001good evening I'd like to call to order this meeting of the stonean rof Falls Board of Education on Monday September 25th 2023 at 7 p.m. those in attendance are reminded that this is a meeting of the Board of educ Education conducted in view of the public any person while being heard at a Board of Education meeting may be called to order by the board president or any member of the board for failure to be relevant to the business of the board for vulgarity or for personal attacks of persons or institutions roll call please Baxter hi ller hi Su adonic I wind here Brown here I'm going to let our students lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance we start each meeting with a reading of our vision statement and Mrs Su adonic is going to
002read that for us this evening everything we do is designed to provide a future ready student- centered learning experience for every single child our strategic plan from 2021 to 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 we serve as trustees therefore this is a business meeting being conducted in public not a public meeting we're grateful to serve an Engaged community and 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 do I have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda
003so moved second any questions or comments about the agenda roll call please ller hi Su adonic hi wind hi Baxter I brown I and we'll turn it over to Mr Bratton for a superintendence report thank you it is my honor this evening to introduce Mrs Marone principal at Indian Trail Elementary uh to introduce this evening's program there we go good evening everyone and welcome to Indian Trail we are so happy to have everyone here tonight and excited to share our amazed choir with you our strategic plan especially Mission 10's goal is for us to retain and recruit our choir and band members tonight you will witness our amazing choir and our choir starts as early as third grade our third graders have the opportunity to join the choir where they learn how to read music
004sing and work as a team to do performances in front of audiences they have a lot of hard work and dedication put into this I know myself I've witnessed many performances at Lake View Kinton in the high school and our music department is phenomenal in front of you tonight I know that I see many students that will go on to be members of our band and choir in the future here in the Stow City Schools so without further Ado I'm going to turn it over to Mrs Olie our choir director and our amazing Indian Trail choir hello everyone thank you so much for having us tonight we are honored to be singing for you this is the Indian Trail trailblazing ambassador's choir made up of third and fourth graders at Indian Trail they are super
005excited this is their very first performance this year um they're going to have a lot of opportunities this year to perform in the community we're hoping to sing at the Rubber Ducks game this spring so we're going to begin with the national an riew that we're hoping to stand up so if you would stand and join [Music] us so and [Music] the [Music] still one more song for you this song is actually last year but I don't believe they got for you just yet it's called sarasa it's a Dutch song and Loosely translated it's about a spinning wheel so there's um some nonsense syllables in here that are supposed to sound like the wheel spinning and one thing we work on fire um is singing in different parts so hopefully you'll hear three different parts
006going on at once in the song at some [Music] point [Music] St [Music] the whe [Music] spinning [Music] [Applause] [Music] St [Music] St thank you so much that concludes our short but hopefully sweet performance for you tonight and with that um we will meet the parents and the hallway out here to release your students so if you just need a second we'll get an out there and we'll turn it over to the board thank you so much for having me thank you very very very much may you always have this much joy for music um we're going to take a short recess to let all the families and the kids get out and then we'll resume in just a minute [Music] sorry [Music] s [Music] sorry [Music] my [Music] right [Music] here [Music] pleas [Music]
007sh [Music] my I [Music] don't in my [Music] house I [Music] know [Music] and okay I'm going to call us back to order thank you very much for your patience um where are we so back to to back to Mr Bradon here yes thank you uh this week past week we had our state report card come out and we had an awful lot to uh digest there an awful lot to be proud of across the district and I've asked our curcum supervisors for k6 as well as 712 both Aisha coer and Julie Miller to uh give a presentation tonight on what our state report card exactly tells us and uh where do we take it from here and and what have we learned and uh how are we going to uh move forward from this
008so uh without further Ado I will turn it over to you two ladies good evening my name is Aisha ker k6 curriculum supervisor and I'm Julie Miller I'm the 712 curriculum supervisor as part of our five-year strategic plan this presentation falls under our goals of academics and continuous Improvement we want to ensure students are provided with Rich rigors and aligned curriculum and assessments we also want to continuously improve our instructional practices through the use of strategic planning data and professional development it is important that we have a culture of high expectations for our students respect and accountability for all uh tonight the few areas that we will do an overview for overview for you are on the state uh testing Trend data the Gap closing the instructional coaching and professional development that we plan based
009on that and the Strategic plan alignment and focus areas uh this slide is a screenshot of our overall district report card in which you can see we earned four stars which exceeds the state standards each building has its own report card and we will explain a little more about our achievement scores across grade levels as well as the Gap closing within this presentation thank you Julie for giving us the overview of what we will be discussing this evening as we are all aware that our state testing only gives us a snapshot of how we are doing as a district with meeting state level expectations it's also important to knowe that state funding is tied to our state report card as well as our school Improvement status as you look at this slide you will see
010the last three years of Ohio state test data for our third and fourth grade students the green shows that stowman road Falls is above the state average in all of the categories we have maintained consistency in third grade math in third grade ELA we have went up the last three years in fourth grade English language arts and Mathematics we consistently stayed in the 70s we are currently piloting a more rigorous mathematics program to ensure that students curriculum is aligned to State Standards when we review achievement data we look for growth across cohorts as well as across years this is our fifth and sixth grade data from the last three years again the green indicates that we are higher than State average we have exceeded our previous scores in the areas of fifth grade ELA and
