001good evening the february 8th 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 roll miss briner here miss cook here miss joslin present mrs payne here mr tuttle here please join me in the pledge of regions allegiance divide the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you i would like to welcome everyone to the february 8th 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
002for the board's approval via the district's paperless board of education agenda system or docs the public can access the agenda through the school district's website the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing the sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and chief financial officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information this meeting is being televised on a delayed basis and will be shown on spectrum cable channel 1026 and mennor and channel 1025 in 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 waite in his role as cfo and secretary of the board minutes
003will now share some protocols regarding our board participation policy good evening as regulatory agent and secretary of the board i want to take a few moments to again clarify our expectations for public participation at the board meetings to help ensure we continue to have productive and respectful meetings the board invites and welcomes public participation at our board meetings at two times during the meeting the first opportunity to speak is typically after the approval of the minutes and is on agenda items only there is a second opportunity to speak on any item one wishes that is near the end of the agenda participants wishing to speak are asked to come to either of the microphones located at the entrances our board policy policy 1.12 public participation at board meetings requires those wishing to speak to announce
004their name address in the school or schools where their children attend if applicable each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration and any questions must be addressed to the presiding officer no participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard i will welcome you to the microphone and ask you to state your name address and if you have children in the district per the policy so i can appropriately record this information in our minutes once i have that information i welcome you to share your comments and your three minutes will begin at the end of three minutes i will let you share your last statement and thank you for sharing your thoughts we will move to
005the next speaker at this time during the hearing of the public we ask that all speakers exercise the 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 personnel need to be treated with respect members of the audience should not interrupt or speak during when others are speaking if you have something to say we invite you to join us at the microphone when it is your turn we also ask that you have something to say you follow these guidelines so that we are able to complete our meeting in an orderly productive manner please know anyone repeatedly fails to comply with these expectations outlined above or deters the board for be able to
006conduct their business will be told to leave the meeting again the intent of public participation is for us to hear our stakeholders so the board and administration may use the feedback to best serve our community there's our hope that by clearly establishing these protocols and expectations that we continue to have productive meetings as we've had in the most recent past that align with our mission vision and strategic plan of matter schools as well model to our students the appropriate way to engage in meaningful discourse thank you all right on the agenda next we have approval of minutes we have the january 11 2022 organizational meeting tax budget hearing regular board meeting and then january 29 special board meeting so moved second any discussion please call the roll miss joslin yes miss payne yes uh miss
007cook yes mr tuttle yes miss breiter yes motion carries 5-0 thank you and now we have hearing of the public on agenda items only all right seeing none we'll move on to superintendent's report and recommendations mr porter thank you good evening madam president members of the board i have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items five a one and five eight nine through five a nine so moved second any discussion please call the roll miss joslin yes miss cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss brighter yes motion carries 5-0 thank you madam president members of the board tonight we are recognizing several students and staff for their outstanding achievements i would like to invite mr hammond our assistant superintendent to the podium to begin the presentation good
008evening madam president members of the board mr porter and mr wade each year our district is honored by the opportunity to participate in the george e hayward vfw post 9295 awards specifically these are teacher of the year patriots pen for students in grades 6 through 8 and voice of democracy for students in grades 9 through 12. at this time it's my great privilege to welcome to the podium mr dave mansour commander of the vfw post 9295 and mr bob zonoville chaplain service officer awards program promoter also with the vfw9295 they will join us in presenting these the awards to the students and to the teachers uh mr mansour mr zanoville our outstanding supporters of our mentor schools and we are incredibly grateful for their dedication to our community and to our country gentlemen come on
009up please welcome them to the stage [Applause] in case there's someone out there who doesn't know me i'm bob zanoville i'm the chaplain the service officer for mentor force bfw i just want to make a couple of comments here tonight i wish students this year wrote essays and for the voice of democracy it says america where do we go from here for the middle school what what does it take to be an american the students the essays were truly outstanding i wish we could bundle them up and send them to washington because i believe our congressional and our government leaders have no idea what's going on out here these students seem to have a better view of it i urge you tonight to we're going to have the winners in the two categories each read
010theirs i think you'll be as astounded as i was anyway i'll step aside now thank you mr zonable our first award tonight is for teacher of the year nominations could be submitted by a fellow teacher a supervisor or a non-related individual teachers were nominated based on innovative teaching dedication to education they teach citizenship education topics regularly and they promote america's history and traditions effectively teachers who promote civic responsibility flag etiquette and patriotism are prime candidates for this award we have two award winners this year one at the high school level and one at the middle school before they introduce them the award winners would come up we'll shake hands here and we'll have you come right across the stage and meet our board members as well so they can congratulate you at this time it's
011my great privilege to announce this year's high school teacher of the year to mr steve couch american government teacher at mentor high school mr couch [Music] thank you yeah come right here it is also my great privilege at this time to announce this year's middle school teacher of the year award which goes to mrs holly fawcett social studies teacher at memorial middle school mrs faucett congratulations mr couch and mrs faucett [Applause] our first student award is the patriots pen this award is open to all students in grades six seven and eight and the competition gives students an opportunity to write an essay expressing their view on an annual patriotic theme the theme this year is how can i be a good american essays are judged on student knowledge of the theme theme development and clarity
012of ideas a positive approach is recommended to express a student's viewpoint we have four award winners i'm going to read them off sequentially i'd like them to come up on stage shake the hands of our vfw members and then move across the stage and shake the board members hands as well please hold your applause until i read all four first place joey nichols second place christina jurisic third place ruby rosado and fourth place morgan wisniewski [Applause] thank you so much and inside of that envelope under the paper clip there is a check because there's a monetary award as well oh the essay he's got it right here for you okay is he getting i got one here joey's going to read his essay for us here in just a moment right here come with me
013we'll go over across in just a moment thank you thank you congratulations at this time mr joey nichols will read his speech for us all right so that's mine all right so how can i be a good american i can be a good american by protesting against unequal rights and injustice i would try to spread the word that people should be treated equally i can help people in need in a variety of ways i will protest against propaganda i can donate money to charity programs or hospital i could create or create a campaign against illegal or hurtful propaganda i will give money to poor families in the usa i can help people and try to make the world the better place i can tell people or suggest to people that they should watch reliable news
014channels and read reliable articles to find out the truth instead of reading propaganda because propaganda can sometimes be a bunch of lies i can also try to help people in dark times like right now i can create my own charity program at a church or at a certain location to help people get food and money if they need it i could also partici or i could participate in community service in order to help mentor or any other community i may give people advice or certain ideas i can assist people if they need help from small problems to larger problems i can donate money to schools in case they need money i can also help by donating to orphanages and homeless shelters i can help not just but for not just by doing the think the
015things i just mentioned but i can also inspire other people to stand up to discrimination hurtful propaganda and equal equality for other people i i as an american will do whatever it takes to help other people i will always try to do what's right in this country and will 100 percent stand up for anyone in the in their rights i can be a good american by helping people in a lot of ways because i want to help people because i'm a kind-hearted person i could participate in a recycling program for community service in conclusion i could be a good american in a lot of ways and i will try to do my best to be a good american citizen [Applause] go ahead dad yep ladies and gentlemen our patriot pen winners [Applause] our last award
