001yes Miss jesslyn yes the July 12 2022 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with Section 331 3.15 of the Ohio Revised Code Mr Wade will you please call the roll miss breiner here miss cook here miss jesling present Mr Payne here Mr Tuttle here please try and make the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] thank you I would like to welcome everyone to the July 12 2022 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for the review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the boards for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's approval be
002it 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 the agenda items and to request if needed additional information this meeting is being televised on a 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 videotaped and will be shown on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Mentor Ohio please place your mobile telephones on silent mode during the meeting Mr Wade in his role as CFO and Secretary of the board minutes we'll now share some
003protocols regarding our public participation policy good evening I'd like to remind everybody as a regulatory agent for the board I want to take a few minutes to again clarify expectations for public participation at board meetings to help ensure we have a productive and respectful meeting the board invites and welcomes public participation at our board meetings at two times during the meeting the first opportunity to speak is not agenda items only there is also a second opportunity to speak on any agenda item one wishes that is near the end of the agenda heard the recently updated policy policy 1.12 participants may only speak one time during each hearing of the public opportunities however participants may not speak on the same topic more than once per meeting regardless of the period of the public participation in which
004the comments are made participants wishing to speak are asked to come to either of the microphones located at the entrances and are required to announce their name address and school or schools where their children attend if applicable statements are limited to three minutes and any questions must be directed to the presiding officer during the hearing of the public we ask that all speakers exercise the appropriate decorum for the board to conduct their business specifically in the case of public participation all members of the community need to be treated with respect members of the audience should not interrupt or speak out while someone is speaking out during any portion of the meeting as each person can and should have the opportunity to speak uninterrupted as they so choose please know anyone who's repeatedly fails to comply
005with these expectations of appropriate decorum or deters the board for be able to conduct their business will be told to leave the meeting if at the end of the public participation No statement is made please know this in no way demonstrates a lack of care for the comments that are shared by our community we want to be thoughtful in our approach and provide a response in a timely manner if and when appropriate again the intent of public participation is for us to hear from our stakeholders so the board and the administration needs the feedback to best serve the community thank you District highlights and Wrecking recognitions thank you good evening Madam president members of the board tonight we are recognizing several outstanding students and for their academic for their academic and athletic achievements I would
006like to invite miss nemus our high school assistant principal to the podium to begin the presentations [Music] good evening I am Jackie nemes assistant principal of Mentor High School I am joined this evening by Mrs Tracy Coleman and Mrs Patty talarcik it is my pleasure to be here this evening to recognize four outstanding students from the class of 2022 for their success in our AP Capstone program will Rudy danda Chloe Partlow and Jackson Weber please join us on stage [Applause] also being recognized but unable to attend tonight's meeting is Autumn's stock master about to enter its eighth year at Mentor High School AP Capstone is a two-year program built on the foundation of two courses AP seminar taught by Mrs Tracy Coleman an AP research taught by Mrs Patty talarchik AP seminar is a 10th
007grade English class where students investigate real world issues from multiple perspectives gathering and analyzing information from various sources in order to develop credible evidence-based arguments by learning how to conduct scholarly research and writing academic Papers in AP seminar students develop the skills for the second year of the Capstone program AP research AP research is an is an elective for 11th and 12th graders where students conduct an individual study in the field of their choice the course cultivates the skills and the discipline necessary to conduct independent research in order to produce and defend a scholarly academic thesis our Capstone courses at Mentor High have nearly a 100 percent AP score passing rate and serve as a platform for specialized honors diploma portfolios including the stem social science and Civics engagement and arts diplomas we are extremely
008proud that AP Capstone has become an Avenue for student publication since 2018 over 20 Mentor High students have had their work published in the Journal of student research the Journal of student research is an academic multi-disciplinary and faculty reviewed student Journal devoted to the rapid dissemination of current research the journal seeks papers that are novel integrative and written in a way that is accessible to a wide audience which includes an array of disciplines the content of the journal ranges from applied research to theoretical research all submissions undergo a double-blind review process under which faculty reviewers do not know the identity of the author and the student authors do not know the identity of their reviewers tonight we are presenting Chloe and Jackson as well as recognizing Rudy and Autumn with bound copies of their published
009research we are very proud of our students for this meritorious achievement please join me in congratulating them [Applause] thank you [Applause] Madam president members of the board at this time I would like to invite Mr Casella our athletic director to the podium for the athletic recognitions foreign good evening Madam president members of the board Mr Porter and Mr Wade it's with great pleasure that I recognize members of our two of our spring sports teams that reached the highest levels of competition in the state of Ohio this year first we're going to start off with our boys and girls track teams who once again had outstanding Seasons both the boys and girls teams won the Riverside District title advancing to the regional meet down in Austintown from the regional meet several athletes qualify for the Ohio
010High School Athletic Association state championship meet back at Ohio State this year in early June these athletes continue to impress me with their talents and their hard work throughout the season to reach this point if I could have a girls head coach Mr burwald and boys head coach Mr Dennison joined me here on stage please come on up guys so athletes as we call your name if you'd come on up here receive your certificate and then greet the board please on the girls team Annie Barrow thank you Kylie buchler Savannah Denison Nora kraska Ada Zabo and Mackenzie stuckert [Applause] our boys team state qualifiers were Dustin Allen thank you Matt Bedell Danny ferrado Brett Greer [Applause] Timmy hordinski Kenny Jordan Ty Malone Michael Petrovic and Josh riscoe I'd also like to recognize three three of
011our assistant coaches who are here with us tonight Mr Brian Butler Alex Ardo and Taylor knepp thank you guys I'll take those and I'll get them soon thank you the next team I'd like to recognize are members of our girls rugby team the team started this season with a loss but then ran off a series of wins all the way to the State final game in Columbus although they dropped that that game in the last minute to finish a state runner-up they need to be proud of the way that they represented Mentor this team and coaches should be congratulated on a fantastic season some fantastic season and have set the bar very high for girls rugby in the future here at Mentor High School so if I could have head coach Vicki McGarry an assistant
012coach Tom worsing joined me here on stage so Ladies as we call your name if you'd come on up uh Brooke Childs Megan Clifford [Applause] Andrea Deering Angelina Ferry Lola frenchco Shaylin Herta Haley Hummel Grace King Riley latch Ali Lloyd Alexis Ludwick thank you Sydney Moreno Megan mastronado Lorelei megory Erica Novak Lucy O'Donnell Emma Schilling Katie scholes thank you Evelina Strauss Angelina Swank Donna Tran Olivia Valance who am I missing and Cassie rice certificate congratulations ladies on a fantastic season you want to shake hands [Music] [Applause] foreign we could give one final round of applause to all of our those recognized tonight at this time we're going to take a short break anyone that would like to leave may do so of course you're welcome to stay that's we have the regular board meeting on
013June 14 2022 and a special board meeting June 30th 2022. so moved second please call the roll Miss Jess Lincoln yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss brighter yes motion carries 5-0 now we have hearing of the public on agenda items only hello I'm fighting a cold so I apologize good evening Madam president members of the board Mr Porter and Mr Wade my name is Lori godick and I live on melshore Drive in Mentor this evening I'm speaking as a former employee of the Mentor Schools and as a parent of two children who graduated from Mentor Schools I want to thank the mentor board for their continual concern for the safety of our students and staff by promptly creating and presenting at this evening's board meeting the resolution regarding not exercising
014Authority Under hb99 Ohio substitute House Bill 99 allows school boards to authorize School District employees to go armed within a school safety zone within which the board of governing body has Authority which would be you your resolution declares and affirms that the Mentor Schools will not exercise its Authority Under hb99 to authorize any of its employees who are not school safety and security officers to convey or possess any deadly weapons including firearms in any of its schools or on any school property under the board's control in today's society we need to do whatever is possible to keep our children safe so as a former parent of Mentor school I thank you thank you [Applause] good evening and hello my name is Michael Paul I have a 12 year old that attends Memorial Middle School and
015a three-year-old that's about to start preschool I believe when he starts at four um I attended this meeting only after learning about books being introduced to students to read and learn about subjects that are highly controversial Patrick Kaepernick excuse me who has gone on the record to say to abolish the police commented the various organizations reported on NBC and nbcsports.com which is an idiotic statement since even you hire police to watch your meetings and take care of our schools where's clothes that are dressed like police officers when little pigs dressed as police very disrespectful to police officers and their families also there's a police do your research a little bit police report filed in Miami Florida where Mr kept I don't know I know Miss Khan excuse me copernic is alleged to have and I
016stay alleged to have drugged and and got a woman in a sexual imposition or a sexual position that she did not want to be it's in Miami Florida we don't need our children reading these kind of books bad bad bad representation I'll tell you something we should have never had books by authors who are very respectful any group of people no matter what the differences are so especially the police who most are good people keep our communities safe and in structure without them which may come soon that nobody wanted to be a police officer any longer I have a lot of people that don't want to be police anymore friends you will have a you will live in a War era Yugoslavia meaning no loss meaning um gangs with guns and high crime okay so
017when we go down the Avenue of letting these authors come in the disrespecting our police and look majority of the police will even tell you too when one of ours does wrong we will please them we will take care of it under the law so why do we have these books that are anti-police or authors excuse me they're anti-police talking about police brutality I had I had let me think gratians beat me up am I going to say all creations are bad and they need to be abolished no okay it's very unfair to the police officers who serve tireless job which I would never do even though I was on the military and I fought Fallujah I would never do an officer job and for you to allow books like this my daughter and son
018to read ridiculous thank you thank you my name is Mike Williams I live at 6064 Walden Court in Mentor my wife and I have put four children through the middle school system a dear School Board Mr Porter Mr Wade and Mr Heath if you're president I would like to address the agenda item on collaborative classroom books being voted on this evening one year ago we were just here discussing 200 000 of taxpayers money going to a company called better lessons they were hired to teach our teachers and staff that they should no longer teach a curriculum rooted in whiteness when the community was made aware of this in service we were told that the presentation was replaced because it went in a direction that Mentor Schools was not interested in going not interested in going
019fast forward one year and here we are you're about to enter into another two hundred thousand dollar contract with yet another leftist company called collaborative classroom this is the same company who tried to slip important pornographic children's book called George into the curriculum which even you deemed inappropriate for elementary students this company bungled the original order they provide no teachers materials or assessments and hide their collection behind copyrights which they in the name of professionalism for these reasons alone we should not be doing business with this company you're about to vote on an elementary Reading curriculum that is absolutely not rooted in whiteness nor in any American culture it is a watered-down version of world cultures curriculum that rarely credits americanism or traditional American values and at the cost of another two hundred thousand dollar
020of our taxpayer money your explanation for the better lessons presentations will have done it was just for teachers and not necessarily students your excuse for high school and middle school books was that the kids are older and this stuff is available all over the Internet so what difference does it make and now you're trying to bring this political and leftist ideology into the Elementary classrooms for five six and even ten-year-olds these books will not leave the classrooms and the parents have no idea what's in these books or any ongoing opportunity to read the books themselves this is a sheer shell game you have continued to ignore this community you continue to avoid transparency and you remain fiscally irresponsible with our money please understand what we are saying if we if you go forward with a
021yes vote on this totally inappropriate Elementary reading curriculum then you are voting to destroy the chance of this community passing passing a renewal or an additional Levy that comes onto the ballot we're done you were not listening to us there really isn't anything left to be said except do not vote Yes to adopt this curriculum thank you for your time thank you [Applause] I'm Josh Pollock I'm a graduate of Mentor High 1991 and I live in Lake Lake County I have children in another school district but I'm finding that school school boards around this County are really trying to change the game and I don't know what for and what what they have to gain in this for a couple of the books that uh you're wanting to add to the curriculum for K through
022five is disturbing I think children K through five should be focused on foundational learning not worried about race issues not worried about uh left and right agendas they shouldn't even have to hear about that and the fact that you guys are making an effort to put this front and center for children their minds are molded at this age and they should be worried about algebra and basic math and English and grammar and spelling a lot of things that have been removed since you guys brought Common Core in and I was fighting Common Core 12 13 years ago when my children were in that age and one of my daughters did not get to learn spelling she still can't to this day but the fact that you're wanting to push a book Heather has two mommies
023I just got to say this from the United States Census Bureau that says same-sex households make up 0.8 percent let me say that again point eight percent of all U.S households that's a pretty pretty uh small number for that to be front and center as an agenda for a child that's trying to learn how to learn so just wanted to bring that up and I in regards to the Colin Kaepernick I think that that's a shameful act that you guys want to try and celebrate somebody it doesn't deserve to be celebrated the definition of a of a role model a good role model only speaks when necessary and acts when possible a good role model listens more than they lecture a good role model does not allow themselves to be deluded by their selves a
024good role model should be a cheerful Giver with loving heart one who is always polite and can help others and never is negative I mean to have kids look at a guy that basically failed in the NFL and then decided wow I can be a change a change uh uh giver and and kneeling and trying to divide this country you know the day he started kneeling for the the national anthem and sports that was the day that I stopped watching professional sports and I'm talking all of them you know that was my Escape I didn't need politics dragged into my opportunity to escape from it yet I find myself watching all these School boards trying to bring division into their Community secretly not allowing or not notifying parents you guys should be sending letters out
