SMFCSD Board Meeting 2025-02-24

001I call to order this meeting of the stowman rof Falls City Schools Board of Education on Monday February 24th 2025 at 6: PM East Jenkins here merletti here Shen here Su donic here W here please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all for all everything we do is designed to provide a future ready student- centered learning EXP experience for every single child our strategic plan for 2021 through 2026 will help us accomplish this goal by considering every facet of a student's learning experience from curriculum to infrastructure to Wellness diversity and inclusion and everything in between as members of the Board of Education we serve

002as trustees therefore this is a business meeting being conducted in public not a public meeting we are grateful to serve an Engaged community and there therefore encourage and respect input from citizens we expect that everyone present will behave in a manner consistent with the behavior we expect of our students we reserve the right to have those who do not comply removed from our meeting and before we proceed I would like a moment of silence for our Bulldog loss thank you condolences to Mrs Richard's family superintendence report good evening everyone one we are at the wonderful Lake View uh campus and I am going to turn it over to our principal who will share some highlights uh from Lake View welcome to the board and everybody here this evening uh this is one of my favorite

003nights of the school year it's a chance to really show off and kind of brag a little bit about what makes Lake View great which is our students primarily they're they're number one second in line I always give credit to the teachers of Lake View that are working day in and day out to meet some of the standards we're going to go over here real quick today I have a couple things I want to highlight just to kind of frame the presentation and kind of give a lens um to what to look for as we have a couple things we're going to highlight this evening the first comes from the Strategic plan um with our core belief top of the frame our teachers are leaders whose primary job is to engage students in significant activity

004that results in learning and that's always at the Forefront always part of that frame and you'll see that when we have our students come up and present and some other things I'm going to show also from the Strategic plan we'll create a culture of physical mental wellness and compassion and promote Healthy Lifestyles for our students and staff again another side of that frame to look at um really for me what this means is creating an atmosphere where we encourage that confidence a sense of value a sense of belonging and really provide that climate where students can learn and succeed another side of the frame the Fine Arts and Athletics we build maintain and retain Fine Arts and athletic programs and students are the highest caliber quality and character you'll see some of these things in

005the presentation that we're going to do tonight too and again just putting a frame around what I will be looking at this comes from our one plan and this is a big piece it's about increasing attendance reducing that chronic absenteeism and one of the big things that we focus on so we've got the sides of the frames and to address this goal is trying to create things for students to have a connection with at Lake View um for students to come to school they need a reason to be here they need to want to be have a connection with something um often as they go through their school experience it's finding that group of people that they connect with who are their people what's their connection and we've always had the band as a big

006one in choir we really tried to expand that this year with a as many extra curriculars and groups that we could have and we have teachers volunteering to run these organizations um some are giving up their lunchtimes to do it during lunch others are staying after school um we have K Kids band choir orchestra drama Ski Club rocks student council meal time at Highland uh we just completed the GCC M math competition crochet Club Girls on the Run latey musical Bulldogs dig reading going on this year and the PTA Reflections so we've really expanded that list this year and are really working to have every student have somewhere where they feel this is something that I enjoy and people that I can connect with to encourage them to want to be here um when you

007go up higher you know we it's often connected with sports and that athletic piece of they come during the season and whatnot because they want that that piece we wanted to create those opportunities and really get a foundation here at Lake View so they could expand those relationships build relationships and carry those on moving forward so all those pieces frame what we're looking at of those and then just a couple of pictures on my end of some of the different groups and the kids involved Girls on the Run or orchestra led by miss shley this year our new Orchestra director chess club is new this year um it really has a great turn out kids are really getting engaged in doing um great things there Meal Time mentors is a group of kids that go

008over to Highland to have lunch with some elementary kids during the day as mentors K Kids is one of our traditional ones that has been going on for a longstanding time um brings in a huge number of kids and we do a lot of great things for the community that's our fifth grade Choir performing at the holidays crochet Club is new this year Mrs rener gives up her lunchtime to have kids come in there and this is one that just kind of came through her and kids expressing an interest and now a great turnout kids giving up their recess to come in there and learn to crochet this fifth grade just competed over the weekend in the tournaments and those are all of our groups that's what I wanted to highlight it I'm going to

009turn it over to Mrs Martinez to show another um engagement for kids and I want you as you're looking at what they're doing think of that frame that we tried to build about creating those learning activities creating that atmosphere all of those pieces of that frame as you look through this Mrs Martinez I'll turn it over to you hi good evening thank you so much for having me I'm Jessica Martinez and I teach grade five self-contained gifted math and Science and I also teach a science invention class through the curriculum of the Ohio invention League we call it Invention Convention this is my third year here at Lake View and stow and my third year teaching um Invention Convention so what it is it is a problem-based learning program in which students go through the

010process of creating an invention or building upon an innovation um so we go through uh thinking of a problem um surveying our students getting some feedback coming up with um solution options proceeding forward with the solution um creating our prototypes testing prototypes and um marketing um you can see all the skills um that are embedded in this through this process students compete at the regional level and then to um they get invited if they pass regionals to state to compete in the state of Ohio and then can move on to um Nationals so three years ago one of our students who's now the seventh grader raar Richmond he won honorable mention it was my first year teaching and Venture convention and then two years ago and Grayson is here um Grayson why don't you come

011up we have a few students here uh so this is Grayson I'm just going to introduce you and then he's gonna I'm going to introduce him and then he's going to talk about invention so Grayson won State finals for his invention cool slicks for cool kids in the category of fashion and wearable technology so he won that category for fifth graders for the state of Ohio with that um win he uh was invited to compete in the US Nationals so to compete against in his category representing Ohio all other students in the nation he won 529 scholarship award and he was invited to kid inventor day um at the Ohio state house and this takes place in at Ohio University which he went to um just this past summer right okay so um I'm just

012going to show the next few slides you can see his name is here for us Nationals Ohio University is recomended you know recognized and this is category weable technology and showcases you know showcases our school and Stow which is really important and then um that's Rachel she won our honorable mention um and first-time inventor of the Year award for her um invention budy brush but I'm going to go back to Grayson here so he can talk more about his invention do um my name is Grayson zosi and I'm going to talk about cool slicks for cool kids so my invention is a shoe cover to protect your shoes but instead of just being boring and just black or brown it's going to represent the color of your shoes and now you may be asking I

013can't just copy a person's design because that would be plagiarism so I'm going to ask for permission or ask to team up with them or even sell my idea to a brand and then we could make the invention I'm probably not going to make it though um so um I probably would like since it took only rubber um like a rubber shoe cover that was originally black um and I painted it um spray painted it blue and colored the um logo to the design and it's not perfect but it um looks just like the shoe and instead of having having it painted because this one got tested very well and it's obviously beat up so instead of having it painted I would screen print it so then it wouldn't get beat up like this and

014if it's screen printed you can actually wash it and like on muddy days and it all gets muddy um so basically this um can be soell for adults um kids literally anybody except probably babies um and it also protects the bottom shoe as well so it doesn't get all dirty on the bottom and it it doesn't cover up the laces because you need them to tie your shoes and protect them um from you know tripping and that's kind of most of my invention um the next three students are my current fifth graders that are in the process in this invention process so right now they are at the designing their prototype and testing um portion of the process um so we're going to have Jace rener come up first his invention is called The Quiet

015cup he's going to talk about it he can demonstrate it I said hello hello my name is jce rener and my invention is the quiet cup a common everyday problem at schools is water bottles falling off desks and making really loud noise like this and it's annoying and disruptive for the class so my invention is a Qui cup and it's a multi-purpose invention and it can also hold art supplies and anything you really want in these pockets and you can hold it like uh I don't know and with the handle and you can walk around with it but there's also a buckle so you can clip it on your backpack now I'm going to show you the difference between without the Qui cup and with it and it makes a lot less noise Lula with

016swim ties and I do have to mention that students went through um the process of patent search to ensure that these inventions were not already patented so Lula come on hello my name is Lula and my invention is the swim tie it's the problem with hair ties is sometimes when you try to do water activities in them they're either way too loose and they slip right out or they're way too tight and they hurt really bad to pull out my invention is kind of like an adjustable hair tie so you just can't do this okay you push this and pull it and it gets as small as you want it to for the thickness of your hair and then when you're done swimming or whatever you uh pull it and just slide it out over

017it's pretty stretchy it can stretch like this much and it's mostly made for for people with medium thickness to thin hair probably wouldn't work that well if you have thick hair but um I would probably make a bigger size depending on what kind of hair type you have that's it I guess and back it with a cold hold is our final one hello my name is Becket and I'm the co-creator of the cold hold in Avenger convention me and my partner Patrick the problem we're trying to solve is burning her mouth on soup because who likes seeing a delicious soup going taking a bite delicious soup by the way and burning her mouth I sure certainly don't like that so at first me and my partner Patrick are our vision was a spoon with a

018thermometer pretty simple but that idea was shortlived after patent searching so me and my me and my partner thought why not innovate off of that so we presenting the cold hold a a regular spoon with a stainless with a with a stainless steel tip that that after being refrigerated will constantly chill the suit but it'll also have space to put in a thermometer be um so you could see when it's ready in inventure convention we've um we've been P we've been learning about patenting and marketing and basically all you need to um to be an inventor and now after inventure conven after inventure convention when I see a problem I don't just walk away now I think hm what could I do to fix that problem thank you so much to everyone for for listening

019and um and I want to thank Andy and Angie also for their support with this program and um having it in our classrooms we really appreciate everything you do for us thank you yeah absolutely I want to give a round of applause to all those students that came up that was amazing that is just a snapshot of some of the phenomenal things that are happening here and it really is happening because of people like Mrs Martinez Mrs rener that's here and the teachers that are putting in the time to do these things with our kids and our kids always rise to the challenge so hope you enjoyed that little snapshot again welcome to Lake View and always happy to answer any questions you guys have and that concludes all of our stuff this evening thank

