Mentor Public School March Board Meeting - 2022

001good evening the march 8 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 mr wade will you please call the rule ms breiner here ms cook here miss jessling present mr payne here mr tuttle president please join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance [Music] thank you i would like to welcome everyone to the march 8 2022 regular meeting of the men are exempted village 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 board's approval via the district's paperless board of education agenda system or docs the public can access the agenda through

002the 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 one zero two six 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 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 will now share some protocols regarding our public participation policy thank you madam president the board

003invites and welcomes public participation our board meetings at two times during the meeting the first opportunity to speak is typically after the approval of the minutes this opportunity is related to board agenda items only participants wishing to speak on board gender items are asked to come to either microphone located at the entrances our board policy policy 1.12 public participation board meeting requires those wishing to speak to announce their name address in the school or schools where their children attend if applicable each statement made by the 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 a topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard additionally there is a second opportunity to speak on

004any item one wishes that is near the end of the agenda again participants wishing to speak on board gen items are asked to come to either the microphones located at the entrances as stated before this opportunity to speak is also regulated by policy 1.12 public participation at board meetings when you come to the microphone i will welcome you and ask you to state your name address and if you have children in the district per the policy so i can appropriately record this information for our minutes once i have that information i'll welcome you to share your comments and your three minutes will begin at the end of three minutes i'll let you share your last statement and thank you for sharing your thoughts we will move on to the next speaker i would like to

005remind everybody that the board meeting is a session for the board to conduct their business the board superintendent and myself recognize and appreciate the public session as part of this business during the hearing of the public we ask that all speakers exercise appropriate decorum for the board to conduct its business specifically in the case of public participation all members of the community including but not limited to participants board of education members and district personality to be treated with respect people should speak in the appropriate tone and refrain from using inappropriate harassing or threatening language furthermore 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

006you to join us at the microphone when it is your turn we also ask that you have something to say you follow these guidelines that we will complete our meeting in an orderly and productive manner as well and ensure we're able to hear the comments and concerns shared please know anyone who repeatedly fails to comply with the expectations outlined above or deters the board from being able to conduct their business will be told to leave the meeting if at the end of the public participation the board or the administration do not make a statement please know this no way demonstrates a lack of care for your comments shared by our community the board of education wants to be thoughtful in their approach and will work with the superintendent or myself to evaluate the comments and

007shared and a response may be shared in a timely manner if and when appropriate again the intent of the public participation is for us to hear our stakeholders so that the board of education may use the feedback to best serve the community it is our hope that by clearly establishing protocols and expectations we can continue to have productive meetings that align with our mission vision strategic plan of matter schools as well as models for our students the appropriate way to engage in meaningful discourse thank you all right moving into approval of minutes we have a regular board meeting february 8th 2022 and a special board meeting from february 12 2022. so moved second any discussion please call the rule mr tuttle yes miss payne yes miss cook yes miss jeslin yes miss breiter yes ocean

008carries five zero thank you next we have hearing of the public on agenda items only we have two microphones on either side in the back anyone wishing to speak if you'd like to go ahead and come up and just form a line hi my name is michelle o'kelsic i live on cedarwood in men around the lake my children have graduated from manor high two of my daughters in 1999 and 2001. so thank you to the board for letting me speak at every board meeting we come without any assurance that our words will make a difference but still we are here that is hope i hope my words make some impact for action equity mean is fair access to opportunities and resources this is in regards to the transgender books equity what is the percentage of

009transgenders in men are schools what is the percentage and and how many books in the library regarding transgenders how many students with add and how many books in the library how many books for gays and percentages of how many gays in men are schools how many have diabetes how many are obese how many are mentally ill how many are thinking about suicide and how many books are in the library about that how about multi-racial children how many books in the library about that what's the percentage how many books about hispanics in the library and what's the percentage of students how many african-americans and what's the percentage of that and how many books in the library how many books for christians are in the library and what's the percentage of students in men are schools that

010are christian same for muslims buddhists jewish what's the percentage and how many books regarding each of those subjects are there for the students it seems to me there's an overload of one subject and not all the rest of the people that are involved in mentor schools you do understand that mentor schools are what 84 white so why all these books on transgender we need some white books so how many percentage do we know that are transgender and our 36 books too many thank you uh good evening i'm linda o'brien i live at 5842 tannenger court here in mentor i would like to speak on two items of the agenda so what i'd like to know is do i move to the back of the line for the second one before my three minutes starts please

011because you've already started my three minutes yes you'd come back up for the second item thank you so the agenda references a vote for the book to be reviewed called transphobia deal with it become a gender transcender i want to remind you that america provides six areas of protection from discrimination one is gender another is religion as a christian whose savior is jesus christ i would expect that if this book is approved you would also approve books that speak to the need to accept jesus christ as your savior faith and acceptance of jesus christ as your savior is a personal choice just as gender is it is not forced on anyone and nor should it be and you should and that should be true for all other personal choices as well if you won't add

012books encouraging choosing faith you will open the door to serious discrimination issues you are already guilty of reverse discrimination by pushing the agenda of the few and requiring the majority to lose their liberties america is a land that was founded by our founders knowing that liberties come from god not from government remember you are government so i would like you to stop acting like you are god what anyone does with their own body is their business i don't want to know and i will not judge that is the choice of an individual and it should not be pushed on anyone else nor should anyone else be punished because of that no rights should be lost and if you aren't concerned with causing the rights of individuals to be lost then maybe the latest news of

013today will get your attention as of today america's largest children's hospital that's texas children's hospital has paused all transgender activities because the state is in is going to has authorized probes into transgender activities as child abuse so for those who facilitate transition of chan of the gender of children may well be guilty of child abuse and texas has authorized such abuse probes for all those who are involved not just doctors not just the medical field but people like yourself please give this some serious thought thank you um hello my name is brady anderson and i attend mentor schools today is international women's day and i'm here to say that there are all types of women that should be celebrated on this day including transgender women my name is brady and i'm a student in the

014mentor school district i also happen to be transgender i've had to advocate for my rights since the first grade and while advocating for my own rights i've had to talk i've had to teach people around what it means to be trans and those people i'm speaking of are typically adults because most kids my age are accepting until their parents find out and give their input i know you have a book about transphobia and by the looks of the last meeting i think a lot of adults need to read it just by watching the last meeting it's evident the book should stay in the library there is no age too young to learn about different types of people i transitioned when i was seven years old and if people had been better informed about what that

015meant i wouldn't have to be here speaking today so students learning about this from a book in the library in a middle school shouldn't be an issue especially in 2022 when we should be more informed on the topic it's not easy going to school a lot of days for fear of getting harassed in the hallways being referred to as a man or an it it may be if we were more educated and people understood what it meant to be transgender school wouldn't be so tough for kids like me i know i'm not the only transgender student in the mentor school system and i won't be the last so my next question is going to be what are we going to do to make our school a safe environment for kids like me i also appreciate

016all the support up to this point from the administration but obviously with some adults being so concerned about me being in the girls bathroom i would appreciate if you let everyone in the district know that trans kids aren't going anywhere so parents like mine don't have to as people become more educated the more safe we feel to come out and taking books away is ridiculous especially when kids can use the internet thank you [Music] [Applause] hi i'm joanne anderson i've lived in mentor over 60 years i went to mentor high school both my sons went to middle high school my grandchildren are currently going to mentor high school i have a beautiful granddaughter that is an a student in seventh grade middle school she's loving caring and is transgender when she was about three years

017old she said to me grandma god made a mistake i'm not a boy i'm a girl i said how do you know she said i feel it in my heart i gave her a big heart a big hug and said oh honey god does not make mistakes he makes challenges for us god made everyone different god made chinese indian gays blacks mexicans whites and transgender people god watches all of us to see how we treat each other god told us to love thy neighbor every neighbor god made everyone even my transgender daughter when she said she was a girl we didn't just put a dress on her and go to the mall and buy her a bunch of makeup no we didn't do that that's not how this works we went through a lot of

018counselors and doctors we keep open communication with professionals even now our greatest resources have been books a lot of reading material people cannot go through life with blinders on pretending that certain people or lifestyles do not exist if teaching parents and children about transgender people through books can at least lessen the hatred tran hatred towards transgender people well that's at least a start everyone of course has allowed their own opinion it's the hatred i'm afraid of the hatred hatred turns to anger and anger turns to rage please don't teach your children hatred god made us all even the transgender people all transgender youth would just like to be left alone to live a normal life just like your children thank you for listening thank you [Applause] thank you um my name is lindsay wall and

019i live on beachwood drive in mentor ohio i have two boys in the mentor schools in preschool and at ridge and first grade um i have first of all happy international women's day a round of applause for the women on our board who definitely fought their way to get there we do a lot for our schools and for all of us and then the two women that just spoke the bravery from the young lady i admire you and you are inspirational that was incredible so thank you for doing that um i just wanted to um thank our board real quick for what they've done how they've handled the community and also recognize the fact that you guys are not pushing these books that are being brought up you are not advertising them these books are

020being brought to your attention you are not putting out you're not promoting that all of this is being talked about so when we hear people say that you know we don't have enough white books in our library we don't have enough books about different diseases or different hardships or diverse topics those are just not being brought to light i am sure that throughout manor in all of the different libraries there are a bunch of different books about different topics those ones just aren't being brought up so the same way that over the last two years unfortunately masks were so politicized and throughout it i thought to myself how is it so possible that someone else can try to make a decision that they're not going to wear a mask because that's basically making a decision

021for everyone else not wearing a mask means that you are not caring for your neighbor that you're not worried about spreading something to someone else and getting someone else sick and that was politicized so badly and now i feel as though these books are doing that same thing now we are taking these books and we are ramping them up and putting them out there they are being pointed out so many people don't even know that these books are in the library it is something that people go in searching for and checking out it is not being given to our students these books are not being tested upon they are not handing them out and saying hey go home and read this you guys are just bringing them up and pointing them out um and i

022think that it's important that there's so much diversity if you don't understand the definition of diversity and hardship that maybe you look that up and understand it a little bit more educate yourself i understand change is scary i think that right now there's so much change going on we all need to face it together thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is betty jacobs i am the founder and executive director of lgbtq plus allies lake county i do not live in mentor but i came because specifically i think there are some statistics that you all should know and besides that the misinformation i've heard today is appalling i don't know if you under know it or not but the number one killer currently today of youth 11 to 14 is suicide and that's across

