Mentor Public Schools April 2022 Board Meeting

001all right we need a motion to move back into regular session please so moved second please call the roll mr tuttle yes ms payne yes miss cook yes miss justly yes miss brider yes back in regular session at 703. um i should i should i'm going to do this before we do the punch okay get back on track okay the april 12 2022 regular meeting of the men are exempted village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with section 3313.15 of the ohio revised code please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america [Music] thank you i would like to welcome everyone to the april 12 2022 regular meeting of the men are exempted village board of education prior to

002this evening each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's approval via the district's paperless board of education agenda system board docs the public can access the agenda through the school district's website the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing the sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and chief financial officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information this meeting is being televised on a delayed basis and will be shown on spectrum cable channel 1026 and menard and channel one zero two five and men are on the lake this meeting is also being videotaped and will be shown on our youtube channel cardinal tv minor ohio

003please place your mobile telephones on silent mode during the meeting mr wade in his role as cfo and secretary of the board minutes will now share some protocols regarding our public participation policy good evening as a regulatory agent and the secretary for the board i wanted to take a few moments again to clarify expectations for public participation at board meetings and to help ensure we continue to have productive meetings the board invites and welcomes public participation at our meetings at two times during the meeting the first opportunity is typically to speak after the approval of minutes and is on agenda items only there is a second opportunity to speak on any item one wishes near the end of the agenda participants wishing to speak are asked to come to either the microphones located at the

004entrances our board policy policy 1.12 public participation at board meetings requires those wishing to speak to announce their name address in schools or schools where their children attend if applicable each statement may be made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration and any questions must be addressed to the presiding officer no participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard i will welcome you to the microphone and ask you state your name your address if you have children in the district further policy so i can appropriately record this information into our minutes once i have that information i will welcome you to share your comments and your three minutes will begin at the end of your three minutes

005i will let you share your last statement and thank you for sharing your thoughts we will move to the next speaker at this time during the hearing of the public we ask that all speakers exercise the appropriate decorum for the war to conduct its business specifically in the case of public participation all members of the community including but not limited to the participants board of education members and district personnel need to be treated with respect members of the audience should not interrupt or speak out during any portion of the meeting as each person can and should have the opportunity to speak uninterrupted if they so choose if you have something to say we invite you to join us at the microphones when it is your turn we also ask that if you have something to

006say you follow these guidelines that they are able to complete our meeting in an orderly and productive manner as well as ensure that the we are able to hear any comments or concerns that are shared please know anyone who repeatedly fails to comply with the expectations outlined above or deters the board for meal to conduct their business will be asked to leave the meeting again our intent of public participation is for us to hear our stakeholders so that the board and the administration may use the feedback to best serve our community it is our hope that by clearly establishing the protocols and expectations that we continue to have meetings as we've had in recent months that align with the mission vision and strategic plan of the matter schools as well as model for our students

007the appropriate way to engage in meaningful discourse thank you we'll move on to district highlights and recognition good evening madam president members of the board tonight we are recognizing several student athletes for their outstanding achievements i would like to invite mr casala to the podium to begin the presentation good evening madam president members of the board mr porter and mr wade it's my pleasure to introduce to you members of our winter sports teams that had fantastic winter seasons this past year that led them to advancing to ohio high school athletic association state tournaments they all performed with the class and respect that we have set the standard for in our athletic department athletes i ask you when we we talk about your sport to please come up over here to my left uh of the

008stage and to come up and be recognized so first if i could have members of our girls bowling team come on up over here to my left our girls bowling team this season won the greater cleveland conference and we're sectional champs as well this season coach mike phillips who unfortunately cannot make it tonight was named conference coach of the year and led the the cardinals to another state championship appearance these girls continue to impress all season winning several tournaments and several of them were named to the all tournament and all conference teams so with uh i'm going to introduce the members of the team now gianna amato i don't think gianni's here sophia kuva nope maria minari no emma would adequates congratulations emma great job thank you emma randa eva schick congratulations haley simmons and

009then heather walker again another fantastic season from our girls bowling team they've become quite a fixture down at the state meet in columbus next i'd like to introduce a member of our boys swim team if i could have caleb gammon and coach colin kelly join me here on stage caleb qualified for the state meet this year while leading the boys swim team to a sectional championship caleb was also named our team mvp this season and was named greater cleveland conference swimmer of the year which coach kelly is presenting his plaque to him tonight caleb also set school records this year in the 50 free 100 breast and the 400 free relay for the cardinals and another stat that coach provided me that i thought was pretty amazing out of 26 individual races that caleb competed

010in he won 25 of the 26 races so fantastic job caleb thanks and finally if i could have the members of our boys and girls wrestling team who competed in this year's state meet would join me here along with coach ray lamanna first of all we had two girls state qualifiers first up is senior ava nelson who qualified for the first time to the state meet and compiled the 35 and 9 overall record for the cardinals the other state qualifier on the girls side was senior erica nelson who qualified for the state for the second time in her career and had an overall record of 15 and 13 this season erika novak i'm sorry my bad erica novak [Applause] i apologize on the boys side we had three state qualifiers two unfortunately couldn't be here

011tonight junior beck and han and freshman jack de beau who qualified for the state meet also with us was our is our state qualifier sophomore antonio shelly antonio compiled a 41-8 overall record this season and it was his second trip to columbus for the state tournament this year finishing on the podium in sixth place fantastic season by all of our wrestlers [Applause] thank you very much at this time we're going to take a short break any parents students that would like to leave you're welcome to stay but if you'd like to disperse you may do so now just a couple minute break thank you okay thank you we'll go ahead and get started again next we have approval of minutes we have a regular board meeting march 8 2022 and two special board meetings march

01224th and april 1st so moved second mr porter did you have a correction yes uh two minor corrections on march 8th meeting on the first page of the minutes the word supports should just be support also on the first page of the april first meeting uh mr cheatham's last name ends in m not n so those two minor corrections uh i just wanted to make sure we noted thank you any other corrections or discussion please call the role it's justly yes ms cook yes ms payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motionscary50 thank you next we have hearing of the public agenda items only [Applause] okay see none we'll move on to superintendent report and recommendations thank you madam president members of the board i have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda

013and recommend approval of item 7a1 and 7a3 so moved second any discussion i just wanted to say that i think the fly fishing immersion program the grant that they're receiving is awesome i know how expensive it is for that kind of gear and seeing that it's kind of steelhead season um i think that was fitting and just an awesome grant that we received there and then the disney world trip for top 25 as a former alumni of top top 25 and we missed out on that trip i'm really excited that um the top 25 will be able to go to disney world so just comments thank you anything else please call the roll there's justly yes miss cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motion carries 5-0 thank you madam president

014members of the board i have the following board of education 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 i have the following board of education policies on the agenda for a second reading and i am recommending approval of all these policies [Applause] do we have a motion so moved any discussion please call the role mr tuttle yes miss payne yes ms cook yes miss justly yes mr breiter yes motion carries 5-0 thank you madam president and members of the board at this time i am recommending that the math steering committee curriculum materials be approved so moved second any discussion i do i i just wanted to make some comments um i just wanted to mention that i am