020you for that and a special thank you to the students for having The Bravery to get up um and extra congratulations Grayson on your win uh we are going to take a f minute recess now so that any of the families who wish to clear out can certainly you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting but uh kids have bed times so for e thank you bye e e okay now that everyone has settled back in uh it is time for the presentation of our Bulldog Center Stage Awards Dr Gould good evening we have the pleasure this evening to congratulate our February Bulldog Center Stage winners as I call your name would you please come to the front and receive your certificate and please stay standing until all have been called we'll start

021first with Billy Joe Burmeister as part of the maintenance team Billy Joe has put in countless hours plowing and salting our school grounds in order to support our staff and students being able to come to school safely Billy Joe has worked weekends and Calamity days in order to ensure they are always prepared thank you so much Billy Jo next from our transportation department Teresa mullet Teresa has worked for our district as a driver now and a subd driver for over 30 years she has changed her work schedule at her other job to help us out when we are short staff thank you so much Teresa and now beginning with our buildings Echo Hills Kelly Duncan Kelly goes above and beyond every day she goes out of her way to make sure everything and everyone is

022taken care of no job is too small thank you so much Kelly from Fish Creek Courtney routon Courtney planned and organized our buildings moving with the flashes day on this day student athletes from Kent State University came to our building and worked with our students on games and activities that promote physical activity and wellness thank you so much from Highland Shelley Hall Shelly recently joined the Island team this year she consistently demonstrates exceptional dedication creativity and commitment to the library and its mission to Foster the love of reading among students she always brings a welcoming atmosphere to the library thank you so much Shel from Indian Trail Hannah Wallace Hannah is a leader of our PB committee and she has worked hard with the team to brainstorm new ideas for our students and staff she

023is always positive and full of encouragement as she works to make our PBIS the best it can be thank you so much Megan ulery Megan is coming from Riverview Megan makes music class so enjoyable for the students and is so kind while working with them she has in she has invited the children's concert Society to come and perform for our school and we saw our students light up while watching the performance Megan found a wonderful group to perform as they taught our students about the acceptance and kindness toward others thank you so much from Woodland Tammy Simpson Tammy takes great pride in her role as the evening custodian at Woodland she interacts with students help staff when needed and is always up for participating in school spirit weeks to show her school pride oftentimes Tammy

024will come in early or work a double shift to make sure the building is clean and ready for students and staff when they arrive thank you so much Tammy from Lake View Vince NE Ben stands in the hallway during the switching of classes and will have handshakes with 80% of the students walking by every day and knows all the kids by name he is a ray of sunshine no matter what is going on and he is always smiling and engaging with kids thank you so much ben Vicky mate from kton Vicki is the type of person that is always positive and always has an extra smile for anyone who may need one Vicki does whatever she can to help everyone thank you so much Vicki and from our high school Dave helmet there is a

025high school junior that wasn't doing well very well in his academics he was never excited to go to school Mr helmet stopped him in the hallway and invited him to the industrial maintenance and production for Employment Program the student is now thriving he loves the program and is excited to go to school every day he is learning skills that will benefit him for the rest of his life thank you so much and now we'll gather to take our picture I want to see those Bright Smiles e e at this time in our agenda we invite citizens to share their concerns about items on today's agenda that will be voted on only comments on non-agenda items will be heard later in the meeting all comments must be directed to the entire board and be no longer

026than 3 minutes we will listen to and consider your remarks but there will be no conversation aside from clarifying questions if you are seeking a direct response or further information we ask that you submit your request in writing please begin your remarks with your first and last name okay seeing none we will move on Dr G you are up next good evening again I would like to recommend the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda items B through J do I have a motion so moved second also at this time I like is there a discussion um I you know I'd like to remove F from that so we will vote on F separately okay Dr also at this time I would like to read the names and information of the donations uh listed

027in the consent agenda and personally thank each and every one of them for what they have done for our students and for our school district the following donated to Echo Hills Dairy Queen and Echo Hills PTA the following donated to Fish Creek Elementary School Piper key SMF nice the following donated to Highland Elementary it was an anonymous donation and also Dairy Queen the following donated to Stow M balls High School softball team Jennifer and Terry Bates Aaron and Christopher Clark and David and Kendra Watson other donations included David Chrisman Ryan Courtright um two people who are sitting over here at this table Howard and Tammy green Stow blanketeers sto players John Thomas Julie Watson again thank you for your donations thank you roll call please east junkins i retti i Sheen ionic I wind I

028uh so we need to consider item F separately do I have a motion some second any discussion yeah I I had um some folks that saw this on the agenda and had asked me a particular question so I did talk to the ohsa and I did get um I did I did get an answer to the question the uh we are becoming members again of the Osa uh but there was a concern as far as um boys playing in girl Sports oh o the O the o H saaa has put in their guidelines that boys will not be allowed to play in uh girl Sports roll call please e Jenkins I meridi I shean hi Su donic hi wind hi moving on to superintendent's recommendations I would like to uh recommend the following Personnel recommendations

029do I have a mtion motion so moved second any discussion broll call please East Jenkins I RTI I Shen ionic I wind I next item next item is Neola policy volume 43 number one package B from October 2024 this will be the third thir reading do I have a motion I will motion second any questions comments yes I would like to pull 5136 off of that list we can't separate items they're all one item they're packaged together well then we got to figure out because there's an issue on 5136 we're discussing right now we can discuss that all right well this is something I brought up at the last um meeting that Ohio is a one uh party consent State and I noticed in the um one that I pulled off yesterday that there was

030no adjustment or change to that and I can read it says um yes Ohio is a one party consent state for recording conversations this means that only one party involved in the conversation needs to consent to the recording whether it's in person or over the phone as long as you're one of the people in the conversation and you're okay with recording it you're generally in generally in in the clear Ohio law there's no need to inform the other person unless you're dealing with specific exceptions like law enforcement or court orders but it's a different can of wors this comes from Ohio wiretapping laws which are pretty straightforward compared to some of the other states that require all parties to agree anything else um that may be so in this because in this policy it states

031that we can't record have you consulted with a legal opinion to get a legal opinion on um whether home rule applies and the board can have um stronger restrictions than the state of Ohio nope did not are you making a wait wait back up no I have no idea on that I have not asked but I would yeah I'm not going to comment on that because again it's an assumption legal an opinion on that is all I'm asking sure okay are you making a motion to append that policy as presented in some way yeah I would like to table the the approval of or the vote of that um policy or for a future discussion until we can get clarity on this issue of whether um as far as does one party consent State uh

032over overstep what our naola policy says is there a second hearing none we'll proceed roll call please East Jenkins hi merti hi Shen no Su onic hi wind hi okay next up field trips the next item is for extended field trips this is for the high school band camp and the speech and debate Club do I have a motion so moved second any questions comments an extra congratulations for the high school in uh the high school speech and debate team that continues to impress year after year Yeah the speech and debate team is amazing the band as well roll call please East Jenkins I merti hi Shen I suod donic hi wind I okay Mr galano wish to recommend that the Board of Education improve all items in the treasures consent agenda do I have

033a motion so moved second roll call please East Jenkins I oh I do have are we on 11 it's just the minute no we're on 10 all right sorry I Shen ionic I wind I next item wish to recommend that the Board of Education approve the check register for October 2024 which was a correction in January 2025 as presented do I have a motion so moved second questions comments yes um why are why are we talking about October 24 first of all it was brought up at the last um I think Believe last month's meeting um there was a it pulled in multiple years instead of the correct year and period so I was just having the board approve the correct information all right and I sent this over to you um we'll try to

034get through them as quickly as possible being that we were under the spending freeze I've taken a kind of a fine tooth comb to looking at uh the money that's being spent in the district and U there were just some kind of red flags that um had come up in the checkbook and I was just wanting to get some clarity on that um I guess probably the easiest if those first if if you if Patrick if you want to just comment on the the first two paragraphs of that that starts out red flight and then the second one it starts out General approach I don't necessarily want to read all that yeah um M sh unfortunately since this was delivered to me today coming back from vacation I didn't have time to go through this

035but I will thoroughly go through this and try to answer to the best of my abilities okay so as far as the rest of them then we just we'll kind of push it to the next yeah I'll be sure to take time out and uh get answers to these um so these other questions probably which I just received these from a citizen so I will forward those over to you as well that had concerns as far as some of the things in the the checkbook yes please do roll call E Jenkins I merletti I Shen uh no stonic I wind I next item wish to recommend that the Board of Education approve the financial report for January 2025 as presented do I have a motion so moved second questions comments any explanation Mr galano yeah

036sorry was going to thought the bigger screen would be behind me so you have to make do it's everything on it it's on the not that it's any bigger but everything's on it is on the agenda as presented um so Mr she and I am able to answer some of the EMA questions you did have regarding uh some of the things in this report uh so kind of a basic report that I've been presenting you see the cash balances in our several Banks we have and retree uh is our investments and then with the fees you could see in the reddish is the previous year so that was in January 2024 and in the gold is January 2025 and that's the current revenue and then the bottom same thing for expenditures um the next is

037kind is what the five-year forecast kind of looks like and kind of where our cash is is going in the purple those are all actual numbers in February are project projections throughout the year we'll start projecting um cash flow lows and expenses and then it's compared to our latest uh November forecast well can we just go back on the first page there um what do you equate the uh the 25 numbers you know which were higher than the uh 24 what what kind of resulted in that happening so what I'm going to start to add to this report is the variances between the two so you can kind of see more of uh exactly where those numbers are lying and where we're seeing the increase um sorry it's kind of small on here but I

038will I will send this report and update it with the other ones um I was just tweaking it today so you could see our restricted Grant a in AIDS uh it's also just kind of when the money flows in and comes in uh that is a lot of our grants so depending on when we do our um project cash requests when we draw down the money to get reimbursed um and how much we've spent in that month so you could see there was an increase in those funds and um is really the biggest reason why we saw an increase in Revenue this January versus last January are we ever able to have an apples the apples if we're looking at the same month as far as you know I always hear that the money hasn't