025to every taxpayer that's giving you that money to go ahead and try and teach their kids to hate this country and to hate their parents and to hate anybody that might be different because that's what you're doing thank you good evening everyone I am Kim Basin I'm a mentor School District Individual I live here in Mentor and I've been to many of these excuse me can you restate your name I didn't catch it please thank you thank you um currently I homeschool my children for many reasons that are happening in this world today there's a lot of hate going on in this world and just coming to these meetings in itself I've felt a lot of that hatred happen The Divide happened I'm not quite sure why it's happening we're here to really be at
026a school that's supposed to focus on education really which means your math your science your history your health not grooming not providing curriculum that's going to persuade a child of the age of sixes um mental state when they're just developing that mental mentality in growing up and I am a woman of faith and I love everybody I am a person that has many in my life of all likes all diversities all different sexual orientations and just because I am a Christian doesn't mean I hate those individuals but coming to these meetings I felt from others a hatred towards me stating that I should provide take my children to a private school when in reality we are here I grew up with a group called project love not CRT project loves about an act of kindness
027having everyone come together not providing what someone's sexual orientation is not providing what someone else believes in whether it's their faith that's different we're here to come together not to divide one another and I truly believe with the curriculum that's happening what you want to see in CRT it's not what the media is showing you it's different from what the media is showing you if you actually do your research it is really a hatred curriculum and you might disagree but when you really see if you've looked into project love if you looked into those types of curriculums that we all grew up with at a younger age not what's coming up in the modern day today it was based on kindness based on still even god-given rights to being just ethical and I'm seeing a
028lot of our morals going down the ground and I really believe that we need to just get back to going off with the last gentleman that spoke going back to the basics and not going into a curriculum that's going to really change the minds of our youth and it doesn't mean by me saying this that I am not appreciating everyone for who they are or what they are because we are all here to love one another but we have to stop this divide we had to stop this hate for one another because every time we come to this meeting there is a banter back and forth and I'm just here to say that we have to come together in some way and stop this banter and our curriculum definitely needs to go back to the
029basics so whatever you believe that should go in the curriculum I believe is wrong I believe that we shouldn't talk about those different sexual orientations and my six-year-old will not be here in the school district if we talk about those things because he's not of an age that he can do that he has to be 18 and figure it out thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Melanie majikis I live on Birdie Lane I'm the parent of two meta graduates a long time a volunteer in the schools and my kids did both graduate from Mentor High School speaking regarding the selection of the books for independent classroom reading I just want to applaud the board and the curriculum director for choosing this company and for providing a variety of books that students can choose
030to read this is a choice that students can make I heard a wonderful quote yesterday from an educator named Dr rudeen Sims Bishop she talked about the value of books for children and I'll just paraphrase what she said she said the books can serve as mirrors as Windows and as sliding doors they serve as mirrors when they were when they reflect a child's own lived experience their Windows when they allowed children to see the experiences of others and they're sliding doors when they actually enable a child to put themselves into the experience of the book and perhaps into the experience of another person and all of these ways of reading are valuable both seeing oneself portrayed in a book and seeing how people who are very unlike you are portrayed in a book we really
031owe it to our children to allow them the freedom to experience this so that they can learn and grow I find it interesting that people who talk so much about freedom and freedom of expression are actively trying to suppress the freedom of other parents to allow their children those experiences in school uh parents who want to strictly monitor their own child's reading they're welcome to send books to school with their children that they approve of but we don't have any right to take that away from other families the freedom to read is an essential freedom and I appreciate that the board and the curriculum director see that A diversity and variety of books is essential to this thank you thank you [Applause] hi I'm April Flagg I reside at 6181 Cambridge Park Drive I'm going
032to side with what it's lovely I don't remember your name said but the banter back and forth is absolutely ridiculous for parents trying to raise children and trying to raise them to love each other and to get along um I don't think that saying that I don't think that certain material should be taught in a classroom is the same as telling a parent that they are not allowed to parent the way that they want these are public schools there's multiple religions multiple different backgrounds multiple different generations going to these schools that they are learning everything saying that no these are not appropriate for children of this age collectively is not preventing anybody from parenting the way that they want now that being said I do not think that any more sexually explicit material or anything
033like that should be introduced into the schools and if you guys are planning on going with a company that recommended the book George that you said was not acceptable that I don't think that we can put our trust in the board as a whole anymore exercise [Applause] my name is Mary Jo staff I live on Independence Drive I have two children that graduated from mentor and I have been involved in Mentor Schools for 15 years 20 years close to that first of all I want to bring up the fact that somebody brought up Common Core Common Core is not a curriculum and it was brought together by the national Governors Association in 2010 by Republican and Democratic Governors so let's get that out of the way I will say that my children learned about World
034War II yet they have not invaded Poland my children read Harry Potter they have not become Wizards my children became well-rounded intelligent citizens which is what public agent education is for to create good citizens many here complained about masks and closing of schools but are perfectly content now with wanting to take their children out or homeschool them public funds belong to Public Schools not to private schools that can deny anyone of their choosing schools like government are not a business they don't make money their product is lives not cogs if you teach both sides will the kids also learn both sides of 9 11 or do we only sympathize with the Nazis this is the great du jour I don't know what problem they're going to come up with next week but I hope that
035we'll be able to understand that they do need to learn both sides if your children are going to become good citizens of this country they need to know both sides of the story [Applause] thank you [Applause] good evening Mr Porter Mr Wade president breiner members of the board I'm Bambi Vargo I live in Mentor I'd like to present two comments in support of the IDR books first in the June 26th Plain Dealer there was a report from The Washington Post quote U.S continues to get older and more diverse unquote this information is based on data from the U.S Census Bureau this is clear evidence that the school district needs to continue to support diversity equity and inclusion in all aspects of the curriculum including by accepting the IDR books the population of the United States
036is changing we need to prepare all our students to be successful citizens in a new world and the inclusive books in this collection will do that secondly I'd like to share a personal story from my teaching experience about the power of Diversified literature to impact the lives of marginalized students in late November of 2016 President Obama Was preparing to leave the White House I was teaching at Boulevard Elementary School in Cleveland Heights one morning I escorted three fourth grade students to my classroom two girls and one boy two students who are black one student was white as we walked through the library one student noticed this book first family and asked if they could look at it and to be transparent this book is not part of the IDR collection but it is an example
037of Diversified inclusive literature for the next 20 minutes I had the privilege of listening to students discuss the first black president of the United States they dreamed about Michelle Obama running for president and they did not stop there they even imagined daughters Sasha and Malia each becoming president one day too they were dreaming of an Obama Dynasty for my black students this book was about the first black president became a mirror for them to see themselves and to dream about all the possibilities ahead of them for my white student this book became a window for her to understand the challenges faced by the first black family to live in the White House and for the girls in my class this book became a mirror as they looked at First Lady Michelle Obama an accomplished attorney
038and spokesperson for many causes and imagined what great achievements May lie ahead of them too I urge you to accept the IDR books thank you thank you my name is Jeannie Kincaid my family's lived in this community for 36 years I have three kids that graduated from Mentor High School this is going to be short and sweet we pay our taxes it is the school's job to educate our children in subjects including math Reading Writing geography history and all the subjects that they need to learn is the parents job to teach morals and values not yours [Applause] thank you [Applause] good evening thank you for uh allowing me an opportunity to speak my name is Jerry Sereno I am the state senator for the 18th Senate District which includes of the vast majority of mentor
039and I'd like briefly to just talk about both subjects that came up tonight first one is house bill 99. and um when we passed that that bill a few weeks a few weeks ago it was and there was a lot of confusion about what it was and it is just I just thought I'd offer some explanation as to what the bill is about uh I think the fact that you're going to uh pass the resolution not to to opt out of the program is perfectly fine but I do want to say that it was permissive and that school boards have the option of whether to accept the protocol or not uh I know that in the 18th Senate District which is Portage County half of Geauga and two-thirds of Lake County I did not expect
040many school boards to actually opt into this because we have in in those counties we have a very vibrant sheriff's office in all three counties and we have very large police departments with SWAT teams Etc but one of the reasons why we passed that bill was because many of the rural parts of Ohio simply don't have uh the kind of proximity to their sheriff's deputies and Sheriff's departments and police departments that can respond to school situations and it is those school systems that we're asking for the state legislature to act on this and to give them the opportunity if they wish to develop methods that would provide proper protection for the school children in Ohio so again it's totally permissive the legislature did not require this to be the case uh and and Mentor decides
041not to do it that's perfectly fine and that represents the safety of the community I would certainly stand behind that and very briefly on the second topic that has been talked about mostly tonight I haven't read these books and seen the materials specifically but I just will say something that I said to in a meeting a few weeks ago when a number of superintendents from The Three Counties that I represent and that is that I really would like to see school boards such as actions tonight making decisions in cooperation with parents uh on these very important subjects I'd much rather have these issues dealt with locally than to have laws passed in the state house and all of these subjects are very controversial I would just ask the board here and mentor to listen to
042your parents try to make the right decisions uh and let's remember that the focus is on teaching the very Basics certainly to our children we are behind in Ohio as a result of covet uh and we are lagging in creating job uh uh careers for students to uh to find jobs in the in the job market and uh we need to focus all of our efforts and all of our opinions certainly on making sure we're getting the very best basic education to our children here in Lake County thank you very much thank you senator hi I'm Ann Anderson I'm representing lgbtq Allies tonight my three kids go to the school system I'm coming here every month because I don't people don't understand that there's lgbtq kids in the school they're not going to go anywhere
043I don't care how many people you bring with you I'm not going to go anywhere everybody I have so many people behind me and supporting me so I really support you guys having the books because it's super important there's so many children that are lgbtq their parents might not know because of reactions like you're getting from the people on the other side of the room that think it's not okay to be gay or trans or whatever the case may be so no yes it is every month I come here and I hear about how horrible it is talk about talking about wrong with it there's gay people get over it no no and I'm not going to listen to any moral character things from Jerry Sereno or any his grandchildren or the reason my kids
044had to leave St Mary's so I'm not going to listen to that his grandson who just graduated excuse me excuse me Miss Anderson you need to make sure you're addressing the board thank you what about I'm speaking and please let's have respect for the speaker thank you every month please please [Music] we've asked the speaker to address the board and we've asked the audience to please let the speaker speak thank you [Music] with me that supports us next time this is crazy okay are they going to be removed you removed my husband the last time these people keep interrupting me that happened the last time you said you weren't going to tolerate it so they need to go that's right they've been more they need to go continue no no they've been warned please continue
045that's lousy excuse me sir excuse me sir it's time it's my time it's not yours I'm sick of listening to this garbage every month I'm not even supposed to be here but I have to come up here because I get a notice at the Wednesday that they're upset about a book with two moms that are gay or whatever the case next week it'll be something else it's always something it's 2022. what are we doing here again the same speech here I am there they are it's gonna go back and forth we're gonna get nowhere what if we put some positivity into this what if we actually did something for our students instead of came here and said we don't want to do this for these students or these separate students or these and we're going
046to segregate everybody let's not do that get it together if you mean you want to get it together then let's meet together I I will meet with you that's what that's the difference is I will talk to you nobody has come to me to talk to me about anything [Music] please 5842 Tanager Court Mentor Ohio America is a land of individual rights and we honor all people's rights the fact is when I was growing up we used to talk with between our parents not the school about our private parts key word being private it's no longer private you are taking it into the schools inappropriately and as I have said before we are not co-parenting with you you need to stay out of the lives of our children from a moral standpoint we can handle
047that you can't seem to handle the basics including cursive writing including basic Reading Writing and arithmetic look at the scores that Mentor Schools are getting it's abysmal I encourage you to please go back to basics it's not anything about disliking what these people do their business is their business who they sleep with and how they sleep is none of my business and I'm not judging them I don't care but I do care about how you take their approach and put it in the face of our children inappropriately they are young they are just being molded the morals that we want them to live by are our morals not the school boards and not our neighbors or anyone else's please honor the fact that we have our individual rights and we have our liberties and we
048want you to leave our children in our homes to be grown up and raised according to our values the same values I should mention that founded this country this great exceptional country that we need to honor and and stand by in all ways and Lord I recommend and encourage you that if you want us to pay our taxes to this school if you want us to vote for your levies then reconsider your actions thank you thank you [Applause] hello I am Lindsay wall I live at 7250 Beechwood Drive in Mentor I have for the coming year a kindergartner and a second grader um first off I would like to thank the board for listening to us for listening to How diverse this crowd is for listening to how different everyone is and how everyone in
049this room believes in something different there's a lot of diversity going across this entire room and I think that you have done a phenomenal job listening to everybody and everyone that's not here as well because while there's a large crowd here tonight obviously Mentor Schools is Giant and the parents make up a very very very large number and just because they're not here doesn't mean they don't get an opinion so while I I do agree with Mr Sereno about uh involving the parents opinions on certain subjects I don't believe that doing it just at a meeting where only a small number of the parents for our entire school system are able to attend is is appropriate to do it that way I feel that as as you guys do your job with um your due
050diligence every time um you guys have listened to the parents and that's why you have brought this to the table which brings me to the point of thank you for not teaching this to our kids thank you for creating a safe space and allowing Educators to make our kids feel comfortable enough to come to them and express who they are tell them their secrets that maybe they don't feel comfortable enough talking about at home you've created a diverse school system where these teachers are incredible and the students actually feel like they can talk to the teachers about what's going on inside of their mind you didn't create a class that is specifically for these topics these books are not being taught to our kids they are not being assigned or graded on you're literally just
