001no during the meeting special meeting i j the meeting J our first special meetings so move thank you second please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss aapo yes Miss marazza yes Miss Cook yes meeting is adjourned at 657 if anyone would like to sign up for public comment and hasn't had a chance to do that um we do not have forms with us today so um Mrs aie she's right in the middle there she's waving she will sign you up on her laptop so please just line up with her if you could spread the word and we'll announce it again a little closer too as well but we have it's 6:57 we have a couple minutes left if you would like to speak hi where are you good thanks for being
002here e e e good evening the September 10th 2024 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with 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 Appo here miss Jing present Miss marazza present Miss Payne here miss cook here thank you and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag flag United States of America and to the for which it stands na thank you if we could all take a moment of silence for the recent school shootings since our last meeting there has been um school shooting victims in both Georgia and Nebraska and our thoughts are with them
003thank you I would like to welcome everyone to to the September 10th 2024 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for their 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 this agenda through the school district's website and the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing the Sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information there are two places on the agenda where the board entertains comments from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated
004to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address 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 sign ups are available online through the school district's website or onsite prior to the start of the meeting 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 questions to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to 3 minutes the purpose of the hearing of the public is for our
005community 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 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 doesn't demonstrate a lack of care for comments shared by our 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 progress of the board meeting will be warned and or removed from the meeting this meeting
006is being shown live and can be viewed On Demand on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Menor Ohio thank you because we do not have District highlights and recognitions this evening we will move on to the approval of minutes yet we do not have any minutes for approval so we will move on to the hearing of the public on agenda items only our first two speakers the first one will be Lindsay wall and then will'll be McKenzie mccollister can't really see her good evening um I wanted to speak on two topics tonight the first one being um the contract with Crossroads and I would just like to address um how much how important Crossroads is to to our school district and what a significant role they play um I know my oldest has utilized the crossroads
007counselors in our school and um they do more work than than you would think not just for our students but our staff as well and they're also um a huge part of our community working with families across the school district September is suicide prevention awareness month and coincidentally today September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day and I wanted to read the um the post that crossroads had actually put up on their social media today September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day You Are Not Alone support is always available the crisis text line is text 4 h o p e for Hope to [Music] 741741 and I think that's a very important resource um to have shared out it's so though I cannot stress this enough that we take mental health so seriously and we recognize
008that everyone is going through their own thing and there is no way to tell what someone else is going through and I cannot again stress this enough that we make comments in this space that may not hurt other people whether it is a student an adult a teacher a staff member your neighbor whoever it is just to remember that everyone is going through something and we have to just be kind the second topic I wanted to address briefly is the um the vote for the Delegate for the osba conference meeting and I know that last year the vote um it was just like a quick thing and I know Mr Tuttle ended up being the uh the delegate then and I just wanted to express my feelings on that that we elect somebody who actually
009supports osba and supports their mission and their goals and I believe that we do have board members who have multiple times they have expressed that they do not uh support osba so I don't feel like it would be right to elect them as a delegate or an alternative um when they have so clearly stated that they do not support osba thank you thank you after miss mallister it will be Jennifer [Music] herad good evening I'd like to revisit HB 68 correct me if I'm wrong I believe this is your area of expertise Miss maraza I brought to the attention of the board during our last meeting that HB 68 which went into effect immediately on August 6 sorry can we pause the time for a moment hp68 is not on our agenda it's old business
010it's not on our agenda so policies aren't on the agenda no not every policy is on the agenda but you can speak at the end of the meeting at our second hearing of the public okay thank you [Music] thank you for allowing me to speak tonight on agenda items I'd like to start off by asking some really quite simple yet highly effective questions why would you renegotiate a $65,000 contract for a company Crossroads that has a 2.7 star rating on Google have any of you read any of the reviews I doubt it have you screen the staff who goes into the schools and congregates with people's children what are their credentials you're one of your Crossroads employees that I had the displeasure of emailing while my son was in your schools had a gay pride
011logo with a Menor Cardinal on the top of her emails and pronouns in her bio her signature of her emails why are we accepting gifts from Planet Fitness uh they're known to allow men and girls bath uh locker rooms and and uh showers but not gifts from concerned taxpayers and or parents no gifts from them uh I wanted nominate Annie Payne to go represent the city of Menor in the school the school district to go speak at the school board convention seeing as Annie is a huge proponent and Fighter for parental rights uh seeing as Craig Heath admitted that we have three leftists on the board and how polarized this community is Ray Charles was alive today he'd be able to see it I don't know how any of us could expect to have a
012diversity of opinions here when we're only focused on pushing leftist ideology admitted leftist ideology the polarization we see in these meetings will hinder future levies and how any of you up here could expect any levies to pass when you have consistently lost the trust in the community you say you listen to is beyond me um Transportation issues this was on the agenda um the director I know miss maraza you ran your campaign on fixing that so far all you fixed is getting the director of transportation to resign she was the lowest paid employee in the district making only 70 well not only $73,500 per year quite arguably the hardest job in the district nutritional Services makes 88,000 just making it known what's really going on here in the Met schools since some people can't make
013it here and I want to know why we have counselors promoting gay pride and not uh any other clubs thank you thank you our last speaker is Susan sedik good evening everybody um I just I wanted to speak about um the field trip with uh there's a couple of overnight field trips that were on the agenda and um while I think that a trip to New York and Chicago is well dangerous anyway but I it's nice that there's like something for the kids to do but I would say I I would not allow it and I hope you say no just for the simple fact of I think because you cannot promise that there will not be a man or a boy sleeping with um next to or in the same room as a girl
014on these field trips I think it's irresponsible to ask students to spend the night somewhere and you know you know parents are expecting that their kids are going to be safe I would expect my daughters to be put into a room and a bed that they're sharing with other girls and I think if you cannot promise that um that should not be approved um this happened in other communities where the parents have found out that their daughter is you know in bed with a guy and that's wrong um it's unsafe and I think um student safety is the most important thing so I'd ask that you um not approve that um um and perhaps this is for the second talk later but again I feel like on the agenda should always be school safety and