039come in yet or this hasn't come in is there is that just the way it is that money just doesn't always come in at the same time yeah anytime we're receiving money from the county or even the state it's we are it's at we're at their Mercy whenever it gets to them and what I'm going to start to have in I think next Monday I'm going to have a u cash project not cash projection cash actuals of you know so you could kind of see visually of like oh so you kind of see it's a common by the end of the calendar you're beginning the calendar year that we're not receiving much funds from the county um and just so it's e easier to to VIs visualize and see that it's it's it's common especially

040during this time have you ever asked them you know why it doesn't always come at the same time no but that's something I can do ask I know a lot of the times it's depending on when they receive their revenue from the real estate tax CU yeah I mean it can't get scary you look at this because we know the money's coming but it's not there until it's there at least you know my checkbook I don't tell my the gas company it's coming you know and um but is is that just the nature of of of of the way the money is coming from the feds and from the state yes and I emailed them to a couple weeks ago and then later on that day I actually within five minutes I got the email

041saying you'll receive your first advance so must have been thinking the same thing and I don't know if that's that graph that you have because this is the one that says beginning cash balance did you get to that one yet yep okay okay um it was the personal services on under under expenditures and then other objects um what are personal services because I see there was a de there was a almost $750,000 uh what well it was what was forecast and what we got was um about $750,000 difference I I guess that's so the personal services are going to be anybody we're paying through payroll so our staff any so anybody were paying through payroll and then on other what are other objects on that 4.3 because again there was um what we forecast and

042what we had what we got was a was a different was was about 143,144 th000 or less yeah so this is this is just the uh monthly ones and then in the end it all equates to the bigger picture but but what is other objects what does that mean that I have to look into that because lot of object codes go into this one and you're kind of just leading up to what I'm going to be talking about more in depth um at future board meetings so it makes sense for everybody and so maybe you're not always getting the same questions of like what's another object it just says other so right um on uh 0039 020 permanent Improvement um again there's a lot of numbers here here but I'm looking at the one to

043the far right unencumbered fund balance which is a negative yeah so I assume you're talking about this report the cash position report yeah um it's yeah cash yeah the Ohio cash position report 003 line SSC 9020 yeah so what this is it's B this tells us at I can run this report at any time it will tell us how much we have in cash not budget but cash so on the left hand where it says beginning balance that's our beginning balance as of July 1st of this fiscal year you then have the monthly to dat receipt so anything we receeded in January will be in the next column and then our fiscal year to date so anything from January to current and then we get into expenditures so we have anything that we spent and

044paid on for the month same way for the fiscal year and then the current fund balance is what we currently have in cash and then the current encumbrances is are any POS we have open and then you get your un encumbered fund balance which is the total of what you have so you see you're probably wondering why is it negative so one of the things that we do to help track our PI is we always put our debt payments in so we may know we're going to have enough to pay for that um and roughly our debt payments are anywhere are roughly $1.5 million and that gets all paid out of permanent improvements then I do let this fund go negative because I know this is always guaranteed money we did receive receive $10 million

045on Friday from most state tax it just hasn't been received in yet um but this is now whole so you'll see that next month that it's whole so some funds you'll see go negative because money will be coming into it um and then any any money that doesn't come in we general fund has to cover it so some in for audit purposes anytime you have your general fund can cover um funds you're typically okay okay but that's also depending on your auditor who's doing your audit so so this will be a big number come next meeting uh yes these general fund and permanent Improvement will jump okay um just a general one on the turf replacement it says 203,000 is this a number that grows is it stay the same where does it come from

046and at what point do you and again you may not know this but I mean at what point do you determine hey you know the turf has met its time and it needs to be replaced yeah so at um I think couple several years ago uh I think within five years the the board decided to open a 004 fund which is a capital Improvement fund and started looking ahead at hey our turf is probably going to need replac at some point so instead of paying that big dollar amount at one time they're going to start um putting money transferring it from general fund into this fund to help replace place that at some point so does this number grow is there always money kind of going into this it hasn't grown since I've been here

047due to the deficit spending I don't think it's right to take money from general fund and to put money aside when we could use those dollars now and just as a sidebar has there been any discussion on the safety of the turf and when it may need to be replaced and when we may need to have a deeper discussion about that there have been talks about the um repair to the turf and maintenance on the turf I do believe it's in good I know it's in safe conditions I don't want to put anything out there uh safe conditions and typically it's we talk about it pretty regularly all right um this is uh page nine uh 022 9023 the stirs says stirs agency um I'm guessing this is is this retirement money because again it's

048a negative as far as the fund un the unencumbered fund balance but is that is that retirement money yeah so how the district used to let's say balance between what the state tells us we owe for retirement versus what we pull for payroll was a little bit different so we're still cleaning up this through our processes to make it uh clearer but yeah so this money was what we've taken for retirement input into this like savings account until we could true up with the state but this again has a negative number so what does that mean yes so some of this is we're just working through our adjustments so this is money you're collecting from payroll and that you'll eventually send to the state correct and now you say cleaning up when will it be

049clean by the end of this fiscal year uh okay on uh page 13 um the 300 accounts 9223 uh again you know we're looking at Athletics I look across the board I see unencumbered again is U A minus um can you just kind of explain that the 9325 uh this yeah page 13 uh 92 excuse me 9325 Athletics High School so it the same Theory going into what I explained with the uh permanent improvements uh so since the board decided to take away pay to participate um we've in the past any have set budgets for athletics and anything that they don't bring in within reason the general fund will um cover the rest of the costs so if this was June the general fund would be paying this 107 into the because there's our fiscal

050end in July or yeah July 30th June yep you're correct so then they would fund that so then August this would be zeroed out basically um and then we had this before on here so I'm seeing these are all the accounts of all the different at least on this page here the teams it looks like the next Pages different activities um because there was a lot of upset when particular people who have children children playing on these teams felt that their money was not going to be able to be accessed with probably 99% of these teams and this money is money that was that was uh accumulated on fundraising has there been any conversation in being able to separate this so that it doesn't get put into the total no and I would have to

051seek legal in audit Auditors to see if that's recommended just from my standpoint that would probably be a balancing nightmare okay um page 15 uh this idea uh this is 516 it's by Midway through 9024 9025 idea b i what what is that because again it's got a a negative number yeah these are Grant dollars Ida and this so this is and I'll be doing this this week we'll then request the state to reimburse us for this so at some point this will be for the next probably 3 weeks it'll be negative and then it'll be positive for a short amount of time and then once payroll hits or we buy things it'll be negative so this is going to be a constant positive negative positive negative okay I have two more uh page 16

052again about halfway down it's also 9023 title Title Nine if I'm reading my Roman numerals correctly again it's um it seems like it's the same number it started with and it's the same number on the other end there so what what is that reflective of I'm sorry what was the account it was 5 five 584 9023 Title 9 it's about halfway through the down the page title 4 a is that a four all right title 4 a said my Roman numerals I don't know no remember no worries this is um this looks like it might have been receded into the wrong um year but I have to look into that but what is title because I I mean I kind of looked up it said Direct Services for students professional development for teachers admin salaries

053of personnel to carry out the title four identified programs yes so this is is that am I reading that right yes so federal dollars that we requested and they would refund and what our title for I identified programs if you don't mind if you don't have that prepared I understand would you like to so title four identified programs include summer school the coaching uh after school that we just saw soapbox dery steam clubs um those type of things fall under title 4 so there are grants to improve academic achievement um for our our students making them well rounded looking at things that connect them to the school so being that this began at 48,000 minus 48724 and it's now at 48724 what's going to change this what I'm going to look more into of why

054it's still negative and the last one page 17 uh 9025 title 2 um again we got some negative numbers here but what is title if I'm reading that right is that numerals 2A 2A what are because that number seem to jump up and down and then we we end up with a negative at the at the other end so title 2A provides uh support for uh professional development for the staff as well as works with um ping providing payroll for a title one coordinator and an instructional coach yeah so this one's very similar to we just we didn't have the fund set up or we didn't use it until later on after the fiscal year so that's why it shows a zero at the beginning balance and then we just by this week we'll have

055a project cash request to cover this amount okay all right thank you welcome have a question quickly was there ever a time when Sports were told that they couldn't spend their money as during this spending freeze so I don't want to say what anytime it's come to me we've talked about it and nine times out of 10 they've been able to use um their funds it just might have been the bigger ticket items might have just like asked to wait for a little bit um but they've never been told no okay trying to be clear I think the other clarification in regards to that too is that the district is not spending fundraising money that the sports teams have fund raised I think there needs to be clarification on on that that the money was

056not spent uh through general fund I also just want to make sure it's because I haven't stated it yet but thank you for putting on the the uh freeze for the sake of fiscal responsibility I think that that's something that probably should have been a long time done a long time ago and I I'm glad that you've you know are taking steps to get us in the right direction yeah and I I should have done it in a a better way of doing it and probably a little bit sooner um just so that when you see our cash I mean you saw the general fund so low I kind of start to panic and seeing our cash of like okay you know I want to make sure we're still paying our vendors and our staff

057especially um so anything that we can put on hold just for the time being you know I'd rather do that versus having some upset employees saying that you're not getting paid for a couple days more right we absolutely have to make payroll right I think it's if it's an atypical thing we're not used to pausing spending it probably does make people raise their eyebrows but it it's sure for the sake of the health of the financial you know of the financials of the district and it's a good thing yeah so to recap this report will start to look a little bit different and anything that you think you would like to see in these please let me know I'm always looking to take feedback and make these reports make a little more sense um so

058and I I Mr Sheen was in my head today because I was I was working on some of this and preparing it for it today I'm like I should start doing this this and this and you brought up a couple of those points so thank you thank you for discussing all of that I think we are ready for roll call East Jenkins hi merletti hi Shen hi zonic hi wind hi next item all right the next one is I wish to recommend that the Board of Education approve the resolution accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission authorizing the necessary tax levies and clar certifying them to the county auditor as presented do I have a motion so moved second Mr galano could you yeah give us an explanation so this is