051providing materials in a classroom for the kids to choose from so thank you Everything Changes Everything needs to evolve as far as Colin Kaepernick goes in the book these kids that will have access to this book don't look at Colin Kaepernick as the guy who knelt down on the field they look at him as an athlete if they even know who he is it's just a children's book but the news adults we watch the news yes we all heard what he did some agree some don't agree that's that's a parent thing that's an adult thing these kids reading this book which I will be honest I I have not actually read that book but it is a children's book and these children don't know who he is they see an athlete again thank you very
052much for taking the time and listening to all of this I appreciate you guys and respect you thank you I'm Linda zika I live in Pine gate here in Mentor my husband my two children my three grandchildren all attended Mentor Schools and got wonderful educations and I have been able to see in the times that I have been involved with having students in Mentor the change and the diversity in our culture as a country and it is good to see that our schools represent those same changes and diversity that we see in our country our country has changed it's evolved some of us are a little more concerned about it than others some are a little afraid of it and I can understand that it's hard sometimes to accept what's new we need to help
053our kids understand our world and the world of others around them that are not the same as them and to let them know that there is a world out there so that they can critically think about things in addition to being able to read and write and do math they need to know their history and the history of the other people in their country and in the world and these books help us do that thank you for doing this thank you for presenting these books and I also want to thank you for such prompt action on taking a stand on house a mental health Bill 99 and presenting that this evening I'm pleased to see the reaction so quick thank you again very much for all you do for our kids foreign [Applause] a little
054bit 74-18 Hart Street Mentor I've raised six kids I've put five of them through Mentor Schools we're putting the sixth one through middle schools now I've been coming to these meetings for the last about eight months we got involved when all the big mask stuff was going on I'm sorry to say and I repent and I say I'm sorry for not being involved in school board meetings for the last 30 years that I've had children in school systems I wish I had one thing I'd like to make clear if you want to if you go back through the the last eight meetings I think you're going to be hard-pressed to find anybody saying anything about any groups here I've said it before and I'll say it again no kid should ever be bullied for whoever
055what they are they're trying to find who and what they are but no kid should be forced by a teacher who's supposed to educate to accept something that maybe goes against their rights and their ideas and their beliefs it's not a teacher's job to teach my kid anything but Reading Writing arithmetic history whatever you want to call it we don't pay athletes to teach our kids athletes are paid to entertain our kids they're not Role Models they're athletes that entertain people these books I have no idea why these books are being forced on young kids that have not cannot make decisions on their own yet it's not right the sex education beginning in kindergarten is absolutely appalling and I will stand as a father as a parent as a God-fearing man and I will oppose
056that until I have no breath left in my lungs we cannot do that as a school system cannot and I would ask and I would like to ask that the board would start listening to everybody and I I think there's a big group of people that are being completely ignored while these books and all these politically charged agendas are being forced on our kids I have no idea where that falls under education but I don't believe in it my wife and I will raise our kids the best way we see fit we appreciate you sticking to the education we appreciate you being transparent and telling us what you're going to do in the classrooms and not hiding things and we know there are things being hidden please for the love of God listen to everybody
057that's trying to say hey we want the best for our children and I'm not standing here saying that you don't but there's definitely some things that are being done that don't indicate that people are looking out for the best for our children thank you thank you thank you [Applause] Robert Gandy resident 5462 wixford Lane in Mentor my children did go to Manor schools I'm a Mentor High grad and I want to tell you that I was very diverse in my time and I was 27 years ago hard to believe but I want to thank you for all the efforts that you've done and things that you've taught me and ultimately to lead to my success where I'm at today I do have family members co-workers and friends that are part of lgbtq I went to
058school with members here I think things are very diverse I would caution the board against accepting anything that's controversial or may create more confusion unfortunately I've had to deal with children in the school system and outside of the school system that have been victims or friends of of suicide in the school system so I asked respectfully ask that you you know strongly consider what you're you're looking at and evaluating and that you find things that that you know Steer away from values that are reserved for family members um unfortunately some of the decisions that I've made over the years my son is a a Mentor Schools uh child that doesn't know how to sign his name so um you know that was a mistake obviously you live and learn but the the point of this
059is is that I work with police officers that are leaving at very large numbers if we're concerned about you know School members we're having firearms and so forth we need to do everything in our power to protect and try to get more law enforcement more people interested in it and you know looking at curriculums of people that really make a difference in our community as far as the military and law enforcement and many others but uh just strongly reconsider you know what decision you make because it has a significant impact on young impressionable Minds that you know can make some very foolish decisions especially related to suicide and so forth and really Reserve those those values to the parents thank you anyone else hi my name is Alex dudas I actually graduated from enter High
060um currently own and operate at gym in Mentor and I grew up here my entire life so I wasn't planning on speaking tonight or anything like that and after listening to a multitude of speakers I thought I should say something and now owning a gym I train kids from five years of age to out 80 plus years old now a lot of the kids that I train do go to Mentor Schools and go to local schools around the county and some even drive hours away to come here and being me I like to talk about a lot of things and I bring up politics political stuff and school now when I went to Mentor I had six friends commit suicide and I was a nurse and when I was nursing in the Ed I had
061three friends come in that overdosed and it stemmed from men are high it's done from bullying in men are high now did I personally see it I did and I stood up for a lot I think you guys if you went around and asked I was known to stick up for those who couldn't didn't have a voice themselves my issue with these books is not so much with the books themselves it's with empathy do these kids have empathy yet what I see is it creating more divide than good I think those books would be good down the road a little bit they should know that everyone's created equal and we should respect everyone but do they have the right mindset to truly understand the books and what the impact will be or are we going
062to mold them a certain way where they're going to have one point of view that stemmed from a young age and it's going to be hard to kick that when really they don't have the knowledge or empathy to see both sides of the story what we're talking about with these books is mostly current events this isn't history I think there needs to be time and I need I really think you guys should take into account and talk to these kids because at the end of the day I think it's going to create more controversy and more bullying but they should have the right to choose and I just think at the right mindset and level and knowledge which they don't have below fifth grade really people are still gaining empathy at 13 plus years of
063age it showed in the recent study I can't quote it off the top of my head here but it was a 13 year old girl study I'm sorry a study up to 13 year olds and it was boys and girls and it showed that the women who turned 13 were just beginning to grasp the full concept of empathy which is putting yourself in someone else's shoes now Heather has two mommies that's fine but do they understand that or is it going to be hey my mom has or I grew up with two moms and then they're gonna get made fun now that's my concern is there going to be more bullying is there going to be more controversy are they going to understand or are they going to look down on each other for reasons
064they don't truly grasp yet that's really all I have to say is take that into account and talk to these kids because the things I hear it I'm going to a concert tomorrow I'll give you an example I have a lot of friends who are trans who are gay who identify as this and that I love them to death I see them as a human I don't see them as anything else and tomorrow night when we go to that concert I'm going with a friend I'm not going with somebody I'm not putting a name attached to it and she wouldn't do that either so these books really you got to pay attention talk to the kids really think it's going to cause a lot more injury controversies and we'll see what happens but try to
065talk thank you Mr gasky can you turn off the mics I'm having a hard time hearing yeah thank you my name is Adam Anderson I have three kids in the mentor school system I would like to thank the board for the continued tedious work that you do I'm proud of the Mentor Schools and I'm excited excuse me I'm excited to see the continued progress towards diversity inclusion and equality in the Metro school systems I trust the education and expertise of the teachers and the board in this school system to make the appropriate decisions on reading curriculum for elementary middle school and high school students at no point do I think my limited information that I have in my day-to-day life can determine or overlap the experience and expertise teachers had I'm 100 hope that you
066hope to allow these books in our schools to more information is better for these students not less not Banning books do you need to give these children more credit than you are they are very intelligent and wise beyond their years and that's that's really the bottom line these kids that are growing up now have unlimited potential and they're very empathetic to everybody a little bit more information isn't going to hurt let the children make their decision bottom line thank you very much for your time [Applause] [Music] good evening my name is Jessica Hardesty I live at 7194 Hodgson Road I have three daughters who are in my opinion so lucky to attend the school district that is caring that is a diverse and who accepts the advice and guidance from experts and education and in
067child development to make the decisions that you make for our students I would like to point out that this month is the 32nd anniversary of the passing of the American with Disabilities Act so in my lifetime George H.W bush signed the Americans the Americans with Disabilities Act do you know why that particular cell had to be passed at the federal level because people didn't want families with children with disabilities to have access to public schools they did not want individuals with disabilities to be represented in history in their textbooks in the books on their shelves so finally we decided as a country we are not going to discriminate against a child who was born with Cerebral Palsy or what have you or my dad gets in an accident and loses his arm we're not he
068can no longer be discriminated against if your kid reads a book about a kid in a wheelchair do they become more sensitive to that individual do they see the world through that person's eyes [Music] I'm sorry [Music] did it today [Music] unbox history [Music] my husband and I have been married for 20 years you don't care they're just kind kids who want to be nice to people and in schools need to focus on developing good citizens in addition to the basics Jason tatterson I live at 7341 Holly Park Drive in Mentor I have two sons that graduated from Mentor High School my concern is that the Moorings upon ways of this nation have been faced our big setups values that I was raised with the values that I've passed on to my children have been
069to Value life and whatever representation that was there was a life there to be valued but there are also moral issues that must be established within that household and in those moral values there is a guardrail that is put into my children's life that I don't expect anyone else to move those guide numbers the things that matter to me as a male Faith as a man of God is the word of God the word of God is what Helms me in it's what it provides me with better safety I don't believe that it is right for anyone to not be loving not be kind not be gentle towards anyone regardless of what their values are but at the same time when those things are put into my children's lives and put it before them in
070a way that at a time where many were talking about kids that don't have the ability to process right and moving those God orders outside of my knowledge outside it will be the position that the administration and I think here's one thing I want to say that I understand I understand that this is not something that just comes from the better school board it's not just something that comes from the teachers I have the most respectful teachers I don't believe I'm going to ask you to trust [Music] his time naturally in the education system that they are calling you as Leaders to that list I believe there are Christian teachers I believe in our Christian administrators that feel muscle and feel muffled because of the fact that their exemption is at risk if they speak
071up against some of them curriculum that is being presented and imposed for our children and you can say well you know what I mean that mandatory listen if you want something before a five-year-old that they're not able to actually process and be able to determine if you're exposing them to something that can very well set a course in their thinking you know when a child is coming up especially in those middle school teen years it is a good [Music] job they're struggling to find their identity their struggling to find who they are we went through that I know everyone reasons for it that don't actually pertain to where that child is at We lead them down the road and I I will tell you that I've worked a lot with young people a lot with
072young teens I worked a lot with young adults I have I have struggled in the past to find a generation like the one we're looking at now that is more shrouded in the spirit of Darkness their their desperate many of them are suicidal many of them now were seeing across the board are graduating to a point where they're homicidal there is a real identity crisis in our kids and I believe we're trying to put them in boxes they really don't belong in and we're exposing them to things and telling them this is the reason why you're feeling what you're feeling but has absolutely nothing do with where they actually are you cannot do that with our kids we need to be active involved parents excuse me taking care of our children as we go along
073I apologize the clock was not started I started my phone a little bit later I'm keeping track of time on behalf of the board I will make sure that we try to keep things as copacetic as possible I do ask people on both sides of the room though to allow us to do our jobs and please don't speak out and let us handle that there's actually no rule just to confirm that they can't you shouldn't be speaking to each other you should be speaking to the board that's not a rule you're supposed to ask questions to the board president we ask you though to speak to us so that we can have a civil decorum meeting so that the board and the administration can hear the concerns of the public fairly please thank you [Music]
074you'd have to ask the court president Donna has a question sorry for the interruption Mr Patterson may I ask you what you do because it was a eloquent speech and I respect what you said and I'd like to know your experience thank you does anyone else wish to speak hello I don't know hello my name is Andrew Wally 8065 Carriage Hills Drive I've got two children I go to Hopkins uh I want to thank everybody that's here tonight uh I think the main point that everyone here is missing is that everyone has children here and everyone's children come from different backgrounds and each one of us parents come from different backgrounds I think as much as there is a divide in the public school that God should not be in here I think sexuality is
075the same thing unfortunately that might not be popular with some people but in my opinion it is up to the adults and the parents that are need to pass this on to their children especially children that are young children and people can look at me and say I'm not diverse and I don't have inclusion and you're 100 wrong you don't know me I had a gay Uncle he was married to two men he died of AIDS what does that do for me right so you would think that I'd be Pro for this but if my uncle was here today he would be against this he does not think he would not think and I'm not going to speak for him actually but he would not because he never pushed it on me as a young
076child he was just Uncle Sean he was always Uncle Sean and it was always Uncle Frank that was up to my family and I'm Catholic and I'm not pushing God here tonight for anyone here who has God that's fine I have God too this is a public school public schools that does not belong there it used to and they divide it if you want to bring it in that's up to you as far as sexuality goes I think it's the same thing you should probably wait till they're mature enough to understand stuff kids think of all kinds of stuff and we deal with all kinds of problems as far as information goes with young children in our neighborhood misinformation so I think one of the gentlemen here tonight talked about making sure that that is