015I think that we had a real problem last week um with girls trying to defend their space I would ask that I hope everybody on this board takes note of every girl that was in that bathroom defending their space and I would encourage you I'll save then thank you I thank you that concludes public participation um next we have the superintendent report and recommendations good evening everyone uh we've been dealing with uh several issues in our transportation department at the beginning of the school year beyond the normal route changes and delays the first couple of days of school at at our August 15th meeting I indicated that we were fully staffed in transportation we also had five bus driver Subs in place to meet our Demand on a daily basis between August 16th and August
01623rd we ended up with five medical leaves in our driver pool that took all of the subs during our first few days of school by August 30th we had a bus driver retire and one take another role at one of our buildings in the district we posted three additional bus operator positions the first week of school to address these concerns we have hired a couple of more drivers but with routing needs we still need more so here's my annual plea if you or someone you know would like to become a bus driver or a bus Aid please see the postings on our website to apply we are also hosting another Drive the Bus event on Saturday September 21st from 8: to 10:00 a.m. so if you would like to test it out as you're going
017through the application process we would love to have you there that morning more information will be on our website for that we also had the unexpected reg resignation of our transportation supervisor on the second day of school which has caused issues in the transportation office she was one of two people trained in the new routing soft Ware um and the one that built the routes in the system so we lost a ton of operational knowledge with her sudden departure over the last 3 weeks we had six to seven district administrators filling in at the service building to answer phone calls review bus stops and help change routes based on our bus driver input after driving the routes the first couple days of school our admin team has been incredible in an attempt to pick up
018the pieces and learn all of the inter of Transportation literally on the fly two members of our technology team Mr Lynch and Mr Woodworth have learned the new routing software system quickly and have been able to change bus stops reroute buses and address safety needs based on driver and parent requests we posted the transportation coordinator position immediately and have already interviewed 12 individuals to fill this role we are conducting final round interviews on Thursday and hope to have a new leader for the transportation department in the next few days in the meantime the entire District admin team is uh spent time working out of the transportation office during the morning and afternoon route times we've spent most of our time reviewing the over 600 bus stop change requests that have been submitted through the form
019on our website they've been looking at the routes created in the new system identifying current bus stop locations and working with with drivers to determine if changes are safe and efficient in order to make our needed changes I've been looking at all of the appeals to the decisions made on those stop changes I've been going to the neighborhoods on the stop locations observing how the buses travel through the route and where the students are in relation to the stop I look at the entire area from a safety standpoint first and then an efficiency standpoint second and write down the observations I make for each appeal unfortunately we are not able to make every change that parents are requesting if there's a true safety consideration we are working with the drivers to identify a better stop
020a majority of the requests have been to create a stop at a student's home simply put we do not have the driver availability to be able to accommodate these types of requests the timing on our routes is our already extremely tight and even the smallest adjustment can lead to even greater delays in our drop off and pickup times than we are experiencing already we've created group and Corner stops based on the location of the students in the neighborhood to make our stops as safe and efficient as possible I know we're not going to make everyone happy on the decisions we have to make but that's what we have to do at this point in time I know there are still several other requests and appeals that uh we are working on right now so if
021you have not heard back yet please know that we are trying to get through all of these as quickly as possible I'm not sure which route I will be on first thing in the morning but I will be standing on a corner somewhere in the neighborhood looking at routes I can guarantee you that one other Transportation item that I want to address as well is the non-public routes we know we have uh some very long routes currently running with our nonpublic We are continuing to look at ways to cut those route times down to an appropriate length the main issue that impacted the length of these routes is that for the first day of school we had eight students signed up for transportation for one of our parochial schools for the next day we had
022a list of 79 students that needed transportation from that school we had to completely redo those non-public routes with drivers that we had assigned when it was just eight students So that obviously dramatically impacted those route times again we are working on a couple of adjustments now to reduce those times here in the near future and our hope is with the additional drivers that we're trying to hire that we will be able to reduce the time of those routes both morning and afternoon I do want to thank the administrative team Miss Leo Miss Wallace all of our bus drivers and the entire Transportation Department for their hard work and keeping our buses running as we work through the leadership transition here at the beginning of the school year Mr Heath thank you so much for
023all of that extra time that you've been putting in and to all of the administrators and the transportation department I have received so many calls and emails about you know the superintendent was just at my stop and you know they're really listen you they feel like you've been heard you've given them a lot of extra attention um firsthand looking at the situation on a Case by case and it's much appreciated thank you for that work I'd like to Echo that thanks too and just point out I don't know if you I think you didn't mention it yet but I actually got I started getting Communications again today about the bus being late and I know that was an an issue too for some parents who we were waiting and waiting and we knew of course
024the bus would be coming but we were accustomed last year to getting those uh texts or emails when the bus is going to be like those I got one today so thank you for getting those moving as well one additional thing I'll add to that conversation um again Mr Lynch and Mr Woodworth have been absolutely amazing at getting into this uh new software system and being able to to really dig into some of the um efficiency components of that um one of the things that we recognized uh fairly quickly was that the timing on the routes just wasn't feasible um and their conversations with the company they've identified a couple of fixes that we're hoping to implement here relatively soon uh to be able to update update the timing of things for pickup and drop
025off times in Infinite Campus here in the near future um that those timing issues I think were immediately throwing things at least 10 minutes off if not more um and there are a couple of other things that we've learned about the system that we can uh continue to tweak and Implement to make sure that our timing is uh is pretty accurate here moving forward uh so we look forward to all of the the capabilities of this new software system which really I think is kind of saved us here at the beginning of this school year I'm not sure we'd be able to pull this together with the old software that we were using can I just ask a question I don't know if you are able to give us an update on uh replacing our
026director how's that going yeah so we've interviewed 12 we' we're bringing uh three additional people back um on Thursday so we hope to um have an answer for a new leader here it'd be nice if we could uh get a commitment by the end of this week great thank [Music] you good evening Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the sent agenda and recommend approval of items 6 A1 through 6 A3 so moved second any discussion Mr Wade please call the role who was the second me thanks M Jing yes misslo yes Miss marazza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I recommending approval of the agreement for services with Crossroads Health some moved second
027any discussion I had um just a couple just a quick comment I wanted to make I know that with the Signature Health contract I wanted to ensure that the parental signature was required before any kind of counseling took place and I know we adjusted that before the last meeting um I just wanted to reiterate that that's also the case with Crossroads I made sure that parental signature is required before anybody is seen with Crossroads so um just wanted to note that that's it Clause 2.2 yep any more discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss iopo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the agreement for admission of tuition pupils with ESC of Northeast
