001good evening the December 13 2022 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 Ohio Revised Code Mr Wade will you please call the roll miss breiner here miss cook here miss jesling president miss Payne here Mr Tuttle Mark Dobson thank you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance terrified States of America into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual Justice Madam president members of the board and Mr Wade before we move on to the approval of minutes I would like to mention that there was a spelling error on page 20 of the November 8 2022 regular meeting minutes we have corrected the error in the revised minutes have been uploaded to board
002Docs um also before we jump into the meeting itself a couple of things that had come up last meeting that we wanted to make sure that we addressed um based on some of our new public participation policies there was a Neola contract concern from last meeting we did share in our board work session in November that we obtained the summary of the lawsuit that involved the Neola policy the issue involved how the board members in the district named in the lawsuit were enforcing their public participation policy uh it was not a problem with the policy itself the one piece we will be doing to ensure our public participation policy is solid is to possibly eliminate the words inflammatory aggressive and reasonable decorum and the policy that we passed in November I'm going to have an
003update ready to go for that in January once we get the final language determined but those are some things coming out of that shift that we've already made that doesn't impact anything that we'll have with the procedures of the public participation policy but just a couple of things just to make that language A Little Bit Stronger for us uh second piece was the crossroads counselors and getting parent permission and when that happens anytime a student is recommended to our Crossroads counselors parent permission is required for them to speak with them so the parents do have the right to refuse those services for their student if they so desire and finally just a Dei committee update our internal committee met again last week and we reviewed some additional data and we're continuing to develop some action
004steps we'll be meeting again in January to compare some of those action steps that we've been talking about to some of the goals and action steps that we currently have in our strategic plan our state one plan document which is the one that we use for Federal grant funding and then also looking at our district and school Improvement plans just to make sure that everything aligns with those action steps that we're potentially considering for our Dei work this year at this point we'll identify outside experts necessary to meet the needs of the students in our district once we get some of those action steps identified so hopefully we'll have some updates again in January for the group nope I would like to welcome everyone to the December 13 2022 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted
005Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of Education agenda system board Docs the public can access the agenda through the school district's website the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing the Sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information there are two places on the agenda when the board entertains comments from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to
006those who wish to address the board on any subject whether it is on an item on the agenda or another issue when addressing the board please state your name comments are limited to three minutes please address questions to the president this meeting is being televised on a delayed basis and will be shown on Spectrum cable channel 1026 in Mentor and channel 1025 and mentor on the lake this meeting is also being videotaped and will be shown on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Mentor Ohio please place your mobile telephones on silent mode during the meeting also want to advise the board continues to welcome feedback from our community as an important component to conducting business this includes here at our regularly scheduled meetings during our two hearings of the public segments and Via other communication channels
007such as email and phone calls recently we unanimously voted to update our policy and Regard in regard to hearing of the public at meetings and it is our hope the updated policy will help ensure meetings are efficient and productive two changes you should be aware of the board limits public participation to residents of the school district parents or guardians of a student in The District employees in the district individuals with a business ownership in the district are elected appointed public officials whose jurisdiction includes the school district also those who would like to participate in the hearing of the public section of the regular board meeting must sign up prior to the start of the meeting sign up was available online and paper here prior to seven o'clock we will invite you to the microphone when
008it is your turn to speak as a reminder there are components of the policy that have not changed the first opportunity to speak is on agenda items only and then there's the second opportunity to speak on any topic later in the meeting each person may only speak once per segment and comments are limited to three minutes the purpose of hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board we must insist you direct your comments to the board and not to other audience members it is equally important that everyone has a chance to speak uninterrupted so please do not call out or interrupt when someone else has the floor while we may not all agree on various topics let's demonstrate how to be respectful of one another during our school board meetings
