed so I asked the question again um and and that's why he uh he shared with me yeah that there's probably going to be a lot more um to not only that religious release time uh uh policy but also um it's going to impact several other policies as well so

139we we'll we'll kind of have to break all of those down as soon as they get them out to us um cuz there's a lot to it thank you I'm thinking it's a good idea we there may be a work session in the future because we can also align I know the house B 68 the safe act that already went in to law I think in October um to make sure that there's some similarities between that and um 104 and 8 so that might be something that because I don't think our policy is aligned with all of those recent laws and so many have have been passing so and I'm wondering maybe if we look at um maybe another meeting in February uh for that special meeting that would allow us to knock out both

140uh a first and a second reading of the um the bathroom policy piece to the puzzle and then also allow us to have those conversations around all of the different Pro uh provisions of House Bill 8 and make sure that we get all of those things updated then as well so that might be a good use of that time to be able to knock out both those things one more question the with house bille 8 is is there been discussions and or brainstorming and how to be compliant with the books because I know it's K through three but all of our elementaries are K through five so and share media centers so what does that look like yeah we haven't had those conversations as a team yet um so those will be kind of the

141next steps in those uh those conversations obviously um we knew about the release time for relig just instruction components um so that's why we focused on that first and then uh we'll start digging into those other Provisions here soon is everything on the same timeline there I thought that that was in two stages so the religious release time is April 8th but the rest of it is like July that's correct I I believe that's correct yes July 1 is the implement we have to be compliant by July first is the is what the the law actually says for which one for the for everything in house Bill 8 accept the religious release time which is April 8th so that gives us a little bit of extra time there too but we'll make sure we not

142out the religious release time first I had just a couple um questions and comments so the the kr5 book collection not the recent one from you know the one from a couple years ago that was an area of um contention some of those especially with this new law in kindergarten through third grade in the actual classrooms for silent reading time we do have a few books that I would assume would need to be pulled out then because they are about um sexuality I think there's Heather has two mommies just off the top of my head and then I think there's anango makes three I know there was the Fletcher series I'm not sure what grade level that was appr was what classroom that was put in um and then there's a boy named queen that

143was one of the books as well so I don't know just off the top of my head I know when we when I voted no those were some of the ones that I I brought up um for those specific reasons so I don't know if that's something that you guys will be looking into then because it is part of the in classroom um I think it would be in accordance with the law to have to take those out am I understanding that correctly it's a great question don't know the answer yet and again those books were passed before me so um yeah so we'll have to go through all of that again just to make sure we we've got everything but yeah once we get uh uh into some of the policy language there that'll

144probably dictate what our needs will be okay and then the other one I know um a couple years ago I had proposed the sexual content policy which did flag books that had sexual content in them or were sexually explicit and that did at that point that pass and then um this year it was rescinded by a 3-2 vote um with the exception of rose and I and I just wanted to know it sounds like with this new parents Bill of Rights if like we're going to have to flag books at some point that do have sexual content in them or are sexually explicit so um if you could follow up on that you know once you know that information I would appreciate it absolutely um and then I just wanted to make just a comment

145because I know Rose and I were getting some some emails and I just figured I would take the time to kind of address it in the open here so um a lot of the things over the last several years have been I would what I would call hot hot button issues and there's a lot of heated feeling on both sides of that issue um obviously me being in the minority with with rose on some of those topics um there has been substantial time spent on on those issues I'm hopeful now that the legislature have has stepped in with some of these things that we can once we have the policy and the procedures in place that we can you know obviously move forward from that so just to kind of um make a statement I

146guess in reference to that that's all are we ready for new business so under new business this evening we um have a discussion on our student behavior and discipline and I know that this is an issue that unanimously we are invested in we are interested in discussion in discussing and we definitely feel a need for it and the community has asked us to um make it a focus it's part of our strategic plan and I've been asked by a few members to put it on the agenda so I'm just going to go in the order that I was asked can I start it off sure so um as we jump into this as I mentioned earlier uh we have been kind of taking a look at some things uh here over the last couple of

147weeks um and and I hopefully as you you all know me by now I I tend to be very data focused when it comes to tackling the issues we face in our district um I don't necessarily follow the narratives and the debates that are out there but I want to see what the reality of what that data is telling us uh so with that in mind I spent a a considerable amount of time looking into the student discipline data as we prepare for our district leadership team meeting on February 5th um which we always look at that data um twice a year we do it once in February and once in June um and and really as we started digging into that you know just really trying to identify what's our course of action to

148address the issues um I've started by gathering the data um of the number of disciplinary incidents we have posted in Ed climber uh educ climber is one of our uh data resources that we have available to us it speaks to um Infinite Campus each night and um really is kind of a data analysis tool that allows us to kind of dig into some reports to to really see what's going on uh one of the reports in educ climber uh provides a list of students by the number of incident that they are involved in um and we're looking at that from the first semester so what I've done is I've taken that list and I've started to dig into the details of each of those disciplinary incidents as it's recorded in Infinite Campus um educ climber

149doesn't have the narrative pieces that the uh the principles put into the um uh into the infinite campus descriptions so I wanted to make sure that I I truly understood what it is that those um that those incidents were actually all about uh so what I ended up doing then is I I created a spreadsheet which again something that I I love to do um with the following information listed so we we can really get a full picture of what's going on with each student we got the students name their grade their race their gender other demographic information um you know are they an English learner do they have an IEP are they student with a disability are they gifted whatever it may be um just so that we knew what type of student we're

150working with um we've also taken a look at the total number of in incidents that that student has been involved in here during the 2425 school year we then started to break those things down we looked at the type of incidents that were being reported the number of incidents of each of those types and then we looked at the consequences that have been received for that incident type as well um for example there are a few that you again we're trying to focus in on the mean behaviors that we had talked about a little bit earlier uh there there was one student that popped up that had like 13 incidents out of the first semester which is quite a bit um but when we looked at it um Mrs iapo you will appreciate this uh

151there were six of them that were cell phone policy violations um the there were another five that were uh they didn't plug in their Chromebook overnight and they didn't have a Charged Chromebook so that was 11 of the 13 and then there were a couple that were tardies to class that obviously there are some other issues that we need to address with that student but not a mean Behavior type of situation so that's why we're digging into these a little bit closer just to make sure that we understand exactly what it is that we're looking at so what our next step is going to be and we had this conversation with our principles today as well um our next step is that uh we're going to identify those students that have the most issues with

152mean behaviors this year we will then meet with the principal of each building and and we've already scheduled those meetings for January 30th and 31st to discuss the list of students to determine the interventions consequences conversations and supports that they have been using with each of those students here this year so far and then as a team we are going to sit down and identify the next steps needed for each student including scheduling meetings with the student and the families to discuss the data Identify some of the root causes of the behaviors and how to implement as many additional interventions necessary to resolve those issues at that time we'll also be discussing the seriousness that we are taking this information uh right now and looking closely at the consequences that potentially could be levied in

153the future uh Mrs Bowser our director of student services Mr Hammond our assistant superintendent and I will be part of all of those meetings as well uh we have looked very closely at our schedules to make sure that we can all be in attendance for those meetings with the principles when we have the meetings with students Andor families we're going to try to have at least one of us available for that meeting with the principal and that family as we move forward so that's one step that we're taking here right now the other thing that I'll mention is uh we've had some I've been in some meetings here over the last week or so um having conversations with parents um that have some really good ideas to share with us I've got a list that

154I'm working on right now and and I'm anticipating some additional uh ideas coming out of this group appear tonight that we can look at as far as uh a comprehensive implementation plan moving forward to address some of these student discipline issues all right thank you um Mrs maraza thank you thank you for that introduction actually it was really helpful and I think we're going to find a lot of dovetailing opportunities to work with your plan that you I'm so glad that you're taking immediate action uh with your teams so that's that's terrific um so first I want to say we've heard a lot from our community over the last couple of weeks of course of course there's been a lot of social media activity as well but I can assure everyone listening that there's not