015appreciative of mr porter and the curriculum department for agreeing to update the way in which we notify parents going forward about proposed curriculum changes i did take a look at some of the curriculum that's out myself and was advised at that point that i was the only one from the community to view it and i couldn't help but think we would have more parents taking a look at these materials if we notified them in a more effective manner given the fact that we have had a lot of involved pta parents um community members and parents and over 4725 kindergarten through eighth grade students that could be affected by the proposed curriculum changes i also think having additional information available in regards to the changes will help inform parents and community members of the proposed adoptions

016the procedural change also aligns with policy 7.01 which states that the district's curriculum shall be developed with input and dialogue with parents community members and stakeholders so i see this should help create more transparency and trust within our community and district and is a very welcome to change so thank you and and just to respond thank you mr payne until until recently we have not had parents or community members you know reviewing our materials or asking to review materials until recently but we recognize too that times have changed we are planning to increase our communication so more people are aware when we add or buy materials our goal is to continue to increase transparency as we understand that has become more important than ever right now any other comments questions please call the roll miss

017jeslin yes miss cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motion carries 5-0 thank you madam president members of the board tonight i want to give a brief overview of the mentor schools foundation which was founded in 1985 as a not-for-profit by local education business and community leaders to assist our district in develop delivering quality instruction as well as helping to fund new or exciting learning opportunities for classrooms or even extracurriculars despite the pandemic the foundation is still going strong in 2022 as the group meets once a month to work on fundraising events and to award grants and scholarships the foundation actually met last evening and reported that scholarship recipients were selected and will soon be awarded which is a yearly commitment from the foundation also last night the foundation awarded two

018more grants to teachers who applied for them on the screen you can see some of the grants in most recent years ranging from purchasing books for our one district one book initiative last year for all of the elementary schools to helping programs along such as speech and debate model un steam initiatives science olympiad middle school musicals robotics and much more the foundation currently led by former board member and long time district supporter gwen corbin underwent a rebranding over these past two years with a new emblem you see at the bottom of the page which was created by an art student from mentor high and the website link and our district website has begun being updated as well mr gatzke if we could advance to the next page the foundation recently launched for the first time

019the fresh air fundraiser challenge which is a way to encourage our students to get outside to play or exercise and to earn challenged pledges this spring for each hour of activity for more information i would invite you to visit the link on the screen i would like to express my thanks to the foundation for all they have done for our district and all they continue to do and with that madam president and members of the board i am recommending approval of agenda item c1 related to certified personnel in c2 through c4 all related human resource matters so moved second any discussion please call the role ms payne yes mr tuttle yes miss cook yes miss justly yes miss breiter yes motion carries 5-0 thank you this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you mr

020porter next we have board of education report and recommendation yes madam president members of the board mr porter i would ask that the board approves the ohio auditor or state annual financial statement preparation agreement [Applause] second any discussion please call the rule mr tuttle yes miss justly yes miss cook yes miss payne yes miss breiner yes motion carries 5-0 madam president members of the board mr porter i asked for the approval of the ohio school board station association superintendent search agreement so second discussion please call the roll mr tuttle yes miss justly yes miss cook yes miss payne yes miss breiter yes motion carries 5-0 madam president members of the board mr porter i asked for the approval of the aia contracts for the bellflower hopkins and ridge elementary school roofing projects so of second

021discussion please call the roll miss joslin yes miss cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motion carries 5-0 thank you and we have a legislative report mr tuttle yes thank you border revision bill moves to the governor the general assembly on april 6 approved and sent to governor dewine a compromise on house bill 126 sponsored by representative derrick maron republican and that revised the board of revisions bor board of revisions process after the house in february refused to concur with the senate changes to house bill 126 a conference committee convened and met on april 6th an amendment was adopted by the committee by a party-line fortitude vote which contains several changes prohibits boards of education from filing residential and agricultural complaints permits board of educations to file commercial complaints only when

022the property was sold in the year before the tax year for which the complaint was filed and the sale price was at least 10 percent and 500 000 more than the auditor's value adjust the five hundred thousand dollar value to be indexed to inflation each year after tax year twenty twenty two requires board of education to provide notice and pass a resolution for each parcel with the notice going to the tax address and mailing address at least seven days in advance of when the board of education plans to vote on a resolution authorizing evaluation challenge eliminates notice to board of education by county auditor for counter complaints requires board of education to file counter complaints within 30 days of the date the owner files the original complaint and removes the file requirement for the board

023of education to pass a resolution before filing the counter complaint bans private pay settlement agreements entered into after the effective date of the legislation provides that the board of review must domestic dismiss a case if it's not decided by the board of review within one year of its filings and it prohibits the board of education from appealing a board of review decision the house accepted the conference committee report 61-35 and so did the senate 24-8 marin made the following statement the senate believed that school districts should not have the ability to file complaints at all the vast majority of states well over 40 states in america do not allow local governments to fight with other local governments which in this case is the county auditor representative beth liston made the following statement on the house

024floor and i quote if a commercial property owner pays less because their property is undervalued everybody else pays more i think that that conclusion is definitely true the ohio senate also accepted the report by 2048 vote senator sandra williams of cleveland raised concerns with the 500 000 threshold stating that it sets a very high bar for the smaller and more rural school districts and they believe they will be out of this process because of that recently enacted legislation the following bills have been recently signed by governor dewine house bill 597 which provides capital reapportions proportions including approximately 442.8 million for local school construction through the ohio facilities construction commission that received prior conditional approval senate bill 9 which requires the health department of education and other state agencies to reduce regulatory restrictions by 30 percent

025by 2025. i have to applaud that and appropriates nine million dollars to assist local boards of elections with administering the may third primary election house bill 597 introduced by representative scott oslager to provide capital reapportions including approximately four i just read that already excuse me house bill 601 introduced by reps mary lightbody and adam miller to increase state teachers retirement system and school employees retirement system employer contributions from 14 to 18 percent phased in over eight years and requires the sdrs board to annually institute a cost of living adjustment cola prohibit the strs board from reducing cola below one percent pursuing certain contribution levels and to eliminate a requirement that an str's member be at least 60 to be eligible for an unreduced retirement benefits house bill 616 introduced by reps mike loichick and gene

026schmidt to prohibit a board of education from teaching certain divisive or inherently racist concept concepts in public schools prohibit a board of education from training or administering professional development to employees that promote or endorse divisive or inherently racist concepts prohibited k-3 students from being provided any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity prohibits 4 12 4-12 students from being provided any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in any manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate in accordance with state standards allow complaints to be filed with the state board of education and withholding funding for non-compliance with the bill's provision i i want to restate from the beginning said this has been introduced it's been it's that's the stage it's in right now both introduced by uh republican mike loichik and republican gene

027schmidt of miami township that concludes my legislative report for this evening [Applause] thank you thank you thank you that was a long one [Applause] okay student achievement report mrs cook okay again we have a lot to be proud of in mentor schools um congratulations to shore middle school student marlena slinka her photograph titled differently unique won the award of excellence at the state level and the merit award at the national level in the pta reflections competition and also from shore middle school leah roeder has set a new school record in girls hurdles so that was fun news you may have seen on our youtube channel math teacher angie laurie was highlighted for an ongoing project that she has this year with her math students she has reached out to her former students to provide a