011fifth grade math we went up the last three years last year we piloted a new curriculum that was more rigorous and we actually move forward with the adoption process on that curriculum which is Bridges and Mathematics and sixth grade math we maintain consistency as well s six gr Ela um some important considerations to make before I present the 712 um part of the data um some of the main points I'm going to hit is due to a reporting error in emis some select population scores were inaccurate um affected populations were accelerated students and a portion of our gifted students uh the Ohio Department of Education ran simulations with that corrected data um so the major impacts of of who this affected where kimpton's overall star rating would have raised from 3.5 stars to four four
012stars um the high school Gap closing gained a subgroup for growth which we'll I'll show you in a minute and the high school Gap closing component would have raised from four stars to five stars the overall rating of that would not have changed though um so there's a symbol at the bottom there when you see that symbol on the data on the slides it'll indicate where the directed data would where it would have improved our scores so our data shows that we are above the state average for achievement in most of our tested areas math continues to be the focus of our Attention our students that are in The Accelerated pathway for math are doing very well but the cohort of students on the traditional pathway are not keeping Pace with State averages in achievement
013uh you will see later in the presentation the ways in which we are addressing that issue this year um we are proud to see stud growth in most areas from last year the two data points with the Stars indicate areas in which our scores would have been higher with the data correction so that would have been our Algebra 1 students um that are in 8th grade and also our geometry students that are at the high school we're going to move into Gap Closing one of the areas on a state report card is Gap closing it's an indicator and it's broken down by subgroups a a subgroup consists of 15 students within the same school in order for it to be a subgroup this visual shows that our district subgroups achievement compared to the state goal
014for that particular subgroup we have four stars for Gap closing as a district uh the goal is indicated by the Red Dot and as a district we have met or exceeded the goal for all of our subgroups you will notice a variation between subgroups across different buildings remembering that the building has to have at least 15 students for them to be considered a subgroup uh leville is our first school that has more than four subgroups in our district our elementary data shows that at our K4 buildings 100% of our subgroups were met in both Ela and Mathematics at Lake View we had eight out of nine of our subgroups meet the achievement goal in in ela and in mathematics we had 100% of our subgroups meet their goals uh for ELA at kton they met
015the achievement goal in seven out of eight of our subgroups um and at the high school our Ela met six out of six of our subgroups in gap closing in math kton uh met uh the achievement goal in seven out of eight of our subgroups and the high school according to the report card that's on there you will see that we met four out of eight subgroups but this is one of those areas that was affected by the data so it should be five out of our eight subgroups at the high school currently the district pays for coaches at the k6 level out of title one and title 2 a grant money we use instructional coaching to support students and teachers within the district okay the next slide shows the Ohio improvement process as it
016aligns to our Student Center coaching model um as you can see they are very similar um we're identifying problems doing a research having a plan of action we Implement and monitor our plan and then we figure out what students have it met growth and how we're going to support them so during the use of the coaching cycle for or Student Center coaching we're doing the same thing alongside the teachers to ensure that all of our kids are make making expected growth and if teachers need additional support in those areas we have instructional coaches to support them some things that we are focusing right now on at the k6 level for this school year is we have had professional development with our Arcadian screener our Acadian screener is going to um detect dyslexia risk factors currently
017the curriculum facilitators are doing a book study with teacher Clarity we are doing restorative practices book studies at Indian Trail Riverview and Lake View to promote restorative practices in our sixth grade math there are some areas of growth that we have in identified with the area of ratios we're using Steve Miller to support that initiative also to expand the knowledge of our dyslexia and what is going on at the Ohio Department Depart of Education we have also Incorporated a book study called conquering dyslexia facilitated by myself and my department for grades kindergarten 1 second and third grade we have instituted delayed starts at k6 and the focus of those delayed start is around continuous Improvement and academic objectives as well as the alignment to our strategic plan um at the 712 teacher professional development level
018um our Focus us on the August PD days and then some continuing through the rest of the school year are on artificial intelligence and its effect on um the education of students and the use by teachers um max teaching strategies which is building Ela strategies into the content areas into the areas of science and social studies so that we're supporting um those Ela strategies within all of our our our subjects um math coaching with Steve Miller from The Summit County ESC for teachers of seventh and eth grade in Algebra 1 and personalized learning with Jake Miller um personalized learning consists of being learner-driven some of the components are that's learner-driven it provides optimal path and pace for our students um we study flexible learning environments authentic learning components and and Gathering evidence of learning and
019feedback throughout that at k6 we are currently creating a space of instructional coherence with the written taught and assessed curriculum we are in a process of updating our curriculum units we are being more intentional with our data protocols at teacher based team meetings in order to effectively support students that need additional support and add rigor to our instruction for students that are high achieving as long as we have additional funds available we will continue with our third and fourth grade uh support and so we are looking into that this year to kind of support continue our level of support for that initiative another thing to note if you want to move forward um in the area of acade academics for our strategic plan this is currently what we're focused on each Elementary building has their
020own area of focus in the area of academics and continuous Improvement and that is the way that uh I am supporting them as the curriculum supervisor we have some things going on with our reading curriculum we have the house bill 33 coming down from the Ohio Department of Education so we are looking to adopt and pilot new reading program to be more in alignment with the science of reading currently right now we are implement we are using the implementation of decodable books for some students who are not necessarily reading on grade level but still need to master phonetic principles and we are implementing the use of foundations for um our phonics program at K2 which is supporting kids as well we have a science pilot going on at Lake View this year to promote science