016is voice of democracy this award is open to all students in grades 9 through 12. each year nearly 40 000 high school students compete for more than 2 million dollars in scholarships and incentives students compete by writing and recording an audio essay on an annual patriotic theme and this year's theme is america where do we go from here this year we have three award winners i'm going to introduce him in order i'd like to have him stand up here and wait until caden reads his speech and then we'll go all the way across the stage with the board members here are our award winners for this year first place kayden coleman second place olivia ott and third place tyler heasley welcome to the stage thank you sir inside of this envelope there is a check
017it's a monetary award for your scholarship so please don't lose that thank you you're going to be asked to read yours if you got a copy yeah okay okay just come right here congratulations learning from the past to build a better future it's hard to imagine how we've gotten to this place the place where rather than engaging in lively and civil discourse neighbors friends and even families would rather close their doors and turn their backs on people who disagree with them listen to the news or go on social media you will hear that our country has never been so divided except that it has and each time our country has been faced with divisions among our people we have overcome those challenges to emerge as a better stronger america even at the inception of our
018great country there was disagreement over whether or not to fight the british and how to govern this young nation once we gained our freedom in the mid 19th century our country was wracked again by division that led to a war fought by our own people on our own soil then just over a hundred years later the struggle for civil rights in the vietnam war created more chasms and communities that seemed impossible to bridge but they were bridged and our country came out of all those seemingly insurmountable situations with not just a deeper appreciation of each other but with a greater understanding of what it means to be american we can do that again however we have to understand how how social media is fanning the flames of divisiveness and intolerance an important difference between how
019previous generations face their divisions and the current polarization in our country is the rise of social media as a primary method of communicating ideas in order to bridge our nation's divides and move forward to be the best america we can be we must hold social media companies accountable for their role in deepening our divides and remember how diversity of ideas always has been and always will be what truly makes america the greatest nation in the world this country was founded on the ideals that all people are equal and that there is great strength in our differences sadly the rise in social media has brought with it a proliferation of intolerance long time friends and even family members have unfriended each other literally and figuratively moreover dangerous and even illegal rhetoric spread on social media has
020erupted in violence this must end the spread of intolerance and violence sparked by unfettered online speech prompted congress to get involved and hold a hearing where lawmakers from both parties agree that reform is necessary and that social media companies should be held accountable for the misinformation their platforms communicate in previous generations people received their news from credible sources where information was vetted as being accurate and true while freedom of speech is the bedrock on which this country was founded false and even illegal ideas being spread on social media are deepening divides in our communities and more oversight of these companies needs to be implemented so americans are not manipulated by misinformation not only that we can charge social media companies with a duty to promote patriotism to celebrate those who have served and continue to
021serve our country and to advocate for and advance all that makes this country great with their power to reach billions social media companies bear a responsibility not to tear us down but to build us back up to be the true marketplace of ideas envisioned by our founding fathers furthermore people of all ages need to understand how the amount of time they spend in online conversations is impeding on their relationships with the real people in their lives we need to follow the example of previous generations and start listening to and understanding each other only then will we again become the nation we can and should be america has a rich history of embracing and celebrating diverse ideas even in the face of disagreement in fact this is what has made us the great nation we are
022being fortunate enough to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave requires being brave enough to change the course we are on and to stop the erosion of american ideals in its tracks this will require elevating our expectations of social media companies and even changing our own habits related to technology like the phoenix we've risen from the ashes of destructive division in the past and we can and must do so again we owe it not just to ourselves but to generations yet to come to show once and for all that our diversity of ideas is what makes us human what makes us great and most of all what makes us american thank you ladies and gentlemen caden coleman olivia ott and tyler heasley [Applause] congratulations voice of democracy winners once
023again a special thank you to mr dave monsoor commander of the vfw post 9295 and mr bob zonoville for their outstanding support of this opportunity afforded to our students and to our staff thank you gentlemen at this time mr mansour would like to say a few words so to the board thank you for giving us some time to do these wonderful presentations to the great students there's nothing more that i could say that could ever top what these students have said in their writing it's very impressive it's a lot of credit to the faculty and to their dedication to students i wanted again to thank you because as a veteran of foreign wars so many times that we thank for our service thanks for our time and sacrifice what these young students are doing and
024presenting now they're the ones that are heroes and i hope that they move forward and perhaps if they are a person that chooses to join the armed services they will and they will excel but whatever they do it's really understood that they're going to be excellent at it so again thank you appreciate your time [Applause] thank you gentlemen many thanks again to mr zaneville mr mansour and all the veterans from post 9295 one more round of applause please at this time we're going to take a little break anyone that would like to disburse me do so just about a three minute break thank you i didn't get back to the meeting thank you madam president and members of the board i have the following board of education policy on the agenda for a second reading
025and i'm recommending approval policy 8.18 some move second any discussion was that mr justling on the second yeah thank you no discussion please call the role ms payne yes ms jeslin yes ms cook yes mr tuttle yes ms bryner yes motion carries 5-0 thank you madam president members of the board i am recommending approval of agenda item c1 related to certified personnel and c2 through c5 all related human resource matters second any discussion please call the roll it's justly yes mr tuttle yes miss cook yes miss payne yes miss breiner yes motionscary50 thank you this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next board of education report and recommendations under business madam president members of the board mr porter i'm asking that we approve agenda items six a one through six a five [Applause]
026so moved second any discussion i would like some discussion on this um i think all of you got the email today and i just kind of want to talk about it a little bit more in reference to the resolution authorizing public auction of surplus surplus equipment um i just wasn't sure i had a couple additional questions on that because from my understanding we do auction equipment that has exceeded its five years and there was a couple people that had brought it up that maybe we should be offering this equipment first at a discounted rate before it goes to an auction to possibly allow the seniors who are going to college or the low-income students who may not have access to [Music] purchase and i you know a macbook or ipad or something of that sort
027and if they could get it at a discounted rate and it would help them that might be something that i feel like we should at least give a little bit more thought to and and look into if that is feasible if it's you know if there's a benefit to doing that or not so if we could just have some discussion on that if anybody else has some thoughts on that um mr wade i know you're new to the position do you know how often we do the auction of the devices typically we auction off the technology devices once a year this year we this will be the second time that we've auctioned off surplus items um that kind of goes back to if you remember to the presentation that mr lynch made in june with
028the update to the five-year technology plan with the switching of the one-to-one devices k-12 and making some adjustments to which devices are aware um so on top of that mr woodworth and mr lynch secured two grants to help offset the cost for that uh one just over i believe 270 thousand dollars and one that was just over 500 000 that we just found out about in the last two weeks so um we've historically sold these devices uh prior to my arrival mr wilson was here to offset the cost of the purchase of the next round of devices so in our five-year technology plan we used the revenue generated from these devices to offset the cost we account for that in our five year forecast and our appropriations as well and do you know by chance
029if we have looked at this as an option to offer them to graduating seniors i can't speak to that specific uh item if we've looked at that in the past it's not something i'm familiar with i'd have to defer to mr porter no i don't recall that we've we've done that before i think one of the concerns was unlike if we had a student who wanted to keep their devices they were graduating that might be different because that child or young adult has owned that item but if it is a district auctioned item versus one that's purchased by an individual is there an expectation of warranty and where if we auction them off i know that there is no you know there as is purchased by the vendor so that would be my only concern