009as the board president it is my job to enforce the rules of the meeting so the board can can conduct its business we kindly ask everyone to respect the expectations of this evening's meeting the hearing of the public portion of our meetings is information gathering 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 note this is in no way demonstrates a lack of care for comments shared by our community rather we want to be thoughtful in our approach and we will provide a response in a timely manner when appropriate thank you foreign moving on next item is District highlights and recognitions do we have any tonight nothing all right moving on to approval of minutes
010we have the November 8th regular board meeting and November 16th special board meeting so moved second any discussion please call the roll Miss Payne yes Miss jesslyn yes Miss Cook yes Miss breiner yes motion carries 4-0 and for hearing the public on agenda items only do we have any of those do not have any four agenda items only okay thank you we will move on to superintendent's report and recommendations Mr Heath good evening Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and I'm recommending approval of item 6a1 through 6a3 summer second any discussion please call the roll uh I was looking at my no two motion sorry who's second Miss pain Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes uh Miss breiner yes ocean
011carries 4-0 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the resolution providing for employment of legal counsel for the Board of Education still moved second discussion please call the roll Miss dressling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Miss breiner yes motion carries 4-0 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the agreement between Wellness IQ and Mentor Public Schools second any discussion please call the world Miss dressling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Miss Pryor yes motion carries 4-0 Madam president members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the agreement between Lake Tech 360 and Mentor Public Schools second any discussion please call the roll Miss Cook yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne yes Miss Briner yes motion carries 4-0 yes
012gotcha thank you madam president members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the resolution to approve board member expense reimbursement I will call these out separately as each board member requesting reimbursement will abstain from voting on their own resolution first resolution to approve reimbursement for Mary breiner it's jessling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes motion carries 3-0 resolution to approve reimbursement for Maggie cook so moved second discussion Laurel Miss Payne yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss brighter yes motion carries 3-0 resolution to approve reimbursement for Annie Payne so moved second discussion please call the roll Miss jesling yes Miss Cook yes Miss breiner yes motion carries 3-0 and resolution to approve reimbursement for Thomas Tuttle so moved second discussion please call the roll where's Payne yes Miss dressling yes Miss Cook yes
013Miss brighter yes motion carries 4-0 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C4 all related to human resource matters I'm also recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative Tech staff resignations and agenda item e related to administrative staff appointments Mr Heath I think we need to we can vote on C and D together but we need to do e on its own so we'll make the recommendation for C1 C2 through C4 and agenda item d as a starting point yes so moved second any discussion please call the rule Miss jesling yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss breiner yes motions carry 4-0 Madam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm a recommending approval of agenda item
014e related to administrative staff appointments some moved second made discussion please call the roll Miss dressling yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Miss Briner yes motion carries 4-0 this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you foundations business yeah Madam president members of the board asking for approval for the January 10 2023 board meeting uh 6 30 organizational meeting in Paradigm a 6 45 tax budget meeting in Paradigm and a seven o'clock regular meeting in paradigm served second any discussion please call the rule Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss breiner yes oceans carry 4-0 Madam president members of the board uh asking for the appointment of a president pro tem for the January 10 2023 organizational meeting any other nominations not hearing any do I get a motion the second
015that I guess at this point second okay any discussion please call the roll Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss breiner yes Mr Tuttle has been appointed the president pro tem for the January 10 2023 meeting thank you okay legislative report uh Mr Tuttle asked me to give his report bear with me um education Reform Bill moves during lame duck Senate Bill 178 was introduced by Senator Bill Ryan key apologize from Tiffin in May of 2021 and contained the following one sentence in the bill text is the intent of the general assembly to enact legislation to reform the functions and responsibilities of the State Board of Education the superintendent of Public Instruction and the Department of Education since the introduction of SB 178 the bill has not received any legislative action until
016Lane dock when the bill received not only its first hearing but a substitute bill was accepted that outlined the reform details which include the following create a Department of Education and Workforce with a cabinet level director appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate divide the agency into two divisions the division of primary and secondary education which would also include preschool and the division of Career Tech education authorized the new Department to be responsible for the rulemaking process and the enforcement of current rules and maintain the current structure of the State Board of Education but limit its duties to teacher licensure educator or staff conduct and territory transfer decisions the Ohio Senate passed the bill by a 22-7 vote and the bill now heads to the Ohio house uh Governor Mike dewine has also