059we do this every single year and this is a snapshot a lot of numbers of how much we will be getting each ly and every roughly 6 months it's always cut in half so we theoretically get the same amount every every half that also depends on when residents are paying their taxes and if they're being paid on time um but this is what the budget commission comes up with and we then certify it and send it back it's kind of nice because on this this sheet you could see when levies were introduced and if they're continuing and when they're expiring and how much we bring in total I may ask what was the what's the advantage of making some of these an emergency Levy versus just a regular Levy yes so the emergency Levy will

060only bring in so looking at one of our emergency levies will only bring in 4.7 million at any given time so that's all we could bring in for that so they're capped they're C yes okay what what would be the advantage of doing an emergency versus a regular Levy the advantage is it's uh less of a burden on the residents so what if um what if we told you we didn't like this I mean what what what these are just this is what it is right theoretically yes I mean because we're voting on it but okay and just so I'm trying to understand here uh it's got uh let's just take the second one General now it says tax year it says 68 but then it says Na and then collection year 69 and a

061is that 1968 is that when it started yes okay so when does this one is this is that one uh just a continuous yes this is a continuous Levy that's a continuous one so that's never going to be voted on again correct and that would be the same [Music] for well now the one right above that there's really nothing in that box so what is the let's just go with the first one General 01.00 yeah that's like the say the initial Levy at some point that it probably was this is how we're going to fund public schools and that's probably what it was and then the other ones were were like introduced hey we need more money to pull in because unfortunately $6 million isn't cutting it anymore so then on that last one on

062that page so in 2026 is when that emergency Levy will go to the voters that's when it expires so we have up until November 26 to get that renewal on the ballot so could that technically be say no November of 25 correct I guess is there when do we have that discussion What's the timing on that yeah fish and I are going to be talking about that with our bond Council to see what they would suggest and finding what's the best time to I don't think we would ever put it on November 26 in the event that it were to fail uh then that's we're sh shooting oursel in the foot um but we will be discussing that me and Felicia and then uh we'll be presenting it to the board because then putting it

063on the ballot will get voted on so with that could it be I mean we're sitting there looking at we're looking at March or we're looking at Yeah March so what is the timeline for I mean what it if let's say you were going to put it on in May is that is there is there something has to be done at a certain number of dates before that to put a levy on a ballot yep and we're well within that I think once I believe back in 23 when we had the renewal on in May we had to have things passed by end of February early March that's where we are um all right so then on the next page so those that particular emergency Levy is 32 20 2032 2033 um then the next

064one does again doesn't have it it says I guess is it capital projects so is that what is that that's a permanent Improvement but when is it voted on or is it voted on this is this is continuous it's continuous yep okay and then the next one is 2030 20 30 2031 um then the next one is a continuous correct okay and then on the last page 2031 2032 and I'm guessing then the last one would be there's really what now the last one just has numbers to the right but nothing to the left so what is that last that's all the totals on the very bottom so that that last column okay yep so we just have one which is which is 2031 2032 okay all right so the big elephant in the room

065is uh what's what may happen sooner or later as far as this one uh 20 that's um coming up for 2026 and that is an emergency Levy yeah once we Dr gold and I discuss it and discuss with our bond Council will'll update the board on it and I think we talked about scheduling a meeting with Bond Council this week okay I also wanted to add in I know um there's been a lot of talk among the community about property tax rates and some of those increases have been painful for some homeowners um and I want to say that our best bet for getting some property tax relief when it comes to schools is to ask the legislature to fully fund public education uh you might want to look up the Ohio Fair funding plan

066Fair school funding plan um and consider asking your legislature uh to fund more from the state and then we will rely on local property taxes less can I the the current fair funding calculator is based on 20 22 correct and so they have not adjusted it at all for inflation and the last estimates I saw from the governor's budget is that we will actually receive 7% less money from them in the next school year and then an additional minus 7% for a total of -4% from what we're currently getting from the state unless they change the calculator rate to the current year roll call please East Jenkins I MTI I Shen I zonic hi wind I next item next item is Neola policy volume 43 number two Package C uh January 2025 second reading since

067it's the second reading there's no action on that tonight okay next I do have some questions on a couple of those okay um on 5120 uh at the bottom on E I mean there's been some cross through uh some checks and some some things removed here but when I'm reading this it says maintenance of racial balance and again I I didn't look at the updated one so I don't know if if it's supposed to be amongst it's a n o n GST so and I didn't see the most recent one so I don't know if that I don't know what that word is but but it says I'm I'm an assume it means balance amongst the district schools um what does that mean what does maintenance of racial balance amongst the district schools what what

068does that mean you're on policy 5120 5120 yes and this would be e at the bottom I believe that was a an option in the Neola suggested policies and I don't believe we're selecting it did not select it the only thing for this policy was to update between the language of OD to the Department of Education and Workforce that was easy um the next one was the the religious release 52 uh 23 and we did talk about this and I just wanted to kind of bring up something else because we checked here that the school is requiring um background checks how is that going to be how is that going to be um enforced the school is requiring that the entity that uses um that will be participating with us provide background checks of the

069people that are working with them so as part of the contract when we meet to discuss the particulars about core instruction all of those particulars then they would have to provide that information so that would there you mentioned a contract so there would be something that would hold them yes responsible for that yes it's just not a statement that Stow is making to them that they have to do that they have to have background checks on their instructors we are you would have a contract where they part of you guys doing this you have have to do that right we've met with them already remember I said said before we met with them in November and so we were waiting on the uh new policies to come out and the other thing that I'm just

070concerned about is um it's under end of option it says any private entity providing religious instruction during the day must agree that it will not provide participating students with any material snacks clothing candies trinkets or other items now when you get to clothing um does that mean a kid can't come in with the I Love Jesus shirt on after he goes to religious studies so it's not about what is on the shirt it's the trinkets that they're bringing back into the school the staff have acts to like snacks and all of those things that they be put away and that they're not bringing them out to cause a disruption within the school day it's not about what's on the shirt gotcha okay well cuz it says and my understanding is the the clothing piece was

071because some programs um provide participants with a specific shirt that um points them out to one another uh and definitely points out the students who are not participating versus the students who are um and I've heard some concerns and and stories in other districts of that um entertaining en encouraging some bullying um or peer pressure about whether someone is or is not participating in a in a particular program so I think part of it also is to prevent that bullying aspect as well why aren't we making some assumptions there I mean what if a kid comes in with his t-ball shirt on and he's got a medal around his neck because he won a tournament I mean what um or a softball shirt or boy scouts or girl scouts I mean I don't know why

072we need to I mean that's a big stretch I think that we're going to say that just because they have a I love Jesus shirt on and they might have a something in their hand that it's going to cause a up upheaval in the school I think we just need to be careful about you know putting those kind of restrictions I mean we can you know get called out for discrimination against you know these kids because they attend this you know could it could be the reverse you know that they're being called out or being singled out because they're attending this exactly we don't want to encourage any sort of peer pressure we don't want to encourage bullying and I think the point of it is to not create disruptions in the classroom as you

073know that's the point of our dress code um as well to prevent distractions and disruptions within the classroom other organizations that you um speak of aren't asking for permission to remove students during the middle of our school day and that's a pretty big distinction as far as when someone is being removed and brought back um as to if that's going to cause a disruption or not that's that's the distinction in my mind so again I think that's a stretch you think fourth graders are putting that all together again I think we need to be careful as far as this it's a it's it's something that's been approved the kids can do it um we can watch it we can kind of monitor it but putting all these restrictions and rules on here you know it

074uh it could again we're looking for problems that aren't there I would wonder why that we would be having any kind of insistent that needs to be things that clothing or trinkets that come along with them that might be asking for trouble that isn't there too I also think our teachers have said what they would like and they are the ones that are dealing with our students so let's make it easy on our teachers it's just that simple yeah all right and then um the last one was the 5780 um there was a statement here uh incidental this is C incidental references to sexual concepts of gender ideology occurring outside of formal instruction or presentation um or pres uh such topics include references made during class participation and in schoolwork so to me I'm reading

075this that it refers to what goes on in the classroom um what can protect that the that conversations are not carried either privately outside of the classroom uh with between a teacher and a student um in the gym you know in the hallway um is there anything that uh that can that deals with those types of conversations for a conversation in the hallway can you give me I'm just reading here it says this is is under uh definitions so this is about instructional materials and sexuality content so you say that if there's a conversation that happens out in the hallway right this looks like it it says in it in it in incidental references to sexual Concepts or gender ideology occurring outside of formal instruction or presentations on such topics including references made during class

076participation and in school work and to me this something that we need to uh that is not supposed to be happening but that's I'm reading this that yes this may not be happening in the classroom what's to prevent uh having any of these conversations outside of the classroom so first of all this particular topic is about instructional materials and sexuality content so there is a process that will have to happen in regards to what is going to take place in the class CL room so that's materials the content of it all of that if parents choose to not have their students participate then they will be able to opt out of that uh thing if if you read further in that policy if a parent does not agree with something there's an appeal process that

077can happen with that so that's how all of that will take place if there's conversation or any of that that's up to the parent okay and I don't know if there's been any other discussion or if it's even been considered of looking at an opting in ver than opting out no there has been no conversation about opting in because all of the information will be UPF front so you're already opting in okay so you opt out if you don't want to hear the information and then just at some point to have that conversation of how how much how what are the what are the processes for making the parents aware of the opt out option that is all going to be set up at the beginning of the year all of that information will be

078available for Health Services curriculum and all of those things and a universal opt out form we're in the process of working on that so that will be in final forms for parents we're having that right now um actually it's this week um and um they Pro had parent meetings there was also a YouTube video provided for the parents that were unable to attend so um everyone had um several opportunities to receive the information that the students are going to be learning this week and um I I personally was uh happy to have the YouTube video because I was unable to attend the meeting uh so that gave me the opportunity to watch it at my leisure and talk to my daughter before she has the class this week yeah we're trying to use as many