077being presented correctly to the children and what's there and how that message is being taught I know from me and my wife that we give that message ourselves okay that comes off and it's our responsibility to make sure that they understand who everybody is and I think that's where the diversity and inclusion is for everybody it comes back to the parents it's not up to the school and excuse me occlusion also and diversity to these books that you are bringing to school where do they talk about me I'm not here to push my agenda on anybody I'm Petro I've been married for gonna be 18 years this month and there's not a single book that talks about me and my lifestyle to pass on to the other kids tell me one that there is tell
078me one one of the other little books that was very inappropriate that talked about discriminated against your genitalia where's the one that says hey you know what where's the pro I I'm actually proud of what I am and I'm proud of being what I like if this is a full conversation occlusion and diversity then it should be it should be on both sides I agree with the people that are saying we should talk from both sides but where are those books they're not it's bias it's diverse for sure but it is bias and any of the training that any of us that had in our professional lives we go through diversity training we go through occlusion occlusion and I'm sorry I'm saying that wrong I'm not a very good public speaker but at the end
079of the day it's a one-sided story I'm also Irish does anybody know that no nobody does where are we talking about the Irish slaves that came into this country it's one-sided okay and it is a part of History I'm also English where was it the slavery that I had for my ancestors I'm only one or two generations off the boat over here okay I'm not prominent I I don't come from old money where are those stories about me and my family and how they can share that diversity with everybody else that's what I have to say I think everyone here loves their kids and I think everyone has an opportunity and I think you should let the parents vote on this and table it thank you last call all right we're gonna move on thank
080you superintendent's report and recommendations Mr Porter thank you madam president members of the board are the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items 6a1 through so moved second any discussion please call the roll Miss Dressler yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss Pryor yes motion carries five zero thank you madam president members of the ward this evening we have several policies on the agenda for a first reading because this is a first reading no vote is necessary Madam president and members of the board at this time I am recommending that the resolution regarding not exercising Authority Under House Bill 99 be approved so moved discussion a discussion all right you need to you need someone to approve the motion go ahead it's interesting I think you
081said you motion yes do we have a second I'll second discussion I just appreciated the addition of this resolution Mr Porter was kind enough to find the resolution that we passed in March of 2018 and had an excellent discussion as a board at that time about safety issues and that we formally at that point also wish to decline the use of firearms by anyone other than a trained officer on our our grounds and so appreciate having that reinforced this evening I had a couple um questions I know we had a couple couple emails come in in regards to Safety in general and I'm okay with not arming the teachers but I do want to talk a little bit further if we're not going to give them that right then um I know it's in our
082safety plan I believe Mr Porter correct me if I'm wrong that we do want a resource officer at every building but we don't have enough police officers currently to do that so my question is I think there is a place um possibly Beechwood maybe has retired police officers and if we could kind of look into that or maybe you have and I'm just not aware but seeing that we have you know three police officers here tonight for us it would be nice to have you know that same care for our students if we can if it's in the form of a retired police officer I think that would be just as as great that's something that's that's something that can be explored certainly thank you that would require a revision of the resolution correct yeah
083if you read the resolution no no because the resolution really only addresses whether or not we would arm our staff and what the resolution says is that we are in agreement that having a safety a security officer who had the kind of training and was also um updated on that training that would be my only concern with a retired police officer as long as that individual is taking that Refresher so that he or she is current on best practices and also on a gun range so that their skills and accuracy would be maintained and I'm sure that would be important yeah I I think that's something that would would require a little more thought you know on on our board I I don't want to say um um no because I haven't considered it yet
084or looked into what kind of ongoing training that our active police officers receive and and what they would be um not having as retired police officers you know so I I'm not sure I I may be comfortable with that or or may not that that's at this time what I'm comfortable with is active Duty police officers so if I understand from just from speaking with some police officers who are familiar with the Beechwood situation they're actually it's a special unit and it's only for the schools but it's worked out through the contract between the schools and the City Police Department so the chief of police would probably be the best person to kind of discuss that with with now so I I don't know for you know Mr tuttle's question about the resolution then because
085it uses the word staff and not just like if we were to hire them I don't know if that would fall under this and this would need to be revised um I don't know if that's something we could if we need to look in it first before and table this or I don't know you know what the right answer is because we haven't fully examined that issue I I think whether we would table it or whether we would go forward with a vote on it um I think either way I think it's fair to assume we can look into retired officers we can get some expert opinions including that you know of our own Chiefs and men are men around the lake um and I think I hear you also suggesting is maybe speaking to
086Beechwood about you know what what they did to get their program going and if we were to go in that direction if it seemed that we needed to make a modification of the resolution we could certainly do that going forward I'm very pleased to have this before us tonight because the spirit of it is clear I also think it's important that we are clear in our stance at this time as school is starting up in a very quick time and we may have staff that you know are are left without a clear stance from the board if we don't act um where they're uncertain if they're able to get a certification to carry or not so that's why I thought that it was important for us to move forward with this quickly the reason for
087the resolution different than this staffed con staff conduct because in the staff conduct I know it's it's a revised and it's just a first reading but it does state in their right that we do not want the teachers to have the right to have arms um have arms wow I said that really strangely the right to bear arms within our schools so I guess what are we doing the resolution because we cannot vote on the revised policy yet for the staff conduct is that the point of the resolution Now versus because we'll have to vote on the staff conduct at the next meeting my understanding was that the purpose of the resolution was to make clear that this would not be on a case-by-case basis it's a blanket decision because in the wording of the
088policy revision it indicates that it would have potentially something that could be decided on a case-by-case basis which could add another whole layer of complexity okay that's also how I understood it I didn't feel that the policy revision was strong enough language I I think um in talking again legal counsel on this um where it says expressly improved approved in advance in writing by the board the board would have to initiate um you know this expressly so it would be the boards kind of seeking it out with the resolution does it sort of strengthens the position of you know at this point in time I think it's important to note too you know if if times change uh if sadly times get worse this can always be rescinded revised I mean the resolution rescinded revised
089replaced if the board deems necessary okay well it seems like at this time we don't know the direction we're going to take to secure our school buildings other than with the part-time officers and not part-time officers but the rotation of officers to our elementary school buildings we have one student resource officer school resource officer here at the high school were basically unprotected but in addition to that let me just read what the first policy change was submitted that seemed to me was adequate at this time and not going as so far as to process and the statement that says where is the board expressly does not authorize any school district employee who is not a School Safety and Security Officer go armed within a school safety zone that's saying right away that we are going
090to say we give our right to vote to put and I'm not talking about I'm supporting a school teacher carrying a weapon but other than an individual to be armed in our school and accept all that training and everything else I don't want to give up my right to vote to something that could change in a month two months just as our coveted mask situation impacted us when we voted not to have a board vote on the covet mask so let me read the policy change that was submitted and I find this very acceptable without giving away my vote to my right to vote unless otherwise authorized by law and expressly approved in advance in writing by the board in accordance with the procedures set forth in Ohio Revised Code 2923.122 District employees are not
091permitted to bring or possess a deadly weapon or dangerous ordinance in a school safety zone as defined by Ohio Revised Code that tells it perfectly clear we don't want a teacher to do it correct but that does not say we will not employ retired police officers it would still be a safety or security officer they're just in a retired status so the resolution is In The Same Spirit of what our earlier resolution um discussion that we had in in March of 2018 at that time Mr Porter read an eloquent description of school safety and the initiatives that would be important to accomplishing that and at that point there was discussion Among Us and there was Mrs Roberts and Mr Buckley um at the time he was on the board with um you Mr Tuttle and
092Mrs brainer and myself and the the feeling was or what was said in that um that meeting was that we were pleased that we did not permit guns to be carried by anyone other than our own police officers and and certainly when we had some of Mrs Cook's excellent her discussion that she initiated last meeting was very well worded and we had a number of parents reiterating their support for that as well so in my mind I feel better with the resolution but as Mr Porter said going forward if there was a change let's say we decided to have a crew of retired police officers or who would serve in that capacity in our building we could modify rescind or change whatever we needed to do to make that happen but it still puts in
093in place high standards of preparation and training that I think reduce liability with you know some awful misstep could cause more harm than good so that's my my opinion that the resolution is worth doing my concern with the first reading on our revised policy where we're adding in the staff conduct so again Mr Tuttle you read unless otherwise authorized by law and expressly approved in advance in writing by the board in accordance with the procedure set forth in Ohio Revised Code District employees are not permitted to bring or possess a deadly weapon however because of House Bill 99 it is authorized by law if expressly approved in advance in writing by the board and it doesn't give us anything here that tells us what our minimum standards are for um allowing people to what what
094kind of training that we are using as our minimum standard for caring weapons into the district right now the law allows 25 hours of training mostly online Which is less than us than a baseball umpire receives I feel that it is a liability toward District and that is why we were discussing you know as a board at the last meeting that it would be at this time a trained officer and and I hear you know the idea I would love to have school resource officers in every building that is my ultimate goal we don't have enough police officers right now to do that and I and I'm open to looking at other things in the future but right now I'd like to see some some minimum standards and that's why I felt that the resolution
095was important to add on to this can we just back up a second we currently have how many school resources and resource officers in our district we have one trained school resource officer who serves at the high school every single day it's the same officer we've had him for years officer Skelly and then we have a second officer at the high school every day that's a rotating officer so that's a that's a different person each day who is working outside of their hours their Mentor police um but it's different people we also have one rotating officer at the middle school each day actually it's two but one at a time so we have at each Middle School we have someone serving from eight to twelve and a different officer serving from noon to four those
096rotate through they sign up for that on their outside hours the same thing at Ridge Middle School um being our largest Elementary School across from the mall uh the goal originally was to eventually get officers at each building but as we talked with the police and you know the labor shortage kicked in in almost every field of work uh police work being no exception um you know Mentor police they're having trouble just finding enough officers to serve the needs that we have here in the city much less putting enough officers you know at our buildings each day so we've we've met with the city regularly just to get updates on that and unfortunately we've not been able to continue to add so you know there may be some excuse me creative options okay we have
097for you know looking at some Alternatives that the board would be comfortable with so we currently have four schools covered four schools covered with five people and are they armed they are armed so according to our resolution that we're proposing would they fall under the category of school safety and security officers or law enforcement officers they they would be fine and we're saying they can be armed our resolution would would not in any way prohibit them from continuing to carry so if we were to expand and add additional officers under this resolution this would allow them to be armed yes if it's additional officers yes if we were to modify the resolution we I mean that's an option at any time so right now the way I see it this resolution covers us for what
098we have now I think we're talking about a separate discussion which means adding additional officers exploring that option whether you know what kind of training we want them to have and are they going to be armed but this would cover them if they're going to be armed so then what you're telling me is we really don't need the resolution to say we are going to vote give up our right to vote on the possibility of voting on an issue we're going to close it out right now today that we will never and I'm not we've already said and a policy revision that says no employees of Mentor Schools will be allowed to carry a weapon teachers and staff and that's a perfect resolution teachers and staff that's right no problem with that I just have
099this problem with this statement that's expressly does not authorize any school district employee the board expressly does not authorize any school district employee any revisions of this would require a vote if something should change but the if we hired retired police officers again that's an if well but Senator Sereno explained exactly very eloquently the issue am I not correct you heard him when he said about this was really directed toward the rural community and what what is their issue they don't have enough policemen it's only in a wider Network they don't have the policemen we're in a smaller Network and we don't have enough policemen to cover all the buildings that's that's my logic behind this I don't want to give up the right to say we may have an employee male or female who
100is very qualified and a number of male or female very qualified to carry a weapon and the training initial 20 25 hours of training to someone who already has a great deal of experience with handguns so Tom you're saying you are okay with a staff member or a teacher no we the policy is fine the way it's written we don't support it but we're not giving up the right to putting accepting an application if the case comes up we can say no we're not going to interview the five people who applied to be carrying a weapon but there may be a situation two years from now that is so bad it indicates we're not going to have police coverage at every building so then at that time could we revise the policy to say we're
101done with it or rescind it so that if let's say we don't have enough police officers at all we go down to zero or whatnot and we have somebody else that might you know be fit for that like let's say a janitor who used to be a police officer something like that you're saying you would like them you'd still like to have the right at that point to re review what they're saying and yes depending on if it changes down the road but can't we still rescind that policy at that point then sure yes okay at any time and you can actually as a board skipped going through two readings in an emergency situations okay that's good to know so we could skip say it again Mr Wade you said we can skip an emergency
