001thank you for attending the September 30th 2024 special meeting at the Westerville City Schools Board of Education this evening's agenda will be displayed on the screen in the front of the at the side of the room um printed agendas are available for our guests or you may find the agenda on your mobile device by connecting to the district's website at www.w s o.org click on our district link select Board of Education and follow the board docs link to our current meeting agenda there will be one opportunity to address the board this evening in agenda item 4.01 there's a signup sheet located on the table in the back of the room each speaker will be will have five minutes to address the board a timer will be shown on the screen and if you don't stop
002after those five minutes we'll we'll cut the mic um and with that Miss Marshall will you please call the role Mrs Davidson here Mrs leean yes Mrs Valentine here Mrs Alman here Mrs Meyer here will you join us in the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America into the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you next up we have the treasures report um employee assistance program Miss Marshall uh yes thank you president Meyer and members of the board so um first I just want to say I appreciate the special meeting uh we are on a time crunch with getting this in place before tomorrow when our open enrollment starts um I've invited uh Dyan rock dalan rock to come
003and uh present to the board about the employee assistance program that Matrix offers we um our insurance trust committee uh District Insurance trust committee met on August the 28th with dalen he presented to them um we met this past Wednesday and we moved forward with recommending to the board that we uh engage with uh this company so uh dalen I'm going to turn it over to you if you want to step up to the podium and share about your proposals um we'd all love to hear it and you have quite a crowd tonight uh so hopefully they're ready to be educated about employee assistant [Music] programs thank you hello there we go hi everybody uh are we so excited to hear about mental health all over the humans tonight y cuz that's what we're here
004to talk about so thank you boy for inviting me to speak uh on behalf of Matrix for the proposal that we submitted uh it's a real pleasure for me it's a real honor to be here tonight to talk about something that I think is really not only important to me but important to the community as a whole important to other organizations that we partner with and that's uh mental health so my name is dalen Rock I'm the vice president of Clinical Services at Matrix Employee Assistance programs we are uh an employee assistance program headquartered right here in central Ohio in fact our headquarters is just up the street at Easton so not too far of a track from here uh Matrix has been around since 1976 I have not been around that long obviously but
005uh it's something that I've grown to really come love and appreciate not only in my role as vice president but also in my role as as a clinician uh when I'm not doing things like this and advocating for this benefit I'm a practicing therapist delivering Services uh in a counseling setting to members of the community to other corporations that we partner with uh for that mental health benefit so uh I know you all have a wonderful hopefully wonderful copy of our proposal that we've submitted uh to your team to review and again I'm just I'm really really excited to be able to to talk through that with you guys tonight before I get into the depths of uh the minutia of what's included in your EAP benefit I want to start off with just maybe
006a little bit of an overview about what even an EAP is or an employee assistance program is just in case some of you might not be as familiar with this particular benefit so an employee assistance program is an organization's primary mental health benefit uh that EAP or employee assistance program is EAP for short gives uh employees and their family members access to a number of benefits primarily including uh counseling resources at no cost to them right uh and so that's really an amazing thing when you think about what an EAP can do for healthcare Equity when you think about what an EAP can do to promote the mental health of the populations of the organizations that uh that have one most organizations do have an EAP that they're providing to their employees uh and their
007family members not all eaps are the same and that's really what we're going to talk a little bit about together tonight is how you can take a look at the services that Matrix offers and how we do these things we think just a little bit differently um because our goal is for you to feel as confident as you can in the services that we're going to be offering to your employees because you know I think we can all be honest when we say that there's never been uh you know a more important time to be prioritizing mental health um we see this across all of the organizations that we serve where you have more and more folks struggling with mental health um in fact uh you know the American Psychological Association sites somewhere close to
00881% of employees will experience at least one symptom of a mental health condition in their lifetime so it's a dramatic number of folks who are going to struggle with some kind of mental health experience right and yet at the same time as the need for mental health has been going up access to that care has not been going up along with it average weight times in the United States to see a therapist are sometimes somewhere between four and six weeks so it's really really challenging when you are in need of those Services you want those Services you're ready to ask for help and you simply can't get access to it which is where the role that employers play in creating access to those Services becomes so huge and so essential it's why having a robust
009employee assistance program in place that creates the opportunity for your employees and their family members to access that care becomes so important right and employers do play a big role in this um folks want and expect more from their employers than ever before they want it to be a reflection of their values more than anything else and we think that the programs that we offer really create opportunities for our partner organizations to do exactly that so uh and I think that's definitely something that's true of what I've learned and in my brief interaction so far with with Westerville schools is is how much that's important to all of you so with that in mind the proposal that we've submitted uh for you all at Matrix is what we would consider to be an enhanced EAP
010beyond what your current uh Services might currently include so um I'm going to kind of break down a little bit of what's included in these benefits how to access them primarily there's some parts I'm not going to focus on quite as deeply uh because I really want to make sure that you guys take home the mental health aspect of it as much as possible but I will cover the primary included benefits uh and our goal of making sure that access is fair and Equitable cool beans yes wonderful my wife makes fun of me for saying that by the way I don't know where I picked that up uh so it all starts with the the most important part of any employee assistance program which is your counseling benefit so through the proposal that we've submitted
011to Westerville uh every single one of your covered employees their spouse or partner and their children up to age 26 would be offered five 100% free 100% confidential counseling sessions each and every year those five sessions can be used either in person at one of our four local offices here in central Ohio we have offices in Dublin Easton Worthington in German Village staffed by around 35 therapists from a variety of backgrounds and Specialties or if they'd prefer to have their visits via tele Health that's also included in that in that as a standard part of the plan so you will have access to both in-person and virtual tah Health visits those visits as I mentioned extend to not only the primary employee but their family members and each one of those family members is extended
012to their own set of sessions so those five visits that they're offered as a part of The Proposal are not just per family it's per individual in the family so the employee can use their five visits their spouse can use their own set of five visits if they have children they're able to use those five visits again kiddos up to age 26 in addition to uh us being a local partner those benefits also extend to folks anywhere in the country so a lot of folks will say what if I have an adult child who's away at College uh we are able to provide those five free counseling sessions Nationwide not just locally here in central Ohio so if you have a kiddo out in California who's struggling um they can access the exact same Services
013as any other one of your employees anywhere where they are in the United States those sessions renew annually based on the date of their first visit so if you were to start coming in tomorrow for example uh a year from tomorrow you would get an entirely new set of five sessions uh which is pretty cool because you never know when you're going to need additional help on top of that those counseling services are limited to a set of sessions per unique concern a common question that we get is what happens if I'm experiencing some concerns individually and then maybe I have some family concerns you'll get a whole new set of sessions for family counseling if you decide that you want to come in for that separate concern if you are now experiencing an unexpected
014loss or grief you would get a whole new set of sessions for that non-comorbid concern so we really encourage folks to utilize this benefit not just for if uh you know maybe I feel like I'm struggling with something now in the current moment but for things that we might anticipate down the road too um mental health at its best can be preventative as opposed to responsive um we really view that as a key strength of our platform probably one of the the the things that we feel most proud of at Matrix is something that I referenced earlier which is access to care so if you remember the statistic I cited about the average weight time for clinicians all of our counseling sessions we guarantee offering appointment in up to four days right so when the
015national average weight time is four to 6 weeks your employees their family memb members their kids are going to be offered an appointment within 4 days at one of our Matrix offices so that access to care is something we've really really prioritized because we recognize that when someone is struggling the last thing you should ever have to experience is something complicated or stressful in fact mental health should never be complicated or stressful and it's our belief that it's a fundamental human right uh and so we've done everything we can to build a counseling program that encourages use because of that ease of access to care uh the uh Crux of the program is meant to be making sure that when folks seek out our services they're easy easily able to do so so how your
016employees would access our counselling Services if they chose chose to do so would be through a variety of ways right the first and easiest way to access Matrix is by of course calling our number um you'll see it available in the proposal and if it's not available in The Proposal I have additional materials I can send you guys after um and talking to a live human being unlike a lot of other um a lot of other platforms out there we don't like to use automated answering so when we call our number human beings answer our phones right because we recognize that mental health is a personal business um when you're finally Having the courage to be willing to seek out help the last thing you want to have to deal with is a complicated phone
017tree or difficulty in finding your way to a therapist because at that point the most important thing is you getting the help that you need our care team helps people navigate seamlessly into the scheduling process so that by the time they're done with that call instead of being given a name and sent on their way to have to contact the therapist themselves they're scheduled directly at one of our local offices and this is another key differentiator to our platform is because we actually do the scheduling ourselves versus offer a referral uh and send people to have to navigate that referral independently not everybody wants to make a phone call though and we recognize that so you'll also notice in our platform we discuss how uh we have availability to schedule directly through our app and
018uh on our website Matrix site.com so again it can be 3:00 a.m. and you're sitting there thinking to yourself you know what now's finally the time I'm ready and you can open up our app and you can click that request and appointment button and not have to deal with the stressors of am I going to have to call somebody am I going to have to talk to a human with 3:00 a.m. because let's be honest who wants to do that right especially when you're in a moment of needing help when you give folks a variety of means of accessing care we find that that improves people's willingness to utilize that service by tenfold it's really remarkable that um the needs can actually be met when you realize you need them right and I know that
019that seems almost uh well duh but it's not you'd be surprised how often that's not the case and so as a part of our platform that's something that's always included standard in our Counseling Service the ability to schedule remotely via your phone or on our website now that being said mental health covers a variety of areas of Our Lives that go beyond just do I need to speak with a therapist immediately right and so you'll notice that our proposal includes a number of other incl included benefits beyond the five free counseling sessions each and every year okay a key component that we also include is free legal and financial services because oftentimes the stressors that members of your your employees and the members of their family are facing are sometimes things outside of just their
020mental health that's contributing to that struggle the context if you will that sometimes leads to the difficulty so uh every member uh that would be uh eligible for benefits here would have access to free 60-minute consultation with an attorney or a financial adviser uh the only thing they can't use that for is suing the employer obviously uh but outside of that they can seek out Services uh for just about anything under the sun right we have a remarkably large resource library of uh legal and financial services members can access free paperwork members can get a consultation with somebody who specializes and what they're looking to be seen for there which is really quite remarkable uh additionally we also include fraud resolution and identity theft services so if members were unfortunately having to face a stolen
021identity recovering something like that again think back to this point stressful right stress contributes to mental health mental health is usually what we're here to support so uh we make sure that all of your members are going to have access to those free services we also offer 247 crisis counseling again if we think back to that 3: a.m moment I know a lot of folks that I've helped over the years and that I've worked with over the years have been parents and oftentimes those parents come to me and they say Dal what happens if my kiddo is struggling at 3:00 a.m. and it's Christmas morning or it's you know Thanksgiving or or something right how am I supposed to be able to get them the help that they need and again in that moment mental
022health shouldn't be more stressful accessing the care should not be more stressful so through our mobile app through our phone number if you call us 247365 you're going to be able to talk to a therapist right then and there in that moment it's um included in our standard Services as well for if you as an organization were to ever need access to therapist on site in the event of a crisis now my hope is that you know if we end up having the opportunity to work with you that you never need this right um My Hope for all of the districts that we serve and all of the organizations that we serve is that you will never need these crisis services but in a moment that you do the last thing you as an organization
023want to be stressed about is something bad has happened here at one of our schools and we need help what do we do uh so all of our proposals include the opportunity to have a matrix clinician on site uh for a number of hours to support your employees through whatever difficulty they're facing in that moment and we're not here to scrutinize that you get to decide what uh what you want Matrix to be here to support it's also a fundamental core part of our belief system that education is Paramount to growth in any benefit platform when we think so often about Mental Health Services and using those Mental Health Services one of the areas where we see people held back as stigma right and that's something that I could I could talk about a lot
024longer than than you guys would want to listen to tonight um and and we do so much to combat that right but at the end of the day often times people are struggling and don't know they're struggling and so there's where education opportunities through your EAP become huge all of our plans include a number of what we call educational seminars which allow you to have a clinician just like myself or one of my team come on site and speak about a mental health topic whether that's recognizing you're struggling coping with uncertainty overcoming adversity right whatever the topic that you guys want here at Westerville City School District we're happy to craft for you so that we can Empower your members to recognize you know what maybe I wasn't ready to take that step yet but
025because of this today now I feel like I'm ready now I feel comfortable enough to do so normalizing what is ultimately a very very um common experience of struggle is a remarkable way to encourage folks to get access to the help that we so often need right and so that's something that we include in all of our platforms because we don't just want to be here for you for the sake of being here we want your folks to use this and sometimes it just comes down to recognizing that they can which takes us to probably one of the more important things I'm going to share with you all this evening which is connected back to that counseling resource being willing to come in and talk to somebody and say I need help is hard enough
026but what happens when you meet somebody and you don't feel connected to them or you've been pushed along just to get you scheduled right oh cool I got it in four days but this Dal guy's kind of a jerk I don't like him right what happens then normally that would discourage people from accessing the care in The Matrix we don't believe in that so our philosophy is this we're going to take the time to get to know you that's why we have live humans answer our phones that's why we have trained intake coordinat answer our phones so that we're only pairing your members with providers that are a specializing what they're looking to be seen for and B that they can continue to see beyond their health plan or Beyond excuse me the five free
