001is meetings adjourned at 4 55. all right [Music] did everybody hear me yeah good evening the June 12 2023 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Education call to order this meeting is being held in accordance with section 3313.15 of the Ohio Revised Code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting Mr Wade please call the roll miss breiner here miss cook here miss jesling here miss Payne here Mr Tuttle here please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag United States [Music] for all I would like to welcome everyone to the June 12 2023 regular meeting of the Exempted 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
002item for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of education's agenda system board Docs the public cannot accessed the agenda through the school district's website 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 when the board entertains comments from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish address the board on any subject whether it be an item on the agenda or another issue to participate in the hearing of
003the public session section excuse me interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of the meeting sign ups are available online through the school district's website or on site prior to the seven o'clock P.M in this case the five o'clock meeting excuse me when it's your turn to speak you'll be called to the microphone when the addressing when addressing the board please state your name and your address questions to the board directed to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to three minutes the purpose of the hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component to the conducting business this is an information gathering opportunity for the board and administration so
004that 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 is no way demonstrates a lack of care for comments shared by our community rather we want to be third thoughtful in our approach and we will provide a response in a timely manner when appropriate this meeting is being televised live and on a delayed basis and will be shown on Spectrum cable channel 1026 in Mentor and 1025 in Mentor on the lake this meeting is also being recorded and can be found on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Mentor Ohio thank you at this time Mr Heath District Highlands good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Wade tonight we are recognizing several students for their athletic achievements at this
005time I'd like to invite Mr Casella to the podium for our track recognitions Mr President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade it is again my pleasure to be here tonight to recognize members of our boys and girls track teams that qualify for the state championships this past couple weeks I would ask uh I would also at this time ask for uh head boys head coach Bill Dennison and girls head coach Bob Burwell to join me up here as we recognize our athletes we had two middle school athletes represent Mentor at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Middle School track meet to qualify for this meet you had to meet a qualification standard that is in the top 24 of Ohio for a specific event first of all we have Gabe ricotta from
006Memorial Middle School is Gabe here with us tonight come on up Gabe Gabe participated and qualified in the pole vault and placed 17th overall in the state of Ohio [Applause] then we had Logan burwald from Shore Middle School Logan come on up Logan qualified in the high jump and made the podium by placing eighth in the state of Ohio in the poll in the high jump [Applause] I'm going to have our high school athletes come up here and I'd like our high school athletes after they greet the board just to stay up here so I can talk a little bit about them after we bring them up so at the high school level we had several athletes compete at the state meet from our boys team our 4 by 800 meter relay team qualified for
007the state meet this year members of that relay team are freshman Matt pankowski come on up sophomore Billy Denison seniors Timmy hordinski and seamer senior Michael Petrovic [Applause] this group of young men finished first at both the district and Regional meets to qualify for the state meet they were fun to watch all year long and should be congratulated on a great season so our boys 4x8 team headed to the state meeting congratulations guys [Applause] thank you next we have our girls team and our girls team had another remarkable year as they were Greater Cleveland Conference champions District Champions and Regional Champions this year as a team overall the girls team had two relays and several individuals qualifying for the state meet so I'll have them come up at this time first of all Junior Annie
008Barrow who qualified in the 4x400 relay and the 4 by 800 relay [Applause] to be with us tonight Junior Nora kraska was also a member of the 4x400 relay [Applause] we had Junior Ada Zabo who was part of the 4 by 800 meter relay and also qualified as an individual in the mile run we had Junior Mackenzie stuckert who qualified in the 4x400 relay the 100 meter dash and the 400 meter dash [Applause] we had senior Kylie buclair who who qualified in the 4x400 relay the 4 by 800 relay and the 800 meter run and last but not least we had senior Savannah Denison who qualified in the 4x800 relay the 800 meter run and the 1600 meter mile run [Applause] so on the girls side members of the 4 by 800 relay won the
009Greater Cleveland Conference Championship they were district and Regional Champions and the four by eight hundred finished third in the state meet Mackenzie stuckert finished a third in the state meet in the 400 meter run and the girls 4 by 400 relay were Regional Champions Savannah Denison in addition to her part in the 4x800 relay won the the 1600 meter at the regional and finished fourth in the state in the mile so congratulations to all these [Applause] thank you very much Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade we would like to recognize our retiring faculty and staff this evening we want to thank them for their many years of committed service and wish them happiness and good health in their retirements I would like to call Mrs zestus to the podium to begin the
010presentations good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade and thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight two weeks ago we celebrated the graduation of our seniors and tonight we celebrate a different kind of graduation that of our 2023 Mentor Schools retirees so it is with mixed emotions that we recognize our retiring faculty and staff our team would like to thank them for their many years of dedicated Service as Mr Heath just mentioned and wish them the very best in their future endeavors and in their retirement at this time I would like to invite Mr Heath and Mr Hammond to help us recognize the retirees and when we say many years of service we really mean it this group has given 1700 years of service collectively to our community
011I did the math twice on that just to make sure I didn't add a zero anywhere retirees when I call your name please come forward and remain up front until all the names have been called so that you can go through and shake each board member's hand okay Tim Aiken Tim retires from mentor with 38 years as a World Language teacher at Manor High School congratulations Tim foreign [Applause] back Nadine retires as an elementary teacher from Sterly Morton with 30 years of service congrats to Nadine [Applause] perfect thank you Chuck bends Chuck's Chuck retires from mentor after 34 years most recently working as a technology teacher and previously as an assistant principal congratulations to Chuck [Applause] Kathy Biggs Kathy retires after 25 years of service with Mentor Schools and most recently worked as an account
012clerk at the administration building congratulations Kathy Bobby borack Bobby served as a teacher and administrator in the district throughout her 34-year career in Mentor Schools she is graduating with her seniors you could say as she most recently served as our unit 12 principal at Mentor High School congratulations Bobby [Applause] Lori Caruso Lori retires from Mentor Public Schools with 22 years of service as a preschool teacher with the district congratulations Lori [Applause] Donna catavulus Donna retires from Mentor Public Schools with 35 years of service she spent time at Headlands Elementary School Shore Junior High Mentor High School and most recently at the administration building in the student services department congrats to Donna [Applause] Bonnie Cooper Bonnie retires as a third grade elementary teacher at Hopkins Elementary after 35 years of service congratulations to Bonnie [Applause] Michelle
013Deegan Michelle retires after 15 years of service as a classroom assistant at Ridge Elementary School Shore Middle School and most recently at Mentor High School congratulations Michelle [Applause] Deborah dopic Debbie retires after 30 years with Mentor Public Schools as a classroom assistant and then as the secretary at Shore Middle School congratulations to Debbie [Applause] foreign ER Janice retires after 35 of years of service and education most recently as a special education supervisor for Mentor Schools congratulations to Janice [Applause] Kim Gallo Kim retires as an intervention specialist from Mentor High School with 25 years of service congratulations Kim [Applause] Cheryl Cheryl gribos Cheryl retires after nine years of service as a classroom assistant at cares congratulations to Cheryl Lisa Hurst Lisa retires from Mentor Public Schools with 28 years of service as a secretary and as
014an administrative assistant at the administration building in the human resources department congrats to Lisa [Applause] Bonnie Horvath Bonnie retires after 39 years of service as a classroom assistant at Garfield and ridge elementary schools Christina Jeffries Christina retires as a speech-language pathologist she spent time during her career at Center Street Fairfax Bellflower and at Shore Middle School and has 35 years of service congratulations [Applause] Sharon Justice Castor Sharon retires with 38 years of service as an elementary teacher teaching in classrooms at both Center Street and Hopkins Elementary Schools congratulations to Sharon [Applause] Lori kiss Lori retires with 40 years of service at Mentor Public Schools as an elementary teacher at Center Street and at Hopkins Elementary School congratulations Lori [Applause] thank you [Applause] Marilyn kleis Marilyn is retiring after 20 years working as a server in
015our school nutrition services department at Mentor High School Sterling Morton and most recently at Bellflower Elementary School congratulations Marilyn [Applause] Janet Coachman Janet retires as a classroom assistant with 25 years of service in the district having worked at Orchard Hollow Garfield and ridge elementary schools congratulations to Janet foreign Castilla Marianne retires with 30 years of service as a school nurse and her most recent time has been at Orchard Hollow Elementary School congratulations to Marianne [Applause] Jeff Kovach Jeff retires as a material handler and he has driven thousands of miles over his career with Mentor Schools Jeff retires after 32 years of service congratulations to Jess [Applause] Wendy Kraft Wendy retires from Mentor Public Schools with 19 years of service as a classroom assistant at Headlands Elementary School in Bellflower elementary schools congratulations to Wendy [Applause]
016Ron retires as a custodian from Mentor Public Schools with 14 years of service including work at Bellflower Orchard Hollow Ridge and Manor High School congratulations to Ron Cheryl kubitz Cheryl retires after 27 years of service in different positions in school nutrition services at Mentor High School and most recently at Shore Middle School congratulations Cheryl [Applause] Chris laspina Chris retires after 25 years as a classroom assistant her work includes Center Street Lake rice Shore Middle School and most recently Orchard Hollow Elementary School congratulations Chris [Applause] Kathy Latino Kathy retires from Mentor Public Schools after working in all positions for our school nutrition services over her 24 years with us she was at Ridge Mentor High School and Memorial Middle Schools congratulations to Kathy [Applause] Jenny Levine Jenny retires with 26 years having spent time as a
017classroom assistant at Fairfax Elementary School and most recently a library and classroom assistant at Shore Middle School congratulations Jenny Larry Luciano Larry retires from Mentor Public Schools after 30 years of service he spent his time here working as an English teacher an assistant principal an elementary school principal and as a curriculum specialist on the administrative team congrats to Larry foreign Lutheran Cindy retires as a classroom assistant at Mentor High School she has given 43 years of service to Mentor Public Schools congratulations Cindy [Applause] Sandy Lutz Sandy retires from Mentor Public Schools with 28 years of service starting as a classroom assistant then working as a secretary at Ridge and most recently The Mentor High School athletic department secretary congratulations Sandy [Applause] Anne McGrath and retires after 28 years of service in the district starting as
018a classroom assistant also working as an office aide and a secretary at Mentor High School congrats to Ann [Applause] Bill Miller Bill retires from Mentor Public Schools with 17 years as a custodian at Memorial Shore and Mentor High School congrats to Bill Leslie Moser Barber Leslie retires after 35 years of service as a classroom assistant at Lake Elementary School congratulations Leslie foreign Nichols Cheryl retires as a school nutrition services head cashier after 30 years of service including Center Street Shore and Mentor High School congratulations Cheryl [Applause] 23 years of service as a classroom assistant at Brent Moore and at Fairfax Elementary Schools congratulations Susan [Applause] Jan Orlando Jan retires from Mentor Schools after 30 years of service and education most recently in the role of emis coordinator Analyst at the administration building congrats Jan [Applause]
019Chris Parsons Chris retires from Mentor Public Schools as a social studies teacher over his 35 years in the district he taught at Ridge Junior High and also at Mentor High School congrats Mr Parsons [Applause] Karen penica Karen retires after 12 years as a bus assistant working in the transportation department congratulations Karen [Applause] Helen Pirro Helen retires from Mentor Public Schools with 35 years of service as an elementary teacher working at Garfield elementary school and then most recently at Ridge Elementary School congrats Helen Karen Petrovic Karen retires after 25 years serving in the nutrition services department at Ridge Elementary School and also Mentor High School congrats to Karen thank you Doug Pringle Doug retires from Mentor Public Schools after 32 years of custodial service at Mentor High School congratulations Doug Janet Reardon Janet retires from Mentor
020Public Schools with 20 years of service her career included work as a classroom assistant a bus assistant and a secretary at Mentor High School congrats to Janet Georgine Ruff Georgine retires as an elementary teacher after 33 years of service at Bellflower Elementary School congratulations to Georgine foreign Amy retires from Mentor Public Schools with 18 years of service as a school nurse serving at Ridge Bellflower and Shore Middle Schools congratulations Amy [Applause] Paul schoenauer Paul retires as a technology teacher at Mentor High School with 35 years of service congratulations Mr schoenauer [Applause] Mary sellers Mary retires from Mentor Public Schools with 26 years of service as an elementary teacher and math teacher at Shore Middle School congrats to Mary [Applause] Ann Schaefer and retires from Mentor Public Schools with 34 years of service as a math
021teacher at Shore Middle School and Mentor High School congratulations Miss Schaefer [Applause] Faith Shope Faith retires with 23 years of service as an intervention Aid classroom assistant and custodian at Sterling Morton Elementary School congratulations faith foreign Civic Jan retires from Mentor Public Schools with 32 years of service starting as a classroom assistant and also working as a library aide and an account clerk at Mentor High School congrats to jam [Applause] Ira Sharon retires from Mentor Public Schools with 38 years of service as a kindergarten and Elementary School teacher at Garfield and at Ridge Elementary Schools congratulations Sharon [Applause] Patty Starkey Patty retires with 25 years of service she worked as a classroom assistant at ball flower and at Rice Elementary schools and most recently as an account clerk at the administration building congratulations to Patty
022[Applause] if Thompson Steve retires from Mentor Public Schools with 35 years as a science teacher at Mentor High School congratulations Mr Thompson [Applause] Jim Trader Jim retires from Mentor Public Schools as an English teacher over his 35-year career here he taught at Shore Memorial and Mentor High School congratulations Mr Trader I can't call you Jim Joanne sevdos Joanne retires with 35 years of service in Mentor Schools starting as a classroom assistant at Center Street the East Shore Center Mentor High School and now is the secretary at the administration building in the I.T Department congratulations to Joanne [Applause] Cindy retires from Memorial Middle School with 37 years of service as an art teacher in the district congratulations to Cindy Deb Walland Debbie retires from the district as an assistant Treasurer in the administration building after 30