028Ohio so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss chesing yes misslo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the addendum to the 2023 through 2025 service agreement with the ESC of the western Reserve so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5-0 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I am recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C4 all related to human resource matters so moved second any discussion please call the roll Miss AO yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z
029I am also recommending approval of agenda item D related to administra administrative staff resignations so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss jesley yes Miss aopo yes Miss marazza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you the first item under board business is the approval of board member in service attendance at the 2024 osba Capital conference and trade show so move second any discussion um I just wanted to say that actually Rose and I will be uh on behalf of ocbcc which I'm an executive member on that board as well um Rose and I will be teaching a class for osba um Capital conference called no cell Bel Bell so um we will obviously be in attendance so I just wanted
030to put that out there it should be a pretty good um class and we're looking forward to it great thanks and we'll make sure we have that cell phone policy maybe on for first reading next month so that we can talk about that then too good Mr Wade please call the role M Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5-0 the second item under board business is the appointment of a delegate and an alternate to the osba annual business meeting on November 11th 2024 maybe we could take these one at a time um so appointing a delegate um I would like to nominate Mrs maraza as our um as our liais on for um as our as our liais on already I I feel that she
031would be perfect for that position thank you thank you I um I just had a comment so I don't I personally don't care who the delegate is um doesn't make a difference to me what does count is that have like we've done the past two years we have a conversation in the open with the public well with public in attendance an open meeting um in reference to any of the items and the way that the delegate is going to vote on those items um just out of transparency to the public I think they deserve to know how our delegate is going to vote on items um like the one year was you know I expected as much yes and that would be board business for our next meeting okay so prior to so thank you
032for bringing that up are there any other nominations for delegate I I'd like to Rose okay no just I think she'd do a good job at it but I also don't care like I don't think it's that big of a I don't think it's that big of a responsibility since we have that conversation in the open with the um open meeting about it it doesn't really make a difference to me but okay Mr way can you help us proceed here with um are we or could we do um like rose would you like to be the alternative and then miss matza could be the delegate I I don't have an opinion either way if that's something acceptable to me that's something you so we have a nomination for Delegate for Mrs maraza and then sure
033is your nomination for alternate that works is anyone in opposition to that nope no that sounds good great yeah sounds great thank you all right nice and easy we all have agreement there so our Delegate for osba will be Mrs maraza and our our alternate will be Mrs iapo thank you both um let's see we will now have our legislative report from Miss maraza thank you all right um so the general assembly is still on recess until after the election but I do have some other updates one uh from the state board um late last month the Ohio controlling board which is a bipartisan panel of State lawmakers from the house and the Senate that approved State spending um approved a 4.66 million um amount to cover a budget shortfall that was created when the
034odw um was was formed um it's basically funding should have been coming to the state board and instead it ended up going over the newly created odw so that left them with a budget shortfall so this amount is um not nearly enough to cover that shortfall but um it is going to help and mainly I understand this to be going to help with the um the part of the background checking process that the State Board does for School Employees across the state um the odw has a public meeting on Thursday September 19th and they do um run those live on the Ohio Channel if you're interested in watching that meeting um just because the House and Senate are in recess that does not mean they're not working um first of all just a couple of
035bills that were signed into law by the governor um Governor dwine signed HB 147 on July 24th this one goes into effect on October 24th um this bill was originally created to fix a loophole in the Ohio Revis code that pertained to teacher misconduct where basically um the law didn't as it was didn't require um a School Employees misconduct to be reported to the state superintendent if that individual um retired during a disciplinary investigation which is just a very strange loophole so this was meant to fix that um it kind of sailed through pretty quickly uh without much um you know no opponent test testimony or resistance and um so in in that sense it was kind of a a right for um uh amendments being added to it so that uh being the case
036some sports related Provisions were added as well as some Provisions around um implementing some flexibility for students who received a couple of different scholarships so um let's see so the it's so it's kind of again another mish mash Bill where these these kind of come together under a single bill but have to do with very different areas of Education the first the former that I mentioned um ests must in public schools must notify the state superintendent regarding a licensed employee who retires during a disciplinary investigation for misconduct so that's a must and then the scholarships I'm not going to get into too much because they don't apply to us too too directly um but then there are some other parts of this bill that have to do with home educated students um and their ability
037to uh participate in inter Scholastic Athletics it just has some allowances built in for those students and um it also completely different part of the bill uh there's a requirement in here that schools accept cash at all school affiliated events so athletic events um Theater events everything um and the only exception is uh that we could that we can still add a processing fee if necessary for tickets P purchased online or by credit card uh and then student ticket prices must be less than adult ticket prices so those are all absolute musts in HB hb214 is known as the red act uh it stands for religious expression days uh similarly this one was signed on July 24th it will be effective on October 24th um effective on 24th uh October 24th but um there the
038policy requirement must be fulfilled by January 22nd so even though it's in effect we still have some time to pull this together the gist with this one is basically um what it says is it prohibits Ohio's public schools from soliciting or requiring students faculty or prospective employees to commit to specific beliefs affiliations ideals or principles concerning political movements which that was the original intent behind the bill when it was introduced into the house um so a lot of this you know we already do um and a lot this is already built into teacher lure anyway um and our hiring processes um but basically the you know it says we have to have this policy on our books um and I'm sure Neola will help us update ours accordingly uh this applies to both teachers and
039students um and again we have until January 22nd um I think it's also important to kind of point out too what it does not apply to because the legislature did provide some clarification for us on what is not prohibited and that includes a district or school's authority to require a student or employee to comply with a federal or state law and that includes anti-discrimination laws it does not include an Educator's academic freedom it does not include an Educator's ability to research or write Publications about specific beliefs ideals Etc um so those are two new laws here in Ohio um they also have the ability to um the lawmakers have the ability to introduce legislation even though they're on recess so we we got one two three new ones HB 659 um is regards actually water
040safety being in and around water and it's it's asking public schools and private schools to require um certain instruction about water safety to prevent drowning um sen Bill 309 U permits Community foundations to be Trustees of endowments and other charitable funds received by public schools and to classify some funds held by Community Foundation trustees as institutional funds that moves forward perhaps Mr Wade could shed some light on how that will impact us but let's just see where that one goes we're getting real close close to a lame duck session here so we'll see what happens and then finally Senate Bill 311 which would permit students to concurrently receive an ed Choice scholarship or Pilot project scholarship as well as an Autism or John Peterson special needs scholarship and that's the end of my report thank