027visits if they need to because it can be discouraging from the start if you're told hey I've got five sessions but then you have to start over with somebody new after we're never going to do that and while the first five visits will always be free and always included in your Matrix EAP we're only pairing with members that you can continue to see on your primary health plan if you so chose to do so that creates continuity of care and Trust in the therapeutic relationship on top of that if you don't like your therapist not only are we going to connect you with a new one but we're going to give you back the sessions that you used because it takes a handful to do that right so you start with somebody you use three
028of your visits to decide that dal's jerk and then you realize well I want to start over um but now I'm faced with a choice do I start back over and only have two visits left or do I just use my health plan instead we don't want that we want folks to use their free visits we want them to do that so we tell them the very last thing they say at the end of every single phone call is if for any reason you are unhappy with your clinician or your service give us a call back we're going to give you a new clinician we're going to give you back the sessions that you used right because everything that we do comes down to this it's a personal business and we're here to create a
029compassionate uh approach to mental health care right because it truly truly is our belief that access to that care is a fundamental human right and by offering a benefit like like this at West of City School District you're empowering your employees and their family members to um seek out this care and that's really what we're all here for tonight uh at least what I'm here for tonight um so with that uh the uh opportunity would be starting for you guys if you so chose to adopt that would be starting tomorrow 10 101 right so as of tomorrow um your folks would be able to access this benefit so I think I've covered the main highlights from our proposal here um and and I do think that there is an opportunity for you guys if you
030have any questions for me to ask those questions is that right go ahe I'm just wondering uh what other school districts do you partner with that's a great question so we do a lot of the school districts here in central Ohio actually so Dublin uh is a partner of Us Upper Arlington is a partner of us New Albany is a partner to us ol Tangi uh Columbus School for Girls Columbus State Community College I could go on but I would say those are the ones you're most likely to recognize so we do a lot of work with school districts and you know we recognize that school districts are facing unique challenges right and in particular the employee population is facing really really unique stressors probably more so than almost any other population I've had the
031chance to work with um and so I think we really understand some of the unique things that uh that that they're going to be facing in terms of helping them work with the with the issues that we we think are pretty um you know the unique doesn't quite cover it um it's something that I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for having the chance to work with as many educators of as I have over the years so it's a great question hi thank you um I just have a this is a very detailed question but I just would love the answer to this so you talked about um if you have family members that don't live locally right that they can access the same type of care so is that are they by default on
032tellah health or do you have do you work to find them a local provider where they are wonderful question so uh the answer is is it can be either or both right so while locally in central Ohio we have our own offices that we schedule directly with nationally we do have our own referral Network so we do have providers in all 50 states um that if you have uh like you said a family member away from locally who wants to have an inperson session we have the means to do that and we actually handle that a little bit differently than uh a lot of providers out there where that would traditionally be a model of okay here's a name of five providers in Minnesota that we're going to give you and you have to give
033them an authorization number and go on your way we don't actually take that step we we go a little bit further so because we contract directly with our national network instead of buying a third party each and every one of our providers has a direct contract with Matrix so that when we call we're verifying their availability to make sure that we can get them in within that four week to 4 day to one week period nationally we're verifying that they're on your employees primary insurance and we're verifying that they specialize in what they're looking to be seen for so while we're still going to offer them that name to make that contact because I can't schedule with somebody who I don't have access to their their schedule of course when they make that contact they're
034going to be confident that the provider is not only taking new clients that they can get get in quickly and that they're going to be able to see them um we do the same relationship guarantee as well if for some reason they're unhappy with that provider we're going to offer them a new one and give them back the sessions they used same as locally uh tellah health is still also an option um we really always leave that choice up to the member great thank you I really appreciate that of course it's a great question so maybe I missed it um how would those five sessions work if the it's a different it's you know in a different state they're getting paid by you by matrix to see those yeah exactly yeah so so therapists that
035are contracted with us directly are compensated by matrix for those sessions no different than locally here right sure sure sure um thank you just another question so not that anything would ever I hope ever happen at any of our buildings but if there was a you know on-site crisis um and you guys came what does the followup look like after that so you know our first step is always going to be making sure that there's some stabilization for the folks that we talk to so when we're on site our goal is always to protect confidentiality as much as we can so sometimes we set those up as individual one-on-one sometimes we set those up as group opportunities but but our goal is to make sure that anybody that we're worried about we're connecting them to
036the larger EAP Resource as a whole so that's our first step is somebody comes and talks to me on on site it seems like they're struggling I want to make sure they know you know this seems like an opportunity for you to maybe connect with a matrix therapist because obviously the Situation's been really impactful on you right so we want to make sure that that care is happening um additionally every organization is assigned a primary account contact so you know you folks here at Westerville will have a primary account manager that you're in direct contact with at all times they'll follow up with you and provide a stabilization report afterwards that indicates um you know were there any concerns provided by the clinician on site that we want to make sure that you guys are
037addressing um is there an opportunity there where the clinician thinks there's a need for follow-up care I.E uh do we want to have additional hours available uh and then there's also a touch Point usually about a week later hey how are you guys doing do you need any additional support um and you know ultimately uh that is up to you guys what additional resources you ask for but we're always here to provide education and context for it thank thank you this is a really exciting program thank you I think so too but I'm tremendously biased in that perspective thank you again I also have another kind of uh detailed question so I noticed in the proposal it does say Matrix mandates the exhaustion of all the EAP sessions before any insurance involvement which is great
038my question is if somebody is already accessing care and this program goes into effect do they have to go through you guys and then go back to the provider they already seeing or they able to continue seeing that provider yeah good question so uh folks are always given the choice to continue with their established provider the downside to that however is that if it's not a matrix clinician locally because we're local here they obviously wouldn't be able to use their 5ap visits for that one right now if they're National and that's somebody that they already have a relationship with and they're not on our panel we are usually more than happy to add additional folks directly to our panel but because we're here locally and manage our own offices we're not able to contract with
039third party providers that don't work directly for Matrix so if somebody's here let's say in hilard right and they say well I have a therapist in hilard I'd really like to continue seeing them they will obviously of course be able to do so continuing to do so through whatever benefits they have through your health plan but to use the five EAP sessions they would need to come to a matrix EAP clinician locally again I want to emphasize that locally nationally we'll contract with other providers okay uh my other question is probably not for you but more for maybe Nicole have we ever had this type of service before is this brand new uh that's a great question so we do have an EAP program currently it's not quite as robust especially in the mental health
040space and so um I you we know as a district we've kind of suffered a tremendous amount of loss to our school system this year so far um and just thinking about some of the needs that we have um our current provider isn't really Meeting those needs and so that's what brought this conversation up okay thank you yeah absolutely I do have a question question thank you so much for the presentation um my question pertains to the legal intake piece of this of course like the general consultations um in counseling is there a cap to the legal um piece or are or are our members able to continue to shop if they feel like they've retained a lawyer but it didn't work out are they able to continue to seek additional options or is there
041um a cap there so they get a a 16-minute legal and financial consultation per separate concern right so if they're calling in let's say because they want to consult an attorney for the putting together a will they would have exhausted their use of that will consultation you know if they Ed that that one time but if they want to come in again for a different legal concern you absolutely get that free 60-minute consultation that being said um if members use beyond their free 60-minute consultation and do want to stay with whatever provider they were referred to and they do get a 20 to 30% discount on their services beyond that so it's really nice you know we tend to encourage folks if you need to utilize something like from a Legal Financial standpoint give us
042a call and at least have that consultation because you might find out that it's going to be cheaper to do it through us than through your established person um so while it is one uh per concern those still also renew annually right so if you have a question um and you know you called about a will a year from later you could you could call about a will again yeah great question any other okay thank you so much thank you all for having me I really really appreciate your time tonight thank you for being here D appreciate you all right have a good night [Applause] everybody um next up we have public comment okay um I just want to remind everybody each speaker will have five minutes to address the board a timer will be
043shown on the screen and Mr Doran will call time when five minutes has elapsed please keep your comments professional avoid the use of inappropriate language and refrain from identifying individuals that means praising and non- praising please address your comments to the board and not to the audience please refrain from calling out clapping another commentary while speakers are providing comments I'll provide one warning the SEC or reminder and the second time um you will be removed so we have a lot of speakers tonight okay a lot of speakers tonight so as I've said in the past um you can come up and state your name your address uh if you have nothing new to add just say what your position is and I Echo so and so's comments and we will have that on the record
044so um first up is Natasha oh you guys are really um nafisa sorry uh with the handwriting um Jamal is that right Jam yeah I sorry that's okay I'm going to start writing nicer all the time now after reading everybody's handwriting thank you welcome hi I got used to signing so I just scripp it uh my name is nafisa and I live at 144 West and draa drive Westville Ohio 43081 um good evening everyone I know I'm like keep looking back um a lot of you guys uh either my previous teachers I went to school with your um kids or your kids are going with school so today I just want to say that um few things about the district and the diversity that I can see in the BD um also I want to
045talk about the absen for the religious um and how it's affecting some students um so like I say I am a former um student a parent and a resident at Westerville and I am a taxpayer even though I don't have the sticker on um I believe that you know that everyone with experience is welcome to the board or any other leadership in the city of westernville um I teach my children that they are part of Westerville and Westerville is in us um today I just want to I seen a lot on the news and I was like I need to write and come here and tell everybody who is my neighbors my friends that diversity is not really something that is negative sometimes most of the time it does bring uh good things for the
046School Westerville is very diverse and we have every race every religion and I feel like me and some of my you know there's there's a division today in this room but I just want to say that it is fair for all religious to be respected and I feel like we also have to think about the safety of the children mrix they didn't pay me but I am a social worker and I do advocate for mental health um they say therapist doesn't need a therapist but we do need it and I did use it one time um so I just want to say that um I am not against no one but also we have to think about the liability and how other kids feel like my daughter I teach her she's Muslim she you know
047Lear the religion at home on a weekend when she sees other kids leaving for religious purposes she's asking why that is happening why I can't go so I'm just saying that we should think about the liability for our children the disruption and diversity it's something that we should all be proud of it I I grew up here my kids here and I'm investing my money and my time in Westerville so let's all welcome diversity and really be respectful um that it's sad to see some of these things like on Facebook and on the news and I'm sure that there is a lot of division but I hope that we come together because July 4th we all sit over there by the soccer and we all watch um the fireworks so thank you sorry if I
048don't make sense I had a long day you're great um next up we have Jacqueline fry thank you for writing your last name again thank you my name is Jaclyn fry my address is 3675 Panama Drive before we start can we all take a moment here to look at all the people who are here today can we take a moment to see that what joins us is more than what separates us we need to remember we are parents who are asking the board for what we feel is best for our children many of here no someone on the other side we simply disagree let us remember that there are children in the room my 5-year-old daughter is here let's be respectful to one another and to the board I say this to both sides we
049need to remember that we are adults and we need to sit and allow the other side to speak even if we greatly disagree we need to be the adults we want our children to become I am speaking here today on behalf of West Ral parents United and I want to state that we support resending the RTI policy for for the reasons we have stated in previous meetings our greatest concern being the disruptions to students during the day disruptions to staff managing these students and management of the RTI program themselves in central Ohio there are multiple christian-based organizations LifeWise is not the only one core reset and hopong are also recruiting students in other school districts what's going to happen when there has to be management of multiple groups and assuring that no disruptions can occur
050what happens when they are competing for children's attendance the other side has constantly argued that not allowing RT is a violation of their right of freedom of religion the RTI policy removal does not violate this right the Supreme Court ruling in the Ohio Revised Code state that an RTI policy may be implemented it does not say a school board is forced to implement one it does not say the board isn't allowed to resend one in fact many boards have rescinded this policy including ones in our area a policy they felt that was not in the best interest of their District families are still free to practice their religion it just removes any religion from bringing added disruption to the school day there was a lot of talk from the other side about the beliefs that
051our nation was founded on and that the founding fathers were Christian thus we are a Christian Nation yet Scholars have stated time and time again that a large number of the founding fathers especially at the time of the writing of the Constitution were de and Unitarian not Orthodox Christians from Jefferson Franklin Adams Hamilton to Washington regardless of their personal faith the founding fathers felt that Faith had no place in government that is why the Constitution has no mention of God the only mention of religions in the Constitution are exclusionary using the statement the free exercise of and trying to apply it to a school pendants policy is really a stretch the founding fathers especially Washington frequently defended the lack of religious mentioned in the Constitution when questioned by religious leaders of his time they felt
052religion was Private to one's own self and separate from the government during the administration of John President John Adams he signed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 and it stated as the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion as in and of itself character has no emity against the laws of religion or the Tranquility of Muslims the Pledge of Allegiance did not include the words under God until 1954 the pedge was simply I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America to the public for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all our nation is purposefully not a Christian Nation my concern as a parent in the entire time has been the potential pressure to attend and the potential for bullying
053directed at children who do not attend these programs last week I experienced what I fear for my daughter I stood here and simply spoke my opinion when I did a room full of adults shouted comments behind my back Jered and glared at me all in front of of my 5-year-old daughter after the meeting I was standing outside in the hallway waiting to speak to the reporter and a woman walked by me looked at me sneered and called me a sinner and kept on walking I didn't realize giving my opinion on a policy at a Schoolboard meeting was considered a sin this happened from an adult who is here from a group that claims the basis of it is character building what will happen when my daughter expresses opinions about God to children without the executive