023years of service in Mentor Public Schools congratulations Deb [Applause] T Crystal wolf Crystal retires from Mentor Public Schools after 35 years of service she most recently works as a unit principal at Mentor High School congratulations Crystal [Applause] Aaron Snyder Aaron retires as school nutrition services satellite line coordinator at Bellflower Elementary School and at Mentor High School with 27 years of service in the district congratulations to Aaron [Applause] we'll let you all get situated and one more congratulations to all of our right retirees we will miss you so much and we wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavors congratulations everybody thank you [Applause] thank you nope thank you [Music] at this time we'll take a a quick break for those that want to exit before we get into the rest of the
024business of the board meeting thank you please be seated [Music] all right let's return to the session next on the agenda approval of the minutes previous meeting so move second questions no hearing that Mr Wade please call the roll Miss breiner yes Miss Cook yes Miss jesling yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motions carry 5-0 next on the agenda hearing of the public on agenda items only our first speaker is Kathy McAdams thank you good afternoon I'm Kathy McAdams I live at 9730 Yellowwood Drive in Concord and I'm not accustomed to public speaking so please forgive me um before I begin I'm not against funding of schools I'm against responsible stewardship of taxpayer money um I don't know what that was for all right it's my understanding that the board spent over five million
025dollars for improvements to sports facilities recently I also understand that the board spent over one million dollars on advancing leftist ideas through services and materials can anybody tell me Mr Tuttle can you tell me what percentage of students that spending this money directly benefited I can't tell you that right now but we can get you that answer all right thank you most students don't even participate in sports as we all know and uh tolerance either I also understand that a meeting earlier this year that the district had an overabundance of intervention Specialists with the exception of two or three that just went through a retiring um what has been done to address this over spending on Intervention specialists answer that question at this point all right thank you we'll get you that we'll get you
026that question that answer thank you um I understand that the the board the district offered early buyouts to at least 25 and at least 25 teachers accepted but the board hired another 20 new teachers now in my very limited business experience when a business has buyouts or they have layoffs they don't automatically rehire new people to replace those buyouts are intended because the business is bloated with employees all right and they wait for other opportunities to to hire new people that's just my comment there um currently the property owners in Mentor Village Exempted School District are levied taxes at 83 plus Mills per hundred thousand dollar value of property and that is from the Lake County um auditor's office now one mill is 35 times 83 equals twenty nine hundred five dollars per hundred thousand
027dollar valuation now there aren't too many people in this room that are foolish enough to believe there are many homes worth a hundred thousand dollars in Mentor I know mine home isn't I know most people's homes aren't anymore and it's really the median is about three hundred thousand dollars uh based on previous information I was able to find so that 2905 times three makes it 87 to 15 a year that uh property owner of a hundred thousand dollar home property pays the the school district gets 171 million times okay well thank you I appreciate it I can email my further comments if you'd all like to see them thank you for the time thank you thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Roger Jewell it's not here thank you Miss Vargo Bambi Vargo will be
028our next speaker then hi I'm Bambi Vargo I live at 7467 Rockingham Road in Mentor the president board members Mr Heath and Mr Wade I am speaking in opposition to House Bill 103 to enact a social studies standards task force to develop new social studies academic standards beginning with the 2004-2005 school year based on American Birthright the Civic alliances model K-12 social studies standards the task force would be required to report the proposed standards to the Ohio general assembly for further consideration many groups are opposed to this bill the Ohio Education Association I don't mean to interrupt but is that an agenda item to which you speak well uh I'm speaking because uh someone will be speaking on legislative issues may I proceed is that applicable Mr Wayne on the agenda our legislative update is
029on the agenda yes okay thank you excuse me then um proceed yes the Ohio education Association opposes the house bill 103 proposal to bypass the State Board of Education process for developing and adopting Ohio subject-based learning standards the Ohio Council for social studies notes the current Ohio Social Studies model curriculum contains many skills embedded in our standards that have been the culmination of the work of Scholars teachers parents and students the standards developed by the Civics Alliance would deprive students of the necessary skills needed for informed citizenship and as stakeholders in our democracy according to the children's defense fund of Ohio House Bill 103 would fundamentally undermine the social studies education that our students need to develop a well-rounded unbiased view of our nation's history and essential critical thinking skills through exposure to diverse perspectives
030and accurately complex historical nuance the National Council of Ohio Social Studies has determined that if implemented American Birthright standards quote would have damaging and lasting effects on Civic knowledge for students and their capacity to engage in Civic reasoning and deliberation the bill is also opposed by the Ohio Federation of teachers and public education Partners Mr Tuttle I am respectfully asking this board to carefully examine and consult with your own curriculum Specialists and social studies teachers on House Bill 103 and to report to the public in a future meeting your position on this proposed change to the social studies curriculum thank you [Applause] Rachel Perry not seeing Rachel Mike Williams hello my name is Mike Williams um Dear Mr President Mr Heath Mr Wade I would like to address a few questions that hopefully either Mr
031Heath or Mr Wade can answer for us um I think Kathy McAdams stole my thunder a little bit but this is worth repeating how much did we spend on the recently renovated football field concession stand scoreboard and weight room to make these state-of-the-art facilities I'll wait till the end of your questions and who paid for these Renovations did we have a wealthy donor or did the hard-working residents of Mentor foot the bill for this secondly how much would it will it cost to have the baseball fields and the discus area renovated to bring these up to state of the art status again who is paying for this are we counting on a wealthy benefactor or will Mentor taxpayers pay this bill as well I'm curious to know how these decisions are arrived at to spend
032probably millions of dollars of taxpayer money on Sports facility upgrades when most of our academic proficiency scores are in the 70th 70th percentile range this community needs more transparency as to how tax dollars are spent at Mentor Schools in order to make informed decisions on proposed tax levies thank you thank you [Applause] do you want me to answer that now or can I do it as part of my presentation that's planned that we do yearly what would you like to do it now you feel weird I could do a part of the presentation because it's already planned so that's fine I'll answer them then okay and trip then that concludes the agenda items section of the public participation next on the agenda Mr Heath superintendent report recommendations uh first of all thank you all for
033being here and adjusting the schedule a little bit to try and avoid some of the uh noise from the concert here this evening and just as an FY we'll do that in July and then in August as well and August we're actually going to be over in the Fine Arts Center just a little public service announcement for everyone a couple of things that I have before we get to the consent agenda here this evening first of all we've been working on several items regarding parent Communications over the last month including identifying a common parent teacher communication system that protects student privacy and streamlines the information flow between our schools and our families we are currently working with neonet to allow parents to receive emails regarding books that students may be checking out of our media
034centers based on our conversations at the at the May board meeting as well so we're making some progress with those um and we are working with our transportation department to combine our email Communications regarding busing uh to parents cell phone numbers and infinite campus to provide text messages and voice messages starting this fall uh we're continuing to identify a new software system for bus routing and GPS tracking capabilities also that can that we can hopefully pilot at some point here next school year also uh about a week ago here we hosted approximately 200 School District employees police officers and fire department personnel and individuals from the County Emergency Management agencies for a full-scale safety drill here in Paradigm and at Mentor High School while responding to the initial emergency situation that was presented to us
035the Emergency Management Personnel continue to throw us curveballs to make us think on our feet quickly as we were responding to phone calls media requests Food Service needs and continuous communication demands during that drill as an administrative team we were absolutely exhausted by the end of that drill overall it was a huge success and the Emergency Management agencies overseeing the drill were extremely complementary of the way all three entities the school the police and the fire departments handled the incident we've also learned quite a bit that will impact our emergency plans moving forward we've already had one review session immediately after the drill and we have a couple more follow-up meetings scheduled to review our procedures as well State testing data we've received some of our preliminary State testing data from the spring and are
036pleased with some of the increases that we are seeing particularly in math where we have increases in seven of the eight tested grade levels as you know we've had a pretty intense focus on math instruction this year with the implementation of the open up resources at our middle schools in the pilot programs at our elementary level we hope the final data or we hope to have the final data here available for all of our Ela math science and social studies tests in July that we will share with the board um and finally one uh one final piece that I want to mention uh we are actually partnering with the Lake County United Way and the Cleveland area food bank to provide fresh food to our community this summer uh the first date is going to
037be on Thursday June 29th from 11 30 to 2 out near the stadium here and we will have some more information coming out here relatively soon with that Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of item six a one through six a three please call the roll Mr Wade Miss jessalyn yes Miss Briner yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 Mr President members of the board and Minister Wade I am recommending approval of the resolution to accept and approve the Mentor High School graduation class of 2023. so moved second please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss breiner yes Miss dressling yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 Mr
038President members of the board Mr Wade I am recommending approval of the contractual agreement with the alliance for working together please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Briner yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of the rental agreement with the city of mentor second was that Miss brighter yes yes please call the roll Mr Wade Miss brighter yes Miss dressling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C7 all related to human resource matters so moved second please call the roll Miss Payne yes Miss
039jessling yes Miss Briner yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motions carry 5-0 I am also recommending approval of an agenda item D related to administrative staff please call the roll Mr Wade Miss jesling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Briner yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next on the agenda is Board of Education report and recommendations business Mr Heath Mr Wade so every June we give an update on our five-year Capital plan this will answer I think Mr Williams most of your questions as well as some of Mrs McAdams questions so um I figured if I don't answer them you can let me know and I'll make sure I get those answers to you but every year we do go over this
040plan um it is aligned to our strategic plan and the feedback that we got from our community on the Strategic plan um which says that together we will ensure a safe learning environment provide a high balance a high quality balanced education we'll manage our district resources and we'll have strong Community Partnerships so when we look at it from a financial perspective there's the three goals in this cheesy plan that we follow the first one being the fact that we'll maintain enhanced fiscal stability by focusing our attention and diligence on short and long-term financial planning short-term planning just as a reminder is our yearly Appropriations which we approve in September our long-term planning is our November and may 5-year forecast updates that we gave and most of you were here last month for the May update
041where we showed an improvement on that based on some of the decisions that we're making on our Appropriations for next year we saw roughly a 22 million dollar increase into our cash balance after the May update the second goal of our resources is to explore options or alternative Revenue to maximize existing Personnel facilities and resources we primarily do this through advertising we started doing that last year on the scoreboard it's not a substantial amount of money that we generate we generated fifty thousand dollars last year with the new scoreboard it's about 10 percent of the cost of that scoreboard scoreboard has a life expectancy of 10 years the goal is to pay off that scoreboard and generate more Revenue to offset the cost of future school boards into the future that we would have with
042that our goal is to get at least hundred thousand dollars this year and all our out years with that Advertising based on the way we have it set up um we're hopeful we'll meet that goal this year we've started to re-up the advertising and started to see those contracts come in so we're optimistic that we'll do that the other main way that we do that in this District just as a reminder is we have plenty of shared services in this District we provide services to Richmond Heights for payroll we provide services to Richmond Heights for Grants oversight East Cleveland Grant oversight we provide payroll support for Kirtland schools we do food service for Kirtland so we generate quite a bit additional Revenue that helps us offset the cost of many of the salaries that we
043have in those departments by doing that so we're able to reduce expenses for us by providing those services and generate Revenue that helps us increase revenue for the district um I think Mr Lynch is already there so our third and final resource goal is to ensure continued balanced approach toward equitable distribution of resources to maximize opportunities across the district everything happens then within our fiscal management beliefs obviously we live within our five-year forecast we know that there's management options attached to every dollar that we spend that we have a choice to make we believe that every uh dollar that we spend must add value to teaching and learning and we must Focus aggressively on our highest costs which are obviously salaries benefits special education and facilities and we believe that quality is always cheaper in
044the long term and those physical management beliefs have been around for many years I think they date back to Mr Wilson fener maybe early 2000s and we continue to have those as the basis of what we do daily here at the district as a part of that uh you know again just as a reminder to the board of the community we do provide this update yearly every June um I I've done it twice I didn't do it last year because I was CFO and Mr uh Porter did the update because he was acting business operations however we have switched business operations to my office our director of business operations now falls under the consolidation of the positions that we did under the last year's adjustment in my office where we have an assistant Treasurer who
045oversees the assistant Treasurer and business operations Mr baccarello so him and I work very closely on these plans with Mr Heath and his team as well just to remind the board in the community um to make sure that we have experts evaluating our roofs we have consult a Consulting Group that we work with Taylor Consulting who has evaluated all of our roofs and given us the life expectancy on the roofs that we have and has helped us develop a 10-year Roofing plan so when you see in our our plan those aren't you know we we have people we work with people who are experts in these areas that test the roofs and have helped us develop these plans likewise we started this plan back in prior to my arrival but when I got here is