041you very much next we have the student achievement Report with Mrs dling thank you a new school year has begun staff members happily welcome 6,750 students to Freshly clean classrooms with polished surfaces and sparkling windows on August 20th the IT department checked and double checked the digital infrastructure to support the learning in prek through 12th grades as well as the vital software and subscriptions used by staff and administration to connect with parents and track student growth it's an amazing complement of Technology with the very human Enterprise of teaching and learning those many dedicated hands work together to make the opening day as seamless as possible and again Mr Lynch and Mr Woodworth are key to that Prospect an important focus on optimizing our resources while offering highquality classroom learning at every grade level has been
042a key discussion point for the district where numbers have increased in specific spots Mr Heath looks carefully at strategic supplemental Staffing to support Student Success let's look at class sizes at the elementary and middle school level levels for this new semester Elementary School class sizes K through2 kindergarten has an average of 21.3 students outliers are Sterling Morton with 24 and belflower with 24.3 first grade class sizes average at 20 1.1 second grade class sizes at 21.6 for elementary school class sizes in grades 3 to5 third grade has an average of 21 students fourth grade an average of 22.9 with Hopkins as an outlier with 26.3 and fifth grade with an average of 23.4 in grades six and seven in the Middle School class size numbers are lower to support success in that critical adjustment to
043the secondary level sixth and seventh grade classes used the team model at both Memorial and Shore with its proven track record in laying a strong Foundation that pays dividends as children transition to adolescence sixth grade averages 18.6 per classroom and 7eventh grade at 20.4 in eighth grade middle school class sizes the numbers rise to an average of 25.9 next next month we'll look closely at our enrollments at some of our high school classes such as our content areas in state tested courses Advance placement CTE programs and college credit plus we're celebrating a champion in our midst Bella Wargo a Menor High School junior recently represented the United States at the International Federation of sport climbing rock climbing youth World Championship in gyang China Bella qualified as the USA youth national championships in July by earning
044a number two position in the country Bella represented our n represented our nation and placed eighth in the world in her final rock climbing competition the ifsc was created in 2007 as a continuation of the international Council for competition climbing this is sixth grade Camp week for sha Memorial Middle Schools our Memorial Group is coming home to tomorrow while our shore sixth graders will start their Camp experience tomorrow morning and return home on Friday mentors 11 and 12-year-olds have a unique Outdoor Learning Experience each fall for many it may be the first time to be away from home for a few days without their families the students and teachers will be staying at Camp fit a YMCA site right on Lake Erie providing a perfect learning laboratory it's about an hour's Drive East of here
045just past the Pennsylvania line we adopted the new strategic plan for Menor schools at our last meeting it emphasizes the value of student- centered experiential learning and I can't think of a better program in that Spirit than our sixth grade Camp there's no doubt that the opportunity for 12-year-olds to learn in the outdoors and to gain skills in teamwork self-reliance and personal responsibility gives lasting benefits safety considerations including a nurse on site and extensive planning are at the foundation of the program meaningful lessons are embedded in an exciting new setting to awaken an engaging level of learning that would be impossible to replicate in the confines of the traditional classroom it's a screen-free natural setting that might be quite a departure from routines for many kids during their sessions our students complete activities revolving around
046the following topics campf staff teaches horsemanship the Heritage Farm canoeing the challenge course rock climbing archery and nature hiking our Mentor teachers oversee Pioneer crafts survival and fire building Lake are study outdoor cooking reptiles and amphibians the pond study and the owl pellet study of course there are kid-friendly meals games and team building activities that add a special element of fun did you know that the men camp program has a 44e history it all started back in 1980 when Mr Rick danberg an elementary physical education teacher who had worked at interlock and music camp in Michigan had a unique set of skills and the background to design the experience working with the sixth grade teachers to combine Hands-On learning with a great chance for students to build friendships and learn teamwork he set it all
047in motion at Camp Whitewood a special partnership with Slippery Rock universities education program brought student counselors to the camp to help and guide all the sixth graders each week Mr danberg ran this program for 10 years complete with his musical gifts that included bugling RAV and Taps each morning and night keeping the most Essential Elements other dedicated teachers beginning with Mrs Ellen Webb continue the Traditions that evolved to be the current program for our students ask men alumni about their fondest Camp memories and and they often share special stories about activities from a beach scavenger hunt and archery to Creek walking and tie dying shirts many said that making new friends and sharing a space helped kids leave their comfort zones and that they really enjoyed interacting with others from Erica who said with a
048smile all the activities were so amazing I remember that the kids all took turns helping in the mess hall from Danielle I learned how to do square dancing which was fun I did archery for the first time and I learned how to use a compass Emma said that she loved canoeing and bunking with her friends in the cabin she felt the experiences helped the college housing transition when she was older canoeing with a fellow camper reinforced the power of teamwork Matthew said I was also partial to the archery and the hiking April remembers having the chance to hold a large snake for the first time sh recall that her daughter did not want them to write any letters to her because she thought that would be silly and babyish and all her friends got letters
049and that was the first thing she asked when they picked her up why didn't we write they made sure they wrote letters to their son when he went 2 years later Tim shared that he truly enjoyed hiking canoeing and exploring the area he thought it was a wonderful learning experience Michael recalled making candles and Carrie remembered the delicious food and having to walk from the cabins to the bathrooms hie said my cabin would Gather in the common space and tell stories and talk for hours before bed Brian and John remembered pioneers skills we learn to build a fire with a flint and steel I'm not sure how useful that's been but it's the only time I've done it Emily said my friends remember archery campfire songs the team ropes course and learning how to pick
050up tennis balls from a canoe Rachel remembered square dancing and singing cam songs too and meeting a student from another school who became a best friend Nicole shared for me it was being able to see the kids from other schools and getting to do the dances and the signing of the shirts and everything that we did at the end from Sarah oh my gosh my favorite memories were of Camp Whitewood and the Haunted Cabin that they'd never put the kids in at night we try to look through the windows and of course everyone thought they saw something I still know all the words to some of the campfire songs we would sing I just remember crying on the bus coming home because I didn't want to leave from Kristen my first thought about sixth grade
051Camp is that I was lucky enough to get to go twice as a sixth grader I think we were super lucky that our camp was 5 days long what I remember most is getting to do the team building activities outdoors I remember we were put into random groups and had to figure out how to use everyone's best skill sets to accomplish the tasks or the obstacle course type activities I remember thinking that was really fun and learning new things about people I also know how we love being in the cabins and felt super cool being away from home and having extra time hanging out with friends even though we probably all missed home in reality we like going going to the dining hall and all the nighttime activities they did a really great job of
052making the most of the time and keeping us busy in the evening hours I remember bonfires and singalong square dancing and a lot of being outside then as a senior I had the opportunity to volunteer to work at camp and was there with a big friend group and we loved being the camp counselors and helping the younger students it was the best volunteer experience ever Jennifer a fairly recent camper mentioned leaf identification the import of staying on the path and learning to whistle through an acorn during a nature walk she also remembered the fun little games like Simon says that they played in the dining hall and getting to run around the tables with the flag they won Mr Ken Buckley former teacher administrator and parent chaperone recalled I remember Rick danberg being in charge
