SMFCSD Board Meeting 2021-08-16

001okay oh uh you do your things excited i was like maybe hmm 3. bob if you can let us know when we're live please i would like to call to order the august 16 2021 regular board meeting of the stone monroe falls city school district board excuse me board of education at 7 p.m roll call please lisa johnson ours here nancy brown here jason whitaker here jerry bettio here jessica wright here you'll please stand for the pledge under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay may i have a motion to approve tonight's agenda please or to adopt tonight's agenda so moved second any discussion roll call please whitaker hi betty oh hi brown hi johnson bowers aye right aye okay the first item on our agenda is a presentation from isabella baker regarding

002her experience at buckeye girl state this past summer um baker if you're here like to step up to the microphone she's going to come up and sit next to mrs pro give her a little bit of an introduction oh absolutely thank you so i'm very proud to introduce to you tonight isabella baker she is a senior this year at stonemonroe falls high school she wanted to go to buckeye girls state and i'll let her explain how she knew about it and why she wanted to go and what is so impressive is that she made that happen on on her own it wasn't there hasn't been a student from stowe go to buckeye girl state in many years and it was something she wanted to do and she made it happen i was fortunate enough to

003go to buckeye girl state 41 years ago and it was a fabulous week and it definitely changed my life and my confidence levels and i was thrilled that this was something she made happen and eager for you to hear about her experiences you'll understand why i'm so impressed with her and i'm sure you will be as well it's all yours so hi my name is isabella baker and i'll be a senior this year this past summer i was chosen to be a delegate to attend buckeye girl state buckeye girl state is an in-depth and interactive government government program young women who are chosen are those who are willing to learn and to lead they have they have had to pass junior year taken a government class and have held leadership positions it is also held

004at mount union my journey to be selected to attend bgs was an interesting one the first time it was brought to my attention was when i was talking to my grandfather freshman year because my dream is to go to west point military academy for pre-law he thought it would be beneficial for me to at least look into the program when i became more serious about going to west point i looked at ways that would be beneficial for me to be strongly competitive and considered uh inconsidered buckeye girl state was at the top now when it was time to apply i was completely clueless i looked at the website and emailed the first person on the contact list and to ask them how to apply a day later she responded saying that the head of my

005auxiliary unit will contact me sometime later that month to attend bgs the delegate must be sponsored by an auxiliary unit that will pay for the bgs expense right before spring break i was contacted by karen peele who was part of firestone memorial 449 the unit that sponsored me i called her later that day and a week later my application came in the mail my application came in with came with an acceptance letter telling me i was chosen to be a delegate at bgs and to attend a social tea in may at the t i realized i was the only girl from our sixth district compact to go the nearest area another girl was sponsored was from twinsburg marilyn warner a past bgs president was the main speaker she made us all introduce ourselves by saying

006our name our school and who we brought with us for miss warner it was a way to determine who was going to be strong in this program and who was not some girls would whisper and say hi my name is so and so and i got so and so and miss warner would yell and say i can't hear you say your name loud and proud when it came to my turn i made sure to look straight at her say everything loud and proud and to be confident this introduction would be the gateway to what i would have to do at girl state she was preparing us she told us we were special in past bgas years about 900 girls attended this year only 450 attended a perk of attendance was being cut in half since

007being cut in half was that we got our own dorm and that made me even more stoked after tea the next big date was bgs i waited ever so patiently with each passing day i became more and more nervous i would have to give speeches meet new people adapt to change worried if the other girls would like me if i would make new friends on june 13th i arrived at the campus i was in dorm beeka ross one of the two air-conditioned dorms i was assigned a county and a city my county was underwood and city was montgomery the counties spread across multiple dorms while your city was your own dorm for example bika ross was where montgomery city was located at the entrance i was assigned a party there are two parties nationalists and

008federalists i was a nationalist i was very nervous as i was unpacking my things and at three o'clock we were all we were to all meet in our main room i met my roommate carrie as we were heading to the main room and we became friends immediately we all gathered in the main room and began to converse with other delegates we were then taken on a tour of the campus and assigned pods which was our dorm room hallway we all became friends pretty quickly dinner was next the food court was absolutely amazing and i can see why they call it the freshman 15. there was a hot sandwich station a cold sandwich station hot meal pizza salad bar global foods ice cream bar and sweet sweets bar it was hard to not grab one of

009everything for dinner we all sat in our pods we talked about various things one of which being the positions we wanted but there are state level county level and city positions state could be governor lieutenant governor supreme court chief justice attorney general which was the one i was going for county positions were sheriff coroner state senate and house while the city positions were dog walker council director of public safety etc that evening our city had a meeting where each delegate had to give a speech about why they wanted to run for a certain position and why we should vote for them we then had to be supported by our city my city supported me in my run for attorney general the next day which was monday was workshops one of which was the bar exam

010if you are running for a judicial position you must pass the bar exam which which was open now thank goodness the person administering the bar exam was judge kelly mclaughlin from summit county she intimidated a lot of girls due to her stature and demeanor in the end i didn't pass the bar exam and was now running for senate with my friend in my pod stephanie on tuesday and wednesday it was campaigning stephanie and i campaigned for our seat while another girl from our pod cameron campaigned with us for a house of reps we campaigned for three hours at a time twice a day my slogan was vote for bella baker the baker who can't bake it was memorable for a lot of people wednesday was also election day for city members during those days we

011also had state and county conferences to slim down who is to run for a position for example four girls ran for governor our party had to choose one to represent us we also had to develop our party platforms for example ours had prison reform more help for health education and preserving nature ours was the exact same as the federalists wednesday night was the last chance to get people to vote for you and we campaigned for over four hours that's a lot of time walking in heels just to say our day started at 6 30 30 and last until 11 p.m with only two blocks of free time lasting an hour and a half each there was a smoothie bar on the campus as well that we could that we'd all go to during our free

012time and i easily spent over 25 dollars there elections were on thursday primary in general long waits unfortunately cameron and stephanie didn't make it past primaries and i didn't get my seat at the general election cameron stephanie and i had to now find jobs no one is unemployed at buckeye girl state they applied for appointed state positions while i applied for a city-appointed position my job was city director of public safety which meant i was the head of the fire and police department friday was job day which meant everyone was to report to their jobs and buckeye girl state was functioning the police and fire department held a fire pageant of which i was in charge of we also had to come up with situations and how we would handle them safely for city positions

013it's a little a little boring city positions don't have much to do so there were hours upon hours of free time and i'll get back to that in a second saturday was our last day we had a goodbye meeting and left at 11 in the morning it was hard to say goodbye to the girls i had gotten to know and had spent time with for the last week we played a lot of card games walked around campus together campaigned together had smoothies and coffee etc and some fun things that happened was that another city had a mafia that said arson to buildings we had county and state parties which involved a lot of music dancing and fun speeches we would stay up late into the and there's a lot more but buckeye girls state was

014the best week of my life and i will never forget all the memories i made there and the people i met now back to job day the day before which was a thursday i realized that kelly mclaughlin was a judge in summit county i'm in summit county and want to go into law so i contacted her bailiff asking if she can contact kelly and ask we can talk sometime that evening i wrote a letter to kelly asking if we can talk job day morning i have been summoned to meet judge mclaughlin she was very excited to see me that afternoon we had an hour and a half discussion during my free time she then invited me to shadow her throughout the summer and my senior year let me say i was just over the moon

015and i realized that if i got the senate position i would have never gotten this chance to meet her we also talked later that evening since girls state has ended i have had a chance to go into court chambers and also watch a murder sentencing and a jury trial i don't think i would have gotten that chance if i didn't go to buckeye girl state cameron carey stephanie and i still still speak pretty frequently and our friends to this day i've gotten better with communicating communicating in front of a group of people and it has become natural to me bgs taught me how to be a leader to learn how to lose and use that as a learning experience how to adapt to change how to use time management and be someone an independent i

