001we all ready uh good evening everyone uh we're going to get started here uh today is Tuesday May 25st 2024 uh we're going to start the rever board of education's regular uh May meeting uh Mr Bine please call the role Mrs bracket here Mr haidu here Mr Malik here Mrs Rainey here Mr Stein here okay if I could ask everybody to stand so we can do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right Dr Tess I can tell that we do have some uh Community recognitions uh today so I'm going to turn the uh program over to you right now thank you uh Mr Malik and members
002of the board and those in in the audience here uh this evening I do want to start by we had an interesting day today um and as I look back and I see officer Dressler our SRO back there I just I want to applaud and I want you to know as members of the board and and in the community our protocols could not have been in implemented any better um you know on one hand we know lots of places where chemistry is taught out of a textbook not at Riv High School it is handson and we had an accident today U the teacher immediately notified the appropriate personnel um officer Dressler as he always does helped organize a fleet of emergency services and out of absolute immense amount of precaution the bomb squad showed up
003to to solve the problem for us but uh it was an unfortunate accident um that happened our I just just want to applaud our F our safety services I know Mrs Brackett as a board member you were on property today to watch just orderly dismissal of students and I'm just as superintendent though it was very unfortunate I'm really really proud of the reaction same so thank you all right we're gonna start with our first Community recognition uh we're going to bring up our athletic director Mr Don seeker and he has a gentleman with him a friend of ours here in rever Bob cronenberger Mr Seeker thank you Dr TS uh it's my honor tonight uh having a little conversation with Bob here in our seats to recognize I didn't realize this till just a few
004minutes ago a 1967 graduate of Rivier high school so Applause for that if you don't know Mr cronenberger informed me that he has been the live stream video for like the last 10 years here at R three years ago when I came here he came and talked to me about live streaming and so on and so forth which was way over my head but for the last three years here I can't tell you what a friend Bob is the help that he uh does with all Athletics working with our coaches to live stream our events um he helps us with huddle in the office we went to huddle which kind of took some of the things away from Bob so his thoughts are well I'm still going to do the away games for the schools
005that don't offer the Huddle so basically we have Mr cronenberger to thank for any of the live streams if you don't make it to the games in person or grandmas and grandpas in other states this man right here is the one that's directly responsible for that um I don't know how we could have survived with him the three years and moving forward one of the questions he had for me tonight is are they live streaming the meeting tonight uh and he's already talked to me about hey can we can I come in next week and meet with you or the next couple weeks uh moving forward to make sure we're all set up so I can't thank Bob personally enough um we have a small token of our appreciation and again on behalf of all
006of the coaches in R parents our student athletes and grandmas and grandpas across the country this man here thank you so much for everything that you've done for us and looking forward to working with you Bob you're too shy you're running away way too fast um I want to thank Mr haidu uh he was one of the the reasons that really helped uh motivate us Bob to uh to recognize you this evening as superintendent you would be surprised how many people are on that YouTube channel watching rever Athletics and it's because of you um I was shocked actually to hear the reach of our Riv Athletics and it's amazing when you put it on social media and things like YouTube that people all over the United States are able to follow their their grandchildren uh
007their friends their relatives Etc and uh as do as Mr Seeker said we as a district we just want to thank you for your volunteerism because uh you're quite an asset for us in our athletic department thank you very much thank you thank you [Applause] Mr streer you get to follow that one up my friend and you've got a couple great friends to do that with here I do that's a tough follow um we have three wonderful teachers that nominated three wonderful young ladies at Richfield Elementary so first I want to bring up Miss Coman to recognize Claire Ops niik if you could come up Claire so this is Claire she is a huge leader in our classroom if you walk in our classroom you'll always see Claire working hard and doing her absolute best
008she's a very curious learner and she often comes to school telling about a new topic she researched the previous night something she's super interested in and she just it's awesome to watch her share her love for learning with me and her classmates she also loves Making Connections in our reading and she thinks so deeply about math she's always looking to help others and is such a great team player everyone in the class wants to be her partner I know that if someone in Claire's group has a question about what we're doing she doesn't just give them the answer but she helps that student think about the problem and helps walk through the problem with them Claire loves art and she loves science and she will be playing Cinderella in our class play this year which
009she has been working so hard in that role I could not be more proud of Claire and all that she has accomplished this [Applause] year all right our next student is uh going to be recognized by Mrs Julie bird one of our second grade teachers Julia CLE if you could come up we have the natural Spotlight on you today yeah uh since the start of the school year Julia has been an absolute ray of sunshine in our classroom she arrives at school each day with a smile on her face and excitement for school and learning she stops in my classroom first thing every morning to help me turn on the lamps and get the classroom set up and ready for the day then on top of all of that she's always eager to help her
010classmates who are struggling with school work or just to give a hug or a high five to someone who needs it I'm so thankful to have such a kind-hearted student in my classroom not only because she's a wonderful role model to her peers but also because she makes me smile and happy to come to work every [Applause] day and our third and final student Clara frag if you could come up Clara and Mrs sakado really quick I'd like to give a shout out to Mrs Julie sakato she is not only an excellent teacher with us at Richfield but she's also a rever High School parent and she stepped in to be a long-term sub this year and has done an incredible job we've had so many parents reach out to uh sing her praises and
011she is the definition of a professional and she also loves students as evidenced by her consistently nominating them for this recognition so thank you hi everybody thank you for allowing me a few moments to recognize uh lovely Clara each morning room 307 recites the rever ready promise um in which we remind ourselves to be responsible respectful and a problem solver since meeting Clara on my first day in room 307 and I immediately saw in Clara what it means to be rever ready Clara is responsible not only for her classroom tasks but also for her supplies her time and for our school resources in addition she is responsible for her learning she asks questions and she proofreads her work and she always does her best um work and she turns that in as well Clara receives
012comments well and she implements suggestions as they work for her and she will also participate in all subject areas in any class including Encore Clara is respectful she is considerate when others are speaking and when she needs to wait for a turn she's not only respectful to others but Clara is also very respectful to herself Clara will communicate her thoughts and her feelings um to others whether it's because she needs an ice pack or she has a headache or if she's sad or a friend is sad she makes sure that she gets the information to ex actly who it needs to go to and a problem solver Clara is definitely a problem solver part of problem solving is asking questions of which Clara demonstrates every day but Clara will also try different ways to solve
013her problem before she asks a question whether it's solving a math problem or sorting out her thoughts when she's writing a paragraph Clara always takes a moment to look at the hole break it into pieces and try and work with that and if she still doesn't have it she knows exactly which question she needs to ask and of course anytime you have questions Claire you know that Mrs sukato and Mrs T always welcome those questions um and because of Clara's rever ready um and positive attitude Clara has grown from a very quiet and Incredibly shy first grader to a very confident and more recently a jovial learner I love how CLA shares her opinions and backs it up with evidence and then Clara will Chuck chuckle after she does that kind of gives her a
014boost of confid an extra boost of confidence but then she Chuckles more because a lot she finds a lot of her classmates who agree with their opinion and then they're all chuckling together so what more fun is that um in the classroom Clara I am so incredibly proud of you and how much you have grown this year um you demonstrate confidence in math and in Reading alloud every day and you are a good friend and a helper to all and Clara you're being here tonight fills my heart with a lot of Joy because as I look out and see all these people I can tell you that everybody here is as proud of you as I am of you so keep on doing all the great things and you're going to um SAR to Great
015Heights congratulations [Applause] believe spe [Applause] hi Mr Fry good evening how's everybody tonight did you bring your sunglasses I need them for sure oh I have the pleasure of welcoming Miss Becky de Lauder and Mrs Jen lovy to our two of our amazing third grade teachers up to the podium with me come on up ladies y Becky and Jen were awarded a grant from the G Foundation last spring called Wings of Hope funding from this grant while allow our third grade students to create an environment for them to raise their own Butterflies from egg to adult and to grow all of the plants needed for their survival to accomplish this task though they needed to build a greenhouse in our bath land laap they thought this sounded like a perfect idea for an eagle scout
016and knew the perfect student for the project would Henry mey please join us as well please all right um Henry is completing his freshman year at rhs and was thinking of ideas for his Eagle Scout project following the footsteps of his brother Freddy Henry was interested in giving back to our school community and wanted to complete his project at Bath Elementary School we approached Henry about our Greenhouse project we met multiple times to plan discuss ideas and options and then this spring Henry gathered a team of Scouts along with his amazing parents were with us the long whole time to help assemble the greenhouse Henry learned how to put the greenhouse together which was no feet of its own he did a great job with that and he and his team secured it to the
017concrete pad another obstacle that he overcame um we had to assemble the shells that are going inside that will host our butterflies and um our plants and we also had to caulk all the seams to make sure that moisture did not get inside uh when school starts in the spring Mrs ly and I will begin to fill the greenhouse with milked and plants needed to raise our very own butterflies we love that Henry wanted to give back to our school community and leave this lasting Legacy he demonstrated great leadership skills and served as a tremendous example of what a bath team hero looks like he's without a doubt a respectful responsible Problem Solver we were happy to work with you [Applause] good time those are better than your I came prepared I came prepared you