021coherence um if you go back and look at our science scores we definitely have some areas of growth in the area of Science and then we also adopted bridges in mathematics in fifth grade as mentioned earlier and we are in the process of piloting Bridges and Mathematics for fourth grade in the area of continuous Improvement again we still have buil-in Focus areas aligned to our strategic our strategic plan we have our DLT data alignments which we are given data protocols that are aligned to the curriculum aligned to our assessments to be able to have courageous conversation and collegial conversations about what needs to happen with students that are high achieving achieving in the middle and low achieving so we can make sure they get the correct interventions or enrichments we're still doing restorative practices our
022PBIS teams are up off the ground and supporting positive behavior intervention and support and then our esit teams they have a focus on multi-tier system of support which is response to intervention and how we're supporting students who are not meeting uh Mastery and then lastly we are still implementing our district L literacy committee because we know there is still a lot of things wrapped in House Bill 33 that is coming down and we want to be very digilant and responsive to the needs of what needs to happen at the district um for 7 through 12 academics uh this slide uh shows our Focus goals for the 23 24 school year um the items that are just bulleted there you can see those are the Strategic strategic plan goals um and then items in bold are
023some of the evidence that we have work toward toward achieving them which was earlier on in the presentation at all the lines um so this would be our academic Focus along the lines of you know having personalized learning this year and Steve Miller coaching and and um reviewing some of our resources and what we're looking at and then our continuous Improvement is the um focus areas that which mainly is on using our data to drive our planning for professional development so you can see some of the areas that we're looking at for professional development and of course the slides are available to you because I didn't read everything off of these so if you would like copies just let me know yes thank you all right does the board have any questions I know that
024that is a lot of information and um I I just want to say congratulations to Julie and Aisha for outstanding report card as well as to all the principes administrators and teachers uh and support staff that worked so very hard to get um the scores that they got uh always you know whenever you test this many things there's always going to be room for improvement and that's what we develop our our plans around going forward but there's so much to be proud of too and and I just want to say congratulations to our teachers and and the people in the classroom and and to you guys as well for uh that leadership so thank you for doing that thank you just an acronym I wanted to help with I know what PBIS is but you
025can explain that and I don't know what sbit is so PBIS stands for a positive behavior intervention and support so it's just a program to support discipline um and be more positive with it more restorative and would you like to esit and esit is more to support is to support students that may need to be um qualified for a different type of intervention it's our term for response to intervention RTI we just don't use that term here so may be more familiar board have any questions for Julia ASA uh we are putting this on the on the website as well uh either linking it to or putting it next to our report card so that folks that want to go in there and look at the individual report cards and study what it all means
026and what is going to be done in response uh can have that at their fingertips as well so yeah and you you weren't kidding when you said that's a lot of information in a very quick amount of time so I'm glad that it'll be out there for us um for the whole Community to digest over time thank you for doing the presentation um and I I particularly appreciate kind of seeing some of that historical and Trend data I think that really helps me to put it in context where we've been and where we are um so I appreciate putting all that together for us great all right thank you at this time we welcome comments from the audience about agenda items that will be voted on tonight um we invite citizens to share their concerns
027about 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 than 3 minutes we will listen to and consider your remarks but there will be no conversation aside from possible 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 dam is Muke speaking about the anti-discrimination or anti-racism policy senu advised in his uh Art of War to obtain and maintain power by creating division amongst the population makavelli advised his Prince much the same Plantation Masters and overseers generated disgust and distrust between poor White white farmers and black slaves to maintain
028power and exploit both modern politicians and bureaucrats do the same constantly trying to create division amongst the population to maintain power and control it's called Problem reaction solution create a problem get a reaction present yourself as the solution by their fruits you shall know them you keep saying that you're trying to create comedy amongst people and to reduce Ed racial tension but has it gotten any better in the last few years you put forth these policies Dei seal whatever rebranding of your snake oil poison you come up with but what happens by your fruits you shall know them you've created more problems rather than less and the instant there's a problem that you've created then you send out an email to create further Division and try to divide people stop using our children as porns
029in your little political games hi my name is Rachel Jameson uh I'm a stowman r Falls alumni I'm here tonight to share my support for the anti-racism policy that's going to be voted on given recent events it's apparent now more than ever how much this policy is needed uh we've seen clearly demonstrated what happens when we neglect to educate young people about the history of racism in our country it's an undeniable part of our past that has led to the reality we exist within today and it's crucial for us to understand our past so we can understand to give context to how we exist in the present racism isn't about intent and intent does not negate the fact that blackface is one of the most well-known and tired racist gestures practiced continually in the United
030States since the 1800s it's a appearance at this football game demonstrates the need for precisely this policy's confrontation of racism in the United States conservatives have been trying to suppress the teaching of US history in public schools because they want to present a sanitized whitewash image of history and progress one where racism no longer exists and racist practices and behavior and thought are not being passed down to Future Generations what happened at that football game is that of evidence that racist habits and thoughts are indeed being passed down ignorance of the meaning of blackface is not accidental it is a racist historical historical forgetting in favor of white comfort and is achieved in children by deliberately not talking about America's racism this incident is neither isolated nor random public education needs to be given the