155one person up here who doesn't uh take this topic seriously so uh I want to make that really clear um having been a student um in this system as well as now I'm you know of course a parent I I do remember times at Shore um when I was bullied and I saw other people who were bullied I mean it's been a problem in schools for as long as there have been schools as long as there have been children you know this is this is an issue we have to contend with but it's clear that something's out of joint something's not quite working so I know there are going to be a lot of ideas as Mr Heath said shared at the table but I do have some of my own that I want to

156share um I want to ask first though because Mr Heath I heard you say that it sounds like some of the um beh these mean behaviors are being Miss categorized is that what I understood like the the the cell phone violations the charger issues the the report coming out of V climber just list all of the incidents it doesn't separate them out for us in that regard we can do some filtering on that which um we've worked with our it Department to be able to make sure that our data is accurate coming out of Infinite Campus the the report that I pulled just as a starting point to get to get things rolling just listed everyone but again it's been very interesting to look at that too because that's very telling also that's good data

157is a a great place to start all right so some of the um things I wanted to say certainly are uh first I want to make it also very clear that we as um board members and our administrators too we're we're restricted by furpa the family educational rights and privacy act from talking about how consequences are doled out in any incident we cannot talk about specific incidents we can't talk about how they were handled um so that's part of the struggle with this is you know um someone will you know speak up about an issue we can't comment on it so I just want to make sure that that is clear I do want to ask Mr Heath at some point to kind of walk us through um the typical protocol in a bullying situation

158I think that would be helpful to know too um but to start with what I want to recommend is for starters and ad hoc Committee of the board um and I I can't recall if it's up to Mr he I think it's I I it's up to the two of you uh president cook or Mr Heath I think either of you can form a committee but that's the first thing I want to recommend um and at least two of us board members uh serve on that committee and that committee then will of course be dedicated specifically I don't think to discipline but specifically to bullying because this seems to be a really um an issue that's received a lot of attention over many many years and it it's deserving of some um special Insight so

159I you know we're we're doing our discipline work session our first one was back in September I believe I want to continue those I think it's important for us to do so but this committee would be specifically devoted to um how we're handling bullying and what we can do to improve it going forward um so an ad hoc committee is one the second part of this is uh before we before we start making changes and I certainly think that these immediate changes that Mr Heath mentioned are warranted and excellent and a great start um but before we start making any further plans I think it's really important for us to kind take stock just sort of do an inventory of what we're doing already kind of like what sounds like your leadership team is doing

160what we're doing already uh what's working what's not working and in order to do that I think we need all of the stakeholders in the room right so we're going to need folks from Administration we're going to need staff um we might even need people who can kind of help us paint the picture of what's going on in our buildings um what's going on on our buses um and what are what are our our kids experiencing every day from and I think staff could probably provide some really helpful insight in that in that way just to clarify Mrs maraz is that the the ad hoc committee including them on that ad hoc committee or looking at a different meeting with just those individual those groups yeah I mean I think it could go either way

161we could have our board our board ad hoc committee engage with certain groups of folks that you think would be helpful to help paint that picture like I said so I'm open to how we do it but I do want to assign a couple of board members um to lead that charge I think it's really important for us to be engaged in that so that's one part of it and then the other part is we really need our parents involved and we really need our students involved and I I think the best case scenario to what to whatever extent um participants might be comfortable joining you know I think it would be really important to have folks who have been in bullying situations and I I would say even perpetrators as well as uh victims

162of bullying I think from both perspectives um you know certainly it has to be a safe situation it has to be a resolved situation um but we could even approach it you know creating a parental advisory committee and a student advisory because I think the student voice is really important too so we might have a couple of committees or it could be again as Mr Heath you were just saying it could be a group of folks that we bring to the board ad hoc members to um to to to conversate with to kind of help again paint the full picture of what's going on in our schools with our kids so um student representation parent representation I truly believe that you know a very comprehensive conversation about this is going to be uh the best

163way to move forward it's going to be the best way to inform ourselves before we make big changes or make decisions um and to and to of course as having that board involvement too is going to help us stay on track with um you know how this is working with or dovetailing with our strategic plan because this is part of our strategic plan you know creating a welcoming environment ensuring that everyone's included and ensuring everyone's well-being so this is right on point with our strategic plan um so the other thing I want to recommend so ad hoc committee student Advisory Group uh parent advisory group um I would like to kind of set some deadlines for the ad hoc committee and maybe this is something that the the Pointes do themselves but certainly this is

164something we have to address rather quickly we're we're taking some action steps right now but I'd like to set some deadlines for deliverables so if we could say I know we've got a couple of Cardinal Cafe events coming up we've got one in January that at the end of this month and that's about Transportation right so it's another issue we could talk about another at another meeting um I have I have thoughts about that as well but like I I think that March we're talking about safety Safety and Security so then um I wonder if we can incorporate you know addressing bullying and safety of our students in that Cardinal Cafe and also use that as kind of like a deadline for the ad hoc committee to present their findings what they learned and provide

165some recommendations for what we can do in terms of policy or even administrative guidelin or really whatever just present the findings what did they learn from parents what did they learn from kids what did they learn from staff um so that March time frame I think gives a solid three months for us to dig in look at all that data that you're sifting through now talk to all the stakeholders and provide some solid recommendations and so at this time I'd like to make a motion to appoint that ad hoc committee right now um Mr Heath I just would like to get your feedback on the March safety how do how do you feel about adding that to the Cardinal CA we have we're working with the Safety and Security as a topic already adding the

166pooling piece what's safety security onto that and again we have control over the topics for those and if we just want to shift it to a student discipline uh presentation we can certainly do that as well um obviously you know school safety is one of those things that we want to make sure we continue to to bring to the Forefront but we can put push that back to you know either a summer or early 2025 26 school year uh topic for a Cardinal Cafe then okay I I think they tie in really nicely and I like the idea of the ad hoc committee to um kind of bring some things I'd also like to task this committee with I'm assuming this is a board committee I don't I don't want to to speak out Mr

167Heath do you feel this is a board committee or a superintendent committee we could probably approach it either way I think the the easiest way to do it would be to to have it as a superintendent committee um since we're starting that that work already um it would be fairly simple to bring a couple of board members together um with a small ad hoc committee as a starting point figuring out exactly who it is that we want to include in um in our future committee meetings um how we Engage The I believe it's the students and the parents and the administrative group are the three things that I wrote down is that correct yes thank you um to to have those those uh meetings set up um it it like I said it's probably easiest

168just to have it as a superintendent assigned committee that's an ad hoc okay I'm fine with that thank you for the idea Mrs maraza and um one of the things that I would think we could add on to task the committee with is um creating a way that we're going to measure that that we're making progress here so what what specific data are we going to use to say hey we're on the right track or we need to to move we need to move forward so and again I I maybe one of the things you I'm just thinking through what we currently have coming up here uh because we're posting the bullying present or the bullying numbers here in February um and at that time we're also pulling uh our reports out of educ educ

169climber for the mean Behavior so that we'll have all of that that can be like our Baseline as a starting point and then um you know we we might be able to figure out the data analysis on that to see if we're making progress between uh the time that we're starting additional interventions and conversations uh until that March time frame um you know it's it it's a quick turnaround but we can look at some of that data but just have that as one of those standing things um and and again we we look at those at the district leadership team meetings uh in February and June every year as well that's just something that we can have as a regular uh you know a regular uh data point that we we continue to present to

170uh to our board as well great I know that we have a lot of ideas that are going to be presented at the table I know that Mrs Payne also wants to talk about this and ask for this to be on the agenda as well so um Mrs Payne do you want to talk about your ideas yeah actually so I had written down something very similar to what actually Lauren had mentioned and i' I've brought up in the past about the superintendent advisory Council um because I when I was in Menor schools I was a part of it and I know I've been pushing for it the last few years I think it's just really good to have that where it's like a rotating group of kids you know so that we can get this