102in emergency situations the board can forego two readings civil policy and go into yeah to vote on it yes and then Mr Porter you said you would look into the the retired police officer thing possibly we can begin to look into that okay yes I mean that's that would be a bit of a little bit of a process but I mean that's certainly something we can explore okay any more discussion we got our first and second motion correct yes please call the roll Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle this is a vote on what again tell me exactly what we're voting on to approve the resolution regarding not accessorizing the authority of House Bill 99 has written no Miss printer yes yes motion carries 4-1 thank you madam president members
103of the board at a following policy on the agenda for second reading and recommend approval of policy 1.15 I just hit one do we have to wait do the motion first so yes um so moved second discussion I just had a question and I had addressed it to Mr Porter earlier this week that a plan for the safety responsibilities that Mrs um Skalski had been responsible for that's in process of that's why the organizational chart doesn't reflect that yet correct and the organizational chart actually gets updated fairly gets revised fairly often because as the needs of the district change you know the organizational chart changes so we are in discussion on that as soon as there's um you know some someone assigned to the safety role we would want to add that okay thank you
104please call the roll uh Ms Jackson yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss brighter yes motion carries 5-0 thank you madam president members of the board I'm recommending approval of the 22-23 parent student handbooks for the preschool Elementary School middle schools high school and cares some of the second any discussion please call the roll Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss Pryor yes motion carries by zero thank you before I recommend the next item I want to share a few thoughts about the collaborative classroom book libraries for classrooms this collection of over 1400 books is helping to replenish leveled reading selections for students in grades K-5 we went through a new recently adopted process to review the collection along with a separate Career Tech resource
105the review consisted of sending an email to the parents and Guardians of the students at the elementary level to come and personally inspect the materials at Paradigm and leave comment cards with us so we could have some immediate feedback over 4 000 emails went out to Elementary parents and Guardians and only three people came in and looked at the books or four people came in and looked at the books and three comment cards were left two are in favor of the books one was not most if not all of our board members also look through the collection in addition our board curriculum Liaisons Mrs Payne and Miss jessling met with our curriculum Department to discuss concerns about a few of the books and I spoke with both board members to hear their thoughts ultimately I
106I have to make a recommendation I am recommending that the full collection be adopted for the classroom classrooms for the following reasons first our literacy Committee in the district recommended the adoption and I trust the care and thoughtfulness that they put into the process out of the 4 000 emails very few people came in and inspected or or expressed concerns about the books any large collection of books we order in the future from companies could potentially contain terms words questionable facts or topics some see is inappropriate for school most of the concerns raised were about specific content on wording and many of those concerns focused on one page in a couple of the different books I also believe that it's a dangerous precedent to set a dangerous precedent to set to exclude singular books from
107a large collection as it will be an impossible task for our curriculum department or literacy committee to ever select a collection that everyone agrees with every word in every book in addition as an another effort to be transparent and meet the teacher nights coming up soon Elementary parents and Guardians will be invited again to look at the classroom reading sets I respect the differences of opinion I appreciate the discussions we've had about the materials and I fully respect and accept whatever the decision whatever decision the board renders thank you Madam president members of the board I am recommending that the following curriculum items be approved so moved second discussion yes I would like to um I think it's important for me to explain my position on this um I took a look at the books
108in great detail there were certainly an array of books which I do agree with and found to be acceptable while I respect the rights of other board members to have a differing opinion on this topic I have some concerns that I do feel outweigh the benefits first The Collection was curated by a company in California who found it suitable to include a book called George in the original assortment the board and administration agreed this book was grossly inappropriate for elementary school and was ultimately removed from the collection by the administration in the board once it was brought to their attention while this situation allowed us to review our policies to ensure we better vet curriculum materials and has resulted in better transparency I find it difficult to trust the company and do not find it
109fiscally responsible to support them with 192 000 taxpayer dollars additionally there were several several topics from the handful of books that I was able to review which parents and community members feel are inappropriate for the elementary school level some of the books mentioned sexuality and others call for activism and focus on supporting a controversial political movement schools should offer well-rounded education that includes differing viewpoints however it is not their role to persuade students to believe in one ideology over the other these topics are out of the scope of responsibility of the school and shall be left for the parents or Guardians to discuss at their discretion when they deem it appropriate our board policy 7.25 regarding library items states that the library Shale with no thought towards swaying reader judgment make available basic primary and
110factual material information on the level of their reading public on any ideology or philosophy of government which exerts or has exerted a strong force either favorable or unfavorable in government current events politics education or any phase of life there are several books that would violate this policy if they are put in the classroom Library it's my duty to speak up on behalf of those who trusted me and helped to place me into this position I have heard very loudly from them and I empathize with my constituents who feel that this company and some of these books are not suited for elementary age students I recently read a book called The Hiding Place by Corey ten Boom and in it the younger daughter is asking the father some profound questions and he responded to her by
111saying some knowledge is too heavy for children when you're older and stronger you can bear it for now you must trust me to carry it for you with some of these books we are asking our children to carry loads that are far too heavy for them it's our responsibility to ensure we are protecting their innocence and not compelling them to see the world through the eyes of an adult therefore I respectfully disagree with the decision to adopt the collaborative classrooms K-5 libraries I think one additional consideration empowers a parent who during the visit to their child's classroom this fall there's a procedure in place should a parent have an objection to an individual title out of the roughly 250 that would be available for each grade level but that parent would have to know that
112the books were in there first so they would have to go and look at those books and like Meet the Teacher Night and examine the library right that's correct plus oh the response rate out of the 4 000 emails that were sent to parents and Guardians being relatively low and those books have been on display for months would give people an opportunity to express their concern and could have filled out common cards because those were also available through that whole time period so I look at 1400 books and whatever number an individual might find contrary to their preference there wasn't anything I agree that the George book was holy and appropriate and that's been replaced as was said as far as the other titles in the series having looked at them thoughtfully and carefully as
113I know everybody has from our board members there's a wealth of high quality material they're self-selected by the student out of the course of the 35 weeks that they're in school let's say they read two a week out of the collection for their silent reading time daily that means that a student might read roughly 70 books out of the 250 given that proportion and having been a a librarian for a large part of my career the likelihood that a student chooses something that tends to be a fairly heavy topic is love most children pick things that are high interest you know whether it's scary bugs or cute animals or stories about fairies and fun so my feeling is that a parent still retains control but that The Collection as it's gathered and curated and having
114been looked at by our literacy committee and thoughtfully discussed deserves to be approved [Applause] my concern is you know we just talked about how hard it is to get police officers and and how they're struggling in that department um and then we have a book you know that that says news of police officers killing people of color have become more common in the past few years that's that to me that's heavy for I have a nine-year-old and a five-year-old if they were to read that that weighs heavy on them you know and they may it may skew the way that they look at police officers and I feel like that is something that I wouldn't want him reading in school by himself and then me not even knowing that he read it and then one
115day him saying you know oh I heard about police officers and how they kill people that are people of color and that is an intense conversation to have with my child without me having the book in front of them and me having the opportunity to kind of walk them through that and and speak to it so it's it's not just a book about Colin Kaepernick it we have books in a series that range from I'm going to say this name wrong it's the basketball player Curry Steph Yes and and that book is fine it talks about you know things that are not heavy topics and and it does have pieces of active activism in there but I didn't find that to I didn't oppose that it's the the fact that we have you know statements
116in here about Donald Trump and that his speeches were race had racist overtones and he stoked fears of immigrants and minorities these are heavy topics these are topics where if I had a trump sign in my yard and my child comes home and they're like hey Mom you know why do you support him when I just read a book that talks about how he was terrible and he had you know stoked fears and of immigrants why are you doing that Mom it can make him look at his parents differently as well and I just don't think that these topics are suited for elementary school these are not high school you know kids these are these are elementary school kids these are young children who are still seeing the world through their their innocent eyes they
117don't need these heavy topics which are hard for me sitting up here to even talk about because I know there's people on both sides and it's tough so to have my son or my daughter at Young ages you know reading this I just feel like these are too heavy and they're the topics are inappropriate [Applause] I'd like to read something out of the Colin Kaepernick book if I may page 21 in reference to two women who started black lives matter colors in Opel tometti Started Black life matters in 2013. in response to the killing of black teen Trayvon Martin in Florida by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman the movement gained attention after another unarmed black teenage boy was shot and killed in police by police in Ferguson Missouri in the summer of 2014. what started
118as a hashtag blacklivesmatter grew into a global organization with the mission of ending violence inflicted on black communities Kaepernick wanted to join this mission what's important in reading this I don't know how many of you heard the results of the final results that was released to the media on those two murders in both cases both individuals that were charged and named in this as being the killers were exonerated Zimmerman laid on his back he was getting his head bashed to the pavement as he pulled his sidearm out and shot Trayvon Martin as his skull as Zimmerman's head was getting bashed only after the case was closed did George Zimmerman his head was exposed to newspaper his print his photo and showed the back of his head as bloody as could be that was after it
119was closed out but before that he was found guilty by the media and it's in the book saying this triggered black lives matter the other individual who shot the young man in Ferguson that became a battle over a handgun the police officer's weapon as the individual fought to regain to gain that weapon fought with the police officer and the gun was discharged obviously by the police officer probably pulled the trigger he was again he another instance of exonerated he was not found guilty but he where is he today is he still working in Ferguson I don't believe so so but my point I'm making here is it was in the book published in the book where was the uh other side well the other side the truth of the story the ending it wasn't there
120and that's a fifth grade book I believe so yeah that's it doesn't belong in the book if it's inaccurate and that's one thing to talk of slavery and anything else there was slavery that's okay I mean that's that's diversity in action but to put false statements in there and not showing the closure of what truly happened it shouldn't even have been in there if you're not going to tell the whole story don't put in half and today in the media this is what we hear day after day one side and on the other side I'm not going to take sides but there's always a distortion to gain people to be on be on my side be against the other side and that's what's in that book and Mrs Payne spoke of the section when you
121mentioned Donald Trump how inappropriate to speak of our president of one of our presidents that way thank you I think that too Tom [Applause] thank you [Applause] you brought up some good points um and and I'm just looking at policy here and the policy that I had mentioned the 7.25 regarding a library items and this is essentially a classroom Library these are not required like curriculum books just to clear clarify that as well um it's during their individualized reading time and it's it states you know current events so I would consider that current events it states politics and you know says that the library shell with no thought towards swaying reader judgment make this you know available so I in that situation I see it as sweating swaying reader judgment and only showing one one
122side so that's why I believe that that would violate the policy good point good point thank you any more discussion yes all right please call oh you know what sorry one more thing I don't know if this can be done now but this is a dual vote with collaborative classrooms and then also the ETS textbooks for the Cardinal works is there a way to make those separate votes because one is a lot more contentious than the other yes that is possible okay I would like to do that if we can so someone needs to read it or speak it so we do a motion on the first part the uh Cardinal works do we have a motion on that one moved second any discussion on that please call the rule uh Miss jessalyn yes Mr
123Tuttle yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Miss brighter yes first motion carries 5-0 and a motion for the collaborative classroom libraries so moved second any additional discussion please call the rule Miss Cook yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Payne no Mr tunnel no Miss Briner yes motion carries three to two [Applause] thank you madam president and members of the board I am recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C5 all related human resource matters [Music] any discussion who was that second let's cook so who oh so just like did you motion yes I did I need to get my ears checked I apologize please call the roll Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne uh yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss Pryor yes motions carry five zero thank you
124this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda Board of Education report and recommendations Madam president members of the board Mr Porter I ask for the approval of the shared food service agreement with the Curtin local school district so moved second please call the rule Miss Justin yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss Briner yes motion carries 5-0 men of President members of the board asked for the approval of the shared human resource service agreement with the Curtin local school district SoMo second please call the rule Mr Tuttle yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss jessling yes Miss brighter yes motion carries 5-0 Madam president members of the board asked for the approval of the shared payroll service agreement with current local school district so moved second please call the roll ing
125thank you where's Payne yes Miss jessalyn yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss breiner yes motion carries five zero better president members of the board asked for the approval of the Aquatic use agreement for the 22-23 school year with Aspire Institute and Academy a second please call the roll Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss Cook yes Miss jessley yes Miss breiner yes motion carries five zero members of the board ask the approval of the hockey locker room agreement for the 22-23 school year for the mentor Ice Arena so moved second please call liberal Mr Tuttle yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Miss jesling yes Miss brighter yes motion carries 5-0 members of the board asked for the approval resolution to prove and authorize the settlement agreements related to the real estate property