046business operation we we took the plan and worked with the Board of Education to go out for a request for qualifications and we hired Millstone management company to help us with our construction manager risk projects so they oversee our projects that we have currently on our plan for the next couple years that are left both these groups assist us to making sure we're appropriately planning implementing and overseeing our projects as they go through to make sure that we're staying on time and staying on budget and they add value engineering so I will pause here for a second because I will remind and this is going to come up again but I think it's important to remind that these are all funded by taxpayer dollars as we've said um this this comes out of our permanent
047Improvement Levy which generates about a million dollars a year and then we have subsidized additional costs for any of the construction projects that we've had whether it be athletic or other through the general fund and we've communicated that yearly so I do take a little bit of angst Mr Williams with the lack of transparency because I don't know how much more transparency I could be because I give monthly updates I talk about that you've heard me talk about this repeatedly so if I need to do more let me know but you know we we've talked about this a number of times in the three years that I've been here more than just the once a year special meetings and things of that nature so um if I need to be more transparent I will do
048that I'll communicate it from the mountaintops I try to give monthly updates I try to communicate to the community on the things that we're doing so that we are transparent um but heck I can't really think of how much more I can do unless I start having a show out at the Tuesday night Manor Rock shows but nobody wants to hear me sing trust me and the speakers are really loud as you'll hear about seven o'clock and not gonna be good for anybody Mr Wayne yes can I just ask a quick question um because in this chart it doesn't show the concession stand that I see on here um or the like the ticket booth and things like that is that I have it right here okay yep um so with that I'm gonna go
049back even further because we because we we put the the softball field in the Varsity Softball field was like the first project of this Capital plan that was was put into place back in 2019-20 so the fiscal year 20 um right before covet hit we put the new Varsity Softball field in and I got a lot of papers here so this looks like my desk right now so it's uh it was like 1.2 million dollars is what that project cost us um that project was determined to be put in because we had concerns with Title IX and inequity of our Fields particularly for our female athletes they were playing at the city fields and we have fields for our baseball teams here and we didn't have specific Fields designed for our female athletes so the
050board and uh the treasurer and Superintendent at that time made the decision to put that field in that being said that kicked us off the next year in fiscal year 21 we spent 1 million about 1.1 million dollars a little bit less on the JV softball field that is adjacent to that field um because we needed to have another field for our JV softball field because we knew we were going to be putting in a new JV baseball field or doing another baseball field at that time and again to be Equitable and we'd already had that space that was part of the plan we put that field in we renovated the soccer shed so that our soccer players had a space that was for them that they could use for basically it's a pseudo locker
051room but it's not a full locker room we upgraded the PA system out at that field because we have many games that are out there for both soccer and Lacrosse and we added restrooms and a concession stand out front because since I was high school principal in that field has been there we were using porta johns and if you ever come to Mentor High School on a Saturday even when we're not having events there's hundreds of thousands of kids that are here for a variety of different activities and one of our biggest complaints was the fact that we didn't have Laboratories for our community in that space so that was something that was needed and asked for as part of the feedback that we were getting through the Strategic plan again so where do we
052get this plan this was a lot of this plans based on need and feedback they were getting from the community during the strategic planning process that started back in 2018. as we presented in 21 of June that was my first meeting right before I became Treasurer um and I think that's the time that many of you started coming to the meetings if I remember correctly I think Mr Lynch even got asked to leave the stage in the middle of his presentation at that time if I recall correctly um we presented that we were going to do the current projects that are finishing up that you see now that we just had the grand opening on which is the new Athletic Facility weight training facility ticket booth uh concession stand scoreboard and track and those projects
053in total cost 3.285 million dollars um that was decided upon the fact that as we evaluated our facilities and we compared ourselves to the rest of the facilities in the league and looked at the last time that we'd updated those facilities to that level had been since we basically built the place and we don't feel the need to tear down and start over and build a new high school and have brand new facilities for everything but part of Mentor is what has always made mentors special and I noticed this when I transitioned from Riverside no disrespect from Riverside is the high school principal came over to Mentor Schools is we've always taken care of our schools and you notice that when you walk through our schools and through our facilities and we pride ourselves on
054having state of the art facilities for our students and Community because again all these fields are not just used by our students they're used by members of our community there's never a day that you walk by that JV star or that new Varsity Softball field if there's not Mentor Youth girls softball practicing or playing out there every single day I mean they're they're using it we have flag football out on the soccer field and we have it out on the football field the football it's it's used constantly it's not just used by our students so to quantify the number of people that that touches is pretty difficult to be quite honest I know we have over 500 student athletes that use our facilities every year so that's that's a number I think I don't know
055if that was Miss McAdams or Mr uh Williams yes yeah and it'll be you'll see you'll see it on it's actually on the slide here because there's some other things in there Mr Mr Williams um and then the final question is because you see it going on now and it's part of the presentation so I'll just touch on it is the varsity field the JV field the two practice fields that are being renovated have a cost of a project cost of 2.6 million dollars when we when I was high school principal we had a JV in a varsity baseball field we gifted land to Lake Health now University Hospital for the district to build the wellness center which allows us to have a relationship with University Hospital Systems now which they provide the Cardinal Clinic
056to our employees which house just keeps our health care costs down they provided a pool to our student athletes because prior to that we were driving our kids to either Cleveland State or out to Geneva in the middle of winter that always made many not many things make me nervous driving kids on a bus out to Geneva in the middle winter always made me a little bit nervous so now we don't do that as often I'm not going to say we don't do it but we don't do it as often because now we have the pool here that's provided to us for free free use free cost to our our students um so we needed to put a JV field in and when we made the decision to put the varsity baseball field there we
057said maybe we should put the varsity field where we work up at the JV field because of the fact that we just have this brand new concession stand we have restrooms and then all of our Varsity fields are in the same location and we made the determination to make it Turf because it was the only varsity field that we didn't have that wasn't Turf in in Ohio as you could all imagine in the spring we cancel a lot of activities because our fields which is another reason why we're updating the JV field and you see you'll see in the pictures don't drain well The Varsity Field current Varsity Field doesn't drain well it's always constantly underwater it's not safe because it started to have a huge drop from the infield to the Outfield so as
058a former baseball coach it was very obvious to me to go out there and look that something needed to be done with that field so we made an adjustment instead of just updating that field and making it doing the improvements there and putting a brand new JV field in to make a new varsity field so it's close in location to that because we needed to add a field we made the decision to invest in Turf because it allows our community and our kids to have access to it more much like the success that we've had with the JV field and the two practice fields was basically they needed to be regraded so that they weren't flooding and that they had everything graded the correct way so that we weren't causing issues for our neighbors behind
059us on the right my right here this way so I'm talking the first Baseline of the current Varsity Field um and so these are these are one-time costs I get it they they are not cheap costs but these are costs that will last us another 30 to 50 years their investments in our community in our students these aren't costs that we're going to have to make over and over and over again um I understand I I'm always looking for ways to save money for our district Mr vaccarello is a 27-year Treasurer who's now our assistant Treasurer business operations he's constantly looking for ways for helping us to save money on these costs um you know it's the other piece of the puzzle to this and the danger of giving me a presentation time is you
060gave me a mic but I've said since I got here as our citizens Financial advisory is I agree this shouldn't be coming out of the general fund but we our PI fund is from 1988 and it only generates a million dollars a year our total insured value is 305 million dollars a million dollars doesn't cut it and you've heard me say this over and over again and you're going to see it on a slide in a little bit that is the reason why I believe and we should put it to the voters to say yes we want to invest in updating and maintaining our facilities and then if it doesn't pass and then everything that I'm going to talk about here tonight is going to have to be reconsidered so off my soapbox back to
061my presentation so if you are unaware and you want to see what the overview looks like this is what the top view picture is going to look like when everything's finished so again that Varsity feel will be up front uh you'll see that it's close to the new concession stand and restroom so that it will be accessible to our community from that standpoint the new soccer slash practice football fields will be below those where their current fields are and then we're renovating that uh JV Varsity slash JV field so this is what it looks like now Mr Lynch Mr Heath I think I'm stealing your part of the presentation you just keep going okay I'm good I don't know let's go back to that one would you nope right there so you can see this
062is the the current Varsity feel we're adding new drainage to that field so that it drains properly now so that the the JV kids will be able to play on it obviously if there's not a home varsity game and there's the one Field's wet they can obviously go to the turf but um we needed to grade that Varsity Field because and you can kind of see it uh the infield as it went to the grass dropped like significantly I'm talking like almost a foot foot and a half so we had to like level things out because over time because it's so wet that Outfield had sat so um it was becoming I would say unplayable slash unsafe and you can see that a little bit in that in that four square in the bottom right
063Square how that after that infield in between the infield and the drainage ditch you can see that there's there's that drop there and that drop has been leveled out to reassure everybody we don't spend all the money on Athletics we are renovating 16 science classrooms at the high school we renovated every classroom in the high school when I was high school principal back in 2015 with a straight A Grant at no cost to the district we were not able to with that Grant provide the necessary renovations to those labs that are now over 50 years old because the 50th Anniversary was back in two thousand 15 12-15 I think because I have a mug from when I was principal I said 50 years it's what I took away from mentor high the first time um
064so with that we have started that demo but obviously with that these buildings uh have asbestos in them so they're all being abated and being cleaned up by professionals um EA groups in testing to make sure everything's done appropriately and again this is why we work with the experts at Millstone management and we work with TDA and we work with the EA group to make sure that these rooms are baited and then we will do the construction uh upgrades on those rooms many much of it is Cabinetry and faucets and ventilation as you can imagine so we're going to be excited to see those new classrooms ready for the beginning of the school year right Mr vaccarello um so that takes us through fiscal year 23 which again remember this is the last month of
065fiscal year 23 and since we started those projects in June we're using fiscal year 23 money technically fiscal year 24 starts July a lot of the projects that you see up here now all these projects won't start until next summer or next later in the year because we're currently finishing up our fiscal year 23 projects so facility upgrades the things that I want to point out that we talked about at the June 5th work session and uh we have added to the the plan is five hundred thousand dollars a year uh and that's that's an estimated number some years it might be last some years it might be more um but it's it's a placeholder for us for do to do safety upgrades as we've talked at our safety meetings uh including vestibules at the
066buildings for entrances door sensors camera upgrades telephone upgrades um anything that Mr Heath and his team evaluate and they feel that they need to make sure that we can ensure the safety of all students we'd have money budgeted beyond what we already budget in this Improvement plan and making a commitment to it and this is on top of the money that we budgeted as I shared last May last last May in the last update in May for the school resource officer so this is in addition to to that in addition to the money that we already put for our off-duty resource officers that we have in the buildings too um the roof replacement at Shore is uh slated at a million dollars roughly we have Paving and concrete needs throughout the district that will total
067about four hundred thousand dollars and then we set aside a hundred thousand dollars a year as an emergency reserve for anything that goes wrong during the year that we didn't plan and again because it's Pi money it has to be something that has a life expectancy of five years or more that's not salary and benefits our our big projects for next year for Capital Improvements are all we're a three-year phase-in of a project um replacing every window and door at the Mentor High School on the outside envelope um that's a pretty substantial project it's about 1.2 million dollars a year over the next three years that we'd be allocating to that again those windows and doors are 50 years old they're inefficient they're starting to rust in areas so there's um safety concerns with those
068as well we are in the midst of finishing starting this year and we'll finish it next year um one of the buildings that has asbestos in the the ceiling tiles when we tested that a couple years ago is Fairfax um and so we're abating the pods in Fairfax to get those ceiling tiles out and work because uh we just want to make sure that we have a safe environment for our students and with that the floor and getting those floor tiles out and updating the walls if you've been in Fairfax it has like those 1950 accordion like brown tan like walls that are ugly and they're not attractive so part of the research shows that and this is the superintendent of me coming out not the business guy research shows that in a classroom environment
069impacts student learning so we we demoed one of these areas last year and uh to see the the benefit of it was amazing so we're partnering up with Mr Lynch with some straight a savings that we have uh that we budget every year annually to to offset the cost of this project so that we are updating all those pods in Fairfax so that's that's going on at Fairfax um we wanted to hold off on doing the varsity gym floor and bleachers I think initially it was in 26 or 27 but our again our gym floor is 50 years old it's been sanded down it's been recoded a number of times the last time we're due for a re-standing the company said you basically you can't you if you go any thinner you're going to you
070know the floor is going to break it's going to be compromised so unfortunately again it's like your house once you get to that standpoint you gotta you gotta replace the floor the bleachers are a little bit newer they're about 30 years old we had an incident uh that caused us a little bit of concern with the safety of the bleachers so with that we're going to upgrade the bleachers at the same time because it makes sense logically since we're doing the floor to do the bleachers at the same time and again get another 30 to 50 years out of that and you can see that those projects will total about one point a little bit less than 1.1 million dollars and we always factor in contingency and soft costs into those projects and budget that