171could be the starting point for that yeah so just I would be interested in that as well um but I did have a par you know parent group for anti-bullying written down or superintendent advisory Council for bullying and then a committee whether it would be you know two board members sitting on that um committee or so it sounds like it would be more of a superintendent uh committee than than a a board um so superintendence advisory and that's to get information for students from the students so when I was when I went to Menor it was like a ro it was directly with the superintendent only um and it was a rotating group of students so that you could hear you know many different voices um and it was just a really honest group of

172like tell me everything tell me what's what's bothering so it wasn't the same group over and over again talking about different topics it was a group coming together just to have conversation about what was on their mind right it was a lot of it did revolve around bullying specifically um but there were other topics as well so it was a rotating group of students and it was mainly for them to come in and like the superintendent at the it was Dr hins at the time she would say you know tell me what's working what's not working talk to me about bullying what do you see you know as a way that we can reduce bullying so I had written that down as well um I I really would like to get back I know we

173talked about it in September um and I know I think it was Rose and I who had mentioned it in September at the meeting getting in school suspensions back um because and taking away every electronic in in school suspension no phone no ability to go online I know it's going to sound harsh but make it painful so um so that kids don't want to want to be repeat offenders uh you know or violate the policy our our um student handbook over and over again so I know we had actually not a lot of those in school suspensions and if I remember it was because we don't have staff um I I would assume I know Rose is with me on this that we would love to support um one of the things I I hope

174to get out of this and I know Rose agreed is we would like to see support from the board to kind of give you the okay to staff that because I know that's been an issue um have you given any thought to that since the September meeting or yeah again I I think our biggest thing is is Staffing in space and how that looks and and where that might work but if we put um that in front of our principles to say hey this is something you know coming out of the this committee work and coming out of our board conversations that we want to we want to push very easy for them to start brainstorming and coming up with ideas there okay um again we've got some staffing cause associated with that too I'm

175sure okay you want to have discussion on that now or are you um yeah I have other notes but we could discuss that first if I just to see if we have consensus on on the board of given the go ahead I don't want to interrupt you so whatever you wish um I could speak on more you could we could talk about that topic now that's fine okay so any any discussion on in school suspension yeah I think that was one of the things that I we all came I thought in September we all agreed that that was that was a useful tool and I know I think you said it wasn't a funding issue it was a staffing issue so you know I think that the if the minute we Implement that and these

176kids are forced to go and sit in a room with their computers with no internet access and no phone for a day word's going to spread that we're you know that that's you don't want that torture and I think that right you'll we'll be able to see an immediate immediate change um I don't know if it starts out with one or two days and we and while you're waiting to staff it maybe if there's any you know I know everybody's busy and I certainly don't I know our teachers are busy but if there's anybody that can afford to do you know rotate days or pick up extra some extra money to do it to just to monitor I think that that's huge that's going to be huge so that you know kids need guard rails

177we always say that and being able to to know that there's a consequence it's a really in the kids words a sucky consequence and then we're going to actually follow through I think that kids are going to stop and think twice because they they're smart they know to how to take advantage um of of weak enforcement and unfortunately it's not because I think our administrators or teachers don't want to you know enforce I think they're just busy and it's a lot so I think this is would be a huge step if we can agree that's something we can get out of this meeting and walk away saying like we this is a commitment we are doing this and there's action because you know nothing came out of our September meeting and I think that's why

178the parents are very um frustrated so that's one thing I I like the idea of the me the meetings I think we have to get the kids we have to have give the parents an opportunity to to talk about how bullying affects their child I know you know we talk about data a lot but let's face it a lot of the stuff goes unreported so we it might not look like on paper and in a spreadsheet that we have a major problem but I think we really really do so I if we can all you know if it's not a funding issue if we can get creative and figure out how to at least do it two days a week um that's something I'd like to see come out of this and I and I

179agree I also think think we should definitely get these um committees going great I I just have a question so just just to clarify do we I thought that we had some high school in school suspension do we not yeah we have in school restrictions that take place um sometimes those are on a period by period basis um sometimes on a daily basis but it's not the all day sit there no tech there there's not a there I would say there's not a lot of that currently being used as a consequence at this point okay um but that's something again we can you know when we dig into that data we'll see that a little bit more PR we have Saturday schools we do have Saturday schools there's a lot of after school restrictions which

180are you know fancy word for detention so we've got those as well um again I I think we we might see some of the in school suspension ideas the in school restriction ideas at the uh Elementary level because you might have one kid and you're going to have them sitting in the office during the course of the day because there there there's not a staffing or a location issue if they're sitting there in the office um when we look at this at one of our larger buildings like a middle school high school uh level that might have multiple students during the course of that week um again we can work through the logistics on that to to get that figured out um and again it sounds like your your idea is like two days per

181week um I was I was just thinking that because to start off and and then you have two options because if you have two students involved in the same situation and both are suspended you want them to be able to be on separate days right so you're so so not necessarily just 2 days a week um you're saying it could like we're saying it could rotate if there's two students that were in the same altercation you don't want them the same day but they sure because I I think I mean it depends on I guess how many in school suspensions we're we're planning on I I think you know if they're going to have it for a couple days versus an out of school suspension I don't you know that we might need more than

182two days for that um I know when I went to Menor it was it was more than just a couple days so um I think that that would be be helpful and and I I mean listen I'm all for even taking away the laptop like give them give them some books and a paper and a pencil and that's painful you know and and now we're hearing so much about out of school suspensions and how kids are just giving their phone and free access to the internet it's like it's almost like a play date for them you know they get some time away and so it's really not giving them that consequence that that makes it painful for them not to want to do it again that's that's my thought Mr Heath would you could you

183report back and create a look at a plan talk to your administrators and see what what we can staff and you know as as much as we can staff I think is what we're saying we'd like to do and I know you you mentioned two days is a good starting point if we can minum right if we can't do more so um you know maybe just kind of find out where where we are because when I think about someone has done something on on Monday I don't want to say well Thursdays our in school suspension day so you're fine until Thursday because it's not very immediate um so you know how can we make that work so it is consist and we can start having some of those conversations here I you know even as

184early as tomorrow I know we've got the career Expo going on but um I don't have to be there all day long for that um I do have transportation in the morning but um I can uh I believe I do have unless something else happens tomorrow um I do have uh some chunks of time that I should be able to have some conversations with uh yeah and again I think predominantly right now the big things are going to be looking at um our Middle School is in high school first and foremost so maybe we start you I'll start there tomorrow and and see what we can do um and I'll try and get maybe a little bit of information pulled together for a board up just to let you know how those conversations have gone

185since we haven't really had that conversation around the in school suspension uh or the in school restriction Logistics uh with our with our principles I think the other thing then too is you know kind of revisiting uh cuz when we started the student discipline conversations back in the summer uh we obviously we're looking at that from a uh from a coding standpoint and just looking at the code of conduct and how we're reporting things in the system to try to get some consistency across our buildings that way I think this will be another layer that we'd have to look closely at to figure out okay how's this going to work um and and make sure that that's uh you know whatever um you know is it an insubordination offense is it a cell phone offense

186after four or five different violations those sorts of things so we can start to have some of those conversations as well uh to figure out how that might work um but I can start those conversations tomorrow and maybe give an update um to uh to the board in my board update here on Friday um so Mr dwire Mrs Blackburn and Mr Crow just know I'll show up in your buildings tomorrow Mrs pay does that satisfy what what you're thinking is there more you want to yeah there's still I mean I have more but for that topic yes yeah I and I know we H we had talked before too we don't want to take people out of the classroom but I know we have teacher coaches which are like positions where they coach teachers so

187I didn't know if maybe we could use them since they're not tied down to a classroom I don't know how many we have now I know we had some movement there I think last year to save some money I I remember there was some kind of conversation about that so um just a a thought you know one of the things that CU I recall we had consensus about not having students out of school that there's there's it's there's a lot of downside to that there can be specific ific reasons why that's the appropriate and only choice but if you're trying to change attitudes and make sure that yeah it's a little uncomfortable it's also an opportunity to engage with that student to try to change the behavior some of the attitudes and if I'm not