028video displaying how they as adults use the math that they learned in middle school in their professional lives and a video about the project lori's legacies is definitely a can't miss on the youtube channel our students are highlighted in their talking about what it meant to them and how it's given them an opportunity to explore new careers congratulations to the 2022 black history month writing contest winners first place desiree smith second place alex vallejo third place zoe barclay and honorable mention award winners kayden rick and savine merevick miranda brown and rosalina winnie this past weekend the high school theater program performed their spring musical which was the mystery of edwin drewd our students performances were amazing and congratulations to the entire cast and crew mentor high school science olympiad team competed at the state competition

029this past saturday the team did a great job this season navigating between in-person and virtual competitions and you may have seen in the news that leland krantz who was at our last board meeting being recognized was featured for his lake tree on rap bus design and he was the the bus design is currently going to be circulating throughout the county so that'll be exciting to see our students work on display now as a board we've had many recent conversations about bullying harassment and intimidation and i want to report to the board some of the recent achievements of our students and staff to make our schools places of inclusion the following are recent happenings as part of our social emotional learning curriculum our mentor high school school counselor mark you numinitis organized mentor high school students

030to travel to all of our elementary schools to deliver their stick together presentation to more than 550 fifth graders district-wide these high school students that travel to the schools are part of our bullying prevention group or the cards club which stands for caring and respect determined success the club worked closely with project love to develop mentors stick together program and the student led initiative is designed to encourage everyone to be kind and compassionate towards one another in an effort to promote the importance of positive behavior in school while also trying to help prevent mean behaviors shore and memorial 8th graders participated in the make a difference day on march 11th and march 31st almost 600 8th graders from our middle schools visited over 25 sites throughout lake county to experience volunteerism and give back to

031our communities mentor schools was fortunate to partner with organizations such as the salvation army 68 hours of hunger project hope extended housing lake county board of developmental disabilities and lakeland community college for this community-based experience video highlights of make a difference day can also be found on the youtube channel shore middle school recently enjoyed the gym basketball jones assembly which teaches kindness in a resilient growth mindset mr jones inspired students and challenged them to bring out the good in others i'd also like to just mention a student achievement with our mentor high school junior kaden coleman he was awarded a grant that was just accepted by the board and um caden successfully pilot piloted a wellness wednesday at mentor high school this school year using a grant from the effective leadership academy through the cleveland

032youth wellness initiative caden organized and tracked participation from november through march healthy habits were promoted to students and weekly activities took place on wednesdays over 400 students voluntarily participated which promoted physical activity and cooperation among diverse groups caden plans to continue this project next year thank you lots of wonderful things to celebrate glad to hear it okay moving on to chief financial officers reporting recommendations mr wade madam president members of the board here to give my monthly update on our financials maybe there we go overall as we show each month as we track our expenses and revenues versus what we projected in our five year forecast we continue to trend better on both revenue and expenses which is good news um right now we've just finished 75 percent of our budgetary year so we're three

033quarters of the way you know we have a quarter left and with our school district we actually cut off our purchase orders here in the middle of april so we will have a better idea of our spending on our supplies and some of our purchase services as we go into may with our next board meeting as i remind the board and the community though that will be based on a timing issue of when we receive those supplies or those services and get invoice for them because we're cash basis so right now we are trending about 2.5 million dollars better than we projected looking at the revenue increases that we see in the expenses which i'll go into shortly here which would put our deficit for the year at about 9.2 million dollars looking at our

034monthly revenue march collections of this year compared to last year our monthly revenue is down by 2.1 million dollars this is a timing issue with regards to when the auditor gave our advances and we received our final payments uh for our tax collections um this year the auditor gave us a larger advance than we had previously so we collected the remainder of our tax collection for the first half of the calendar year which is our second half of the fiscal year so we've now collected all of our tax revenue to this point state revenue is down by about two hundred thousand dollars uh compared to last month last year at the same month and all over all other revenues up about a hundred thousand dollars so the total difference is about two point one nine

035million dollars if we compare it to this time last year we're actually up about 142 thousand dollars mainly because of the increase in property valuation on our inside millage we received an increase of about 600 high six hundred thousand dollars in collections because of the valuations because we only see increases just as a reminder to the community uh with the increase in property valuation for the district we only see an increase on our inside millage which is about 4.8 mills so that equates to roughly about 1.2 million dollars additional tax revenue uh in comparison so in the first half collections that's just under 700 thousand dollars so that accounts for most of the 962 thousand dollars that we see up to this point in our additional tax revenue again looking at the big picture we

036are up uh 672 thousand dollars in revenue then projected in our five-year forecast which is a difference or an increase of about 0.64 so with regards for forecasting i think we're forecasting or training pretty close to where we're at this still does not include the grants that we should be receiving from the federal government for the work that mr woodworth and mr lynch did as we've now named them the million-dollar men because they have received or saved us about a million dollars and i see mr lynch over there raising his hand and is that he should be proud for him and his team's work for doing that and we appreciate that but again we won't be able to register that revenue until it comes in uh so hopefully this fiscal year it could be after

037the fiscal year and then we would see an increase in our revenue for fiscal year 23 which we would budget for knowing that it's coming in now that we we know we've received those grants restricted state aid continues to be high about 712 thousand dollars as i shared with the board last month that's mainly because the catastrophic cost increase that we are projecting based on the new funding model increased funding to preschool and some pre-payments that we had from last year and again unrestricted federal aid is up 340 000 and that is because of the some of the grants we have received that i just spoke of investment earnings continue to be down again we've talked about that a number of times so i won't go into that unless there's any questions specifically regarding that

038so overall we're trending in a positive direction for our revenue for the year looking at our expenses our march expenses for 2021 versus 2022 our expenses are down 629 thousand dollars in comparison to march last year at this time again a timing issue with some payments that we had last year in march uh in comparison to this year we're down about 681 thousand dollars in salaries and benefits this month uh comparison to last year our purchase services are down and all other expenses are down march was a relatively quiet month for us so that was a good sign for the year we compared to this same period last year we're about 1.5 million dollars higher and again reminding the board in the community most of that's about 1.8 million dollars of an increased transfer that

039we had this year that we did not have last year into our capital reserve into our budget reserve so if you take that out we're actually spending about three hundred thousand dollars less year over year in comparison so when we look at where we're at right now in comparison to where we projected to be in our five year forecast we're about 1.8 million dollars better than we expected which means we have a about 1.5 percent difference between what we projected in our five-year forecast and where we're trending right now and that's projecting out the final three months of the year and again some of that could be because of timing some of the things that we thought maybe would come into play in march weren't received or we didn't receive our invoice so that budget

040hasn't been expensed yet and some of it is because of the fact that our department heads and our billing principles have reduced their spending as we close out the year as well so we'll continue to track that as we go into the coming months the main difference if we look at where we're at all of our other expenses and our purchase services are down drastically in comparison to last year and we're about 750 000 less on our supplies which accounts for about half of that so again some of that's going to be timing another that's going to be because we didn't spend what we had expected to from a budget standpoint again putting us in a better fiscal picture than we had about 2.5 million dollars to where we were trending happy to answer any