023the board that has nothing to do with lgbtq now i'm going to tell you what lgbtq individuals are eight times more likely than a heterosexual individual to commit suicide if that doesn't raise red flags and be a need for education and knowledge to be brought to your schools i don't know what is there's too much info misinformation there's there's most of the time the the reason uh lgbt individual commits suicide is because of rejection bullying and no support whatsoever if you all could be just a beacon of light for lgbtq individuals youth to come to your teachers to your school to be able to be supported i think we wouldn't have this issue i am i i don't know what to say with just to know those statistics alone and for everyone to still be

024questioning why we need education i've always since i i founded the organization in 2019 and when i did i did it because there was zero mental health and addiction lgbtq anything in lake county i'm currently a social worker going on to my masters and hoping to bring lgbtq mental health and addiction [Music] any sort of anything even a support group to lake county you don't understand how far we are behind everyone else cleveland is amazing in in where they're at and their knowledge and understanding no one's pushing an agenda no one's trying to change your mind no one's trying to do anything um i hadn't i had a semi-automatic gun shot outside of my home a year and a half ago because i'm doing this i know how strongly it's not wanted if anybody people

025said then you know what are you sure you want to go ahead are you sure you want to continue i have children myself and by the way i get emails every day telling me i'm a pedophile because i have children that my partner and i raise in our home i think it's unfair the way you treat people [Music] thank you good evening my name is lauren marchas i live at 7816 oak ridge drive in concord i have two kids in the meadow schools district one at hopkins and one at memorial he is actually here tonight uh to be acknowledged for his role in the spelling bee recently i'm so proud of you honey um i went to mentor schools graduated in 99 and i remember the days growing up here when i went to the

026library in search of judy bloom's books when i was young and trying to understand myself and growing up and that was a really important thing for me libraries in so many ways offer the key to our own identities and our own understanding of the world around us i think it's important to remember and i commend the speakers previous to me i think it's important to remember that we're talking about this issue as if it's just an issue all right and and there are children at the other end of this this issue and they're not just any children these are our children they're they're your neighbors kids the people in this room all right and let's be thoughtful about that let's be thoughtful about who we're talking about because they're sitting in this room right now

027so i encourage you before you make this vote tonight to conjure up your compassion and your empathy for those kids thank you [Applause] okay well my name is ann anderson um i'm brady's mom i live in manor i graduated from mennor lived here pretty much my whole life everyone just stood for the pledge of allegiance and at the end it said justice for all i'm interested to see if that counts or not because you know justice for all means something you know imagine having to defend your child from people that you don't know just for simply being who they are not because your child has done anything wrong or is living a lifestyle that has been chosen my child was born transgender it is not living a lifestyle other than being accepted and loved by

028her parents brother and her sister and there is no choice besides her brother and sister there is no choice here i signed up to be a parent and to me that comes without conditions i guess to others there's a box you must fit into but for me this has been the most eye-opening heartbreaking and transformative experience of my life to have to watch your child's existence be up for debate is something i wouldn't wish on anyone my child is not a political pawn they can't be used in a game to satisfy small-minded ignorant people if any of these people were really concerned about a book that was came out in 2016 why are they bringing it out now what what's the deal with it now also there's transgender kids in the school and there's nothing

029controversial about that it's just a fact so why can't we teach children about transgender people because the only reason i was even or the only reason i was ever even given was religion or about being a lifestyle choice and my answer to both of those is it's it's a public school religion has no place in a public school period and it's not a lifestyle choice it's it's as a matter of fact you shouldn't be talking about religion in school pretty much at all and if in a public school and if you want to send your kid to a private school feel free my daughter was three when she was insistent persistent and consistent about who she was it took me four years before she lived as her authentic self she was the first transgender person

030that i ever met and to be honest i had a lot to learn and now that i have a better understanding everything is not so scary for me as a parent anymore there are a lot of trans kids around the world as long as we support and love our daughter she will have better odds than most with three out of four trans people children try to commit suicide because they're not accepted by their family or society and i won't allow anyone to take away the progress that my daughter's rights have come so far up till now i'm not going to allow it to go back her rights are non-negotiable my daughter i don't want her to become another statistic she's been harassed on the daily she doesn't want to have any or she doesn't want

031to speak out because she doesn't want to not have any friends and to educate people thank you yep i'll be back [Applause] hi there my name is lilia mozika i live in pine gate i went to manor high and graduated 2018 and one thing that i notice is i work in publishing i work primarily with kids so it's a lot of children's books and stuff like that and sometimes i wonder why i do that but then i was at a grocery store the other day and a kid pointed at me and asked why does she have pink hair and then pointed out another woman said why doesn't she have a basket why that's the thing kids are curious we want to make sure that kids have answers and you know what you may not like

032the answers you as a parent may not like the answer that a book gives a kid that's fine your kid does not need to pick up that book but there are other kids in schools there are kids that want answers to that why there are kids that want answers that you don't agree with but you don't get a pair of other children you need to make sure that there are adequate resources and you know what there's resources i don't agree with but i'm going to make sure that people have those the other thing that was mentioned was that there aren't any christian books again i work in publishing i can name a lot of publishers that publish just christian books but we're not talking about those are we we are talking about trans books and

033it's interesting to me because i am a queer woman that a lot of my friends are trans a lot of people i know and love are trans we don't get to decide how they live we don't to decide who gets to interact with them but i lost the train i thought i'm just going to leave thank you linda o'brien 5842 tanager court mentor ohio the second subject i would like to address is that in the agenda you represent or you you state a word that levies and i'm curious as to whether or not you are entertaining putting a levy on the ballot to raise taxes i would advise you that with the current issue swirling around mentors educational practices this would not be a good time to ask for funding in any form as i

034have mentioned before your primary goals must be to educate our youth in the areas of reading writing arithmetic and of course science we all know there are serious issues in all these areas in this school area add to that your violation of parents rights through your overreach of teaching things like crt and now social emotional learning and for those who may not be aware of social emotional learning this is a new gift from the foundation of bill graham bill excuse me bill gates with his hundreds of millions of dollars he wants to teach your children to be obedient citizens i've never used the word obedience with my children as a matter of fact i talk about kindness and respect for 50 years i have rescued dogs and a few of them needed obedience training but

035for the most part what i found was any young soul of any type needed just a safe environment where they could be helped and trained and supported and i suggest the same thing in our school district we do not need obedience training because our children are not dogs bill gates do not does not give parents gifts through his donations he separates our children from us just like he did with common core so i'm asking you that when you consider funding and accepting dollars from organizations like that of bill gates that you would anticipate what it might cause in terms of damage and that you would stop and accept the fact that right now mentor schools are having a drop in enrollment and it's not because of age citizens like myself because the enrollment at private

036schools and home schooling is certainly on the rise let's keep our public schools healthy strong and continuing to support our children in a positive way that the parents support and not compromise the parents authority thank you thank you good evening my name is bambi vargo i'm a mentor resident i'm here to talk about the book transphobia deal with it and be a gender transcender we all want our children to grow up to be kind and loving people who respect everybody regardless of their differences whether that's race religion national origin ethnicity physical ability intellectual abilities and even gender identity i want to in read from a report a scientific report strategies to prevent psychosocial stress stigma and suicidality risks among lgbtq plus students this will reinforce some of the comments that betty made earlier lgbtq plus

037students suffer higher rates of discrimination stigma and bullying there are numerous negative mental health and educational outcomes such as high dropout rates self-harm abuse of alcohol and drugs suicide low self-esteem isolation and depression the effects of bullying also end up shaping pivotal developmental processes among these students and significantly influence mental health disparities in addition high levels of victimization for lgbtq plus students are linked to reduce self-esteem few plans for secondary education increased substance abuse high suicide risks and increased incidences of depression the 2016 youth risk behavior survey includes data that shows that lgbtq plus students experience more physical bullying 33 percent versus 17 percent and cyber bullying versus 13 than their non-lgbtq peers and i want to add that this report was just published in september 2020 so it's a new report we all want

038our children to be kind and loving people this book is one tool that can be used to help them understand when they see transphobic behavior and how to be a transcender how to transcend that and step up for people who are being bullied thank you [Applause] good evening uh brandon sounds from mentor on the lake on marine parkway um i'm here to discuss uh the transphobia book as well and uh i'm struggling today um as i have been for quite some time because there's such thing as truth and there's such thing as ignorance um and we live in a society and i'm grateful that we live in a society where all voices are equal but the reality is that what those voices say is not everyone has a right to come to the might and

039to say what's on our heart and to be heard and to be valued and to be understood but truth matters and that 50 years from now 100 years from now the conversations that we are having the children that we are talking about are going to matter now i don't know if that's really being understood today um as we someone said we need white books i mean i would i don't have the time the energy to educate our community on on why that's problematic why we're still in 2022 confusing equity and equality i don't have the time for that but you can see me after and i'll make the time but i'm going to ask um that the board table the vote and i'm going to ask the table to vote because i think that we

040need to public debate i think we need the experts i think we need our medical practitioners our educators our parents our children the ones who are living these lives to sit and to talk and we need to hear and those who stand at these mikes and and spew this venom because that's what it is it's venom to be a black man in minor when i am one of look around and you can see for yourself that we need more white books how do you how do you think i feel just think about that and sure i chose i chose to come here we can say that but look at yourself in the mirror tonight and ask yourself you are he if you're me what would you think but please i encourage a public debate public

041debate so that we can be a part of this conversation thank you [Applause] hi my name is grace melser i'm a senior at this high school i wrote other stuff to read but it's supposed to be more on the topic after just hearing all this and going over the transphobia book i just think back to my experiences in this high school and i'm a senior i've had a lot of experience in high school and this past year i've already shared this um i had a teacher who would constantly call me ignorant and people who have my same conservative views that i'm ignorant for not being pro vacs or being for being anti-gun or having a certain political side and i am constantly made fun of on a weekly basis for the things i wear like

042this sweatshirt that has a blue flag on it or shirts that have an american flag on it which is funny because you know we're in america which is a free country i am constantly made fun of for it and what i don't see a lot of is students being made fun of for being gay or transphobic or being a part of the lgbtq plus community it is very much shown in our school that they are very welcome by the signs that we have in our school and the way that our teachers treat our students i don't feel welcome in this school because i support my dad who's a police officer and my great grandfather who served in the war in the korean war just because i wear a flag doesn't mean that i should be