079communication tools as possible great thank you you're welcome okay moving on to our discussion items the first one was to revisit the idea of business cards do we have any update on that yet yes so I I found a platform it's called hi hello it is free and each individual user can create a profile and then you can share your business card with a QR code so and you can actually have two profiles One Professional and one personal on that same profile and I can send that out to the board if you'd like to take a look sure that works thank you any other questions on that okay uh our next subject is our legislative update and uh we wanted to revisit some of what's been going on and coming down um I'm going to

080ask Dr Gould to speak to us a little bit um and then just because I'm guessing it's a subject that folks feel strongly about I think I will call on individual board members to ask questions kind of in turn so that we're not all talking over each other Dr ghoul thank you um at the last board meeting I discussed the recent executive orders issued by President Trump as it relates to K12 education and to clarify the impact on the school system as a result of one of the executive orders concerning diversity equity and inclusion otherwise known as Dei the US Department of Education issued guidance to K12 schools on February 4 14th regarding Dei this guidance this guidance impacts us and many schools across the country as I said previously that the way this looks

081in K12 schools is much different um than looking at some of the other entities and will require a lot of research and deep diving the federal government is now restricting diversity equity and inclusion efforts by K12 schools and if schools do not comply they face potential loss of federal funding essentially schools have been directed to eliminate race-based decisionmaking founded upon the federal government's New Perspective the Dei programs or initiatives that are motivated by race because of this the leadership team in Stow memal Falls is conducting thorough review of all policies programs practices related to Dei so that our district maintains compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and the federal government's interpretation of these laws and regulation this review is done in consult in consultation with our legal council to ensure that we definitely have

082a clear understanding of these changes please know that we will maintain a learning environment that is both inclusive and legally compliant and that we are committed to providing a highquality education for all of of our students while taking a thoughtful and a strategic approach as we move forward with this issue it will take time to process everything our district does related to Dei however given the limited time frame the government has provided to schools to comply the team has identified policies again programs and initiatives that should be immediately addressed in order to re reduce our risk of losing Federal funding go to the so I want everyone to understand exactly the federal funding that is allotted to our schools and support our students some of this funding we have addressed here tonight Title One is

083funding that we receive and the purpose of it is to look at a fair Equitable and high quality education for all of our students while we also look at the educational and program services that they are receiving these funds are allocated from the federal government and it is based on school poverty rates which then uh makes a number of our students who may be eligible for free and reduced lunch it does a lot around helping our students close the achievement Gap when we think about title two another Federal um grant that comes to our schools this is to strengthen the effectiveness of our teachers principes and other school leaders by looking at embedded training making sure that we um increase the number of teachers who um look at student achievement in our schools as well

084as provide lowincome and minority students greater access to effective teachers principles and school leaders if we go to title three title three is another Federal fund that happens and it is for our English Learners those students who speak a second language to obtain English language proficiency this assists our Learners and immigrant students to meet challenging State academic standards so we have tutors that are in our district we have uh EL support for them we provide uh uh interpretive Services uh um and making sure that we have uh the instructional program for them to thrive it also promotes family and Community participation uh for our second uh English as a second language uh in instruction programs and we just had that program on last week title four another Federal um money that we received uh is

085to improve students academic achievement by increasing um the well-being and well-rounded education for students it improves School conditions and learning making students feel a part of the school having uh what we call trusted adults in the school as well as providing them the uh emotional support that they need it is also used to improve the use of Technology uh within our school and create uh the digital literacy that we see students are needing in the 21st century with all of these title six is our last one which is one of our largest one this is the office of exceptional children and is responsible for ensuring that all of our students um and it is called ID really individuals with disability education and Improvement funds for students who have special education services to improve their outcomes

086and this is for students ranging from three years old all the way to 21 because a student who receives these Services can stay in the school district until they are 21 years of age thinking of our students as we approach this um executive order this equates to 1.7 million of 9342 this constitutes at least one 4,689 students are in our total enrollment and 1,430 students receive these Services which is about 30.5% of our students in the school district so this is how we are looking at the federal funding um that based on the executive order would be impacted as we move into the policy review I want to say a little bit about um that prior uh to the discussion um as I shared at the last meeting that I would look at all of

087the policies related to diversity equity and inclusion now many of these policies do not have those words in them but they have the words that um would make us look at the policy because we start to look at things like bias rate uh racial balance those type of in uh those type of things so we anticipate further guidance definitely from the Constitutional challenges to this order in fact on Friday a federal judge issued an order blocking the president's executive order that ends Federal support of Dei program in light of this unsettled climate I have made the decision that is within my authority as the superintendent to ensure that our district does not lose uh any of our federal funding funding that currently supports our students I have suspended the Dei committee and have specifically addressed

088their work under the district strategic plan which is mission 10 I have also suspended administrative guideline 2411 administrative guidelines do not come to the board for approval those are how things are stepped out in the district so they do not have to have board approval or three readings in terms of section um 10 of the section n of the Strategic plan the summary of the Dei components are the Dei committee and the creation of a a PD plan in the area of Dei that's what's outlined in the um strategic plan and social emotional competencies which this was already removed because this was the survey uh for Panorama and that has not happened disparities in subgroups in regards to discipline academic achievement uh data and then we would look at how we can rearrange looking at

089our particular groups I can tell you that when we look at our report cards and any of those things most of our groups pertain to students with disabilities and students without disabilities in the administrative guid lines for 2411 the guidance states that the effort should be made when applicable to a program to use resource people who represent special populations contained within the body of students being recruited or guided toward the program or career path this would likely be be deemed impermissible if it is determined that any representation is based on race in furtherance of our efforts to continue to support all of our students during this challenging time I am recommending that the board not repeal the following policies and programs or initiatives but rather suspend them placing them in an inactive status for now

090until further Clarity is available to schools what you have on the screen now are all of the policies that were reviewed in regards to uh diversity equity and inclusion so in the administrative portion of them you can see that the policies 1422 1662 under program you can see the policies uh there under professional staff there are three policies under classified staff there are three policies that were reviewed under students there was one and under financing there was one you go back one for me Patrick you can see that there are only two policies that are highlighted in pursuant to the board bylaw 0131 I am recommending the board to suspend the following policies in order to comply with the new interpretation of the law and that such policies remain inactive until further notice of reinstatement

091or amended by this board to suspend rather than repeal these policies the board must amend bylaw 0131 so that the suspension of these policies does not terminate at the next meeting of the board the board is permitted to amend its bylaws at a single meeting in emergency circumstances that jeopardize the welfare of our students and District a loss of federal funding would significantly impede our efforts to educate and support our students as well as substantially hinder our ability to operate our district I am recommending the following policies be suspended until further notice of the board and that the board amend by bylaw 0131 to uh effectuate this period of the suspension the two policies the two policies that we are I am recommending for suspension are policy 211 which is the parent and family engagement

092this policy includes references to promoting activities that bridge economic and cultural barriers and relate to various cultures languages practices and Customs it also refers to the need to evaluate barriers to participation for parents who among other things are of any racial or ethnic minority group this Focus would likely be deemed impermissible policy 22607 anti-racism the policy references ending practices that perpetu the racial disparities among students it creates the Dei committee and includes other language regarding systemic racism that would directly violate the dear colleague letter directives those are the two policies out of all of the ones that have been reviewed uh that I am recommending to suspend until further notice um are you okay um given the superintendent's recommendation I move to amend the agenda to include action items to address board bylaw 0131 and

093to further address the superintendent's recommendations regarding board policies related to Dei do I have a second second thank you so we will add those to the agenda at this point please I move oh wait we need to roll call is there any more discussion on it um yeah just a couple things I was I this is just to amend the agenda yeah we're and then we'll discuss the others no you're no you're good okay we're good okay roll call for the am Amendment of the agenda we don't need one we don't need one nope we're good great uh I move to amend board bylaw 0131 under these emergency circumstances that jeopardize the welfare of our district to allow for an extended period of time in which to suspend policies until further notice of reinstatement or

094amendment by this board do I have a second second any discussion of modifying the board by law roll call please East Jenkins I meridy I Sheen hi sionic hi wind I at this point I move to adopt the recommendations of the superintendent regarding the suspension of the policies she listed specifically to suspend policies 2111 and 226 0.07 until further notice or action by the board do I have a second second okay in terms of discussion I would like to invite our board vice president to go first if you have any questions for the superintendent or anything to say about this I do have some things I'd like to say uh as a board member my job is to ensure that all students receive a quality education that prepares them uh for Success diversity equity and

095inclusion initiatives are integral parts of the many ways Educators support students and covers a broad range of areas despite the fact that the executive order seems to largely Target race it covers students with special needs including those with IEPs and 504s ensuring access to vital accommodations like wheelchair ramps extended time for test taking critical critical things for students like my son who has medical condition caused challenges with writing it also includes gifted services that provide Advanced learning opportunities for our students who require additional academic challenges provides religious accommodations such as time for prayer or dietary considerations could which Foster respect for cultural diversity it includes resources for our homeless and underprivileged students such as meals Transportation or additional academic support it's Provide support for our ESL students or English second language students by providing tailored

096resources creating a culturally responsible responsive learning environment and ensuring language barriers do not hinder their academic AC success diversity equity and inclusion also upholds protections for students of all Races genders and sexual orientations creating safe SP safe spaces where all can learn without the fear of discrimination the dear colleague letter Forces school boards across the country to choose between removing critical protections for students and risking the loss of funding with the Ohio state government already working to defund public education through vouchers and funding cuts no District can afford to ignore these threats that said this executive order is not a new law but rather a strongly worded reminder to uphold the Civil Rights Act one that's now being blatantly misinterpreted and twisted from its original intent the recent injunction against Federal diversity equity and inclusion

097restrictions sets a precedent suggesting that this executive order will also face legal challenges as it likely violates both First Amendment rights and the fifth amendment's due process protections I support Dr G and I understand that you're in a very difficult position threatening to cut funding to schools with diversity equity and inclusion initiatives is a cruel version of the trolley problem forcing districts to either abandon critical support for marginalized students or risk losing essential funding that keeps Schools running both paths inflict harm ultimately attacking all students by undermining the Equitable access to education that every single student deserves and the irony that the funding that is threatened that we discussed over there directly benefits many of our underserved populations that also benefit from Dei policy it's not lost on me I support our anti-racism policy because