030if somebody spent their dollars to buy a device and it didn't work then you know the disappointment and how that would fall back to us even if it it's an as is purchase that it may be difficult i think that's a a valid question i think it does deserve some looking at you know some additional time spent on maybe looking at this and seeing if it is feasible to do and if there is a cost benefit to it as well as a benefit to our students i know one of the other things that were brought up was you know can we use this you know one of our visions is to build strong community partnerships so is it is this something we can do to benefit senior citizens as well maybe have them come in
031after hours and learn how to use a macbook or a laptop or something of that sort and offer classes for them to build that partnership i know that was something that was kind of discussed as well and i i believe mr wade you did say that we get anywhere from about 20 to 40 percent of the original value of the device and i think there would be a good number of parents who especially with kovid they may not be able to afford a brand new one for their child for college and they may want to take advantage of that you know discount and get a used piece of equipment they may be able to do that but not be able to purchase a laptop so they may be okay with getting one that may only
032last for a couple years versus not getting one at all so those are a couple thoughts that i had on on that and i know one of the concerns was the time that it may take to wipe the devices clean so do we not then wipe the devices clean when they go to auction is there like an nda or we do okay so that's not mr lynch is shaking his head so okay so that's not something that would be an additional um resource that we would have to do or take additional time since we're already doing it is that right am i understanding that right i guess i mean i don't know if the board wants mr lynch to answer that question i don't i can't answer that question or can i is he here
033yeah he's here he's in the back i'm sure if he has that information that is a good question with regards to the time the time comes into we have tried to do this with our staff to be able to sell back macbook devices to staff devices that are turned over every five years and where the time comes into is all the macbooks have to be wiped but if we are returning them to their owners there's a certain level of clearing of that device cleaning of that device that has to happen that necessarily doesn't go into a device that we put up for auction we're actually currently going through that process with 83 devices right now that we have offered to our staff to be able to go through the process and we we've done this
034three times we're probably coming to the end of doing it and offering it to our staff just because of the time commitment that goes into it from an i.t perspective and and setting that time aside to get that done definitely see your point about the value it's just the the time that goes into getting those devices ready because of having them to be completely wiped cleaned and then sent back to the individual person that is getting them are there issues if we have purchased software under a license for the district if that stays on the device nothing and that is the the challenge is nothing can stay on the device so that's why when we talk about literally we return the devices back to their state of when we received them so there is nothing
035on the device so another challenge with devices especially when we're talking about apple devices like an ipad or a macbook is after a certain time frame usually it's the fifth year those devices can no longer be updated so one of our parts of our five-year our district technology plan is to have all devices in the district whether an apple device or another device to never be older than five or six years that allows us from all of the different softwares we have over 60 different pieces of software that run on different computers throughout this the district that uh they're always running on updated software and the biggest issue that that protects us against is security and so if we go longer than that those devices can no longer be updated which then runs as a
036security risk for those devices and our network so security is a big piece of us updating those every fifth or sixth year but if we were to sell those devices we sell them kind of like was already mentioned as an as is and with the the understanding that those devices can no longer be updated with the operating system software that they would be receiving so the other thing um it it i know uh there was some it was looked into by mr wilson this has come up in the past when we first received the straight a grant um but that was probably seven years ago in 2014 when we first received it and we were doing the first sell back because some of those devices were only a year old at that time so there
037was an initial opportunity for us to look into that but there were a lot of hurdles that were that we would have to go through because of there had to be a set price that was set by an auction price of what we could get and then that would be the price that it would have to be sold to to the other if students wanted to buy them so at that time we were looking at one-year-old devices and i think we had a price of a little over 500 and we were trying to figure out if there was a way to do it but we we were unsuccessful to find a way that we could do that so if i understand correctly a senior who has their device if they wanted to keep that we'd
038still have to take off the software because of the licensing restrictions absolutely okay yeah the devices would have to be completely wiped and it's not only just the it's a great question jenny but it's not only the software uh on it but it's also all of the other programs for security purposes for our network and connecting to our network in district and out of district and and securely securely software so there there are a lot of elements so that's why the devices have to be completely wiped so they would be getting they would be getting a computer that would be like taking it out of a box except they're taking out of a box four or five years old could you could you confirm for me that anyone can purchase these devices at auction uh
039you the it's not anyone it's anyone who is willing to buy the entire lot and so it's not like you can go it's someone who is willing to purchase 600 or 525 macbooks all so it's it's not like you can come and say i would like to buy one macbook they have to buy the entire lot thank you but yes anybody who's willing to buy the entire lot can bid on it so in um mr wade in the um the resolution it says in here that we can in bulk in lots or by the peace or some combination thereof so this isn't just talking about in lots it's talking about also by the piece is that right if there are any ones that we're selling by the piece yeah so so they're so when we
040sell at auction they're we aren't just selling let's say um devices like we have maybe 15 monitors or five monitors that are in a lot that are all the same so the lot when you go out to auction everything in the lot has to be identical or very similar in order for them to be sold so if we're selling um let's say we we identified that we had 10 macbook pros which is different than the macbook airs we could sell those 10 macbook pros as a lot so when we go out to auction and we have there may be sometimes an individual so we just went through and did a refresh on all of the copiers and printers in the district so it could be that there's the single type of copier or printer that
041we are putting up for auction so it may be as simple as a simple item but in most cases when we're talking about devices we're talking in the hundreds usually 500 600 even up to 1200 devices in a single lot and we auction a variety of things that have become obsolete that have been deemed appropriate by business operations and as if you read the po i know you have so as you read the policy uh you know anything that's over ten thousand dollars in a value has to be auctioned and it has to be advertised for 30 days prior to doing that under 10 000 um and we've gotten an opinion on that that a lot if it's over ten thousand dollars should be auctioned because you're selling you're selling the entire lot so it
042would fall under that 30 day it has to be auctioned and it couldn't be sold individually but as well as there are items that we just auction off it could be a used mower it could be something like an old desk you know or a teacher's desk and things like that that we've done throughout so we auction it because the whole point of when we're trying to dispose of materials uh getting away from the educational value and the benefit to the students and just looking at it strictly from a financial perspective is we have historically felt that that's another way to generate revenue or offset the expense however you want to look at it the initial expense to purchase said materials or to offset the purchase of additional materials to do that so when certain
043things are if they're above ten thousand dollars we don't have much option we have to auction uh if it's below ten thousand dollars we have a little bit flexibility as deemed by the superintendent per his recommendation per the policy mr wade if i could add one point to that uh there was in 2014 when we received the straight a grant there was some very strategic conversation with how are we going to be able to sustain this over time and the biggest way that we said we would be able to sustain it is to sell those macbooks at auction every four years and to use that return to be able to purchase the ninth grade macbooks for ninth graders coming in and i and i have to tell you we have been able to use the
044macbooks which i i do believe give our students a higher quality device over a chromebook at the high school level and we've been able to do that because we've been able to get anywhere from 250 to upwards of even sometimes we were selling them when they were um a little like the the second and third year when they were only two or three years old even up to 400 450 for them and then we immediately reinvested that back into the purchase of the ninth grade devices so that has been built in over the years for the sustainability to be able to have ninth graders always receiving a brand new macbook and so that going out to auction receiving such a nice return on that auction has allowed us to continue that process since 2014 when