031resources and support to disrupt the myths that support it we cannot trust nor expect students to learn an accurate portrayal of our history at home we cannot expect these racist thoughts and actions to be dis disrupted without providing the tools to do so we cannot expect young people to know the damaging history of racist imagery like blackface unless we educate them we cannot create a safe and productive learning environment for all students unless we prioritize a holistic approach to anti-racism and education this is why I feel this policy is so important and so needed it feels undeniable in P in light of past and current events one day I hope to see a district where students of all backgrounds ethnicities and cultures can come to school and go to school events without fear of having
032to confront racism bullying or discrimination this policy outlines crucial steps to accomplish this and I hope the board will consider all of their students and the experiences they've shared and vote to pass this policy as a step towards creating an environment where all students are truly embraced acknowledged and welcomed thank you my name is Monica Robinson tonight I'm here to support the anti-racism policy and share why this is important in our district as the mother of two young black men unfortunately I've had a front row seat to the issues of racism in our district as a matter of fact I've removed my sons from the district because of the racism that our family has experienced my boys have had to deal with kids making comments about race from a young age it was not until
033fifth grade when things became more pronounced when my son who was a student at Lake View was suspended for 3 days we received a call from the principal that our son had punched another student when we brought him home and began to discuss the event with him he informed us that for several weeks a kid had been telling him he looked like the that came out of his ass when we asked why he didn't get help because that's what we've taught him the recess from the recess AIDS he said I was put against the wall repeatedly for tattling Mom after two weeks of him being the one who was punished he took things into his own hands by punching the child while his behavior is never okay with us he saw no other way to
034deal with the situation the son who the child who my son punched was not disciplined for the racial statements he made this is why we need a policy in place in sixth grade our boys were regularly asked if their friends could have the end pass this is where white kids ask permission from black kids to use the nword this placed our sons in an extremely difficult position this is why we need a policy in place in seventh grade the nword was regularly used on the school bus my sons and several of their friends repeatedly had to tell the kids to stop I finally had to call the bus garage there wasn't any punishment given to the students this is why we need a policy in place after a terrible family situation I installed an app
035called bark on my phone it alerts parents for issues such as bullying and racism through that app we were made aare of the horrible racist bullying comments my son was experiencing from his quote friends when I asked my son why he didn't share with us he stated mom this has been going on my entire time in school and no one does anything about it this was in the midst of Co of the co school closing I made the staff at kimton aware of the problems this is why we need a policy in place in July of 2020 there were hundreds of letters sent to the board to talk about the issues of racism in our district we even had a problem with a board member laughing and not paying attention to the letters that were
036being read at that time we were told that a policy would be put in place and yet here we are 3 years later and we are finally seeing a board that will put that policy into place thank you to each of the board members who support this policy and shame on every one of you who is here to stand against it you are the reason why we need this policy good evening my name is Ali Bloom I am currently a student at Stow high school and this is not my first time speaking on behalf of the school Community I would like to speak today on behalf of the anti-racism policy many friends of mine in the high school have experienced racism both in the high school and in the city of Stow racism and discrimination
037very much exist in our schools and in our city this policy outlines crucial steps to establish and sustain a school community that shares Collective responsibility to confront eliminate and prevent actions decisions and outcomes that result from and perpetuate racism racism and systemic racism are not issues that can be solved by ignoring them before I go I would like to ask what would not passing this policy say about the city of Stow why pretend like racism in our schools and community don't exist why deny students the right in writing not to be discriminated against in their school I sincerely urge the board to make the right decision to equally Serve and Protect all Stow Bulldogs thank you my name is Diane Evans um I um grew up um I'm 69 years old I grew up and
038went to Schumacher school for um through fifth grade I was in a uh segregated class because they put all these smart kids in one class and all the other kids in the four other classes of course my class was all white students except for about four other black students uh we've come a long way but there's a lot of bullying and and that that goes on unfortunately not every child is a bully and there are children that have grown up in if you will a white Suburbia that have grown up in family that are non-racist that are not familiar with all of the um racist sorts of behaviors that can be exhibited one of those being blackface one of those being painting faces at uh school games um maybe that's part of the policy that
039there should not be any face painting anymore at school uh things if someone painted their face in rainbows and started making fun of of gay CH children or LBGTQ children um the you've got a problem right away um these particular students didn't have anything to dress up for on country western day they put some black paint under their eyes when it smeared it was hot that day when it smeared and at halftime their dad said they needed to do something about it cuz it looked terrible they didn't know what black face was you think everybody does not every child does I've asked a couple different uh parents at at for instance one with a seventh grader in talage a similarly situated type of of school I asked another in Hudson their children did not know
040one child had learned the week before because he wanted to go as Michael Jackson Michael Jordan to Halloween when his mother told him no you can't do that he said well and she explained about what blackface was he said well okay but this is just for dress up can I still do that he didn't even understand then cuz he grew up in right Suburbia um I'd like to say as kind of closing there needs to be yes a policy but policies are just words and enforcement is important also is education for the group for the children that are naive enough that they haven't they don't know all of the the racist sorts of of behaviors that can go on of course they know the nword and of course they know some of the other things