043made fun of and students should not be allowed to do that and teachers should not be allowed to vertical ridicule people like me who have certain views it's a free country where a lot have different opinions and they should not be pushed on anyone personally i do not think that the book is as huge a problem because students do not take books out of the library it's not that common but the problem with the book is that it's bullying students who have different opinions and that should not be in the library i don't think that there should be more of either of those books any of the books the i don't think there should be more white books or more black books or more specific books i think teachers need to be teaching facts and

044history so that students have an actual education and are learning real things not about what gender they should be in school that's a home discussion between parents and child not between teachers and students i don't come to school to get made fun of because i support my dad he would die for anyone i go to school for an education so i can learn and grow as a person and not to be made fun of thank you good evening my name is dennis strauco 7413 south chestnut my kids both went to manor public schools and i have four grandchildren at mentor schools now and uh after what this young lady just said i don't have a whole lot to say i think she hit a lot of things right on the point school is for education

045it's a parent's role duty prerogative obligation and privilege to raise their children as they see fit and to teach them the values and the beliefs that those parents hold there it's not anyone else's place it's not the school's place and i have a couple questions i guess do you feel that teachers are better judges of what's right for our children than we are i mean limit what what goes on in these establishments to reading writing arithmetic and science that's what we're expecting out of you guys we pay you we pay you and that's what we expect to be happening uh but since we're already down this road and we're bringing in books and the idea of suicide and information and knowledge has been brought up i would like to recommend or request actually that some

046additional books be considered or brought into the matter school system one being by author abigail schreier s-h-r-i-e-r transgenderism the unintended victims and there are several books by author walter hayer h-e-y-e-r who himself went through two transgender treatments where he reassigned himself and he has several books one of which is called gender lies and suicide another is called trans life survivors so if we're going to be trying to understand all this better first thing we ought to do is help our children who are already struggling through these difficult times never mind what's going on in the world today uh just growing up is tough in itself and when we confuse them and cloud things with all this other nazis that wasn't even around when i was a kid what this this stuff's like made up we're

047only causing them more harm let them be kids stop ruining their innocence and pushing ideas on them that that are best left at home and several people have mentioned you know we all want our children to grow up respectful and treating others kindly and and equally you know and that that's true uh but it's that's the parent's role to do that in the house it's not the school's role to impose values or beliefs on our children it's our role to do that thank you thank you hi my name is katie mizika i've lived in manor for 14 years now both my kids graduated mentor high school i i just this is a book on bullying nobody should be bullied for any reason but i just have a statistic out of books this is this is

048the ccbc they every year they count how many books for about black kids about hispanic kids and about lgbt 3.36 that's the amount of books out there for lgbt that's it white that's the majority that's all thank you thank you um hello i'm back again but um i just want to say that excuse me can you restate your name for the record please oh i'm brady anderson thank you brady you're welcome um i just want to say that i'm not made up and that if i was going to be like i should never write but if like the girl said last time she said she doesn't see anyone in the lgbtq community getting bullied but i get like harassed every week and bullied a lot and i don't think anybody should be bullying anyone um

049yeah that's all i have to say thank you thank you hello my name is mike williams i live on walden court in mentor and i would like to address the board and the superintendent regarding the consideration of removing the book transphobia deal with it from the meadow middle schools this book is written by a self-proclaimed lgbtq activist jay wallace skelton after reading this book i have determined that it is not an informational book it's not even a factual book it does not provide the reader with any constructive advice on how to deal with transgender issues it does not discuss any ways means or solutions to the problems that a transgendered individual may face skeleton defines transphobia as when actions and or attitudes are based on certain assumptions he says that if you assume that everyone

050is either male or female you are transphobic that would make the majority of the world's population transphobic science claims there are two genders that's not an opinion it's a biological fact so skelton's book is based on a false premise in my opinion a lie if you will the author says and i quote when you misgender someone you tell a lie about them and the truth about yourself this is a real distortion i contend that if you tell children that are new there are numerous genders not just male and female you tell a lie to these children skelton's book is a bullying diatribe even the title has bullying overtones transphobia deal with it this is akin to saying like it or lump it or my way or the highway which declares you must believe what i

051believe or else you are this or that or transphobic if you believe there are only two genders you're transphobic if you believe transgendered males should not compete in women's sports you're transphobic if you don't use the pronouns i want you to use you're transphobic the content of this book is indoctrination and tries to tell you that if you do not believe what the author believes there is something wrong with you just because a group of parents does not agree with the ideas in skelton's book does not mean that they are prejudicial discriminatory or dislike any person they are not transphobic and they are not hateful i thought middle schools prided themselves on inclusion but i guess only leftist ideas are included this book does not allow inclusion of any other opinion it attacks those who

052don't agree with the author's ideas and pushes a certain agenda that only a small percentage would agree with having this book as a resource for fourth to eighth graders is a total waste of taxpayer dollars furthermore subjects like these should remain the purview of the parents and not our teachers or books in schools having this book in the school library undermines the authority of the parents of our middle schoolers to instruct their children as they see fit let's get back to more educating and less indoctrinating thank you liam my name is sarah holbrook i live on presley and my two stepsons have graduated from mentor schools i'm a children's author i've written 20 books or so for children and six textbooks for pre-service teachers in 2018 my novel the enemy detroit 1954 was awarded the

053jane addams peace prize from the u.n it's about the cold war era and book banning in particular and in those days the the books on the table were the grapes of wrath animal farm in 1984 which they thought were damaging the minds of children um my experience at the library is i explored a lot of books that i couldn't identify with i was taught things in school that i didn't identify with and i grew up to have a mind of my own and i think that all kids are on that journey and also i moved to mentor if you remember those dark days when mentor was on the today show for the number of suicides that we had at this high school and someone wrote to the news herald then and said that it was

054because of an atmosphere in the school of aggressive conformity and i worry that we're coming back to that that we're saying all kids have to conform to this model and if they don't we're going to reject them we're not going to give them the books that they need even if there's only one student at the school who needs that book that's a very important book to have on the shelf kids will seek out books that they make that they make a personal connection to and by the way whoever was speaking about social emotional learning that is not um a curriculum what that is is more of a i think it should be renamed social emotional response it's asking students to make a personal connection with the text and and see how they feel about it

055and in general kids are all a little bit traumatized right now it's been a really really tough time and i just think that they should be able to access whatever whatever books um that they need nice uh so i have my in closing my not every book is for every individual but i think all individuals in america need access to the books they want to read thank you [Music] [Applause] my name is lisa ragla whoa sorry my name's lisa raglow i live on donald drive and mentor my son goes to fairfax elementary school um lisa can you restrict your last name i apologize raglow thank you i'd like to first to wish everyone a happy international women's day may we teach our daughters to always use our voices proudly and and maybe teach our sons

056to support those voices making my voice heard is exactly why i'm here today i want to say aloud i do not approve of taking transphobia deal with it off the shelves in our district the free exchange of ideas and opinions is extremely important to teach our kids at all ages and i fear banning this book is just the start of a slippery slope just making bigger moves in terms of the rights and the visibility of lgbtq kids in the district we are seeing more legislation being passed across the country that hurt children in the communities and the banning of the lgbtq plus literature i fear would be a move in that direction to grow as a society we need to allow our kids to be able to learn about all the people who live in

057it pretending they don't exist will not keep your cisgender straight kids safe quote unquote it is only putting a bigger target on the kids backs who that who this ban will ultimately affect these kids need our protection understanding and love do this and you tell them they are less than their fellow students just for being who they are no one should be punished for that i want my children to learn equality acceptance and is not just mine and my husband's job it's the job of the community it's a job of the schools be that good example make the right choice protect these kids thank you to everyone in this district that's doing so and thank you for giving the opportunity to speak thanks thank you anyone else good evening again uh brandon towns uh man

058on lake marine parkway just to address the the second issue um i was brought up regarding levies all people like me who moved here stay here because of the high quality education that is here and we pay for it so i think it's in our interest if we want it to stay this way if necessary in after the conversations and discussions and listening to always go back to the ones that know best the educators the decision makers yes families parents grandparents aunts uncles businesses having those discussions after that we still decide hey in order for us to remain a top tier educational system in lake county we have to pay for it we talk about law enforcement officers that risk their lives they pay for it for the freedom is never free we're paying for

059it and once we get to the age or the position that we don't feel like it needs to be paid for there's a big problem not speaking in favor or against um but i do think that we need to remind ourselves growing up freedom's not free and also i think it's important as i have continued to say and i will continue to say discourse and dialogue are the bedrock of this great nation whatever decision we make however we're going to talk about it let's do so civilly and again i don't think i said it enough last time or i might have rushed it i think we need a public debate discourse conversation because us seemingly going back and forth and the applause on both sides it's not going to get us anywhere but we all

060listen to someone if they're sharing a stage hopefully one of the voices will be louder thank you hello thank you for the opportunity to address the board and the administration this evening i'm len mazek i'm the third musica in the in the group that was my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter and i'm so proud that they wanted to come tonight and join to to express their opinion i am against the removal of the book i think that book needs to be there and i have a quote that i would like to read to you from ruden sims bishop who is an author and an educator and it says books are either mirrors windows or sliding glass doors and that's important in the act of resistance you need that mirror to see yourself to know what you

061can be and know what you are and then you need to see that window to see into someone else's life so that you can understand what's happening around you in the world and that you may not have noticed at first glance and you need the sliding glass door so that you can step into someone else's life walk in with empathy and use that empathy to make yourself heard please do not ban this book thank you thank you [Music] my name is jan shaneman i live on jackson street in menner my kids all went through the mentor school system they are now long gone but um regarding the levees we have got to stop raising our taxes we are being priced out of our homes senior citizens we can't come up with more money every time

062you decide that everybody needs a raise we've got to stop raising taxes thank you [Applause] mike williams again walton court and mentor regarding the levy i would like to remind the board that if you plan to put an additional school levy before the men of voters in november you can ill afford to alienate so many conservative parents and families in this school district you have to start to listen to our pleas and concerns which have fallen on deaf ears over the last several years if you continue to support left-wing ideologies that actually have nothing to do with educating our children how can you expect us to vote to fund what we oppose i hope you think about this long and hard and about the potential long-term financial harm you could do to this school district

