Mentor Board Meeting - May 2023

001foreign good evening the May 9th 2023 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with section 3313.15 of the Howard Revised Code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting Mr Wade please call the roll Miss Reiner marked absent Miss Cook here miss jesling present Miss Payne here Mr Tuttle here please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I would like to welcome everyone to the May 9th 2023 regular meeting of the Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda

002item for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of Education agenda system board backs the public can access 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 the Chief Financial Officer for information concerning agenda items and to requests if needed additional information the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on any subject whether it be an item on the agenda or another issue to participate in the hearing of the public section interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of

003the meeting sign ups are available online through the school district's website or on-site prior to 7 pm when is your turn to speak you will be called to the microphone when addressing the board please state your name and address questions 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 the board continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component to conducting business this is an information gathering opportunity for the board and administration so we can work to best serve our community if at the end of the public participation we do not make a statement please know that this is no way demonstrates a lack of care

004for comments shared by our community rather we want to be thorough I'm sorry thoughtful 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 delight delayed basis and will be shown on Spectrum cable channel 1026 in Mentor and channel 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 this time District highlights and recommendations Mr Heath good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Wade tonight we are recognizing several students for their outstanding achievements at this time I'd like to invite Mr Hammond to the podium for the Science Olympiad recognitions good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade

005this evening it's my great pleasure to recognize our Middle School Science Olympiad students and advisors that qualified for the state competition in the Middle School Division this year the Science Olympiad state tournament was held on April 28th at the Ohio State University campus this was the first in-person competition state competition in four years and our teams were all very excited to be back the Middle School Division ended up with 40 competing teams sure finished in 26th Place over all the team was made up of many new members and a few returning Veterans for top finishes they earned a sixth place medal in wheeled vehicle and an eighth place in flight advisors are Mrs Michelle Pugh and Mrs Elizabeth Murray Memorial finished in 10th Place overall for top finishes they earned a second place in BIO

006process third place in Crime Busters third place and fast facts fifth place in flight fourth place and solar system advisors are Ms Kim Driscoll and Mrs Lena Malik it's important to point out what a huge accomplishment this is and we're excited to see what the future holds for all of these great minds at this time I would like to share the names of the team members at each Middle School we're going to start with Shore first of all Mrs Pugh and Mrs Murray if you could come up to help me please pass out certificates I'm going to read all student names for sure students what I'd like you to do is come forward receive your gifts your your certificate please uh shake your advisor's hands then I'd like you to come across in front of

007the board shake their hand and just wait over to the side until your whole team is recognized and we'll applaud for you one more time we'll do that for Memorial afterwards okay members of The Shore Middle School team Adrian Beatty Alex cordray Biagio de chaccio Nolan Gibson Leah Morris Brendan O'Connor Isaac opaterny Ria Reina Tiana Rick Carolyn Scott [Applause] Kendall Sykes Mali tihan and Olivia batasic congratulations to these team members information please join me in giving them one more round of applause at this time if I could have Memorial Middle School advisors Ms Kim Driscoll and Mrs Lena Malik come up to join me please [Applause] Memorial students were going to do the same thing okay starting with Jake Armstrong Max Billings Christian Edwardson [Applause] Yan Assan [Applause] Aisha faruki [Applause] Isabella Grabowski Michael Hardy

008Elwell [Applause] Peyton Peyton hohenbrink Natasha klezig [Applause] Aza Samantha McGinnis Nathan meckler Owen Medved Adam Oliver Corbett Ott Elizabeth Plumley Kevin pastori AJ Ritz Maria Stricker Wrath Demetrios stratagakis Emily swigert [Applause] Beckett schweinhardt Jack zamanski Smith Alexandra tamura Mason Wills [Applause] and the brother tandem of Ben and Charlie yoke [Applause] thank you foreign thank you students you may have a seat moving on to the high school uh good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade this evening it's my great pleasure to recognize our Mentor High School Science Olympiad students and advisors that qualified for the state competition the High School Division also ended up with 40 competing teams Mentor High finished in 13th Place overall they had seven top ten finishes for the second year in a row they were

009state champions in the category of flights they were also state champions in cyber security second place and scrambler second place in robot tour they earned a fourth place medal in codebusters a seventh place in disease detective and an eighth place in forensics advisors are Mrs Michelle Pugh and Mr Michael Horvath if they would come up to help me please [Applause] yes I need to announce one more Memorial student Kaylee Hall you didn't know you're going to get special recognition tonight right my apologies that we missed that thank you at this time for The Mentor High School team if I could also have Captain's Medline bender and Emily meckler come up to help us please and and Senior advisor Tony pastori we have a number of students on the high school team and I'm really glad

010to see we have a lot of you here tonight I know we've got a choir concert going on tonight at the same time so we may lose some that way but you're going to get your recognition here okay same aspects as what we did with Shore and Memorial get your certificates shake hands here shake hands over there and we'll see over on the side starting with Benjamin Billings Brianna Boyd Gianna cesari Rousseau Chapman Aiden Durante Andrew Freeman [Applause] [Music] Parker Geiger duganzik Zachary Gibson Emily Gerard Abby Horvath Robbie Landon [Applause] Braden lowering Nathan Lowe [Applause] meckler Caitlin Morris Brian Oliver Drew Parker [Applause] mark pastori [Applause] Janaya Patel [Applause] Zachary Payne [Applause] Emily Parish [Applause] Joe raises Gavin Rick [Applause] Riya sahu [Applause] is that Ron shams a sour bee [Applause] efon Taha [Applause] Aaron

011Tucson Mac wheeler [Applause] Amelia Wong [Applause] and anusri Zimmerman [Applause] before we recognize them all one more time just a couple words quick congratulations to all these students who worked incredibly hard in preparing for the state competition that's Middle School and High School both and showing great results we also had a great season overall thank you to our coaches and teachers who are who are teachers and parents and give up their time each week to prepare students for their event these coaches are a huge factor in the success success of our Science Olympiad teams in addition a special shout out to our parents for your support throughout the season thank you all of you contribute in some way and it most definitely makes a difference speaking on behalf of the advisors and all the coaches

012and team members they were very thankful for the opportunity to return to in-person Science Olympiad state competition they would like to thank members of the board for all of your support thank you and congratulations to the high school [Applause] thank you so before we move into the remainder of our meeting this evening we'll give you guys about a two three minute break here so families if you don't want to stick around for the business portion of the meeting you may leave thank you for coming tonight foreign approval of the minutes so moved second please call the roll Mr Wade Miss jesling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 next on the agenda hearing of the public on agenda items only are sprayed thank you Mr Tuttle our first speaker

013is Ann Anderson told she's not here so we'll go to our next speaker which is Bambi Vargo good evening Mr Heath Mr Wade and board members thank you for this opportunity to speak I want to encourage you to accept the recommendation to retain the Colin Kaepernick biography first to attempt to deny students access to a book that was already approved as part of the independent daily reading curriculum is clearly book Banning second to deny this book to fifth graders is clearly insulting to fifth graders who as 11 and 12 year olds have solid critical thinking skills skills emphasized in Ohio learning standards and honed by their teachers for six years since kindergarten fifth graders are fully capable of using their critical thinking skills to form their own opinions about the rightness or wrongness of Mr

014Kaepernick's activism and should not be denied the opportunity to read this book if they choose to do so they can make their own decisions I encourage you to vote to continue to make this book available to our students thank you and the time is not running thank you thank you I don't want to say anything Mr Lynch because you asked me not to say your name out loud name and address Bambi Vargo 7467 Rockingham Road thank you thank you Ms Morgan thank you our next speaker is Lindsay wall hello uh Lindsay wall 7250 Beechwood Drive two kids at Ridge Elementary it is my understanding that the book that is going to be discussed this evening was submitted for review to the book review committee and I understand also that the superintendent gets to make a

015recommendation on whether that book is retained kept in the schools or if they agreed that the book should no longer be in those schools and after reading the document provided in the agenda I saw that Mr Heath had made the recommendation to retain the book and I am going to encourage our board to please um hear out the superintendent and his recommendation there were a lot of people that worked on this one book review and I appreciate the time and the effort that these people put into reviewing the book that was submitted so please um you guys did hire our superintendent and I do believe that this committee was put together for a reason so I do believe that the recommendation put forth is is worth hearing out also Mr Tuttle I I do I'm

016going to speak with you directly here um as we as we go forward with with the book discussions I know that in the past we've had people read passages from books that they may not agree with being in our school libraries and I just want to urge you to understand my my side of that um I think that that's not appropriate for this place my kids are here tonight I have a six-year-old and an eight-year-old sitting in the audience and this is a public meeting we have a um a procedure put in place for book reviews and that is where the that's where people should submit their concerns not here at the podium with people watching at home and and people sitting in the audience here so that is all thank you thank you appreciate

017it [Applause] our next speaker is Lauren Breslin good evening I'm Lauren Breslin I live on Galloway court and I'm a resident of this District it's my understanding that Colin Kaepernick's book from free agent to change agent is being considered for fifth grade silent reading time as the mother of four children I find this reading material completely outside the scope and jurisdiction of the public school system as a native of Reno Nevada where Kaepernick played college played college ball for the University of Nevada Reno and a West Coast fan of the 49ers my family has followed his football career from his humble beginnings I can assure you that Colin Kaepernick is not a role model for children and but his book should not be included in any school time reading sessions I have three reasons to

018support my stance first Kaepernick is a controversial political activist not a universal role model second his partnership with black lives Matter Incorporated automatically disqualifies him as any type of role model third fifth grade is way too young to read about such controversial figures without Parental Guidance and discussion Kaepernick is a political activist and I'd like to see politics removed from classroom settings Kaepernick was a fading backup quarterback whose greatest claim to fame is taking a knee during the national anthem and disrespecting the American flag additionally he Dishonored police officers during practices by wearing black socks with images of pigs wearing police hats he is ignorant regarding the profession of law enforcement and officer-involved shootings he simply became the poster boy for activist athletes by infusing politics and controversy into sports next Kaepernick's connections with BLM

019Incorporated disqualifies him as any type of role model BLM leaders are self-avowed marxists they Embrace identity politics and strive to disrupt the nuclear family structure the organization asserts that the U.S is systemically racist and promotes a victimhood mentality for minority groups this is not an organization that should be featured celebrated or embraced by any of our teachers or administrators finally fifth graders who are about 11 years old should be exposed to a wide variety of sources that are age appropriate if you are going to choose books to support the various social studies strands stick to historical or present-day figures who are celebrated across the political Spectrum Colin Kaepernick is not a role model for children and his book should not be included in any school time reading sessions he is a left-leaning political activist he

020is entangled with black lives matter political organization fifth grade is way too young to read about such controversial figures without Parental Guidance and discussion if parents want to read about a change agent who Embraces Marxism and the destruction of our American values they can do it on their own time and time do not vote for this book to be included thank you our next speaker is Jeff robo-reki roborecki for once I'm Jeff roblecki I live in 9351 Trillium Lane I have two kids uh well one kid who's currently in kindergarten at Orchard Hollow and another one who's going to be there shortly this book is very Discerning to me that we would even be talking about this I don't know why we're constantly coming here having these discussions about tell you things like this that

021are in the school system why are we not just doing math English social studies why is it constantly trying to push some kind of agenda with these books or with the bathroom situations this is getting ridiculous um I'm contemplating pulling my kids out of the school system because I don't feel they're going to be safe I mean we all stood here and said the Pledge of Allegiance what does that mean to you guys if you're thinking about keeping this book in here is completely hypocritical to say the Pledge of Allegiance and then to put in a book that is the entire premise is to tear down our country to make kids hate the police to I just I don't I'm sorry I I don't get up here and speak very often but I just thought

022this was appropriate um I I I'm here to protect my kids and I I Can't Stand By and not say anything even as nervous as I am up here um I I really urge you guys to vote against this book and if you don't elections are coming here in November and we will remember this I will go door to door myself tell everyone exactly what we're voting on and the way the board members are voting against it if your vote well if you vote to keep this book in um I will I will do everything in my power from either social media I will get the word out and you guys have to protect our kids that's what we voted you're here to do it's not about what books that you a couple people reviewed

023and thought it was okay it's not okay this book is not a good book it's it's values everything about it are terrible so I guess that's all I have to say thank you thank you our next speaker is Rachel Perry say that name again I said Rachel Perry good evening Mr President I wanted to thank you for allowing me and other members of the community the time to speak today um the last time I attended a board meeting was two months ago I believe in March where I spoke about um the issue of trans kids in the Laboratories I did feel compelled to come back once I heard about the agenda start the time please sorry yeah start the time okay sorry I'll be fine okay um so after contemplating for two months about the

024ideas presented by community members during the march Board of Education meeting I feel it is my duty to publicly denounce some of these statements that I heard and also some of the statements that I heard today during this board meeting these statements are you speaking to me I am yes speak to me yes I am speaking to you um a lot of these examples um that I've heard prior board meeting and today's board meeting no comments about prior speakers this evening if you would please sure because thanks and it has to be on what's on the agenda only sure I'll be I'll be precise then Kellen Kaepernick's book is not a threat to children in the mentor School District if if board should not be banning a book based on what a few people might

025say about it if someone doesn't want that might be here tonight doesn't want their child to read that book it's quite simple they can be a parent and tell their kid not to read the book you don't have to ban a book in a public school system that as far as I can tell is by a person who is very what's the word he might be controversial to some but he is a well-known figure that is spoken out about violence in a positive and peaceful way he didn't go breaking Windows he knelt and if you did read your his book then you would know that the reason he did that knelt instead of sitting down on the bench is he consulted with a veteran who suggested to him because he was originally going to sit

026on the bench in protest during the national anthem a veteran suggested him you know what it's respectful if you kneel that is the reason he did this he didn't do it too disrespect the flag he's not even entirely like I'm a left-leading person I don't even really consider him that left-leaning I don't know much about who he votes for anything like that um but if people are so concerned about the general safety of kids which I think we can all agree on we're concerned about the safety of kids and what they're reading Banning books is not the answer if you really don't want your and I'll repeat myself if you really don't want your kid reading a book tell them not to read it don't come to a board meeting and demand I'm sorry that

027they ban a book I'll tell you one last thing I have a minute left and I know the time started late so I'll finish up quickly the one thing that I know about Colin Kaepernick I think everyone on the board can agree is that money talks the number one thing recently about Colin Kaepernick is he signed a multi-million dollar deal with Nike is a globally known billion dollar company would a globally known billion dollar company invest millions of dollars into an individual who they thought promoted violence or was entirely controversial no they wouldn't and just raise your hand you can Mr President if you've ever owned anything by Nike have you ever owned like a pair of Nike tennis shoes or a t-shirt I'd say no but time's up okay not because I didn't like

028Nike I I worked no I think I made my point thank you yeah our next speaker is Diane Lyden foreign I'm at 7221 Windsor Lane in Mentor I am a mentor resident I've been hearing about this is my first meeting I've been hearing about all this controversy here and it's quite disturbing to read about and very sad um I am against book Banning and I think most Americans are there's a small very loud aggressive and bullying minority who want to ban books I hope you know you the board and the teachers and the Librarians that you have the support appreciation and respect of most Mentor residents we value the informed judgment our teachers education and expertise has given them thank you for your dedicated work on behalf of our children and I want you to