041but there are more things seemingly subtle if we watch the news the last few years Black Faces come about again but um if you're you know in fourth grade or fifth grade you're not watching those details I would like to say one of the girls at this at the lunch table at a seventh grade lunch table said if it wasn't for adults there would be no race issues in their school they have a lunchroom filled with all colors sitting together peacefully I know there are instances of discrimination and I we've heard some of those tonight and and shame on those kids for bullying the others thank you KLA Brown try and cross drive and Stow I just want to point out that everything that lady said is exactly why we need this policy thank you
042I'm Linda picillo Smith and I wanted to speak briefly in favor of the anti-racism policy um I teach mostly freshmen at Kent State I can tell you that um students of mine who are just recent graduates of high schools across Ohio um absolutely know what blackface is I think it's important that we continue to expand that education if it's necessary but most students and young people um and we're not really talking about fourth graders but most students would understand by the time they get to high school um that there are implications for um direct representation of race in that way and if they don't they tend to get educated pretty quickly um I also think it's important to let students um know that there is a history um the uh the racism in this country
043has existed for 400 years but there's been an increase in white supremacy and white nationalist groups so it's important not just we're teaching people these things but there's a reality on the ground that they're going to experience because it is what it is and so having you you know being safety conscious being cultural conscious and allowing students those opportunities and then having a um a process in place where these kinds of things can be handled equitably I think serves all members of the community thank you uh hi my name is Felicity Baxter uh I'm a current senior at stowman Falls High School and I am in incredible favor of the anti-racism policy uh after the blackface event we received an email or parents Square message uh informing us of the incident and that was about
044as far as it went we were never updated as to exactly what happened or what happened to the students that were made fun of or what happened to the students who were doing it uh the furthest that it got was um my English teacher he Mr Morgan he is the only black teacher I have ever had um which says something because black people are constantly um discouraged and not hired in these positions um and he was the only teacher that spoke up he was the only teacher that said anything about the incident and he gave us a an assignment on the history of blackface uh we all learned a lot it was incredible just how little all of us knew about the history of blackface we all knew what it was and we all knew
045it was bad but none of us really knew the incredible depth of where this came from and it was absolutely devastating to see that this is still going on today in our schools with our young people and I think the young people are the change that we need but we cannot they cannot change the system when the system works in their favor to let them continue discriminating against other people um thank you hello Genie fenel I am just wondering why we need more policy right here is a 13 page policy that covers everything it is section 5517 anti-harassment harassment sexual harassment you name it it covers is everything we've been saying polic in effect nobody does anything they don't go by the current policy here is another one policy 551 7.01 bullying and other forms
046of aggressive behavior again it's already in place we don't enforce it it has not been enforced as long as I know what it happened at the the football game game the way it was presented was done improperly in my opinion it could have been addressed as there was an incident that happened at the football game and we are investigating it to the best of our ability leave it at that but it's awfully coincidental that that event happened right before this vote before what before they're going to be voting on this policy coming up okay policy is here 13 Pages six pages I feel bad for anybody that has to deal with racism it should not be it is not right but this is all gotten blown way out of proportion using the incident which I
047assume is still under investigation but no you got an agenda you want to put it through and for no reason there is more division in this city right now than I have ever seen and I grew up here and that's why I am so passionate about this district and it's falling apart so when you go to vote I sure hope you read these page to page if I understand correctly this is the third reading it does not need to be voted on it can be tabled until you can read these thank you my name is Heather gallato and I'm speaking for I do not have permission those little girls who were jumped and how they have been treated and how they feel I agree with the division in the community and the district it has
048gotten absurd and does any like I don't have the policy this is the agenda um does any of your policies cover when a child is told to go kill themselves and nothing is done because that's what I came here tonight on my way here my son told me that he was told to will kill himself and he got in trouble but the other child did not so where where does that policy I I thought I I just happen to be wearing this my daughter started this my daughter started this when she was an 8th grade and my how many years later she graduated in 2022 now we are her own brother was told to go kill himself and according to the people it's all done you're your son can't play because he retaliated and called
049the other kid a name and his friend was suspended the same as my son this other kid was telling asking him how he liked dogs because he's half Filipino making sexual comments about his girlfriend on the bus but that's okay I've been around this district for 20 years I have always held this District in high standard kind of finding it [Applause] difficult hi I'm Aaron jger um I want to speak in support of the anti-racism policy um just because you know based on what the last two commenters said it's just the reason why we pass res or policies like this is that speci matters um you look at the lgbtq resolution that we passed last year it was different from former uh you know resolutions or policies that maybe address things in a general sense
050but this was specific and it had action steps which if people have been attending these meetings they would know that the you know the the board has updated us that they are make they're making those action steps they're implementing the the that policy actively and this anti-racism policy is similar you know it's different from the anti- um discrimination policy and anti-harassment policies that were already in place because it's specific and it has action steps such as reviewing the curriculum to make sure that it's accurately reflecting all the perspectives that it should be reflecting and accurately reflecting things like what actually happened in US history um so in conclusion I just urge those who say that policies like this shouldn't be you know created or passed just to read it and compare it to what's existing