054function to control their thoughts behaviors and actions that is supposed to be present and adults these are the reasons I feel this policy should be rescinded we want the board to know that we support you and we know you have a difficult job in Balance the needs of an entire District we support you no matter what decision you make we support you in guiding our district and our children thank you once again for your time and dedication thank you thank you next up we have Molly ston welcome good evening esteemed members of the board I'm here wearing many hats tonight and head to toe black I a proud parent of a Genoa Jag the Secretary of a school booster club and a proud promoter of public education as a pillar of democracy Robert Frost Falcons
055are safe responsible proud ready to learn Wittier sores when they are safe when they own it when they are always kind when they are respectful McVey shows Pioneer Pride with a positive attitude respect Integrity determination and effort Alcott owls get their high fives by following directions showing respect to others using appropriate language keeping their hands and feet to themselves and are showing up ready to learn F foxes show Pride by being polite responsible in control of themselves doing their best eager to learn there are other examples in recent weeks I've been the guest at several PTA and booster meetings engaging with their members what struck me the most is regardless of the school is how easy it is for a child to see what makes up a school's character it is painted on the walls
056it is printed on posters it's recited in morning announcements heck and Hurst even turned theirs into a song McVey turned theirs into a rap each of our schools reinforce character throughout the day and they reward it too with certificates small medals mentions and announcements it all instills pride and a sense of community for all the children in each building lunch and recess are truly when students get to practice and demonstrate character lessons outside of the classroom are they showing respect in the line for food are they waiting the turn on the playground equipment are they talking without interrupting each other around the lunch table are they including everyone in games even those who are different from themselves that's real character LifeWise Academy touts itself as a weekly class for students to build character I question
057the need to leave the school even for lunch and recess for any lessons during school we don't see Scout Troops swimming instructors i9 Sports or piano teachers insisting they take our students off campus during the day why should LifeWise or any other religious organization the biggest question is why would anyone want their kids to take character lessons from a group that is so easily triggered by the slightest push back or questioning of their motives they name call threaten and intimidate at these meetings they encourage homeschoolers and famili from other districts and towns to into these meetings to make them look bigger than they actually are these ttic tactics reveal the actual character of LifeWise members and their supporters this behavior is not character building this is not even Christian LifeWise uses your children to increase
058their numbers not unlike a multi-level marketing Scan they are only concerned with a number of bodies in their seats not the care character and our children's Hearts thank you thank you next up next up is Elizabeth [Music] knon good evening my name is Elizabeth knon I reside here in Westerville at 1096 Carousel Court I have three children one of whom attends a Westerville elementary school thank you for the opportunity to speak in favor of resending policy 5 223 on Friday I had the opportunity to attend my third graders field trip to the Ohio Supreme Court building in Columbus during our tour we learned of some key cases in the history of the Court State versus Schwarz and truber 1989 the decision of which which was was upheld in State versus bone Trager 1996 left me
059reflecting deeply on the issue of the free exercise of religion about about which we heard much at last Monday's meeting in both of the cases that I mentioned members of the old order Amish challenged convictions received for failing to wear Hunter orange during deer gun hunting season and in both cases the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that although old order Amish may elect not to wear the color orange due to their religion the requirement to wear Hunter orange for deer gun hunting season which is a period of about 3 weeks did not constitute infringement on their religious rights since hunting is not a core tenant of the religion and Amish individuals had many options for hunting other animals with firearms and for hunting deer by other means such as with longbows or crossbows in both cases
060the justices affirmed that the state has a compelling interest in regulating safety during gun hunting season many individuals last Monday purported to speak on behalf of Christ while insulting the newest member of this board and forcefully threatening the board with both legal action and the wrath of God these actions dishonor Christ and indeed were in direct opposition to core tenants of Christianity to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love one another as Christ has loved us as a Christian myself I apologize for the hurt that you experienced at their hands ma'am you can't single L A sing a board member either way okay in the midst of this this Behavior last Monday's speakers forgot that removing students from a public school in the middle of the day for organized classes is not a core
061tenant of the Christian religion and indeed that resending policy 5223 does not infringe an individual's student ability to speak of their faith at all I clearly remember as a high schooler having deep conversations about my Christian faith with a Muslim friend during free time in home room we conversed during this time for weeks as she asked me questions about my faith I also started and led a student Bible study in my school following the rules applied to all student clubs at the time neither of these actions would be prohibited by a policy recision in further parallel to Schwarz and truber and Bond Trager the cases I mentioned earlier you as the board do indeed have a compelling interest to create a streamlined focused school day we have elected you to provide opportunities for academic excellence
062and prepare ESS for life as American citizens to all students living within our district without regard to religion please move forward with that charge and thank you very much thank you thank you next up is Jennifer jury welcome good evening members of the school board and superintendent Hamburg my name is Jennifer jury I live here in Westerville and I am the program director for LifeWise Westerville it has been suggested by this board and several others over the last few weeks that release time religious instruction programs do not belong within the framework of the students secular public school day and should be forced to operate before or after school we've shared a lot of compelling reasons about why our program does not operate in that way in order to make it accessible to all the families
063that choose to participate also I'd like to point out that the Supreme Court of the united states recognizes the value and importance of parents rights to choose what is best for their children's religious instruction including if they choose for religious instruction to take place during school hours release time religious instruction is specifically designated to protect parents rights to choose religious education for their students during the school day if they want that this parental choice is important enough that the Supreme Court protects it and the state educational laws of Ohio make provision for it the courts and the laws are clear the Westerville school board has a sworn responsibility to uphold the US Constitution by retaining parents option option to release time religious instruction in this District as I'm sure the board has noticed there is
064quite a large number of LifeWise supporters here tonight so I want to clarify two things about this group first of all some have suggested that LifeWise is trying to inflate numbers by bringing in supporters from outside the district but I want to be clear that what the Westerville School Board does here tonight with this District's RT policy has the potential to impact every LifeWise program in the state of oh Ohio and around the country if the board chooses to resend the district RT policy tonight the board is sending an alarming message that will attract the attention of RT supporters at the state and National level for this reason hundreds of community members from Central o Ohio have chosen to come here tonight to show their support for the protection of release time religious instruction as
065an option for parents here in Westerville and throughout Ohio secondly I want to emphasize how many people here in the local Westerville Community want LifeWise and RT to remain an option for all parents in our district as has been mentioned Christian groups are not the only ones that are interested in educating their parents their children in religion RT is for any family that wants it any faith any religion I have asked Westerville taxpaying supporters of RTR to wear a sticker tonight if they want to just to emphasize the fact that we live here and we do pay taxes here and this is very important to us the people that you see wearing these stickers tonight and many others um are just representing the thousands of Westerville taxpayers who support release time religious instruction these folks
066that are here tonight and hundreds of others in our district are carefully considering how we direct our tax dollars and what kind of trust we can continue to place in the Westerville City School Board for overseeing the education of Westerville children if the board chooses to resend the district's RT policy tonight Westerville parents will wake up tomorrow with fewer religious freedoms than we enjoy today while the board technically has the power to make such a severe decision what message would that decision send to the parents of this District about their right to choose how their children are educated is the board willing to risk asserting its own rights over the rights of individual parents to choose the path of their children's education here in Westerville please consider these points and these questions carefully before you
067vote tonight thank you next up is Miss Erica Lutz did she hear me Miss Erica Lutz welcome I see your dad well your dad is next so okay welcome just hi Schoolboard member sorry I'm like St um my name is Erica lots I'm a middle school um I'm a middle school middle school student at West diversity school um and I'm speaking for the 5223 um policy about LifeWise Academy I never been there but I heard a lot of um stuff about it um just take a breath you're doing great so [Music] um I feel like LifeWise Academy is a great place for like Christians like me um like [Music] k um for like um elementary school kids um like my little cousin and my friends I used to go there um you're okay I'm just
068scared you're fine no there's nothing to be scared about here take a breath imagine none of us are here you got I'm trying it's okay either way if you if you want to finish or not it's okay whatever you feels right you're okay yeah thank you [Applause] Erica you did great you did great Erica all right next up uh Mr Lutz good evening superintendent Hamburg Board of Education fellow people and attendant on both sides my name is Todd Lots I live on the Executive Parkway in Westerville Blended toch if you can tell I'm a proud father of a seventh grader who was a victim of bullying who took guts to come up here with that you know that took a lot of guts from her so I not everyone has that courage on either side
069uh and for the record I noticed board I noticed that board policy 5223 has already been removed from the page which makes me wonder and um I'm concerned and I'm trying to take the Middle Road on this because there's two sides that are passionate but what I see as an observer is we are heading down a very dangerous road that's going to impact it's going to impact not only our district that I'm a proud member of but also it's going to impact your guys political careers and I and I just I was doing some research and again it's I'm alluding to I'm allude to that part here shortly but a few questions I had based on the policy that uh as it pertains to the one organization who is attempting to follow this policy and
070is being discriminated regardless to how you want to narrowly view it number one is LifeWise meaning the requirements set forth in sections eight through D number two is LifeWise following the policy regarding Transportation complete responsibility uh a board of education and employees a mean from liability per the policy and number three how knowledgeable is our board truly about this policy another thing that I've done a lot of observing and it takes a lot for even me to have the courage to speak is witnessing the amount of disrespect and contradictory statements on both sides they include and and this stuff that I'm I'm trying to gather and trying to understand myself to to gain great understanding here in this here in a comment stating uh that an individual believes in God but not Jesus more specifically
071a deep faith in God my understanding based on my relationship with with the father Son and the Holy Spirit which is all in one is is to help me understand how that contradiction goes along with how you're not only against an organization but children leaving school isn't that already done today as in field trips all side rewards other activities that are done during the school day that takes them away from the education number two seeing and hearing others profess Christian values but then catering it to their own terms also seeing everyone who's attended the last few meetings and I and I hate to say this but especially the anti- prog crowd that I have seen firsthand more than gladly recite the Pledge of Allegiance which includes one nation under God not under all not under
072Jesuit and again that's again that's a disrespect and again the side that is anti has been more disrespectful than than those that are that are for LifeWise and for and not one this policy rescinded point being by even putting this policy up for resending what you you as a board and superintendent are telling our kids that that choose again this is an option this is not mandatory is one portraying that that these kids don't matter based on our own personal bias number two that our children who may see this as their best option based on their home environment or not valued because this may be the only chance that they have during the school day based on a broken home and number three you know like I said leadership is I've worri about going down
073this dangerous path legally eth ethically and morally and it makes me wonder if that executive session last Monday regard goinging a potential lawsuit is tied into this matter so in closing if our board is assent and and choose and do a job like a state sale where you belong then what I suggest is bringing both before we vote bringing both sides together having an open and respectful dialogue and let's collaborate that's I know that's a lost term nowadays in today's world to find a mutually agreeable resolution that shows our actions match our district model where you belong our kids already have disruptions during the school day along with teachers and staff contrary to what was said about a policy concern having nothing to do with any specific religion or religious program in general quote unquote
074isn't that exactly what we're choosing to do so tell that to the Jewish population the Hindu group Somali Muslims Scientology atheist groups the same way as as LifeWise is being singled out thank you I just want to State actually Mr Lutz that that policy is still on in the dots it is okay next up we have metah Han welcome members of the of Education as you know Ohio Revised Code section 33113 6022 allows release time courses in religious instruction provided by a private entity of school district property zorak versus clawen the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that allowing release time for religious instruction does not violate The Establishment Clause and the Ohio student religious Liberties Act of 2019 requires schools to treat religious expression similarly to secular expression and prohibits discrimination against students
075who wish to engage in religious activities the law supports LifeWise Academy so whatever you decide to do this evening it is noteworthy that you have already denigrated Westerville Christian Community and have Dishonored their leader Jesus Christ by the misleading remarks made by any of the public during recent school board meetings concerning the Christian religion this has given you a welcome excuse to eliminate the positive effects that LifeWise Academy offers to all students in the Westerville School District all of this leads to an excuse to remove Christianity or the truth from your secular humanist classrooms My Hope Is that on November 5th voters in Westerville remember how this board has failed to support the Christians in this community all right I'm I'm gonna apologize to Terry Caster I accidentally skipped over you so welcome Terry Caster
076welcome my name is Terry caster and I'm a 77 year old retired interal medicine physician who practiced for 43 years in Worthington I have 12 grandchildren in the Columbus area I care deeply about young people and education I have seen the LifeWise program in action personally through the ow and Tangi and Big Walnut programs I have been impressed and encouraged to see in person the difference that the LifeWise program can make in the lives of children in at LifeWise they learn about the love for them that is taught in the Bible and the positive character traits at the Bible espouses such as gratitude compassion sacrifice love respect and most importantly especially today forgiveness these are just a few of the 25 character traits that are emphasized in the program I have personally seen the smiles
077and eagerness on the face of the kids when they get off the red LifeWise bus I see the love the teachers volunteers and bus drivers give to the young people is powerful I know there can be logistic issues with getting the kids to the LifeWise meeting buildings and back to the schools I also know that the LifeWise program works very hard to minimize disruptions and is very open and desirous of working closely with school staff to continuously improve this aspect of the program because the program is such a positive experience for children it is growing rapidly throughout the country if you suspend the program you will be the first program since the Inception of LifeWise over three years ago to do that I especially troubled by the fact that the program has already been in