188mistaken I'm not an expert on special education but special education uh designation students on an IEP there are very serious limitations on anything out of school but does an in school suspension bypass that then nope it's not not unless they're getting services and we could we could get we could possibly do Services school suspension for like as a speech therapist I would do that I would just go into their in school suspension so you could make valuable use of the time so that a student has an opportunity to reconsider and you know there's big difference between a tardy to class and somebody who's destructive or cruel so and I realize that this is a big topic but when we looked at the discipline statistics a couple of months ago it was plain that you had

189you know a good siiz enough group of kids who make a poor choice and you know kind of figured out and move on and you've got a smaller group who have more entrenched behaviors that are chronically destructive or insubordinate or whatever it is and having them out of school is unlikely to change that it's our chance to maybe have them a little bit captive so that you could could have more discussions with a guidance counselor or other professionals who could help that student make some progress in a good direction instead you know and I know that that's very optimistic sometimes things are easy on paper and really tough to put together but I I think having those disciplinary matters addressed in school could be one of those big moves that we had when we came

190up with a discipline part in the Strategic plan yeah and again I kind of piggybacking off of that too Miss Jing I know back in September we talked a little bit about these alternative programs and and again almost like an an addition to a consequence so maybe there's uh you know maybe there's a suspension involved but then what is that that next step to to again Supply the the resources the supports the the the counseling um the intervention that needs to be put in place to allow that student to be successful when they come back um so I I think again that's one of those that's more of a long-term type of goal because then you're talking about significant space considerations you're talking about significant Staffing considerations um but we've we've kind of put that

191out to our administrative team as a challenge to kind of think through some of that um obviously as we're trying to cut costs it's going to be a challenge to add costs but um one of the things that we'll need to consider as we're looking at some of this is you know what's the biggest bang for our buck and if this is going to resolve one of those issues then that's going to be something that we have to make sure we prioritize as well I think that's huge and when Mrs aapo and I were working together with that whole initiative with putting together what the Strategic plan would look like our primary Mission the whole reason we're here is to give children an education behavioral problems can interfere with not only the student who you

192know as an individual not getting the education that's being offered because of those barriers and behaviors but that individual disrupting the learning of everyone else undermines that other kids's chance to learn and especially where like we've from Mr Heath's description there's a difference between bullying as a pervasive persistent ugly Behavior versus an undercurrent of nastiness or cruelty or exclusion there's a lot of things that happen among children sometimes it's you know they're unhappy themselves and they act out for it doesn't matter what the reason is if we never have a chance to address what sparks those behaviors we're unlikely to be able to change them and if we can using this as our one of our key pieces of a strategic plan that we recognize a chunk of student safety is revolving around discipline and

193a chunk of learning success and growth is also deeply impacted by discipline it makes it worth it in my mind to invest resources purposefully to help us do better with that kids will do better and the other students around them will do better so I and I know that Mr Heath you had also talked a little bit even about an an alternative placement in those more extreme situations where students have of this persistent pattern what can we do to interrupt that because ultimately their success is why we're here and by addressing and solving some of that I think we also serve the needs of every other kid that may be victimized by somebody who's just grossly unhappy you know I'm thinking that this is a good time then to segue into because this is a

194huge step if we can if we can implement this but we also have to look at how how we're handling discipline as a whole and I think that's another area that we can improve on and right now we you know in September we talked about how that currently we use kind of unofficially restorative practices staff has not been trained to my knowledge um but that's and for people who might not understand what that is that's more of um it's focuses more on empathy and and talking and counseling things out versus punitive and I think um the research I've done and just looking at the you know the the place that we're at right now what's what's got the community very um up in arms is that this isn't it's not working so I think we

195need to Pivot and try something different I'm a big believer and I said this in September of tough love of of you know holding kids accountable you know we we like I said kids are smart they understand rules and they will follow them as long as they know that there's a consequence and when you don't when they don't see consequences they're going to push and push so I think that this would be a time if we're going to implement something new with in school suspensions this would be a great time to then you know change our thoughts on how we um how we handle it and I don't think this is something it can costs us nothing to just come up with black and white um black and white you know lists of violation ations

196and their respective consequences and stick to those and make sure everybody knows them so that would clear up that you know like Miss Marza said we can't talk about the consequences some students receive well this would clear that up if it's black and white like that you know you violate this this many times you know this is what you're getting and it and it creates fairness because I think with restorative practices um it it is very unfair in how we how we discipline and and I know it's coming from a good place it's coming from empathy and knowing that you know a lot of these students who are repeat offenders do have um a lack of support at home and they do need um a little bit more the empathy and and and counseling to

197dig deeper and to find out why there's repetitive Behavior but I don't think that that should come on it be on its own I think it should come after they experience the consequence because in the real world there's laws and there's it's there's a reason we have laws and we're going to graduate our students out into the real world nobody's going to you break a law no one's sitting down with you and talking about your feelings so I think that we owe that to our students so I think in conjunction with this in school suspensions let's take you know set the the the change the culture and that we are going to be more punitive followed up with um with that you know empathy counseling digging deeper and I think really most of of these

198infractions are coming from students who don't really need that counseling they know they know better they're just being you know they're just being teenagers they're just being goofballs and and and they they will fall in line once they know that there's an a consequence that's going to be enforced and we're consistent and then that leaves resources available for the other Stu that small percentage that we said were the repeat offenders that need that extra oneon-one time so you know I don't know how everybody else feels I know we kind of went back and forth with the restor practices but I think this is something that we can we can do to to really make a difference today I I would Echo what Rose said I did have that on um something that I was going

199to talk about as well specifically especially the um I've been asking and I I think we've all kind of you know added different um ideas to this topic but something in the handbook because when parents reach out to us even I'm like I don't I don't really know what that's going to fall under I'm not quite sure it would be really helpful to have in the handbook like a a chart with you know this Behavior gets this uh if it's repeated it gets that and I think that we need to apply it consistently across the board and like Miss maraza mentioned it is an issue with furpa that we can't we can't give parents that added hey this is what the other kid got but if we had a chart and they kind of knew

200well okay you know my this other kids smacked my kid in the playground or would not then then they could at least follow that and I think it would build trust and have some um confidence in you know being able to see that on on paper um so I would be open to that I think that's a great idea I think we need to I know Mr Heath you said that we get the the data on the gender and the race I don't really know that that has any place in discussing discipline because I think we just need to make sure that we're applying it across the board consistently no matter what the kid what race they are what gender they are you know I think we just really need to do a better job

201of and like Rose said I don't think it's because nobody wants to I think that you know they're trying to do the the principles are doing a lot and teachers are doing a lot already so I think we just need to have that take out that subjectivity and and that um you know relying on principles and teachers and whoever else to make that judgment for themsel and have an actual chart where we we know this happened okay here's the consequence and then if they need extra care what not extra help get them that at that point but I agree you know comparing it to laws that we have you know if you get if you break a law officer Skelly is not going to say well you've had some tough times and you have things

202going on at home I'm going to use my discretion and and maybe give you a lesser no he's going to lay the lay the smackdown right but then refer you know ways of support and I think we need to model that in school to prepare them for the real world so I just uh I'm sorry sorry I didn't mean to jump in front of you but I think a lot of this work is the work that the committee should be doing um I don't know that we should like I said um making decisions today about um unless there it sounds again like Mr Heath has some immediate actions he's going to lay out to um at least try to address some of the more emergent problems I think you know making these wholesale changes um

203today is not that's the opposite of what I want to accomplish with this initiative I want to be deliberative I want to be collaborative I want to be working with folks who can actually give us all the stakeholders you know who can give us their Insight all these folks that we've seen on social media all the folks who have been emailing us separately and together with their ideas we haven't taken the time to to really hear them out um and those those are the people we need to hear from and so that is kind of what I was thinking I don't I'm not prepared to take any um big actions like that quite yet well I think what this does though is it gives us the agenda for our first me I started writing that