051and just keep in mind that specificity matters thank you hi I'm Faith Robinson I live on 4035 Red Ring Trail um and I am a 2021 graduate of Stow um I am in support of the anti-racism policy I think the biggest mistake that has been made through all of this blackface stuff is that there wasn't as much transparency as needed we didn't know what happened to the girls was there any consequences stuff like that um right now I'm very embarrassed to say I graduated from Stow um this anti-racism policy doesn't affect people like me I'm white and if you look around most of the people who have spoken here are white because black people are afraid to speak because of people like you thank you good evening Dina Weber 297 East celest View Drive it
052should come as no surprise I'm against this policy we have policies in place as was said earlier today um the policy in place reads harassment intimidation discrimination bullying Behavior Uh cyber bullying intimidation all these are covered okay um after reading the new um anti-racism policy there are some good things in here um yes we need to embrace our differences yes we need to embra and celebrate our racial diversity but not in a in an accusatory way um a couple other things that I noticed while reading this which kind of made me chuckle was hiring practices um this is also covered under state and federal law um you had every opportunity to appoint a person of color on this board and you chose instead to have your besty middle white age middle middle-age white woman to
053sit on the board that's not very inclusive the board also um let's see the policy enforcement also uh shall the board shall ensure various including Anonymous means to report racism so anyone can accuse anybody of racism and it will dealt with be dealt with how you see fit um we saw how you handled the incident at the football game by sending a blast to half the district um basically accusing these girls of being racist and what transpired after that on social media was enough to make me sick adults ready to just it it it made me embarrassed how people were acted and that's because of how it was broadcast the words racism was in that email it should have never been should we start a police bladder districtwide so that every time a kid makes
054a mistake we can you know accuse them and you know rake them over the coals it's not fair we have policy use it my name is David Jenkins I attend St Falls High School and um racism has existed in this country for over 400 years I'm in the sixth grade we're taught what a mental show is so I refus to believe that a seventh grader was not aware of what blackface was there's no accidental way to put on blackface I play football I wear eye black in almost every game never has the eye black smeared all over my face to where my face is covered in Black that just doesn't happen and also nobody was jumped at this football game that was just false um that's it y'all just lying I'm not going to [Music]
055lie hi I'm George Martin um 15 years ago my daughter had to take my grandkids out of this school because of bullying we had a principal here that did absolutely nothing to a kid that was beating up on five or six kids you can put all the policies you want in place but if you people don't do anything nothing's going to get done and that's what's been going on for years and I can't believe in this day and times that bullying is still going on you're sitting there typing I don't even think you're listening to me something needs to be done and the superintendent at the time my daughter stopped me from going because it was going to get bad cuz I wanted to get the news channel involved back then about the bullying so
056blacks and whites are not nothing's going to change unless you stop the buling as it's going on Amen and that's what I see being done not at all all through the years it just keeps going on and on and on it's all I got to say and I'm 63 years old and I didn't know what blackface was until George Floyd never knew what it was any anybody else want to speak on anything that's being voted on tonight all right we will move on thank you to everybody for your comments um all right next we'll move on to our a motion to approve the consent agenda um I'd like to make a motion to pull the anti-racism policy to be voted on separately do we need to do first and second on this and then make
057a motion to agenda um amend it we can just no okay so we are going to pull number sub or letter e off of the consent agenda okay all right all right now do I have a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda so moved second okay uh Mr Bratton uh I'd like to recommend the Board of Education approve consent agenda items B through G minus E which has been pulled separately also at this time I would like to read the name and information of donations list and consent agenda and thank these folks for what they do for our students that's e right e was what was pulled separately right thank you uh following donated to the High School culinary arts program Mr Mrs Arnold donated $50 Mr and Mrs carbo donated $100 Mr and Mrs
058Jack Gardina donated $100 Marsha Corin donated 25 Mr and Mrs HTH donated 50 and Mr and Mrs wson donated 50 the following donated to Fish Creek Elementary School Vitalia senior citizens of uh residences at Stow donated miscellaneous school supplies snacks and goodie bags for the kindergarten students and Mr and Mrs forther donated Dairy Queen coupons for Paw and incentives prizes the following donated to Highland Elementary School Tim Barnett donated one filing cabinet one portable mail organizer in one classroom mail center to Highland Elementary School valued at $60 beev Fay donated 132 used books to Highland Elementary School valued at $80 other donations include the interact Club donated two backpacks of supplies as needed for students to all six elementary schools valued at $180 kendri Spirits investment DBA red tree Investment Group then $250 towards staff
059breakfast for the annual secretary training meeting Michael Pani donated one 8ot balance beam to Indian Trail preschool valued at $500 the stowman r Falls Lions Club donated $250 to Kempton middle school for career Compass t-shirts and SMF nice donated various snacks for students to Echo Hills Fish Creek and Highland Elementary School Mr and Mrs tichel donated $1,000 to the high school girls basketball program and Western Reserve Hospital donated $500 to the stowman road Fall City school district for convocation day thank you any questions or comments roll call please Su adonic I wind I Baxter I ller I brown I now we will consider item e which is the new Neola board uh anti-racism policy uh M swonk turn that over to you yes um I would like to make a motion to adopt the Neola
060board policy uh anti-racism policy second I'm sure we have comments and questions yes I'd like to okay as a mother of four I've had kids in the stowman r Fall City school district for over 15 years I moved to Stow because I wanted excellent schools for my kids and the district is still to this day an excellent place for students to get an education and I love being a bulldog I'm excited that this policy is finally coming up for a vote this evening uh because it's been in the process for over 3 years I'm thankful for everyone that took place in the process uh I've had thorough conversations with administrators community members and students I've received input and suggestions and made many changes along the way to make the policy better and I appreciate everyone