041questions to the board with regards to this month's financials thank you for explaining it in such a clear and coherent way mr wade we really appreciate that on behalf of the community too you know not just for for our understanding but for anybody who's trying to keep track of where we're at and the the overall thrift from everybody across the district pulling in the same direction thank you and uh just as a reminder we will have the may update of the forecast which is required by law next month as well so we'll have a little more detail as we go into next month's meeting as well as in my presentation that does conclude my presentation but madam president members of the board and mr porter i would ask that items b through e in addendums

042may be act upon in one motion summer second any discussion please call the roll miss payne yes mr tuttle yes this is cook yes miss joslin yes miss breiner yes motionscary50 thank you all right does the board have any unfinished business do we have any new business okay we will move on to hearing the public on any item star yes go ahead good evening madam president members of the board mr porter and mr wade my name is lori godick i live at 6215 millshore drive and i no longer have children in the school system before i start i just want to see how much i enjoyed mrs cook's presentation of all the wonderful things that my students have done it's great to hear mr porter i along with so many other members of the mentor

043community where sandra reed of your resignation is superintendent of the mentor public schools effective july 31st but we were happy to hear that you are going to remain in the system as principal of sterling morton thank you for your 14 years of dedicated service to the mentor schools first as the assistant superintendent and then the superintendent for the past five years i had the privilege of working with you for six of those years and that time i saw firsthand how you came to work every day focused on continuing the excellent tradition of the mentor schools you work diligently and fairly not only for the academics but fiscally in moving our school system forward in our ever-changing world you did that with compassion for everyone you encountered i was always so proud to be able to

044say i work for mr porter and now eight years later i'm still so proud to say i used to work for mr porter i wish you the very best as you move into your role as principal sterling morton the families their children the staff will greatly benefit from your knowledge and your kindness thank you so much thank you [Applause] good evening my name is roberta pennington i live at 9009 blue jay lean i've got two children in the high school who are both graduating and i have another child who um goes to shore middle school my child has effectively been bullied out of the mentor school system where exactly is our zero tolerance that manor has found all these years it's law that the schools are supposed to provide a safe space for learning a

045defective documentation and a paper trail has been completed throughout this school year calls to the administration cost of police visits from my child to the guidance counselor to the her crossroads counselor there was a video back in january that captured my child being quote harassed and quote menaced while eating their breakfast it was recommended that we file a police report so we did school has not provided a safe learning space as my child attempted suicide as a result of this consistent bullying my child was hospitalized for a week i missed three total weeks of learning upon return yesterday my child lasted one and a half days my child will not be a statistic they identify as lgbtq if this was a racial issue this would be solved right now not a day goes by whether

046or not harassed in the in the hallways in the classroom this is not acceptable mentor schools need to be held accountable my child is being punished for being themselves in the school and again this is not acceptable thank you thank [Applause] is you something mrs pennington i we i believe we have a meeting later this week and i'm so sorry for what your child and family is going through and we want a child right here who would like to speak for herself himself hello board of education i am pluto pennington i'm i live at 9009 blue jay lane and [Music] i'm i go to shore middle school there are some things that we need to address such as the incident counter which i'm not sure has been updated yet as of today but i know

047that the last time we checked it was not updated and it said there were zero incidents when there's been many many incidents that need to be solved there are there have been many examples of bullying many people who have been out for a week or so for just some mental health reasons that needs to be fixed that's absolutely horrible and if it's to the point where a former student who has been bullied beyond the point of wanting to live has to come up here and address the situation i have no hope for the fellow kids teens and humans who are just going to this school system and not having a safe place this is just embarrassing kids shouldn't be treated differently regarding who they are who they like and what they believe in lgbtq students

048deserve to be treated equally this is unfair teens need some hope and motivation to get through these years we've decided to start a movement called give us some space teens teens like i said before teens need hope and motivation and guidance to get through these tough times because these students are not able to funk proper properly function when it comes to this struggling they aren't getting good grades they're losing the motivation to even come to school none of these students should have to go through this these cause and effect situations are absolutely terrible cause bullying affect so many students have been absolutely treated horribly by this unfair system and we really think it should be changed like even just spending 15 on some posters to be printed even that would change change the view on

049some things because this is not how it should be this is not the way we deserve to be treated by law we are supposed to have a space safe space at school safe education and that's not what we're getting these students deserve better and you are starting a war students versus the entire school system because this is not okay we are all struggling to fight back just so that we can get some education that is all thank you [Applause] you you deserve to feel safe in school and i hope you can join the meeting with me later this week so i can better understand thank you anyone else care to speak tonight good evening my name is bambi vargo i live in mentor mr porter under your leadership as superintendent for the last five years

050mentor schools have positively impacted the lives of students their families and the communities in countless ways and i just want to share with you a couple examples first mentor schools have graduated approximately three thousand students who are prepared to go on to the next phase of their lives by continuing their educations starting careers or serving our country in the military and now two more personal examples the reputation of the special needs preschool has spread far and wide and i have two friends who made the point of moving to mentor so they could enroll their child in the preschool and they are so happy with the staff and with the education their child is receiving so big shout out to the the special needs preschool staff and then finally the mask mandate that was put into

051effect in in september not only protected students staff and their families but as a public health program it also benefited the larger community my husband and i are both in our 70s he is severely immunocompromised so we're both in the high risk category and we were very relieved and so grateful when you made that choice thank you for everything you have done for our children [Applause] let's call for speakers hello board members uh my name is anna perrick i live at 8651 manor road i do not have children in the in the school system in the mentor school system um regarding the young child that has feels he has he's going to a school system that's unsafe um i hope we're not going to conflate safety with a political agenda so i look forward to

052learning exactly how hit how you you claim to be bullied and whatnot i want to understand what we should address the president what exactly constitutes bullying and not feeling safe according to his subjective view and then regarding the comment with the face masks face masks do not prevent the transmission of sars coronavirus ii the [Music] the fact that over 4 000 students were forced to wear face masks for 18 months and the mentor school system received 7.5 million dollars to go along with these cdc recommendations some of some of you may think that that helped but i feel that it was absolutely psychological abuse um children were not able to see other people's faces a teacher smiling um their friends faces and i just think it goes against community and love and you know getting

053to know each other and not being able to see other people's faces even if you think that help to prevent the cold or the flu are the ramifications that these kids are now dealing with worth that so i i just have to and then from what i understand we're running by deficit we're we're if we receive 7.5 million for going along with the covid protocols where how are we running a deficit i just like to say easter is coming up and god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son for us he remained on a cross on good friday from 12 to 3 pm for our sins he was a man thank you you're welcome i wish everyone a happy easter [Applause] i would just like to clarify a few things um

054we did not receive 7.5 million dollars in esther funding we really received just under 6 million dollars it was not tied to mass in any shape way or form we see every district in the state of ohio received a certain level of funding from the federal government the form of esser those are one-time funds and we've allocated those to assist with catching students up who fell behind during covid as well as increasing summer programming and providing social emotional support for our students just to answer the questions that were asked during the last speaker mr williams hello my name is mike williams i live at 6064 walton court and mentor and my wife and i have put four children through the mentor school system mr porter mr wade and school board members i would like to