029know that there are many many more people like me I'm a grandmother I don't come to school board meetings anymore there's so many people that I talk to that feel the same way we're horrified we remember book Banning and the attachment to Fascism and it is scary to us very scary most of my friends won't come what they won't speak I feel if I feel that I don't want to have my neighbors down the way decide what my children can have access to I I will I will bow to the expertise of a well-educated librarian and a teacher of of much experience as to what is suitable before I would bow to Jim and Jill Smith down the street so just just saying that is the way I feel so I don't I don't agree

030that you should have the power to take away that access for my children and grandchildren and that's my comment thank you thank you thank you is Roger Jewel here tonight I didn't think I saw him um Sage McMillan good evening board my name is Sage McMillan I live at the corner of Danbury and melshore in Mentor I can never order a pizza because I'm on the corner anyway um I am here reluctantly tonight because I have better things to do on a lovely May evening and um I had to come in I was compelled to stand up for children to be able to read and perhaps to think critically I was happily driving to work and listening to my local NPR station thankful that I wasn't concerned about the accident on 271 southbound when I

031heard the KSU morning announcer read a headline about our school voting to ban a book the book is called from free agent excuse me from free agent to change agent the Colin Kaepernick story so I want to make one thing clear I don't think we are aware that this isn't Colin's book a man named Alan Braun wrote this book a biography but this isn't Colin's book these aren't his words it's somebody writing about what he has done so my day soured right then and there I got to work I filled out the participation form and I got on with my day I came home told my kids one of them decided they would come with me tonight um and I just want to share this is my take home parents need to be secure in

032their own values and if they're so insecure in how they have raised their children that they are threatened by a book in a fifth grade classroom used for independent reading they should start at home instead of impacting The Wider Community to conform to their fears why can't children read this book and think right on go Colin or how dare he or this was boring I don't want to impose my thoughts on a kid when they're reading a book so I ask you Mr Tuttle why is the agenda of a loud minority being forced on our community I urge you to vote to keep this book in I thank the board for having the strategies in place to address issues when there is an issue with a book that some might find objectionable and thank you

033thank you Brandon towns good evening Brandon towns Marine Parkway so thank you I do appreciate you all being here um we still have the vocal minority and they are still as loud as they have been over the last couple of years I remember when we were at a Performing Arts Center and I actually had the book in my hand and I read an excerpt from it and uh what's unfortunate is that we had we have two people who are running for school board and they said that it said that uh Trump was racist and anyone with water frame was racist but it doesn't so why would someone say that it does Brandon are you speaking to us yes sir I promise you I'm speaking to you why would someone say that it says that can

034they read while they're asking that we focus on Reading Writing and arithmetic or do they have ulterior motives I read the book rhetorical questions by the way I read the book it says some our races who voted for Trump some thought that Trump's words had overtones of racism it says some who supported Trump are white nationalists and feel that non-whites are inferior that's true is it wrong for fifth graders to know the truth I I think we would just disagree with that it's not wrong for fifth graders to know the truth it is incumbent upon us as Educators and we know this to make sure that students know the truth question what we say is true so that they know the truth and if we don't do that not you as board members because you're

035not the Educators but if we don't allow our superintendent to do that and make sure that our Educators who are in our classrooms do that we are advocating our responsibility so I know that we'll have two yeses another will have one no but I expect at least one abstain because you are better you are better and you know the truth people have tried to bully and cast you out and I do believe that you know that there's nothing wrong with this book as much as they will try to make it seem like there is that there's not my kids will read this book and say yes and for that reason I need it in schools so my daughters can see someone looks like them thank you [Applause] is Brady Anderson here Lynn Mazika Mr President

036board members Mr Heath Mr Wade thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening I have read the book the whole book Colin Kaepernick from free agent to change agent and I ask you to pass the resolution adopting the recommendation of the library review board to retain this book Colin Kaepernick saw racial Injustice in the country he loved and used his influence to call attention to it he did this peacefully in the manner of past civil rights activists Colin also donated a hundred thousand dollars a month for 10 months to small organizations working in local communities he put his money where his mouth was or as Neil was he held camps for kids where they learned about financial literacy and living a healthy lifestyle Colin's work was anything but meaningless his passion inspired others the

03749ers donated one million dollars to improve racial and economic inequities in the San Francisco area Kaepernick started people thinking what do I know about racism and police violence and can you be patriotic and still criticize your country he was criticized by many he lost his ability to play football but some stood with him Nike one of his sponsors had a billboard with Kaepernick's face and the saying believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything now why should the story be told to fifth graders kids interesting and Sport interest in sports May pick it up they will learn more than stats about a quarterback they will learn how a man stood up for what he believed and that's not a bad lesson thank you [Applause] Linda O'Brien good evening I live at 5842 Tanager Court

038Mentor first I want to thank our loyal and CR and courageous Mentor police you're here every month to protect these board members and I gratefully appreciate that it is their duty to suit up every day and leave their families to protect us here in Mentor and they deserve our highest respect and honor for that and I say that's true for all police across our country Kaepernick's book openly criticizes and dishonors the police and refers to them as pigs I want to ask you how does this square with our professing to teach mutual respect and kindness to our students it doesn't is this disrespect what you want our Mentor Youth to adopt I can't imagine that's the case don't you realize how this communication communicates a total disrespect and disregard for all authority not just the

039police don't you realize that problems result from this will spill into the classroom the family the community I find it hypocritical that Kaepernick relies on the very same police for protection that he criticizes so vehemently and school board members you pay for three men are police to be here every month and you support that book that promotes disrespect for those that you truly rely on for your protection I'm questioning that if the need for protection is so important why doesn't it go beyond you where is it relative to our students in the classrooms why can we have police for this school board and not have police at all of our schools I'd like to know that I you your job your primary job is to serve not to be served so it's important that you

040protect the children the most vulnerable and that I would rather see them protected to see this building rebuilt or a new parking lot you must teach our kids the values that Mark that match our Mentor taxpayers teach them citizenship honesty honor commitment and service bottom line Kaepernick and you if you've continue to support this are both Hypocrites and that's an unfortunate statement this is not book Banning this is about not being age-appropriate thank you thank you [Applause] James Tyrion good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath Mr Wade my name is James Charan in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible there's an allegory written by the prophet Ezekiel and in this story we have a picture of God who finds an abandoned newborn girl in a field it starts off very tenderly

041with God washing the blood off the baby cutting the umbilical cord he takes her in raises her as her own as his own he then dresses her up buys her fine jewelry and when she's old enough becomes her husband the story has a lot more graphic detail involved I'm not here to shock you but if I were to use the words I've heard here many times this would be a story of sexual Grooming by a pedophile this would be a classic case of an older man taking a child giving gifts making them feel special gain their trust only to exploit them and this is how God is written about in this story of course I'm reading it out of context like many of the books that are challenged here or spoken about because context changes

042everything historical context matters the intent of the author matters many of you may not be aware but it's almost a weekly occurrence now of reports coming out of Christian churches stories of sexual abuse predatory leaders cover-up after cover-up after cover-up and they all have a common theme usually men in power using the Bible to justify their actions does all this mean we need to ban the Bible my personal opinion is no to me the Bible is the most liberating revolutionary piece of literature in the world and I know that's debatable I know that's that's uh uh controversial to say but we can hold two ideas in tension because it's also true that the Bible has been one of the greatest tools of Oppression in this world powerful words can do that powerful ideas can do

043that they can be used for good and evil the answer is not then less books or Banning and censorship and policing ideas it is more education it is high quality education like we have here in Mentor it is for our kids to be exposed to the wide and diverse world of ideas and cultures and differences for them to be able to see context and sources and Nuance to be able to make critical and Discerning choices that is what we're training our kids to be that does not come from Banning ideas Banning books and policing ideas and there are and to be sure there are ideas that we can safely say should not be included there are and we have well-trained Educators curriculum directors Librarians staff administrators who can do just that we have people whose

044actual job is to do that and I asked the board to support them time so as they do that thank you by your vote to keep Colin Kaepernick and other books they'll be challenged you are showing our hard-working Educators okay they're supporting them in their work of educating our children thank you thank you [Applause] our last speaker for this session is Lisa G thank you board member I would like to just say that banning this book is just a bad idea and I and and I would like to say that just we we as a community we should encourage students to have critical thinking skills and to develop the ability to hold these hard thoughts about hard things you know it um because oftentimes we're fed like propaganda from opposite sides so why is it

045so offending that when given one book it is so like it causes so such upheaval just with one book saying that maybe it's okay to not stand fully for the flag and I feel like when we're when we have everything instilled into us from day one of kindergarten to the end of graduation held Ace I'm sorry they say it in graduation they sing the national anthem there too so I'm thinking what's wrong with having one book or what's wrong with having any opinions saying it's okay to not stand for the flag it's okay to have differing opinions from the state it's okay to question authority and I believe that this book is important and if we ban it we're showing students that you cannot just question authority you cannot have you cannot have opinions which

046complicate things with the authority and I think that the community which we ought to ensure our students have critical thinking and have good abilities to make their own decisions to make their own opinions about things they ought to be allowed to uh sorry they ought to be allowed to read these things read things from every opinion let them know what the world is so that when they grow up they can make an informed decision and vote and that's why we should allow this book and I would like this to be reflected in not Banning this book from the curriculums thank you thank you this is all that was our last speaker for the first session Mr Heath superintendent's report your recommendations yes good evening everyone a couple of things uh that I want to mention

047before we get into the consent agenda this evening uh first of all uh I continue to be amazed by the talent of our students in this District um we're currently in the middle of our end of the year art shows concerts and theater performances and I am just awestrucked by the quality of the work and the caliber of the performances our students demonstrate if you haven't been to a show yet I know the high school choir concert is going on right now in the Fine Arts Center anyone want to go I'm just kidding in the orchestra concert is scheduled for tomorrow night yes yes thank you thank you Mr Wade the orchestra concert is tomorrow as well um so I would encourage you to get out and and see one of those performances our kids

048are absolutely amazing I will be there Mr Wade awesome Mr Heath excuse me Mr Wayne over there um I want to thank all of our uh art music band choir orchestra and theater teachers for their hard work with our students this year I'm so proud of the Arts education our students receive in our district uh with that being said I had a conversation here recently with a high school choir student who approached me about the possibility of creating a fine arts hall of fame similar to the athletic Hall of Fame that we currently have in our district I spent over now an hour with Kirsten walking through the athletic Hall of Fame to gather ideas and then looking at the Fine Arts wing in the high school to brainstorm where we might um include this

049in our in our building I'm hoping to meet with our fine arts department staff to discuss the idea and see if this might be something we create in the near future to honor our students and staff who have put our district on the map through their artistic talents one other item I want to highlight is is our CTE programs I wanted to provide everyone with a quick update based off of what Dr Clavin shared with us when we celebrated some of those CTE students here a month or two ago at one of our board meetings um and one of the data points that he shared at that meeting was that we had 16 of our sophomores who applied for a CTE program get wait listed due to capacity issues we're working quickly to remedy this

050uh situation and have applied for a CTE expansion Grant through the state of Ohio to renovate several spaces in our high school to expand our programming these programs would create additional opportunities for our students in the fields of culinary arts construction digital media I.T cyber security and the teaching professions this grant would allow us to expand our CTE programs with little to no cost to our taxpayers would be able to create state-of-the-art spaces for our students to learn the skills needed to step right into the workforce and earn good money after leaving Mentor High School we're excited about these possibilities and we'll keep everyone updated as we hear about the status of our Grant application later this summer Heath may I compliment you on the Fine Arts Hall of Fame sure that's a fantastic I

051support that 100 and you know CTE I've always been there yes in the numbers they're going up the applicants to join the program is fantastic yeah it's wonderful program um so much so that I got to spend uh about an hour or so in the manor Lagoon getting rescued by the EMT Academy kids here recently so I wish I were there uh yeah there are pictures online uh final thing I want to mention is uh school safety uh we recently received notice that Mr Porter has obtained two additional safety grants from the Ohio Attorney General's office for our district it's about sixty thousand dollars and while that's significantly less than the grant we received in February this money will allow us to purchase the additional radios cameras infrastructure and door sensors not covered with that

052initial Grant allocation uh we'll probably need to have another work session next month to review our work on school safety um and to to get your guidance on some of those next steps in the district as well so we'll be working with you to identify a date for that board work session here soon gonna add um Mrs Kane Mrs Michelle Kane who's the secondary art chair when you were mentioning the Fine Art Hall of Fame was just recognized by the Cleveland Institute of Art as one of three Educators who are outstanding in their craft and I'm I'm just so proud because I know how hard our students work and how that is an outgrowth of how hard our staff works so very grateful for that just wanted to admit thank you I was just going

053to add I I know tonight we're going to hear some disagreements on some things but I know there's a lot of things that we have that we agree on that we think are really good going on in our district I know several of us were able to go to the Cardinal Works program it was literally in awe of that program um both of my parents are retired special Educators for the Lake County Board of DD and I literally got on the phone with them I'm like this is amazing so although we may have some disagreements there's a lot to be proud of and certainly the CTE program is one of them absolutely you're talking about that later aren't you Maggie okay good and Cardinal Works they made a shirt for me yes they did I

054have some other colors I want to get I got a black one with Mentor Athletics okay how many patterns did they have like 14 up on the wall yeah they'll be happy to take your money I'll be bringing it up I enjoyed watching him make the shirt too by the way [Laughter] um 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 items six a one through six a four so moved second please call the roll Mr Wade Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motions carry 4-0 Mr President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the 2023-24 health care process Consulting Medicaid school program service agreement second please call the roll

055Mr Wade Ms Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss jessling yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 Mr President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the Mentor High School shelter license agreement with Lake Tran removed second call the roll Mr White Miss Payne yes yes Miss jesling yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the memorandum of understanding for academic tutoring services with Torchlight youth mentoring Alliance and the ESC of the Western Reserve and before we do the motion just a couple of clarifications because I know there were some questions this week on that um Torchlight is the former Big Brothers Big Sisters organization they're working very closely with the ESC of Western Reserve on an after-school

056academic tutoring program and are looking to Pilot this with our second and third grade students at Ridge Elementary School Ridge was actually just added this year as one of our Title One buildings so we feel like this will be a great opportunity for our students as we continue to try and close the academic gaps from our remote learning need a motion get a motion so moved second Miss jesling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 Mr President members of the board Mr Wade per Mentor Schools board policy 7.25 the superintendent recommended establish establishing a library Review Committee in response to a request for a review of instructional materials form that was submitted a committee consisting of two Elementary principles The Mentor High School assistant principal a mentor high school

057English teacher two fifth grade teachers that were chosen at random a media specialist the district's parent liaison and District administrators met to review their request for consideration of the book Colin Kaepernick from free agent to change agent and its inclusion in the elementary independent reading classroom libraries in fifth grade each member read the book in its entirety and reviewed the submitted reconsideration form after deliberate and lengthy discussions on the potential merits and concerns of the book associated with retaining or removing access to the book from students using School libraries the committee voted eight to three to retain the book and classroom independent reading libraries the minority vote notes expressed the following reasons why the book is balanced in its presentation of sides and addresses current events the concern was that the themes are more mature