098I'm deeply aware of the additional challenges that our black and brown students face including harassment bullying and intimidation and some may argue that diversity equity and inclusion creates more problems but I want to be clear that I'm committed to educating myself and learning from those who have relevant lived experiences not just from those who want to say they know furthermore school districts can't be certain which policies are even putting them at risk vague directives create confusion and uncertainty there's even state-mandated policies that could be called into question facing placing state and federal governments at odds leaving schools in a no- win situation where compliance with one mandate May violate another I'm open to suspending this policy while we await further guidance from the federal government or potential legal action but I'm not at all interested

099in immediate repeal it's crucial to be careful when policymaking decisions in public schools as these decisions have lasting impacts on students I'll determine my position only after carefully reviewing our legal council's advice which I have and reviewing information that from experts in anti-discrimination law education law appointment law constitutional law and civil rights and that's all thank you um Mr Shen would you like to go next sure just something in regards to the Maryland lawsuit um the arguments that were brought up in that Marin lawsuit uh do not uh are do do not come up against the First Amendment um or federal funding because Federal funding is an option um schools are free to teach Dei the feds can decide whether they send money or not it's not a right um there was a lawsuit in

1001991 russer Sullivan uh the Supreme Court voted 5 to four that the prohibition on the use of federal funds under title title 10 programs for and this was had to do with abortion counseling by the doctors and other healthc Care Professionals was constitutional and did not violate first and fifth am Amendment rights so again what the what the feds are saying you can go ahead and keep doing what you're doing they can decide whether they send are going to send you money or not so it's not a First Amendment issue um elections have consequences and you know the people have spoken um I think it's you know it it is cloudy uh there's a lot of things that kind of Encompass this but if I can just take a minute here and this was from

101stepen Miller president Trump's dep Deputy Chief of Staff and policy and I quote said for for for example in just one area this nation has been plagued and crippled by illegal discrimination diversity Equity inclusion policies has strangled our economy it has undermined Public Safety and it has made every aspect of life more difficult and more painful and less safe president Trump has ended all Dei across federal government he has terminated all federal workers involved in promulgating the unlawful policies he has ended divers the equity inclusion in all federal Contracting he has restored Merit as the Cornerstone of all federal policy he's restored the full fair and partial enforcement of our federal civil right laws for the first time in generations and he has cracked down an individuals across the government and nonprofits who have engaged

102in ill uh illegal racial discrimination against American people this includes making clear to every educational institution in this country that div that ending diversity equity and inclusion ending unlawful race discrimination is a precondition of receiving federal funds president Trump also saved women's sports by ending the participation of men and women sports he has ended racial gender ideology across the entire higher federal government he's pressured the private sector to do so also and combat radical gender ideology president Trump has established the scientific and biological truth that there are only two sexes in the country male and female and those are biologic based determinations that are not based and can never be based on gender ideology so again he said the people have spoken and and elections have U consequences Miss mer would you like to go

103next uh I'd like to thank the superintendent for looking into this and and bringing us um an option of just suspending things for now um un fortunately that letter uh really made things more confusing we have a lot of conflicting laws with our state that would conflict with uh these Federal um guidelines I guess we could call them and um we have to move forward with our current policies and the recommendations that we have as we're adjusting things at the moment um um until we have more guidance on what's going on on the federal level but we you know we have our state laws right now don't comply with this so it's difficult for us to move forward and know which law to follow so we're we're going to need additional guidance from our legal

104as we move forward uh and try and figure this out but right now I think the suspending those policies is probably our only option Miss H Jenkins I would like to Echo a lot of what um Carrie said I do trust Dr gold and her recommendations but some things need to be made clear there are 73 lawsuits against the Trump Administration for these things that he is putting in place 703 in the first three weeks the Maryland court case that we're speaking of I don't think it's fair for us as non-legal people to decide what is saying in it because they said very clearly what it is that it is a violation of the first amendment in the Fifth Amendment now whether or not it holds up we don't know but as of today there's

105an injuction in place stopping that Federal order it will likely trickle down to the state we have to protect our students that is our job so we are our hands are tied we absolutely have to suspend these policies I would not repeal either that would not be something I would be willing to do but I hope that we understand what we are doing when we start to look at diversity equity and inclusion I understand that race is the big piece that everyone looks at but be clear when we get rid of equity the title one programs that we talked about will go away how many kids in our district are on title one I think we said 30% of our students receive that is that really what's best for the students when we get rid

106of inclusion we we have a situation where our students are no longer in inclusive classrooms do we really want spaces where now our students that are disabled are taken out of the classroom and put in other places because that's the next step so we just have to decide what we're willing to deal with what we're willing to stand for and I think we're going down a really slippery slope if we allow these things to continue thank you I wanted to add that in my many hours of um looking into this researching it talking to our legal council talking to Dr Gould um reading legal uh resources um it is very cloudy and I believe that um it is cloudy very much on purpose uh I dug into these policies as well including their administrative guidelines

107that go with them um and aside from the one that Dr had mentioned putting on pause uh none of the other guidelines to any of these policies involve racial discrimination or preventing someone from accessing an opportunity due to their race um that said right I think we all agree that we do our best to be compliant with state and federal law and we have done our best and will continue to do our best to be compliant with the law what is under question now is do we need to be compliant with a different interpretation of that law because yes elections have consequences and legislators have the ability to change law and this is merely an interpretation that is changing um and the thing that kept coming back to mind as I was looking at this

108was act in haste repent in Leisure and the timeline in the dear colleague letter on February 14th is absolutely encouraging us to act in haste and at the same time we obviously need to protect our federal funding and all of the students that benefit from that Federal funding in a myriad of ways um the the court decision the injunction that came down described the executive order language as unconstitutionally vague and quote the most blatant and egregious form of content discrimination unquote that decision also said that that executive order quote strips the ability to know what the government might now consider lawful or unlawful end quote and I think that is exactly what we are wrestling with now because had you asked me six weeks ago are we in compliance with civil rights law I would

109have said yes at this point are we in compliance with a new interpretation of civil rights law it is very difficult to know and I think that is part of where all of the lawsuits and especially that injunction are coming out of um and in spending a lot of time talking with legal counsel um the suspension was the recommended middle path here we can act as a board at a point in the future when things become less vague less muddled uh when some of these court cases are resolved or when a legislature acts to change the law and we can look at amending or reinstating these policies um I think my my biggest question uh for you Dr G is what would be the Practical effects on students of suspending these policies for the time

110being so I want everyone to think about our vision statement and it says everything we do is designed to provide a future ready student centered learning experience for every single child I ask the community staff students to look at every policy that I have listed up there in sections under Administration program professional staff classified staff students and Finance in all of those policies we are only talking about two policies the anti-discrimination anti-harassment policies are still permissible they will not be put on hold anything doing with intimidation bullying harassment those are not put on hold we are dedicated and committed to ensuring that all all of our students Thrive and that is what we will continue to do thank you I think we're ready for the roll call yeah I would just like to add this

111is up on board docks right now so if anybody wants to go back and look at it it's up there thank you I have just a couple general questions um and this is going back to what legal had sent over because I don't see them mentioned here there was um a policy 211 okay not that one Mr Sheen we're considering the suspension of these two policies if we want to discuss others that would be after this vote we're just voting on that we're voting on the suspension 2111 and correct East Jenkins I ret I Shen I theodon I wind I I want to say um that I really want our community to know as Dr ghoul said every student's success safety and well-being remains at the heart of everything that we do we will continue

112to honor our core values and ensure a supportive and uninterrupted learning environment for our students that being completed Mr Shen you had some other questions related to this topic there was some other policies here um was P it was p2510 that was mentioned in um the correspondence on February 21st uh say and at the last sense say as we believe this policy could draw attention and it had to do with the adoption of textbooks so what what what what discussion or where where does that one kind of fit so that one doesn't fall under the permissible executive orders because the adoption of textbook we have guidelines in place that fall in line with the new Bill of Rights so that does not fall under this particular executive order because because when I when I saw

113adoption of of textbooks um you know I was I was concerned with I've mentioned many times of theal Castle in our district would that fall under that policy for future discussion so social emotional learning is not a textbook okay it is a practice it is a um a application that happens um and how you deal with students Castle is a company um it's not a company no Castle is a company that focuses on Universal Design for Learning that is a framework of how you apply instruction in a classroom but it's Incorporated in our textbook so again would that be would this policy be something that we would be able to discuss these topics at another time if you're talking about the curriculum adoption process we've talked about the curriculum adoption process there's a process in

114the in that cycle where parents can vet the materials that we are adopting before the board approves them we will go through that process for all of our other materials that come through Title One or anything of that nature so that parents have that ability to approve them we will not be able to remove certain things from materials because they are coming from textbook companies who are vetting and using all of these different organizations when we are adopting textbooks that's why we have the process of reviewing them so when you say things like social emotional learning those type of things are embedded inside of work and research so I don't know how you would remove that out of a textbook well yeah so that's a Textbook Company issue that's not a district issue because we're

115purchasing textbooks from Hope Mifflin all of these companies MH so again is that something that we can talk about because that would be another issue that we're buying textbooks from um from companies that aspire to uh teaching this pedagogy which well you're going to be talking to every Textbook Company there is in America then I'm just talking about the ones that we would be entertaining not not all the not you know we we have the adoption cycle that we do Mr Shen I'm not sure maybe you and I can talk offline right but the adoption cycle requires us to have parents and outside entities review the materials that we are planning to adopt through the board that that cycle has already been done with all of our materials that we have in language arts as

116well as the state has an approved list of materials for us to take a look at so that process already is in place but is it ever reviewed again we review it every time we do an adoption cycle so we just did language arts so the next adoption cycle we have will do it for all of our other content areas Mr Sheen regarding policy 2510 that adoption of textbooks policy um I noticed that our legal council kind of flagged that word bias yes and in my research um just kind of trying to figure out how that was applied uh I looked through the administrative guidelines and the only place in the administrative guidelines that the word bias is used is um in a listing of questions that we are to consider when we consider curriculum