016believe that every young lady should attend this program it's great on resumes and also great for character it would be one of the best weeks of their lives and a memory they would never forget and marilyn warner was right i am special thank you [Applause] if i could just take a second the fact that you intend on going to west point will put make your life a lot easier than you know mine up here as a lawyer in summit county and portage county so good luck to you on that and the last piece of unsolicited advice is so you know the dining halls in all of the colleges taste far better for events and at uh orientation than they ever will when you're there so and this is someone who was too old to to

017stay at beaker ross when i was in mount union so that that wasn't built yet so thank you thank you very much for your presentation this evening i um like yourself and ms brown also attended buckeye girl state a few years earlier than you yeah she's trying to spare me and not say how much younger she is than i am well it was 1999 if we put no it was and it was a great learning experience and i'm i'm really happy to hear that you took took the initiative to do this and i'm i'm a little disappointed to hear that there aren't more more girls from our area getting involved and so i hope that that's something that maybe we can encourage more of in the future yeah thank you you are an incredibly impressive

018young woman and a great representative of our school district so thank you for being up here and well done thank you thank you so much okay the next item on our agenda is comments from the audience those in attendance are reminded that this is a meeting of the board of education conducted in the 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 or persons or institutions um as we're all lining up could we please could we please spread out a bit and give people some space i understand there are a lot of people here today that have

019comments they'd like to make but if we could maybe give folks some space citizens have the opportunity to bring their concerns before the board of education all comments should be directed to the board individuals presenting concerns and or questions to the board may not receive complete answers the same evening the board will study and consider your concerns and will either have a board member or a central office administrator contact you as soon as the information you require is available as you can see there are a lot of people who want to comment this evening so we will be limiting everyone to three minutes no more if there are minors who would like to speak this evening you do not need to give us your home address everyone else please your first name and your address

020for the minutes am i missing anything okay go ahead please hi my name is melissa anderson i reside at 4525 cox drive and i'm here tonight to introduce you to my friend george garrison who was a student here in 2003. amy hoover said when friendship leaves us through death we feel cheated in life life doesn't play fair so i vow to win for the both of us tonight there are some new faces in the audience we all have one thing in common we are all here impacted by the life of george garrison jr after 18 years he is still the glue that connects all of us despite us going different directions in life some people cannot be here tonight for a variety of reasons but through written statements and petitions they have shown their support

021and love for george in keeping his memory alive you see you've heard about george and his experiences here at stowe over the last year but i want to tell you about the george that i knew and what he embodied george loved to joke around and he loved to make people laugh two of his most memorable traits were his smile that even on the worst day could make you smile he had a contagious laugh and that most of us would just begin laughing by hearing him he had a kind spirit he was kind to all those who came into contact with him and he wanted to always do the right thing he was a committed student friend and son when he did something he gave it his all which made him a talented soccer player and

022musician i am here tonight because george garrison jr's life mattered and we want to have the opportunity to honor our friend and keep his legacy of acceptance and love for all people alive his life mattered and we want all past present and future students to know that they matter that they belong here and that they are loved here at stowe we can share georgia's love for life through his memorial here at stoneman row falls high school hello again miguel carvajal 509 baldwin road akron ohio this is a letter written from george garrison senior july 28 2001 dear friends of george professor linda picarillo smith who is both a faculty member in the department of africana studies at ksu and a member of the stoneman row falls dei committee and former colleague and good friend of

023mine inform me of your testimonies at the last school board meeting supporting the work of this very timely and important committee i want to thank all of you for exceptionally articulate and effective support i saw the video of this long and coming very much needed initiative in the city of stoneman row falls in the public school system my son george r garrison jr and i lived in the city of stowe for eight years until his untimely and tragic death and lived another 15 years there until my retirement from ksu as a professor in the department of pain african studies the majority of my 45 year academic professional career i was taken totally by surprise and stunned to learn about the number of george's friends and classmates who not only remembered him but carried their friendship

024loyalty and love they had for all these years in their minds hearts spirits even to the point of having body art placed on their bodies to bear witness to the tragedy of his death this and the eloquent statements about the lived experiences you had with him what he meant to you the warm friendly and reassuring spirit he possessed had the effect of dislodging the anvil of despair that had been tethered to my mind heart and spirit ever since that day of january 8 2003 and has been such a heavy burden that i've borne quietly and privately all these years i thought the sms school system in high school had simply closed the book on my son after his funeral at the saint stephen lutheran church for no one not the principal any of his teachers

025the superintendent nor any of his or her surrogates ever reached out to me or showed any sign of sympathy concern or human compassion that one would normally expect in such a great loss an incalculable measure of grief that is perpetual never ending so for 15 years i went back and forth to ksu with increased passion for teaching my students black white muslim christian hindu domestic international gay straight etc ensuring that they all understood that we live in a global village with various communities but in the end we're all earthlings striving to live together in peace and harmony with good will towards each other and a manner consistent with god's will and intention for us for he gave us all the ability and capacity to do so in the blueprint to grind through the various holy

026scriptures found in the religious traditions of diverse cultures and ethnic racial communities found across the planet to my great satisfaction my students understood and embraced the simple and foundational idea of reality and universal human hood this gave me the motivation energy and power to continue with an important and reifying purpose in life so for 15 years after the death of my son i drove through the streets of stowe kent hudson and monroe falls essentially invisible shopping at the giant eagle acme target bed bath and beyond eating at applebee's aladdins boston market all garden etc attending arlington church of god in new hope baptist churches both in akron always thinking about my son and thinking that our community had erased its existence from its collective memory then by god's providence through the friendship loyalty and professional

027commitment of professor piccarillo smith she sent me the links to the akron beacon journal article about and video of the smf school board meeting where some of you spoke about my son in the extended community of smf high school alumni that called my son friend and keep the spirit alive through their memory and love for him to continue the letter from the depths of my heart and soul thank you young people my son will be pleased with such testimonies and affirmations of friendship and love i taught him throughout his short life to honor and respect the history and diversity of the world as we traveled during his life through nearly every country in western europe many countries in asia southeast and southern asia nearly every state in the contiguous 48 and in the countries north

028and south of our very own yes my son george jr knew firsthand not only the importance and necessity of dei but he had seen firsthand the reality of the diversity of the world and the necessity for equality and equity and inclusion within the secular communities of the earth and spiritual community of god on this planet young people just knowing that there's a community of smf high school alumni who who were and our friend the friends of my son is a liberating bomb to my soul and i will treasure the knowledge of that and love you all for the rest of my life may you and your families be continuously blessed by my cr by our creator george r garrison phd father of george jr thank you linda picarillo smith 175 silver valley boulevard in monroe

029falls and these young people have asked me to speak as a parent of one of george's friends in fact my son adam considered george his best friend they became friends from the time that they played why soccer at oregon trail and eventually we became family friends as you heard in george's his father's letter so as you can imagine losing george has been a traumatic experience for all of our family as you've also heard george was the kind of kid that most parents really appreciated not only was he handsome and intelligent and polite but as you know he was also an accomplished student and accomplished athlete and an accomplished musician on the day that we lost george his father told me and then i had to tell my son we had no support from the school

030on that day nor did that support ever come to assist us and our son in how to process the loss of his best friend i sent him to school because i really didn't know what else to do i was afraid keeping him home would be more difficult because he would be isolated because he was in band they did have the opportunity of staying together in the band room but they had one concession to that and that was that they had to bring a note to every teacher um during their school day as the bell rang so they were com re-traumatized every time they had to go to class some teachers were more receptive than others that presented other challenges students who weren't in band had none of that they were expected to carry on their