058and would be better intended for an older audience and there were concerns about how a teacher would handle questions that a student may bring to them after reading after these deliberations and review of board policy 7.25 the majority of the committee identified the following reasons for this recommendation the book is a choice book and is part of the fifth grade classroom Library it is not a required text a grade level list of the IDR classroom library books are shared at Meet the Teacher Night and parents have the right to request that their child does not check out the book the book is recommended by book source for grades four through eight the text does not meet the criteria to be labeled as profane or obscene the book exemplifies the notion in the library Bill of

059Rights that libraries must put principle above personal beliefs and Prejudice to provide access to a wide range of materials as a whole the book presents a factual balanced and mindful representation of Colin Kaepernick's experiences beliefs and actions alongside many criticisms and consequences of them different perspectives are presented for example Army veteran Nate Boyd and Colin Kaepernick met to discuss their conflicting viewpoints the photos attempt to balance both viewpoints and give context to the situation the library Bill of Rights calls and libraries to provide materials and opposing sides of issues so students May develop critical thinking this book provides a perspective that all students may not consider or even have access to in their daily lives as a public school we have an obligation to give students access to different types of texts and the opportunity

060to see themselves and the books they read in closing the committee feels the book was appropriately added to and should remain in library collections in accordance with board policy 7.25 I will add that there is nothing wrong with a parent having the right to choose whether or not they want their child to read the book that is in place here a parent can share with the principal and a teacher that they do not want their child to read this book however this does not give them the right to choose whether another child can read the book therefore I affirm the recommendation of the committee and recommend that the book remain in the elementary independent reading classroom libraries I would agree with you Mr Heath um and I jotted down some thoughts regarding this particular book

061especially after I read it cover to cover and having been an Elementary media specialist and public librarian for many years I'm familiar with the process of selecting books I do know that I rarely if ever chose biographies of living people for a school collection because the stories were incomplete Princess Diana's biography in the early 90s would be a good example a better option in my mind was to have contemporary personalities covered in ephemeral materials instead however this Colin Kaepernick biography from 2020 was included in a collection that was offered as a complete set it included level books leveled books for each grade and as I recall the collection was available for public review for weeks last year comments from parents or other members of the community were few and during the school year with these

062books in classrooms across the District I'm not aware of any concerns being raised and Mr Heath do you know of any parents objected to their child reading this book we asked all the elementary principals that here this week and there hasn't been a single challenge this year okay so after reading the book I was surprised that it would be found objectionable Kaepernick whether you agree with his taking a knee during the national anthem or not chose a non-violent path to express his frustration and paid dearly for his action by sacrificing his NFL career at the same time he echoed precisely the non-violent protests that characterized the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s the sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter in South Carolina the Freedom Riders protesting segregation and Civil Disobedience by Dr

063Martin Luther King were done in the same spirit all of those actions led to outspoken support as well as condemnation in those symbolic actions were inspired by the peaceful protests of Mohandas Gandhi and others who have advocated for Justice for All In addition the gesture of kneeling is associated with humility not aggression Kaepernick's choice to take a knee in response to Army veteran Nate Boyer's open letter further clarified his message it was not meant to be disrespectful but instead to call attention to his concerns about the treatment of young men of color beginning with the death of Trayvon Martin having just returned myself from a trip to Central Europe I was reminded of the courage of those who have stood for freedom and human rights and see parallels in Kaepernick's protest the likelihood that this

064sobering topic would be of keen interest to elementary school students is low but for a student who might want to know about Kaepernick I found the narrative to be straightforward and fair reasons for both sides of the issues are included in the text particularly in pages 34-36 at the time that these supplemental books were purchased it was made clear that they are self-selected by students and are not required reading there is also a procedure in place for parents to object to allowing their child to read a particular book as Mr Heath outlined parents are free to limit what their child reads but should not control what's available to everyone else in the class the school or the district does the individual requesting the removal of this book have a fourth or fifth grader attending school

065in our district censorship is a slippery slope opponents of bands argue that by restricting information and discouraging freedom of thought sensors can undermine one of the primary functions of Education which is teaching students how to think for themselves Free Speech proponents would argue that banning or removing books endangers tolerance for expression and democracy thank you we need a motion so I move to follow Mr Heath's recommendation to retain this book in our classroom collections can we have a second a second let me just discuss for a second before we dive in any further the procedural part of this because I think it's confusing especially for members of the audience who are watching there's two parts on the agenda so this one is just we are we are voting to either agree with the recommendation to

066retain it in our schools we're just voting if we agree with recommendation right and then out of that we will have a second section later on where we vote to remove it from The Collection yeah depending on what the vote turns out to be when we do this so if it ends up being two-tailed then we would have to have a motion later on to remove and we'd have to all vote on removing it it's a procedural just so everybody's on the same page and I I just want to ask the other board members to make sure we're all on the same page I don't think everybody here wants to hear everything we have to say twice so can we agree that this portion is where we're going to do the majority of the discussion

067the second portion will just be solely a vote then um to remove the book later on uh okay yeah that's okay I just didn't want to you know I know everybody's here to listen to what we have to say but I don't think they want to hear it twice so um and again that just so everybody knows and that's kind of the confusing part of the board policy the way this one is set up so um this first vote would be based on my recommendation to retain the book so we'll vote for that first the second part of that policy the board actually has to take action to remove a book from a classroom library a library a portion of the curriculum so that's why there would be a resolution that would be voted upon

068to remove it and just to confirm for everybody in attendance as well as the board members you have to have a majority vote in both those situations for it to pass so so this this vote if it ends up being 2-2 wouldn't do anything which is why we'd have to go to the resolution correctly because you would not have the affirmation to support the recommendation of the superintendent if there was a tie correct um I have a question I prepared something as well some notes that I wanted to state but I had some questions about parents being aware of what is in the classroom I know we had made some changes in the beginning of the year uh to to send out I believe it was a list of at Meet the Teacher Night where

069the parents are able to see the books that are in their classroom correct okay do we know if that for sure was followed in the beginning of the year because I had several parents who said they'd never got a list or anything like that so I just want to make sure yeah the lists were posted in all of those classrooms so during that Meet the Teacher Night all the the list of books by grade level were there for students or for parents to see to them it's posted yeah it's in the classroom and so they had the list and they had the books that they could look through is that correct correct okay and then from there they could ask if they if if they had a concern about the book it was there any

070time after they could talk to the teacher and say I don't want my child to read this book correct thank you stop stop please you can't speak now this is board meeting right now at the end of the meeting no no that's it done please excuse me there's no comments from the crowd anybody that's it this is to conduct board business the public sessions will be at the beginning and at the end as they always are so welcome to do it then with that I think as I've heard from parents in the past that they weren't given a list if going forward outside of this book Challenge and everything else I think it would be more helpful if instead of posting a list there's so much going on on Meet the Teacher Night you know

071there's so there's it's kind of chaos right like everybody's excited there's so many pieces and parts I think it would be more helpful for for parents to have an actual list that way they can go home and look it up and you know they're not going to all be standing there looking at all the books in the classroom so um that's my two cents on that just as a procedural thing going forward I do have some thoughts um about this particular book specifically in reference to our library policy 7.25 many people refer to the removal of books from schools as Banning them it is not it is called vetting something schools have been doing for decades the public library and school library should not contain the same exact items it is the job at the

072school to fully vet books for age-appropriateness and we have policies surrounding this issue to help guide us in making sound decisions for all of our students when reference referencing curriculum in library books for example last year the board and curriculum team unanimously agreed to remove the book George which is now renamed as Melissa that was slated to be in fifth grade classrooms as part of the collaborative classrooms collection the book that is being challenged tonight was part of that same collection that passed with a 3-2 vote by our current board last year our policy 7.25 under the library Bill of Rights states that we should provide materials that take into consideration the maturity level of the pupils being served and that will stimulate growth in factual knowledge and that will enable pupils to make intelligent

073judgments in their daily life I believe that we're violating our own policy by allowing this book to reside in every fifth grade classroom this book is available for students to read during silent reading time which means it would be unaccompanied by an adult and lacks any supervision or Parental Guidance since it's also not taken home on page Knight of the book it states and I quote some people believed candidate Donald Trump's speeches often had racist overtones he stoked fears of immigrants and minorities some of his supporters were white nationalists people who were openly racist and believed that non-whites were inferior many Americans were alarmed it was clear to Kaepernick that a century and a half after the abolition of slavery in the United States radical Injustice was still common racist beliefs were deeply embedded in

074many people who controlled U.S institutions such as the justice system the more he thought about it he realized he could not honor and stand stand to honor the national anthem or the U.S flag not when they represented a country that ruthlessly oppressed some of its people end quote not only is this completely biased in opinion but per our own policy I I don't believe this material is appropriate for the maturity of the average fifth grader I have a 10 year old son so he would be in fifth grade next year technically it is teaching them I believe to label and stigmatize those who think differently politically than themselves shouldn't we be teaching our kids to judge people based on the content of their character instead of who they vote for we've seen this theme before

075in the last book challenge transphobia deal with it and become a gender transgender because that book stated that if you believe there are only two genders then you are transphobic so we're labeling people the Colin Kaepernick book is just another book that is upholding teaching kids a very dangerous mindset that if you don't agree with somebody or if they don't think you're the same as you then it's fully acceptable to label them or stigmatize them we see this issue in our schools in the form of bullying in our own board meetings we've seen it and I'll say on both sides and in our community we even have members who try to Blacklist local small businesses based on solely who they voted for upholding this ideology is extremely dangerous and should not be supported in our

076schools it furthers the idea that we want to teach students what to think and not how to think it doesn't allow students to form their own opinions and therefore violates our policy this book also does not provide factual information when referencing search certain controversial topics so on page 21 BLM is highlighted as a positive influential group BLM is a controversial group and it is hard enough for adults to develop an educated opinion on it so how can we possibly expect fifth graders to understand all of the nuances of the group and formulate an opinion about it on page 8 the book references police brutality against minority groups it really Paints the police in a very negative light there are three police officers in this room right now that help keep us safe how would this

077book make their children feel if they read it this has the potential to negatively affect those students and families who have chosen law enforcement as their career we should be fostering a sense of respect and honor for our police officers instead of a culture of distrust I have been loud about my support for research resource officers in every single one of our schools however we know that we don't have enough people going into law enforcement and we don't have enough police officers to fill our schools we don't need to wonder why people are not going into that field when we're placing books like this in Elementary classrooms recently many 8th graders went on a school field trip to Washington DC where many students bought Trump hats that same night they were told that the next

078day no one would be able to wear their political attire not only do I believe that this violates the right to free speech we are not being consistent with our message if Trump hats are too political and too controversial for 8th graders then a book for elementary students that slam Donald Trump support BLM and talk negatively about our police surely is also too controversial there are facets of this book that I could see as beneficial to readers and I'll just reiterate there are parts of the book that I agree with that I think we could all agree on I looked at the collaborative classroom book list which this is a part of and we already have a book about Jackie Robinson in our fourth grade classrooms one solution could be for us to replace Colin

079Kaepernick with another copy of Jackie Robinson book as an alternative since not only did our expert Educators as part of the committee disagree on whether the book should stay or go but our community is also in disagreement I believe this book would accomplish the same goal as the Colin Kaepernick book without all the age inappropriate controversial subjects I could provide a plethora of reasons why this book is unacceptable to maintain in our fifth grade classrooms but I'm going to leave my fellow board members with these last few sentiments we know that there's a perception in our community that believes we are pushing political ideology in our schools while there are so many wonderful programs and student and staff achievements to be proud of which we mentioned a lot of them today and you saw a

080lot of the achievements earlier with the awards we need to be cognizant of this negative perception in our community from the outside looking in people have seen a multitude of things being approved by our board current and past that they deem as political in nature we have an opportunity tonight to help change that perception and protect the reputation of our schools and our teachers do we think this book helps or hurts that perception will it help or hurt our chances of passing an upcoming Levy in November ultimately our choices have real consequences that directly affect our students staff and community and I'll just say this book would still be allowed to be checked out in the public library it just wouldn't be in the classrooms Mr Heath said it right in his statement to The

081Washington Post a couple months ago when he said politically that we need to be and I quote right down the center every time end quote This Book Is anything but right down the center or neutral and is unfit for fifth grade classrooms [Applause] sure sure thank you when I'm looking at um just this this whole piece though the thing that I leaned in on was our policy so um you know when we're looking at our policy selection of our library materials we do say that the Board of Education subscribes to the tenants of the school library Bill of Rights and one of those things is the maturity level that we heard some people's opinion feel that this is not appropriate maturity level I would I would say that there is expert opinion that says it

082does fall right in the maturity level when we're looking at it was recommended by book source for grades four through eight which I believe is um and correct me if I'm wrong I believe that that is a is a way that recommends on an age band is is that correct I know this is Justin you have Library experience so um you know the the people that have actually looked at the book from that perspective of maturity level do feel that it is appropriate so um other areas that are important for the school library Bill of Rights is that we are to provide materials on opposing sides of controversial controversial issues so that young citizens May develop under Guidance the practice of critical reading and thinking I would agree that this book is controversial we have

083opposing um viewpoints here but I think that it's okay to provide controversial content to students in the fifth grade controversy helps us develop our critical thinking skills it helps us establish conversations that help us view the perspectives of others this book is factually balanced I did not see anything that was not factual in the book it is listed as non-fiction if there's anything specific I didn't I didn't notice it and feel free to have that conversation it was balanced it was a mindful representation of Colin Kaepernick's experiences his beliefs his actions and a lot of those were his beliefs and it does state that they are his beliefs or they are the beliefs of some people it never said everyone's beliefs and I I would be opposed if it if it did it did also

084include many criticisms and it talked about the consequences of his actions he he had severe consequences he lost his career um there were many parts of it that I would say are you know talk about his activism that Mrs Payne highlighted for us and there are many more that I would say talked about the opposing side you know on pages 35-36 they said many fans however identified with Trump's anger and that they saw the protests as a root so they are picturing that side that there are pictures included in there they talked about how many people were angry with Nike and how they um you know refused to support that company and that is within your right to do that they talked about how all NFL players were not on Kaepernick's side and some of

085them agreed with his message but they did present a balanced Viewpoint so different perspectives were presented which is something that is a part of the school library Bill of Rights that are policy does state that we are um for subscribing to the you know the other point of our policy says that when when we have a challenge when we have someone that is a citizen is objecting to a book like we did tonight I'm glad that we have that policy I think people have a right to object to the book um but we do need to look at it overall as as a full piece we need to weigh the value and the faults and form opinions based on the material as a whole rather than just certain passages and sections and I think when

086you do view it as a whole you can see that it is balanced they're um is another piece in our policy that says no challenged material may be removed from the curriculum or from a collection of resource materials except by action of the board and no challenged material may be removed solely because it presents ideas that may be unpopular or offensive to some this book does have some unpopular and offensive pieces for some people that is not reason to remove a book based on our policy and we do have other avenues so that if you don't want your child to read the book I believe that is within your right and we have that peace as a part of our policy that parents can opt out of books that is their parental right and I'm