017weighed in on the bill encouraging speaker cupp and the Ohio house to pass the bill and what may be the last week of lame duck the house primary and secondary education committee has scheduled two hearings and a potential vote on sb-178 other bills to watch during lame duck the following bills have received significant legislative action during lame duck and could potentially be enacted by the close of the 134th General Assembly however lame duck is a time where anything can happen and bills that have not received action so far in lame duck May suddenly move so we've got House Bill 554 which would require State Board of Ed to issue two-year temporary educator licenses to applicants with expired professional teacher certificates and professional educator licenses as long as certain requirements are met also this bill could
018potentially be used as an education Omnibus Bill House Bill 151 which would revise the Ohio resident educator program to allow mentoring to occur online or in person and prohibit State Board of Ed from limiting the number of attempts participants have to successfully complete the resident Educators summative um assessment sorry the bill also requires districts to provide one day of professional developmentally for classroom teachers each year to observe a veteran teacher Additionally the bill includes provisions of hb61 which would enact the save women's sports act to require schools to designate separate Single Sex teams and sports for each sex note this bill could potentially be used as an education Omnibus Bill HB 294 slash hb458 which would make changes to election law and absentee voting including the removal of the August special election please note that
019the two bills contain the same language HB 458 is in Senate and HB 294 is in the house uh House Bill 105 which would require public schools to provide age-appropriate instruction and child sexual abuse and sexual violence prevention and require and service staff training and child sexual abuse prevention there's a couple things that were recently introduced in legislation HB 742 introduced by rep P Scott lips republican from Franklin to require data collection reporting and Outreach regarding applied Behavior Analysis for children with autism or Medicaid enrollees House Bill 745 introduced by reps Jeff Loray republican from Violet Township and Adam C Byrd from New Richmond to require an initial or renewal educator license applicant to include the applicant School District or School of employment require an educator license holder to notify ode annually of any changes
020in the district of employment and require Ode to notify an Educator's District of employment within 90 days of the educator becoming the subject of a consent agreement of disciplinary action HB 748 introduced by rep bird to require school districts Community Schools and stem schools to adopt a policy regard regarding professional co-worker relationships and the performance of staff member duties require the policy to prohibit each professional staff member from engaging in political partisan ideological or religious advocacy by compelling a student to adopt a firm or adhere to a specific belief and unfairly evaluating a student's work because it does not reflect a specific political partisan ideological or religious belief and finally SB 368 introduced by Senate Sandra O'Brien republican from Ashtabula to expand eligibility for Ed Choice scholarships to all students beginning with scholarships sought for
021the 23-24 school year it would increase the homeschool expense tax credit from 250 to 2000. any questions [Applause] thank you all right moving on student achievement report Mrs cook thank you I have a lot to talk about again because December is such a busy month for us one of the things that we all got to witness in November students and Educators from our Manor fire EMT Academy and the Cardinal Works program had the opportunity to participate in the annual student achievement fair at the Ohio School Board Association Capital conference and this draws thousands of school board members and administrators together each year for idea sharing being selected to participate in the student achievement fair is a big honor and the students were excellent representatives of Mentor Schools as they shared what they were learning in
022class the EMT students gave demonstrations of the skills that they are working on and even helped people refresh their CPR skills students from Cardinal Works Drew people in with their Farm to school concept explaining how they use Hydroponics to grow healthy food items that are being used in our cafeteria the students loved getting to share their knowledge and we were impressed with their confidence and their speaking abilities it was really nice to see our students there our district strategic plan states that we will actively encourage strong Community Partnerships and this month I'm going to be highlighting multiple Community Partnerships that our students and schools are participating in this will be a focus on our elementary schools in particular and our students are really fortunate as I was looking over all of the things that are
023happening this month in our schools just how fortunate we are that the community supports the Manor Public Schools in these many ways on December 22nd our high school boys and our girls wrestling team will host right here a pin for a purpose at the Fine Arts Center I'm starting at five o'clock you can come it's a fundraising event for people living with cancer I I'm definitely going to be there I think it'll be really exciting and our Mentor High School teams will also be going to shore to participate in an all school assembly to raise awareness for this and I understand that this assembly that the staff and students will have the opportunity to participate so I'm sure that will be a fun assembly during the months of November and December the students at Orchard