018did come prepared well done so I'm I'm very glad that I don't have to speak in front of all these people when I get to turn this show over to a more eloquent speaker than myself I'm going to call up Miss Heather Tilson one of our seventh grade English teachers and our Spanish one teacher um she's got two students that she would like to uh present to the board and the community tonight share share your GL classes well it's a with great honor that I'm able to stand here and recognize two students today um it's such a pleasure to be able to um highlight all of their achievements and their participation it's been my great honor that both students that I'm honoring are being able to recognize tonight I've I've had for two years in
019a row I had them as seventh graders for honors language arts and then I had them for the high school Spanish one class this year so uh I got to know them very very well and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with each of them um so they they make it easy to to appreciate them just by being whom they are so I feel like they are the poster children for what we Aspire all students to achieve for our district of the vision of a minute man uh they're not only wonderful students but they're also truly wonderful human beings um amazing devoted academian who are just truly uh kind and enjoy to be around by um both staff and and students alike so uh the first person I'd like to recognize is Luc zutro if he
020can come on [Applause] down so if I could talk a little bit about Luca um he shares everything um he shared with me um a bibliography about his accomplishments and he also shared that he does enjoy being at school and uh I think that's also part of what makes him such a pleasure to have in class he truly appreciates all that R has to offer and um recognizes what it can do for him you can already tell he's incredibly kind and modest and he has this infectious smile that when he walks into a room he shares very freely and uh spreads every single day he has a very unassuming demeanor that belies an incredible depth of character and an expansive realm of wonderful qualities that are apparent to all um I was asked to explain
021how he demonstrates just one quality of the vision of a minute man I just couldn't do that so so um you know a couple adjectives that I would pick to describe Luca he's thoughtful he's courteous he's responsible he does have a learner's mindset perseveres and adapts and communicates truth incredibly self-motivated um understands the benefits of extracting the most out of his education as possible with a an innate curiosity and desire to understand and make connections in pursuit of self-mastery so an admirable work ethic holds himself to high standards sets the bar high for himself as well as for others and he's not afraid to ask for help and admit that he doesn't understand and that's part of the process of uh of his Mastery and again I think that's a mature um attitude that an
022academian a true academian brings to the table he's focused prepared organizes he engages with a purpose creates Solutions and he always embodies confidence and empathy for everyone around him he's incredibly generous and thought indeed uh he has a lot on his plate he's very busy and this year he volunteered to help me out was a peer tutor for other students who were struggling and I was truly appreciative appreciative of that and he commented and said that he also enjoyed that and enjoyed the whole process of helping others understand things as much as he does he is humble he does not require outside recognition for his success and he does not seek it but he definitely deserves it um it's personable liked admired by all and above and beyond all of this he's well balanced he's
023able to prioritize and strive for academic Excellence while pursuing things he enjoys at rever plays basketball in Cross Country he was a web leader um as well as a peer tutor and then outside of school he's on two different basketball a Au teams and has weekly tournaments so he's a super student a super human I can't say enough about him um he also commented that he loves hanging out with his family and tries to help out around the house whenever he can so he's just he's the full picture he is that poster child of what we embody um as our vision of a minute man I remember his easy smile his unselfish kind demeanor and his genuine character he will definitely be an asset to whatever he's a part of in the future um I
024know great things await uh him and I'm glad I've been able to walk a little bit of this journey um beside him so thank [Applause] you don't run away Luca okay I'd also like to call Lauren Burr up so like I said I've also had the honor of um getting to know Lauren over the last two years as well in both the language arts Arena and the Spanish Arena and uh if I had to choose some words to describe Lauren she's incredibly focused dedicated poised determined and kind she has a natural Grace that exudes from her and a poised sense of maturity that supersedes all situations um she's kind she's courteous she's responsible success and excellent scope without question for her it's her only option uh she's respectful she's modest she's thoughtful she's self-motivated again
025not for the sake of recognition but for her own personal desire to state that own personal achievement to be her best and to excel she's positive she's creative and she's pensive she's a problem solver and she makes no excuses for what happens and only looks for Solutions with a Demir resolve and tenacity um she's Pleasant never complains optimistic can see past the challenges at hand to what possibilities and potentials exist and she's calm and never appears outwardly stressed she just has an incredible demeanor a great confidence and Grace that she exudes again seeking no affirmation or confirmation and she has a sense of self and focus that's mature Way Beyond her age and usually takes most people uh quite a few years of life to attain so her involvement in list of achievements is is
026lengthy and Beyond taking all honors classes and excelling she plays volleyball uh for both R and an outside club team she's a cheer she plays travel softball she runs track and they went to Suburbans and they uh set a new Middle School record for her relay team so that's also another Accolade there she's in band she's an art student council yearbook um a web leader and she was also nominated by her peers for the honor of laying the wreath in DC at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier so she helps uh her community she helps the school and her peers every day just by um by being her she's respected by all she serves as an a a source of inspiration and motivation um and in her exit interview that she just recently uh took
027at the middle school she referenced the aspect of communicating truth as the one that's important to her and in reality I I think she she goes she achieves that and so much more I have no doubt that she'll continue to thrive at the high school in the future and with her ability to not just look at the world and and uh look at it through the outside lens but to actually see it I think she holds the power to Envision what can be and I think that she will make the world a better place just by being in it it's been a pleasure to get to know her in every way and um I wish I wish her the [Applause] best con you could have e [Applause] hi Mr Ferris hello thank you Dr TS
028it is uh my honor and privilege to introduce Sarah Pine Sarah Pine first and foremost is an outstanding English language arts teacher to our ninth grade students she has some of the most engaging lessons that I've ever had the opportunity to uh to see firsthand and uh her students truly enjoy her class we're here tonight though because Sarah has uh been the rever players director for three years now and she has continued that strong tradition of excellence and uh we're going to talk about one of our outgoing seniors who has uh been in the spotlight a lot so s so short um so I want to start before I talk about this student by telling you about one of my favorite moments that always happens when we have a production at rev players and that
029is on opening night so the first night we have an audience by box office has been crazy the kids have been backstage getting ready and everybody's in and the doors closed and the show starts and for the first time in what seems like maybe 12 weeks it's quiet like it's just kind of quiet and I have a moment to breathe and that is the moment that I start planning the next production um and I remember so distinctly sitting in the cafeteria uh right outside the doors Mama Mia was off and running everyone was having a great time and I just looked at the blank wall and was like I'm going to do The Crucible I'm going to do it um and those of you that have had had the benefit of our 11th grade uh
030American lit curriculum here are familiar with The Crucible and know that it is kind of a monster of a show it's a amazing play it has stood the test of time and that's why it's part of our curriculum but it is also like an exhausting Prospect but I knew that we had the students at Riv and we had the resources at Riv to be able to do an amazing production and the reason that we could do that was because of our students one of the things that makes The Crucible so difficult is that you have to have a student in the center of that production who can essentially carry the show more or less on their back um The Crucible really is it's the story of a town torn apart but it's the story of
031a man torn apart um who is going through the worst trial that he will ever face in his entire life um and to ask that of someone who is 18 um is a bit much but thankfully we have no Rebo so hold this while I talk about you a little bit okay well when I saw that the plane dealer was soliciting nominations for um their top school shoutouts they have all kinds of categories for their High School standouts top athletes top musicians things like that but they have a top stage performance and I knew uh who it had to be this year so out of I think they said something like 200 nominations uh I had to submit video of Noah's performance and do a little write up about why I thought his performance was
032noteworthy and thankfully the plane dealer agreed so Noah is being recognized as one of the 2024's top stage performers by cleveland.com and the plane dealer so a special issue for that mark your calendars will come out on June 9th which will feature all kind of the high school standouts that are being recognized by the plane dealer he'll get an award he'll get another certificate um and mostly we get the bragging rights of saying he went here so I know I mentioned this at our awards banquet and I'll say it again I know your Ambitions extend beyond the stage I know you're going to like go out and change the world and do great things but I am so so thrilled and honored and proud to have been part of your journey and if you don't
033at least do like a few more shows it is a great loss for theater and I'll come and kick your butt so um Noah REO everybody only [Applause] surely the highlight of our monthly board meetings are just the opportunity to celebrate what you got a chance to see are some really special students and I want to thank the staff uh who are here this evening uh to to help us do that um you are certainly able our students that are being recognized you're able to spend uh some other time here and hang out with us but if you want to go and celebrate we understand that as well one final Applause for our uh our students this evening yeah turn Mr Malik and members of the board we have two uh curricular presentations uh this