087glad that we have that and I would encourage people to utilize that if they don't feel comfortable thank you I would just make some some you said about the fourth to 8th grade this book being recommended for that the George book that we all agreed to remove was also recommended for grades like fourth through eighth so I don't think we can make our decision based solely on that I think we really have to look at if it's inappropriate age inappropriate and I I disagree I don't think that fifth graders fully comprehend I know as an adult it was hard enough I spent hours trying to look over this book and trying to go over pros and cons and and what I was going to say and that's hard enough for an adult who has access

088to information access to look up different sides and things like that I think putting a fifth grader and and almost forcing them to look through the eyes and the lens of an adult on these adult controversial issues is a disservice to them I think that we should allow them to have their innocence on these these really hard topics that are hard enough for adults to to discuss I would also say the opposing side of this this book I didn't see in the collection now mind you I know there's a lot of them but I looked in the book list again I didn't see anything that is opposite to BLM that that talks about the other side of BLM or that talks about the other side of police brutality um or a positive book about Donald

089Trump I didn't find one in that collection of you know 1400 books so I don't know that that's a valid point I understand that perspective I can appreciate it but I stand firm I don't I don't think this is right for the maturity level of our students so um to that the the information that we were given was that book source reviewed the book and said that it was appropriate for grades four through eight and I know that you've you stated that it isn't but what Authority did you have to review that and choose the age like did you research it and did you find another source I read the book myself and I have a 10 year old as well who's going into fifth grade next year and I I think these topics I

090would never ever talk to him about this stuff unless it happened naturally I don't think he's at the maturity level along with all the other kids that age I also think that it's just not a valid point when we have all agreed to remove books that have been in the collect would have been in the collection for all fifth grade as well that were slated for fourth to eighth grade so I can appreciate that I understand that it's the experts that did that but um the experts also put together part of this collection a book that we all agreed was wholly inappropriate sexual nature and we removed it so the parents you know again you cited your parents rights to read it and you know for your own child that your child wouldn't be ready

091to read this book not to say that someone else wouldn't think that my child is ready to read this book and and my child has the maturity or the understanding to think critically so to me it is just we are allowing that parent input we are allowing that parent control and because the book doesn't violate our policy at all I I would agree with Mr Heath's recommendation and the recommendation of our book review team to keep the book I can appreciate that you believe it doesn't violate it I stated several reasons why I believe it does violate it specifically the maturity level we had you know three Educators who agreed with what I'm saying in reference to the maturity level so I don't think it's a unanimous decision even by our educators when I think

092about when I think about our community we have the majority of our community and men are voted for Donald Trump let's just take that for a second I don't want to Aid in this perception that we are pushing any political ideology if things are so controversial that we're sitting up here and discussing them and we're not all agreeing the Educators aren't in agreement then under the same aspect of you want or you know people are saying you have parental rights you can say not to look at the book well parents have the right to go to the library and pick out any books too so if it's so controversial that it's going to Aid in that perception that we're pushing political ideology I would rather not have it in our classrooms so that we can

093just really stay neutral like Mr heat said in his comments to The Washington Post we should be down the middle every time and I don't believe this book does that thank you so I have have some input on this regarding critical thinking so we're speaking in terms of critical thinking in fifth grade and so some of you have read the book and some haven't now when you read it and they talked about black lives matter then they talked about Trayvon Martin and that police are killing minorities I'm not sure if that's in that paragraph but the reference is they're getting killed in their innocent individuals was Trayvon Martin innocent well the guy who shot him got found not guilty and it was delivered for three hours but my thought here is when you talk about

094critical thinking the fifth grader reads that book he goes over it he or she goes over it and just sees the statement of Trayvon Martin got killed and it was related to Black lives matter but what really is behind the Trayvon Martin case would a child in fifth grade sixth grade even I don't even know when I read the book and I saw that I did research but I had already learned earlier back in 20 2012 2012. what had happened and I watched that with interest now I'm an adult in 2012 I'm not going to tell you how old I was there was 10 years ago so I still have a memory of that in I did the research and I went to a law school's website and I copied down their report and they

095spoke about it and they gave some very good input that would a fifth grader talk to their parents to their parents no do you all know exactly what happened with Trayvon Martin anyone here raise your hand one two three so it looks like about did you know that he was found not guilty okay and why was he found not guilty that's a rhetorical question you have to tell you I'll tell you how let me read to you some of the report I'm going to bore you with this but shortly after seven o'clock P.M on Sunday February 26th 2012 17 year old Trayvon Martin talked on his cell phone cell phone with his friend Rachel Jean tell he carried a bag of Skittles in an Arizona watermelon juice color cooler as he headed along his sidewalk

096in the retreat at twins lake a townhouse community in Sanford when George Zimmerman driving his SUV to Target for an errand looked out his window he spotted Martin he didn't know it was Martin and he concluded as he told police in a phone call he was a real suspicious guy what about Martin made him suspicious is not completely clear what is known is that Martin is that he was unknown to Zimmerman young wore a hooded sweatshirt walked slowly in the rain and most Central to the debates that would later ensue was black asked later that night in a police interview that caused for his suspicion Zimmerman said I've never seen him in the neighborhood I know all the residents it was raining out and he was leisurely walking taking his time looking at all the

097houses I'm not saying suggesting that is suspicious activity but that's what's and that's in quotes Zimmerman then called Sanford police at 709 nine minutes later to report his suspicions he told the dispatcher that the man is a in a gray hoodie quotes was just walking around looking at all the houses in quote and now he's staring at me telling the dispatcher this is on the phone he's coming to check me out Zimmerman asked how long until you can get an officer over here that's what he asked the officer on the phone told by the officer quote we've got someone on the way Zimmerman responded in frustration these ah I'm not going to read out loud they always get away so the derogatory name but not relating to his color of skin Martin meanwhile was talking

098on his cell phone with a friend in Miami named Rachel gintel he complained to jingtel that a man was watching him a man Martin described as a creepy cracker blank cracker Chantel Warren Martin that the man might be a rapist and urged him to run so again who's doing the critical thinking reading this book do they get to this point they have to do research right your children of fifth grade sixth grade even seventh grade I mean even what high school student today 12 years later thinks about this case when they read the book in their great class I don't I don't see it happening Zimmerman told the dispatcher s-h-i-t he's running and got over actually there was a mistype apparently and got out of his car to follow him the dispatcher sensing that Zimmerman

099was giving Chase asked quote are you following him when Zimmerman replied yeah dispatcher said okay we don't need you to do that Zimmerman answered okay the dispatcher suggested that Zimmerman meet the arriving officer quote near the mailboxes and he said yeah that's fine seconds later four minute call seconds later the four-minute call to the dispatcher ended according to Zimmerman's police interview later that night I was walking back through where my car was and he jumped out from the bushes and he said what's the F your problem honey I'm sorry homie and I said I don't have a problem and he goes now you have a problem says Trayvon and he punched me in the nose says Zimmerman where Martin continued to Pummel him as I started screaming for help I couldn't see I couldn't breathe

100at this point he's taken him down and I'm not going to go through the rest of it but those of you who were aware of this case he now you are he was on top of him Trayvon Martin was on top of him he was on top Zimmerman reaches his shirts running up his pants are half down his pants because he's been tots on the concrete and Zimmerman's getting pummeled he already had a bloody nose and now he's getting his head bashed on the concrete you anybody see that video of the back of his head when they showed it in the news I did and I remember that what student would re rehearse research this story to understand what truly happened probably zero Zimmerman had a gun and was legally registered in his name he

101was getting killed and he screams he screams for help he's killing me help me help me that's what Zimmerman was calling to neighbors heard that going on and they called 9-1-1 while the nearing the neighbor nearby was on speaking on 9-1-1 that was also getting recorded so that playback of that episode was available to them hearing help me help me he's killing me and then they gave him the physical test and they saw that his head was bashed on the back he had a bloody nose some bruising on his face yeah who was the assailant there was it Trayvon Martin was it Zimmerman so why is Zimmerman portrayed as the killer of Trayvon Martin in a book for a five-year-old that's not going to do the research that's inappropriate in that book for a child

102I mean there's not many adults even would take the time to research that reading that book would they it's like [Applause] and by no means am I suggesting Trayvon Martin deserved that it was an unnecessary death without a doubt I don't know how it could have been avoided but it wasn't thank you and for those of you wondering where my research was I have that available this time for you Maggie before I got that information from a law school we studied the case any other comments input questions yeah I have just one last comment um from the book for 10 booms book it's really excellent but I just find it so fitting for for what I believe in reference to this book in in the book it talks about it's the hiding place it talks

103about the daughter is asking the father some questions and he's he the father turns to her some some really heavy questions the daughter's asking and he turns to look at me it says this is referring to the daughter and the father as he always did when answering a question but to my surprise he said Nothing At Last he stood up lifting his travel case off the floor and set it on the set it on the floor will you carry it off the train Corey he said I stood up and I tugged at it it was crammed with the watches and spare parts that he had purchased that morning it's too heavy I said yes he said and it would be a pretty poor I would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little

104girl to carry such a load it's the same way Corey with knowledge some knowledge is too heavy for children when you are older and stronger you can bear it for now you must trust me to carry it for you I feel like this book is too heavy for fifth graders and and it's our job to not make them see the world through adult lens so I'll just say that I would agree with that statement hearing no more please call the roll Mr Wade Miss wrestling I'm voting yes to abide by Mr Heath's recommendation to retain the book Miss Cook I'm also voting to approve to to agree with Mr he's recommendation to approve the book keep the book Miss Payne no Mr Tuttle no two two Thai motion does not carry and just so everybody

105knows procedurally what will happen then the board will have a resolution on during the board business section here that will be voted on next as part of the board policy Mr President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C6 are related to human resource matters I'm also recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff could we do that d as a separate just because of the way I think it needs to be done yeah so I am making the recommendation for C1 C2 through C6 thank you so moved second input comments discussion hearing none Mr Wade call the roll Miss Payne yes Miss dresslink yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries four zero Mr President members of the

106board Mr Waite I'm recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff so moved second please call the road Miss dressling yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next on the agenda Board of Education report recommendations would you remember I could read these ones for you okay go ahead approval of the resolution to approve board member expense reimbursement for Mary L Briner do we have motion so moved second discussion plea oh sorry go ahead I just wanted to make a couple comments because I know Mr Tuttle and I uh both of us voted no for osba because of their political affiliations and their lobbying efforts and their legislative efforts because they are a 501c4 which means that they are

107able to use taxpayer dollars to go towards lobbying efforts at the state and the federal level with that being said um I do believe that every single one of us has the right to go to training that we see fit in order to stand up for our constituency so I will approve of this even though I disagree with some of the political affiliations going on with osba she was acting you know as as a board member in her official capacity to go to any training that she see fits I would I would support all of us doing that um so just to make that comment thank you Mrs Payne please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Cook yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 do I just read this

108one the way it's written do you have the corrected version yeah I'm not sure I do you have to read the whole thing or just the pull it up though and see if I can beat you to it I've got it I've got it you found it I got it I can read it okay happy to help the Board of Education and Mentor Public School Village uh Lake County State Ohio met in a regular session and the policy the resolution removed challenge material from the fifth grade reading libraries whereas board policy 7.25 selection of Library materials board policy establishes a process for citizens to object to materials including District school libraries and whereas pursuant to the board's policy a citizen has filed with the superintendent an objection to the inclusion of the fifth grade reading

109libraries of Colin Kaepernick free from a free agent to Agent of Change known as in parenthesis quotations challenge material and whereas pursuant to the board policy the superintendent established the library Review Committee to examine the challenge material and discuss whether it should be removed from the fifth grade reading libraries and whereas after deliberate deliberation and lengthening discussions on merits of the concerns about the chance material majority of the members of the library library Review Committee voted to retain the challenge material and whereas pursuant to board policy the assistant superintendent prepared a written report of the library review committee's findings for the submission the superintendent and whereas those members of the library Review Committee who voted to remove the challenge material did so on the basis of the jail materials themes are too mature and Enterprise

110appropriate for elementary school children excuse me students and due to concerns about teachers being put in situations where they will unnecessarily have to address age inappropriate questions discussions with Elementary School students after they've read the Channel's material thereby causing destruction to the classroom and oh sorry I must have only printed it's another whereas mine ended at Ann yeah whereas based on the written report of the library review's findings the superintendent has recommended to the board that the challenge material be retained and whereas the superintendent has presented the findings of the library Review Committee to the board which the board has carefully examined and discussed with the superintendent and whereas pursuant to board policy the final decision for the use of all instructional material including without limitation the challenge material shall rest with the board after

111careful examination and discussion of the material with school officials and anyone else the board may wish to consult and now therefore be resolved by the Board of Education of the minor Exempted Village School District in Lake County Ohio that section one removal of the book after careful examination of the findings of the library Review Committee and discussions with the superintendent the board hereby determines that the challenge material should be removed from the fifth grade reading library on the basis that the channel materials themes are to mature and inappropriate for the elementary school students and due to concerns about teachers being put in situations where they unnecessarily have to address agent appropriate questions and discussions with Elementary School students after they read the challenge material thereby causing disruption to the classroom as expressed by those members

112of the library Review Committee who voted to remove the challenge material section two superintendent authorization the board hereby authorizes and directs the superintendent to cause the challenge material to be removed from the fifth grade reading libraries and to take all further actions as he may deem necessary inappropriate in accordance with the resolution to excuse me in accordance with the resolution to effectuate its purposes section three compliance with open meeting requirements the board finds and determines that all formal actions of the board and any of its committees concerning and relating to adoption of this resolution were adopted in an open meeting of the board or committees and that the deliberation of the board and its of its committees that resulted in those formal actions were a meeting open to the public in compliance with the law

113section four captions and headings the captions and headings in this resolution are solely for convenience and of reference and in no way Define limit or describe the scope or intent of any section subsequent or subsections paragraphs subparagraphs or clauses hereof effective date this resolution shall be in full force and the effective date from the immediately upon adoption [Music] do we have a motion so moved second comments input just to clarify this is to remove the book from The Collection I think we all had our comments earlier please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss Cook no Mr stressling no motion does not carry a vote two to two email failed next correct legislative report our legislative yet I didn't get one I was going to do that for Mrs burner

114but I didn't receive the legislative report yeah I usually get a duplicate copy and I didn't see it yet so we'll have to have a double dose this is one of those months about when they get their report done okay that the State Board of Education has asked the State Attorney General to look at the legality of the governor asking for that change in their status and their Authority that it would be transferred to the Department of Education or the education um Cabinet member really and the way at the last I heard was that the Attorney General said he doesn't have the authority to look at the constitutionality of the the bill that would make that change so that's not his role he said so I guess it will go through the courts thank you