024Hollow have been focused on the character trait of caring Orchard Hollow student council organized a food drive to benefit Saint beads food pantry and the generous School Community donated an entire carload of donations students at Orchard Hollow also worked with their paws buddies to write thank you letters to our local veterans and I understand that the veteran recipients were very excited and grateful to hear from our students student council will also be sponsoring 12 days of kindness during this period up until our break at Ridge Elementary they've been focusing on the core value of gratitude throughout November and December and the ridge student council also held a food drive they collected 1 226 pounds of food which was a fair market value of 2194.54 cents the rich student leadership group is promoting the reindeer program
025and right now they have 97 volunteers that are providing gifts to 36 families which is supporting a total of 97 children on December 9th our Ridge students participated in a PTA helping hand service project and the Buddy classrooms learned about gratitude through creating class through creating cards for other people at Lake Elementary this season has been a time of giving and family and Community involvement as well Lake staff community business partners and local police work together to provide holiday assistance to approximately 40 families the Lake Elementary students are holding their annual shoe and sock drive with the partnership of Victory Lane Assembly of God and Jennifer and Company and Lake Elementary is promoting 12 days of kindness leaning leading up into the holiday break as well with Daily Dress themes and daily acts and discussions
026of kindness on November 14th the mentor rotary presented and delivered dictionaries to our third graders at Bellflower in addition to the gift of dictionaries the students were introduced to the structure of a dictionary and using guide words and other dictionary features at Bellflower our first grade students had a visit from the mentor fire department on November 21st Roland patchinger our education liaison from the mentor fire department presented fire safety information to the first graders and they learned about practicing emergency plans at home when to call 9-1-1 stop drop and roll and all of those very important information pieces the students were also able to see our firefighters in full gear so they wouldn't be afraid in an emergency our ptas have been very busy this is a very busy time for our ptas and all
027of the um the the parents that step forward to raise money for all of these fun events and and to give of their time volunteering and the Bellflower PTA coordinated a mix it up lunch and thus encouraged students to talk to new people as the students came into the lunchroom the volunteers would hand out little um like squishy balls to them of different colors and then when they went into the lunchroom there were balloons with coordinating colors on the tables and so the students were then kind of assigned where to sit so they were in essence meeting new people and not sitting with their their normal group um Bellflower also recently hosted a Santa shop and students selected gifts ranging from 50 cents to seven dollars and fifty cents for their families every child received
028a dollar from the PTA so that everyone would be able to spend some money and proceeds from the shops from the shopping benefited Toys for Tots Bellflower is also hosting 12 days of winter spirit for the 12 days prior to winter break and staff and students are encouraged to participate daily for a small donation and all of the donations will go to United Way and if you were donating any warm items that would be donated to coats for cards through the student council at Memorial Middle School the students are partnering with the Salvation Army they sponsored eight children for the holidays Memorial student council spearheaded the initiative to purchase wish items including clothes books toys and even bikes Hopkins student council created a Giving Tree for project hope new items can be donated December 1st
029through the 19th for project hope which is a homeless shelter in Painesville needed items include hats mittens scarves socks and underwear and on December 9th our Hopkins first graders had the opportunity to meet with the manor fire department for that same fire safety presentation Hopkins has been using a choose to be nice theme for teamwork and student kindness ambassadors are selected through an application process at the beginning of the school year the students that are selected have designated classrooms and they go in and um do presentations on kindness throughout the year so Ms Elam their first grade teacher coordinates with the ambassadors to review and practice their presentations and at Hopkins The Soaring card student group presented readers theater during during the Cardinal connection assemblies in addition to the charity collections as a part of
030the holiday season our schools have and will welcome families to many programs and concerts Sterling Morton recently had a concert with over 100 students and parents participating I'm sorry that wasn't a concert that was a paint night a paint night on December 2nd I'm jumping ahead because on December 6th they had their holiday concert and last night on December 12th the fifth grade students performed their holiday concert that I understand that the gym was packed for all three events and Morton is really happy to welcome families back into the building Fairfax was very proud to Showcase their children's choir they sang at the men are tree lighting and I know some of us had to see Fairfax children's choirs sing they did a wonderful job they have been celebrating the holidays with December to remember
031school-wide Spirit month with the PTA sponsored holiday shop a school-wide sing-along and class parties prior to break Orchard Hollow students in the small group unit classrooms participated in the rotarians holiday party at Lake Farm Park students have also been practicing holiday songs during music therapy and I got to see a clip of that today they had a really nice rhythm going on with these little um instruments that they would hit that would follow along it was really fun I'll try to share that tonight at 7 pm Orchard Hollow kindergarten students are holding their traditional holiday musical performance with Mrs blue and our Orchard Hollow students are enjoying the annual Santa shop this week sponsored by The Orchard Hollow PTA class parties will also take place the last day before break so everyone's excited for those