055comment on the proposed idr the individualized daily reading list of books being considered by mentor schools for grades k through fifth grade which are being provided by the company collaborative classroom i personally went through each bin each grade and each book displayed at the paradigm center what i found about this sample of books was very concerning the vast majority of these books celebrate everything about minorities african-american hispanic asian native american native alaskan peoples and numerous countries around the world i'm not saying that we don't need a diverse selection of reading materials but the list lacks balance of any books that reflect the culture as a whole i'm not opposed to diverse teachings about our world or about our culture but this list of books gives a very one-sided view of our culture according to the

056u.s census bureau less than half of the u.s population is comprised of minorities well about 60 percent is made up of caucasians this list of books is glaringly absent of any caucasian culture families situations or values it's as if the culture doesn't even exist or they have not made any positive contributions to this society mentor students will get a very distorted view of our nation by reading only the books on this list the director of collaborative classroom jenny mcdonald has this to say about philosophy towards white people the greatest problem is not that flat out white racists but rather with the larger number of americans who believe intellectually in racial equality but are quite oblivious to injustice around them no wonder this company's books don't include any that portray caucasians with a few exceptions she

057believes we don't understand comprehend or care about what we see around us regarding race issues mentor schools are always spouting about diversity where is the diversity in these books where are the books that may represent a majority viewer idea in all fairness i did find a book on helen keller abraham lincoln john glenn and amelia earhart other than these of the several hundred books i viewed there are virtually none representing mainstream cultures or views i suggest the matter school board reject this company's current k-5 reading list unless they can provide a more balanced list of books however i don't think this company would be able to do this i respectfully submit that it may be time to search for a different company that can provide a much more inclusive book list one that does not

058have an agenda thank you for listening [Applause] to their point books with white characters and authors are very well represented currently in our classrooms there's no plan to eliminate those books rather supplement classrooms with more diverse offerings [Applause] please please sit down please sit down my name is melanie majikis i'm the mother of two men are high school graduates also a longtime volunteer in the schools and a former member of the mentor schools foundation board and i just want to say the use of the word mainstream in describing any culture that is not the culture of a minority group is incredibly offensive all cultures matter all people matter all the views matter using that as mainstream using your experience as the cultural norm is incredibly offensive thank you [Applause] mike williams again mr porter we

059were told those these books will replace what's currently in the classroom is that true or is it not true my understanding is it's not a replacement it's a supplement that's not what we've been told we were told that these books would replace the current list because the these books have been in the classroom for such a long time they needed they needed to be replaced am i incorrect or not my understanding is it's a supplement that's not my understanding so there's there's a miscommunication somewhere is that barb hi my name is grace melser i'm a senior at the high school i live on hilltop drive in mentor ohio i just wanted to share something pretty short i've shared in the past about my bullying experiences during my high school years and the only thing that's

060been keeping me going and staying strong through all four years of high school through the stress and the demands that all high schoolers including myself have experienced is my faith the only thing that's kept me going is my faith and my family is supporting me with that faith um i just want to share something from psalms 25 verse 8 through 15. good and upright is the lord therefore he instructs sinners in his ways he guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way all the ways of the lord are loving and faithful towards those who keep the demands of his covenant for the sake of your name lord forgive my iniquity though it is great who then are those who fear the lord he will instruct them in the ways they should

061choose they will spend their days in prosperity and their descendants will inherit the land the word confines in those who fear him he makes his covenant known to them my ears are ever my eyes are ever on the lord and only he will release my feet from the snare thank you [Applause] rachel that first name correct go ahead grace i would also like an opportunity to meet with you to better understand your situation as well thank you mr hi my name is diane popolis in the past i have supported most of all the school levees we have had from mentor schools as i believe most medical school parents and residents have however i and many others will have a most difficult time supporting the new levy based on what we perceive as a left-wing anti-parental

062rights agenda infiltrating our classrooms this has to stop immediately and we need to reverse course in our schools and i gotta tell you i hate to say it but if you're willing but if you're not willing to do this we will work around you against you and for others who will cherish our children their parents and grandparents rights and a more traditional curriculum that does not contain elements of blm crt sel dei sexuality transgender ideology and a host of others however if you stand with us against all these ideologies and we see evidence that vote to stem the tide of this garbage you will be amazed at how quickly these people turn and support you work with you have your back stand with you against all outside influences that promote these agendas considering runaway inflation

063rising gas prices supply chain issues record prices for groceries high medical costs and a war this is clearly not the time to ask us for a huge increase in taxes spending is way out of hand the choice is yours thank you [Applause] hi bambi vargo mentor first i want to just um say something to the two students who spoke to us tonight ma'am just remember you have to address the board president please yes um yes i just want to speak in general if you would please i just want to thank the two students who spoke to us tonight for their courage in coming before this forum to ex advocate for themselves and for their peers i also want to thank you for creating a very transparent process for the community to review the proposed independent

064daily reading books i spent over an hour looking through a wide variety of books for children in the k through gay grade 5 classrooms all designed to build literacy skills and i want to add that in the hour i was there three other people also came and went through the same process i learned that these books are not replacing the current books in the classroom the curriculum director told me they will be supplementing the books already in the classroom i like the fiction books featuring black children latino children asian children and native american children books not only representing the diversity and inclusivity that is an important part of our society but also helping children to develop empathy for people who are different by allowing them to see the world through eyes of someone who does

065not look like them all the while giving them the opportunity to develop their reading skills i also liked the nonfiction books featuring women scientists athletes astronauts and artists as well as books celebrating men and women of color civil rights leaders abolitionists authors athletes artists soldiers a supreme court justice and scientists in short i found a wonderful collection of books for children to choose from books that will entertain inform and delight beginning readers through pre-teens looking for a challenging chapter book literature that supports the district's goals of creating diversity equity and inclusion in the classrooms i look forward to more discussion on these books at the may board meeting thank you thank you [Applause] roger jewell longtime mentor resident 7418 heart street 1983 graduate of america no child regardless of any situation should be bullied in

066a school period [Applause] mr porter dear respected mentor school board members i'm sorry that you've been thrown into a position in between all these different groups where you have to make tough decisions that you probably shouldn't have to make bullies aren't created in school bullies are created at home [Applause] it starts with parents and kids learn from their parents and there's no educator no teacher no administrative board that's going to change somebody who's grown up a bully or around bullies it's going to take somebody awful special so i'm sorry that you guys have been put into this position as a parent of a junior high school student and a guy that's raised six kids and those kids no kids should be dealing with some of the stuff that we're putting in the libraries of our

067schools and the classrooms of our schools we've got to make better decisions on this stuff and i want to encourage you to stay in the lane as the right term you were hired to navigate the education of our children not the social development of our children all right [Music] i parent my daughter and i've raised my daughter to be a good kid to try to be let me take care of teaching her what's right and wrong and how to handle things that she doesn't agree with you guys please take care of teaching my kid how to read write spell and add we'll take care of the rest that's your job if we can make it simple if there's anything we can do to help we're here but i just have to ask in closing why