115that's my only legislative contribution for today Mrs cook student achievement report yes thank you on Saturday April 29th awt held their annual rope robobots Battle Competition Mentor Schools was well represented with a mentor high school team in a Lakeshore compact team mhs's team consisted of Austin Sternberg Katie Poland's Zach Payne Nick matrastrelli Cole Covell and they were led by Mr Alec Byram a huge thank you to our business partner Libra Industries who assisted in the build of the of our bot throughout the competition the highlight of the competition was winning the best documentation award The Mentor High School top 25 show choir had their annual Big Show this past weekend this year's theme was the 80s and the group did an amazing job a few pictures from that on Thursday May 4th we held the

116annual Mentor Public Schools Business Partnership breakfast where we will we were able to recognize the following organization with business partner impact Awards we had Rogers Company habco Industries Mentor Area Chamber of Commerce the mentor Police Department these groups have provided invaluable services and opportunities to the students in our school district and we thank them on Tuesday April 25th The Mentor High School art Department hosted their Roaring 20s Gala art show right here in the Fine Arts Center lobby from six to eight senior portfolios were featured displays and overlapping with the high school was the K-5 art show actually the K-5 art show was here in this space at the Paradigm and the art Department organized numerous food trucks to attend many districts do not have such a strong K-12 art program and that evening was

117an amazing example of just how incredible our program is on Thursday um this still back on the last one but on Thursday May 11th the Memorial Middle School art department will host their Edible art show from 6 30 to 8 P.M so if anyone is interested in attending that um I'll see you there this this will be a night of Art and fun as they celebrate the work of all of their art students and on Thursday May 18th The Shore Middle School art department will host their tidal wave of creativity Art Show featuring 7th and 8th grade Fine Art surfboards from 6 to 8 pm and it looks like I have some things to wear that'll be fun for everyone all of the art students will have their work on display and in addition there

118will be food trucks available in the back of the building all right I'm ready for that next one on May 4th we held the grand reopening of the Mentor High School spirit store our Cardinal Works students and teachers have been working hard to reorganize the entire store which is located between the gymnasium and the cafeteria in the high school using new equipment and Technology to provide on the spot customized apparel for the school Community I know Mr Tuttle got assured and yes I did pretty awesome worn my sweatshirt and received several compliments I know and they make it right there amazing good prices too um Mentor High School theater produced Mamma Mia April 20th through the 22nd it was an amazing performance in fact at the 48th Lake County rotary Awards the clubs of Paynesville

119and men are awarded Manor High School with the best comedy drama for leading ladies which was in the fall and the best musical for Mamma Mia so all of the other local districts are are competing with that and we did Come Away With both Awards they they do only give a fall in a spring because most schools do too and I know we do three here three performances because we have a winter one as well that's not judged because men most of the schools don't do that in addition several of our actors and actresses received individual Awards and any even a scholarship was awarded so it's fantastic and congratulations to the students and I believe that um well I know that Memorial also had their spring musical just recently um unfortunately I didn't get my

120pictures quick enough to put them in so I'll put them in for next time because there were some some real fun ones um we'll talk about that next time thank you can I just add um I know Mrs jesling and I were at the military uh enlisting ceremony and it was phenomenal I mean from the choir singing God Bless America they are so talented to I know he had three enlisting the the coolest thing that I thought I had no idea that we stream it to the classroom so that all these kids can support the three you know students who are enlisting that is cool and I don't think many other schools do that so um I was just you know with the Cardinal Works program the same week it was really just a fun

121fun week and I'm proud of a lot of those things that was a beautiful ceremony I wasn't able to watch it live but just watched it at home and it was beautiful um I hope to make that someday I have to take them personal Mr Bob's Donovan who's got to be the that's awesome most beloved resident of this community at age 98 and going strong it's always heartwarming to see him and to hear him speak yes he's wonderful yeah I went to Mamma Mia twice I saw you about the first one and I love the second one it's fantastic the closing one was really touching because the players were getting emotional at the end and yeah it was fantastic they're great how they have their lines so memorized it's like they're for real very talented

122yes and then top 25 I ended up sitting after intermission next to Craig and his wife and his mother yeah I walked back in it was dark of course I was outside talking came back in his darkest head down Kathy his wife says well Tom you sit right here that was fantastic top 25. that was fun to watch as a previous top 25 person so I was in top 25 with Mrs jesling's son and it was so much fun and to watch them was was really enjoyable my daughter who was only six loved it so that's a lot I bet yeah you know I always love hearing all these pieces and it was wonderful over the last you know couple of weeks to be able to attend so many different activities and showcasing students talents

123and I always hope that in spite of our concerted concerns in in a lot of debate over things where it's quite polarizing that those things even though they dominate our meetings in most cases that we never lose sight of the big picture of the 7 000 students and the hundreds of employees who contribute every day to to try to provide the best education possible and give our students a springboard to so many opportunities Dr glavens efforts to expand Career Technical education and there's just so many of those things and I always worry that they may be overshadowed in the intense debate over very specific issues that I'm not saying are important but I don't want them to be the only things that our community takes away from our our School District well sad perhaps we

124need to do a better marketing job and those extracurricular yes Mrs cook is doing good with that but I also think the uh showing I know we've had these discussions like show this stuff on the Mentor Public Schools you know social media and I liked that there was that clip about the Cardinal Works program for a lot of people who don't know you know things that we're doing it's it's really nice to Showcase things like that that program is just so I mean so awesome and we're trying to do some concerted effort to do those little 30 to 45 second Clips hey here's where we are today this is what's going on just to highlight some of those those great things that are happening in our schools every day so we'll continue to push that

125there's so much when I'm doing this and I'm trying to narrow it it is really hard there are many things that I just like I can't talk forever you know I mean we had a giant National Honor Society group we had a winner of the lake Tran I mean another winner I think we win every year you have 30 years in a row it's a three-peat so there's just so many things going on that our students are very high achieving so and Mr Heath and I get to work with the Mentor Schools Foundation which is just another vibrant organization with so many great people participating so when I was picking up the fresh air challenge returns from Orchard Health that was the school that I was responsible for doing that Courier work there's this gentleman

126on Hendricks Road who's the crossing guard Mr Joe and I see him all the time because that's on my way to my son and daughter-in-law's house and I always wait and he always waves and he has his radiant grin and I just think what a wonderful way to start and end a day when Mr Joe is your crossing guard whether you're on your bike or you're walking to school so I pulled into the the bike I was wearing my sassy new sweatshirt and I had my my lanyard on and he's like am I in trouble and I said I just I just wanted to stop and say thank you for making me feel so good about our community he represents a little piece of our school district for our kids for our community and I

127asked his permission to take his picture and he was very gracious and allowed me to do that so and I think he's gotten more likes on my my Twitter feed and almost anything else I have posted and well deserved anyway thank you for letting me chip in there [Music] Mr Wade Mr President members of the board Mr Heath uh it is my pleasure to give the Financial update for April which concludes our 10 months of our 12 months of our financial year our fiscal year as just as a reminder our fiscal year starts July runs through June so now that we've concluded April uh we have about 10 you know 10 12 of the Year done so we continue to get a more accurate picture of where our finances are currently year-to-date Revenue collections is

128up about 2.1 million dollars we're under spending by about 1 million dollars so we'll have a net positive difference from what we were projecting back in November of about 3.2 million dollars which means we'll decrease the cash balance for the Year by about 14.4 million dollars with that looking at our Revenue in comparison to uh our prior Year we're about 3.7 or 3.8 million dollars less we were last year that is predominantly because we did not receive our Homestead and rollback payment from the state I had not come in in April where it typically does we got word that that's coming in this month so we know we will get that it just didn't come in so it was a timing issue as many of the variances that we see from time to time in

129our updates are because of timing continue to Trend a little bit higher than we projected with state revenue and if we look at our revenue for the same period um for their total revenue we're about 935 000 lower than last year again most of that's because of the fact that we have not received that Homestead and rollback payment yet if you look at what that means kind of why are we 2.1 higher than we expected we believe that it's because in our tax collections that we had for the first half of the calendar year or second half tax collection for the fiscal year we had people pay in advance more than we typically do we believe it's because of the tax split so we're seeing about 1.1 million dollars more than we would have expected

130and you know the explanation is we believe is because of the tax split so what we would see is a corresponding decrease in the second half collection or first half collection of the next fiscal year continue to see higher interest earnings than we projected you know which is a good thing in from our standpoint is the economy is trying to write itself through all the FED interest rate increases it's not necessarily best if you're investing in the stock market but we don't invest in the stock market we have to invest in very safe liquid Investments so with our investment rates we're seeing anywhere from we were at less than 0.1 percent when I first started in this role now we're at over four percent and sometimes five percent in our current interest rate receiving that

131we have so we continue to see higher than expected Returns on interest which is uh benefiting Us in this sense as we move forward so overall 2.1 million dollars more in Revenue than we would have expected if you look at our April expenditures compared to the prior year we were down about 450 000 dollars and again if we compare year to date to this point we're 10.7 million dollars higher and a lot of that goes to the fact that we are we transferred additional Revenue this year for the out years in our five-year Capital plan instead of doing one year at a time for that as well as we saw an increase in our salary and benefits uh because of contractual obligations all in all we're down uh one point one million dollars in spending

132compared to where we were projecting a big portion of that was because we made the decision this past April uh last month to take money that we had in Esser funds to offset some of the costs that we are experiencing with Crossroads so we transferred 350 000 from our Esser fund to offset costs um for our support of our students social emotional health through Crossroads so that's a one-time savings that will obviously not be there forever because you know those Esser funds are one-time funds we can use them once and I explained I believe it was last meeting if not it was March where we talked about what we're using our Sr money for which is predominantly Crossroads and extra support for our students from an academic standpoint and that money does run out after

133next school year um the other part of that is we're down uh we're underspending our budget um in supplies in capital outlay predominantly in supplies we close our spending down predominantly for our year in the middle of April as we start to close out the fiscal year our belief is that at that point in the year you know the money was allocated to support students in this current fiscal year it should have been spent because we're winding down the school year so we feel that that tread is going to kind of go forward with that the reason why all that is important is because we then I took the current projections of where we're going to finalize our fiscal year and updated our November forecast on the screen ahead of me and this will all

134be put online for everyone to be able to view a little bit closer we have our projections for November I think the number that would be most important to focus on was one of our physical management beliefs is to live within our five-year forecast and if you look at the ending cash balance with levies so that's just under the Bold there it says Revenue Surplus or deficit you see in 2027 we were looking at a negative 7.5 million dollar deficit if we everything all my projections and came to fruition if we go to a quick summary on the next slide you can see with the assumptions that I'll review here shortly we are now at 14 and a half million dollars in the net positive at the end of The Five-Year forecast with the updates

135so that includes uh the trends that we saw from the savings that we had from understanding the current Bunch budget as well as some decisions that were made by our leadership team Mr Heath and his administrative team and myself because again this is our five-year forecast this is not my five-year forecast I just get the pleasure of speaking to it and introducing it to the community so um a lot of those decisions are made with Mr Heath and his leadership team with my support and guidance in helping them determine what is going to help them achieve the Strategic plan and missions and vision of the district so with that I think the positive here takeaway if you take away nothing we are 22 million dollars better at the end of The Five-Year forecast than we

136were based on decisions that I'm going to describe here in a second so with that I think it's always important to remind everybody where the majority of our Revenue comes from and this is brought up quite regularly in our meetings and it is true 73.4 percent of our revenue does come from our local taxpayer we receive 15.2 percent of our Revenue uh from the state and another 6.76 percent in the form of reimbursement so I'd actually I would argue that we received 21.9 almost 30 percent of our money from the state uh or excuse me 21 so 22 I don't know why I added an extra eight percent there as I rounded up there so because Homestead and rollback reimbursements are really reimbursements from the state though they get classified in a separate line item

137technically they're coming from that and again Federal sources that go into the general fund are less than one percent but we do receive over approximately eight million dollars in federal funding that is outside the general fund just to reiterate so I don't want to create confusion as I simplify here the general fund so this is our 001 account I think it's always important to use visuals when you're explaining the budget particularly in the form of Revenue um this takes that last slide and kind of relates everything back into millions of dollars and you can see again that the blue obviously represents the tax dollars that we get and we receive anywhere between 68 to 70 million dollars as with those white Little Numbers say that I'm sure you can't read from where you're sitting but

138it's really more about the colors not because they're pretty because I think they show what I'm trying to get across to you um and you'll see that that revenue is relatively flat and I should quiz all of you the former chemistry teacher and me wants to do this but I won't because I'll just ask a rhetorical question which I'll answer myself that you see a decline in 2025 and then a further decline in 2026 and because you're all great students and you hold on every breath that comes out of my mouth each and every month we know that's because in 2025 the emergency Levy if it does not pass would expire and we would lose a half a collection on that totaling 7.5 million dollars obviously in 2026 and 2027 that would be a total

139of 15 million dollars it's not that that money is going away it's just we assume in a different line item in our five-year forecast so it would not show up here so because when it's an emergency Levy renewal we have to show the community and obviously refer to the state that that generates 15 million dollars of Revenue a year that being said that as the levy that passed back in 2004 and it has passed the number of times last time it was passed was roughly 2014 and it was a 10-year Levy so it is up and has to be passed prior to the end of the fiscal year or calendar year 2024 so that we can collect in the first calendar second half collection of 25. say that five times really fast uh I I

140present this not because those values are accurate values they show where the differences and the amounts of my assumptions have changed um so anywhere you see black on a revenue screen obviously is good red is not necessarily good um I will say that the 2024 983 000 is the tax split I just spoke of so because we received an extra million this year in this first half of the collection that's just representing that I will also say that the red numbers in line Point 11.020 are more of a correction not because of an error just in my own need to make sure everything's completely 100 accurate our our County does not break apart when they give us our tax information class one and class two they they aggregate it as one value so the system

141that I use to analyze our data has a hard time digesting that so um to accurately reflect the emergency Levy in the appropriate line what I did is I I reduced it so that it showed 7.5 million and 50 million dollars which is what it generates and it was a little bit overstated because of the way it breaks out in the last uh November forecast not that the revenue was incorrect it was just the way that it kind of trickled down wasn't 100 accurate so I corrected that so you see the corresponding reduction in 2025 2026 and 2027 and you see a corresponding increase in 2025 through 2027 on line 1.010 other than that we were pretty accurate in our assumptions we do see some increases in other Revenue again because as we work with

142red tree our advisor on investments they continue to think that we're going to see sustain High interest rates and higher interest rates than they were projecting so we're expecting higher revenue from our interest income which is you know good for us because we'll be able to do that and then I did add in some advances in it that corresponds to any advances out that we would do at the end of the fiscal year to support cash needs for our federal funding that we would then put back in so from a revenue standpoint summation wise I think the key takeaway here is we're expecting about 5.2 million dollars more in Revenue than we expected with 2.6 of that coming from other Revenue with the majority of that coming from interest from earnings on investments we do

143see some reduction in state funding of about 249 thousand dollars I would announce to the board into the community my assumption is is that I aligned our State funding to the budget that was supported by the governor to the continued to the fund the fair school funding plan at the base cost of 2018. we are what is known as a guaranteed District so our money is guaranteed we we do not benefit from changes in the state funding model because if they were to fund us at the funding model rate we would actually receive less money so there's a part of that fair school funding plan that says that we are guaranteed to not receive less than our 2021 State funding the interesting piece I will also add is the house has passed a house bill