053all those years and he did indeed play his horn I love going as a teacher in the fall since it was a great opportunity to bond with my new class of students I was able to use our camping experiences to relate to science curriculum that my students encountered later in the year and Cindy said I think of all my kids they all have their camp shirts that everyone signed I found my son's in a box just a couple of months ago when he was getting ready to move a special thank you and tip of the Menor school's history hat to Mr danberg have a great week campers you're in great company with Cardinals past and present speaking of The Great Outdoors the fresh air challenge is back October 17th to November 1st for our preek
054through fifth grade students the special program sponsored by the Min schools Foundation encourages kids to have some screen-free time under the big blue sky stay tuned for all the details coming very soon and next week is homecoming week at Menor high school and our students and staff are preparing for exciting activities consisting of a Spirit Week pep assembly parade football game and their dance on Saturday September 21st last year the school had about 1500 teens attend the dance and we're looking forward to seeing our students come together again this year we are off and running and ready to learn and we look forward to a wonderful year thank you very much at this time we have the chief financial officer's report and recommendations Madam president members of the board Mr Heath uh it is our
055annual requirement by statutory uh requirement to get the FY 25 annual Appropriations completed and approved uh so we'll present that to the board uh I will mention last Thursday we presented this to the citizens Financial advisory and they do recommend the board's consideration and approval of the Appropriations our Appropriations um are built uh they they start actually in January you know we start this process in January when the board approves the tax budget uh is the first action of the board in January thank you Mr Heath I don't want Miss Mazika yelling at me [Laughter] again so then we go into March when we get the uh certifications done for the new rates and then obviously that's when we start to build the the budget this process starts in the spring with the building principls
056and the directors Mr Heath and his team um starting to look at uh our Appropriations because our goal is to get them pretty much done by the end of the fiscal year so when we adopt our temporary Appropriations at the June usually end of June June 30th meeting that we're pretty much adopting what our Appropriations are going to be um we aren't required by law to adopt the full Appropriations till September and we use that time then to really solidify the hiring process through the EHR department so that when we bring the Appropriations to the board in the community in September that it's as close as we can uh believe it to be for the actual year uh so obviously a lot of that work's done and it kind of goes back to our strategic
057plan and our new strategic plan which was approved at the last board meeting um when it comes to the budgeting principles really from our standpoint it kind of goes to outcome five which I sh shared with the community um last month and really we're trying to maximize the district efficiency and efficacy and we're doing that so that we can op operate at Peak capacity by providing knowledge skills and resources necessary to reach the desired student outcomes so when we build our budget uh we're looking at Staffing and we're looking at all the things that we're doing it really guys goes back to the Strategic plan and specifically for my office uh we're looking at the maximization of the district efficiencies and efficacy uh when you think about it from what we did before in our
058old strategic plan the two guiding principles that continue to move forward with us uh as we go into our new strategic plan is we have to maintain enhance our fiscal stability by focusing our attention on uh in diligence on short term uh which is really what our Appropriations are it is our shortterm goals for the year as well as our long-term financial planning which we update the board and community on in November and May and we always have to remember that there's options for alternative revenue and and to maximize our existing Personnel facilities and resources uh so that we're running again with that efficiency and efficacy that we spoke of we've continued to have budgeting principles of all fiscal decisions should be made in the context of the 5year forecast that long-term planning we know
059that there's management options attached to every dollar that we spend we know that every dollar spent must add value to teaching and learning and we must aggressively focus on our largest expense areas which are salaries benefits and special education trying to catch up here on hard to see behind me and our facilities and we know that quality is always cheaper in the long run so when we look at kind of where our money comes from the majority of our Revenue comes from our local taxpayer about 73.1% comes from the form of property tax from our local taxpayers as a resident in our commercial property uh we receive another 22.6% from the state um in the general fund we get very little Federal funding most of the federal funding as we've talked about at the the
060last uh board meeting is outside of the general fund it's in restricted fund areas uh so that it can be tracked um so though again I this always comes up as a a point of contention uh it only makes up 6% of our general fund it does actually equate to almost $8 million in total funding um but it's all outside the general fund and then we have another 3.7 uh% that comes from intermediate and other funds uh through our investments our receipts that we have on sale of uh prop that we no longer use and other revenue streams that come in like ticket revenue and so on and so forth when you compare that to the state obviously that looks much different the state average for uh local revenue is at 42% and the state
061percentage is 43% um because Menor is considered a wealthy District based on our median income and our property valuation um that burden gets shifted to the local taxpayer when we look at our year-over-year Revenue comparison ultimately the bottom right is the most important for this slide when we look at our Appropriations we're expecting our property tax re our total revenue excuse me to go up to 1107 million or almost $10.8 million up from last year where we closed out the year at 9.7 almost $19.8 U million again majority of that coming from local resources and uh the state sources that we shared on the last slide it's important to look I think when you look at our Revenue um you know we see relatively flat Revenue but we get very little Revenue growth uh from
062the way that the state funding is and the way that local property taxes fund schools uh we do see a little bit of an increase as I've shared a number of times on the inside milge with the property valuations um you know as we've said you know though valuations of the district have went up by 25% um we're only going to see a small incre increase in value uh coming on inside millage to The District in the tune of less right around 2% which is going to cost the local taxpayer about $42 per $100,000 of market value so obviously the next part of the budget or the most important part of the Appropriations is our expenses and because we're in the business of educating kids District enrollment Trends are very important in that and projecting
063uh that and making sure that we have the Staffing ratios that Mrs Jing shared in her report uh to meet the Strategic plan um since fy21 we've seen uh a decrease in student enrollment as many of the districts across the state in Lake County have uh as well when we look at our Trend analysis again in our grade bands you can see that uh we are starting to see pretty much a leveling off of the kindergarten uh numbers um and we're seeing the decrease as the larger classes you know go through the high school and start to graduate uh you know we had a graduate class over 600 kids I believe Mr Heath correct last year and we only had 448 kids come into the district um which is pretty on par statistically with our
064birth rate ratio that we have cuz we look at that we look at the live birth rate 5 years ago and we look at how many of the kids are coming in and we're close to you know consistently in the upper 90s almost to 100% sometimes we go over and that trend has been pretty consistent over the last 10 years even going back to 2014 so that's something that we look at you look at the live birth rate and you look at the kids that show up then from you know 5 years later in kindergarten rate so we look at it as a standpoint as okay we're starting to see where that trend is going and obviously that impacts us where it impacts Us in Staffing um so here's where we look at our emis
065reporting for the various codes uh you know and they're on the screen the big piece here is that our staffing is going down um 2.94% this year uh a majority of that reduction is uh again in this on the screen just is clarify for the board and the community this is for every fund this isn't just general fund um so we've talked about this in the past the Esser support staff that was being uh put in place over the last few years because of Co to kind of close those achievement gaps this is the first year that they're no longer here because those funds have run out and Mr Heath and his team made the uh determination that we would find other ways to support students uh who have gaps because we did close quite