117and it's it reads is the text free of religious gender racial or national origin bias and that could be bias in any direction on any of those topics um I know I personally don't find that problematic itic is there something in that that you find problematic well said it's something that we would I would like to entertain because just based on what I'm researching um I'm very concerned about seal and Castle being part of the books we have part of how things are taught what's taught in what direction it's taught where it comes from uh why it's here um and I and I think it fits in is entirely separate from this policy well well that's what that was the question I was asking because it says adoption of textbooks so right again free of

118religious gender racial and national origin bias that is how that is explained in the administrative guidelines that put that policy into practice okay so yeah I'm just looking to say hey we got these books they're going in front of the kids the Chromebooks the data that they're getting is there at at the time whether we do it once a year twice a year every two years that we look at that to see if there are things questionable that are Incorporated in these things that we need to get rid of so again I think if you go to the parent Bill of Rights parents have that right to look at any materials that are being taught in the classroom just understanding that we just did the adoption cycle for language arts those items are already evidence-based

119and approved by the state we can't even buy any materials that aren't even approved by the state so they are on the state approved list they came to the board they went through the adoption process where they were also put out for the public to review so the public has seen those materials when we continue to go through adopting materials or buying materials we will place that list out for families and everyone to review and if a parent wants to um have um discussion about something that is in there that is the process that we have to put in place in our administrative guideline for that to happen I think this is beyond our scope though if we're talking about what teacher how teachers are teaching this is why we employ them to do what

120they're experts at if we're talking about ordering textbooks and looking at companies that we want to use that's one thing but getting into the techniques of teaching I think that's beyond our scope I think it's time to move on to discussing rescheduling our April 7th meeting no I just have two other questions oh in regards to um District um websites what are we doing about the website what are we doing about the vision statement and what are we doing about resources. final site.net that very clearly State and mentioned Dei and and the Dei category that's on the website what happens with those so final site.net is the organization that does our website so that's that's all right what had the Strategic plan commitment on it I'm I'm just I was reading where the the link

121was so if in the in the suspension of what I said the things that fall under Mission Number 10 or Mission nine are the Dei committee as well as the PD plan for uh Dei those things I have already suspended now what the Strategic plan commitment that has Dei in it the Strategic plan commitment you mean the actual Mission yeah the Strategic plan commitment to inclusion concerns around safety and bullying which has been expressed by community members in response to the federal uh updates so when you when you just read that that definition is about safety that is not about what the executive order is well if you go on our website and you read you look at the Strategic plan commitment there's a big box it says Dei I know but the executive order

122doesn't tell us to address words the executive order talks about if you go back to the executive order it is about the application of Dei and it and its racial balances it talks specifically about that it does not talk about addressing the words diversity equity and inclusion our strategic plan is up in 2026 and our mission statement I'm not sure how long that mission statement has been in place but those are things that you that the district we would have to really sit down and pull our team back together who came up with the Strategic plan goals and go back through and look at do we want to keep these goals do we want to reduce them do we want to add more do we want to change them so as far as the Strategic

123plan work that needs to go back to the uh committee but what has is happening up under the Strategic plan workk under Dei that has been addressed already is the policy we just suspended as well as the suspension of the Dei committee and the PD work that happens around that so if we're suspending that why wouldn't it be removed from the website because we're not we just did it right now we're not resending it we're suspending it so shouldn't that be suspended as well and I believe the last time that the strategic plan was addressed I believe that was a year-long process and so if we certainly we need to look at the Strategic Plan before too long um because it's up soon and so that process um I'm sure will start soon but it

124will take time so on March 1 which is outside of the 14 days and they go to our website and they say Dei are we in compliance that's not something that our legal council flagged as potentially problematic and that particular Mission just says diversity and inclusion it does not mention race I think the important factor to remember here is that even though the executive order uses the phrase diversity equity incl and inclusion it's hyperfocus on race is what we are now forced to look at within our policy and therefore the words Dei diversity equity and inclusion are not banned words they're asking us to take a look at anything that's focusing on Race okay it's time to move on to rescheduling our April 7th meeting uh we would like to reschedule that to April 14

125do I have a motion to consider this so moved what was the do I have a second second and this is due to Dr Gould having a schedule conflict um I'm not available on that day I'm available what about everyone else y okay any further discussion before we move on to roll call roll call please actually I'm sorry would you just because I know that the reason behind the not being available is important would you prare to mention that so I am the current uh president for the Ohio Association of school and federal programs and our um um Ohio State meeting is on that day uh we meet to uh discuss the federal program so I'm not available for the board meeting so I've asked the board to move it to April 14 and certainly

126as president that's important for you to be there um and I think it's an honor for stowman rof Falls to have someone in that position so thank you for stepping up and doing that thank you again thank you you care now roll call East Jenkins hi merletti hi Sheen no ponic hi wind I do we have a location yet I don't believe we've checked location yet okay that's a really good question we will work on that location to be determined okay our final discussion item uh is our next meeting which occurs in one week on March 3rd um and I put this on the discussion because um we had kind of tabled last time the discussion of when to do a board workshop and in looking at our calendar uh it feels like this next

127meeting is ideal to minimize District business on that agenda because it will have only been a week since we met today um and then we can focus in on some of our deeper board discussions uh the items that I had written down in terms of topics uh was beginning that discussion on the draft protocol uh discussing our agenda setting process was also discussed as a possible topic for the next workshop and then I have asked uh Mr galano to give us a bit of a deep dive into finances and budget because it is budget time and it is time for us to be talking about all of that and understand it a little more deeply um which I I think you referred to earlier uh so thank you in advance because I know that's going

128to be a lot um but then we can all be on the same page in terms of District finances and have those discussions um are there any other topics or any of those topic topics that You' prefer that we put off till later what does everyone think I support what you I support what you've brought up I think it sounds reasonable I don't want to put get too many topics and then you make it too long but I think those are very important topics okay yeah I think we should keep it small so that we can really get into these especially the budget portion with the way the state funding looking yes agreed okay and my other question given that I anticipate that being a deep dive and taking quite some time for us to

129get through I was wondering if we might want to do our public comments at next week's meeting slightly differently and just do one open public comment section more toward the beginning rather than um making anyone who might want to uh step up to the mic wait through what might be a couple hours of discussion in order to do that um I thought that might be a little little nicer for folks who have something to say yeah I agree okay great so that's the plan for next week anyone who is interested in budget and numbers tune in okay now we have come to the time for our further comments from the audience at this time we welcome any additional comments and concerns citizens wish to bring before the Board of Education all comments must be directed

130to the entire board and be no longer than 3 minutes we will listen to and consider your remarks but there will be no conversation aside from clarifying questions if you are seeking a direct response or further information we ask that you submit your request writing please begin your remarks with your first and last name my name is Faith Greer as stated before I'm a retired school psychologist I was trained as a child advocate do what is best for students in all cases I've been around long enough that I saw the beginning of school vouchers in the 1990s way back in the day vouchers started out as a program claiming to expand opportunity for the poorest students in Cleveland Public Schools 30 years later Ohio now has five voucher programs in fiscal year 2024 to 2025

131the state budget created a universal voucher program by raising the income eligibility cap from 250% to 4 50% of the federal poverty level this was done without much legislative debate or sufficient hearings and radically expanded eligibility to Upper income families whose children are already enrolled in private schools in 2025 450% of poverty level for a family of four is 128,648 $0000 Ohio's voucher programs will get $2.4 billion in the next two years which is an increase of$ 265.0 million I don't know about you but I don't want my tax money to go to someone's private school I really don't furthermore vouchers are touted as providing choice for parents this is not true it is the private schools who have the choice I can't tell you how many times students with special needs on individualized education

132plans went off to private schools on vouchers only to be rejected and returned vouchers siphon taxpayer money out of public schools leaving little behind vouchers hurt our students and Ohio in general I urge the board to join other Ohio districts in the vouchers hert Ohio lawsuit to fight back thank you and I also want to say I totally support you suspending the policy um changes that are sent down by edict we have a president we don't have a king thank you [Applause] hi I'm Aaron joerger in Alum of Stow M fall schools and the Secretary of Stow collaboration for change a local nonprofit I'm commenting tonight to urge the board to protect students who identify as queer that is lesbian gay bisexual transgender and more let me also correct one of the board members uh

133by saying that a trans girl who plays girl Sports is not a boy and to suggest otherwise is not just ignorant but plainly bigoted and hateful I've talked about this before but growing up in Stow as a young gay boy I had no framework to understand myself and my feelings out of 2,000 students at Stow MF Falls High School I can only remember two other gay boys who had come out of the closet at that time the result was I grew up with mental illness you would too if you had had to constantly devote all of your mental resources to hiding who you are talk with a deeper voice don't have too much fun or get too carried away while laughing and most of all make yourself small in every way since you're a freak

134who people are embarrassed about some of this sounds ridiculous up until recently since queer writes have made a lot of progress since the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized marriage for those who aren't straight but in light of Trump's executive order to get rid of Dei we could lose a lot of progress in real terms the loss might mean human lives as nearly one in five queer youth have attempted suicide which is double the rate of the general team population I myself had to be hospitalized in 2020 because of suicidal ideation I felt I had nowhere to turn and nobody on whom I could rely my question for the board tonight is can you live with yourselves if you comply with Trump's order and this happens to a student if if the order is broadened

135to include members of the queer Community if you don't see yourself reflected at school if you don't have anyone to talk to about troubling thoughts related to your sexuality or gender identity if you feel that you don't belong and are essentially defective like I did it's going to pop into your head please consider this before you dismiss human beings because of an evil acronym IE Dei the kids and I will thank you uh my name is Linda picillo Smith um I had students who attended I had children who were students and attended Stow High School I also teach in the Africana studies department at Kent State University and I want to to start by saying thank you to Dr gold and the members of the board who had to make a really difficult decision under