031day as if nothing had happened the 18 years later well i had one more thing one person at the school decided for some reason to tell my son in very graphic detail the cause of george's death 18 years later my son can still recall every single one of those details as if he had just heard them yesterday although they were allowed to spend the day together the band members had no counselors who sat with them no suggestions of support were sent to their parents george's friends who were not in being had nothing they were expected to just carry on as a parent i was also very afraid i'd been told that people young people in a school who had experienced the loss of a friend through suicide may be more tempted to to try that

032alternative for themselves so i was very worried about what my son's future would be he has carried the legacy of this loss with him every single day he was in his early twenties when he got his tattoo for george on his forum he still holds anger and sadness and depression there are definitely changes the school can make both to help try to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring but also to help students and their families when they have to deal with the loss of a friend this memorial is not about how george's life ended but what his life has meant and continues to mean to his friends and to those he left behind viewing others with dignity with respect with appreciation and with tolerance these seem to be just the kinds of messages we

033would want all students to be able to embrace rachel jamison 2187 west 95th street cleveland ohio you've heard many of us talk about george garrison both prior to this meeting and today he was our friend and he touched so many of our lives george died by suicide in 2003 during his time as a student at still monroe falls high school he was a child in the school district who had to navigate racism and its damage to his mental health on his own and did not have the opportunity to receive intervention it has been 18 years since his death a child born the year he died would have just graduated from high school this is not about memorializing how a student died but how they lived how the school responded to this kind of loss and

034how to address the needs of students both in crisis and those who are dealing with the trauma of loss as we move forward we ask you the board of education to allow us to begin the process of creating a memorial to honor george r garrison jr at still monroe falls high school we have the support of george's father to pursue this initiative this memorial will commemorate the legacy of a young person who could not overcome some obstacles in his own life but contributed to the lives of so many in so many ways it is to ensure that he is not forgotten but also to serve as a tribute to what he stood for this memorial will honor george's positive legacy and serve as a visual representation for all he embodied an appreciation and respect for

035all cultures embracing diversity being accepted and accepting others this memorial will acknowledge all students who have felt targeted disenfranchised and marginalized it will remind students now and in the many years to come that their life matters that they can seek help and that they are not alone it will tell them we see you it will tell his grieving friends finally we see you and it will tell mr garrison at long last we see you this memorial will be a symbol a symbol for efforts towards suicide prevention anti-bullying and anti-racism in the district it will send a message about solidarity inclusivity diversity and acceptance that will last and continue to have meaning generations from now we are asking the board for approval to place the memorial on school grounds with a more specific proposal to come

036we are asking for your commitment to support us moving forward with the design and consent to use the space given the approval of the final design we will form a committee to do the legwork on proposed designs locations and cost estimates and would ask that the district commit to a portion of the cost to be decided the rest of the funding for the memorial would come from private funds and donations we would like to return in october with a more specific proposal to be approved by the board we would finally be able to begin healing we only need your solidarity i would like to ask at this time for anyone in attendance who is in support of this initiative to please stand thank you symbols are important memories are important we use symbols and memories

037to heal we have george in our heart for 18 years george touched everyone he met with that kindness we are honoring not his death but his life good evening my name is cheryl jameson and i am miguel and rachel's mother my husband and i jim were scout masters in georgia's boy scout troop and although i lived in stowe for 20 years i currently live at 3777 shannon road in cleveland heights ohio we are honoring not george's death as i continue the proposal but his life we ask you to consider this proposal as it is a way to show your support for the values that george embodied acceptance embracing diversity respect and kindness and to show your support for past students students who are no longer with us current students and students to come to serve

038as a reminder that their lives matter as i drove here tonight my initial thought was well here we go again except now we have a dei initiative and committee which is i think is a tremendous step forward for this school district and i honor the work that they along with the stowe collaboration for change are engaging in in addition i think this memorial stands to say that racial bullying and bullying of anybody who is different whether that be lg folks who are lesbian and gay transgender it reminds us all that this bullying has very deadly consequences and it's time to act to make sure that doesn't continue to happen in our school system then 18 years ago folks didn't know how to respond educators didn't know how to respond we know better now they're certainly

039models i'm a social worker they're models about how to deal with trauma how to deal with blade and i really encourage you to embrace that thank you good evening my name is neil hess 4113 osage street my preferred pronouns are patriot and capitalist but you can call me boss or sir because you answered to me and the parents of this school district not activists who carpet bagged their where here their way here from lakewood or cleveland or anywhere else to lecture us not ngos that fund your leftist causes not ibra mex candy's checklist on wokeness us rumor had it that you plan on doing a victory lap tonight that you plan to move forward with your objective to introduce tribalism into our children's curriculum which to this day we have not seen as parents education

040is supposed to be a partnership so one has to ask is it really necessary to foia someone who is a partner is that because it's proprietary your little surveys or is there something more to it of course why should we expect transparency when you even try to cloak crt by referring to it under the pseudonym of dei pretty much the only thing you have been transparent about is your cowardice whether it's forcing kids to wear masks so you feel safe or despite their documented ineffectiveness or handing over the reins of our children's education to unelected committees who don't answer directly to the taxpayers i'm old enough to remember when it was considered inappropriate to be on both a board and a committee at the same time but if we're willing to throw out america's founding

041principles why would i expect you to think twice about conflicts of interest so try not to injure a rotator cuff while patting yourself on the back for codifying policies that teach our children that they are either oppressed or oppressed or based on their immutable physical characteristics as for me and my house we will serve the lord not an evil leftist at woke agenda with heavy heart my wife and i decided that our grade schooler will be removed from your corrupted system this year which nine years ago was a major factor in why we moved here in the first place she will not participate in your mouse struggle sessions she will not be made to feel guilty for the color she was born she will be taught at home where she will receive an education oh

042novel idea instead of an indoctrination and thank god because someone has to be around a generation from now to undo the damage being done in this country by your marxist subversion [Applause] good evening my name is dina weber i'm 2907 east celeste feud drive there are two things i want to address tonight i want to start out by encouraging the board to let parents decide what's best for our kids medically and emotionally regarding masks i know that right now they're strongly recommended but please do not put our kids through another mask mandate these kids have been playing together vacationing together playing sports together all summer unmasked i'm asking you to look at data other than what our government and mainstream media is putting out there they are only using select or incomplete data to serve

043their own interests the fact is that this virus has become so politicized that it prevents rational consideration of evidence available in many reports and student in many reports and student cloth face masks have become non-functioning after 20 minutes there have been randomized controlled trial studies and analysis reviews of those studies that all show that cloth masks do not work to prevent influenza or any respiratory type viruses i am begging you please for our children let the parents decide what's right for them second thing i'd like to address last year i got a letter from our principal on a panorama survey that they wanted these kids to take when i asked for a copy of this survey i was refused i i was told that i couldn't see the content that was going to be administered

044to my minor child how can a district administer a survey to children and not allow the parents to see the content red flags went up for me and it should have went up for every parent in this district over the last several weeks we've had people from this district speak in favor of instituting diversity equity and inclusion or critical race theory into our school curriculum we have also had people from outside our district speak in favor of this please do not fall victim to their rhetoric i have seen firsthand the name calling and insults hurled that goes from social that that's on social media from people who are known to be pro dei activists it's ugly and their behavior is any indication of what dei teaches i don't want my child to be a part