032those parties on the 21st I'm sure it's always fun to come into your children's class with all the little gifts and games and things to do the Ridge students recently participated in the ridge pixie shop and they'll hold a school-wide sing-along at the end of the end of the semester here before before winter break at Lake Elementary the Santa shop will be put on by the PTA and student council is sponsoring the annual pizza with Santa event the fifth graders at Lake performed a concert for their parents and every student attended let's pretty amazing the fourth graders will also perform a holiday show as well and Bellflower students enjoyed the PTA Deck the Halls event for families on Friday December 9th there was a wide range of activities for the whole family our high school
033top 25 did perform in the show and they carrolled and families work together to create cards crafts they played games and Santa and Mrs Claus were in attendance mslow will lead an all-school holiday sing-along before winter break with songs that they have learned the Hopkins PTA is also organized a Santa shop this week in the PTA has provided thousands of items for students to choose from Hopkins music teacher Mrs jesling is leading the third grade holiday concert for Hopkins tonight at Memorial at 7 pm I saw some of them heading into Memorial tonight as I was leaving the Shore Memorial basketball game in addition Hopkins students have theme days this week and they'll enjoy a concert from high school music groups right here at the Fine Arts Center and classroom parties will also occur our
034Memorial students and our shore students have both been decorating their lockers for the holidays they've had different events where they're watching holiday movies and having hot chocolate I'm sure students had a deck the halls night sponsored by PEP Club and they had a really nice turnout so a big thank you to everyone that helped make that happen we had a lot of volunteers to bring those special events in and I know there'll be a lot of Volunteers in and out of the buildings up until the end here with these Christmas parties this really allows our teachers to focus on academics and not be planning a party and then the students can still enjoy themselves with festive opportunities I do have a last minute add-on here Mrs jessalyn shared with me um she had news before
035me on this one but the 2023 National Art Honor Society juried exhibition selected 127 Works recently from 2410 submissions so um I understand this is Nationwide is that sure so out of 2410 submissions 127 are selected and Mentor Public Schools is very proud that we had four pieces selected for Mentor High School so um just a Real Testament to our teachers from the K to 12 arts program to be able to prepare our students to have four selected in in such a selective process as congratulations um to our students we have Caitlin Wong Cecilia jork Maria domick and my own daughter Hallie cook congratulations [Applause] all set thank you all right moving on to Chief Financial officers report and recommendations Mr Wade thank you madam president members of the board here's our monthly update we
036are trending in a favorable pattern we're collecting about 220 000 more than we expected in our forecast and we're under spending by about 240 thousand dollars so it puts us almost five hundred thousand dollars better than we were projecting uh in bottom line is we're operating at a deficit of 17.2 million dollars which is about a million and a half better than we were projecting uh going back to our September when we did our final Appropriations um revenue is up here mainly because about 473 thousand dollars uh this time the last year comparison because our investments are collecting at a higher interest rate as I've said before so that accounts for most of that uh increased revenue for this time uh comparison the last year and overall our revenue is up for the year comparison
037to the prior year mainly because of higher collected tax revenues as well as increased funding from the state in the former restricted state aid again putting us up about 220 000 more than we have projected mainly because of the advances in that we didn't foresee uh at the start of the fiscal year as we closed out June as I've said a number of times uh we're projecting about 107.5 million dollars in total revenue this year based on uh this the end of this month if we compare uh last November to this November our spending uh is down about 78 thousand dollars so it's almost inconsequential most of that is because we're spending lower on our supplies and services that we have and for the year we're up 10.3 million dollars again most of that's coming
038from the form of salary and benefits strictly from a benefit standpoint is about 1.2 million of that because of the premium holidays that we had in the last fiscal year that we didn't have this year so it seems like our benefits have gone up which they have a little bit but not to that extent because we're paying for all the months this year in July and August where we didn't see that last fiscal year as well as we had the larger transfer this year to fund our 070 Capital Improvement plans which I've said a number of times all in all we're trending very close to what we are projecting in our forecast for our expenses we're actually a little bit less by about 240 thousand dollars again um for all of us in the room