071and that includes your cost for things like unforeseen costs that pop up um you know like for example in our Stadium project even though we came in under budget by a hundred thousand dollars we had 193 000 electrical period that we had to make because the electrical was 50 years old so I mean things like that that just kind of come up so we do budget for that so it's not like we don't but you know it also covers some of the costs that we have for uh our architect fees and things like that again safety upgrade 50 or 550 50 000 500 000 uh we have a rooftop unit that we need to replace that we have budget in for 90. again this is uh a roof replacement at Shore and ridge again you're
072seeing Shore up there because we're dividing that project for a million dollars and uh Paving and concrete for three hundred thousand and again our emergency Reserve as I shared that's a three-year project for the windows and doors at the high school so you see that again is that 1.2 million dollars parking lot improvements at the high school and for the the stadium areas one of the things that we have looked to do is to find ways that once we will be done with the major Renovations is there can we put additional parking in in the stadium area because if you've ever been here for an event people are parking on the grass they're parking everywhere else and we've started to use some of that grass where people used to park so we're trying to be
073thoughtful in our approach and having that um and doing that at the same time last year we didn't finish Paving the high school parking lot so you know maybe that will be pushed down the road further you know again these tentative out years will be based on what happens if the board decides to put a levy on in November but also on the fact that things come up that need to be done at a higher priority so we push some of this stuff down um even further we have a lighting board at the Fine Arts Center that needs to be replaced we use that lighting board obviously not only for the events that we have for our students but we generate quite a bit of revenue from facility use um so we need to make
074sure that we have the equipment that are we need to run the Fine Arts Center and then about a hundred thousand dollars for various miscellaneous building projects that haven't been identified specifically yet so now we're on to 26 we have two elevators at the high school and what in the shore one each that need to be replaced or upgraded so that they can be continue to run and be safe um we have roof replacement at Lake that's a 1.2 million dollar project we have a four hundred thousand dollars worth of pay being identified throughout the district that needs to be done emergency reserve and then we also have about 200 000 of concrete improvements that I've added in um just to make sure that it's included in the project people have I mean we could
075like I've told everybody you've heard me say this many times I could spend millions of dollars on Paving and concrete and Roofing just because we're so big um and then that's the year we finished the replacement I think that's the third year losing track of the 1.2 million dollars on the windows for the high school we have added a renovation to our family consumer science classrooms at the high school um the kitchen's 50 years old it needs to be restructured and renovated this is on here more as a placeholder in the event that the grant that Mr Excuse me Dr glaven dare I disrespect him in the fashion Dr glavin does not get the grant that he applied for so if we get the grant that we applied for that 793 thousand dollars would come
076off of this uh out year projection and probably replaced with a roofing project or something else that we could get done sooner um in contingency in soft costs included in again on the left these are all things that facility improvements that we have to do um just I try to structure this way so that the board in the community can kind of see the things that have to be done not that the things on the right don't need to be done it's that those things could be delayed or could change based on other needs that pop up again safety upgrades you can see the roofs are getting more expensive 1.5 million dollars at Fairfax Paving and concrete 600 000 rooftop units and then we have to replace the football turf because it'll be 13 years
077old we do plan things out and it costs about 625 thousand dollars we do set aside money from that replacement annually too to help offset that cost um the stadium garages storage areas if you've ever passed them or exited them on the way out they are dilapidated and they need to be at some point fixed so we have them in here as a placeholder that that's what we would need to do cost wise to replace those um the facade on the stadium has some upgrades that would we would consider doing estimated cost of 500 000 in the stadium LED lighting I would really like to do just because it would reduce the amount of energy that we're using when we use our Stadium lights as a part of a cost saving measure making an investment
078into some Stadium LED lighting for about 362 thousand dollars 28 it's five years from now we like to update the out year every year again this will change probably two or three times by the time we actually get to 28 but again if we're budgeting and trying to make sure that we're thinking into the future as part of one of our principles we are assuming continue with our five hundred thousand dollars in safety upgrades um roof replacement at Orchards now 1.8 million dollars and the soccer Turf will be at its 13 years approximately life expectancy so we need to budget that um about seven hundred thousand dollars this one is the the far right is the things that we continue to push down um on the list of a necessity because of the fact that
079it doesn't directly impact uh some of our higher priorities that we feel but at some point we would like to add a loop for the visitor's stand so that the buses could pull in off of Market Street and Park right there behind the visitor's stance if you think of that grassy knoll area um so that way they're not taking up space in the parking that we have and creating some more space for our own Community during that time and dropping them off creating potentially looking at creating a visitor locker room space over in that side so that they're they have a space there creating a visitor concession stand because there's nothing over there we have currently the the new one we put in plus the old one but there's a temporary trailer out there currently
080and then creating some visitor restrooms on that side as well in that same space so that the visitors stay on their side of the field and it's just a more convenient kind of structure and Logistics piece for the for that community um again we've pushed that down because we felt there's other things that we had a higher priority that we've moved up um case in point the basketball floor in bleachers we also plan for vehicle replacements I touched on this a number of times we buy five new buses a year which gives us a life expectancy of about 13 years on our Fleet um that's going to cost us 700 and some odd thousand dollars because Mr Lynch is trying to speed me up that's a uh 35 000 a year increase over the last
081two years though just for everybody who's keeping track and paying attention and then we do our uh vehicle replacement plan we have vehicles that we replace yearly because we have a fleet of vehicles that we have for our employees that we have to take care of and use most of our vehicles go 10 to 12 years then we replace them I like summaries this presentation we put on the online for everybody because I know you love my numbers on average we're spending about 2.4 million dollars a year on facility upgrades our construction manager risk projects are about 2.4 million so we spend about 4.8 million dollars a year on improvements maintenance and upgrades um Mr Lynch we also spend out of the general fund about a hundred thousand dollars a year in vehicles 734 000
082a year on buses eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year on technology about 158 000 a year on furniture so we average about one point almost nine million dollars a year on other expenses that could be considered permanent Improvement expenses so those are things that have a useful life of five years so in total we average about 6.7 million dollars a year in permanent Improvement expenses that we only have a permanent Improvement fund that generates one million dollars a year annually so we spend five million dollars at the general fund there's nothing wrong with that it's it's acceptable you can spend general fund dollars on anything and there are things that we believe and have identified as needs and upgrades that we have committed to uh Mr Lynch if you go the next slide
083so we fund it through the current Pi Levy and subsidy transfers from the general fund I've already touched on this so you can go to the advertising Mr Lynch go to the next slide won't belabor this point total insured value is about 300 million Carnegie melligan they're way smarter than I am say that you should have about two percent of your replacement costs so that would be about six million dollars a year in just to maintain and upgrade your facilities this doesn't include the buses and vehicles and everything else I'm talking about we have a million dollars just to remind the community and the board a permanent Improvement fund is limited money that could be used for only specific things it really only can be used for improvements on your facilities and supplies and materials
084that have a useful life of five years the citizens Financial committee and I agree that it would behoove us to increase the pi Levy and then we can take those expenses that we've been transferring out of the general fund and just pay for them out of the pi Levy which would obviously then reduce our expenses in the general fund which would give us a two-fold impact we'd be able to transfer eight point some million dollars back to the general fund from the capital Improvement fund so we'd have an increase in cash balance further than I explained in May and we reduce our spending and out years because we wouldn't be making those purchases out of the general fund anymore because they qualify as permanent Improvement funds and if the community and the board agreed and
085passed that Levy they would be paid out of the permanent Improvement fund and you'd reduce your spending there so our need for General operating dollars which we primarily use as everybody knows is for salary and benefits and purchase services would be pushed out we would be able to stretch our current general fund operating Levy to I'd say around 2026 ideally which would mean that it would be 10 years since we've actually had a new general fund operating Levy in this District most districts are averaging anywhere from three to five years for their General operating fund levies um Mr Lynch so that will cost uh that will raise a 2.5 mil levies what I'm recommending to the board I have been recommending to the board generates an additional five and a half million dollars a year
086approximately which would give us about 6.5 million dollars a year for the things that I just shared with you that's what it would be used for and those summaries showed that um can you just go back real quick because I don't want to gloss over this and I know Miss McAdams you're going to get mad at me but I just find it easier because I like round numbers but I could multiply it by three if you need me to because it's 300 000 is what you told me right the average I don't know I'm talking to myself I guess uh 87.50 for a year for every hundred thousand dollars of market value I've simplified it for you because it's not your assessed value that you get taxed on because the tax law in Ohio is
087very complicated it it truly is I mean even for me I have to go back and read things and make sure I understand it so if we put this on the ballot which I am recommending it would for every hundred thousand dollars of market value you would pay roughly 87.50 so if you had a house that was three hundred thousand dollars you'd spend just was that just under 200 and 70 a year for to support that and I know that that's an increase I get that that's that's an ask I'm not dismissing that I'm just trying to explain what it would cost the average taxpayer um Mr Lynch can you go to the next slide so it's important to me to show this because this really shows the impact of kind of where we're at
088in November we were the Blue Line the the buyout and the reduction of nine staff six certified three classifieds saved us just over just under 12 million dollars and unlike business we kids show up regardless so we are still correcting um our our staff to the decline in enrollment and this helped us do that so we're back to average class sizes post coveted as we were pre-covered um the intervention specialists increase I'm unsure what that was referring to like the only thing I could maybe Garner out of that comment and I'll try to explain it the best that I could would be the Esser Subs that we have that we've been paying for out of Esser they are not affecting our general fund at all they're being paid for Esser dollars and when those Ester
089dollars run out after next year those subs will no longer be employed by the district so you have my I mean I've said it in a public session that that's that money does not impact general fund and those employees will not be employed by the district after those monies run out those monies have one more fiscal year so after next school year those Esser Subs will no longer be a part of the district because I've shared a number of times what I would show in the middle is the May forecast as well as some changes in the assumptions that I presented at the June 5th meeting um we will have to transfer money to the capital Improvement fund to support the 500 000 a year that I've introduced into this uh presentation because it wasn't
090a part of the original transfer that we made back in last year and you'll see it on my update I always talk about it's the 10 million dollars increase because it's the one-time transfer and then we're not transferring for 24 25 and 26. we're able to offset that transfer though because we are self-insured Mr Wilson was a smart man to make the district self-insured for workers compensation so we don't pay into the bureaus of work compensation we are self-insured so we have a fund in our district that we fund from ourselves that we pay into that covers the cost of our workers compensation and because we have not had a high claims and because we have a uh stop loss of a million dollars on a catastrophic event and with four hundred thousand dollars per
091event and the fact that we know what we're liable for actually over 10 years we are we have funded ourselves very very well to the point where we do not have to charge ourselves in the general fund over the next couple years for workers compensation and we'll still be okay and we'll still have a nice Reserve with that we will then be able to fund the transfer that we're going to have to make to fund the extra additional money for the 200 000 or 500 000 a year for safety so what you see in the middle is that we're no worse off by adding the safety because of the fact we're offsetting it with the the over the high balance that we've generated because of the less claims that we've had in the fact that
092we've been consistent with our uh way we've charged ourselves for workers compensation which I would add also has been cheaper than we would have been charged if we stayed in bureau's workers compensation so there was a savings there that was already had on top of that um the red line is the line that I would ask the board in the community to strongly consider that would be the cash balance if the November Levy passed and we were able to refund the eight million dollars of the transfer that we haven't spent yet and then we were able to offset all the costs for the projects that I've shared tonight with a fully funded 6.5 million dollar permanent Improvement fund and again permanent funds can only be used on improvements in materials and supplies that have a
093useful life of five years they cannot be used for salaries benefits or anything else happy to answer any questions from the board Redline refers to the pi Levy that assumes that we are replacement or renewal Levy would also pass is that correct correct it would be yes it would be a passage of the renewal Levy from 2004 that is expiring that is not a tax increase as well as the passage of the 2.5 mil Pi Levy that I'm recommending that the board put on the ballot for November Mr Ray do you know on the fiscal year 24 which one of those projects or how many of them have we not started yet uh We've not started any of those any okay yeah because you mentioned the roof replacement at Shore about the um somebody came
094in to evaluate that that doesn't mean it started no we're actually the rules that we're doing are the ones that I had on the 23 slide which are Memorial Shore this year yep thank you any other questions sorry Mr Lynch you know I like to talk I do Mr Wade I will promise all of you that that's about 95 of the presentation so I only have about five percent left to go to cover the technology plan so we're getting there um so each year I as well give an update on technology in the district and as we have done over the last three years we operate under these principles first and foremost our fiscal responsibility we try to treat every single dollar that we can and maximize the dollars that our community has given to