045of it cei dei crt is dangerous to this district when i refer to dei i will always attach crt to it because there are some similar components of crt that are are embedded in dei under dei kids are assigned an identity group based on gender race sexual identity among other things this is the basis for dei divide and segregate dei is meant to assign either guilt or victimhood to those participating under the guise of pleasant words like diversity equity and inclusion which we can all agree are good things the very core the very core of these ex exercises is to divide and alienate these kids from each other dei divides [Applause] good evening my name is sue rice i live at 279 donaldson drive monroe falls i better put my glasses on whether you love

046or you hate crt you're doing your kids and your grandkids disservice if you do not understand what it is and decide if you want it in our schools it's been around a long time and it began with the early writings of derek bell an african-american civil rights lawyer and professor at harvard law school scholars developed crt when they felt civil rights advances had stopped and or were reversing since we have some school board elections coming up this might be a good time to decide what you want to see in stowe schools and to the audience choose your school board members carefully the ohio state board of education passed resolution number 20 on july 14 2020 at the height of the pandemic and just after george floyd's death the resolution condemns racism bigotry hatred systemic inequity

047white supremacy culture and unconscious racial bias which are the hallmarks of crt the resolution further recommended that ohio school districts reflect on and examine their own bias and ensure racism and the struggle for equality are accurately addressed with special emphasis on curriculum hiring practices staff development and student discipline the ohio state board points to the ohio strategic plan for education 2019-2024 as its guiding document this plan has three core principles the first one is equity the path to equity for each child begins with a deep understanding of the history of discrimination and bias and how it has come to impact current society these are the the two documents if you haven't seen the resolution 20 and your core plan for education for each student the big question is where does crt take our schools well

048the state of oregon has now eliminated testing for reading writing and math eight schools in the d.c district are banning advanced placement classes in order to promote equity currently seven states have banned crt in their schools and 22 have legislation pending that says it cannot be taught in their schools ohio has a bill progressing in the house ohio house bill 322 talks about the teaching of current events race and sex in ohio schools since we will soon be elected electing new board members it is important to know your favorite candidate's position on these issues please complete your thought here are some suggestions i'm sorry that that's three minutes thank you [Applause] tammy weaver 1925 maple road this is on equity oregon governor signs new law allowing students to graduate without proving they can read write

049or do math an oregon an oregon high school diploma does not guarantee that students who earned it can read write or do math at a high school level governor k brown dropped the requirement that students demonstrate they have achieved those essential skills by signing senate bill 744 into law she declined again friday to comment on why she supported suspending the proficiency requirements the bill was not entered into the legislative database until july 29th a departure from the standard practice updating the public database the same day a bill is signed charles boyle the governor's communication director said the governor's staff told legislative staff the same day the governor signed the bill boyle said in an emailed statement the suspending of the reading writing and math proficiency requirements will benefit oregon's black latino latina indigenous asian pacific

050islander dryball and students of color he added leaders from those communities have advocated time and again for equitable graduation standards along with expanded learning opportunities and support lawmakers did not pass any significant expansion of learning opportunities or support for black indigenous and students of color during the 2021 legislative session democrats in the legislature overwhelmingly supported ending the long-time proficiency requirement while republicans criticized it for lowering lowering academic standards how does not being able to read write or do math benefit anyone the equity the students have received has been to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator not raise students up to a higher competency level that is the deceitfulness of the illusion of equitable results wouldn't it be great when oregon has a state full of citizens that are illiterate isn't it beneficial when

051people can't read a rental agreement or a contract for a loan hip hip hooray what a great education system we have we can give ourselves a big pat on the back and a participation award for ensuring our children can't read the constitution the bill of rights and you know the thing also known as the declaration of independence on the bright side this week the senate passed an amendment banning the use of federal funds to teach concepts associated with critical race theory in primary and secondary education during a late night vote that includes dei good evening my name is shannon voytosh 5057 misty glenn lane in january 2003 my brother had gotten into a fight with another student who had been bullying him for a few weeks this turned into a physical altercation after the bully

052took my brother's hat and refused to return it my brother and his bully were suspended while on suspension my brother's bully tragically ended his life my brother's bully was george garrison after word got out about george's death stowe high school called my parents and informed them of what happened my parents were told that some of george's friends blamed my brother for his death and that my brother brother would possibly be in more fights and continue to be suspended until he was expelled or they could pull him from stowe high school we were told george had problems at home george wasn't bullied he was the bully it's a tragedy that any student should ever get to suicide as their only option as a parent my prayers are with george's family no parent should ever feel the

053loss of a child but using this tragedy as a political race war is disgusting without all the facts stow should continue to work on protecting the bullied and apologize to those who fail who they failed to do so with not because of their size shape or color but because the chew our children our future deserve better john sigmund 2105 king drive and you know the memorial for a suicide would probably be good um just not sure you know george was the only person who's committed suicide in the school system over the years so we should kind of point that out but the one i have here today is in my opinion crt is nothing more than marxist ideology being pushed on our community and children by those that have illegally taken control of our country

054as well as this city the city of stowe itself has been targeted as a racist city again by those that are posing pushing a marxist community against as a result of the plan endemic further destruction of our city its people and of our children is occurring by the way of a masked mandate socialist shutdowns and forced mandates of a non-fda approved vaccine by governments and employers forcing children to wear muzzles i mean masks to protect them from a virus with a .000 chance of death which is less than the deaths from the flu is nothing short of child abuse and this must end studies by the nih have shown that mass are ineffective at stopping covid spread which the cdc refuses to accept these studies as fact studies have also shown that adolescents are considering

055suicide 60 percent more in the past year because of the events of the pandemic not racism when we moved here 18 years ago we would ask teenagers if they liked going to stowe high school the majority would say that they liked it a lot when we asked them now the answer is always the same we hate it we hate going to stowe james tyree would be livid seeing what's going on now and if you partake in voting yes for these mandates you will be responsible for the lives it affects we the people of stowe will take note and we will always protect our children like an angry mother bear thank you [Applause] my name is clara totten excuse me i'm sorry i'm sorry point of order i would ask that we're past the 15 minutes

056um i would ask that we limit the the public comment to the young man that's in the back and prevent anyone else from getting in line so that's that's where i have a second second any discussion uh our policy is 15 minutes we've gone long over that um any discussion from the board members i'm sorry sir it's a board conversation any discussion from the board members would anybody have a problem with letting that gentleman speak after the young man in the back i think everybody should have their right to speak [Applause] and we have a reminder that this is a business meeting in public and not a public meeting yes i would remind the audience that although you are here in person that you are and you're able to speak and give public comment that

057you are not a active participant in the board discussions up here if you could please keep your comments to yourself as best you can i guess roll call then i'm sorry we're voting on whether well there's been a motion in a second okay whitaker better you no brown no sorry johnson bowers can you tell me exactly what we're voting on to stop public comment after the young man who's currently at the end of the line oh okay i thought we were voting on no there was already a motion on the floor so the answer is no right right no okay i'd like to make a motion to end public comment after this young man and including the gentleman in the back second any discussion roll call please better you would you repeat that please what

058we are voting on uh yes we will end public comment after those who are currently in line ending with the gentleman with the hat i'm sorry i can't the guy that was yes he stood up the gentleman that will be the end of the line i'm sorry we need to end public comment at some point this is a public meeting that is policy is 15 minutes we've gone longer we're going to end after this gentleman unless i don't have i believe i had a second yep no first and second roll call please betty o yes brown yes johnson bowers yes whitaker yes right yes all right please continue my name is clara totten at 2634 hermitage place i'm the parent of a stowe elementary schooler i'm speaking tonight about the need for a universal mask