061that gave me in put especially families that are dealing with racism themselves overall as a board we've received an outpouring of support and thanks for moving this policy forward again especially from the families that are specifically dealing with racism themselves I think we can all agree that racism is harmful I'm proud as that we as a district remain committed to the entirety of our vision statement and to The Five-Year strategic plan most notably the diversity inclusion and staff and student wellness portions I'm proud that we're always looking forward looking for ways to make our district a more welcoming and inclusive environment and to improve outcomes for all of our Bulldogs this policy is representative of mostly of what we do here today in stone and Falls but it's important to be very clear where we
062stand on inclusion thank you thank you I'd also like to uh speak in favor of this policy uh I'm only on the board briefly but I'm pleased to be here at this time to to help support it um there were some good points made about already been plenty of existing policies to deal with bullying I take that on board but this is far more than that this is far more than just dealing with bullying this is about helping the the board uh the school district examine to make sure we're not unintentionally doing things that can cause discrimination um institutional or systemic words different words can be used for the same thing they it is true they do exist um I look at my my home country where there was divisions in Northern Ireland uh and
063uh between sarian divisions and they had to take care of that by realizing we unintentionally had built ways in that favored one one group over another um it was very difficult for them to resolve still going on uh my own children have been told to go home and I'm as wide as you get but I've been told to go home to my own country uh it does exist so um I'm proud to support this policy tonight I have to say um I very much appreciate all of the community not just the comments this evening but all of the emails and other Communications that the board has gotten um and one thing I want to emphasize um is that this is three years in the making um and we have been talking about moving forward with
064this as a board this entire calendar year um so I'm really excited to see it finally come to fruition one of the reasons that it has taken this long has been to make sure that we get all of this input and I believe that all of the input makes it stronger for all of us um and the other thing that that I heard a lot um through email comments as well as in-person comments um not just tonight but on other evenings as well is the education piece that uh there are ways that history has been taught and edited where there is really important information um that some of us older Generations were never taught in school that helps our kids that helps us understand the impact of some of our actions whether that impact is
065intentional or unintentional it's important that we understand that impact and that can only come with education which is what we're talking about here is making sure that we are providing that education within our community and making it stronger I did actually audit my emails as well it was 18 to1 in favor I think tonight we've heard from a lot of people um a lot of people tonight actually and the core piece is racism's wrong no one here wants it no one here wants to see it but I do believe what I am understanding from folks is we need a policy that that takes care of the anti-racism but at the same point is adding another policy going to fix anything unless we actually enforce the old policies but do we go back and just start
066rewriting the old policies do we stay very narrow um from an anti-racist standpoint of this policy the way it reads you know it starts out with a Dei statement but you can actually take out racism put in diversity what about the other protected classes right right religious gender you know we don't all agree on all of these different topics but everyone needs to be protected for their own rights um I'm all about less government so more policies is never a good thing for me but you know it's a but you have to start somewhere but got to take a step but what way is it I I look at this policy and and I don't know exactly what will be different and I mean that in a positive way I think it's putting into writing
067what we've been trying to do and I think it just um codifies it versus adding things that we're not doing I think we're already doing a lot of this so I don't ever want to give the impression that I don't think our staff is aware of this or our administration's not concerned about this but I think it helps Define it and really gives everybody some guidelines that we want to work from um similar to you I didn't understand what was wrong with blackface either till a very late age and you know it's what I've learned in the past I've learned a lot in the last couple years I thought I was enlightened but I really was not and I set out trying to do some more reading and just was really kind of taken aack
068at many things I've done very unintentionally and um it was good to learn so it's not about how I feel about this policy but um some of the comments that we got from parents um one woman said um she's she has a student in the in the district um she says I think it is wise to have a written policy to explain the district's stance Against Racism diversity equity and inclusion is all about making every student in the district feel welcomed and safe and ensuring they have access to the same quality education embracing policies such as this one bring us closer to the true inclusion while celebrating our diversity as a parent of a black student in the district I feel it is important that these policies are explicit so there is no denying where
069the stowman rof Fall City School District stands on such issues and I just thought she said it beautifully and that's why I'm in favor of [Music] this any other comments I guess I'll just add one more time just to because of the comments that Mr L said too I just I want to reiterate that um what is contained in this anti-racism policy is by no means dupli duplicative of what's already in the anti-bullying or anti-harassment it's definitely the education piece as as Dr W had stated um that and I think we've heard from a lot of people at the mic tonight um specifically talking about how uh they were unaware of things or that they think you know so I I do believe that education is always going to be better for the district and
070I think that you know that's that's the piece that that we're missing currently okay roll call please wind I Baxter I ller no Su donic I brown I all right next we move on to the treasur consent agenda do I have a motion so moved second Mr Gano was that suon who motioned it wind sorry wish to recommend that the Board of Education approve all items a through e list in the treasures consent agenda any comments or questions roll call please wind I Baxter I wisler I Su adonic I brown I treasur new business uh Mr Gano I wish to recommend that the Board of Education improve the creation of a new fund do I have a [Music] motion so moved second questions or comments Mr Gano what's the fund for it's to it's from