204down too um the because the other thing is as I mentioned we've been in meetings with with different uh individuals over the last week and um we I've got a whole another list from our PTA presidents that we met with the other day that uh they had a whole series of ideas too and and again they're not necessarily looking at the the disciplinary consequences but they're looking at some of the proactive preventative measures exct um so there may be some of that that we can add to that initial meeting as well um but again I think we've got a couple of marching orders here as a starting point that we can start pulling some things together um you know not that we're done speaking on this yet but I'm getting all those notes down as

205we go yeah my concern is just that we we just had a meeting in September and came out of it and I think while these these committees are important the community doesn't want another meeting they want action they want change and so I you know I just I think that that's important I think we have to hear from the parents and the families but I think again it cost us zero dollars to just yeah but we're not we're making decisions not based on the work we have to do the work first well in September we had asked I think there was the um District or Mutual problem solving meeting and the principal building like we Mr Heath you were going to get back to us on what their needs and what their thoughts were on

206this um I don't know if anything came out of that I think there was a meeting with building principles as well but I mean we've we've I I feel like we're it's going to look like we're dragging our feet a little bit and this because this has been a topic that's really important to people so I you know while I don't think anything can happen overnight I think the the the main thing we can leave from here is the commitment to the to in school suspensions but we have to change our the culture and how we discipline kids because they will continue to just take advantage of weak um enforcement and and I think our teachers and our our administrators need the support that you know they don't it's just like the cell phone we

207want they wanted that discretion piece taken out because they didn't want to have to deal with it they wanted to be able to say this is it black and white the answer is no no discussion and I think why not apply the same philosophy because I don't think it's black and white I think there's so much more for us to really understand before again I want to see like deliberation and input and I'm attaching a deadline to this I'm not dragging my feet he even said himself that this is a that this is a tight turnaround and so um I'm not dragging my feet I want to learn more I want to know more I want to be informed before this board takes action I think that's so important and I I don't think it's

208black and white I mean we've got issues about like consistency I'm hearing from parents like you know my kid made a threat and got this many days of supension my kid made a threat and got this many dat you know so some things are not consistent and that that's a problem we have to address so it's not black and white I think it's so much more complicated I just want to add um so consistency is a problem which is why in my personal opinion we need a chart with this is the violation this is the consequence because it's not consistent because we have that subjectivity and that bias that you know that extra restorative practice in there and I do think it does do open us up to Legal implications as well because we're not

209applying it consistently so especially if there's some kind of situation where you know they're very similar situations but you have this offense and this offense and this kid gets 5 days and this kid gets three days that's the discretion and the the consistency that needs to be removed with a simple black and white policy are you saying though that that that inconsistency is because of restorative practice or because we need a chart uh I think it's a combination of of both we the I think that's that's interesting like putting laying out but again like I don't know I just I feel like we need to spend more time kind of picking this up I like I'm just not prepared I kind of want to move us forward here and I think we're we're coming up

210with some great ideas and I don't think we're really that far off because what I'm hearing people say is I'm hearing we want it to be consistent we we want to have stricter consequences you know we we want to make sure that kids realize that there is a consequence to your actions then what I'm what I'm hearing on the other side of that which which I don't think what Mrs maraz is saying is that she doesn't want consequences and she doesn't want stricter consequences I think we're all saying consistency but we have this chart piece which which could be a great idea um you use the analogy with court systems and the police officers coming in and you know when when someone's arrested you know when they're when they go through Court there is a

211wide range they they're sentenced maybe for the same crime maybe someone I don't know stabs someone one person is sentenced this one person is sentence that because there's a variety of things that happen there's they take the whole case in and I think that as an educator it's hard to put a blanket discipline what I do think we could do and maybe we could agree to this is that there is at least a minimum like a minimum discipline there like a you know you're definitely getting you did you know you made a threat of violence it's a 10-day suspension you know and it and like we do now it's a 10-day suspension with a recommendation for expulsion that doesn't mean everyone is expelled it means you may be expelled right so I think having like

212some at least some minimum things and making them more severe than we currently are is something that sounds like that this board wants but to say that you do this you always have this different ages are different maybe students with different disabilities would have different consequences I don't think it's as easy as I wish it was I wish it was I I just every kid isn't but black and white and and I think that we can be both strict on discipline and consistent but still allow some freedom for those kinds of differences I think you took my analogy one step further than I meant it to be just to be that it's black and white you get arrested that's it like they're not going to talk it out on the spot but oh sure um

213no okay my my is my issue is that restorative practices focus on the offenders in my opinion and not the victim and we've seen that a lot and you know M marzo when you say it's not black and white it it that's the thing it is black and white and we're teaching our kids that that's it's unfair that's an injustice if if you put your hands on another student that's black and white there's here's your consequence and I think her chart could specify differences obviously in grade and obviously if you have any disabilities but at least we have that there because you know Justice for victims is not the priority in restorative practices and so I I at least think that you know we can make a commitment to to talk about using some some

214other kind of approach because we haven't even been trained on this and and further our teachers and administrators they they don't have the specific training and skills that are required to talk things through and counsel some of these students when after they commit a violation in in place and I I think this is really something that the community wants to see they want to see a major shift in how we handle it and it's again you can get all the things that come with all the counseling and that that come with restorative practices there are some good pieces in there but it can't be driven by that it has to be driven by punishment in my opinion and that word is sounds like a horrible word but it's not it's how kids react it's how

215kids learn not to push boundaries and so um you know we can walk out of here with some I I I just I fear that if we walk out of here without anything major without at least acknowledging we're not Tough Enough that's going to be a big disappointment for people I I agree with that and I also um have a couple other things that I didn't get to yet I just wanted to clarify because when I got on the board I thought expulsion like my whole life thought I thought that meant like they're done they're out of our school forever but that's not the case so we can we before this house bill there was a house bill I believe that passed um before that happened recently we could only expel for 80 days is

216that right 80 days now we have the opportunity with the new um law where we can actually renew that expulsion so I know we had talked about with the data um at the September meeting that there was a very small percentage that were you know repeat offenders that were were causing a lot of bigger issues so with those situations just as an example because we had that conversation um actually yesterday in our uh administrative team meeting um it's like 95% of students have one or zero incidents yeah um so again we're talking about 5% of our uh of our students that have two or more incidents when you get into okay those that have double digits now we're talking you know less than 1% um so it it's a very minimal amount of students and

217that's one of the reasons I the the process you know and the plan that we're going to continue with is um I think is going to be focused in on those repeat offenders to figure out what's going on um because that's a huge component to that um and and one other thing I'll address as well because I know we keep throwing around restorative practices um it it's been very interesting as I've gone through this process and looking at the consequences that are being uh delivered um there are very few that are restorative practices um and and again part partly that's because we don't have the people trained correctly with that they may have a restorative conversation between a couple of kids that may had an issue together um but it it's not being utilized as

218a sole disciplinary piece as much as maybe the the the thought is right now and and that's the important thing with looking at that data because um you know I've been surprised when I've seen it a couple of times actually quite honestly um that that was uh that was the the case because that's not typically what we're seeing we're seeing a lot of lot of detention pieces to the puzzle um uh maybe not nearly as many out of school suspensions as we might anticipate seeing um but again as we continue to look at what those uh incidents are and and how we want to ramp up the the the consequence for those particular incidents you know that's something that uh you know we can continue to have those conversations about in our committee can you

219also expand on so I know you had just stated that the restorative practices aren't you know that's not our sole thing that we're going to I understand that but if we're not having training on it how are we even using it like why are we even implementing it idea yeah they call it a restorative practice I basically they're just having conversations and it's more of a peer mediation type thing where you're bringing the kids together to talk through the issue okay um and they're they're classifying that as a restorative practice that that that's part of that whole process um but again you know we don't have that formal training to to get into all of the details that that would go into you know a fully implemented restorative practice program okay and then the um