095us and make sure that we are being as fiscally responsible when spending when it comes to our technology that we use in the district doing this we try to maximize the life of the devices but we also don't want to hold on to our hardware for too long and so in other words we take every piece of Hardware in our district and we have put it basically on a four to six year plan and then that Hardware gets replaced the more we hang on to it the more expensive it costs to kind of keep that up to date and make sure that our students and our staff are using up-to-date technology that's not being inhibiting their learning or their teaching and then by doing this we also are able to provide quick consistent I.T support
096for our students our staff and our parents and so this year we came up We Came Upon a real large dilemma and that dilemma is the map books that we have been using in our district for our high school we started this uh back with the straight a grant in 2014 and so the first four years essentially of the MacBook purchases were essentially funded through that straight a grant and so we bought four years of devices all kids grades 9 through 12 in 2015 received a Macbook and so we said we would continue to do that as long as it was fiscally responsible we started to come to a point this year where we started to have to question is this are we able to continue to do this and are we using the the
097money in the best way possible for our students and so it really came down to four main things the first one is the arrow pops up is at the bottom and you can see that a little bit but I'll explain it is that when we purchase these MacBooks there were a number number of programs that we had our teachers and our students using that were specific to the MacBooks But as time has gone on we have found that more and more tools are web-based tools that can be used using any device that can connect to the internet so that's Factor number one factor number two is the cost of the MacBook versus the cost of the Chromebook a Macbook costs us approximately about eight hundred dollars for the purchase of the device and the purchase
098of the case a Chromebook would cost us approximately three hundred dollars the next big factor that came into play was Apple made a change in the screens that are on their MacBooks and so we started to see for our ninth graders and 10th graders a significant increase in breakage of the screens we are not blaming our students for those breaks for the screens although sometimes it is careless on their part but we did start to see that this increase was being caused because there was a change in material that Apple was using and so you can see this you can see it you'll see it better but at that point in October we started considering this last summer we started to gather facts in the fall as of October we had already hit an expense
099of Sixteen thousand dollars on repairing screens this projected out and the final cost for all screen repairs this year was at sixty four thousand dollars and that was for two grade levels using M1 MacBooks we could not sustain mean this over time as we would project that it would be over a hundred thousand dollars once all of our students had these M1 MacBooks and so the change that Apple made was another factor that came to impact our decision as I pointed out there and then the final one of the final reasons was also the buyback price so when we started this back in 2015 we were receiving again the first couple of years we were selling one two three and then even four-year-old MacBooks and now we sell all four-year-old MacBooks but that was the
100kind of leveling up to get to there because we had done that initial purchase but we were receiving anywhere from three hundred dollars to four hundred and fifty dollars up to I think our highest one was 480 when we were selling these at auction after we collected them from our seniors and then coven happened and when covet happened there were ECF funds which were seven billion dollars at the federal government put into uh school districts allowing to them to apply so all school districts could go one to one and so at that point we had this influx of money our influx of devices that were out there and so there just wasn't as high of a demand for the MacBooks that we were selling so when the previous year we had received 250 or 280
101dollars for uh individual MacBook now we were receiving 89 and so now we had used that money to fund the purchase of additional MacBooks so when all of this stacked up it became very clear that we had to we had to make a change the other thing that happened is that in order for all of our programs to work well we need to make sure that the devices that we have are kept up to date Apple made a change and took away we had purchased MacBooks three and four years ago and those could no longer be updated this summer and so if we were to continue to operate those devices that are in 350 of our teachers hands they would have had a real major problem with the other programs that we use because we
102could no longer update them past this summer so all of that happened and we said well if we collect our freshman devices back from them and we use them to pass them back out to the teachers we could take care of that problem which is exactly what we did and we collected those devices on May 19th from our freshmen and you know that was a hard thing you know our freshmen had a Macbook and they're going to a Chromebook and so we made it a point to that very speech that I just gave to you I went to every classroom in Mentor High School and as we exchanged their MacBooks and the Chromebooks I explained those exact same reasons to them so that they heard it and they had the opportunity to ask us questions
103and it was you know what I think that made it a lot better so that they understood we're not just doing this to do this because even you know 15 16 year old kids can understand when you break it down that way and they hear those money concerns so I give you all of that information before we dig into to the numbers for the I.T if you look and I've never done this before but the top bar is actually last year's what I shared at the Board of Education last year the Bottom bar is this year's numbers and the reason I bring those up is because it clearly shows you when you look at the green columns for the next five years the savings that we are going to have because of the change that
104we are making to these Chromebooks so if you total all of those up it will be about eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars that we were saving we were projecting about six months ago when Mr Wade reported closer to a hundred thousand dollars but then Apple made another change on us which is not allowing us what we were paying for iPads which you'll see we use iPads at our elementary k-3 as well as providing each of our teachers an iPad to enhance their teaching and instructional practice but those were at 3 135 dollars those are now going to be at 445 dollars and so we had to adjust for that change but luckily because of the other change that we've made we can still project an 880 000 savings over a five-year forecast so if
105you take a look at this you can also see in the yellow the highlighted in the yellow the MacBook sellback prices um and what we had projected last year and it was ended up even being lower than what we had projected oh one quick note on that Maybe is you will see at the bottom now for next year we will have K to three iPads four to ten Chromebooks 11 to 12 MacBooks those MacBooks will be phased out as we bring those back in at that point we weren't going to just take every MacBook because we would not have made the money back in order to pay for the Chromebooks that we were collecting so we will phase those back out and and to be honest with you we will consider as a district we
106to replace the screen cost anywhere depends it changes usually on a monthly basis but anywhere between 190 dollars to 220 dollars to repair a cracked screen and so if we're only getting ninety dollars we will be taking our department will be taking off those screens and using those screens because it's more valuable for us to use it those screens in in replace of that so and then I I do like to each year give a breakdown this is our uh we provide kindergartners iPads that they use from kindergarten through third grade and so you see the breakdown of the next five years of the cost of that as well as staff computers for our Elementary staff and staff iPads you can see the increase of 140 uh forty four hundred and forty five dollars for
107those iPads come on clicker don't fail me now thank you Miss Estes the next one is at fourth grade the students then receive a Chromebook we collect those iPads back we will sell those iPads the students then receive a Chromebook that they will use for the next five years and you can see those projections for those costs as well as for our Middle School staff their computers as well as an iPad that they will receive so and then finally the high school and you can see these new numbers this is the Chromebook cost included in that Chromebook cost is a management cost of twenty dollars that goes in there as well so you can see the Chromebook cost and then down below it you can see the staff costs for the MacBooks as well as
108the staff for the iPads and then finally to run a district like this there's also some extra Hardware that we need so that all of those devices have connectivity as well as our custodians Board office and other folks who are included in there and we try to space those out so that we have a number as Mr Wade had shared with you earlier is pretty close to just under nine hundred thousand dollars per year we try to always manage that but you will see in the year of 2627 and we've been able to push this out a couple of years the access switches and the wireless access points if you look up those are the white things that you see in the center of the room over there which gives us Wireless connectivity we have
109over 650 of those across the district so as students and staff walk around from anywhere in the building those things just immediately transfer and they can connect to the internet and so those will be replaced in 2627 and at the same same time you do that you have to do the access switches so that's why you see that higher cost in 26.27 next slide at this time I also like to go over classroom Furniture which is another one of uh the things that we have tried to put money aside for for all of our classrooms each of our classrooms have been touched over the last nine years with an update of classroom Furniture if you walk into any of our schools I will agree with Mr Wade we take care of our facilities our maintenance
110staff does an amazing job on a daily basis as well as our other maintenance staff on a yearly basis to make sure that our facilities are well maintained as part of that it also has to do with the furniture that we place in them and so we have continued over the years the board and the Mr Heath and past superintendents have put an importance on the furniture that our staff and our students are using and so we have kind of as we're trying to do cost savings try to maximize the life of this furniture so you'll even see an adjustment we were initially going to try to do all of the Middle School classrooms in a two-year time frame we have slowed that down and done it over a five-year time frame to lessen the
111cost to lower the cost on the district and then to try to stretch out the furniture that we have in that space so again to make sure we are being fiscally responsible so we started the fifth grade classroom refresh at the elementary level back in 2017 and so at that time some of that furniture the softer seating type of furniture will be replaced starting in 2027 and 28. and at that time I will at this time I will gladly take any questions from the board so thank you very much one of the things I like to point out is ever since the straight a grant and even prior to that with our Catalyst classroom and transforming the versatility of our spaces to offer our students a better more modern setting and some flexibility in the
112way teachers can teach so when we look at sports Investments for example that looks like a lot of money and it is but this is the meat and potatoes of our expenditures all of the devices and the software purchases the it infrastructure the redesign of classrooms and upgrades and improvements so that our learning spaces are all that they can be within a reasonable amount to make teaching and learning the best we can make it could not have said it any better I agree with you 100 I think that we are in a time where if we are expecting kids to come into a classroom and sit into rows and receive instruction we are not preparing them for what lies Beyond Mentor Schools our furniture our instructional practice our professional learning has all focused on a
113way to allow our teachers to be a little bit more flexible in how they are teaching and we are providing them the furniture and the space to be able to do that even the expansion and installation delay checks the versatility one of my favorite Transformations came about in the high school taking those old lecture halls and turning them into much more vibrant collaborative spaces so instead of seeing kids with heads they're they're engaging with each other and working uh collaboratively which is what you were saying is that's the future of you know industry and business I called those uh old lecture halls I called them the brain drain of Mentor High School because when you walk past there the kids had their heads on the desk and drool was coming out of their mouth and
114they were sleeping and I ask you for anyone that has kids like if my kid is out of high school I would so much rather having them interact with another individual or a teacher in a collaborative setting than them putting their head down and sleeping and drooling on one of the desks and so I did see those as uh that that was something that really fired me up when we started this way back and Mr Wade is laughing because him and I had some good good great work together in on that straight a grant but back in 2014 that was definitely some of the spaces that really motivated some of this change you know and it's exciting too because even some of the locker Bays because we don't have kids hunched over carrying 50 pounds
115of textbooks you know the the modern delivery of information and tools for students are you know like this rather than like this and so a lot of those additional spaces offered more opportunities rather than just lockers row after row so I think a lot of great things have happened in this building all Grant funded thank you Mr Lynch thank you next on the agenda legislative report Mrs Brighton bear with me my report is a little has me jumping around so all right by any old budget update the Ohio Senate released their version of the biennial budget after their June 6 finance committee meeting although the Senate finance committee only held two additional hearings for proposed amendments after dropping the bill in the afternoon on June 6th the Senate is expected to propose one more round
116of changes before the June 15th Senate session the Senate's budget decreases funding for a traditional K-12 schools who serve more than 80 percent of Ohio students by 542 million dollars over the next two years while increasing private school voucher funding which goes to less than 10 percent of students in the state by 372 million the Senate President has yet to be questioned on this move but when speaking on changes to the fair school funding plan he said I've heard for 15 years that the most important thing for school treasurers School superintendents is predictability and that was one of the substantial problems with the cup Patterson plant we want to make this predictable however the Senate version does the exact opposite the Senate version causes a reduction in the state share of funding while increasing the
117local share additionally this change will create more volatility in the state share calculation by removing the per pupil median federal adjusted gross income component from the calculation the formula will no longer be predictable or reliable some notable Senate changes to House Bill 33 are as follows it reduces the number of personal income tax brackets to just two with rates of 2.75 and 3.5 percent maintains the updated fiscal year 2022 base costs inputs in the fairschool funding plan but modified the capacity state and local share calculation by eliminating the per pupil median federal adjusted gross income this will cause a reduction in the state's share of funding while increasing the local share additionally this will this change will create more volatility in the stage shared calculation by removing this component from the calculation the formula will
118no longer be predictable or reliable excuse me there we go it removes funding for a comprehensive study to determine the needs of economically disadvantaged students the most effective services for meeting those needs and the cost to provide those services makes Ed Choice voucher eligibility Universal for all Ohio students students with family income below 450 percent federal poverty level will be eligible for a full voucher vouchers for students and families with income above 450 percent will be means tested based on family income and the amount of the voucher will be based on a sliding scale sets a minimum voucher of 10 for any student no matter how high their family income is restores mandatory student retention under the law known as the third grade reading guarantee that had been eliminated in the house version adds Provisions