126tax complain or Appeals so moved second please call the roll Miss dressling yes Miss Cook yes Miss pay yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss brighter yes motion carries 5-0 Madam president membership board asked for the approval the board member and service attendance for the national school board Leadership Council of Ohio education Summit in 2022. so moved yeah any discussion I'm not comfortable with paying for training outside of our Ohio school boards Association if it's a partisan group which I believe is to be the Ohio school boards Association has been our partner in training for many years we pay dues to them annually they can also customize any kind of training that we need or would like and their services to us have been high quality and consistent so I think we should limit reimbursement and obviously
127anybody can attend whatever they're interested in doing but as far as public reimbursement from using tax dollars I think it should be limited to osba or nonpartisan groups I don't know that we've ever done anything outside of osba or nsba do you [Music] my time is short so not not that I have a question I don't I'm not sure if it needs to be limited [Music] um however I'm not comfortable with it as well after reviewing the training for National School Board Leadership Council I I felt that it was um it was very partisan and it was divisive and I'm not comfortable with that training I everyone's welcome to attend whatever they wish to attend but I don't feel the taxpayers should have to pay for that so my concern first of all I want
128to make it very clear that this is we have reimbursed everybody else for any training prior to now without it having to be voted on and our policy states that it has to be voted on so those funds that were paid were paid almost in violation of our policy and I find it almost targeting that now that I want to go to a training to represent my constituents and instead of osba which I have gone to osba trainings before I find them very left-sided they have platforms and legislative platforms where they also push for certain things and those things that they're pushing for are things that I believe should not happen most time but I would never stop somebody else from going to what they see fit and standing up for their constituents because we
129all have different lens that we look at things through and if you're going to stop me from going to something to represent my constituents to the best of my ability and it's still within the line of my duties to do that it's my right and responsibility to be able to go to training as I see fed and it is a school board Leadership Council Ohio Summit it is a training something that I could find pieces and parts that I could find useful for me to stand up for my constituents I found pieces and parts useful for osba and I think it would also give me a a good view for both sides so I greatly disagree with that statement and I also don't think it's very fair that we have provided reimbursements before and never
130never anybody else had to be voted on for training so I'm disappointed in that and I also questioned what are we doing with those funds that were reimbursed they were reimbursed in violation of our policy so are we do we have to give those funds back it's just it's disheartening the least to prevent any board member from going to the training if it's School Board related and I would never stop anybody else on the stage from doing what they see fit in the line of duty I'm not doing this because of any other reason then I'm sitting up here and I'm doing something to stand up for my constituents and so that's really disheartening are we a member of this organization um we that I don't even think they do like National memberships oh okay
131is there training that we've anyone has taken that is of an organization that we don't have a membership with I know you mentioned that we've had other training yes I've been it's all been osba training but our policy doesn't say it has to be only be osba training so if we're following our policy it just says you know that that any approved training the approved training is US approving it and we've been members so that's that's the reason why there wasn't a separate examination and there's nothing that precludes any person on the board from attending whatever they are interested in attending but I don't think it's a good idea to set a precedent to have partisan attendance so if we say that we need to change our policy then to state only osba because that
132is not clear in our policy and it does not state that in our policy so we're looking at a policy change as well as saying I can't go to this well I shouldn't I can't go I'm still going um but we're not using any of of the board funds to you know help me get there I will certainly still pay for myself to go because I find it useful but it's just disheartening and I did vote for osba you know that was an area of contention at osba has had a lot of issues in the past with with pushing ideologies that are left side in and I didn't want to say no we shouldn't be members of osba because I feel like they do have pieces and parts that are are you know acceptable and
133are of value to me just like I find pieces and parts of this other training that I could find Value in it and it's my duty and responsibility and my right to be able to do that one of the things that I think is important to clarify is that as members of the Board of Education this community we represent everybody you know I I don't look at any citizen of this community as being any different than another in terms of whether it's their politics or point of view I have a responsibility to listen and try to govern in a way that is sensitive to that Continuum of ideas and so I can appreciate where you might have a group of people for whom you feel particularly called to serve but by the same token we
134all represent every voter in this Mentor Schools community if that was true then I think that if if we are saying we represent every voter I went to the osba trainings which are a little bit more left-sided and I could represent certain issues on there as seen tonight with House Bill 99 I agreed to that and I think true is you know the same thing is for the other side I'm trying to get a whole approach and a whole idea on different subjects from different groups and I don't think we should ever say we can only be part of one group there's going to be other organizations that come up as well because of certain things that osba you know are pushing and so other places are going to organizations are going to rise up
135and offer board um opportunities for for us to grow as well so I just disagree with that in whole and I also want to know then you know if if those funds are given out and we haven't been following the policy and now we decide we have to start voting on people going to trainings what are we doing with those funds that were paid you know incorrectly we'll have to look into that I mean I think from the standpoint that we had approved osba previously yearly as well as the National School Board Association prior to my arrival as the board decided this year not to prove nsba that may be sufficient enough for the approval of their organizations and the trainings that kind of correspond to that but we will get an opinion on that
136from the auditor as well as from okay so they would so the opinion that we would get from our lawyer would also be on the verbiage in our policy as it states to see if that would cover it correct okay yep fair enough so what does that mean what does what mean what does that mean by going to speak with our attorney to clarify this we will ask the attorney as well as if we can get it if they are unable to to get an audit opinion because the auditor would be the one that would determine if the funds in the fiscal year were inappropriately spent on reimbursement with regards to did we have the appropriate approval by approving them with the consent agenda items that we had approved in the January meeting because essentially
137they were paid out and we didn't follow the correct process of voting on every single training that and reimbursement that board members have received until now when I decided to go to a training correct thank you I personally don't see an issue with why we can't reimbursement I just don't understand that I had planned initially to go to it as well but I had to I never registered I would have but I'm going out of town on a vacation with my daughter and her family and I won't be back available to go that Saturday and I read the synopsis of the speakers they have they speak really well and their topics are very clear they're not as pointed and directed as one might think they are on the right side you know left or right
138but open the mind of those who attend and make people think and that's what training is to do you don't have to walk out of a drainage carrying all the luggage that you buy or you know and bring back but to nickel and dime over a policy Mrs Payne believes in what she believes but she's very open-minded and to not Grant her the opportunity to be reimbursed and graciously she had already told me she would pay if they wouldn't reimburse that I'm just disappointed that's like we need broad-minded people on the board and not narrow-minded people foreign [Applause] are we voting on this or are we tabling it where are we having this there's a motion in a second on the floor so we're gonna vote no research needs to be done on this call
139the rule with pain yes Mr turtle yes Miss Cook no Miss jessalyn no Miss brighter no motion does not pass two to three legislative report Mr Tom Joy I'm going to skip right to the second topic on this the State Board acts to change preschool children eligible for a special education rule the State Board of Education integrated student supports committee worked expeditiously with the Ohio Department of Education staff to address issues with the preschool children eligible for a special education rule that was implemented in 2021. stakeholders representing various education related organizations raised concerns regarding the 50 50 rule the 50 50 rule means that you put five handicapped people and five are children versus five so it's 50 50. so let me go on it required an integrated classroom to maintain at all times fifty
140percent of students to be students with disabilities acknowledging the difficulty can constantly to maintain that threshold the rule was revised and distributed for public comment committee members considered the public feedback which found 74 percent of those who responded to be in favor of the revisions the committee voted to approve the recommended rule revision which moved the rule to be considered by the full state board normally a rule that is voted out of committee will be considered by the state board at the next month's meeting however the integrated student support committee chair Dr Jenny Kilgore asked the entire state board to suspend state board rules to immediately consider the rule the State Board not only suspended the rule so that it could be considered but they approved the rule of revision the revision rule increases the
141maximum number of students with disabilities from six to eight and changes language to allow for 50 percent or fewer students with disabilities in a public school preschool general education or integrated classroom at this time I would like Mr Porter to expand and expound on this topic so clearly you understand the impact on that program just the ability to maintain 50 50 50 split at all times is impossible especially when students transition in students transition out if a student moves in you have five students and five students uh from each category and somebody moves in automatically at you know six students this would have been impossible mathematically to maintain um you know you would have to have the same fixed students all year that's not how schools some students are coming in some students are leaving
142more students are being identified you know through the course of a year there needed to be some flexibility and the fact that the 74 percent is in here the fact that it went through the state board so quickly yes I believe it was a no-brainer that the practicality of it didn't make sense so it gives preschools some flexibility um you know to try to maintain sort of a balance but some flexibility that the balance doesn't have to be a perfect 50 50. thank you Mr Porter thank you the next section was in regards to House Bill 99 we've already beat that horse I'm not going to read it again because I reported it last month and it just coincidentally the day I reported it the bill was passed prior to when I spoke in the
143June meeting so this is just support that comes a month later confirming the same thing so I'm not going to read it again so that's my legislative report for this evening thank you student achievement report Mrs cook yes during summer break several of our student groups have had the opportunity to showcase their talents our CTE students traveled to Atlanta Georgia from June 20th to through the 24th Mentor School sent two competition teams who earned gold at the state level and advanced to the annual National leadership and skill conference to compete in the skills USA national conference in Atlanta Georgia this is a Showcase of Career and Technical education students who are 6 500 students competed our attendees did a fabulous job and represented not just Lake Shore compact but the state of Ohio Armani Howard
144served as a voting delegate where she made business decisions on behalf of Ohio and worked to vote in the 2223 National officers states are limited in how many voting delegates they can have so it was wonderful that Armani was able to participate in one of these coveted spots during the conference our teams had an outstanding performance earning 11th Place in the nation in entrepreneurship was Project Nifty congratulations to Cadence Burr Zachary Halstead Gavin Rupert and Grant Wheelock project Nifty is a mobile application that streamlines the process of purchasing nfts you can think of an nft as a digital content with a certificate of authenticity this team created a business plan that required research for business operations finance and marketing aspects of the project and the team then created a 10-minute presentation both the business plan
145and presentation were delivered at Nationals our second team Team Rocket was a part of the career Pathways showcase for business and I.T Team Rocket created a mobile application to assist when pets go missing the app allows users to create and update pet profiles generate posters with embedded QR codes for reporting found pets or pet sightings this team created not just the app but an eight-minute presentation and an eight foot by eight foot display the team earned fourth place in the nation congratulations to Evie Bennett Ryan Nichols and Caius price in June our speech and debate team traveled to Louisville Kentucky for the national speech and debate tournament and our top 25 show choir traveled to Disney World our Summer music programs have held concerts at the middle school level and our high school Mannheim Orchestra
146is currently working on their skills at camp we hope that everyone is enjoying their summer and continuing to practice their skills all middle school and high school students have summer reading assignments and our elementary students are challenged to keep reading throughout the summer thank you thank you and Chief Financial officers report and recommendations Mr way better president members of the board Mr Porter we ended our fiscal year on June 30th and this slide shows kind of our overall kind of where we finished off in comparison to our May update um we ended up being about 875 200 better than we have projected in May uh and I'll get into kind of why the variances were we were under Revenue by thirty eight thousand dollars and under on expenses by 913 666 dollars Mr gasky I
147think my uh clicker is dead so if you could slide please thank you looking at our Revenue in comparison to last year uh in the month of June versus this year our actual revenue for the month was down by 645 thousand dollars approximately and a lot of this relates to timing um as well and for the year we were down 765 000 mainly because of lower revenue from the state as we've shared with the new funding model we knew that the state funding was going to be less this year but they lowered our expenses in our tuition payments to correspond to that and we also saw lower than expected uh and anticipated we budgeted for this lower than expected interest payments on our investments you could change the slide we were off by 38 466
148dollars in all intents and purposes on 106 million dollars this is not Material so if you could go to the next slide please our actual expenses for the month were up in comparison to last June by 1.8 million dollars the majority of that was because of additional transfers out that we had to make to fund our Roofing projects as well as our Paving project we were did not budget initially at the start of the year for those Roofing projects but deemed it necessary to add those on to ensure that those roofs that were deemed to be of a high priority were taken care of so we could protect the Integrity of the inside of the buildings in those areas which again were Ridge and Hopkins that are being done this year with this was as
149well as a small section over on Bellflower and the paving project came in higher than anticipated in our budget and we did reduce the amount of Paving that we're doing but felt it necessary to hit the areas we have and you can see that obviously you've probably experienced that today coming in they did finish the South lot and we are now working on the North lot to get that completed uh if you look at the year-to-date expenses being up 5.7 million dollars comparison to last year um majority of this is because of the increase in salaries the benefits based on the negotiated agreement as well as our transfers being up uh both to the capital Improvement plan as well as to the budget Reserve to catch up for the budget Reserve transfer that was not
150done in the previous physical year so that accounts for the majority of that if you would change the slide please overall in comparison to the main update that we did we were 913 666 dollars better than expected a lot of this comes down to timing we're a cash based accounting we have if the PO doesn't if the bill does not come in and we don't pay the cash out we don't see the expense we do think that some of our tuition payments will come in we've uncovered those funds and that the money will be spent however it will align to that but we were down also as well as in our some of our supply spending at the end of the month that we expected to come in so that the supplies weren't needed so