078place in Westerville for two years and now suddenly it is in danger of being shut down I believe that the logistic issues and other concerns can be resolved if you let the Westerville LifeWise director and LifeWise leadership work with you to resolve them consider the facts that the program is in multiple cities in Ohio and now in 24 maybe 25 other states that it is being implemented successfully in all these School dist districts and spreading rapidly this would support the conclusion that there are no implementation barriers that can't be overcome as a physician I have I have a Caring Heart it it Grieves me that our country is so divided we it seems like we're sitting on a powder cake that could explode any minute and you know we have to come together we have
079to find a way to come together absolutely diversity Equity inclusion are being held up in our culture as important values in my opinion voting against a program that is legal and does require that the program is administered off site it is voluntary it is self-funded meets a need and is spreading sends a message that to cancel it represents intolerance and exclusivity do you do we do you as a board want to add to that to that problem in our society already is so divided do you want to do you want to be a part of of of contributing to that afraid I'm afraid that's the road you're headed on so I I beg you I plead with you please continue the program thank you next up is Scott [Music] [Applause] Z welcome hi there Scott
080Z we're getting there yes hello my name is Scott zy and I live here in Westerville on Delaware drive I have a child currently attending Elementary School in the Westerville Public School System this is my third time speaking on the matter of the RTR policy and the fifth meeting I have attended observing testimonies and speeches from both sides on the matter in the last meeting speakers and support of LifeWise basically validated concerns I've had with the program since the beginning many of us have mentioned concerns or actual incidence with bullying towards those who do not partake in the program but we have been assured that that is not of a part of the curriculum it is impossible to judge that since and I I cannot attend a session but my goodness bullying from those in
081support of LifeWise program was on full display last meeting to a disturbing extent and when the founder of LifeWise had an opportunity to now to denounce some disturbing comments made and highlight the values of the program he instead doubled down on the bullying by using all a lotted time to directly bully and intimidate the board into uh intimidate the board for sharing their levelheaded logical perspectives on the matter so when I see bullying from the top down it gives me great doubt that this does not trickle down to children who take part in the program I have also stated my concern that this program does not align with stated values of diversity and inclusion within the Westerville School curriculum so when speakers last week in support of LifeWise Flatout said that everyone should be Christian
082and that Christianity is the superior religion my concerns were fully validated this way of thinking is not in line with the values of diversity and inclusion but was voiced by several speakers unfortunately aside from those troubling observations listening to speakers from the last meeting it's it's almost like we are debating completely separate things we are not attacking Christianity or its merits lecturing those in attendance on the value of Christianity is irrelevant we are not debating the values of Christianity rather that teaching of those values does not belong in public schools as part of the standard day to say Christianity is under attack is false if anything Christianity has already been provided extra Graces by operating over the last two years out of compliance mind you while other denominations have not been operating programs and if
083you retort that other denominations could have been running programs I will just say I guess we are fortunate that others who may have founded programs like this do not share the clearly stated objective of undoing public education this refers directly to a chapter straight from Joel penton's book during school hours to be clear I don't believe the teachings of any religious denomination should be affiliated with or operate during a standard public school day this is clear rational Fair common sense not in any way radical I send my daughter to Westerville Public Schools and have the utmost faith in the system and this board that she receives a diverse enriching challenging curriculum that develops her character strengthens her values and fosters her growth to think that she needs to leave the school grounds for religious instruction
084that can be provided after school or on the weekends is illogical and unnecessary and on a personal note I happen to be fortunate enough to live close enough to my school um to walk out of my house some days and it's usually the best moment of my day when I walk out and I hear the laughter and the joy coming from the playground why any parent wants to pull their child away from that is a mystery to me to the board I appreciate the rational logical fair and levelheaded perspectives you've shared on this topic in the last meeting it was unfortunate that you were openly bullied and intimidated for sharing your perspectives I am sure all of you have closely observed what has unfolded over the last several meetings and to believe none of this
085division conflict and vitrio has the potential to play out in the school by fourth grade fifth grade grade or sadly even younger students is totally naive religious programs during school time have proved to be divisive disruptive and distract from your ultimate goals of enriching our children it's time to put an end to these unnecessary distractions so please be brave steadfast and stand strong in what you believe is best for this school system in the community thank you so much for providing me the opportunity to share my thoughts thank you next up is Tobias [Music] Gordon welcome good evening uh my name is Tobias Gordon I live at 6688 Callingwood Drive been in Westerville for well grew up here left a few years came back because of much I love it um if I may D
086going to D divert a little bit for my speech uh just check the website and it appears that the when you go to the policy page the documents the it defaults to an administrative tab which does not have any details on the policy so that's blank but if you go to policy manual it is right there plain as day so I believe a former person may have made a mistake it's a very confusing document I will say to navigate that's said what does a school district do as an educational organization it believes in science schools and teachers are constantly trying new programs based on evidence experimentation is at the heart of learning the Westerville school district has been using the latest best evidence of how to teach students to read for years the this science
087of reading has been shown to lead to significantly improved outcomes the entire state of Ohio is now following suit because it has been tested and we see that it works the Westerville school district has tried an experiment with release time for religious instruction for the past two years Westerville tried this with one organization as a test and found a multitude of issues but even if the experimenting organization had not been non-compliant exposing significant risks for liability to the school district and safety concerns for children the outcome has shown significant disruption to the school day and a definitively non-trivial amount of staff time so what lesson should we take from this We Gather the data and we make a decision while many parents have said that they enjoy this program the same benefits can be accomplished
088via a multitude of other avenues which do not impact the school day or take any School resources the downsides to the policy are multiple we should therefore decide that the best solu in my opinion at least that the best solution is to resend the rtri policy so that the unnecessary disruption to Student Learning does not persist or increase as more organizations seek to use it I am proud to see that our school board is taking an evidence-based approach to this situation resending the RTI policy is not a radical idea as some have said multiple other districts in the Columbus area have performed their own due diligence and reached a similar conclusion I hope this board chooses to follow suit students have plenty of options for Religious Education they can attend religious instruction any other time
089of the week outside of school thank you thank you next up is Mary Jean Butler welcome my name is Mary Jean botler I live at 65 hatam Place West I've heard many people say that the public school ought not be a mission field I I disagree as a person of faith I believe that every place can be a mission filled that is a place to do good to promote Justice and to support the welfare of the community for that reason my husband and I volunteer at annhurst elementary school we tutor students who are struggling we help kindergarten students on their first days of school we purchase items for the classroom and we back school levies as a pastor every congregation I served put energy into supporting our neighborhood public schools in one congregation we had
090a bus stop breakfast in a struggling neighborhood for students who met the school bus in front of our building we developed an after school tutoring program for 40 students with the help of 26 muskingham University educ ation students in another congregation we developed an extensive Garden across from an in inner city school to serve as a learning lab Public Schools can be places to do good work creative work lifegiving work but a public school is not a place to recruit or to proze it's not a place where religious cultural or racial superiority should find a home our Public Schools always trusted the congregations I served because they knew that we honored good boundaries we were seen as reliable Partners in the educational Endeavor we trusted our Educators we were able to secure funds from secular
091foundations to support our efforts because we had a solid record of working for the common good we acted out of our faith rather than imposing our faith let me say that again we we acted out of our faith rather than imposing our faith what is happening in this community with the intrusion of this program is that learning is being disrupted students are being used as Pawns and the Christian Community is being shown in an unfavorable light we can do so much better in addition to the pressure our neighborhood schools is the bill before the assembly with advocacy from LifeWise leaders to mandate this program this will not turn out well for public education but in the end if history is our guide it will will not turn out well for the faith community I call
092home and this Grieves me I encourage the board to resist the pressure and to vote for that which will maintain religious neutrality and excellence in our public school and as I leave I'm leaving you a resolution passed by the presbyter of scota Valley representing 86 Presbyterian churches in this area thank you thank you next up is Don [Applause] hazley welcome good evening school board members and uh superintendent Hamburg my name is Don Heasley I live at 212 Baron off West tonight I'm going to be reading a statement that was composed and written by my son Colin Heasley who spoke to you last month he's not aable to be here I'm compelled to write the following email about my growing concern and disappointment by the current Westerville school board and administration to resend the release time
093religious instruction policy earlier this month I also spoke at a board meeting about the benefits that I see with the offering of release time programs in Westerville school district and the options this can provide provide not only my wife and I but countless other families in Seeking a well-rounded education for our children I am part of a growing awareness in the Westerville that the Westerville board is seemingly adopting a subjective position that will disenfranchise children whose parents wish to include a character-based Christian education through release time a program that is offered in accordance with federal state local statutes and law as I said in my public comments at the August board meeting it is important as a parent with children in the district a parent who has choices for my children's education that my voice
094be heard about your apparent decision to resend the current release time policy and therefore effectively be eliminating the growing LifeWise program for hundreds of Westerville students I respect the positions that you all hold as Leaders within the school district you must listen to parents teachers taxpayers and anyone who simply wants to share their opinions and then objectively deliberate what is best for the students and the schools I want to clarify my tone in writing this email so that you will not assume that I am one yelling but appealing to the common sense of what is right and fair and decent in allowing families to exercise their constitutional right to be engaged with their children's education I have been following the Westerville school board's changing perspective on whether the growing release time movement in Westerville is
095appropriate for our community when I approached the board in August was to voice my support for maintaining the current policy your concerns then reflected questions about liabilities over releasing students however in recent weeks it would appear The Stance has changed and that you have pivoted to a released time being A disruption for the student and the school day operation either way I find myself confused as to the real reasons why you are resending prior Westerville school boards who voted on and accepted this policy I can speak from personal experience as I worked with the former Westerville School leadership and administration from the origin of the LifeWise program in our community LifeWise Westerville formally approached the Westerville school board and superintendent and were directed to work directly with the School principles along with the three members
096of LifeWise Westerville we met to discuss how we could efficiently establish a LifeWise release time program the principles expressed some concerns about fitting a release time program like LifeWise into the weekly schedule except during lunchtime we work together with the with the administration and staff from the Westerville schools to propose a seamless transition to and from the school day when the students are not otherwise engaged in any academic scheduling and conforming to and not disrupting the school day after two successful years of operation and growing support in six Westerville schools we have never been called out verbally or in a more formal sense for causing any type of disruption by any of the school Personnel or parents of LifeWise students perhaps you can now understand my confusion as to why the reasoning that LifeWise creates
097any disruption and if you have evidence to the contrary you have not been forthcoming with that information or asked for corrective action the concerns over liability or disrupting the school day did not exist until this La past summer when a group of concerned citizens began to raise questions about the growing life we program this is strictly a voluntary and board authorized release time program as you know LifeWise or any release time program has to operate with parental permission be privately funded and hold classes off school property none of the issues none of the concerned citizens I'm sorry who have spoken out against LifeWise and suggest that it has created unresolvable issues have their children enrolled to attend a LifeWise class it appears that the current Westerville School Board is making a very arbitrary and subjective
098policy decision the likely decision to eliminate release time from the Westerville schools is not a good look for our school district or our community and it brings into question the motivation that you have in taking such an action release time policies exist so parents can choose religious instruction however with the recced policy several hundreds parents will no longer have that option an option we believe makes Westerville a better school district thank thank you very much all right next up is Doug [Applause] Jenkins hello my name is Doug Jenkins and I live at 22344 View Lane and I'm here to speak to the resolution to resend your RTI RT policy here in the Westerville School District while I was here for the meeting last week I heard a lot of things from people on both sides
099of this issue we also what appeared to be a heavily leaning position by the board through the comments the board shared I would like to comment on several issues that we all heard first we heard about the disruption that is caused by LifeWise students going and coming back it seems that since the Westerville program has already been running for two years The Kinks would have been worked out by now LifeWise is always open to working to make things better and easier for all I wonder if any board members or any of the folks supporting this recision proposal has ever really seen disruption during these times it works well in other districts all around Westerville maybe the board could actually hold off on their decision until they visit some other programs to see how well the
100transitions work I would like to point out that the subject of off-campus field trips was also heard last week and because of cost not every student goes on some of these isn't that disruptive to the students as well second we heard about how some Someone's Child came home and told her mom that both her mom and her wife were going to to hell because of their lifestyle I would argue that this statement alone is a reason to not resend this policy as I can assure you that that's this is not nor has ever been taught or espoused at LifeWise at LifeWise the students are taught that they should love everyone and that everyone has a path to Heaven There is absolutely zero discussion towards alternate Lifestyles third we heard about how there was bullying in
101school and that other students were made to feel bad because they didn't attend LifeWise again I would argue that this statement is a reason to not resend this policy as you can ask any literally any LifeWise student what is taught about B buing they would tell you that it is wrong in any form and that adults should be involved immediately to rectify the situation fourth and this ties into points one and three we heard about the disruption at lunchtime and the loss of recess we heard from a young lady towards the end of the meeting last Monday that graduated from Westerville say how how lunch and recess was the worst part of her day she Tau us how the folks in the lunchroom would were constantly telling him to be quiet Etc and there was
102rampant bullying on the playground she said how she wished there had been a program like LifeWise when she was in school here again I would argue that this statement is a reason to not resend this policy and is it is quite apparent that disruption and bullying were here in this District long before LifeWise was around and this program speaks to these very ideals and how they are wrong the last point is simple there were a few gentlemen that said some inappropriate things towards a board member last week which both stated they were not affiliated with LifeWise in any way and I believe I can speak for the red shirts that were here when I say that these gentlemen's words were inappropriate and that we do not support that kind of speech there was a later