068are some groups being paid attention to because of the political agenda and other groups of parents being ignored and having stuff just crammed and forced on children that one don't know how to handle it don't know what to deal with we should not be having inclusive groups on anybody k through fifth grade they don't understand it sorry that's gotta stop as soon as possible praying for you guys hoping that we make right decisions but know this god's not mocked what a man sows he will reap are you prepared to reap what you're sowing thank you [Applause] good evening mennor public school board and madam president and mr porter i am a parent my name is jennifer simmons i live at 78 58 richwood drive and mentor on the lake the proud mom of two men

069are graduates two now young adults that are out in the world working and one's ready to graduate college next month and the other is a sophomore couldn't be prouder of the education that they received here at mentor couldn't be prouder of the fact that they were prepared for workplaces and a life filled with common sense treating other people the way that they want to be treated diversity and inclusion i am an hr business manager that is something that we practice and we facilitate for our employees studies have shown that diverse and inclusive workforces are much more productive much more successful and so as an hr person and a mom i can appreciate that what i taught at home was also reinforced here in the manor public school system so i want to say thank you

070for that and please continue your good work i wasn't going to speak tonight but some of the things i hear are a little disturbing to me so i will just pretty much leave it at this this is a public school system if you're not happy with the education in a public school system and you want to bring christianity or your personal beliefs then perhaps you may want to consider putting your children in a private school thank you again [Applause] hello uh anna parrik again um the bible is a book it's a very old book it starts off with god created man and woman mr o'brien using the term [Music] mainstream what he meant or at least what i think he meant was boys that identify as girls when they're six years old isn't mainstream and

071to purchase a good load of new books that where 95 of these books are not mainstream and they talk about transgenderism or have plots and stories revolving around transgenderism little boys and girls don't understand what sexuality is what sexuality even is at that age all they understand is biology and these books they're just inappropriate for young children i don't i don't think it's you know if you believe that there's all kinds of sexes well then that's your religion and you're bringing your religion into the public school system um i think we all want diversity and i think minor school systems has done a great job with that i've never experienced or heard of racism in the minor schools i i mean the facilities here are phenomenal the athletics so it's just it's you know it

072makes me question when someone says they're bullied or they find the environment unsafe it's just very questionable because i don't see how teachers and staff would allow something like that to go on so i hope these incidents are really recorded like what actually is are these children you know i don't want you to feel unsafe so what exactly is it that constitutes bullying and feeling unsafe and then the six six million how are we still running a deficit if we receive six million dollars okay because our expenses are 116 million dollars and we bring in 105 million dollars of revenue so are we running are our expenses have they increased by 6 million in in the last year i mean it just it just that's an it's a very large amount of money six million

073dollars you can build every building here i would be happy i would be happy to speak to you if you'd like to call my office and maybe i'll look into it more on my own but um i just it just doesn't seem you know it just doesn't seem to add up for some reason okay but if you look if you look on my website uh a section of the website the appropriations and the five-year forecast explain that and if you have questions i'm happy to answer those okay thank you madam president i have a question for clarification um the miss perrick just had concerns over books that were transgender in in part of our book list and i went and looked at all of the books and i believe i just want to make sure

074that that's correct that there are no books on transgender on that list am i incorrect in that i couldn't confirm i couldn't confirm that okay madam president um i personally also went through those lists and i don't know if the entire board is aware of this but there was one book called george and it was very inappropriate and explicit and so after i went through the list of books and physically went through it i brought it up to mr porter and miss bonus and they reviewed it and removed that book because it talked about genitalia as well so they the whole committee though reviewed the book so that that book was in there but it's now not in that curriculum but that's not what the board was told about that book mrs payne what was

075the board because i'm i'm sitting you got an email from mr porter about the committee reviewing that book and they said it was explicit and that it was removed that's what i just said yeah it was removed i looked through it nobody removed it until i brought it up to their knowledge so i'm just saying i think there was that book was in there while people were looking at the curriculum physically or looking at the list that was provided and because of that you know people were upset which rightfully so if you were to read the book yourself i think you would be upset with it it's not it's not age appropriate no matter which side you're on there are other books in there i think there's one called the boy named queen there's also

076one um called heather has two mommies that's for second grade i believe so there are books in there just to clarify that you know are in there that are targeted kind of towards lgbtq okay so my understanding excuse me my understanding from what mr porter told us about that book was that it was not supposed to be on the list no that was not my understanding you're gonna believe whatever you want no mr porter can you speak for yourself because i have the emails back and forth with my understanding no that's not the only reason it was brought up was because i physically looked over that book we appreciate you bringing that no mr porter could you please disappoint me address it i'm not i'm pleased we'll convene this meeting if there's an outburst of

077in the audience thank you thank you mrs i'd like him to speak as well mr porter because i believe in transparency and i do not like being called a liar i'm not calling you a liar i'm talking about excuse me one more outburst and we're going to end this meeting i'm not calling you a liar i'm saying there's a miscommunication here and i just thanked you for bringing that to our attention okay so so can mr porter speak so we can just get this all out in the clear and everybody can move forward and absolutely thank you you did bring the book to our attention the literacy committee did review that book and a couple of other books that was the one book that was removed as it was not considered suitable for elementary level

078thank you [Applause] [Music] i apologize i don't want you to feel like i'm calling you anything thank you i believe there may have been a miscommunication regardless the book has been removed and will not be in the classroom i want to make that clear as i believe there was a miscommunication in the beginning the book george will not be right in our book collection it's not in the curriculum and it's not going to be in the classroom i hope everyone understands that thank you thank you all right do we have any other speakers go ahead my name is laura dillon i live at 7177 hayes boulevard in manor i put two children through men are schools and i currently have two grandchildren in mentor schools and i am very disappointed that the school board has

079been making decisions to score political points and further divide the parents and students our education system to be used should be used to educate kids on the basics reading writing math science geography history and nothing else how dare you teach our children that their race religion sex or political affiliation predetermines their potential when i was growing up i was taught that i could be whatever i worked hard to be and that is not what is being taught our children now diversity and inclusion should not teach that one race sex or religion is over another but that is what that teaches both of both of these parent groups just want what is best for our children and no bullying and unfortunately and and your agenda should unite us and not divide us thank you [Applause] mike

080williams again i do appreciate your patience and listening to us when i was over at the paradigm center reviewing the books for the classroom i also spoke spoke with your curriculum director barb bonus we spoke for at least a half an hour and i i expressed my concerns about these books to her she never once said these books are a supplement she never once told me that she had every opportunity to tell me that they were supplement when i was railing against how one-sided these books are and yet she never mentioned it she never mentioned it so there is either some lying going on or some miscommunication that and we need to we need to find out for sure because if you're not sure that these are books that are going to replace the current

081books in the classroom we need to know that thank you mrs brian or may i please i stand behind mrs bonus and her character and by not mentioning it does not assume that she's lying she talked to a number of parents residents that came in over the last few days and tried to answer as many questions as she could during that time yes mr porter i just like to say yes the books were replenishing i don't believe i said replacing they were replenishing a book cart that was purchased in 2014 a leveled book cart it is a lot it's a classroom library in addition to the books that might have been lost in that book cart we are replenishing leveled books for individualized daily reading for students so this library is supplementing kind of replenishing