059requirement in our schools i emailed the board about this last week and received a polite form email and response that expressed understanding of my disappointment i'm not disappointed over the lack of a masking requirement i'm scared i'm fearful for the health of our children and i'm asking the board to reconsider its decision and implement a mass mandate in schools for this fall in summit county cases are rising sharply our seven day average for new cases has risen 75 percent in the past week summit county is classified by the cdc as having high community transmission high being of course the most severe level of transmission on their scale report after report is showing that the delta variant is even more contagious across all age groups children are getting sick more often and more severely this cannot

060be ignored what we have in our elementary schools in particular is a population of students where no one is vaccinated this is a vulnerable population and it is our responsibility to protect those who are vulnerable in the letter explaining the district's decision it was stated that the district trusts parents to make the best decision for their children however the decision of a parent not to make their child wear a mask is not one that exists in a vacuum this is not a disc this is not a question of whether to put on sunscreen before going to the playground one parent's decision has potentially wide ranging implications if that child gets covered and isn't wearing a mask they have now exposed their classmates and their teachers far more than if they had been wearing a mask

061the cdc issued the guidance strongly recommending universal masking indoors on which the district says it has relied in late july since that time every time i go into stores the vast majority of shoppers are still unmasked including children if a parent has not felt it necessary for their child to mask up thus far why should we believe that they would make a different decision for school the sharp rise in cases does not suggest that trusting individuals alone has been an effective strategy so the cdc has not issued a masked mandate the way the districts and the way the district's messaging reads for this reason the school board hasn't either however this line of thinking suggests that the cdc made its statement solely with best public health interests in mind this simply isn't the case there

062are political and legal realities at work realistically such a federal mandate would likely face political pushback and legal recourse for example some states have issued bans on mass mandates in schools so a federal mandate would likely be challenged in court in a case setting federal authority against state sovereignty the cdc has been acting as it has in part because it is a federal entity its recommendations cannot be understood as literal stand-in decisions for local decisions very few people enjoy wearing masks i certainly don't and my kids don't either but we do it we do it to protect ourselves and the community thank you terry ionetta 3959 cardinal circle stow critical race theory is built upon karl marx's belief in class conflict and the primary characteristic of industrial societies was the imbalance of power between capitalists

063and workers and has slowly and methodically worked its way into american society crt is destructive and advocates for the exact opposite of what it claims to be by treating individuals differently based upon the color of their skin these beliefs threaten to destabilize and fragment american society by fomenting hate and conflict in our schools our places of business our religious institutions and the halls of government if people were not inherently equal then some will have fewer fewer rights than others some will be less free than others and some will have less say in governing society than others crt adherents believe america is systemically racist that racial oppression exists in every institution and an individual is either an oppressor or oppressed based on the color of their skin they reject the idea that america has strived for

064more than two centuries to fully live up to the founding creed that all men are created equal and should be treated so under the law opposing crts does not mean we are in favor of racism or discrimination we are we oppose crt because of its destructive philosophy and methods not because it stands against racism in fact there are many black leaders who oppose crt because it undermines the traditional civil rights movement and those some of those people are peter kirsten out robert woodson thomas elvita king carol swain and leo terrell every individual should be allowed to prosper based on his or her merit and should be judged impartially based on his or her behavior race sex class or creed should not be the basis of stereotype stereotyping collective guilt discrimination harassment or shame equity sounds

065not threat non-threatening and is easily confused with equality equality the principle of principle defined in the declaration of independence we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal while equity is little more than reformulated marxism by suspending private property rights individual rights federalism freedom of speech seizing land and wealth and redistributed risk redistributing them along racial lines why are the more minority that have issues with the subject always given the final say as in changing the local logo for the city of stowe because a bible was part of the quadrant i'll say that the majority of stowe residents are appalled and against this indoctrination and the masking of kids let's take a poll of stow residents joe biden's campaign cry was unity but i see critical race theory as anything but

066hello i'm michelle tingley and i live at two four four five rents drive south and uh i don't have anything really big to say but um i think d-e-i is a part of critical race theory and critical race theory separates children by race and instills hatred for specific groups of students i believe this to be evil and should never be included in our school curriculum and i believe that children shouldn't have to wear masks anymore no more mandates that's how i feel thank you [Applause] good evening my name is rebecca hamilton and i reside at 3706 kent road in stowe i am a mother of four i have two children in college and two children in the stoke school district my youngest is five years old and starts kindergarten this year and my 11 year

067old starts sixth grade i come before you today to share my story on december 21st 2015 after the birth of my son i was diagnosed with an incurable heart and lung condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension a rare and fatal diagnosis i have this line in my chest and this medical pump that is attached to me 24 hours a day seven days a week i eat sleep and shower with this pump without it i will die the only cure for pulmonary hypertension is a heart and double lung transplant unfortunately i'm not a candidate for this procedure the only thing i have is this pump it is considered the last resort and final treatment offered to me a devastating prognosis covet 19 has proven to be catastrophic for those who suffer from ph like me this has

068added an unfathomable amount of stress and anxiety on top of what i currently incur daily when the pandemic hit my team of doctors at the cleveland clinic urged me to get the covet vaccine as i was in the high-risk category i got it immediately my husband and children two oldest children also received it but unfortunately my five-year-old and 11-year-old are still not eligible the only thing we can do is continue to mask in social distance until they are eligible with my disease life itself has become incredibly risky even with the aforementioned safety measures i come to you today to ask why this district has made the unconscionable decision to make max optional in a school especially grades k-6 when a vaccine is not available to this age group i feel in-person learning is essential to

069our children but they need to be able to do that safely with the safety of their family members in mind as well as it pertains to this school year you have done little by way of ensuring the safety of these children especially in consideration of the highly transmissible delta variant there is no hybrid plan there is no gold planned and the gyms will not be utilized at lunch time to ensure some sort of distancing all the while masking remains optional this district has taken zero responsibility nor precaution amidst the uncertainty of this virus for the most vulnerable group are ineligible and unvaccinated children this is not to mention the many at home who are high-risk such as myself requiring masks in school is the most effective way to keep our children and their families safe

070this measure cannot hurt it can only help i ask you to put yourself in my shoes my diagnosis of this terrible disease leaves me in an incredibly vulnerable state my children in a vulnerable state by not requiring masks in school you are rejecting the best and most vetted method to mitigate the spread of this disease to ineligible unvaccinated children in our district please finish your sentence a method that is safe easy to use and has already been utilized in our schools i am asking you to follow and implement the recommendations of the cdc in the american academy of pediatrics by requiring masks in our district thank you antoinette east jenkins 160 north river road monroe falls so i had written all this stuff to talk to you guys about and say how disappointed i was

071and all these different things but i'm going to change course a bit do i think that we should honor george garrison and and memo and give him a good memorial absolutely do i think we should do a scholarship for him in his name as well absolutely do i think we should also recognize all of the other students we've lost to suicide absolutely but then we should also do something different we should do something to stop the suicides and then we go to talk about these masks you know what i get it i see why you haven't made a decision because you have all of these people who don't want to hear statistics who don't want to hear facts who are yelling and screaming at you they don't want their kids in masks so you are

072between a rock and a hard place i just ask that you stop listening to parents that are googling things talk to the cdc talk to the pediatricians go with what science says and then you can't go wrong mary mumper 4242 heil roadstow dei is very deceptive once you have done your research and i beg everyone up here to do your research you will see that it is part of the critical race theory yes and it is racism dei will negate all of the work that martin luther king and others have done to have people judged they want people judged on their character not on their skin color this is pitting one group of people against another this is not right and i hope you'll really do your research and dei isn't going to help anybody