066a bit of those gaps uh we know gaps still exist um but that's more in the purview of our superintendent than myself myself is to look at kind of where that puts us financially and we see that that staffing has continued to decrease Mr Wade does that 2.9% include the user funded teachers then it does yeah so that's total staff out of all funds is that decrease so you know this is a graph that I I have shown in the past the Orange Line shows the declining enrollment in the district since 2009 so this isn't something that's just come out of nowhere we've been seeing this decline in enrollment since prior uh to even my first stint here in the district uh but you can see that going back to Dr hins and Mr Miller
067and Mr Porter uh we we have a decreasing uh staff ratio too cuz that represents the Blue Line you can see during Co and 21 we saw an increase uh of Staffing that was so that we could open school back up for the 2122 school year and we had smaller class sizes so we added staff and then we had the eser teachers in and you can see then again after that 2122 school year we went kind of back down to uh the normal trends of decreasing enrollment and decreasing Staffing uh this is through fiscal year 23 the 24 data will be released from the state here in probably November December and I will update the board and the committee on this chart again um because it's just something that we continue to track to make
068sure that we're being consistent reason being is 83.4% of our budget as this slide shows comes from salary and benefits um and because 83.4% of our budget comes to salary and benefits it's highly important that we continue to make sure that our enrollment and Staffing uh ratios are going in the same direction and in proportion um you can see that the other major area that we have in the district is purchase Services it's 10 and a half% of our budget and those are the services that we purchase to support student learning and running the district um then we have our supplies coming in at uh 4% so if you want to see the numbers uh the last column you can see uh there's a 5-year Trend here of the actuals from fiscal fiscal year 21
069through fiscal year 25 for what we're budgeting um I share this with the community so that you can kind of see the trends that we're having and most importantly that we're looking to appropriate about $15.67 million uh which is up 3.44% from last year um so rate around the inflationary increase uh those numbers assume the the Staffing numbers that we had before uh the salaries includes the 2.75% increase uh that the negotiated agreement has um it also has a 7% increase for projected growth on healthc care in January 1 because our Healthcare rates will change in January um we'll have clear numbers on that as we go into the November forecast update and it does assume the increases in Staffing evening that Mr Heath had shared with us with regards to Transportation with three drivers
070and two AIDS correct correct um it does include one C IFI staff member uh reduction and a reduction in a classified position as well the uh bottom line just as a point of reference because we've always kind of looked at this because prior to this year this is again the first year that we haven't made a large transfer out of the general fund to support either the capital Improvement fund or because of the retirement incentive so if you normalize that and you normalize it out for the net Reserve to the 5-year capital plan and retirements uh we see an increase of 6.57% from last year from a budget to actual again looking at graphs these graphs allow us to kind of quickly analyze and kind of check ourselves to make sure that we don't see
071anything out of the ordinary so I think they're important to share with the community and the board because I would hope that if you saw something that stands out let's just say like fiscal year 23 and we see that it's much higher than the rest of the areas we should be able to explain that right that's the job of the board and the community to continue to make sure that they're checking on the work that we're doing and if we remember in 23 that's the year we made the decision instead of making annual contributions to the capital plan we made the decision to move it all at once um and then stretch that out uh rather than doing it annually um I think you can see from the budgeted Appropriations that we have in fiscal
072year 25 there's nothing that's really atypical with the prior year Trends so again it's just another check visual check for those of us who are more visual than rather numerical looking at those things it's important to also remember that uh our board has a policy that states that we must have a 15% budget reserve and part of that policy is that we actually have a general operating uh general fund operating budget Reserve fund that fund is cannot exceed 5% of the prior Year's Revenue uh so by policy and by law and we're audited on this the the the general fund operating budget Reserve can exceed $5.4 eight1 million so um with that uh looking at our interest income over the last few years we have to keep a close eye on that interest income um
073and it can't exceed about 55 $55,000 because if we do we'd have to then have board action to reduce that fund uh because the money in that fund can spent with board action um per policy so again going back all the way to your fiscal year 2 or 16 um when we passed our last new money Levy you can see that uh the cash balance was um increasing because we were not deficit spending at that time and that continued to go on through fiscal year 20 our first year deficit spending was in fiscal year 21 and we've continued that Trend um and we will continue that Trend into this fiscal year 25 budget that we're looking for appropriation approval the bottom line is then uh last year we reduced because of the deficit spend the
074general fund balance from 59 or $ 55.9 million to $ 53.8 million approximately the approximate $4 million in deficit spending that we're uh going to potentially observe this year if the budget holds true um would then bring us down to an ending balance of 4 48.9 or 4889 million in cash Reserve uh we'll have encumbrances at the end of the year remember incumbrances is money that's been because we're cash bases is money that we have spent but the check hasn't been sent out yet because we haven't received the good or service so that causes us to have incumbrances at the end of the fiscal year um that you know you take that into account and you take into account that our policy states that again you as a board cannot allow our budget Reserve to
075fall below the general fund cash set aside which is $1.3 million so you add the general fund Reserve to that which was about 5.4 million to that 11.3 so we're looking at about $16.9 million is the floor by policy that the board has that we can't fall Below in the way that we're spending uh so when you take that all that into consideration so you take the incomers is out you take the general fund cash set aside out and you don't include the TR uh budget Reserve our cash Balan is $37.5 million at the end of the fiscal year when we look at just to kind of reiterate and kind of bring everything together uh our Appropriations are tied to our forecast uh you know the May forecast is you know the first part of
076the again that budgeting process and then we're forecasting out kind of where our budget is uh I am happy to announce that we're within 1.6% um the current Appropriations is going to exceed the forecast for May um I would expect that by the end of the fiscal year uh we will not spend the $15.6 million um we've typically been about 2 or 3% below the actual appropriation um so it's a pretty accurate reflection but when you look at it again I think this is something that the board should look at when you a board of education should be looking at okay and keeping me honest and checking me on all right what's our forecast say what does the appropriation say do they align are they closed and again that's why every month when I give
077my monthly financials I show it versus this is what we spent last year at this time this is what we received in Revenue last year at this time this is where we were uh year to date and this is how it Compares against our forecast um so these are all checks and balances to make sure that we as a community and a board are aware of where we're s where we're at where we're headed um so that we don't get into a m healthy situation or some of the other districts that have had some Financial crisises um because we weren't check everyone wasn't doing their checks and balances that we have going on um so we are a little bit higher than we were looking in May um again I I wouldn't mind having what
078is that about $1.9 million um that's a lot of money to everybody in this room however when you're looking at $150 million budget it's only difference of 1.6% so it's not material and again I think when we get down to the actual spending and looking at what we're at um even in November we'll see a difference of that uh in reality and I always think it's important to again as part of the Appropriations and and I know we've had this discussion in the past with regards to the capital plan we present this in June uh to the board and to the community but the part of the corporations for this fiscal year is that Capital plan um and I think what the key is here is that we've identified uh safety and maintenance improvements and