119from Senate Bill 1 which restructures the Ohio Department of Education into a cabinet level agency called the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and drastically changes the roles and responsibilities of the State Board of Education removes The Accelerated Appalachian School building a sentence instance program added by the house and removes the provision for the Ode to provide reimbursements to make School breakfast and lunch free for all students eligible for reduced price meals some recently introduced legislation HB 183 sponsored by reps Beth Lear of Galena and Adam Byrd from Cincinnati regards Single Sex bathroom access and primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education this bill has been referred to the house higher education committee House Bill 187 sponsored by reps Thomas Hall of Middletown and Adam bird of Cincinnati modifies the procedures used by
120the tax commissioner to conduct property tax sales assessment ratio studies this bill has been referred referred as Ways and Means Committee House Bill 180 193 sponsored by reps Kevin Miller of Newark and Brian Lampton of Fairborn establishes procedures and requirements governing biosolid lagoons and biodigestion Facilities including granting County and Township zoning authority over those lagoons and facilities and to modify the cauv eligibility requirements for certain land used to produce biofuels this bill has been referred to the house agriculture agriculture committee House Bill 197 sponsored by reps James hoops from Napoleon and Sharon Ray of Wadsworth establishes the community solar pilot program and the solar development program this bill has been referred to the house Public Utilities committee House Bill 206 sponsored by reps Gary click Vickery and Monica Rob Blasdell of Columbiana relates to the
121expulsion of a student from a public school for actions that endanger the health and safety of other students or School Employees this bill has been referred to the house primary and secondary education committee and lastly SB 120 sponsored by Senate Senator Kirk shuring of Canton to allow a portion of tax increment financing service payments to be designated by for use by land Banks this bill has been referred to the Senate Ways and Means Committee thank you questions too much to digest yeah always always so much going on thank you man student achievement yes Maggie thank you okay on Sunday June 4th 582 students from the class of 2023 receive their diplomas during the commencement ceremony at Cleveland State University students were recognized for their accomplishments both inside and outside the classroom 74 percent of our
122graduates are headed to two or four-year colleges seven percent are enrolled in trade schools five students are enlisting in the U.S military and nine percent will be entering the workforce we are very proud of our graduates and we wish them the best in their future endeavors both Shore and memorials 8th grade students had successful trips to our nation's capital recently this annual trip to Washington DC is something that all middle schoolers look forward to and the teachers put together a packed agenda filled with educational events tied to our country's long and proud history in addition our 8th graders were able to participate in an end-of-year celebration at Lost Nation Sports Park I don't have any pictures of that one it was a great way to celebrate the end of their middle school careers as they
123get ready to join the MHS family at the elementary schools the end of the year means a day of fun outside and many hours go into planning field days for our students which is a day filled with engaging activities and games for the students thankfully the weather cooperated for the most part and all of our buildings were able to hold field days that our students will remember for years to come many thank you to the parent volunteers who helped make this day a success our ptas do a lot of the work with our field day and they also do the eighth grade end of the year party so that that's really tremendous we really cannot do that without the ptas and just a reminder that right now we also have our fingerprinting going on right
124we have we can do if anyone wants to be a volunteer next year fingerprint fingerprinting is going on because our volunteers do need to be fingerprinted and I think that Mr Heath had a special part of that too weren't you a special part of bell flowers [Laughter] our district leadership team consists of nearly 50 members and they met last Monday to review the district data as part of Ohio improvement process our district Improvement plan is monitored multiple times during the school year by reviewing reading math and climate data and this will be used to adjust our current Improvement plans and also be used for upcoming strategic planning as Mr Heath mentioned before we are going to to be compiling that and presenting that probably at next meeting is that correct so we'll be able to
125have all the updated results for our reading our math and our climate information and finally Tia Geisler traveled to Washington DC remember that she's our fourth grader spelling champion at the end of May to represent Mentor Schools in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this competition started in 1925 and it has been in existence for 90 years Tia competed with 231 spellers throughout the United States she was one of only six students that were below fifth grade so that was pretty amazing and she tied for 140th Place making us all very proud thank you Mrs cook Ed on the agenda Chief Financial officers reporting recommendations they're playing me in laughs perfect timing perfect [Laughter] this one um we this is in comparison to our May update we're showing about 224 thousand dollars more in Revenue our
126expenses have down about 554 000. um so or 329 000 excuse me so we'd have about a 554 000 net favorable impact on the cash balance um the the key here is is you know it looks like we're our actual revenue is up for the month comparison last year but that's because if you remember last month it was down we hadn't received our tip payment from the uh City through the county um we did get that in so that has uh increased so it looks like we're receiving more money but it was basically just it's a timing issue the higher than the previous year we're about 3.3 million with 2.2 coming in the form of local Revenue as I said some of that's because of the revenue split that I spoke of when we got
127our tax uh is tax disbursement in the spring we've got about almost a million dollars more than we projected and then the other piece of that is we are about 1.4 million dollars higher in our interest earned on our investments uh than previous year uh the 224 thousand dollars uh that we were over what we were forecasting in May uh half of that's because of interest earned we received higher interest than we were projecting which is a good thing and then our state reimbursement was up a little bit this month uh so it equated to about two hundred thousand dollars more than we were even projecting so out of 109 million dollars that's not really that substantial but 200 I take 200 000 says I'm sure everyone in this room would expenses um we are
128actual expenses are down for the month uh 795 000 uh that's because our school buses haven't come in usually they come in around this time but with supply chain issues we have not received them um and we probably won't receive them this fiscal year so I'm expecting us not not to actually uh spend that money it's going to be encumbered and it'll probably show up in a future fiscal year which will increase our expenses for that year into the forecast um I referenced why we're up 900 or 9.9 million dollars is because we transferred uh four years worth of transfers out of the general fund into the capital Improvement looking at it overall we've only increased our budget by about a million dollars if you take that out so I mean I think that's pretty
129substantial Point we've flattened that expense curve this fiscal year because we're only having one month left in our fiscal year overall we're 329 thousand dollars lower than expected um most of that comes in the form of tuition payments being down that we've had to pay for other districts as well as other expense categories being down so we're training about where we thought we were a month ago so um Mr Lynch you go to the next slide I did miss McAdams did bring up a good point about uh millage rate I do have one slight correction we though we have a voted millage rate of about 80 Mills because the house bill 920 you've heard me say this valuations go up taxpayers don't pay more millage rates actually decrease our effective millage rate the rate that
130you're paying your tax bill on is actually 33.1 and if in my summary that I will that I had out last year in my comprehensive plan that I sent out and I'll be sending out another one with updated numbers the graph on the left shows that in Mentor the taxes your effective tax rate puts us at the one of the lowest in the county actually uh the only districts that have lower tax rates are Riverside Madison and Perry Perry doesn't even count because they don't even have a I mean they haven't had to put a levy on since the power plant was conceived so you know they're at the 20 mil Floor Riverside and Madison um I'll let you make your judgments on that I'll Reserve comment so I think all in all when you
131look at us compared to other cities in the county we're in the bottom half of the effective tax rate and I think you you know what I would argue is that you're getting a pretty good bang for your buck do we have room for improvement of course and that's why we meet every single month and that's why we engage in the dialogue with the community that we have that concludes my report action I'd asked Mr President members of the board Mr Heath asked for the approval of items B through F and the denims may be acted on one motion so moved second please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Payne yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Briner yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motions carry 5-0 Mr President members of the board Mr Heath I
132ask that we approve the Mentor Public Library tax budget so moved second please call the roll Mr Wade Miss jessalyn yes yes Miss Cook yes Miss Briner yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 next on the agenda unfinished business have have we any none thank you very much next on the agenda new business new business I had um just one item for new new business it's kind of for Mr Heath just as a follow-up so Tom Tom and I had met in reference to hopefully proposing a policy at some point in the near future that would include language preventing any kind of sexually explicit obscene materials from entering our schools specifically pedophilia or molestation things like that and I just didn't know I know I had emailed to you we were kind
133of going back and forth for a while then of course things happen right everything gets busy but I wanted to see what the update was because we weren't sure as well if if Tom and I had to go to Neola or if it would be more through our board attorney to create that language or to alter a policy so we've reached out to Mr Holland from Neola so we're waiting to hear back officially from him we've asked not only for what policy that might fall under but if other districts that he works with has language similar to that and what their language looks like so we could mimic that the other question that we've put opposed to him is if we do change something with an existing policy is that one that he would defend
134from the Neola standpoint or would we need to use our legal counsel to defend that had some follow-up conversations with our legal counsel as well just to give him the heads up on that potential language he said you know it could be defendable he says a lot of it depends on where it's located within our policy manual what policy is it he'd have to read the entire language with it so once we get those answers from the Ola then we will share those with um with our legal counsel and get some final wording on that and do you know um when did you send that information over to Neola has it been a while or was that more recent just no it's more recent okay um and again part of that is that going back
135to all of the board policy reviews and we'll I think we're starting those meetings tomorrow uh tomorrow morning so um I believe it's part of what we talked about was in the 2000 uh chapter so I'm hoping to get together I believe Jenny and Tom are on that one I'm hoping to get that meeting set maybe we can compare calendars here before we leave today to try and get that one rolling because that's a pretty hefty uh chapter as as we're looking at it and do we know um I know we've had you know several book challenges and I'm sure we're all aware that there's going to be another one tonight um with a different book The Bluest Eye and I just wanted um to know have we ran this by our board attorney to
136look at the language that's in some of these books that are sexually explicit to ensure that we are not you know that we are in compliance um with Ohio Revised Code yeah he we haven't run anything by our legal counsel at this point can we do that along with when we receive a challenge if there is verbiage that you know could meet because we do have a current policy that I believe does State obscene um so just to kind of include that in the process if we could reach out to our board attorney and have kind of a legal opinion on on that just to make sure we're not violating any kind of Ohio Revised Code absolutely thank you that's all so are is there a book challenge coming this evening I wasn't aware yeah
137so at the last board meeting there was somebody who stated that there was going to be a book challenge she read excerpts from The Bluest Eye and as well on social media there were both both sides I'll say sides unfortunately there are you know it's the easiest way to explain it there's petitions on both ends we'll say so okay so I just wanted to say that I reread The Bluest Eye over the weekend and Tony Morrison is from Lorain Ohio the story is set in that City in 1941 making it a particular relevance to readers in this part of the country when Morrison published it in 1970 it had grown out of the shifting experiences for black women in particular and a gradual expansion of standards of beauty as a result of the Civil Rights
138Movement The Bluest Eye has become an important work recognized for its unique point of view Morrison of course has been recognized as a Princeton scholar in a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner the book is merited study guides including cliff notes and Spark Notes because of its common use in literary courses the two passages that are often in the cross hairs are but a small part of the total work 98 of the story gives context to those painful scenes they are both shocking and heartbreaking but support the telling of the little girl's tragic story and explain her departure from sanity to summarize The Bluest Eye in a perfunctory way based on those passages would be like characterizing Romeo and Juliet as a story about teen suicide it's part of the story but fails to capture the
139meaning and significance of the work in its entirety this work is available as a full text free online as well as companion study guides and critical analyzes so I just thought I would mention Ed sure and I'll just add to that I was really hoping I wouldn't have to read this but um because you brought up the passages I do think to to have Merit to both sides of the issue I think it's important to understand that this book does talk about a father raping his child and it's not just saying that you know he rapes his child it's it talks in detail and I'm not going to read the whole thing because I will probably puke on right here it's just disgusting but just so everybody understands um I'll just read a little bit
140you know the the confused mixture of his speaking of the father memories of Pauline and doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him in a bolt of Desire ran down his genitals giving it length and softening the lips of his anus I'm not going to read any further because it's it's um very appalling in my opinion but you know I think I understand what you're saying I think that this material as we saw with both petitions the challenge petition and the petition that was going around in line it's pretty even in the amount of people that we're supporting or opposing it I'm pushing for a policy along with Tom supporting it that prevents this kind of material from entering our classrooms or our our school libraries I would never prevent it from going into
141a public library that's up to you know parents to to monitor that so I appreciate what you're bringing up but I think for a lot of people those passages are taking away from a child's innocence and they don't want their children reading that in the case of this particular book because it's part of the AP English list of recommended books and has been actually referenced in the AP exam in some years you know they select from different um books each time um it's in a unique category I would say it doesn't as far as I understand meet the definition of obscenity or Prof based on the legal definition because that would require it to be for the purpose of a prurient interest rather than part of a literary work so that's why I think we
142do need clarification from our board attorney on that and that's why I'm also asking to add specific language things sexually explicit along with obscene or even mentioning pedophilia or molestation so can I just ask I know you're both on the curriculum committee and I know that we handle challenge book challenges through that committee not through that committee that's a separate yeah okay yeah a book challenge would go from a separately assembled community so that wouldn't include board members okay so however we're handling these book challenges is that process not working well I think there's the root of the issue when we talk about book challenges are a lot of sexually explicit you know undertones to to book challenges I know I you know we were told that George is in the middle school it's not