220the 5% because you said about 95% which is what I was bringing up the from September don't really have any issues it's the 5% that are are causing repeat offenders so that to me notates that they need harsher that whatever we're doing isn't working because they keep repeating so um to Rose's point to you know many of our points what we talked about tonight I think harsher consequences especially for that 5% need to happen um because I think they they they need it and then the also the expulsion with the new guideline if there is somebody who is a repeat offender and we previously could only expel them for so so many days now can we use that new guideline and say I'm sorry you are a repeat offender you are causing you know other

221other other children's learning to be interrupted yeah we'll use every tool imaginable that we can to solve the problem and there we do have a separate location as well that we can always Place students at is that if they're continue to be expelled or um we don't technically have that location here in in Menor at this point that's one of the things that we've been talking about but you again we're talking about significant cost for something like that but um typically when an expulsion takes place um you know parents reach out asking for different resources for online schooling or whatever it may be so you know obviously we're going to continue to to help that family figure out what uh they can do to continue with the education of their student thank you you know

222one of the things that I I like about that uh interactive piece hearing from students hearing from parents I think whenever you're designing a discipline program having an understanding of the impact of it what whatever is chosen or not chosen I think those anecdotal responses are very valuable in giving you better insight as to how whatever we choose impacts others so I'm I'm excited to have those interactive pieces you know a listening I mean we get we get emails we've had a couple of board sessions over the years where you know there's just a chronic problem and parents and students are suffering and we want to do better that's clearly something that we all agree on to to do a better job so I always think too the collective wisdom of invested stakeholders is so

223valuable because people have ideas suggestions about what what might be something we hadn't thought about or to implement it in a way that's slightly different so something could be more effective because obviously what you do with K5 it's very different from what you do with middle school or high school students so I'm excited to see all that we agree on move us forward and I have complete confidence that Mr Keith is ready to to take this he's already collecting a lot of information he's lot had a lot of conversations with admin team and building principles and so this is the perfect time to put it together I think and make that committee kind of the point for whatever needs to happen are there any additional ideas if not I have summarized I'd like to just

224kind of read through just so make sure that I've captured everything and we're on the same page we're all in agreement so is there anything else with that discussion I my only I want to clarify then that if we do wait and have these committees and have discussions and parents come back saying we want harsher consequences are we we're can we agree that we're prepared Mrs can can I read our summary of what we said we would do tonight and then if you still have that question because all right um so the first one is Mr Heath is using data to identify repeat offenders and patterns and with Administration he will create intervention groups with family involvement um we'll have an ad hoc superintendent Committee created to discuss behavior and Bing which will include parents

225staff students and two board members we'll have a superintendent advisory to be informed of issues important to students um we're going to do in school suspensions and Mr Heath will give us a feasibility report of how many days and we're going to try to make that as often as possible with the in school suspensions um exploring the possibility of a need for an alternative setting and then creating Clarity and consequences and Implement them with consistent punishment and harsher punishment which may look like some kind of a chart or a flowchart or an outline or some kind of clear system so that there is a a line of you know consequences and harsher punishments along with it is that are we all in agreement with and then I'm also looking at the exposure laws and updates

226with those yes yes pleas thank you is there anything that we're not in agreement with or yeah my question was just to clarify are we all in can we agree or is anybody no but restorative practice has to stay is anybody you know are we prepared to make major changes if that committee yields parents at say we need to change everything that was the create Clarity and consequences and Implement them with consistent punishment harsher right I'm just saying I'm asking for everyone's thoughts on that can we agree that that's or or is it is anybody putting their foot down and saying no I I I want restorative practices no matter what I think at least for myself I want to do a better job I want us to be more effective I want us to

227protect kids who are just trying to get an education and I I want kids who can't seem to follow the rules I want us to find ways to make sure that it's an unattractive option and then we do have a responsibility to provide them with an education even if you expel a kid you don't you don't want them on the street you want that that student to whether it's online school or whatever and I I think it's a combination of things so I don't I'm not saying I disagree with you what I'm saying is let's look at the whole compliment cuz it is a you know human behavior is such a complex thing and we've got children growing and their needs and habits are things that we guide that's part of education and I think

228with the input and brainstorming from our community we're you we might find we've got some tweaks that we need but that there are things that are working I want to see what isn't and and how we can do better so I'm not saying yes or no but I think it would be premature to say we're absolutely going to do this before we've had a chance to interact with students committee you know I love that idea of parents stakeholders who are you know maybe they're you know consoling a child who feels like they've just you know they're in a an uncomfortable dangerous place at school we don't want that obious viously so what can we do to make that better and get kids to all participate I mean all of the bullying programs that we've been

229doing for 20 years not just here in Mentor but everywhere and we all know we want them to be kinder to each other and not let somebody be excluded and some of that runs counter to what human instincts are so doesn't mean we don't keep trying or work toward that but we may have to do more to make that succeed and what does that look like and I'm excited about having the common wisdom of our community working together to find the best Solutions whatever those might be yeah that's I agree I think the one thing I'll commit to right now is I'm ready to do the work and I'm ready to learn you know to your point miss gesling about this the different stakeholders the that that in school suspension you know um topic came

230up you know like came directly from students at the uh AP US History Class that so many of us have visited um you know that was in more than one student presentation they said please stop with the out of school suspensions you know we learned that right from our kids they have stuff to tell us so do the parents as they've made very clear to us over the last two weeks I think it's time for us to really listen and that's what I'm committed to I think with the in school suspensions I you I've been on the board for over what is it over three years now um and from those um classes that we've sat in every year they talk the kids directly say they want more in school suspension so I don't think

231that we need more discussion on that topic like we're go out and look into that I think we have consensus on the board that that's one thing we can tangibly take away from this meeting and I think it will help so I'm looking forward to that I think it's a great option um and um the only other thing about the restorative practices is I think we should cease it because we don't have training on it anyways right now so we're we're kind of just what are they Googling you know like I don't know how it's being implemented if there's no training how can we even consistently implement the restorative practices I think we should stop that completely especially because there's no training on it well what I he um okay so if we're doing res

232if what you mean by that is restorative practice using like do you believe it's like a curriculum or what no so what so speaking with parents who've had issues with their children and then kind of comparing them you know based on their kids' backgrounds right so it's it's like you know Sally might do the same thing as Joe but because of Joe's home life um he's not going to get as much of a consequence as Sally so that's the kind of stuff that I'm hearing I don't know so yes I I agree with you there that we need to be consistent and clear with our consequences when I think of restorative practices what I'm thinking of is pure mediation and so Sally steals Billy's Truck and instead of like you know Billy's not like in

233timeout it's hey you you stole this you know this person stole this truck forgetting my names out this part but you know and you're talking with them like you would with your children you know you you say to them you know that made him feel bad do you see why that made him feel bad you need to apologize so that's up here mediation that is a form of restorative practices do I think we should take those things away for minor infractions no I don't I think that we should be able to have like social groups and pure mediation groups and be able to have kids talk things out do I think that's the only thing absolutely not students need consequences but to say I want to abandon it all no that I'm not for that

234but I don't think you are either I don't think that that's what you meant well so in your situation with I think it was Billy and S um if like for me I would prefer to see a consequence first then talk about it I think that you steal something from somebody in the real world you get a consequence for that you know so but then working that that peer remediation remediation or whatever after would be would be fine I just think the consequence comes first then but you you agree that having the component of talking and telling people why it's wrong and why you made them feel that way that that that piece is still valuable I think both as long as the consequence comes first I think that is priority like you you did