073here nobody i think everybody feels horrible about any child that takes their life and let me tell you if this is passed there will be children of whatever color that will take their life because this is racism and it's right if you look at how this was originated it did come from frankfurt germany it is a communist agenda please do your research thank you [Applause] carrie sue adolnik 4263 meadowlark trail given the high amount of contact that happens between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in schools the fact that vaccines are not available to children under 12 years old the cdc recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers staff students and visitors to k-12 schools regardless of vaccination status in case you missed that the aap recommends universal masking in school at this time for the following

074reasons a significant portion of the student population is not eligible for vaccination protection of unvaccinated students from coven 19 and to reduce transmission a lack of system a lack of a system to monitor vaccine status among students teachers and staff potential difficulty in monitoring or enforcing mass policies for those who are not vaccinated in the absence of schools being able to conduct this monitoring universal masking is the best and most effective strategy to create a consistent message expectation enforcement and compliance without the added burden of needing to monitor vaccination status the cities of stowe and mineral falls as well as the stowe courthouse have implemented implemented mass mandates for their buildings all you have to do is look around tonight to see what recommended means we don't get a lot of masks cuyahoga falls has

075an online option for k-5 kent has a mass mandate hudson has masked classrooms i ask that you take some time to reconsider your policy we need to do better here thanks [Applause] my name is pamela wind i reside at 4558 chatwood drive in stowe when i attended a board of education candidate training last month one of the first things they did was describe the tasks and jobs of a board and primary among these was to provide needed safe and secure facilities safe facilities as a parent and community member i am exhausted with asking this board to do this job safety includes listening when stories of students past and present feeling unsafe at school are shared and it means doing everything possible to prevent student deaths rather than ignoring the causes i have seen innumerable examples

076of this board and administration ignoring their duty to ensure student safety and i have fought over and over again for you to do the right thing you'll have me believe that it is parent choice whether to send their kids to school and masks which is a safety issue but still enforce an appearance-based dress code either it is parent choice how to outfit their child no matter the result or we make exceptions for the school to enforce some standards the most important standard being safety you'll have me believe that there's no point in following public health guidance especially for the roughly half of our students who are not even eligible for a vaccine what has changed for these students over the past year other than a more dangerous strain of covid being primary you'll have me

077believe that when you're putting students and their families at risk by failing to follow public health guidance there is no way to provide an online option when districts around us are figuring this out we can somehow spend the time and money on secure vestibule entrances in every one of our buildings for safety when we have never had an active shooter threat but we can't mandate masks i call let's say nonsense because the word i want to use is not appropriate do better do your job protect our students and staff uh my name is david jenkins i live on one six zero north river road and uh what i'm about to say isn't going to be very long it's just about mask um there's proof mask work when we had a mask there are less covered

078cases uh as people were dying with people getting sick etc then during the summer we unmasked more people got sick and there was a new uh strain of kova that uh came so i mean i don't see why it's such a big deal just wear the mask i mean doctors and surgeons wear it all day every day so i mean i don't know why we can't yes it's uncomfortable but it's not gonna kill you just wear the mask you're being immature you guys are like 40. [Applause] my name is mike daniels 40 38 bishop's gate circle bestow i'm not going to come up and yell at you or chastise you or describe political ideologies i would give to give you this from march 1st 2020 to december 12 2020 which is 41 weeks there were

0792 million 828 confirmed cases of covet those are laboratory confirmed excuse me cases an individual zero to 24 years old 18 to 24 year olds accounted for 57.4 of those so 1 million 648 429 and some change let's just call it 1 million 648 429 that leaves us with 1 million 223 398 cases in the zero through 17 year old group so that's you know at the low end 29 839 cases per week at the high end 70 000 a little over 70 000 cases per week last week the american academy of pediatrics said that there were 93 824 children who contracted covet so at the low end that's 134.61 increase at the high end that's a 214.43 increase so those are just some stats you can choose to call them whatever you want if

080they're unreliable to you that comes from cdc and american academy of pediatrics um i think in any other dealing it wouldn't be prudent to roll the dice with numbers like this right so if you're running a business and you look at something and say 214 214.43 increase in price should i buy that if it's going to sit on a truck if there's 214.43 increase that it's going to rot on the truck i wouldn't buy it it's just silly right so why gamble with kids our children all of our children and grandchildren i don't know what your ultimate decision will be i don't i'm hoping it will be for masks i don't like wearing masks it's annoying to me it hurts my ears i'm fat and i'm out of shape so i can wear a mask

081anyone can wear a mask i just got over a little cold about a week ago and i wore masks the whole time in here i think everybody will be okay my kids don't particularly care for wearing masks but they wear them it's an inconvenience as the young man before me say it but it is what it is um excuse me i also don't envy your position i should say that i feel horrible for you all in a sense but in the other sense you are leaders your elected leaders your representatives who are essentially leaders and you should lead it's tough to lead in times of crisis which we are in it's not easy to get yelled at i come to meetings often and i often feel bad for you all because people sit here and

082yell at you although jessica sometimes you shush people i i'm sorry i shouldn't address people and that that's that's not a good thing um you seem likable enough but i don't like being shushed i mean you're you're a representative of all people with that i'm sorry that's three minutes right right so so i'll wrap it up the bottom line is it's not really a big deal mess no one likes mass i still i understand all the folks who came and said they don't like mass thank you very much [Applause] okay moving on to the consent agenda mr brandt do you have any preliminary comments i know it kind of jumped in there like to recommend board of education improve consent agenda items b through h also at this time i'd like to read the name

083and information donation list and consent agenda item personally thank them i'd like to thank the class of 2011 for donating 733 dollars and 42 cents to stone monroe falls high school okay do i have a motion so moved second any discussion hey roll call please betty oh hi brown hi johnson bowers hi whitaker hi right hi okay next time on the agenda is the treasures consent agenda uh mr gunnery do you have any preliminary comments i don't i ask the board to prove the items listed which would be the prior minutes from august 16th [Music] check registry uh financial report or the minute should read i believe you guys have the july and august 2nd work session check registry financial report july we're in the first month again we're still paying on contracts from last

084year and your board of education report variance report u.s bank investment statement and a bank reconciliation okay do i have a motion so moved second uh any further discussion okay roll call please brown all right johnson bowers aye whitaker aye betty oh hi right aye i asked the board to prove the contract for services for holy family to psi this is their contract to provide services to those students we are their fiscal agent so they must run that through us hey do i have a motion so moved second any further discussion i know this is pretty standard roll paul please johnson bowers hi whitaker hi betty oh hi brown aye right aye i also asked the board approved the then and now statement for the uh certificate of fifty three thousand one hundred forty eight

085dollars it was a act testing that the i had my my admin assistant retiring and this invoice was uh lost in translation i should say and it was resubmitted to us and based on the date we have to do it then and now it's for a service that was provided by the high school okay do i have a motion so moved second any further discussion okay roll call please whitaker hi betty oh hi brown aye johnson bowers aye right aye last but not least you guys heard the presentation from operations and mr bratton and mr campbell this is a creation of the fund for the tan notes uh both fund and special cost center identifying those sections which we talked about on the roofs not to exceed a total expenditure of 5.5 million do i

086have a motion please so moved second any further discussion okay roll call please brown hi johnson bowers aye whitaker aye right aye thank you okay moving on to the superintendent's recommendations mr bretton yes thank you first one is the reduction in force this position is what we discussed at the last meeting this position will now be housed with the sonic partners llc for the supervision provide reorganized organizational structure within the nutrition services department and based upon the reorganization and consolidation of administrative functions i would like to make a recommendation to the board of education for a limited reduction in force and abolishment of an administrative position to be effective on august 16 the position to be reduced is nutrition services supervisor the affected administrator is allison dougherty the administrator will remain on recall list for