143in fifth grade classrooms but my assumption is that that is also eventually going to be challenged and I don't I don't know that that process is working because we can are going to consistently have book challenges under the same guise of it being sexually explicit um I also think that you know with our current book Channel just as kind of a separate side note I don't think it's fair to Mr Heath to have him have to have a say on book challenges when they're so controversial because you're gonna he's gonna upset you know half of the people because he's agreeing with it or not agreeing with it um so that's just kind of like a separate thing that I would like to also look into but we could look into that with Neola when we
144look at the policy for book challenges there because it is a little bit different the book was written in 1970 I know you know that was jesling you you asked if the challenge was going to happen tonight how did you prepare that if you didn't know the challenge was going to happen no because I had heard that there was question about it this book has merited a lot of controversy I'll be the first to agree with that so that has come up over and over again if you just look up challenged books it's usually near the top of the list so I wanted to know exactly what the book was in its entirety so I took the time to read it so knowing that I had this in my my folder okay anything further on
145that next on the agenda hearing of the public Mr Wade our first speaker is Susan cedynic hello very good thank you Susan okay hi thank you my name is Susan satnick and I live at 7539 Little Mountain Road in Mentor I have two daughters um what I really wanted to to talk about is um when I was looking over in in the policy manual I was looking at the mission statement and the educational philosophy goals and objectives that that we have here and I I don't have time to go through all of it but I did want to mention um in the mission statement it says together we will ensure a safe learning environment and together we will provide a balanced high quality education so that's part of the mission statement and then in the
146goals and objectives it says schools are dedicated to helping each pupil acquire fundamental Knowledge and Skills and there's a list of things and one of those things is character so it mentions that and that schools are also dedicated to helping each pupil develop emotional controls a proper sense of values and tolerance and then further on in the page um one of the goals that the school has is that they want to promote personal and public health both physical and mental and to Acqua have the students get in a choir and an understanding of ethical principles and then to develop an understanding of their own worth potentialities limitations and such and so when I was reading that over it just um I just wanted to say that I don't think when you when a school allows
147pornographic material to schools and to children I don't think that that's following what we have here in the mission statement or the goals where your that does not line up and I understand where folks are we don't want to book beyond and this book has been around for a long time and it's gotten Awards it doesn't take away from the fact of what what is being said there that we couldn't even finish I I wouldn't even want to listen to it we had a gal that wanted to walk out she didn't want to listen to it and I don't think that that's appropriate to be in our schools it certainly should be in in the public library if kids want to go out and check that out with their parents they want to order on
148Amazon certainly go right ahead but this schools are not the place for that and I think that that's where you're losing a lot of public support and parental support of schools because we we see it's like we want to spend all this money to make it look nice and these are great things I'm proud of the school district but when you look deep inside when you offer that kind of material and you off and you let men use the women's restroom that is it's rotting on the inside and I would not support the levy because of that just because I think you have to do what's morally right so thank you [Music] our next speaker is Kimberly Ann thank you Susan I couldn't say it but they were clapping The Bluest Eye on your bookshelf
149contains severe and graphic molestation rape and abuse of a little girl by her father written with graphic detail using sexually explicit language in the book after The Father brutally rapes his little girl on page 166 it explains that the father's sexuality was anything but lewd his patronage of little girls smacked of innocence and was associated in his mind with cleanliness he was what one might call a very clean old man our children should not be should be shielded from reading books that are sexually graphic and that normalize rape and incest book put books put ideas into children's Minds this should be enough information for you to see how wrong this is tonight we bring this book to your attention not because we want to ban books you will be told that we want to ban
150books we don't that's absurd anyone saying so is lying exactly the same way that we don't have the Playboy on the school bookshelves that magazine is not on your bookshelves this book should not either I don't care who wrote it or what awards they won by writing it if it's smut it doesn't belong in front of children foreign it is against the law to place pornographic and sexually explicit materials in front of children people who do this are pedophiles don't be pedophiles there used to be a day and age where As Americans Democratic and Republic together and alike we protected our children we knew it was a vital and important thing to do so we enacted laws to protect our children we all agreed this was and is moral and just and necessary tonight you
151will hear from or have been petitioned by over 200 people who either truly believe this is a book about this is about book Banning or their pedophiles it is a lie to say that this is about book Banning no one is suggesting such a thing if you as an adult Want It Go purchase it it is against the law to put this in front of our children I pray that each of us choose to see and speak the truth of this matter but also of all matters truth is important we can't have conversations if we are lying saying we want to ban books is lying or its virtue signaling please protect our children thank you thank you thank you I just want to reiterate it's okay in between the speakers but please don't cheer when
152the speaker is involved in it after 30 seconds a minute it's disruptive to that individual so give the speaker respect during the time he or she is at the podium certainly clap if you like but just respect the speaker [Music] how's the volume oh boy have you heard me yeah okay but okay so good yeah I think sometimes I was away from it you may not have heard me on the mic so I apologize for that what's up thanks for calling that to our attention Okay so the next speaker speak close to the mic thank you Mr Wade Lori godick hello can you hear me bring the mic up towards you more yeah like that right okay thank you so good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade my name is
153Lori godick and I've been a mentor resident for approximately 65 years and I am here this evening to speak about banning the book Tony Morrison's book The Bluest Eye we are all aware that this book is the aggrieves latest book of the month selection that they want banned from the men of public schools and it comes trickling down from the national level the group moms for Liberty next month it will be either a different book or another topic and we are aware of that in the meantime this they continue to divert the teachers the board members and the administration their energy away from the important issues guns school safety and bus driver shortages to name a few I just finished reading The Bluest Eye were there tough Parts absolutely as Toni Morrison said her book
154was meant to offer readers stories about blacks women and other marginalized characters which had not been told before this book was written 53 years ago and suddenly it is an issue why makes one Wonder I spoke to my daughter after I had read the book Jackie is a Mentor High graduate and she was in AP English at some point either in high school or college she read The Bluest Eye she is an Avid Reader when I told her the book is the Grieves latest book Banning project she was shocked her children attend another District local where parents and Outsiders are not trying to disrupt their children's learning process but actively support their Public School she wholeheartedly supports high school students reading this book as I do we have to remember The Bluest Eye is not
155in the lower grades k through eight it is only at the high school level and then it is on the AP English list and it is optional not required thank you for allowing me to speak this evening and Mr Wade and Mr Lynch thank you for being so transparent in your presentations we appreciate it thank you Kim bezon good evening it's hard to be a school board member a superintendent a curriculum director or media specialist in Mentor these days sprinkle your school shelves with pornographic or sexually explicit books you run their risk of one group of parents complaining and calling for your resignation while the other parental group screams what happened to freedom and diversity of thought an accusation of book Banning is thrown as easily as the word woke and arguing back and forth
156begins book Banning is a label that people are using to try to silence the voices because they lack any kind of rational argument to why these books should be in our schools and that there is only D and that is their only defense who decides what is success except acceptable when placing these immoral books in possession of minors is it you you or you who gets to decide or is it the parents the parents are the ones who should be able to decide if they want their children reading about graphic molestation or pedophilia not the school it's not the school the schools who are trying to sexualize our children by making these demonic Books available this is about protecting everyone's children parents have always had the responsibility and the right to oversee what their children
157are exposed to in movies video games activities social life and yes books most Mentor parents are not on board with encouraging a child to undergo gender transition using or selling opposite gender pronoun buttons during church or during launch allowing boys into girls bathrooms and locker rooms or offering sexually explicit content to their children if you as a parent believe it is imperative for your child to have access to pornographic literature then get yourself to the public library adult section where this book such as the blue size is categorized for adults 18 and older in most libraries you do not have the right to use my taxpayer dollar to purchase this filth for public schools better schools might be able to avoid National Spotlight if the school board the superintendent the curriculum director and the media
158specialist actually did their jobs and selected age-appropriate books that provide educational value rather than ones that promote a progressive social agenda I am not okay with this agenda so when I get called a bigot I will take that as a badge of honor because I know that I am doing God's work to protect our children you do you need to do your jobs to protect the innocence of our children my time is almost up and so is yours as we will elect others to sit in your seats for those who continue to ignore taxpayers voices co-november we will make sure we support you the same way you have supported us by voting down on your levies thank you foreign thank you Kim Ian fiorelli good evening I would like to speak in support of removing
159The Bluest Eye and any book with similar content from The Mentor Schools collection there are millions of books in the world to choose from to challenge our students when the Mentor Schools choose a book to make available to students it means you become proponents of that book therefore it is the school's responsibility when procuring books to make sure they are appropriate for all students in their charge this book's graphic depiction of sexual violence against a minor is inappropriate for a library for minors and it should be beneath the standards of the Mentor Schools with all of the talk about students social and emotional health in the past couple years I implore that you revisit some of the books that are in your collection and consider whether the subject matter could bring emotional harm or trauma
160to any of the students in your school imagine a 14 year old incoming female freshman who is still inexperienced and innocent reading this book this content would be disturbing and terrifying not to mention the negative effect it would have on any miners developing understanding of sexuality arousal consent and relationships The Mentor Schools have an obligation to the parents in your District to respect their concerns for their kids we are telling you directly we are concerned whether you will protect our kids emotional health all parents want to protect their children from experiencing sexual violence such as this we also wish to protect our children from the disturbing harm of reading graphic depictions of violence against minors it is very telling that the Cleveland Public Library system has this book placed in its adult fiction section because
161it is simply inappropriate for minors finally if controversial books are removed from school shelves out of respect for kids dignity and emotional well-being that is not harming anyone these books are still available at the public library or to purchase but keeping inappropriate books in the library could cause harm to someone's kid and that is not okay and I will add this does not come from moms for Liberty because I was that child who was given an inappropriate book in eighth grade with an explicit rape and murder scene that was not appropriate for my age that teacher was looking at me through an adult lens as someone who was academically gifted and mature for their age but it was not right that was my first introduction to anything of a sexual nature and it has bothered
162me for over 30 years the adults need to be mature enough to protect our kids innocence they can read this book in college they can read it as adults it does not need to be available to them when they're still kids developing and figuring out the world thank you thank you [Applause] Bambi Vargo we can all take a big deep breath because I'm changing the subject and Bambi Vargo I live at 7467 Rockingham Road Mentor Mr President board members Mr Heath Mr Wade it's June and I'm celebrating gay pride month as the mom of all lesbian I feel a special connection to the lgbtq plus community and I'm a strong supporter as a retired teacher I witnessed the pain one of my high school students experienced when his mother could not accept his being gay
163you may be aware that lgbtq plus students are at higher risk than other kids for developing mental health problems such as depression anxiety and substance abuse they also have higher rates of contemplating attempting and dying by Suicide for example 42 percent of lgbtq plus students and 52 percent of trans youth said they seriously considered suicide in 2001. attempted suicide rates are also higher for black and Indigenous students according to data from the Trevor Project to be clear being lgbtq does not cause mental health problems and is not caused by mental health problems rather these kids increased risk of developing mental health problems stems from exposure to factors like rejection bullying discrimination and violence according to the National Education Association there are ways for educators to help lgbtq plus students need supportive adults who use affirming
164words they need access to Safe spaces and events and they need to see themselves positively in the curriculum and we know that when kids feel safe in school they are better prepared to learn I want to say thank you to all the teachers and staff members who provide access to Safe spaces for lgbtq students and that includes displaying a rainbow sticker and all the other ways you reach out to students finally I want to thank board members who have indicated by your votes on various issues that the mentor school district is and will continue to be an affirming community that values all students and supports diversity equity and inclusion thank you thank you thank you thank you Jacqueline McCormick I am absolutely appalled to find out that the book George now renamed Melissa which was
165deemed inappropriate last year for fifth grade classrooms resides at the Memorial School library this book needs to go and will be challenged but today I will talk about the book The Bluest Eye residing in our high school library that is also on an approved reading list for an AP class since you find it acceptable to retain this book in our schools and since some candidates from the mentor School Board support this book and others on the Mentor Public Library board try to compare it to excerpts of the Bible which is not available to check out in the high school as it is a reference book I will read some excerpts from this book for for others to decide if they believe it is appropriate I ask that any children within earshot be removed at this