045we first started buying macbooks for the students do we know when the next auction may be approximately do we have some additional time if we wanted to look into this or is it coming up pretty soon well uh if the board approves the resolution tonight we would then uh tomorrow or the next day post the 30 days oh okay yeah thank you and the reason why we do that just to kind of add to the discussion if i if i may is that the last auction was delayed and we lost uh i would say i would say a relatively significant amount uh i don't remember the exact dollar figure from the initial quote that we received uh mr lynch do you remember what it was i i i can give you an estimate we we
046had definitely lost a larger percentage when we were we were looking at some initial if my memory serves me correct i'm going off the memory here of close to an estimates of 220 to 230 000 and that went down to 140 to 150 000 just two to three months later because of the value of the devices at that current time again we are in unique times with regards to devices because of covet and shortages and that type of thing so we had never seen a drop like that before but it kind of reminded us that we we don't wanna like we don't wanna just wait for a one year time and have these sitting in our it department for three four five months so we've done everything in our power as an i.t department to
047get those clean get those wiped get those ready for auction so we don't have to delay an extra month an extra two months and and lose money for the district you know the other piece that is unknown is the cost in terms of man hours for uh whether it's a secretarial staff or whoever would be handling the transaction with an individual those those hidden costs would add up as well you know and to have a device that doesn't even have word processing software basic basic pieces that you would expect and need to make it functional could be frustrating and disappointing because you have to buy it when you buy a new computer sometimes the vendor will build in you know maybe you get microsoft office suite with it and and it's a discounted rather than
048buying it all apart from wherever so it's hard to compare apples to apples in this as as mr woodworth has been in our um it warehouse the last two weeks literally himself almost six seven eight hours a day cleaning the teacher macbooks to try to get them ready to go back out he would really appreciate your comments ms jesslyn um one one concern that i have with delaying this you know or even considering other options at this point while i understand that you know these options sound really nice really kind they do encourage the community partnerships but you know ultimately our responsibility is to educate the current students and i i feel that we need to be conscious of our budget and and conscious of part part of our plan with reselling these devices selling
049the devices and then reinvesting in the new is in our budget now and to take that piece away i think takes away from our responsibility that we currently have to educate the students that's a good point mike just to clarify did i understand you to say that based on our past experience this is the last time or we're no longer going to make it a practice to sell back devices to staff so we we have gone through three cycles one for the high school one for the middle school and this time it finished up for the elementary the the amount of time um that it has taken our i.t department to be able to go through that full process and also i i don't even want to say just the it department it's also the
050treasurer's office that has a hand in this as well of the money coming in and processing all of that but but it is um any way that we can just like i know annie is trying to miss payne is trying to mention of adding value for our students we're also we try to add value for our staff and so we wanted to attempt to do this for our staff when we started doing this approximately three and a half years ago to try to provide other ways to add value of being an employee of the mentor schools it's very time consuming and i i as being the one who tried to push for it heavily to try to have it happen i have to look and and hard at that as as how much time it
051goes in for our i.t department so ms briner i don't want to say it's an absolute no um but it is something that we're going to have to reflect on to see if we can continue to pull this off looking at the amount of time that goes into the process is there also a difference if you have a lot of let's say 100 macbooks versus 250 macbooks do you get sometimes a higher per item return on a larger lot so you know if the lots are broken up because we've uh utilized some devices in other ways and only auction a part of it does is that does that make any difference sure um yeah i think that's a really good point i'm not i'm not in the business of auctioning or auctioneers or that but
052i i would say that there is a tendency that um our larger lots of ipads and macbooks definitely tend to go for a higher value than ones that have 15 25 or a mixed amount of devices in them so that's just looking at it historically so i i would say that that is probably an accurate observation would a purchaser look at a very small lot as potentially being you know kind of the drags the defect you know these the good ones all were repurposed yeah not not necessarily but um it could be i i i don't think sometimes if if they are if they are macbook airs of what we're selling or ipads you know fifth generation sixth generation ipads someone's going to be interested in buying those it's it's a matter of you know
053mr wilson as as sitting in many auctions with him he always drew pleasure in having um sometimes we have eight 10 12 people show up for these auctions or call in for these auctions and boy did he get excited when they started bidding against each other because his eyes would always just light up and think okay more money for the district and so um so i think that that was the benefit of the auction is that you have these folks bidding against each other and when they're bidding against each other i think us as as the district end up benefiting and so if you go away and don't have that opportunity to have that bidding happening that's where we we run into a little bit more of a challenge of maybe not not getting as
054much for for that equipment thank you any other discussion okay thank you good discussion all right um please call the roll uh miss jeslin yes miss cook yes miss payne yes mr tuttle yes miss breyer yes motions carry 5-0 all right we have no legislative report tonight we will move on to student achievement report mrs cook thank you i'm excited to highlight a few special student achievements that have occurred recently in mentor schools and as we saw tonight we have a lot to be proud of after a year hiatus um due to covid our district's spelling bee resumed on january 19th for the middle school finals and january 24th for grades four and five district-wide championships we will be inviting our students who won their grade level spelling bee to the march board meeting to
055be formally recognized our grade level winners included 4th grade 4th grader from ridge elementary cameron lowe 5th grader from ridge elementary brandon hancock sixth grader from shore tyler granito seventh grader from shore gabe tullison and eighth grader from memorial tyler rhodes at the district spelling bee sixth grader tyler granito and fourth grader cameron lowe tied for second and our memorial eighth grade student tyler rhodes won first place at the district championship and finished as runner-up on february 1st at the lake county spelling bee mentor high school theater had a successful winter theater production of 39 steps this past weekend you know mrs jesslyn and i both enjoyed it very much the students and staff should be commended for their high energy and their hilarious performance last week we had over 600 parents complete the bright
056bites whole child survey and a reminder email was sent to those parents who have not completed the survey please consider taking 10 minutes to provide your thoughts about our buildings climate and culture the more information we have from our parents will provide us with a better understanding of how we will improve our school community the ohio school board association black caucus is proud to announce that the leo lucas scholarship portal is now open to receive applications the leo lucas scholarship is named for the late dayton city school board member and educator and this scholarship provides graduating ethnically diverse high school seniors funds for college the deadline is march 15th and i will pass this information along to our high school guidance counselors and in other local news mrs payne and i met with mrs bonus
057our curriculum director mr luciano our curriculum specialist and mr lynch director of innovation and instructional technology on february 2nd to help us understand curriculum and how the district makes database decisions and we learned that our schools each have built-in structures to review very specific data related to reading math and behavior this starts at a teacher level with the professional learning communities then it moves up to a building level with building level teams and then we move to our district level teams they meet on varied intervals and i look forward to highlighting some of the specific strategies that have occurred as a result of this data collection and the results that we're seeing in future meetings thank you i wanted to just add one small thing i was reminded when you were mentioning the scholarships that
058the mentor schools foundation has two scholarships available and those entry forms are available through the mentor schools foundation website and that deadline is march 9th thank you so much okay thank you thank you all right next chief financial officers report and recommendations mr wade thank you madam president members of the board mr porter just give an update on our month end from january we are currently uh trending uh about 836 000 better than we projected in our five year forecast mainly uh 580 000 uh due to revenue increases that we're seeing revenue coming in about 580 000 higher and we've reduced our expenses by about 256 000 that impact will actually lower the operating deficit to just under 11 million dollars to 10 million 872 663 dollars for the year mainly what we're seeing uh