14433 which includes an update to the fair school funding plan finding them at the base cost of 2022 because we are considered a wealthy District we would actually see a decrease in our funding and that goes to the fact that because we have increased valuations a declining enrollment and we are considered wealthy are set aside for special education would be increased because it's required to be and because it would be increased we'd actually see less State money it's not Material so it wouldn't change my forecast so I am blessed to not have to have two forecasts that I have to present you were all blessed as well because you don't have to hear of it twice but the reality is the fact that it's not Material doesn't really change anything so just to clarify I

145think we should be good but if something was to pass before the end of June we could update our forecast appropriately in the event that that does that but again those are the assumptions that we're making we worked with red tree to get our updated revenue for our our investments so I feel very comfortable in those and then we see some increases in property values just based on current collections that we had for the first half of the calendar year so that trickles across to all the other five out years expenses we were salary wages and benefits make up the majority of our expenses uh that obviously it makes sense we're a school we provide service and we have to have the support of other people to make sure that the schools are clean and

146ready the kids could get to school and obviously that's where our major expense comes I will mention the green section is our other category and that's where we transferred out the 14 million dollars this year to support the capital Improvement plan because we do not have enough money in our permanent Improvement fund annually to support the maintenance and upgrades of our facilities along with a variety of other qualifying purchases and permanent Improvement as I've addressed a number of times and we'll continue to discuss into the immediate future but because that section is larger because of that one-time increase that we saw this year obviously I think it makes sense that that shrinks everything out so it kind of deflates the actual percentage that salaries and benefits is because it takes up more piece of the

147pie right so we will expect next year that green piece to go down substantially and obviously salaries and benefits in the other areas would then inflate back to what's more normal or appropriate I will point out a couple things assumption wise that I have in here this update includes the cost savings for the incentive for the retirement that we had proposed to our classified and certified units um with that we have a reduction of six full-time equivalent teachers and certified staff and it assumes a reduction of three classified staff so we will be going down nine full-time employees as a result of that which increases the savings from that early retirement seven Severance program um so those Staffing changes are included it also includes a six and a half percent increase on Health Care year

148over year which is a little bit less than November based on our Trends I think we feel more comfortable with a slight reduction in that being a little bit aggressive with that assumption but I think it'll come to fruition it also has assumptions made for the fact that now that we have 57 people who are retiring and we're replacing 48 those 48 people if you remember from negotiations we spoke to the fact that we were able to get spousal coordination of benefits so there will be increased savings on health care that we weren't projecting when we did it in November because all new employees their spouse if they have insurance with their full-time employed and they have insurance to their employer they have to take that insurance they can't be on our plan so there's

149cost savings to us with that so that is assumed in that as well that was another reason why we did the incentive because that accelerates that coming into play because it's right now only in our contract for new hires um unfortunately it also includes a 38 percent increase in electric starting a fiscal year 25 because we are locked in through fiscal year 24. and if you've noticed anything with your gas and electric bills which I'm sure you all have as I have myself we are not going to get the same rate that we are locked in at now and it's probably conservative that by at that time it'll be 38 higher than it is now so that is assumed in our out years for that I am happy to announce and give kudos to Mr

150Heath in his work talking to Chief gunch and to Ken philippiac at the city as we continue to collaborate with them on a variety of options this does include as Mr Heath announced last month all my months are starting to run together I think it was too that we will be increasing the number of school resource officers by two next year in each of the out years those costs are included in this forecast so that is assumed assuming that we can the Assumption there is that we can I think Miss Payne you referenced but we've also talked about a number of times can we find the bodies um not us can they hire the employees this is very you know I'm the son of a fireman so anytime that I have to get credit to

151a police officer officer Skelly knows this about me it causes a little bit of an angst but my grandfather was a police officer so you know it's a close it's a close second officer Skelly so um but uh growing up in that world it is it's it's great to know that we have a great relationship with our police officers and our fire department it has great opportunity to add increase with that but is they have staffing needs obviously the protection of the city is first and foremost that students are a close close second to that and we want to make sure that we can have that balance to make sure that we're not creating an unnecessary safety needs throughout the city and the district so that is assumed so that is that is good news

152and thank you Mr Heath for that so the next graph shows kind of those assumptions I this is something that I do from a visual standpoint to check my assumptions to make sure there's nothing that seems out of the ordinary so if there was anything that was out of the ordinary sometimes you you know when you're if you've ever worked in a spreadsheet you key in a wrong number and all of a sudden you have a a graph that shoots up to the moon and you go wait a minute I need to look at that so this kind of shows to the community and to the board there's consistency there's logic in the assumptions that we've made and increases we did assume a two and a half to three percent increase and out years in

153many of the areas that are not fixed we did assume a 2.75 increase uh in 24 and 25 for salaries and then a one percent increase thereafter and what we see is the upward Trend in expenses and then we saw on the last slides that was similar to this on revenue is flat revenues so we have a deficit spend that continues into the foreseeable future if black was good for Revenue red is great for expenses a lot of right up there so that means that we were able to find cost Savings in a lot of the things that we did um the key there obviously of 80 or 75 to 80 of your expenses or salaries and benefits having read in the top two lines has the biggest impact and you can see um well

154over 11 million dollars in Savings in the out years because of the reduction of the nine staff members in the savings that we will incur from not replacing those teachers along with the compounding savings from the early retirement incentive you will see in the purchase services we are under spending by about 503 000 as I explained about 350 of that's because of Esther funding that we had in out years Mr Heath and I worked with our departments again this year to in our buildings to decrease their budgets for next year by five percent so those assumptions are included so not only does it include where we're current spend are it includes a reduction of at least five percent in all of our discretionary spending and purchase Services supplies and capital outlay you do see in

155the out years that we're starting to go up from where we projected but that is because we made the decision to increase the amount of school resource options that we have starting in 2024 and out years so that's why you do see a little bit of an increase in 26 and 27 which is offset by Savings in other places the savings that you see in supplies and materials are mainly because of the decision that Mr Heath and Mr Lynch with the recommendation to switch from MacBooks to Chromebooks at the high school levels we see significant Savings in our technology plan that are now included in this and we continue to find ways to reduce our Outlet costs there you'll notice increases and transfers out in 2024 and 2025 that is because part of that that's

156because we have to pay the retirement incentive in the severance and we're gonna you know make that decision we have to pay that out and we're a part of our plan is that we're paying that over time so we're not going to see a one-time cost this assumes we're paying that over three years I will tell the board in the community that it may make the decision to do it in two or maybe one because we have the cash to be able to do that because there would be savings because we're putting that into a a protected account so there's there's savings to pay it sooner since we can't afford to pay it because we have the cash it would actually have some additional savings that wouldn't be shown but I won't know that until

157they give us the rates in July maybe August so I'll make that final determination then and we'll make that in the update in November um as I shared with the board previously the negative 2.7 million dollars is the correction because of the overstatement uh of the transfer out for Capital plans in 2026 we need to do that because we did that already so that shows up there so that's where we see that number so just wanted to point that out as well net savings 16 million dollars 11.8 of that's coming from salaries and benefits which again makes sense because 75 of our budget is in the form of salary benefits supplies is about 2.2 million dollars because of reductions and a big portion of that coming from the decision to switch from MacBooks to Chromebooks

158so the red line represents expenses our Blue Line represents our Revenue anytime the red line is above the blue line that's that's that's not necessarily a good thing because it means your deficit spending but that's how funding Works in Ohio we don't have Revenue other than the fact that we have we have no growth on Revenue really except for the interest rate that can change but you know it's up now it could go down and we rely on fixed income from our taxpayers we see very little growth on our tax collections we see a little bit of growth as I've explained in the past on inside millage only so we're we may see an 18 increase on our property values as taxpayers that is not equate to an 18 increase in revenue for the district

159because the house bill 920 that's protected that millage rate actually drops down and we only see a little bit of growth on the inside millage so the Blue Line does have a slight upward Trend but as we all know expenses go up and our job as I've said to the community a number of times is to reduce those expenses and try to flatten that curve out because the yellow line represents our cash balance from November so Mr Lynch there you go if you look at it now we were able to do what we achieved to hope to do the green line shows that we have flattened that expense curve we see a little bit of an increase in the in the revenue curve because of the changes and assumptions that we have for Revenue it's

160very slight which is going to help us get that positive balance at the end of 2027. so long story short as I shared you know at the beginning we're going to see a net change of about 22 million dollars if we look at the next slide quickly this slide I think lets us know if we're looking this is one of our analytic tools that shows where we're at each fiscal year the dot represents us I think we can all make sense of green light yellow light pink red we were looking at a situation where we were probably thinking we had some discussions if we were to put and passed the emergency Levy and a pi Levy as soon as this November when would we need additional Revenue we were talking probably 25 maybe 26 if

161we were lucky back in November if we look at the next slide now in comparison we have I think moved that out to 25 for sure Beyond 25 to 26 and if we continue to find ways to tighten our belts we could do that in 27 but that all predicates on the fact that we would make sure that we had enough money to fund permanent improvements again that's buses books balls bricks that would be situations where we're currently paying for technology out of the general fund if we had a pi fund that could afford it we could take that out of that reduce that expense out stretches their current levies that we have I would also remind the the community and the board we have not asked for new money since 2016. so if we

162don't go back on for new general operating Levy two through till 2026 that's a 10-year Levy cycle that is way above the average Levy cycle for new general fund Revenue in comparison to most districts in the area and our goals obviously to continue to find ways to tighten our belts to stretch that without impacting the academic programs that we have in place here in the district so another indicator that we used is cash a hand anytime that we get less than 60 days cash on hand I prefer 90 because I'm a little bit more conservative uh you know that's when we need to start thinking about a levy so that's where that 2526 discussion came but now if we look at the next slide you know we're at 97 days of cash on hand in

163fiscal year 26 so I definitely think that we could push new money if we were to pass a pi Levy out even further to summarize I think the key takeaways are that we're deficit our deficit spending is being decreased uh year over year based on the assumptions that we're making in the decisions from a management standpoint that Mr Heath and myself and our team are making to to move forward I think the key piece there is 78 of our budget salaries and benefits by reducing nine full-time equivalents we're reducing our salary costs by 10.5 million dollars in benefits by almost 1.2 over the life of the forecast and we were able to reduce another 2.9 Million Dollars in the form of decisions that were made to reduce not only next year's budget and going into

164the past and because we do have our budgets pretty much finalized we're not done with Staffing but you know we can project that based on the assumptions that we're making I feel very comfortable that when we meet in June to close the fiscal year again we'll have a 97 completed budget I've checked what we have budgeted versus what's in my forecast and they're pretty close for next school year so I think that the assumptions that we're making are fair which obviously then drives out the out here what I will tell you though is these forecasts are made on assumptions that we have at the best of our knowledge sometimes those things change immediately I just got a quote for our buses we replace five buses a year it went up to 141 000 per bus

165last year we were at 112 113 000. excuse me 141 000 it was 113 000 last year so I assumed we were going to go up at a reasonable five percent increase well I was wrong in that assumption again not necessarily hugely material but that's something that as we move forward from a budgeting standpoint and we go in the future we'll make sure that those Corrections are made but that's the information that we had when this had to be posted by Friday to the board agenda I get an update on Monday that we were a little bit off but for every time that you're up you have some that are low too right I mean that's that's the nature of these forecasts we do what we have the best because we have to make decisions

166we have to be able to project and know what the consequences or repercussions of those decisions are I think we're in a much better a place the fact that we have a positive cash balance in 2027 now I think is is critical to Future discussions and again going back to that slide where you know expenses exceed revenues that's happens in every District across the state of Ohio because the way we fund schools we have relatively flat revenue and increasing expenses even if we didn't give anybody a raise and didn't hire any more staff at some point Revenue will be exceeded by expenses because of inflation so it's our job to to make sure that we are meeting our strategic plan respecting the resources that we have from the community and doing it in a way

167that that's possible um we will need new Revenue in the future our course of action and how we do that I've suggested and I've recommended to the board and I'll say it again and I can stand behind this is that we need to increase the amount of money that we have for our permanent Improvement fund we have one million dollars to maintain and upgrade facilities on a total insured value now that it's no longer 250 million dollars as I shared in March it's now 314 million dollars you can't maintain a facility I would I could spend a million dollars on on parking lots we have 11 buildings that have parking lots that you have to maintain we have roofs that need to be done we can we're spending money and we have been consistently for

168years out of the general fund to support the maintenance of our buildings upgrades of our facilities to um purchase technology to purchase vehicles and do the things that you know we need to do to operate but there are restricted funds in the form of permanent Improvement funds that say these tax dollars can only go to this they can't go to salary and benefits the general fund money can be used for anything they don't have to be used for permanent improvements it is my recommendation to the board and the community that we strongly consider and allocate Revenue specific to meet the capital Improvement plan and the permanent Improvement funds that we have in the district to to do those things so that we're not using that general fund money to do that and then the general

169fund of money becomes to do purchase Services supplies salaries and benefits those expenses shouldn't be included in my opinion in the general fund it overstates our expenses and there are more restrictive Revenue sources in the form of perm Improvement fund that would then hold us accountable to the fact that that's what we're going to use those dollars for and that's the only thing we can use them for and we report that every year in June to the board into the community what those funds are going to be used for in the future years and I think that just to me makes sense in a situation where you can provide governance by the community to say this is what we want that money to be used for and it can't be used for anything else that

170would help us push off General operating level dollars and it would decrease the amount of General operating Levy dollars that we would need into the future as well so it is a two-pronged piece it's actually a three-pronged piece as I've talked about in the past and I'll bring this up again in June as they update the board at a work session and again in public session at the June meeting and then probably again in July and you'll hear it probably forever is that that doesn't it doesn't preclude us from continuing to find ways to be creative and reduce our spending which I think we have done historically and we continue to do in our current modes we've closed buildings we've redistricted we've received Grant dollars in the form of 14 million dollars to build the

171building that we're in to upgrade our classrooms at the high school Mr Lynch and his teams received a lot of grant money in the form of Technology Mr Porter's gotten us grant money this year Dr glaven's going to get another three and a half million dollars in grant money to upgrade Career Tech so it's not you know and we're starting to increase sponsorship so it's not like we're not doing anything you know can we do more yes should the community house to a high standard 100 I like to be challenged I think discourse and disagreement is good when it's done productively I think when it comes to the budget you know I think it's the the right of the community to question and challenge us on this but at the same time we need to

172be able to fund our schools if we want to maintain the level of Excellence from education and from a standpoint of facilities happy to answer any questions thanks for all that hard work I mean and I love the way that it's explained so that our community has the opportunity to see what you're thinking how it's going and understands just the specifics that make the district work so thank you my pleasure I'm on all on board you do the finances like we're running a business that is really great logic I like to run businesses yes we can't talk about profit but we can talk about positive cash flow well I think it's we can't forget we're here for kids that's right you know I I started as an educator I am an educator we're here for