082that book card plus teachers have libraries in their classroom already so this is going into that library it just helps teachers because it is a leveled book they're leveled books that they can choose from self-selected it is not part of the curriculum it's a supplement of the curriculum for collaborative classroom i'm sorry would you please state your name just for clarification i'm sorry i'm mrs bana's curriculum director thank you [Applause] good evening my name is anne fiorelli i live at 7570 man record in mennor and i have a third grader at bellflower and my question is about what she just stated about that these books are self-selected and the reason i have some concerns i stayed up way too late last night going through all of the about 250 books for the fourth grade since

083that's what my daughter will be going into and many of the books um in the reviews they stated that they should be read with an adult because the topics were too heavy um or too um just kind of like there was references to violence and things like that and and the concern came up with a lot of these books that they should be more guided reading not independent reading so i just want to understand if these are for independent reading what is the process going to be to i appreciate the the transparency that you put all these books out there i really really appreciate that we were able to to view these in advance because then we're prepared if our kids you know read something and they come home with questions so i really appreciate

084that but i just want to understand is this just completely you know the kid has 15 minutes of free time so they go grab whatever book they want to read and i'm concerned because some of the titles that would be for the fourth grade there's one called a song for cambodia and it's the story of how it mentions how soldiers came and brutally separated the family arn would never see his mother again after the family was separated to go to work camps the children were starving and caught bugs to eat this would traumatize my nine-year-old daughter her favorite things in the world are rainbows and unicorns still and i'm very concerned with some of these topics that as the previous speaker spoke these are things that adults believe children need to be exposed to and

085need to start to understand about the world but the more i went through these books it's it's a very heavy collection of books and there's no question that it's left leaning so my concern is you know is there any going to be any further vetting of some of these titles that one called the librarian of basra a review mentioned that there are drawings of planes bombing a school men with rifles fires talk of death and killings and it portrays the american military as evil another book called front desk is laced with profanity described as anti-white america-hating and anti-cop so to in closing since this collection is not a very balanced assortment is there a process for donating books to the schools because i don't believe in banning books i believe that children should be exposed

086to all of these things but can we contribute some books that maybe um round out the collection such as maybe the tuttle twins as an excellent series of books or the rush revere series on american history so i guess that would be my direct question is who would i speak to about donating books [Applause] if you could email me if you would be willing and we can continue the conversation absolutely thank you hello it's pluto paddington again 9009 bluej lane i go to shore middle school and i'm going to say this and i know there's going to be a lot of controversy around it but all the years that i've been in the mentor public school system i've always been so supportive of all the books all the books have been great i haven't seen

087many changes in the books they've all been amazing and really they help stimulate the minds of younger kids older kids and really challenge us to learn what we're reading and it really helps i'll be totally honest i've loved all the books that i've read here it's been amazing i have no reason that i think any book should be banned or taken down for controversy because really it's always this is what the kids need to know and it's they're amazing books i love yeah them all thank you [Applause] oh my gosh brandon towns marine parkway one child at uh portrait hollow uh first um thank you mr porter i'll be a great service to our district when i really decided to get involved about two summers ago i reached out to your responsible swift and uh

088the work that we've done since that meeting has given me hope that uh minor is trending in the right direction so thank you for that we are not there yet not when it comes to racial issues or issues that the lgbtq community is experiencing we are not there yet by the things that we've heard tonight on both sides and we still have a lot of ways to go i've said this before i'm going to say it again bigotry racism ignorance are real um and i don't want to spend too much time addressing but that's really hard for me to do so i'll say that as an educator we spend too much time dedicating ourselves to our craft to not be trusted to do that which we have been studying for so i encourage the educators

089to keep making decisions that we know are important for kids kids cannot learn if they are not safe so as much as we want to say just teach them to read and to write you cannot when you do not feel safe and we educators know this thank you for continuing to push our safety um one of the board members made it a personal push to address bullying and i respect it and i appreciate it and i pray that you do that for every single kid because it's happening tonight and you have a lot of people here who support you and they need to be put in their place because that bullying is happening tonight and it is unacceptable there was a comment made about the collaborative classrooms their book list and i spent less than

09030 seconds looking it up only 41 of their books address people of color so what do you think the other 59 is for thank you [Applause] hi i'm ann anderson i live on center street i have three children in the school system one at the high school and two over at shore i just wanted to say i really appreciate all of the different books that you guys have i think you guys are doing a great job i know you're catching a lot of heat i'm sorry for that i also wanted to let everybody know i think it's very important to have books even when they're young my daughter came out she's transgender i'm not ashamed of it i will never be ashamed of it she was in the second grade she's one of the best

091people one of the strongest people i know and it's not an agenda she's the first person i ever met that's transgender so with that being said with all i've learned with my daughter coming out since i've been pushed at the board the school board meeting not so much me my daughter being talked about by adults and she's 12. we have other children um you know speaking up and parents or people in the community don't think it's important when they say these negative things about lgbtq kids and they're right in the room they're right in the room they're hearing it they're important i have a new job now because of all the pushback uh i'm going to be a parent advocate for lgbtq allies of lake county it's a great thing for all the parents that

092need help with any of their kids that are transgender or that are gay that anybody needs any help in the community at all please look it up lgbtq allies lake county i work there betty jacobs is the executive director she's a wonderful person she's doing great work um i just want to say the more kids can learn now about different people when they go out into the world when they're older it won't be so shocking to them i don't know why anybody would want to put them in a box and not them let me let them meet anybody else like them when they go to college it's going to be one big crazy world out there i'll tell you that i know that you want to keep them in a bubble don't do it it's

093not going to help it's a big big world out there and if you do everybody has a right to religion not knocking it if you are if religion important to you send your kid to a private school that's what they're there for there's no reason that we need to discuss religion in a public school it's a public school nobody's getting bullied for religion at a public school it shouldn't be talked about at all because there's some kids that don't believe at all so what about those kids that's that's it i'm and i'm sorry if i look the way i'm look this way so that's it um if anybody parent who's struggling with any you know lgbtq issues because people are coming up to me now and they're recognizing me and saying are you the lady

094from the mentor school board meeting who's getting harassed yes i am and if you'd like some help we'll help you too thank you [Applause] um anna perrick uh i just have to when someone insults you oh my god or verbally assaults you it's you should say something i feel that i and maybe some others were just verbally assaulted by what the black um brandon let's go brandon um oh my god no one here is racist i went to richmond high school and i played basketball my mother did not have a driver's license to drive me home it was a black girl and her mother that drove me home from basketball practice if somebody came in and said there's racism [Music] when i was a senior or junior at richmond heights i would say you have

095an agenda and i think it's an insult to call white people racist okay no one here is racist racists don't elect a black president 56 percent of white voters voted for former president barack obama this country isn't racist we work i worked at bob evans with black waitresses we didn't have an issue why are you all making an issue when there is not one if you're racist and you've been racist your whole life then take some classes on diversity but don't force it on us and what you believe is your religion excuse me remember what i believe is my religion okay in your your religion you're bringing it into the public school system if you want to be against the natural laws of nature that's your religion if you want to deny that the son