079we you know this is just really what we need to do to maintain the safety and the maintenance of the facilities um and that exceeds our I Levy by about $1.8 million and then we are you know we have our technology purchases uh Furniture purchases and um our vehicle purchases but you we know this year that we're not doing Furniture we're not doing buses um and we do need to replace one of our trucks so that's included um so that's another about $700,000 in cost so it's about a $3.5 million cost to the district when we only have a permanent Improvement Levy that covers about 1 million of that um I am sharing a little bit of what we're looking at kind of going forward because but I think it's important in here in this
080situation with the Appropriations to show that our average cost that we're projecting and even spending this year is about $2 million less than it was prior to the failure of the pi Levy that was put on the ballot in November so decisions have been made reductions have and we will stretch that money further than we were expecting so again uh I'm happy to answer any questions on the appropriate rations which specifically relates to the uh all funds the expected budgets that you'll see at the back of the Appropriations document that I have shared with you um again this was presented to our citizens Financial advisory last Thursday and was recommended for approval by the board of education do I have a motion so moved second any discussion please call the role sorry I put it
081in the wrong spot I got to catch up here I apologize uh Miss jessing yes Miss pay yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes uh motions carry 5 that concludes my section thank you do we have any unfinished business that the board would like to address the only um thing that I had is I had uh asked Mr Heath for an update on the retired SRO um resource officers um so I know we're looking forward to hopefully by next month that we may be able to vote on that I know it's something that um in March of 2022 when we because I'm getting questions about um you know can we arm our staff and we had at least three of us on the board who were on the board at that time
082in 2022 agreed to not do that um and the reason why I had agreed to not do that and I think we all support looking into the different option of you know hiring retired police officers for our buildings um so I'm looking forward to hopefully by next month we would be able to vote on that contract and have something available for that yeah just to give everybody a quick update about six weeks ago I sat down and met with Chief G Mr philipak and and we kind of talked through the contract that we had presented to our school safety Liaisons um back at uh I think the May or June meeting um we we spent a lot of time talking through the contract we did some word smithing um I actually about a week after
083that meeting um rewrote the contract language with uh some of the changes that we made sent that over to Legal counsil just to make sure that uh they could review everything um with the the school and transportation issues you know here the last four weeks we we just reconnected on this a few days ago um they our our legal council still has a few things they want to share with me regarding some of the edits before we bring it back to our School Safety Committee uh which I believe we've sent out that request to try and uh get our group back together uh so hopefully we'll have that here in the next uh couple of weeks um I I know some of our some of the concerns are still around the liability pieces that was
084one of the things that was shared with the board previously um I I think again across the board we've we've all said all five of you have said that this is something we want to have done so um I'll be working with um with our legal council tomorrow morning uh I've got a meeting set up with them um and again very hopeful that we'll have that contract ready to go for our October meeting great thank you that's all I had I was just looking for um the the new noell bell tobell hard data I want to see if it's working for seeing major benefits m and and I know we're meeting next week to talk uh code of conduct type pieces to the puzzle so let me uh I'll add that to our list here
085too to make sure that we have some of that data available that'll be good to add to the presentation in November MH perfect and then also the policy um on student discipline with during summer months we could that's something to bring up next week or at that meeting okay is there any other unfinished business okay do we have any new business all right next we have hearing of the public on any topic our first speaker is McKenzie mccollister [Music] since I only have 3 minutes to speak I figured I'd give you some feedback on the community from the community regarding the incident that happened last week Mr Heath you should pay close attention since you are highlighted in most of these comments and concerns from NF why is it even a question that the student
086be allowed back in the school stating he wished he was the Georgia school shooter the students should continue education under proper supervision from mm it seems the school is more afraid of a lawsuit than they are of a than the student hurting people from NF the student has no business stepping in that school again whatever happened is zero tolerance from JM Google restorative justice in schools this is our superintendent's approach he said in many school board meetings that we cannot suspend our way out of these problems he also said that out of 500 incidents in the school need 26 students were the main culprit protecting children is not his main priority the board and the superintendent have repeatedly supported the leftist political agenda regarding transgender and lgbtq for fear of litigation from RJ the current
087School super needs to step down and be removed immediately he is not safe for our students nor is he concerned for their safety please join in praying this guy out of the school system along with three out of the five board members our children are not safe our school system deserves better from JB how is the mental Health evaluation not mandatory for this this is a blaring red flag and we hear about after the tragedy occurs from DB this is a perfect example of a threat to the safety of the school this male sounds mental and evaluation should be mandatory he cannot be anywhere near the high school or any school they are overprotecting him and I find it ridiculous that the police officer refers to him as a biological the refers to the biological
088male as a she I sure hope this doesn't end in a tragedy with Heath in charge you have to pray for our students in their safety since he is too woke to stand up to expel this student from DF I hate to say this but if he wasn't so greedy and selfish and didn't want to extend contract with raises and bonuses and Immunity from any lawsuit maybe we could put more efforts into keeping our kids safe but he's so wonderful because he visited School Bus steps the first day of school I'm livid from Mi Heath better do something before it's too late these trans kids have mental health issues that need to be addressed changing gender should be the least of their worries the school and their parents have failed them the kid threatened men
089high after fighting girls when is Heath going to open his eyes and finally do something last but not least Kei you wouldn't know vigilance if it smacked you in the face I blame you sir you don't have the balls to expel this student permanently this is the third altercation this student has been involved in two two of which occurred in a girl's bathroom and we have him coming back on the 13th for the sake of inclusivity sir you and your three woke School Board members make me want to vomit let me remind you that there are 2,160 students and their blood is on your hands sir when when not if this student decides to shoot up the school hope you sleep well tonight for the sake of inclusivity our next speaker is jacn McCormack [Music]
090for a superintendent and school board that claims safety is the number one issue I am perplexed to say the least by the actions that have been taken in regards to the threat on the school last Thursday according to the police report the student who made the threat is the very same boy that was V videoed in an incident unprovoked violently attacking a female student in our lunchroom last year prior to that incident the same boy identifying as a girl was also videotaped in the girl's bathroom in an altercation with girls that clearly did not want a boy in their private space at that time you board members voted down a policy that would have restricted boys in the girls' bathroom now in a new school year the same boy is in a physical fight with
091girls in the girls' bathroom then threatened to burn the school down this all comes one day after the student in Georgia shot and killed four people during school and in this police report it states that he wishes he was the Georgia school shooter Mr Heath youra email regarding this threat to the school in no way conveyed the full details of this incident I have to wonder if your staff was at all informed adequately of the possible danger this boy should not be allowed to return to our school gender dysphoria is a mental illness students should not be expected to tolerate losing their rights to privacy for mental delusions this boy has proven to be violent and confrontational with girls at our school and this is completely unacceptable a policy is needed prohibiting biological boys from