173kids and you know I think it's important for us to make sure that we can sustain and support our strategic plan and the work that we've committed to doing and you know that that includes listening to everybody it's interesting times I don't think any of us would disagree with that and but the reality is we're here to educate kids and that's that's our business and I'm passionate about our business foreign well done thank you Mr Wade that being said Mr President members of the board Mr Heath I would ask for items B one in addendums B through I excuse me and addendums be acted on in one motion so moved second please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Payne yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 4-0 that concludes my

174section of the agenda please do we have any unfinished business none new business I have something okay great um we've we've been talking a lot about books and I'd like to propose a solution and I just want to hear know if the rest of the board thinks this is acceptable the solution would be the what what our solution would do what what I feel it would do is protect and acknowledge parents rights regarding independent reading materials so what it would look like is if if parents at the beginning of the year we do all of our Infinite Campus registration types of things where they can opt in to a notification process so when your child wants to check out a book you would get a notification you know your student wants to check out this

175book and then if you had opted into that program you would just decide then and there yes they can check out the book or no they cannot I did talk to Mr Heath about this and he spoke with Mr Lynch who felt that it was feasible we do have ways to flag students that we already use we flag students for um special ed for giftedness for medical um so as a staff member opens up Infinite Campus when someone's checking out a book it would just have like a little flag that maybe it looks like a book and you would know then that this parent may have concerns with what their child is reading it could be for a variety of reasons I mean maybe you have a student that you know is sensitive to certain

176material maybe they are concerned about um you know they maybe they perseverate on dangerous storms or natural disasters or you know anything along that line um it would give you the opportunity to preview what your child is reading or and also be able to say you know this I feel like this is okay or I would rather they didn't read that it would respect the parents rights parents would stay in the loop with everything and I think it could alleviate some of the concerns that we have right now with some parents possibly distrusting some of the materials so we know that it is possible it's feasible um is it beneficial some people might argue that it's a benefit to them to put their mind at ease would the board feel that this is an acceptable

177solution I guess is what I was wondering would that also include Public Library materials for our high school students because I certainly think um your proposal is a great idea and would be particularly important for maybe k through eight for nine through twelve I don't know what the whether the public library or how that works because I was thinking that it wouldn't include the public library I mean of course this is early stage discussion so because parents have the ability to opt out of the library card so this would be just the materials in our school library and it would also would not include materials that are part of the curriculum reading because that is board approved you know assigned curriculum that's a great solution so I I'm sure it's not perfect um you know

178I can think of cons as well but um I'm trying to think of a Midway point to you know kind of alleviate some concerns from people give people a little a little control so you know what I thought was interesting as I looked at the um there are speakers this evening about the agenda items and the breakdown for those who were in favor of retaining the book and those who are hoping that the book would be eliminated is about the same as the breakdown from the committee very similar and so something like your proposal Mrs cook I think would address that and give parents who have a concern about whatever it might be I thought storms is a good one I mean their kids are a phobic about certain things or you know there could

179be a circumstance like I don't know a death of a parent for example this might make a child particularly vulnerable just to certain story lines and so on and so a parent may want to exert a little more you know influence or control just to protect a child's well-being so and I think the point is that you know your child best you know what your child is sensitive to you know their maturity level you know that I I'm comfortable with my child reading this or I'm really not and then you can have a conversation with your child about it or if the child does choose that book then you know that that's maybe going to be a discussion in your family you know to talk about your family's beliefs culture could be a lot of

180different things and would be a great opportunity and would let you know that that book you know is going to be checked out so what I what I envisioned was more of like an opt-in process because there might be many people that don't want to be inundated with with that and just feel comfortable and but the people that want that extra level of information would have it available so that's a great idea can do it that's a I mean that's a big part of it managing anything logistically it has to be manageable you know it can't create undue burden or misinformation or missteps so I know an icon can be made available an infinite campus you know maybe between now and our next meeting I can work with the team on what the logistics on

181that process would be and and maybe bring that back to the group just to share hey here's here's what this possibly could look like you're right okay can we do it Is it feasible sure financially in the effort the time invested by our teachers right right there's there are different things that we need to consider with it so do you have any thoughts on that Mr Tuttle learns well an outline you know an outline of the proposal yeah what it's going to take what's the burden I mean who's who's doing what in a general sense obviously okay I can bring that back to our next meeting is it touching every teacher just some I'm always concerned about how much more we add to our teachers exactly through these functions that take them away from education

182sure educating your students right and could it even just be like an automatic alert you know kind of like you ate this for lunch you know because you get those already in Infinite Campus so it could just be your set with your alerts on they want to check this out I don't know the inside and out of let's see of that but that's how you start new programs think outside the box that's well done Maggie Mrs cook uh Mr Heath could you also I know we talked about that list um that Mrs jesley and I have talked about with the curriculum team because it is so hectic would that be something that you could do too is like put it on paper for Meet the Teacher Night for the parents yeah I remember one of

183the issues that we ran into was like the intellectual property of the company but I know there was something with that but we'll get some clarification and I can bring that to the next meeting as well Mrs posted certainly the books will be available for examination but passing it out was an issue so maybe we have to approach that so I'll go back to what I thought that was changed only because we did approve of it it became our I'm pretty sure yeah so there's something there we'll get some clarification I can present that at the next meeting because I think that would help me after we gave them I'd like to see an outline Mrs cook and Mrs stashling you guys spoke about this before tonight I'm assuming no okay um because I'd like

184to see I understand what you're saying and obviously it would be the second tier for me I believe that we shouldn't have a lot of this stuff happening in our schools so that it's not so controversial but if we are I think that would be a a really good next step to help people feel more comfortable um to have a little bit more of parental rights in it so I would like to see what that would look like we can't be open to it yeah I'll put something together and bring it back yep thank you oh I have I don't know if this is kind of new business too Mr Heath we had talked about doing a community survey every anywhere with that survey because we had talked about how we it would be helpful

185for us to gauge the community before we go and ask for a levy right uh it's a couple different things with that and I first thing we did the enrollment study so when we get to the the next fiscal year ESC money um because we won't be doing the enrollment study next year we can pay for the community survey plus that'll be a nice lead-in to the strategic planning process since we'll be starting that here this year too so I think that'll be a great starting point for us um so it may may have been placed on the back burner but will be very quickly coming to the front thank you yes do we have a meeting date set or would we like to set a meeting date to discuss a renewal and a possible

186Pi Levy is there I know our timeline is getting short and I know we've talked a little bit about early June um I don't know if depending on what we are trying to cover on the May 30th executive session and do we have something before that or after that that we could start that conversation we can start to compare some some calendars and maybe put that out in our board Updates this week to try and finalize that because I know again from my perspective I want to make sure we we talk school safety and another time to get some more guidance into what we need to to do and I know that's support because it's a big part of the pi funds to be able to support the vestibules to be able to support the

187door sensors you know you know be able to do those upgrades for a facility standpoint based on our work session before that was ad you know we talked in November we've had the work session on safety we've done some informal things like that now we have the May update I'm happy to so could we do show up but I'll talk a meeting about safety safety pieces and and then and Levy pieces as well a meeting together those two things they do go hand in hand I I believe so and uh hiring of two additional resource officers how will their their skills and time be distributed you know kind of the logistics and are we sure that cheap gunch has the person yeah that that'll be another part of that conversation we wanted to make sure

188that we secured funding first and because the we didn't get that fully funded through the state um I know Mr Wade worked his magic to make that happen too but that's why we're looking at that phase in um so I I think a good conversation for us as a board would be you know where where do those resource officers go um yeah we put together you know a little bit of a sketched out plan just based on some of our enrollment numbers too but we also want to make sure that we're very cognizant of not you know posting exactly where our school resource officers are on a daily basis either um because again from a security standpoint that's you know it's kind of kind of telling so we want to make sure we're very smart

189with the way we roll that out too so that would be another big part of our conversation in in the next work session too all right so just from a timing standpoint um we we're looking at the 30th I think I've heard back from everybody so that will be the executive session on the 30th we could add to that special meeting that was to do it that day if you so choose or a different time that week I am out uh the week I'm taking my son on a trip so I will be out of town it's not allowed we'll see how much fun he has yeah we'll update on the 12th we'll Reserve judgment the uh so if we don't do it at the end of May but again just thinking ahead we always

190do a meeting at the end of June because we have to close the fiscal year out it can be part of that discussion as well but I'm happy to we can do it on the fifth which is a Monday but I will of June so there's just some date standpoint I wanted to clarify because then we have the meeting on the 13th too so and we'll have another meeting shortly thereafter with two weeks for the end of the fiscal year which again we can have the discussion there but we will need two votes in public session in Open session there's one to to give me the authority to go to the auditor to get that done and then we got to come back and vote again so it is a two vote process and it

191has to be done uh prior I think it's the you know first week of August the exact date I think it was the eighth ish but don't quote me on that because we have to be done 90 days in advance so I think we should try to meet on the 30th and do part of that you know I know we have that we have an executive session scheduled already and maybe following that we could we could start the discussion and talk about safety and levees at that time and do does that give you enough time or yeah I I've already started a workout I mean the stuff that I have I mean we've already started to work on it so the only question I have with that is um if we do the safety meeting

192in the loving meeting and then we also do the executive session piece it's hard for the public to know when we're doing what and I think there's a lot of people that might want to listen to both of those conversations um so I don't know you know if we do the executive session first or if we do it after I just think we need to make sure that the public has access to come and they don't know yes no no doubt about that so that's I think it should be separate only for that reason well we could just give times right we could say you know five thirties executive session and six o'clock is because we did something similar when we had that board work session that part was in public session part was an

193executive session we could specify those exact times could you put that on the notice then yeah we would yeah yeah just so everybody knows yeah the only concern I have is that kind of the the hanging piece that we have the discussions with the city we have to figure out where that's going to fit in as well um based on our meeting today so we don't know and if that's going to fall on that 30th day too because of the timeliness that they need to interact with us on potential right enhancements to various areas tentatively set the second date maybe that week while you're in town no the week of the 29th so Memorial Day week could we maybe have a second date tentatively scheduled that might cover the city project as well as you

194know were you suggesting the fifth at 1.2 I said I could do it I'm here on the fifth we don't leave until midday on the 6th so maybe the 30th and the fifth because that might give the city a little bit more time too for whatever they needed move one thing to the other because as long as we do it in 48 hours in advance we should be fine right right yeah sure interested in getting that firmed up so we're setting aside also the evening of June 5th yeah yeah so just black out 5 30 to 7 30 on your calendars possible 537 I'd use two hours time five thirty seven thirty okay on June 5th yeah thank you for everyone's flexibility on that I just know where these are all big well they start

195to creep up on you right we've talked about a planning and we just need to finalize discussions they do and I just worry that people will be out of town it's summer and you know get we get busy and then we're not and then whatever we need to determine to present we can make sure that's included in a presentation on the 13th that's good oh gotcha yeah because that's one we'll be back with our regular meeting yeah that's right and we will just again reminding everybody probably like the 29th yeah that's right if you're holding times hold the 29th at 5 30 as well because of the close of fiscal year June June yes please June 29th yes and instead of morning or evening there'll be I would assume 5 30 just to kind of

196keep consistency on our special meeting times as am I I think I was supposed to be a banker me too Jenny earlier yeah yeah okay so we're thinking 5 30 on the 29th is that the abbreviated meeting yeah that would be a quick that's typically I mean obviously we could add whatever we needed to as long as we put it in advance but typically that's the meeting where we you uh give me the authority to close out the fiscal year and then we approve the initial budget for so July 1 we're ready to go so if by chance there was something is it a vote or whatever we could do it yeah and we've typically done that with HR issues right you have all those time yeah I'll summarizing my money yeah we'll make sure

197those are all in the Border I'm not putting them in my phone I'm writing them down good call to the next hearing of the public then would you like me to call our first Speaker Mr President yes please do thank you Susan satanic sednik I'm sort of new at this please bear with me um thank you and my name is Susan sednick I grew up in Mentor and I'm a mom raising my two daughters here and I just wanted to weigh in about safety especially as it concerns girls and young women in our schools for those who believe boys pretending to be girls are not a threat and see no issue with boys sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with girls for fear of hurting their feelings I want to share a few facts on why

198we should see this as a threat here are some examples in 2014 Christopher hambrook a man who calls himself Jessica assaulted several girls and women between the ages of 5 and 53 in Montreal and Toronto after going through the justice system he was allowed to reside in a women's homeless shelter due to the transgender laws in Canada he ended up pleading guilty to more attacks on the vulnerable women while he was in that shelter in the late 90s a Florida man named Patrick Hagan who called himself Patty was using the ladies room at a restaurant and when a woman asked him why he was in there Patrick proceeded to punch her in the face knocking five teeth out of her head from 2014 there is a man called Matthew harks he is a Canadian transgender

199person who wants to be called Madeline he is a repeat offender who prefers his victims in the five to eight year old range he was housed in a female prison after attacking a seven-year-old little girl he's now out in the community but is still able to use women's restrooms and the like last year we had a boy in Oklahoma in an Oklahoma school who identifies as a girl he was charged with assault and battery after punching two girls in the restroom earlier this month in Riverside California a boy who identifies as a girl and regularly uses the women's facilities beat up to female students you can see a video of Megan Simpkins who attends that school it's an online viral video of her addressing her own school board on this issue we need to listen

200to people like Megan statistics tell us that one in three girls will be sexually assaulted before they turn 18. 82 percent of all sexual abuse victims under 18 are female we really need to think about this demographic there are likely dozens of girls attending our schools that have been abused at some point is it really fair for them to have to share a bathroom or a locker room with a man I will end with a quote by Kaylee trillers who is a rape Survivor who wrote an article entitled a rape Survivor speaks about transgender bathrooms quote there are countless deviant men in this world who will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they want to exploit while I feel a deep sense of empathy for what must be

201a very difficult situation for transgender people at the beginning and the end of the day is nothing short of negligent to in state policies that elevate the emotional comfort of a relative few over the physical safety of a large group of vulnerable people thank you thanks Christy bellahovic good evening um I'm gonna do a about face on this one as I'm sure you all know men are schools just celebrated uh teacher appreciation week and in honor of that I would like to share some of my experiences with Mentor teachers My Two children currently attend Lake Elementary and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to volunteer for class parties and field trips and attend school sponsored events giving me a chance to see my kids teachers in action albeit just a glimpse into what they

202do on a daily basis I have to say watching my son's third grade teacher interact with her students she relates so well has such a great report rapport with them it's clear she really cares about each individual and their interests she also has motivating third graders down to a science my daughter's kindergarten teacher has been beyond supportive and encouraging to her building my daughter's confidence and learning in a way that has been exciting to watch throughout the year also shout out to our steam teacher and all the other Lake teachers and staff who helped her for putting together an awesome stream night at Lake this evening where I was earlier so much care went into the planning of this experience for students I could go I could go on and on about all the wonderful