034evening the first one uh that be bringing to you you'll find in your agenda under other business item 4A and that'll be the first reading for some new curriculum and uh Mrs roach and Mr Fry are here to highlight that Mrs roach good evening good evening it's a little hard to see you in the sun um it has been an absolute pleasure to work with our high school social studies Department this year we started our process getting together together during lunch that they so graciously gave me and we talked about goals for about a two-year process possibly threeyear process to adopt some new programming for our courses one of the things that you know I always start out with in our department is instructional Vision but the work that we've been doing at the high
035school over the last few years we already had an instructional Vision in place and I'll let Mr Fry talk about that okay so good evening everyone so we're saying that our students will understand how history and social sciences impact people's lives through critical thinking analysis evaluation with the goal of promoting civil uh Civic engagement in an independent world what that means is that we want our kids to leave this school district with u an understanding of how things work about how social studies Works about how they can be citizens and engage in society so when we're talking about textbooks we want things that will help our staff to be able to engage with kids and that's our goal so unique to some other departments social studies the range of programming requires us to meet in
036smaller groups as we're thinking about our different courses um so this for this round we decided that we would start with world history psychology AP Psychology personal finance and Street law and we began as a whole group looking at an evaluation tool we try to use that so that we're looking at um things that are much more objective when we're reviewing textbooks when we're looking at programming um all of the department members had access to look at our evaluation tool and then those who teach the courses that we're reviewing for filled it out for all of the programs as I already mentioned we're looking at a two-year curriculum adoption process um trying to review materials for all of our courses so the ones you don't see in this round you'll see next year around this
037time um and one of the things that we focus energy on is really looking at the value of when we need a a physical text and when we need a digital text one of the goals that we had um this year is to have physical text for classroom so we have class sets but to make sure that we have digital for all students so that they can access on their iPads make it a little bit easier for them and then have enough textbooks for those who um for their IEP or maybe a different need need to have a physical text at home with them as well the first course that we are looking at adopting is world history and the world history teachers worked with me and reviewed programming we narrowed to three different texts
038we ended up having presentations from two companies and the one that we are recommending is savis high school world history the modern era the reason for that it includes great extra resources can support us with note-taking other durable skills that we want students to have when they graduate from Rivier high school and are prepared for their next steps um having the online platform from savis they are constantly updating there's so many changes when we're looking at history and this is all the way up until the present so that was one of the things we appreciated about this programming we also had our intervention specialist who co- tees and teaches a resource class as part of this process and she found that this resource allowed for the most um opportunities for differentiation and engagement for students
039the next course that we looked at was psychology and AP Psychology and I have those on two different slides because it is two different texts uh Mr Brown our AP psych and psychology teacher um he is just phenomenal in his knowledge of what's going on with his course and and I know you know this about AP but the College Board um is the one who has run AP programming since 1955 and they update the AP tests and then they let us know we need to update our materials so that we can make sure students are ready and they're able to earn those high scores and get college credit Mr Brown was so excited to recommend this text it is an updated addition of the current text and he also teaches our psychology course and recommended
040that we use a text from the same publisher so that we can also have great rigor and content for our students who are not taking an AP course but are College Bound or career bound and want the rigor of that course the next course I'm going to let Mr Fry talk about because he is the teacher okay so thank you Street law is a pretty awesome class that's been around for a lot of years but uh the material gets outdated pretty quickly the statistics that are uh in that because they have a lot of crime issues and things like that that those numbers are just important to talk about but when they get to be five six seven years old so the street law text that we are currently using has an updated version of
041that it is the only version that is actually available for that so we didn't have a lot of options but uh but so we're recommending that the street law text by McGraw Hill be um be utilized again and again it's a it's a great resource and it's a great class thank you all right the last text that we're recommending it's Unique personal finance is a course that lives in our business department as well as our social studies so there's a different instructional Vision because we have teacher collaboration as we're building instructional Vision in this course the vision is that students will understand how personal financial literacy allows people to embrace the world and skillfully use critical thinking to bring Creative Solutions to problems Minutemen will focus on authentic tasks with a real world purpose and
042impact there's legislation Senate Bill 17 that and I'm skipping down a few bullets here because I think this is so important Senate Bill 17 focuses on capitalism being a part of financial literacy coursework and Dr TS emailed me when he was reviewing some of the upcoming legislation and we roped in Dr pelt and right away when I reached out to the teachers Mr rahas I think he probably stopped what he was doing to immediately email me and say we teach capitalism every day it is a priority in our department it is incredibly important he was like very passionate about it and very excited about this text and the opportunities to support students in the four pillars of financial literacy debt budgeting saving and investing so very pleased with the text that we came up with
043I will share this present ation with you in an update tomorrow morning and when you are looking at it the links you can see that there's a hyperlink for each of the titles that's to the course syllabus that's found on Rivier High School's website but I just wanted to make it a little bit easier any questions for us we thank you great great job thank you both we appreciate all all the work that you guys have put into those recommendations and for the board we'll have that material on display in the board office again you're going to see later in the agenda the opportunity for a first reading here in May and a second and final reading on those recommendations at the at the June board meeting and the then the materials available to the
044public correct yes we have those in the in the board office in the administrative offices so you have heard about I'm sure in mainstream media about this science of reading and later in the agenda under the superintendent uh agenda um section Roman numeral 72g we're going to be reimbursing our teachers for some training in the science of reading what is exactly the science of reading and where is rever and that's what we wanted to highlight here this evening Mrs roach thank you so I've talked with you about the science of reading a couple times over the last two 2 years and um this is actually legislation that was in House Bill 33 and I have that up on the screen um this comes from the guidance from the oh high Department of Education and Workforce
045and the reason why I have that up is this is a very specific law that mandates that all teachers and administrators complete required coursework in the science of reading and it's not just something anything out there there's Pathways that the department has developed and requires based on ler which pathway teachers must complete um there's also an administrator pathway there are some exemptions and letters training that our K to2 teachers have been doing over the last few years is one of those exemptions so that's great and I was celebrating when I saw that because we've invested a lot of time and effort into that um you'll see that the legislation also includes a deadline this course has to be completed by June 30th of 20125 over the last month I've met with all of our teachers
046getting them set up getting them um moving along the way on their path and actually I think over 30 teachers have already completed their coursework um in this which is tremendous and there is a range of hours if your license is um K through five or you're an English language arts teacher or intervention specialist um at any grade level there's many more hours that are required it's also part of the law that teachers receive a stien and so that is up there it's clearly spelled out there's two different dollar amounts and it's based on whether you are in that K to5 or 6 to 12 Ela or intervention category or not um so I wanted to share this with you because all of our teachers are impacted all of our teachers are completing something in
047the science of reading we're trying to do as much work as we can in order to implement um you know that that has been a a priority in our elementaries and it continues to be um lastly the department does mandate that we pay that stipend but we are then reimbursed so there's a very specific path that we have to follow and again I just wanted you to have that information great thank you all right thank you you always do such a great job that there's no there's never any questions for you I know thank you Mar yeah well done thank you thank you Mr Malik all right um let's see so at this at this time we do allow uh for uh public to speak as to specific agenda items uh there's a second part
048of the agenda towards the end where we can uh we allow the public to make public comment on items that aren't on the agenda uh just based upon some conversations with many of you I anticipate most of those comments will be coming towards the end of the uh uh agenda today so if there's anybody that wants to speak as to specific agenda items on our agenda today please step forward okay we'll move on now Mr berdine Treasures agenda thank you very much Mr Malik I would uh propose taking all of Roman numeral 6 a through F please as one action item uh so moved second uh the minutes from the various meetings you see listed there is uh board held several special meetings the financial report um has been provided to you in ADV I
049don't think people are here tonight to listen to me so I'm going to kind of scoot over that but uh I'll just briefly mention that it doesn't look very healthy if you see this now or see it on forecast because there was a delay in the timing of um some County tax bills being distributed therefore our distributions were delayed as well we have received that settlement now in May so it it'll reflect next month yes sir y um asset deletions are list if anybody has questions there's U some outdated uh textbooks that we would uh offer to a recycle resale Service uh then and now purchase or that you see the five-year forecast I talked about that last month um I'm not known for brevity so I'm going to really work at it here um