103response by someone that mentioned how now no one in a red shirt called these gentlemen out for their words the reason simple we were asked to follow the rules of decorum and we did we did not interrupt speakers from either side as we were asked in [Music] closing I would [Music] humbly and fervently ask the board to really consider what they are doing and the effect it will have on the students currently involved in LifeWise as well well as future Generations if you resend this policy please go see how this program actually works before you take this one out thank you thank you next up is Aaron [Applause] Scott hello my name is Aaron Scott I'm a taxpaying Westerville resident go warhawks I'm also a professor at the Glen College of public affairs at the
104Ohio State University and I am speaking on agenda agenda item six as a teacher one of the things that excites me and makes me proud to live in Westerville is the demonstration of Civic engagement and civil discourse that we see before ourselves this evening there are many people here tonight who do not live in our district but have traveled far to support what they believe is right again I am proud to live in a place where people have the protected right to show solidarity for the things they believe in but after hours of Community member remarks the decision to resend policy 5223 absences for religious instruction ultimately Falls to you our highly qualified appointed and elected representatives of our school district I'm thankful that you are the ones with the final say and not the
105voices in the room with no children in our district because I have been appalled by the derogatory remarks made by some of my fellow community members alluding to other countries as impoverished and morally inferior for not having Christianity as their primary religion which are some of the most UN Christlike remarks I have ever heard hearing community members openly promote hate fueled by their Love Of Christ scared me enough to be here tonight to advocate for resending absences for religious instruction it's clear that rather than removing our children from our schools for religious instruction our children would benefit from more world history economic ICS mathematics and social studies and quite frankly so would the adults all right I know I speak for many of my neighbors when I say that Westerville is proud to welcome leaders
106from all backgrounds regardless of race religion or ethnicity and our voices will not be drowned out by the hateful racist rhetoric of a few bad apples thank you to the board for taking your responsibilities so seriously thank you all right next up is Ross Elman Alman sorry welcome hi my name is Ross adlman I Am pastor of Quest vineard Church uh in Westerville a majority of my congregation are a part of the Westerville Public Schools I've have been asked to speak on their behalf not everyone agrees at their church but the majority do in the leadership of ask me to speak on their behalf first of all um I would suggest uh contrary to what has just been stated that if we want less of the racism and less of the religious problems that are
107going on that we should actually do more religious instruction not less but regardless of all the opinions that have been stated in the room again let's just go back to basic Civics for a minute you guys are executive branch you're not legislative branch schools are part of the executive branch Your Role according to your oath is to uphold the Constitution the Constitution is very clear that RTR is an expression that is consistent with the right of religious freedom and a protected expression we can argue from the law whether it is an absolute must or a May uh but it is an it is an it is explicitly protected so by removing that after having approved it you are disenfranchising the rights of religious freedom for people and our opinions that are expressed here are great
108I applaud the fact that we have a places like this where we can where we can say this stuff but again disruption is not a reason for removing this and if you do disruption as a reason then you need to apply it consistently so the question I would ask is I've been around life wise watch the checkin and check out I've run a lot of large events for thousands of people in the past I know what disruption looks like it is a very easy thing to facilitate this if you're going to use disruption for a reason to take this away then I would ask you why will you still allow during Ramadan an entire School Wing to be set aside for them hear me clearly I want Muslims to have that all I am saying
109is if you're going to use this policy to get rid of RTR as disruption as a major reason then you need to apply it consistently and that would be in inconsistent to not also apply it there further um we've talked about lots of ideas about what we wish religious freedom rules were and weren't that's not your role your opinions on that do not matter the courts in the legislature have already said it is a protected right the arguments about whether it should be during school or after school those have already been made and they've already been decided that it's still even in light of those arguments it is still a protected expression of freedom of religion and honestly one of the reasons why it has continued to be a protected freedom of religion thing is
110because it's a recognition that the poor especially who cannot afford to do before after school programs would have their rights most dramatically impacted if RT were not a reality and an option for them so for us as a board to want to project our opinions and legislate when you are a policymaking part of the executive is the wrong way to do we can have that discussion and it's and we're free to have that discussion but the discussion of before or after is a legislative discussion not a disc discussion for this body Your Role is simply to uphold the Constitution and to not disenfranchise the poor by your decision which is exactly what you do if you if you take this policy and and resend it thank you very much next up is Robert Simon Robert
111Simon okay um right uh next up is Chris Moore upstairs okay welcome my name is Chris Moore a concerns Citizen and parent I live at 1092 an Lane let me get my sheet here people don't know about several organizations like LifeWise reset hopong relationships under construction Etc I've been a part of several of these they teach character building and moral character traits Christians and churches from various denominations are working to improve Society the family unit marriages and kids to succeed in school and life and have safe lives with all the increase in drugs alcohol in bars and restaurants now increased crime domestic violence these Christian organizations are positively changing lives in students and families and our society for future generations to come and as I said there's several organis not just LifeWise that I've been
112hearing a lot tonight Harvard University did a study about humans flourishing the number one factor they found was being in religious community whether it's Catholic Presbyterians Muslims Christians or whatever that's where they are accepted there's a family atmosphere there's teamwork so functional families and broken families and singles who I deal with can improve their areas of love respect patience kindness truthfulness self-discipline which is control gratitude hard work etc these are the same character building traits which these religious organizations are teaching students today during the school time unlike the public schools that have CRT the critical race Theory the seel social emotional learning that's a big one with 15 human uh harmful elements the sex education which is now too explicit and even steering towards the youngest of kids the Marxism the socialism just to name
113a few and you wonder more pulling them out of public schools and taking them to Catholics Christians and other home schools we are seeing more students depressed in suicidal thoughts and going through identity crisis and as I heard the man earlier talking about medical and behavioral uh things going on studies show religious classes improve attendance decrease Boolean increase learning to graduate increase their GPA Plus have Christian and non-Christian and parents they have to consent for them to go and leave for these organizations they can't go without the the parents consenting so um just like LifeWise um it says so why do people reject students attending LifeWise hopong reset and these other classes if they're not sending their kids they should have no matter why do pessimistic people want to ruin what's working for others in
114the past two years as I volunteered for these different organizations I saw good results and I only know of one child in fifth grade a boy that wanted to stop going and his parents approved because he was already going to church already went on Sundays and Wednesdays but his sister wanted to continue going and they said that was fine so it's very rare that kids want to stop going I feel that these religious organization classes are helping kids helping parents whether they're married or single helping Society to let this so we want to let it happen life isce is a choice and not an elective reset and all these other ones are choices they're not electives they are so they're not missing core classes they need unity in schools and not division we need to
115have the Next Generation make these wise decisions where we have failed as adults we need to help these students take back and restore what the parents and the government have allowed to break them we need to give this next Generation a hope and a future they deserve a happy successful life so I'm in here to say Do not resend the policy of Po 5223 the absence of delicious instructions we want to keep life eyes hope strong reset relationships under constructions and other ones and also relationships under construction they teach to get Education First to graduate then to work in on a living to pay your bills get married and have children but Society is teaching them backwards don't graduate don't go to school so lack of Education they're not getting a job don't have the
116money they have Financial problems and then there's kids out of wedlock or with wedlock it's just backwards so may US parents and teachers learn to educate moral character traits to succeed in life to make the world a better place thank you for listening to my concerns all right next up we have Alla dragon all Dragon oh welcome um thank you everybody okay good that's okay thank you for now uh good evening my name is all draon I live in the Hampton Park Subdivision in Westerville 327 Wildwood Drive I have a 5-year-old son who attends Westerville schools and maybe someday this one will too uh I work in marketing a lot of my job is to understand human behavior and behavioral triggers so I study brains my husband is a pediatric neurologist he has a bit
117of an interest in how the brain develops and works too as you can all imagine uh I am not here to criticize religious studies instead I'm here to talk about why those classes that we call quote unquote specials music gym art are so critical to Children's devel velopment and should be treated as just as essential in the school day as Math Science and language these subjects help us develop more completely and more fully science has taught us that music art physical education are in fact critical to optimizing the development of the human brain music art and physical education act as springboards or catalysts for the brain to better absorb all other learning Fred schlag MD PhD who is an expert on music neuroimaging and brain plasticity from Harvard Medical School said the following music has
118the unique ability to go through alternative channels and connect different sections of the brain particularly for kids that have learning disabilities music can provide alternative access into dysfunctional systems in the brain playing an instrument changes how the brain interprets and integrates a wide range of sensory information several Imaging Studies have shown that musical training activated the same areas of the brain that were also activated during mathematical processing it appears that early musical training begins to build the same mural networks that later will be used to complete numerical and mathematical tasks now gy physical education even short moderate physical exercise improves brain performance studies indicate that regular physical physical activity increases the number of capillaries in the brain thus facilitating blood transport it also increases the amount of oxygen in the blood which significantly enhances cognitive
119performance not only does movement increase cognitive function but it also helps students get their energy out so they can settle down and concentrate better later now the importance of art making art increases brain volume and connectivity between both hemispheres of the cerebrum as music also does but art has a special superpower it can grow the psychological capacity for imagining other perspectives a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience from USC said engagement with the Arts gives you ways to think about problems as multifaceted and as being open-ended with no single correct answer in other words we learn open-mindedness empathy and critical thinking from the Arts final thought here we know there is a critical period in development where if we don't learn certain skills within that period that window of opportunity closes the neuroplasticity of our brains
120decreases over time while we may learn new things as we age will never be the sponges that we were during that critical period our Westerville kids regardless of Faith deserve to experience the entirety of their foundational education if parents feel strongly that they want religious study during the school day parochial schools exist and are a more appropriate solution for them as a Westerville mom and as a person who wants to live in a society that values a full education inclusive of the Arts I urge you not to allow absences for religious instruction thank you thank you next up next up is H Hassan welcome thank you little vertically challenged um good evening to the school board and thank you for allowing us to speak tonight um my name is Dr Hassen I am a physician
121specializing Psychiatry um so as a previous speaker um I'm also very interested in how the brain works and mental health um I live here in Westerville in Three Forks drive and my son will soon be starting kindergarten and Westerville City Schools which I'm thrilled about um so I wish to address the board tonight regarding the policy P 5223 I'm in full support of resending this policy and um I want to kind of talk about some of the points that the previous speaker has also brought up um the point that uh taking time away during non- crucial time periods uh such as recess gym lunchtime that these are non-crucial and I I do not agree with that that is false um in terms of recess and lunchtime um these are crucial periods in which kids are
122learning and the type of learning that they're experiencing um there are there's so many there's social learning there's cognitive learning there's emotional learning as well as um the very important and critical element of physical exercise and all of these are also important um in strengthening strengthening their mental health recess and lunchtime offer kids a chance to get to know each other learn about each other and celebrate their differences this also allows for imaginative and unstructured play for younger children and a time to rest and rejuvenate for older kids um and this is how they can learn how to share how to handle conflict between you know schoolmates as can happen and how to better engage with themselves and the world around them we know from countless studies including ones by the American Academy of Pediatrics
123that these types of learning are incredibly important for the development of children and anything that takes away from that type of learning um Can hinder their overall growth and we know that the co pandemic has affected you know all types of learning but I think there hasn't been enough emphasis made on the real damage that our kids have experienced from uh a social emotional perspective there's been a lot of loss um in that area as well so it really does not make any sense to have kids pulled out of recess and lunchtime or any other non-crucial time like art and music um uh when this type of learning is occurring as it'll not only hinder their development but also the development of the kids that are left behind um so I picked Westerville City schools
124for celebrated socioeconomic ethnic religious diversity um and I I want all kids to be able to experience that and not to be restricted to only developing uh those social skills with a less diverse group of children because they're missing out um due to going to LifeWise or any other similar type of program the second point I want to make and I I won't call out any school board member but I will say that as a somal americ watching the the last school board meeting I was really disgusted and horrified by the language that used in the dialogue that was used um and you know we chose Westerville because it's a very diverse very welcoming and open community and anyone is able to be whatever they want whether it's a school board member or anything beyond
125that um so I I think that it's very telling that those that are in favor of keeping the religious time the way policy were the ones making those um very hateful statements so what we should be doing is we should be celebrating all of what makes us unique um and you know if that's how you treat your people who are different from you is by calling them out or bullying them um during a Schoolboard meeting as an adult I can only imagine how you conduct yourselves during a LifeWise school session okay let's let her finish please so I applaud our school board for considering resending this policy I'm hopeful that we can keep all of our kids together we support you we know you do a lot of great work we are happy to you
126know elect you again as school board members um and I One my final point I want to make is that as someone who grew up in a Muslim household you know who believes in God who believes in Allah um I chose to put my kid in a public school because I want him to be introduced to all religions not just the Islamic religion if I wanted that I would have put him in a private Islamic school but I decided not to do that that's for Sunday school so I think anyone who wants to do that should do should should put your kid in a private school and not in Western real City Schools thank you all right thank you next up is Luke B welcome hello B my name is Luke Bowman and I live
127at 75 7075 cyer strive first of all to all of you in front of me I want to apologize for all of the hateful comments that you have endured last week through through emails through phone calls and throughout this time that we have been dealing with this thank you all of you for being so willing to be the voice of Westerville City Schools and for our public here Westerville City Schools preaches diversity equity and inclusion but diversity equity and inclusion does not call for every human being to be a Christian I'm a Westerville resident I'm a taxpayer and I'm parent of two elementary students I am also a former educator a former School administrator a husband of a teacher of 23 years and I also have the unique distinction of holding two degrees in Theology