063by insisting on supporting agendas the vast majority of us do not agree with if this school district descends into a financial deficit it will be because of the decisions the school board makes that will compel many conservatives to vote against the levy who would otherwise support it thank you anyone else speaking on agenda items only real quick and anderson um be a lot lighter than the last guy um please make sure you address your comments specifically to the board okay i'll address them to you what's happening right now is a political agenda not from the left nobody's bringing these books out these people are coming here angry about nothing my daughter's transgender they don't even know any transgender people why would you anybody listen to people that don't know anything about the topic do they

064have transgender children do they know any trans people do they have any friends that are transgender because it does matter it matters to me it matters to my family it matters to all the lgbtq kids in the school because they're the ones that are having a tough time not the straight white people it's it's just not happening so that's it i it's just i'm sick of the back and forth nothing's going to get accomplished if i thought that i could bring more awareness and i could stand up here and talk about what it means to be trans as far as through my daughter's eyes i don't know and i don't want to speak for the community but i don't think it matters they don't care they just don't want to hear about it anymore they

065want it gone they want the books gone they want everything gone and that's not going to happen and there's more of us than there are of them i really wanted to also take the time to appreciate and say thank you to you guys who have had my back because it's the law it's just what it is and there's not take you're not taking it away from my daughter you're not taking it away from any of the trans students in the school system if you have any questions about what it means to be trans look me up like i said the last time but you don't you don't that's it thank you all right saying no more speakers we're going to move on thank you all right next we have superintendent's report and recommendations mr port

066good evening madam president members of the board i have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items 581-586 so moved second any discussion please call the roll miss justly yes miss cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motion carries 5-0 madam president and members of the board tonight we are recognizing several outstanding students and staff for their achievements i would like to invite mr hammond to the podium to begin the presentations good evening madam president members of the board mr porter and mr wade after a year hiatus due to covet our district spelling be resumed on january the 19th for the middle school finals and january the 24th for fourth fifth and district-wide championships this evening it gives me great pleasure to take the time and

067recognize good things from our students these i'm going to recognize our spelling bee champions at the middle school level we also had runner ups and we're going to recognize all of them these students excelled at the building level by winning their respective spell downs before moving on to our district competition and students before i have you come up on stage what i'd like you to do is meet me up here i'm going to shake your hand as i introduce you stand up here until we have all the students and then i'm gonna have you go across with the board members shake their hands and then you can go back off the stage again okay perfect congratulations to the following students champion in grade 8 tyler rhodes grade 8 runner-up noah hollander grade seven champion gabe

068tollenson grade seven runner-up maddie papua sixth grade champion tyler granito and sixth grade runner-up joey machaza i would also like to recognize our two elementary winners both from ridge elementary school grade five champion brandon hancock and grade four champion cameron low at the district championship on january 24th tyler rhodes finished first overall in the district and we had a tie for runner-up between tyler granito and cameron lowe also i'd like to mention that tyler rhodes competed on february 1st at the lake county spelling bee and finished runner-up congratulations to all these students there's a certificate i would like to invite mr crow to the podium for high school recognitions madam president members of the board mr porter and mr wade i'm excited to be here this evening to recognize many many outstanding groups from mentor

069high school but we're going to start with our four mentor high school students who qualified as national merit semi-finalists earlier this school year and now have been recognized as national merit finalists their effort hard work and academic excellence should be celebrated and something our students families and school system can all take great pride in some basic uh background information from the national merit scholarship program of the 1.5 million nationwide psat test takers from the from the 2020 2021 school year about 50 000 with the highest scorers qualified for recognition in the national merit scholarship program with the top fifteen thousand qualifying as a finalist in september of this school year students were notified they have qualified as a semi-finalist and then in march our students learned they moved on as national merit finalists this means

070our students that we're about to recognize this evening tonight are in the top one percent nationally and i did say last school year it has to do with what they took the test their junior year then they earned this recognition their senior year besides the recognition is national merit finalists our students are also eligible for national merit scholarships corporate sponsored and college sponsored merit scholarships as well at this time i'd like to introduce our national merit finalist ashley sivation [Applause] rudy donda [Applause] we have two more students as well ethan eskins and jack webster [Applause] one more round of applause for ashley rudy ethan and jack next we're going to recognize the mentor high school speech and debate team and rather than i guess myself give the summary of their outstanding accomplishments i'm going to

071invite their coaches mrs amy roediger and this is tracy coleman madam president members of the board mr porter mr wade on behalf of the team i want to thank you for inviting us here tonight to receive this recognition mrs coleman and i could not be prouder of our team because we had one of the best seasons that we have had in mentor high school history i'm joined here tonight by three students who this past weekend participated at the state speech and debate tournament and i thought i would just say a sentence or two about what they did and how it went this weekend so the student in the middle is caitlin wong and caitlyn participates in an event that's called informative speaking she has written and delivers a speech that teaches us something caitlyn's speech

072is called how to see and be the best you and by listening to it we learn about the importance of self-efficacy and informative speaking is the only event in speech and debate where you're allowed to use visual aids caitlyn in addition to being a talented speaker is also a very talented artist and she created her visuals which are poster size and work like a pop-up book so there's flaps that pull out and things that she's flipping and adding the whole time she's giving the speech and teaching us things we are so proud of her qualification congratulations caitlin doug slovenkay is standing directly to my left and doug does an event called dramatic interpretation in dramatic interpretation doug performs a 10-minute section of a play or a story doug's selection this year was the curious incident

073of the dog in the night time in his 10-minute selection doug portrays a youngster his father a policeman and a neighbor and this was doug's first year on the team and he qualified for states in his first year which already seemed like created a quite an accomplishment in addition at the state tournament doug's preliminary scores earned him advancement to quarter finalists so doug finished in the tournament in the top 24 in the state congratulations doug this coming weekend because doug is a first year member of the team he's going to compete in a state tournament that's designed specifically for novice members of the team so we'll see how he does on saturday and then all the way to the left is cayden coleman and caden's event is called declamation in declamation you deliver someone else's

07410-minute speech as if it were your own and cayden's speech is called advice from a kid with a wooden leg it's a very funny reminder that we have to roll with the punches in life and when something gives us a curveball we have to just go with it cayden is a third year member of the team and the captain of the speech team and earned a lot of recognition this year like doug his preliminary scores at the state tournament earned him qualification to the quarterfinal round and he finished in the top 24 in the state congratulations cayden this was kayden's second appearance at the state tournament and what's next for cayden is that he is qualified for the second time for the national speech and debate tournament in june it will happen in kentucky and

075cayden will represent our team with world schools debate in june so congratulations to all three of you on a great showing this weekend thanks purchased the next great group of students we're going to recognize tonight are from our art program and this is about the scholastic art and writing awards with the following students and their and i'm also going to name a couple teachers please join me on stage isabella graham lola frenchko haley berker arushi jarger arige mirza teresa morick paige stanek caitlin wong hayam elimari devin ambrose luciana delgada vega and maggie holly as they're coming on stage i'll tell you a little bit about this amazing uh accomplishment oh also their teachers mrs kane and mrs ambrose you know if you just want to be able to write around i'm going to pass something

076out to you the alliance for young artists and writers is a national non-profit organization established in 1994 to identify motivate and validate the next generation of young artists and writers the alliance tracks the creative development of teenagers across the country each year through the scholastic art and writing awards program this program is the longest running recognition program for creative young people in the country the awards were launched in 1923 by scholastics the global children's publishing and media company to encourage foster and reward creativity in our nation's classrooms each year students who excel in the visual arts and creative writing have the chance to earn recognition have their work exhibited or published and to earn scholarships now rather than just tell you about the amazing uh talents of our students and their artwork we are going

077to show it to you so i would ask our students when your piece artwork is on is shown behind us if you can just take a step up and wave to the audience [Applause] lovely [Applause] congratulations [Applause] hmm [Applause] one more just very enthusiastic round of applause for our amazing artists we'll just go down congratulations i'll get it the amazing art is just going to continue here for our mentor high school students and you know i saw leland in the stage around in the stands so leland krantz please join me on stage lake trans wrap the bus contest was open to all lake county middle school and high school students or students enrolled in lake county area schools area students were encouraged to design a bus displaying the theme lake county pride and to include

078iconic images of lake county and or promote public transportation this is the second year in a row a mentor high school student from our digital arts and design class where leland is actually in level two has won this award and you're going to see his picture in a second but leland's winning design is titled creating a cleaner lake county and is designed highlighting lake erie with bright blue water a sailboat a lighthouse and a shining sun we are very proud of leland and his amazing design his talents and we are excited to see his design wrapped around a lake tran bus very soon that will be used in our community congratulations leland nice job madam president members of the board finally i would like to invite mr hammond back to the podium for the last

079of the evening's recognitions and before i move on those spellers who are still here don't leave in my excitement to get you up on the stage i have a certificate for you so when we're done meet me by the back door over there madam president members of the board mr porter and mr wade the presidential award for excellence in mathematics and science teaching honors the dedication hard work and important role that america's teachers and mentors play in supporting learners who will be future stem professionals including climate scientists mathematicians innovators space explorers and engineers at this time i would like mrs nowwalk to please join me on the stage established in 1983 this presidential award is the highest honor kindergarten through 12th grade mathematic mathematics and science teachers can receive from the u s government each

080year the award criteria alternates between kindergarten through sixth grade and then seventh through twelfth grade teachers this year kindergarten through 6th grade will receive this award award recipients over the years represent schools and organizations from all 50 states washington dc puerto rico and the u.s territories of american samoa guam commonwealth of northern mariana islands and the u.s virgin islands nominees complete a rigorous application process that allows them to demonstrate deep content knowledge and their ability to adapt to a broad range of learners and teaching environments a panel of distinguished mathematicians scientists and educators at the state and national levels assess the applications before recommending nominees to the white house office of science and technology policy teachers are selected based on their distinction in the classroom and dedication to improving stem education the national science foundation

081which manages the presidential awards on behalf of the white house office of science and technology policy provides each recipient ten thousand dollars award recipients also receive a certificate signed by the president this year only two ohio teachers received this award it is my great pleasure to congratulate our own mrs stephanie nowak fourth grade teacher at fairfax elementary for receiving this outstanding award congratulations mrs thank you one final applause for all of our award winners tonight to all of our students and mrs nowak of course congratulations on your success thank you for coming tonight we're going to take a short break for anyone who would like to leave we'll resume in about three minutes thank you congratulations [Music] sure congratulations thank you uh you're always welcome all right i'll see you karma thank you back to