050I would just say that if you look at this forecast and it will be on the website as well as I said last week um we're in very very good shape we are very fortunate here with the valuations of the properties we're very fortunate from a school district perspective I said last week you get my berdine taxpayer and berdine Rivier School treasurer answers and they're not the same berdine the taxpayer doesn't necessarily like 26% property valuation increases bery the School treasurer really likes them so uh the tax revenues which we we receive about 75% of our funding from local taxes um so we are looking healthy we have not had a new operating Levy since 2011 there's nothing in this forecast to indicate that I would be suggesting anything different than continuing that pattern for
051the foreseeable future um questions you can always ask me citizens you can always email call I'll take care of them um it's still pretty remarkable that after 13 years we have not had an operating agreement um it's pretty unusual in the state of given the form of funding that exists for schools so new construction here is another very very nice attribute we have as a school district it's it's just incredible um donations uh let's see I know I have them here somewhere we like to uh recognize those individuals and the list once again this month is not uh short of nature uh Bath Elementary PTA $3,925 for the for benches for the land lab um $1,000 from the heart of Riv for the riv Middle School Cedar Point trip $274 from heart of Riv for
052uh various needs of high school seniors Richville PTA $25,000 for the green playground I think is that what that's called Green playround I got it it's only taking me four tries I'm getting better uh then there's um the rever speech and debate boosters 4,247 18 they had requested an additional coach this year due to the increase in the number of participants in that program they agreed to fund that that's their contribution and then you'll see a number of scholarship contributions $3,000 from the Henry V Francis W Christensen Foundation $500 from Steven and Holly wh for the our leadership Club scholarship poer Financial $750 contribution to the r swim team Riv Middle School PTA $628 49 to Riv Middle School for the DC trip shirts fussy properties $2,000 to the John and Jane Barona and Kylie
053long scholarship funds $50 Carol Anders for the pette Memorial Scholarship $3,000 Kathleen Butler for the for the pette Memorial Scholarship and $1,000 from the Carson strong foundation for the Carson Higgin scholarship and those are awarded as part of our end of your senior activities great that's all I have unless you have questions I'll be happy to give an a shot uh just uh thank you to all our uh generous uh supporters out there it's always amazing to me uh the amount of money that comes in uh to our district uh from our community and uh others that support the River District so thank you uh does anybody have any questions or comments for Mr Bine okay hearing none Mr berine Mr Malik yes Mr haidu yes Mrs bracket yes Mrs rainy yes Mrs Stein yes
054okay uh thank you thank you uh for board member reports um D's already covered uh finance and audit um facilities and grounds are there any updates nothing nothing okay uh legislative report yeah so I just have one quick highlight uh last week Governor dwine signed House Bill 250 into law um which requires every school district in the state to adopt a policy on student cell phone use during the school day uh currently R speaks to that in each individual building handbook but there's no board policy so that's something to think about going forward um Dr TS I know you've been following this CL I believe districts have until July 1st 2025 to get a policy in place so yeah and we'll we'll wait from legal councel to present a draft and and once that draft
055comes in we'll get that to the policy committee um I'd estimate that that'll be in in the fall packet that that comes in okay is there anything from policy committee nothing this month athletic Hall of Fame yeah we vote on okay Mrs Burke uh CA Valley Career Center good evening good evening so uh cvcc celebrated Signing Day on May 6 I had an opening in my schedule so I was able to attend it was a really fantastic and quick event uh no R students uh signed with anybody but I am hoping to go in future years uh to enjoy that and to recognize any rier students at our last board meeting uh we enjoyed a presentation from the construction trades program and the skills USA and we also approved a three-year contract with opsy and
056the administrative support and classified exempt employees um also uh May 30th is our next board meeting and at that board meeting we'll be recognizing students who won various competitions and so I'd like to call out the riv students tonight I'd like to recognize Bella George who received a bronze at the regional graphic media Alliance competition Logan Luther who received third place at the state skills USA competition Anna obanion who received third place at the state skills USA competition Isabelle Sadi who placed first at the regional HOSA competition and I had to look up HOSA it's a future health professionals organization and Ava sukato who I think we heard from her mom earlier today uh third place at the state skills USA competition so I personally want to congratulate all of those students for those accomplishments
057thank you very [Applause] much thank you Mrs Burke uh Dr teest superintendent's agenda thank you Mr Malik uh I'd like to take or recommend that we take all of Roman numeral 71 through 72e which will be just above the student services section okay so moved second uh under the uh superintendent's agenda for 71 the certificated and licensed Personnel um one a through D or pretty usual and customary I I do want you to to notice the new hires uh that we starting to get all those positions filled uh for our vacancies and just a reminder we will bring the district will bring to you all the new hires at your August meeting so you get a chance to have that that introduction um I do want to spend a little bit of time on item
0581e you're going to see a list of teachers at uh ditchfield that are going to participate in a math pilot and I just don't want you to allow that to to fly by too quickly you know we work in it every day it's not every day that we get a chance to work on it and it's these types of opportunities during the summer um where our staff will be working on it and working on the curriculum and it's what makes uh the curriculum fresh U and I'm and I'm just super proud of uh of Marsha and the teachers for their facilitation of this of this pilot um summer programming you will remember seeing in the past it only happens once a year but we have the read around rever and the jump start read Around
059rever is an eight-week program and the Jump Start program is a two-e program and I'm I really app applaud both programs they're they're absolutely phenomenal they're paid for with Federal funding but the jump start is just an opportunity to lift up for those students heading into first grade and head into second grade for some of the students that that just might need a little bit of a lift before the first day of school um those are two weeks dedicated to what what Richfield calls their their Jump Start program and it's a it's it's a really special program it's just one of those little things that makes Riv a little different and a little special uh G is the uh science of reading PD stien that that Marshall referenced under the classified Personnel will have some
060usual and customary hiring recommendations um I do want to point out that under uh item D the extended time uh we are recommending U 12 days is up to 12 days of extended time for Halen lechman that she's the secretary in the athletic department you know that that's a Mr seeker's a 260 employee full-time year round and just uh gives Helen an opportunity to support that office especially as August first they are up and running uh full-time we also have some professional development for our our head cook um for Jen you'll see there on June 3rd and June June 4th and then we're also making a recommendation just we need to make a salary adjustment for um Aaron nap our food service coordinator that concludes uh the superintendent's agenda uh thank you um I know
061everybody had the opportunity to review this last week when we went over the agenda at the work session but are there any other questions or concerns Dr Tess okay uh Mr Verdine please call the role Mr Malik yes yes Mrs bracket yes Mr haidu yes Mrs rany yes Mrs Stein yes Mr MTH just because that was such a big agenda I would recommend though just out of time that we take as a consent agenda Roman numeral 3A through 3H I'll run through a couple of them motion so this is all the student services section um I you will see some of the items that we're trying to support our students where we need to get some some extended hours you'll see there under the additional hours uh the extended school year um we're starting to
062to get that organized um I think the the the big key is for D through H are all the contracts and Partnerships that we have in agreement for our students with disabilities that we're Contracting for for the the 2425 school year and um aby's done terrific work to make those those recommendations and uh I'm happy to recommend those as well this month okay are there any questions no Mr berdine Mrs Stein yes Mr haidu yes Mrs bracket yes Mr Malik yes Mrs Rainey yes item four and under other business is the first curriculum adoption that you heard from Mr Mr Fry so it doesn't require a any action this evening but uh these are the items under 4A you'll see the the world history book the psychology book The the AP psych book uh personal
063finance and Street law we'll have all of those at central office administrative offices for you to see um we'll ask you in June to do a second and final reading on those um B we do have a second final reading for all of the curriculum that was brought forth to you last month okay we need a motion on B please motion second any questions again you had a report on that last month no we could always bring Mrs roach back up she would love that all right Mr Verdine Mrs Stein yes Mrs rainy yes Mrs Brackett yes Mr haidu yes Mr Malik yes item C Mr Malik we have a college credit plus mou for Walsh University okay uh so moved second you'll see the memorandum of understanding under attachment ob2 again uh CCP with
064uh with Walsh are there any questions uh from for Dr TS no no okay I think that's I think that's the sixth Institute of higher ed that we now have anou with there's always the opportunity for more right yes absolutely okay Mr berdine Mr Malik yes Mrs bracket yes Mr haidu yes Mrs rainy yes Mrs Stein yes then we have uh payment in lie of Transportation make a motion so really to see the depth of this you need to follow attachment ob4 and you'll continue to to see this as families can continue to apply payment in Li of transportation is a resolution where we declare as a District transportation impractical um for for certain trips and then they are reimbursed okay are there any questions regarding the uh inl of Transportation no okay Mr uh
065Mr Verdine Mrs bracket yes Mr haidu yes Mr Malik yes Mrs Rainey yes Mrs Stein yes all right does that conclude your agenda items that's a big one but thank you very much for entertaining all of that thank you Dr TS we do have some uh informational items uh the June board work session will be held June 18th 2024 uh it's beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the river administration building uh the regular June meeting will be held on June 25th uh beginning at 5:30 uh it will not be here it'll be back in the uh Riv admin building uh which is where we uh hold um our meetings during the summer or regular meetings during the summer uh the board will convene on June 26th uh for a special meeting uh beginning at 2m um