087a period of three months in accordance with board policy one five four zero okay and i do have a resolution that goes along with this is this the right time mr bratton yes ma'am whereas the superintendent has provided a recommendation for the suspension of an administrative contract in accordance with statutory and board policy requirements and whereas based upon reorganization and or consolidation of administrative functions and the abolishment of an administrative position the board intends to implement a limited reduction in force effective on august 16 2021 and whereas on or about july 22nd 2021 the assistant superintendent provided written notice to the affected administrator of the superintendent's intended recommendation in accordance with board policy 1540. now therefore be it resolved by the board of education of stone monroe falls city school district county of summit state

088of ohio that section one the recommendation of the superintendent for a limited reduction in force and the suspension of the affected administrators contract due to reorganization and or consolidation of administrative functions and the abolishment of an administrative position is hereby approved effective august 16th 2021 the petition excuse me the petition to be reduced is nutrition services supervisor the administrator who is affected by this administrative reduction in force is allison um dart is it property um do i have a motion please sorry so moved okay any discussion i know we talked about this at length our work session i believe or last meeting okay roll call please brown aye johnson bowers hi whitaker aye better you aye right aye mr gumry you are hereby authorized to dr and directed to provide written notice of this action

089and a copy of this resolution to the affected administrator in accordance with this resolution duly noted all right thank you uh letter b is student handbook fights grades five through 12. i wish to recommend the board of education approved student handbook grades 5 through 12 as presented this is a separate that was part of the separate agenda and you're on to uh yeah this is a yeah okay got it sorry yes this is separate that was yeah so this is a separate recommendation i wish to recommend board of education approved student handbook grades 5-12 as presented in exhibit 13a thanks do i have a motion do i have a second lisa second jerry oh there's nancy i'm sorry ms brown sorry i couldn't see it's okay any discussion i do have one question um we

090have an additional uh section in that i might be letter d that wasn't in there in the 2019 edition correct i just want to make sure that that was run through our legal counsel yes it was okay yes that was boy yes ma'am okay my question when did we add this to the agenda it was not there it wasn't earlier it was part of the consent agenda um i didn't realize i got a board member asked to have it pulled off which is standard that we just go ahead and do it as a separate item so i didn't realize it got pulled off oh yeah it was on consent and it was just moved it was item uh h i correct h yes and then it was so i renumbered when it got pulled i

091see i'm done okay any further discussion okay roll call please johnson bowers aye whitaker hi eddio hi brown aye right aye all right letter c one of our favorite topics um we've been approached once again i wish to recommend that's the board of education authorized summit county board of elections to use echo hills woodland kempton for pre-election meeting on november 1st 2021 for public voting on november 2nd 2021 as presented in exhibit 14. do we have a motion please so i moved second uh any discussion um i think i checked but we don't have school correct it's a professional development day okay roll call please whitaker no patio hi brown hi johnson bowers right aye and my last item's letter d um i'm reckoning that the board of recommended board of education approved the naming

092of the baseball field or fields in forest brook park after steve stahl who was instrumental in its creation and in his contribution to the city of monroe falls as well as so many athletes in the stoneman roe falls city school district letters of recommendation uh are included in your exhibits um i didn't may have a motion please so moved second um as far as discussion i didn't see the letters attached as exhibits um all i saw was the policy okay and i do have a copy here i have received them um and i believe every member of the board has i just don't know that anybody reading our agenda online on board box would have seen them and i apologize if not because they're listed am i correct in that did anybody else see them

093i did on on the agenda on board docs okay it might be in the audience they are there yes okay okay and i brought a copy with me in case anybody did not she wants to see that okay thank you other discussion i i am in favor of this but my question is what in the future [Music] are we going to entertain changing the name of the field we've done that when we built the stadium and we first was larry zunkerfield and now it's the mar hoffer field and you know once we commemorate something i think we should keep the name there well in general i would agree with that i imagine that will be up to future boards um while it would never be my preference to rename something after it's been named um

094i don't think we we could prevent i understand you know we should frequently change names of things that we you know perhaps we could have a policy you know something yeah um i think once we name something and dedicate it to a certain person it should remain that way the uh the only other thing i'll add is from a practical standpoint those fields are used by still stove baseball primarily i think they're leased to them they have started a process i know of putting out some wayfaring signs and in fact name one of their fields after their founder and asking them about this resolution in advance they had just asked that if possible we could make the signs that we use to match what they're using um which they use the i think a monroe's

095false company um but if we could just match them so that all of the sib players youth baseball players that are going from field to field kind of identify you know hey that's where i'm supposed to be so oh sure but i think i think i sent that over so i think mr campbell i think you have that i believe i sent them to you also yes i have a picture of that but i haven't discussed that with mr campbell or the people that are entirely uh this is early stages there have we haven't had actual planning on signage sure or whether there would actually be science involved right i hadn't gotten that far i thought i'd start just with this process first so i i think renaming this in honor is just a very

096small small symbol of the gratitude that the community has yeah i think it's a very nice thing i think it's a well-deserved you know all of us could only hope to have that much positive influence in the community and i think that it's i'm sure he is very proud and his family is very proud i would agree any additional discussion okay roll call please video hi brown aye johnson bowers hi whitaker hi right aye okay do we have any new business i would like can we have an update on where we are with coveted policies and information that you've received and discussions that have been going on so we um as everyone knows we shared information with our families on thursday and just to reiterate some of that is in regards to quarantine the rules

097are different this year so your building principles are really the ones that are going to take the lead on that or kristen chinick are health aid in communicating with families in the event that we have a positive case or if somebody is considered to be a close contact so again being a close contact you do not have to quarantine if you are wearing a mask it does not matter if the person that is positive is wearing a mask only if the person that has a close contact so we've received a lot of questions a lot of email um from the community asking you know why we're making some of the decisions that we are making so just to let everyone know we we do look every week at the case counts for our zip code

098so i can share with you last week in stowe there were 28 positive cases and there were 11 in monroe falls so we look at that in addition to the other data and we we recognize the fact that there are lots of communities in the united states that are being ravaged by delta and i've seen the stories and um and they're very concerning we are fortunate in in our district we have over 90 percent of our staff are vaccinated our community vaccination rate has actually gone up in the last two weeks where we were at 54 percent so and we had our meeting with our doctors today and they shared some information with us in regards to where the community is with the delta variant and the fact that it's peaking and we're hopefully looking

099to a decrease in the next few weeks so our doctors did say that they felt our plan at this time was appropriate for the the data in our community so that being said if the data in our community changes we want everyone to be prepared for any changes that we may need to make in order to maintain safety for our students mr bratton has used our srf money so that's the federal funds that we received for coven relief we kept staff that we could have done a reduction in force up to nine of our teachers to keep our class sizes small so you'll see class sizes we have a couple of outliers but class sizes are averaging around 20 in our in our smaller in our elementary schools so we are working really hard and

100with our staff and are looking to maintain that three feet as much as possible i encourage anyone that has a child with a a medical issue or i don't know if she left or if you have a medical issue as a parent and there are some seating options that we can look at uh where we place students on an aisle in a corner still with their peers but so that we can mitigate some of that exposure so that everyone can can be as safe as possible so i think you know our commitment to you is that we will continue to look at that data and we will continue to to share that with you as we move forward i love i love that you are meeting and conferring with experts weekly and making your decisions

101on based on what the experts are saying and what the data is in our community i love that it's not easy to hear as a community because we all have our opinion you know of what we want you to say but but i fully support you because you are taking your your ideas from the experts from the science and and from the data in our area and making the best decision for the district and i i applaud you for that and there's no perfect answer no there's not and there are going to be cases and we know that and that's what they told us today you know there are going to be regardless of what we would do there are going to be cases um the the the situation is is in controlling them and