082business here thank you madam president members of the board this evening we have several policies on the agenda for a first reading because this is a first reading no vote is necessary moving on to the book review recommendation a book was brought to my attention and a formal challenge was made to the book and one of my options was to appoint a committee to look at the book and make a recommendation to me who in turn would make a recommendation to the board so i'm going to read the uh the committee's recommendation to me uh signed by assistant superintendent mr hammond at the end per mentor school's board policy 7.25 the superintendent recommended establishing a library review committee in response to a request for review of instructional materials form that was submitted a committee consisting

083of high school and middle school principals high school and middle school teachers a media specialist parent liaison district administrators and a crossroads counselor without voting rights met to review the request for reconsideration of the book transphobia deal with it and be a gender transcender and its inclusion in memorial and middle and mentor high school libraries each member read the book in its entirety and reviewed the submitted reconsideration form after deliberate and lengthy discussions on the potential merits and concerns of the book associated with retaining or removing access or access to the book from students using school libraries the committee unanimously recommends the transphobia deal with it and be a gender transcender remain in mentor public libraries that serve middle school and high school students after these deliberations and review of board policy 7.25 the committee

084identified the following reasons for the recommendation book was recommended by the school library journal for grades 5 grades 5 and up the text does not meet the criteria to be labeled as profane or obscene the book contains information and perspectives that are not widely represented this depiction includes the difficulties transgender individuals may face including bullying and suggestions and how to handle them this book exemplifies the notion in the library bill of rights that libraries must put principle above personal personal beliefs and prejudice to provide access to a wide range of materials the book aligns with current board adopted health standards in grades 6 through 12 specifically explain why it's wrong to tease others based on their body type or other personal characteristics grades six through eight understand the importance of treating others with caring and

085respect grade six through eight demonstrate support and respect for people with differences cultural disabilities gender and sexual orientation grade six through eight identify strategies to advocate for the needs and rights of others effectively and respectfully grade six through eight object to teasing of peers based on their body type or other personal characteristics grades six through eight advocate for a positive and respectful school environment that supports pro-social behavior grades six through eight acknowledge that people have different body shapes and sizes and other personal characteristics that make them unique grades 9-12 make a personal commitment to show respect and consideration for others grades 9-12 demonstrate respect and support for diversity grades 9-12 objective teasing appears based on their body type or other personal characteristics grades nine through twelve advocate for a positive and respectful school environment that

086supports pro-social behavior grades nine through twelve the book encourages strategies for promoting ethical treatment of others including ways to use respectful language and to validate the ideas of others even if they do not align with one's own the scenarios help to address both sides of the issue while giving students healthy guidance and how they treat others board policy 9.10 states that the board board of education shall not discriminate on the basis of sex in the educational programs or activities of the school district this prohibition encompasses discrimination based on an individual's gender identity including discrimination based on an individual's transgender status many students face bullying harassment and discrimination based on sex stereotypes and assumptions about what it means to be a boy or a girl students who are lgbtqi plus may face harassment based on how

087they dress or act or simply being who they are it is important to know the discrimination against students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by federal law it is also important that lgbtqi plus students feel safe this book provides examples of ways that lgbtq plus plus i plus students could be harassed and bullied and how others can support them resources are provided to support a segment of the population that faces an increased rate of suicide depression and bullying the library bill of rights calls on libraries to provide materials on opposing sides of issues so students may develop critical thinking this book provides perspective that all students may not consider or even have access to in their daily lives as a public school we have an obligation

088to give students access to different types of texts and the opportunity to see themselves in the books they read the book allows all students to assess their understanding of trans issues and says more re says after readers are posed with questions that some people might have more to learn about sex gender stereotypes trans people and transphobia your beliefs and opinions could be making it harder for people around you learning more may help in response to the complaint the committee reviewed ohio revised code section 3313.666 the law defines harassment intimidation and bullying to be any intentional written verbal electronic or physical act that one student has taken against another student more than one time that resulted in either physical or mental harm the bullying must also be sufficiently severe persistent or pervasive to increase to create

089an environment that is threatening intimidating or abusive for the victim under the legal definition of bullying in schools the committee did not agree that the book could lead to bullying further the book aligns with board policy 6.19 which addresses the student code of conduct dealing with harassment intimidation or bullying in closing the committee feels the book was appropriately added to and should remain in library collections in accordance with board policy 7.25 i read the book as well independent from the committee i appreciate very very much the amount of time and effort and thought that the committee put into the book and i recommend to the board the committee's decision to keep the books in the school so a vote at this time would be necessary do we have a motion can we have discussion after

090we have the motion please oh so moved second and discussion mr porter i just had a quick question um i just caught this now that the media specialist was also included in the committee is she the same person who put the book in the school she was okay so was she given a vote she was what was the thought process behind that only the only reason i'm asking is because we want diversity of thought in there as well and if we have somebody who we already know how exactly they're going to vote on it i don't think that person should have gotten a vote um i would have to look at our work i don't have the board policy right in front of me okay but i think there is a recommendation to use media

091specialists there but i don't don't i don't want to be misquoted either i think it is in there okay i also happen to think it's a good idea since this really does center i mean that that is the the district expert but even absent her vote uh it was still a unanimous vote from the committee and i um i do just want to make some comments first i would like to thank every single person who spoke up today because i have done it in the past before i became a board member and it is not easy no matter what side of the fence you're on you're always going to get pushed back so i just want to let you guys know that thank you for coming and speaking up to every single person who spoke

092no matter what side you're on it takes courage to stand up for what you believe in and that is to be admired especially those who spoke that are students currently in school and it you know i did listen and it is clear that we do have some work to do in the area of bullying and as a former mentor high student and i went through all mentor schools bullying was around when i was in school and it was terrible me my brother and my sister all went through schools all different walks of life all different things that we were into and i think at every point we all had a situation where we were harassed or bullied so i just want to let you know that i am going to make a personal goal of

093mine to work on our anti-bullying policy and ensure that that gets stronger i would also like to explain my vote for the middle school library book transphobia deal with it and be a gender transcender i've always said i will always be transparent because i think that's really important so i wrote down some of my words and my thoughts on this and i just want to share it instead of just voting on it part of our district mission and vision is to ensure a safe learning environment and to provide a balanced high quality education i think it's imperative that when we pick materials for our children's education that we do so keeping these principles in mind the issue i have with the book is not the fact that it is referencing the topic of transgendered children

094as a public school i do agree that we have an obligation to give students access to different types of texts and the opportunity to see themselves in the books they read to that end i think a book outlining what it means to be transgendered is certainly acceptable for our library better yet maybe we should be including the children who are who we are buying a book for in the actual process and allow them to provide input in finding a book that they feel exempt exemplifies them to my understanding this is not how the book was picked the issue i see is that while allowing materials such as this particular book into our schools we're attempting to tell children what to think instead of allowing them and their families to influence their opinions on certain debatable

095issues there are a few pages specifically in the book that are dedicated to discussing how certain thinking is transphobic such as the belief that there are two genders furthermore the tone of the book applies stereotypes stigmas and labels to entire groups of people for having thoughts thoughts not actions that are not in alignment with the book part of having a high quality education is helping students to learn how to think and how to form their own opinions not teaching them what to think especially at such an impressionable age one of our initiatives this year is diversity diversity also should mean diversity of ideology we're blessed to be able to live in america where diversity is in all areas appreciated especially in the business world we should focus on teaching students kindness and empathy and being

096able to respect one another even when we disagree those are life skills that are greatly needed in today's world i do recognize that transgendered students have been bullied and at a higher rate than non-lgbtq students and that is not okay i believe we need stronger anti-bullying policies not only to protect the transgender community but to protect all students all students should always feel welcomed and safe in our schools it's been brought to my attention that there are also children who are not in the minority groups being bullied by some who are it is my opinion that materials or teachings such as this book could possibly further perpetuate situations like that as an elected official it is my duty to represent my constituents there is a perception in the community that parental rights have been violated

097this book undermines the parents right to influence their child's thinking on sensitive topics one of my goals is to help build trust between the community and the schools and especially with the possibility of an upcoming levy i'm very hesitant i'm hesitant to support anything that may contribute to the perception that parents rights are being violated and i will respectfully disagree with the recommendation to maintain the transphobia deal with a book in our middle school [Applause] anything else mrs pink thank you any more discussion having read the book i don't agree that the book creates a bullying posture for students who would read that that was just in my take on it and as a former librarian and somebody who understands collection development policies and sometimes the scarcity of materials i felt that this was a

098good choice to have in our collection [Applause] anyone else i would just like to state that i also read the book and i want to thank the committee for their time and energy on this project are we ready for the vote please call the world miss justly yes miss cook yes miss payne no mr tuttle yes ms breiner yes motion carries 4-1 [Applause] thank you madam president members of the board i am recommending approval of agenda item c1 related to certified personnel and c2 through c4 all related human resource matters i'm also recommending approval of agenda item d related to administrative personnel so moved second any discussion are there any individual items that need to be pulled out or can we vote on these as a group please call the wrong miss justly yes miss

099cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motionscary50 thank you this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you i think we are on board of education reporting recommendations am i right yes thank you [Applause] madam president members of the board if i may before we move on to the business section of the board meeting i would just be remiss not to thank mr funk for his 17 years of service to the mentor schools anyone who's been a part of mentor schools and has had the opportunity to work with mr funk as the assistant treasurer he came in very early on in mr wilson's career and was instrumental in helping the district continue to transition to where we're at today from a fiscal standpoint we were sad to see mr funk leave

100but wish him continued success as he heads on to euclid to transition into their next cfo after working with mr vasic as the board knows who was our interim treasurer so with that we did post that position after a lot of thoughtful discussion with mr porter we did make some changes and did some reassignments to the way that our administrative team would look and we consolidated the business operations position with the assistant treasurer position and posted it as the assistant treasurer and business operations position we did so because we believe if we found the right candidate we could best serve the district in overseeing our food service and our maintenance and facilities and grounds employees with regards to business operations and having someone assist us in our fund accounting side which is our accounts payable