039240 000 is a lot of money but when you're spending uh 117 million dollars for the year 240 000 is less than a percent difference so um and again most of that's coming from the fact that we're underspending our purchase services and our other expenses supplies and capital Improvement funds happy to answer any questions that's uh we have finished our fifth month so when we come back in January we'll be done with December so we'll be halfway through our physical year so it'll be a good litmus test for us to where we're at after going through about half the fiscal year and I would just like to mention that my report was shorter than Mr Tuttle who is not here and Miss Cook today so um for those in the back who keep record timing
040of my presentations I'd like that to go down and I will have an airing of the Grievances after the meeting for Festivus so um that being said uh Madam president members of the board I'd ask that we approve our financial statements uh items B uh Investments item C appropriation modifications and our supplemental Appropriations items d and e respectively please summer second any discussion please call the rule Miss Payne yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Miss Reiner yes motions carry 4-0 Madam president members of the board I asked for the approval of the resolutions to recertify tax rates for the tax year 2022 collection year 2023. please call the roll Miss jesslyn yes yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Miss Briner yes motions carry 4-0 that concludes my portion of the agenda uh do
041we have any unfinished business I don't know if this would qualify as unfinished business if we're looking at organizing a levy Committee in the new year do we need to take steps on that kind of moving forward do we have something kind of planned so that we can start that perhaps in January we've had some initial conversations between bill and I just to figure out how we want to start the communication with all of this we're working with Kristen Estes on some of this as well so we should have some more solid plans here when we come come back in January that sounds great thank you you any new business and next we have hearing the public on any items Mr Wade yes we did have five people submit uh for session two so Topic's
042not on the agenda I'm gonna call them in no particular order here I will start with uh Mr Russell Miller with Mr Miller is in attendance if he would go to the microphone in the middle okay that scene Mr Miller so I will go to Lynn Mazika is Miss Mazika here good evening members of the board Madam president Mr Wade Mr Heath thank you for the opportunity to speak today a remarkable and frightening thing happened the Ohio State Board of election chose to ignore the rule of law and pass a hate-filled resolution suggesting that school districts in Ohio defy federal laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender students I'm relieved that the district in which I live chooses to follow the laws of this country and recognizes the importance and value of providing an inclusive and protective
043environment to all of many students and I urge you to continue working to include all students and give them a sense of belonging and safety also I'd like to which wish each of you a wonderful holiday season and a peaceful and fruitful New Year thank you very much thank you thank you thank you Mr James charion not seeing Mr Cherian Mr Dennis strapko and our last person who signed up tonight is miss Ann Anderson hi everyone it's like the FBI light with the beam in your face so um okay I have two children that go to shore um and I know that you know why I'm here um I have a transgender daughter that's in the school system and I see that not there's not a lot of people here this evening which is really
044it's kind of refreshing to see just that maybe everyone's going to chill out a little bit and but I I can't do that um see because my daughter's rights are under attack it's not just my daughter it's the whole transgender Community um what happened at the State Board um of Education today it was devastating to trans youth I have something I'd like to read from someone that writes policy that I'm friends with for the Human Rights Campaign for transgender youth trans kids of all ages deserve to get to see themselves in books and to be allowed to talk about themselves in the classroom they deserve the basic Dignity of having others use their name and pronouns that acknowledge their gender they should be allowed to use a restroom where they feel safe they should be
045able to play sports on teams that align with their gender so they can bond with friends learn leadership sportsmanship get exercise and simply have fun they should be able to access evidence-based medical medically necessary health care and to make decisions for themselves with the guidance of their parents and their doctors while I do know that um you know there's been some protections that have recently come for marriage equality and I think that's wonderful what I'm really having a hard time with the trans Community just constantly being attacked and I do appreciate everything that everyone's done to protect trans kids in the matter school system and I do realize that this resolution is not binding and it's up for the school system to decide whether they would like to adapt these resolutions into their school system
046pretty much I'm here to beg you begged everyone that I've gone in front of um I really need you to stand up and protect trans kids because nobody else is doing it no one else is doing it at the state house it's not happening at the Board of Education it's not happening in a lot of places all over the country and I think with the school well I think with what we've seen actually um recently in the news with all the devastating shootings and things that are directed out the lgbtq community I think that we all need to take a break with the rhetoric that's aimed at transgender youth kids adults and maybe just if anybody ever had any questions I'd be way more than willing to sit down I'm not angry at anybody I
047I don't feel like yeah I just want help and that's it that's all time thank you thank you okay thank you we don't have executive session this evening we'll have a motion to adjourn so moved second please call the roll Miss Jesse yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Miss Pryor yes meeting adjourned at