059if you compare the analysis of this january versus last january we're seeing an increase in revenue of about 1.9 million dollars that primarily goes back to the fact that the state has updated the payments on the new funding system the first payment in january and the second payment in january were the first times that they've updated the funding schedule to the new funding model and they had a catch-up on payments that were behind as they were working out the details on that so we saw a catch-up on our restricted and unrestricted aid so that totals for the majority of that 1.9 million dollars that we are seeing the positive variance on when you compare year over year we are seeing an increase uh of about 558 thousand dollars on our local revenue as well as
060seeing an increase on our state aid as well as kind of the same point that i mentioned with the ketchup overall we're seeing a net positive to our forecast of about from november of 580 000 again 700 000 of that's coming from restricted aid increase uh we're seeing that in the form of about 130 000 in preschool aid our preschool numbers were a little bit higher than we projected which is a good sign that we're seeing those kids coming in early and we're getting additional funding for that so we're seeing about 130 000 there there was some uh payments that were adjustments from last year are totally of 190 thousand dollars and then we have a catastrophic cost an increase of probably about three hundred fifty thousand dollars what we're projecting now as we learn
061more information on the new budget uh totaling that seven hundred thousand dollars so again we're looking at a a net revenue that's projected to be about 105.4 uh million dollars so going in the right direction there as the board and the community may be aware this is the time of year that we also see our second reimbursement of taxes in february heading into march so depending upon timing we should have a clearer picture on our revenues for the rest of the year as those tax elements come in for the first half collection of the calendar year but the second half collection for our fiscal year so that will be hopefully in our report in march expenses january comparison our actual expenses for the month were down in comparison to last year by 117 uh and
062for the year we are up 2.3 million dollars and as i've said repeatedly throughout this this is a result primarily because of the transfers that we had made to the general fund budget reserve as well as our transfers to the capital improvement fund so overall our expenses again are down we're seeing that primarily our salaries and benefits are up over what we expected however we're seeing a less of a spending than we projected in our other areas so though that the salaries are up and that's primarily because of substitute costs that we've seen with the increase in the number of substitutes because again we're in session this year in comparison to we were in the past totally uh looking at that as its total totality our supplies and uh for operation are down 346 000
063and all the areas are down 445 000. happy to answer any questions on our monthly financials for january overall we're trending in a good spot uh what i would say though is the difference from pastures is we're trending very closely to what we budgeted as well from the five year forecast so we'll continue to update this and we head into may we'll have a clear picture of where we're at as we close out the fiscal year madam president members of the board i'm asking for a brutal approval excuse me of items b through j and addendums may be active on in one motion so move second any discussion please call the girl miss payne yes miss justly yes miss cook yes mr tuttle yes miss breiner yes motionscary50 that concludes my section of the agenda
064thank you do we have any unfinished business any new business do we have hearing of the public on any items [Music] good evening my name is mike williams i'm a mentor resident for over 30 years and we've put four children through the mentor school district here i wish to comment on a post i read from a father who has a daughter enrolled at shore junior high i believe all of you have been made aware of this post this father is concerned that his daughter and other girls at shore can't use the girl's bathroom because a transgendered boy at shore is allowed to have total access to all the girls bathrooms the girls were made to use what they call neutral bathrooms if they feel uncomfortable being in the same bathroom with a biological male is
065this correct as far as you're aware i will assume that it's accurate then yes civil rights laws uh protect that yes i understand okay don't you think it's a bit absurd wouldn't it make more sense and be more equitable for the transgendered boy to use the neutral bathroom instead of forcing the biological females out of their own bathrooms if they feel uncomfortable or awkward have you not all heard about what happened in loudoun county virginia school where a transgendered male went into a girl's bathroom and raped a girl is this what we want to have happen in mentor i think not i would hope not but the current stance of not addressing this issue makes this a distinct possibility doesn't this concern you i hope it does however my guess is that your concern is
066trumped and stifled by fear fear of a potential title ix civil rights lawsuit from a transgendered student i contend you should be more fearful of an incident like happen in virginia and any lawsuit that would ensue from that your inaction on setting school policy in this area has a potential to put our young females young female students at some risk i urge you to have more concern for the safety security and comfort of our female students and not be ruled by inordinate fear what about the majority of biological females that men are schools who are inconvenienced made to feel awkward or uncomfortable in their own bathrooms are you going to stand up for them i hope that i can say very soon that it was the mentor school board who exhibited common sense it was
067the mentor school board who showed concern for our daughters that it was the mentor school board who used moral clarity that it was the mentor school board who had the fortitude to stand up and do what is right on this issue thank you for your time thank you mr williams my name is melanie magicis i live on bernie lane and i'm the mother of two men are graduates i want to thank the board and the teachers who are making an effort to provide an inclusive educational experience that involves a variety of viewpoints and opportunities to learn about the experiences of those who come from other backgrounds my goal as a parent was to have children who could think critically and be empathetic to the lived experiences of those whose lives are very different from their
068own and the mentor schools did an excellent job of preparing them for their lives outside of these walls and beyond mender's borders raising kind respectful children is a goal that most parents share and that starts with allowing them to discover that not everyone is like them representation matters whether it's in books in the lesson plans or in the staff in our buildings removing that representation whether it's people of color people who are lgbtq or any sort of marginalized group makes their voices and their existence disappear i'm grateful for my daughter's teachers who trusted them enough as students to know that they could handle learning about difficult subjects sometimes there might be discomfort in that but that shows that we have empathy as humans and that we can learn and grow and hopefully not make the
069same mistakes in the future just thank you to all the schools for all that you do to make these voices heard and represented thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is mary jo stack i live on independence drive i no longer have children in this school system but have a long history of advocacy for public schools having served as an elementary pta president a member of the strategic planning committee as chair of the levy campaign as president and member of the mentor schools foundation and as a member of this community my interest and concern for this school system is still part of who i am men are schools these teachers the support staff helped me to raise my children my son now an aerospace engineer my daughter a manager of artistic planning for a
070major symphony orchestra we're prepared and ready to take on college and the world due in large part to this school system and because of the school system they have also become lifelong learners i was involved i didn't need a camera in my children's classroom to see what they were being taught i knew because i was involved i thank the former treasurer for teaching me about school funding and the challenges that it creates for the system and the community i learned because i asked it is easy to sit back criticize and try to demoralize it is much harder to get involved and to learn although in the long run it is much more satisfying and enlightening i am thankful that my children attended a public school a place where they attended with other children of differing
071abilities races religions etc the place that mirrors the rest of the world i have worked with three different superintendents many school board members a plethora of teachers and support staff and i've learned something from each and every one of them i couldn't be prouder to be a supporter of this mentor school system and i thank you all for what you do thank you [Applause] hello my name is cheryl bracken i'm a mentor city resident i'm an educator and i have four children who are either currently enrolled in mentor schools or are recent graduates from mentor schools tonight i want to address the excellent education provided by mentor schools and urge you all to continue to offer the high quality education to all current mentor students i've reviewed the mentor's strategic plan and saw that the
072district articulates two of the four filing goals ensuring a safe learning environment and providing a balanced and high quality education in my view both of these goals can be excuse me can be met through continuing equity and inclusion elements currently embedded in the mentor school's curriculum the introduction of dei related curriculum helps to ensure a safe and inclusive learning environment and benefits all students by promoting learning fostering creativity building student confidence and preparing students for their future careers in fact to ignore dei related curriculum actually will do a disservice to our current students because all students here at mentor deserve to learn and read about materials where they can see themselves represented but also to have the opportunity to learn empathy and perspective taking in fact both empathy and perspective taking are skills sought by