102keeping them the situation under control and keeping an eye on the best we can and we um we think we're trying to do that by keeping an eye on things daily and weekly and um you know right now that's where we are does that mean things couldn't change tomorrow no um but that's that's how we're starting right now anyway so have we considered even just for the first two weeks since the feeling is that the worst of this is about is almost behind us um at this point that was not our recommendation okay and did when you met with the doctors today did you discuss the idea that the cdc is recommending this the american academy of pediatrics is recommending this and what were their thoughts and matching our policies against what those recommendations are

103yeah we did um and one of the things that that they recommended that we focus on is looking at our local data again so that's what we keep going back to is our local data and you know we're looking at the surrounding communities as well so summit county for because i think because of our vaccination rates and i think we have a lot of people that are doing the best that they can in the right things so we've been um fairly insulated up to this point so stowe stands out from in summit county or snow monroe falls stand out within summit county or unfortunately i don't have the vaccination rates by community i can't seem to get my hands on that i can only get the county okay do we have a threshold number in

104mind and you don't have to tell me what that number is but do you have an idea of what it would hit that would trigger universal masking i'd be honest i don't i don't think that we should set a specific number there may be there may it may be we may say a number now but for you know what i'm saying is things may be happening that we're seeing an increase and if we set a number now but perhaps below that number we think it's important i don't think we should be setting numbers right or i'll say it differently or do we have an idea in our mind of what it would take to trigger yes a decision absolutely range yeah and when we made the decisions last year to close classrooms and we made

105the decision to go remote at the high school there were lots of different factors on each of those situations and we really consulted with our doctors in the health department in those cases and a couple times the health department people said you just you have to call it you got to send them all home um so and that threshold was different and those situations were different each time yeah when you have different circumstances yeah for example you know we had a special ed situation where all kids were in one class you know those numbers were numbers but those were in an isolated situation so the circumstances were different as opposed to just a number right um so that's why it's hard to just say you know any type of given number that's why we're trying

106to play each scenario if you will um as we get it and it's it's not easy and um you know we're doing the best we can and we'll continue to do that and um you know we're going to continue to monitor it like i said every day and every week so for our uh elementary schools the k-4 schools obviously we haven't had open houses yet so i haven't seen the layout as a parent but where are we as far as spacing between the desks at that level i i can talk to that a little bit simply because i did the um averages yesterday and right now because of the keeping the situation where we did with the coped money and the extra teachers um right now now this is an average okay and there are

107some outlier classes but you know we're we're averaging about 20 to one k4 i'm sorry i'm not talking about classes i know desk space but that's what i'm talking about that that provides allows us to provide death space because we didn't just reload on all the macy's things it that allowed us to keep the macy's things out if you will keep our same amazing things you mean the furniture that was moved to macy's correct correct and so that allowed us to have less students in the classrooms to keep more space to be able to spread some things down um in in order to do that if that makes sense um as opposed to going to the 25 26 that type of thing and then cramming things in so in some classrooms are we over three

108feet then or are we averaging not many not many but not many so there may be most of them are around them yeah oh yeah i would say that's that's pretty accurate um um i believe that was the yes what um well and and i was looking at again the threshold of are they three feet are they not three feet and i don't remember frankly the quarantine procedure so let's say you know obviously no one under no one in fourth grade and under should have a vaccine at this point so they're all unvaccinated so if student a like if my son is masked versus unmasked and another student next to him in the classroom contracts it or tests positive if if my son in his mass is he quarantined at less than three feet not

109necessarily okay so um it so the close contact rules of the 15 um cumulative minutes over 24 hours still applies so that's that's the first thing that we look at is is where everybody was seated and that's why the seating charts were going to remain with the assigned seats as we did last year so for a student that's unvaccinated that was wearing a mask during the exposure the recommendation is that they wear their mask to school so actually it's the requirement they need to wear their mask to school and they need to have a negative test on day five or later um in order to remove their mask if they if it comes back as being as being negative so um but they need to be masked until then or they can just wear their

110mask for 14 days if somebody doesn't want to go through the testing okay so if they're unmasked and a student next to them tests positive they're all at that point going to have to mask for the period either until they have the five days so if the student is if the close contact is unmasked there's a quarantine outside of school it's based on this the student who is the close contact not the positive student right so and i guess that's and maybe that's important for as parents make their decisions on what to do with their their children if so if you send your child to school and the child's not wearing a mask somebody close you know next desk over they're going to meet that 15 minute threshold because they're in the next desk so

111if your child's not wearing a mask they're in quarantine for 14 days out of school so no yeah not 14 days so that was one of the changes that we had last spring and i know it's clear as mud and i find it unfortunate that i have it memorized but um it if they um have a negative test that they take on day five or later they can return on day eight if they choose not to test and then they can return on day 11 again as long as they're not symptomatic so and people always have the option to stay out 14 days but usually people don't if they have the option to come back earlier and our we had a good discussion with our administrative team and strategies in place for instruction for students

112that are not going to be in school what about lunches and you know what we call last year called the unmasked times what about that this year yeah you know lunch is always problematic just because you have to take your mask off to eat so again we're going to do um what we're looking at throughout the day especially in the elementary groups it's a little bit harder when you get into the under the older ages or looking at like pods of kids so you know we're we're going to make we need to have some ability to do some small group instruction that's the core of our curriculum is that small group instruction time for guided reading for our math groups but looking at you have a maybe you have a pot of and this is

113just an example i'm not saying this is exactly what's happening but maybe you have a pot of like six kids and within that six kids that's how you pull three at a time for your small group those six kids kind of all sit together at lunch they're gonna sit by each other when they go to special so um everyone will have so then we can also contact trace and and mitigate that exposure to other students i mean the concern here and i appreciate everything you're doing the concern here is that you know i got grief last year because i wanted the students to be in school all the time because that's what the pediatricians say and now i'm getting great from the other side because pediatricians say something that they don't like but the the

114concern here is that i would like to get all the kids in the school five days a week and have them stay there throughout the rest of the year and so i i don't want to see you know like i have one of my kids last year they were in quarantine they went back to school for two days and then they were in quarantine again because somebody close to them got covered and then another person it's not like they chose to be around that person they were just in the desks so i know the cove the the quarantine rules have changed a little bit but that is the concern from this seat is that i i want the kids to get into school in person and to stay there because um the remote learning and

115the hybrid learning was disastrous for many of them and their family so yeah we um and one of the things that i think everyone learned last year through some of the studies that were done and looking at the the spread and you know so we had a lot of students that got quarantined how many of them tested positive as a result of an exposure inside the classroom setting and we had two that we thought were pretty we were pretty sure out of everyone that got quarantined so you think about all the numbers that you know one point we had 150 kids out at the high school um so two total in in the whole year and they found similar things in other in other districts so really students that contracted cove and contracted it at

116home from their parents sorry um sports sleepovers so you know i think not having kids in school a lot of parents and a lot of students had a lot of social gatherings on days that they didn't have in-person learning and that's really where we saw the majority of cases coming from and athletics and not because of athletics during practice but because teams were getting together still for food and meals and you know those kinds of things so you know the school setting has proven to be one of the safest places for students throughout all of this and we're hoping that we're counting on that to be the same the research has borne that out i said that last year and i got swore at so they're good luck well i i appreciate the leadership that

117uh mr bratton and mrs pro are showing i appreciate that and and i i give you my full support uh that you are always consulting with the experts even though we all have our own opinions and you know i appreciate that you are making this decision and you are uh leading the district forward i appreciate that it's it's nice we you know we need to move forward okay any other new business okay i will entertain a motion to adjourn so i moved second any discussion roll call please brown aye johnson bowers aye whitaker aye buddy aye right aye adjourned at 8 42. um