092using the girls bathroom I UR to take action immediately for the safety of our students I'm tired of hearing from our superintendent on crucial issues that he's working on that we have been waiting over two years for resource officers and there is no excuse for what has transpired at the short amount of time that since school has started I expect policies to be made that make this school a safe space for all not based on gender theories but on biological fact now on a positive note I'd like to congratulate Annie Payne for being a semifinalist nationally for the moms for Liberty Founders Penelope Barker award for mobilizing Lake County moms for Liberty members were so motivated by your unwavering dedication and determination to stand up for our children's safety and innocence that hundreds of community
093members wrote heartfelt letters recommendation nominating you for the national award please know that we appreciate you and stand with you in this difficult time you have withstood disgraceful attacks with dignity and Grace for simply doing what you were elected to do which is to make policies that protect our children and rights as parents in a time when school boards want to hire out this respons responsibility to politically motivated organizations instead of taking responsibility and listening to those that elected them your courage to make policies to ensure age appropriate materials are in our schools is precisely what needs to be done in the face of such a strong political agenda-driven majority board you stand out as a true champion for our children and parents we are so blessed to have you as a board member uh
094who is not just there to say yes on whatever comes down the line from state or federal bureaucrats but actually researches and understands what our schools are using to educate this next generation and where and how our tax dollars are being used to accomplish the goals of our community you are a shining example of what a public servant should be and we are honored to support your Vigilant efforts know that there is an army Nationwide ready to support you in your fight thank you Annie and may God bless you and give you strength to continue this most important Mission thank you thank you Lindsay wall Susan snck hello again I just wanted to speak about student safety um and especially about the incident last week where there was was a boy in the girl's bathroom
095and there was a fight and um I just I wanted to say that I I hope that the girls that defended their space I hope that everybody here reaches out to them and sends them a dozen roses and a thank you because it's sad for me to know that there are girls that go to school and they have to defend themselves to protect their space because the adults will not do it for them they could do it but they refuse and it's wrong I I feel like we should have um student resource officers and I I love Mr Wade's presentation and Jenny's presentation because you get to see the kids and how the money's spent but really at the end of the day it doesn't mean anything because you're letting a a guy go in
096into a girl's room and you're pretending like that's okay you lie to the children sometimes the truth is hard but the kids need to hear it this person that was in this fight last week he has been failed by so many people in his life that should have been speaking the truth all families are going to do what they're going to do but when you send your kids to school that's a place where the you know teachers and and all the adults in there can can help they can speak the truth and say you there's nothing wrong with you the way that you were born and I'm going to guide you in the right way somebody's feelings might get hurt somebody might feel like that's unkind lying is not kind it is not loving these
097children we need resources we need money we need all these things but at the end of the day these kids are in an unsafe environment we need to do better I find it terribly dis concerting and disgraceful that that this could happen and then the kid is not even expelled he should be expelled we hear all the time from people in the community that oh you know these trans kids these gender confused kids they just need acceptance they're totally safe they're not they're the ones that are starting the they're they're being videotaped being violent we have some parents here that pick up their own students and bring them here to confront law-abiding citizens that want to speak at the meeting I those those kids aren't safe they're the ones that are causing the problem you
098need to do better and it's hard and you might suffer for it politically or socially but you owe the children to do the right thing and speak the truth thank you Annie and Rose for always doing what I'm sure is very difficult I appreciate you thank you Jennifer h [Music] o sorry um I'm usually better at improvisation so I'm just going to do that um we're the only uh part of the community that's going to stand up and um speak about the threat that was made I'm uh this is my alma mater my oldest graduated from this school uh to see how horribly it's changed as far as accountability for one's actions in the name of restorative justice is just disheartening I'm going to speak from my heart not here to attack you but I
099am here to make you well aware of how this community sees you now as a mother I had to take advantage of the Ed Choice okay I'm not low income and I admit that and I am so grateful that those rules have changed to allow not only low-income families but families such as myself who is blessed who works hard and it give me the opportunity a golden opportunity to take my son out of a school district that I don't feel is safe when we have a a a student a violent student this is not potentially violent this kid is violent when he says he wants to burn the very building down that all of these children and your faculty and you guys are in this building we're all in this building right now I've been
100to some beautiful concerts with my son and Wind Ensemble he graduated from this school it was absolutely beautiful and I would hate to see this school burnt I would hate to see any child die and if when we have students saying I'm a girl no you're not you are not a girl you beat up a girl and left her with a concussion with a with alongside of her lunch she got a concussion how do you explain that to the parents I'm sorry you sent your kid to school but this boy who thinks he's a girl beat her up with his very male fists and then he's in the bathroom and these poor girls are getting disciplined because they have to defend their safe space they are clearly not comfortable with this male in their bathroom
101or any male there are gender neutral bathrooms in this school and they should be using it but they're not why aren't these trans kids using those safe spaces for them that are designated for them because they don't want to they want to make these girls uncomfortable but by any means and I would hate to see him emulate a mass murderer a school shooter because we have seen that before we have seen that with Colin Bine you vdi and we don't need to sit here and say well it's the guns problem because guns don't kill people people kill people and it's the good guys like the police officers that are here that actually were the good guys that stopped these kids so please I am begging you start listening to your community members I don't hate
102not a one of you out there and up there I don't but I will speak out when I see fit thank you thank you ly [Music] Mazika can I just add something real quick I can't see the speaker from here so for the next meeting maybe can we Mo yeah because even if I I can't see from here [Music] you couldn't see last time right the last time they moved it after they did move it oh maybe just one in the middle yeah just like I see the podium hi Lind Mika I was made aware through some things on Facebook that there had been an incident involving some students in the uh girls bathroom and I think this is something that bothers all of us because all of our students should be safe in our
103schools and from what I understand we've it's a common problem in bathrooms not only in Menor but in many other places and I respectfully ask that possibly we consider either permanently or for a period of time having monitors in the bathrooms to try to or at the doors of the bathrooms to try to keep the problems from going from continuing it doesn't matter who was involved in the situation nope please we have a speaker no one deserves to feel unsafe no one deserves to be hurt in minor schools and I know it's an very important issue to the board and to this community but the issue is all students need to feel safe thank you very much thank you our last speaker is Kim [Music] Rowan that concludes our public participation [Music] all right we
104do not have an executive session on the agenda so do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second Mr Wade please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss IO yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes meeting is adjourned at 8:30 p.m. wow