235this so you get that consequence now let's talk about the feelings um so that's where I don't know if we agree on that I think there's pieces that we're yeah I don't think we're far off there I think we're on the same I think we're on the same page I think you know we're not touchy F you with a serious thing something small you you have conversations with it's important to teach kids and to guide them I I guess it would just yeah I mean I think the consequence comes first and then the talking piece so um point taken yes and no I guess I mean I think the difference is age I mean what you're talking about on the spot taking I'm visualizing really you know that fifth grade middle school high school and

236I it does happen I mean it does you know repeat offenders come in and sit in in the and and have talks and um have dialogue and that that's sufficient enough and you know that's what I'm not but yes I that's from the bottom yeah from a young age is that kind of stuff right on the spot of course that's yeah you know that's what we should be doing right right so I think I think we're really we've reached a lot of consensus today and I think we're kind of getting into the weeds with with little things so if if we're okay with the list that I created we have many actionable steps here yes so can we uh can we select the two board members that'll be part of this adhoc committee then I

237would love to be on it because I'm only on one committee right now so if I could uh be on that committee I think that would be wonderful and remind me what's who's who this is going to be made up of staff parents students or is this and then that's separate from the superintendent students yeah So eventually I think what this group will be I it may start a little bit smaller with a couple of board members and a few administrators and then uh based on some of the conversations that we've had here today you know can we have this group meeting with uh administrative groups a student group some parent groups and and and really kind of develop what direction we're going to head with some of these conversations then around some of the

238topics that we brought up um so I I I think it'll be a a small group with me two board members and uh some of our administrative team um and I'll talk through that with with our administrative team here tomorrow as well in addition to talking to our Middle School and High School principles uh specifically to to get into uh the in school restriction Logistics um potentially identifying student advisory council members as a starting point and parent advisory uh council members as a starting point that will allow us to have some of this structure in place here fairly quickly um and then once we identify and are we looking at Mrs maraz and Mrs I would love to serve if possible pay as our two um are we good with that across the board here

239okay so I've got that and then I will work with the two of you then to identify a date I'm I'm looking at a couple on my calendar right now I'll reach out to you guys tomorrow after I have these conversations to get that first meeting set um I'm hopeful that that will be maybe uh January 22nd potentially or maybe the 4th um and we can look at timing on that um but that'll get it uh to us next week um because that will then lead into the discipline uh conversations that um Mr Hammond Mrs Bowser and I are having with our principles on the 30th and 31st because some of that work may be able to tie directly into those meetings the following week great can I make one last recommendation regarding the Committees

240um since we've all kind of heard from different parents um it it maybe we could make recommendations for who serves on that committee kind of like how we did with the guiding Coalition where we all send you our recks and then you might have some as well if you've heard directly from parents or kids um and you know you could you know yeah we had some really good conversations um late last week early this week um with with different parents so I might have a couple myself but I I think that's a good idea and and maybe I'll put that out in my board update this week too just to and and you guys can start thinking of that now who might be good to uh include in in some of our parent advisory groups

241as we're looking at this is there a way to involve that because I know that guiding Coalition were they were eager not just them but also the community groups we work with they were eager to get involved I don't know if there's an opportunity for them too yeah and that's another possibility here as a as another uh action step with this committee uh moving forward to and again you know we'll we'll shoot for some deadlines here in March but then uh there might be some additional things obviously that will continue I know it's an adhoc committee but you know a couple months is pretty quick um I think we can get a lot of stuff done and and and do some initial reporting there in March um but then uh looking at April May June

242uh time frame too because that'll lead right into um our district uh leadership team meeting in June that we we pull that data again and compare first semester second semester which allows us then to to see if we're making progress towards these goals perfect thank you okay um one more mention with new business sorry this is a new ad but um president um Sean Blake from city council did give me a call and he would love for us to have a joint work session like we did in the past with the city so um we're not going to schedule that tonight he's going to be talking to his City team and I told him that I would talk to my team here on the board so if you could all send me some dates we're

243looking between March and April that would be good for you in March in April send that to um Mr Heath and we're going to try to get that scheduled I know we talked about some agenda items and one of the things that I thought would be great would be work for Force development and creating um possible like internships or shadowing opportunities for our students within the community and we also wanted to talk about Partnerships and um yeah basically Partnerships with the city so if there's any other topics that you think you'd like to see on that agenda also email Mr Heath on that so thank you all right next we have hearing of the public on any topic Susan [Music] snik good evening again um I just I have some things that I just I

244I I need to get off my chest here some of the observations that I've made based on what you guys are talking about here is um you guys look like you're really afraid of kids not liking you and this is excluding Annie and Rose but the rest of you seem very concerned about what the children might think of you if you get tough with bad behavior and I think it's a real shame because you're you're not doing your job you're the adult you're supposed to be a good leader um I it looks to me like you guys are trying to be everybody's therapist it's not your job you're not trained for it and it's just doesn't fall under your responsibility if you had a one room Schoolhouse that had 100 kids in it go for

245it you have like 10 schools your job is to say these are the rules if you break them you're in trouble if you need to talk about your feelings and cry about it you can come talk to me after school in the office or you can go home and cry to your mother your job is not to fix the kids' problems you're there to teach them Rose I want to say thank you very much for just being a good parent and board member that has Common Sense make some rules about what's acceptable for gosh sakes you guys can't even agree what restorative justice is yet you don't want to like Let It Go but you can't even agree to what it is it's a load of baloney it doesn't need tweaking you need to overhaul

246I don't know if you were listening to the woman that was up here that said that her daughter was bullied so much she wanted to kill herself and then we have people like Jenny and Lauren up there let's talk it to death let's these stakeholders these the stakeholders they're right here we're the ones that show show up that have kids in the district and not but we care be quiet because we're here because we care about the kids but we care about the victims that are being beat up and you guys are worried about well how do they feel and I don't know if I can do an in school suspension it's it's garbage you guys should be ashamed of yourself nobody needs a committee to talk about what to do you know what to

247do but you won't do it where did I miss I want to know the difference between bullying and violent Behavior there needs to be consequences for kids that beat on other kids but it's not a persistent whatever it is that you have in your policy 5600 it says yes this mean behaviors baloney you say that you have zero tolerance also in your um in your policy it says things will not be tolerated do what your policy says you guys [Applause] suck our next speaker is Zoe bringer our next speaker is McKenzie McAllister I want express my profound disappointment and concern regarding several critical issues impacting our children's safety and well-being my previous email outlined some of these concerns but the events of January 7th meeting and the ongoing behavior of the board compel me to

248elaborate further the behavior exhibited by some board members during the January 7th meeting was deeply troubling troubling and frankly embarrassing for our community the constant infighting and lack of collaboration set a poor example for our students directly contraindicating the values of resp and cooperation we strive to instill in them how can we expect our children to learn to resolve conflict peacefully when those in positions of leadership constantly fail to do so I urge you to prioritize collaborative problem solving and model the behavior you expect from our students I am also extremely concerned about the board's decision regarding the bus driver incident discussed in December 10th meeting the decision to offer a separation agreement rather than termination is despite the driver's clear violation of Ohio law using electronic devices while driving and the serious risk POs

249to our students is deeply troubling this decision not only fails to hold the driver accountable but also potentially endangers children in other districts the hypocracy of this decision is further compounded by the absence of a consistent cell phone policy for all adults transporting children this requires immediate review and implementation the handling of the threat to the school on January 7 and 2 days after is unacceptable I am now curious if the late notification was given you given because you all were too busy arguing at the executive meeting the 1:30 a.m. email notification was utterly absurd leaving many parents unaware of the serious threat before sending their child to school this ultimately an in inadequate communication deprived parents of their right to make informed decisions about their children's safety the lack of immediate lockdown procedures and

250the subsequent Reliance on Panic student text messages caused significant unnecessary anxiety and stress a more robust and immediate emergency notification system coupled with clear lockdown protocols is urgently needed better safe than sorry the lack of transparency surrounding both incidents only exacerbates my concerns the board and the superintendent's actions or rather in action demonstrate a profound lack of leadership and disregard for the safety and well-being of our children these issues collectively reinforce my preate call for the resignation of Craig Heath and the three board members who voted for the separation agreement for the bus driver meaningful and Lasting change requires not only revised policies but also a significant shift in leadership I urge you to take immediate action to address these critical concerns and restore trust in our school board our next speaker is Alex fish