073current employers who also seek skills such as the ability to communicate clearly thinking critically and working in diverse groups this last one is highly important to employers because it's been demonstrated that diverse groups generate more productive and better decisions in order to prepare our students for better for their futures they also need to learn how to critically evaluate information study both the achievements and the mistakes of historical figures and have access to arts within their school i strongly feel that mentor schools provided my children such lessons and skills mentor schools provided my children with the opportunity to learn not only the required elements but the opportunity to delve deeper into areas that were interested of that to them each of my four children took the opportunity to take broad excuse me a broad range of
074ap courses honors courses participate in many school clubs everything from arts to music and sports in the mentor schools and they continue to benefit from this high the high quality education and educational opportunities provided by the mentor schools and mentor teachers based on my personal experience and the experience of my children i encourage you to continue to provide dei related curriculum to ensure a safe learning environment high quality and inclusive education for all the students both currently enrolled in mentor schools and in the future and in conclusion i wish to thank you the school board and all the mentor teachers for providing high quality education daily to all of our children thank you hello my name is christy bellahovic i live on dahlia drive and mentor on the lake and i have a student at
075lake elementary and a student in the garfield preschool so tonight i would like to speak in support of actions mentor schools have taken in regards to diversity equity and inclusion or dei thank you for providing dei training for teachers and administrators thank you for approving the change of choir names to something that reflects music not gender and thank you to the teacher coordinating ridge elementary's committee for staff to come together and talk about ways to be an inclusive environment i would so love to see something like that in every school happening for staff and students see it's important to me that my children are part of a school system that is consistently and actively taking positive steps when it comes to dei even on a small scale these efforts make such a difference for instance
076when i see my second grader learning to identify with characters in books who have experiences that are vastly different from his own i see growth happening empathy happening i see the world opening up for him books like randy's braids a story about a girl around his asian mexico making a decision to help her family or how about me among the stars a book his first grade class actually read about mae jemison's experiences growing up before she went on to become the first african-american woman to travel in space see accurate and diverse history other cultures different perspectives different voices these are all vital parts of a well-rounded full education let's keep the focus on making sure mentor schools is a safe inclusive place for everyone to receive that education a place where everyone is welcome and
077can thrive let's keep the focus on preparing our children all of them for the interconnected diverse society we live in today and thank you to those board members teachers administrators and staff who work toward these goals each and every day it definitely does not go unappreciated thank you thank you good evening my name is roger jewell long-time mentor resident my wife and i have raised six kids we're putting our sixth kid through the meadows school systems we're both graduates of mentor can't say enough good stuff about the school unfortunately there's some things that are coming up that have got us concerned including the first gentleman that got up and spoke i'm actually the father of a young daughter that subject or being subjected to allowing boys into girls restrooms in the name of diversity we
078don't agree with this mr porter you and i will be having a conversation about this couple books that of the 40 some books that are in the mentor schools library same-sex marriage moral right or wrong i'd like for the school system and you guys to be concerned about educating my children and not teaching immorals allow my wife and i to do that we've raised six and we've done a pretty good job so far we don't need your help with that that's not your decision to make on the bright side i'm now a girl a girlfriend of a sex god further confessions of georgia nicholson i would love to sit down with the person that said this book was it was a good idea to have this book in any library and try and figure out
079how on earth this is helping our kids get an education i don't think there's any any grounds for a book like this to be in our libraries and i would love to talk with the person and your board that approved this book for being there i won't go over the other things that some of the other people have hit on but i will say this we just saw the mask thing go on way too long in the school systems i personally believe that our kids were used as pawns by the mentor school system to for a money grab for a federal money grab i believe the school board kept their kids at masks so they could grab more of that federal money for way too long and now i believe that our school mr porter
080now in the name of diversity and inclusion you are now using our children as pawns once again as you and the board along with the other like-minded employees of the school seek to recruit and acclimate our children into lifestyles that myself and my wife do not agree with and don't believe that our children should be exposed to mr porter with all due respect you are the the mentor school superintendent and the rest of your school board need to stick to educating our children mr porter you and the members of the school board were hired and elected to represent us and to take care of our children and provide education and safety for them in light of some of these books and some of the stuff that's coming to mind i really don't think that that
081job's being done and i would really like to see your board start in motion a plan to get rid of some of these things and if it doesn't happen then we're going to put a committee together to seek your removal from from your service to our children thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is lindsay wall i am a mother of two boys at ridge elementary and in the preschool at minor high school and i live on beechwood drive and mentor grew up in minor good evening i would first like to start off by addressing the board and recognizing their consistent effort to do what it is do what is not only best for the school system and our students but also what is best for all of their staff and our community obviously
082the last couple of years has been nothing short of a challenge for everyone people have had to make decisions they never thought they would need to parents having to decide what is not just best for their kids but also what is best for loved ones friends neighbors and people around us i hope for one moment everyone here can pause and look up at the stage and try just try for a second to see what i see the members of this board are just like you and i they have faced the same challenges that all of us have faced through these crazy times they have families and kids and loved ones they have lives outside of their jobs but the members of the school board also had to take on the impossible challenge of making important
083decisions that would not just impact our kids and our schools but would have an effect on our entire community i for one cannot even begin to imagine how hard and stressful their lives have been through this pandemic i would like to express my most sincere appreciation to our superintendent and board members through my eyes i know that you have done your best to keep our kids and communities safe you have made calculated decisions knowing that not everyone would agree but never ever would i think that members of this community would respond to you the way that some have it is important for me and i am sure many others that i stand here right now and express my appreciation and also tell you that your hard work sleepless nights and selflessness has not gone unnoticed
084you are very much appreciated i grew up in manor and was raised to respect and protect this city my father was a minor police officer for many years a member of the chamber of commerce and a valued member in our community i went through mentor schools mrs joshling taught me art and was a huge contributor to my love for art still today thank you for that i graduated from mentor high in 2009 after going through the early childhood education program which is part of cte i knew my kids would attend this preschool and sign them up on the waiting list not long after they were born thank you to mrs monachio and mr glavin for making that program so spectacular both of my boys have been in this program one currently is still there and
085i cannot speak more highly of this program or say enough kind things about mrs nachio in the cte program so more appreciation and recognition for them as it is well deserved lastly i want to say our kids are sponges they see and hear everything even when we think they are not they look up to us and learn by the example we set they see how we communicate express emotions the way we respect others and love each other they also see the hate the disrespect and fear i have to assume there is not one person in this room who wants our children growing up in a community filled with so much hate and unwillingness to change my dad always said everything changes and that was by far the truest thing he ever said aside from time
086goes by faster the older you get right now everything is changing change can be a good thing but it can only be good if we all grow and drain together lead by example please remember before you speak next time someone's kid's going to hear you thank you [Applause] mike williams again walden court and mentor i just wanted to speak about some of the books my understanding is that there are several books in the high school and even in the elementary school that could be considered soft pornography and others promote immoral behavior is this what we really want to have our mentor students exposed to who makes the decision on what books get into the library in mentor schools we have a media specialist that consults with several different sites uh so you're one person for