166time the tenderness welled up in him and he sank to his knees his eyes on the foot of his daughter crawling on all fours towards her he raised his hand and caught the foot in an upward stroke Piccola lost her balance and was about to careen to the floor the confused mixture of his memories of Pauline and the doing of a wild and forbidden thing excited him and a bolt of Desire ran down his genitals giving it length and softening the lips of his anus surrounding all of this lust was a border of politeness he wanted to her tenderly but the tenderness would not hold the tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear his soul seemed to slip down to his guts and fly out into her and the gigantic thrust he
167made into her then provoked the only sound she could make audience members members of the board superintendent Mr Heath and Mr Wade which of you believe this is inappropriate for children 14 15 16 years old to contemplate and visualize the happenings of this man's lips of his anus softening before raping his child please stand up so that the voters know who is for protecting our children's innocence and who we need to remove please stand up if you think this is inappropriate foreign those who stood you are not alone as the challenge I am submitting tonight includes 350 verified men or taxpayers parents and business owners who agree with you for those who didn't stand I hope you are prepared to defend your position when men or residents will see these excerpts and vote down the
168levees in November since you fail to protect our children's innocent minds and rather fill them with obscene materials to further your political ideology what one generation tolerates the Next Generation celebrates we will not tolerate this anymore thank you Debbie boffield thank you hi I'm here tonight as a prior Middle School Parent a 40-year taxpayer and a person in the real estate industry who daily promotes the city of Mentor it seems quite apparent that this current School Board minus a couple good Souls do whatever they personally feel and have seldom listen to the community that comes to speak to them regarding the revolting agenda and their parental and the parental rights but I felt compelled to show up and fight for goodness and truth and the education of our next Generation when I read the experts
169from the book The Bluest Eye I was truly disgusted as a mature adult I think that anyone who would approve this as an age-appropriate reading material in a school setting for minors just shocks me especially from someone that's running for a school board position I texted the one paragraph from the book to over 75 Mentor friends neighbors and Realtors the response was unanimous every single return effects contained one of these words or phrases disgusting evil shocking gross appalling extremely horrifying sexually perverted sickening and why is this material even available to kids and I had no idea that the Mentor Schools was part of this Twisted woke world was one of the comments I got and the main statement that came from everyone was how can we stop this attack and grooming of Honor innocent children
170homeowners want good quality education they all know that buyers purchase homes and cities with Superior learning and positive news excellent school systems keep property values High negative news sexually explicit material absence of parental rights and materials that are not age appropriate will always push buyers to other cities with higher values and acceptable curriculum which in turn drops the property values for all of us November elections will be first and foremost to correct this downward spiral of this system so many bad decisions have been quietly made I've also heard from every homeowner that I engage that they will not support a school levy if the board continues with this woke agenda this is not political this is good versus evil this is not book Banning if you want your children to read about incest pedophilia child
171molestation masturbation rape order the book on Amazon or go to the public library if you feel so strongly about this garbage wrap it up wrap it up as a Christmas gift for your grandchildren but don't push your faithless ideology on others as for us the concerned adults in the room keep this out of our schools that we support and pay taxes for let the kids be kids and start involving the parents in every aspect of their children's school life you've opened a real can of worms in our community and the public is now becoming very awake and very upset do the right thing and stop pandering to these people that continue to lie in name call the sinful adult material well and other unacceptable policies that you have already enacted offer zero benefit to healthy
172growing innocent children thank you foreign Gil martello I don't think there's much more to say good evening Mr Wade Mr Heath board members common sense and thankfully law prevent those under the age of 21 from purchasing alcohol or legally driving before the age of 16 years old even Hollywood recognizes the need for good judgment hence the motion picture reading NC-17 society places these restrictions upon our young people in order to protect them the belief is those not of age do not possess the proper judgment to exercise set privileges the same standards must should be applied to whatever reading materials are made available to our students um I someone prone not prone to react emotionally to things it gets you into trouble when I learned a flight long time ago they said count to ten get
173your adrenaline down um so I counted a 10 and did some research and the one of the Supreme Court cases was Miller versus California Supreme Court established a Miller test for determining defining what matter can be used for commercial criminal prosecution or other purposes now it's a very long lengthy read so in sacred brevity I can't go into it but it is worth reading and his decision chief justice Berger also sided with those who thought communities ought to be able to resist the encroachment of materials in inconsistent with the locals value basically the voters have the right to determine what is obscene and what isn't there is a litmus test again it's long and lengthy and I would encourage you to read the read it to my next Point Ohio advisory code section 2907.31 is
174an it is unlawful to do any of the following with the intent to distribute or exhibit to a juvenile a person under the age of 18 a matter that is harmful to juveniles number one sell land distribute transmit exhibit or give matter to the juvenile to create published producer manufacturing the matter if the person knows or has a reason to believe the matter be distributed and exhibited to a juvenile under this law matter under this law a matter harmful to juveniles refers to any material or performance that when considered as a whole is obscene or harmful to juveniles it includes but is not limited to you sexually explicit materials or materials that depict violence cruelty substance use or anywhere or in any way is harmful to juveniles I'm sorry I cannot complete but I guess
175you know where I'm headed with this thank you very much thank you thank you Melanie majekis Rose I Apollo one of these days I know it's a doozy good evening members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade as you've been made aware Ohio attorney general Dave Yost recently issued an official opinion stating that the Ohio Revised Code allows operators of public bathrooms to segregate use by biological sex one might ask what is the significance of an attorney general opinion attorney general opinions provide valuable advice to public officials and are useful in guiding the actions of those officials although attorney general opinions are not binding in court courts usually give formal opinions careful consideration sex was not included as a protected class until 1973. yoast's opinion States quote nearly everyone in 1973 would have understood
176what almost everyone alive today understands still providing biological women's and men's only spaces for certain functions will not deny and may enhance equal access to public facilities he goes on to argue gender-neutral bathrooms lead to a heightened privacy risk that men present and that allowing men to share bathrooms changing rooms and locker rooms with biological women increases the ease with which biological males most especially men who identify as men can victimize women and girls Mr Heath I urge you to reconsider your position on this issue this is not something that can wait until school begins in August as it stands now biological males can enter the women's restrooms and lacquer rooms on the high school campus All Summer Long with youth camps going on can the district afford to take this risk I will close
177with the statement from attorney general's opinion I do not wish to diminish the reality that some transgender individuals may feel uncomfortable or disrespected if made to abide by such policies but in this context as in so many other legal contexts the law does not protect subjective preferences I will say it again the law does not protect subjective preferences Mr Heath please act now to protect your female students thank you thank you Miss iapolo I apologize for the mispronunciation Miss Mazika good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening regarding the book The Bluest Eye I understand and now have seen for sure that some people in the audience will be asking the board to ban this book I hope the board will follow
178its written policy regarding challenged materials the first step is not to conduct a circus at board meetings but as the policy states the first step is concerns or objection to any media materials will be directed to the building administrator who shall initially review the concerns or objections with the covered party and then it goes on for whole page of things that need to be done in order to challenge material there are many steps before the board is brought into consideration if this procedure is followed and it is decided that this book is inappropriate so be it but the discussion of this book this evening is premature I also want to remind you the book is optional reading and Senior AP English class since the curriculum for advanced placement classes is not set by our school
179remember changing the program May prohibit students in this class from receiving their college credit for this course I have copies of the procedure if anybody would like to look at it easy sorry thank you Miss Breslin oh you okay [Music] no thank you okay all right good evening all my name is Lauren Breslin and I live in Mentor on Galloway Court I would like to share my thoughts and findings regarding a controversial book The Bluest Eye there was a time not long ago when the goal of an education was to know and discern the good the true and the Beautiful children were encouraged to read classical literature to discover Universal truths and to develop into the highest class of citizens now I see excerpts circulating on social media from the book The Bluest Eye and
180those excerpts make me cringe it's my opinion that this book contains obscene material holds little educational value and should be removed from school reading lists I have two reasons to support my stance first the contents of the book do qualify as obscene and second the educational value of this book is questionable again many parents find the contents of the book qualify as obscene the definition of obscene is the portrayal or description of sexual matters that are offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency The Bluest Eye clearly gives graphic descriptions of sexual encounters including rape and incest in fact these descriptions are so graphic that they are unable to be read aloud in many school board meetings across the country I argue that rape incest and sexual abuse descriptions are not acceptable reading
181standards for adults let alone teenagers these situations may be true but they are not good and they are not beautiful and we should not encourage our teenagers to imagine and meditate on such topics additionally I learned that Ohio law May deem the sexually graphic descriptions as obscene and unlawful for minors finally the educational value of this book is questionable in my research I found one parent reviewer who stated I quote not appropriate for high school graphic detail is given about the incestuous rape of Piccola the book graphically discusses many sexual topics including orgasms prostitution incest rape nudity pornography molestation pedophilia masturbation sexual dreams homosexuality bestiality and sodomy characters talk many times about hurting white people there is nothing good about this book end quote there may be a few real life lessons to be learned
182in this book but there is no guidance or resolution for the issues raised regretfully any educational value will be overshadowed and even nullified by child rape pedophilia foul language prostitution and violence The Bluest Eye may have been written by a Nobel prize-winning author but the book itself has not won any awards it is not good literature I encourage the school board to remove it from circulation thank you thank you thank you Mr jewel is still not here correct Ann Anderson happy pride month everyone it's June happy Pride glad to see you all how's everybody doing I just have a few positive words unlike everything else I've heard this evening so for many lgbtq youth their close family are often their biggest bullies and sources of mistreatment most young people share their minority status with their
183families and therefore can seek help and support from those at home many lgbtq youth are not afforded this experience if an lgbtq student is being harassed and bullied at school many don't have the luxury of going home and telling their families home sometimes is a major stressor in the lives of lgbtq Youth some most lgbtq youth also don't have many of the same Community Resources other minority groups do such as recreational centers churches things of that nature this is why being a supportive Ally is so important Educators specifically need to educate themselves and do their best to create a safe and supportive environment for lgbtq students allies and Families students are coming out sooner so it's important we are all aware of the risks faced by lgbtq Youth and see it as a professional duty
184to support these students so I really appreciate that and also I just wanted to make everyone aware that there is a precedent set for the bathroom Bill if anyone's interested it's on the Gavin game Grim case he wanted it was in Virginia it was like back in 2000 maybe 15. so um they're not boys in the girls bathroom they're transgender girls in the girls bathroom so let's just clarify that because I'm sick of saying boys because they're not boys you can't discount a whole class of people people are transgender not everyone and if you don't understand maybe you might want to read a book about it because it's a real thing yeah it's a real thing it's a real thing whether you want to believe it or not you can't deny it it's a real
185thing so if you have any questions or you'd like to know I'm always available because I have lots of knowledge I've been doing this for a very long time very long so and I don't care what David yo says it does not matter okay have a great night thank you happy pride month everybody thank you Mr bezon our last speaker is John bezon I'm sorry good evening John bezon 8703 Marjorie Drive I guess I really wasn't going to talk but I decided at last minute I would um coming at it from like a father's perspective and I also work in a construction field so you know like last couple days I was talking to guys at work you know and working with construction people I'll tell you there's a there's a lot of stuff you
186hear that would you would possibly think would make this book sound like Child's Play but then you literally tell these guys that you're just disgusted by some of the things they say what this book says and they go wow I cannot believe that I cannot believe that would be in a book in the school so I guess where I'm coming at from a father's point of view is you look at it and you have a daughter that's going through the school and she's reading this book and she reads this part about where her father rapes her and makes her just feel disgusting and you think about what a little girl that reads at you know yeah okay AP English they're still little girls they are children their children until they're 18. she reads that book
187and then you you can't tell me that that might not give some some little girl some young adult the idea that oh my God man my father could do that to me anytime if he wanted to right does would anyone agree with that no you don't think nobody thinks that that could happen I mean I guess I'm just stupid it's just disgusting it's disgusting it's not even about sometimes it's not even about the book like there's people sitting up there that probably think the book is wrong but they just won't admit it because of their own their own background the people who are behind them saying Oh we got your back we got your back next election but you you can't let this book disappear you just can't let it go that's what's wrong that's
188what's wrong there's people up there I guarantee that think this book is wrong but just won't admit it that's the sad part that is the sad part thank you [Applause] thank you the question about a speaker that was called and wasn't here and is now here and I don't know if that was in the first section or the second section but everybody if you could just check and clarify for me if they weren't here at the time that they were assigned to go they they've missed that opportunity see me after the meeting this is public session and you had to register to speak so yeah sorry talk to me after the meeting yeah that was it that's at the end I got nothing else motion to adjourn second is that you miss Payne yes Ms
189Briner yes yes Miss Cook or Miss Payne Jesus yes Miss Cook yes Miss jessalyn yes Mr Tuttle yes 803 pm