128and I am adamantly against LifeWise in public schools LifeWise has proven repeatedly Nationwide that they do not value public education it is also my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong that life wise's own founder has no vested interest in public schools as he homeschools his own children it is the goal of LifeWise tied closely with project 2025 to dismantle public education From the Inside Out okay let's let him finish please my daughters are not pawns but they will be your future legislators in the state of Ohio over the last year there have been multiple instances of LifeWise staff half having been found to have been repeatedly put children In Harm's Way whether that is LifeWise Firelands having a director that formerly texted sexual messages to children or other LifeWise directors throughout the state
129of Ohio that cannot hold licenses given by the state of Ohio for their own behaviors in classrooms and in child care as a parent it's my responsibility to bring my child to Christ I grew up in Church my mother is a still a pastor today and when I was a child in a small town I grew up in Johnstown nearly every single one of my elementary school teachers was also in my church they were my Sunday school teachers they Babys at me they watched me as a child but not one single one of them tried to convert me to Christianity at school they were teachers that was never their job and there was never a difficulty for my parents to take me to church I was also a multisport athlete and I was at church
130multiple times a night throughout high school and on the weekends claiming that you can't hold a program before or after school shows a lack of understanding of how the public school day works claiming that polling students midday doesn't cause a single disruption is patently false and those making the claims clearly have never spent an hour in an elementary school classroom LifeWise is a political machine hiding behind the facade of Salvation they are a pyramid scheme for children I'm sure that many here many in this room have a strong faith and want the same for their child and that's perfectly fine I have a simple solution for you take your children to church if you want to get them involved take them to youth group show them Christ if you're really concerned send them to a
131Christian School if you want your child to act like Christ you need to walk and act like Christ my Jesus more closely resembles the minority in this room than all of the white people sitting here my Jesus chose to walk in love kindness and humility thank you thank you all right next up is Ann Nelson so we have a probably about 15 people more so if you have nothing new to add feel free to come up state your name and your address and if you support or we sending or not and thank you my name is an Nelson I'm relatively new to Westerville live at 252 Apache Street I'm a teacher I am a Christian a very active Christian in my church but taking children from a public school to another location during school hours
132for religious education is not appropriate in my opinion religion may have its place in the school but if it a curriculum that includes all religions of the world I'd like to hold up a little visual that I keep with me with the golden rule in 16 different religions children should know that there are other religions that we can learn from and respect if parents want their children to get religious education in a specific way then I agree with the last speaker take them to a church sponsored school or take them to church yourself teaching the golden rule is something we all should do and live by but let's look at it in more languages than English thank you for addressing the situation in the schools I have two kids one at South and one at
133Emerson and I hope that they aren't left standing while half of their school leaves for Religious Education thank you thank you next up we have Christine Stone and just State what what city you live in please of your full address I was just going to say just State your your city not your full address since it's being streamed thank you thank you um my name is Christine Stoner thank you for having me tonight uh my is Worthington but I am a Wester South Alum goats um I have two children in high school excuse me now um with LifeWise the parent volunteers are not vetted well enough um one example is a man I understand you don't want to hear a name so I will not say his name but um he lost excuse me he
134lost custody of his children due to domestic violence and I just question do we do we want um such a person around our children also teachers go through their subjected to very extensive background checks um to my understanding as an FBI standardized check um and the thing that concerns me the most about the background checks is that anybody can go to a life the LifeWise merch website and order a t-shirt that says LifeWise teacher right across the chck best and it's only $15 which is really affordable especially to a pedophile or a molester any child predator can buy one so I mean look at the Sea of red shirts that we have here it's very easy to see they're easily accessible um as far as the RTR program they're not using it correctly I believe
135the intent of the law the spirit of the law was to allow people to go see you know their cousins far Mitzvah um that kind of thing um my perspective I actually escaped a Christian cult locally here um zenos they now call themselves dwell because of the cult accusations um I'm here to tell you that it is in fact a cult and religious trauma is real so parents you're clear of zenos um because they do pray and they also pray upon P re y children um I am still a Christian and from my many years of studying the Bible I can say that this organization LifeWise is Blasphemous they are grieving the Holy Spirit I will pray for these LifeWise folks also as someone else mentioned it's a big money grab it they are backed
136by the Southern Baptist convention and lifewide publisher they have very deep Financial pockets however um you know with all this financial backing the program still demands parents raise $775,000 to have the privilege to host a LifeWise group at their school it's someone else mentioned an MLM I couldn't agree more um in addition the Bible calls us to Unity Jesus would not be okay with the dynamic of Us Versus Them which LifeWise creates in our schools um like LifeWise creates disunity by creating groups of Haves and Have Nots because they bribe children with candy the kids that are left behind in the classroom are bullied and teased this has actually happened to one of my close friends uh child and they're being told that they're going to hell if they don't attend or accept Jesus into
137their hearts Jesus would be flipping tables on these Pharisees these kids are young elementary kids in cases who do not have the capacity to creatively and critically think all of this through all of the things that they are being taught through life LifeWise in my opinion this movement is seeking to create the next white nationalist voter group spreading white supremacy okay let her finish please they need to get out of our schools out of Ohio and go out of business and P.S God doesn't appreciate being misrepresented so uh you know by people that are doing a big money grab and indoctrination um you I just hope that something I said will help the leaders of LifeWise to repent thank you board members for all of your hard work thank you next is Alison [Applause] bear
138Alison bear welcome good evening thank you first to the board of education for their service to our children in our community you are the best uh my name is Allison bear Dr Allison bear I am I live at 528 Le Crest Place West in Westerville I am a Westerville taxpayer a little background on me I'm a graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago Illinois one of the Premier Christian institutions in this country I was also married to a Baptist Minister for 23 years and I am Jewish um I was an educator for 28 years in Warren Ohio and and colubus um and Youngstown Ohio where I taught Middle School I have taught at three universities as well the University of Finley and Finley Ohio and Kent State are two of them I'm a reading specialist
139so I have taught current and future teachers uh in my 28 years I have two points and I have one question the first point is that in my raising as a Christian woman as a Christian child with Christian parents and a Jewish father um I was raised to know that religious teaching belongs in the home at the church with your friends with your family and those various people who believe like you do the second point is as an educator and one who has been countless hours in schools and I whoever said that uh education is the teaching education I should say is the toughest job in the world it really is and every single person in this uh room owes their profession to a teacher and I know what it's like in a day and
140we've had a number of people talk about the curriculum in the day there's so much that teachers have to do and to take children out of a school during the day deprives them of the education that they deserve and my one question is this if this program this and this teaching is so vital to their Christian Life why isn't it offers after school which would help working parents with free after school child care for these reasons I know that the Board of Education needs to ascend 5223 and I will also tell you this last no matter how you vote I want you to know that I will vote Yes on the levy on November 5th no matter how you vote because your job is more important thank you thank you all right next up is
141Doug krinsky thank you I'll give you a break from the LifeWise debate how's that like I always do um just a couple points about the upcoming Levy so I'm concerned about the Matrix um I'll tell you I'm a huge mental health fan I don't have to go into details why uh but is there analysis anywhere that shows current health care program for benefits and it sounded like you have an EAP program already you know what addition things you're getting with the Matrix offer and what the cost is for the Matrix offer per pupil I don't know if that's on the website somewhere I haven't seen it so I just I kind of throw that out there hopefully we'll get an answer to that so once we get that answer then we can pass that along
142in our Facebook group page west of a levy concern so everybody understands what the impact to the levy might be pror on if it's an additional cost what does that cost same thing if you resend the policy on life wise is there a cost benefit to that for the district does it cost more because you anticipate a legal expense so I guess I'm interested in those two programs you're talking about tonight what is the financial impact particularly because there's a huge Levy that's coming up in about five weeks and everybody needs to know what's the impact of those two programs so if we can get that information out either tonight or on the website I'm very interested to understand those costs for you know homeowners senior citizens renters um and just in my closing remark
143I'll keep it short I'm an absolute vote no on the levy no matter where you vote on that resending so thanks all right up next is Cheryl Hoffman welcome remember just State what um City you live in please thank you good evening Cheryl Hoffman I'm a Westerville City schools resident parent of three graduates of Westerville City Schools a grandparent of four of six grandchildren who will attend Westerville City Schools and a semi-retired speech language pathologist who has worked for over 35 years and continues to work periodically in the public schools I'm a strong advocate for public education and a firm believer in the separation of church and state I'm also a firm believer in the freedom to participate or not in the religious faith of one's choosing when our children were growing up we made
144it a priority to get them in Sunday school every week that we were in town in youth group as teens I'm not interested in addressing the issues of the religious issues of RTI or from a religious standpoint or LifeWise Academy in particular although I do have many reservations about the specific program I think there are other important issues that come into play when some students are removed from a school campus for a special period of religious instruction that someone who is not immersed in the day-to-day School setting may not take into consideration public schools are no longer like those of my youth nor those that I served at the beginning of my career when I was in the third grade in an area suburb our public school classroom teacher led us in Christian prayer each
145morning it was routinely explained to us that Chucky the only Jewish child in our school and in my class could not participate in our prayers could not sing the Christmas hymns that we sang through the holiday season would not have Santa visiting his house would not be celebrating Easter Etc as children we pied Chucky and we voiced our pity to him in a kind not bullying way as an adult I can only imagine how othered Chucky must have felt when I began my career in the public schools I worked in poor rural Appalachian schools where nearly all students were white Christian practicing Christians or were of Christian Heritage there was no diversity it was comfortable it was comfortable for everyone there there were no challenges like we're experiencing now after we returned to Central Ohio
146I became working in what was an affluent a area predominantly white suburban school district the population of that school district quickly began to change as it did in Westerville as well not only were numerous races and nationalities represented but numerous Faith backgrounds were also I believe this has brought a richness to our communities and this transition certainly changed my awareness of how easy it is for children to feel excluded less than ashamed of their own backgrounds and vulnerable to the innocent comments of other children kind of like those that we made to Chucky back in third grade when the adults in their schools do not demonstrate and Foster respect for the cultural and religious backgrounds of the families and attendance Public Schools aim or should be aiming to create respectful welcoming environments for all so
147that the primary purpose of Education can be achieved it would be difficult for many children to understand why they cannot participate and what to them might appear to be a special fun field trip that only some of their peers can attend does this put the school staff in the position of having to explain that a special program is only for children who practice a certain religion because children ask those questions I've experienced those does this put parents of young children in the position of having to explain that only children of a religion other than their own or whose families share the same belief beliefs get to take part in these special activities during the school day will this result in numerous other faith-based or secular humanist groups implementing their own programs such act such programs
148occurring within the school day are exclusionary by nature and do not contribute to the inclusionary environments I hope Westerville City School Stripes strives to create in its buildings in addition to the potentially damaging exclusivity of specific faith-based programs pulling some students outside the school building for portions of the day I would like to address the more practical issues and their impact on the educational day and the staff and the students I have heard repeatedly that the particular program currently being discussed although this could apply to any program removing large numbers of children during the school day only impacts lunch and recess and not the students instructional day someone earlier spoke to what happens during lunch and recess from a cognitive social emotional standpoint as a speech language pathologist I attest that lunch and recess are
149part of the instructional day as a I am confident that occupational therapists physical therapists and guidance counselors would tell you the same thing I worked today and I co-treated with occupational therapist two students during lunch to address the goals on their IEPs at the same time the office of the guidance counselor was across the hall from me she had groups going on during every single Lunch Period um if these students are leaving various campuses on various days it limits access to the these students and or the ability to create specific program addressing their needs thank you thank you next up is aner welcome hello sorry need my old lady glasses U my name is an tryer I live here in Westerville thank you to the board we appreciate the time to talk I talk fast
150so hopefully I'll be quick um I'm here again to voice support for ending the RTI um in Westerville District while I did grow up in a church in northwest Ohio I also grew up near a cult um they had branded buses they had a logo painted on buildings silos and barns they recruited young people and also required Hefty donations from their young recruits and I say this as a contrast an Evidence of why faith-based instruction has no place in the school day because there are so many different faiths and how do you decide who is going to be able to come and take children out of school to my knowledge there is no real quality control or tests for the different brands of Faith who want access to Westerville school children during the day can
151we even refuse a cult from providing RTI during the school day to come and recruit with their branded materials and buses and logos I also question the disruption which we've heard some great speakers talk about um we'll when if we have this multitude of RTI programs that want to come in our parents going to have to schedule doctor's appointments away from lunch and recess times purposefully which is a big chunk of the day when you include all the grades that's a huge time frame um to they they have to not schedule doctor's appointments during that time because they won't be able to get into the office to be able to sign out their children because the admins are going to be so busy signing out multiple programs because we can't put a quality um judgment
152on which ones are good or bad and can be allowed or not um and also excuse me um at Robert Frost we are allowed to have lunch with our children during the day which is great um is this program going to have to end because again our admin unless we're going to hire another admin which will be an added cost because of this program and these programs um will this program have to end because there won't be time to sign parents in and out for the day to have lunch with their children so this program would also have to end so again I believe my child at Robert Frost does get good quality character education they he listens to them more than me most of the time um his teachers counselors and classmates and principal
153and staff all promote the Falcon 5 which we heard someone else mention earlier to be safe respectful responsible proud and ready to learn which I value greatly thank you so much for your work and I appreciate your time thank you thank you next up is Dr Jean black welcome hi there I'm Dr jeie Black I reside in Westerville with my family I'm a taxpayer of Westerville I'm a proud South class of 98 graduate my kiddo is attending um um Westerville North we're very excited about that he's a sophomore he's doing amazing things over there um my Mantra is communication is King collaboration is Queen and celebration is everything I feel like we are collaborating we are communicating and I hope that we get to the celebrating part soon um that said I Echo Jennifer Frey