151we do not spend that money so we anticipate that to be an impact if you go to the next slide kind of shows the summary of where we're at on the top chart shows where we expected the revenue and expenditures to be in our September Appropriations we're looking at Revenue about 102.5 million dollars expenses to be 116.565 um and you compare that to the last line of that same area where it says June final where we ended up being Revenue at 106 million dollars approximately you know 113.67 or 68 million dollars in expenses I kind of showed the difference as we went through the budgeting process uh you know it's typical that Mr Wilson had graded himself so I added that on there just to kind of keep it in a familiar stance with the
152board 96.73 Revenue comparison to a 97.46 on expenses when we did the November forecast we anticipated the revenue to be closer to 104.9 million dollars expenses to be up a little bit and you can see that when we did our May forecast we even revised that even further because we'd had the full tax collections as well as our state revenue and most of our interest in from our investments looking at about 106.1 million dollars we ended at as you see the bottom line ultimately we deficit spend this year by 7.6 million dollars so we anticipated a 13.9 million dollar deficit spend by the time that we closed out the fiscal year we had reduced that to 7.6 million dollars uh and you compare that to where we were in the May update again that comes
153at about 875 200 as you saw in the previous slides so all in all I think we are deficit spending we're able to slow the deficit spend down drastically through the year with higher than anticipated revenues and uh slowing our expenses down for some of the areas particularly within the shared server or the purchase services and supplies being lowered than we anticipated if you would change the slide please we also approved at the June 30th meeting our temporary Appropriations for the next fiscal year which is we are currently in as of July 1st that is on the slide ultimately this looks a little bit different than we've seen in the past because we changed our policy to only have this done at the what we call the object level so we look at those areas
154that are in the white is what makes up our primary budget for our general fund everything that is in blue is the rest of our funds that are not general fund dollars for example the 003 which is that permanent Improvement line is from our PI Levy and we are looking at the Appropriations for each of those areas while this is considered a temporary appropriation it is at near 100 percent which is atypical of what we've done historically in the past we will do a final appropriation since September like we did but you can see one of the things I would point out to the community as I pointed out to the board are Appropriations for the year 126 million dollars which is up 10 million dollars comparison to this year's Appropriations that we initially had
155in September the main reason being in the line 900 you see other uses of funds has a substantial higher than typical amount it has an amount of 14.1 million dollars approximately and that's because the board at my recommendation made the decision to approve that where we have moved we'll be moving the money and we have moved the money with the board approval uh pending board approval tonight we will move the money from the general fund to the capital Improvement fund which is the 070 account in blue Midway down to cover the capital projects that we have budgeted in the budget for the next four fiscal years this year included 23 24 25 and 26. we did this because we have committed to those projects we feel it gives a clearer picture and more transparent picture
156to the community that we are using money from the general fund to pay for those projects we did put it into the 070 account because legally if we put it into the 070 account and the board later decides to increase or to put in front of the taxpayers and increase in the permanent Improvement Levy any money that was transferred out of the general fund to the 070 can go back into the general fund and then would increase our cash budget Reserve policy then potentially holding off the need for additional general fund money in the form of an additional operating Levy so with that um we also presented and approved at the June 30th meeting a June forecasted update in the in the guise of complete transparency with our finances continuing has been my Mantra at
157all these meetings to make sure that we have that for our board as well as our community after the May meeting we had approved the negotiated agreements with the classified employees as well as the exempt and administrative contracts for the next three years we wanted to make sure that those changes were reflected in the update so that we could see the impact on that as we use our forecast to determine how we're going to proceed into the future as well as the fact that we had updated numbers for our budgets for this year as we saw in the previous slide with the Appropriations so we made those changes to the specific lines that are seen here in our forecast the revenue lines did not change at all so I'm going to share with you tonight
158the highlights of the expenses if Mr Gatsby would change to the next slide the differences that you see on this slide in Black are red are the differences in comparison to the May update so you can see the salaries which are line 3.010 and personal services reflect an increase in comparison to the May update by 345 000 approximately 23 626 755 024 and so on those are because the other negotiate agreements have been added in as well as the impact of those negotiated agreements on the health care concessions that were made by our employees in lines 3.020 we did update uh the purchase services to reflect the budget that we have in place for fiscal year 23 as well as the supplies and materials in 3.040 the other objects includes uh the increases that we
159had into some other areas specifically if you look at line 5.010 that shows the increase in the forecast for the money that will be voted on tonight to transfer into the 070 account of the 9.5 million dollars but you can see a corresponding decrease in the out years because we were forecasting those transfers in the out years so since we're doing it now in this current fiscal year we will not have to do those transfer in the out years and that's why you see the decreasing numbers in the red in fiscal years 24 25 and 26. so that was voted on and approved and has been uh will be filed with the state um excuse me shortly from the May update we showed a favorable impact on the bottom there a 14 point almost seven
160million dollars in comparison to the November forecast Mr gatz if you change the slide the updated forecasts has a net Impact versus May for a negative 3.4 million dollars which still gives us a net impositive impact in comparison to our November uh forecast by 11. almost 3 million dollars so if we look at the forecast update that we have here in June that we approved in comparison to that November what we did this fiscal year plus the changes going forward still have a net impact of about 11.3 million dollars uh better than we were expecting even in November so we're still heading in the right direction so that's why I put this slide on there for the board in the community Mr gatsky if you'd go to this this is kind of a analytic that
161we use to kind of gauge where we're at with regards to the need for new money I put this in here just to show that you can see we see it it looks like we're definitely spending excessively in fiscal year 23 because of the increased transfer so see you see that little purple diamond in the red but then you see back in 24 it goes back up into the lower yellow upper tan area which is about where we are we're this fiscal year so that does mean I still think we're sound financial shape where we won't need to rush to a levee in this next fiscal year the board and the new superintendent myself can meet to discuss our current Financial strategies that we have going on to look at where we're at and how
162we're moving forward and to make adjustments to push that Levy off at the soonest that we would need it would then potentially be 24 but don't forget in 24 we have to pass the renewal Levy as I've shared before not passing that would have dire impact on the services that we can provide for our students just based on the current educational programming and all the other areas of the Strategic plan that we're trying to implement currently so we will continue to monitor our current spending going into the next fiscal year the fact that we have negotiated agreements for the next three years as we've shared back in May and in June again with the board helps us know where we stand with that and we can continue to find other ways to find cost-saving reductions
163to generate additional Revenue like we saw tonight with the board's approval of these shared service agreements with both for Food Service HR management and Kirtland which are going to bring in over a hundred thousand dollars a year in revenue for the district at no additional cost as we continue to find ways to find advertising opportunities with our new scoreboard to reduce the expenses for some of our capital projects moving forward and we continue to find ways to control costs uh and be creative in doing that we hope that we can continue to push the need for additional revenue office as long as possible happy to answer any questions on uh end of the fiscal year Appropriations and or uh the updated forecast all right thanks thank you Madam president members of the board I ask
164for the approval of the financial statements and items B through G including the addendum uh e that was added the for the supplemental Appropriations in what motion please so moved second any discussion please call the rule I would Note One correction Mrs Payne did contact me about it so um uh the Student Activity accounts there was a name that was incorrectly left on Mr dudzyak is no longer an employee he should have not been tied to that activity account that has been since updated to be including Mrs nemes and I apologize about that error thank you thank you please call the role uh Miss Justin yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Miss brighter yes motions carry 5-0 thank you any unfinished business [Music] [Applause] foreign at this time on behalf of
165the board we'd like to take a moment for a special recognition Mr Porter would you please join me at the podium as you know we only give out the crystal Cardinal award under a very special circumstances and tonight the board and I would like to honor you for all you've achieved I will start by saying thank you thank you Mr Porter for your many years of service to Mentor Public Schools and especially for the past five years where you've done an absolutely outstanding job leading the district as our superintendent we have been very fortunate to have you in this position and are equally fortunate you are staying in the district as the principal at Sterling Morton Elementary School there is a lot of commendable work I could mention tonight but one thing I want to
166point out for sure is that you've navigated an array of delicate and challenging times within your tenure as superintendent with a kind selfless and thoughtful leadership style in your first year superintendent you work through the task a developing a strategic plan and Facilities Management plan which was a huge undertaking you rallied the community to come together and Tackle this work via committee to include input from internal and external stakeholders ultimately the facilities management plan will save the district millions of dollars Mr Porter will always always demonstrates taking special care and decision making from placing a high focus on school safety by working closely with Mentor police and men are fire to planning an amazing last minute trip for 8th graders who learned they would be missing out on their Washington DC trip due to a
167business going under to working through the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic over the course of three school years the board is appreciative of the continuous work the list could go on and on there's certainly been a lot to celebrate over the past five years too student and staff successes happen often and Mr Porter has always been there cheering our kids our teams and our staff on supportive is a word that always comes up when people talk about you Bill please know you are so very appreciated by many perhaps you can place this Cardinal in your new office and it will serve as a reminder good luck in your new role and thank you again for everything you have done and will continue to do for Mentor Public Schools [Applause] thank you Mrs Briner I'm certainly
168humbled by those humbled by those words [Music] um it's been the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role and there are a lot of people that I can thank first and foremost the board both past and present for all of your support through the years thank you very much for that our employees are incredible MTA MCE our exempt employees our administrators it's a giant group of over one thousand very dedicated individuals who worked very hard for the children in the community each and every day so I have to thank them our students the reason they're here we have incredible students and they range from preschool age all the way up through our graduates with Incredible families standing behind them with Incredible support and it extends I think as well to Our Community Partners
169and friends we have a lot of support in this community and not every Community is like that I also you know have to take time tonight to thank my two families um my my work family which I you know I consider the administrative team who's been there through thick and thin and a lot of the things you mentioned Mrs Briner um you know they did much more work on that than I did so credit or credit is due but um I you know I can't give back nearly to that work family with what they have given to me and to this district and my own personal family at home I think a lot of them may be watching this this evening and you know their love and support has been unconditional in letting me continue
170you know to do a job that takes a lot of time and sacrifice so you know I love them dearly um and I really am looking forward to my new work family at sterling sterling Morton which is a great school um and they have there's an incredible energy there positivity there something very special about the building uh the students the staff the parents and the surrounding Community there are very tight-knit and so I'm very much looking forward to joining that family but I also um before I leave the podium I want to wish Mr Heath good luck you know in in the role I've been working closely with him over the last couple of weeks and I trust he's going to do an outstanding job you know continuing you know the good work in the
171district so good luck Mr Heath but thank you for this award I'm humbled thank you all right do we have any new business I do I want to bring up something that has been brought to my attention Again by several parents in the district due to Schools starting up next month last year in the first couple days of school some teachers conducted pronoun surveys these surveys were sent directly to the students by some not all of the teachers at the high school they were sent without any parental consent additionally I have recently discovered that we are also not required to notify parents if their child chooses to go by a different pronoun or gender so children can go by different pronouns or genders without their parents knowing how can parents parent effectively if they don't
172know of a pronoun change granted most parents probably are aware but for those who aren't who would be left in the dark it is an area of concern it is also concerning for those who do not want their own children ask what gender they would like to be many parents are concerned that we are usurping their rights and that based on our trajectory their middle school or elementary school children will be asked what pronoun they would like to go by to my knowledge we have not had this take place yet at these levels only at the high school however I also know we do not have any procedures in place to prevent this from occurring and we will not be issuing anything to those levels to advise them not to conduct these types of surveys
173we are leaving it up to the teachers to make that decision and that is not comforting to most parents while I acknowledge that the teacher is asking this question are well intended and may simply want to help those in the minority who want to go buy another pronoun then their biological gender pronoun I also acknowledge that many parents do not feel like it is the school's responsibility to ask their minor child what gender they would like to be and certainly do not want this type of question completed by their child without their parental consent the parents and community members that I represent believe that sending a survey like this to all students within a classroom without parental consent is outside of the scope of responsibility of the schools I believe that at the very least
174a policy that outlines what our procedures are surrounding these pronoun surveys for parents would be helpful in ensuring trust and transparency in our district additionally our policy 7.30 regarding screening surveys and physical examinations May apply to this type of survey if it does then further policy we would be required to notify parents and possibly ask for consent as well if it doesn't then I believe we should add gender pronoun surveys to the list to require parents to be notified and consent to the survey prior to them being conducted at the very least I believe we should ensure for consent at the elementary and middle school levels I think it would behoove us to be as transparent as transparent as possible with our parents within our district and with school starting next month I believe we
175owe it to the parents to ensure that their rights are not being violated and they are being included in these types of surveys that affect their children directly especially at the elementary and middle school level additionally I think it may help ease some of the tension on this issue as parents can then just choose if they see it fit for their child to partake in this type of questionnaire so I would like to bring that up for discussion tonight I would like to see the the gender pronoun surveys being added to our policy 7.30 if it doesn't already fit there I would personally like more information about these surveys has anyone seen one do we know how Mr Porter um can confirm that yes so you know I've also heard you know I have I've