096of god died on the cross that's fine that's your religion but that's your religion i believe jesus died on the cross i'm not coming here talking about that but since you're talking about religion i will talk about it and he died for our sins [Music] and everyone's a sinner no one's perfect we've had racism but we've progressed as a nation as a state as high schools and i'm sick and tired of being called a racist and making it an issue as if we're we have an opioid crisis in ohio not a racist racism crisis so please quit calling me a racist and a bully thank you [Applause] hi my name is grace moser i already spoke before i just wanted to clarify towards the board that my point in talking about my faith is to

097point out the fact that that's what keeps me strong and that maybe that's something that could help other people who are feeling bullied as a senior in high school i've dealt with it for or i've dealt with the experience of high school not that i've been bowling all my years of school obviously but my point is that i don't want it affect me because i have my faith and you can't like he said before you can't control how bullies are you can't change them no teacher can do that maybe a really good counselor can but it's not common for boys to just automatically change so we should encourage children in our schools teachers should to encourage their students to have more courage and themselves and to not care what other people say about them or

098bully them if it's harassment if it's physical harassment or violent verbal harassment yeah that's an issue and it needs to be addressed and then students should have consequences for it but it's also tricky subject with evidence and things like that but i don't think religion should be put in our schools or because it's a public school i don't think it should be put on me just like it shouldn't be put on anyone else because it's my faith that's my personal faith at home and outside of school i don't put on any students who have a different opinion that's it's a public school you're meant for education and none of my conservative people over here who have shared have said that they think it should be put in our schools so some people are saying that

099and it's not true no no i'm not a parent obviously none of the parents here want their religions pushed on other students because it's not a private school it's a public school so i encourage those of you who are lost the board i like my faith is what's keeping me going and my family and everyone i know who was in church it keeps them going and it doesn't they they don't get bothered by the little things that they experience in high school while they're there during the day and let it affect them to where they feel suicidal because they have a faith that keeps them sturdy and they know where they can go and who can help them out and their time to struggle thank you grace okay i'll go hi my name is alexa

100friel i live at 7548 mountain park drive and mentor alexa can i get your last name one more time sorry oh freel f-r-i-e-l thank you um i wasn't going to say anything i actually have never been to a school board meeting but with everything going on um i felt like it was very important to come so i wrote something out because i didn't want to go on a tangent but i just wanted to say something really quick to hopefully open up the discussion between all of us i feel like i'm here and we're sitting on different sides and it's weird i just feel like this is not how a school system should be this is not how a community be and shame on all of us as parents i mean our children go here and

101we can't even have any common ground um but it's very clear that everything being said tonight can obviously be traced back to our political divides and it's really sad it's as if we're divorced parents and only our children are suffering i wanted to just say my little tidbit um i personally know a child who for about two to three years of their life thought that they were the opposite gender um fast forward a few years they no longer think that way probably because they were a child and i know every situation is different so i'm not discrediting any person any child um but can you imagine if those parents put that child on hormone blockers or forced the school to come up with some kind of plan um i think it's very hard for you

102guys as educators and as board members to i mean what are you going to do um i think a lot of the stuff starts in the home i think it comes back to us as parents i think we need to do a better job it's our job and it's not the school's job just as someone else had said before a couple of people this is obviously a very specific case like i said but the bottom line is that these social issues are the jobs of parents and not educators i would also like to say that i actually pulled my children out of mudder schools and i put them into private education which i know a lot of people keep saying just pull your kids out put them in private schools not everybody can do that

103it is incredibly expensive and there are times when i wish that my children did go to public schools because it would save me and my husband so much money so for everyone that has come up here um and just said you know pull your kids out simple solution put them in catholic schools put them wherever homeschool your kids quit your job it's just not that simple but i do think that the public education should be that simple and that's all i like to say thank you [Applause] last speaker my name is mark gislow i live at 8093 danbury court here in mentor and we're the proud parents of two men are high school graduates and a current ninth grader i think it's important for us to think about the meaning and importance of public education

104and remind ourselves that in a very fragmented country living through very difficult times facing unprecedented challenges in a world that faces even greater unprecedented challenges the public school system is one of the only things that we have to bind us together so the voices of division that are more concerned with worrying about pet concerns pet issues ignoring the reality that the schools exist to train our young people and teach our young people to become good citizens to become good thinkers to become problem solvers to become people who can only be educated if they can confront the messiness that the world really is which means yes fourth graders might need to read books that involve war because war is part of our story and part of our world and apparently it's not going any away anytime

105soon and i just want to compliment the teachers the educators and the board of education for recognizing and treating with seriousness that very difficult almost sacred demand that we place on them that they raise these kids and educate them to be good true citizens who can carry a mantle forward at a time where they're confronting unprecedented challenges of climate change global population dynamics that are unpredictable and have consequences that we can't even imagine the potential for global conflict and conflict that's erupting now in europe and in various other places around the world putting your head in the sand and ignoring gender putting your head in the sand and ignoring the history of racism isn't going to create educated people who can confront these challenges we need to confront them head on we need to recognize

106that yes this country has grappled and it's a great country and it has risen above those challenges because there were people willing to stand up and say that it's time to fight for our rights it's time for minorities and oppressed groups in this country to say yes we're americans too lgbtqtq people to say yes we're americans too and we deserve books in the library and we deserve a place at the table just like anyone else that's really what this is all about if you think public education has this potential to keep this country together and to serve a role in creating citizens who can face these challenges then it's important to try to find ways to come together and think about the big important issues and not get ground down in worrying about these individual

107concerns that we keep hearing about over and over the board has a very tough job and i just want to compliment you one more time on keeping it together and serving as good role models for our community thank you thank you [Applause] hello dianne popolis again i'm kind of changing the subject here a little bit um bill not that we're pushing you out but obviously the ball has started rolling i'm assuming about looking for a new superintendent um how is the community will the community be involved how is this process done um is there something that the parents like is there an email or a forum something for the parents of the school children and for people that don't have kids in the school but our taxpayers and we pay the superintendent's salary how are

108we notified as far as the process and who is picked and will there be eventually like a form or something where we can meet the final candidates so to speak or how is this done i'm guessing some of you have been through this before so you kind of know the process but for us in the community who are pretty naive to this how is this done if you can answer that i'm going to allow mrs payne to answer that question diane okay so we are doing thank you madam president um we are doing some focus groups and they will be on am i allowed to give out the date and everything um april 21st 20th so 20th sorry april 20th who is chosen to be in the groups are these like leaders community leaders or

109there are i believe six different groups is that correct and one will be parents um so any parents at 5 30 i believe if i'm correct i think it's an email um and then i believe seven o'clock is for the rest of the community i don't know how we're going to notify the community though and the website okay great so social media and the website okay okay so there will also be a survey link that will be on the website as well for feedback and when is this in april this is april april 20th april 20th okay all right thank you very much thank you all right thank you we're going to wrap this up and do we have a motion to move into executive session to discuss employee negotiations so moved second please call

110the world mrs payne yes miss jeslin yes ms cook yes mr tuttle yes miss breiter yes we now enter executive session at 8 53 pm