154and some of the other folks that came up before me in black shirts I also would like you to resend the RTR I um proposals that are out there um I want to issue an apology for the folks on the board um and in this audience for the blatant racism threats and lack of inclusion we've heard in this some previous meetings regarding this topic it's it's absurd we're adults we should be adulting some of us volunteer in our community and show our hearts and Faith through our good works as you've heard previously and I Echo again there are some Christians in our community that do not agree with this policy what do we do when we have a mistake and we find that it's been made we erase it we fix it we correct it
155we move on and I appreciate all of you for your time today thank you next up is khed I think this is a t Teran was I close no my apologies please correct me I'll correct you here in a second let me try to remember my name you know I always thought you know my parents would have done me a favor if they named me Bob but they did not well my name is Khaled Tani or in my language Khaled Tani good afternoon board members and superintendent Hamburg I serve as the executive director of the council in American Islamic relations Ohio chapter also known as care Ohio I'm here to share my gratitude to the Westerville school district for its continued support of families of all religious backgrounds this District engages hundreds of Muslim children
156and their families a community I and my organization work tirelessly to support at K Ohio we pride ourselves on fighting against religious discrimination and encouraging stakeholders to proactively promote inclusive policies some of the sentiment expressed tonight and in previous board meetings centered around this idea of religious discrimination however after reviewing the policy closely I found that I found it to neither promote nor deter religious belief I believe there are numerous opportunities for any group Christians Muslims Jews or any faith to engage students outside of school hours lastly I'm deeply concerned by comments made last time last week that insinuated this District hire hires board members because of their faith or ethnicity it is disturbing that such comments were made by members of the public this is why I'm here today to express my support for
157policies where students and families of old of Old religious backgrounds and identities are treated equitably and respectfully and about me my father was born about literally 10 yards from the sea the shores of the Sea of Galilee and about one mile from PL the place where Jesus walked on water my mother was born literally 20 yards from the bank of the Jordan River about 5 miles from where Jesus supposedly was baptized in the Jordan River probably most likely Jesus looks like me more than he looks like you however your hyper sensitivity to the term Allah and being a college student who graduated from a Baptist College and having attended churches in my native land in the Middle East where worship is done in Arabic you know who they pray to they pray to Allah in
158the church when they read their Bible they recite the name of Allah for God so don't be hyp sensitive to the term Allah because it is exactly the translation of the word god from the Arabic language into the English language your hyp sensitivity and frankly your ignorance is a cause of concern for me that you do not understand which God do we worship or which God do we not worship I think it is an opportunity for you to educate yourself by reaching out to your Muslim neighbors to people who might not look like you and who probably would have looked like Jesus Christ thank you thank you um Lauren [Applause] darst welcome thank you thank you bard um for your time here today are you able to hear me without taking off my mask okay
159um I had many more remarks ready and prepared um but the fine gentleman who just spoke before me spoke to one of my main ones which was uh the name for God so thank you to uh if you could pass along my gratitude to him um and the gentleman who had two two M two degrees in theology um I cosign every word that he said so with that um I'm GNA come up with the the one other thing that I had oh I'm Lauren darst goodness I'm sorry I'm Lauren D I live in Westerville I've been a pastor for almost uh 20 years and I do have a degree a master of divinity uh for my ordination so I'm just going to go to the one point that was most important to me and that
160was I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm behalf of people who call themselves Christians behaving in the way they have here not for the sake of the children but for the sake of their agendas agendas that harm many people thank you uh for your time I fully support resending this um uh resending this uh item and uh I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for those who share my faith my savior to behave in such an opposite anti- way to him that's all thank you Steven child [Applause] Childers welcome good evening board members I um I very much enjoyed much of the um testimony from the gentleman from care he's 100% correct in that Jesus uh would very much look like him he was he was born a Jew of Middle Eastern descendants absolutely absolutely
161believe that completely I follow Jesus however not because of the way he looked during his Earthly Ministry I follow him because he is the living and true God and that is all that matters I am a Westerville taxpayer last week we we uh witnessed the board of the education announced their intention to Bar LifeWise a Christian organization from Westerville schools if you read all the announcements you know you you'll see that they're resending policy p0522 3 absence for religious instruction it is always interesting to see how people who do things they know are wrong never come out and plainly State what it is they're doing last week I listened to the board and others in the community talk about how religious instruction has no place during school hours with some complaining how they have children
162impacted some by some way or another by this program let's be clear LifeWise operates off school property with private funds and with parental permission I find it ironic that in the USA which was founded by Christians based largely on biblical principles as Christians we recognize that God gave each of us free will with the purpose of making us in His image and not robots we have the freedom to choose him Christians also recognize that God entrusted children to their parents and not the state I thank God that our country was founded on those principles unlike Ancient Rome or so many other places in the world in the USA we are not lorded over by our public servants in fact our Founders flip that idea on its head in this country our public servants are answerable
163to and work for we the people as is the case with all totalitarians they believe that children are theirs and we answer to them public schools are paid for by taxpayers and as such must understand that the answer to the communities that support them if you as a parent are offended by Jesus Christ don't allow your children to participate in LifeWise but what what right do you have to tell other families that they cannot allow their children to learn about the lord of the universe and for the school board what right do you have to stand in the way of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ when parents approve of this ministry to their children and last week I grossly misrepresented I my point is the boastful of appointment of somebody that was a Muslim
164activist at the same time sir sir you are this is your warning do it again and you will be removed sit down okay guys please I'll reclaim my time please guys but at the same time and and listen listen to the tough people here what side are they on now at the same time you do this you're pushing Jesus Christ out you know as Christians I think we need to be honest speak truth plainly and not fear I don't care that you appointed a Muslim I care that sir you're done you're done [Applause] all right next up is Ricky k Monaco welcome hi can you all hear me okay my name is Ricky Coons Monaco I have three children here in Westerville where we reside I wanted to come up and speak today I spoke
165last week because I heard a lot about how this movement was so Radical by the board and I do not envy any of you I work in executive leadership outside of volunteering with my children and doing everything else so I completely understand how difficult all of this is sitting here listening and making these decisions but I come from Seattle and this is not even something that would have ever come up out there and I don't think that a lot of people even realize that and I would like everybody here to kind of hear and acknowledge that we don't have Christmas Place I grew up never having a Christmas celebration in school we did not go and have anything like that it was Winter it was fall it was Seasons nothing religion based was done except
166educating us on all religions that were around and available we did not have an opportunity in school to talk about or celebrate Christmas or celebrate Quanza or celebrate any other holiday or religion that wasn't happening and we're talking about that here somebody brought up that we give a place for Ramadan well yeah we also allow our children to stand up and sing Christmas carols that is something that we have done here and that should be okay but none of those things are done outside of school I was educated my entire education was all done never leaving a classroom and I learned about Ramadan I learned about dwali I learned about all sort sorts of religions and it wasn't about leaving a classroom to do it it was about having an environment that was inclusive and
167allowed for that to happen it was not about removing us it was not about having us be divided which is what this is doing to our classrooms it is dividing our children and having them go into groups and then trying to bring them back together and for teachers that is a mess a teacher's job is already hard enough and then we expect these children to be able to get out into the workplace and function socially and have skills where they can manage and deal with each other and conflict like we're doing right now and we're seeing the outcome of that we are seeing the fact that when these groups are divided what happens when groups are not divided like this we don't see issues like this because at a young age they're able to say
168oh I celebrate this holiday I celebrate this holiday I believe in this I don't believe in that I have two moms I don't have two moms it doesn't matter to them at that age at this point in their lives they're parting information let's say that again they are parting information they are taking what they are hearing from the adults and repeating it they are not not thinking for themselves so when we allow them to go to school and start having these conversations they are able to learn from each other and having recess and time together allows them to do that and that's why I'm in full support of removing this time and removing our children from being together and having the time to learn from each other and grow their knowledge of other cultures and
169other religions and what other people practice at home because there are families who don't necessarily know much about another religion or don't take time to understand it and those kids have an opportunity to learn about it from somebody else they are in a classroom with or they are at recess with and that is where diversity and inclusion happens because when it doesn't happen that way this is what it turns into so I am in full agreeance with resending this I am sorry for all of the bullying that has happened from the bottom of my heart you all deserve spots here you are all part of Westerville none of you at any point should feel like you don't belong in this community or that you are any different than anybody else just like our children our
170children should feel like they belong here and like they are supported you all earned your spots here and you all deserve to be here and be supported so thank you next up is Nancy keer hi my name is Nancy Kar I live at 1107 Forest Glenn Road 4381 I didn't really come prepared tonight we've been out of town and I heard about what was going on here and I just wanted to come and voice my opinion as well did O to all these people that I do agree with uh we moved here 31 years ago and part of the reason we moved to Westerville was because of our children because it was a good school system and our my children are grown now and moved away but my son does have nine children who are
171all in the Westerville School District so it's important to me that I feel that um this is like a cancer taking over our country it's the same people that wanted to ban the books it's the same people that want to take over and push Christianity down the throats of those that don't want it I agree if you want to have a Christian family go to church I'm ass sure you must go to church if it means that much to you and take your children to Sunday school teach them at home a public school is just that it's for everybody if you don't want the public education then don't go there it's what I pay my taxes to is the public school system I don't want to see it ruined by pushing people aside calling people
172names I've not been here for other meetings because like I said I haven't been around but I understand it got rather ugly and I think that's unfortunate it's an inclusive community it's diverse and that's the way it should be and that's the way America should be and I don't think we should be excluding anybody for religion race sexual orientation anything and that's what's happening in this country and I think it needs to stop in Westerville thank you thank you um next up is ifra I'm a little intimidated by the last name Al can you help me ala my apologies good evening um my name is ephra alel um I'm really pleased to be here to take a moment to talk about public education as a educator public education is the Bedrock of any functional Democratic
173Society it is where we learn the Knowledge and Skills to survive and live in the world but also just as importantly how to coexist with other humans even those that are different than us or practice different religions than us this is enabled by our shared experiences in public education there seems to be a concered effort to counter act the efforts of public education to be an equalizer in society for all citizens to not be only knowledgeable and productive but also to learn how to live with others that are different from them as an educator I support withing this policy students belong in the classroom during the school day but also to develop to learn content knowledge but also to develop socially and emotionally yesal is important students learn how to regulate their emotions self-manage and
174own social awareness and empathy those things matter especially in today's world where we have constant misinformation and are bombarded with negative stereotypes about other people as a teacher I'm appalled at the amount of lost time that is spent on being away from the classroom if every religious community pulls their students out during critical instruction time we will lose this equalizing and unifying power of public education I imagine that is the purpose of some people to get away from others that are different from them but I assure you we all lose when we lose the ability to humanize each other I want to reiterate that public education is important it is one of the last few institutions that we have where we come together for a common good to ensure we are preparing our children for
175a collective future what we do now matters the choices we make right now matter and we need to choose to come together and choose what brings us together time and again public education and time in the classroom is a necessary component of that not optional please resume this policy so students can stay in the classroom where they belong thank you thank you thank you for your grace too um next up we have Maran oh marann orsana is that okay sorry I couldn't read that thank you okay hello um my name is Mary morma and I am an alumni of Westerville Central my little brother is a Westerville South student and my baby nephew is a future Westerville City School student earlier somebody said that this vote will send an alarming message to other programs across
176the country but maybe it's not an alarm it is a wakeup call perhaps this type of programming should be called into question as it stands is it in the best interest of the students or is it in the best interest of a certain organization the national Center education statistics administered reading and mathematic assessments to 13-year-old students from October to December of the 2022 to 23 school year the average school the average scores for 13y olds declined Four Points in reading and nine points in mathematics compared to the previous assessment administered during the 2019 2020 school year compared to a decade ago the average scores declined seven points in reading and 14 points in mathematics I of course not blaming this release program or LifeWise for this drop in test scores but there is something to
177be said about how best to allocate public school hours for academic enrichment and not something that as has been said before can be done outside outside of school hours I'm Muslim and a lot of Muslim youth in America have been going to weekend classes for Islamic religious education growing up because it isn't necessary to have me leave the classroom to practice or learn about my religion the assertion is preposterous and not based in a lot of people's realities um additionally likening LifeWise to things like field trips is incredibly disingenuous field trips are a form of experiential learning and are proven to be beneficial to Children's development because they help develop critical thinking skills expand their world view and above all field trips provide enrichment for all students not anyone religion because every kid loves the
178zoo of course um somebody Ed that the pledge says one nation under God not Allah and it has been corrected earlier that ironically Allah is just Arabic for Lord or God so maybe a couple more hours in school would have been beneficial to that individual time and due diligence and thank you for prioritizing the education of Westerville students thank you that concludes the public comment period um so next up oh oh I'm sorry there's another sheet oh there's a few more sheets okay there's only a few sorry I mean they didn't fill up the page my apologies um all right next up is Joanne gross all right uh Sher conell oh is Joanne coming oh my apologies welcome Joanne hello I'm Joanne gross from Westerville I'm here in strong support of LifeWise Academy because it
179teaches biblical lessons to help kids succeed in school and life a study was performed last October um by Thomas Miller and Associates they're a renowned National consulting firm they receive their data from school boards around Ohio Indiana and Iowa um this is for the school years 2017 through 2022 summary of the report is as follows and all results results are considered statistically significant for each of the LifeWise years of participation year one positive correlation between attendance rates at LifeWise and improved schoolwide attendance year two lower number of students receiving in school suspensions for disobedient and disruptive behavior and lower in school suspension days year three lower out of school suspensions and decrease number of out of school suspension days for each of the above behavioral categories the decrease is more significant for each additional year