101accounts receivable we felt if we could find the right candidates we could consolidate those positions which would then in turn allow the district to save uh over 680 000 over a five-year forecast by doing so with that change there's a little bit of a restructuring of our organizational chart uh the assistant treasurer obviously falls under the treasurer's chain of command so to speak in the organizational chart business operations has historically fallen under the supervision and guidance of the superintendent mr porter and i discussed based on the way that the two positions uh are married to each other quite frequently uh in my ability having sat as the superintendent and in the business operations seat and now is serving at the pleasure of the board as the cfo we felt we could move that position and

102all that it entails under our organizational structure so that position now falls under the treasurer and will report to the treasurer moving forward and we feel that that will allow us to be more efficient and a lot of our processes and budgeting standpoints will again help us continue to save taxpayer dollars in doing so beyond the 680 000 that we will be saving from from the restructuring that we currently are expecting with that we had 11 candidates who applied for the position we had six great candidates that we brought into the interview process and it is my pleasure tonight to ask the candidate who we have just approved mr mike vacarello to come up to the podium and say a few words i've known mike since 2002 both as a colleague and an acquaintance and

103you know i'm proud to call him a friend as well mike comes to us with 25 years experience is a treasurer in both riverside and madison local schools he is a cpa so he brings a unique background and skill set to the department which we're excited to have and i would just ask mike to say a few words uh on his behalf um madam president members of the board mr porter mr wade i just want to take this opportunity to tell you how excited i am to join such a highly respected school district as the mentor public schools i just can't wait to start so may 2nd can't get here soon enough thank you mike [Applause] so as mr vacarello said he will start may 2nd in the interim time our team will be adjusting

104our duties and kind of sharing sharing the load and we will continue with the way that we've been handling our business operations with a team approach with mr porter overseeing the construction projects and mrs burnett overseeing the day-to-day again working with that great team in business operations which includes rick colar geneva caro fern mance and er excuse me fern and denise so we're excited to continue that looking forward to having mr vacarell here with us on may 2nd of the board amanda president members of the board is my pleasure to uh recommend to the board of education the approve of the following modern public library trustee appointment uh lisa weiner effective march 8 through december 31st of 2025 so move thank you any discussion please call the world miss gistling yes mr tuttle yes miss

105cook yes miss payne yes miss pryor yes motion carries 5-0 madam president members of the board mr porter it is recommended that we approve the frontline agreements do we have a motion second any discussion was that miss cook or miss jostling i couldn't i'm second thank you mr dressler please call the brawl miss payne yes miss jesselyn yes miss cook yes mr tuttle yes miss breiter yes motion carries 5-0 madam president members of the board has recommended that the shared resource center agreement be approved so moved second any discussion please call the role mr tuttle yes miss payne yes miss cook yes miss jesslyn yes miss breiner yes motion carries 5-0 that concludes this section of the agenda thank you legislative report mr tuttle thank you madam president the state board of education sboe performance

106and impact committee is developing new rules for the state report card as a result of the recently enacted house bill 82 which revised the state report card beginning 2021-22 school year the rules will establish cut scores component descriptions and rating descriptions for each of the components and the overall rating as the sboe works to set the cut scores committee members must factor in the 50 percent rating rule which requires no more than half of districts or buildings to earn the same performance rating in any component or overall rating the following following briefly outlines what measures are included in each of those components component one achievement this component is based on the performance index pi score which accounts for every student's level of achievement the maximum score will be recalculated on an annual basis to be

107the average of the highest two percent of pi scores the proposed cut scores for 2022 school year uses data from the 2018-29 school year progress this component uses two factors to determine rating the first is the growth index which looks to differentiate between growth that happened in growth that is expected the second factor used in this component is the effect size a measure that shows the magnitude of growth excuse me the sboe is discussing potentially delaying the effect size measure until 20 2022-23 school year report card early literacy three measures are included in the calculation of this component the first is proficiency in third grade reading which is the percentage of students who score proficient or higher on the state english language arts test the second factor is the fourth grade promotion rate which is

108the percent of students who were not subject to retention based on cut score determined by the sboe the third measure is the improving k3 literacy which measures if a school or district is making progress in improving literacy graduation this component uses two measures that are weighted to determine the rating the first is the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate which is 60 percent of the component rating the second measure is the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate which is 40 percent of the component rating gap closing this component measures if a district or school met the expected performance threshold for each of the measures a district or school that is less than 15 students in one of the student subgroups will not have that sub group included in the measure the measures included in the components are

109gifted performance chronic absenteeism english learner proficiency improvement graduation academic achievement in english language arts and math and academic progress in english language language arts and math overall rating the overall rating is calculated using a weighted weighting criteria specified in house bill 82 the proposed waiting for components included in the overall rating is outlined below achievement 28.6 percent progress 28.6 graduation 14.268 early literacy 14.268 gap closing 14.268 the sbo has until march 31st to adopt the rules for cut scores component descriptions and rating descriptions that's just around the corner i hope they're going to make it one more i'd like to read house bill 538 introduced by representatives kyle kohler and bridget kelly to temporarily allow a public body including a board of education to meet by means of teleconference or video conference until june thirtieth

110twenty twenty two that's it and i thank him mike again thank you i had a couple questions about the state report card do we know how the overall rating will be calculated where a district does not have that early literacy component included i'm i'm not sure of that would i i can find that out i'm just curious but i i can say there's an effort with the new report card to try to make it more understandable for all the constituents secondly it's giving more uh weight to improvement so you in the categories the gap closing and the project progress categories will recognize improvement even if we're starting with students that may start out with a lot of deficits if there's a lot of growth that will be recognized i'm not sure how that early literacy

111i will find out because since it's a third of that second three right you know um the other question i had was this is something that always baffled me is that as i understood it the graduation rate includes our students who are not going to be completing their studies in 12 or 13 years but will stay with us until they turn 22. has that been changed there's still going to be a four year and a five year cohort graduation so even though those students have significant disabilities and their their academic program won't be completed and i have to pause here and say thank you so much for the outstanding new program that has been developed to give real life job opportunities skills and training for those students i think that's a very exciting piece of

112our service profile but i just i've always found that to be a puzzle as to why the graduation rate is calculated in that way it is disappointing that you're punished with your scores for um you know working with a population that needs extra time to develop those skills yeah it just it seems so counterintuitive i've never understood why that exactly and legally are afforded the right to be educated until 22. yeah right i mean that you know the some students will participate in commencement and others don't they wait until they're farther along in their program so you know each it's so individualized as it should be and i just find it odd but thank you thanks mr tuttle this is jessalyn thank you so much for bringing that up those are really good points yeah

113i agree with you yeah because there's a significant number of districts that don't have the early literacy piece calculated in their overall profile you know yeah okay thank you uh student achievement report mrs cook all right well we heard a lot tonight about the many student achievements that we we have to be proud of in men are schools and in the interest of not duplicating reports i i felt the opportunity i'll use this opportunity to report on additional successes that we've had during this time if you have not had the opportunity to watch the latest video update from mr porter it is an excellent illustration of our students achievements so thank you for that a few other things that i'd like to note is that our memorial middle school power of the pen writers had

114three students qualify for the regional tournament they competed at a regional tournament that was hosted by hudson middle school this past saturday march 5th our shore middle school entertained audiences february 17-19 with their performances of sister act and the show was very entertaining with music dancing and several laughs congratulations to the cast and crew mrs petrino and the art students from sterling morton showcased their artwork recently at the talking art museum on march 2nd i and i know that i saw some of that artwork online it was beautiful i believe mr tuttle was there i'm not sure who else was able to join but a wonderful opportunity for the students to showcase their talent and we are also very excited to congratulate our 21 marketing and business administration students who qualified for the state deca

115competition the state deca competition will occur march 11th and 12th at the deca career development conference deca is a national organization to attract students to careers in marketing finance hospitality management and entrepreneurship endeca provides opportunities to develop leadership occupational skills civic responsibility and social skills and of our 21 state qualifiers we had nine students come in first place at the regional competition so best of luck to our students this weekend our mentor high school science olympiad team has also qualified for the state tournament and our mentor athletes have also demonstrated some great achievements recently three of our female wrestlers our girls bowling team the girls and boys indoor track team and one of our swimmers have qualified for the state tournaments and i'd also like to wish our high school boys basketball team good luck

116in the regional semifinals this thursday they are playing saint edwards in copley in february i highlighted the organizational structure that mentor schools uses to review data to assess student growth in the areas of literacy math and school climate with regards to things such as attendance and discipline and the district leadership team which consists of approximately 50 members met on february 15 to discuss district and building level data in these three areas the most recent data indicates that many academic areas are trending toward the pre-pandemic levels of performance and for example the district performed better than the national average in elementary i ready data in the area of reading the data suggests that academically our students are struggling the most with math in the fourth and fifth grade and the team is problem-solving supports to return

117student achievement to pre-pandemic levels much of the improvement across the district is attributed to the federal s or money to using the federal essa money to provide extra teachers in each building for reading and math interventions in small groups and in these small group settings teachers have implemented research-based programs such as rewards and sips in language arts and cba or cognitive behavior assessments in math the subcommittees which are math literacy and climate of the dlt will review the feedback from the meeting and update action steps the dlt will meet again in june to review the second semester growth and performance with an emphasis on data that is more useful for classroom instruction and improve student performance beyond the annual state assessments thank you all right chief financial officers report and recommendations mr wade thank you

118madam president members of the board mr porter it's my pleasure to give our monthly update on our financials as we have seen over the last uh eight months this is the slide that kind of shows where we're at as an overall organization we're trending currently about 540 thousand dollars better in our collections on revenue our year-to-date expenditures are trending uh favorably about 1.1 million dollars so the the net impact to the five-year forecast is trending better by about 1.7 million dollars this is approximately 800 000 better than we were even showing last month so we continued to trend in a positive direction i just want to point out a few things from a revenue standpoint so if we compare february revenue collections compared to last year the revenue collections for this month are up about

119one and a half million dollars that's primarily because of the advance that we received on our first half tax collections which are our second collection of the year as we are in the later half of our fiscal year which doesn't align with the calendar year so we did receive the first half advance on our collections of 24.5 million dollars this advance is about two and a half million dollars more than last year the auditor determines how much that advance is going to be with the remaining of the money coming typically in march so that accounts for the majority of that you do see that our state revenue is down by approximately a million dollars when you compare february of last year to this year that was because there was a catch-up last year in february