066and that will be held in executive section and there won't be any uh action taken um so at this time Mr M before you get to the public um I don't believe we will need an executive session um at the end of this meeting okay unless the board has an interest but uh I I do not okay thank you thanks so uh at this time we do uh allow for the concerns of the public and the community uh to provide announcements uh I'm going to go over uh just uh a few things here I'm going to uh first talk about uh what's actually listed on the agenda that the board obviously values encourage public comment um there is a board policy that relates uh to this uh particular uh opportunity for the uh public to
067come forward um I want to thank everybody obviously for being here uh we don't typically get a lot of participation at our meetings um uh I think the last time we had this many people was when we recognized the soccer team and all their accomplishments uh this past fall uh I know that a lot of times coming to board meetings don't fit into people's schedules uh you know there's other obligations maybe perhaps people are indifferent as to what we are doing or there's the opportunity to watch our board meetings online thanks to Mr Shanker and his team uh so again I am grateful that everybody is here to par participate uh you know based upon the number of emails and what we have seen on social media here in the past couple of weeks I
068anticipate that most if not all are here regarding policy board policy 7.35 which is the release time for religious instruction is there anybody here that is not here for that particular item please raise your hand so I can bring you forward at the beginning okay uh I'm going to take a few minutes to go over some comments uh to try to clear up some misinformation that I've read out there also to kind of highlight some of the roles that we play as a board what the administration plays uh you know as as the district is run um so we're going to start by going over a few policies uh first is policy 1.05 that deal deals with the major function of a board the chief function of a board is policymaking um and that's why
069most of you are here today regarding that one policy our second biggest role um is selecting appointing an evaluating the superintendent and the treasurer now the authority and the function of our board members uh falls under policy 1.06 and in particular if you we to look at that policy um it indicates that the board shall itself Prim or shall concern itself primarily with board questions of policy rather than with administrative details the application of policy is an administrative task to be performed by the superintendent and Treasurer and his or her staff who will be held responsible for the effective Administration and supervision of the entire school system board members should refer individuals having questions or complaints directly to the appropriate administrator in his role as superintendent uh Dr test Fields calls uh daily as does
070Mr berdine and their administrative t uh staffs do as well this can be questions concerns ideas Etc from not only uh parents and community members but also from staff it's their responsibility to ensure parties are engaged and communicated with appropriately I believe many of you feel that the Board of Education participates in the day-to-day operation of this District we do not that's not our role in fact many of you present today and others for the past couple of weeks have made records requests uh regarding emails community Communications concerning a particular religious organization LifeWise I've reviewed a lot of those emails uh that were requested because to be quite honest we don't see a lot of those emails uh so I spent and I know this board spent uh a lot of time reviewing uh what
071all of you or many of you have requested so I'd like to take a little bit of time to summarize what I read and what I saw as well as what we actually uh uh endured uh during uh this time so let me start by saying over a year ago Dr TS received an email that indicated that parents within rever expressed an interest in the possible launch of a release time religious instruction program in October of last year a group called LifeWise asked us to distribute a flyer Dr Tess denied that request Dr TS notified the board at that time of his denial and indicated that for students at Riv to be able to participate in a program like LifeWise we must have a release time policy we did not have a policy at that
072time in the middle of December a rever parent reached out to Dr TS to indicate that she is serving along with several other parents from our community on the local LifeWise Academy steering committee she asked if Dr TS would be available to meet the week of January 22nd of this year now regarding policy language and drafts most boards here in Ohio uh use either what's called Neola which is the North East Ohio learning Associates or the law firm of Pepin Wagner here at Riv we use pepel and Wagner pep and Wagner drafted the release time for religious instruction policy 7.35 for the board to review with our a with our draft agenda at the March 12th meeting that was a work session the board reviews and discusses the draft agenda uh at those uh work
073sessions as we prepare for our regular meetings like today all policy proposals or amendments adopted by the board receives what's called two readings regarding this policy it was reviewed at the draft agenda uh when we reviewed the draft agenda on March 12th and as well as on April 9th during our work sessions the first reading of this policy was on March 19th at the regular board meeting and again on April 16th at the regular board meeting I can tell you that some people in attendance today were at all four of those meetings in March and in April each of our meetings are recorded and posted on the rever district website for your convenience and for your review no community no community members or parents spoke up during or in the days or months while this
074policy was under consideration over the past couple of weeks there's been a lot of discussion on social media regarding this policy but more specifically against a religious organization called LifeWise Ohio law gives Boards of Education the ability if it so chooses the ability to adopt or I'm sorry the Ohio law or Ohio law did give this board of education the ability uh if we so chose to do uh to adopt a release time for Religious Education instruction the specific Ohio revised code is section 33 13. 6022 it's titled release time courses in religious religious instruction this board's policy 7.35 is in accordance with the statutory guidelines of the Ohio Revised Code one parent sent an email to the board indicating that the board is mistaken on the Ohio law regarding this policy I can assure
075you that this board understands the difference between the use of the words may and shall as part of my research I did want to go out and look to see what our surrounding districts are doing as it relates uh and what they have in place regarding the release time for Religious Education instruction I was a bit surprised by what I saw the following districts have this same policy that rever just put into place they are Solen Hudson Copley Highland Wadsworth green Springfield acam Public Schools Barberton Stow Woodridge Coventry talage Norton Buck ey and now R we have also received emails indicating to us that our policy is in violation of the separation of church and state the US Supreme Court addressed this in cases in 1948 and 1952 here in Ohio the Ohio Revised Code
076section 33.1 3.622 went into effect in 2014 Mr Shanker can you pull up our policy please so this is the policy that uh was recently adopted by the riv uh Board of Education release time for religious instruction release time is a period of time during which a student is excused from school to attend a course in religious instruction conducted by a private entity off school district property the Board of Education authorizes a student to be excused from school to attend a release time course in religious instruction provided that each of the following applies the students parents or Guardians give written consent the sponsoring entity maintains attendance records and makes them available to the school district that the student attends transportation to and from the place of instruction including transportation for students with disabilities is the
077complete responsibility of the sponsoring entity parent guardian or student the sponsoring entity makes Provisions for and assumes liability for that student no public funds are expended and no Public School Personnel are involved in providing the religious instruction and the student assumes responsibility for any miss school work while in attendance in a release time course in religious instruction a sh a student shall not be considered absent from school the student may be released from a no student I'm sorry may be released from a core curriculum subject course to attend a religious instruction course a school district member of the Board of Education or School District employee is not liable and damages a civil action for injury allegedly arising during a student's transportation to or from a place of instruction when private transportation is used under release
078time policy so there's no religious uh instruction that's incurring on rever property no taxpayer funds are being are supporting these programs a parent needs to provide written permission for their student to attend if you do not want your child to attend then it's your right to make a decision for your child and seeing all the banter um and hearing and uh getting several emails about LifeWise we do understand that there are some parents and community members and even non-c community members members uh who have weighed in uh regarding their dislike for this religious organization to date Dr TS has not brought to this board any recommendation for the board to consider or adopt a memorandum memorandum of understanding with any religious group including LifeWise Dr TS has an obligation as our current superintendent to engage
079and listen to all parents and community members even if they don't align with your beliefs I can assure you that this board still has questions on how the District administration will implement the policy and ensure strict adherence to the statutory guidelines if necessary I'd also expect that we would seek guidance from our outside councel to see how we may be able to address some of the concerns raised by many of you while I believe that we are a little ahead of our skis here this policy has just p and given the upcoming transition of Dr te's leaving and Mr White not starting until August 1st I do not anticipate any further discussion amongst the administration until Mr White comes on board many of you know us personally and I can tell you that it's hard
080for us to see sometimes some of the things that are said about us um so I'm hopeful uh that any comments that you do make uh they're not directed to anybody individually and that they're kept civil uh and I would ask for you in the future since many of you do know us and we are open to even those that don't know us to reach out and email us directly or call us I can tell you that I've talked to some of you and uh the conversations have been very civil very understanding um so I hope that happens in the future um I know there's a lot of you here that want to talk um we do have a public participation policy it's 1.12 uh it indicates that each person that wants to talk has
081five minutes to talk with a maximum of 30 minutes um so I don't know how many people want to talk U Maybe by a show of hands that could maybe show me how we might be able to work this out uh to give every Everybody the opportunity uh to come forward and speak uh because I don't want to uh not let anybody have the opportunity to voice their uh concerns and their opinion so maybe by a show of hands I Know Travis you are uh is there anybody else okay so we have one two three four five six six okay so we'll limit each of you to five minutes because that'll get us to the 30 minutes um however uh you all would like to come forward I don't have any particular order because I