176also now I've also heard that the surveys which include a pronoun question were not you know they were not distributed Anywhere But at the high school now again I think you mentioned uh Mrs Payne not all teachers gave that survey we did not encourage or discourage that question on a survey in my mind it was an attempt by some teachers to respectfully be sure that if excuse me at the start of a new school year that they address students using preferred pronouns that may be especially helpful when our high school teachers have between 100 and 150 new students to meet at the start of a new school year I don't anticipate pronoun question being asked at the elementary levels and again I also not heard concerns at this point about the question being asked at
177the middle school um get this tank could we get some direction on that at least you know to put the parents at ease then can we send something to the principals at those levels at least saying hey you know can we not do the pronoun surveys for these levels I would I would not be comfortable encouraging or discouraging that even at the elementary level or or middle school so either one you're okay but again I don't anticipate that being asked at the elementary level especially so that's why I'm coming with with this policy change because I strongly feel that at the elementary and the Middle School level we should not be asking pronoun surveys sure are you saying you'd be okay for the high school level um obviously I still have my own thoughts on
178that but I I feel much stronger I'm like a 10 out of 10. we'll say on the elementary and the middle school the high school if somebody was in a 10 out of 10 to keep it in I'm not at a 10 out of 10 in the high school to fight it as much as I am at the elementary and middle school levels I I'm in total agreement with that inappropriate tour Elementary and Middle School yes thank you [Applause] any other comments no comments more information is needed hi I'm in agreement we need a policy on that yeah at least for the Elementary Middle School sir you can wait till public comment session please these are these are children guys like these are kids who don't even know any right they're learning they're learning about
179pronouns and they to ask an elementary school child what gender they want to be is putting something that they have no idea what it even means behind that and I just think you are violating parents rights on that to the maximum if we decide that we cannot make a policy at least for middle school and elementary school kids and this is one of the reasons why my children are homeschooled and I'm sitting on the board and I pulled my kids out of this District because of things like this I I don't feel like that is right I'm in a tenant 10 on Elementary School 10 out of 10 middle school high school okay but I feel very strongly on this and I don't I personally don't think it should be that hard a decision to
180make but that's my personal opinion it's not being asked at the elementary or middle school I mean I'm not aware of surveys that are asking about pronouns for so if it is asked though the problem is also that our protocol is to not tell parents we are not required to tell parents so if it's asked at the elementary school or at the middle school and then we also don't tell that parent that we asked it and tell that parent that hey this child is wanting to be to be called a different you know gender pronoun possibly a different name then we're hiding things from the parents and I just don't think that it's something that we should be able to do I don't think that is the place that we want to go with parents
181in our district especially not at the elementary or the Middle School level these parents still have rights they have rights to say what their minor children should be called [Applause] thank you I'm a little at a loss with what the process is because we don't have language written today we don't have anything to vote on I I don't know what what we're expected to do at this point so [Music] well we have policy 7.30 regarding screening surveys and physical examinations so maybe the next step is if we think there's enough support that we could possibly look into that policy and add gender pronoun surveys to that policy for consent for parents if there's enough support we can certainly you know look into adding language to that effect okay well it seems to me there would
182be support if two board members speak up to this issue of policy revision could be written and brought to a vote correct we did that with house bill 99. two board members who went to Mr Porter and mentioned it needed to be revised and made stronger and so from what Annie is proposing in and I agree is that that policy has to be defined it's spoke to it should not be k through eight asking them what pronoun they'd like to be called and not providing that information to their parents that students have selected a different pronoun Annie are you suggesting a new policy or revising an existing policy I would I would just like to see that way it covers everything policy 7.30 regarding screening surveys physical examinations added with gender pronoun surveys in there
183as well for consent of parents so that's across the district including the high school that's how I would propose it if somebody was at a 10 out of 10 they don't want the high school having consent and just notification at the high school that this could be something that your child could be asked I'm okay with that but Elementary and Middle School consent needs to be there so at this time you're not proposing that we would be informing parents then I'm proposing that parents would have to have consent prior and opt their children in so for all intents and purposes they'd be notified in advance exactly for all grades could you repeat that okay no I understand I think the parents are notified that this survey is happening I understand that but then of the
184results or yeah I think parents for minor children you know if we write it for elementary and middle school and we ask for consent and then their child says yes I want to be you know opposite of my biological gender and I want to be called a different name that the parent then has the right to know that information especially with suicide rates for transgender children being 30 percent I think it's very important and imperative that parents are aware if their child decides to be you know transgender or called a different pronoun I think that's very important do you want to work with the superintendent on the wording of that then sure okay it's fine anything else any other new business and do we have hearing of the public on any item [Applause] Leo McCullough
185am I in Leah McCullough 4680 Homewood Drive uh I did have kids in the district I have now pulled them I homeschooled them for the first year same reason pronouns talking about sexuality talking about things the kids have no idea or even should be around I'm supposed to be making the choice to sending my kids back and I come to these meetings time and time and time again and it's the same thing on repeat you're not listening to this community I have three women up there the president and the last two on the end they have their own agenda and it's disgusting it's called grooming and it's not appropriate it shouldn't be in the schools if you're telling every God-fearing person up here that they're not allowed to talk about God don't don't put scripture
186in but we have to talk about sexuality and pronouns to our children I'm telling you I live by Sterling Morton my friend my girls and my son are still friends with middle schoolers and the elementary you know how many of them are confused about their sexuality not my kids do you know how many kids are talking about making out having sex F this F that dropping all these in the schoolyard I take my kids up there and I am listening to this from these little kids it's truly disgusting and it's happening within our school and a lot of the parents are just letting it happen I for one am not doing that I am homeschooling to keep them out of this nonsense you guys are disgusting and the ideology that you guys are trying to
187portray is just garbage I'm ashamed of you guys [Applause] I don't normally speak at these things because I am I'm not good at speaking in public but after what I've witnessed tonight stay silent so what I have to say will be short but not necessarily so sweet can you please just introduce yourself first sorry uh ran Campbell thank you Miss cable uh to the three leftist board members and you know who you are you have shown your true colors tonight I have never seen such a blatant showing of hypocrisy as long as it's something you approve of the rules don't apply speaking to putting books in the library that clearly violate own policies and allowing others to attend meetings with reimbursement and requiring no vote but not letting Annie go hypocrisy at its finest but
188thank you Mr Tuttle for standing up for Annie tonight we appreciate that and thank you Annie and Mr Tuttle for standing up for us good evening Dale fellows former Lake County Commissioner uh was interested in the meeting tonight and observing exactly what happened tonight was very intriguing to me and it started off with a little history lesson that you need and that is flag etiquette and a pledge of allegiance there is one way to do the Pledge of Allegiance there is no pause between one nation under God it is one phrase so when you do the Pledge of Allegiance going forth make sure that you do it the correct way it is one nation under God all one phrase okay that's lesson number one number two the hypocrisy was as pointed out by the previous
189speaker when you miss jessalyn and others spoke of how you wanted to add diversity and you wanted to to be inclusionary and that and yet vote against some other person's desire to go to a different training session it is it's totally illogical and intolerant in Tyler and I'm sure that you don't you feel like you you are a tolerant person but you can see the hypocrisy in your voting tonight it is very very clear I've had the pleasure of being here in this Performing Arts Center and in Mentor High School over numerous years back in the day to speak to your government classes and to talk civilly and in great contrast to what some some of you all are doing up here you need to stop the bullying of other board members and start to
190actually not talk the talk but walk the walk that you say when you want to talk about inclusionary and tolerance and that and yet you aren't so you need to look in the mirror and think about exactly what you guys were doing tonight and your votes are going to have consequences and unfortunately they're going to be bad consequences and I feel bad for those people that you're going to affect and have affected adversely by your actions tonight thank you [Applause] Roger Jules 7418 Hart Street long time resident of Mentor since 1977 graduated here in 1983. uh Annie and Mr Tuttle thank you thank you for at least trying to represent the majority of the mentor School parent population thank you for the others can't even express how disappointed you just made a whole group of
191people feel tonight after hearing and listening to the viewpoints of not just this group that's here but many others that just don't have time to come or couldn't come whatever it might be the crowd is growing and it's going to keep growing we're going to see to that come election time a re-election time we're going to see if we can make some changes and I really I would encourage one of the last three people on the board to really think about resigning because you're not representing us at all and it really is as they put it it's really disgusting and it's really disheartening and it's very sad you owe the children more than that you all the parents that are paying taxes for these schools more than that and you owe the Menard Community more
192than that you're better than that and what's on the display tonight should not be representing anything you guys don't represent me at all at all and it's truly said Annie Tom thank you for at least trying appreciate it foreign [Applause] [Music] hello I am Lindsey wall 7250 Beechwood Drive in Mentor I'm gonna um pull in Ann Anderson here I was halfway home then I had you guys on the live feed in my car and I stopped and I turned around and I came back I don't know what happened tonight in this room but it has been excuse my language a should show for a long time and um tonight was just way different way different than than the last year of board meetings with everyone going back and forth in this room and then the
193different opinions but one I want to thank the board for being themselves speaking up for what they believe in all of you every single one of you up there thank you for expressing how you actually feel about topics bringing up issues that you feel need to be brought to light and offering suggestions on how to fix them that's great getting up here though as a member in our community as a parent of one of our two of our students um I'm I would never get up here and degrade any of you you all hold a position that's important to the entire community [Music] and I'm very sorry that tonight and and many other nights that this continues to go on it's it's not fair at all it's not fair to you guys it is not
194fair to to us in this room and it's not fair to our students our kids what's going on right now is being videotaped and it's live my mother-in-law I gave her the link for this and she's sitting there watching my kids so that I can be there which means my kids are witnessing this we're setting the example for our kids you want to talk about bringing things to the Forefront and how it's being forced and brought up in schools it we're making issues out of non-issues I've said this so many times the kids don't know about half of the things until they hear us talk about it until we have a problem with it until we see this little minimal thing and we only talk about that minimal thing here at the microphone month after
195month after month and Badger them and tell them they're not listening to us they are look at them that's all they're doing taking notes they're listening there's that many people up there for a reason to vote on topics so that it it's everyone gets to contribute everyone has a different opinion getting up here and degrading the people up there is not okay it's bullying we have to stop stop the hate stop the divisiveness this is just tonight was not okay and I feel really bad for Mr Heath because he got a really ugly picture of what is to come it has to change guys thank you not fair thank you guys [Music] anyone else good evening uh Brandon towns uh Marine Parkway uh daughters that go to Orchard Hollow so I'm gonna repeat something I
196said before which is that truth matters and I woke up early this morning to a message they say there was something online and it was a lie and it was it was shared with our community and for me it's unfortunate that we have that we have sides but we have sides that are pushing lies in reference to what the the Colin Kaepernick book said and I think we have to get to the point where we're able to say like there's truth and there's lies and we have to acknowledge it and allow that to be the center of our conversations um and I I want to to just remind it and thank the Lord for for standing for justice uh for standing what's right for inclusivity for diversity for Equity because it's important um it's epically
197important and I think that we talk a lot about safe spaces in education and I've said it before and I'll continue to say it more than safe we need to be good spaces and when I say that I don't mean that people shouldn't feel safe but behaviors shouldn't be safe here and behaviors that exclude certain students and children should not be safe here uh actions and decisions that make students feel they're not welcome here should not be safe so I want to thank you for making the decision today that our students regardless of race gender ethnicity SES that they can be safe that they can be seen in the materials in the classroom because that matters um and I think it was a little bit ago that you really can't control how our students or
198our kids will identify but the decision that we made today made schools safe so even when parents say I want to control how you identify like you can't but we made it safe for our students to come to our school and be safe and I really appreciate that so even if we some of us sit here today and we denounce the decision the kid's heart will be safe at home but where will they be safe at they will not be safe at school and I appreciate that um and the last thing I'll say um is the difference between informative texts and persuasive text and if we want to push education in in literacy we have to know the difference informing is not persuasion and for those who say that you're going to be voted out
199or the levee's not going to pass we'll make sure it does we support our Mentor school so thank you very much [Music] anyone else all right do we have a motion to move into executive session to discuss the evaluation of superintendent Madam president I would like to um request that we not do the remainder of the executive session tonight I think it's been a very heated night and I don't think anybody is going to be in the right frame of mind to have the kind of conversation that Mr Porter deserves um plus it's also very very late and we've been here since 5 30. so I would like to give him the time that he deserves for the remainder of his review and I think that we all you know having a break and coming
200back on a different day would probably be beneficial so we have two weeks to reschedule I'm okay with that I can make time whenever I just don't feel like right now is the right time okay um well first is everyone in agreement with rescheduling it's fine with me if if ever my schedule would be a well for it but I don't know if Mr Porter's would yeah there's some dates that could work you would want to see if we can agree on a date to get back together sure Bill what do you have I think we'll need um we're looking in the evenings um after 5 30. yeah the week of the 25th I'm free almost any evening yet week we have that meeting on the 26th how does that work on the 26th yeah
201I could we could how long do you think that meeting will take half hour okay how's the 26th look Tuesday yeah that works for me as well is that good for everybody works for me like six six fifteen perfect is that good yep 6 p.m let's do 6 15 just to be safe if you don't mind because we have the right we're gonna have that records commission meeting at uh 5 30 that I put my Friday up thing okay should we do it in the kernel room at the board office yeah so we'll just meet there afterwards everybody got that what time 6 15 15 on the 26th of July the Board conference for me thank you thank you okay then uh motion to adjourn so second please call me bro me Miss jessler yes
202Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes Mr Tuttle yes sir Miss brighter yes OSHA carries 5-0 we adjourn 10 22.