251[Music] good evening Madame President at Al my name is Alex and I've been a mentor resident ever since being potty trained having attended the mentor School District since the mentor school's integrated preschool at the now closed brentmore Elementary first I'd like to I'm here to share a couple things here first is the curriculum R Visions I would like to express thanks to the Menor school districts and board the state of Ohio at L for hosting input forms in the last few weeks especially as we are in scheduling courses for next year as well as expansion of courses changes and are continuing to expand second this one hits more personally to me and ET L here the main reason I chose to spoke today was the bullying and discipline thing going on like me and others

252here I was bullied when I went to Menor schools mostly fifth grade onwards while a big chunk was at 7th through 8th grade at Memorial Middle School to the point where well I can't can't say parents and fellow Mentor rights on next door talked about this back in May following a senior citizen called to the Ohio Department education on school bullying and I agree with everyone on next door it needed to be addressed as a topic on a Mentor Schools board meeting one way or another and now is just relevant following Facebook posts and I'm happy parents are reaching out and mass thank you for uh the collaborations as well as the new committees and adding especially more stress on in school suspension another point that was added hiring more staff in experienc in disciplinary

253measures is a key component as a lot of the bullying incidents that happened to me in Menor Public Schools was when there was a lack of proper supervision or none at all mostly in sixth through 10th grade won't go which and then last but not least the op restrictor need for Decor at board meetings especially within the 1.0 section and after hearing of recent personal attacks on board members and fellow Mentor rights either way it upsets me that we have some adults acting up and setting bad examples and also the bad mouthing last but not least because I have one minute to go finally I'm very happy that our very owned Mentor PD are on standby at this meeting to help keep us safe last but not least happy National score School Board appreciation month

254thank you and have a good night and be safe on the roads our next speaker is Jen halad thank you Mr way that was a nice introduction anyways so we want to talk about bullying right uh it's not just uh our side that does the bullying we just stand up for ourselves if you need any examples all you have to do is watch what Annie has been going through for the last several years uh community members that were in favor of no pornography in schools or boys and girls bathrooms were called Flatout Nazis and bigots and white supremacist even though no race has ever been broughten up you want to talk about bullies why don't you talk to the people who are responsible for interrupting Susan snik every time she goes to speak about talking

255about nobody in particular you want to talk about bullies why don't you look at the people who who when I opened my jacket and it said stop grooming my kids I was ridiculed and made fun of when I have never had any interaction with anybody you want to talk about bullies how about when a grown adult set their 14-year-old boy into fight me at a school do we need to say thank you Menor police for being here no thank you to the Menor police that responded after the fact where all that was caught on tape thankfully I was the police were called on me falsely I was accused of having a gun on the campus I was um also a restraining order was filed against me for having different political views so you want to

256talk about bullying it's not just our side our side is just sick and tired of it and we're standing up for it if you want to see how terribly Annie and both Rose have been treated all you have to do is look at the YouTube videos it's absolutely absurd that you people literally in this community and on the board can literally say you're the bully you're the bully when you're the literal bullies it's like the cheater always accusing you of cheating it's like projection 101 and restorative practices you don't know it's like we're talking to a brick wall your shareholders we're all right here we're the ones paying taxes I don't care if my kid is no longer in your school district that was all your fault you three on this board voted to keep

257in per graphy for kids K through 12 and and Rose and Annie did their due diligence to put policies in place and what oh we got to remove that now we got to put it back in everything they worked hard for you guys removed and now you got to put it all back in so you lost my CH my child and you're going to lose others this is my alma mater my son my oldest graduated here summum ly and I'm going to tell you right now this school is in a disarray and if you ever want to Levy to pass it ain't going to happen right now don't even look for a levy don't ask for us for money don't ask for improvements because you guys can't get your together until you can your ass

258out the end thank you our next speaker is Jaclyn McCormack here I am again month after month because the three liberal members cook maraza and Jing refused to compromise on literally anything the public wants and instead continue to push their liberal views onto the students staff and public the organizational meeting was an absolute embarrassment to this District you guys spew equality diversity and inclusion but when it comes to Annie and Rose you do anything to exclude them even if it means blocking them from any leadership positions for another year and cook and gesling selfishly retaining their President and Vice President positions let's Rec cap some of cooks and ging's accomplishments voted to remove the parental rights sexual content policy that notified parents of books and materials that were graphically sexually explicit motion for a vote

259on the superintendent's contract when it wasn't reviewed and wasn't even in the system for board members to view or the public resorted to name calling of Annie Payne when she mentioned that it was not in the system prior to the vote and attempted to Gaslight her instead of acknowledging that the three of you didn't look over the agenda to see there was no contract in the system voted to retain a sexually explicit book about a father repeatedly sexually molesting his young daughter voted to keep books claiming Trump supporters are white supremacists and racists for all the fourth grade classrooms and books for K through five supporting activism for the transgender movement voted to keep the books transphobia deal with it and become a gender transcender for all middle schoolers which labeled kids and their parents

260as transphobic if they belied there are only two genders and supported activism voted down Mrs Payne's request for a $40 embur reimbursement for a course that is not Ohio school boards Association related because you stated it was too political but yet supported 300,000 or 30,000 of taxpayer dollars going to osba and towards lobbyists who recently lobbied against the parents Bill of Rights and religious time release bill that is now lost since it was signed by dwine last week endorsed two candidates for school board and Ed social media as a means for adver ing that endorsement then voted on one of the failed Schoolboard candidates for a position within the schools instead of abstaining which is a conflict of interest we know why you wanted to be president why you wanted the president title Mrs cook

261your husband is running for city council we will do everything to stop you and him from obtaining that seat and using your liberal ideology in any other government forms we know you wanted to be able to indorse your husband because neither of you want to actually serve you are in it for the title as a speech pathologist for for the conservative shardan District I really wonder why you push your liberal ideology here maybe it's because your own District won't support it I could go on and on but just now you guys aren't just know that you guys aren't fooling anyone your votes are visible and you cook Jing and maraza are far too liberal for Menor our next speaker is Amanda young next speaker is LIN [Music] Mazika Madame President members of the board Mr

262Heath Mr W again thank you for the opportunity to speak to this evening so after all the weeks of grand standing on the bathroom issue and the religious release program now that the laws have passed our superintendent has given a thoughtful and comprehensive report on how he is implementing the new laws all the time wasted going on and on and on about laws not passed all the time that could have been used to find solution to problems that our community is really interested in such as addressing discipline sooner than we have such as working on ideas that will further the Strategic plan this is the way the board should work letting our administrators do their jobs I hope this will continue because our kids will be better off for it as I was sitting here

263this evening I got an email or a text message from a friend of mine and I want to read just a part of it because I think it's really a good point that was not brought up in the discussion on discipline she says I I think we may be all taking the wrong appro approach bullies will never go away maybe it's time to start helping the victims instead of burning the B bullies at stake they need to set up more resources to help those kids who are being bullied maybe even start an anti-bullying bullying Club at schools maybe they partner with Crossroads I always tell my child that bullies will never go away so it's better to learn how to deal with them now so you can be prepared for it if it run if

264you run into it I think this is a good point it's not the only way to go but I think we need to show kids how they can stand up in a safe and productive Manner and I just kind of thought that was a good idea one that I had not given much thought to I think discipline is important I think talking to kids is important and I think talking to all of the kids because actually Justice for the victim is when the bullying stops our last speaker is Justin [Music] Simpson I'm sorry ex I'm sorry that's against our [Music] policy no we didn't we told the person no if anyone else I don't recall that being stated I respectfully disagree we do not have an executive session on the agenda for after this portion

265of the meeting so do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second Mr Wade please call the RO Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes misso yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes me adjourn at 101