082don't you absolutely Travis I I am going to keep time Travis so as you approach oh okay that's I was going to because I don't want to you I will do it just to try to be fair to everybody so I'll hit you at like 4 minutes and 4:30 just so everybody knows so when I shout out I'm not intending to be rude so just a heads up I'm a uh former student of alen STI so uh I'll try and you know in his mock trial and everything I'll try and keep this okay well first of all thank you uh everyone for being here uh we want to uh thank the board we know that this is I mean you guys aren't doing this I said this earlier you're not doing this for the money
083and we appreciate uh your willingness to hear us for sure the one thing that we all have in common that I think we can build on here is that we're all here because we think children deserve the best and we just have different ideas sometimes of how to realize that goal so with that said this is one of those matters where we have obviously uh differing opinions it's true that the work session uh this was discussed at the work session I completely ack knowledge that the 7.35 was discussed there and shame on me I wasn't at the work sessions I was attending you know past six months I've been trying to attend the board meetings I've only recently started to attend the work sessions and that's on me for certain um I was present for
084the public vote when you guys enacted this policy uh but after learning more about the policy because at the time when it was adopted and I read it just based on the bullet points in the agenda I assumed it was more based on an individual basis for parents that they would have the right to ex excuse their child on an individual basis uh not that this would be in any way uh a larger organization that would be organizing anything like that um and it really what concerned me was that Riv was going to enter into or potentially going to enter into a specific arrangement with any specific religious organization uh LifeWise of course being the one that right now uh is the big uh talking point um I've read that many of the board members
085uh have stated that this religious excusal policy was something uh you know and you're accurate it was brought forward by parents and that is true but it's clear that LifeWise ultimately was the driving force behind this um the letter head on the petition that I saw in my public records request literally stated LifeWise Academy at the top so I don't see how you can disassociate the policy that's been enacted due to that with LifeWise currently uh now we are also told that uh and like I spoke with Dr TS earli we're told there was roughly 150 families interested uh he said that was kind of a verbal number that someone had thrown out to him we know the petition that was uh turned turned in that did have the LifeWise letter head had roughly 97
086as I counted I counted it um but a significant amount of those were also from outside of the district um we and I have presented with you guys the petition that we have currently had opened since the 8th uh we have we did the best due diligence as we could the signatures that are in the printed copies I provided are about roughly eight well no it's 819 signatures and we believe those are local residents parents uh we have a separate list of people from outside the district perhaps they're alumni perhaps their divorced parents something like that who knows but we do have that and we're more than happy to provide uh the digital copy of this so that you guys can vet this further however you would like but could I see also a show
087a hands of how many people here are concerned about the LifeWise organization okay um and I just don't understand to me this is my me speaking why it's okay to allow a religious organization any religious organization to pack children under a school bus take them 10 minutes down the road and instruct them that some families in the district are of lesser quality or value than others and clearly the LifeWise materials does outline that uh during the search for a new superintendent uh we were told that uh it was one of the concerns was the change of culture and rever and I think that this policy in general it very much changes the culture of rever uh because it's obviously cause some animosity one minute yep uh we agree uh there's I mean we all there's
088too too much division in the school so I don't know why we would add to that I feel that The Logical choice would be an after school religious program for parents that wish to do that which already clearly exist at our current religious or um institutions around here and also the engagement that you're seeing here I don't believe it's going to disappear uh we're not going to get bored with this issue and allow LifeWise or any other religious group to win through attrition uh if the district decides to go forward with this we'll we will not just sit back and say better luck next time this is something we are very passionate about but I do please encourage civility in the conversation 100% thank you thank you Travis thank [Applause] you good evening uh my
089name's Dr Jeffrey arenol um and for the record I am the parent that Dr that Mr Malik mentioned um who had concerns um about how this policy was presented during those meetings in Mar especially the meeting in March today you said it's up the board you we we we decide that's not what was said in March in March Mrs Stein presented the policy initially as aligning ourselves with what current law is she re reiterated later align ourselves with the law after she said that Dr TS said everything you said Mrs stey was perfect it's just that the district has to have a policy and that's not what you just said right now so I wish we could have worked this out through email um but you chose to call me out publicly so here we
090are um you also stated that Copley and and I believe Copley was on the list I know Hudson was they do not have the same policy we do Huds policy says it's up to the principal in the school who gets to decide when the kids leave rever policy as written anybody can anybody who takes attendance and has liability insurance and has a bus can pull up in front and take kids away um whereas Hudson's policy uh says they're they're limited to 120 Minutes the principal decides uh copley's policy says that specifically organizations are forbidden to tell kids to go evangelize at school and it's that piece it's that piece about LifeWise that makes this not just parental Choice it it's not just like to be clear I so I attend a church in the area
091not as often as I like I work on Sundays usually seeing sick patients but I church is important this is not about church being bad this is about school being important art is not skippable gy is not skippable um um in in an email to a friend um Mrs Rainey mentioned her understanding that this would normally happen during lunch during study hall during recess all right put it in the policy she also said in her email to one of our people that um the board like didn't discuss it they didn't discuss doing what Hudson did didn't didn't discuss doing what Copley did I I practice in Wadsworth Wadsworth has a line in there in their policy that that makes clear that students I'm sorry that that staff are not allowed to encourage or discourage people
092from going so it's a LifeWise or other places that is not in our policy and was it discussed I don't think it was I think this was presented as a done deal the state has to have or the the the the the district has to have a policy um and that's not how it was presented you snuck it by us good job we didn't notice until now because you knew this would happen um and and I get that you wanted you didn't want you know this sucks for you I'm sure this is hard and I get it so be honest with us about what you're doing and give us a chance to speak we're busy we don't have time um as far as what to do next I did see now that I'm watching uh
093work these work U meetings or the work sessions uh that um the new um superintendent um has a Consulting um uh contract with us now so we don't need to wait until Dr TS leaves us to talk about this policy with the new Administration and figured out we're pay I assume again I'm new to this stuff I'm assuming that that during the work session meant that we're paying him until until August 1 so great let's do it let's talk about it we're here today to talk about it we couldn't talk about it before because we're busy we're doing stuff I work until 5:30 usually I cancel patience to be here today uh and just be honest with us about what you're doing and you were not honest with us in March and you are not
094honest with us just now thanks [Applause] you sorry so Noah Turner um bath resident uh parent of a kindergartner here at Rivier um and I'm standing before you today to uh express my deep concern over the recent adoption of the policy 7.35 um permitting religious instruction programs such as LifeWise uh and rever public schools um I wanted to just kind of recap the way the policy went through uh so first of all policy 7035 permits release time religious instruction RTR I during regular school hours um School District may offer the option for our RT with adoption of a school district policy but it is not required um approximately a hundred people expressed uh an RTI policy by submitting interest forms to the board and the board passed that policy on April 16th which allows the
095art programs like LifeWise Academy to reach re public school students during school hours as word spread many rev residents raised concerns and the petition opposing LifeWise entering our school district was created on May 8th um I saw over 1100 signatures uh as of today um so you know over 10 10 times what this started with um and just given that clear display of concern by those in our community um at that you know at that number I would just I I urge the board to resend the policy re re reset and then just carefully consider the input of the larger rev Community that's clearly expressed their opin opinion on it um now i' just like to get into into LifeWise a little bit um so what is LifeWise Academy LifeWise Academy is release time Bible
096study program that seeks to provide bible-based character education to public school students during regular school hours so got a few concerns here that I want to to raise concern number one yes I know you mentioned the separation of church and state and um um the court case that said that it's it's not a violation of separation of church and state but allowing LifeWise to offer Bible instruction to Public School St students during school hours it blurs the lines between church and state uh separation of church and state um even even if off-campus religious instruction would be effectively serving as a substitute for other school activities which non-participants are compelled to to attend um that is not a separation that is an integration and um it's an integration of Bible instruction into public schools curriculum now
097concern number two social division am among students implementation of LifeWise Academy's programs could lead to significant social divisions among students by pulling students out of regular classes such as gym music uh for Rel religious instruction we risk creating an ingroup of participants and an out group of non-participants that division could Foster feelings of exclusion peer pressure even bullying um as non-participating students may feel marginalized or singled out for their beliefs or lack thereof moving on one minute please Community division introducing religious programs like LifeWise can also exacerbate Community divisions public schools are meant to serve as neutral spaces where students from diverse backgrounds can come together and installing specific religious proog a specific religious program can foster environment of religious competition and conflict alienating non-religious students and families as well as those from different faiths