120that they they would catch up districts in october and february speaking down with the ohio department of education our catch up came last year excuse me in february so there's nothing out of sorts with that it's just the it's just a comparison when you're comparing months to months and the old system on the way that we're funding students on the new system so i just wanted to point that out to the board as well when you look at year-to-date collections which is the bottom part of this chart here we are about 2.3 million dollars better than last year or to date and again the majority of that is because of the collections that we received in advance from the county auditor moving forward again we're showing a 542 862 trend to our favorable revenue collection

121uh this is primarily because of restricted aid grants coming in at about 700 000 higher than projected which is uh basically because of increased funding that we're receiving for students with special needs that are attending preschool as well as our catastrophic costs would be increasing this year based on the new funding model as well as some credits that we received from last fiscal year that weren't accounted for again the largest impact on a negative standpoint would be our investments that is to be expected as you remember from the appropriations presentation or you may not and i will remind you i wouldn't hold it against you if you didn't remember is that we are expecting a much lower rate of return on our investments because we had some investments last year that came to maturity so

122that include was included in that one point i believe eight million dollars that we received in investment interest last year uh as well as we had the correction uh for the uh updating and correcting of the way that we were uh when we switched to red tree to the way that we were counting the cash flow on that so that counts for that a little bit as well overall we are trending again which is the best part in a positive direction i would just make note to the board in the community this 542 thousand dollars does not account for the almost six hundred thousand dollars in grants that we're still looking to receive based on the work done by mr lynch and mr woodworth on some of the grants that we received we don't account

123for those because we're cash based until we receive those grants so we're hoping that that would continue to trend and we could almost be seeing a revenue potentially of a 1.1 million dollar higher than expected in our forecast which is still pretty good percentage-wise means i was only off by a little bit over one percent on my revenue calculations looking at our expenses if we compare our expenditures this year to last year our actual expenses were down for the month by 241 thousand dollars again we continue to tr us we continue to trend lower than expected on purchase services and all their expenses i'm totally for a difference of that 241 thousand dollars our salaries and benefits are a little bit higher than expected from last year which is to be expected based on salary

124increases and step increases that we have and if we compare the actual expenses to uh year to date to last year again we're trending higher by 2.1 million dollars and again you've heard me say this every month that's mainly because of the transfer outs that we have to the budget reserve as we continue to track our expenses as i stated were one million one hundred sixty six thousand three hundred ninety eight dollars better than we are uh projected in the five year forecast if our projections for the remaining few months come out to be correct primarily uh we are trending high in salary and benefits by 170 000 again when you're looking at it from a 68 million dollar standpoint that's a pretty good uh assessment and i would just point out that that's 315

125000 better than we were trending last month so we're closing the gap on the difference between what we projected and what we're actually trending at purchase services is down 294 thousand dollars so we're actually trending at a little bit less than what we expected overall for all of our purchase service all of our other expenses are down 1.2 million dollars which gets us to the 1.1 million dollars total of expenses that we're down as i talked with the board last month in the meeting i said i was going to dive in a little bit deeper to that and kind of figure out where i think we might be trending it is a little bit of a complication when we look at our projections based on historical norms of where we have spent each month with

126our new analytics with forecast five is a little more complicated than typical for a multitude of reasons one obviously we all know that i'm new so i have historical this is just the data that i have in front of me and looking at it but the real issue is more so from the standpoint that we made the policy change where we reclassify what a capital asset is for anything from 500 or more to 5 000 or more so you have to almost compare our what we call our object codes and our 500 codes to our 600 codes and try to mix and match and kind of figure out where we're going to end up lots of discussions with our team administrative team to kind of see where they're trending particularly as we get ready to

127gear up for the budget prep that we are starting hopefully by the end of the week so that we can get our budget again approved by the end of june for the next fiscal year and if i was to guess based on our grant that we received for the purchases of our buses that would reduce that expense by 135 thousand dollars where we think that we're going to end up with spending i would maybe i would be willing to assume and share with the board of the community that i would think that that number is going to be closer to 2.1 million dollars below where we were in the forecast again within two percent or a little bit less than two percent of where we're projecting so um two million dollars is a lot of

128money but when you're looking at a 116 million dollar budget you know it's it's we're talking less than five percent difference there so good news is we're trending better from a revenue standpoint as well as an expense standpoint but we are trending closely to our projected budget and you know continue to work with mr porter and the team to track those expenses and do our best to continue to do that i would just share preemptively before we vote on the next section there was i think some misunderstanding with regards to one of the items that's on my agenda with regards to the levy certification of the tax levies that is not relating to actually putting a levy on the ballot we're obligated by higher vice code to certify the lake county auditor or treasurer's work

129with regards to our millage rates and then the money that the taxes that we've already voted that are collected the board has to have the regulatory status to approve those so tonight all we're doing is actually proving and to be honest with the taxpayers here the taxes you've already paid for the first half so it's just more of a formality and a legal response that we have as a board this has nothing to do with putting additional money on the ballot and if you know we had our special meeting we've started those discussions but no determinations on timeline yet when we would ask for money and i believe the consensus of the group was we would do that sometime after the may update once we have a clearer picture on where we're trending from our

130expenses and our revenue at that time i would take any questions regarding the month's financials thank you with that i would ask the board to approve items b through f and the addendums that would be attached and acted on as one motion second any discussion please call the girl miss joslin yes miss payne yes miss cook yes mr tuttle yes miss briner yes motions carry 5-0 thank you do we have any unfinished business saying none do we have any new business i just wanted to mention how much i appreciate jeremy woodworth and the efforts of our i.t department to try to create the most secure usage of our computer systems and our all of our files and so forth the multi-step verification processes watching out for spam i think they've been wonderfully proactive especially in

131a complex climate like we are going through now and i know mr lynch is part of those discussions as well so just my appreciation for that looking out for the well-being of of the security of our systems all right next we have hearing of the public on any items good evening amanda alefey i live on marcie elaine inventor i have a son in middle school i just i want to start by thanking annie payne for her work tonight and for the work she's done so far quite obviously so passionately working for the people that voted for her got her on on the school board so um i wanna i wanted to start out by thanking her for that um as i listened to everyone speak at the beginning of the meeting um i think my

132overwhelming feeling and i think probably yours was too is just really kind of sad to hear all of the back and forth um i think not sad that there's even has to be sides at all but said that that um no one's understanding each other neither side is really understanding each other and i think um the problem from my perspective at least is we're spending so much time trying to tell each other how to think and what to think we're not spending enough time understanding each other's perspectives so i think i think in my opinion that that seems to be the problem here you know we all we all have unique perspectives and all have unique situations um but when we start telling each other what we're supposed to think i think that's where that's

133getting us into problems on a personal note my son is uh i'm not going to use the word bullied but my son is harassed at school he has been all year not because he's in any particular minority group but actually by minority groups um so again everyone every kid has something to deal with um every every adult has something i mean it's everywhere um so i think i would just ask everybody that's up on stage tonight that they would model for us and make it a priority to really understand everyone's perspectives all of the parents all of the students not just those in minority groups but everyone because this kind of meeting no one wants to come to a meeting like this i'm sure you don't and we don't either but if if we don't

134work to understand everyone's perspectives instead of telling each other you're wrong you're right that we're not going to get anywhere um so again that's why i appreciate what annie payne is doing and i hope that everyone here will consider i like to hear more discussion it's great to hear the board members speak we don't often do that so i'm really glad to see that and i hope that that will continue on forward thank you thank you hello my name is debbie usnick at matt 6121 brownstone court can you hear me you can't no can you restate your last name for me too please what was that your last name again please oh you snick i'm at 6121 brownstone court and mentor i have two children in the mentor school district the topic of transgenders being

135permitted to use their choice of bathrooms has been a hot topic not only in our schools but in our world it's a topic that there's no right or wrong answer but should be dealt with in a respectful way for both sides all students should feel safe and comfortable when using the restroom with that being said has anyone considered how the majority of the student population feels about sharing bathrooms with transgender students my son is in an elementary school and i know that he would feel embarrassed and violated and confused if a biological girl was standing in the bathroom waiting her turn or i'm sorry their turn to use the stall when my son was using the urinal my daughter who is in middle school would feel insecure and vulnerable if her pants were down while

136using the toilet and a biological male walked in in that vulnerable state would she not know the intentions of the other person i'm not implying that every transgender person has ulterior motives that's not my intent i'm bringing this to your attention how would other students feel i want the transgender community of students to feel comfortable using the bathrooms and i also want the majority of the student body to feel comfortable using the bathrooms as well by nature children are curious and that curiosity may lead to a transgender student feeling uncomfortable or violated if this is how minor school district is going to move forward then there needs to be a bigger conversation and modifications to the current restrooms or provide a dedicated restroom if dedicated restrooms are not a possibility then changes need to be

137made to the current restrooms if biological girls who are transgender boys use the boys bathroom sanitary product waste receptacles need to be installed in every stall so the student could feel comfortable disposing of their feminine feminine products discreetly as a woman we all know that our monthly cycle doesn't always fall on the 28th day like clockwork for those unexpected occurrences sanitary napkin dispensers dispensers are to be installed in all the boys bathrooms just as they are in the girls bathrooms the urinals should be removed to avoid any biological boys from feeling violated when a biological girl walks into the boys bathroom and sees their genitalia if the urinals cannot be removed then stalls with locking doors should surround the urinals the same goes with the lockers and the changing rooms i don't feel comfortable with

138curtains as they can be breached easily i prefer a full door with a lock a door that touches the ground would be preferred that way the person feels safe i'm not familiar with the shower stalls but they can be fitted with locking doors as well because the mentor school district is doing their best not to discriminate then these changes need to be made to the visitor and staff bathrooms as well thank you [Applause] hello again i am still in my zeke i live in pine gate and i've been a resident of minnesota for 42 years my husband my our two children two of our grandchildren all graduated from mentor high with taking advantage of all the wonderful diverse programs that mentor schools have offered through the years i have my last our last grandchild is

139a seventh grader at shore there was a cbs news poll that just came out the end of february that finds 83 percent of all americans say books should never be banned for criticizing u.s history 85 percent oppose banning them for airing ideas you disagree with and 87 percent oppose banning them for discussing race or depicting slavery what's more 76 of americans say schools should be allowed to teach ideas and historical events that might make some students uncomfortable and 68 say such teaching make people more understanding of what others went through while 58 believe racism is still a serious problem today so as far as your levies i'm not sure that this is a factor what i'd like to talk about very briefly today are the efforts by the state legislature to tie the hands of