087books books recommended one person is it wise to have one person make decisions on all these books i mean is it possible to have this person come to a board meeting so we can i don't so we can discuss the criteria she uses for allowing a book to come into the mentor schools for our students to be exposed to it's possible that she consults also with other some of our library aides as well so i don't want to speak without having the entire process in front of me i think it would be wise to maybe have a committee to you know explore these books as opposed to having one person but i would be very interested to find out what the criteria she uses is to to bring in books that would be considered soft
088pornography or that promote immoral behavior so thank you good evening mr porter mr wade president briner and members of the board my name is bambi vargo i'm the mother of two adult daughters i'm a retired teacher and i live in mentor about 16 years ago when my oldest daughter was a young teenager she came to her dad and me and told us she was queer and my first reaction was is this going to change how people treat her would they accept her or would they just slap a label on her and ignore the wonderful person that she is inside would they bully her would they exclude her and it turns out my fears were well founded according to research from the center for disease controls national youth risk behavior survey of lgbt students negative attitudes
089towards lgb persons may put them at increased risk for experience with violence such as bullying teasing harassment and physical assault lgb youth are at greater risk for depression suicide substance abuse and sexual behaviors that can place them at increased risk for hiv and other sexually transmitted diseases nearly one-third 29 percent of all lgb youth had attempted suicide at least once in the prior year compared to 6 percent of heterosexual youth in 2014 young gay and bisexual men accounted for 8 out of 10 hiv diagnoses among youth when we entrust our children to a school we depend on adults from the school nurse the librarian the custodian cafeteria workers teachers aides bus drivers school crossing guards and administrators to keep our children not only physically safe but emotionally safe as well we also depend on adults
090to create a community in the school where children value each other and treat each other with respect and kindness i support everything this district has done in the past and continues to do today to create an equitable and inclusive environment for everyone and that includes your student surveys your dei professional development teaching with books that honor diversity and teachers reaching out to colleagues to say hey let's talk about our experiences and figure out how we can continue to say to everybody you are important here you belong here and finally thank you for all you do for our children thank you mary jo stack again from independence drive i one of the first volunteer jobs i did when my kids went to school was worked in the school library there was nothing in the elementary school
091library that my kids should not be reading every media specialist within our schools knows how to work with our children they know what is available to them they know what they are able and capable of understanding and learning and i trust those media specialists who are absolutely wonderful to my kids and made my kids again lifelong learners lifelong readers because they knew what my kids could handle what they could digest i don't know who's pushing these books on kids because i haven't seen any of it thank you my name is ian anderson i am the parent of the transgender girl that goes to shore that you guys are speaking of that you have no clue what you're doing and now she's going to go to school tomorrow like she already doesn't get harassed enough i
092wasn't going to be able to make it here tonight thank god i have a friend who was here who told me what was happening to be pulled out of my house after my daughter's already been thrown out of the catholic school she went to i'm not going to put up with this i'm enough leave my daughter alone she's 12. if you have a problem talk to me i'm dead serious talk to me excuse me oh i if you have a problem with my daughter you're talking about a 12 year old stop talking about my daughter with people that don't know her stop giving them a problem because they are letting her use the restroom she is supposed to use excuse me ma'am hold on one second folks in the crowd please if you have something
093to say we invite you to come to the stage otherwise allow this person the chance to speak you guys had a chance to speak about my daughter i wasn't even here she leave her alone stop talking about her if you have a problem talk to me that can't happen though that i know what he's come to me i haven't heard anything can anybody tell me why because they don't care about coming to me they want to come to you because they want to outlaw everything that has to do with every trans individual because they're bigots i'm done holding my tongue i'm done being nice about this i'm done i've been through this before i'm not going through it again i will i will get everybody down here i'm friends with i'm a board member of
094cleveland p flag i know people i will get the national news involved you do not want this eat my husband should not be the one getting spoken to right now the people that are bigots are the problem not my husband who's here to defend his 12 year old transgender daughter who's getting picked on by people that are old enough to know better shame on you people that are supposed to be adults what is wrong with everyone that if you have a problem with it talk to me don't talk to the school board to honor a parent if you have a problem talk to me i'll be outside after the thing if anyone has any questions for her mom she's a cheerleader she's a straight a student she's an honor student leave the kid alone i'm
095not playing games about this anymore my name is ann anderson look me up find me i'm not kidding that's it i'm done leave my daughter alone come to this meeting one more time about my daughter i'm gonna have a lawyer with me and i'm gonna sue everybody involved that's harassing my daughter because now your kids are harassing my daughter enough's enough get off of her thank you madam president members of the board our rookie administration mr porter good evening to you my name is james cherian i reside at newell creek drive and we have three children attending the school district about this time last year our two youngest were sitting at home doing their online classes with their amazing second grade mso teachers it being february was black history month since i'm at home with
096the kids and listening the background and trying to make sure they're off of youtube and all the other stuff they're doing during mso i was expecting the usual i have a dream speech rosa parks jackie robinson so i was pleasantly surprised when every day that month they did all the above and more from the daily morning music selections in which they not only listened to the music but learned about who sang it why the artist was important and what this person or music contributed to the larger culture to teaching about our hard racial history to even current events and social concerns like black lives matter my children's teacher and the whole second grade team did such a great job talking about things in a clear and age-appropriate manner respectful and mindful of the material they
097were teaching and respectful and mindful of the beautiful young minds they were privileged to teach if you told me a year ago that my nine-year-old son would regularly want to listen to motown i would have thought you're out of your mind but because that one month he had a greater he has a greater curiosity and desire to understand people history and art that is not a part of his everyday experience here in manor i want to commend and appreciate this effort by our teachers and i want to encourage more of it i want to encourage more of it because it is fundamental if our children are to learn to be citizens in a world where love justice and serving others is central to being a human being i want to encourage more of it because
098we're still just crashing the surface we have a long way to go one of the challenging things of raising children of color in a predominantly white city are the hard but good conversations we have to have about race ethnicity identity our history our differences our similarities we've been hearing from one of our kids about the comments made about her hair and how much she wants her hair to be like all the other kids who have straight hair she mentioned a couple weeks ago about why it's not good to be black we're not sure if these are things she hears from others or just trying to make sense of her own identity her own differences not fully understand what's being said it could be all of that now to be clear our children are more than
099their hair or the color of their skin and to even fully understand and appreciate the complexity and nuance of that last sentence requires a depth of understanding competence and empathy that needs to be valued and supported by our schools we believe raising awareness and understanding among staff and students through appropriate training would go a long way not just helping students of color but in helping all of us as a community grow and mature for our family this is more than an ideological position it is personal and it hits home i know time's been extremely hard recently you're doing a great job we so appreciate your leadership and thank you thank you and much grace and peace to you as you continue this hard work thank you [Applause] anyone else i'm sorry uh this is lindsey
100wall again and this is very much unlike me to go off script but i i do just want to piggyback real quick off of something that was said um about the books being found in the libraries um i would just like to point out uh that all of this is available on the internet on any device your child has they have access to that and ten times worse of things at any point in time yes there's parental controls and all of that but uh these you know people who are speaking on the books that are being found are you monitoring all of their devices are you making sure they're not actually looking up worse stuff already but my point that i want to make about these books being found these books are not books that