203things that I've seen with our with our teachers um but I'm just going to finish on this we do have some amazing Educators and they are truly invested in care for men are students and I and so many other parents families community members are Beyond grateful to them I also ask that we take these sentiments from teacher appreciation week as a reminder to respect and Trust in the experience knowledge educational background and expertise of these educators remembering that they truly are here to guide challenge support our students in becoming their best selves thank you thank you thank you Christy [Applause] Kim bezon you think I want to give myself the credit Kim basam Mentor resident good evening members of the board thank you for this time so let me get this straight students were told

204that they couldn't wear their Trump hats when they purchased them outside of a school function and they wore them outside at this function yet students can purchase pronoun buttons at lunchtime wear them freely in the school or Pride Flags can be posted throughout the classrooms I'm going somewhere with us if you're going to accept one way then you must accept always just be transparent or don't accept any of the ways do you see why there is such conflict between these sides there shouldn't be sides the hypocrisy has to end wake up and start being open-minded and if I hear one more time that homeschool parents shouldn't speak up at these board meetings you will hear my voice even more throughout this community I'm a taxpayer and my children is much part of this District as

205any other children who physically attends these schools which some of my friends children do and I stick up for them as soon as I submit my notice of intent to the superintendent I have the freedom to control what is being taught I have the freedom to filter the evil that is being taught in the world I also have the freedom to speak up at these board meetings and I have my opinions so hear me roar please start to really listen to all these parents all these taxpayers all the individuals that come to these board meetings and be neutral be transparent you have a levy that needs to be passed in November and let's work together let's start making these opportunities work thank you well done Brady okay just making sure she's still not here thank

206you um Brian Locke uh hi thank you for letting me speak do I get that extra 53 cool um my name is Brian Locke I am the chapter president for something called sleep in Heavenly peace we provide beds to children who are otherwise sleeping on the floor or with their parents or on the couch or somewhere not in their own bed the way we do this is we the community together as we did this last weekend at Mentor United Methodist Church where we built 60 beds we will build another 40 under the grandsons at the Geauga County Fairgrounds with the 4-H kids this coming Saturday uh the reason I'm here is I'm hoping to get buy-in from you Mr Heath uh that we can or I can have what's called pajamas Across America next fall

207which is really just something for the kids to pay a nominal fee if they can afford it which is a fundraiser for us we cover as I don't know if I said this a lake in Geauga counties and the nearest zip codes of Cuyahoga County since April of 2019 we've delivered 490 beds and that would include the beds we make at these builds as well as mattresses sheets pillows Comfort Barrel complete bed or bunk If the child needs it and I can guarantee you that we have delivered beds children in this District as we have in a lot of these districts around here so my goal here is to hopefully find get buy-in again and get a an individual either a parent group or a student group somebody that I can work with so that

208we can move this forward during the summer and have this happen sometime between October 1st and November 30th my chapter is one of I don't know what the number is 330 chapters across the United States Canada and the Caribbean that make beds for kids and all across the organization we've delivered well over 125 000 beds so I want to be able to continue that work we currently have we just this chapter have 170 open requests which we're trying to fulfill as we can but obviously this is a fundraiser and I'm having this speech to all the districts so you're number six in my list so far so that's why I'm here I got 16 seconds what else can I say it's a lot of fun people don't get hurt and like I said we've delivered

209a lot of bets so thank you and I have my card if anybody wants it you what say that again he has his card if anybody wants it Lindsay wall I'll take one after the meeting yeah same you want me to give my name and address and all that again we said no we're good okay um I would like to start off by recognizing Teacher Appreciation Week um it's really wild that this is actually the last school board meeting uh before school's actually out for the summer it's really wild how fast time flies I want to thank the PTA the principals and all of the parents who have organized so many different ways to show appreciation to our teachers throughout this week I know all of the schools have put together some really creative fun

210things to show all of the teachers in the building so much appreciation um even though that summer is quickly approaching the teacher's work is not over we have so many teachers that continue working throughout the summer with a lot of the programs that we offer something that my own son will be taking advantage of which is the Cool Cats program which is amazing and I know there's several teachers in the district that are going to be a part of that teachers have become more than educators they take care of our kids and they keep them safe they're nurses their security officers therapists they're safe places for our kids they're also constantly learning and continuing their own education to keep up with the times technology and the curriculum adjustments that we all see they're doing all

211of this while also being humans themselves with families and personal lives like you and I unfortunately there has become this fear that our teachers have where they're scared to teach and I can understand why I however trust our teachers I trust our district I trust our superintendent and I trust the ones that put in place that have been put in place to make decisions for all of our students in the district we are public school with a lot of different students and I respect and I trust our school district to take care of all of our students so thank you to those teachers um off topic here I do want to um discuss there's a fundraiser coming up that my brother has put together for a student that graduated from Mentor High School his name

212is Tino panic and on November 1st 2020 he was in an accident where a tree fell during a windstorm and um they're having a fundraiser on May 20th any teachers that may have known him or of him that would like to attend this fundraiser at happy moose on May 20th at 6 PM or contribute a basket for the raffle and Chinese auction you can actually contact my brother at TP Memorial outing gmail.com or if you just want to talk to me I can hook you up with him but thank you very much thank you [Applause] Linda O'Brien I'm standing here tonight to make you aware of just one of the pornographic books that's on our school book list it's called The Bluest Eye it's rated at four or four point one stated clearly that it

213is not for minors it's adult content only yet it's in our schools where our students can read this I'm going to spare you the explicit obscene sexual documents that are on here this is in the review it's six and a half pages single spaced of obscene explicit sexual information but it starts with something like this I destroyed white baby dolls but the but the dismembering of the Dolls was not the true horror the truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulses to little white girls now going forward I'm jumping forward a lot it goes into the sexual I mean into the animal abuse uh twirling a cat by his hind legs over its head and throwing it into a window and then it falls on the radiator silently with only the smell of

214singing fur giving one of his victims a piece of poisoned meat the girl did not know it was poisoned to go to the next door neighbor's dog he hated his next door neighbor and give the dog the meat and then graphically describe the last minutes of that dog's life it's often said that animal abuse leads to sexual abuse there's evidence to that fact so there's at the very toward the very end it talks about again the hatred mixed with tenderness the hatred would not let him pick her up the tenderness forced him to cover her up so when the child regains Consciousness she was lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt trying to understand the pain between her legs now that's mild compared to what's in here I spared you a lot but

215the fact is a 12 year old girl got sexually abused and Pregnant it's one of many and I don't know if any of you know about girls who have been sexually abused and what it does to their lives but I know it and it's horrendous this book today should be gone I forbid it to be in this library or any other Library adults want to read it it's your business kids no way in age thank you Brandon towns uh Brian towns good evening again um today is a really rough day um I've seen a stoop to a level I did not think was possible um and that we uh we put Trayvon Martin back on trial to justify uh removing a book that mentioned him um because it was it was after his death at

21617 years old uh that activists black activists started saying black lives matter because they do they always have they always will not to some folks probably not to some folks here in this room you're speaking to me right but I'm speaking to you I'm not going to look around when I speak okay so yeah to some they may not act like it so I think it was very disappointing very embarrassing for our district they would do such a thing and I sat here a moments before you did that and I said that you are better and I I ate my words um but I have hope for you and everyone in this room I believe that we can be better um but today today was heavy um and very very disappointing um because I have

217two little girls who know that black lives matter um they have to because there are things going to happen in this District that will say that they don't and if you are not willing to say it if you're not willing to uh port those students who too often are told in and beyond our schools that they don't matter it's a disservice it's an atrocity um and we deserve better we really do so I'm very very disappointed um and what occurred um very disappointed thank you [Applause] Ian Anderson hi I'm Annie I'm going to talk to you guys we're not going to look over here problems we got a lot of problems Mr Tuttle how dare you how dare you use Trayvon Martin to further the bigotry and divide in our school district that's already here

218that we already know about that we see we see Annie Payne going to these conventions or whatever Planned Parenthood moms for Liberty my bad um taking back America I don't know what we're doing why are why are we allowing any of our board members I have compassion and empathy for people's families I have compassion and empathy for people's parents that I don't understand situations if they're in prison or if they're have some whatever struggles they're in I suggest you get some compassion for other people as well I I don't tell me anything so I'm sick of it how are we going to have people that come in here and as a whole we're going to allow them to discourage and say trans people aren't real just speak to me don't refer to us the lady

219who came up here is speaking about the community my daughter goes to the people there's two people that are running for school board that keep fear-mongering about there's boys in the bathroom guess what guess what they're talking about my daughter they're talking about my daughter stop why just bring it down if your child was continuously continuously for two a year and a half two years being talked about picked on by adults who are old enough to know better I think you'd be a little angry too Mr Tuttle I do I think you'd be a little upset thank you you're speaking to me I appreciate that yeah thanks for the smart remark I appreciate that what are you doing why are you allowing this talking about Trey I can't why are we allowing our people manner

220is better than this I went to Mentor I went to Mentor this was not happening when I went to Mentor the people that are supposed to be supporting you they ditched you picked up two new people because they think they have a shoe-in because Daddy's a senator well guess what I I'm done I don't want to hear about it I'm sick of the Divide I'm sick of the hate from Christians who keep coming up here with Bible quotes how about love your neighbor how about Don't Be a Jerk how about that what are we doing I wasn't even gonna come here tonight and then I heard your Trayvon Martin remarks and I was like this is not happening are you kidding me he was a 17 year old kid he got killed murdered by some

221Maniac who then further had other altercations after and you wanted to talk about how he got beat up that black kid is dead thank you Mr Tuttle if I may I'd like to make a little remark um because there were some statements that have been made that are wildly inaccurate not only on social media but also here tonight I absolutely will speak up for my constituents I will speak up for my beliefs I don't do it on the dime of the school it is my right it is my responsibility and I will continue to do it regardless of the intimidation tactics that I've received physically from members of our community I will continue to stand up for what I believe in I would hope that everybody continues to do that regardless of any kind of

222uh bullying tactics that they may receive back because that is your right your responsibility I'm just going to say that [Applause] any more speakers Mr White uh yes Amanda lapi good evening I know it's late so I will try and quickly but kind of perfect timing for what I had to talk about Amanda Alfie 5428 marshview Lane um I have a couple items to address first after last month's board meeting I sent an email to all of you asking once again for you to please control the public commentary portions of these meetings these meetings are for concerned parents and community members to address the board regarding Mentor Schools and not to use this as a platform for their own grievances towards other community members that they disagree with these remarks serve no other purpose than

223to inflame community relations as we we just saw here tonight um for the sake of our community Mr Tuttle I would again I I ask I'm begging you please determine how you can take control back while allowing those who have legitimate business with this board to be heard and I'm standing here asking this because I did not receive a single response to my email from any of you sitting up there although I have spoken with Mrs Payne about this issue in the past now regarding the book that was discussed this evening um this is not about a book although the book has become the vehicle for which we continue to have this conversation um it's not about banning books but being responsible with materials we allow our elementary students to view this is something that

224the schools have always had the responsibility for and this is about what you as men are as representatives of Mentor Schools intend to teach our children and Maggie Mrs cook I appreciate your your wanting to try and come up with a solution to this problem the the problem I see with it is that it's not just about my child it's about the kind of citizens that we are trying to mold and create here in Mentor Schools my fifth grade my soon to be fifth grade daughter does not even attend minor schools and my seventh grade soon to be eighth grade son is well aware of all these issues so I'm not up here and I don't attend these meetings because of my own child specifically it's it's for the greater good and the kind of

225citizens that we're trying to create and educate in our district here um so you know I again do you intend to instill feelings of fear mistrust and judgment towards others who don't have the same views political or otherwise do we intend to educate a generation of students who don't value our law enforcement do we intend to keep materials in our classrooms that could be divisive or misinterpreted by some of our younger students who I would argue do not have the maturity to comprehend such multi-faceted issues if a parent wants their child to read a book such as this one they are free to go check it out from the library or purchase it from their home just as I would never request that school's Furniture copy of the Bible or some other book similar book

226to public school students I would not expect a book like this from an author who has been recognized as highly controversial and anti-American to be in classrooms at this level thank you for your time thank you appreciate it Lynn Mazika Mr President board members Mr Heath and Mr Wade thank you again for the opportunity to speak I live in Pine gate which abuts Orchard Hollow Elementary School until recently anyone picking up their kids would wait for them in the school parking lot now the policy is they line up on Arrowwood Court in Pine gate which is a small cul-de-sac Street and wait for their kids there including blocking driveways and making it the traffic for the the kids that walk from school into Pine gate they're in all of that traffic also it's awful the

227traffic is also awful but I just saw a post in our Pine gate group Facebook page that says a member of our homeowners association association spoke with Mr Hammond who agreed there was too much traffic for neighborhood street and it shouldn't be pushed off onto the school's neighborhood he has reached out to an engineer to plan a way to keep the pickup traffic on school property in hopes to have it done before the start of school year next fall and that the traffic will a hundred percent be removed from our neighborhood with time and I want to thank the administration for seeing a problem that was really a problem and addressing it so quickly and it all of pine gate is thankful for your help on that one and lastly I saw on the latest

228issue of the commentator that Mentor Schools earned some recognition by the Ohio Auditor and I felt like this was probably going to be second hand because I figured you would mention it Mr Wade but our school won the auditor's Award with distinction for exemplary reporting which serves as the standard for clean accountable government representing the highest level of service to Ohioans they also earned a four-star Stars rating which is the highest achievement in open and transparent government to receive this honor the district must go above and beyond what the law requires by implementing additional best practices and record requests and sunshine laws excellent work by you and your staff and by all the administration and I just want to commend you on that that's wonderful thank you [Applause] thank you thank you that was awesome

229Bambi Vargo 7467 Rockingham Road Mr Heath Mr Wade board members thank you again for another opportunity to speak to you as a retired teacher I feel strongly compelled to respond to a comment made last month about test scores and offer a different perspective we all want our students to be successful but testing is just one small way to measure Student Success as a matter of fact testing is not the only way to measure Student Success in a district of 7 600 students there are hundreds of success stories every day that cannot be measured with a grade or state Stars for example a young child with autism who has been non-verbal begins to speak through the guidance of the Care staff how many stars does that get what grade does that get someone has an aha

230moment in the science lab it successfully uses a strategy to remain calm a middle schooler experiences the joy of giving and make a difference day teams from the Middle School and High School compete in the state Science Olympiad in addition at nearly every board meeting including today we acknowledge and celebrate the successes and accomplishments of student Scholars and athletes what score does that get how many stars does that get so I choose to focus on those successes that prepare students for life after graduation and do not always show up on the state report cards I also want to acknowledge and thank the district for all you do in the spirit of continuous Improvement to attain the goal of meeting and exceeding the instructional needs of all Learners that includes the regular testing to measure student

231progress using test results to make data-driven decisions about instructional strategies and curriculum as well as hiring tutors to help students finally as Lindsay mentioned since this is the last board meeting before vacation I want to say to the entire staff thank you for all you have done for our children this year have a great summer thank you [Applause] Mr Jules still not here so miss Vargo was our last speaker are we finished yep no exactly motion to adjourn please so move second color roll ing yes Miss Payne yeah Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes sure sure at 10 46 you can say whatever you want all right giddy up yeah let's go okay thank you guys yeah so yeah we'll talk yes yes [Music]