140local school districts with house bill 322 327 and substitute house bill 290. house bill 322 prohibits the teaching of prohibited concepts including the idea that slavery and racism which is mere deviate deviations in the history of our country hb uh 327 would prohibit the teaching of divisive concepts and provides for heavy financial penalties for any violations the prohibited context concepts are loosely defined enough to frighten teachers from discussing almost any topic for fear of repay reprisals substitute house bill 290 would require the state school funds to go with the student not the public school district this is a blatant attempt to decimate the public schools in favor of private schools with no restrictions on their curriculum the bill allows non-public schools to be given maximum freedom to provide for the educational needs of their students

141i'm firmly against these three bills and would be willing to work with the board to stop their passage if these past public schools couldn't descen couldn't discuss disciples decisive concepts in private schools could discuss what i really wanted to thank you very much for hearing me thank you [Applause] were you going next okay hi sorry i just didn't want to um cut in line my name again is debbie usnick i just want to get back to the topic of bathrooms that i brought up earlier my question is how will you address those students who are gender fluid they will be going in and out of the boys and girls bathrooms depending on how they identify that day to devoid avoid any confrontation i request that a dedicated biological adult be assigned to each bathroom during

142the entire school day and during extracurricular activities to ensure there's no funny business i'd hate to see someone in a someone or a group gaming up on a transgender student or vice versa the second part to my question is how do you vet students to determine if they are transgender fluid or just a jealous ex trying to spy or harass on their boyfriend or girlfriend it would seem to me that all with all the privacy laws in place that you would not be able to ask each student to take a sexual preference exam before allowing them to use the restroom i feel that you're opening up a door to a very sticky situation which might have some legal ramifications on both sides since the majority of student of the student body is straight i highly

143suggest that the minority of transgender and fluid students use the private bathrooms the faculty lounge or the nurse's stations or office one more thought that i'd like to present when reviewing the bathroom policies is addressing those students who are victims of or are currently being sexually violated how would the victim feel if a person of the opposite sex and when i mean opposite sex has the anatomy of the opposite sex that comes into the bathroom when they are in a vulnerable state with their pants down when sitting in on the toilet in the stall their gentle blows are showing when they're at the urinal that student may fear that they'll be victimized again i could see this as a ps a ptsd moment and again by letting this person of the opposite biological sex into

144the bathroom you're ignoring other students safety and emotional state in an institution that we and our children are told are is safe i have many concerns on both sides of this issue i personally don't care if someone's transgender fluid catholic you know jewish whatever i'm living my life the way i see fit and others do the same i'm not living your life and you're not living mind so we can't judge but we have to respect and protect one another my statement comes from protecting the mental and physical safety of our students not a place of being insecure or ignorant thank you this is ruby she goes to orchard hollow and she said she wanted to say something tonight so she is going to read a couple of sentences i want to be safe i need

145you to help me feel that way [Applause] thank you ruby ruby still my heart i'm so proud of you you're so awesome um i'm lindsay wall i'm speaking again uh 7250 beachwood drive um i'm going to speak on different stuff real quick for you guys some recognition and some thoughts of my own that don't have to deal with the agenda or anything first off i have no words for the artwork that was shown earlier um i thought that it was absolutely incredible and so inspiring um i'm wondering if i know that we do like it's displayed here at the fine arts center proudly i'm wondering if there's a way that we can you know showcase these incredible young artists in a better light i know that we put it on the calendar that we send

146out and it's online for viewing they do the art show but a lot of members in our community don't know about that i know men are we have this incredible fine arts building and i know a lot of people actually actually even when i was little i remember doing going to the fireworks with my family and we always talked about how you know we were going to the art building everyone knows men are high as the building with the big red circle on it and i'm wondering if i felt like when i looked at all of the artwork up there that it was such an incredible expression of individuality and the diversity that mennor has and i feel like it told such a deep story i am anxious to get online and see if i

147can find these pieces or go back and watch tonight's video so i can look at it longer because the story behind all of the self-portraits and the artwork that they did i feel like that alone could help educate our community with modern times and what are actual students that are in the schools what they're going through how they're feeling the emotion behind that artwork i'm wondering if that's something we can look into the other thing is i want to thank the one school one book project that we just did and i know it was through the elementary schools i'm not sure where else but my son at ridge is in the midst of it we're almost done he loved it the teachers and all the staff has made it extremely fun and it's encouraged reading

148but it's also encouraged family time i'm sitting down reading a chapter with my son every night and my youngest who's in preschool is involved it's not only encouraged family time and bonding but also in the community because my friends kids who also go to ridge we're sharing the same book and it's awesome just to see everyone working on one project together so that was some positive feedback for you guys thank you very much thank you [Applause] okay hi uh this is my name is christina smelzer and 8535 hilltop drive so i do my very best to speak positively about this school district every chance i can as i feel it is important to represent and support hard work and dedication whenever possible this used to be true for mentor schools but over the past couple

149of years there are increasing instances where i question my loyalty and trust in a district that i once highly regarded as better than anywhere else i've experienced a disconnect a lack of transparency between administration and myself as a parent this has been mentioned here before and my daughter referenced it when she spoke but she is a victim if you will of bullying or harassment by a teacher by the way of feeling singled out when it was made known that she was unvaccinated along with being unmasked due to her exemption she is not shy about these facts and she is not afraid to stand firm in her beliefs amongst her teachers and her or her classmates the problem lies when the teacher does not accept those personal choices for exactly what they are a personal choice

150and makes it very clear during most class discussions like a daily basis that those who share her same beliefs are ignorant and have been misinformed by their their whole lives by their parents and those were quotes as much as she did her best to stand her ground it became too much to bear on one on more than one occasion the tip of the iceberg was a when one particular video on color blindness was shared and the comments made during the viewing were both inappropriate and downright hateful though the video was deemed both inappropriate and unnecessary by administration as well as not part of the environmental science curriculum the teacher did not receive any sort of discipline disciplinary action as far as we are aware if this is incorrect i would very much appreciate an update

151as it's been five months and we've gotten no such update the only action that was taken as far as we know was on our end and it resulted in choosing to remove our daughter from the classroom it was her choice when it became clear that the teachers actions were not going to stop anytime soon just as much as it's a right for those who identify as transgender to feel safe emotionally mentally physically my child and all children have a right to feel safe as well and that includes from their teachers it's unfortunate that her classroom did not feel like a safe place at least not one where all opinions are accepted are valued another area of concern and a big topic tonight is a subject of reading content in the school library i was curious

152and did a little research on my own to discover that there are more than double the anti-police and police brutality books than those that support the police or even discuss law enforcement in general among those against police including 15 copies of the same fiction book about police brutality of the six to eight books that i found that are pro police three are children's books one was about police dogs and the rest cover law enforcement in general like about drones not a single book about police here officers being heroes the outstanding work that they do in our communities including our schools or about the sacrifice they give just for donning the uniform perhaps the selection committee could consider researching this type of book i have a feeling that students of all ages would appreciate reading about

153our true heroes including those that serve in our schools on a daily basis thank you [Applause] good evening brandon towns again marine parkway and i mentioned on the lake um so i have a lot so i'll try to be quick but clear just to address a couple of things that i heard from the stage today or remember pain i really appreciate that you have a personal goal to address um the anti-bullying policy um but what's interesting to me is that i'm not mistaking some of the constituents that you support only are in favor of reading writing arithmetic so i'm just curious how those two things come together um because addressing school volume school bullying kind of aligns with seo which again some of the constituents seem to be against you mentioned certain thinking being transphobic

154and i was wondering can certain thinking be racist can certain thinking be sexist can certain thinking be anti-semitic of course so is there really an issue with certain thinking being transphobic there was a comment about diversity in all areas and respect when we disagree but there's a difference between disagreeing with an idea and agreeing with who i am as a person and that's something that i would not encourage anyone to respect don't respect anyone who refuse to see you as you are don't violate their dignity but they get no respect there was a comment about undermining parents rights to influence their child's thinking and i was curious again whose child has actually read the book that it's violating their parents right to influence their child or is it just the fact that the book exists

155and excuse me i'm pretty sure that they said you won't talk when someone's at the podium um there was a comment um about again violating parents rights and you speaking representing your constituents and you wouldn't support anything that contributed to parents feeling like their rights was being violated and i respect that what happens when parents have conflicting rights and what one person's right is conflicts with someone else do you support both or do you only support those who voted for you in that case is it really the mentor board of education you sit on or the anti-paying board of education you say thank you [Applause] hi debbie usnick again at 6121 brownstone court i guess i'm taking back on the comments that were just made to be targeting specific board members i'm truly sorry that

156that happened one of the things i did want to talk about was something at my daughter's middle school she goes to shore middle school and whenever i stop by the school and i'm in the office or the nurse's office i notice on the door jam there's a laminated card with a rainbow on it that reads safe place i'm sure this was meant as good intentions but having the rainbow graphic on it seems to be discriminatory and gives the impression that the this is the only safe place for only the lgbtqi plus community there are many students within the school that have other issues and concerns they'd like to be reassured that there's a safe place within the school to address them how do those students who suffer from anorexia or bulimia know that the office

157and the nurses station is a safe place to go how do those who are obese or get made fun of when they're bullied where do they go how do those of color know that there's a safe place to go when they're targeted how do those that are being assaulted at home know that the office and the nurses station is a safe place to go i could go on and on what i'm getting at is the sign states that this is a safe place but the rainbow makes it appear that it only applies to those who are in the lgbtqi plus community and that the lgbtq plus community takes precedence and is a priority over others it does not assure students who are suffering in other ways that this is a safe place to go i

158think that those shy signs should be replaced with a generalized sign with no graphic that just reads safe place or you can remove the signs altogether and just make the announcement that to the students on the first day of school and periodically in advisory that any student with any concern is safe to speak with any staff member at any time the particular groups you are focusing on or targeting do not need to be mentioned just that staff member will take your issue seriously thank you anyone else all right thank you very much i will entertain a motion to go into executive session to discuss employee negotiations we do not expect a vote tonight so moved second please call the world where's jocelyn yes miss payne yes miss cook yes mr tuttle yes mrs bryner yes

159looking to adjourn to executive session at 9 41 pm thank you