101anyone's really aware of these soft porn books that you're that you're talking about what you're doing is you're going and looking you are looking at the inventory and the libraries and finding these books that have not been talked about have not been checked out and you're bringing them to light so all you're doing really is you're helping the author you are helping the people that made the book so thank you for helping literature i don't know but you're taking a non-issue and making it an issue if somebody wants to go and check that book out that book is there for a specific group a specific person that would have interest in that but i know i mean i went to mentor schools i love the library i don't think there's very many kids you know
102going just checking out random books anymore since we do have the devices and all of the books around the devices and everything but i mean i think that you know you guys are kind of just making it a bigger issue than it needs to be but thank you very much [Applause] so good evening uh thank you superintendent porter board members i talk really slow so bear with me um excuse me mr towns can you officially thank you recognize your name and street number for me please you got it mr towns uh brandon sounds used to being in schools uh on marine parkway i have uh one child at orchard hollow i have another one who will be there next year so i want to lift what was just stated from and because a lot of
103times when we what happens in these spaces we talk about things without really accepting and recalling that we're talking about people um and i think that that deserves some space uh i'm giving my time just to bask in that space and reflect in that space uh a mother's tears for her daughter and for a moment just think about the time my wife texted me and she said my daughter was very excited because she saw a student teacher that looked like her and of course we we chose to to stay here in minor and be in this great city in this great school district but one of the things that we acknowledge is that my daughter doesn't often get to see women who look like her in the classroom on the stage in books so what
104we're doing in our conversations and our work with di is of extreme importance so i do appreciate that and then i wanted to address two other things uh one is a gentleman came up and he spoke about the fear of what could happen because of something that happened in virginia and then accused the board of being afraid of a title ix investigation and the irony of the statement really caught me off guard because we do that a lot we talk about dei and i wanted to take a moment to share one thing that we are doing with dei here in the district that we did last year in october at orchard hollow we actually had students create quilts as a part of the dei event and the question that they answered was what makes my
105family unique that's it not trying to impose or make them think anything or do anything it was just acknowledge what makes you unique and if you have a problem with that that is more personal than collective and then the last thing i'll say because a lot of the challenges around what's in our libraries i first say that we have to trust our educators who go to school for this very thing and if you challenge too much i encourage you to go to school too and try but in our policy document 7.25 actually outlines thank you how or why books are selected in the process for appealing so check that out policy document 7.25 [Applause] i wasn't going to speak i don't public speak my name is mar beyer i won't give my address because i
106have had threats on the internet but i do just want to point out that as we're talking about the books there are over 30 different books listed on the hub about transgenderism there is one copy of the holy bible in all of better schools that the kids cannot even check out it is for in the library use only there are 16 sources not even books dvds books but 16 sources on u.s presidents 16. but we have over 30 books for chan transgenderism that's all i need to say thank you anyone else [Applause] good evening thank you again and i do apologize for doing this again uh but i am brandon towns again uh on marine parkway and i want to take a moment to just discuss uh or read actually um or policy uh 7.25
107where it articulates some of the complaints that we're having here virtually all material that is challenged belongs to one of three basic categories religion ideology or profanity slash obscenity board policy regards these areas as follows religion factual unbiased material which represents all major religions shall be included in the library collections did we check and see if there were other religions are those chuck audible ideologies the libraries shall with no thought towards swaying reader judgment make available basic primary and factual material information on the level of their reading public on any ideology or philosophy of government which exerts or has exerted a strong force either favorable or unfavorable in government current events policies politics education or any phase of life and three profanity slash obscenity materials shall be subjected to a test of literary merit and
108reality by the media specialist and teachers who will make who will take into consideration their reading public and community standards of morality and then it says no challenged materials may be removed from the curriculum or from a collection of resource materials except by action of the board and no childish material may be removed solely because it represents ideas that may be unpopular or offensive to some thank you mr porter school board members with all due respect sir can you state your name and address again roger jewell long time resident of manor ohio on the bright side i'm now the girlfriend of a sex god further confessions of georgia nicholson somebody's gonna have to tell me what good this book is doing in our library regardless of what's happening didn't mean to spark any kind of
109arguments on parenting appreciate the advice but i want to end with this genesis 1 27 so god created man in his own image in the image of god he created him male and female he created them me again uh it's ann anderson not male and female it's biology it's science read a book look it up if you're interested or if you're going to come up here and fear monger and talk about a virginia case where a person was raped in a bathroom that is not even it was a person that wasn't transgender know your facts read about what you're going to come in and lead with because you don't know the whole story read about it if you're interested okay this is a public school the bible has nothing to do with our public school
110nothing zero so i don't want to hear about the bible anymore i'm good thanks i'm good i mean it's like ridiculous you guys it's so offensive how do you not know how offensive this is i should not even have to come up here like i'm angry that i'm even up here it's 2022 guys get with it what are we doing we're banning books shouldn't we be learning more what i i don't know i i i'm at a loss but i i hope that you guys aren't listening to this because this is insane bible quotes it's a public school i mean i can stand up here and i every time to rebut one of you guys if that's what it's going to take because it's i'll bring my friends next time too how about that i'll
111bring people i know with me because we can do that no it's informative obviously you need it sir it's oh now okay i'm threatening because i'm saying i'm gonna bring books in oh no come on no i i don't have anything else to say i'm a nice person i don't do this stuff except if my daughter's attacked that's all bets are off that's what i'm doing here i'm standing up for my daughter like i hope all of you would if you had a transgender child this isn't my first time at the rodeo either i've been through this before you don't want to go there with me i'm not new at this come at me i've got i'm ready if you want to threaten my daughter's rights about her being in the bathroom where she belongs
112because she's a girl that's on you leave her alone the end she's in the bathroom she's supposed to be in because she's a girl period that's it put that in the bible thank you hi lindsay wall last time because i have a sitter at home so i can't do anymore um but i i am curious about the focus on library books because the book you check out in a library is choice it is a choice for a student to go into the library pick out a book and then check it out but something that is not a choice is the fact that my five-year-old didn't get to go to preschool last week because mentor high school was closed due to a threat why is no one bringing this up why why are none of you
113concerned about that you're concerned about what books are in our library when all of that and so much worse is on the internet which half of these kids spend too much time on anyways but no one's talking about the fact that our kids did not get to be educated a day last week because of a threat that was sent to school now i am full disclosure i do not know more specific details than any of you that were was in the email but no matter what it is this is something that is occurring all over the place and way too often why are we not trying to to figure out that issue because that's a big issue i would think that you know we talk about wanting our kids to feel safe in school this
114is the second time this year already i think the second right if not it has to be the second not third but there's a third and that's more of an issue but i know twice that the schools were closed this year due to threats and i know that it was handled appropriately so thank you very much because once again safety of our students is priority i appreciate that and keeping all of the parents informed about what was going on but it's just mind-blowing to me as a mom that you guys are up here talking about random books found in the library versus actual things that are going on in our community and with our schools that are a problem if you guys invested that much energy into an actual issue and we all work together
115i mean do you understand what we would be capable of and how great all of our kids would be like come on who cares if they're gay or if they're not gay or if they're black or white or whatever why doesn't matter what matters is they had to close the school because it wasn't safe enough for our kids to even go there come on please we can definitely do better than this thank you [Applause] mary jo stack independence drive there are some pretty scary stories in the bible let me just tell you that number one and there were other people who like to ban books and we all know who they are and i ain't going there thank you last call anyone else all right thank you we will entertain a motion to go into
116executive session to discuss employee negotiations do we expect any kind of vote today no vote is expected so moved second and please call the rule ms joslin yes miss payne yes ms cook yes mr tuttle yes mrs bryner yes you