180of LifeWise programming from a quantitative perspective the stat the statistical evidence of Life wise's positive impact on School attendance and discipline rates is strong per the report and again this is from the state school boards I think we can all agree that we want better attendance improved behavior and safer schools this data shows that LifeWise plays a positive role in improving behavior and making schools safer for students and teachers alike the board has stated concern for this program causing unwanted disruptions but the data shows that LifeWise participation seems to actually help decrease behavioral disruptions in addition the students do not miss out on instructional course work and disruptions are only one day per week for one hour however the benefit that LifeWise brings to the students in schools is at no cost to the schools
181and in addition this is strictly voluntary and you don't need to attend if you do not want your child to attend there is a couple of testimonials from Educators as part of the study that I'd like to read this is a principal from an urban School District LifeWise has made a positive impact on students attendance behavior and social emotional well-being it provides confidence and a sense of belonging for students they have learned compassion our school's average daily attendance goal is 90% or above each day consistently on the day that our students participate in LifeWise grades four and five meet or surpass our attendance goal in addition disciplinary infractions for students who participate in LifeWise have decreased by more than 50% also a teacher wrote a young lady who was enrolled in LifeWise is known to
182be very aggressive and had told everyone on the playground that she was going to fight another student she had advertised it so much that she even shared it with the prayer group at LifeWise the group leader suggested that she forgive the girl who offended her but the young girl was adamant that the fight was going down she went back to recess and something came over her and she was reminded of the teacher's words instead of going through with the fight she marched up and very matter of factly stated I've decided to forgive the girl because my LifeWise teacher told me to forgive and then she walked away LifeWise has a demonstrated positive impact on stools on students in schools the reasons being given to terminate the relationship do not appear to line up with the
183data from the evidence and the analysis quite the contrary LifeWise participation appears to reduce behavioral disruptions and improve attendance these would have the effect of increased learning improved social and emotional well-being and improved school safety therefore according to the data the board's current plan to terminate the relationship with LifeWise may have the effect of decreased attendance more suspensions and decreased school safy thank you that was next up is Sher Connell Sherry Connell oh welcome hello Sher Connell um I am a Westerville resident um greater than 30 years many members of my family have either graduated from Westerville schools and presently have children and a grandson in Westerville schools um I know that there is a lot of passion around all of the speakers um I appreciate the board taking the time to listen to um
184all the members of the community who are um wishing to come forward and make comments um I respect your time I respect um the leadership that you bring to our community and um I trust that you will make um an informed and OB objective decision at the end um I do need to speak a little bit about the negative comments that have been made about the LifeWise program um my oldest sister played a significant role in raising me and she emulates Jesus on this Earth greater than any other individual I've ever witnessed in my life she gives countless hours back to her community uh the children in her community the adults in her community she loves everyone and she shows all of them tremendous love and respect and she was she did significant research on
185the LifeWise program and she was one of the leaders in the first church in Cincinnati public school schools to get LifeWise approved and I can assure you that if there were negative things being taught to um to the students that there's no way my sister would have been a part of make of bringing that program alive so I want to set the record straight I don't think all of the negative information um there may be a bad apple here and there I think you could go anywhere and find a bad apple um but I do not um believe that the overall organization should receive the negative comments that it has um one of the things that I also wanted to point back to is um I really recognize the great work that was done recently
186by our sportsmanship campaign uh that was presented at the August 12th meeting and I believe that the reason um our school gave such great support to that program is because they recognize the value and the benefits that that Sports bring to our students and not every student obviously participates in the sports program so it is a percentage of our population it's not the entire population but I think this board and many leaders in our school system supported that work because they think it's worthwhile to support the value that Sports bring to students um so what I would really like to see is for us to make a even a fraction of that amount of energy being invested in making the LifeWise program or RT policy overall regardless of which program is happening let's make a
187small investment in making that successful within this school system to support those who are um benefiting from the religious instruction that they they are receiving um and um I think that's probably all of my points I I thank you for your time um and I obviously support the retention of the RTR policy and the benefits that it brings to um to those who are choosing to attend I guess the only other comment is reminding everyone that if if you personally or those in the community personally do not believe in the teachings of LifeWise do not believe in the people who are being hired by that organization it is a choice but the parents who have chosen to send them their children to this program they also should be have a have the same choice to
188allow their CH children to participate thank you thank you next up is p Kissle sorry hot mic welcome good evening good evening thank you again for allowing this public discussion I respect and I'm thankful I am thankful that so many people are in involved in this my primary point is to say that this as I understand it is not a religious um decision it's we're not voting on religion versus non-religion we're not voting on one religion versus another unfortunately certainly um media in terms of headlines that one sees in the paper have buildt this as a vote on the LifeWise program and in my opinion this is not a vote for or against LifeWise for or against any religious education this is a constitutional issue this is about separation of religion from public education nothing
189more I am a Christian as you can see from the comments tonight there are many branches of the Jesus movement as we've seen from other comments there are many ways to express one's faith in my opinion those things should not be part of or time taken out of a public education [Music] religious freedom of religion is enhanced by separation of church and state it is during the public school day as many others have said it more eloquently than I can that we learn to accept each other we learn to live peaceably with differences I am fully supportive of religious education I do not believe it should be taken from the school day and furthermore I have been hearing tonight I don't know if LifeWise is good or bad but for those those of you who
190passionately believe it has value I pray that you will find a way to support this important work that you feel you're doing outside of the public school day thank you thank you next up we have Jamal s Jamal s anybody walking up I can't see okay Cynthia Patrick no uh Courtney Williams welcome my name is Courtney Williams and I live in Westerville in the Westerville City School District I apologize for having to use my band mom voice uh a moment ago that also explains the dress I came straight from the practice field and the pink hair in support of the north barching band show titled red which is excellent and you should all come to a game and see it I would like I did not come here intending to speak but found myself signing
191on just in case so I will not speak I will certainly just share a story that belongs to every single person in this room who has been in this room and is no longer in this room we all care for a child in some way and that caring leads us to walk into the doors of a school at some point if you walk into the doors of a school at some point and there comes a time when a dream drill is begun those doors lock and you are now a part of that drill it happened to me when I took my lunch to my child at a middle school and suddenly I found myself being led by 12 year olds into the nurse's office and being shown how to barricade Us in to protect us
192from the shooter as part of a lock down drill what do you use in a nurse's office to barricade the door do you use the skeleton that the nurse dresses up for holidays do you use the bed that's about 80 years old it seems do you stand it on end how heavy are those metal file cabinets that the sixth grader is trying to push in front of the window so a shooting shooter couldn't look in it's no wonder our kids are anxious and depressed and angry and disillusioned they don't have a choice not to participate in this we don't have a choice to cooperate with this board to keep our children safe but you under the law of the state of Ohio have a choice it's been a while since I took KH law in
193my legal education but I try to read as much as I can so that I remember how to do it and if I read the statute correctly Ohio Revised Code annotated section 3313 6022 says a School District Board of Education May authorize students to attend a released time course for religious instruction that may does not turn into a must because of the mere passage of time because people have gotten used to it you can change your mind as I have told my children that's my right as a mother it is hard to have things taken away from you I understand I've had things taken away from me because I've gotten used to having them we have gotten used to having education include a certain religious tenant for decades that is not as how it is
194taught now but because we become used to it it doesn't make it right I support this being reversed because you have the discretion and in my understanding in my study of constitutional law it is not only the actual practice of preferring a religious one religion over another that is barred it is the appearance of favoring one over the other what are our children seeing when the red buses pull up what how does it appear to them how do they feel as one who's not getting on the bus we have to avoid everything that appears to be a violation of the law we have to avoid everything that appears to inure benefits to certain population over the other but I want to go back to the nurse's office our children should not be teaching us how
195to keep them safe thank you thank [Applause] you our last speaker for the night and I'm checked is uh Joel Penton [Applause] members of the board uh my name is Joel Penton I live in Hillyard the local team asked me to share a few words I really don't have much to add uh particularly Jennifer jury our local director said it well I think I would just say that we believe parents should be able to decide what's best for their own children uh release time is a standard practice as our attorney general Dave Yos recently wrote it is neither new nor controversial again 75% of school districts across the state have programs uh variety of things have been said um I'm sorry have policies in place a variety of things have been said about LifeWise of
196course uh but this policy is not about LifeWise it's not about Christianity it is about religious instruction and tonight at this moment the families the parents of Westerville have a particular religious liberty called release time religious instruction please do not take that away from them tonight thank you all right that concludes our public commenting period thank you everyone um next up is standing business and may I have a motion to approve the employee assistance program with Matrix so moved second excuse me second any comments discussion just a great presentation thank you so much for bringing that I'm sorry I had to be rushed and think this will be a valuable program for our staff and I really look forward to Rolling it out with your approval tonight so thank you all right will you take
197the vote Mrs Davidson yes Mrs Atman yes Mrs leean yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meer yes and may I have a motion to resend policy 5223 absences for religious instruction so moved second any oh I have some comments actually really it's been a long night um so I know last uh time I had said that I've been thinking a lot about this this is something that been working on quite a bit and you know I've wrote my comments down because I've been thinking about it a lot we've had a lot of commentary over the past few meetings and have received a lot of emails um we really appreciate all of the emails and speakers comments and appreciate democracy and that's what's happening here tonight we want to thank the community for taking the time to
198share their thoughts and opinions with us as I stated last time and I just stated I've been spending a lot of time thinking about policy 5223 so I wanted to reiterate my comments tonight with a few additions but want to remind everyone that resending this policy does not restrict religious instruction this instruction can happen before or after school as stated at our last meeting the school board became aware of some compliance issues with our absence for religious instruction policy 5223 through a Community member as I started to look into this issue I became concerned about taking kids out of school as I stated at the last meeting I have significant concerns about the distractions caused by pulling kids out of school during the middle of the day we have such limited time with the students
199and and there's a lot of need that needs to happen to ensure they transition in and out of school safely and efficiently also while recess is important for allowing students to blow off steam and return ready to learn it's crucial to their development the cognitive social emotional and physical benefits of play are well documented and we heard some of them tonight but they're documented by organizations like the American Academy of pediatric the Centers for Disease Control and prevention and others I continue to really remain puzzled by the strong push to operate programs that require kids to leave school during the middle of the school day especially when students interested in such programs could be dropped off before school or picked up afterward this approach could even alleviate Child Care issues for parents on certain days
200or altogether while still providing religious instruction programs off offering religious instruction could pick students up after school provide child care provide religious instruction and then parents could pick their child up on their way home from work like many do after with others after school programs I'd really like to stress this so let me state it again because as I listened to the speakers and read the emails from people objecting to the potential resending of policy 5223 I want to remind everyone that removing the policy is not taking away the opportunity for such a program to operate outside of the school day I'm also continuing to be mindful and concerned about the potential strain on resources if multiple programs were to operate during the school day ensuring legal compliance for each program as well as managing
201the logistics of taking kids and out of coming in and going out of school would require significant staff and resources resending this policy would be consistent with how we handled another situation where social support lisons were meeting with students during the school day we maintained these meetings while during lunch or recess were disruptive to the school day in the buildings so we discontinued the practice there's been a lot of misinformation circulating a lot so I want to make one thing very clear the concern around this policy has has nothing to do with any specific religion or religious programs in general it's about utilizing the time we have with students in school to focus on educating them and minimizing disruptions to the school day for students teachers and staff I believe my position allows for both
202goals to be accomplished kids get their full day in school and can participate in a religious program outside of school time it's not an either or I also remain concerned about liability initially again when we realize the program violated our policy in the higher Revised Code we focused on a solution that ensured compliance with the law as we've been looking at these release time programs my apprehension remains about this and the attention and energy that it takes to ensure that any future programs are in compliance with the law which again demands additional resource and s us from our core Mission Again the concern about keeping students at school the concern is about keeping students at school and I believe that these types of programs should occur outside of the limited time that we have students
203at school now I understand this decision tonight May invoke a range of emotions and I anticipate more in the coming days however again I urge everyone to focus on the well-being of the students in this District and refrain from spreading misinformation or even worse hate we have so many wonderful things happening in our schools we truly do and this district is filled with amazing students staff teachers and community members who care deeply about the more than 14,700 children we serve let's come back together for the benefit of all these children which are our future all right just one thing yeah please uh I want to support president Meyer's comments thank you for those um and I'm just going to make an appeal here about children so however you feel about this when you leave this
204room if there are children that you're talking to about this decision um I as a Schoolboard member have listened I thank you for everyone coming to speak and my decision is based on my best understanding of what is best for children it comes from my care for children and if you tell them anything other than that you're misrepresenting how I've come to my decision so please just at least reflect that honestly if you have children in your lives who you're talking to thank you all right Mrs Davidson yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Lan I abstain Mrs opman yes Mrs Meer yes all right the board will meet in regular session on Monday October 14th 2024 at 6 pm at the Early Learning Center which is here 9:36 East Wind Drive Westerville Ohio 43081 thank you
205oh may I have a motion to adjourn thanks move second uh yes yes yes sorry Nicole