136really challenging times and I know the the ground underneath all of us is really unstable right now um I I had other things I were going to talk about because I wanted to sort of echo a lot of what um Aon was saying I work with um students members of the lgbtq community I also work with faculty and staff for members of that Community as a Ally and a co-conspirator I want to support them and the and the challenges that they particularly are facing but these challenges are are things we're all facing so the idea of inclusivity and diversity is about everybody and um I appreciate all of the things that were articulated by members of the board because those are all um constituency groups about whom I have a lot of empathy and concern

137and have worked with over the course of my own career I I want to challenge the idea of um the benefits of Merit over what appears to be not Merit I uh I would assume that the people who are in members of these constituency groups people within the community lgbtq community people of color are here because of their Merit and not because of anything else and that's the whole point of allowing other people to have a seat at the table you get differences of opinion you get differences of Life Experiences they bring to the table that is very different than people who all frankly look like me and so and that also by the way includes women at the table who would not be here if it weren't for these um the um the accommodations

138for um including people including women in those groups when we look at a history of systemic and institutional racism sexism and gender bias and uh uh lgbtq bias we we all of those groups started on the backs of anti-racism and so it it's painful to me to see that highlight I understand why it is so I'm not this is not a criticism but it's painful to see anti-racism highlighted because at bottom when somebody presents an agenda and they say this is this is about we want everybody to be equal and misusing the term Equity the problem is that you're saying that racism is still okay thank you hi my name is Amy Jones I wanted to thank the board for all their efforts and work this is often a thankless job and I appreciate all

139the work you put in for our students and our community I also wanted to state that diversity equity and inclusion affect so many students students and their families after all the efforts done by so many leaders such as Dr Ken and John leis do we really want to go back 80 years this is a very slippery slope to go down and will affect not just people of color but so many other groups that make this country a wonderful Melting Pot and why I have pride in this country I as well as my grandma are proud immigrants the differences we have are what make our country different and unique if everyone was the same it would be pretty boring federal courts have also pushed back against the Trump Administration and Baltimore Marland issued a nationwide preliminarily

140preliminary injunction order against two executive orders related to diversity equity and inclusion from the Trump Administration with this being said I hope that you continue your efforts and remember that your oath was to the United States and Ohio constitutions and the teachers and students you serve not an Administration thank you hi my name is Kathy zaris and I live in minroe Falls um thank you for the opportunity to speak today and I want to add address the continued discussion about removing Dei from stowman raal schools I have three kiddos who are currently part of or who who have been part of the district and I'll be honest there's been up and ups and downs for my kiddos in the school at times the educational and social expectations within the schools have been challenging and there's

141been days that my kids have asked not to go to school or have counted the days months or years until they could be done with school and I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that it has an always been easy or positive thankfully so many of the teachers administrators counselors other staff at each of the schools have been there to support my kids and without them things might have been even more difficult but I'm also thankful for the opportunities my kids have had to have their unique needs met through the schools and this is something that some people consider to be diversity equity and inclusion and some people think should be eliminated from the schools I don't care what it's called officially but to me it's about my kiddos having access to a 504

142plan that gives them a reasonable accommodation so they can be as successful as possible and thrive in school thanks to my oldest kiddos 504 plan they just they've learned and excelled in K12 school and they just completed their first semester of college with a 3.9 GPA to me it's about my kiddos being part of the gifted program in the Stow schools this program allowed my kiddos to do things like Invention Convention math counts math competition these are spaces where they could be recognized and encouraged for their academic strengths and not teased about them to me it's about my kiddos being part of student organizations that welcome students who are part of the lgbtq community so that kiddos can find others they can connect with find common interests find their place and advocate for a place

143for a safe space within the building I want to share how the concept of d EI relates to the school experience that my kiddos have had and what it means to me as a proud and protective parent of my kiddos course the D for diversity it's about recognizing that all of our kiddos in the school districts are diverse they have their own interests Hobbies backgrounds strengths challenges and identities including but not limited to race gender sexual and gender identity our kiddos are diverse and we should embrace that the E is for Equity it's about recognizing our students need different things to be successful ful and reach their potential do we want our students to reach their Highest Potential I would hope so Equity is the tool for this to happen do all students need the

144exact same thing of course not Equity means that things aren't always equal because we work towards making sure students get what they need and the eye for inclusion this is about students feeling that they belong it's about wanting students to walk into the school and give a sigh of relief that they're somewhere they that they belong and can be themselves and not a s of fear of being excluded or bullied time up I'm sorry thank you hello my name is Kathy zinsky and I'm the parent of two so students both of my students are part of the 30% that receive services from Title One funding I'm just here to express my concern and also thank you guys for everything you're doing to keep doing what you can do to keep our Dei initiatives here so

145in my spare time I actually run an lgbtq plus peer support group for Youth and our and Monro Falls Community the last time we hosted an event I had to have security I had to call the police um because we were getting constant threats we were getting malicious emails we were getting threats against children okay so I've seen firsthand how some people in this community can be um people were calling to boycott the local small business owner who was hosting our event um simply for hosting it we paid her just like any customers would pay um the event in question was a paint night we were painting so that was a big concern um so again that makes me aware of how people in our community act um hate groups like moms for Liberty which

146one of our board members is a proud member of were sending threatening and hateful emails just for hosting that event um to know that this is being passed onto our children is scary and sad I've spent the last 16 years working in education and for the last three years I've been working with youth that are at risk for suicide self harm running away um or other unwanted unwanted behaviors and I just wanted to share some of the things I've learned a little bit is echoing air in there um but lgbtq young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers if a young person is struggling with their sexual identity in a family or community that is not supportive that is a risk factor for suicide and self harm bullying

147at any age for any reason is a risk factor according to a study done by the Trevor Project with almost 14,000 youth members of the lgbtq community 52% of them enrolled in middle and high school reported either electronic or in person bullying in the past year the research also found that 29% of lgbtq medic middle school students who were bullied attempted suicide in the past year compared to 12% who did not did not get bullied on the flip side of things lgbtq students who reported their school to be lgbtq Q affirming had 30% lower ODS of self harm or committing suicide the presence of gender and sexualties alliances gsas has been found to significantly reduce the risk for depression and increased well-being among lgbtq young people and young adults lgbtq people with at least one

148accepting adult in their life report significantly lower rates of suicide attempt di benefits so many groups of people and I'm almost out of time but I just want to remind everyone that public schools are for everyone if you're looking for religion or something like that you need to enroll in a private school we should be representing all of our students thank [Applause] you hello Carla Brown I just wanted to thank those of you on the board who have dedicated countless hours of your own time to make our schools and therefore our cities more inclusive for all our citizens I know it hasn't been easy the hours even days away from your families for training so you know how to be effective board members the time spent researching statistics for committees and meetings all the time

149spent trying to get better buildings for our children a Monumental if not impossible task in this economy and on a year of property values being overinflated for tax purposes by the state I commend you for trying I believe there weren't any levies or bonds passed in the state in 2024 so we were not only loone writing inclusive Pride resolutions and anti-racism policies starting diversity equity and inclusion committee assuring all of our students are seen and safe and have help with their disabilities which are are included in Dei are sees lowincome ESL English Second Language race lgbtqia disability IEP 504 gifted services religion women immigrants and Veterans which also include our teachers and staff these kind of changes rarely come without push back but the harassment of you and especially your children has been shameful I

150expect better from adults it has brought out vitriol in issues we hoped were long gone process progress always does those louder voices are ones who rarely speak of progress or hope but of fear and Division with ny's reg resignation we can see that these noisy outside forces can take a mental toll on a person and quite frankly I believe that that's their goal so I wanted to remind you that you are seen and you are appreciated by a good majority of this community and to please make sure to take care of yourselves we need your voices now more than ever thank you hi good evening uh my name is Rachel Jameson I'm stowman R Falls alumni um just a couple things um first for any students who may be listening please look into your rights

151please go to the ACLU website and look into the student Bill of Rights um hb8 as we've talked about is being implemented any students who are listening please find a way to build community with other groups with other students please find resources that will not contact your parents I'm just coming out and saying for the good of all students out there uh thank you to everyone here at this table who has done what they can um to continue to protect our most vulnerable students I understand you're in a very difficult position um and we're faced with a pretty impossible decision so I um I appreciate the mindfulness that went into that um I encourage you to continue to comply to the minimum level that you have to um to be in line with the laws

152um I I understand that you uh do not want to risk your funding you cannot risk your funding and I understand that um as another member of the board posed tonight I just want to leave you with the question um of course there will continue to be these attacks on our most vulnerable students and where will you draw the line in terms of compliance so thank you my name is gallato and I'm not a legal person I don't talk with the most eloquence but call me naive call me ignorant call me stupid call me crazy all of this stuff got comes down to people's hearts like I get the policies I do and when when adults act nasty to other adults then the children are going to replicate that behavior it starts at home and

153I spend a lot of time in the classroom no I am not a teacher but I am in a classroom every day all day I see it and I see like there is no teacher and for anybody to ever insinuate that a teacher is not going to do the best that they can for the student they're going to do it regardless if they're told to or not because that's who they are there is not a teacher in this District that I know of or have heard of that is not going to bend over backwards to their own demise to do what is best for a student and as far as like the bullying it's going to happen it's just kind of like gun control guns don't shoot people guns don't sit on a table and

154shoot people and that's a whole another topic but it's it's the matter of the heart so I think that you know maybe I don't think we should come up with a policy that tells people how to behave tells people how to treat people be a good person be kind to everybody accept everybody the policies whatever like I know you have to have it for legal reasons but love and kindness and compassion does not come from a piece of paper that's all thank you everyone now I would like us to I will entertain a motion for us to go into executive session for the purposes under 12.22 G1 to consider the employment of a public employee 12.22 G3 matters required to be kept confidential by federal law regulations and state statutes and 12.22 G4 preparing for

155negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment do I have a motion we moved second roll call please e drenin i I merletti I Shen ionic hi wind I there will be no action taken after executive session we are in executive session at 8:34 p.m.