098I pull I pulled up an example which I did put on a slide but can't show it I get that um the examples a divisive ideology toward lgbtq individuals unmarried parents and divorced parents this is from uh a LifeWise uh tough it's tough questions that kids ask my mom's boyfriend lives with us is that a sin when two people reject the time is up please your five minutes is up please I'm sorry off thank you thank you thank you very much thank you thank you my name is Jane Beckel I've been a resident of the Rivier district for 50 years my two children graduated from Rivier in 94 and 96 and I currently have two grandchildren class of 2033 and 2036 um I speak as a former educator 35 over 35 years I've been a
099teacher a principal I began a charter school here in the akan area so I've been unfortunately a superintendent as well um as well as uh work for the Department of Education as a consultant um instructional I mean you name it I've done quite a bit in education but I am retired luckily um I speak as a concerned educator and parent obviously and my majority of my concern is disruptions of the time on task I mean we all know how very compressed our school days are and so the the disruptions of kids having to move in and move out to not only the individual students leaving but also to the remainder of the class teachers students the whole um I mean I know as a teacher trying to just make your schedule your lesson plans when
100you're trying to figure out what you can allow other students to miss sure they're going to make up the work but we all know kids have all types of different learning skills all types of different learning speeds all types of different abilities at that point in time and so as you're trying to adjust your teaching for all the kids in your room who's leaving who's staying you don't want them missing out on even though it's not Core Curriculum we know that everything we do is important we don't have fluff time in our days anymore and those kids don't have fluff learning time and even at lunchtime those social skills you know it's key so at any rate I would be very concerned about the logistics um the other thing is I have very big concerns
101about the divisiveness of the student recruitment uh my own particular grandchildren my daughter-in-law happens to be Jewish my son happens to be Christian we're very and I'm Christian I attend the bath church and we're very concerned with our children or our emphasis on raising the grandchildren is the emphasis is on love and acceptance for all individual choices you know it doesn't matter what religion you are and you know it's six and nine year-olds they're really good about saying whatever you worship it's important it's about love and it's about acceptance and your choices are up to you so for young children they're not responsible for the choices those adults in their lives make the lifestyle choices again whether it's marriage divorce lgbtq whether it's who they love those young children in particular but even our middle
102school and high school kids you know they're not fully formed adults and they cannot I feel be responsible for the Judgment of those adults in their lives and when someone is preaching to them that the adults who are responsible for their lives are living in sin I have a real problem with that to me that's not love and when they're bringing that back to the environment where the rest of their classmates are receiving peer pressure and incentives to come to that program I think that's really really confusing for them and I would I would just ask that as a district and as a board who do have the responsibility for making policy thank you that I would ask that you could put this on a one-year study before any type of implementation so and that
103you have some focus groups you know we've got an election coming up in November that's incredibly divisive that's going to take some time to settle out no matter what happens and who's elected but I would ask you to use a one-year study before allowing any new program and that you develop focus groups for the pros and cons board members can talk to other board members in other districts that have implemented parents can talk to their parents administrators can talk to mother administrators teachers with other teachers I would just ask that you do it in a very considered way and that policy can be adjusted but you know there's nothing wrong with the hold thank you for your time thank you thank you very much hi good evening uh Josh lman I come here wearing a
104few hats I'm a r parent I also of a sixth and fourth grader I also serve as community relations chair for Jewish akan that is the organization that represents um the Jewish Community here in suit County encompassing Temple Israel which is here in this District as well as rier Road synagogue and bethl bethl congregation forgive me um and so on behalf of Jewish akine when you know I've already serving in this community relations role we feel the marginalization as a cultural and religious minority and believe me I know you've been inundated with emails I was too um from my community and I've served in this post for the past three years and I've never had as much Outreach from community members about an issue as this perspective LifeWise introduction so um we had a meeting
105last week and we wrote a letter to you all as a result of that meeting which some of you may have read already and I wanted to read that to you in case you didn't get a chance um on behalf of Jewish akran we would like to express our concern regarding the perspective introduction of Life wi Academy into the r school system many members of our community attend R schools and we've been appreciative of your system's sensitivities to the needs of its cultural and religious minority students such as by making accommodations on religious holidays however the potential for R to facilitate life- wise's involvement in the district strikes many in our community not as an accommodation but as an endorsement of one sect of Christianity over other religious and cultural groups in carving out valuable
106instructional time including in the Arts or or during study periods for narrowly taught biblical teachings life wise's activities border on pration and the effect would be compounded if participating children return to school with treats or religious literature please reconsider your potential facilitation of LifeWise and rever schools and avoid engaging in any contractual commitment to LifeWise Academy alternatively please consider taking stringent steps to avoid any discriminatory or marginalizing effect that LifeWise Academy could have upon non-participating students thank you very much for your cons consideration signed myself and Daniel Blaine Jewish akan chief executive officer um just wait you don't have to endorse a memo of understanding there is no rush here um you're going to need time and I second what the previous speaker said um because LifeWise or any organization that's going to bring people
107into this school is going to take a tremendous logistical challenge it probably can't even work at any higher grade level because I know with my sixth grader their periods are all out of back there's no way anyone except a very deep pocketed um entity such as this would have the means to even meet that policy but it really should still be more stringent we can't have pamphlets coming home we can't allow our already diverse Community with its comprehensive curriculum and schedule to be distracted or to be marginalized we're already feeling it we don't need to exacerbate that by introducing a policy that could facilitate this organization um I'll end with what is legal is not always what is wise this is not wise we we have the Ohio rise code we have a policy but
108we don't need to use it to introduce this element it would be divisive and and inappropriate in rever school so I thank you for your time thank you [Applause] is this the last is it I believe this is Speaker six we're a few minutes under the 30 so I think we added one or missed a hand both of which are possible um but we have a a few minutes we're saved on a couple of previous speakers so if you talk fast we can probably get the last one in I'll be I'll be brief I promise I'm kidding I'm not in charge to I just think I am but go ahead well Grace and peace I am the Reverend Dr Cindy Parker I'm the senior pastor of the bath Church in in bath here and um
109we believe that no matter who you are or where you are in life's journey you're welcome at our church I'm a parent of three amazing daughters I live in the Rivier school district and I also was a teacher uh a reading educator in the Dallas Independent School District before I went to Seminary and so we've talked a lot about separation of church and state this evening um which removes the government's ability to give preferential treatment to one religion or to religion in general um the riv School District's released time for religious instruction permits students to leave the campus for religion religious educational purposes and your number five says that no public funds will be expended my question for you is wouldn't faculty involvement be required to facilitate the students departures and arrivals back to school
110and wouldn't public funds be required as the the teachers prepare the makeup work for the students that are out of school for their religious studies thus public funds would be required to pay the teachers and would be in direct violation of Ohio Constitution Article 6 section 2 which states a Prohibition against the use of public funds to support private and religious schools so I would encourage members of the community who wish to receive religious education for their students to enroll their children in private schools that offer religious studies uh as part of the curriculum or join us at the bath Church uh where all are welcome or Join one of the other many faith-based organizations that are doing amazing work in our community thank you we'll be real close with 30 if we do one
111at five minutes is this the last speaker oh then I'm going to let her go because and in the past the rever board has set a presedent of going Beyond 30 minutes so I I don't see why we would all of a sudden not do that [Applause] tonight hello my name is Sarah pet and I am a second generation revered uh graduate my children are third generation two of them have already graduated and two are currently attending and um you know getting a great education so I am here because policy 7.35 was improperly presented and adopted and it must be rescinded the board acted unethically by making misleading and inaccurate statements failed willing to inform the public and to solicit and weigh public opinion as it affects the district and placing the interests of one
112group LifeWise and its supporters above the entire District before adopting policy 7.35 release time for religious instruction RT at the regular March school board meeting the board held the first reading of this policy and during that time the board gave its only Public Presentation of what this policy entails in less than two minutes first we had Miss Stein speak and I have a quote here but I'm not going to read it in the interest of time I think we all know what that was and can look back at the minutes as well um but the gist of that was that apparently a law was passed not a lot of detail on what that law was um but the other in in detail that was given is that it would only allow religious instruction it wouldn't