071MO trial at the high school so it just helped differentiate um a student managed fund is that a new activity or we're just separating out yeah we're just separating I don't think it's a new activity I just think we're separating it out okay okay roll call please Baxter I ller hi Su adonic hi wind hi Brown hi and I think that they're gonna also start fundraising so they could do some things okay B you have another one on here I sure do and uh I just want to say something about the funds um it just helps balance and keep track of all the money is where it's being deposited and uh being expensed so you don't want to have too many fund special cost centers but it does help track where the money is going
072all right I wish to recommend the Board of Education approve the memorandum of agreement for deposits of public funds that's presented in exhibit s do I have a motion so moved second questions or comments yeah so we are look well I decided to look into other Banks to hold our public end funds and right now with Huntington Bank we are spending a lot in Bank fees so I ironically Dollar Bank did a cold call to see if they could take our our money and hold it and we're getting a two years free of Bank fees which will save us about $22,000 a month in Bank fees and after those two years it'll be roughly $500 to $800 so I saw this was a great opportunity to save the taxpayers some money yep and they their
073interest rate right now is around 5% nice thank you thank you please ller I Su adonic hi Lind I backer I brown I letter C I wish to recommend that the Board of Education improve the permanent Appropriations for fy4 presented in exhibit 8 do I have a motion so moved second who wants it give it to Mark thanks questions or comments so earlier in June at the end of last fiscal year we have to have Appropriations so we kind of know an idea of where how much we're spending in each of the funds that we have I decided to do a temporary appropriation since I'm new and I started in January so just kind of gauge where all the funds are at and right now we're doing the permanent Appropriations does their permanent set in
074stone but anytime you're going to exceed them or go below them we can adjust them with the county auditor um every month roll call please Su adonic I wind I Baxter I ller I brown I all right Mr Bratton Personnel recommendations wish to recommend Board of Education approve the certified and classified employment recommendations as presented in exhibit nine do I have a motion so moved second questions or comments ecer and wind okay roll call please lend I Baxter I wiler I Su adonic I brown I all right moving on to new business uh this is the first reading of NE Neola board policies volume 42 number one for August of 23 there are statutory language changes and the policy committee met and reviewed each policy on September 8th of 2023 and again no action is
075needed on this tonight it is simply the first reading and copies are available in the central office if anybody would like to see them and read through them okay thank you at this point uh we welcome any additional comments and concerns that citizens wish to bring before the Board of Education all comments must be directed to 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 in writing and please begin your remarks with your first and last names Jerry bio I'm from St and a former board member um I'm here because about two weeks ago I had a meeting with
076a board member and had questions in regards to employment of certain people at central office I have found through my observation and asking for public records request that we have three people one a um principal and two central office employees that are being employed under a contract with ESC which is the Educational Service Center under this contract they are being paid a minimum of $50 an hour one employee in the past year and a half has cleared cleared over $10,000 in addition to their salary now my question to this board and to the superintendent is be since you okay PA all this is how can they hold a contract with a separate entity also a contract with the school board and get d double dipping in their pay they get their pay every two weeks
077and they get additional pay from the ESC so I think since I've gotten no reply I'm here at a public meeting and ask the question why our tax dollars are being wasted and we're having employees double dip as a former employee of this District if I was to work someplace when I was supposed to be on my job I'd have my ass fired and I'm telling you right now these people are double dipping on my tax doll and I don't like it and everyone here that pays should do the same thing hi Matthew gaban sto um I just want to offer a hearty congratulations to all of you who passed the anti-racism policy I know you guys have been working on it very hard and I think it would be a wonderful thing if it
078wasn't a completely open-ended policy that really States no specifics whatsoever it's very general um and really what it does is it's now that it's past it is going to get any child in trouble for anything uh depending on who his or her parents are this is a policy that and I support anti-racism as I think anybody would but the problem is is it it doesn't go anywhere this literally can turn any child into uh a future suicide Victim Because an entire adult Administration came down on them you know we've been talking about uh people knowing what blackface was or wasn't and when a couple years ago I was in a room full of people and I didn't know that it was inappropriate to say to a black woman morning sunshine anybody else know that I
079didn't know that it's completely inappropriate and it goes goes back to the' 60s when black women were the help and they were left alone with the white husband and he would just kind of give her a pat on the tush when the wife laughed and said morning than sunshine and you know what that meant well you know what a kid in one of these schools could walk up to another uh another black fe uh uh little girl and just har harmlessly say morning in sunshine and that kid could be suspended for two weeks have an entire Administration come down on them very similar to what we saw with this football game incident to where it could lead to major issues with these poor kids that have to deal with this on a permanent record this
080is what this policy has done it's very general it's very open ended and that's why I'm against it well was against it it doesn't matter now I've heard that this is going to be in uh between the board and a committee for Dei about telling our kid kids how to think how to feel that's not your job I don't want racism I don't want problems because of racism I don't want anti-lgbtq just because people want to be mean but you know what there are people and religions and they come from an entire multitude of backgrounds in this community who don't necessarily line up with one thing or another and in the policy it talks about not only being taught what to think but how to celebrate it not everybody's going to go with that the
081policy that stands or that used to stand was a policy that covered everything thank you at this point we're going to uh move into executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment of a Public Employee there will be no action taken after this yes I need can we have a motion please so moved seconded any comments or questions on that roll call please what time are you going in oh I'm sorry at uh 8:23 thank you roll call please Baxter I ller I Su adonic I wind I brown uh I okay there will be no action taken after after [Music] this