113be funded by us we would not provide transportation Etc everything you see up there probably um after that short quote that short statement from Mrs Stein superintendent Dr TS spoke up and said I agree everything you said is perfect and this District just has to have a policy uh concerning part to me the next statement there this district has to have a policy I'm just going to read it I agree everything you said Mrs Stein was perfect it just the district has to have a policy so this would just put us put the district with the policy able to engage if there was a vendor there is a vendor that is soliciting our families we've had hundreds of families that are interested in this so I think that it is the appropriate action for the
114board not one board member spoke up when both Dr TS and Miss Stein glossed over and misstated the law the facts and the impact that adopting this would have on the district at the regular April meeting it was unanimously voted in by all board members present without per further public discussion in contradiction to these statements we were already aligned with the law and did not need to add an RTI policy to become aligned the state of Ohio permits but does not require a policy once we do add a policy it triggers requirements that transfer some control from the school to any religious organization engaging with students most concerning the school would be prohibited from discouraging students from recruiting their peers to these religious programs during school hours regardless of their religious beliefs this creates a
115new level of peer pressure and also removes a parent's right to choose whether their child faces religious pressure at school we rely on the school board members to present truthful and accurate information when deciding to adopt a new policy due to the minimal and inaccurate information presented and the narrow perspective considered District families were not given the opportunity to learn about the RTR policy and its relevance so passing this policy was not the appropriate action of the board Dr ts's statement that hundreds of families were interested in LifeWise was not substantiated regardless this would not make Hasty passing the policy the appropriate board action one minute please policies should be fully settled before consider what vendors to engage with and public opinion should be solicited and weighed instead the board actions appear to be guided
116by a desire to enable LifeWise to engage with rever students their effort to quickly change such a personally impactful District policy due to eagerness to engage with a vendor is unethical and alarming they did so without providing information to the district also tying the purpose of this our engagement to our engagement with a religious organization may not be in alignment with the law because it ignores our educational status and purpose as a public school district and effectively promotes and prioritizes one religion over for rever and over our other goals because of the board actions I'm concerned that one or more board members may be too entangled with special interest groups to objectively fulfill their responsibilities to the district resending this policy would be an exercise of good faith from them and would help to prevent
117harm disrespect and inequitable access for the many individuals with diverse perspectives as well as keep our our shared educational goals thank you [Applause] thank you very much thank you hi everyone my name is Trisha Steiner and I'm a rever parent and I live in Richfield Ohio uh there are a lot of things that parents may want to consider before allowing their children toin Trisha Steiner than you no no worries I'm gonna restart the time okay yeah Trisha Steiner I'm a r parent I live in Richfield there are a lot of things that parents may want to consider before allowing their children to participate in LifeWise Academy and before the district enters into a contract agreement I understand that as the superintendent and local Board of Education you have no control over the Supreme Court ruling
118of 1952 individual religious or political organizations or the laws and law being within the state of Ohio there are however preventative measures that the Rev Board of Education can control and Implement to alleviate some of the concerns regarding LifeWise Academy's potentially unconstitutional tactics that have been reported in other school districts since this policy has been pass um I'm proposing that it that policy 7.35 release time for religious instruction be enhanced beyond the basics of the law to include some safeguards before a contract is signed with LifeWise or any other religious organization so these are just a few suggestions but I hope that the board deliberates on these items and more um so after the first six items that you have listed um some suggestions could include no representative staff volunteer from the sponsoring entity shall
119enter a school building or occupy school property School staff or Personnel should not accept any gifts or tokens of appreciation from the sponsoring entity including snacks or meals the sponsoring entities shall not distribute any recruitment tools to student attendees that are intended to be handed out to student peers during school hours on school property including invitations trinkets or candy the school shall not allow any type of promotion of the sponsoring entity using School communication channels and shall comply with school policy 6.47 School staff shall remain neutral at all times and may not promote the sponsoring entity nor distribute any sort of punishment or exclusionary practices for students who do not attend school staff shall not alter the regular school schedule to accommodate students who participate in RTR and ideally to minimize classroom disruption participating students
120should be released prior to the last class lesson of the day and then return at the end of the school day to minimize the disruption hopefully these additional assurances will be unnecessary but it certainly will not hurt to have them in place and will put the minds of concerned parents and community members at a much greater ease thank you all for your time time attention and consideration and for all the long hours of work that you do in service to all of our kids thank you [Applause] thank so Claudia Hower I'm a retired rever teacher and oops retired rever teacher and former School Board member and also um uh was on the policy committee which I do want to make that uh something about that clear uh last fall that policy was brought to me
121that was approved and I said no no way that's not revered so my concern is really how when the board makes decisions you're making them for what's going to be best for rier so I in my head because I did serve 14 years on the board and I started thinking about what would I be considering because I spent a long time on the policy committee too and um one how does it affect the students so those that don't participate in the program depending on who this sponsored entity is um they might be recruited with peer pressure just like we heard tonight Copley does this Hudson does this Sol does it pure pressure by the way before I forget because I'm getting older um sponsored entity there is nothing in this policy that says what is
122a sponsored entity it does so right now if parent tomorrow could say as they said here um the parent students parent or Guardian gives written consent for any organization there are no parameters to this the other thing is I don't even see how you can make par parameters on something like this because then you're going to be discriminatory can you say oh this church can do it no but not this one and this contract situation this this isn't a monetary thing I don't even under this it just is beyond what I can doesn't make sense to have this but back to its students because that's where my heart is with all those people back there okay so they might be recruited they might be harassed because some students and it doesn't necessarily have to be
123LifeWise Academy it could be any group that's similar to it that they put in Concepts into these kids' heads because kids are very impressionable um that you know if they have this characteristic that's not acceptable with our religion you know you need to not be with them they're going to get bullied okay noncore classes how is this going to affect students so they're supposed to miss their non-core classes well what about the band So once a week you've got kids not in the band how does it affect your program the students that do participate sure they get religious instruction but they also have an extra burden of making up work they have to make up the work then also from a Columbus suburban school I've heard that students that do participate in these programs are
124considered religious Geeks so they get bullied for being a religious geek because we don't have enough bullying parents those that do not participate or that do participate yes their children will receive religious instruction and a freeze time outside of the school day for them those that do not participate are going to be concerned is my kid going to be recruited and all of a sudden their kid comes home and starts questioning their home life and that their kid might be bullied staff is the staff going to feel that the board does not value the education they provide that it's okay for kids to miss their class and it will be extra work for teachers to help those students make up that work because our dedicated rever teachers will help any kid no matter why they
125miss class one minute please okay so moving along I'm going to go right to the end because this affects Administration as some of the things my suggestion is you a simple vote would resend this if parents want their students to be released students are in school 35 hours a week There's 168 hours in a week that leaves 133 hours where they can go get religious instruction why does it have to be during the school day and bottom line bottom line how does this benefit the school district how does re [Applause] better thank you Claudia thank you I think Miss how was the last one um first of all uh thank you all for sharing your concerns I know that it's difficult to get up in front of people uh and um talk about something that
126is um passionate uh to both yourselves and to others um you know I can tell you when I said uh earlier that um the board still does have questions uh about uh any potential um religious organization and what they might want to do um so we are still in the beginning stages um we do have a policy um but we don't have anything uh that is um any type of understanding with any group um that's where we're at right now um I don't know uh the timing uh if anything will happen um because there's I as I indicated earlier I think uh you know our our skis are out in front of us and we're uh still all working through this um you know we have a transition in administration I know that uh the
127doctor in the back said something about uh Consulting uh time uh I can tell you that uh Mr White um you know there's a lot of things that go on in a district and administration uh that he needs to come up to speed with and uh the 10 days that he has does uh uh go by quickly um so I uh just want to reiterate how uh thankful we are that you guys did step forward and talk and uh we will uh conclude our meeting does anybody have uh anything further I want to say thank you very much for everybody coming and voicing your opinions and your concerns I've had a lot of phone calls this week and a lot of emails I've tried my very best to respond to each one individually I'm still
128here if anybody wants to continue to have a conversation I don't speak for the board on my own but I believe in community feedback and listening to everybody um and and that invitation is always open for me so please feel free to reach out and I really appreciate you guys showing up and voicing your feelings and emotions and thoughts on this subject ition and a second motion a second to adjourn motion second all right Mr berine Mrs Stein yes Mrs Rainey yes Mrs bracket yes Mr haidu yes and Mr mik yes uh board is adjourned thank you all